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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/32690-8.txt b/32690-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..49294c3 --- /dev/null +++ b/32690-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,15751 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Great Events by Famous Historians, +Volume 14, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 14 + +Author: Various + +Editor: Rossiter Johnson + Charles Horne + John Rudd + +Release Date: June 4, 2010 [EBook #32690] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREAT EVENTS, VOLUME 14 *** + + + + +Produced by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + +[Illustration: Charlotte Corday, after the assassination of Marat, +apprehended by the Jacobin mob + +Painting by J. Weerts.] + + + + +THE GREAT EVENTS + +BY + +FAMOUS HISTORIANS + +A COMPREHENSIVE AND READABLE ACCOUNT OF THE WORLD'S HISTORY, EMPHASIZING +THE MORE IMPORTANT EVENTS, AND PRESENTING THESE AS COMPLETE NARRATIVES +IN THE MASTER-WORDS OF THE MOST EMINENT HISTORIANS + +NON-SECTARIAN NON-PARTISAN NON-SECTIONAL + +ON THE PLAN EVOLVED FROM A CONSENSUS OF OPINIONS GATHERED FROM THE MOST +DISTINGUISHED SCHOLARS OF AMERICA AND EUROPE, INCLUDING BRIEF +INTRODUCTIONS BY SPECIALISTS TO CONNECT AND EXPLAIN THE CELEBRATED +NARRATIVES, ARRANGED CHRONOLOGICALLY, WITH THOROUGH INDICES, +BIBLIOGRAPHIES, CHRONOLOGIES, AND COURSES OF READING + +EDITOR-IN-CHIEF + +ROSSITER JOHNSON, LL.D. + +ASSOCIATE EDITORS + +CHARLES F. HORNE, Ph.D. + +JOHN RUDD, LL.D. + +_With a staff of specialists_ + +_VOLUME XIV_ + + +[Illustration] + +The National Alumni + +COPYRIGHT, 1905, + +BY THE NATIONAL ALUMNI + + + + +CONTENTS + +VOLUME XIV + + + PAGE + +_An Outline Narrative of the Great Events_, xiii +CHARLES F. HORNE + +_The Battle of Lexington (A.D. 1775)_, 1 +RICHARD FROTHINGHAM + +_The Battle of Bunker Hill (A.D. 1775)_, 19 +JOHN BURGOYNE +JOHN HENEAGE JESSE +JAMES GRAHAME + +_Canada Remains Loyal to England_ +_Montgomery's Invasion (A.D. 1775)_, 30 +JOHN M'MULLEN + +_Signing of the American Declaration of Independence (A.D. 1776)_, 39 +THOMAS JEFFERSON +JOHN A. DOYLE + +_The Defeat of Burgoyne at Saratoga (A.D. 1777)_, 51 +SIR EDWARD SHEPHERD CREASY + +_The First Victory of the American Navy (A.D. 1779)_, 68 +ALEXANDER SLIDELL MACKENZIE + +_Joseph II Attempts Reform in Hungary (A.D. 1780)_, 85 +ARMINIUS VAMBERY + +_Siege and Surrender of Yorktown (A.D. 1781)_, 97 +HENRY B. DAWSON +LORD CORNWALLIS + +_British Defence of Gibraltar (A.D. 1782)_, 116 +FREDERICK SAYER + +_Close of the American Revolution (A.D. 1782)_, 137 +JOHN ADAMS +JOHN JAY +BENJAMIN FRANKLIN +HENRY LAURENS +JOHN M. LUDLOW + +_Settlement of American Loyalists in Canada (A.D. 1783)_, 156 +SIR JOHN G. BOURINOT + +_The First Balloon Ascension (A.D. 1783)_, 163 +HATTON TURNOR + +_Framing of the Constitution of the United States (A.D. 1787)_, 173 +ANDREW W. YOUNG +JOSEPH STORY + +_Inauguration of Washington_ +_His Farewell Address (A.D. 1789-1797)_, 197 +JAMES K. PAULDING AND GEORGE WASHINGTON + +_French Revolution: Storming of the Bastille (A.D. 1789)_, 212 +WILLIAM HAZLITT + +Hamilton Establishes the United States Bank (A.D. 1791), 230 +ALEXANDER HAMILTON AND LAWRENCE LEWIS, JR. + +_The Negro Revolution in Haiti (A.D. 1791)_ +_Toussaint Louverture Establishes the Dominion of his Race_, 236 +CHARLES WYLLYS ELLIOTT + +_Republican France Defies Europe_ +_The Battle of Valmy (A.D. 1792)_, 252 +ALPHONSE M. L. LAMARTINE + +_The Invention of the Cotton-gin (A.D. 1793)_ +_Enormous Growth of the Cotton Industry in America_, 271 +CHARLES W. DABNEY +R. B. HANDY +DENISON OLMSTED + +_The Execution of Louis XVI (A.D. 1793)_ +_Murder of Marat: Civil War in France_, 295 +THOMAS CARLYLE + +_The Reign of Terror (A.D. 1794)_, 311 +FRANÇOIS P. G. GUIZOT + +_The Downfall of Poland (A.D. 1794)_, 330 +SIR ARCHIBALD ALISON + +_The Rise of Napoleon_ +_The French Conquest of Italy (A.D. 1796)_, 339 +SIR WALTER SCOTT + +_Overthrow of the Mamelukes (A.D. 1798)_ +_The Battle of the Nile_, 353 +CHARLES KNIGHT + +_Jenner Introduces Vaccination (A.D. 1798)_, 363 +SIR THOMAS J. PETTIGREW + +_Universal Chronology (A.D. 1775-1799)_, 377 +JOHN RUDD + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +VOLUME XIV + + + PAGE +_Charlotte Corday, after the assassination of Marat, +apprehended by the Jacobin mob (page 305)_, +Painting by J. Weerts. Frontispiece + +_The Siege of Yorktown_, 108 +Painting by L. C. A. Couder. + + + + +AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE + +TRACING BRIEFLY THE CAUSES, CONNECTIONS, AND CONSEQUENCES OF + +THE GREAT EVENTS + +(THE EPOCH OF REVOLUTION) + +CHARLES F. HORNE + + +"After us, the deluge!" said Louis XV of France. He died in 1774, and +the remaining quarter of the eighteenth century witnessed social changes +the most radical, the most widespread which had convulsed civilization +since the fall of Rome. "As soon as our peasants seek education," said +Catharine II of Russia to one of her ministers, "neither you nor I will +retain our places." Catharine, one of the shrewdest women of her day, +judged her own people by the more advanced civilization of Western +Europe. She saw that it was the growth of ideas, the intellectual +advance, which had made Revolution, world-wide Revolution, inevitable. + +If we look back to the beginnings of Teutonic Europe, we see that the +social system existing among the wild tribes that overthrew Rome, was +purely republican. Each man was equal to every other; and they merely +conferred upon their sturdiest warrior a temporary authority to lead +them in battle. When these Franks (the word itself means freemen) found +themselves masters of the imperial, slave-holding world of Rome, the two +opposing systems coalesced in vague confusing whirl, from which emerged +naturally enough the "feudal system," the rule of a warrior aristocracy. +Gradually a few members of this nobility rose above the rest, became +centres of authority, kings, ruling over the States of modern Europe. +The lesser nobles lost their importance. The kings became absolute in +power and began to regard themselves as special beings, divinely +appointed to rule over their own country, and to snatch as much of their +neighbors' as they could. + +Secure in their undisputed rank, the monarchs tolerated or even +encouraged the intellectual advance of their subjects, until those +subjects saw the selfishness of their masters, saw the folly of +submission and the ease of revolt, saw the world-old truth of man's +equality, to which tyranny and misery had so long blinded them. + +Of course these ideas still hung nebulous in the air in the year 1775, +and Europe at first scarce noted that Britain was having trouble with +her distant colonies. Yet to America belongs the honor of having first +maintained against force the new or rather the old and now re-arisen +principles. England, it is true, had repudiated her Stuart kings still +earlier; but she had replaced their rule by that of a narrow +aristocracy, and now George III, the German king of the third generation +whom she had placed as a figure-head upon her throne, was beginning, +apparently with much success, to reassert the royal power. George III +was quite as much a tyrant to England as he was to America, and Britons +have long since recognized that America was fighting their battle for +independence as well as her own. + +The English Parliament was not in those days a truly representative +body. The appointment of a large proportion of its members rested with a +few great lords; other members were elected by boards of aldermen and +similar small bodies. The large majority of Englishmen had no votes at +all, though the plea was advanced that they were "virtually +represented," that is, they were able to argue with and influence their +more fortunate brethren, and all would probably be actuated by similar +sentiments. This plea of "virtual representation" was now extended to +America, where its absurdity as applied to a people three thousand miles +away and engaged in constant protest against the course of the English +Government, became at once manifest, and the cry against "Taxation +without representation" became the motto of the Revolution. + + +THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION + +Parliament, finding the Americans most unexpectedly resolute against +submitting to taxation, would have drawn back from the dispute; but King +George insisted on its continuance. He could not realize the difference +between free-born Americans long trained in habits of self-government, +and the unfortunate peasantry of Continental Europe, bowed by centuries +of suffering and submission. He thought it only necessary to bully the +feeble colonists, as Louis XIV had bullied the Huguenots by dragonnades. +Soldiers were sent to America to live on the inhabitants; and in Boston, +General Gage to complete the terror sent out a force to seize the +patriot leaders and destroy their supplies. + +Then came "the shot heard round the world." Instead of cringing humbly, +the Americans resisted. Several were shot down at Lexington, and in +return the remainder attacked the soldiers with a resolution and skill +which the peasantry of an open country had never before displayed +against trained troops. These farmers had learned fighting from the +Indians, they had learned self-reliance, and each man acting for +himself, seeking what shelter he could find from tree or fence, fired +upon the Britons, until the most famous soldiery of Europe fled back to +Boston "their tongues hanging out of their mouths like dogs."[1] + +The astonished Britons clamored that their opponents did not "fight +fair," meaning that the peasants did not stand still like sheep to be +slaughtered, or rush in bodies to be massacred by the superior weapons +and trained manoeuvres of the professional troops. Therein the +objection touched the very point of the world's advance: the common +people, the country folk of one land at least, had ceased to be mere +unthinking cattle; they acted from intellect, not from sheer brute +despair. + +Within a week of Lexington an army of the Americans were gathered round +Boston to defend their homes from further invasions by these foreigners. +The English tried the issue again, and attacked the Americans at Bunker +Hill.[2] The steady valor of the regular troops, engaged on a regular +battle-ground, enabled them to drive the poorly armed peasants from +their intrenchments. But the victory was won at such frightful expense +of life to the British that it was not until forty years had brought +forgetfulness, that they tried a similar assault in military form +against the Americans at New Orleans. The farmers could shoot as well as +think. After Bunker Hill the Revolution was recognized as a serious war, +not a mere mad uprising of hopelessness. Washington took control of the +destinies of America. Congress proclaimed its Independence.[3] + +At this period Northern America became unfortunately and apparently +permanently divided against itself. Canada, largely from its French +origin and language, had always stood apart from the more southern +English-speaking colonies. There had been repeated wars between them. +But now when England had seized possession of Canada and within fifteen +years of that event the southern colonists were fighting England, it did +seem probable or at least hopeful that all America might unite against +the common foe. + +So thought the American Congress, and despatched a force, not against +the inhabitants of Canada, but against the British troops there, to +enable the Canadians to join in the revolt. The Canadians refused; the +British forces were brilliantly handled, and the tiny American army, +totally unequal to coping single-handed against the enemy and against +the gigantic natural difficulties of the expedition, failed--failed +gloriously but totally--and only roused anew against the southland the +antagonism of the Canadians, mingled now with contempt and a growing +admiration and even loyalty toward the Britons.[4] + +Canada became a depot into which British troops were poured, and when +Lord Howe and his army had captured New York, the English Government +planned a powerful expedition to descend the Hudson valley, unite with +Howe and so isolate New England from the less violently rebellious +colonies farther south. On the success or failure of this undertaking +hung the fate not only of the new continent, but one seeing the +consequences now is almost tempted to say, the fate of the world. + +The command was intrusted to Burgoyne, an experienced and capable +general. Troops were given to him, it was thought, amply sufficient to +overbear all opposition. There was no regular army to resist him. But +the American farmers of the region rallied in their own defence, they +hung like a cloud around Burgoyne's advance, they cut off his supplies, +they became ever more numerous in his front, until at last he fought +desperate battles against them, could not advance, and was compelled to +surrender his entire army.[5] + +Instantly the war assumed a new aspect. Europe awoke to the fact that +England was engaged against a worthy foe. France, humbled in India, +driven from America, defeated on her own borders, saw her opportunity +for revenge, revenge against her hated rival. Moreover, the spirit of +freedom which had been proclaimed by Voltaire, by Rousseau, by a +thousand other voices, was awake in France; it saw its own cause, +hopeless at home, being triumphantly defended in America; and it cried +enthusiastically that the heroes should have aid. Spain, too, had sore +causes of complaint against England. So France first and then Spain made +alliance with the Americans. George III by his obstinacy had plunged his +realm into sore difficulties, had given the final blow to any possible +reëstablishment of kingly power in England. + +The most immediate shock caused the Britons by the changed aspect of the +world, was given them by Paul Jones, an American naval officer. He took +advantage of the French alliance to secure a little fleet, part American +but mostly French; and with it he cruised boldly around Great Britain, +bidding defiance to her navy and plundering her shores, in some faint +imitation of the depredations her troops had committed in America. The +fight of Jones in his flagship against the English frigate Serapis has +become world-famous, and the grim resolution with which the American won +his way to victory in face of apparent impossibilities, taught the +Britons that on sea as well as on land they had met their match.[6] + +For a time the island kingdom bore up against all her foes. The most +famous of the many sieges of Gibraltar occurred; and for three years the +French and Spanish fleets sought unavailingly to batter the stubborn +rock into surrender.[7] But at last a second British army was trapped +and captured at Yorktown by the French and Americans.[8] Then England +yielded. It was impossible for her longer to undertake the enormous task +of transporting troops across three thousand miles of ocean. She needed +them at home; and many of the English people had always protested +against the fratricidal war with their brethren in America. American +independence was acknowledged, and England was left free to demand a +peace of her European foes.[9] + +The antagonisms roused by this bitter war, in which British troops had +repeatedly and cruelly ravaged the American lands and homes, were long +in fading. Canada had stood loyally by Great Britain, and the break +between the northern land and the other colonies was sharp and final. +Even throughout the States which had become independent, a portion of +the people had loyally upheld British rule; and on these unfortunates +the liberated Americans threatened to wreak vengeance for all that had +been endured. Thus came about a vast emigration of the "Tories" or +Loyalists from the new States to Canada. They brought with them the +bitterness of the expatriated, and Canada became yet more firmly +British, more "anti-American" than before.[10] + + +THE FRENCH REVOLUTION + +Of even greater influence were the consequences of the American +Revolution as affecting Continental Europe. Estimates have differed +widely as to just how much the French Revolution was caused by that +across the ocean. Certain it is that Frenchmen had been enthusiastic in +America's cause, that many of their officers fought under Washington, +and returned home deeply infused with devotion to liberty. It has long +been a popular error, encouraged by historians of a former generation, +that the French Revolution arose from a starving peasantry driven to +madness by intolerable oppression. We know better now. It was in Paris, +not in the provinces, that the revolt began. Judged by modern standards, +of course, the French peasantry were oppressed; but if we measure their +condition by that of surrounding nations at the time, by the Austrians +under kind-hearted Maria Theresa, or even by the Prussians under +Frederick the Great, most advanced of the upholders of "benevolent +despotism," in whose lands serfs were still "sold with the soil" +compared with these, Frenchmen were free, prosperous, and happy. It is +even true that the lower classes were unready for change. In Hungary, +Joseph II, son of Maria Theresa, attempted a complete and radical reform +of all abuses, and the mob rose in fury against his innovations, +compelled him to restore their "ancient customs." They had grown +familiar with their chains.[11] + +The French Revolution was an uprising of the middle classes. Its great +leaders in the earlier stages were Mirabeau, son of a baron, and +America's own friend the Marquis Lafayette. Even the King, Louis XVI, at +least partly approved the movement. The States-General was summoned in +1789 after an interval of nearly two centuries, to decide on the best +way of relieving the country from its financial embarrassments. This +gathering was soon resolved into a National Assembly which insisted on +giving France a constitution, making it a limited instead of an absolute +monarchy.[12] + +On the 14th of July the mob of Paris rose in sudden fury and stormed the +ancient state prison, the Bastille. The King sent no troops to resist +them; and from that time his power was but a shadow. His overthrow, +however, was not yet contemplated. The Revolution was still to be one of +dignity and intellect. An entire year after the fall of the Bastille, +the president of the National Assembly could still say in addressing a +deputation of Americans headed by Paul Jones: "It was by helping you to +conquer liberty that the French learned to understand and love it. The +hands which went to burst your fetters were not made to wear them +themselves; but, more fortunate than you, it is our King himself, it is +a patriot and citizen king, who has called us to the happiness which we +are enjoying that happiness which has cost us merely sacrifices, but +which you paid for with torrents of blood Courage broke your chains; +reason has made ours fall off." + +But alas! reason was soon to lose control. The lower classes had wakened +to a sense of their power, they began to use it savagely. Hatred of the +haughty aristocracy, long smoldering, burst everywhere into flame. Mobs +of country peasants plundered isolated chateaux and slew their inmates. +Meanwhile the National Assembly had been abolishing all titles of +nobility; the vast estates of the clergy were confiscated. The +aristocrats began fleeing from France, and the possessions of all who +fled were declared forfeited to the new government. + +Imagine the tumult that this upheaval caused to the rest of Europe. News +travelled slowly in those days; but these "_émigrés_," these banished +nobles, were palpable evidences of what had occurred. The common folk +everywhere, especially along the French borders in Germany, Switzerland, +and Italy, celebrated the French triumph as their own. Liberty was at +hand! For them, too, it would come presently! Murmurings of revolt grew +loud. The monarchs of Europe, terrified, took up the cause of the +_Émigrés_ as their own. France was threatened with invasion. King Louis +threw in his lot with his royal friends and attempted flight from Paris. +He was caught and brought back a prisoner. A foreign army marched +against France. + +This invasion was met and repelled in the Battle of Valmy (1792), not an +extensive or bloody contest in itself, but one of incalculable +importance in human history, because like Bunker Hill it showed that a +new force had arisen to upset all the military calculations of the past. +Raw troops could now be found to meet on equal terms with veterans. +Liberty, hitherto an impalpable idea, a mere phantom in the brains of a +few philosophers, proved able to call up armies at a word, able +physically to hold its own against embattled despotism. Even the German +Goethe wrote of Valmy, "In this place and on this day a new era of the +world begins."[13] + +France however had already gone mad with its success. Even before Valmy +wholesale murder had begun in Paris. The prisons were broken open and a +thousand "aristocrats" hideously butchered without trial. The day after +Valmy, the land was proclaimed a republic. King Louis was put on trial +for his life, and in January, 1793, was executed.[14] Frenchmen began +fighting among themselves. The reign of "terror" began as that of kings +was abolished. Chiefs of each faction accused all others as traitors, +and executions by the guillotine rose to fifty a day. "We must have a +hundred!" cried Robespierre, the lunatic leader of the moment. + +The excesses in Paris roused civil war, and through all France men slew +one another in the name of liberty. In Brittany the peasants even rose +in support of royalty, and refused allegiance to the republic. Never has +the most hideous brutality of man been more openly displayed than in +those days of vengeance. The intellectual classes of Europe everywhere +shrank back, terrified at the spectre they had evoked. + +The Reign of Terror ended in 1794 with the downfall and execution of its +leader, Robespierre.[15] The civil war was trampled out in blood. And +with Titanic energy the French Republic defended itself against its +foreign foes. + +All Europe had joined in a coalition against France--all the kings, that +is. Their subjects still doubted, still hoped, still looked anxiously to +France to see if freedom were in truth a possibility. Then from the +ranks of the liberated French arose great generals, aristocrats no +longer, but men of the people, fitted to lead the new-born armies of the +people. Greatest of these and grimmest of them was Napoleon Bonaparte. +He taught the timorous legislative authorities of Paris how to reassert +their dominion over "King Mob," who had ruled them and the country for +four hideous years. He checked a new uprising by a discharge of +well-stationed cannon, aimed to kill. + +Order being thus established at home, the French began to pour over the +border in attack upon those kings who had threatened them. In many +places they were still received as the apostles of liberty. Holland, +Switzerland, the Rhine lands, became allies or dependents of France. +Kings were helpless against them. To the spirit of Republicanism, to the +impassioned courage of Frenchmen, was added the genius of Bonaparte. He +conquered Italy. He plundered her and sent home priceless treasures to +delight his countrymen and fill their exhausted treasury. He became the +man of the hour.[16] + +Far beyond France spread the influence of her example. In Eastern +Europe, Poland was roused against the despoilers who had already seized +a portion of her territory. She began a rebellion under Kosciuszko, who, +like Lafayette, had imbibed the love of freedom in America. But Poland +was crushed by the overpowering forces of Russia, Prussia, and Austria. +Her remaining provinces were divided among the plunderers and the last +fragment of her independence was extinguished.[17] + +In Haiti also there was a rebellion. The negroes of the island rose +against their Spanish masters and drove them into exile. Toussaint +Louverture, often regarded as the greatest hero of his race, led the +insurgents victoriously against both Spanish and English forces, and +finally with French help established the independence of Haiti as a +negro republic. He became administrator as well as warrior. After a few +successful years he was treacherously seized and held prisoner by +Napoleon; but the monument he had erected for himself, the "Black +Republic," continued and still continues to exist.[18] + +In a period so tumultuous as was this quarter-century, one could scarce +expect that the world would make much progress in science. Men were too +intent on sterner things. There was, however, just before the beginning +of the French Revolution, one event which to a future generation may +seem more important even than to us. Aërial navigation began. The first +successful balloon ascension was made by the Montgolfier brothers, and +the sport became for a while a Parisian fad.[19] Still more noteworthy +was the employment of vaccination as a preventive against smallpox. The +system was introduced in England by Jenner in 1798, and its use spread +rapidly over Europe. More recently it has been employed against other +diseases as well, and the resultant increase in the general health of +mankind is beyond computation.[20] + + +FORMATION OF THE UNITED STATES + +Meanwhile America, the source or at least the partial source of all this +republican tumult, was having difficulties of her own. The peace after +Yorktown left her exhausted. The Articles of Confederation which had +sufficed to hold the colonies together under the stress of their great +necessity, had proven insufficient to give any real unity. Each little +colony was jealous of its own power as an independent State: and for a +time it seemed as if they must disband, that America must become like +Europe, divided into a collection of separate ever-jarring States, +devastated by constant wars. + +That this was not our own country's fate, we owe to Washington. Our +saviour in war, he became also our saviour in peace. After watching +through some years of this disorganization, he emerged from the peaceful +retirement of his country home, to urge that some means be taken to form +a more perfect union. It was largely through his instrumentality that +the convention of 1787 was called; and he presided over its labors. +Again and again it seemed as if the convention would disband in anarchy. +The antagonisms between the various delegates appeared irreconcilable. +But always there was Washington to control the flaming passions, to +insist upon moderation, upon union. And in the end that convention drew +up the Constitution of the United States.[21] + +Even then there remained the task of persuading each State to accept the +Constitution; and this also would have been impossible had not all men +looked to Washington to act as president of the new republic, to do +justice between its differing sections. Relying equally on his wisdom, +his caution, and his incorruptibility, the States intrusted to him a +power they would have conferred upon no other. + +Two years were occupied in arranging matters, and then, in 1789, the +date so memorable to France as well, the new government was organized, +Washington was inaugurated as President, and the United States began its +stupendous career as a single nation.[22] + +There were difficulties, of course. American finances seemed as +hopelessly involved as had been those of monarchical France. But this +rock upon which the French projects of reform all split, our government +escaped by the financial genius of Alexander Hamilton.[23] The natural +summons of the French that the Americans should become their allies, +should help them to win freedom in their turn, proved another source of +danger. A thousand others were not lacking. But Washington's +conservatism preserved his government through all. He proclaimed +America's well-known policy toward the European States: "Friendship with +all, entangling alliances with none." The material prosperity of the +country increased rapidly. Eli Whitney invented the cotton-gin, which +made cotton cultivation so remunerative that the South grew rich, and +also, alas, became wedded to the system of slavery under which it was +supposed cotton could best be produced.[24] + +For eight years Washington guided the destinies of the infant nation, +and then resigned his authority to one of his lieutenants. So that +really the great leader's influence continued predominant until he died +in December, 1799. Already however the more radical of Americans were +grown restive under his restraining hand. Federalism, conservatism, was +losing its control upon the national counsels, a change toward wider and +more radical democracy was at hand. + + +OVERTHROW OF DEMOCRACY IN FRANCE + +The year of 1799 saw also a great change in France, but in the opposite +direction, away from democracy and back toward absolutism. The French +government, grown rash with its marvellous victories, had dared to +despatch Bonaparte, its ablest general, on an ill-considered and +somewhat fanciful expedition to distant Egypt. There his fleet was +destroyed by the English admiral, Nelson, in the celebrated Battle of +the Nile, and he and his army were left practically prisoners in +Egypt.[25] + +Deprived of his genius at home, French military affairs went badly. +Monarchy rallied from its momentary depression. Russian troops drove the +French from Switzerland; Germans defeated them along the Rhine. The +Constitutional government in Paris was proving impracticable, its +members incompetent. Bonaparte saw his opportunity. Leaving his army in +Egypt, he escaped the British and returned alone to France. In Paris he +summoned the soldiers around him, entered the hall of the assembly, +and, much as Cromwell had once done in England, bade the wrangling +members disperse. Then he constructed a new government, which he still +called a republic. But as he himself was to be First Consul, with almost +all power in his own hands, the Government proved in reality as complete +an absolutism as that of Richelieu or Louis XIV. The first European +attempt at democracy had perished. The new century was to learn what +this suddenly risen dictator would establish in its stead. + +[FOR THE NEXT SECTION OF THIS GENERAL SURVEY SEE VOLUME XV] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] See _Battle of Lexington_, page 1. + +[2] See _Battle of Bunker Hill_, page 19. + +[3] See _Signing of American Declaration of Independence_, page 39. + +[4] See _Canada Remains Loyal to England_, page 30. + +[5] See _Defeat of Burgoyne at Saratoga_, page 51. + +[6] See _First Victory of the American Navy_, page 68. + +[7] See _British Defence of Gibraltar_, page 116. + +[8] See _Siege and Surrender of Yorktown_, page 97. + +[9] See _Close of the American Revolution_, page 137. + +[10] See _Settlement of American Loyalists in Canada_, page 156. + +[11] See _Joseph II Attempts Reform in Hungary_, page 85. + +[12] See _French Revolution: Storming of the Bastille_, page 212. + +[13] See _Republican France Defies Europe: Battle of Valmy_, page 252. + +[14] See _Execution of Louis XVI: Murder of Marat: Civil War in France_, +page 295. + +[15] See _The Reign of Terror_, page 311. + +[16] See _The Rise of Napoleon: The French Conquest of Italy_, page 339. + +[17] See _The Downfall of Poland_, page 330. + +[18] See _Negro Revolution in Haiti_, page 236. + +[19] See _First Balloon Ascension_, page 63. + +[20] See _Jenner Introduces Vaccination_, page 363. + +[21] See _Framing of the Constitution of the United States_, page 173. + +[22] See _Inauguration of Washington: His Farewell Address_, page 197. + +[23] See _Hamilton Establishes the United States Bank_, page 230. + +[24] See _Invention of the Cotton-gin_, page 271. + +[25] See _Overthrow of the Mamelukes: The Battle of the Nile_, page 353. + + + + +BATTLE OF LEXINGTON + +A.D. 1775 + +RICHARD FROTHINGHAM + + April 19, 1775, is memorable in American history as the day + on which occurred the first bloodshed of the Revolution. The + two combats of the day--that at Lexington and that at + Concord--really constituted one action, which ended in a + long running fight. As a single action, it is usually called + the Battle of Lexington. The engagement at Concord, + separately considered, is called the Battle of Concord, or + the Concord Fight. + + At both places, on that fateful day, "the embattled farmers" + faced the troops of their own sovereign, to resist what was + felt to be an unwarranted and menacing invasion of American + liberties. While the soldiers of King George were doing + their own loyal duty, the New England yeomen who "fired the + shot heard round the world" obeyed a conviction still more + compelling. Hence came the first physical struggle in what + was already an "irrepressible conflict" of principle between + Englishmen and their kinsmen on the American continent. + + The Revolutionary War was begun on the part of the Americans + for the redress of grievances for which they had exhausted + all peaceable endeavors to secure a remedy. It was afterward + successfully waged for independence. Repressive measures of + Great Britain in the colonies began with the issuance by + colonial courts of "writs of assistance." These writs + authorized officers to summon assistance in searching + certain premises under certain laws. In the first attempt to + enforce such a writ--in Massachusetts, 1761--the policy was + defeated through popular opposition, brilliantly led by + James Otis, who by a single speech produced such an effect + that John Adams said of the occasion: "Then and there was + the first scene of the first act of opposition to the + arbitrary claims of Great Britain. Then and there the child + Independence was born." + + Later grievances were those of the Stamp Act (1765), taxes + on paints, glass, etc. (1767), and the Boston Port Bill + (1774), ordering the closing of the port on account of the + rebellious acts of the citizens, especially in the + "tea-party" of December 16, 1773, when they threw into the + waters of the harbor from English ships tea valued at + eighteen thousand pounds. As early as 1770 had occurred the + "Boston Massacre," a collision between citizens and British + soldiers, which added to earlier discontents and increased + the sensitiveness to later irritations. + + The first Continental Congress, in 1774, though strongly + pacific, favored resistance to aggressions of the Crown. + During this year and the next two Provincial Congresses met + in Massachusetts, the collection of military stores was + authorized, a committee of safety was created, and the + "minute-men" were organized. + + General Gage, the British commander in Boston, denounced + these proceedings as treasonable. Parliament vainly sought + to adjust the difficulties and enforce its authority. + Conciliatory efforts on both sides failing, it soon became + evident that a conflict of arms was at hand. By April 4, + 1775, it was known in Boston that reënforcements were on + their way to General Gage. Soon after their arrival he was + ready for the movement with which the narrative of + Frothingham, a high authority on these events, begins. + + +General Gage had, in the middle of April, 1775, about four thousand men +in Boston. He resolved, by a secret expedition, to destroy the magazines +collected at Concord. This measure was neither advised by his council +nor by his officers. It was said that he was worried into it by the +importunities of the Tories; but it was undoubtedly caused by the +energetic measures of the Whigs. His own subsequent justification was +that when he saw an assembly of men, unknown to the Constitution, +wresting from him the public moneys and collecting warlike stores, it +was alike his duty and the dictate of humanity to prevent the calamity +of civil war by destroying these magazines. His previous belief was that +should the Government show a respectable force in the field, seize the +most obnoxious patriot leaders, and proclaim a pardon for others, it +would come off victorious. + +On April 15th the grenadiers and light infantry, on the pretence of +learning a new military exercise, were relieved from duty; and at night +the boats of the transport ships which had been hauled up to be repaired +were launched and moored under the sterns of the men-of-war. These +movements looked suspicious to the vigilant patriots, and Dr. Joseph +Warren sent intelligence of them to Hancock and Adams, who were in +Lexington. It was this timely notice that induced the committee of +safety to take additional measures for the security of the stores in +Concord, and to order (on the 17th) cannon to be secreted, and a part of +the stores to be removed to Sudbury and Groton. + +On Tuesday, April 18th, General Gage directed several officers to +station themselves on the roads leading out of Boston, and prevent any +intelligence of his intended expedition that night from reaching the +country. A party of them, on that day, dined at Cambridge. The +committees of safety and supplies, which usually held their sessions +together, also met that day, at Wetherby's Tavern, in Menotomy, now West +Cambridge. Elbridge Gerry and Colonels Orne and Lee, of the members, +remained to pass the night. Richard Devens and Abraham Watson rode in a +chaise toward Charlestown, but, soon meeting a number of British +officers on horseback, they returned to inform their friends at the +tavern, waited there until the officers rode by, and then rode to +Charlestown. Gerry immediately sent an express to Hancock and Adams, +that "eight or nine officers were out, suspected of some evil design," +which caused precautionary measures to be adopted at Lexington. + +Richard Devens, an efficient member of the committee of safety, soon +received intelligence that the British troops were in motion in Boston, +and were certainly preparing to go into the country. Shortly after, the +signal agreed upon in this event was given, namely, a lantern hung out +from the North Church steeple in Boston, when Devens immediately +despatched an express with this intelligence to Menotomy and Lexington. +All this while General Gage supposed his movements were a profound +secret, and as such in the evening communicated them in confidence to +Lord Percy. But as this nobleman was crossing the Common on his way to +his quarters he joined a group of men engaged in conversation, when one +said, "The British troops have marched, but will miss their aim!" + +"What aim?" inquired Lord Percy. + +"Why, the cannon at Concord." He hastened back to General Gage with this +information, when orders were immediately issued that no person should +leave town. Dr. Warren, however, a few minutes previous, had sent Paul +Revere and William Dawes into the country. Revere, about eleven o'clock, +rowed across the river to Charlestown, was supplied by Richard Devens +with a horse, and started to alarm the country. Just outside of +Charlestown Neck he barely escaped capture by British officers; but +leaving one of them in a clay-pit, he got to Medford, awoke the captain +of the minute-men, gave the alarm on the road, and reached the Rev. +Jonas Clark's house in safety, where the evening before a guard of +eight men had been stationed to protect Hancock and Adams. + +It was midnight as Revere rode up and requested admittance. William +Monroe, the sergeant, told him that the family, before retiring to rest, +had requested that they might not be disturbed by noise about the house. +"Noise!" replied Revere; "you'll have noise enough before long--the +regulars are coming out!" He was then admitted. Dawes, who went out +through Roxbury, soon joined him. Their intelligence was "that a large +body of the King's troops, supposed to be a brigade of twelve or fifteen +hundred, had embarked in boats from Boston, and gone over to Lechmere's +Point, in Cambridge, and it was suspected they were ordered to seize and +destroy the stores belonging to the colony, then deposited at Concord." + +The town of Lexington, Major Phinney writes, is "about twelve miles +northwest of Boston and six miles southeast of Concord. It was +originally a part of Cambridge, and previous to its separation from that +town was called the Cambridge Farms." The act of incorporation bears +date March 20, 1712. The inhabitants consist principally of hardy and +independent yeomanry. In 1775 the list of enrolled militia bore the +names of over one hundred citizens. The road leading from Boston divides +near the centre of the village in Lexington. The part leading to Concord +passes to the left, and that leading to Bedford to the right, of the +meeting-house, and form two sides of a triangular green or common, on +the south corner of which stands the meeting-house, facing directly down +the road leading to Boston. At the right of the meeting-house, on the +opposite side of Bedford road, was Buckman's Tavern. + +About one o'clock the Lexington alarm-men and militia were summoned to +meet at their usual place of parade, on the Common; and messengers were +sent toward Cambridge for additional information. When the militia +assembled, about two o'clock in the morning, Captain John Parker, its +commander, ordered the roll to be called, and the men to load with +powder and ball. About one hundred thirty were now assembled with arms. +One of the messengers soon returned with the report that there was no +appearance of troops on the roads; and the weather being chilly, the +men, after being on parade some time, were dismissed with orders to +appear again at the beat of the drum. They dispersed into houses near +the place of parade--the greater part going into Buckman's Tavern. It +was generally supposed that the movements in Boston were only a feint to +alarm the people. + +Revere and Dawes started to give the alarm in Concord, and soon met Dr. +Samuel Prescott, a warm patriot, who agreed to assist in arousing the +people. While they were thus engaged they were suddenly met by a party +of officers, well armed and mounted, when a scuffle ensued, during which +Revere was captured; but Prescott, by leaping a stone-wall, made his +escape. The same officers had already detained three citizens of +Lexington, who had been sent out the preceding evening to watch their +movements. All the prisoners, after being questioned closely, were +released near Lexington, when Revere rejoined Hancock and Adams, and +went with them toward Woburn, two miles from Clark's house. + +While these things were occurring, the British regulars were marching +toward Concord. Lieutenant-Colonel Smith, at the head of about eight +hundred troops--grenadiers, light infantry, and marines--embarked about +ten o'clock at the foot of Boston Common, in the boats of the ships of +war. They landed, just as the moon arose, at Phipps' Farm, now Lechmere +Point, took an unfrequented path over the marshes, where in some places +they had to wade through water, and entered the old Charlestown and West +Cambridge road. No martial sounds enlivened their midnight march; it was +silent, stealthy, inglorious. The members of the "Rebel Congress" arose +from their beds at the tavern in Menotomy, to view them. They saw the +front pass on with the regularity of veteran discipline. But when the +centre was opposite the window, an officer and file of men were detached +toward the house. Gerry, Orne, and Lee, half-dressed as they were, then +took the hint and escaped to an adjoining field, while the British in +vain searched the house. + +Colonel Smith had marched but few miles when the sounds of guns and +bells gave the evidence that, notwithstanding the caution of General +Gage, the country was alarmed. He detached six companies of light +infantry, under the command of Major Pitcairn, with orders to press +forward and secure the two bridges at Concord, while he sent a messenger +to Boston for a reënforcement. The party of officers who had been out +joined the detachment, with the exaggerated report that five hundred men +were in arms to oppose the King's forces. Major Pitcairn, as he +advanced, succeeded in capturing everyone on the road until he arrived +within a mile and a half of Lexington Meeting-house, when Thaddeus +Bowman succeeded in eluding the advancing troops, and, galloping to the +Common, gave the first certain intelligence to Captain Parker of their +approach. + +It was now about half-past four in the morning. Captain Parker ordered +the drum to beat, alarm-guns to be fired, and Sergeant William Monroe to +form his company in two ranks a few rods north of the meeting-house. It +was a part of "the constitutional army," which was authorized to make a +regular and forcible resistance to any open hostility by the British +troops; and it was for this purpose that this gallant and devoted band +on this memorable morning appeared on the field. Whether it ought to +maintain its ground or whether it ought to retreat would depend upon the +bearing and numbers of the regulars. It was not long in suspense. At a +short distance from the parade-ground the British officers, regarding +the American drum as a challenge, ordered their troops to halt, to prime +and load, and then to march forward in double-quick time. + +Meantime sixty or seventy of the militia had collected, and about forty +spectators, a few of whom had arms. Captain Parker ordered his men not +to fire unless they were fired upon. A part of his company had time to +form in a military position facing the regulars; but while some were +joining the ranks and others were dispersing, the British troops rushed +on, shouting and firing, and their officers--among whom was Major +Pitcairn--exclaiming, "Ye villains! ye rebels! disperse!" "Lay down your +arms!" "Why don't you lay down your arms?" The militia did not instantly +disperse nor did they proceed to lay down their arms. + +The first guns, few in number, did no execution. A general discharge +followed, with fatal results. A few of the militia who had been wounded, +or who saw others killed or wounded by their side, no longer hesitated, +but returned the fire of the regulars. Jonas Parker, John Monroe, and +Ebenezer Monroe, Jr., and others, fired before leaving the line; Solomon +Brown and James Brown fired from behind a stone wall; one other person +fired from the back door of Buckman's house; Nathan Monroe, Lieutenant +Benjamin Tidd and others retreated a short distance and fired. Meantime +the regulars continued their fire as long as the militia remained in +sight, killing eight and wounding ten. Jonas Parker, who repeatedly said +he never would run from the British, was wounded at the second fire, but +he still discharged his gun, and was killed by a bayonet. "A truer heart +did not bleed at Thermopylæ." + +Isaac Muzzy, Jonathan Harrington, and Robert Monroe were also killed on +or near the place where the line was formed. "Harrington's was a cruel +fate. He fell in front of his own house, on the north of the Common. His +wife at the window saw him fall and then start up, the blood gushing +from his breast. He stretched out his hands toward her as if for +assistance, and fell again. Rising once more on his hands and knees, he +crawled across the road toward his dwelling. She ran to meet him at the +door, but it was to see him expire at her feet." + +Monroe was the standard-bearer of his company at the capture of +Louisburg. Caleb Harrington was killed as he was running from the +meeting-house after replenishing his stock of powder; Samuel Hadley and +John Brown, after they had left the Common; Asahel Porter, of Woburn, +who had been taken prisoner by the British as he was endeavoring to +effect his escape. + +The British suffered but little; a private of the Tenth regiment and +probably one other were wounded, and Major Pitcairn's horse was struck. +Some of the Provincials retreated up the road leading to Bedford, but +most of them across a swamp to a rising ground north of the Common. The +British troops formed on the Common, fired a volley, and gave three +huzzas in token of victory. Colonel Smith, with the remainder of the +troops, soon joined Major Pitcairn, and the whole detachment marched +toward Concord, about six miles distant, which it reached without +further interruption. After it left Lexington six of the regulars were +taken prisoners. + +Concord was described in 1775, by Ensign Berniere, as follows: "It lies +between two hills, that command it entirely. There is a river runs +through it, with two bridges over it. In summer it is pretty dry. The +town is large, and contains a church, jail, and court-house; but the +houses are not close together, but in little groups." The road from +Lexington entered Concord from the southeast along the side of a hill, +which commences on the right of it about a mile below the village, rises +abruptly from thirty to fifty feet above the road, and terminates at the +northeasterly part of the square. The top forms a plain, which commands +a view of the town. Here was the liberty-pole. The court-house stood +near the present county-house. The main branch of the Concord River +flows sluggishly, in a serpentine direction, on the westerly and +northerly side of the village, about half a mile from its centre. This +river was crossed by two bridges--one called the Old South bridge--the +other, by the Rev. William Emerson's, called the Old North bridge. The +road beyond the North bridge led to Colonel James Barrett's, about two +miles from the centre of the town. + +Dr. Samuel Prescott, whose escape has been related, gave the alarm in +Lincoln and Concord. It was between one and two o'clock in the morning +when the quiet community of Concord were aroused from their slumbers by +the sounds of the church-bell. The committee of safety, the military +officers, and prominent citizens assembled for consultation. Messengers +were despatched toward Lexington for information; the militia and +minute-men were formed on the customary parade-ground near the +meeting-house; and the inhabitants, with a portion of the militia, under +the able superintendence of Colonel Barrett, zealously labored in +removing the military stores into the woods and by-places for safety. +These scenes were novel and distressing; and among others, Rev. William +Emerson, the patriotic clergyman, mingled with the people, and gave +counsel and comfort to the terrified women and children. + +Reuben Brown, one of the messengers sent to obtain information, returned +with the startling intelligence that the British regulars had fired upon +his countrymen at Lexington, and were on their march for Concord. It was +determined to go out to meet them. A part of the military of +Lincoln--the minute-men, under Captain William Smith, and the militia, +under Captain Samuel Farrar--had joined the Concord people; and after +parading on the Common, some of the companies marched down the +Lexington road until they saw the British two miles from the centre of +the town. Captain Minot, with the alarm company, remained in town, and +took possession of the hill near the liberty-pole. He had no sooner +gained it, however, than the companies that had gone down the road +returned with the information that the number of the British was treble +that of the Americans. The whole then fell back to an eminence about +eighty rods distance, back of the town, where they formed in two +battalions. Colonel Barrett, the commander, joined them here, having +previously been engaged in removing the stores. They had scarcely formed +when the British troops appeared in sight at the distance of a quarter +of a mile, and advancing with great celerity--their arms glittering in +the splendor of early sunshine. But little time remained for +deliberation. Some were in favor of resisting the further approach of +the troops; while others, more prudent, advised a retreat and a delay +until further reënforcements should arrive. Colonel Barrett ordered the +militia to retire over the North bridge to a commanding eminence about a +mile from the centre of the town. + +The British troops then marched into Concord in two divisions--one by +the main road, and the other on the hill north of it, from which the +Americans had just retired. They were posted in the following manner: + +The grenadiers and light infantry, under the immediate command of +Colonel Smith, remained in the centre of the town. Captain Parsons, with +six light companies, about two hundred men, was detached to secure the +North bridge and to destroy stores, who stationed three companies, under +Captain Laurie, at the bridge, and proceeded with the other three +companies to the residence of Colonel Barrett, about two miles distant, +to destroy the magazines deposited there. Captain Pole, with a party, +was sent, for a similar purpose, to the South bridge. The British met +with but partial success in the work of destruction, in consequence of +the diligent concealment of the stores. In the centre of the town they +broke open about sixty barrels of flour, nearly half of which was +subsequently saved; knocked off the trunnions of three iron +twenty-four-pound cannon, and burned sixteen new carriage-wheels and a +few barrels of wooden trenchers and spoons. They cut down the +liberty-pole, and set the court-house on fire, which was put out, +however, by the exertions of Mrs. Moulton. The parties at the South +bridge and at Colonel Barrett's met with poor success. While engaged in +this manner the report of guns at the North bridge put a stop to their +proceedings. + +The British troops had been in Concord about two hours. During this time +the minute-men from the neighboring towns had been constantly arriving +on the high grounds, a short distance from the North bridge, until they +numbered about four hundred fifty. They were formed in line by Joseph +Hosmer, who acted as adjutant. It is difficult, if not impossible, to +ascertain certainly what companies were present thus early in the day. +They came from Carlisle, from Chelmsford, from Westford, from Littleton, +and from Acton. The minute-men of Acton were commanded by Captain Isaac +Davis, a brave and energetic man. Most of the operations of the British +troops were visible from this place of rendezvous, and several fires +were seen in the middle of the town. Anxious apprehensions were then +felt for its fate. A consultation of officers and of prominent citizens +was held. It was probably during this conference that Captain William +Smith, of Lincoln, volunteered, with his company, to dislodge the +British guard at the North bridge. Captain Isaac Davis, as he returned +from it to his ranks, also remarked, "I haven't a man that's afraid to +go." The result of this council was that it was expedient to dislodge +the guard at the North bridge. Colonel Barrett accordingly ordered the +militia to march to it, and to pass it, but not to fire on the King's +troops unless they were fired upon. He designated Major John Buttrick to +lead the companies to effect this object. Lieutenant-Colonel Robinson +volunteered to accompany him. On the march Major Buttrick requested +Colonel Robinson to act as his superior, but he generously declined. + +It was nearly ten o'clock in the morning when the Provincials, about +three hundred in number, arrived near the river. The company from Acton +was in front, and Major Buttrick, Colonel Robinson, and Captain Davis +were at their head. Captains David Brown, Charles Miles, Nathan Barrett, +and William Smith, with their companies, and also other companies, fell +into the line. Their positions, however, are not precisely known. They +marched in double file, and with trailed arms. The British guard, under +Captain Laurie, about one hundred in number, were then on the west side +of the river, but on seeing the Provincials approach they retired over +the bridge to the east side of the river, formed as if for a fight, and +began to take up the planks of the bridge. Major Buttrick remonstrated +against this and ordered his men to hasten their march. + +When they had arrived within a few rods of the bridge the British began +to fire upon them. The first guns, few in number, did no execution; +others followed with deadly effect. Luther Blanchard, a fifer in the +Acton company, was first wounded; and afterward Captain Isaac Davis and +Abner Hosmer, of the same company, were killed. On seeing the fire take +effect Major Buttrick exclaimed, "Fire, fellow-soldiers! for God's sake, +fire!" The Provincials then fired, and killed one and wounded several of +the enemy. The fire lasted but a few minutes. The British immediately +retreated in great confusion toward the main body--a detachment from +which was soon on its way to meet them. The Provincials pursued them +over the bridge, when one of the wounded of the British was cruelly +killed by a hatchet. + +Part of the Provincials soon turned to the left, and ascended the hill +on the east of the main road, while another portion returned to the high +grounds, carrying with them the remains of the gallant Davis and Hosmer. +Military order was broken, and many who had been on duty all the morning +and were hungry and fatigued improved the time to take refreshment. +Meantime the party under Captain Parsons--who was piloted by Ensign +Berniere--returned from Captain Barrett's house, repassed the bridge +where the skirmish took place, and saw the bodies of their companions, +one of which was mangled. It would have been easy for the Provincials to +have cut them off. But war had not been declared; and it is evident that +it had not been fully resolved to attack the British troops. Hence this +party of about one hundred were allowed, unmolested, to join the main +body. Colonel Smith concentrated his force, obtained conveyances for the +wounded, and occupied about two hours in making preparations to return +to Boston--a delay that nearly proved fatal to the whole detachment. + +While these great events were occurring at Lexington and Concord, the +intelligence of the hostile march of the British troops was spreading +rapidly through the country; and hundreds of local communities, animated +by the same determined and patriotic spirit, were sending out their +representatives to the battle-field. The minute-men, organized and ready +for action, promptly obeyed the summons to parade. They might wait in +some instances to receive a parting blessing from their minister, or to +take leave of weeping friends; but in all the roads leading to Concord, +they were hurrying to the scene of action. They carried the firelock +that had fought the Indian, and the drum that beat at Louisburg; and +they were led by men who had served under Wolfe at Quebec. As they drew +near the places of bloodshed and massacre they learned that in both +cases the regulars had been the aggressors--"had fired the first"--and +they were deeply touched by the slaughter of their brethren. Now the +British had fairly passed the Rubicon. If any still counselled +forbearance, moderation, peace, the words were thrown away. The +assembling bands felt that the hour had come in which to hurl back the +insulting charges on their courage that had been repeated for years, and +to make good the solemn words of their public bodies. And they +determined to attack on their return the invaders of their native soil. + +Colonel Smith, about twelve o'clock, commenced his march for Boston. His +left was covered by a strong flank-guard that kept the height of land +that borders the Lexington road, leading to Merriam's Corner; his right +was protected by a brook; the main body marched in the road. The British +soon saw how thoroughly the country had been alarmed. It seemed, one of +them writes, that "men had dropped from the clouds," so full were the +hills and roads of the minute-men. The Provincials left the high grounds +near the North bridge and went across the pastures known as "the Great +Fields," to Bedford road. Here the Reading minute-men, under Major +Brooks, afterward Governor Brooks, joined them; and a few minutes after, +Colonel William Thompson, with a body of militia from Billerica and +vicinity, came up. It is certain, from the diaries and petitions of this +period, that minute-men from other towns also came up in season to fire +upon the British while leaving Concord. + +The Reverend Foster, who was with the Reading company, relates the +beginning of the afternoon contest in the following manner: "A little +before we came to Merriam's hill we discovered the enemy's flank-guard, +of about eighty or one hundred men, who, on their retreat from Concord, +kept that height of land, the main body in the road. The British troops +and the Americans at that time were equally distant from Merriam's +Corner. About twenty rods short of that place the Americans made a halt. +The British marched down the hill, with very slow but steady step, +without music, or a word being spoken that could be heard. Silence +reigned on both sides. As soon as the British had gained the main road, +and passed a small bridge near that corner, they faced about suddenly +and fired a volley of musketry upon us. They overshot; and no one, to my +knowledge, was injured by the fire. The fire was immediately returned by +the Americans, and two British soldiers fell dead, at a little distance +from each other, in the road, near the brook." + +The battle now began in earnest, and as the British troops retreated a +severe fire was poured in upon them from every favorable position. Near +Hardy's hill, the Sudbury company, led by Captain Nathaniel Cudworth, +attacked them, and there was a severe skirmish below Brooks' Tavern on +the old road north of the school-house. The woods lined both sides of +the road which the British had to pass, and it was filled with the +minute-men. "The enemy," says Mr. Foster, "was now completely between +two fires, renewed and briskly kept up. They ordered out a flank-guard +on the left to dislodge the Americans from their posts behind large +trees, but they only became a better mark to be shot at." A short and +sharp battle ensued. And for three or four miles along these woody +defiles the British suffered terribly. Woburn had "turned out +extraordinary"; it sent out a force one hundred eighty strong, "well +armed and resolved in defence of the common cause." Major Loammi +Baldwin, afterward Colonel Baldwin, was with this body. At Tanner brook, +at Lincoln bridge, they concluded to scatter, make use of the trees and +walls as defences, and thus attack the British. And in this way they +kept on pursuing and flanking them. In Lincoln, also, Captain Parker's +brave Lexington company again appeared in the field, and did efficient +service. "The enemy," says Colonel Baldwin, "marched very fast, and left +many dead and wounded and a few tired." Eight were buried in Lincoln +graveyard. It was at this time that Captain Jonathan Wilson, of Bedford, +Nathaniel Wyman, of Billerica, and Daniel Thompson, of Woburn, were +killed. + +In Lexington, at Fiske's hill, an officer on a fine horse, with a drawn +sword in his hand, was actively engaged in directing the troops, when a +number of the pursuers, from behind a pile of rails, fired at him with +effect. The officer fell, and the horse, in affright, leaped the wall, +and ran toward those who had fired. It was here that Lieutenant-Colonel +Smith was severely wounded in the leg. At the foot of this hill a +personal contest between James Hayward, of Acton, and a British soldier +took place. The Briton drew up his gun, remarking, "You are a dead man!" +"And so are you!" answered Hayward. The former was killed. Hayward was +mortally wounded and died the next day. + +The British troops, when they arrived within a short distance of +Lexington Meeting-house, again suffered severely from the close pursuit +and the sharp fire of the Provincials. Their ammunition began to fail, +while their light companies were so fatigued as to be almost unfitted +for service. The large number of wounded created confusion, and many of +the troops rather ran than marched in order. For some time the officers +in vain tried to restore discipline. They saw the confusion increase +under their efforts, until, at last, they placed themselves in front, +and threatened the men with death if they advanced. This desperate +exertion, made under a heavy fire, partially restored order. The +detachment, however, must have soon surrendered had it not in its +extreme peril found shelter in the hollow square of a reënforcement sent +to their relief. + +General Gage received, early in the morning, a request from Colonel +Smith for a reënforcement. About nine o'clock he detached three +regiments of infantry and two divisions of marines, with two +field-pieces, under Lord Percy, to support the grenadiers and light +infantry. Lord Percy marched through Roxbury, to the tune of _Yankee +Doodle_ to the great alarm of the country. To prevent or to impede his +march, the select-men of Cambridge had the planks of the Old bridge, +over which he was obliged to pass, taken up; but instead of being +removed, they were piled on the causeway on the Cambridge side of the +river. Hence Lord Percy found no difficulty in replacing them so as to +admit his troops to cross. But a convoy of provisions was detained until +it was out of the protection of the main body. This was captured at West +Cambridge. According to Gordon, Rev. Dr. Payson led this party. David +Lamson, a half-Indian, distinguished himself in the affair. Percy's +brigade met the harassed and retreating troops about two o'clock, within +half a mile of Lexington Meeting-house. "They were so much exhausted +with fatigue," the British historian Stedman writes, "that they were +obliged to lie down for rest on the ground, their tongues hanging out of +their mouths like those of dogs after a chase." The field-pieces from +the high ground below Monroe's Tavern played on the Provincials, and for +a short period there was, save the discharge of cannon, a cessation of +battle. From this time, however, the troops committed the most wanton +destruction. Three houses, two shops, and a barn were laid in ashes in +Lexington; buildings on the route were defaced and plundered, and +individuals were grossly abused. + +At this time, Dr. Warren and General Heath were active in the field, +directing and encouraging the militia. General Heath was one of the +generals who were authorized to take the command when the minute-men +should be called out. On his way to the scene of action he ordered the +militia of Cambridge to make a barricade of the planks of the bridge, +take post there, and oppose the retreat of the British in that direction +from Boston. At Lexington, when the minute-men were somewhat checked and +scattered by Percy's field-pieces, he labored to form them into military +order. Dr. Warren, about ten o'clock, rode on horseback through +Charlestown. He had received by express intelligence of the events of +the morning, and told the citizens of Charlestown that the news of the +firing was true. Among others he met Dr. Welsh, who said, "Well, they +are gone out." "Yes," replied the doctor, "and we'll be up with them +before night." + +Lord Percy had now under his command about eighteen hundred troops of +undoubted bravery and of veteran discipline. He evinced no disposition, +however, to turn upon his assailants and make good the insulting boasts +of his associates. After a short interval of rest and refreshment the +British recommenced their retreat. Then the Provincials renewed their +attack. In West Cambridge the skirmishing again became sharp and bloody +and the troops increased their atrocities. Jason Russell, an invalid and +a noncombatant, was barbarously butchered in his own house. In this town +a mother was killed while nursing her child. Others were driven from +their dwellings, and their dwellings were pillaged. Here the Danvers +company, which marched in advance of the Essex regiment, met the enemy. +Some took post in a walled enclosure, and made a breastwork of bundles +of shingles; others planted themselves behind trees on the side of the +hill west of the meeting-house. The British came along in solid column +on their right, while a large flank guard came up on their left. The +Danvers men were surrounded, and many were killed and wounded. Here +Samuel Whittemore was shot and bayoneted, and left for dead. Here Dr. +Eliphalet Downer, in single combat with a soldier, killed him with a +bayonet. Here a musket-ball struck a pin out of the hair of Dr. Warren's +earlock. + +The wanton destruction of life and property that marked the course of +the invaders added revenge to the natural bravery of the minute-men. +"Indignation and outraged humanity struggled on the one hand; veteran +discipline and desperation on the other." The British had many struck in +West Cambridge, and left an officer wounded in the house still standing +at the rail-road depot. The British troops took the road that winds +round Prospect hill. When they entered this part of Charlestown their +situation was critical. The large numbers of the wounded proved a +distressing obstruction to their progress, while they had but few rounds +of ammunition left. Their field-pieces had lost their terror. The main +body of the Provincials hung closely on their rear; a strong force was +advancing upon them from Roxbury, Dorchester, and Milton; while Colonel +Pickering, with the Essex militia, seven hundred strong, threatened to +cut off their retreat to Charlestown. + +Near Prospect hill the fire again became sharp and the British again had +recourse to their field-pieces. James Miller, of Charlestown, was killed +here. Along its base, Lord Percy, it is stated, received the hottest +fire he had during his retreat. General Gage, about sunset, might have +beheld his harassed troops, almost on the run, coming down the old +Cambridge road to Charlestown Neck, anxious to get under the protection +of the guns of the ships-of-war. The minute-men closely followed, but, +when they reached the Charlestown Common, General Heath ordered them to +stop the pursuit. + +Charlestown, throughout the day, presented a scene of intense excitement +and great confusion. It was known early in the morning that the regulars +were out. Rumors soon arrived of the events that had occurred at +Lexington. The schools were dismissed, and citizens gathered in groups +in the streets. After Dr. Warren rode through the town, and gave the +certain intelligence of the slaughter at Lexington, a large number went +out to the field, and the greater part who remained were women and +children. Hon. James Russell received, in the afternoon, a note from +General Gage to the effect that he had been informed that citizens had +gone out armed to oppose his majesty's troops, and that if a single man +more went out armed the most disagreeable consequences might be +expected. It was next reported, and correctly, that Cambridge bridge had +been taken up, and that hence the regulars would be obliged to return to +Boston through the town. Many then prepared to leave, and every vehicle +was employed to carry away their most valuable effects. Others, however, +still believing the troops would return the way they went out, +determined to remain, and in either event to abide the worst. Just +before sunset the noise of distant firing was heard, and soon the +British troops were seen in the Cambridge road. + +The inhabitants then rushed toward the neck. Some crossed Mystic River, +at Penny Ferry. Some ran along the marsh, toward Medford. The troops, +however, soon approached the town, firing as they came along. A lad, +Edward Barber, was killed on the neck. The inhabitants then turned back +into the town panic-stricken. + +Word ran through the crowd that "the British were massacring the women +and children!" Some remained in the streets, speechless with terror; +some ran to the clay-pits, back of Breed's Hill, where they passed the +night. The troops, however, offered no injury to the inhabitants. Their +officers directed the women and children, half-distracted with fright, +to go into their houses, and they would be safe, but requested them to +hand out drink to the troops. The main body occupied Bunker Hill, and +formed a line opposite the neck. Additional troops also were sent over +from Boston. The officers flocked to the tavern in the square, where the +cry was for drink. Guards were stationed in various parts of the town. +One was placed at the neck, with orders to permit no one to go out. +Everything, during the night, was quiet. Some of the wounded were +carried over immediately, in the boats of the Somerset, to Boston. +General Pigot had the command in Charlestown the next day, when the +troops all returned to their quarters. + +The Americans lost forty-nine killed, thirty-nine wounded, and five +missing. A committee of the Provincial Congress estimated the value of +the property destroyed by the ravages of the troops to be: In Lexington, +£1761 15s. 5d.; in Concord, £274 16s. 7d.; in Cambridge, £1202 8s. 7d. +Many petitions of persons who engaged the enemy on this day are on file. +They lost guns or horses or suffered other damage. The General Court +indemnified such losses. + +The British lost seventy-three killed, one hundred seventy-four wounded, +and twenty-six missing--the most of whom were taken prisoners. Of these, +eighteen were officers, ten sergeants, two drummers, and two hundred +forty were rank and file. Lieutenant Hall, wounded at the North bridge, +was taken prisoner on the retreat, and died the next day. His remains +were delivered to General Gage. Lieutenant Gould was wounded at the +bridge, and taken prisoner, and was exchanged, May 28th, for Josiah +Breed, of Lynn. He had a fortune of one thousand nine hundred pounds a +year, and is said to have offered two thousand pounds for his ransom. +The prisoners were treated with great humanity, and General Gage was +notified that his own surgeons, if he desired it, might dress the +wounded. + + + + +BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL + +A.D. 1775 + +JOHN BURGOYNE JOHN H. JESSE JAMES GRAHAME + + This action, which took place about two months after the + Battle of Lexington, though resulting in the physical defeat + of the Americans, proved for them a moral victory. As at + Lexington and Concord, the colonial soldiers showed that + they were prepared to stand their ground in defence of the + cause which called them to arms, and Bunker Hill became a + watchword of the Revolution. This event also made it clear + that the contest must be fought out. Thenceforth the two + sides in the war were sharply defined. + + The immediate occasion of this battle was the necessity, as + seen by the British general, Gage, of driving the Americans + from an eminence commanding Boston. This elevation was one + of several hills on a peninsula just north of the town and + running out into the harbor. It was the intention of the + Americans to seize and fortify Bunker Hill, but for some + unexplained reason they took Breed's Hill, much nearer + Boston, and there the battle was mainly fought. Breed's Hill + is now usually called Bunker Hill, and upon it stands the + Bunker Hill monument. + + The following accounts of the battle are all from British + writers; one is that of the English officer General + Burgoyne, who was afterward defeated at Saratoga; another is + by the English historical author Jesse, whose best work + covers the reign of George III. The third is from James + Grahame, a native of Glasgow, Scotland, who died in 1842, of + whose _History of America_ a high authority says: "The + thoroughly American spirit in which it is written prevented + the success of the book in England." The historian Prescott + gave it high praise for accuracy and fairness. + + +JOHN BURGOYNE + +Now ensued one of the greatest scenes of war that can be conceived. If +we look to the height, Howe's corps, ascending the hill in face of +intrenchments, and in a very disadvantageous ground, was much engaged; +to the left the enemy, pouring in fresh troops by thousands over the +land; and in the arm of the sea our ships and floating batteries, +cannonading them. Straight before us a large and noble town[26] in one +great blaze; and the church-steeples, being timber, were great pyramids +of fire above the rest. Behind us the church-steeples and heights of our +own camp covered with spectators of the rest of our army which was +engaged; the hills round the country also covered with spectators; the +enemy all in anxious suspense; the roar of cannon, mortars, and +musketry; the crash of churches, ships upon the stocks, and whole +streets falling together, to fill the ear; the storm of the redoubts, +with the objects above described, to fill the eye; and the reflection +that perhaps a defeat was a final loss to the British empire of America, +to fill the mind, made the whole a picture and a complication of horror +and importance beyond anything that ever came to my lot to witness. + + +JOHN HENEAGE JESSE + +About 11 P.M. on June 16th a detachment of about a thousand men, who had +previously joined solemnly together in prayer, ascended silently and +stealthily a part of the heights known as Bunker Hill, situated within +cannon range of Boston and commanding a view of every part of the town. +This brigade was composed chiefly of husbandmen, who wore no uniform, +and who were armed with fowling-pieces only, unequipped with bayonets. +The person selected to command them on this daring service was one of +the lords of the soil of Massachusetts, William Prescott, of Pepperell, +the colonel of a Middlesex regiment of militia. "For myself," he said to +his men, "I am resolved never to be taken alive." Preceded by two +sergeants bearing dark-lanterns, and accompanied by his friends, Colonel +Gridley and Judge Winthrop, the gallant Prescott, distinguished by his +tall and commanding figure, though simply attired in his ordinary calico +smock-frock, calmly and resolutely led the way to the heights. Those who +followed him were not unworthy of their leader. + +It was half-past eleven before the engineers commenced drawing the lines +of the redoubt. As the first sod was being upturned, the clocks of +Boston struck twelve. More than once during the night--which happened to +be a beautifully calm and starry one--Colonel Prescott descended to the +shore, where the sound of the British sentinels walking their rounds, +and their exclamations of "All's well!" as they relieved guard, +continued to satisfy him that they entertained no suspicion of what was +passing above their heads. Before daybreak the Americans had thrown up +an intrenchment, which extended from the Mystic to a redoubt on their +left. The astonishment of Gage, when on the following morning he found +this important site in the hands of the enemy, may be readily conceived. +Obviously not a moment was to be lost in attempting to dislodge them; +and accordingly a detachment, under General Howe, was at once ordered on +this critical service. + +In the mean time a heavy cannonade, first of all from the Lively +(sloop-of-war), and afterward from a battery of heavy guns from Copp's +hill, in Boston, was opened upon the Americans. Exposed, however, as +they were to a storm of shot and shell, unaccustomed, as they also were, +to face an enemy's fire, they nevertheless pursued their operations with +the calm courage of veteran soldiers. + +Late in the day, indeed, when the scorching sun rose high in the +cloudless heavens, when the continuous labors of so many hours +threatened to prostrate them, and when they waited, but waited in vain, +for provisions and refreshments, the hearts of a few began to fail them, +and the word retreat was suffered to escape from their lips. There was +among them, however, a master spirit, whose cheering words and +chivalrous example never failed to restore confidence. On the +spot--where now a lofty column, overlooking the fair landscape and calm +waters, commemorates the events of that momentous day--was then seen, +conspicuous above the rest, the form of Prescott of Pepperell, in his +calico frock, as he paced the parapet to and fro, instilling resolution +into his followers by the contempt which he manifested for danger, and +amid the hottest of the British fire delivering his orders with the same +serenity as if he had been on parade. "Who is that person?" inquired +Governor Gage of a Massachusetts gentleman, as they stood reconnoitring +the American works from the opposite side of the river Charles. "My +brother-in-law, Colonel Prescott," was the reply. "Will he fight?" asked +Gage. "Ay," said the other, "to the last drop of his blood." + +It was after 3 P.M. when General Howe's detachment, consisting of about +two thousand men, landed at Charlestown and formed for the attack. +Prescott's instructions to his men, as the British approached, were +sufficiently brief. "The red-coats," he said, "will never reach the +redoubt if you will but withhold your fire till I give the order, and be +careful not to shoot over their heads." In the mean time, ascending the +hill under the protection of a heavy cannonade, the British infantry had +advanced unmolested to within a few yards of the enemy's works, when +Prescott gave the word "Fire!" So promptly and effectually were his +orders obeyed that nearly the whole front rank of the British fell. +Volley after volley was now opened upon them from behind the +intrenchments, till at length even the bravest began to waver and fall +back; some of them, in spite of the threats and passionate entreaties of +their officers, even retreating to the boats. + +Minutes, many minutes apparently, elapsed before the British troops were +rallied and returned to the attack, exposed to the burning rays of the +sun, encumbered with heavy knapsacks containing provisions for three +days, compelled to toil up very disadvantageous ground with grass +reaching to their knees, clambering over rails and hedges, and led +against men who were fighting from behind intrenchments and constantly +receiving reënforcements by hundreds--few soldiers, perhaps, but British +infantry would have been prevailed upon to renew the conflict. Again, +however, they advanced to the charge; again, when within five or six +rods of the redoubt, the same tremendous discharge of musketry was +opened upon them; and again, in spite of many heroic examples of +gallantry set them by their officers, they retreated in the same +disorder as before. + +By this time the grenadiers and light infantry had lost three-fourths of +their men; some companies had only eight or nine men left, one or two +had even fewer. When the Americans looked forth from their intrenchments +the ground was literally covered with the wounded and dead. According to +an American who was present, "the dead lay as thick as sheep in a fold." +For a few seconds General Howe was left almost alone. Nearly every +officer of his staff had been either killed or wounded. The Americans, +who have done honorable justice to his gallantry, remarked that, +conspicuous as he stood in his general officer's uniform, it was a +marvel that he escaped unhurt. He retired, but it was with the stern +resolve of a hero to rally his men--to return and vanquish. + +The third and last attack made by General Howe upon the enemy's +intrenchments appears to have taken place after a considerably longer +interval than the previous one. This interval was employed by Prescott +in addressing words of confidence and exhortation to his followers, to +which their cheers returned an enthusiastic response. "If we drive them +back once more," he said, "they cannot rally again." General Howe, in +the mean time, by disencumbering his men of their knapsacks, and by +bringing the British artillery to play so as to rake the interior of the +American breastwork, had greatly enhanced his chances of success. Once +more, at the word of command, in steady unbroken line, the British +infantry mounted to the deadly struggle; once more the cheerful voice of +Prescott exhorted his men to reserve their fire till their enemies were +close upon them; once more the same deadly fire was poured down upon the +advancing royalists. Again on their part there was a struggle, a pause, +an indication of wavering; but on this occasion it was only momentary. +Onward and headlong against breastwork and against vastly superior +numbers dashed the British infantry, with a heroic devotion never +surpassed in the annals of chivalry. Almost in a moment of time, in +spite of a second volley as destructive as the first, the ditch was +leaped and the parapet mounted. + +In that final charge fell many of the bravest of the brave. Of the +Fifty-second regiment alone, three captains, the moment they stood on +the parapet, were shot down. Still the English infantry continued to +pour forward, flinging themselves among the American militiamen, who met +them with a gallantry equal to their own. The powder of the latter +having by this time become nearly exhausted, they endeavored to force +back their assailants with the butt-ends of their muskets. But the +British bayonets carried all before them. Then it was, when further +resistance was evidently fruitless, and not till then, that the heroic +Prescott gave the order to retire. From the nature of the ground it was +necessarily more a flight than a retreat. Many of the Americans, +leaping over the walls of the parapet, attempted to fight their way +through the British troops; while the majority endeavored to escape by +the narrow entrance to the redoubt. In consequence of the fugitives +being thus huddled together, the slaughter became terrific. + +"Nothing," writes a young British officer, who was engaged in the +_mêlée_, "could be more shocking than the carnage that followed the +storming of this work. We tumbled over the dead to get at the living, +who were crowding out of the gap of the redoubt, in order to form under +the defences which they had prepared to cover their retreat." Prescott +was one of the last to quit the scene of slaughter. Although more than +one British bayonet had pierced his clothes, he escaped without a wound. + +That night the British intrenched themselves on the heights, lying down +in front of the recent scene of contest. The loss in killed and wounded +was ten hundred fifty-four. According to the American account their loss +was one hundred forty-five killed and three hundred four wounded; of +their six pieces of artillery, they only succeeded in carrying off one. + +Such was the result of the famous Battle of Bunker Hill, a contest from +which Great Britain derived little advantage beyond the credit of having +achieved a brilliant passage of arms, but which, on the other hand, +produced the significant effect of manifesting, not only to the +Americans themselves, but to Europe, that the colonists could fight with +a steadiness and courage which ere long might render them capable of +coping with the disciplined troops of the mother-country. + + +JAMES GRAHAME + +About the latter part of May, a great part of the reënforcements ordered +from Great Britain arrived at Boston. Three British generals, Howe, +Burgoyne, and Clinton, whose behavior in the preceding war had gained +them great reputation, arrived about the same time. General Gage, thus +reënforced, prepared for acting with more decision; but before he +proceeded to extremities, he conceived it due to ancient forms to issue +a proclamation, holding forth to the inhabitants the alternative of +peace or war. He therefore offered pardon, in the King's name, to all +who should forthwith lay down their arms and return to their respective +occupations and peaceable duties: excepting only from the benefit of +that pardon "Samuel Adams and John Hancock, whose offences were said to +be of too flagitious a nature to admit of any other consideration than +that of condign punishment." He also proclaimed that not only the +persons above named and excepted, but also all their adherents, +associates, and correspondents, should be deemed guilty of treason and +rebellion, and treated accordingly. By this proclamation it was also +declared "that as the courts of judicature were shut, martial law should +take place till a due course of justice should be reëstablished." + +It was supposed that this proclamation was a prelude to hostilities; and +preparations were accordingly made by the Americans. A considerable +height, by the name of Bunker Hill, just at the entrance of the +peninsula of Charlestown, was so situated as to make the possession of +it a matter of great consequence to either of the contending parties. +Orders were therefore issued, by the provincial commanders, that a +detachment of a thousand men should intrench upon this height. By some +mistake, Breed's Hill, high and large like the other, but situated +nearer Boston, was marked out for the intrenchments, instead of Bunker +Hill. The provincials proceeded to Breed's Hill and worked with so much +diligence that between midnight and the dawn of the morning they had +thrown up a small redoubt about eight rods square. They kept such a +profound silence that they were not heard by the British, on board their +vessels, though very near. These having derived their first information +of what was going on from the sight of the works, early completed, began +an incessant firing upon them. + +The provincials bore this with firmness, and, though they were only +young soldiers, continued to labor till they had thrown up a small +breastwork extending from the east side of the redoubt to the bottom of +the hill. As this eminence overlooked Boston, General Gage thought it +necessary to drive the provincials from it. About noon, therefore, he +detached Major-General Howe and Brigadier-General Pigot, with the flower +of his army, consisting of four battalions, ten companies of the +grenadiers and ten of light infantry, with a proportion of field +artillery, to effect this business. These troops landed at Moreton's +Point, and formed after landing, but remained in that position till +they were reënforced by a second detachment of light infantry and +grenadier companies, a battalion of land forces, and a battalion of +marines, making in the whole nearly three thousand men. While the troops +who first landed were waiting for this reënforcement, the provincials, +for their further security, pulled up some adjoining post and rail +fences, and set them down in two parallel lines at a small distance from +each other, and filled the space between with hay, which, having been +lately mowed, was found lying on the adjacent ground. + +The King's troops formed in two lines, and advanced slowly to give their +artillery time to demolish the American works. While the British were +advancing to the attack they received orders to burn Charlestown. These +were not given because they were fired upon from the houses in that +town, but from the military policy of depriving enemies of a cover in +their approaches. In a short time this ancient town, consisting of about +five hundred buildings, chiefly of wood, was in one great blaze. The +lofty steeple of the meeting-house formed a pyramid of fire above the +rest, and struck the astonished eyes of numerous beholders with a +magnificent but awful spectacle. In Boston the heights of every kind +were covered with citizens, and such of the King's troops as were not on +duty. The hills around the adjacent country, which afforded a safe and +distinct view, were occupied by the inhabitants of the country. + +Thousands, both within and without Boston, were anxious spectators of +the bloody scene. Regard for the honor of the British army caused hearts +to beat high in the breasts of many; while others, with keener +sensibilities, sorrowed for the liberties of a great and growing +country. The British moved on slowly, which gave the provincials a +better opportunity for taking aim. The latter, in general, reserved +their fire until their adversaries were within ten or twelve rods, and +then began a furious discharge of small arms. The stream of the American +fire was so incessant, and did so great execution, that the King's +troops retreated with precipitation and disorder. Their officers rallied +them and pushed them forward with their swords; but they returned to the +attack with great reluctance. The Americans again reserved their fire +till their adversaries were near, and then put them a second time to +flight. General Howe and the officers redoubled their exertions, and +were again successful, though the soldiers displayed a great aversion to +going on. By this time the powder of the Americans began so far to fail +that they were not able to keep up the same brisk fire. The British then +brought some cannon to bear, which raked the inside of the breastwork +from end to end. The fire from the ships, batteries, and field artillery +was redoubled; the soldiers in the rear were goaded on by their +officers. The redoubt was attacked on three sides at once. Under these +circumstances a retreat from it was ordered, but the provincials delayed +so long, and made resistance with their discharged muskets as if they +had been clubs, that the King's troops, who had easily mounted the +works, half filled the redoubt before it was given up to them. + +While these operations were going on at the breastwork and redoubt, the +British light infantry were attempting to force the left point of the +former, that they might take the American line in flank. Though they +exhibited the most undaunted courage, they met with an opposition which +called for its greatest exertions. The provincials reserved their fire +till their adversaries were near, and then discharged it upon the light +infantry in such an incessant stream, and with so true an aim, as that +it quickly thinned their ranks. The engagement was kept up on both sides +with great resolution. The persevering exertions of the King's troops +could not compel the Americans to retreat till they observed that their +main body had left the hill. This, when begun, exposed them to new +dangers; for it could not be effected but by marching over Charlestown +Neck, every part of which was raked by the shot of the Glasgow +(man-of-war) and of two floating batteries. The incessant fire kept up +across the Neck prevented any considerable reënforcement from joining +their countrymen who were engaged; but the few who fell on their retreat +over the same ground proved that the apprehensions of those provincial +officers, who declined passing over to succor their companies, were +without any solid foundation. + +The number of Americans engaged amounted only to fifteen hundred. It was +apprehended that the conquerors would push the advantage they had +gained, and march immediately to American head-quarters at Cambridge; +but they advanced no farther than Bunker Hill. There they threw up +works for their own security. The provincials did the same, on Prospect +Hill, in front of them. Both were guarding against an attack; and both +were in a bad condition to receive one. The loss of the peninsula +depressed the spirits of the Americans; and the great loss of men +produced the same effect on the British. There have been few battles in +modern wars in which, all circumstances considered, there was a greater +destruction of men than in this short engagement. + +The loss of the British, as acknowledged by General Gage, amounted to +one thousand fifty-four. Nineteen commissioned officers were killed and +seventy more were wounded. The Battle of Quebec, in 1759, which gave +Great Britain the colony of Canada, was not so destructive to British +officers as this affair of a slight intrenchment, the work only of a few +hours. That the officers suffered so much must be imputed to their being +aimed at. None of the provincials in this engagement were riflemen, but +they were all good marksmen. The whole of their previous military +knowledge had been derived from hunting and the ordinary amusements of +sportsmen. The dexterity which by long habit they had acquired in +hitting beast, birds, and marks, was fatally applied to the destruction +of British officers. From their fall, much confusion was expected. They +were therefore particularly singled out. Most of those who were near the +person of General Howe were either killed or wounded; but the General, +though he greatly exposed himself, was unhurt. The light infantry and +grenadiers lost three-fourths of their men. Of one company not more than +five, and of another not more than fourteen, escaped. + +The unexpected resistance of the Americans was such as wiped away the +reproach of cowardice, which had been cast upon them by their enemies in +Britain. The spirited conduct of the British officers merited and +obtained great applause; but the provincials were justly entitled to a +large share of the glory for having made the utmost exertions of their +adversaries necessary to dislodge them from lines which were the work of +only a single night. + +The Americans lost five pieces of cannon. Their killed amounted to one +hundred thirty-nine; their wounded and missing, to three hundred +fourteen. Thirty of the former fell into the hands of the conquerors. +They particularly regretted the death of General Warren. To the purest +patriotism and most undaunted bravery he added the virtues of domestic +life, the eloquence of an accomplished orator, and the wisdom of an able +statesman. Only a regard for the liberty of his country induced him to +oppose the measures of Government. He aimed not at a separation from, +but a coalition with, the mother-country. + +The burning of Charlestown, though a place of great trade, did not +discourage the provincials. It excited resentment and execration, but +not any disposition to submit. Such was the high-strung state of the +public mind, and so great the indifference of property when put in +competition with liberty, that military conflagrations, though they +distressed and impoverished, had no tendency to subdue, the colonists. +Such means might suffice in the Old World, but were not effectual in the +New, where the war was undertaken, not for a change of masters, but for +securing essential rights. + +The action at Breed's Hill, or Bunker Hill, as it has since been +commonly called, produced many and very important consequences. It +taught the British so much respect for the Americans, intrenched behind +works, that their subsequent operations were retarded with a caution +that wasted away a whole campaign to very little purpose. It added to +the confidence the Americans began to have in their own abilities. It +inspired some of the leading members of Congress with such high ideas of +what might be done by militia, or men engaged for a short term of +enlistment, that it was long before they assented to the establishment +of a permanent army. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[26] Charlestown. A body of American riflemen, posted in the houses, +galled the left line as it marched; therefore, by Howe's orders, the +town was set on fire. + + + + +CANADA REMAINS LOYAL TO ENGLAND + +MONTGOMERY'S INVASION + +A.D. 1775 + +JOHN McMULLEN + + At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War there was a belief, + or at least a hope, among the thirteen rebellious colonies + that Canada would join them and thus enable the entire + continent to present a united front against England. Had she + done so the course of Canadian and perhaps of American + destiny would have been widely changed. + + The condition of Canada was different from that of the more + southern colonies, in that it was a conquered country, + guarded by British soldiers. The great majority of the + inhabitants were of French descent; until 1760 they had been + under French rule; and it was hoped that, especially in the + Quebec Province and along the St. Lawrence Valley, the + French _habitants_ would seize eagerly on an opportunity for + revolt. An expedition was therefore planned under Generals + Montgomery and Arnold; and though it failed, so great was + the heroism of the men who attempted it that we may leave + their story to their foes to tell. The following account is + by the standard Canadian historian McMullen. + + That Canada was saved to England from this, the first and + most serious of the invasions of her independent neighbors + to the south, was due chiefly to Sir Guy Carleton, the able + general then governing the Province and commanding the + British forces there. It was due also to the French clergy, + who favored British rule and bade their parishioners stand + neutral or even urged them to fight against the invaders. + + +The American Congress, in 1775, believed the Canadian people to be +favorable to their cause, and resolved to anticipate the British by +striking a decided blow in the North. They accordingly despatched a +force of nearly two thousand men, under Schuyler and Montgomery, to +penetrate into Canada by the Richelieu. After taking the forts along +that river, they were next to possess themselves of Montreal, and then +descend to Quebec, and form a junction there with Colonel Arnold, who +was to proceed up the Kennebec with eleven hundred men and surprise the +capital of Canada if possible. + +On September 5th the American army arrived at the Ileaux-Noix, whence +Schuyler and Montgomery scattered a proclamation among the Canadians +stating that they came only against the British, and had no design +whatever on the lives, the properties, or religion of the inhabitants. +General Schuyler being unwell now returned to Albany, and the chief +command devolved on Montgomery, who, having received a reënforcement, +invested Fort St. John on the 17th, and at the same time sent some +troops to attack the fort at Chambly, while Ethan Allan was despatched +with a reconnoitring party toward Montreal. Allan accordingly proceeded +to the St. Lawrence, and being informed that the town was weakly +defended, and believing the inhabitants were favorable to the Americans, +he resolved to capture it by surprise, although his force was under two +hundred men. General Carleton had already arrived at Montreal to make +disposition for the protection of the frontier. Learning on the night of +the 24th that a party of Americans had crossed the river and were +marching on the town, he promptly drew together two hundred fifty of the +local militia, chiefly English and Irish, and with thirty men of the +Twenty-sixth regiment, in addition, prepared for its defence. Allan, +however, instead of proceeding to attack Montreal, becoming intimidated, +took possession of some houses and barns in the neighborhood, where he +was surrounded next day and compelled to surrender after a loss of five +killed and ten wounded. The British lost their commanding officer, Major +Carsden, Alexander Paterson, a merchant of Montreal, and two privates. +Allan and his men were sent prisoners to England, where they were +confined in Pendennis castle. + +While these occurrences were transpiring at Montreal, Montgomery was +vigorously pressing forward the siege of Fort St. John, which post was +gallantly defended by Major Preston of the Twenty-sixth regiment. His +conduct was not imitated by Major Stopford, of the Seventh, who +commanded at Chambly, and who surrendered, in a cowardly manner, on two +hundred Americans appearing before the works with two six-pounders. This +was a fortunate event for Montgomery, whose powder was nearly exhausted, +and who now procured a most seasonable supply from the captured fort. +His fire was again renewed, but was bravely replied to by the garrison, +who hoped that General Carleton would advance and raise the siege. This +the latter was earnestly desirous to do, and drew together all the +militia he could collect and the few troops at his disposal for that +purpose, and pushed across the river toward Longueil on one of the last +days of October. General Montgomery had foreseen this movement, and +detached a force, with two field-pieces, to prevent it. This force took +post near the river, and allowed the British to approach within +pistol-shot of the shore, when they opened such a hot fire of musketry +and cannon that General Carleton was compelled to order a retreat on +Montreal. Montgomery duly apprized Major Preston of these occurrences, +and the garrison being now short of provisions and ammunition, and +without any hope of succor, surrendered on October 31st, and marched out +with all the honors of war. + +With Fort St. John and Chambly a large portion of the regular troops in +Canada was captured, and the Governor was in no condition to resist the +American army, the main body of which now advanced upon Montreal, while +a strong detachment proceeded to Sorel, to cut off the retreat of the +British toward Quebec. General Carleton, with Brigadier Prescott and one +hundred twenty soldiers, left Montreal, after destroying all the public +stores possible, just as the American army was entering it. At Sorel, +however, their flight was effectually intercepted by an armed vessel and +some floating batteries, and Prescott, finding it impossible to force a +passage, was compelled to surrender. The night before, General Carleton +fortunately eluded the vigilance of the Americans, and passed down the +river in a boat with muffled oars. Montgomery treated the people of +Montreal with great consideration, and gained their good-will by the +affability of his manners and the nobleness and generosity of his +disposition. + +While the main body of the American invading force had been completely +successful thus far, Arnold sailed up the Kennebec, and proceeded +through the vast forests lying between it and the St. Lawrence, in the +hope of surprising Quebec. The sufferings of his troops from hunger and +fatigue were of the most severe description. So great were their +necessities that they were obliged to eat dog's flesh, and even the +leather of their cartouch-boxes; still, they pressed on with unflagging +zeal and wonderful endurance, and arrived at Point Levi on November 9th. +But their approach was already known at Quebec. Arnold had enclosed a +letter for Schuyler to a friend in that city, and imprudently intrusted +its delivery to an Indian, who carried it to the Lieutenant-Governor. +The latter immediately began to make defensive preparations, and when +the Americans arrived on the opposite side of the river they found all +the shipping and boats removed, and a surprise out of the question. + +On the 12th Colonel M'Clean, who had retreated from Sorel, arrived at +Quebec, with a body of Fraser's Highlanders, who had settled in the +country, were now reëmbodied, and amounted to one hundred fifty men. In +addition to these there were four hundred eighty Canadian militia, five +hundred British, and some regular troops and seamen for the defence of +the town. The Hunter (sloop-of-war) gave the garrison the command of the +river, yet, despite the vigilance exercised by her commander, Arnold +crossed over during the night of the 13th, landed at Wolfe's Cove, and +next morning appeared on the Plains of Abraham, where he gave his men +three cheers, which were promptly responded to by the besieged, who in +addition complimented them with a few discharges of grape-shot, which +compelled them to retire. Finding he could effect nothing against the +city, Arnold retired up the river to Point-aux-Trembles, to await the +arrival of Montgomery. + +On the 19th, to the great joy of the garrison, General Carleton arrived +from Montreal, bringing down with him two armed schooners which had been +lying at Three Rivers. One of his first measures was to strengthen the +hands of the loyalists, by ordering those liable to serve in the +militia, and who refused to be enrolled, to quit the city within four +days. By this means several disaffected persons were got rid of, and the +garrison was speedily raised to eighteen hundred men, who had plenty of +provisions for eight months. + +On December 1st Montgomery joined Arnold at Point-aux-Trembles, when +their united forces, amounting to about two thousand men, proceeded to +attack Quebec, in the neighborhood of which they arrived on the 4th, and +soon after quartered their men in the houses of the suburbs. Montgomery +now sent a flag to summon the besieged to surrender, but this was fired +upon by order of General Carleton, who refused to hold any intercourse +with the American officers. Highly indignant at this treatment, the +besiegers proceeded to construct their batteries, although the weather +was intensely cold. But their artillery was too light to make any +impression on the fortifications, the fire from which cut their fascines +to pieces and dismounted their guns; so Montgomery determined to carry +the works by escalade. He accordingly assembled his men on December 30th +and made them a very imprudent speech, in which he avowed his resolution +of attacking the city by storm. A deserter carried intelligence of his +intention that very day to General Carleton, who made the necessary +preparations for defence. On the night of the 31st the garrison pickets +were on the alert. Nothing, however, of importance occurred till next +morning, when Captain Fraser, the field officer on duty, on going his +rounds, perceived some suspicious signals at St. John's Gate, and +immediately turned out the guard, when a brisk fire was opened by a body +of the enemy, concealed by a snow-bank. This was a mere feint to draw +off attention from the true points of attack, at the southern and +northern extremities of the Lower Town. It had, however, the effect of +putting the garrison more completely on their guard, and thus was fatal +to the plans of the assailants. + +Montgomery led a column of five hundred men toward the southern side of +the town, and halted to reconnoitre at a short distance from the first +battery, near the Près de Ville, defended chiefly by Canadian militia, +with nine seamen to work the guns, the whole under the command of +Captain Barnsfair. The guard were on the alert, and the sailors with +lighted matches waited the order to fire, while the strictest silence +was preserved. Presently the officer who had made the reconnoissance +returned and reported everything still. The Americans now rushed forward +to the attack, when Barnsfair gave the command to fire, and the head of +the assailing column went instantly down under the unexpected and fatal +discharge of guns and musketry. The survivors made a rapid retreat, +leaving thirteen of their dead behind to be shrouded in the falling +snow, among whom was the gallant Montgomery. Of a good family in the +north of Ireland, he had served under Wolfe with credit, married an +American lady, Miss Livingston, after the peace, and had joined the +cause of the United States with great enthusiasm. + +At the other end of the Lower Town Arnold at the head of six hundred men +had assaulted the first barrier with great impetuosity, meeting with +little resistance. He was wounded in the first onset and borne to the +rear. But his place was ably supplied by Captain Morgan, who forced the +guard and drove them back to a second barrier, two hundred yards nearer +the centre of the town. Owing to the prompt arrangements, however, of +General Carleton, who soon arrived on the ground, the Americans were +speedily surrounded, driven out of a strong building by the bayonet, and +compelled to surrender to the number of four hundred twenty-six, +including twenty-eight officers. In this action the garrison had ten men +killed and thirteen wounded; the American loss in killed and wounded was +about one hundred. + +The besieging force was now reduced to a few hundred men, and they were +at a loss whether to retreat toward home or continue the siege. As they +were in expectation of soon receiving aid they at length determined to +remain in the neighborhood, and elected Arnold as their general, who +contented himself with a simple blockade of the besieged, at a +considerable distance from the works. Carleton would have now gladly +proceeded to attack him, but several of the Canadians outside the city +were disaffected, as well as many persons within the defences, and he +considered, with his motley force, his wisest course was to run no risk, +and wait patiently for the succor which the opening of navigation must +give him. + +During the month of February a small reënforcement from Massachusetts +and some troops from Montreal raised Arnold's force to over one thousand +men, and he now resumed the siege, but could make no impression on the +works. His men had already caught the smallpox, and the country people +becoming more and more unwilling to supply provisions, his difficulties +increased rather than diminished. When the Americans first came into the +country the habitants were disposed to sell them what they required at a +fair price, and a few hundred of the latter even joined their army. But +they soon provoked the hostility of the bulk of the people by a want of +respect for their clergy, by compelling them to furnish articles below +the current prices, and by giving them illegal certificates of payment, +which were rejected by the American quartermaster-general. In this way +the Canadians began gradually to take a deeper interest in the struggle +in progress, and to regard the British as their true friends and +protectors, while they came to look upon the Americans as a band of +armed plunderers, who made promises they had no intention of performing, +and refused to pay their just debts. + +All the Canadians now required was a proper leader and a system of +organization to cause them to act vigorously against Arnold. Even in the +absence of these requisites they determined to raise the siege, and, led +by a gentleman of the name of Beajeau, a force advanced toward Quebec, +on March 25th, but was defeated by the Americans, and compelled to +retreat. This check, however, did not discourage the Canadians, who now +resolved to surprise a detachment of the enemy at Point Levi. By some +means their design became known, and they were very roughly handled. + +The month of April passed without producing any events of importance. +The Americans had meanwhile been reënforced to over two thousand men, +and Major-General Thomas had arrived to take the command. The smallpox +still continued to rage among them; besides they could make no +impression on the fortifications, and the hostile attitude of the +Canadians disheartened them, so nothing was effected. On May 5th Thomas +called a council of war, at which an immediate retreat was determined +on. + +On the following morning, to the great joy of the besieged, the Surprise +frigate and a sloop arrived in the harbor, with one hundred seventy men +of the Twenty-ninth regiment and some marines, who were speedily landed. +Now General Carleton at once resolved on offensive operations, and +marched out at noon with one thousand men and a few field-pieces to +attack the Americans. But the latter did not await his approach, and +fled with the utmost precipitation, leaving all their cannon, stores, +ammunition, and even their sick behind. These were treated with the +utmost attention by General Carleton, whose humanity won the esteem of +all his prisoners, who were loud in his praise on returning home. For +his services during the siege the Governor was knighted by his +sovereign. + +The Americans retreated as rapidly as possible for a distance of +forty-five miles up the river, but finding they were not pursued they +halted for a few days to rest themselves. They then proceeded in a +distressed condition to Sorel, where they were joined by some +reënforcements, and where, also, their general, Thomas, died of the +smallpox, which still continued to afflict them. He was succeeded in the +chief command by General Sullivan. + +Meantime some companies of the Eighth regiment, which were scattered +through the frontier posts on the Lakes, had descended to Ogdensburg. +From thence Captain Forster was detached, on May 11th, with one hundred +twenty-six soldiers and an equal number of Indians, to capture a +stockade at the Cedars, garrisoned by three hundred ninety Americans, +under the command of Colonel Bedell. The latter surrendered on the 19th, +after sustaining only a few hours' fire of musketry, and the following +day one hundred men advancing to his assistance were attacked by the +Indians and a few Canadians. A smart action ensued which lasted for ten +minutes, when the Americans laid down their arms and were marched +prisoners to the fort, where they were with difficulty saved from +massacre. + +After providing for the safety of his numerous prisoners, Forster pushed +down the river toward Lachine, but, learning that Arnold was advancing +to attack him with a force treble his own number, he halted and prepared +for action. Placing his men in an advantageous position on the edge of +the river, and spreading the Indians out on his flanks, he made such a +stout defence that the Americans were compelled to retire to St. Anne's. +Forster, encumbered with his prisoners, now proposed a cartel, which +Arnold at once assented to, and an exchange was effected, on May 27th, +for two majors, nine captains, twenty subalterns, and four hundred +forty-three privates. This cartel was broken by Congress, on the ground +that the prisoners had been cruelly used, which was not the case. They +had been treated with all the humanity possible, when the difficulty of +guarding so large a number, with less than three hundred men, is taken +into consideration. + +While these events were in progress above Montreal, a large body of +troops had arrived from England, under the command of Major-General +Burgoyne. Brigadier Fraser was at once sent on by the Governor with the +first division to Three Rivers. While the troops still remained on board +their transports off this place, General Thompson advanced with eighteen +hundred men to surprise the town, and would have effected his object had +not one of his Canadian guides escaped and warned the British of his +approach. General Fraser immediately landed his troops, with several +field-pieces, and posted them so advantageously that the Americans were +speedily defeated, their general, his second in command, and five +hundred men made prisoners, while, the retreat of their main body being +cut off, they were compelled to take shelter in a wood full of swamps. +Here they remained in great distress till the following day, when +General Carleton, who had meanwhile come up, humanely drew the guard +from the bridge over the Rivière du Loup, and allowed them to escape +toward Sorel. Finding themselves unable to oppose the force advancing +against them, the American army, under Sullivan, retreated to Crown +Point, whither Arnold also retired from Montreal on June 15th. Thus +terminated the invasion of Canada, which produced no advantage to the +American cause, but on the contrary aroused the hostility of the +inhabitants and drew them closer to Great Britain. + + + + +SIGNING OF AMERICAN DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE + +A.D. 1776 + +THOMAS JEFFERSON JOHN A. DOYLE + + Among historic acts and political deliverances there is none + more weighty in significance and results, none more famous + in the annals of the world, than the American Declaration of + Independence. The document which preserves it to all ages is + "a witness to the world that freedom, resting not on + institutions, but on the necessities of human nature, is no + mere abstract idea, but a vital principle of national life." + + At the beginning of 1776 the tide of public opinion in the + colonies was setting strongly toward national independence. + Lexington and Bunker Hill had spoken their message to + America and to the British Government. All the other + colonies had come into line with New England. The earliest + declaration of independence, that of the people of + Mecklenburg County, North Carolina (May, 1775), had preluded + the general proclamation. The second Continental Congress + was at work with growing legislative powers; the New England + forces had been adopted as the Continental Army, with + Washington as commander-in-chief; that army was besieging + the British in Boston; and a movement was in progress + against Canada. In March, 1776, Boston was evacuated. On + June 28th a British attack on Sullivan's Island, off + Charleston, South Carolina, was repulsed by Moultrie. Before + the end of 1775 the Continental Congress had ordered the + building of several ships--the nucleus of the American + navy--and its sea-power was rapidly increased by privateers. + Meanwhile King George III and his minister, Lord North, had + continued their coercive policy and strengthened their war + measures. + + Thomas Paine's _Common Sense_, published early in 1776, one + of the most effective popular appeals that ever "went to the + bosoms of a nation," completed the preparation of the public + mind for the great step about to be taken by the Congress. + + Jefferson's account of the proceedings day by day, given in + his own _Memoirs_, is the best contemporary record of the + momentous deliberations and decision of this body, assembled + in Independence Hall, Philadelphia. A quarter of a century + before, upon the fillet of the "Liberty Bell," which hung in + the steeple of that Old State House, had been cast the words + of ancient Hebrew Scripture: "Proclaim liberty throughout + all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof." + + Doyle's reflections, as representing an enlightened English + view of the Declaration and the great struggle which it + lifted to its climax, is placed as a suggestive commentary + after the uncolored narrative of the chief author of the + great instrument itself. + + +THOMAS JEFFERSON + +In Congress, Friday, June 7, 1776, the delegates from Virginia moved, in +obedience to instructions from their constituents, that the Congress +should declare that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, +free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance +to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and +the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; that +measures should be immediately taken for procuring the assistance of +foreign powers, and a confederation be formed to bind the colonies more +closely together. + +The House being obliged to attend at that time to some other business, +the proposition was referred to the next day, when the members were +ordered to attend punctually at ten o'clock. + +Saturday, June 8th. They proceeded to take it into consideration, and +referred it to a committee of the whole, into which they immediately +resolved themselves, and passed that day and Monday, the 10th, in +debating on the subject. + +It was argued by Wilson, Robert R. Livingston, E. Rutledge, Dickinson, +and others--that, though they were friends to the measures themselves, +and saw the impossibility that we should ever again be united with Great +Britain, yet they were against adopting them at this time: + +That the conduct we had formerly observed was wise, and proper now, of +deferring to take any capital step till the voice of the people drove us +into it: + +That they were our power, and without them our declarations could not be +carried into effect: + +That the people of the middle colonies (Maryland, Delaware, +Pennsylvania, the Jerseys, and New York) were not yet ripe for bidding +adieu to British connection, but that they were fast ripening, and, in a +short time, would join in the general voice of America: + +That the resolution, entered into by this House on May 15th, for +suppressing the exercise of all powers derived from the Crown, had +shown, by the ferment into which it had thrown these middle colonies, +that they had not yet accommodated their minds to a separation from the +mother-country: + +That some of them had expressly forbidden their delegates to consent to +such a declaration, and others had given no instructions, and +consequently no powers to give such consent: + +That if the delegates of any particular colony had no power to declare +such colony independent, certain they were the others could not declare +it for them, the colonies being as yet perfectly independent of each +other: + +That the Assembly of Pennsylvania was now sitting above stairs, their +convention would sit within a few days, the convention of New York was +now sitting, and those of the Jerseys and Delaware counties would meet +on the Monday following, and it was probable these bodies would take up +the question of Independence, and would declare to their delegates the +voice of their State: + +That if such a declaration should now be agreed to, these delegates must +retire, and possibly their colonies might secede from the Union: + +That such a secession would weaken us more than could be compensated by +any foreign alliance: + +That in the event of such a division, foreign powers would either refuse +to join themselves to our fortunes, or, having us so much in their power +as that desperate declaration would place us, they would insist on terms +proportionately more hard and prejudicial: + +That we had little reason to expect an alliance with those to whom alone +as yet we had cast our eyes: + +That France and Spain had reason to be jealous of that rising power, +which would one day certainly strip them of all their American +possessions: + +That it was more likely they should form a connection with the British +court, who, if they should find themselves unable otherwise to extricate +themselves from their difficulties, would agree to a partition of our +territories, restoring Canada to France, and the Floridas to Spain, to +accomplish for themselves a recovery of these colonies: + +That it would not be long before we should receive certain information +of the disposition of the French court, from the agent whom we had sent +to Paris for that purpose: + +That if this disposition should be favorable by waiting the event of the +present campaign, which we all hoped would be successful, we should have +reason to expect an alliance on better terms: + +That this would in fact work no delay of any effectual aid from such +ally, as, from the advance of the season and distance of our situation, +it was impossible we could receive any assistance during this campaign: + +That it was prudent to fix among ourselves the terms on which we should +form alliance, before we declared we would form one at all events: + +And that if these were agreed on, and our Declaration of Independence +ready by the time our ambassador should be prepared to sail, it would be +as well as to go into the Declaration at this day. + +On the other side, it was urged by J. Adams, Lee, Wythe, and others that +no gentleman had argued against the policy or the right of separation +from Britain, nor had supposed it possible we should ever renew our +connection; that they had only opposed its being now declared: + +That the question was not whether, by a Declaration of Independence, we +should make ourselves what we are not; but whether we should declare a +fact which already exists: + +That, as to the people or Parliament of England, we had always been +independent of them, their restraints on our trade deriving efficacy +from our acquiescence only, and not from any rights they possessed of +imposing them, and that so far, our connection had been federal only, +and was now dissolved by the commencement of hostilities: + +That, as to the King, we had been bound to him by allegiance, but that +this bond was now dissolved by his assent to the last act of Parliament, +by which he declares us out of his protection, and by his levying war on +us, a fact which had long ago proved us out of his protection; it being +a certain position in law, that allegiance and protection are +reciprocal, the one ceasing when the other is withdrawn: + +That James the II never declared the people of England out of his +protection, yet his actions proved it, and the Parliament declared it: + +No delegates then can be denied, or ever want, a power of declaring an +existing truth: + +That the delegates from the Delaware counties having declared their +constituents ready to join, there are only two colonies, Pennsylvania +and Maryland, whose delegates are absolutely tied up, and that these +had, by their instructions, only reserved a right of confirming or +rejecting the measure: + +That the instructions from Pennsylvania might be accounted for from the +times in which they were drawn, near a twelvemonth ago, since which the +face of affairs has totally changed: + +That within that time it had become apparent that Britain was determined +to accept nothing less than a _carte-blanche_, and that the King's +answer to the lord mayor, aldermen and common-council of London, which +had come to hand four days ago, must have satisfied everyone of this +point: + +That the people wait for us to lead the way: + +That _they_ are in favor of the measure, though the instructions given +by some of their _representatives_ are not: + +That the voice of the representatives is not always consonant with the +voice of the people, and that this is remarkably the case in these +middle colonies: + +That the effect of the resolution of May 15th has proved this, which, +raising the murmurs of some in the colonies of Pennsylvania and +Maryland, called forth the opposing voice of the freer part of the +people, and proved them to be the majority even in these colonies: + +That the backwardness of these two colonies might be ascribed, partly to +the influence of proprietary power and connections, and partly to their +having not yet been attacked by the enemy: + +That these causes were not likely to be soon removed, as there seemed no +probability that the enemy would make either of these the seat of this +summer's war: + +That it would be vain to wait either weeks or months for perfect +unanimity, since it was impossible that all men should ever become of +one sentiment on any question: + +That the conduct of some colonies, from the beginning of this contest, +had given reason to suspect it was their settled policy to keep in the +rear of the confederacy, that their particular prospect might be better, +even in the worst event: + +That, therefore, it was necessary for those colonies who had thrown +themselves forward and hazarded all from the beginning, to come forward +now also, and put all again to their own hazard: + +That the history of the Dutch Revolution, of whom three states only +confederated at first, proved that a secession of some colonies would +not be so dangerous as some apprehended: + +That a declaration of independence alone could render it consistent with +European delicacy, for European powers to treat with us, or even to +receive an ambassador from us: + +That till this they would not receive our vessels into their ports, nor +acknowledge the adjudications of our courts of admirality to be +legitimate in cases of capture of British vessels: + +That though France and Spain may be jealous of our rising power, they +must think it will be much more formidable with the addition of Great +Britain; and will therefore see it their interest to prevent a +coalition; but should they refuse, we shall never know whether they will +aid us or not: + +That the present campaign may be unsuccessful, and therefore we had +better propose an alliance while our affairs wear a hopeful aspect: + +That to wait the event of this campaign will certainly work delay, +because, during the summer, France may assist us effectually, by cutting +off those supplies of provisions from England and Ireland on which the +enemy's armies here are to depend; or by setting in motion the great +power they have collected in the West Indies, and calling our enemy to +the defence of the possessions they have there: + +That it would be idle to lose time in settling the terms of alliance, +till we had first determined we would enter into alliance: + +That it is necessary to lose no time in opening a trade for our people, +who will want clothes, and will want money too for the payment of taxes: + +And that the only misfortune is that we did not enter into alliance with +France six months sooner, as, besides opening her ports for the vent of +our last year's produce, she might have marched an army into Germany, +and prevented the petty princes there from selling their unhappy +subjects to subdue us. + +It appearing in the course of these debates that the colonies of New +York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and South Carolina +were not yet matured for falling from the parental stem, but that they +were fast advancing to that state, it was thought most prudent to wait a +while for them, and to postpone the final decision to July 1st; but, +that this might occasion as little delay as possible, a committee was +appointed to prepare a Declaration of Independence. The committee were +John Adams, Dr. Franklin, Roger Sherman, Robert R. Livingston, and +myself. Committees were also appointed, at the same time, to prepare a +plan of confederation for the colonies, and to state the terms proper to +be proposed for foreign alliance. + +The committee for drawing the Declaration of Independence desired me to +do it. It was accordingly done, and, being approved by them, I reported +it to the House on Friday, June 28th, when it was read, and ordered to +lie on the table. On Monday, July 1st, the House resolved itself into a +committee of the whole, and resumed the consideration of the original +motion made by the delegates of Virginia, which, being again debated +through the day, was carried in the affirmative by the votes of New +Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, +Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia. South Carolina and +Pennsylvania voted against it. Delaware had but two members present, and +they were divided. The delegates of New York declared they were for it +themselves, and were assured their constituents were for it; but that +their instructions having been drawn near a twelvemonth before, when +reconciliation was still the general object, they were enjoined by them +to do nothing which should impede that object. They, therefore, thought +themselves not justifiable in voting on either side, and asked leave to +withdraw from the question; which was given them. + +The committee rose and reported their resolution to the House. Mr. +Edward Rutledge, of South Carolina, then requested the determination +might be put off to the next day, as he believed his colleagues, though +they disapproved of the resolution, would then join in it for the sake +of unanimity. The ultimate question, whether the House would agree to +the resolution of the committee, was accordingly postponed to the next +day, when it was again moved, and South Carolina concurred in voting for +it. + +In the mean time a third member had come post from the Delaware +counties, and turned the vote of that colony in favor of the resolution. +Members of a different sentiment attending that morning from +Pennsylvania also, her vote was changed, so that the whole twelve +colonies who were authorized to vote at all, gave their voices for it; +and, within a few days, the convention of New York approved of it; and +thus supplied the void occasioned by the withdrawing of her delegates +from the vote. + +Congress proceeded the same day to consider the Declaration of +Independence, which had been reported and laid on the table the Friday +preceding, and on Monday referred to a committee of the whole. The +pusillanimous idea that we had friends in England worth keeping terms +with still haunted the minds of many. For this reason, those passages +which conveyed censures on the people of England were struck out, lest +they should give them offence. The clause, too, reprobating the +enslaving the inhabitants of Africa, was struck out in complaisance to +South Carolina and Georgia, who had never attempted to restrain the +importation of slaves, and who, on the contrary, still wished to +continue it. + +Our northern brethren also, I believe, felt a little tender under those +censures; for though their people had very few slaves themselves, yet +they had been pretty considerable carriers of them to others. The +debates, having taken up the greater parts of July 2d, 3d, and 4th, +were, on the evening of the last, closed; the Declaration was reported +by the committee, agreed to by the House, and signed by every member +present except Mr. Dickinson. + + +JOHN ANDREW DOYLE + +Before this it had become evident that to defer any longer the formation +of an independent government was to keep up an unnecessary source of +weakness. Already the voice of the nation had protested unmistakably +against the longer continuance of anarchy. The first definite step +toward such a change had been taken in 1775 by New Hampshire. On October +11th their delegates had petitioned Congress to allow them to establish +a government, but Congress, having still hopes of the success of the +petition, had deferred answering their appeal. The majority of Congress +saw at last that independence was only a question of time. An answer was +sent to the Convention of New Hampshire, recommending it to form a +government. Similar advice was sent the next day to South Carolina, and +a little later to Virginia. Yet New Hampshire shrank from so decisive a +step, and coupled the formation of their new government with a studious +expression of their allegiance. Virginia showed a nobler spirit. + +In January the convention passed a motion, instructing their delegates +to recommend Congress to throw their ports open to all nations, and thus +to cast off the commercial supremacy of England. But the mere +establishment of independent State governments was not enough. An +imperial government, also independent of England, was essential. To +establish independence without confederation would be only doing half +the work. In the words of Franklin, "We must all hang together, unless +we would all hang separately." About this time Franklin's scheme for a +confederation was laid before Congress. The scheme did not include, but +it evidently implied, independence. Franklin had been throughout a +strenuous advocate of reconciliation, as long as reconciliation was +possible, and his opinion ought to have convinced all that the time for +separation had come. But the timid counsels of his colleague, Dickinson, +overruled the motion, and the scheme of a confederation was not even +formally considered. On February 16th the question of opening the ports +was formally laid before Congress. In the next month measures were taken +which clearly showed that independence was at hand. A private agent was +sent to France by the authority of the committee of secret +correspondence, and the instructions of the commissioners sent to Canada +contained a clause inviting the people of Canada to "set up such a form +of government as will be most likely in their judgment to produce their +happiness." The clause was objected to as implying independence, and +gave rise to a debate, but was ultimately carried. At last, after seven +weeks' deliberation, the Congress resolved to emancipate the colonies +from all commercial restrictions, and on April 6th the ports of America +were thrown open to the world. + +On March 27th South Carolina proceeded to construct a government. They +asserted as their principle of action that the good of the people is the +origin and end of all government, and they set forth the misconduct of +the King, the Parliament, and the officers of the English Government. At +the same time they introduced no change into the system of +representation or the qualification of voters. On May 4th the Assembly +of Rhode Island passed an act discharging the inhabitants of the colony +from allegiance to the King, and at the same time authorized its +delegates in Congress to conclude a treaty with any independent power +for the security of the colonies. On May 6th the Assembly of Virginia +met at Williamsburg. After a declaration that all pacific measures were +useless, and that "they had no alternative left but an abject submission +to the will of those overbearing tyrants, or a total separation from the +Crown and Government of Great Britain," they passed two resolutions; the +first empowering their delegates at the convention to propose a +declaration of independence and a confederation of the colonies; the +second appointing a committee to draw up a declaration of rights and a +scheme of government for the colony. On June 12th the Declaration of +Rights was laid before the Assembly, and on the 29th a constitution was +produced. + +The Assembly then proceeded to elect a governor. The choice fell on +Patrick Henry. Rightly was he, who had first foreseen independence and +bidden his countrymen look the danger of it in the face, deemed worthy +to be the first to govern the State which he had called into being. All +the colonies except Pennsylvania and Maryland followed the example of +Virginia, and when, on July 1st, the motion for independence was laid +before the Congress, the delegates of nine colonies were pledged to vote +in its favor. The delegates of Pennsylvania and Maryland were divided, +those of South Carolina unanimously opposed independence. The New York +delegates were all in favor of independence, and represented the opinion +of the colony, but could not vote, as their convention had not yet been +duly elected. When the question came forward for decision next day, +Dickinson, who had opposed it on the first day with great earnestness, +stayed away, as did one of his colleagues, and the vote of Pennsylvania +was altered. Another delegate arrived from Delaware, whose vote turned +the scale, and South Carolina, rather than stand alone, withdrew its +opposition. New York alone was unable to vote, and on July 2d, by the +decision of twelve colonies, without one adverse vote, it was resolved +"that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and +independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the +British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the +state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." Seldom +was the irony of history more strikingly illustrated than when Hancock, +a rebel specially selected for proscription by the English government, +put the question to the vote, and declared the American colonies forever +independent. + +Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, was selected to draw up the Declaration +which had been resolved upon. His pen had already served his country. In +1774 he had published _A Summary View of the Rights of British America_, +setting forth the dangers which menaced the country, and encouraging the +people in defence of their liberties. He had signalized himself in his +own colony by his opposition to slavery. "Wherever he was, there was +found a soul devoted to the cause of liberty, power to defend and +maintain it, and willingness to incur all its hazards." + +On July 4th the Declaration was produced. It declared the abstract +principles on which their secession was justified; it then drew up an +indictment against the King, in eighteen heads, setting forth the +various ways in which he had proved himself "a tyrant unfit to be the +ruler of a free people." Finally it declared that the united colonies +were free and independent states; that the connection with Great Britain +was and ought to be totally dissolved, and that as free and independent +states, they had full power to "levy war, conclude peace, contract +alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which +independent states may of right do." + +Seldom in human events do the facts of history carry their own +explanation so clearly with them. A people who had grown up gradually, +almost unconsciously, under democratic institutions, at last saw those +institutions subverted. To preserve the spirit of them, they changed +their form. We must not be misled into the error of underrating the +importance of the American struggle by any idea of the insignificance of +the issue at stake. We must not suppose that it was, as an earnest and +eloquent writer has called it, "a war for the vindication of the +principle of representative taxation." Its immediate origin, it is true, +involved no vital interest, such as often has been at stake when nations +have risen against their rulers. But "rebellions may fall out on small +occasions; they do not spring from small causes," was said by the first +and wisest of political philosophers. Taxation was, as Burke says, that +by which the colonists felt the pulse of liberty, "and as they found +that beat, they thought themselves sick or sound." + +The whole key to the American Revolution lies in two facts; it was a +democratic and a conservative revolution. It was the work of the people, +and its end was to preserve, not to destroy or to construct afresh. The +policy of an early father of New England, "In a revolution burn all, and +build afresh," was far from being that of his descendants. Throughout +the whole War of Independence the colonists had a fixed known end in +view. More than that, they had already within themselves the means for +effecting that end, and making it enduring, as far as what is human can +endure. The future that they proposed to themselves was not independent +of their past: it was a fuller development of it. There was no need for +beginning with the year one, or for throwing aside as worn out anything +that their ancestors had left them. And it was essentially a democratic +revolution. Throughout, the movement came from the people. The very +blunders made by the hesitation and timidity of Congress were the +mistakes of an assembly of delegates, not of representative statesmen. +When the final step was taken, the Congress was not the originator of +it, but was little more than a mouthpiece giving expression to the +declared wishes of the nation. + + + + +DEFEAT OF BURGOYNE AT SARATOGA + +A.D. 1777 + +SIR EDWARD SHEPHERD CREASY + + Viewed by itself, the victory over Burgoyne might have + little appearance of being one of the decisive battles of + the world, among which Creasy reckons it. That it acquired + such importance was due, as Creasy himself shows, to its + direct consequences, especially its influence upon the + French. It led them to espouse the American cause, and by + their aid the Revolution was brought to a successful ending. + + Since the Declaration of Independence the American forces + had met with varying fortunes. They had been defeated in the + Battle of Long Island, August 27, 1776, and at White Plains, + October 28th. Forts Washington and Lee, defences of the + Hudson, were both lost, and the Americans retreated through + New Jersey. By a masterly return movement Washington + retrieved the situation, winning the Battle of Trenton, + December 26, 1776, and that of Princeton, January 3, 1777. + On August 16, 1777, Stark gained the Battle of Bennington, + but within a month (September 11th) Washington was beaten by + Howe on the Brandywine, and the Americans suffered defeat at + Germantown October 4th. In this state of affairs the + movements of Burgoyne, who had invaded New York from Canada, + were watched with deep concern on both sides. + + The final operations between the Americans and Burgoyne's + forces included two engagements, which are often spoken of + as the Battles of Saratoga, also as the Battles of + Stillwater or of Bemis' Heights, from the local names. + + The first of these actions, that of September 19, 1777, in + which Gates, with Morgan and Arnold under him, commanded the + Americans, was indecisive. Under the same commanders the + Americans (October 7th) won the decisive victory which + Creasy describes. His opening statement shows the modern + English sentiment concerning the American Revolution, and + this feeling finds its correlative in the gradual change of + tone on the part of American writers. + + +The war which rent away the North American colonies from England is, of +all subjects in history, the most painful for an Englishman to dwell on. +It was commenced and carried on by the British ministry in iniquity and +folly, and it was concluded in disaster and shame. But the contemplation +of it cannot be evaded by the historian, however much it may be +abhorred. Nor can any military event be said to have exercised more +important influence on the future fortunes of mankind than the complete +defeat of Burgoyne's expedition in 1777; a defeat which rescued the +revolted colonists from certain subjection, and which, by inducing the +courts of France and Spain to attack England in their behalf, insured +the independence of the United States, and the formation of that +transatlantic power which not only America, but both Europe and Asia, +now see and feel. + +Still, in proceeding to describe this "decisive battle of the world," a +very brief recapitulation of the earlier events of the war may be +sufficient; nor shall I linger unnecessarily on a painful theme. + +The five Northern colonies of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, +New Hampshire, and Vermont, usually classed together as the New England +colonies, were the strongholds of the insurrection against the +mother-country. The feeling of resistance was less vehement and general +in the central settlement of New York, and still less so in +Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the other colonies of the South, although +everywhere it was formidably strong. + +But it was among the descendants of the stern Puritans that the spirit +of Cromwell and Vane breathed in all its fervor; it was from the New +Englanders that the first armed opposition to the British crown had been +offered; and it was by them that the most stubborn determination to +fight to the last, rather than waive a single right or privilege, had +been displayed. In 1775 they had succeeded in forcing the British troops +to evacuate Boston; and the events of 1776 had made New York--which the +royalists captured in that year--the principal basis of operations for +the armies of the mother-country. + +A glance at the map will show that the Hudson River, which falls into +the Atlantic at New York, runs down from the north at the back of the +New England States, forming an angle of about forty-five degrees with +the line of the coast of the Atlantic, along which the New England +States are situate. Northward of the Hudson we see a small chain of +lakes communicating with the Canadian frontier. It is necessary to +attend closely to these geographical points in order to understand the +plan of the operations which the English attempted in 1777, and which +the battle of Saratoga defeated. + +The English had a considerable force in Canada, and in 1776 had +completely repulsed an attack which the Americans had made upon that +province. The British ministry resolved to avail themselves, in the next +year, of the advantage which the occupation of Canada gave them, not +merely for the purpose of defence, but for the purpose of striking a +vigorous and crushing blow against the revolted colonies. With this view +the army in Canada was largely reënforced. Seven thousand veteran troops +were sent out from England, with a corps of artillery, abundantly +supplied and led by select and experienced officers. Large quantities of +military stores were also furnished for the equipment of the Canadian +volunteers, who were expected to join the expedition. + +It was intended that the force thus collected should march southward by +the line of the Lakes, and thence along the banks of the Hudson River. +The British army from New York--or a large detachment of it--was to make +a simultaneous movement northward, up the line of the Hudson, and the +two expeditions were to unite at Albany, a town on that river. By these +operations, all communication between the Northern colonies and those of +the Centre and South would be cut off. An irresistible force would be +concentrated, so as to crush all further opposition in New England; and +when this was done, it was believed that the other colonies would +speedily submit. The Americans had no troops in the field that seemed +able to baffle these movements. + +Their principal army, under Washington, was occupied in watching over +Pennsylvania and the South. At any rate, it was believed that, in order +to oppose the plan intended for the new campaign, the insurgents must +risk a pitched battle, in which the superiority of the royalists in +numbers, in discipline, and in equipment seemed to promise to the latter +a crowning victory. Without question, the plan was ably formed; and had +the success of the execution been equal to the ingenuity of the design, +the reconquest or submission of the thirteen United States must in all +human probability have followed, and the independence which they +proclaimed in 1776 would have been extinguished before it existed a +second year. + +No European power had as yet come forward to aid America. It is true +that England was generally regarded with jealousy and ill-will, and was +thought to have acquired, at the Treaty of Paris, a preponderance of +dominion which was perilous to the balance of power; but, though many +were willing to wound, none had yet ventured to strike; and America, if +defeated in 1777, would have been suffered to fall unaided. + +Burgoyne had gained celebrity by some bold and dashing exploits in +Portugal during the last war; he was personally as brave an officer as +ever headed British troops, he had considerable skill as a tactician; +and his general intellectual abilities and acquirements were of a high +order. He had several very able and experienced officers under him, +among whom were Major-General Philips and Brigadier-General Frazer. His +regular troops amounted, exclusively of the corps of artillery, to about +seven thousand two hundred men, rank and file. Nearly half of these were +Germans. + +He had also an auxiliary force of from two to three thousand Canadians. +He summoned the warriors of several tribes of the red Indians near the +Western Lakes to join his army. Much eloquence was poured forth both in +America and in England in denouncing the use of these savage +auxiliaries. Yet Burgoyne seems to have done no more than Montcalm, +Wolfe, and other French, American, and English generals had done before +him. But, in truth, the lawless ferocity of the Indians, their +unskilfulness in regular action, and the utter impossibility of bringing +them under any discipline made their services of little or no value in +times of difficulty; while the indignation which their outrages inspired +went far to rouse the whole population of the invaded districts into +active hostilities against Burgoyne's force. + +Burgoyne assembled his troops and confederates near the River Bouquet, +on the west side of Lake Champlain. He then, on June 21, 1777, gave his +red allies a war-feast, and harangued them on the necessity of +abstaining from their usual cruel practices against unarmed people and +prisoners. At the same time he published a pompous manifesto to the +Americans, in which he threatened the refractory with all the horrors of +war, Indian as well as European. + +The army proceeded by water to Crown Point, a fortification which the +Americans held at the northern extremity of the inlet, by which the +water from Lake George is conveyed to Lake Champlain. He landed here +without opposition, but the reduction of Ticonderoga--a fortification +about twelve miles to the south of Crown Point--was a more serious +matter, and was supposed to be the critical part of the expedition. +Ticonderoga commanded the passage along the lakes, and was considered to +be the key to the route which Burgoyne wished to follow. The English had +been repulsed in an attack on it in the war with the French in 1758, +with severe loss. But Burgoyne now invested it with great skill; and the +American general, St. Clair, who had only an ill-equipped army of about +three thousand men, evacuated it on July 5th. + +It seems evident that a different course would have caused the +destruction or capture of his whole army, which, weak as it was, was the +chief force then in the field for the protection of the New England +States. When censured by some of his countrymen for abandoning +Ticonderoga, St. Clair truly replied "that he had lost a post, but saved +a province." Burgoyne's troops pursued the retiring Americans, gained +several advantages over them, and took a large part of their artillery +and military stores. + +The loss of the British in these engagements was trifling. The army +moved southward along Lake George to Skenesborough, and thence, slowly +and with great difficulty, across a broken country, full of creeks and +marshes, and clogged by the enemy with felled trees and other obstacles, +to Fort Edward, on the Hudson River, the American troops continuing to +retire before them. + +Burgoyne reached the left bank of the Hudson River on July 30th. +Hitherto he had overcome every difficulty which the enemy and the nature +of the country had placed in his way. His army was in excellent order +and in the highest spirits, and the peril of the expedition seemed over +when they were once on the bank of the river which was to be the channel +of communication between them and the British army in the South. But +their feelings, and those of the English nation in general, when their +successes were announced, may best be learned from a contemporary +writer. Burke, in the _Annual Register_ for 1777, describes them thus: + +"Such was the rapid torrent of success, which swept everything away +before the Northern army in its onset. It is not to be wondered at if +both officers and private men were highly elated with their +good-fortune, and deemed that and their prowess to be irresistible; if +they regarded their enemy with the greatest contempt; considered their +own toils to be nearly at an end; Albany to be already in their hands; +and the reduction of the Northern provinces to be rather a matter of +some time than an arduous task full of difficulty and danger. + +"At home the joy and exultation were extreme; not only at court, but +with all those who hoped or wished the unqualified subjugation and +unconditional submission of the colonies. The loss in reputation was +greater to the Americans, and capable of more fatal consequences, than +even that of ground, of posts, of artillery, or of men. All the +contemptuous and most degrading charges which had been made by their +enemies, of their wanting the resolution and abilities of men, even in +their defence of whatever was dear to them, were now repeated and +believed. + +"Those who still regarded them as men, and who had not yet lost all +affection for them as brethren; who also retained hopes that a happy +reconciliation upon constitutional principles, without sacrificing the +dignity of the just authority of government on the one side or a +dereliction of the rights of freedmen on the other, was not even now +impossible, notwithstanding their favorable dispositions in general, +could not help feeling upon this occasion that the Americans sunk not a +little in their estimation. It was not difficult to diffuse an opinion +that the war in effect was over, and that any further resistance could +serve only to render the terms of their submission the worse. Such were +some of the immediate effects of the loss of those grand keys of North +America--Ticonderoga and the Lakes." + +The astonishment and alarm which these events produced among the +Americans were naturally great; but in the midst of their disasters, +none of the colonists showed any disposition to submit. The local +governments of the New England States, as well as the Congress, acted +with vigor and firmness in their efforts to repel the enemy. General +Gates was sent to take the command of the army at Saratoga; and Arnold, +a favorite leader of the Americans, was despatched by Washington to act +under him, with reënforcements of troops and guns from the main +American army. + +Burgoyne's employment of the Indians now produced the worst possible +effects. Though he labored hard to check the atrocities which they were +accustomed to commit, he could not prevent the occurrence of many +barbarous outrages, repugnant both to the feelings of humanity and to +the laws of civilized warfare. The American commanders took care that +the reports of these excesses should be circulated far and wide, well +knowing that they would make the stern New Englanders, not droop, but +rage. Such was their effect; and though, when each man looked upon his +wife, his children, his sisters, or his aged parents, and thought of the +merciless Indian "thirsting for the blood of man, woman, and child," of +"the cannibal savage torturing, murdering, roasting, and eating the +mangled victims of his barbarous battles," might raise terror in the +bravest breasts; this very terror produced a directly contrary effect to +causing submission to the royal army. + +It was seen that the few friends of the royal cause, as well as its +enemies, were liable to be the victims of the indiscriminate rage of the +savages; and thus "the inhabitants of the open and frontier countries +had no choice of acting: they had no means of security left but by +abandoning their habitations and taking up arms. Every man saw the +necessity of becoming a temporary soldier, not only for his own +security, but for the protection and defence of those connections which +are dearer than life itself. Thus an army was poured forth by the woods, +mountains, and marches, which in this part were thickly sown with +plantations and villages. The Americans recalled their courage, and, +when their regular army seemed to be entirely wasted, the spirit of the +country produced a much greater and more formidable force." + +While resolute recruits, accustomed to the use of fire-arms, and all +partially trained by service in the provincial militias, were thus +flocking to the standard of Gates and Arnold at Saratoga, and while +Burgoyne was engaged at Fort Edward in providing the means of the +further advance of the army through the intricate and hostile country +that still lay before him, two events occurred, in each of which the +British sustained loss and the Americans obtained advantage, the moral +effects of which were even more important than the immediate result of +the encounters. When Burgoyne left Canada, General St. Leger was +detached from that province with a mixed force of about one thousand men +and some light field-pieces across Lake Ontario against Fort Stanwix, +which the Americans held. After capturing this, he was to march along +the Mohawk River to its confluence with the Hudson, between Saratoga and +Albany, where his force and that of Burgoyne's were to unite. But, after +some successes, St. Leger was obliged to retreat, and to abandon his +tents and large quantities of stores to the garrison. + +At the very time that General Burgoyne heard of this disaster he +experienced one still more severe in the defeat of Colonel Baum, with a +large detachment of German troops, at Bennington, whither Burgoyne had +sent them for the purpose of capturing some magazines of provisions, of +which the British army stood greatly in need. The Americans, augmented +by continual accessions of strength, succeeded, after many attacks, in +breaking this corps, which fled into the woods, and left its commander +mortally wounded on the field: they then marched against a force of five +hundred grenadiers and light infantry, which was advancing to Colonel +Baum's assistance under Lieutenant-Colonel Breyman, who, after a gallant +resistance, was obliged to retreat on the main army. The British loss in +these two actions exceeded six hundred men; and a party of American +loyalists, on their way to join the army, having attached themselves to +Colonel Baum's corps, were destroyed with it. + +Notwithstanding these reverses, which added greatly to the spirit and +numbers of the American forces, Burgoyne determined to advance. It was +impossible any longer to keep up his communications with Canada by way +of the Lakes, so as to supply his army on his southward march; but +having, by unremitting exertions, collected provisions for thirty days, +he crossed the Hudson by means of a bridge of rafts, and, marching a +short distance along its western bank, he encamped on September 14th on +the heights of Saratoga, about sixteen miles from Albany. The Americans +had fallen back from Saratoga, and were now strongly posted near +Stillwater, about half way between Saratoga and Albany, and showed a +determination to recede no farther. + +Meanwhile Lord Howe, with the bulk of the British army that had lain at +New York, had sailed away to the Delaware, and there commenced a +campaign against Washington, in which the English general took +Philadelphia, and gained other showy but unprofitable successes. But Sir +Henry Clinton, a brave and skilful officer, was left with a considerable +force at New York, and he undertook the task of moving up the Hudson to +coöperate with Burgoyne. Clinton was obliged for this purpose to wait +for reënforcements which had been promised from England, and these did +not arrive till September. As soon as he received them, Clinton embarked +about three thousand of his men on a flotilla, convoyed by some +ships-of-war under Commander Hotham, and proceeded to force his way up +the river. + +The country between Burgoyne's position at Saratoga and that of the +Americans at Stillwater was rugged, and seamed with creeks and +water-courses; but, after great labor in making bridges and temporary +causeways, the British army moved forward. About four miles from +Saratoga, on the afternoon of September 19th, a sharp encounter took +place between part of the English right wing, under Burgoyne himself, +and a strong body of the enemy, under Gates and Arnold. The conflict +lasted till sunset. The British remained masters of the field; but the +loss on each side was nearly equal--from five to six hundred men--and +the spirits of the Americans were greatly raised by having withstood the +best regular troops of the English army. + +Burgoyne now halted again, and strengthened his position by field-works +and redoubts; and the Americans also improved their defences. The two +armies remained nearly within cannon-shot of each other for a +considerable time, during which Burgoyne was anxiously looking for +intelligence of the promised expedition from New York, which, according +to the original plan, ought by this time to have been approaching Albany +from the south. At last a messenger from Clinton made his way, with +great difficulty, to Burgoyne's camp, and brought the information that +Clinton was on his way up the Hudson to attack the American forts which +barred the passage up that river to Albany. Burgoyne, in reply, stated +his hopes that the promised coöperation would be speedy and decisive, +and added that, unless he received assistance before October 10th, he +would be obliged to retreat to the Lakes through want of provisions. + +The Indians and Canadians now began to desert Burgoyne, while, on the +other hand, Gates' army was continually reënforced by fresh bodies of +the militia. An expeditionary force was detached by the Americans, which +made a bold though unsuccessful attempt to retake Ticonderoga. And +finding the number and spirit of the enemy to increase daily, and his +own stores of provisions to diminish, Burgoyne determined on attacking +the Americans in front of him, and, by dislodging them from their +position, to gain the means of moving upon Albany, or, at least, of +relieving his troops from the straitened position in which they were +cooped up. + +Burgoyne's force was now reduced to less than six thousand men. The +right of his camp was on high ground a little to the west of the river; +thence his intrenchments extended along the lower ground to the bank of +the Hudson, their line being nearly at a right angle with the course of +the stream. The lines were fortified in the centre and on the left with +redoubts and field-works. The numerical force of the Americans was now +greater than the British, even in regular troops, and the numbers of the +militia and volunteers which had joined Gates and Arnold were greater +still. The right of the American position--that is to say, the part of +it nearest to the river--was too strong to be assailed with any prospect +of success, and Burgoyne therefore determined to endeavor to force their +left. For this purpose he formed a column of fifteen hundred regular +troops, with two twelve-pounders, two howitzers, and six six-pounders. +He headed this in person, having Generals Philips, Reidesel, and Frazer +under him. The enemy's force immediately in front of his lines was so +strong that he dared not weaken the troops who guarded them by detaching +any more to strengthen his column of attack. The right of the camp was +commanded by Generals Hamilton and Spaight; the left part of it was +committed to the charge of Brigadier Goll. + +It was on October 7th that Burgoyne led his column on to the attack; and +on the preceding day, the 6th, Clinton had successfully executed a +brilliant enterprise against the two American forts which barred his +progress up the Hudson. He had captured them both, with severe loss to +the American forces opposed to him; he had destroyed the fleet which the +Americans had been forming on the Hudson, under the protection of their +forts; and the upward river was laid open to his squadron. He was now +only a hundred fifty-six miles distant from Burgoyne, and a detachment +of one thousand seven hundred men actually advanced within forty miles +of Albany. Unfortunately, Burgoyne and Clinton were each ignorant of the +other's movements; but if Burgoyne had won his battle on the 7th, he +must, on advancing, have soon learned the tidings of Clinton's success, +and Clinton would have heard of his. + +A junction would soon have been made of the two victorious armies, and +the great objects of the campaign might yet have been accomplished. All +depended on the fortune of the column with which Burgoyne, on the +eventful October 7, 1777, advanced against the American position. There +were brave men, both English and German, in its ranks; and, in +particular, it comprised one of the best bodies of grenadiers in the +British service. + +Burgoyne pushed forward some bodies of irregular troops to distract the +enemy's attention, and led his column to within three-quarters of a mile +from the left of Gates' camp, and then deployed his men into line. The +grenadiers under Major Ackland were drawn up on the left, a corps of +Germans in the centre, and the English light infantry and the +Twenty-fourth regiment on the right. But Gates did not wait to be +attacked; and directly the British line was formed and began to advance, +the American general, with admirable skill, caused a strong force to +make a sudden and vehement rush against its left. The grenadiers under +Ackland sustained the charge of superior numbers nobly. But Gates sent +more Americans forward, and in a few minutes the action became general +along the centre, so as to prevent the Germans from sending any help to +the grenadiers. + +Burgoyne's right was not yet engaged; but a mass of the enemy were +observed advancing from their extreme left, with the evident intention +of turning the British right and cutting off its retreat. The light +infantry and the Twenty-fourth now fell back, and formed an oblique +second line which enabled them to baffle this manoeuvre, and also to +succor their comrades in the left wing, the gallant grenadiers, who were +overpowered by superior numbers, and, but for this aid, must have been +cut to pieces. Arnold now came up with three American regiments and +attacked the right flanks of the English double line. + +Burgoyne's whole force was soon compelled to retreat toward their camp; +the left and centre were in complete disorder; but the light infantry +and the Twenty-fourth checked the fury of the assailants, and the +remains of Burgoyne's column with great difficulty effected their return +to their camp, leaving six of their guns in the possession of the enemy, +and great numbers of killed and wounded on the field; and especially a +large proportion of the artillerymen, who had stood to their guns until +shot down or bayoneted beside them by the advancing Americans. + +Burgoyne's column had been defeated, but the action was not yet over. +The English had scarcely entered the camp, when the Americans, pursuing +their success, assaulted it in several places with uncommon fierceness, +rushing to the lines through a severe fire of grape-shot and musketry +with the utmost fury. Arnold especially, who on this day appeared +maddened with the thirst of combat and carnage, urged on the attack +against a part of the intrenchments which was occupied by the light +infantry under Lord Balcarras. But the English received him with vigor +and spirit. The struggle here was obstinate and sanguinary. At length, +as it grew toward evening, Arnold having forced all obstacles, entered +the works with some of the most fearless of his followers. But in this +critical moment of glory and danger, he received a painful wound in the +same leg which had already been injured at the assault on Quebec. To his +bitter regret, he was obliged to be carried back. His party still +continued the attack; but the English also continued their obstinate +resistance and at last night fell, and the assailants withdrew from this +quarter of the British intrenchments. + +But in another part the attack had been more successful. A body of the +Americans, under Colonel Brooke, forced their way in through a part of +the intrenchments on the extreme right, which was defended by the German +reserve under Colonel Breyman. The Germans resisted well, and Breyman +died in defence of his post, but the Americans made good the ground +which they had won, and captured baggage, tents, artillery, and a store +of ammunition, which they were greatly in need of. They had, by +establishing themselves on this point, acquired the means of completely +turning the right flank of the British and gaining their rear. + +To prevent this calamity, Burgoyne effected during the night a complete +change of position. With great skill he removed his whole army to some +heights near the river, a little northward of the former camp, and he +there drew up his men, expecting to be attacked on the following day. +But Gates was resolved not to risk the certain triumph which his success +had already secured for him. He harassed the English with skirmishes, +but attempted no regular attack. Meanwhile he detached bodies of troops +on both sides of the Hudson to prevent the British from recrossing that +river and to bar their retreat. When night fell it became absolutely +necessary for Burgoyne to retire again, and, accordingly, the troops +were marched through a stormy and rainy night toward Saratoga, +abandoning their sick and wounded, and the greater part of their baggage +to the enemy. + +Before the rear-guard quitted the camp, the last sad honors were paid to +the brave General Frazer, who had been mortally wounded on the 7th, and +expired on the following day. The funeral of this gallant soldier is +thus described by the Italian historian Botta: + +"Toward midnight the body of General Frazer was buried in the British +camp. His brother-officers assembled sadly round while the funeral +service was read over the remains of their brave comrade, and his body +was committed to the hostile earth. The ceremony, always mournful and +solemn of itself, was rendered even terrible by the sense of recent +losses, of present and future dangers, and of regret for the deceased. +Meanwhile the blaze and roar of the American artillery amid the natural +darkness and stillness of the night came on the senses with startling +awe. The grave had been dug within range of the enemy's batteries, and, +while the service was proceeding, a cannon-ball struck the ground close +to the coffin, and spattered earth over the face of the officiating +chaplain." + +Burgoyne now took up his last position on the heights near Saratoga; and +hemmed in by the enemy, who refused any encounter, and baffled in all +his attempts at finding a path of escape, he there lingered until famine +compelled him to capitulate. The fortitude of the British army during +this melancholy period has been justly eulogized by many native +historians, but I prefer quoting the testimony of a foreign writer, as +free from all possibility of partiality. Botta says: + +"It exceeds the power of words to describe the pitiable condition to +which the British army was now reduced. The troops were worn down by a +series of toil, privation, sickness, and desperate fighting. They were +abandoned by the Indians and Canadians, and the effective force of the +whole army was now diminished by repeated and heavy losses, which had +principally fallen on the best soldiers and the most distinguished +officers, from ten thousand combatants to less than one-half that +number. Of this remnant little more than three thousand were English. + +"In these circumstances, and thus weakened, they were invested by an +army of four times their own numbers whose position extended three parts +of a circle round them, who refused to fight them, as knowing their +weakness, and who, from the nature of the ground, could not be attacked +in any part. In this helpless condition, obliged to be constantly under +arms, while the enemy's cannon played on every part of their camp, and +even the American rifle-balls whistled in many parts of the lines, the +troops of Burgoyne retained their customary firmness, and, while sinking +under a hard necessity, they showed themselves worthy of a better fate. +They could not be reproached with an action or a word which betrayed a +want of temper or of fortitude." + +At length October 13th arrived, and as no prospect of assistance +appeared, and the provisions were nearly exhausted, Burgoyne, by the +unanimous advice of a council of war, sent a messenger to the American +camp to treat of a convention. + +General Gates in the first instance demanded that the royal army should +surrender prisoners of war. He also proposed that the British should +ground their arms. Burgoyne replied: + +"This article is inadmissible in every extremity; sooner than this army +will consent to ground their arms in their encampment they will rush on +the enemy, determined to take no quarter." + +After various messages, a convention for the surrender of the army was +settled, which provided that "the troops under General Burgoyne were to +march out of their camp with the honors of war, and the artillery of the +intrenchments, to the verge of the river, where the arms and artillery +were to be left. The arms to be piled by word of command from their own +officers. A free passage was to be granted to the army under +Lieutenant-General Burgoyne to Great Britain, under condition of not +serving again in North America during the present contest." + +The articles of capitulation were settled on October 15th, and on that +very evening a messenger arrived from Clinton with an account of his +successes, and with the tidings that part of his force had penetrated as +far as Esopus, within fifty miles of Burgoyne's camp. But it was too +late. The public faith was pledged; and the army was indeed too +debilitated by fatigue and hunger to resist an attack, if made; and +Gates certainly would have made it if the convention had been broken +off. Accordingly, on the 17th, the Convention of Saratoga was carried +into effect. By this convention five thousand seven hundred ninety men +surrendered themselves as prisoners. The sick and wounded left in the +camp when the British retreated to Saratoga, together with the numbers +of the British, German, and Canadian troops who were killed, wounded, or +taken, and who had deserted in the preceding part of the expedition, +were reckoned to be four thousand six hundred eighty-nine. + +The British sick and wounded who had fallen into the hands of the +Americans after the battle of the 7th were treated with exemplary +humanity: and when the convention was executed, General Gates showed a +notable delicacy of feeling, which deserves the highest degree of honor. +Every circumstance was avoided which could give the appearance of +triumph. The American troops remained within their lines until the +British had piled their arms; and when this was done, the vanquished +officers and soldiers were received with friendly kindness by their +victors, and their immediate wants were promptly and liberally supplied. +Discussions and disputes afterward arose as to some of the terms of the +convention, and the American Congress refused for a long time to carry +into effect the article which provided for the return of Burgoyne's men +to Europe; but no blame was imputable to General Gates or his army, who +showed themselves to be generous as they had proved themselves to be +brave. + +Gates, after the victory, immediately despatched Colonel Wilkinson to +carry the happy tidings to Congress. On being introduced into the hall +he said: "The whole British army has laid down its arms at Saratoga; +our own, full of vigor and courage, expect your orders. It is for your +wisdom to decide where the country may still have need for their +service." + +Honors and rewards were liberally voted by the Congress to their +conquering general and his men; and it would be difficult, says the +Italian historian, to describe the transports of joy which the news of +this event excited among the Americans. They began to flatter themselves +with a still more happy future. No one any longer felt any doubt about +their achieving their independence. All hoped, and with good reason, +that a success of this importance would at length determine France, and +the other European powers that waited for her example, to declare +themselves in favor of America. "There could no longer be any question +respecting the future, since there was no longer the risk of espousing +the cause of a people too feeble to defend themselves." + +The truth of this was soon displayed in the conduct of France. When the +news arrived at Paris of the capture of Ticonderoga, and of the +victorious march of Burgoyne toward Albany, events which seemed decisive +in favor of the English, instructions had been immediately despatched to +Nantes and the other ports of the kingdom that no American privateers +should be suffered to enter them, except from indispensable necessity; +as to repair their vessels, to obtain provisions, or to escape the +perils of the sea. + +The American commissioners at Paris, in their disgust and despair, had +almost broken off all negotiations with the French Government; and they +even endeavored to open communications with the British Ministry. But +the British Government, elated with the first successes of Burgoyne, +refused to listen to any overtures for accommodation. But when the news +of Saratoga reached Paris the whole scene was changed. Franklin and his +brother-commissioners found all their difficulties with the French +Government vanish. The time seemed to have arrived for the house of +Bourbon to take a full revenge for all its humiliations and losses in +previous wars. In December a treaty was arranged, and formally signed in +the February following, by which France acknowledged _the Independent +United States of America_. This was, of course, tantamount to a +declaration of war with England. + +Spain soon followed France; and, before long, Holland took the same +course. Largely aided by French fleets and troops, the Americans +vigorously maintained the war against the armies which England, in spite +of her European foes, continued to send across the Atlantic. But the +struggle was too unequal to be maintained by Great Britain for many +years; and when the treaties of 1783 restored peace to the world, the +independence of the United States was reluctantly recognized by their +ancient parent and recent enemy. + + + + +FIRST VICTORY OF THE AMERICAN NAVY + +A.D. 1779 + +ALEXANDER SLIDELL MACKENZIE + + American naval officers look back with intensest pride to + Paul Jones, their earliest hero, the founder of those high + traditions which have done so much to raise the navy to its + present standard of efficiency. Decatur, Perry, Farragut, + Dewey, these and a thousand others of their kind, have but + followed the lead of Paul Jones, have learned their deepest + lesson in the thrill that came to each of them in boyhood on + hearing that proud defiance hurled at the ancient mistress + of the seas, "I have not yet begun to fight." + + Although much greater sea-battles, in point of numbers of + both ships and men engaged, are recorded in history, yet + this, the first naval engagement by an American vessel, is + counted among the most famous of all on account of its + stubbornness. The child was matched against the parent; an + American vessel against a British, the latter far the + stronger. The combat was mainly between the Bonhomme + Richard, Jones' ship, with forty guns, many of them + unserviceable, and the British ship, Serapis, of superior + armament, as shown below. + + John Paul Jones, commonly known as Paul Jones, was born in + Scotland in 1747, the son of John Paul, a gardener. He + emigrated to Virginia, and, assuming the name of Jones, + became first lieutenant (1775) in the American navy. When in + 1778 France joined the colonies against England, Jones, who + had already performed several noteworthy exploits, was in + that country. Through the influence of Franklin an old + merchant vessel, the Duc de Duras, was converted into a + ship-of-war and, with four others, placed under the command + of Jones. In honor of Franklin he named the Duras "Poor + Richard," and, in compliment to the French language and + people, she was called the Bonhomme Richard, the French + colloquial equivalent. + + With a squadron of five ships, each except his own under a + French commander and three of them with French crews as + well, Jones sailed from L'Orient, France, August 14, 1779. + He passed around the west coast of Ireland and around + Scotland. There was much discontent among the French + officers, and, though four of his ships were still with him + when he sighted the Baltic fleet, Jones could not count on + loyal service, especially from the Alliance, whose captain + had already shown much insubordination. + + The memorable fight has never been better described than in + the following plain and direct account of Mackenzie, + himself an officer of the United States navy. + + +The battle between the Bonhomme and the Serapis is invested with a +heroic interest of the highest stamp. Jones had been cruising off the +mouth of the Humber and along the Yorkshire coast, intercepting the +colliers bound to London, many of which he destroyed (1779). On the +morning of September 23d he fell in with the Alliance.[27] This +rencounter was a real misfortune; as, in the battle which ensued, the +former disobedience and mad vagaries of Landais, her commander, were +about to be converted into absolute treason. The squadron now consisted +of the Richard, the Alliance, the Pallas, and the Vengeance. + +About noon Jones despatched his second lieutenant, Henry Lunt, with +fifteen of his best men, to take possession of a brigantine which he had +chased ashore. Soon after, as the squadron was standing to the northward +toward Flamborough Head, with a light breeze from south-southwest, +chasing a ship, which was seen doubling the cape, in opening the view +beyond, they gradually came in sight of a fleet of forty-one sail +running down the coast from the northward, very close in with the land. +On questioning the pilot, the Commodore discovered that this was the +Baltic fleet, with which he had been so anxious to fall in, and that it +was under convoy of the Serapis, a new ship, of an improved +construction, mounting forty-four guns, and the Countess of Scarborough, +of twenty guns. + +Signal was immediately made to form the line of battle, which the +Alliance, as usual, disregarded. The Richard crossed her royal yards, +and immediately gave chase to the northward, under all sail, to get +between the enemy and the land. At the same time signal of recall was +made to the pilot of the boat; but she did not return until after the +action. On discovering the American squadron, the headmost ships of the +convoy were seen to haul their wind suddenly and go about so as to +stretch back under the land toward Scarborough and place themselves +under cover of the cruisers; at the same time they fired signal-guns, +let fly their topgallant sheets, and showed every symptom of confusion +and alarm. Soon afterward the Serapis was seen reaching to windward to +get between the convoy and the American ships, which she soon effected. +At four o'clock the English cruisers were in sight from deck. The +Countess of Scarborough was standing out to join the Serapis, which was +lying-to for her, while the convoy continued to run for the fort, in +obedience to the signals displayed from the Serapis, which was also seen +to fire guns. At half-past five the two ships had joined company, when +the Serapis made sail by the wind; at six both vessels tacked, heading +up to the westward, across the bows of the Richard, so as to keep their +position between her and the convoy. + +The opposing ships thus continued to approach each other slowly under +the light southwesterly air. The weather was beautifully serene, and the +breeze, being off the land, which was now close on board, produced no +ripple on the water, which lay still and peaceful, offering a fair field +to the combatants about to grapple in such deadly strife. The decks of +the opposing vessels were long since cleared for action, and ample +leisure remained for reflection, as the ships glided toward each other +at a rate but little in accordance with the impatience of the opponents. +From the projecting promontory of Flamborough Head, which was less than +a league distant, thousands of the inhabitants, whom the recent attempt +upon Leith had made aware of the character of the American ships, and +the reckless daring of their leader, looked down upon the scene, +awaiting the result with intense anxiety. The ships also were in sight +from Scarborough, the inhabitants of which thronged the piers. The sun +had already sunk behind the land before the ships were within gun-shot +of each other; but a full harvest-moon rising above the opposite +horizon, lighted the combatants in their search for each other, and +served to reveal the approaching scene to the spectators on the land +with a vague distinctness which rendered it only the more terrible. + +We have seen that the Alliance had utterly disregarded the signal to +form the line of battle when the Baltic fleet was first discovered, and +our squadron bore down upon them. She stood for the enemy without +reference to her station, and, greatly out-sailing the other vessels, +was much sooner in a condition to engage. Captain Landais seemed for +once to be actuated by a chivalrous motive and likely to do something to +redeem the guilt of his disobedience. The officers of the Richard were +watching this new instance of eccentricity, for which Landais' past +conduct had not prepared them, with no little surprise; when after +getting near to where the Serapis lay, with her courses hauled up, and +St. George's ensign--the white cross of England--proudly displayed, he +suddenly hauled his wind, leaving the path of honor open to his +commander. While the Pallas stood for the Countess of Scarborough, the +Alliance sought a position in which she could contemplate the double +engagement without risk, as though her commander had been chosen umpire, +instead of being a party interested in the approaching battle. Soon +afterward the Serapis was seen to hoist the red ensign instead of St. +George's, and it was subsequently known that her captain had nailed it +to the flag-staff with his own hand. + +About half-past seven the Bonhomme Richard hauled up her courses and +rounded-to on the weather or larboard quarter of the Serapis, and within +pistol-shot, and steered a nearly parallel course, though gradually +edging down upon her. The Serapis now triced up her lower-deck ports, +showing two complete batteries, besides her spar deck, lighted up for +action, and making a most formidable appearance. At this moment Captain +Pearson, her commander, hailed the Bonhomme Richard and demanded, "What +ship is that?" Answer was made, "I can't hear what you say." The hail +was repeated: "What ship is that? Answer immediately, or I shall be +under the necessity of firing into you!" A shot was fired in reply by +the Bonhomme Richard, which was instantly followed by a broadside from +each vessel. Two of the three old eighteen-pounders in the Richard's +gunroom burst at the first fire, spreading around an awful scene of +carnage. Jones immediately gave orders to close the lower-deck ports and +abandon that battery during the rest of the action. + +The Richard, having kept her headway and becalmed the sails of the +Serapis, passed across her forefoot, when the Serapis, luffing across +the stern of the Richard, came up in turn on the weather or larboard +quarter; and, after an exchange of several broadsides from the fresh +batteries, which did great damage to the rotten sides of the Richard and +caused her to leak badly, the Serapis likewise becalmed the sails of the +Richard, passed ahead, and soon after bore up and attempted to cross her +forefoot so as to rake her from stem to stern. + +Finding, however, that he had not room for the evolution, and that the +Richard would be on board of him, Captain Pearson put his helm a-lee, +which brought the two ships in a line ahead, and, the Serapis having +lost her headway by the attempted evolution, the Richard ran into her +weather or larboard quarter. While in this position, neither ship being +able to use her great guns, Jones attempted to board the Serapis, but +was repulsed, when Captain Pearson hailed him and asked, "Has your ship +struck?" to which he at once returned the immortal answer: + +"_I have not yet begun to fight!_" + +Jones now backed his topsails, and the sails of the Serapis remaining +full, the two ships separated. Immediately after, Pearson also laid his +topsails back, as he says in his official report, to get square with the +Richard again; Jones at the same instant filled away, which brought the +two ships once more broadside and broadside. As he had already suffered +greatly from the superior force of the Serapis, and from her being more +manageable and a faster sailer than the Richard, which had several times +given her the advantage in position, Jones now determined to lay his +ship athwart the enemy's hawse; he accordingly put his helm up, but, +some of his braces being shot away, his sails had not their full power, +and, the Serapis having sternway, the Richard fell on board of her +farther aft than Jones had intended. The Serapis' jib-boom hung her for +a few minutes, when, carrying away, the two ships swung broadside and +broadside, the muzzles of the guns touching each other. Jones sent Mr. +Stacy, the acting master, to pass up the end of a hawser to lash the two +ships together, and, while he was gone on this service, assisted with +his own hand in making fast the jib-stay of the Serapis to the Richard's +mizzen-mast. + +Accident, however, unknown for the moment to either party, more +effectually secured the two vessels together; for, the anchor of the +Serapis having hooked the quarter of the Richard, the two ships lay +closely grappled. In order to escape from this close embrace, and +recover the advantage of his superior sailing and force, Captain Pearson +now let go an anchor, when the two ships tended round to the tide, which +was setting toward Scarborough. The Richard being held by the anchor of +the Serapis, and the yards being entangled fore and aft, they remained +firmly grappled. This happened about half-past eight, the engagement +having already continued an hour. + +Meantime the firing had recommenced with fresh fury from the starboard +sides of both vessels. The guns of either ship actually touched the +sides of the other, and, some of them being opposite the ports, the +rammers entered those of the opposite ship when in the act of loading, +and the guns were discharged into the side or into the open decks. The +effect of this cannonade was terrible to both ships, and wherever it +could be kept up in one ship it was silenced in the other. Occasional +skirmishing with pikes and pistols took place through the ports, but +there does not appear to have been any concerted effort to board from +the lower decks of the Serapis, which had the advantage below. + +The Richard had already received several eighteen-pound shot between +wind and water, causing her to leak badly; the main battery of +twelve-pounders was silenced; as for the gunroom battery of six +eighteen-pounders, we have seen that two out of the three starboard ones +burst at the first fire, killing most of their crews. During the whole +action but eight shots were fired from this heavy battery, the use of +which was so much favored by the smoothness of the water. The bursting +of these guns, and the destruction of the crew, with the partial blowing +up of the deck above, so early in the action, were discouraging +circumstances, which, with a less resolutely determined commander, might +well have been decisive of the fate of the battle. + +Colonel Chamillard, who was stationed on the poop, with a party of +twenty marines, had already been driven from his post, with the loss of +a number of his men. The Alliance kept studiously aloof, and, hovering +about the Pallas and the Countess of Scarborough, until the latter +struck, after half an hour's action, Landais endeavored to get +information as to the force of the Serapis. He now ran down, under easy +sail, to where the Richard and Serapis grappled. At about half-past nine +he ranged up on the larboard quarter of the Richard, of course having +the Richard between him and the Serapis, though the brightness of the +moonlight, the greater height of the Richard, especially about the poop, +and the fact of her being painted entirely black, while the Serapis had +a yellow streak, could have left no doubt as to her identity; moreover, +the Richard displayed three lights at the larboard bow, gangway, and +stern, which was an appointed signal of recognition. + +Landais now deliberately fired into the Richard's quarter, killing many +of her men. Standing on, he ranged past her larboard bow, where he +renewed his raking fire, with like fatal effect. To remove the chance of +misconception, many voices cried out that the Alliance was firing into +the wrong ship; still the raking fire continued from her. Captain +Pearson also suffered from this fire, as he states in his report to the +Admiralty, but necessarily in a much less degree than the Richard, which +lay between them. There is ample evidence of Landais having returned +there several times to fire on the Richard, and always on the larboard +side, or opposite one to that on which the Richard was grappled with the +Serapis. + +While the fire of the Serapis was continued without intermission from +the whole of her lower-deck battery, the only guns that were still fired +from the Richard were two nine-pounders on the quarter-deck, commanded +by Mr. Mease, the purser. This officer having received a dangerous wound +in the head, Jones took his place, and, having collected a few men, +succeeded in shifting over one of the larboard guns; so that three guns +were now kept playing on the enemy, and these were all that were fired +from the Richard during the remainder of the action. One of these guns +was served with double-headed shot and directed at the main-mast, by +Jones' command, while the other two were loaded with grape and canister, +to clear the enemy's deck. + +In this service great aid was rendered by the men stationed in the tops +of the Richard, who, having cleared the tops of the Serapis, committed +great havoc among the officers and crew upon her upper deck. Thus, the +action was carried on with decided advantage to the Serapis' men on the +lower decks, from which they might have boarded the Richard with a good +prospect of success, as nearly the whole crew of the latter had been +driven from below by the fire of the Serapis and had collected on the +upper deck. In addition to the destructive fire from the tops of the +Richard, great damage was done by the hand-grenades thrown from her tops +and yard-arms. The Serapis was set on fire as often as ten or twelve +times in various parts, and the conflagration was only with the greatest +exertions kept from becoming general. + +About a quarter before ten a hand-grenade, thrown by one of the +Richard's men from the main-top of the Serapis, struck the combing of +the main-hatch, and, glancing inward upon the main deck, set fire to a +cartridge of powder. Owing to mismanagement and defective training, the +powder-boys on this deck had bought up the cartridges from the magazine +faster than they were used, and, instead of waiting for the loaders to +receive and charge them, had laid them on the deck, where some of them +were broken. The cartridge fired by the grenade now communicated to +these, and the explosion spread from the main-mast aft on the starboard +side, killing twenty men and disabling every man there stationed at the +guns, those who were not killed outright being left stripped of their +clothes and scorched frightfully. + +At this conjuncture, being about ten o'clock, the gunner and the +carpenter of the Richard, who had been slightly wounded, became alarmed +at the quantity of water which entered the ship through the shot-holes +which she had received between wind and water, and which, by her +settling, had got below the surface. The carpenter expressed an +apprehension that she would speedily sink, which the gunner, mistaking +for an assertion that she was actually sinking, ran aft on the poop to +haul down the colors. Finding that the ensign was already down in +consequence of the staff having been shot away, the gunner set up the +cry, "Quarter! for God's sake, quarter! Our ship is sinking!" which he +continued until silenced by Jones, who threw at the recreant a pistol he +had just discharged at the enemy, which fractured his skull, and sent +him headlong down the hatchway. Captain Pearson, hearing the gunner's +cry, asked Jones if he called for quarter, to which, according to his +own words, he replied "in the most determined negative." + +Captain Pearson now called away his boarders and sent them on board the +Richard, but, when they had reached her rail, they were met by Jones +himself, at the head of a party of pikemen, and driven back. They +immediately returned to their ship, followed by some of the Richard's +men, all of whom were cut off. + +About the same time that the gunner set up his cry for quarter, the +master-at-arms, who had been in consultation with the gunner and the +carpenter in regard to the sinking condition of the ship, hearing the +cry for quarter, proceeded, without orders from Jones, and either from +treachery or the prompting of humane feelings, to release all the +prisoners, amounting to more than a hundred. One of these, being the +commander of the letter-of-marque Union, taken on August 31st, passed, +with generous self-devotion, through the lower ports of the Richard and +the Serapis, and, having reached the quarter-deck of the latter, +informed Captain Pearson that if he would hold out a little longer the +Richard must either strike or sink; he moreover informed him of the +large number of prisoners who had been released with himself, in order +to save their lives. Thus encouraged, the battle was renewed from the +Serapis with fresh ardor. + +The situation of Jones at this moment was indeed hopeless beyond +anything that is recorded in the annals of naval warfare. In a sinking +ship, with a battery silenced everywhere, except where he himself +fought, more than a hundred prisoners at large in his ship, his consort, +the Alliance, sailing round and raking him deliberately, his superior +officers counselling surrender, while the inferior ones were setting up +disheartening cries of fire and sinking and calling loudly for +quarter--the chieftain still stood undismayed. He immediately ordered +the prisoners to the pumps, and took advantage of the panic they were +in, with regard to the reported sinking of the ship, to keep them from +conspiring to overcome the few efficient hands that remained of his +crew. + +Meanwhile the action was continued with the three light quarter-deck +guns, under Jones' immediate inspection. In the moonlight, blended with +the flames that ascended the rigging of the Serapis, the yellow +main-mast presented a palpable mark, against which the guns were +directed with double-headed shot. Soon after ten o'clock the fire of the +Serapis began to slacken, and at half-past ten she struck. + +Mr. Dale, the first lieutenant of the Richard, was now ordered on board +the Serapis to take charge of her. He was accompanied by Midshipman +Mayrant and a party of boarders. Mr. Mayrant was run through the thigh +with a boarding-pike as he touched the deck of the Serapis, and three of +the Richard's crew were killed, after the Serapis had struck, by some of +the crew of the latter who were ignorant of the surrender of their ship. + +Lieutenant Dale found Captain Pearson on the quarter-deck, and told him +he was ordered to send him on board the Richard. It is a remarkable +evidence of the strange character of this engagement, and the doubt +which attended its result, that the first lieutenant of the Serapis, who +came upon deck at this moment, should have asked his commander whether +the ship alongside had struck. Lieutenant Dale immediately answered: +"No, sir; on the contrary, he has struck to us!" + +The British lieutenant, like a true officer, then questioned his +commander, "Have you struck, sir?" Captain Pearson replied, "Yes, I +have!" The lieutenant replied, "I have nothing more to say," and was +about to return below, when Mr. Dale informed him that he must accompany +Captain Pearson on board the Richard. The lieutenant rejoined, "If you +will permit me to go below, I will silence the firing of the lower-deck +guns." This offer Mr. Dale very properly declined, and the two officers +went on board the Richard and surrendered themselves to Jones. + +Pearson, who had risen, like Jones, from a humble station by his own +bravery, but who was as inferior officer to Jones in courtesy as he had +proved himself in obstinacy of resistance, evinced from the first a +characteristic surliness, which he maintained throughout the whole of +his intercourse with his victor. In surrendering he said that it was +painful for him to deliver up his sword to a man who had fought with a +halter around his neck. Jones did not forget himself, but replied with a +compliment, which, though addressed to Pearson, necessarily reverted to +himself, "Sir! you have fought like a hero, and I make no doubt but your +sovereign will reward you in a most ample manner." + +As another evidence of the strange _mêlée_ which attended this +engagement, and of the discouraging circumstances under which the +Richard fought, it may be mentioned that eight or ten of her crew, who +were, of course, Englishmen, got into a boat, which was towing astern of +the Serapis, and escaped to Scarborough during the height of the +engagement. This defection, together with the absence of the second +lieutenant with fifteen of the best men, the loss of twenty-four men on +the coast of Ireland, added to the number who had been sent away in +prizes, reduced Jones' crew to a very small number, and greatly +diminished his chance of success, which was due at length solely to his +own indomitable courage. + +Meantime the fire, which was still kept up from the lower-deck guns of +the Serapis, where the seamen were ignorant of the scene of surrender +which had taken place above, was arrested by an order from Lieutenant +Dale. The action had continued without cessation for three hours and a +half. When it at length ceased, Jones got his ship clear of the Serapis +and made sail. As the two separated, after being so long locked in +deadly struggle, the main-mast of the Serapis, which had been for some +time tottering, and which had only been sustained by the interlocking of +her yards with those of the Richard, went over the side with a +tremendous crash, carrying the mizzen-topmast with it. Soon after, the +Serapis cut her cable and followed the Richard. + +The exertions of captors and captives were now necessary to extinguish +the flames which were raging furiously in both vessels. Its violence was +greatest in the Richard, where it had been communicated below from the +lower-deck guns of the Serapis. Every effort to subdue the flames seemed +for a time to be unavailing. In one place they were raging very near the +magazine, and Jones at length had all the powder taken out and brought +on deck, in readiness to be thrown overboard. In this work the officers +of the Serapis voluntarily assisted. + +While the fire was raging in so terrifying a manner, the water was +entering the ship in many places. The rudder had been cut entirely +through, the transoms were driven in, and the rotten timbers of the old +ship, from the main-mast aft, were shattered and almost entirely +separated, as if the ship had been sawn through by ice; so much so that +Jones says that toward the close of the action the shot of the Serapis +passed completely through the Richard; and the stern-post and a few +timbers alone prevented the stern from falling down on the gunroom deck. +The water rushed in through all these apertures, so that at the close +of the action there were already five feet of water in the hold. The +spectacle which the old ship presented the following morning was +dreadful beyond description. Jones says in his official report: "A +person must have been eye-witness to form a just idea of the tremendous +scene of carnage, wreck, and ruin that everywhere appeared. Humanity +cannot but recoil from the prospect of such finished horror, and lament +that war should produce such fatal consequences." + +Captain Pearson also notices, in his official letter to the Admiralty, +the dreadful spectacle the Richard presented. He says: "On my going on +board the Bonhomme Richard I found her to be in the greatest distress; +her counters and quarters on the lower deck entirely drove in, and the +whole of her lower-deck guns dismounted; she was also on fire in two +places, and six or seven feet of water in her hold, which kept +increasing all night and the next day till they were obliged to quit +her, and she sunk with a great number of her wounded people on board +her." The regret which he must, at any rate, have felt in surrendering, +must have been much augmented by these observations, and by what he must +have seen of the motley composition of the Richard's crew. + +On the morning after the action a survey was held upon the "Poor +Richard," which was now, more than ever, entitled to her name. After a +deliberate examination, the carpenters and other surveying officers were +unanimously of opinion that the ship could not be kept afloat so as to +reach port, if the wind should increase. The task of removing the +wounded was now commenced, and completed in the course of the night and +following morning. The prisoners who had been taken in merchant-ships +were left until the wounded were all removed. Taking advantage of the +confusion, and of their superiority in numbers, they took possession of +the ship, and got her head in for the land, toward which the wind was +now blowing. A contest ensued, and, as the Englishmen had few arms, they +were speedily overcome. Two of them were shot dead, several wounded and +driven overboard, and thirteen of them got possession of a boat and +escaped to the shore. + +Jones was very anxious to keep the Richard afloat, and, if possible, to +bring her into port, doubtless from the very justifiable vanity of +showing how desperately he had fought her. In order to effect this +object he kept the first lieutenant of the Pallas on board of her with a +party of men to work the pumps, having boats in waiting to remove them +in the event of her sinking. During the night of the 24th the wind had +freshened, and still continued to freshen on the morning of the 25th, +when all further efforts to save her were found unavailing. The water +was running in and out of her ports and swashing up her hatchways. About +nine o'clock it became necessary to abandon her, the water then being up +to the lower deck; an hour later, she rolled as if losing her balance, +and, settling forward, went down bows first, her stern and mizzen-mast +being last seen. + +"A little after ten," says Jones in his report, "I saw, with +inexpressible grief, the last glimpse of the Bonhomme Richard." The +grief was a natural one, but, far from being destitute of consolation, +the closing scene of the "Poor Richard," like the death of Nelson on +board the Victory in the moment of winning a new title to the name, was +indeed a glorious one. Her shattered shell afforded an honorable +receptacle for the remains of the Americans who had fallen during the +action. + +The Richard was called by Captain Pearson a forty-gun ship, while the +Serapis was stated by the pilot, who described her to Jones when she was +first made, to have been a forty-four. Jones and Dale also gave her the +same rate. The Richard, as we have seen, mounted six eighteen-pounders +in her gunroom on her berth deck, where port-holes had been opened near +the water; fourteen twelve, and fourteen nine-pounders on her main deck, +and eight six-pounders on her quarter-deck, gangways, and forecastle. +The weight of shot thrown by her at a single broadside would thus be two +hundred and twenty-five pounds. With regard to her crew, she started +from L'Orient with three hundred eighty men. She had manned several +prizes, which, with the desertion of the barge's crew on the coast of +Ireland, and the absence of those who went in pursuit under the master +and never returned, together with the fifteen men sent away in the +pilot-boat, under the second lieutenant, just before the action, and who +did not return until after it was over, reduced the crew, according to +Jones' statement, to three hundred forty men at its commencement. + +This calculation seems a very fair one; for, by taking the statement of +those who had landed on the coast of Ireland, as given in a contemporary +English paper, at twenty-four, those who were absent in the pilot-boat +being sixteen in number, and allowing five of the nine prizes taken by +the Richard to have been manned from her, with average crews of five men +each, the total reduction from her original crew may be computed to be +seventy men. Eight or ten more escaped, during the action, in a boat +towing astern of the Serapis. To have had three hundred forty men at the +commencement of the action, as Jones states he had, he must have +obtained recruits from the crews of his prizes. + +In the muster-roll of the Richard's crew in the battle, as given by Mr. +Sherburne from an official source, we find only two hundred twenty-seven +names. This can hardly have been complete; still the document is +interesting, inasmuch as it enumerates the killed and wounded by name, +there being forty-two killed and forty wounded. It also states the +country of most of the crew; by which it appears that there were +seventy-one Americans, fifty-seven acknowledged Englishmen, twenty-one +Portuguese, and the rest of the motley collection was made up of Swedes, +Norwegians, Irish, and East Indians. Many of those not named in this +imperfect muster-roll were probably Americans. + +With regard to the Serapis, her battery consisted of twenty eighteens on +the lower gun-deck, twenty nines on the upper gun-deck, and ten sixes on +the quarter-deck and forecastle. She had two complete batteries, and her +construction was, in all respects, that of a line-of-battle ship. The +weight of shot thrown by her single broadside was three hundred pounds, +being seventy-five pounds more than that of the Richard. Her crew +consisted of three hundred twenty; all Englishmen except fifteen +Lascars; and as such, superior to the motley and partially disaffected +assemblage of the Richard. The superiority of the Serapis, in size and +weight, as well as efficiency of battery, was, moreover, greatly +increased by the strength of her construction. She was a new ship, built +expressly for a man-of-war, and equipped in the most complete manner by +the first of naval powers. The Richard was originally a merchantman, +worn out by long use and rotten from age. She was fitted, in a makeshift +manner, with whatever refuse guns and materials could be hastily +procured, at a small expense, from the limited means appropriated to her +armament. + +The overwhelming superiority thus possessed by the Serapis was evident +in the action. Two of the three lower-deck guns of the Richard burst at +the first fire, scattering death on every side, while the guns of the +Serapis remained serviceable during the whole action, and their effect +on the decayed sides of the Richard was literally to tear her to pieces. +On the contrary, the few light guns which continued to be used in the +Richard, under the immediate direction of her commander, produced little +impression on the hull of the Serapis. They were usefully directed to +destroy her masts and clear her upper deck, which, with the aid of the +destructive and well-sustained fire from the tops, was eventually +effected. The achievement of the victory was, however, wholly and solely +due to the immovable courage of Paul Jones. The Richard was beaten more +than once; but the spirit of Jones could not be overcome. Captain +Pearson was a brave man, and well deserved the honor of knighthood which +awaited him on his arrival in England; but Paul Jones had a nature which +never could have yielded. Had Pearson been equally indomitable, the +Richard, if not boarded from below, would, at last, have gone down with +her colors still flying in proud defiance. + +The wounded of the Serapis appear, by the surgeon's report accompanying +Captain Pearson's letter to the Admiralty, to have amounted to +seventy-five men, eight of whom died of their wounds. Of the wounded, +thirty-three are stated to have been "miserably scorched," doubtless by +the explosion of the cartridges on the main deck. Captain Pearson states +that there were many more, both killed and wounded, than appeared on the +list, but that he had been unable to ascertain their names. Jones gave +the number of wounded on board the Serapis as more than a hundred, and +the killed probably as numerous. The surviving prisoners, taken from the +Serapis and the Countess of Scarborough, amounted to three hundred +fifty; the whole number of prisoners, including those previously taken +from captured merchant-vessels, amounted to near five hundred. + +During the engagement between the Richard and the Serapis, the Pallas, +commanded by Captain Cottineau, seems to have done her duty. She +engaged the Countess of Scarborough, and captured her after an hour's +close action. The Pallas was a frigate of thirty-two guns, and the +Countess of Scarborough a single-decked ship, mounting twenty +six-pounders. The Alliance, in the course of the night, also fired into +the Pallas and the Countess of Scarborough, while engaged, and killed +several of the Pallas' men. Subsequent to the engagement it was attested +by the mass of officers in the squadron that, about eight o'clock, the +Alliance raked the Bonhomme Richard with grape and cross-bar, killing a +number of men and dismounting several guns. He afterward made sail for +where the Pallas and the Scarborough were engaged, and after hovering +about until the latter struck, communicated by hailing with both +vessels, and then stood back to the Richard, and coming up on her +larboard quarter, about half-past nine, fired again into her; passing +along her larboard beam, he then luffed up on her lee bow, and renewed +his raking fire. It was proved that the Alliance never passed on the +larboard side of the Serapis, but always kept the Richard between her +and the enemy. The officers of the Richard were of opinion that Landais' +intention was to kill Jones and disable his ship, so as afterward to +have himself an easy victory over the Serapis. As it was, he +subsequently claimed the credit of the victory, on the plea of having +raked the Serapis. There can be little doubt that he was actuated by +jealous and treacherous feelings toward Jones, and by base cowardice. +The Vengeance also behaved badly; neither she nor the Alliance made any +prizes from among the fleet of merchantmen, and the whole escaped under +cover of Flamborough Head and the adjacent harbors. Lieutenant Henry +Lunt, who was absent in the pilot-boat with fifteen of the Richard's +best men, lay in sight of the Richard during the action, but "thought it +not prudent to go alongside in time of action." His conduct at least +involved a great error of judgment, which no doubt he lived to repent. + +The conduct of Jones throughout this battle displayed great skill and +the noblest heroism. He carried his ship into action in the most gallant +style, and, while he commanded with ability, excited his followers by +his personal example. We find him, in the course of the action, himself +assisting to lash the ships together, aiding in the service of the only +battery from which a fire was still kept up, and, when the Serapis +attempted to board, rushing, pike in hand, to meet and repel the +assailants. No difficulties or perplexities seemed to appal him or +disturb his judgment, and his courage and skill were equalled by his +immovable self-composure. The achievement of this victory was solely due +to his brilliant display of all the qualities essential to the formation +of a great naval commander. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[27] The Alliance had deliberately separated from the squadron. As to +the other vessels, the Pallas was a French frigate weaker than the +Richard, but much stronger than the second English ship, which she +captured. The Vengeance was only a sloop of twelve guns, and took no +part in the contest.--ED. + + + + +JOSEPH II ATTEMPTS REFORM IN HUNGARY[28] + +A.D. 1780 + +ARMINIUS VAMBERY + + As King of Hungary and Bohemia, and as Germanic Emperor, + Joseph II, a man of ideals, found himself hampered by + hereditary institutions and traditions. The attempted + reforms of this ruler, though too advanced for their times, + are justly deemed worthy of commemoration by historians. + Like the work of all leaders who aim at improvement before + the world is ready, they were prophetic of a better day. + + Joseph II, son of Francis I, Emperor of the Holy Roman + Empire, and Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Austria and Queen + of Hungary and Bohemia, was born at Vienna in 1741. He + succeeded to the possessions of the house of Austria on the + death of his mother in 1780. The troubles of his reign, + especially in Hungary, were due to his own progressive and + technically illegal acts on the one hand, and to the narrow + conservatism of the people, and the illiberality of the + nobles, on the other. + + By most of the historians of Hungary and Bohemia the reign + of Joseph II is described as disastrous for both countries. + But a more philosophical view than those historians often + furnish is presented by Vambery, the great Hungarian writer, + who gives to the endeavors of Joseph the credit of enduring + significance. + + +The royal crown of Hungary has ever been, from the time it encircled the +brow of St. Stephen, an object of jealous solicitude and almost +superstitious veneration with the nation. It continued to loom up as a +brilliant and rallying point in the midst of the vicissitudes and +stirring events of the history of the country during all the centuries +that followed the coronation of the first king. The people looked upon +it as a hallowed relic, the glorious bequest of a long line of +generations past and gone, and as the symbol and embodiment of the unity +of the state. The different countries composing Hungary were known under +the collective name of the "Lands of the Sacred Crown," and, at the +period when the privileged nobility was still enjoying exceptional +immunities, each noble styled himself _membrum sacræ coronæ_ ("a member +of the sacred crown"). In the estimation of the people it had ceased to +be a religious symbol, and had become a cherished national and political +memorial, to which the followers of every creed and all the classes +without distinction might equally do homage. Nor was the crown an +every-day ornament to be displayed by royalty on solemn occasions of +pageant. The King wore it only once in his life, on the day of his +coronation, when he was bound solemnly to swear fidelity to the +constitution, before the high dignitaries of the state, first in church, +and to repeat afterward in the open air his vow to govern the country +within the limits of the law. Thus in Hungary it has ever been the +ancient custom, prevailing to this day, that, on the king's accession to +the throne, it is he who, on his coronation, takes the oath of fidelity +to his people, instead of the latter swearing fealty to the king. The +right of succession to the throne is hereditary, but the lawful rule of +the king begins with the ceremony of coronation only. It requires this +ceremonial, which to this day is characterized by the attributes of +mediæval pomp and splendor, to render the acts of the ruler valid and +binding upon the people; without it every public act of such ruler is a +usurpation. + +During eight centuries all the kings and queens, without exception, had +been eager to place the crown on their heads, in order to come into the +full possession of their regal privileges. Joseph II was the first king +who refused to be crowned. He felt a reluctance to swear fidelity to the +constitution, and to promise, by a solemn oath, to govern the country in +accordance with its ancient usages and laws. The people, therefore, +never called him their crowned king; he was either styled "Emperor" by +them, or nicknamed the _kalapos_ ("hatted") king. His reign was but a +series of illegal and unconstitutional acts, and a succession of bitter +and envenomed struggles between the nation and her ruler. The contest +finally ended with Joseph's defeat. He retracted on his death-bed all +his arbitrary measures, and conceded to the people the tardy restoration +of their ancient constitution. The conflict, however, had left deep +traces in the minds of his Hungarian subjects. It roused them from the +dormant state into which they had been lulled by the gentle and maternal +absolutism of Maria Theresa. Thus Joseph's schemes not only failed, but, +in their effects, they were destined to bring about the triumph of +ideas, fraught with important consequences, such as he had hardly +anticipated. The nation, waking from her lethargy, gave more prominence +than ever to the idea of nationality, an idea which, as time advanced, +increased in potency and intensity. + +Yet this ruler, who on ascending the throne disregarded all +constitutional obligations and waged a relentless war against the +Hungarian nationality, must be, nevertheless, ranked among the noblest +characters of his century. Thoroughly imbued with the enlightened views +of the eighteenth century, and those new ideas which had triumphed in +the War of Independence across the ocean, he was ever in pursuit of +generous and exalted aims. He sincerely desired the welfare of the +people, and in engaging in this fruitless conflict he was by no means +actuated by sinister intentions or by a despotic disposition. To +introduce reforms, called for by the spirit of the age, into the Church, +the schools, and every department of his Government, was the lofty task +he had imposed upon himself. A champion of the oppressed, he freed the +human conscience from its mediæval fetters, granted equal rights to the +persecuted creeds, protected the enslaved peasantry against their +arbitrary masters, and enlarged the liberty of the press. He endeavored +to establish order and honesty in every branch of the public service, +being mindful at the same time of all the agencies affecting the +prosperity of the people. In a word, his remarkable genius embraced +every province of human action where progress, reforms, and +ameliorations were desirable. + +Unhappily for his own peace of mind and for the destinies of the nation +he was called upon to rule, he committed a fatal error in the selection +of the methods for accomplishing his humane and philanthropic objects. +He desired to render Hungary happy, yet he excluded the nation from the +direction of her own affairs. He wished to enact salutary laws, yet he +reigned as an absolute monarch, unwilling to call the Diet to his aid in +the great work of reformation, ignoring and disdaining the constitution +and laws of the country. He was impolitic enough to attack a +constitution which, thanks to the devotion of the people, had withstood +the shock of seven centuries. He was unwise enough to suppose that the +people, in whose hearts the love of their ancient constitution had taken +deep root, for the defence of which rivers of blood had been shed, +could be prevailed upon to relinquish it to satisfy a theory of royalty. + +The old political organization was eminently an outgrowth of the +Hungarian nationality, and all classes of the people, including the very +peasantry to whom the ancient constitution meant only oppression, clung +to it with devoted fervor. The people were as anxious for reforms as +Joseph himself, but they wanted them by lawful methods, and with the +coöperation of the nation and their Diet. Joseph might have become the +regenerator and benefactor of Hungary if he had availed himself, for the +realization of his grand objects, of the national and lawful channels +which lay ready to his hand. But he unfortunately preferred attempting +to achieve his purpose out of the plenitude of his own power, by +imperial edicts and arbitrary measures, thus conjuring up a storm +against himself which wellnigh shook his throne, and plunging the nation +into a wild ferment of passion bordering on revolution. + +The people presented a solid phalanx against Joseph's attack upon their +nationality and language, which to them were objects dearer than +everything else. They little cared for the Emperor's well-intentioned +endeavors to make them prosperous and happy as long as he asked, in +exchange, for the relinquishment of their nationality. And this, above +all, was his most ardent wish. He wanted Hungary to be Hungarian no +more, and wished its people to cast off the distinctive marks of their +individuality, and to adopt the German language, instead of their own, +in the schools, the public administration, and in judicial proceedings. +In a word, he made German the official language of the country, and was +bent on forcing it upon the people. + +Henceforth every reform coming from Joseph became hateful to the people. +The oppressed classes themselves spurned relief which involved the +sacrifice of their sweet mother-tongue. By proclaiming equal rights and +equal subjection to the burdens of the state, he arrayed the privileged +classes against his person. The Protestants and the peasantry, who had +hailed him in the beginning as their new messiah, and fondly saw in his +innovations the dawn of brighter days, also turned from him as soon as +he attacked them in what they prized even more than liberty and justice. +It was not long before the whole country, without distinction of class, +social standing, or creed, combined to set at naught the Germanizing +efforts of Joseph. The hard-fought struggle roused the people, hitherto +divided by antagonisms of class and creed, to a sense of national +solidarity. It was during the critical days of these constitutional +conflicts that the foundations of the modern homogeneousness of the +Hungarian nation and society were laid down. + +The privileged classes looked upon Joseph, on his advent to the throne, +with distrust. They foresaw that he would not allow himself to be +crowned, in order to avoid taking the oath of fidelity to the +Constitution of Hungary. The first measures of his reign concerned the +organization of the various churches of the country. He extended the +religious freedom of the Protestant Church. By virtue of the apostolic +rights of the Hungarian kings, he introduced signal reforms into the +Catholic Church, especially regarding the education of the clergy, which +proved, in part, exceedingly salutary. + +He abolished numerous religious orders, especially those which were not +engaged either in teaching or in nursing the sick. One hundred forty +monasteries and nunneries were closed by him in Hungary. The ample +property of these convents he employed for ecclesiastical and public +purposes and for the advancement of instruction. He exerted himself +strenuously and successfully in the establishment of public schools and +in the interest of popular education. He removed the only university of +which the country could then boast from Buda to Pesth, a city which was +rapidly increasing, and added a theological department to that seat of +learning. All these innovations met with the approval of the enlightened +elements of the nation, while the privileged classes and the clergy +opposed them with sullen discontent. The opposition was all the more +successful, as the Emperor had contrived to insult the moral +susceptibilities of the common people by some of his measures. + +Thus, with a view to economizing the boards required for coffins, he +ordered the dead to be sewed up in sacks and to be buried in this +apparel. This uncalled-for meddling with the prejudices of the lower +classes had the effect of creating a great indignation among them and of +driving them into the camp of the opposition. Trifling and thoughtless +measures of a similar nature impaired the credit of the most salutary +innovations. The people looked with suspicion at every change, and, +heedless of the lofty endeavors of the Emperor, everybody, including the +officials themselves, rejected the entire governmental system of Joseph. + +The Emperor also wounded the national feeling of piety by his action +concerning the crown he had spurned. According to ancient custom and law +the sacred crown was kept in safety in Presburg, in a building provided +for that purpose. In 1784 the Emperor ordered the crown to be removed to +Vienna, in order to be placed there in the royal treasury side by side +with the crowns of his other lands. The nation revolted at this +profanation of their hallowed relic, and the highest official +authorities throughout the land protested against a measure which, while +it created such widespread ill-feeling, was not justified by any +necessity. A dreadful storm, accompanied by thunder and lightning, was +raging when the crown was removed to Vienna, and the people saw in this +a sign that Nature herself rebelled against the sacrilege committed by +the Emperor. The counties continued to urge the return of the crown, in +addresses which were sometimes humbly suppliant in their tone and +sometimes threatening, but Joseph did not yield either to supplications +or menaces. + +When the edict which made German the official language of the country +was published, the minds of men all over the country were greatly +disturbed. It is true that hitherto the Latin, and not the Hungarian, +language had been the medium of communication employed by the state. But +the national spirit and the native tongue, which during the first +seventy years of the eighteenth century had sadly degenerated, were +awakening to new life during Joseph's reign. The literature of the +country began to be assiduously cultivated in different spheres. Royal +body-guards belonging to distinguished families, gentlemen of +refinement, clergymen of modest position, and other sons of the native +soil labored with equal zeal and enthusiasm to foster their cherished +mother-tongue. + +It would, therefore, have been an easy matter for Joseph to replace the +Latin language, which had become an anachronism, by the Hungarian, and +thus to restore the latter to its natural and legal position in the +state. He was perfectly right in ridding the country of the mastery of +a dead tongue, but he committed a most fatal error in trying to +substitute for it the German, an error which avenged itself most +bitterly. Joseph entertained a special antipathy to the Hungarian +tongue, a dislike which betrayed him into omitting the teaching of the +native language from the course of public instruction, and refusing to +allow an academy of sciences to be established which had its cultivation +for its object. + +The Emperor's attack upon the language of the nation irremediably broke +the last tie between him and the country, and henceforth the relations +between them could be only hostile. The counties assumed a threatening +attitude, some of them refusing obedience altogether. Thus most of them +declined to give their official coöperation to the army officers who had +been delegated by the Emperor to take the census. The count, +nevertheless, proceeded, but in many places the inhabitants escaped to +the woods, and in some there were serious riots in consequence of the +opposition to the commissioners of the census. + +A rising of a different character took place among the Wallachs. The +Wallachs, smarting under abuses of long standing, buoyed up by +exaggerated expectations consequent upon the Emperor's innovations, and +stirred up by evil-minded agitators, took to arms and perpetrated the +most outrageous atrocities against their Hungarian landlords. The +ignorant common people were assured by their leaders, Hora and Kloska, +that the Emperor himself sided with them. The Wallach insurgents +assassinated the Government's commissioners sent to them, destroyed +sixty villages and one hundred eighty-two gentlemen's mansions, and +killed four thousand Hungarians before they could be checked in their +bloody work. Although they were finally crushed and punished, a strong +belief prevailed in the country that the court of Vienna had been privy +to the Wallach rising. + +Joseph subsequently laid down most humane rules regulating the relations +between the bondmen and their landlords. But the country could not be +appeased by any boon, especially as the high protective tariff, just +then established for the benefit of the Austrian provinces, was +seriously damaging the prosperity of the people. Joseph's foreign policy +tended to increase the domestic disaffection. In 1788 he declared war +against Turkey, but the campaign turned out unsuccessful, and nearly +terminated with the Emperor's capture. The nation, emboldened by his +defeat, urged now more emphatically her demands, and requested the +Emperor to annul his illegal edicts, to submit to be crowned, and to +restore the ancient constitution. Joseph continuing to resist her +demands, most of the counties refused to contribute in aid of the war +either money or produce. In addition to their recalcitrant attitude, +they most energetically pressed the Emperor to convoke the Diet at Buda, +a few counties going even so far as to insist upon the chief justice's +convoking it, if the Emperor failed to do so before May, 1790. + +The courage of the nation rose still higher when the news of the +Revolution in France and the revolt in Belgium reached the country. The +people refused to furnish recruits and military aid, and the Emperor was +compelled to use violence in order to obtain either. The counties +remained firm and continued to remonstrate in addresses characterized by +sharp and energetic language. Joseph yielded at last. He was prostrated +by a grave illness, and, feeling his end approaching, he wished to die +in peace with the exasperated nation he had so deeply wounded. On +January 28, 1790, he retracted all his illegal edicts, excepting those +that had reference to religious toleration, the peasantry, and the +clergy, and reëstablished the ancient constitution of the country. Soon +after he sent back the crown to Buda, where its return was celebrated +with great pomp, amid the enthusiastic shouts of the people. Before he +could yet convoke the Diet death terminated the Emperor's career on +February 20th. + +The world lost in him a great and noble-minded man, a friend to +humanity, who, however, had been unable to realize all his lofty +intentions. The effect of his reign was to rouse Hungary from the apathy +into which it had sunk, and at the time of Joseph's death the minds of +the people were a prey to an excitement no less feverish than that which +had seized revolutionary France at the same period. But while in Paris +democracy was victorious over royalty, the latter had to yield in +Hungary to the privileged nobility. The restored constitution was a +charter of political privileges for the nobles only, and as such was +most jealously guarded by them. This class kept a strict watch over the +liberal tendencies of the age, preventing the importation of democratic +ideas from France from fear of harm to their exclusive immunities. + +Joseph was succeeded by his brother, Leopold II, who until now had been +Grand Duke of Tuscany. The new ruler was as enlightened as his +predecessor, and had as much the welfare of the people at heart; but he +respected, at the same time, the laws and the constitution. He +immediately convoked the Diet in order to be crowned, and by this act he +solemnly sealed the peace with the nation. The people hailed with joy +this first step of their new King, and there was nothing in the way of +their now obtaining lawfully from the good-will of the King the salutary +legislation which Joseph had attempted to force arbitrarily upon them. +But the fond hopes in this direction were doomed to disappointment. The +national movement had not helped to power those who were in favor of +progress, equality of rights, and democracy. + +No doubt there were people in the country who differed from the men in +authority, who were sincerely attached to the doctrines of the French +Revolution and eager to supplant the privileges of the nobles by the +broader rights belonging to all humanity. The national literature was in +the hands of men of this class. They combated the reactionary spirit of +the nobility, and contended for the recognition of the civil and +political rights of by far the largest portion of the people, the +non-nobles. They boldly and with generous enthusiasm wielded the pen in +defence of those noble ideas, and indoctrinated the people with them as +much as the restraints placed upon the press allowed it at that period. +They succeeded in obtaining recruits for their ideas from the very ranks +of the privileged classes, and many an enlightened magnate admitted that +the time had arrived for modernizing the Constitution of Hungary by an +extension of political rights. + +Their number was swelled also by the more intelligent portion of the +inhabitants of the cities, and those educated patriotic people who, +although no gentle blood flowed in their veins, had either obtained +office under Joseph's reign or had imbibed the political views of that +monarch. But all of these men combined formed but an insignificant +fraction of the people compared to the numerous nobility, who, after +their enforced submission during ten years, were eager to turn to the +advantage of their own class the victory they had achieved over Joseph. +During the initial preparations for the elections to the Diet, and in +the course of the elections, sentiments were publicly uttered and +obtained a majority in the county assemblies, which caused a feverish +commotion among the common people and the peasantry. + +The latter especially now eagerly clung to innovations introduced by the +Emperor Joseph, so beneficial as regarded their own class, and were +reluctant to submit to the restoration of the former arbitrary landlord +system. Their remonstrances were answered by the counties to the effect +that Providence had willed it so that some men should be kings, others +nobles, and others again bondmen. Such cruel reasoning failed to satisfy +the aggrieved peasantry. Symptoms of a dangerous revolutionary spirit +showed themselves throughout a large portion of the country, and an +outbreak could be prevented only by the timely assurance, on the part of +the counties, that the matter would be submitted to the Diet about to +assemble. + +The Diet, which had not been convened for twenty-five years, opened in +Buda in the beginning of June, 1790. The coronation soon took place. +Fifty years had elapsed since the last similar pageant had been enacted +in Hungary. After a lengthy and vehement contest extending over ten +months, in the course of which the Diet was removed from Buda to +Presburg, the laws of 1790-1791, which form part of the fundamental +articles of the Hungarian Constitution, were finally passed. By them the +independence of Hungary as a state obtained the fullest recognition. The +laws, which were the result of the coõperation of the crown and the +Estates, declared that Hungary was an independent country, subject to no +other country, possessing her own constitution, by which alone she was +to be governed. + +Important concessions were also made to the rights of the citizens of +the country. The privileges of the nobility were left intact, but the +extreme wing of the reactionary nobles had to rest satisfied with this +acquiescence in the former state of things, and were not allowed to push +the narrow-minded measures advocated by them. The majority of the Diet +was influenced in their wise moderation, partly by the exalted views of +the King and to a greater extent yet by the disaffected spirit rife +among the people, and especially threatening among the Serb population +of the country. The laws secured the liberties of the Protestant and the +Greek united churches, remedied the most urgent griefs of the peasantry, +and declared those who were not noble capable of holding minor offices. +Although the most important measures of reform were put off to a future +time by the Diet of 1790-1791, several preparatory royal commissions +having been appointed for their consideration, yet the work it +accomplished was the salutary beginning of a liberal legislation which +culminated, not quite sixty years later, in the declaration of the equal +rights of the people as the basis of the Hungarian commonwealth. + +After the meeting of this Diet, however, very little was done in the +direction of reforms. The good work was interrupted, partly by the +premature death of Leopold II (March 1, 1792), and partly by the warlike +period, extending over twenty-five years, which, in Hungary as +throughout all Europe, claimed public attention, and diverted the minds +of the leaders of the nation from domestic topics. Francis I, the son +and successor of Leopold II, caused himself to be crowned in due form, +and much was at first hoped from his reign. But the Jacobin rule of +terror in Paris, and the dread of seeing the revolutionary scenes +repeated in his own realm, wrought a complete change in his character +and policy. + +He soon stubbornly rejected every innovation, and gradually became a +pillar of strength for the European reaction, that extravagant +conservatism which expected to efface the effects of the French +Revolution by an unquestioning adherence to the old and traditional +order of things. This illiberal spirit of the monarch rendered +impossible for the time any further reform movement in Hungary. Every +question of desirable change met with the most obstinate opposition on +the part of the King, and the reforms submitted by the royal commissions +were considered by every successive Diet without ever becoming law. + +The period which now followed was gloomy in the extreme, as well for +Hungary as for the Austrian provinces of Francis I. The inhabitants of +these countries were constantly called upon by the King in the course of +the wars to make sacrifices in treasure and blood, by furnishing +recruits and by paying high taxes. At the same time the Government +resorted to the most absolute and arbitrary measures to prevent the +people from being contaminated with French ideas. The press was crushed +by severe penalties. Every enlightened idea was banished from the +schools and expunged from the school-books. Only men for whose extreme +reactionary spirit the police could vouch were appointed to the +professorships or to other offices. A system of universal spying and +secret information caused everybody to be suspected and to suffer from +private vindictiveness, while those who dared to avow liberal views were +the objects of cruel persecution. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[28] From Vambery's _Hungary_, in Story of the Nations Series (New York: +G. P. Putnam's Sons), by permission. + + + + +SIEGE AND SURRENDER OF YORKTOWN + +A.D. 1781 + +HENRY B. DAWSON LORD CORNWALLIS + + After almost seven years of struggle, the American colonies, + with the aid of France, won by the success of their arms + that independence which they declared in 1776. The close of + the Yorktown campaign with the surrender of Cornwallis + virtually ended the Revolutionary War. + + While the victory of the Americans over Burgoyne at Saratoga + (1777) produced a most encouraging effect upon the colonies, + their scattered forces still had much arduous work before + them. The defeat of Washington at Brandywine and at + Germantown (September and October, 1777) left the British, + under Howe, in possession of Philadelphia. Being in no + condition to keep the field, Washington went into winter + quarters at Valley Forge, twenty miles northwest of that + city. There, in the most inhospitable surroundings, the army + remained from the middle of December, 1777, suffering untold + privations, while the British passed a winter of gayety in + Philadelphia. The American camp consisted of log huts with + windows of oiled paper. The soldiers built the huts in + bitter weather, their only food being cakes of flour and + water which they baked at the open fires. To the hardships + of exposure were added the sufferings of disease; to + scarcity of provisions, lack of clothing. The men, said + Lafayette, "were in want of everything; they had neither + coats, hats, shirts, nor shoes; their feet and their legs + froze till they became black, and it was often necessary to + amputate them." + + After such a winter it seems remarkable that Washington + could have so strengthened his army as to win the Battle of + Monmouth in the following June. The next considerable events + of the war were the taking of Stony Point by the British in + 1779, and its recapture by Anthony Wayne in the same year. + The war went on during the next two years with varying + results, but none decisive. The defection of Benedict Arnold + deprived the Americans of a capable soldier and gave him to + the enemy. The American victory at the Battle of the + Cowpens, January 17, 1781, was offset by the triumph of + Cornwallis at Guilford Court House, March 15th, but this was + that general's last success on American soil. His own + account of the surrender of Yorktown, in a letter addressed + to Sir Henry Clinton, here follows the complete narrative of + Dawson, which covers the final year of the actual War of the + American Revolution. + + +HENRY B. DAWSON + +The seventh year of the War of the Revolution was productive of great +events. Opening with the mutiny of the Pennsylvania line of troops, its +progress soon developed the disaffection of the New Jersey line also, +and all the skill of General Washington was necessary to maintain that +discipline in the army on which the salvation of the country depended. +The resources of the country, from the long-continued struggle through +which it had passed during six years, had become exhausted; its currency +had become depreciated beyond precedent; and the people, weary of the +contest, were lukewarm as well as enervated. + +At that time, also, the Federal Congress appeared to lack that nerve and +decision which had marked the proceedings of the same body earlier in +the war; and contenting itself with "recommendations," without +attempting to enforce its requisitions or even to advise the adoption of +compulsory measures by the States, it left the troops who were in the +field without clothing, provisions, or pay, and indirectly forced upon +them those acts of apparent insurrection which, resolved to their first +elements, might not improperly have been called "acts of necessity," and +been justified, in charity, as essential to their self-preservation. + +So gloomy, indeed, were the prospects of American independence at that +time that the interposition of some foreign government was, by general +consent, considered absolutely essential; and never were the good +qualities of the Commander-in-Chief more nobly displayed than at this +period, when, amid the most pressing discouragements, referred to, he +urged the States to strengthen the bonds of the confederacy and to renew +their efforts for the great final struggle with their haughty and +determined enemy. + +The enemy, still anxiously seeking to establish his power in the +Southern States, had sent General Arnold to Virginia, with a strong +detachment of troops, to coöperate with Lord Cornwallis, who was busily +engaged, in a series of movements, in measuring his strength and his +skill with General Greene; and, soon afterward, a second detachment, +under General Phillips, was sent to the same State. + +Early in May the Count de Barras arrived from Europe with the welcome +intelligence of the approach of reënforcements from France; and that a +strong fleet from the West Indies, under Count de Grasse, might be +expected in the American waters within a few weeks. In view of these +facts a conference between General Washington and the Count de +Rochambeau was held at Weathersfield soon afterward, and the plans of +the campaign were discussed and determined on. + +Among the principal operations proposed was an attack on the city of New +York; and in accordance with these plans the allied forces of America +and France moved against that city. Every necessary preparation had been +made for the commencement of active operations, when, on August 14th, a +letter reached General Washington in which the Count de Grasse informed +him that the entire French West Indian fleet, with more than three +thousand land forces, would shortly sail from Santo Domingo for the +Chesapeake, intimating, however, that he could not remain longer than +the middle of October, at which time it would be necessary for him to be +on his station again. As the limited period which the Count could spend +in the service of the allies was not sufficient to warrant the +supposition that he could be useful before New York, the entire plan of +the campaign was changed; and it was resolved to proceed to Virginia, +with the whole of the French troops and as many of the Americans as +could be spared from the defence of the posts on the Hudson; and instead +of besieging Sir Henry Clinton, in his head-quarters in New York, a +movement against Lord Cornwallis and the powerful detachment under his +command was resolved on. + +At the period in question Lord Cornwallis had moved out of the +Carolinas, formed a junction with the force under General Phillips, and +had overrun the lower counties of Virginia, until General Lafayette, who +had been sent to the State some weeks after, by superior skill and the +most active exertions had succeeded in checking his progress. The +purpose of the allies was to prevent the escape of Lord Cornwallis from +his position near Yorktown; and General Lafayette was ordered to make +such a disposition of his army as should be best calculated to effect +that purpose. In case this purpose should be defeated, and Lord +Cornwallis succeed in effecting a retreat into North Carolina, it was +designed to pursue him with sufficient force to overawe him: while the +remainder of the armies, at the same time, should proceed, with the +French fleet, to Charleston, which was, at the same time, the enemy's +head-quarters in the South. + +The marine force of the allies was composed of two fleets--that of +Admiral Count de Grasse, then on its way from the West Indies, composed +of twenty-six sail of the line and several frigates; and that of Admiral +Count de Barras, then at anchor in Newport, composed of eight sail of +the line, besides transports and victuallers: their military force +embraced the main bodies of the American and French armies, under +Generals Washington and Rochambeau, then near New York; the detachment +of American troops, under General Lafayette, then in Virginia; and more +than three thousand French troops, under General Saint-Simon, who were +then on their way from the West Indies with the Count de Grasse. + +The main body of the enemy's force, under Sir Henry Clinton, was in the +city of New York and its immediate vicinity; Lord Cornwallis, with his +own command and that which, under Generals Phillips and Arnold, had +overrun some portions of Virginia, numbering in the aggregate about +seven thousand three hundred fifty men, exclusive of seamen and Tories, +was occupying the neck of land between the James and York rivers, where +General Lafayette was holding him in check; while the Southern army, +under Lieutenant-Colonel Balfour, through the successful movements of +General Greene, was mostly confined to Charleston and its immediate +vicinity. Admiral Rodney, with a large naval force, was leisurely +spending his time in securing his portion of the spoils in the West +Indies; Sir Samuel Hood, with fifteen sail of the line and six smaller +vessels, had been detached by Admiral Rodney to intercept Admiral de +Grasse, and to maintain an equality of power in the American waters; and +Admiral Graves, with part of his fleet in New York and a part before +Newport, caused the enemy to feel perfectly secure in the positions he +occupied. + +As has been stated, the intelligence from Admiral de Grasse changed the +plans of the allies; and, instead of General Clinton and the main body +of the enemy in the city of New York, Lord Cornwallis and the combined +forces under his command, then at Yorktown, were made the objects of +General Washington's attention. In executing this plan, however, it was +necessary to exercise great caution, not only to prevent Sir Henry +Clinton from moving to the assistance of Lord Cornwallis, but also to +prevent Admiral Graves from joining Sir Samuel Hood, and, by occupying +the Chesapeake, keeping open the communication by sea between Yorktown +and New York. + +For this purpose, on August 19th the New Jersey line and Colonel Hazen's +regiment were sent to New Jersey, by way of Dobbs Ferry, to protect a +large number of "ovens" which were ordered to be erected near +Springfield and Chatham in that State; and forage and boats, with some +efforts to display the same, were also collected on the west side of the +Hudson, by which the enemy was led to suppose that an attack was +intended from that quarter. Fictitious letters were also written and put +in the way of the enemy, by which the deception was confirmed; and Sir +Henry Clinton appears to have supposed that Staten Island, or a position +near Sandy Hook, to cover the entrance of the French fleet into the +harbor, was the real object of the movements, until the allied +forces--which had crossed the Hudson, leaving General Heath, with a +respectable force, on its eastern bank--had passed the Delaware, and +rendered the true object of the movement a matter of obvious certainty. + +The body of troops with which General Washington moved to the South +embraced all the French auxiliaries, led by Count Rochambeau; the light +infantry of the Continental army, led by Colonel Alexander Scammel; +detachments of light troops from the Connecticut and New York State +troops; the Rhode Island regiment; the regiment known as "Congress' +Own," under Colonel Hazen; two New York regiments; a detachment of New +Jersey troops; and the artillery, under Colonel John Lamb, numbering in +the aggregate about two thousand Americans and a strong body of French. +It is said that the American troops, who were mostly from New England +and the Middle States, marched with reluctance to the southward, showing +"strong symptoms of discontent when they passed through Philadelphia," +and becoming reconciled only when an advance of a month's pay, in +specie--which was borrowed from Count Rochambeau for that purpose--was +paid to them. + +The allies, having thus successfully eluded the watchfulness of the +enemy in New York, pressed forward toward Annapolis and the Head of +Elk, whither transports had been despatched from the French fleet to +convey them to Virginia; and, on September 25th, the last division +reached Williamsburg, where, with General Lafayette and his command, and +the auxiliary troops, the entire army had rendezvoused. + +In the mean time the enemy, as well as the French auxiliaries, had not +been inactive. Lord Cornwallis, vainly expecting reënforcements from New +York, had concentrated his army at Yorktown and Gloucester, on opposite +sides of the York River, and had been busily employed in throwing up +strong works of defence, and preparing to sustain a siege. + +Admiral Graves, after a bootless cruise to the eastward for the purpose +of intercepting some French storeships, had returned to New York on +August 16th or 17th, and since that time had been employed in refitting, +taking in stores, etc., in blissful ignorance of the approach of Admiral +de Grasse. Admiral Rodney, advised of the movements of the French fleet, +had sent "early notice" to the Admiral commanding in America; but his +despatches, which were sent by the Swallow, Captain Wells, never reached +Admiral Graves. Sir Samuel Hood's squadron also had been sent to the +northward to check the movements of the French fleet or to strengthen +the fleet of Admiral Graves, after touching at the Chesapeake, before +the French fleet arrived there, had sailed for New York, and on the +afternoon of August 28th had reached that port, and communicated to the +Admiral the first intelligence of the movements of the French fleet +which he had received. On August 31st the Admiral, with five ships +belonging to his own command, and the squadron under Sir Samuel Hood, +sailed for the Chesapeake, where he found the French fleet, and on +September 5th accepted the invitation to fight which the Admiral de +Grasse extended to him; but considered it prudent to return to New York +immediately afterward. + +The Admiral Count de Grasse, with a naval force of twenty-six sail of +the line and some smaller vessels, had sailed from Santo Domingo on +August 5th; on the 30th of the same month he entered the Chesapeake and +anchored at Lynn Haven; on the following day he had blockaded the mouths +of the James and York rivers, and prevented the retreat of the enemy by +water; and, as has been before stated--notwithstanding the absence of +about nineteen hundred of his men, besides three ships of the line and +two fifties with their crews--had gone out and fought with Admiral +Graves and nineteen sail of the line. General the Marquis Saint-Simon, +at the head of thirty-three hundred French troops, had been landed from +the fleet on September 2d; joined General Lafayette on the 3d; and on +the 5th, with the latter officer and his command, had moved down to +Williamsburg, fifteen miles from York, and cut off the retreat of the +enemy by land. Admiral de Barras, with his squadron and ten transports, +having on board the siege-artillery and a large body of French troops +under M. de Choisy, sailed from Newport on August 25th, and entered Lynn +Haven Bay in safety on September 10th, while Admiral de Grasse was +absent in engagement with Admiral Graves. + +As before mentioned, the different divisions of the allied forces +rendezvoused at Williamsburg, in the vicinity of Yorktown, in the latter +part of September. At the same time the enemy's fleet, overawed by the +superior force of the combined fleets under Admirals de Grasse and de +Barras, had returned to New York, leaving General Cornwallis and his +army to the fortunes of war; and enabling the naval force of the allies +to coöperate with their military in all the operations of the siege. +General Heath, with two New Hampshire, ten Massachusetts, and five +Connecticut regiments, the corps of invalids, Sheldon's Legion of +Dragoons, the Third regiment of artillery, and "all such State troops +and militia as were retained in service," remained in the vicinity of +New York to protect the passes in the Highlands, and to check any +movement which Sir Henry Clinton might make for the relief of Lord +Cornwallis. + +At daybreak on September 28th the entire body of the army moved from +Williamsburg, and occupied a position within two miles of the enemy's +line; the American troops occupied the right of the line; the French +auxiliaries the left. York, the scene of operations referred to, is a +small village, the seat of justice of York County, Virginia, and is +situated on the southern bank of the York River, eleven miles from its +mouth. On the opposite side of the river is Gloucester Point, on which +the enemy had also taken a position; and the communication between the +two posts was commanded by his land-batteries and by some vessels-of-war +which lay at anchor under his guns. + +On September 29th the besiegers were principally employed in +reconnoitring the situation of the enemy and in arranging their plans of +attack. The main body of the enemy was found intrenched in the open +ground about Yorktown, with the intention of checking the progress of +the allies, while an inner line of works, near the village, had been +provided for his ultimate defence; Lieutenant-Colonel Simcoe, with his +legion, the Eightieth regiment of the line, and the Hereditary Prince's +regiment of Hessians, the whole under Lieutenant-Colonel Dundas, being +in possession of Gloucester Point. The only movement was an extension of +the right wing of the allied armies, and the consequent occupation of +the ground east of the Beaver-dam Creek, by the American forces. + +On the evening of that day Lord Cornwallis received despatches from New +York in which Sir Henry Clinton advised his lordship that "at a meeting +of the general and flag officers, held this day (September 24, 1781) it +is determined that above five thousand men, rank and file, shall be +embarked on board the King's ships, and the joint exertions of the navy +and army made in a few days to relieve you, and afterward to operate +with you. The fleet consists of twenty-three sail of the line, three of +which are three-deckers. There is every reason to hope that we start +from hence October 5th." Gratified with this promise of assistance, and +probably confident of his ability to hold his inner position until he +could be relieved, Lord Cornwallis imprudently retired from the outer +line of works which he had occupied, and on the same night (September +29th) occupied the town, leaving the outer lines to be occupied by the +allies, without resistance, on the next day. + +On September 30th the allies occupied the deserted positions, and were +thereby "enabled to shut up the enemy in a much narrower circle, giving +them the greatest advantages." Before the allies moved to the positions +which had been thus deserted, Colonel Alexander Scammell, the officer of +the day, approached them for the purpose of reconnoitring, when he was +attacked by a party of the enemy's horse, which was ambushed in the +neighborhood, and, after being mortally wounded, was taken prisoner. On +the same day the transports, having on board the battering-train, came +up to Trubell's, seven miles from York, whence they were transported to +the lines; and the lines were completely and effectively occupied. The +French extended from the river above the town, to a morass in the +centre, while the Americans continued the lines from the morass to the +river, below the town, the whole forming a semicircle, with the river +for a chord. + +On the same day the Duc de Lauzun, with his legion of cavalry, and +General Weedon, with a body of Virginian militia, the whole under Sieur +de Choisy, invested Gloucester, in the course of which a party of the +Queen's Rangers, which had been sent out to observe the movements of the +allies, was driven in with considerable loss. + +On the following day (October 1st) eight hundred marines were landed +from the fleet to strengthen the party which was investing Gloucester; +and from that time until the 6th both the allies and the enemy +vigorously prosecuted their several works of attack or defence, or +otherwise prepared for the great struggle which was then inevitable. + +On the night of October 6th, under the command of General Lincoln, the +besiegers opened their trenches within six hundred yards of the enemy's +lines, yet with so much silence was it conducted that it appears to have +been undiscovered until daylight on the 7th, when the works were so far +completed that they afforded ample shelter for the men, and but one +officer and sixteen privates were injured. In this attack the enemy +appears to have bent his energies chiefly against the French, on the +left of the trenches; and the regiments of Bourbonnois, Soissonnois, and +Touraine, commanded by the Baron de Viomenil, were most conspicuous in +the defence of the lines. + +The 7th, 8th, and 9th of October were employed in strengthening the +first parallel, and in constructing batteries somewhat in advance of it, +for the purpose of raking the enemy's works and of battering his +shipping. Communications were also made in the rear of the left of the +line, in order to secure the greater number of openings. On the night of +the 10th the trenches on the left were occupied by the regiments of +Agenois and Saintonge, under the Marquis de Chastellux; on that of the +8th by the regiments of Gatinois and Royal-Deux-Ponts, under the Marquis +de Saint-Simon. + +At 5 P.M. of the 9th the American battery on the right of the line +opened its fire--General Washington in person firing the first gun--and +six eighteen and twenty-four pounders, two mortars, and two howitzers +were steadily engaged during the entire night. At an early hour on the +morning of the 10th the French battery on the left, with four +twelve-pounders and six mortars and howitzers, also opened fire; and on +the same day this fire was increased by the fire from two other French +and two American batteries--the former mounting ten eighteen and +twenty-four pounders, and six mortars and howitzers, and four +eighteen-pounders respectively; the latter mounting four +eighteen-pounders and two mortars. "The fire now became so excessively +heavy that the enemy withdrew their cannon from their embrasures, placed +them behind the merlins, and scarcely fired a shot during the whole +day." In the evening of the 10th the Charon, a frigate of forty-four +guns, and three transports were set on fire by the shells of hot shot +and entirely consumed; and the enemy's shipping was warped over the +river, as far as possible, to protect it from similar disaster. + +On the night of the 11th the second parallel was opened within three +hundred yards of the enemy's lines; and, as in the former instance, it +was so far advanced before morning that the men employed in them were in +a great measure protected from injury when the enemy opened fire. The +three following days were spent in completing this parallel and the +redoubts and batteries belonging to it, during which time the enemy's +fire was well sustained and more than usually destructive. Two advanced +batteries, three hundred yards in front of the enemy's left, were +particularly annoying, inasmuch as they flanked the second parallel of +the besiegers; and as the engineers reported that they had been severely +injured by the fire of the allies it was resolved to attempt to carry +them by assault. + +Accordingly, in the evening of the 14th, these redoubts were +assaulted--that on the extreme right by a detachment embracing the light +infantry of the American army, under General Lafayette; the latter by a +detachment of grenadiers and chasseurs from the French army, commanded +by Baron Viomenil. The attacks were made at 8 P.M., and in that of the +Americans the advance was led by Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Hamilton, +with his own battalion and that of Colonel Gimat, the latter in the +van; while Lieutenant-Colonel John Laurens, at the head of eighty men, +took the garrison in reverse and cut off its retreat. Not a single +musket was loaded; and the troops rushed forward with the greatest +impetuosity--passing over the abatis and palisades--and carrying the +work with the bayonet, with the loss of nine killed, and six officers +and twenty-six rank and file wounded. The French performed their part of +the duty with equal gallantry, although from the greater strength of +their opponents it was not done so quickly as that of the Americans. The +German grenadier regiment of Deux-Ponts, led by Count William Forback de +Deux-Ponts, led the column; and Captain Henry de Kalb, of that regiment, +was the first officer who entered the work. The chasseur regiment of +Gatinois supported the attack; and, in like manner with that on the +right, the redoubt was carried at the point of the bayonet. + +During the night these redoubts were connected with the second parallel; +and during the next day (October 15th) several howitzers were placed on +them and a fire opened on the town. These works, important as they had +been to the enemy, were no less so to the allies, from the fact that, +with them, the entire line of the enemy's works could be enfiladed, and +the line of communication between York and Gloucester commanded. + +The situation of Lord Cornwallis had now become desperate. He "dared not +show a gun to the old batteries" of the allies, and their new ones, then +about to open fire, threatened to render his position untenable in a few +hours. "Experience has shown," he then wrote, "that our fresh earthen +works do not resist their powerful artillery, so that we shall soon be +exposed to an assault in ruined works, in a bad position, and with +weakened numbers." To retard as much as possible what now appeared to be +inevitable, at an early hour next morning (October 16th) the garrison +made a sortie; when three hundred fifty men, led by Lieutenant-Colonel +Abercrombie, attacked two batteries within the second parallel, carried +them with inconsiderable loss, and spiked the guns; but the guards and +pickets speedily assembled, and drove the assailants back into the town +before any other damage was done. + +About 4 P.M. of the 16th the fire of several batteries in the second +parallel were opened on the town, while the entire line was rapidly +approaching completion. At this time the situation of the enemy was +peculiarly distressing; his defences being in ruins, his guns +dismounted, and his ammunition nearly exhausted while an irresistible +force was rapidly concentrating its powers to overwhelm and destroy him. +At this time Lord Cornwallis entertained the bold and novel design of +abandoning his sick and baggage, and by crossing the river to Gloucester +and overpowering the force under General de Choisy, which was then +guarding that position, to fly for his life, through Virginia, +Pennsylvania, and the Jerseys, to New York. As no time could be lost, +the attempt was made during the same night, but a violent storm, coming +on while the first detachment was still on the river, preventing the +landing of part of it, the movement was abandoned; and those troops who +had crossed the river returned to York during the next day. + +[Illustration: The Siege of Yorktown + +Painting by L. C. A. Couder.] + +On the morning of the next day (October 17th) the several new batteries, +which supported the second parallel, opened fire; when Lord Cornwallis +considered it no longer incumbent on him to attempt to hold his position +at the cost of his troops, and at 10 A.M. he beat a parley and asked a +cessation of hostilities, that commissioners might meet to settle the +terms for the surrender of the posts of York and Gloucester. + +A correspondence ensued between the commanders-in-chief; and on the 18th +the Viscount de Noailles and Lieutenant-Colonel John Laurens met Colonel +Dundas and Major Ross to arrange the terms of surrender. Without being +able to agree on all points, the commissioners separated; when General +Washington sent a rough copy of the articles, which had been prepared, +to Lord Cornwallis, with a note expressing his expectation that they +would be signed by 11 A.M. on the 19th, and that the garrison would be +ready to march out of the town within three hours afterward. Finding all +attempts to obtain more advantageous terms unavailing, Lord Cornwallis +yielded to the necessities of the case and surrendered, with his entire +force, military and naval, to the arms of the allies. + +The army, with all its artillery, stores, military-chest, etc., was +surrendered to General Washington; the navy, with its appointments, to +Admiral de Grasse. + +The terms were precisely similar to those which the enemy had granted +to the garrison of Charleston in the preceding year; and General +Lincoln, the commander of that garrison, on whom the illiberality of the +enemy then fell, was designated as the officer to whom the surrender +should be made. + +"At about 12, noon," says an eye-witness, "the combined army was +arranged and drawn up in two lines extending more than a mile in length. +The Americans were drawn up in a line on the right side of the road, and +the French occupied the left. At the head of the former the great +American commander, mounted on his noble courser, took his station, +attended by his aides. At the head of the latter was posted the +excellent Count Rochambeau and his suite. The French troops, in complete +uniform, displayed a martial and noble appearance; their band of music, +of which the timbrel formed a part, was a delightful novelty, and +produced while marching to the ground a most enchanting effect. The +Americans, though not all in uniform nor their dress so neat, yet +exhibited an erect, soldierly air, and every countenance beamed with +satisfaction and joy. The concourse of spectators from the country was +prodigious, in point of numbers probably equal to the military, but +universal silence and order prevailed. It was about two o'clock when the +captive army advanced through the line formed for their reception. Every +eye was prepared to gaze on Cornwallis, the object of peculiar interest +and solicitation; but he disappointed our anxious expectations; +pretending indisposition, he made General O'Hara his substitute as the +leader of his army. This officer was followed by the conquered troops in +a slow and solemn step, with shouldered arms, colors cased, and drums +beating a British march." + +"Having arrived at the head of the line, General O'Hara, elegantly +mounted, advanced to His Excellency the Commander-in-Chief, taking off +his hat, and apologizing for the non-appearance of Earl Cornwallis. With +his usual dignity and politeness, His Excellency pointed to +Major-General Lincoln for directions, by whom the British army was +conducted into a spacious field, where it was intended they should +ground their arms. The royal troops, while marching through the line +formed by the allied army, exhibited a decent and neat appearance as +respects arms and clothing, for their commander opened his stores and +directed every soldier to be furnished with a new suit complete prior +to the capitulation. But in their line of march we remarked a +disorderly and unsoldierly conduct, their step was irregular and their +ranks frequently broken. But it was in the field, when they came to the +last act of the drama, that the spirit and pride of the British soldier +was put to the severest test; here their mortification could not be +concealed. Some of the platoon officers appeared to be exceedingly +chagrined when given the order 'ground arms'; and I am a witness that +they performed this duty in a very unofficer-like manner, and that many +of the soldiers manifested a sullen temper, throwing their arms on the +pile with violence, as if determined to render them useless. This +irregularity, however, was checked by the authority of General Lincoln. +After having grounded their arms and divested themselves of their +accoutrements, the captive troops were conducted back to Yorktown and +guarded by our troops till they could be removed to the place of their +destination. + +"The British troops that were stationed at Gloucester surrendered at the +same time, and in the same manner, to the command of the French general, +De Choisy. This must be a very interesting and gratifying transaction to +General Lincoln, who, having himself been obliged to surrender an army +to a haughty foe the last year, has now assigned him the pleasing duty +of giving laws to a conquered army in return, and of reflecting that the +terms which were imposed on him are adopted as a basis of the surrender +in the present instance." + +The General-in-Chief on October 20th issued a "general order" +congratulating the army "upon the glorious event of yesterday"; and +after thanking the officers and troops of his ally, several of his own +officers, and Governor Nelson of Virginia and the militia under his +command, he concludes with these words: "To spread the general joy in +all hearts, the General commands that those of the army who are now held +under arrest be pardoned, set at liberty, and that they join their +respective corps. + +"Divine service shall be performed in the different brigades and +divisions. The Commander-in-Chief recommends that all the troops that +are not upon duty, to assist at it with a serious deportment, and that +sensibility of heart which the recollection of the surprising and +particular interposition of Providence in our favor claims." + +The intelligence of the surrender, as it spread over the country, gave +general satisfaction and filled every American heart with joy. Congress +went in procession to the Dutch Lutheran Church to return thanks to +Almighty God for the victory, and a day was set apart for general +thanksgiving and prayer; the thanks of the same body were voted to the +forces, both of America and France; and in the plenitude of its +good-feeling it "resolved" to do that which it has not yet commenced to +perform--to erect a marble column at York, in commemoration of the +event.[29] + +But a greater and more enduring monument than any which the Congress has +ever "resolved" to erect, commemorates the capture of Cornwallis: the +fall of British dominion in the thirteen colonies on the Atlantic +seaboard, the disinterested self-sacrifices of General Washington and +the very few who enjoyed his confidence and regard, and the triumph of +"the true principles of government." A country which, from small things, +has become prosperous, powerful, and happy; a people, whose intelligence +and enterprise and independence have astonished the old nations and +their rulers; and the homage of admiring millions, freely and +voluntarily offered, in every quarter of the globe--these form a +monument which will commemorate the fall of Cornwallis, and the +patriotism of Washington and Greene, of Wayne and Hamilton, of the +honest yeomanry and the devoted "regulars" of that day, long after the +resolutions of the Congress--if not the Congress itself--shall have sunk +into obscurity and been entirely forgotten. + + +LORD CORNWALLIS + +I have the mortification to inform your Excellency that I have been +forced to give up the posts of York and Gloucester, and to surrender the +troops under my command, by capitulation, on the 19th instant, as +prisoners of war to the combined forces of America and France. + +I never saw this post in a very favorable light, but when I found I was +to be attacked in it in so unprepared a state, by so powerful an army +and artillery, nothing but the hopes of relief would have induced me to +attempt its defence, for I would either have endeavored to escape to +New York by rapid marches from the Gloucester side, immediately on the +arrival of General Washington's troops at Williamsburg, or I would, +notwithstanding the disparity of numbers, have attacked them in the open +field, where it might have been just possible that fortune would have +favored the gallantry of the handful of troops under my command; but +being assured by your Excellency's letters that every possible means +would be tried by the navy and army to relieve us, I could not think +myself at liberty to venture upon either of these desperate attempts; +therefore, after remaining for two days in a strong position in front of +this place in hopes of being attacked, upon observing that the enemy +were taking measures which could not fail of turning my left flank in a +short time, and receiving on the second evening your letter of September +24th informing me that the relief would sail about October 5th, I +withdrew within the works on the night of September 29th, hoping by the +labor and firmness of the soldiers to protract the defence until you +could arrive. Everything was to be expected from the spirit of the +troops, but every disadvantage attended their labor, as the works were +to be continued under the enemy's fire, and our stock of intrenching +tools, which did not much exceed four hundred when we began to work in +the latter end of August, was now much diminished. + +The enemy broke ground on the night of the 30th, and constructed on that +night, and the two following days and nights, two redoubts, which, with +some works that had belonged to our outward position, occupied a gorge +between two creeks or ravines which come from the river on each side of +the town. On the night of October 6th they made their first parallel, +extending from its right on the river to a deep ravine on the left, +nearly opposite to the centre of this place, and embracing our whole +left at a distance of six hundred yards. Having perfected this parallel, +their batteries opened on the evening of the 9th against our left, and +other batteries fired at the same time against a redoubt advanced over +the creek upon our right, and defended by about a hundred twenty men of +the Twenty-third regiment and marines, who maintained that post with +uncommon gallantry. The fire continued incessant from heavy cannon, and +from mortars and howitzers throwing shells from 8 to 16 inches, until +all our guns on the left were silenced, our work much damaged, and our +loss of men considerable. On the night of the 11th they began their +second parallel, about three hundred yards nearer to us. The troops +being much weakened by sickness, as well as by the fire of the +besiegers, and observing that the enemy had not only secured their +flanks, but proceeded in every respect with the utmost regularity and +caution, I could not venture so large sorties as to hope from them any +considerable effect, but otherwise I did everything in my power to +interrupt this work by opening new embrasures for guns and keeping up a +constant fire from all the howitzers and small mortars that we could +man. + +On the evening of the 14th they assaulted and carried two redoubts that +had been advanced about three hundred yards for the purpose of delaying +their approaches, and covering our left flank, and during the night +included them in their second parallel, on which they continued to work +with the utmost exertion. Being perfectly sensible that our works could +not stand many hours after the opening of the batteries of that +parallel, we not only continued a constant fire with all our mortars, +and every gun that could be brought to bear upon it, but a little before +daybreak on the morning of the 16th I ordered a sortie of about three +hundred fifty men, under the direction of Lieutenant-Colonel +Abercrombie, to attack two batteries which appeared to be in the +greatest forwardness, and to spike the guns. A detachment of guards with +the Eightieth company of grenadiers, under the command of +Lieutenant-Colonel Lake, attacked the one, and one of light infantry, +under the command of Major Armstrong, attacked the other, and both +succeeded in forcing the redoubts that covered them, spiking eleven +guns, and killing or wounding about one hundred of the French troops, +who had the guard of that part of the trenches, and with little loss on +our side. This action, though extremely honorable to the officers and +soldiers who executed it, proved of little public advantage, for the +cannon, having been spiked in a hurry, were soon rendered fit for +service again, and before dark the whole parallel and batteries appeared +to be nearly complete. At this time we knew that there was no part of +the whole front attacked on which we could show a single gun, and our +shells were nearly expended. I therefore had only to choose between +preparing to surrender next day or endeavoring to get off with the +greatest part of the troops, and I determined to attempt the latter. + +In this situation, with my little force divided, the enemy's batteries +opened at daybreak. The passage between this place and Gloucester was +much exposed, but the boats, having now returned, they were ordered to +bring back the troops that had passed during the night, and they joined +us in the forenoon without much loss. Our works, in the mean time, were +going to ruin, and not having been able to strengthen them by an abatis, +nor in any other manner but by a slight fraising, which the enemy's +artillery were demolishing wherever they fired, my opinion entirely +coincided with that of the engineer and principal officers of the army, +that they were in many places assailable in the forenoon, and that by +the continuance of the same fire for a few hours longer they would be in +such a state as to render it desperate, with our numbers, to attempt to +maintain them. We at that time could not fire a single gun; only one +8-inch and little more than one hundred Cohorn shells remained. A +diversion by the French ships-of-war that lay at the mouth of York River +was to be expected. + +Our numbers had been diminished by the enemy's fire, but particularly by +sickness, and the strength and spirits of those in the works were much +exhausted by the fatigue of constant watching and unremitting duty. +Under all these circumstances I thought it would have been wanton and +inhuman to the last degree to sacrifice the lives of this small body of +gallant soldiers, who had ever behaved with so much fidelity and +courage, by exposing them to an assault which, from the numbers and +precautions of the enemy, could not fail to succeed. I therefore +proposed to capitulate; and I have the honor to enclose to your +excellency the copy of the correspondence between General Washington and +me on that subject, and the terms of capitulation agreed upon. I +sincerely lament that better could not be obtained, but I have neglected +nothing in my power to alleviate the misfortune and distress of both +officers and soldiers. The men are well clothed and provided with +necessaries, and I trust will be regularly supplied by the means of the +officers that are permitted to remain with them. The treatment, in +general, that we have received from the enemy since our surrender has +been perfectly good and proper, but the kindness and attention that +have been shown to us by the French officers in particular--their +delicate sensibility of our situation--their generous and pressing offer +of money, both public and private, to any amount--has really gone beyond +what I can possibly describe, and will, I hope, make an impression in +the breast of every British officer, whenever the fortune of war should +put any of them into our power. + +YORKTOWN, Virginia, October 20, 1781. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[29] A commemorative column, surmounted by a statue of General +Rochambeau, heroic size, was unveiled at Washington May 24, 1902.--ED. + + + + +BRITISH DEFENCE OF GIBRALTAR + +A.D. 1782 + +FREDERICK SAYER + + To Great Britain it was of the utmost importance that, once + having secured possession of Gibraltar, she should keep that + famous stronghold. By successfully defending it during the + long siege of 1779-1783, she retained it in what has proved + a lasting tenure. + + The fortified promontory and town of Gibraltar, now a + British crown colony, have long been objects of historical + interest. The Rock of Gibraltar, anciently called Calpe, one + of the Pillars of Hercules, is on the southern coast of + Spain. Its name has been for centuries a synonyme of + strength. Near it in the eighth century landed Tarik, the + first Saracen invader of Spain. The Moors mainly held it + till 1462, when it was finally taken by the Spaniards. + Charles V fortified it; in 1704 it was captured by an + English and Dutch force under Sir George Rooke. The + Spaniards and French unsuccessfully besieged it in + 1704-1705, and the Spaniards again in 1727. + + No further attempt was made to capture this seemingly + impregnable fastness until the great siege here described by + Sayer, when once more the Spaniards and French combined + against it. England was now somewhat weakened by the war + with the American colonies and France. All Europe was + unfriendly to her, and Spain, as well as France, was + actively hostile. Gibraltar was closely invested in 1779, + and so remained for three years, when the final assault was + made. In 1782 Alvarez, the Spanish commander, was superseded + by the Duc de Crillon, who had just taken Minorca from the + British. + + George Augustus Eliot, afterward Lord Heathfield, Baron of + Gibraltar, who made the memorable defence, was appointed + governor of Gibraltar in 1775. Lord Howe, who went to his + assistance, had conducted the English naval operations in + America. He returned to England in 1778, in 1782 was made a + viscount of Great Britain, and was sent to relieve + Gibraltar, where he arrived too late to assist against the + grand attack, but landed welcome troops and supplies. + + +Piqued at the successful defence which for three years had baffled every +effort, and burning with the desire to wipe out the stain on the +national honor, the Spaniards were urged on in this last struggle by all +the impulses of pride, ambition, and revenge. The slow and regular +operations of a siege having proved but labor lost against this +stubborn rock, rewards were offered to the most skilful engineers in +Europe for plans to subdue the fortress. + +Stimulated by these liberal offers, a thousand schemes had reached +Madrid, some bold to extravagance, others too ludicrous to deserve +attention. Among them, however, was one, the invention of the Chevalier +d'Arçon, of such superior merit that it instantly arrested the attention +even of the King himself. His plan consisted of a combined attack by sea +and land upon a scale so tremendously formidable, and assisted by such +ingenious inventions of art, that it held out a prospect of certain +success. + +After a brief consideration the Court of Madrid announced its +unqualified approval of the scheme, and orders were at once issued for +its adoption. Not only was the reduction of the fort now considered +certain, but so vast were the powers to be employed, and so prodigious +the armament to be brought against the walls, that the annihilation of +every stone upon the rock was not unexpected. The plan embraced two +leading features: first, a bombardment from the isthmus, upon a scale +hitherto unknown; secondly, an attack by sea along the whole length of +the line-wall. For this purpose floating batteries of such construction +that they were to be "at once incombustible and insubmergible," were to +be employed. + +Each battery was clad on its fighting side with three successive layers +of squared timber, three feet in thickness; within this wall ran a body +of wet sand, and within that again was a line of cork soaked in water +and calculated to prevent the effects of splinters, the whole being +bound together by strong wooden bolts. To protect the crews from shells +or dropping shot, a hanging roof was contrived, composed of strong +rope-work netting, covered with wet hides, and shelving sufficiently to +prevent the shot from lodging. + +Not the least remarkable part of these vessels was a plan for the +prevention of combustion from red-hot shot. A reservoir was placed +beneath the roof from which numerous pipes, like the veins of the human +body, circulated through the sides of the ship, giving a constant supply +of water to every part, and keeping the wood continually saturated. + +To form these powerful batteries, ten ships, from six hundred to +fourteen hundred tons burden, were cut down to the proper proportions, +and upward of two hundred thousand cubic feet of timber were used in +their construction. Each battery was armed with from eight to twenty +heavy brass cannon of new manufacture, with a reserve of spare pieces. +The crews varied in number from seven hundred sixty to two hundred fifty +men. One large sail propelled each ship. + +Besides this tremendous armament which was to annihilate the line of +defence from the sea, preparations of no less magnitude were being made +for the attack on the northern front. Not fewer than twelve hundred +pieces of heavy ordnance were ready for use in the artillery park, +enormous quantities of ammunition and warlike stores were in the +magazines, and the reserve of gunpowder alone was reported at +eighty-three thousand barrels. Immense works were being hurried forward +on the isthmus of a grandeur which eclipsed anything that had been +previously constructed. + +In twenty-four hours a flying sap was thrown out with a rapidity of +execution unequalled. The parallel extended to a length of two hundred +thirty _toises_, with a _boyau_ of six hundred thirty toises from the +place where it joined the principal barrier of the lines. The +construction of this boyau required one million six hundred thousand +bags of sand, and thousands of casks were used in forming the parallel. +In a single night this enormous work was raised to the height of twelve +feet with eighteen feet of thickness, and it was supposed that during +the seven hours in which it was erected ten thousand men were at labor. + +To assist in the assault by sea, the combined fleets of France and +Spain, amounting to fifty sail of the line, with forty gunboats, +numerous frigates, and fifty mortar-vessels, were to act in support. +Three hundred boats, fitted with hinged platforms at their prows, were +to accompany the expedition, and at the proper moment to land the +troops. + +The outline of the attack having been arranged, the plan was drawn out +by the Duc de Crillon, and submitted for approval, first to the Court of +Madrid, and afterward to the King of France. Subsequently the details +were very materially altered, but the principle remained the same. The +method originally proposed was as follows: + +"The plan for taking Gibraltar, presented by Crillon, with the opinion +of the minister, was imparted, by order of his majesty, to France, by +the hand of Aranda, and, it being approved of, that Court offered +twenty-seven auxiliary ships. According to this plan the assault will be +conducted in the following manner: Brigadier Don Ventura Moreno will +command the fire of the fleet. The vanguard of the combined squadron +will be commanded by Señor Cordova, and among the divisions that compose +it will be included the third of twelve fireproof ships, which will +anchor in Algeciras until Señor Alvarez completes the sixty paces of +intrenchment opposite the fortress. Our ships will then attack; four by +the Europa Point, two by the New Mole, their fire being supported by +that of the gun- and mortar-boats and bomb-ketches, which will hold +themselves in readiness to support where it may be required. + +"At a given signal the fire from our whole line will open with that of +the intrenchment, which will not cease until a breach shall have been +made at the Europa Point. The battering-ships will not be allowed to +quit their respective posts till they require relief, and they will then +retire to Algeciras, whence others will proceed to supply their places, +taking up the same points. The officer who shall act counter to his +orders will be removed from his post without its being referred to the +King. The breach having been made, the commander-in-chief, the Duc de +Crillon, will notify to the governor the surrender of the fortress; and +should he consent to the capitulation, the preliminaries will be +arranged, conceding to him military honors; if he persist in the +defence, the operations will continue in the following manner: + +"The fire by sea and land will protect the disembarkation of our troops +on the flanks of the advance. The boats conveying them will be covered +by large planks on hinges, which on unfolding will fall on the moles on +the right, while on the left others will rest on the transports that +follow, in order to link them to each other and adjust them to the +breach, binding them firmly together, the first boat being attached to +the ground by means of grappling-irons, which it will carry for the +purpose. The troops will advance along these in the following order: Two +companies of grenadiers of about seventy men each, and as many more of +chasseurs, with three companies of dragoons, the whole under the +command of Señor Cagigal, general of the second column, and his +subaltern officers, the brigadier Don Francesco Pacheco, Colonel of +Seville, and Señor Aviles, Colonel of Villaviciosa. Two battalions of +volunteers of Catalonia will form the flying troops to effect a support +where it may be necessary, and to strengthen either flank, or profiting +by any opportunity the enemy may offer of attacking him. This corps will +be commanded by Brigadier Don Benito Panogo. + +"The army will be formed into three divisions; its right commanded by +Lieutenant-General Buch, its left by the Count of Cifuentes, and its +centre by Marshal Burghesi. The best company of grenadiers from each +regiment will be detached to cover its respective corps, and when the +disembarkation of the troops, or part of them, shall have been executed, +the boats carrying the fascines, powder-saucisses, gabions, panniers, +pickaxes, etc., will be sent forward in order that they may cover +themselves as the disembarkation proceeds, keeping up at the same time a +lively fire along with the rest of the army. Detached parties will scour +with promptitude the Campo Huevo in order to intercept the advanced +guard and to cut off the retreat of the enemy to the mountain; which +dispositions being well concerted, the enemy will be reduced to the +extremity of either surrendering or being destroyed. + +"The squadron of Señor Cordova will cover the mouth of the Straits, and +the French will place itself as much within as circumstances may +require; two hundred _muheletes_ and two hundred artillerymen more have +been asked for from the camp, those that are present being required for +the intrenchment. These have been sent for from their respective corps." + +The fame of the siege of Gibraltar had ere this spread to the remotest +corners of Europe. The Count d'Artois, brother to the King of France, +and the Duc de Bourbon arrived in the camp in August, impatient to +witness the fall of the invincible fortress, and they were followed by +crowds of the nobility of Spain, eager to join in an enterprise which it +was anticipated would result in a victory most glorious to their arms. + +General Eliot regarded the progress of the tremendous armaments without +despondency. He prepared for the coming storm, and made every effort to +meet it manfully and with success. An experiment which had lately been +tried with red-hot shot produced such effects that he founded his hopes +of destroying the enemy's battering-ships almost solely upon that +expedient, and great numbers of furnaces for heating the shot were +immediately prepared and placed in convenient positions within the +principal batteries. The defences too were thoroughly repaired, the Land +Port was more carefully protected, and unserviceable guns were laid +across the tops of the embrasures in many of the works, as a protection +to the artillerymen when under fire. + +The arrival of the Count d'Artois in the camp gave rise to an +interchange of courtesies between the governor and the Duc de Crillon, +and though the two chiefs were on the eve of a great struggle for the +mastery, letters couched in the most affable and peaceful terms passed +between them. The Count having brought with him a packet of letters for +some officers of the garrison, the Duc de Crillon took advantage of the +opportunity, and, when the parcel was sent into the fortress, +accompanied it by a letter from himself to General Eliot, in which he +expressed the highest esteem for the governor's person and character, +and assured him how anxiously he looked forward to becoming his friend; +at the same time he offered a present of a few luxuries for the +General's table. In reply to this courteous note the governor returned +his sincerest thanks for the gift, but begged that in future no such +favor might be heaped upon him, as by accepting the present he had +broken through a rule to which he had faithfully adhered since the +beginning of the war, never to receive anything for his own private use, +but to partake both of plenty and scarcity in common with the lowest of +his brave fellow-soldiers. + +Toward the end of August, 1782, a grand inspection of the floating +batteries took place at Algeciras, at which the French princes were +present. To exhibit the ease and simplicity with which they could be +manoeuvred, the vessels were put through various movements, to the +admiration and surprise of the spectators. So satisfactory was this +trial considered that it became the popular opinion that twenty-four +hours would suffice for the demolition of the fortress, and the Duc de +Crillon was made the subject of the greatest ridicule when he cautiously +hinted that fourteen days might elapse ere the place fell. Crillon, in +fact had no affection for the schemes of the Chevalier d'Arçon, and, as +we shall presently see, he attributed his subsequent failure almost +entirely to the blind confidence that was placed in the floating +batteries. + +As the time approached, the greatest impatience was manifested not only +by the troops, but throughout all Spain, for the commencement of the +attack, and so loud was the clamor for immediate action that D'Arçon was +ordered to hurry on the completion of the floating batteries with every +despatch. + +Late in August a council of war was held in the camp, at which the +French princes were present, and it was then proposed that the command +and direction of the floating batteries should be confided to the +officer of the navy, Crillon taking upon himself the responsibility of +the attack by land. Disputes had already arisen as to the proper +dispositions for the bombardment, Crillon claiming an undivided +authority over the whole proceeding, while the Minister of Marine was +anxious that the Admiral should direct the movements of the batteries +and their mode of equipment. + +When the before-mentioned proposal was conveyed to Crillon he +peremptorily refused to accede to it. Nor could any decision be arrived +at regarding the most proper point of attack; the Old Mole, which at +first appeared the weakest part of the fortress, was found to be covered +by the guns of the principal batteries on the Rock, while the New Mole +presented even greater difficulties. There was another matter too which +became the subject of discussion up to the very moment of the attack, +and this was whether it would not be expedient to supply each floating +battery with warp-anchors and the double cables, that they might +withdraw in case of accident. + +These unfortunate disputes, which arose at a time when perfect unanimity +was most essential, hampered the progress of operations, and destroyed +that harmony which should have existed between Crillon and his +subordinates. D'Arçon especially was offended and annoyed; he claimed +for himself the merit of having invented the machines which were to +annihilate the place, and insisted upon his right to have the sole +direction of their movements. Crillon, on the other hand, perceived that +if the command were divided, and the attack should prove successful, +the glory of the triumph would be appropriated by the French engineer. +In the many councils of war that preceded the bombardment the Duke did +not care to conceal his jealousy of the Chevalier d'Arçon. On one +occasion, deriding the propositions of the engineer, he exclaimed: "You +have a fatherly love for your batteries, and are only anxious for their +preservation. Should the enemy attempt to take possession of them, I +will burn them before his face." On another occasion, when in the +presence of the French princes, he said: "You were summoned into Spain +to execute _my_ plan for the attack of Gibraltar by floating batteries. +_Your_ commission is performed: the rest belongs to me." + +While these discussions and misunderstandings were distracting the +councils of the besiegers, a master hand was guiding the preparations +for the defence within the fortress. Every emergency that might occur +was provided for, every danger that could be foreseen averted, and the +garrison itself reënforced by a marine brigade of six hundred men under +command of Brigadier Curtis. In the first week of September the land +works of the enemy had progressed with gigantic strides, immense +batteries, some containing as many as sixty-four guns, only waited to be +unmasked, and long strings of mules streamed hourly into the trenches, +laden with shot, shell, and ammunition. + +The advanced works were not, except in some instances, yet armed, and +large masses of material which had accumulated in their vicinity +cumbered the embrasures and rendered their parapets liable to +destruction by fire. Seizing upon the opportunity thus afforded by the +negligence of the Spaniards, General Boyd wrote to the governor +recommending the use of red-hot shot against these works. Though the +distance was great, and the effect of heated shot had not then been +thoroughly ascertained, Eliot acquiesced in the proposition, and Major +Lewis, commanding the artillery, was ordered to execute the attack. + +On September 8th the preparations were completed, and at 7 A.M. the +guards having been relieved, a tremendous fire was opened from all the +northern batteries. Throughout the day this fiery cannonade was kept up +with unabated fury. By 10 A.M. the Mahon battery and another work of two +guns were in flames and by five in the evening were entirely consumed, +with all their gun-carriages, platforms, and magazines. The effect of +the red-hot shot exceeded the most sanguine expectations; the damage +done was extensive and for a time irreparable; the greater part of the +communication to the eastern parallel was destroyed, and the batteries +of St. Carlos and St. Martin so much injured that they were no longer +serviceable. At one moment the works were on fire in fifty places, and +the flames, lifted by the wind, spread with terrible rapidity; but by +the prodigious exertions of the enemy's troops, who, notwithstanding the +galling fire from the garrison to which they were exposed, displayed a +reckless intrepidity, the work of destruction was arrested and many of +the batteries saved from ruin. Irritated at this unexpected attack upon +works which had cost him so much labor and anxiety, Crillon was +precipitated into a premature bombardment, which, while it exposed to +view the hitherto masked batteries, and thus gave General Eliot an +opportunity of preparing counter-works upon the Rock, at the same time +did considerable damage to the unfinished lines. + +On the morning of September 9th a battery of sixty-four guns opened at +daybreak and a tremendous discharge from one hundred seventy pieces of +cannon announced the commencement of the final bombardment. At the same +time a squadron of seven Spanish and two French line-of-battle ships got +under way at Orange Grove, and, dropping slowly past the sea-line wall, +delivered several broadsides against the south bastion and Ragged Staff, +until they arrived off Europa. Then, having first formed line to +eastward of the Rock, they attacked the batteries from the Point as far +as the New Mole, with some energy. On the following day this manoeuvre +was repeated, and the cannonade from the lines was renewed with all its +fierceness, six thousand five hundred shot and two thousand eighty shell +being thrown into the fortress every twenty-four hours. Notwithstanding +this overwhelming fire the loss in the garrison was exceedingly small. + +On the 12th the combined fleets of Spain and France, numbering +thirty-nine ships of the line, entered the Bay of Algeciras, and having +formed a junction with the squadron already at anchor, raised the naval +force to fifty ships of the line and two second-rates; nine vessels bore +an admiral's flag. + +General Eliot was conscious that the hour of trial approached, and so +ably had he conducted his preparations that during the twenty-four hours +preceding the attack not a single alteration had to be made, even in the +most minute directions that had been given to the troops. Every man knew +his place, each gun was told off for one particular duty, simple and +efficient arrangements had been made for a constant supply of +ammunition, and every bastion was furnished with its fuel and furnace +for the dreaded red-hot shot. + +It was during the morning of the 12th that the governor received +information that the combined attack would commence on the following +day. Calmly as this courageous man awaited the hour of trial, he could +not but be influenced by the gravest anxiety for the result. He had +witnessed the gigantic armaments that were preparing for the assault; +and though ignorant of the exact force which was to be brought against +him, he was aware that neither France nor Spain had spared labor or +expense to accumulate a strength hitherto unknown in the history of +sieges. On the land he was threatened by two hundred forty-six pieces of +cannon, mortars, and howitzers, and an army of near forty thousand men; +while by sea fifty sail of the line, ten floating batteries, of a +construction supposed to be indestructible, with countless gun- and +mortar-boats, and three hundred smaller craft were waiting only the +signal for the attack. To this enormous armament, but seven thousand men +and ninety-six guns could be opposed. At a council of war held in the +Spanish camp on September 4th the final details for the arrangement of +the grand attack had been settled, and it was decided to open the +bombardment on the 13th of the month. + +At this council M. d'Arçon vehemently protested against the precipitate +haste with which the preparations of the floating batteries had been +hurried on, and vainly pleaded for a few days' further delay, in order +that some experiments might be made upon the vessels, and especially +that the effectiveness of the water apparatus might be tested. His +arguments were met by others equally cogent. Lord Howe with a powerful +fleet was known to be on his way to relieve the fortress, and it was of +vital importance that his arrival should be anticipated. The season was +already far advanced, and the works on the land side, which had only +just been repaired, were at any moment exposed to a second partial +destruction by red-hot shot. All objections, therefore, were overruled, +and the day was named. + +At about seven o'clock on the morning of September 13th the enemy's +fleet was observed to be in motion off the Orange Grove, and shortly +afterward the ten floating batteries were under way, and with a crowd of +boats standing for the southward with a light northwest breeze. + +Shortly after ten o'clock they had reached their respective stations off +the line-wall, and Admiral Don Buenoventura Moreno, in the Pastora, +having taken up a position opposite the capital of the King's Bastion, +the others anchored in admirable order on his right and left flanks, at +about one thousand yards distance from the walls of the fortress. + +At this time the enemy's camp and the surrounding hills were covered +with countless thousands of spectators, who had hurried from all parts +of Spain to witness the fall of Gibraltar. The batteries had no sooner +let go their anchors than a tremendous cannonade of hot and cold shot +was opened upon them all along the line; at the same instant the +ponderous vessels replied from all their guns, supported by the fire of +one hundred eighty-six pieces of ordnance from the works on the isthmus. + +Never before in the annals of war had a spectacle so magnificently grand +been witnessed--four hundred cannon belched forth their volleys of fire +at the same moment, the whole heaven was obscured by the curling clouds +of smoke which clung around the rugged peaks of the rocks, while the +misty gloom was fitfully illumined by the flashes of a thousand +saucisses and shells. The whole peninsula was overwhelmed with a torrent +of shot. + +For two hours this terrible cannonade continued without intermission, +and no impression had been made upon the floating batteries; so well +calculated was their construction to withstand the effects of artillery +that the heaviest shells rebounded from their roofs and the shot struck +harmless on their sides. Upward of two thousand red-hot balls had been +thrown against them, and no symptoms of combustion appeared, except here +and there a feeble flame, which ere it could spread was quenched. + +At noon the enemy slackened their fire from the sea for a moment, but +seemingly only for the purpose of amending the direction of their guns, +which had previously been uncertain and too high; the pause was but for +an instant, and the artillery again burst forth with a more powerful and +better-directed fire. Showers of every missile swept over the walls, and +already the British troops, disappointed with the effects of the red-hot +shot, and fatigued with the mid-day sun, began to look gloomily upon the +issue of the fight. But about two o'clock slight wreaths of flame were +observed issuing from the Admiral's ship, and at the same time a strange +confusion was remarked among the men on board the Talla Piedra. On board +this battery was the Chevalier d'Arçon, who was present in the action as +a volunteer to watch the success of his own inventions. Several red-hot +shot had struck this ship, but one alone gave any uneasiness to those on +board; to reach the smouldering woodwork the guns were silenced, and the +smoke clearing away left the vessel exposed to such a concentrated fire +that all efforts to arrest the progress of the flames were in vain. The +blaze rapidly spread, the crew were seized with a panic, and, fearful of +an explosion, turned the water into the powder-magazines. Thus one +battery was rendered useless during the remainder of the action. + +In the Admiral's ship the flames were for some hours subdued, and her +guns continued to play upon the walls until nightfall; but the disorder +which was immediately visible in the Talla Piedra and the Pastora soon +affected the whole line of attack, and by 7 P.M. the fire from the +fortress had gained a commanding superiority. + +At midnight signals of distress were made from all parts of the bay. The +Admiral's ship was in flames from stem to stern, and others had been set +on fire. The enemy now determined to abandon all the ships, and those +which had hitherto resisted the effects of the red-hot shots were, by +order of the Admiral, set in flames. + +As the gray morning dawned, the scene on the waters of the bay was +sublimely terrible; masses of shattered wreck, to which were clinging +the drowning crews, floated over the troubled waves; groans and cries +for help reached even to the walls, or were drowned in the thunders of +the exploding magazines, while the glaring flames of the burning vessels +cast a lurid light over the awful spectacle. + +At two o'clock in the morning Brigadier Curtis, who with his squadron of +gunboats lay at the New Mole ready to take advantage of any opportunity +to harass the enemy, pushed out to the westward and with great +expedition formed line upon the flank of the battering-ships. This +sudden movement completely disconcerted the Spaniards, who were engaged +in removing the crews from the vessels, and they fled precipitately, +abandoning the wounded and leaving them to perish in the flames. As +daylight appeared two feluccas, which had not been able before to +escape, were discovered endeavoring to get away, but, a shot from one of +the gunboats killing five of their men, they both surrendered. + +Hearing from the prisoners that hundreds of officers and men, some +wounded, still remained on board the batteries and must certainly +perish, Captain Curtis, at the utmost risk of his own life, made the +most heroic efforts to effect their rescue. Careless of danger from the +explosions which every instant scattered showers of _débris_ around him, +he passed from ship to ship and literally dragged from the burning decks +the miserable men who yet remained on board. With the coolest +intrepidity he pushed his pinnace close alongside one of the largest +batteries at the very moment she blew up, covering the sea with +fragments of her wreck. For a time the boat was engulfed amid the +falling ruin, and her escape was miraculous. A huge balk of timber fell +through her flooring, killing the coxswain, wounding others of the crew, +and starting a large hole in her bottom. Through this leak the water +rushed so rapidly that little hope was left of reaching the shore, but, +the sailors' jackets being stuffed into the aperture, the hole was +plugged, and the gallant men got safe to land. By the heroic and humane +exertions of Captain Curtis and his boat's crew three hundred +fifty-seven persons were saved from a horrible death. + +While these disasters were occurring in the bay, the land batteries on +the isthmus never for an instant slackened the tremendous fire that had +been commenced on the previous morning; until at daybreak on the 14th +the Spaniards, having become aware of the fate of their comrades on +board the vessels, ordered the cannonade to cease. + +Captain Curtis had scarcely completed his service of humanity before +eight of the remaining ships blew up and one only remained unconsumed. +At first it was hoped that she might be saved as a trophy of the +glorious action, but this was afterward found impossible, and she was +set fire to like the rest. The flag of Admiral Moreno remained flying +until his battery was totally destroyed. + +Desperate had been the struggle and great was the victory. During the +hottest of the fire General Eliot took his station on the King's +Bastion, exposed to the guns of the two most powerful battering-ships. +Nothing could exceed the coolness and courage of the troops during this +trying day; the steady and incessant fire was never allowed to slacken, +the guns were served, says the governor, "with the deliberate coolness +and precision of school practice, but the exertions of the men were +infinitely superior." + +The furnaces for heating the shot were found to be too few, and huge +fires were kindled in convenient corners of the streets. An immense +amount of ammunition was expended on both sides; three hundred twenty of +the enemy's cannon were in play throughout the day, and to these were +opposed only ninety-six guns from the garrison. Upward of eight thousand +shot and seven hundred sixteen barrels of gunpowder were fired away by +the garrison. + +When the unparalleled force of the bombardment is considered, the +casualties among the troops were remarkably few: one officer, two +sergeants, and thirteen men only were killed, and five officers and +sixty-three men wounded. The enemy's losses, on the contrary, were very +great; on the floating batteries alone one thousand four hundred +seventy-three men were either killed, wounded, or missing. + +By the evening of the 14th the bay was cleared of the shattered wrecks, +and not a vestige of the formidable armament, which the day before had +been the hope and pride of Spain, remained. + +The contest was at an end, and the united strength of two ambitious and +powerful nations had been humbled by a straitened garrison of six +thousand effective men. With the destruction of the floating batteries +the siege was virtually concluded. + +In Spain the news was received with consternation and despair. The +thousands who on the preceding day crowded upon the neighboring hills, +and with eager anxiety awaited the anticipated victory, returned to +their homes disappointed and chagrined. They had been taught to believe +that the attack would be crushing and invincible; that the batteries +were indestructible; that the fortress must be annihilated by their +overwhelming fire; but instead of these disasters they had seen every +ship destroyed or sunk, with all their guns, and two thousand men of +their crews either killed, wounded, or taken prisoner. In the first +moment of consternation the inventor of those vast machines, upon the +success of which the whole attack depended, could not restrain his +poignant grief and was led into confessions which he afterward +regretted. Writing to the French ambassador, Montmorin, he said: "I have +burned the Temple of Ephesus; everything is lost, and through my fault. +What comforts me under my misfortune is that the honor of the two kings +remains untarnished." + +At Madrid the news of the disaster was received with dismay; and the +King, who was at the palace of Ildefonso, listened to the intelligence +in mute despair. The recovery of Gibraltar had been his unswerving aim, +and with this repulse almost his last hope was extinguished. In Paris +the intelligence was no less unexpected and unwelcome; so certain indeed +had the fall of the fortress been considered that a drama illustrative +of the destruction of Gibraltar by the floating batteries was acted +nightly to applauding thousands. + +It has been before remarked that the Duc de Crillon never held that +blindly confident opinion of the inventions of D'Arçon which had turned +the heads of the two Bourbon courts. He had always urged the necessity +of a complete attack by sea, in which the whole fleet should engage, and +of which the floating batteries would form an integral part. The French +engineer ridiculed this idea, and affirmed that the ships would be +destroyed before they could inflict any damage upon the walls. + +The result of the attack showed how completely D'Arçon was mistaken. +During the day the assistance of the combined fleet was urgently +required; but when its coöperation might have turned the tide of +victory, an adverse wind arose, and the vessels could not beat up within +range of the Rock. + +The distinguished part which Captain Curtis had taken in the defence of +the fortress ever since he had joined the command drew from General +Eliot commendations no less merited than sincere. Writing to Lord Howe +on October 15th he says: + +"Unknown to Brigadier Curtis, I must entreat your lordship to reflect +upon the unspeakable assistance he has been in the defence of this place +by his advice, and the lead he has taken in every hazardous enterprise. +You know him well, my lord, therefore such conduct on his part is no +more than you expect; but let me beg of you not to leave him unrewarded +for such signal services. You alone can influence his majesty to +consider such an officer for what he has, and what he will in future +deserve wherever employed. If Gibraltar is of the value intimated to me +from office, and to be presumed by the steps adventured to relieve it, +Brigadier Curtis is the man to whom the King will be chiefly indebted +for its security. Believe me, there is nothing affected in this +declaration on my part." + +Again, when on his return to England he was created Lord Heathfield, he +expressed his indignation that Curtis only received the honor of +knighthood and a pension of five hundred pounds per annum. "It is a +shame," he said, "that I should be overloaded, and so scanty a pittance +be the lot of him who bore the greatest share of the burthen." Such was +the unaffected modesty of this great man! + +When the confusion arising from their disastrous defeat had subsided in +the enemy's camp, a heavy cannonade was again opened from their lines +and advanced works. The firing generally commenced about five or six +o'clock in the morning and continued till noon, then for two hours the +batteries were silent, but again opened till seven o'clock in the +evening, when the mortars took up the fire till daybreak. During the +twenty-four hours six hundred shells and about one thousand shots were +thrown into the garrison. + +Notwithstanding the ill-success which had attended the combined attack, +and the signal proof the enemy had received of the impregnable strength +of the fortress, the Spaniards did not entirely despair of eventually +reducing the place by famine, could the arrival of Lord Howe's fleet +with the convoy be prevented. + +In August the English Government, being aware of the vast preparations +which had been making in Spain for the siege of Gibraltar, had collected +a fleet of thirty-four sail of the line, six frigates, and three +fire-ships, under command of Admiral Lord Howe, which was to convoy a +flotilla of merchantmen with relief for the garrison. + +By September 11th the preparations were completed, and on that day Howe +set sail from Spithead with one hundred eighty-three sail, including the +convoy, under the command of Vice-Admirals Barrington and Milbank, Rear +Admirals Hood and Hughes, and Commodore Hotham. + +Hampered by the difficulty of keeping the merchantmen together, and +baffled by contrary winds and violent weather, Howe's passage was +unusually slow and tedious. + +The Spanish Government having gained intelligence of the approach of +this powerful force, instantly took measures to attack the expedition +before it could arrive at its destination. For this purpose the combined +fleets of Spain and France which lay in the harbor of Algeciras were +reënforced, and dispositions were made for intercepting the British +ships on their passage through the Straits. + +These arrangements had scarcely been completed when, on the evening of +October 10th, a fresh westerly wind sprang up in the bay, and toward +night gradually increased in violence till it blew a hurricane. Soon the +enemy's vessels were in distress, many were dragging their anchors, and +signal-guns were fired for help in rapid succession. Throughout the +night the fury of the storm did not abate, and daybreak disclosed the +havoc among the squadrons at Algeciras; a ship of the line and a frigate +were ashore at Orange Grove, a French liner had suffered great damage to +her masts and rigging, and the St. Michael, of seventy-two guns, was +discovered close in shore off the Orange Bastion in distress. She was +immediately fired at and after having lost four men she was run ashore +on the line-wall, and taken possession of by Captain Curtis. Her +commander, Admiral Don Juan Moreno, and her crew of six hundred fifty +men were landed as prisoners. These misfortunes materially affected the +ulterior movements of the combined fleets. In the mean time Lord Howe +had on the 8th of the month arrived off Cape St. Vincent, and a frigate +was sent on from there to gain information from the consul at Faro of +the enemy's dispositions. Two days afterward she returned with the +intelligence that the combined fleets, consisting of nearly fifty sail, +lay at anchor at Algeciras. + +Upon the receipt of this news a council of war was held, and clear and +stringent orders were afterward issued for the guidance of the masters +in charge of the merchantmen, that the convoy might be conducted safely +into the harbor of Gibraltar. On the 11th, the fleet passed through the +Straits in three divisions, the third and centre squadrons in line of +battle ahead, the second squadron in reserve; the Victory led ahead of +the third squadron. + +By sunset the van had arrived off Europa Point, and before nightfall +four of the transports had anchored under the guns of the fortress. By +an unpardonable inattention to the orders they had received, the masters +of the other vessels failed to make the bay and were driven away to the +eastward of the Rock. To the astonishment of Howe, who had looked upon +an engagement as inevitable, the Spaniards did not attempt to intercept +the convoy. + +During the two following days the British Admiral was engaged in +collecting the transports to the eastward, and preparing for action in +case the Spaniards should attack. + +On the 13th the combined fleets, consisting of forty-four ships of the +line, five frigates, and twenty-nine xebec-cutters and brigs, got under +way and stood to the southward, with the apparent intention of bearing +down upon Lord Howe's force. But though the Spanish Admiral had the +weather-gauge, and notwithstanding his fleet was greatly superior in +numbers to the English, he contented himself with the execution of some +harmless manoeuvres, and permitted the whole of the transports to be +conducted safely into Gibraltar under the very muzzles of his guns. The +stores and provisions were immediately landed, and two regiments of +infantry--Twenty-fifth and Twenty-ninth--were disembarked under the +superintendence of Lord Mulgrave. + +Having accomplished his mission and relieved the fortress, Lord Howe +prepared to return to England. + +On October 19th, taking advantage of an easterly wind, he formed his +fleet in order of battle and sailed through the Straits. At this time +the combined fleets were cruising a few miles north-east of Ceuta, and +in view of Howe's squadron, of which they had the weather-gauge. + +The two fleets remained near each other during the night, and on the +following morning, the wind having come round to the northward, the +Spaniards still held the advantage and could have closed for action at +any moment. It was Lord Howe's desire, if possible, to avoid an +engagement in the narrow and dangerous waters of the Straits, and to +entice the enemy to accept battle in the open sea; with this object he +continued on his course to the westward. + +At sunset on the 20th the combined fleets, greatly superior to the +English in force and numbers, came up with the rear division, under +Admiral Barrington, and a partial action commenced, but the enemy +remained at such a respectful distance, keeping as near as they could +haul to the wind, that the firing was comparatively harmless on both +sides. The two admirals De Guichen and Cordova led the enemy's van, and +it was apparently their intention to cut off and destroy the rear +division of the British fleet; but though they had the superiority in +force and the advantage of the wind, they could not be induced to close, +and soon after midnight the firing ceased. The next morning the two +fleets were still in sight, but as the Spaniards evinced no disposition +to renew the engagement, Howe, whose orders did not permit him to +provoke the enemy, continued on his homeward voyage. + +The successful passage of the British fleet through the Straits, in the +face of the combined forces, was regarded in Madrid as a glorious +victory for the Spanish arms. The despatches of Don Louis de Cordova +described the partial engagement as a complete rout, and Howe was made +to flee with all press of sail from his brave pursuers. + +Seizing upon this exaggerated intelligence as a counterpoise to the +recent disastrous news from Gibraltar, the Government extolled the valor +of the navy, and spread ludicrously bombastic accounts of the "glorious +victory" throughout the country. Pamphlets descriptive of the engagement +were published and disseminated, in which the casualties of the English +were put down in numbers imposingly enormous. + +Gibraltar having thus been again successfully relieved, the Spanish +government relinquished all hope of securing its possession by force of +arms; but the King still fondly retained some expectation of succeeding +by negotiation. In order to conceal the actual hopelessness of the +enterprise, and "to give a reasonable color to the formal prosecution of +the siege," private instructions were sent to Crillon to continue the +offensive. But the Spanish commander was in truth no less disheartened +than the ministers of his government, and with the exception of daily +attacks by gun- and mortar-boats, seconded by a warm fire from the +isthmus, active operations completely ceased. + +On February 2, 1783, the news of the signature of the preliminaries of a +general peace reached the garrison by a flag of truce, and on March 12th +the gates of the fortress, which had been closed for nearly four years, +were once more thrown open. + +The announcement of the peace was received with general joy throughout +the garrison, and this feeling was most fully reciprocated by the +disheartened and weary enemy. The two chiefs, who, since they had been +opposed to each other as antagonists in a struggle which riveted the +attention of all Europe, had learned to regret that they were foes, now +met with the cordial embrace of friendship, and no opportunity was lost +which could tend to obliterate the remembrances of former rivalry. +Friendly meetings were interchanged between them, and all memory of +previous antagonism was buried in oblivion. + +Being introduced to the officers of the Royal Artillery, through whose +courage and ability his brightest hopes of victory had been destroyed, +Crillon met them with praises of their noble conduct, and remarked that +"he would rather see them there as friends than on their batteries as +enemies, where," he added, "they never spared me." + +One day when inspecting the immense lines of fortification on the +northern face of the Rock, all of which had been constructed during the +progress of the siege, lost in astonishment at the magnitude of the +works, he exclaimed, "This is indeed worthy of the Romans!" + +Early in April, the Spanish camp having commenced to break up, and the +lines on the isthmus having been dismantled, the Duc de Crillon handed +over his command to the Marquis de Saya, and returned to Madrid. + +Thus after a duration of three years seven months and twelve days ended +this memorable siege; a siege which, in the words of Lord North, "was +one of those astonishing instances of British valor, discipline, +military skill, and humanity that no other age or country could produce +an example of." At length the devoted garrison was relieved from a +situation of suffering, peril, and privation almost unparalleled in the +annals of war. + + + + +END OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION + +A.D. 1782 + +JOHN ADAMS BENJAMIN FRANKLIN JOHN JAY + HENRY LAURENS JOHN M. LUDLOW + + Concerning the momentous consequences of the American + Revolution, not only for America herself but for the whole + world, history has raised no question of doubt. Regarding + its causes and its justification there has been substantial + agreement of both learned and popular opinion in all + progressive countries. But various and often contradictory + are the judgments pronounced upon the course and conduct of + the war itself, even among American writers. + + Until recently it has been impossible that either in the + United States or Great Britain a wholly dispassionate view + of the War of Independence should be shared by both critical + students and general readers. In America it has been the + fashion to glorify indiscriminately the actors on the + colonial side and all their achievements. The provincial + note of national heroics has been transmitted from one + generation to another, and the breath of the school children + has been carefully laden with it from tenderest years. On + the English side, the quite natural early resentment against + the lost colonies--mainly confined to official circles and + hereditary interests--may be said to have been later + softened into "a certain condescension," such as Lowell + pointed out in foreigners generally toward America. + + But that condescension, like the earlier acrimony, is a + thing of the past. Here, as elsewhere, history is being + rewritten. American self-glorification, as well as wounded + English pride, gives way to better teachings, and the larger + lessons of humanity, which is more than nationality, are + giving to all nations clearer visions of a federated world. + + The growth of this new historic sense, informed with clearer + knowledge and a more discriminating love of justice, is well + illustrated in the following critical examination, wherein + Ludlow, a living English historian, carefully considers the + various factors at work in the Revolution, and the personal + forces through which its results were produced. Prefixed to + this is the official statement of the American peace + commissioners--John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and + Henry Laurens--to Robert R. Livingston, then superintendent + of foreign affairs, of the conditions of the preliminary + treaty, which ended the war in 1782. This was followed by + the definitive Treaty of Paris, September 3, 1783. + + +THE AMERICAN PEACE COMMISSIONERS + + PARIS, 14 December, 1782. + +We have the honor to congratulate Congress on the signature of the +preliminaries of a peace between the Crown of Great Britain and the +United States of America, to be inserted in a definitive treaty so soon +as the terms between the crowns of France and Great Britain shall be +agreed on. A copy of the articles is here enclosed, and we cannot but +flatter ourselves that they will appear to Congress, as they do to all +of us, to be consistent with the honor and interest of the United +States, and we are persuaded Congress would be more fully of that +opinion if they were apprised of all the circumstances and reasons which +have influenced the negotiation. Although it is impossible for us to go +into that detail, we think it necessary, nevertheless, to make a few +remarks on such of the articles as appear most to require elucidation. + + +_Remarks on Article 2d, relative to Boundaries_ + +The Court of Great Britain insisted on retaining all the territories +comprehended within the Province of Quebec, by the act of Parliament +respecting it. They contended that Nova Scotia should extend to the +river Kennebec; and they claimed not only all the lands in the Western +country and on the Mississippi, which were not expressly included in our +charters and governments, but also such lands within them as remained +ungranted by the King of Great Britain. It would be endless to enumerate +all the discussions and arguments on the subject. + +We knew this Court and Spain to be against our claims to the Western +country, and, having no reason to think that lines more favorable could +ever have been obtained, we finally agreed to those described in this +article; indeed, they appear to leave us little to complain of and not +much to desire. Congress will observe that, although our northern line +is in a certain part below the latitude of 45°, yet in others it extends +above it, divides the Lake Superior, and gives us access to its western +and southern waters, from which a line in that latitude would have +excluded us. + + +_Remarks on Article 4th, respecting Creditors_ + +We had been informed that some of the States had confiscated British +debts; but although each State has a right to bind its own citizens, +yet, in our opinion, it appertains solely to Congress, in whom +exclusively are vested the rights of making war and peace, to pass acts +against the subjects of a power with which the Confederacy may be at +war. It therefore only remained for us to consider whether this article +is founded in justice and good policy. + +In our opinion no acts of government could dissolve the obligations of +good faith resulting from lawful contracts between individuals of the +two countries prior to the war. We knew that some of the British +creditors were making common cause with the refugees and other +adversaries of our independence; besides, sacrificing private justice to +reasons of state and political convenience is always an odious measure; +and the purity of our reputation in this respect, in all foreign +commercial countries, is of infinitely more importance to us than all +the sums in question. It may also be remarked that American and British +creditors are placed on an equal footing. + + +_Remarks on Articles 5th and 6th, respecting Refugees_ + +These articles were among the first discussed and the last agreed to. +And had not the conclusion of this business at the time of its date been +particularly important to the British administration, the respect, which +both in London and Versailles is supposed to be due to the honor, +dignity, and interest of royalty, would probably have forever prevented +our bringing this article so near to the views of Congress and the +sovereign rights of the States as it now stands. When it is considered +that it was utterly impossible to render this article perfectly +consistent, both with American and British ideas of honor, we presume +that the middle line adopted by this article is as little unfavorable to +the former as any that could in reason be expected. + +As to the separate article, we beg leave to observe that it was our +policy to render the navigation of the river Mississippi so important to +Britain as that their views might correspond with ours on that subject. +Their possessing the country on the river north of the line from the +Lake of the Woods affords a foundation for their claiming such +navigation. And as the importance of West Florida to Britain was for the +same reason rather to be strengthened than otherwise, we thought it +advisable to allow them the extent contained in the separate article, +especially as before the war it had been annexed by Britain to West +Florida, and would operate as an additional inducement to their joining +with us in agreeing that the navigation of the river should forever +remain open to both. The map used in the course of our negotiations was +Mitchell's. + +As we had reason to imagine that the articles respecting the boundaries, +the refugees, and fisheries did not correspond with the policy of this +court, we did not communicate the preliminaries to the minister until +after they were signed (and not even then the _separate article_). We +hope that these considerations will excuse our having so far deviated +from the spirit of our instructions. The Count de Vergennes, on perusing +the articles, appeared surprised (but not displeased) at their being so +favorable to us. + +We beg leave to add our advice that copies be sent us of the accounts +directed to be taken by the different States, of the unnecessary +devastations and sufferings sustained by them from the enemy in the +course of the war. Should they arrive before the signature of the +definitive treaty, they might possibly answer very good purposes. + + +JOHN M. LUDLOW + +Paradoxical as it may seem, two things must equally surprise the reader +on studying the history of the war of American Independence--the first, +that England should ever have considered it possible to succeed in +subduing her revolted colonies; the second, that she should not have +succeeded in doing so. At a time when steam had not yet baffled the +winds, to dream of conquering by force of arms on the other side of the +Atlantic a people of English race numbering between three millions and +four millions with something like twelve hundred miles of seaboard, was +surely an act of enormous folly. Horace Walpole had wittily said, at the +very commencement of the so-called rebellion, that "if computed by the +tract of the country it occupies, we, as so diminutive in comparison, +ought rather be called in rebellion to that." + +We have seen in our own days the difficulties experienced by the far +more powerful and populous Northern States in quelling the secession of +the Southern, when between the two there was no other frontier than at +most a river, very often a mere ideal line, and when armies could be +raised by a hundred thousand men at a time. England attempted a far more +difficult task with forces which, till 1781, never reached 35,000 men, +and never exceeded 42,075, including "provincials," _i.e._, American +loyalists. + +Yet it is impossible to doubt that, not once only, but repeatedly during +the course of the struggle, England was on the verge of triumph. The +American armies were perpetually melting away before the enemy directly +through the practice of short enlistments, and indirectly through +desertions. These desertions, if they might be often palliated by the +straits to which the men were reduced through arrears in pay and want of +supplies, arose in other cases, as after the retreat from New York, from +sheer loss of heart in the cause. The main army under Washington was +seldom even equal in number to that opposed to him. In the winter of +1776-1777, when his troops were only about four thousand strong, it is +difficult to understand how it was that Sir William Howe, with more than +double the number, should have failed to annihilate the American army. + +In the winter of 1777-1778 the "dreadful situation of the army for want +of provisions" made Washington "admire" that they should not have been +excited to a general mutiny and desertion. In May, 1779, he hardly knew +any resource for the American cause except in reënforcements from +France, and did not know what might be the consequence if the enemy had +it in his power to press the troops hard in the ensuing campaign. In +December of that year his forces were "mouldering away daily," and he +considered that Sir Henry Clinton, with more than twice his numbers, +could "not justify remaining inactive with a force so superior." A year +later he was compelled for want of clothing to discharge levies which he +had so much trouble in obtaining, and "want of flour would have +disbanded the whole army" if he had not adopted this expedient. In +March, 1781, again, the crisis was "perilous," and, though he did not +doubt the happy issue of the contest, he considered that the period for +its accomplishment might be too far distant for a person of his years. + +In April he wrote: "We cannot transport the provisions from the States +in which they are assessed to the army, because we cannot pay the +teamsters, who will no longer work for certificates. It is equally +certain that our troops are approaching fast to nakedness, and that we +have nothing to clothe them with; that our hospitals are without +medicines, and our sick without nutriment except such as well men eat; +and that our public works are at a stand and the artificers disbanding. +It may be declared in a word that we are at the end of our tether, and +that now or never our deliverance must come." Six months later, when +Yorktown capitulated, the British forces still remaining in North +America after the surrender of that garrison were more considerable than +they had been as late as February, 1779; and Sir Henry Clinton even then +declared that with a reënforcement of ten thousand men he would be +responsible for the conquest of America. + +How shall we explain either puzzle--that England should have so nearly +missed success, to fail at last? or that America should have succeeded, +after having been almost constantly on the brink of failure? + +The main hope of success on the English side lay in the idea that the +spirit and acts of resistance to the authority of the mother-country +were in reality only on the part of a turbulent minority; that the bulk +of the people desired to be loyal. It is certain indeed that the +struggle was, in America itself, much more of a civil war than the +Americans are now generally disposed to admit. In December, 1780, there +were eight thousand nine hundred fifty-four provincials among the +British forces in America, and on March 7, 1781, a letter from Lord +George Germain to Sir H. Clinton, intercepted by the Americans, says, +"The American levies in the King's service are more in number than the +whole of the enlisted troops in the service of Congress." + +As late as September 1, 1781, there were seven thousand two hundred +forty-one. We hear of "loyal associates" in Massachusetts, Maryland, and +Pennsylvania, of "associated loyalists" in New York, of a fort built and +maintained by "associated refugees," and everywhere of "Tories," whose +arrest Washington is found suggesting to Governor Trumbull, of +Connecticut, as early as November 12, 1775. New England may indeed be +considered to have been cleared of active opposition to the American +cause when more than one thousand refugees left Boston in March, 1776, +with the British troops. But New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania +remained long full of Tories. By June 28, 1776, the disaffected on Long +Island had taken up arms, and after the evacuation of New York by +Washington a brigade of loyalists was raised on the island, and +companies were formed in two neighboring counties to join the King's +troops. + +During Washington's retreat through New Jersey "the inhabitants, either +from fear or disaffection, almost to a man refused to turn out." In +Pennsylvania the militia, instead of giving any assistance in repelling +the British, exulted at their approach, and over the misfortunes of +their countrymen. On the 20th of that month the British were "daily +gathering strength from the disaffected." In 1777 the Tories who joined +Burgoyne in his invasion from the north are said to have doubled his +force. In 1778 Tories joined the Indians in the devastation of Wyoming +and Cherry Valley; and although the indiscriminate ravages of the +British, or of the Germans in their pay, seem to have roused the three +States above mentioned to self-defence, yet, as late as May, 1780, +Washington still speaks of sending a small party of cavalry to escort +Lafayette "safely through the Tory settlements" of New York. Virginia, +as late as the spring of 1776, was "alarmed at the idea of +independence." + +Washington admitted that his countrymen--of that State--"from their form +of government, and steady attachment heretofore to royalty," would "come +reluctantly" to that idea, but trusted to "time and persecution." In +1781 the ground for transferring the seat of war to the Chesapeake was +the number of loyalists in that quarter. In the Southern States the +division of feeling was still greater. In the Carolinas, a Loyalist +regiment was raised in a few days in 1776, and again in 1779. In +Georgia, in South Carolina, the bitterest partisan warfare was carried +on between the Whig and Tory bands; and a body of New York Tories +contributed powerfully to the fall of Savannah in 1778 by taking the +American forces in the rear. + +On the other hand it is unquestionable that in the extent and quality of +the support which they met with, the British generals were cruelly +disappointed. Up to May, 1778, General Howe had declared that in +thirteen corps raised, with a nominal strength of six thousand five +hundred men, the whole number amounted only to three thousand six +hundred nine, of whom only a small proportion were Americans, and that +"all the force that could be collected in Pennsylvania, after the most +indefatigable exertions during eight months," was only nine hundred +seventy-four men. Of the far more numerous loyalist levies in the South, +Lord Cornwallis speaks in the most disparaging terms. A whole regiment +in South Carolina marched off on one occasion in a body. Speaking of the +friends to the British cause in North Carolina he wrote, "If they are as +dastardly and pusillanimous as our friends to the southward, we must +leave them to their fate." At the time of the battle of Guilford Court +House (1781) the idea of such friends "rising in any number and to any +purpose had totally failed." No "provincial" general ever rose to +eminence on the British side, although more than one was appointed, and +it is clear that if the struggle was so long protracted it was not +through the valor or constancy of the loyalists. + +The real causes of its protraction--though it may be hard to an American +to admit the fact--lay in the incapacity of American politicians, and, +it must be added, in the supineness and want of patriotism of the +American people. If, indeed, importing into the struggle views of a +later date, we look upon it as one between two nations, the +mismanagement of the war by the Americans, on all points save one--the +retention of Washington in the chief command--is seen to have been so +pitiable from first to last as to be in fact almost unintelligible. We +only understand the case when we see that there was no such thing as an +American nation in existence, but only a number of revolted colonies, +jealous of one another, and with no tie but that of a common danger. + +Even in the army, divisions broke out. Washington, in a general order of +August 1, 1776, says: "It is with great concern that the general +understands that jealousies have arisen among the troops from the +different provinces, and reflections are frequently thrown out which can +only tend to irritate each other and injure the noble cause in which we +are engaged." It was seldom that much help could be obtained in troops +from any State, unless that State were immediately threatened by the +enemy; and even then these troops would be raised by that State for its +own defence, irrespectively of the general or "Continental Army." + +"Those at a distance from the seat of War," wrote Washington in April, +1778, "live in such perfect tranquillity that they conceive the dispute +to be in a manner at an end; and those near it are so disaffected that +they serve only as embarrassments." In January, 1779, we find him +remonstrating with the Governor of Rhode Island because that State had +"ordered several battalions to be raised for the defence of the State +only, and this before proper measures were taken to fill the Continental +regiments." The different bounties and rates of pay allowed by the +various States were a constant source of annoyance to him. After the +first year, the best men were not returned to Congress, or did not +return to it. Whole States remained frequently unrepresented. In the +winter of 1777-1778 Congress was reduced to twenty-one members. But even +with a full representation it could do little. "One State will comply +with a requisition of Congress," writes Washington in 1780, "another +neglects to do it, a third executes it by halves, and all differ either +in the manner, the matter, or so much in point of time that we are +always working up-hill." At first Congress was really nothing more than +a voluntary committee. When the Confederation was completed--which was +only, be it remembered, on March 1, 1781--it was still, as Washington +wrote in 1785, "little more than a shadow without the substance, and the +Congress a nugatory body"; or, as it was described by a later writer, +"powerless for government, and a rope of sand for union." + +Like politicians, like people. There was no doubt a brilliant display of +patriotic ardor at the first flying to arms of the colonists. Lexington +and Bunker Hill were actions decidedly creditable to their raw troops. +The expedition to Canada, foolhardy though it proved, was pursued up to +a certain point with real heroism. But with it the heroic period of the +war--individual instances excepted--may be said to have closed. There +seems little reason to doubt that the Revolution would never have been +commenced if it had been expected to cost so tough a struggle. "A false +estimate of the power and perseverance of our enemies," wrote James +Duane to Washington, "was friendly to the present revolution, and +inspired that confidence of success in all ranks of people which was +necessary to unite them in so arduous a cause." + +As early as November, 1775, Washington wrote, speaking of military +arrangements, "Such a dearth of public spirit, and such want of virtue, +such stock-jobbing and fertility in all the low arts to obtain +advantages of one kind or another, I never saw before, and pray God's +mercy that I may never be witness to again." Such "a mercenary spirit" +pervaded the whole of the troops, that he should not have been "at all +surprised at any disaster." + +At the same date, besides desertions of thirty or forty soldiers at a +time, he speaks of the practice of plundering as so rife that "no man is +secure in his effects, and scarcely in his person." People "were +frightened out of their houses under pretence of those houses being +ordered to be burnt, with a view of seizing the goods"; and to conceal +the villainy more effectually some houses were actually burnt down. On +February 28, 1777, "the scandalous loss, waste, and private +appropriation of public arms during the last campaign" had been "beyond +all conception." Officers drew "large sums under pretence of paying +their men," and appropriated them. In one case an officer led his men to +robbery, offered resistance to a brigade-major who ordered him to return +the goods, and was only with difficulty cashiered. + +"Can we carry on the war much longer?" Washington asks in 1778--after +the treaty with France and the appearance of a French fleet off the +coast. "Certainly not, unless some measures can be devised and speedily +executed to restore the credit of our currency, restrain extortion, and +punish forestallers." A few days later, "To make and extort money in +every shape that can be devised, and at the same time to decry its +value, seem to have become a mere business and an epidemical disease." +On December 30, 1778, "speculation, peculation, and an insatiable thirst +for riches seem to have got the better of every other consideration, and +almost of every order of men; party disputes and personal quarrels are +the great business of the day; whilst the momentous concerns of an +empire, a great and accumulating debt, ruined finances, depreciated +money, and want of credit, which in its consequences is the want of +everything, are but secondary considerations." + +After a first loan had been obtained from France and spent, a further +one was granted in 1782. So utterly unpatriotic and selfish was known to +be the temper of the people that the loan had to be kept secret, in +order not to diminish such efforts as might be made by the Americans +themselves. On July 10th, of that year, with New York and Charlestown +still in British hands, Washington writes: "That spirit of freedom +which at the commencement of this contest would have gladly sacrificed +everything to the attainment of its object, has long since subsided, and +every selfish passion has taken its place." But indeed the mere fact +that from the date of the battle of Monmouth (July 28, 1778), Washington +was never supplied with sufficient means, even with the assistance of +the French fleets and troops, to strike one blow at the English in New +York--though these were but sparingly reënforced during the +period--shows an absence of public spirit, one might almost say of +national shame, scarcely conceivable, and in singular contrast with the +terrible earnestness exhibited on both sides some eighty years later in +the Secession War. + +Why, then, must we ask on the other side, did England fail at last? The +English were prone to attribute their ill-success to the incompetency of +their generals. Lord North, with his quaint humor, would say, "I do not +know whether our generals will frighten the enemy, but I know they +frighten me whenever I think of them." When in 1778, Lord Carlisle came +out as commissioner, in a letter speaking of the great scale of all +things in America, he says: "We have nothing on a great scale with us +but our blunders, our misconduct, our ruin, our losses, our disgraces +and misfortunes." Pitt, in a speech of 1781, aptly described the war as +having been, on the part of England, "a series of ineffective victories +or severe defeats." No doubt it is difficult to account for Gage's early +blunders; for Howe's repeated failure to follow up his own success or +profit by his enemy's weakness; and Cornwallis' movement, justly +censured by Sir Henry Clinton, in transferring the bulk of his army from +the far south to Virginia, within marching distance of Washington, +opened the way to that crowning disaster at Yorktown, without which it +is by no means impossible that Georgia and the Carolinas might have +remained British. + +But no allowance for bad generalship can account for the failure of the +British. Washington and Greene appear to have been the only two American +generals of marked ability, though they unquestionably derived great +advantage from the talents of their foreign allies, Lafayette, Pulaski, +Steuben, Rochambeau--and Washington was more than once out-manoeuvred. +Gates evidently owed his one signal triumph to enormous superiority of +numbers on his own ground, and was as signally defeated, under +circumstances infinitely less creditable to him than those of Burgoyne's +surrender. Lee's vaunted abilities came to nothing. + +Political incapacity was of course charged upon ministers as another +cause of disaster; and no doubt their miscalculation of the severity of +the struggle was almost childish. When Parliament met in the autumn of +1776--_i.e._, after the Declaration of Independence had gone forth to +the world--it was held out in the King's speech that another campaign +would be sufficient to end the war, while in spite of all the warnings +of the Opposition, they persisted in blinding themselves to the force of +the temptations which must inevitably bring down France, if not Spain, +into the lists against them, until the treaties of these powers with +America were actually concluded. The forces sent out were miserably +inadequate for a war on so large a scale--"too many to make peace, too +few to make war," as Lord Chatham told the Ministry. When for once a +really considerable force was sent out under Burgoyne, it failed for +want of timely coöperation by Howe, and this failure is stated, by Lord +Shelburne, to have arisen from Lord George Germain's not having had +patience to wait after signing the despatch to Burgoyne, till that to +Howe had been fair-copied; so that instead of going out together, the +second, owing to further mischances, did not leave till some time later. +The English generals complained almost as bitterly as the American of +the want of adequate reënforcements, and the best of them, Sir Henry +Clinton, is found writing (1779) in a strain which might be mistaken for +Washington's of his spirits being "worn out" by the difficulties of his +position. + +But no mistakes in the management of the war by British statesmen can +account for their ultimate failure. However great British mismanagement +may have been, it was far surpassed by American. Until Robert Morris +took the finances in hand, the administration of them was beneath not +only contempt but conception. There was nothing on the British side +equal to that caricature of a recruiting system, in which different +bounties were offered by Congress, by the States, by the separate towns, +as to make it the interest of the intending soldier to delay enlistment +as long as possible in order to sell himself to the highest bidder; to +that caricature of a war establishment the main bulk of which broke up +every twelvemonth in front of the enemy, which was only paid, if at all, +in worthless paper, and left almost habitually without supplies. + +To mention one fact only, commissions in British regiments on American +soil continued to be sold for large sums, while Washington's officers +were daily throwing up theirs, many from sheer starvation. On the whole, +no better idea can be had of the nature of the struggle on the American +side, after the first heat of it had cooled down, than from the words of +Count de Rochambeau, writing to Count de Vergennes, July 10, 1780: "They +have neither money nor credit; their means of resistance are only +momentary, and called forth when they are attacked in their own homes. +They then assemble for the moment of immediate danger and defend +themselves." + +A far more important cause in determining the ultimate failure of the +British was the aid afforded by France to America, followed by that of +Spain and Holland. It was impossible for England to reconquer a +continent, and carry on war at the same time with the three most +powerful states of Europe. The instincts of race have tended on both the +English and the American sides to depreciate the value of the aid given +by France to the colonists. It may be true that Rochambeau's troops +which disembarked in Rhode Island in July, 1780, did not march till +July, 1781,--that they were blockaded soon after their arrival, +threatened with attack from New York, and only disengaged by a feint of +Washington's on that city. But more than two years before their arrival, +Washington wrote to a member of Congress, "France, by her supplies, has +saved us from the yoke thus far." The treaty with France alone was +considered to afford a "certain prospect of success"--to "secure" +American independence. + +The arrival of D'Estaing's fleet, although no troops joined the American +army, and nothing eventually was done, determined the evacuation of +Philadelphia. The discipline of the French troops when they landed in +1780 set an example to the Americans; chickens and pigs walked between +the lines without being disturbed. The recruits of 1780 could not have +been armed without fifty tons of ammunition supplied by the French. In +September of that year, Washington, writing to the French envoy, speaks +of the "inability" of the Americans to expel the British from the South +"unassisted, or perhaps even to stop their career," and he writes in +similar terms to Congress a few days later. To depend "upon the +resources of the country, unassisted by foreign loans," he writes to a +member of Congress two months later, "will, I am confident, be to lean +upon a broken reed." + +In January, 1781, writing to Colonel Laurens, the American envoy in +Paris, he presses for "an immediate, ample, and efficacious succor in +money" from France, for the maintenance of the American coasts of "a +constant naval superiority," and for "an additional succor in troops." +And since the assistance so requested was in fact granted in every +shape, and the surrender of Yorktown was obtained by the coöperation +both of the French army and fleet, we must hold that Washington's words +were justified by the event. + +The real cause, however, why England yielded in 1782-1783 to her +revolted colonies was probably this: The English nation at large had +never realized the nature of the struggle; when it did, it refused to +carry it on. Enormous ignorance no doubt prevailed at the beginning of +the struggle as to the North American colonies. They had been till then +entirely overshadowed by the West Indies, which were perhaps at that +time the greatest source of English commercial wealth; and the time was +not far past when, it is said, they were supposed, like the latter, to +be chiefly inhabited by negroes. The prominence of the slave colonies +seems to have associated the idea of colonies with that of absolute +government. Englishmen did not generally realize the existence in North +America of vast countries inhabited by communities of their own race, +which enjoyed in general a larger measure of self-government than the +mother-country herself. That a colony should resist the mother-country +seemed in a manner preposterous. It appears certain, therefore, that +when the war at first broke out it was popular, and that the King and +Lord North, as has been already stated, were themselves amazed at the +loyal addresses which it called forth. + +But the early resort to the aid of German mercenaries showed that this +popularity was only skin-deep--that the heart of the masses was not +engaged in the war. The very employment of these mercenaries, as well as +of the Indian auxiliaries of the royal forces, tended to lower the +character of the war in English eyes. When Chatham, in his scathing +invectives, would speak of the Ministers' "traffic and barter with every +little pitiful German prince that sells and sends his subjects to the +shambles," or of their sending "the infidel savage--against whom? +against your Protestant brethren, to lay waste their country, to +desolate their dwellings, and extirpate their race and name," he might +not carry with him the votes of the House of Lords, but his words would +burn their way into English hearts. + +That the war with the American colonies themselves was repugnant to the +deepest feelings of the nation is proved by contrast through the sudden +burst of warlike spirit which followed (1778-1779) on the outbreak of +war with France and Spain. A few days before the French treaty with +America was known, Horace Walpole had written to Mason that the new +levies "don't come, consequently they will not go." By July of the same +year he writes to Sir Horace Mann, "The country is covered with camps." +In 1776 the King had reviewed the Guards on Wimbledon Common, and pulled +off his hat to them before their departure for America. He had now +(1779) to review volunteers. The passionate interest which is henceforth +taken in so much of the struggle as is carried on with foreign foes, +Keppel's scarcely deserved popularity, the riotous popular joy on his +acquittal, the outburst of universal rejoicing over Rodney's victories, +show a totally different temper to that brought out by either victory or +defeat in what was now felt to be a dread civil war with our American +kinsmen. + +Hence it was, no doubt, that after the surrender of Yorktown, +hostilities were practically at an end with America, while the naval +warfare with France and Spain was carried on for another twelvemonth, +and that the signing of provisional articles of peace with the United +States preceded by two months that of similar articles with France and +Spain, the armistice with Holland being of still later date. It may even +be conjectured that the outbreak of war with France and Spain, instead +of incensing the mind of the English people against the Americans, +rather gave different objects to their angry passions, and tended to +diminish their bitterness toward the colonists. It must have been a kind +of relief to Englishmen to find themselves fighting once more against +those whom they considered hereditary enemies, against men who did not +speak their own mother-tongue; and the wholly unprovoked character of +these foreign hostilities would soften men's feelings toward the +stubbornness of those colonists of their own blood, who after all asked +only to be left alone. It is moreover observable that when peace came, +though it upset the Shelburne ministry, yet that of the coalition which +succeeded it was most unpopular, and addresses came pouring in from +counties and towns to thank the King for making the peace. + +Substantially indeed--although colonial independence would no doubt have +been achieved sooner or later--the more we look into the events of the +war of 1775-1783, the more, perhaps, shall we be convinced that it +resolves itself into a duel between two men who never saw each other in +the flesh, Washington and George III. + +Take Washington out of the history on the American side, and it is +impossible to conceive of American success. It is barely possible that +under Greene--the one general after Washington's own heart, who wrote to +him from his command in the South, "We fight, get beaten, and fight +again"--the army itself might have been commanded with an ability which +would enable it to withstand its British opponents. But neither Greene +nor any other general possessed that weight of personal character which +fixed the trust of Congress and people on Washington, maintained him in +authority through all reverses, and enabled him to criticise with such +unflinching frankness the measures of Congress. + +Take, on the other hand, George III out of the history on the British +side, and it is beyond question that if the war had ever broken out, it +would have been put a stop to long before its ultimate failure. In him +alone is to be found the real centre of resistance to American +independence. It is now well known that at least from the beginning of +1778, if not from the end of 1775, Lord North was anxious to resign, and +desirous of conciliation, and that it was only through the King's +constant appeals to his sense of honor, not to "desert" him, that the +minister was prevailed upon to remain in office. "Till I see things +change to a more favorable position," the King wrote to Lord North as +late as May 19, 1780, "I shall not feel at liberty to grant your +resignation"; and it was only on March 20, 1781, that Lord North at +last compelled his master to accept it. Three ideas were fixed in the +King's mind, the first of which was a delusion, the second a mistake, +and the third contrary to all principles of constitutional government. + +First, he had persuaded himself that the country was radically opposed +to American independence. In January, 1778, he opposes conciliatory +measures, "lest they should dissatisfy this country, which so cheerfully +and handsomely carries on the contest." In the autumn of that year he is +certain that "if ministers show that they never will consent to the +independence of America, the cry will be strong in their favor." Two +years later he "can never suppose this country so far lost to all ideas +of self-importance as to be willing to grant American independence." + +Secondly, he was convinced--and this conviction, it must be admitted, +was shared by some of the strongest opponents of the war--that if the +independence of the North American colonies were acknowledged, all the +others, as well as Ireland, would be lost. If any one branch of the +empire is allowed to throw off its dependency, the others will +inevitably follow the example. "Should America succeed, the West Indies +must follow, not in independence, but dependence on America. Ireland +would soon follow, and this island reduce itself to a poor island +indeed." + +Thirdly, he would not allow the Opposition to rule. "He would run any +personal risk rather than submit to the Opposition; rather than be +shackled by these desperate men he would lose his crown." If he +authorizes the attempt at a coalition (1779), it is "provided it be +understood that every means are to be employed to keep the empire +entire, to prosecute the present just and unprovoked war in all its +branches with the utmost vigor, and that his majesty's past measures be +treated with proper respect," _i.e._, provided the Opposition are ready +to stultify themselves, and do all that the King thinks right, and admit +that all for which they have contended is wrong. Before the spectacle of +such narrow obstinacy it is difficult not to sympathize with an +expression of Fox in one of his letters--"it is intolerable to think +that it should be in the power of one blockhead to do so much mischief." + +Between these two men--it may be conceded, equally sincere, equally +resolute--but the one reasoning, like the madman that he was to be, from +false premises, self-deluded as to the feelings of his people, +anticipating consequences which a century sees yet unrealized and the +other with eyes at all times almost morbidly open to all the gloomier +features of this cause, void of all self-delusion--the one conceiving +himself justified in imposing dictates of his own self-will on every +minister whom he might employ, entitled alike to chain an unwilling +friend to office, and to shut the door of office to opponents except on +terms of surrendering all their principles; the other always ready to +accept the inevitable, to make the most use of the least means, to curb +himself for the sake of his cause in all things except fearless +plain-speaking--the one, finally resolved only to hinder the making of a +nation; the other resolved to make one, if anyhow possible--the issue of +the contest could not be doubtful, if both lives were prolonged. From +that contest the one emerged as the mad king who threw away half a +continent from England; the other as the father of the American nation. + +The common consent of mankind has ranked Washington among its great men; +and although the title may have been fully justified by the course of +his civil life, whether in or out of office, after the termination of +the War of Independence, it is hardly to be doubted that it would freely +have been accorded to him had his career been cut short immediately +after the resignation of his military command. Yet of those who have +enjoyed the title, few, if any, have ever earned it by actions of less +brilliancy. The fame of no conspicuous victory is bound up with +Washington's name. His one dashing exploit was the surprise of Trenton. +His one victory, that of Monmouth, had no results; his most considerable +battle, that of Brandywine, was a severe defeat. His greatness as a +general consisted in doing much with little means, never missing an +opportunity, rising superior to every disaster. When he had recovered +Boston he could say, "I have been here months together with not thirty +rounds of musket cartridges to a man, and have been obliged to submit to +all insults of the enemy's cannon for want of powder, keeping what +little we had for pistol-distance. We have maintained our ground against +the enemy under this want of powder, and we have disbanded one army and +recruited another, within musket-shot of two-and-twenty regiments, the +flower of the British Army, while our force has been but little if any +superior to theirs, and at last have beaten them into a shameful and +precipitate retreat out of a place the strongest by nature on this +continent, and strengthened and fortified at an enormous expense." + +The character of Washington as a commander recalls in various respects +that of Wellington. In both we see the same dogged perseverance under +all the various phases of fortune; the same strict discipline, hardening +readily into sternness, coupled with the same careful consideration for +the wants and welfare of the soldier; the same patient, constant +attention to every detail of military organization; the same ability in +maintaining a defensive warfare against an enemy superior in force, with +the same quickness to strike a blow in any unguarded quarter; the same +unflinching frankness in exposing the evils of the military +administration of the day. Many of Wellington's despatches from the +Peninsula might almost have been written by Washington. The difference +between them, while the war lasts, is mainly this: that in Wellington +the soldier is all, while in Washington the statesman and the patriot +are never merged in the soldier. Hence, while in after-life Wellington +had to serve his apprenticeship as a statesman after ceasing to be a +soldier, and often bungled over his new craft, Washington's after-life +was simply that of a statesman who had been called to take up arms and +had laid them down again. + +In short, though England had never a more successful foe than +Washington, it is impossible not to feel, in studying his character, +that no more typical Englishman ever lived. + +Let us now cast a final glance at the state of the world at the close of +the war. Except that an independent state had grown up for the first +time since the downfall of Aztec and Inca empires on the American +continent, and that England had been politically lessened, the balance +of power had been little affected by the war. France had one West Indian +island more, Holland one Indian settlement less. Spain had recovered +Minorca and the Floridas. But she was irrevocably shut out from one +great object of her ambition, the eastern half of the Mississippi +Basin. + + + + +SETTLEMENT OF AMERICAN LOYALISTS IN CANADA[30] + +A.D. 1783 + +SIR JOHN G. BOURINOT + + In the American Revolutionary War there were many in the + then new-born Republic who either refrained from + participating or took the loyalist side in the conflict. + These were called "United Empire Loyalists," for they clung + to the unity of the empire and refused to ally themselves + with their fellow-colonists in revolt. When the war was + over, those who took up arms on the loyal side found + themselves in a hopeless minority, loaded with obloquy, and + subjected to indignity at the hands of the victorious + republicans. Rather than live under these humiliating + conditions, some of the Loyalists returned to England; but + most of them, preferring voluntary expatriation in Western + wilds to living in a country that had become independent + through rebellion, sought new homes for themselves in Acadia + and Canada. + + Their act was not lost upon the home Government, for the + latter sent instructions to Canada to make provision for + their reception and settlement, and for the mitigation, in + some measure, of their trials and privations. This provision + consisted of seed, farm implements, tools for building + purposes, and food and clothing for a year or two after + settling in the country. To make good in part their losses + the British Government also voted about three millions + sterling to be divided among the incoming settlers, and gave + them munificent grants of land, chiefly in the western + portion of the country, the then virgin Province of Upper + Canada. There, as well as in desirable locations in Nova + Scotia and New Brunswick, streamed in the Loyalists and + their families, to begin their sad experience of exile in + the wilderness. By their coming, Western Canada--chiefly on + the banks of the St. Lawrence, on the Bay of Quinte, in the + Niagara district, and round the shores of Lake + Ontario--received that contribution of brawn and muscle so + essential to the carving out of a new province and the + founding of a strong and enduring community. + + +It was during Governor Haldimand's administration that one of the most +important events in the history of Canada occurred as a result of the +American War of Independence. This event was the coming to the Provinces +of many thousand people, known as United Empire Loyalists, who, during +the progress of the war, but chiefly at its close, left their old homes +in the thirteen colonies. When the Treaty of 1783 was under +consideration, the British representatives made an effort to obtain some +practical consideration from the new nation for the claims of this +unfortunate people who had been subject to so much loss and obloquy +during the war. All that the English envoys could obtain was the +insertion of a clause in the treaty to the effect that Congress would +recommend to the legislatures of the several States measures of +restitution--a provision which turned out, as Franklin intimated at the +time, a perfect nullity. The English Government subsequently indemnified +these people in a measure for their self-sacrifice, and among other +things gave a large number of them valuable tracts of land in the +Provinces of British North America. Many of them settled in Nova Scotia, +others founded New Brunswick and Upper Canada, now Ontario. Their +influence on the political fortunes of Canada has been necessarily very +considerable. For years they and their children were animated by a +feeling of bitter animosity against the United States, the effects of +which could be traced in later times when questions of difference arose +between England and her former colonies. They have proved with the +French Canadians a barrier to the growth of any annexation party, and as +powerful an influence in national and social life as the Puritan element +itself in the Eastern and Western States. + +Among the sad stories of the past the one which tells of the exile of +the Loyalists from their homes, of their trials and struggles in the +valley of the St. Lawrence, then a wilderness, demands our deepest +sympathy. In the history of this continent it can be only compared with +the melancholy chapter which relates the removal of the French +population from their beloved Acadia. During the Revolution they +comprised a very large, intelligent, and important body of people, in +all the old colonies, especially in New York and at the South, where +they were in the majority until the peace. They were generally known as +Tories, while their opponents, who supported independence, were called +Whigs. Neighbor was arrayed against neighbor, families were divided, the +greatest cruelties were inflicted, as the war went on, upon men and +women who believed it was their duty to be faithful to king and +country. + +As soon as the contest was ended, their property was confiscated in +several States. Many persons were banished and prohibited from returning +to their homes. An American writer, Sabine, tells us that previous to +the evacuation of New York, in September, 1783, "upward of twelve +thousand men, women, and children embarked at the city, at Long and +Staten islands, for Nova Scotia and the Bahamas." Very wrong impressions +were held in those days of the climate and resources of the Provinces to +which these people fled. Time was to prove that the lot of many of the +Loyalists had actually fallen in pleasant places, in Nova Scotia, New +Brunswick, and Upper Canada; that the country where most of them settled +was superior in many respects to the New England States, and equal to +the State of New York, from which so many of them came. + +It is estimated that between forty and fifty thousand people reached +British North America by 1786. They commenced to leave their old homes +soon after the breaking out of the war, but the great migration took +place in 1783-1784. Many sought the shores of Nova Scotia, and founded +the town of Shelburne, which at one time held a population of ten or +twelve thousand souls, the majority of whom were entirely unsuited to +the conditions of the rough country around them and soon sought homes +elsewhere. Not a few settled in more favorable parts of Nova Scotia, and +even in Cape Breton. Considerable numbers found rest in the beautiful +valley of the St. John River, and founded the Province of New Brunswick. +As many more laid the beginnings of Upper Canada, in the present county +of Glengarry, in the neighborhood of Kingston and the Bay of Quinte, on +the Niagara River, and near the French settlements on the Detroit. A few +also settled in the country now known as the Eastern Townships of French +Canada. A great proportion of the men were officers and soldiers of the +regiments which were formed in several colonies out of the large loyal +population. + +Among them were also men who had occupied positions of influence and +responsibility in their respective communities, divines, judges, +officials, and landed proprietors, whose names were among the best in +the old colonies, as they are certainly in Canada. Many among them gave +up valuable estates which had been acquired by the energy of their +ancestors. Unlike the Puritans who founded New England, they did not +take away with them their valuable property in the shape of money and +securities or household goods. A rude log hut by the side of a river or +lake, where poverty and wretchedness were their lot for months, and even +years in some cases, was the refuge of thousands, all of whom had +enjoyed every comfort in well-built houses, and not a few even luxury in +stately mansions, some of which have withstood the ravages of time and +can still be pointed out in New England. Many of the Loyalists were +quite unfitted for the rude experiences of a pioneer life, and years +passed before they and their children conquered the wilderness and made +a livelihood. The British Government was extremely liberal in its grants +of lands to this class of persons in all the Provinces. + +The Government supplied these pioneers in the majority of cases with +food, clothing, and necessary farming implements. For some years they +suffered many privations; one was called "the year of famine," when +hundreds in Upper Canada had to live on roots and even the buds of trees +or anything that might sustain life. Fortunately some lived in favored +localities, where pigeons and other birds, and fish of all kinds, were +plentiful. In the summer and fall there were quantities of wild fruit +and nuts. Maple sugar was a great luxury, when the people once learned +to make it from the noble tree, whose symmetrical leaf may well be made +the Canadian national emblem. It took the people a long while to +accustom themselves to the conditions of their primitive pioneer life, +but now the results of the labors of these early settlers and their +descendants can be seen far and wide in smiling fields, richly laden +orchards, and gardens of old-fashioned flowers throughout the country +which they first made to blossom like the rose. The rivers and lakes +were the only means of communication in those early times, roads were +unknown, and the wayfarer could find his way through the illimitable +forests only by the help of the "blazed" trees and the course of +streams. Social intercourse was infrequent except in autumn and winter, +when the young managed to assemble as they always will. Love and +courtship went on even in this wilderness, though marriage was +uncertain, as the visits of clergymen were very rare in many places, and +magistrates could alone tie the nuptial knot--a very unsatisfactory +performance to the cooler lovers who loved their church, its ceremonies +and traditions, as dearly as they loved their sovereign. + +The story of those days of trial has not yet been adequately written; +perhaps it never will be, for few of those pioneers have left records +behind them. As we wander among the old burying-grounds of those +founders of Western Canada and New Brunswick, and stand by the gray, +moss-covered tablets, with names effaced by the ravages of years, the +thought will come to us, what interesting stories could be told by those +who are laid beneath the sod, of sorrows and struggles, of hearts sick +with hope deferred, of expectations never realized, of memories of +misfortune and disaster in another land where they bore so much for a +stubborn and unwise king. Yet these grass-covered mounds are not simply +memorials of suffering and privation; each could tell a story of +fidelity to principle, of forgetfulness of self-interest, of devotion +and self-sacrifice--the grandest story that human annals can tell--a +story that should be ever held up to the admiration and emulation of the +young men and women of the present times, who enjoy the fruits of the +labors of those loyal pioneers. + +Although no noble monument has yet been raised to the memory of these +founders of new provinces--of English-speaking Canada; although the +majority lie forgotten in old grave-yards where the grass has grown +rank, and common flowers alone nod over their resting-places, yet the +names of all are written in imperishable letters in Provincial annals. +Those Loyalists, including the children of both sexes, who joined the +cause of Great Britain before the Treaty of Peace in 1783, were allowed +the distinction of having after their name the letters U. E. to preserve +the memory of their fidelity to a United Empire. A Canadian of these +modern days, who traces his descent from such a source, is as proud of +his lineage as if he were a Derby or a Talbot of Malahide, or inheritor +of other noble names famous in the annals of the English peerage. + +The records of all the provinces show the great influence exercised on +their material, political, and intellectual development by this devoted +body of immigrants. For more than a century they and their descendants +have been distinguished for the useful and important part they have +taken in every matter deeply associated with the best interests of the +country. In New Brunswick we find among those who did good service in +their day and generation the names of Wilmot, Allen, Robinson, Jarvis, +Hazen, Burpee, Chandler, Tilley, Fisher, Bliss, Odell, Botsford; in Nova +Scotia, Inglis (the first Anglican bishop in the colonies), Wentworth, +Brenton, Blowers (Chief Justice), Cunard, Cutler, Howe, Creighton, +Chipman, Marshall, Halliburton, Wilkins, Huntingdon, Jones; in Ontario, +Cartwright, Robinson, Hagerman, Stuart (the first Anglican clergyman), +Gamble, Van Alstine, Fisher, Grass, Butler, Macaulay, Wallbridge, +Chrysler, Bethune, Merritt, McNab, Crawford, Kirby, Tisdale, and +Ryerson. Among these names stand out prominently those of Wilmot, Howe, +and Huntingdon, who were among the fathers of responsible government; +those of Tilley, Tupper, Chandler, and Fisher, who were among the +fathers of confederation; of Ryerson, who exercised a most important +influence on the system of free education which Ontario now enjoys. +Among the eminent descendants of U. E. Loyalists are Sir Charles Tupper, +long a prominent figure in politics; Christopher Robinson, a +distinguished lawyer, who was counsel for Canada at the Bering Sea +arbitration; Sir Richard Cartwright, a liberal leader remarkable for his +keen, incisive style of debate, and his knowledge of financial +questions; Honorable George E. Foster, a former finance minister of +Canada. We might extend the list indefinitely did space permit. In all +walks of life we see the descendants of the Loyalists, exercising a +decided influence over the fortunes of the Dominion. + +Conspicuous among the people who remained faithful to England during the +American Revolution was the famous Iroquois chief Joseph Brant, best +known by his Mohawk name of Thayendanegea, who took part in the war, and +was for many years wrongly accused of having participated in the +massacre and destruction of Wyoming, that beauteous vale of the +Susquehanna. It was he whom the poet Campbell would have consigned to +eternal infamy in the verse + + "The mammoth comes--the foe, the monster, Brandt-- + With all his howling, desolating band; + These eyes have seen their blade and burning pine + Awake at once, and silence half your land. + Red is the cup they drink, but not with wine-- + Awake and watch to-night, or see no morning shine." + +Posterity has, however, recognized the fact that Joseph Brant was not +present at this sad episode of the American War, and the poet in a note +to a later edition admitted that the Indian chief in his poem was "a +pure and declared character of fiction." He was a sincere friend of +English interests, a man of large and statesmanlike views, who might +have taken an important part in colonial affairs had he been educated in +these later times. When the war was ended, he and his tribe moved into +the valley of the St. Lawrence, and received from the Government fine +reserves of land on the Bay of Quinte, and on the Grand River in the +western part of the Province of Upper Canada, where the prosperous city +and county of Brantford and the township of Tyendinaga--a corruption of +Thayendanegea--illustrate the fame he has won in Canadian annals. The +descendants of his nation live in comfortable homes, till fine farms in +a beautiful section of Western Canada, and enjoy all the franchises of +white men. It is an interesting fact that the first church built in +Ontario was that of the Mohawks, who still preserve the communion +service presented to the tribe in 1710 by Queen Anne of England. + +General Haldimand's administration will always be noted in Canadian +history for the coming of the Loyalists, and for the sympathetic +interest he took in settling these people on the lands of Canada, and in +alleviating their difficulties by all the means in the power of his +government. In these and other matters of Canadian interest he proved +conclusively that he was not the mere military martinet that some +Canadian writers with inadequate information would make him. When he +left Canada he was succeeded by Sir Guy Carleton, then elevated to the +peerage as Lord Dorchester. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[30] From _The Story of Canada_ (New York, 1896: G. P. Putnam's Sons), +by permission. + + + + +FIRST BALLOON ASCENSION + +A.D. 1783 + +HATTON TURNOR + + Few problems of invention have ever engaged more students + and experimenters than those which bear upon aërial + navigation. The history of early experiments in this + direction has a peculiar interest at present, in view of the + numerous recent trials by aëronauts in different countries. + + At the time of the first balloon ascension, described by + Turnor, interest in the possibilities of aërostatics was + very active and widespread, especially among the scientific + mechanicians of Europe. Many experiments with "aërostatical + globes" and the like had been made in Great Britain and on + the Continent. Leonhard Euler, to whom Turnor refers, was a + famous Swiss mathematician who had given much study to these + things. He was in Russia, and about to die, when in France + the first aërostat, or balloon, was sent up by the + inventors, the brothers Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier, + French mechanicians, who were made corresponding members of + the Academy. This form of air-balloon--the first successful + one--is known as the "Montgolfier." + + +A shout of joy rang through Europe, and reached the ear of the aged +Euler, on the banks of the Neva, who, between attacks of vertigo, which +were soon to carry him from this scene to a better, dictated to his sons +the calculations he had made on aërostatical globes. It is said he +ceased to calculate and live at the same instant. + +The cause of so great enthusiasm had better be given in the accurate +description that immediately circulated among the peoples: + +"On Thursday, June 5, 1783, the States of Vivarais being assembled at +Annonay (37 miles from Lyons), Messrs. Montgolfier invited them to see +their new aërostatic experiment. + +"Imagine the surprise of the Deputies and spectators on seeing in the +public square a ball, 110 feet in circumference, attached at its base to +a wooden frame of 16 feet surface. This enormous bag, with frame, +weighed 300 lbs., and could contain 22,000 feet of vapor. + +"Imagine the general astonishment when the inventors announced that, as +soon as it should be filled with gas--which they had a simple means of +making--it would rise of itself to the clouds. One must here remark +that, notwithstanding the general confidence in the knowledge and wisdom +of Messrs. Montgolfier, such an experiment appeared so incredible to +those who were present, that all doubted of its success. + +"But Messrs. Montgolfier, taking it in hand, proceed to make the vapors, +which gradually swell it out till it assumes a beautiful form. + +"Strong arms are now required to retain it; at a given signal it is +loosed, rises with rapidity, and in ten minutes attains a height of 6000 +feet; it proceeds 7668 feet in a horizontal direction, and gently falls +to the ground. + + "Just as the Omnipotent, who turns + The system of a world's concerns, + From mere minutiæ can educe + Events of the most important use; + But who can tell how vast the plan, + Which this day's incident began?" + +The effect of this letter in England was to cause a display of jealousy +at which we might now blush, if we do not remember that the sagacious +and convincing views of Adam Smith on political economy had only just +been published and had not yet had time to circulate; for, though we +were obliged to admit a discovery had been made in France, yet the +periodicals argued that all the experiments that had led to it were made +in England. Many were the caricatures which appeared. + +In a discourse at the Academy of Lyons, Jacques Montgolfier says that a +French copy of Priestley's _Experiments relating to the Different Kinds +of Air_ came in his way, and was to him like light in darkness; as from +that moment he conceived the possibility of navigating the air, but, +after some experiments in gas, he again tried smoke and hot air. + +In Paris this intelligence caused a meeting of savants, who, by the +advice of M. Faujas de Saint-Fond, started a public subscription for +defraying the expense of making inflammable gas (hydrogen), the +materials of which were expensive: one thousand pounds of iron filings +and four hundred ninety-eight pounds of sulphuric acid were consumed to +fill a globular bag of varnished silk, which, for the first time, was +designated a ballon, or balloon, as we call it, meaning a great ball. + +The filling commenced on August 23d, in the Place des Victoires. +Bulletins were published daily of its progress, but, as the crowd was +found to be immense, it was moved on the night of the 26th to the +Champ-de-Mars, a distance of two miles. It was done secretly and in the +dark, to avoid a mob. + +A description by an eye-witness is as follows: "No more wonderful scene +could be imagined than the balloon being thus conveyed, preceded by +lighted torches, surrounded by a _cortege_, and escorted by a +detachment of foot and horse-guards; the nocturnal march, the form and +capacity of the body carried with so much precaution; the silence that +reigned, the unseasonable hour, all tended to give a singularity and +mystery truly imposing to all those who were unacquainted with the +cause. The cab-drivers on the road were so astonished that they were +impelled to stop their carriages, and to kneel humbly, hat in hand, +while the procession was passing." + +In the morning the Champ-de-Mars was lined with troops, every house to +its very top, and every avenue, was crowded with anxious spectators. The +discharge of a cannon at 5 P.M. was the signal for ascent, and the globe +rose, to the great surprise of the spectators, to a height of three +thousand one hundred twenty-three feet in two minutes, where it entered +the clouds. The heavy rain which descended as it rose did not impede, +and tended to increase, surprise. The idea that a body leaving the earth +was travelling in space was so sublime, and appeared to differ so +greatly from ordinary laws, that all the spectators were overwhelmed +with enthusiasm. The satisfaction was so great that ladies in the +greatest fashions allowed themselves to be drenched with rain, to avoid +losing sight of the globe for an instant. + +The balloon, after remaining in the atmosphere three-quarters of an +hour, fell in a field near Gonesse, a village fifteen miles from the +Champ-de-Mars. The descent was imputed to a tear in the silk. + +The effect on the inhabitants of this village well illustrates that the +human character with an unawakened intellect is the same in all +countries and ages: + +"For on first sight it is supposed by many to have come from another +world; many fly; others, more sensible, think it a monstrous bird. After +it has alighted, there is yet motion in it from the gas it still +contains. A small crowd gains courage from numbers, and for an hour +approaches by gradual steps, hoping meanwhile the monster will take +flight. At length one bolder than the rest takes his gun, stalks +carefully to within shot, fires, witnesses the monster shrink, gives a +shout of triumph, and the crowd rushes in with flails and pitchforks. +One tears what he thinks to be the skin, and causes a poisonous stench; +again all retire. Shame, no doubt, now urges them on, and they tie the +cause of alarm to a horse's tail, who gallops across the country, +tearing it to shreds." + +A similar tale has lately been told me as having occurred in Persia, +where a fire-balloon was let off by some French visitors to the Shah's +palace at Teheran, when it alighted. No less than three shots were fired +at it when on the ground, before anyone would venture nearer. + +It is no wonder, then, that the paternal government of France deemed it +necessary to publish the following "_avertissement_" to the public: + + +"INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE ON THE ASCENT OF BALLOONS, OR GLOBES, IN THE +AIR + + + "PARIS, August 27, 1783. + + "The one in question has been raised in Paris this said day, + August 27, 1783, at 5 P.M., in the Champ-de-Mars. + + "A discovery has been made, which the Government deems it + right to make known, so that alarm be not occasioned to the + people. + + "On calculating the different weights of inflammable and + common air, it has been found that a balloon filled with + inflammable air will rise toward heaven till it is in + equilibrium with the surrounding air; which may not happen + till it has attained a great height. + + "The first experiment was made at Annonay, in Vivarais, by + Messrs. Montgolfier, the inventors. A globe formed of canvas + and paper, 105 feet in circumference, filled with + inflammable air, reached an incalculated height. + + "The same experiment has just been renewed at Paris (August + 27th, 5 P.M.), in presence of a great crowd. A globe of + taffeta, covered with elastic gum, thirty-six feet in + circumference, has risen from the Champ-de-Mars, and been + lost to view in the clouds, being borne in a northeasterly + direction; one cannot foresee where it will descend. + + "It is proposed to repeat these experiments on a larger + scale. Any one who shall see in the sky such a globe (which + resembles the moon in shadow) should be aware that, far from + being an alarming phenomenon, it is only a machine, made of + taffeta or light canvas, covered with paper, that cannot + possibly cause any harm, and which will some day prove + serviceable to the wants of society. + + "Read and approved, September 3, 1783. + "DE SAUVIGNY. + "Permission for printing. LENOIR." + + + +Balloons made of paper and goldbeater's-skin were now sent up by +amateurs from all places which this intelligence reached; and in +September another important step was made, an account of which, and of +the ascents which followed during the next two years, I take from the +quaint but graphic _History of Aërostation_, by Tiberius Cavallo. + +Tiberius Cavallo was an electrician and natural philosopher, born at +Naples, 1749. He came to England in 1771, where he devoted his time to +science and literature till his death, in 1809. + +On September 19, 1783, the King, Queen,[31] the court, and innumerable +people of every rank and age assembled at Versailles, Jacques +Montgolfier being present to explain every particular. About one o'clock +the fire was lighted, in consequence of which the machine began to +swell, acquired a convex form, soon stretched itself on every side, and +in eleven minutes' time, the cords being cut, it ascended, together with +a wicker cage, which was fastened to it by a rope. In this cage they had +put a sheep, a cock, and a duck, which were the first animals that ever +ascended into the atmosphere with an aërostatic machine. When the +machine went up, its power of ascension or levity was six hundred +ninety-six pounds, allowing for the cage and animals. + +The machine raised itself to the height of about one thousand four +hundred forty feet; and being carried by the wind, it fell gradually in +the wood of Vaucresson, at the distance of ten thousand two hundred feet +from Versailles, after remaining in the atmosphere only eight minutes. +Two game-keepers, who were accidentally in the wood, saw the machine +fall very gently, so that it just bent the branches of the trees upon +which it alighted. The long rope to which the cage was fastened, +striking against the wood, was broken, and the cage came to the ground +without hurting in the least the animals that were in it, so that the +sheep was even found feeding. The cock, indeed, had its right wing +somewhat hurt; but this was the consequence of a kick it had received +from the sheep, at least half an hour before, in presence of at least +ten witnesses. + +It has been sufficiently demonstrated by experiments that little or no +danger is to be apprehended by a man who ascends with such an aërostatic +machine. The steadiness of the aërostat while in the air, its gradual +and gentle descent, the safety of the animals that were sent up with it +in the last-mentioned experiment, and every other observation that could +be deduced from all the experiments hitherto made in this new field of +inquiry seem more than sufficient to expel any fear for such an +enterprise; but as no man had yet ventured in it, and as most of the +attempts at flying, or of ascending into the atmosphere, on the most +plausible schemes, had from time immemorial destroyed the reputation or +the lives of the adventurers, we may easily imagine and forgive the +hesitation that men might express, of going up with one of those +machines: and history will probably record, to the remotest posterity, +the name of M. Pilâtre de Rozier, who had the courage of first venturing +to ascend with a machine, which in a few years hence the most timid +woman will perhaps not hesitate to trust herself to. + +The King, aware of the difficulties, ordered that two men under sentence +of death should be sent up; but Pilâtre de Rozier was indignant, saying, +"_Eh quoi! de vils criminels auraient les premiers la gloire de s'élever +dans les airs! Non, non cela ne sera point!_" ("What! Vile criminals to +have the glory of the first aërial ascension! No, not on any account!") +He stirs up the city in his behalf, and the King at length yields to the +earnest entreaties of the Marquis d'Arlandes, who said that he would +accompany him. + +Scarce ten months had elapsed since M. Montgolfier made his first +aërostatic experiment, when M. Pilâtre de Rozier publicly offered +himself to be the first adventurer in the newly invented aërial machine. +His offer was accepted; his courage remained undaunted; and on October +15, 1783, he actually ascended, to the astonishment of a gazing +multitude. The following are the particulars of this experiment: + +"The accident which happened to the aërostatic machine at Versailles, +and its imperfect construction, induced M. Montgolfier to construct +another machine, of a larger size and more solid. With this intent, +sufficient time was allowed for the work to be properly done; and by +October 10th the aërostat was completed, in a garden in the Faubourg +St.-Antoine. It had an oval shape; its diameter being about forty-eight +feet, and its height about seventy-four. The outside was elegantly +painted and decorated with the signs of the zodiac, with the cipher of +the King's name in _fleurs-de-lis_, etc. The aperture or lower part of +the machine had a wicker gallery about three feet broad, with a +balustrade both within and without about three feet high. The inner +diameter of this gallery, and of the aperture of the machine, the neck +of which passed through it, was near sixteen feet. In the middle of this +aperture an iron grate or brazier was supported by chains which came +down from the sides of the machine. + +"In this construction, when the machine was in the air, with a fire +lighted in the grate, it was easy for a person who stood in the gallery, +and had fuel with him, to keep up the fire in the mouth of the machine, +by throwing the fuel on the grate through port-holes made in the neck of +the machine. By this means it was expected, as indeed it was found by +experience, that the machine might have been kept up as long as the +person in its gallery thought proper, or while he had fuel to supply the +fire with. The weight of this aërostat was upward of 16,000 pounds. + +"On Wednesday, October 15th, this memorable experiment was performed. +The fire being lighted, and the machine inflated, M. Pilâtre de Rozier +placed himself in the gallery, and, after a few trials close to the +ground, he desired to ascend to a great height; the machine was +accordingly permitted to rise, and it ascended as high as the ropes, +which were purposely placed to detain it, would allow, which was about +eighty-four feet from the ground. There M. de Rozier kept the machine +afloat during four minutes twenty-five seconds, by throwing straw and +wool into the grate to keep up the fire; then the machine descended very +gently; but such was its tendency to ascend, that after touching the +ground, the moment M. de Rozier came out of the gallery, it rebounded +again to a considerable height. The intrepid adventurer, returning from +the sky, assured his friends, and the multitude that gazed on him with +admiration, with wonder, and with fear, that he had not experienced the +least inconvenience, either in going up, in remaining there, or in +descending; no giddiness, no incommoding motion, no shock whatever. He +received the compliments due to his courage and audacity, having shown +the world the accomplishment of that which had been for ages desired, +but attempted in vain. + +"On October 17th, M. Pilâtre de Rozier repeated the experiment with +nearly the same success as he had two days before. The machine was +elevated to about the same height, being still detained by ropes; but +the wind being strong, it did not sustain itself so well, and +consequently did not afford so fine a spectacle to the concourse of +people, which at this time was much greater than at the preceding +experiment. + +"On the Sunday following, which was the 19th, the weather proving +favorable, M. Montgolfier employed his machine to make the following +experiments. At half past four o'clock the machine was filled, in five +minutes' time; then M. Pilâtre de Rozier placed himself in the gallery, +a counterpoise of 100 pounds being put in the opposite side of it, to +preserve the balance. The size of the gallery had now been diminished. +The machine was permitted to ascend to the height of about 210 feet, +where it remained during six minutes, not having any fire in the grate; +and then it descended very gently. + +"Soon after, everything remaining as before, except that now a fire was +put into the grate, the machine was permitted to ascend to about 262 +feet, where it remained stationary during eight minutes and a half. On +pulling it down, a gust of wind carried it over some large trees in an +adjoining garden, where it would have been in great danger had not M. de +Rozier, with great presence of mind and address, increased the fire by +throwing some straw upon it; by which means the machine was extricated +from so dangerous a situation, and rose majestically to its former +situation, among the acclamations of the spectators. On descending, M. +de Rozier threw some straw upon the fire, which made the machine ascend +once more, remaining up for about the same length of time. + +"This experiment showed that the aërostat may be made to ascend and +descend at the pleasure of those who are in it; to effect which, they +have nothing more to do than to increase or diminish the fire in the +grate; which was an important point in the subject of aërostation. + +"After this, the machine was raised again with two persons in its +gallery, M. Pilâtre de Rozier and M. Girond de Villette, the latter of +whom was therefore the second aërostatic adventurer. The machine +ascended to the height of about 300 feet, where it remained perfectly +steady for at least nine minutes, hovering over Paris, in sight of its +numerous inhabitants, many of whom could plainly distinguish, through +telescopes, the aërostatic adventurers, and especially M. de Rozier, who +was busy in managing the fire. When the machine came down, the Marquis +d'Arlandes, a major of infantry, took the place of M. Villette, and the +balloon was sent up once more. This last experiment was attended with +the same success as the preceding; which proved that the persons who +ascended with the machine did not suffer the least inconvenience, owing +to the gradual and gentle ascent and descent of the machine, and to its +steadiness or equilibrium while it remained in the air. + +"If we consider for a moment the sensation which these first aërial +adventurers must have felt in their exalted situation, we can almost +feel the contagion of their thrilling experience ourselves. Imagine a +man elevated to such a height, into immense space, by means altogether +new, viewing under his feet, like a map, a vast tract of country, with +one of the greatest existing cities--the streets and environs of which +were crowded with spectators--attentive to him alone, and all expressing +in every possible manner their amazement and anxiety. Reflect on the +prospect, the encomiums, and the consequences; then see if your mind +remains in a state of quiet indifference. + +"An instructive observation may be derived from these experiments; which +is, that when an aërostatic machine is attached to the earth by +ropes--especially when it is at a considerable height--the wind, blowing +on it, will drive it in its own horizontal direction; so that the cords +which hold the machine must make an angle with the horizon (which is +greater when the wind is stronger, and contrariwise); in consequence of +which the machine must be severely strained, it being acted on by three +forces in three different directions; namely, its power of ascension, +the tension of the ropes, which is opposite to the first, and the action +of the wind, which is across the other two. It is therefore infinitely +more judicious to abandon the machine entirely to the air, because it +will then stand perfectly balanced, and, therefore, under no strain +whatever." + +In consequence of the report of the foregoing experiments, signed by the +commissaries of the Academy of Sciences, that learned and respectable +body ordered: (1) That the said report should be printed and published; +and (2) that the annual prize of six hundred livres, from the fund +provided by an anonymous citizen, be given to Messrs. Montgolfier, for +the year 1783. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[31] Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. + + + + +FRAMING OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES + +A.D. 1787 + +ANDREW W. YOUNG JOSEPH STORY + + It was a "critical period of American history" in which the + fundamental or organic law of the United States, the Federal + Constitution, was formulated. That instrument has not only + commanded the reverence of American patriots--statesmen and + people--during a century and more; it has engaged the + attentive study and aroused the respect and admiration of + foreign students and critics of political institutions. + "After all deductions," says Bryce, it "ranks above every + other written constitution, for the intrinsic excellence of + its scheme, its adaptation to the circumstances of the + people, the simplicity, brevity, and precision of its + language, its judicious mixture of definiteness in principle + with elasticity in details." + + The story of this Constitution is as plain and simple as any + in American annals; yet its real features have sometimes + been missed even by friendly commentators. It is a mistake + to say, with Gladstone, that "it is the greatest work ever + struck off at any one time by the mind and purpose of man," + for the true record of its making shows how deliberate and + difficult the process was. Equally misleading is the + judgment of so profound a master in legal history as Sir + Henry Sumner Maine, when he says that the "Constitution of + the United States is a modified version of the British + Constitution which was in existence between 1760 and 1787." + + A juster view is held by the critical scholars of America, a + view which indeed should be deducible, without need of + special scholarship, from the recorded history of the + Constitutional period. "The real source of the + Constitution," says a living American historian, "is the + experience of Americans. They had established and developed + admirable little commonwealths in the colonies; since the + beginning of the Revolution they had had experience of State + governments organized on a different basis from the + colonial; and, finally, they had carried on two successive + national governments, with which they had been profoundly + discontented. The general outline of the new Constitution + seems to be English; it was really colonial." + + From the year 1775 there was a federal union in which each + colony regulated its internal affairs by its own + constitution, while the general affairs of the union were + controlled by the Continental Congress. This mode was + substantially continued after the colonies (1776-1779) + became States, with new State constitutions. It was not + finally superseded until the Articles of Confederation, + adopted by the Continental Congress in 1777, had been + ratified by all the separate colonies or States. Under the + articles a new government went into effect March 1, 1781. + + The Articles of Confederation proving inadequate to the + requirements of the Federal Government, it came to be seen + that a general revision of them was needed, and a convention + for that purpose was called. This convention went beyond its + original purpose, which proved impracticable, and took upon + itself the task of framing wholly anew the present + Constitution of the United States. The following accounts + furnish the reader with the circumstances which directly led + to the calling of the convention, and with a clear and + concise report of its proceedings and the subsequent action + thereon taken by the States. + + +ANDREW W. YOUNG + +The day appointed for the assembling of the Convention[32] to revise the +Articles of Confederation was May 14, 1787. Delegations from a majority +of the States did not attend until the 25th, on which day the business +of the convention commenced. The delegates from New Hampshire did not +arrive until July 23d. Rhode Island did not appoint delegates. + +A political body combining greater talents, wisdom, and patriotism, or +whose labors have produced results more beneficial to the cause of civil +and religious liberty, has probably never assembled. The two most +distinguished members were Washington and Franklin, to whom the eyes of +the convention were directed for a presiding officer. Washington, having +been nominated by Lewis Morris, of Pennsylvania, was elected president +of the convention. William Jackson was appointed secretary. The rules of +proceeding adopted by the convention were chiefly the same as those of +Congress. A quorum was to consist of the deputies of at least seven +States, and all questions were to be decided by the greater number of +those which were fully represented--at least two delegates being +necessary to constitute a full representation. Another rule was the +injunction of secrecy upon all their proceedings. + +The first important question determined by the convention was, whether +the confederation should be amended or a new government formed? The +delegates of some States had been instructed only to amend. And the +resolution of Congress sanctioning a call for a convention recommended +it "for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of +Confederation." A majority, however, considering the plan of +confederation radically defective, resolved to form "a national +government, consisting of a supreme judicial, legislative, and +executive." The objection to the new system on the ground of previous +instructions was deemed of little weight, as any plan that might be +agreed on would necessarily be submitted to the people of the States for +ratification. + +In conformity with this decision Edmund Randolph, of Virginia, on May +29th, offered fifteen resolutions, containing the outlines of a plan of +government for the consideration of the convention. These resolutions +proposed: That the voice of each State in the National Legislature +should be in proportion to its taxes or to its free population; that the +Legislature should consist of two branches, the members of the first to +be elected by the people of the States, those of the second to be chosen +by the members of the first, out of a proper number of persons nominated +by the State legislatures; and the National Legislature to be vested +with all the powers of "Congress under the Confederation," with the +additional power to legislate in all cases to which the separate States +were incompetent; to negative all State laws which should, in the +opinion of the National Legislature, be repugnant to the Articles of +Union or to any treaty subsisting under them; to call out the force of +the Union against any State refusing to fulfil its duty: + +That there should be a national executive, to be chosen by the National +Legislature, and to be ineligible a second time. The executive, with a +convenient number of the national judiciary, was to constitute a council +of revision, with a qualified negative upon all laws, State and +national: + +A national judiciary, the judges to hold their offices during good +behavior. + +In discussing this plan, called the "Virginia plan," the lines of party +were distinctly drawn. We have already had occasion to allude to the +jealousy, on the part of States, of the power of the General Government. +A majority of the peculiar friends of State rights in the convention +were from the small States. These States, apprehending danger from the +overwhelming power of a strong national government, as well as from the +combined power of the large States, represented in proportion to their +wealth and population, were unwilling to be deprived of their equal vote +in Congress. Not less strenuously did the friends of the national plan +insist on a proportional representation. This opposition of sentiment, +which divided the convention into parties, did not terminate with the +proceedings of that body, but has at times marked the politics of the +nation down to the present day. It is worthy of remark, however, that +the most jealous regard for State rights now prevails in States in which +the plan of a national government then found its ablest and most zealous +advocates. + +The plan suggested by Randolph's resolutions was the subject of +deliberation for about two weeks, when, having been in several respects +modified in committee, and reduced to form, it was reported to the +House. It contained the following provisions: + +A national legislature to consist of two branches, the first to be +elected by the people for three years; the second to be chosen by the +State legislatures for seven years, the members of both branches to be +apportioned on the basis finally adopted; the Legislature to possess +powers nearly the same as those originally proposed by Edmund Randolph. +The executive was to consist of a single person to be chosen by the +National Legislature for seven years, and limited to a single term, and +to have a qualified veto; all bills not approved by him to be passed by +a vote of three-fourths of both Houses in order to become laws. A +national judiciary to consist of a supreme court, the judges to be +appointed by the second branch of the Legislature for the term of good +behavior, and of such inferior courts as Congress might think proper to +establish. + +This plan being highly objectionable to the State rights party, a scheme +agreeable to their views was submitted by William Paterson, of New +Jersey. This scheme, called the "New Jersey plan," proposed no +alteration in the constitution of the Legislature, but simply to give it +the additional power to raise a revenue by duties on foreign goods +imported, and by stamp and postage taxes; to regulate trade with foreign +nations and among the States; and, when requisitions made upon the +States were not complied with, to collect them by its own authority. +The plan proposed a federal executive, to consist of a number of persons +selected by Congress; and a federal judiciary, the judges to be +appointed by the executive, and to hold their offices during good +behavior. + +The Virginia and New Jersey plans were now (June 19th) referred to a new +committee of the whole. Another debate arose, in which the powers of the +convention was the principal subject of discussion. It was again urged +that their power had been, by express instruction, limited to an +amendment of the existing confederation, and that the new system would +not be adopted by the States. The vote was taken on the 19th, and the +propositions of William Paterson were rejected; only New York, New +Jersey, and Delaware voting in the affirmative; seven States in the +negative, and the members from Maryland equally divided. + +Randolph's propositions, as modified and reported by the committee of +the whole, were now taken up and considered separately. The division of +the Legislature into two branches, a House of Representatives and a +Senate, was agreed to almost unanimously, one State only, Pennsylvania, +dissenting; but the proposition to apportion the members to the States +according to population was violently opposed. The small States insisted +strenuously on retaining an equal vote in the Legislature, but at length +consented to a proportional representation in the House on condition +that they should have an equal vote in the Senate. + +Accordingly, on June 29th, Oliver Ellsworth, of Connecticut, offered a +motion, "that in the second branch, each State shall have an equal +vote." This motion gave rise to a protracted and vehement debate. It was +supported by Messrs. Ellsworth; Baldwin, of Georgia; Bradford, of +Delaware, and others. It was urged on the ground of the necessity of a +compromise between the friends of the confederation and those of a +national government, and as a measure which would secure tranquillity +and meet the objections of the larger States. Equal representation in +one branch would make the government partly federal, and a proportional +representation in the other would make it partly national. Equality in +the second branch would enable the small States to protect themselves +against the combined power of the large States. Fears were expressed +that without this advantage to the small States, it would be in the +power of a few large States to control the rest. The small States, it +was said, must possess this power of self-defence, or be ruined. + +The motion was opposed by Messrs. Madison, Wilson, of Pennsylvania; +King, of Massachusetts, and Dr. Franklin. Mr. Madison thought there was +no danger from the quarter from which it was apprehended. The great +source of danger to the General Government was the opposing interests of +the North and the South, as would appear from the votes of Congress, +which had been divided by geographical lines, not according to the size +of the States. James Wilson objected to State equality; that it would +enable one-fourth of the Union to control three-fourths. Respecting the +danger of the three larger States combining together to give rise to a +monarchy or an aristocracy, he thought it more probable that a rivalship +would exist between them than that they would unite in a confederacy. +Rufus King said the rights of Scotland were secure from all danger, +though in the Parliament she had a small representation. Dr. Franklin, +now in his eighty-second year, said, as it was not easy to see what the +greater States could gain by swallowing up the smaller, he did not +apprehend they would attempt it. In voting by States--the mode then +existing--it was equally in the power of the smaller States to swallow +up the greater. He thought the number of representatives ought to bear +some proportion to the number of the represented. + +On July 2d the question was taken on Mr. Ellsworth's motion, and lost: +Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland voting in the +affirmative; Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, and +South Carolina in the negative; Georgia divided. It will be remembered +that the delegates from New Hampshire were not yet present, and that +Rhode Island had appointed none. This has been regarded by some as a +fortunate circumstance, as the votes of these two small States would +probably have given an equal vote to the States in both Houses, if not +have defeated the plan of national government. + +The excitement now became intense, and the convention seemed to be on +the point of dissolution. Luther Martin, of Maryland, who had taken a +leading part in advocating the views of the State rights party, said +each State must have an equal vote, or the business of the convention +was at an end. It having become apparent that this unhappy result could +be avoided only by a compromise, Roger Sherman, of Connecticut, moved +the appointment of a committee of conference, to consist of one member +from each State, and the motion prevailed. The convention then adjourned +for three days, thus giving time for consultation, and an opportunity to +celebrate the anniversary of independence. + +The report of this committee, which was made on July 5th, proposed: (1) +That in the first branch of the Legislature each State should have one +representative for every forty thousand inhabitants (three-fifths of the +slaves being counted); that each State not containing that number should +be allowed one representative; and that money bills should originate in +this branch; (2) that in the second branch each State should have one +vote. These propositions were reported, it is said, at the suggestion of +Dr. Franklin, one of the committee of conference. + +The report, of course, met with greater favor from the State rights +party than from their opponents. The equal vote in the Senate continued +to receive the most determined opposition from the National party. In +relation to the rule of representation in the first branch of the +Legislature, also, a great diversity of opinion prevailed. The +conflicting interests to be reconciled in the settlement of this +question, however, were those of the Northern and Southern, commercial +and planting, rather than the imaginary interests of small and large +States. + +In settling a rule of apportionment, several questions were to be +considered: What should be the number of representatives in the first +branch of the Legislature? Ought the number from each State to be fixed, +or to increase with the increase of population? Ought population alone +to be the basis of apportionment, or should property be taken into +account? Whatever rule might be adopted, no apportionment founded upon +population could be made until an enumeration of the inhabitants should +have been taken. The number of representatives was, therefore, for the +time being, fixed at sixty-five, and apportioned as directed by the +Constitution. + +In establishing a rule of future apportionment, great diversity of +opinion was expressed. Although slavery then existed in all the States +except Massachusetts, the great mass of the slave population was in the +Southern States. These States claimed a representation according to +numbers, bond and free, while the Northern States were in favor of a +representation according to the number of free persons only. This rule +was forcibly urged by several of the Northern delegates. Mr. Paterson +regarded slaves only as property. They were not represented in the +States; why should they be in the General Government? They were not +allowed to vote; why should they be represented? It was an encouragement +of the slave trade. Said Mr. Wilson: "Are they admitted as citizens? +Then why not on an equality with citizens? Are they admitted as +property? Then why is not other property admitted into the computation?" +A large portion of the members of the convention, from both sections of +the Union, aware that neither extreme could be carried, favored the +proposition to count the whole number of free citizens and three-fifths +of all others. + +Prior to this discussion, a select committee, to whom this subject had +been referred, had reported in favor of a distribution of the members on +the basis of wealth and numbers, to be regulated by the Legislature. +Before the question was taken on this report, a proviso was moved and +agreed to that direct taxes should be in proportion to representation. +Subsequently a proposition was moved for reckoning three-fifths of the +slaves in estimating taxes, and making taxation the basis of +representation, which was adopted, New Jersey and Delaware against it, +Massachusetts and South Carolina divided; New York not represented, her +three delegates being all absent. Yates and Lansing, both of the State +rights party, considering their powers explicitly confined to a revision +of the confederation, and being chagrined at the defeat of their +attempts to secure an equal vote in the first branch of the Legislature, +had left the convention, not to return. From that time (July 11th) New +York had no vote in the convention. Alexander Hamilton had left before +the others, to be absent six weeks; and though he returned and took part +in the deliberations, the State, not having two delegates present, was +not entitled to a vote. On the 23d Gilman and Langdon, the delegates +from New Hampshire, arrived, when eleven States were again represented. + +The term of service of members of the first branch was reduced to two +years, and of those of the second branch to six years; one-third of the +members of the latter to go out of office every two years; the +representation in this body to consist of two members from each State, +voting individually, as in the other branch, and not by States, as under +the confederation. Sundry other modifications were made in the +provisions relating to this department. + +The reported plan of the executive department was next considered. After +much discussion, and several attempts to strike out the ineligibility of +the executive a second time, and to change the term of office and the +mode of election, these provisions were retained. + +The report of the committee of the whole, as amended, was accepted by +the convention, and, together with the New Jersey plan, and a third +drawn by Charles Pinckney, of South Carolina, was referred to a +committee of detail, consisting of Messrs. Rutledge, Randolph, Gorham, +Ellsworth, and Wilson, who, on August 6th, after an adjournment of ten +days, reported the Constitution in proper form, having inserted some new +provisions and altered certain others. Our prescribed limits forbid a +particular account of the subsequent alterations which the Constitution +received before it was finally adopted by the convention. There is one +provision, however, which, as it forms one of the great "Compromises of +the Constitution," deserves notice. + +To render the Constitution acceptable to the Southern States, which were +the principal exporting States, the committee of detail had inserted a +clause providing that no duties should be laid on exports, or on slaves +imported; and another, that no navigation act might be passed except by +a two-thirds vote. By depriving Congress of the power of giving any +preference to American over foreign shipping, it was designed to secure +cheap transportation to Southern exports. As the shipping was +principally owned in the Eastern States, their delegates were equally +anxious to prevent any restriction of the power of Congress to pass +navigation laws. All the States, except North Carolina, South Carolina, +and Georgia, had prohibited the importation of slaves; and North +Carolina had proceeded so far as to discourage the importation by heavy +duties. The prohibition of duties on the importation of slaves was +demanded by the delegates from South Carolina and Georgia, who declared +that, without a provision of this kind, the Constitution would not +receive the assent of these States. The support which the proposed +restriction received from other States was given to it from a +disposition to compromise, rather than from an approval of the measure +itself. The proposition not only gave rise to a discussion of its own +merits, but revived the opposition to the apportionment of +representatives according to the three-fifths ratio, and called forth +some severe denunciations of slavery. + +Rufus King, in reference to the admission of slaves as a part of the +representative population, remarked: "He had not made a strenuous +opposition to it heretofore because he had hoped that this concession +would have produced a readiness, which had not been manifested, to +strengthen the General Government. The report of the committee put an +end to all these hopes. The importation of slaves could not be +prohibited; exports could not be taxed. If slaves are to be imported, +shall not the exports produced by their labor supply a revenue to help +the government defend their masters? There was so much inequality and +unreasonableness in all this that the people of the Northern States +could never be reconciled to it. He had hoped that some accommodation +would have taken place on the subject; that at least a time would have +been limited for the importation of slaves. He could never agree to let +them be imported without limitation, and then be represented in the +National Legislature. Either slaves should not be represented, or +exports should be taxable." + +Gouverneur Morris pronounced slavery "a nefarious institution. It was +the curse of Heaven on the States where it prevailed. Compare the free +regions of the Middle States, where a rich and noble cultivation marks +the prosperity and happiness of the people, with the misery and poverty +which overspread the barren wastes of Virginia, Maryland, and the other +States having slaves. Travel through the whole continent, and you behold +the prospect continually varying with the appearance and disappearance +of slavery. The admission of slaves into the representation, when fairly +explained, comes to this, that the inhabitant of Georgia and South +Carolina, who goes to the coast of Africa in defiance of the most sacred +laws of humanity, tears away his fellow-creatures from their dearest +connections, and damns them to the most cruel bondage, shall have more +votes in a government instituted for the protection of the rights of +mankind, than the citizen of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, who views with +a laudable horror so nefarious a practice. + +"And what is the proposed compensation to the Northern States for a +sacrifice of every principle of right, every impulse of humanity? They +are to bind themselves to march their militia for the defence of the +Southern States, against those very slaves of whom they complain. The +Legislature will have indefinite power to tax them by excises and duties +on imports, both of which will fall heavier on them than on the Southern +inhabitants; for the Bohea tea used by a Northern freeman will pay more +tax than the whole consumption of the miserable slave, which consists of +nothing more than his physical subsistence and the rag which covers his +nakedness. On the other side, the Southern States are not to be +restrained from importing fresh supplies of wretched Africans, at once +to increase the danger of attack and the difficulty of defence; nay, +they are to be encouraged to it by an assurance of having their votes in +the National Government increased in proportion, and, at the same time, +are to have their slaves and their exports exempt from all contributions +to the public service." Gouverneur Morris moved to make the free +population alone the basis of representation. + +Roger Sherman, who had on other occasions manifested a disposition to +compromise, again favored the Southern side. He "did not regard the +admission of the negroes as liable to such insuperable objections. It +was the freemen of the Southern States who were to be represented +according to the taxes paid by them, and the negroes are only included +in the estimate of the taxes." + +After some further discussion the question was taken upon Morris' +motion, and lost, New Jersey only voting for it. + +With respect to prohibiting any restriction upon the importation of +slaves, Luther Martin, of Maryland, who moved to allow a tax upon slaves +imported, remarked: "As five slaves in the apportionment of +representatives were reckoned as equal to three freemen, such a +permission amounted to an encouragement of the slave trade. Slaves +weakened the Union which the other parts were bound to protect; the +privilege of importing them was therefore unreasonable. Such a feature +in the Constitution was inconsistent with the principles of the +Revolution, and dishonorable to the American character." + +John Rutledge "did not see how this section would encourage the +importation of slaves. He was not apprehensive of insurrections, and +would readily exempt the other States from every obligation to protect +the South. Religion and humanity had nothing to do with this question. +Interest alone is the governing principle with nations. The true +question at present is, whether the Southern States shall or shall not +be parties to the Union? If the Northern States consult their interest, +they will not oppose the increase of slaves, which will increase the +commodities of which they will become the carriers." + +Oliver Ellsworth said: "Let every State import what it pleases. The +morality or wisdom of slavery is a consideration belonging to the +States. What enriches a part enriches the whole, and the States are the +best judges of their particular interests." + +Charles Pinckney said: "South Carolina can never receive the plan if it +prohibits the slave trade. If the States be left at liberty on this +subject, South Carolina may, perhaps, by degrees, do of herself what is +wished, as Maryland and Virginia already have done." + +Roger Sherman concurred with his colleague Mr. Ellsworth. "He +disapproved of the slave trade; but as the States now possessed the +right, and the public good did not require it to be taken away, and as +it was expedient to have as few objections as possible to the proposed +scheme of government, he would leave the matter as he found it. The +abolition of slavery seemed to be going on, and the good sense of the +several States would probably, by degrees, soon complete it." + +George Mason said: "Slavery discourages arts and manufactures. The poor +despise labor when performed by slaves. They prevent the immigration of +whites, who really enrich and strengthen a country. They produce a +pernicious effect on manners. Every master of slaves is born a petty +tyrant. They bring the judgment of Heaven on a country. He lamented +that some of our Eastern brethren, from a lust of gain, had embarked in +this nefarious traffic. As to the States being in possession of the +right to import, that was the case of many other rights now to be given +up. He held it essential, in every point of view, that the General +Government should have power to prevent the increase of slavery." + +Ellsworth, not well pleased with this thrust at his slave-trading +friends at the North by a slaveholder, tartly replied: "As I have never +owned a slave, I cannot judge of the effects of slavery on character; +but if slavery is to be considered in a moral light, the convention +ought to go further, and free those already in the country." The +opposition of Virginia and Maryland to the importation of slaves he +attributed to the fact that, on account of their rapid increase in those +States, "it was cheaper to raise them there than to import them, while +in the sickly rice-swamps foreign supplies were necessary. If we stop +short with prohibiting their importation, we shall be unjust to South +Carolina and Georgia. Let us not intermeddle. As population increases, +poor laborers will be so plenty as to render slaves useless. Slavery, in +time, will not be a speck in our country." + +Delegates from South Carolina and Georgia repeated the declaration that +"if the slave trade were prohibited, these States would not adopt the +Constitution." "Virginia," it was said, "would gain by stopping the +importation, she having slaves to sell; but it would be unjust to South +Carolina and Georgia to be deprived of the right of importing. Besides, +the importation of slaves would be a benefit to the whole Union: The +more slaves, the more produce, the greater carrying trade, the more +consumption, the more revenue." + +The injustice of exempting slaves from duty, while every other import +was subject to it, having been urged by several members in the course of +the debate, Charles Pinckney expressed his consent to a tax not +exceeding the same on other imports, and moved to refer the subject to a +committee. The motion was seconded by John Rutledge, and, at the +suggestion of Gouverneur Morris, was so modified as to include the +clauses relating to navigation laws and taxes on exports. The commitment +was opposed by Messrs. Sherman and Ellsworth; the former on the ground +that taxes on slaves imported implied that they were property; the +latter from the fear of losing two States. Edmund Randolph was in favor +of the motion, hoping to find some middle ground upon which they could +unite. The motion prevailed, and the subject was referred to a committee +of one from each State. The committee retained the prohibition of duties +on exports; struck out the restriction on the enactment of navigation +laws; and left the importation of slaves unrestricted until the year +1800; permitting Congress, however, to impose a duty upon the +importation. + +The debate upon this report of the "grand committee" is condensed, by +Hildreth, into the two following paragraphs: + +"Williamson declared himself, both in opinion and practice, against +slavery; but he thought it more in favor of humanity, from a view of all +circumstances, to let in South Carolina and Georgia on these terms, than +to exclude them from the Union. Sherman again objected to the tax, as +acknowledging men to be property. Gorham replied that the duty ought to +be considered, not as implying that men are property, but as a +discouragement to their importation. Sherman said the duty was too small +to bear that character. Madison thought it 'wrong to admit, in the +Constitution, the idea that there could be property in man'; and the +phraseology of one clause was subsequently altered to avoid any such +implication. Gouverneur Morris objected that the clause gave Congress +power to tax freemen imported; to which George Mason replied that such a +power was necessary to prevent the importation of convicts. A motion to +extend the time from 1800 to 1808, made by Pinckney, and seconded by +Gorham, was carried against New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and +Virginia; Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire voting this time +with Georgia and South Carolina. That part of the report which struck +out the restriction on the enactment of navigation acts was opposed by +Charles Pinckney in a set speech, in which he enumerated five distinct +commercial interests: the fisheries and West India trade, belonging to +New England; the interest of New York in a free trade; wheat and flour, +the staples of New Jersey and Pennsylvania; tobacco, the staple of +Maryland and Virginia and partly of North Carolina; rice and indigo, the +staples of South Carolina and Georgia. The same ground was taken by +Williamson and Mason, and very warmly by Randolph, who declared that an +unlimited power in Congress to enact navigation laws would complete the +deformity of a system having already so many odious features that he +hardly knew if he could agree to it. Any restriction of the power of +Congress over commerce was warmly opposed by Gouverneur Morris, Wilson, +and Gorham. Madison also took the same side. Charles C. Pinckney did not +deny that it was the true interest of the South to have no regulation of +commerce; but considering the commercial losses of the Eastern States +during the Revolution, their liberal conduct toward the views of South +Carolina--in the vote just taken, giving eight years' further extension +to the slave trade--and the interest of the weak Southern States in +being united with the strong Eastern ones, he should go against any +restriction on the power of commercial regulation. 'He had himself +prejudices against the Eastern States before he came here, but would +acknowledge that he found them as liberal and candid as any men +whatever.' Butler and Rutledge took the same ground, and the same report +was adopted, against the votes of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, +and Georgia. + +"Thus, by an understanding, or, as Gouverneur Morris called it, 'a +bargain,' between the commercial representatives of the Northern States +and the delegates of South Carolina and Georgia, and in spite of the +opposition of Maryland and Virginia, the unrestricted power of Congress +to pass navigation laws was conceded to the Northern merchants; and to +the Carolina rice-planters, as an equivalent, twenty years' continuance +of the African slave trade. This was the third 'Great Compromise' of the +Constitution. The other two were the concessions to the smaller States +of an equal representation in the Senate, and, to the slaveholders, the +counting of three-fifths of the slaves in determining the ratio of +representation. If this third compromise differed from the other two by +involving not only a political but a moral sacrifice, there was this +partial compensation about it, that it was not permanent, like the +others, but expired at the end of twenty years by its own limitation." + +Of the important subjects remaining to be disposed of, that of the +executive department was, perhaps, the most difficult. The modified plan +of Edmund Randolph left the executive to be elected by the Legislature +for a single term of seven years. The election was subsequently given to +a college of electors, to be chosen in the States in such manner as the +legislatures of the States should direct. The term of service was +reduced from seven years to four years, and the restriction of the +office to a single term was removed. Numerous other amendments and +additions were made in going through with the draft. This amended draft +was referred, for final revision, to a committee consisting of Messrs. +Hamilton, Johnson, G. Morris, Madison, and King. Several amendments were +made even after this revision; one of which was the substitution of a +two-thirds for the three-fourths majority required to pass bills against +the veto of the President. Another was a proposition of Mr. Gorham, to +reduce the minimum ratio of representation from forty thousand, as it +stood, to thirty thousand, intended to conciliate certain members who +thought the House too small. This was offered the day on which the +Constitution was signed. General Washington having briefly addressed the +convention in favor of the proposed amendment, it was carried almost +unanimously. + +The whole number of delegates who attended the convention was +fifty-five, of whom thirty-nine signed the Constitution. Of the +remaining sixteen, some had left the convention before its close; others +refused to give it their sanction. Several of the absentees were known +to be in favor of the Constitution. + +Some, as has been observed, were opposed to the plan of a national +government, contending for the preservation of the confederation, with a +mere enlargement of its powers; others, though in favor of the plan +adopted, believed too much power had been given to the General +Government. Some thought that not only the powers of Congress, but those +of the executive, were too extensive; others that the executive was +"weak and contemptible," and without sufficient power to defend himself +against encroachments by the Legislature; others, still, that the +executive power of the nation ought not to be intrusted in a single +person. Although some deprecated the extensive powers of the Federal +Government as dangerous to the rights of the States, "ultra democracy" +seems to have had no representatives in the convention; while, on the +other hand, there were not a few who thought it unsafe to trust the +people with a direct exercise of power in the General Government. + +Sherman and Gerry were opposed to the election of the first branch of +the Legislature by the people; as were some of the Southern delegates. +Others, among whom were Madison, Mason, and Wilson, thought no +republican government could be permanent in which the people were denied +a direct voice in the election of their representatives. Hamilton, +though in favor of making the first branch elective, proposed that the +Senate should be chosen by the people, and the executive by electors, +_chosen by electors_, who were to be chosen by the people in districts; +Senators and the President both to hold their offices during good +behavior. He was also, as were a few others, in favor of an absolute +executive veto on acts of the Legislature. He, however, signed the +Constitution, and urged others to do the same, as the only means of +preventing anarchy and confusion. While the proposed Constitution was in +every particular satisfactory to none, very few were disposed to +jeopardize the Union by the continuance of a system which _all_ admitted +to be inadequate to the objects of the Union. To the hope, therefore, of +finding the new plan an improvement on the old, and of amending its +defects if any should appear, is to be attributed the general sanction +which it received. + +It is indeed remarkable that a plan of government, containing so many +provisions to which the most strenuous opposition was maintained to the +end, should have received the signatures of so large a majority of the +convention. Perhaps there never was another political body in which +views and interests more varied and opposite have been represented or a +greater diversity of opinion has prevailed. Nor is it less remarkable +that a system deemed so imperfect, not only by the mass of its framers, +but by a large portion of the eminent men who composed the State +conventions that ratified it, should have been found to answer so fully +the purpose of its formation as to require, during an experiment of more +than sixty years, no essential alteration; and that it should be +esteemed as a model form of republican government by the enlightened +friends of freedom in all countries. + +Not a single provision of the Constitution, as it came from the hands of +the framers, except that which prescribed the mode of electing a +President and Vice-President, has received the slightest amendment. Of +the twelve articles styled "amendments," the first eleven are merely +additions; some of which were intended to satisfy the scruples of those +who objected to the Constitution as incomplete without a bill of rights, +supposing their common-law rights would be rendered more secure by an +express guarantee; others are explanatory of certain provisions of the +Constitution which were considered liable to misconstruction. The +twelfth article is the amendment changing the mode of electing the +President and Vice-President. + +In the differences of opinion between the friends and opponents of the +Constitution originated the two great political parties into which the +people were divided during a period of about thirty years. It is +generally supposed that the term "Federalist" was first applied to those +who advocated the plan of the present Constitution. This opinion, +however, is not correct. Those members of the convention who were in +favor of the old plan of union, which was a simple confederation or +federal alliance of equal independent States, were called "Federalists," +and their opponents "Anti-Federalists." After the new Constitution had +been submitted to the people for ratification, its friends, regarding +its adoption as indispensable to union, took the name of "Federalists," +and bestowed upon the other party that of "Anti-Federalists," intimating +that to oppose the adoption of the Constitution was to oppose any union +of the States. + +The new Constitution bears the date September 17, 1787. It was +immediately transmitted to Congress, with a recommendation to that body +to submit it to State conventions for ratification, which was +accordingly done. It was adopted by Delaware, December 7th; by +Pennsylvania, December 12th; by New Jersey, December 18th; by Georgia, +January 2d, 1788; by Connecticut, January 9th; by Massachusetts, +February 7th; by Maryland, April 28th; by South Carolina, May 23d; by +New Hampshire, June 21st, which, being the _ninth_ ratifying State, gave +effect to the Constitution. Virginia ratified June 27th; New York, July +26th; and North Carolina, conditionally, August 7th. Rhode Island did +not call a convention. + +In Massachusetts, Virginia, and New York the new Constitution +encountered a most formidable opposition, which rendered its adoption +by these States for a time extremely doubtful. In their conventions were +men on both sides who had been members of the national convention, +associated with others of distinguished abilities. In Massachusetts +there were several adverse influences which would probably have defeated +the ratification in that State had it not been accompanied by certain +proposed amendments to be submitted by Congress to the several States +for ratification. The adoption of these by the convention gained for the +Constitution the support of Hancock and Samuel Adams; and the question +on ratification was carried by one hundred eighty-seven against one +hundred sixty-eight. + +In the Virginia convention the Constitution was opposed by Patrick +Henry, James Monroe, and George Mason, the last of whom had been one of +the delegates to the constitutional convention. On the other side were +John Marshall, Edmund Pendleton, James Madison, George Wythe, and Edmund +Randolph, the three last also having been members of the national +convention. Randolph had refused to sign the Constitution, but had since +become one of its warmest advocates. In the convention of this State, +also, the ratification was aided by the adoption of a bill of rights and +certain proposed amendments, and was carried, eighty-eight yeas against +eighty nays. + +In the convention of New York the opposition embraced a majority of its +members, among whom were Yates and Lansing, members of the general +convention, and George Clinton. The principal advocates of the +Constitution were John Jay, Robert R. Livingston, and Alexander +Hamilton. Strong efforts were made for a conditional ratification, which +were successfully opposed, though not without the previous adoption of a +bill of rights and numerous amendments. With these, the absolute +ratification was carried, thirty-one to twenty-nine. + +The ratification of North Carolina was not received by Congress until +January, 1790; and that of Rhode Island not until June of the same year. + +After the ratification of New Hampshire had been received by Congress, +the ratifications of the nine States were referred to a committee, who, +on July 14, 1788, reported a resolution for carrying the new government +into operation. The passage of the resolution, owing to the difficulty +of agreeing upon the place for the meeting of the first Congress, was +delayed until September 13th. The first Wednesday in January, 1789, was +appointed for choosing electors of President, and the first Wednesday in +February for the electors to meet in their respective States to vote for +President and Vice-President; and the first Wednesday, March 4th, as the +time, and New York as the place, to commence proceedings under the new +Constitution. + + +JOSEPH STORY + +Commissioners were appointed by the Legislatures of Virginia and +Maryland, early in 1785, to form a compact relative to the navigation of +the Potomac and Pocomoke rivers and Chesapeake Bay. The commissioners, +having met in March in that year, felt the want of more enlarged powers, +and particularly of powers to provide for a local naval force, and a +tariff of duties upon imports. Upon receiving their recommendation, the +Legislature of Virginia passed a resolution for laying the subject of a +tariff before all the States composing the Union. Soon afterward, in +January, 1786, the Legislature adopted another resolution, appointing +commissioners, "who were to meet such as might be appointed by the other +States in the Union, at a time and place to be agreed on, to take into +consideration the trade of the United States; to examine the relative +situation and trade of the States; to consider how far a uniform system +in their commercial relations may be necessary to their common interest +and their permanent harmony; and to report to the several States such an +act, relative to this great object, as, when unanimously ratified by +them, will enable the United States in Congress assembled to provide for +the same." + +These resolutions were communicated to the States, and a convention of +commissioners from five States only, viz., New York, New Jersey, +Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Virginia, met at Annapolis in September, +1786. After discussing the subject, they deemed more ample powers +necessary, and, as well from this consideration as because a small +number only of the States was represented, they agreed to come to no +decision, but to frame a report to be laid before the several States, as +well as before Congress. In this report they recommended the appointment +of commissioners from all the States, "to meet at Philadelphia, on the +second Monday of May next, to take into consideration the situation of +the United States; to devise such further provisions as shall appear to +them necessary to render the Constitution of the Federal Government +adequate to the exigencies of the Union; and to report such an act for +that purpose to the United States in Congress assembled as, when agreed +to by them, and afterward confirmed by the legislature of every State, +will effectually provide for the same." + +On receiving this report the Legislature of Virginia passed an act for +the appointment of delegates to meet such as might be appointed by other +States, at Philadelphia. The report was also received in Congress, but +no step was taken until the Legislature of New York instructed its +delegation in Congress to move a resolution recommending to the several +States to appoint deputies to meet in convention for the purpose of +revising and proposing amendments to the Federal Constitution. On +February 21, 1787, a resolution was accordingly moved and carried in +Congress recommending a convention to meet in Philadelphia, on the +second Monday of May ensuing, "For the purpose of revising the Articles +of Confederation, and reporting to Congress and the several +legislatures, such alterations and provisions therein as shall, when +agreed to in Congress and confirmed by the States, render the Federal +Constitution adequate to the exigencies of government and the +preservation of the Union." The alarming insurrection then existing in +Massachusetts, without doubt, had no small share in producing this +result. The report of Congress on that subject at once demonstrates +their fears and their political weakness. + +At the time and place appointed the representatives of twelve States +assembled. Rhode Island alone declined to appoint any on this momentous +occasion. After very protracted deliberations, the convention finally +adopted the plan of the present Constitution on September 17, 1787; and +by a contemporaneous resolution, directed it to be "laid before the +United States in Congress assembled," and declared their opinion "that +it should afterward be submitted to a convention of delegates chosen in +each State by the people thereof, under a recommendation of its +legislature for their assent and ratification"; and that each convention +assenting to and ratifying the same should give notice thereof to +Congress. The convention, by a further resolution, declared their +opinion that as soon as nine States had ratified the Constitution, +Congress should fix a day on which electors should be appointed by the +States which should have ratified the same, and a day on which the +electors should assemble and vote for the President, and the time and +place of commencing proceedings under the Constitution; and that after +such publication the electors should be appointed, and the Senators and +Representatives elected. The same resolution contained further +recommendations for the purpose of carrying the Constitution into +effect. + +The convention, at the same time, addressed a letter to Congress, +expounding their reasons for their acts, from which the following +extract cannot but be interesting: "It is obviously impracticable [says +the address] in the federal government of these States, to secure all +rights of independent sovereignty to each, and yet provide for the +interest and safety of all. Individuals entering into society must give +up a share of liberty to preserve the rest. The magnitude of the +sacrifice must depend as well on situation and circumstance as on the +object to be obtained. It is at all times difficult to draw with +precision the line between those rights which must be surrendered and +those which may be reserved; and on the present occasion this difficulty +was increased by a difference among the several States as to their +situation, extent, habits, and particular interests. In all our +deliberations on this subject we kept steadily in our view that, which +appears to us the greatest interest of every true American, the +consolidation of our Union, in which is involved our prosperity, +felicity, safety, perhaps our national existence. This important +consideration, seriously and deeply impressed on our minds, led each +State in the convention to be less rigid on points of inferior magnitude +than might have been otherwise expected. And thus the Constitution which +we now present is the result of the spirit of amity, and of that mutual +deference and concession, which the peculiarity of our political +situation rendered indispensable." + +Congress, having received the report of the convention on September 28, +1787, unanimously resolved "that the said report, with the resolutions +and letter accompanying the same, be transmitted to the several +legislatures in order to be submitted to a convention of delegates +chosen in each State by the people thereof in conformity to the +resolves of the convention, made and provided in that case." + +Conventions in the various States which had been represented in the +general convention were accordingly called by their respective +legislatures; and the Constitution having been ratified by eleven out of +the twelve States, Congress, on September 13, 1788, passed a resolution +appointing the first Wednesday in January following for the choice of +electors of President; the first Wednesday of February following for the +assembling of the electors to vote for a President; and the first +Wednesday of March following, at the then seat of Congress (New York) +the time and place for commencing proceedings under the Constitution. +Electors were accordingly appointed in the several States, who met and +gave their votes for a President; and the other elections for Senators +and Representatives having been duly made, on Wednesday, March 4, 1789, +Congress assembled under the new Constitution and commenced proceedings +under it. + +A quorum of both Houses, however, did not assemble until April 6th, +when, the votes for President being counted, it was found that George +Washington was unanimously elected President, and John Adams was elected +Vice-President. + +On April 30th President Washington was sworn into office, and the +government then went into full operation in all its departments. + +North Carolina had not, as yet, ratified the Constitution. The first +convention called in that State, in August, 1788, refused to ratify it +without some previous amendments and a declaration of rights. In a +second convention, however, called in November, 1789, this State adopted +the Constitution. The State of Rhode Island had declined to call a +convention; but finally, by a convention held in May, 1790, its assent +was obtained; and thus all the thirteen original States became parties +to the new government. + +Thus was achieved another and still more glorious triumph in the cause +of national liberty than even that which separated us from the +mother-country. By it we fondly trust that our republican institutions +will grow up, and be nurtured into more mature strength and vigor; our +independence be secured against foreign usurpation and aggression; our +domestic blessings be widely diffused, and generally felt; and our +nation, as a people, be perpetuated, as our own truest glory and +support, and as a proud example of a wise and beneficent government, +entitled to the respect, if not to the admiration, of mankind. + +Let it not, however, be supposed that a Constitution, which is now +looked upon with such general favor and affection by the people, had no +difficulties to encounter at its birth. The history of those times is +full of melancholy instruction on this subject, at once to admonish us +of past dangers, and to awaken us to a lively sense of the necessity of +future vigilance. The Constitution was adopted unanimously by Georgia, +New Jersey, and Delaware. It was supported by large majorities in +Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maryland, and South Carolina. It was carried +in the other States by small majorities; and especially in +Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia by little more than a +preponderating vote. Indeed, it is believed that in each of these +States, at the first assembling of the conventions, there was a decided +majority opposed to the Constitution. The ability of the debates, the +impending evils, and the absolute necessity of the case seem to have +reconciled some persons to the adoption of it, whose opinions had been +strenuously the other way. + +"In our endeavors," said Washington, "to establish a new general +government, the contest, nationally considered, seems not to have been +so much for glory as for existence. It was for a long time doubtful +whether we were to survive, as an independent republic, or decline from +our federal dignity into insignificant and withered fragments of +empire." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[32] Called the "Constitutional Convention."--ED. + + + + +INAUGURATION OF WASHINGTON + +HIS FAREWELL ADDRESS + +A.D. 1789-1797 + +JAMES K. PAULDING and GEORGE WASHINGTON + + In times when "logical candidates" for the Presidency of the + United States are periodically exploited by rival parties, + it is a salutary thing, which can never too often be + repeated, to look back to the first filling of the chief + magistracy of the country. + + No parallel is seen in history to the unanimity of + Washington's election, a call which his modest reluctance + could not refuse, for there was no other who could serve his + country's need. The tribute of a nation was again paid in + his unanimous reëlection to a second term, which nothing + except his own will determined for the last. + + Familiar as is the fame of Washington and of his services to + his country and mankind, there is no name in the records of + the world which still commands a more universal veneration. + Nor is this sentiment diminished, among intelligent people, + now that his character and work have been divested of those + elements of myth or tradition which formerly enveloped them; + rather by the critical process of humanizing is his + reputation more endeared to his countrymen and more firmly + established in the eyes of the world. + + To enter here upon the innumerable details of Washington's + presidential labors is impossible; they belong to general + history. But among the great events of history the civil and + political acts of the man who was first in peace as well as + in war stand conspicuous, and in Paulding's narrative and + appreciation they are fittingly commemorated. + + +The convention which framed the United States Constitution met at +Philadelphia, and unanimously chose Washington its president. This +situation in some measure precluded him from speaking, if he had been so +inclined; but his influence was not the less in producing the results +which followed. It is highly probable that but for the exertions he made +in private, and the vast authority of his character and services, the +objects of the convention might not have been obtained. The great +talents of Madison, Hamilton, and Jay, exerted in that celebrated work +called _The Federalist_, and the influence of many of the leading men +of the different States, aided by the name of Washington, alone, +perhaps, secured to the country the great charter of its liberties. + +Under the new Constitution a chief magistrate became necessary to +administer the government. The eyes of the whole people of the United +States were at once directed to Washington, and their united voices +called upon him who had led their armies in war, to direct their affairs +in peace. His old companions came forth and besought him to leave his +retirement once more to serve his country. The leading men of all +parties wrote letters to the same purport, and on all hands he was +assailed by the warmest, most earnest applications. + +His replies are extant, and those who have ever seen them cannot for a +moment question the deep reluctance with which he undertook this new and +trying service. Both in its external and internal relations, the country +was at this time in a most critical state; and the man who accepted the +hard task of administering its government might rationally anticipate +little of the sweets and all the bitterness of power. He who already +possessed the hearts of the people; he who had already gained the most +lofty eminence, the noblest of all rewards, the hallowed title of his +country's father, and the gratitude of a nation, would risk everything +and gain nothing by embarking again on the troubled ocean of political +strife, in a vessel whose qualities for the voyage had never been tried. +But Washington thought he might be of service to his country, and once +more sacrificed his rural happiness and cherished tastes at that shrine +where he had often offered up his life and all its enjoyments. + +He was unanimously elected President of the United States on March 4, +1789, but owing to some formal or accidental delays this event was not +notified to him officially until April 14th following. Referring to this +delay he thus expresses himself in a letter to General Knox, who +possessed and deserved his friendship to the last moment of his life: + +"As to myself, the delay may be compared to a reprieve; for in +confidence I tell you (with the world it would obtain little credit) +that my movements toward the chair of government will be accompanied by +feelings not unlike those of a culprit going to the place of execution; +so unwilling am I, in the evening of a life consumed in public cares, +to quit my peaceful abode for an ocean of difficulties, without the +competency of political skill, abilities, and inclination which is +necessary to manage the helm. I am sensible that I am embarking with the +voice of the people, and a good name of my own, on this voyage, and what +returns will be made for them, Heaven alone can foretell. Integrity and +firmness are all I can promise. These, be the voyage long or short, +shall never forsake me, though I may be deserted by all men; for of the +consolations to be derived from these, the world cannot deprive me." + +Such was the foundation of his modest confidence--firmness and +integrity, the true pillars of honest greatness. And these never +deserted him. He kept his promise to himself in all times, +circumstances, and temptations; and though, on a few rare occasions +during the course of a stormy season, in which the hopes, fears, and +antipathies of his fellow-citizens were strongly excited, his conduct +may have been assailed, his motives were never questioned. None ever +doubted his firmness, and the general conviction of his integrity was +founded on a rock that could neither be undermined nor overthrown. + +His progress from Mount Vernon to New York, where Congress was then +sitting, was a succession of the most affecting scenes which the +sentiment of a grateful people ever presented to the contemplation of +the world. His appearance awakened in the bosoms of all an enthusiasm so +much the more glorious because so little characteristic of our +countrymen. Men, women, and children poured forth and lined the roads in +throngs to see him pass and hail his coming. The windows shone with +glistening eyes, watching his passing footsteps; the women wept for joy; +the children shouted, "God save Washington!" and the iron hearts of the +stout husbandmen yearned with inexpressible affection toward him who had +caused them to repose in safety under their own vine and fig-tree. His +old companions-in-arms came forth to renovate their honest pride, as +well as undying affection, by a sight of their general, and a shake of +his hand. The pulse of the nation beat high with exultation, for now, +when they saw their ancient pilot once more at the helm, they hoped for +a prosperous voyage and a quiet haven in the bosom of prosperity. + +His reception at Trenton was peculiarly touching. It was planned by +those females and their daughters whose patriotism and sufferings in the +cause of liberty were equal to those of their fathers, husbands, sons, +and brothers. It was here, when the hopes of the people lay prostrate on +the earth, and the eagle of freedom seemed to flap his wings, as if +preparing to forsake the world, that Washington performed those prompt +and daring acts which, while they revived the drooping spirits of his +country, freed, for a time, the matrons of Trenton from the insults and +wrongs of an arrogant soldiery. The female heart is no sanctuary for +ingratitude; and when Washington arrived at the bridge over the +Assumpink, which here flows close to the borders of the city, he met the +sweetest reward that, perhaps, ever crowned his virtues. + +Over the bridge was thrown an arch of evergreens and flowers bearing +this affecting inscription in large letters: + + "December 26, 1776. + + "The hero who defended the mothers will protect the daughters." + +At the other extremity of the bridge were assembled many hundreds of +young girls of various ages, arrayed in white, the emblem of truth and +innocence, their brows circled with garlands, and baskets of flowers in +their hands. Beyond these were disposed the grown-up daughters of the +land, clothed and equipped like the others, and behind them the matrons, +all of whom remembered the never-to-be-forgotten twenty-sixth of +December, 1776. As the good Washington left the bridge, they joined in a +chorus, touchingly expressive of his services and their gratitude, +strewing, at the same time, flowers as he passed along. That mouth whose +muscles of gigantic strength indicated the firmness of his character and +the force of his mind, was now observed to quiver with emotion; that eye +which looked storms and tempests, enemies and friends, undauntedly in +the face, and never quailed in the sight of man, now glistened with +tears; and that hand which had not trembled when often life, fame, and +the liberty of his country hung on the point of a single moment, now +refused its office. His hat dropped from his hand as he drew it across +his brow. + +His reception everywhere was worthy of his services and of a grateful +people. At New York the vessels were adorned with flags, and the river +alive with boats gayly decked out in like manner, with bands of music on +board; the place of his landing was thronged with crowds of citizens, +gathered together to welcome his arrival. The roar of cannon and the +shouts of the multitude announced his landing, and he was conducted to +his lodging by thousands of grateful hearts, who remembered what he had +done for them in the days of their trial. + +It had been arranged that a military escort should attend him; but when +the officer in command announced his commission, Washington replied, "I +require no guard but the affections of the people," and declined their +attendance. + +At this moment, so calculated to inflate the human heart with vanity, +Washington, though grateful for these spontaneous proofs of affectionate +veneration, was not elated. In describing the scene in one of his +familiar letters, he says: "The display of boats on this occasion with +vocal and instrumental music on board, the decorations of the ships, the +roar of cannon, and the loud acclamations of the people, as I passed +along the wharves, gave me as much pain as pleasure, contemplating the +probable reversal of this scene, after all my endeavors to do good." +Happily, his anticipations were never realized. Although his policy in +relation to the French Revolution, which was as wise as it was happy in +its consequences, did not give universal satisfaction, still he remained +master of the affections and confidence of the people. The laurels he +had won in defence of the liberties of his country continued to flourish +on his brow while living, and will grow green on his grave to the end of +time. + +On April 30, 1789, he took the oath and entered on the office of +President of the United States, one of the highest as well as most +thankless that could be undertaken by man. The head of this free +Government is no idle, empty pageant set up to challenge the admiration +and coerce the absolute submission of the people; his duties are arduous +and his responsibilities great; he is the first servant, not the master, +of the state, and is amenable for his conduct, like the humblest +citizen. As the executor of the laws, he is bound to see them obeyed; as +the first of our citizens, he is equally bound to set an example of +obedience. The oath, "to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution +of the United States," was administered in the balcony of the old +Federal Hall in New York, by the chancellor of the State, and the Bible +on which it was sworn is still preserved as a sacred relic. + +At the time Washington assumed the high functions of President of the +United States, there was ample room for the exertion of all his +firmness, integrity, and talents. A new constitution to be administered, +without the aid of experience or precedent, by an authority to which the +people were strangers; serious and alarming difficulties to be adjusted +with England; the Indian nations all along our frontier brandishing +their tomahawks and whetting their scalping-knives; war with +Mediterranean pirates; the Spaniards denying our right to navigate the +Mississippi, and the people of Kentucky threatening a separation from +the Union unless that right was successfully asserted by the Government. +Other difficulties stared the new President full in the face. Some of +the States still declined to accept the new Constitution, and become +members of the Confederation; others nearly equally divided on the +subject; and a debt of eighty million dollars; to meet all which there +was an army of less than a thousand men and an empty treasury. + +Here was enough, and more than enough, to call forth all the energies, +if not to produce despair in the mind, of an ordinary man. But +Washington was not such a man. Conscious of the purity of his purposes, +he relied on the protection of that Power which is all purity. His first +care was to provide for the civil and judicial administration of the +government, by the appointment of men in whose virtue and capacity a +long experience had given him confidence. Having done this he took the +reins with a firm, steady hand, and commenced the ascent of the rugged +steep before him. + +The next object that called his attention was the situation of the +inland frontier, now exposed to the inroads of the savages, who had not +been included in the general pacification, although a proposition to +that effect had been made by the British commissioners. Although our +Government has always treated with the Indians as independent tribes, it +has never placed them on the footing of civilized nations, or admitted +any mediation on the part of foreign powers. The United States do not +recognize them as parties in civilized warfare; they neither avail +themselves of their alliance nor acknowledge them as the auxiliaries of +other nations. + +A system was devised for the conduct of those singular relations which +alone can subsist between people so different in all respects, moral and +political. The wisdom of that system has been exemplified in having +uniformly been acted upon to this time, and though it may perhaps be +questioned as to its abstract principles, it would be perhaps difficult +if not impossible to devise a better. Our ancestors came to this country +under the sanction of a principle at that time universally acknowledged +among civilized nations, and when once here, the first law of nature, +self-defence, furnishes their only justification. While weak, they were +obliged to defend themselves, and when they became strong they were +probably too apt to remember their former sufferings. + +The policy of Washington, with regard to these unfortunate people, was +successful in quieting, if not conciliating many of the Indian tribes; +but others remained refractory and continued their atrocities. After +defeating two American armies with great slaughter, they were at length +brought to terms by the gallant Wayne, who gave them so severe a beating +in a great general action that they sued for peace. This was concluded +at Greenville; and the cession of a vast territory not only relieved the +frontier from savage inroads, but paved the way for the progress of +civilization into a new world of wilderness. + +He was equally successful at a subsequent period in his negotiations +with Spain. His high character for veracity and honor gave him singular +advantages in his foreign intercourse. He proceeded in a +straightforward, open manner, stated what was wanted, and what would be +given in return; relied on justice, and enforced its claims with the +arguments of truth. He disdained to purchase advantages by corruption, +or to deceive by insincerity. As in private, so in public life, he +proceeded inflexibly upon the noble maxim, whose truth is every day +verified, that "Honesty is the best policy." The conviction of a man's +integrity gives him far greater advantages in his intercourse with the +world than he can ever gain by hypocrisy and falsehood. The right of +navigating the Mississippi was finally conceded by Spain. + +The settlement of the controversies growing out of the treaty with +England proved even more difficult than those with Spain. The wounds +inflicted on both nations by a war of so many years were healed, but the +scars remained, to remind the one of what it had suffered, the other of +what it had lost. Time and mutual good offices were necessary to allay +that spirit which had been excited on one hand by injuries, on the other +by successful resistance; and time indeed had passed away, but it had +left behind it neither forgiveness nor oblivion. It was accompanied on +one hand by new provocations, on the other by additional remonstrances +and renewed indignation. Negotiations continued for a long while, +without any result but mortification and impatience on the part of the +people of the United States; and it was not until the French Revolution +threatened the existence of all the established governments of Europe, +and England among the rest, that a treaty was concluded, which brought +with it an adjustment of the principal points that had so long embroiled +the two nations and fostered a spirit of increasing hostility. The most +vexing question of all however--that of the right of entering our ships +and impressing seamen--was left unsettled, and it became obvious that it +would never be adjusted except on the principle of the right of the +strongest. About the same time peace was concluded between the United +States and the Emperor of Morocco, and thus, for a while, our commerce +remained unmolested on that famous sea where, some years afterward, our +gallant navy laid the foundation of its present and future glories. + +It is not my design to enter minutely into the principles or conduct of +the two great parties, which, from the period of the adoption of the +Constitution down to the present time, have been struggling for +ascendency in the Government of the United States. My limits will not +permit me, if I wished; but if they did, I should decline the task. My +youthful readers will know and feel their excitement soon enough, +perhaps too soon; and I wish not to become instrumental in implanting in +their tender minds the seeds of social and political antipathies. I am +attempting to picture a great and virtuous man; to exhibit a noble moral +example for the imitation of the children of my country. My business is +with the actions of Washington, not with the imputations of his enemies +or the struggles of ambitious politicians. Posterity has placed him far +above such puny trifles and triflers, and I will not assist, however +humbly, in reviving imputations which have long since sunk into +oblivion or insignificance under the weight of his mighty name. + +The French Revolution, which set the Old World in a blaze, but for the +wisdom and firmness of Washington would have involved the United States +in the labyrinth of European policy. He it was that prevented their +becoming parties in that series of tremendous wars which desolated some +of the fairest portions of the earth; caused the rivers to run red with +blood; overturned and erected thrones; converted kings into the +playthings of fortune; and ended in the creation of a mighty phantom, +which, after being the scourge and terror of the world, vanished from +our sight on a desolate rock of the ocean. + +The people of the United States had continued to cherish a strong +feeling of gratitude for the good offices of France during their +struggle for independence; and in addition to this, their sympathies +were deeply engaged in behalf of a contest so similar in many respects +to their own. The institution of the French Republic was hailed with an +enthusiasm equal to that they felt on the establishment of their own +liberties; and, but for the firm and steady hand of Washington, they +would have taken the bridle between their teeth and run headlong into +the vortex of European revolution. + +Washington issued his famous Proclamation of Neutrality, from which Mr. +Genet, the minister of the French Republic, threatened to appeal to the +people, a measure understood to mean nothing less than revolution. From +that moment the people began to rally around their beloved chief, like +children who will not allow their father to be insulted, although they +themselves may think him wrong. They sanctioned the proclamation, and +time has ratified their decision. It is believed there is not a rational +American who does not now feel that the course of Washington was founded +in consummate wisdom, deep feeling, and eternal justice. + +Having been twice unanimously elected to the highest office in the gift +of men; having served his country faithfully eight years in war and +eight in peace, having settled the government on a permanent basis, +established a series of precedents for the imitation of his successors, +and seeing the United States now resting happily in the lap of repose +and prosperity; having fulfilled all and more than they had a right to +ask of him, and consummated all his public duties, Washington now +signified his intention of declining a reëlection. During the arduous +services of the preceding term, he had been obliged to retire for a +while to the repose of Mount Vernon for the reëstablishment of his +health, and he now resolved to relieve himself finally from all the +duties and cares of public life. He had earned this privilege by a whole +life of arduous patriotism, and without doubt wished to close his public +career by one more act of moderation, as a guide to those who might come +after him. He believed eight years to be a sufficient term of service in +the office of President for any one single man, and determined to +establish the precedent by setting the example himself. + +Feeling on this occasion like a father about to take a final leave of +his children, and give them his parting blessing, Washington, at the +moment of announcing his intention of retiring from the world, addressed +to the people of the United States his last memorable words. These were +conveyed in a letter to his "friends and fellow-citizens," fraught with +lessons of virtue and patriotism, adorned by the most touching +simplicity, the most mature wisdom, the most affectionate and endearing +earnestness of paternal solicitude. He was now about to withdraw his +long and salutary guardianship from his young and vigorous country, his +only offspring, and he left her the noblest legacy in his power, the +priceless riches of his precepts and example. + +"In looking forward," he says, "to the moment which is intended to +terminate the career of my public life, my feelings do not permit me to +suspend the deep acknowledgment of that debt of gratitude which I owe to +my beloved country for the many honors it has conferred upon me, or +still more for the steadfast confidence with which it has supported me, +and for the opportunities thence enjoyed of manifesting my inviolable +attachment by services, useful and persevering, though in usefulness +unequal to my zeal. + +"Profoundly penetrated with this idea, I shall carry it with me to my +grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing vows, that Heaven may +continue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence; that your union +and brotherly affection may be perpetual; that the free constitution +which is the work of your hands may be sacredly maintained; that its +administration in every department may be stamped with wisdom and +virtue; that in fine, the happiness of these States, under the auspices +of liberty, may be made complete by so careful a preservation and so +prudent a use of this blessing as will acquire to them the glory of +recommending it to the applause, the affection, and the adoption of +every nation which is yet a stranger to it. + +"Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But solicitude for your welfare, which +cannot end but with my life, and the apprehension of danger natural to +such solicitude, urge me, on an occasion like the present, to offer to +your solemn contemplation, and to recommend to your frequent review, +some sentiments which are the result of much reflection, of no +inconsiderable observation, and which appear to me all-important to your +felicity as a people. These will be offered to you with the more +freedom, as you can only see in them the disinterested warnings of a +parting friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to bias his +counsel. + +"Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your +hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify the +attachment. + +"The unity of government, which constitutes you one people, is also now +dear to you. It is justly so; for it is the main pillar in the edifice +of your real independence, the support of your tranquillity at home and +your peace abroad; of your prosperity, of that liberty which you so +highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that from different causes +and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices +employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth--as this +is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of +internal and external enemies will be constantly and actively, though +often covertly and insidiously directed--it is of infinite moment that +you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to +your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a +cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it, accustoming +yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your +political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with +jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion +that it may be in any event abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon +every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or +to enfeeble the sacred ties that now link together the various parts." + +He then proceeds to caution his fellow-citizens against those +geographical distinctions of "North," "South," "East," and "West," +which, by fostering ideas of separate interests and character, are +calculated to weaken the bonds of our union, and to create prejudices, +if not antipathies, dangerous to its existence. He shows, by a simple +reference to the great paramount interests of each of the different +sections, that they are inseparably intertwined in one common bond; that +they are mutually dependent on each other; and that they cannot be rent +asunder without deeply wounding our prosperity at home, our character +and influence abroad, laying the foundation for perpetual broils among +ourselves, and creating a necessity for great standing armies, +themselves the most fatal enemies to the liberties of mankind. + +He earnestly recommends implicit obedience to the laws of the land, as +one of the great duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of liberty. +"The basis of our political system," he says, "is the right of the +people to make and alter their constitutions of government; but the +constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and +authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The +very idea of the power and right of the people to establish government +presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established +government." + +He denounces "all combinations and associations under whatever plausible +character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe +the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities," as +destructive to this fundamental principle and of fatal tendency. He +cautions his countrymen against the extreme excitements of party spirit; +the factious opposition and pernicious excesses to which they inevitably +tend, until by degrees they gradually incline the minds of men to seek +security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner +or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more +fortunate than his competitors, turns his disposition to the purposes of +his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty. + +He warns those who are to administer the government after him, "to +confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, +refraining, in the exercise of the powers of one department, to +encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate +the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever +the form of government, real despotism." + +He inculcates, with the most earnest eloquence, a regard to religion and +morality. + +"Of all the dispositions and habits," he says, "which lead to political +prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain +would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to +subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of +men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought +to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their +connections with private and public felicity. Let it be simply added, +where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the +sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments +of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge +the supposition that morality can be attained without religion. Whatever +may be conceded to a refined education, or minds of peculiar cast, +reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality +can prevail in the exclusion of religious principles." + +He recommends the general diffusion of knowledge among all classes of +the people. "Promote, then," he says, "as an object of primary +importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In +proportion as the structure of government gives force to public opinion, +it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened." + +He recommends the practice of justice and good faith, and the +cultivation of the relations of peace with all mankind, as not only +enforced by the obligations of religion and morality, but by all the +maxims of sound policy. For the purpose of a successful pursuit of this +great object, he cautions his fellow-citizens against the indulgence of +undue partiality or prejudice in favor or against any nation whatever, +as leading to weak sacrifices on one hand, senseless hostility on the +other. + +Most emphatically does he warn them against the wiles of foreign +influence, the fatal enemy of all the ancient republics. He enjoins a +watchful jealousy of all equally impartial, otherwise it may only lead +to the suspicion of visionary dangers on one hand and wilful blindness +on the other. + +Then, after recommending a total abstinence from all political alliances +with the nations of Europe; a due regard to the national faith toward +public creditors; suitable establishments for the defence of the +country, that we may not be tempted to rely on foreign aid, and which +will never be afforded, in all probability without the price of great +sacrifices on the part of the nation depending on the hollow friendship +of jealous rivals, he concludes this admirable address, which ought to +be one of the early lessons of every youth of our country, in the +following affecting words: + +"Though in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am +unconscious of international error, I am nevertheless too sensible of my +defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors. +Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or +mitigate the evils of which they may tend. I shall always carry with me +the hope that my country will never cease to view them with indulgence, +and that after forty-five years of a life dedicated to its service, with +an upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned +to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest. + +"Relying on its kindness in this as in all things, and actuated by that +fervent love toward it which is so natural to a man who views it as the +native soil of himself and his progenitors for several generations, I +anticipate with pleasing expectations that retreat in which I promise +myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking in +the midst of my fellow-citizens the benign influence of good laws under +a free government, the ever-favorite object of my heart, and the happy +reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers." + +On March 4, 1797, he bade a last farewell to public life. Those who have +read in history the struggles of ambitious men for power, and have seen +them in every age and country involving whole nations in the horrors of +civil strife, only for the worthless privilege of choosing a master, +will do well to mark the conduct of Washington on this occasion. He +waited only in Philadelphia to congratulate his successor and pay +respect to the choice of the people in the person of Mr. Adams. He +entered the Senate chamber as a private citizen, and, while every eye +glistened at thus seeing him, perhaps for the last time, grasped the +hand of the new President, wished that his administration might prove as +happy for himself as for his country, and, bowing to the assemblage, +retired unattended as he came. + +As he was hailed with blessings on entering, so was he greeted with +blessings when he quitted forever, the Presidential chair. He came from +his retirement at Mount Vernon accompanied by joyful acclamations of +welcome, and he was followed thither by the love and veneration of +millions of grateful people. Blessed, and thrice blessed, is he who +closes a life of honest fame in such a dignified and happy repose; +fortunate the nation that can boast of such an example, and still more +fortunate the children who can call him "Father of their Country." + + + + +FRENCH REVOLUTION: STORMING OF THE BASTILLE + +A.D. 1789 + +WILLIAM HAZLITT + + In the scenes of blood and terror which accompanied it, and + in the dramatic episodes and strange actors appearing upon + its stage--in these respects, if not in the calculable + effects of the uprising on France and the world, the French + Revolution was the most extraordinary outbreak of modern + times. + + Matters in France at this time, or during the next few + years, might have taken a very different course had not the + Eastern powers of Europe been absorbed in their own + quarrels, which culminated in the final "scramble for Polish + territory." As it was, France was left through the early + years of the Revolution to struggle with her own affairs. + + Under Louis XV, loved at the beginning of his reign, + execrated by his people at its close, France had fallen into + bankruptcy and disgrace. The monarchy was weakened through + its head. Louis determined that it should live as long as he + survived; he cared nothing for its future. The peasantry of + France at this time had become keenly alive to the wrongs + under which they had long suffered in comparative silence. + The disfranchised bourgeois, or middle class, had lately + grown in wealth and now thought more about their political + rights. The "common" people were staggering under the burden + of taxation, from which the privileged nobility and clergy + were largely exempt. + + The intellectual life of France during the second half of + the eighteenth century was profoundly affected by the + literature of the period, especially by the radical and + revolutionary writings of Voltaire, Rousseau, and their + followers, and in many things the extreme views of these men + seemed to find confirmation in the calmer reasonings of + Montesquieu on the powers and limitations of governments. + Democratic ideas were in the air, and all except the + privileged classes were ready for general revolt. Frenchmen + returning from America reported the successful working of + the new order of things inaugurated by the Revolution there, + and this gave stronger impulse to the revolutionary tendency + in France. + + When the well-meaning but weak-willed Louis XVI came to the + throne he found himself confronted with conditions before + which a far abler monarch might well have quailed. How the + storm broke upon him, and began its sweep over the kingdom + which he was set to rule, is told by Hazlitt without the + rhetorical flourishes indulged by many writers on this + subject, but with clear narration and philosophic judgment + of the facts recounted. + + +Louis XVI succeeded to the throne of France in 1774, and soon after +married Marie Antoinette, a daughter of the house of Austria. She was +young, beautiful, and thoughtless. In her the pride of birth was +strengthened and rendered impatient of the least restraint by the pride +of sex and beauty; and all three together were instrumental in hastening +the downfall of the monarchy. Devoted to the licentious pleasures of a +court, she looked both from education and habit on the homely comforts +of the people with disgust or indifference, and regarded the distress +and poverty which stood in the way of her dissipation with incredulity +or loathing.[33] Louis XVI himself, though a man of good intentions, and +free, in a remarkable degree, from the common vices of his situation, +had not firmness of mind to resist the passions and importunity of +others, and, in addition to the extravagance, petulance, and extreme +counsels of the Queen, fell a victim to the intrigues and officious +interference of those about him, who had neither the wisdom nor spirit +to avert those dangers and calamities which they had provoked by their +rashness, presumption, and obstinacy. + +The want of economy in the court, or a maladministration of the +finances, first occasioned pecuniary difficulties to the Government, for +which a remedy was in vain sought by a succession of ministers, Necker, +Calonne, Maupeou, and by the Parliament. Considerable embarrassment and +uneasiness began to be felt throughout the kingdom when in 1787 the +King undertook to convoke the States-General, as alone competent to meet +the emergency, and to confer on other topics of the highest consequence, +which were at this time agitated with general anxiety and interest. The +necessity of raising the supplies to defray the expenses of government +was indeed only made the handle to introduce and enforce other more +important and widely extended plans of reform. + +For some time past the public mind had been growing critical and +fastidious with the progress of civilization and letters; the monarchy, +as it existed at the period "with all its imperfections on its head," +had been weighed in the balance of reason and opinion, and found +wanting; and a favorable opportunity was only required, and the first +that presented itself was eagerly seized to put in practice what had +been already resolved upon in theory by the wits, philosophers, and +philanthropists of the eighteenth century. From the first calling +together the general council of the nation to deliberate and determine +for the public good, in the then prevailing ferment of the popular +feeling and with the predisposing causes, not a measure of finance was +to be looked to, but a revolution became inevitable. All the _cahiers_, +or instructions given to the deputies by the great mass of their +constituents, show that the kingdom at large was ripe for a material +change in its civil and political institutions, and for the most part +point out the individual grievances which were afterward done away with. + +The States-General met at Versailles on May 5, 1789. They consisted of +the representatives of the nobility, of the clergy, and of the _Tiers +État_ or people in general, the number of the last having been doubled +in order to equal that of the other two. They heard mass the evening +before at the Church of St. Louis, in the same dresses, and with the +same forms and order of precedence as in 1614, the last time they had +ever been assembled. The King opened the sitting with a speech which +gave little satisfaction, as it dwelt chiefly on the liquidation of the +debt and the unsettled state of the public mind, and did not go into +those general measures on which the views of the assembly were bent and +from which alone relief was expected. The first question which divided +opinion and led to a conflict was that regarding the vote by head or by +order. By the first mode, that of counting voices, the commons would be +numerically on a par with the privileged classes; by the latter, their +opponents would always have the advantage of two to one. In order to +keep this advantage, and prevent that reform of abuses which the Third +Estate was supposed to have principally at heart, the Court did all it +could to separate the different orders, first by adhering to etiquette, +afterward by means of intrigue, and in the end by force. + +On the day following the meeting, the deputies of the three estates were +called upon to verify their powers, which the nobles and clergy wished +to do apart; but the commons refused to take any steps toward this +object, except conjointly, or as a general legislative body. This led to +various overtures and discussions, which lasted for several weeks. The +Court offered its mediation; but the nobles giving a peremptory refusal +to come to any compromise, at the motion of the Abbé Sieyès, the Third +Estate, after in vain inviting the two others to join them, constituted +themselves into a national assembly. + +This was the first act of the Revolution, or the first occasion on which +a part of a given body of individuals took upon them to decide for the +rest, from the urgency and magnitude of the case, without the consent of +their coadjutors, and contrary to established rules. It was a stroke of +state necessity, to be defended not by the forms but by the essence of +justice, and by the great ends of human society. The usurpation of a +discretionary and illegal power was clear, but nothing could be done +without it, everything with it. Yet so strong and natural is the +prejudice against every appearance of what is violent and arbitrary, +that serious attempts were made to reconcile the letter with the spirit +of justice in this instance, and to prove that the Tiers État, being the +representatives of the nation, and the nation being everything, the +nobility and clergy were included in it and had nothing to complain of. +It is not worth while to answer this sophistry. The truth is that the +Third Estate erected themselves from parties concerned into framers of +the law and judges of the reason of the case, and must themselves be +judged, not by precedent and tradition, but by posterity, to whom, from +the scale on which they acted, the benefit or the injury of their +departure from common and worn-out forms will reach. Acts that supersede +old established rules and create a new era in human affairs are to be +approved or condemned by what comes after, not by what has gone before, +them. + +This first independent and spirited step on the part of the commons +produced a reaction on the part of the Court. They shut up the place of +sitting. The King had been prevailed on to consent to hostile measures +against the popular side during an excursion to Marly with the Queen and +princes of the blood. Bailly, afterward mayor of Paris, had been chosen +president of the new National Assembly, and, arriving with other +members, and finding the doors of the hall shut against them, they +repaired to the _Jeu de Paumes_ ("Tennis-court") at Versailles, followed +by the people and soldiers in crowds, and there, enclosed by bare walls, +with heads uncovered, and a strong and spontaneous burst of enthusiasm, +made a solemn vow, with the exception of only one person present, never +to separate till they had given France a constitution. + +This memorable and decisive event took place on June 20th. On the 23d +the King came to the Church of St. Louis, whither they had been +compelled to remove, and where they were joined by a considerable number +of the clergy; addressed them in a tone of authority and reprimand, +treated them as simply the Tiers État, pointed out certain partial +reforms which he approved, and which he enjoined them to effect in +conjunction with the other orders, or threatened to dissolve them and +take the whole management of the government upon himself, and ended with +a command that they should separate. The nobles and the clergy obeyed; +the deputies of the people remained firm, immovable, silent. + +Mirabeau then started from his seat and appealed to the Assembly in that +mixed style of the academician and the demagogue which characterized his +eloquence. The words are worth repeating here, both as a sample of the +unqualified tone of the period and on account of the fierce and personal +attack on the King, whom he stigmatizes by a sort of nickname. +"Gentlemen, I acknowledge that what you have just heard might be a +pledge of the welfare of the country, if the offers of despotism were +not always dangerous. What is the meaning of this insolent dictation, +the array of arms, the violation of the national temple, merely to +command you to be happy? Who gives you this command? your _Mandatory_ +['deputy']. Who imposes his imperious laws? your Mandatory, he who ought +to receive them from you; from us, gentlemen, who are invested with an +inviolable political priesthood; from us, in short, to whom, and to whom +alone, twenty-five millions of men look up for a happiness insured by +its being agreed upon, given, and received by all. But the freedom of +your deliberations is suspended: a military force surrounds the +Assembly! Where are the enemies of the nation, that this outrage should +be attempted? Is Catiline at our gates? I demand that in asserting the +claims of your insulted dignity, of your legislative power, you arm +yourselves with the sanctity of your oath: it does not permit us to +separate till we have achieved the constitution." + +From this unbridled effusion of bombast, affectation, and real passion +two things are evident: first, that the designs of the Court were +already looked upon as altogether hostile and alien to the patriotic +side; secondly, that the Assembly, from the beginning, felt in +themselves the strong and undoubted conviction of their being called to +the task of removing the abuses of power and regenerating the hopes of a +mighty people. The die was cast, the lists were marked out in the +opinions and sentiments of the two parties toward each other. The grand +master of the ceremonies of this occasion, seeing that the Assembly did +not break up, reminded them of the command of the King. "Go tell your +master," cried Mirabeau, "that we are here by order of the people; and +that we shall not retire but at the point of the bayonet." This was at +once an invitation to violence and a defiance of authority. Sieyès +added, with his customary coolness: "You are to-day in the same +situation that you were yesterday; let us deliberate!" The Assembly +immediately confirmed its former resolutions, and, at the instance of +Mirabeau, decreed the inviolability of its members. + +Such was at one time the brilliant, daring, and forward zeal of a man +who not long after sold himself to the Court: so little has flashy +eloquence or bold pretension to do with steadiness of principle! Indeed, +the Revolution, of which he was one of the most prominent leaders, +presented too many characters of this kind--dazzling, ardent, wavering, +corrupt--a succession of momentary fires, made of light and worthless +materials, soon kindled and soon exhausted, and requiring some new fuel +to repair them: nothing deep, internal, relying on its own +resources--"outliving fortunes outward with a mind that doth renew +swifter than blood decays"--but a flame rash and violent, fanned by +circumstances, kept alive by vanity, smothered by sordid interest, and +wandering from object to object in search of the most contemptible and +contradictory excitement! We may also remark, in the debates and +proceedings of this early period, the fevered and anxious state of the +public mind; while galling and intolerable abuses, called in question +for the first time and defended with blind confidence, were exposed in +the most naked and flagrant point of view; and the drapery of forms and +circumstances was torn from rank and power with sarcastic petulance or a +ruthless logic. + +The resistance of the Assembly alarmed the Court, who did not, however, +as yet dare to proceed against it. Necker, who had disapproved of the +royal interference, and whose dismission had been determined on in the +morning, was the same night entreated both by the King and Queen to +stay. On the next meeting of the Assembly a large portion of the clergy +again repaired to their place of sitting; and four days after, forty +members of the _noblesse_ joined them, with the Duke of Orléans at their +head. The conduct of this nobleman, all through the Revolution, was in +my opinion uncalled for, indecent, and profligate, and his fate not +unmerited. Persons situated as he was cannot take a decided part one way +or the other, without doing violence either to the dictates of reason +and justice or to all their natural sentiments, unless they are +characters of that heroic stamp as to be raised above suspicion or +temptation: the only way for all others is to stand aloof from a +struggle in which they have no alternative but to commit a parricide on +their country or their friends, and to await the issue in silence and at +a distance. + +The people should not ask the aid of their lordly taskmasters to shake +off their chains; nor can they ever expect to have it cordial and +entire. No confidence can be placed in those excesses of public +principle which are founded on the sacrifice of every private affection +and of habitual self-esteem! The Court, soon after this reënforcement to +the popular party, came forward of its own accord to request the +attendance of the dissentient orders, which took place on June 27th; and +after some petty ebullitions of jealousy and contests for precedence, +the Assembly became general, and all distinctions were lost. + +The King's secret advisers were, however, by no means reconciled to this +new triumph over ancient privilege and existing authority, and meditated +a reprisal by removing the Assembly farther from Paris, and there +dissolving, if it could not overawe them. For this purpose the troops +were collected from all parts; Versailles, where the Assembly sat, was +like a camp; Paris looked as if it were in a state of siege. These +extensive military preparations, the trains of artillery arriving every +hour from the frontier, with the presence of the foreign regiments, +occasioned great suspicion and alarm; and on the motion of Mirabeau, the +Assembly sent an address to the King, respectfully urging him to remove +the troops from the neighborhood of the capital; but this he declined +doing, hinting at the same time that they might retire, if they chose, +to Noyon or Soissons, thus placing themselves at the disposal of the +Crown, and depriving themselves of the aid of the people. + +Paris was in a state of extreme agitation. This immense city was +unanimous in its devotedness to the Assembly. A capital is at all times, +and Paris was then more particularly, the natural focus of a revolution. +To this many causes contribute. The actual presence of the monarch +dissipates the illusions of royalty; and he is no longer, as in the +distant province or petty village, an abstraction of power and majesty, +another name for all that is great and exalted, but a common mortal, one +man among a million of men, perhaps one of the meanest of his race. +Pageants and spectacles may impose on the crowd; but a weak or haughty +look undoes the effect, and leads to disadvantageous reflections on the +title to or the good resulting from all this display of pomp and +magnificence. From being the seat of the court, its vices are better +known, its meannesses are more talked of.[34] In the number and +distraction of passing objects and interests, the present occupies the +mind alone--the chain of antiquity is broken, and custom loses its +force. Men become "flies of a summer." Opinion has here many ears, many +tongues, and many hands to work with. The slightest whisper is rumored +abroad, and the roar of the multitude breaks down the prison or the +palace gates. They are seldom brought to act together but in extreme +cases; nor is it extraordinary that, in such cases, the conduct of the +people is violent, from the consciousness of transient power, its +impatience of opposition, its unwieldy bulk and loose texture, which +cannot be kept within nice bounds or stop at half-measure. + +Nothing could be more critical or striking than the situation of Paris +at this moment. Everything betokened some great and decisive change. +Foreign bayonets threatened the inhabitants from without, famine within. +The capitalists dreaded a bankruptcy; the enlightened and patriotic the +return of absolute power; the common people threw all the blame on the +privileged classes. The press inflamed the public mind with innumerable +pamphlets and invectives against the government, and the journals +regularly reported the proceedings and debates of the Assembly. +Everywhere in the open air, particularly in the Palais-Royal, groups +were formed, where they read and harangued by turns. It was in +consequence of a proposal made by one of the speakers in the +Palais-Royal that the prison of the Abbaye was forced open and some +grenadiers of the French Guards, who had been confined for refusing to +fire upon the people, were set at liberty and led out in triumph. + +Paris was in this state of excitement and apprehension when the Court, +having first stationed a number of troops at Versailles, at Sèvres, at +the Champ-de-Mars, and at St. Denis, commenced offensive measures by the +complete change of all the ministers and by the banishment of Necker. +The latter, on Saturday, July 11th, while he was at dinner, received a +note from the King, enjoining him to quit the kingdom without a moment's +delay. He calmly finished his dinner, without saying a word of the order +he had received, and immediately after got into his carriage with his +wife and took the road to Brussels. The next morning the news of his +disgrace reached Paris. The whole city was in a tumult: above ten +thousand persons were, in a short time, collected in the garden of the +Palais-Royal. A young man of the name of Camille Desmoulins, one of the +habitual and most enthusiastic haranguers of the crowd, mounted on a +table and cried out that "there was not a moment to lose; that the +dismission of Necker was the signal for the St. Bartholomew of liberty; +that the Swiss and German regiments would presently issue from the +Champ-de-Mars to massacre the citizens; and that they had but one +resource left, which was to resort to arms." And the crowd, tearing each +a green leaf, the color of hope, from the chestnut-trees in the garden, +which were nearly laid bare, and wearing it as a badge, traversed the +streets of Paris, with the busts of Necker and of the Duke of Orléans, +who was also said to be arrested, covered with crape and borne in solemn +pomp. + +They had proceeded in this manner as far as the Place Vendôme, when they +were met by a party of the Royal Allemand, whom they put to flight by +pelting them with stones; but at the Place Louis XV they were assailed +by the dragoons of the Prince of Lambesc; the bearer of one of the busts +and a private of the French Guards were killed; the mob fled into the +Garden of the Tuileries, whither the Prince followed them at the head of +his dragoons, and attacked a number of persons who knew nothing of what +was passing, and were walking quietly in the gardens. In the scuffle, an +old man was wounded; the confusion as well as the resentment of the +people became general; and there was but one cry, "To arms!" to be heard +throughout the Tuileries, the Palais-Royal, in the city, and the +suburbs. + +The French Guards had been ordered to their quarters in the +Chaussée-d'Antin, where sixty of Lambesc's dragoons were posted opposite +to watch them. A dispute arose, and it was with much difficulty they +were prevented from coming to blows. But when the former learned that +one of their comrades had been slain, their indignation could no longer +be restrained; they rushed out, killed two of the foreign soldiers, +wounded three others, and the rest were forced to fly. They then +proceeded to the Place Louis XV, where they stationed themselves between +the people and the troops, and guarded this position the whole of the +night. The soldiers in the Champ-de-Mars were then ordered to attack +them, but refused to fire, and were remanded back to their quarters. + +The defection of the French Guards, with the repugnance of the other +troops to march against the capital, put a stop for the present to the +projects of the Court. In the mean time the populace had assembled at +the Hôtel de Ville, and loudly demanded the sounding of the tocsin and +the arming of the citizens. Several highly respectable individuals also +met here, and did much good in repressing a spirit of violence and +mischief. They could not, however, effect everything. A number of +disorderly people and of workmen out of employ, without food or place of +abode, set fire to the barriers, infested the streets, and pillaged +several houses in the night between the 12th and 13th. + +The departure of Necker, which had excited such a sensation in the +capital, produced as deep an impression at Versailles and on the +Assembly, who manifested surprise and indignation, but not dejection. +Lally Tollendal pronounced a formal eulogium on the exiled minister. +After one or two displays of theatrical vehemence, which is inseparable +from French enthusiasm and eloquence, they despatched a deputation to +the King, informing him of the situation and troubles of Paris, and +praying him to dismiss the troops and intrust the defence of the capital +to the city militia. The deputation received an answer which amounted to +a repulse. The Assembly now perceived that the designs of the Court +party were irrevocably fixed, and that it had only itself to rely upon. +It instantly voted the responsibility of the ministers and of all the +advisers of the Crown, "of whatsoever rank or degree." + +This last clause was pointed at the Queen, whose influence was greatly +dreaded. They then, from an apprehension that the doors might be closed +during the night in order to dissolve the Assembly, declared their +sittings permanent. A vice-president was chosen, to lessen the fatigue +of the Archbishop of Vienne. The choice fell upon Lafayette. In this +manner a part of the Assembly sat up all night. It passed without +deliberation, the deputies remaining on their seats, silent, but calm +and serene. What thoughts must have revolved through the minds of those +present on this occasion! Patriotism and philosophy had here taken up +their sanctuary. If we consider their situation; the hopes that filled +their breasts; the trials they had to encounter; the future destiny of +their country, of the world, which hung on their decision as in a +balance; the bitter wrongs they were about to sweep away; the good they +had it in their power to accomplish--the countenances of the Assembly +must have been majestic, and radiant with the light that through them +was about to dawn on ages yet unborn. They might foresee a struggle, the +last convulsive efforts of pride and power to keep the world in its +wonted subjection--but that was nothing--their final triumph over all +opposition was assured in the eternal principles of justice and in their +own unshaken devotedness to the great cause of mankind! If the result +did not altogether correspond to the intentions of those firm and +enlightened patriots who so nobly planned it, the fault was not in them, +but in others. + +At Paris the insurrection had taken a more decided turn. Early in the +morning the people assembled in large bodies at the Hôtel de Ville; the +tocsin sounded from all the churches; the drums beat to summon the +citizens together, who formed themselves into different bands of +volunteers. All that they wanted was arms. These, except a few at the +gunsmiths' shops, were not to be had. They then applied to M. de +Flesselles, a provost of the city, who amused them with fair words. "My +children," he said, "I am your father!" This paternal style seems to +have been the order of the day. A committee sat at the Hôtel de Ville to +take measures for the public safety. Meanwhile a granary had been broken +open: the Garde-Meuble had been ransacked for old arms; the armorers' +shops were plundered; all was a scene of confusion, and the utmost +dismay everywhere prevailed. But no private mischief was done. It was a +moment of popular frenzy, but one in which the public danger and the +public good overruled every other consideration. The grain which had +been seized, the carts loaded with provisions, with plate or furniture, +and stopped at the barriers, were all taken to the Grève as a public +depot. + +The crowd incessantly repeated the cry for arms, and were pacified by an +assurance that thirty thousand muskets would speedily arrive from +Charleville. The Duc d'Aumont was invited to take the command of the +popular troops; and on hesitating, the Marquis of Salle was nominated in +his stead. The green cockade was exchanged for one of red and blue, the +colors of the city. A quantity of powder was discovered, as it was +about to be conveyed beyond the barriers; and the cases of fire-arms +promised from Charleville turned out, on inspection, to be filled with +old rags and logs of wood. The rage and impatience of the multitude now +became extreme. Such perverse, trifling, and barefaced duplicity would +be unaccountable anywhere else; but in France they pay with promises; +and the provost, availing himself of the credulity of his audience, +promised them still more arms at the Chartreux. To prevent a repetition +of the excesses of the mob, Paris was illuminated at night and a patrol +paraded the streets. + +The following day, the people being deceived as to the convoy of arms +that was to arrive from Charleville, and having been equally +disappointed in those at the Chartreux, broke into the Hospital of +Invalids, in spite of the troops stationed in the neighborhood, and +carried off a prodigious number of stands of arms concealed in the +cellars. An alarm had been spread in the night that the regiment +quartered at St. Denis was on its way to Paris, and that the cannon of +the Bastille had been pointed in the direction of the street of St. +Antoine. This information, the dread which this fortress inspired, the +recollection of the horrors which had been perpetrated there, its very +name, which appalled all hearts and made the blood run cold, the +necessity of wresting it from the hands of its old and feeble +possessors, drew the attention of the multitude to this hated spot. From +nine in the morning of the memorable July 14th, till two, Paris from one +end to the other rang with the same watchword: "To the Bastille! To the +Bastille!" The inhabitants poured there in throngs from all quarters, +armed with different weapons; the crowd that already surrounded it was +considerable; the sentinels were at their posts, and the drawbridges +raised as in war-time. + +A deputy from the district of St. Louis de la Culture, Thuriot de la +Rosière, then asked to speak with the governor, M. Delaunay. Being +admitted into his presence, he required that the direction of the cannon +should be changed. Three guns were pointed against the entrance, though +the governor pretended that everything remained in the state in which it +had always been. About forty Swiss and eighty Invalids garrisoned the +place, from whom he obtained a promise not to fire on the people unless +they were themselves attacked. His companions began to be uneasy and +called loudly for him. To satisfy them, he showed himself on the +ramparts, from whence he could see an immense multitude flocking from +all parts, and the Faubourg St. Antoine advancing as it were in a mass. +He then returned to his friends and gave them what tidings he had +collected. + +But the crowd, not satisfied, demanded the surrender of the fortress. +From time to time the angry cry was repeated: "Down with the Bastille!" +Two men, more determined than the rest, pressed forward, attacked a +guard-house, and attempted to break down the chains of the bridge with +the blows of an axe. The soldiers called out to them to fall back, +threatening to fire if they did not. But they repeated their blows, +shattered the chains, and lowered the drawbridge, over which they rushed +with the crowd. They threw themselves upon the second bridge, in the +hopes of making themselves masters of it in the same manner, when the +garrison fired and dispersed them for a few minutes. They soon, however, +returned to the charge; and for several hours, during a murderous +discharge of musketry, and amid heaps of the wounded and dying, renewed +the attack with unabated courage and obstinacy, led on by two brave men, +Elie and Hulia, their rage and desperation being inflamed to a pitch of +madness by the scene of havoc around them. Several deputations arrived +from the Hôtel de Ville to offer terms of accommodation; but in the +noise and fury of the moment they could not make themselves heard, and +the storming continued as before. + +The assault had been carried on in this manner with inextinguishable +rage and great loss of blood to the besiegers, though with little +progress made, for above four hours, when the arrival of the French +Guards with cannon altered the face of things. The garrison urged the +governor to surrender. The wretched Delaunay, dreading the fate which +awaited him, wanted to blow up the place and bury himself under the +ruins, and was advancing for this purpose with a lighted match in his +hand toward the powder-magazine, but was prevented by the soldiers, who +planted the white flag on the platform, and reversed their arms in token +of submission. This was not enough for those without. They demanded with +loud and reiterated cries to have the drawbridges let down; and on an +assurance being given that no harm was intended, the bridges were +lowered and the assailants tumultuously rushed in. The endeavors of +their leaders could not save the governor or a number of the soldiers, +who were seized on by the infuriated multitude, and put to death for +having fired on their fellow-citizens. + +Thus fell the Bastille; and the shout that accompanied its downfall was +echoed through Europe, and men rejoiced that "the grass grew where the +Bastille stood!" Earth was lightened of a load that oppressed it, nor +did this ghastly object any longer startle the sight, like an ugly +spider lying in wait for its accustomed prey, and brooding in sullen +silence over the wrongs which it had the will, though not the power, to +inflict. + + [The Bastille was taken about a quarter before six o'clock + in the evening (Tuesday, July 14th), after a four-hours' + attack. Only one cannon was fired from the fortress, and + only one person was killed among the besieged. The garrison + consisted of 82 Invalids, 2 cannoneers, and 32 Swiss. Of the + assailants, 83 were killed on the spot, 60 were wounded, of + whom 15 died of their wounds, and 13 were disabled. A great + many barrels of gunpowder had been conveyed here from the + arsenal, in the night between the 12th and 13th. Delaunay, + the governor, was killed on the steps of the Hôtel de Ville, + as also Delosme, the mayor. Only seven prisoners were found + in the Bastille; four of these, Pujade, Bechade, La Roche, + and La Caurege, were for forgery. M. de Solages was put in + in 1782, at the desire of his father, since which time every + communication from without was carefully withheld from him. + He did not know the smallest event that had taken place in + all that time, and was told by the turnkey, when he heard + the firing of the cannon, that it was owing to a riot about + the price of bread. M. Tavernier, a bastard son of Paris + Duverney, had been confined ever since August 4, 1759. The + last prisoner was a Mr. White, who went mad, and it could + never be discovered who or what he was: by the name he must + have been English. + + When Lord Albemarle was ambassador at Paris, in the year + 1753, he by mere accident caught a sight of the list of + persons confined in the Bastille, lying on the table of the + French minister, with the name of Gordon at their head. + Being struck with the circumstance, he inquired into the + meaning of it; but the French minister could give no account + of it; and on the prisoner himself being released and sent + for, he could only state that he had been confined there + thirty years, but had not the slightest knowledge or + suspicion of the cause for which he had been arrested. Nor + is this wonderful, when we consider that _lettres de cachet_ + were sold, with blanks left for the names to be filled up at + the pleasure or malice of the purchasers. + + If it was only to prevent the recurrence of one such + instance (with the feeling in society at once shrinking from + and tamely acquiescing in it), the Revolution was well + purchased. When the crowd gained possession of this + loathsome spot, they eagerly poured into every corner and + turning of it, went down into the lowest dungeons with a + breathless curiosity and horror, knocking with + sledge-hammers at their triple portals, and breaking down + and destroying everything in their way. The stones and + devices on the battlements were torn off and thrown into the + ditch, and the papers and documents were at the same time + unfortunately destroyed. + + A low range of dungeons was discovered underground, close to + the moat; and so contrived that, if those within had forced + a passage through, they would have let in the water of the + ditch and been suffocated. In one of these a skeleton was + found hanging to an iron cramp in the wall. In reading the + accounts of the demolition of this building, one feels that + indignation should have melted the stone walls like flax, + and that the dungeons should have given up their dead to + assist the living! + + The Bastille was begun in 1370, in Charles V's time, by one + Hugh Abriot, provost of the city, who was afterward shut up + in it in 1381. It at first consisted only of two towers: two + more were added by Charles VI, and four more in 1383. Two + days after it was taken, it was ordered by the National + Assembly to be razed to the ground, and in May, 1790, not a + trace of it was left.--ED.] + +The stormers of the Bastille arrived at the Place de la Grève, rending +the air with shouts of victory. They marched on to the great hall of the +Hôtel de Ville, in all the terrific and unusual pomp of a popular +triumph. Such of them as had displayed most courage and ardor were borne +on the shoulders of the rest, crowned with laurel. They were escorted up +the hall by near two thousand of the populace, their eyes flaming, their +hair in wild disorder, variously accoutred, pressing tumultuously on +each other, and making the heavy floors almost crack beneath their +footsteps. One bore the keys and flag of the Bastille, another the +regulations of the prison brandished on the point of a bayonet; a +third--a thing horrible to relate!--held in his bloody fingers the +buckle of the governor's stock. In this order it was that they entered +the Hôtel de Ville to announce their victory to the Committee, and to +decide on the fate of their remaining prisoners, who, in spite of the +impatient cries to give no quarter, were rescued by the exertions of the +commandant La Salle, Moreau de St. Mery, and the intrepid Elie. + +Then came the turn of the despicable Flesselles, that caricature of +vapid, frothy impertinence, who thought he could baffle the roaring +tiger with grimace and shallow excuses. "To the Palais-Royal with him!" +was the word; and he answered with callous indifference, "Well, to the +Palais-Royal if you will." He was hemmed in by the crowd and borne along +without any violence being offered him to the place of destination; but +at the corner of the Quai le Pelletier an unknown hand approached him +and stretched him lifeless on the spot with a pistol-shot. During the +night succeeding this eventful day Paris was in the greatest agitation, +hourly expecting, in consequence of the statements of intercepted +letters, an attack from the troops. Every preparation was made to defend +the city. Barricades were formed, the streets unpaved, pikes forged, the +women piled stones on the tops of houses to hurl them down on the heads +of the soldiers, and the National Guard occupied the outposts. + +While all this was passing, and before it became known at Versailles, +the Court was preparing to carry into effect its designs against the +Assembly and the capital. The night between the 14th and 15th was fixed +upon for their execution. The new minister, Breteuil, had promised to +reëstablish the royal authority within three days. Marshal Broglie, who +commanded the army round Paris, was invested with unlimited powers. The +Assembly, it was agreed upon, were to be dissolved, and forty thousand +copies of a proclamation to this effect were ready to be circulated +throughout the kingdom. The rising of the populace was supposed to be a +temporary evil, and it was thought to the last moment an impossibility +that a mob of citizens should resist an army. The Assembly was duly +apprised of all these projects. It sat for two days in a state of +constant inquietude and alarm. The news from Paris was doubtful. A +firing of cannon was supposed to be heard, and persons anxiously placed +their ears to the ground to listen. The escape of the King was also +expected, as a carriage had been kept in readiness, and the bodyguard +had not pulled off their boots for several days. + +In the orangery belonging to the palace, meat and wine had been +distributed among the foreign troops to encourage and spirit them up. +The Viscount of Noailles and another deputy, Wimpfen, brought word of +the latest events in the capital, and of the increasing violence of the +people. Couriers were despatched every half-hour to gather intelligence. +Deputations waited on the King to lay before him the progress of the +insurrection, but he still gave evasive and unsatisfactory answers. In +the night of the 14th the Duke of Liancourt had informed Louis XVI of +the taking of the Bastille and the massacre of the garrison on the +preceding day. "It is a revolt!" exclaimed the monarch, taken by +surprise. "No, sire, it is a revolution," was the answer. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[33] Edmund Burke passed a splendid and well-known eulogium on the +beauty and accomplishments of the Queen, and it was in part the +impression which her youthful charms had left in his mind that threw the +casting-weight of his talents and eloquence into the scale of opposition +to the French Revolution. I have heard another very competent judge, Mr. +Northcote, describe her entering a small anteroom, where he stood, with +her large hoop sideways, and gliding by him from one end to the other +with a grace and lightness as if borne on a cloud. It was possibly to +"this air with which she trod or rather disdained the earth," as if +descended from some higher sphere, that she owed the indignity of being +conducted to a scaffold. Personal grace and beauty cannot save their +possessors from the fury of the multitude, more than from the raging +elements, though they may inspire that pride and self-opinion which +expose them to it. + +[34] It was observed that almost all the greatest cruelties of the Reign +of Terror were resolved on by committees of persons who had been in the +immediate employment of the great, and had suffered by their caprice and +insolence. + + + + +ESTABLISHMENT OF THE UNITED STATES BANK + +A.D. 1791 + +ALEXANDER HAMILTON AND LAWRENCE LEWIS, JR. + + Through the founding of the first Bank of the United States, + which existed from 1791 to 1811, and was succeeded by + another national bank in 1817, the monetary affairs of the + Republic, under Hamilton's able administration, were placed + upon a sounder basis, and the transaction of public business + was greatly facilitated. + + During the seventeenth century Indian money (wampum) was + much used by the colonists, especially in their trade with + the Indians. For a long time it was a legal tender in common + with other currencies. The earliest American coinage is said + to date from 1612. In Massachusetts, the "pine-tree" + money--silver coins bearing the emblem of a pine-tree--was + used from 1652 to 1686. Soon began the issue of various + paper moneys in the colonies, and the establishment of banks + under the colonial governments. The "Continental currency" + of the Revolution, first issued in 1775 by authority of the + Continental Congress, began to depreciate almost as soon as + it appeared, and in 1780 ceased to circulate. + + In 1780 the Pennsylvania Bank, in Philadelphia, began to + assist the Government, and rendered useful service until + 1784. But the need of a national bank had already become + evident. Robert Morris, Superintendent of Finance for the + United States, secured the organization, at Philadelphia, of + the Bank of North America, with a capital of four hundred + thousand dollars. It was incorporated by Congress in + December, 1781, and soon after by the State of Pennsylvania. + Its success led to the founding of the Bank of New York in + 1784. + + On the organization of the Government under the Federal + Constitution, the genius of Alexander Hamilton was called + into service for the work of constructive statesmanship. + From 1789 to 1795 he was Secretary of the Treasury; and one + of his first acts, as shown by Lewis, was the unfolding of a + plan which led to the establishment of the first Bank of the + United States. + + +In March, 1789, a great and fortunate change took place in the +management of American public affairs. The Constitution of the United +States went into operation. A vigorous, responsible executive was +conferred upon the country, and an incredible impulse given to all +schemes of national importance. Among those now called upon to take part +in the administration of public affairs was Alexander Hamilton. Placed +in charge of the Department of the Treasury, he found before him the +prodigious task of settling the financial affairs of the United States +upon a sure and satisfactory basis. Toward the attainment of this end no +measure seemed more important to him than his old and favorite one for +the establishment of a national bank. Without loss of time he devised a +plan for such an institution which seemed to him practicable, and in +1790 spread before Congress the result of his labors. + +"The establishment of banks in this country," says Hamilton in the +course of his report, "seems to be recommended by reasons of a peculiar +nature. Previously to the Revolution, circulation was in a great measure +carried on by paper emitted by the several local governments. This +auxiliary may be said to be now at an end. And it is generally supposed +that there has been for some time past a deficiency of circulating +medium. + +"If the supposition of such a deficiency be in any degree founded, and +some aid to circulation be desirable, it remains to inquire what ought +to be the nature of that aid. + +"The emitting of paper money by the authority of government is wisely +prohibited to the individual States by the national Constitution; and +the spirit of that prohibition ought not be disregarded by the +Government of the United States. + +"Among other material differences between a paper currency issued by the +mere authority of Government, and one issued by a bank, payable in coin, +is this: that in the first case there is no standard to which an appeal +can be made, as to the quantity which will only satisfy or which will +surcharge the circulation; in the last, that standard results from the +demand. If more should be issued than is necessary, it will return upon +the bank. Its emissions must always be in a compound ratio to the fund +and the demand. Whence it is evident that there is a limitation in the +nature of the thing; while the discretion of the Government is the only +measure of the extent of the emissions by its own authority. + +"The payment of the interest of the public debt at thirteen different +places is a weighty reason, peculiar to our immediate situation, for +desiring a bank circulation. Without a paper, in general currency, +equivalent to gold and silver, a considerable proportion of the specie +of the country must always be suspended from circulation, and left to +accumulate preparatorily to each day of payment; and as often as one +approaches, there must in several cases be an actual transportation of +the metals at both expense and risk, from their natural and proper +reservoirs, to distant places." + +The report then goes on to explain the practical details of the plan +proposed. + +The measure met generally with popular applause, but there were some who +doubted its wisdom. Among other difficulties that were thrown in its +path was a suggestion that a new bank was quite unnecessary, since an +institution was in existence which owed its origin to national bounty, +and which had already, upon more than one occasion, manifested both its +readiness and ability to extend a helping hand to the Government. With +this objection Hamilton dealt most courteously. + +"The aid afforded to the United States," said he, "by the Bank of North +America during the remaining period of the war was of essential +consequence, and its conduct toward them since the peace has not +weakened its title to their patronage and favor. So far its pretensions +to the character of a national bank are respectable, but there are +circumstances which militate against them and considerations which +indicate the propriety of an establishment on different principles. + +"The directors of this bank, on behalf of their constituents, have since +acted under a new charter from the State of Pennsylvania, materially +variant from their original one, and which so narrows the foundation of +the institution as to render it an incompetent basis for the extensive +purposes of a national bank. + +"There is nothing in the acts of Congress which implies an exclusive +right in the institution to which they relate, except during the time of +the war. There is, therefore, nothing, if the public good require it, +which prevents the establishment of another. It may, however, be +incidentally remarked that in the general opinion of the citizens of the +United States, the Bank of North America has taken the station of a bank +of Pennsylvania only. This is a strong argument for a new institution, +or for a renovation of the old, to restore it to the situation in which +it originally stood in the view of the United States. But--there may be +room to allege that the Government of the United States ought not, in +point of candor or equity, to establish any rival or interfering +institution in prejudice of the one already established, especially as +this has, from services rendered, well-founded claims to protection and +regard. + +"The justice of this observation ought, within proper bounds, to be +admitted. A new establishment of the sort ought not to be made without +cogent and sincere reasons of public good. And in the manner of doing it +every facility should be given to a consolidation of the old with the +new, upon terms not injurious to the parties concerned. But there is no +ground to maintain that in a case in which the Government has made no +condition restricting its authority, it ought voluntarily to restrict +it, through regard to the interests of a particular institution, when +those of the State dictate a different course; especially, too, after +such circumstances have intervened as characterize the actual situation +of the Bank of North America. + +"If the objections, which have been stated, to the constitution of the +Bank of North America are admitted to be well founded, they, +nevertheless, will not derogate from the merit of the main design, or of +the services which that bank has rendered, or of the benefits which it +has produced. The creation of such an institution, at the time it took +place, was a measure dictated by wisdom. Its utility has been amply +evinced by its fruits. American independence owes much to it. + +"The Secretary begs leave to conclude with this general observation, +that if the Bank of North America shall come forward with any +propositions which have for their object the ingrafting upon that +institution the characteristics which shall appear to the Legislature +necessary to the due extent and safety of a national bank, there are, in +his judgment, weighty inducements to giving every reasonable facility to +the measure. Not only the pretensions of that institution, from its +original relation to the Government of the United States, and from the +services it has rendered, are such as to claim a disposition favorable +to it, if those who are interested in it are willing, on their part, to +place it on a footing satisfactory to the Government and equal to the +purposes of a bank of the United States; but its coöperation would +naturally accelerate the accomplishment of the great object, and the +collision, which might otherwise arise, might, in a variety of ways, +prove equally disagreeable and injurious. The incorporation and union +here contemplated may be effected in different modes, under the auspices +of an act of the United States, if it shall be desired, by the Bank of +North America, upon terms which shall appear expedient to the +Government." + +As far as can be ascertained, however, the management of the bank took +no steps in accordance with the suggestions of the report. The quiet and +prosperous business in which they were engaged, under State auspices, +was to them preferable to the anxieties and hazards which would probably +attend the new national undertaking; the scheme of a separate +institution was, therefore, rapidly pushed forward, and on February 19, +1791, the first Bank of the United States began its corporate existence. + +The Bank of North America now sustained a serious loss in the +resignation of its president, Mr. Willing, on January 9, 1792, after a +term of service extending over a little more than ten years. He had been +chosen to preside over the affairs of the Bank of the United States, a +station for which it was justly supposed that his talents and experience +eminently qualified him. He was succeeded in office by John Nixon, an +almost equally well-known and respected citizen. Born in 1733 of Irish +parentage, Mr. Nixon for a number of years did a prosperous business in +the city of Philadelphia. He was one of the many signers of the +Non-importation Resolutions, and upon the breaking out of the Revolution +made himself prominent by his strenuous efforts and warm interest in the +national cause. He was a member of the Committee of Safety, and had the +honor of first proclaiming to the citizens of Philadelphia the +Declaration of Independence. During some portion of the war he did +active service, with the rank of colonel, in the Continental Army. He +was one of the original subscribers to the bank, and had been a director +since 1784. He retained the office of president for seventeen years +until his death, which occurred on December 24, 1808. + +Meantime the business of the bank was rapidly increasing as the commerce +of the country grew. The profits were so great that annual dividends of +12 per cent. were paid to the various stockholders. Nor did the +institution cease to accommodate the public from time to time with loans +of considerable extent. During the year 1791 the bank advanced to the +Commonwealth, at different times, in all one hundred sixty thousand +dollars, and in the following year something over fifty-three thousand +dollars. + + + + +NEGRO REVOLUTION IN HAITI + +TOUSSAINT LOUVERTURE ESTABLISHES THE DOMINION OF HIS RACE + +A.D. 1791 + +CHARLES WYLLYS ELLIOTT + + Haiti, the Spanish Santo Domingo, earlier called Española, + is the largest of the West Indian islands except Cuba. The + bloody revolutionary and slave revolts which began in 1791 + and ended in the supremacy of the negroes, form the most + memorable passages in its history. From 1797 their great + leader, Toussaint Louverture, whose achievements are here + recounted, was Governor of the whole island, whose + independence he proclaimed in 1801. Having afterward opposed + Napoleon's attempt to reëstablish slavery, Toussaint was + treacherously arrested and sent to France, where, in a + dungeon, he died in 1803. But white supremacy was never + restored in Haiti. + + In 1697 France, by treaty, acquired the western part of the + island, the eastern portion remaining in the possession of + Spain, which had held it ever since its discovery by + Columbus. The French found their Haitian lands very + profitable in cotton and sugar, and the western region + prospered, while the Spanish community was stagnant. At the + outbreak of the French Revolution (1789) the whole island + was thrown into a ferment, out of which came the changes + that Elliott relates. + + At that time the French portion of Haiti had about half a + million inhabitants, of whom some forty thousand were of + European blood, thirty thousand free negroes, the rest negro + slaves. The free colored people, mostly mulattoes, had no + voice in the Government, but in 1790 the French National + Assembly decreed to those born of free parents full + citizenship. Opposition on the part of the whites caused + delay in carrying out the decree. Taking advantage of the + ensuing commotion, the slaves rose in revolt (August, 1791), + and the conditions which Toussaint at length was called upon + to meet were inevitably brought about. + + This black hero, of whose origin and personality information + is given below, has been made the subject of a noble sonnet + by Wordsworth, of an equally fine eulogy by Wendell + Phillips, of a tragedy by Lamartine, and of a romance, _The + Hour and the Man_, by Harriet Martineau. Auguste Comte, the + founder of positivism, placed Toussaint in his new calendar + among the great modern liberators--Hampden, Cromwell, + Algernon Sidney, Washington, and Bolivar. + + +On August 25, 1791, was the feast of St. Louis. For the week preceding, +the planters gathered at Cap François[35] to concert measures against +the mulattoes; against the National Assembly; and--to dine. The great +men, and the rich, and the brave, were there. It was not a time to drive +the slaves; and during that week they "danced" more than before. On the +evening of August 23d, the best dishes of the cook Henri, a born prince, +whose future no one could suspect, tempted the palates of the born +whites. In brave counsels, in denunciations of the mulattoes, in songs +for Governor Blanchelande and "Liberty," the time passed, the wine +flowed, and hearts swelled. So the shadows of the night stole on. Light! +More light! was called for; they threw open the jalousies; curious black +faces swarmed about the piazzas--but what meant that dull glare which +reached the sultry sky? The party was broken up: they rushed to the +windows; they could smell the heavy smoke, they could hear the distant +tramp of feet. The band, unbidden, struck up the _Marsellaise_; it was +caught up in the streets; and from mouth to mouth, toward the rich Plain +du Nord, passed along the song: + + "_Le jour de gloire est arrivé!_ + _Aux armes! aux armes! pour Liberté!_" + +Consternation followed the feast. Each man grasped his arms: into the +midst of the company rushed a negro covered with dust; panting with +heat. He sought his master. Pale with fear and excited with wine, he +received him on the point of his sword. As the life and blood flowed he +gasped, "O master! O master!" Murmurs of disapprobation filled the room, +but it was too late: the hour had come! The slaves had risen. This poor +creature had wished to save the man that owned him. + +The rebellion broke out on the plantation of Noe, nine miles from Cap +François. At midnight the slaves sought the refiner and his apprentice +and hewed them in pieces. The overseer they shot. They then proceeded to +the house of Mr. Clement: he was killed by his postilion. They proceeded +from plantation to plantation murdering the whites; their ranks swelled +by crowds of scarred and desperate men who had nothing to lose but +life; and life with slavery was not so sweet as revenge. Everywhere +they applied the torch to the sugar-mills--those bastilles, consecrated +to the rites of the lash and to forced labor, dumb with fear--and to the +cane fields, watered with sweat and blood. + +Toward morning crowds of whites came pouring into Cap François, pale, +terror-stricken, blood-stained. Men, women, and children found the day +of judgment was come: none knew what to do; all was confusion. The +signal-gun boomed through the darkness warning of danger, and every man +stood to his arms. The inhabitants of the city were paralyzed with fear. +They barred their doors and locked up their house-slaves. The only +living objects in the streets were a few soldiers marching to their +posts. Panic ruled the hour. The Assembly sat through the night. Touzard +was sent out to attack the negroes, but was driven back. Guns were +mounted, and the streets barricaded. + +The morning dawned, and with the rising sun came rising courage. "It is +nothing," said some; "burn and hang a few negroes and all will go on as +before." The exasperation against the mulattoes, who were charged with +having fomented the rising, resulted in hatred, insult, bloodshed and +murder in and around Cap François; and a butchery was only stayed by the +vigorous opposition of the Governor. Whatever negroes were seized were +tortured and massacred. "Frequently," says Lacroix, "did the faithful +slave perish by the hands of an irritated master whose confidence he +sought." + +The maddened negroes had tasted blood. They seized Mr. Blen, an officer +of police, nailed him alive to one of the gates of his plantation, and +chopped off his limbs with an axe. + +M. Cardineau had two sons by a black woman. He had freed them and shown +them much kindness; but they belonged to the hated race, and they joined +the revolt. The father remonstrated, and offered them money. They took +his money and stabbed him to the heart. If they were bastards, who had +made them so? "One's pleasant vices often come home to roost." Horrors +were piled on horrors: white women were ravished and murdered; black +were broken on the wheel: whites were crucified; blacks were burned +alive: long pent-up hatreds were having their riot and revenge. M. +Odeluc was wrong, then! The slaves did _not_ seem to love their +masters. What could it mean? + +Pork and bananas: slavery and ignorance; with some, dancing and the free +use of the whip seemed to be producing surprising results. The whites +could not understand it. Much sugar was raised, and yet the negroes were +not satisfied, and now seemed to have gone mad. Destruction hung over +the whites, and they concluded to try hanging and burning in their +extremity--having no faith in justice and honesty for the blacks. +Hundreds, perhaps thousands, owed their safety to the kindness of their +house-slaves. + +Monsieur and Madame Baillou with their daughter, her husband, and two +white servants lived about thirty miles from Cap François, among the +mountains. A slave gave them notice of the rising: he hid them in the +forest and joined the revolt. At night he brought them food and led them +to another place of safety. He did this again and again: led them +through every danger and difficulty till they escaped to the sea. For +nineteen nights they were in the woods, and the negro risked his life to +save theirs. Why repeat instances? This was one of hundreds. + +M. Odeluc was the superintendent of the Gallifet estate, the largest on +the Plain. "As happy as one of Gallifet's negroes," was a saying in the +district. He was sure of _his_ hands, and regretted the exaggerated +terror of the whites. With a friend and three or four soldiers he rode +out to the estate and found his negroes in arms with the body of a white +child for a standard. Alas! poor Odeluc! He believed the negroes were +dogs and would lick the hand that struck the blow. It was too late: he +and his attendants were cut down without mercy. Two only escaped to tell +the tale. Four thousand negroes were in arms and they were everywhere +successful. The Plain was in their possession; the quarters of Morin and +Limonade were in flames, and their ravages extended from the shore to +the mountains. Their recklessness was succeeded by regular organization +and systematic war. In the first moments of their headlong fury all +whites were murdered indiscriminately. This did not last: they soon +distinguished their enemies; and women and children were saved. The +blacks were headed by Jean François and Biassou--generals not to be +despised. Brave, rapid, unscrupulous; vain of grandeur, greedy of +plunder, they were not far from the marshals of France. + +This, then, was not a revolt, but a revolution! Success would decide. +Never could the whites believe that the blacks were men. Ogé had +revealed a widespread conspiracy, headed by well-known slaves. The +whites concealed this. They did not believe him; they believed only that +the blacks were their born slaves, fit for the whip, incapable of +courage or honor or martyrdom. Experience only was to teach them. + +At first the whites acted upon the defensive. The Assembly was rancorous +against France in the midst of this destruction, and effaced from behind +the Speaker's chair the motto "_Vive la Nation, la Loi, et le Roi!_" +Even when destruction was over them they heeded not: their bickerings +continued. The negro generals declared that they were fighting for their +King, and against slavery--for a rumor had reached them that Louis +favored emancipation. They had the strongest party and the strongest +side. At length the whites determined upon a war of extermination. The +blacks responded. Heads of whites were stuck on poles around the negro +camps. Bodies of negroes swung on gibbets in the white encampments and +on trees by the roadside. Within two months two thousand whites and ten +thousand blacks perished. _Te Deum_ was sung in both camps and daily +thanksgivings were said for what was done. Pale ghosts hovered over them +and sighed in the tropical groves; but they could not speak for pity or +for justice. The insurrection spread to the southwest, and two thousand +mulattoes, headed by Rigaud, rose to revenge the death of some of their +comrades; many negroes joined them and they threatened Port au Prince. +The colonists were now thoroughly alarmed, and proceeded to try +reconciliation. The inhabitants of Port au Prince and Rigaud agreed upon +a truce, and the whites admitted that the slaughter of certain mulattoes +had been "infamous," and agreed that the civil rights of the mulattoes +should be allowed them. At last! Was it not too late? + +Governor Blanchelande issued a proclamation earnestly entreating the +revolted negroes to lay down their arms and return to their duty. It was +too late. They laughed in derision at his small request. What! to +slavery and work and degradation and cruelty, even! They had burst +their fetters and stood with arms in their hands. "Will you," they +replied to the Governor, "will you, brave General, that we should, like +sheep, throw ourselves into the jaws of the wolf? It is too late. It is +for us to conquer or die!" + +On September 11, 1791, the whites at Port au Prince had consented to the +civil rights of the mulattoes. On October 23d the _Concordat_ had been +signed; the whites and mulattoes had walked arm in arm through the city +and peace seemed possible, when word came that on September 24th the +National Assembly at Paris had reversed the decree of May 15th. The +mulattoes at once flew to arms, and the struggle between them and the +whites went on with increased carnage and cruelty. This continued with +varied results through 1792. "You kill mine and I'll kill yours," was +the cry. As it had been from the outset, so it continued among the +whites: open war between the colonists and the governors; between the +people of the North and the South; contention and bitterness, intrigue, +treachery. They made head nowhere against the mulattoes; nowhere against +the negroes. In December, 1791, three commissioners arrived from France +to distract the confusion. They accomplished nothing, and were succeeded +in September, 1792, by Santhonax, Polverel, and Ailhaud, ordinary men; +not sufficient for so extraordinary a state of things as this. + +The hour had come, but not the man. The world waited for him, but none +knew where to look; for none believed him to be among the degraded +negroes. The old custom of master and slave was broken in pieces, and a +nation of men, with no cultivation, with no education in +self-government, with none of the conservative strength which hangs +about privilege and possession and long-honored habit, were now up, +inspired only with a hatred of slavery and vague aspirations for that +which they knew not how to name. In this chaotic hour the man who could +express this longing for freedom, this need of growth, this aspiration +for infinite good--not only in words, but in deeds and in life--was +needed: without him all would come to nothing, and the struggle of the +blacks would be but a spasm, to end in exhaustion and discouragement; +for successful revolutions have been secured by developing, from among +the unknown, the known man, around whom the elements of the new state +could gather for new order. + +Among the half-million blacks there must be one, and more than one, who +could redeem his race; to whom the outcast and despairing might look and +take courage and say, "Such as he is, I may try to be." This man was +longed for; consciously or not, the blacks yearned for their king, could +they but see him. The presentiment existed, for had not the Abbé Raynal +long before predicted a vindicator for the race? No man can save +another, and no nation. Each race must look for its salvation and its +leaders in its own comprehensive soul. The Moses who will lead the +blacks out of bondage must be a _black_, and he will come! + +Let us go back for a moment. On the arrival of the first commissioners, +Mirbeck, Roume, and St. Leger, the mulattoes in the West were in arms +under Rigaud; the blacks in the North, under Jean François and Biassou. +They were a ragged crowd: pikes, muskets, cane-knives, axes, whatever +the hand could find, were their arms, and they fought without order or +discipline, inspired by revenge and hatred to slavery. Jean François, if +vain and ostentatious, was sagacious and full of resource. Biassou was +bold, fiery, and vindictive. The blacks had slaughtered and been +slaughtered, hanged and been hanged, plundered and been plundered. There +seemed no end to it and no object. They heard that the commissioners +were placable, so they wished to make terms. But who would dare to +venture among the whites? Were not all outcasts, hunted beasts, fugitive +slaves? Raynal and Duplessis (mulattoes) at last took the hazard. The +Governor sent them to the commissioners, they to the Colonial Assembly. +The Assembly that day was in an exalted state: it emulated the gods. It +replied loftily: "Emissaries of the revolted negroes, the Assembly, +established on the law and by the law, cannot correspond with people +armed against the law. The Assembly might extend grace to guilty men, +if, being repentant, etc.," and Raynal and Duplessis were ordered +sharply to "withdraw." + +They did withdraw, amid the hooting of the mob. They returned to Grande +Rivière. The army and the people came out to meet them, wishing peace: +they told their story, and peace was turned to war, love to hatred. +Biassou, in a rage, ordered all the white prisoners in the camp to be +put to death. "Death to the whites!" went along the lines and among the +people. The insane pride of the whites worked its own punishment, and +now a hundred more were to be slaughtered. No white was there to save +them, and no God to wrest them away. Then a man, black, indifferent in +person, unpleasing of visage, meanly dressed, makes his way among the +crowd to Biassou swelling with rage. He speaks to him a few words, +quietly, calmly; they are to the purpose. The General's face is +composed; he listens; he countermands his orders, and the whites are +saved. + +The negro who saves them is Toussaint Breda, afterward called +Louverture. The son of an African chief, Gaou-Guinon, with no drop of +white blood in his veins. He had been the born slave of the Count de +Breda, and had been well treated by his manager, Bayou de Libertas. He +was the husband of one wife and the father of children. With religious +aspirations, an inflexible integrity, and an inquiring mind, he had been +a valuable slave and had been raised from a field-hand to be M. Bayou's +coachman. + +Toussaint was never hungry while a slave; he was not whipped. His hut +was comfortable; vines twined around his door. Bananas and potatoes grew +in his garden. Toussaint, it seems, was not a beast of burden. To make +sugar he was worth no more than a Bozal just stolen; but with these rare +virtues--patience, courage, intelligence, fidelity--he might have sold +for five hundred dollars and might be trusted to drive horses. When the +rebellion broke out he did not join it, but assisted M. Bayou with his +family to escape, and shipped a rich cargo to the United States for his +maintenance. + +Toussaint was then fifty years old. None knew the day of his birth; the +records of stock then and there were not carefully kept. For fifty years +this negro had lived the life of a slave; his only occupation the hoeing +of cane and the grooming of horses. What thoughts, what struggles, what +hopes had taken shape in that uncultivated brain no man knows--for +Toussaint was a man of few words, and he left no writings. It was late +in life to begin a new trade; late to begin to find out his own powers +and strength; late to trust himself to freedom, he who had always had a +master; late to speculate upon the destinies of the black race; late to +attempt to shape them. But in revolutionary times men learn fast; great +men need only the opportunity; they rise to the emergency. Cromwell was +not a born or trained general or ruler, nor was Washington, nor was +William Tell. Toussaint had bided his time. This slave was ignorant, +knew nothing. He learned to read when approaching his declining years; +then he studied: Raynal, Epictetus, Cæsar, Saxe, Herodotus, Plutarch, +Nepos--these were the books and lives he knew. + +He decided to join his race, and having some knowledge of simples was +made physician of the forces commanded by Jean François. Here he served +well, as he always did, and learned the trade of war. Shocked at the +cruelties of whites and blacks he took the side of mercy and saved lives +from the sword as well as from disease. He saw the vanity of François, +the rashness of Biassou, the cruelty of Jeannot; but he retired +disgusted to no stupid monastery; he returned not to the ease and +degradation of slavery, but was equal to the facts of life, however +hard, and grappled with them and mastered them as a man should. He was +then loyal to the King, and he was loyal to the Church, a devout +Catholic. + +In 1792, the three commissioners, sent out from France to "settle" the +affairs of the colony, had been thwarted and finally driven away by the +whites. In September (1792), Santhonax, Polverel, and Ailhaud had +arrived with troops, money, and instructions and a new governor, +Desparbes, in place of Blanchelande. He soon became disgusted, alarmed, +and he fled. The commissioners bestirred themselves to settle the +commotion. The rich planters were for the King; the _Petits Blancs_ were +for the Directory; the mulattoes, under Rigaud, ravaged the West: the +revolted negroes, under Jean François, Biassou and others, threatened on +the North. France herself, that ancient kingdom, was now fermenting; +struggling--yet with hope--to realize in the state her unformed faith in +democracy, and with the energy of despair striving to beat back the +waves of bayonets which beat and bristled on her borders. Thus matters +stood in France, thus in Santo Domingo. The slaves in both countries had +risen, and rushed to arms. Their remedy was desperate; so was their +disease. + +General Galbaud, a new governor, arrived from France in May (1793). The +commissioners were engaged in the west in fighting Rigaud. They returned +to Cap François to fight the Governor whose authority they disputed. +Galbaud held the ships and the arsenals and determined to assert his +authority. His soldiers and sailors entered the town and abandoned +themselves to drunkenness, pillage and brutality. The commissioners +armed the slaves in the town, promised them freedom, and sent for aid to +the negro generals. Jean François and Biassou refused; but a chief, +Macayo, at the head of three thousand blacks, entered the town, and the +conflict raged. The whites were driven into the sea and slaughtered. +Madness ruled, and none fiercer than the mulattoes. Galbaud fled, and +half the city was destroyed by fire. At last--for a while--the whites +gave up the hope of recovering their slaves. Thousands fled--some +suppose nine-tenths--and found refuge along the American coasts. + +Famine had more than once increased the misery during these three years, +yet the island was fruitful, and cultivation, here and there, went on. +The sagacious Jean François had initiated cultivation along the +mountain-sides, and in the valleys; and thus secured an unfailing +magazine of supply. + +Toussaint, meanwhile, continues his duties with the negro troops. +Steadily and surely, if not rapidly, he gains strength and influence and +knowledge of war. He has measured himself with Jean and Biassou, and is +not wanting. His prudence, patience, silent will, and courage make him +useful to them, and his justice and determination and mercy make him the +idol of the men. The Marquis Hermona, Governor of the Spanish part of +the island, made advances to the negro chiefs. Santhonax, in his +extremity after the destruction of Cap François, sent Macayo to propose +an alliance, but they distrusted him. + +Meanwhile Louis XVI was beheaded. They said, "We have lost the King of +France, but the King of Spain esteems us and gives us succor." They +declined the proposals of the commissioners, and ranged themselves on +the side of Spain. Toussaint was loyal to the memory of the King, and +followed François and Biassou. Hermona saw that Toussaint was a _man_; +and while Jean François was advanced to the first rank, Toussaint was +raised to that of colonel in the Spanish army. He at once applied +himself to his duties, and what he did was always well done. His troops +became, as if by a word, the best disciplined in the army. The reason +was plain: he knew what men ought to do and what they can do; and the +men knew that he was upright and wise. So these ragged, ignorant, roving +hordes became efficient troops. Confidence begat confidence: the +commander trusted his men, and they relied on him; together they were +strong. Idleness was not Toussaint's policy. The insurgents under Jean +François, Biassou, and Toussaint held strong positions in the mountains +south of Cap François. Brandicourt, the general of the French troops, +was at once trapped and compelled to order his troops to lay down their +arms. Grande Rivière, Dondon, Plaisance, Marmalade, and Ennery, the most +important places in the north, quickly fell into Toussaint's hands. + +The French commissioners were getting into straits. The Spanish troops +were against them; the blacks were against them. The remaining whites +were divided; some wore the black cockade, others the white; the troops, +and friends of the commissioners, the tricolor; the mulattoes, the red. +War was everywhere, and no man was safe but with arms in his hands and +in the strongest party. But this was not enough: some of the planters +mounted the English hat and sent to the English for succor. Even +"_perfide Albion_" was welcome, if they might but reëstablish slavery +and get again their estates. In this extremity, Santhonax decided to +make friends with the blacks, and proclaimed at Cap François universal +freedom (August 20, 1793). Polverel repeated the proclamation at Port au +Prince. The enthusiasm among the negroes was great, but not universal. +Their leaders were not moved; they distrusted the commissioners and they +doubted the stability of the French Republic--so the war went on. + +In September, the English landed at Jeremie, in the extreme southwest. +They took possession of St. Nicholas, in the extreme northwest, and +during the year 1794 the whole western coast was in their +possession--St. Nicholas, St. Marc, St. Jacmel, Tiburon, Jeremie; and at +last, on June 4th, Port au Prince, the capital, yielded. "Twenty-two +topsail vessels," with their cargoes, worth four hundred thousand pounds +sterling, were a part of the spoil. The mulatto chief, Rigaud, had taken +the side of France. Educated in Bordeaux, he had followed, in Santo +Domingo, his trade of a goldsmith, which the whites thought too good for +a "nigger." He was a brave man, mild in peace, and terrible in war, and, +aided by Pétion, he kept up a harassing fight against the English. +Shortly after the fall of Port au Prince, a ship arrived with a +requisition for the commissioners to return to France; they must answer +for their doings there, and General Laveaux was left as provisional +governor. + +His case, and that of the French, was desperate. Shut up in Port de +Paix, the last stronghold of the French, he wrote (May 24, 1794): "For +more than six months we have been reduced to six ounces of bread a day, +officers as well as men, but from the 13th we have none whatever, the +sick only excepted. If we had powder we should have been consoled. We +have in our magazines neither shoes, nor shirts, nor clothes, nor soap, +nor tobacco. The most of the soldiers mount guard barefoot; we have no +flints for the men; but be assured that we will never surrender; be +assured too, that after us, the enemy will not find the slightest trace +of Port de Paix." Dark was the outlook, but brave was the heart of +General Laveaux. + +The hour was nigh: the hands advanced on the dial of time. Events, which +no man could have foreseen or controlled, had gathered for judgment, and +at last a great nation had decreed freedom to a poor, debauched, and +servile race. But who should lead them, who should now defend them +against themselves; give shape and system to their undisciplined wishes, +carry them safely through the anarchy of unbounded liberty and +crystallize them into a state whose only sure basis is the Rights and +Duties of Labor, Thought, Speech, and Worship, the Rights and Duties of +Man. The hour has come and the man--Toussaint Breda! from his eyrie near +Dondon, sweeps the horizon. In the east he sees the decadent power of +Spain: it has spoken no word of freedom for the blacks. In the west he +sees the white sails of England: she is hand and glove with the planters +to reëstablish slavery. In the north France and Laveaux are nigh death. +France only has proclaimed liberty to the blacks. Toussaint sees the +"opening" for his race and for himself, and from this day he is +Toussaint Louverture--the first of the blacks. Bone of their bone and +skin of their skin, he alone knows their needs, their capacities, and +their hearts. With the clear glance of inspiration he sees the moment, +with the firm grasp of talent he seizes it. + +General Laveaux saw this, and through the priest, La Haye, made advances +to him. Toussaint is wise and he is wary; he keeps his own counsel; he +consults not Jean François, who had once cast him into prison; nor +Biassou, nor the Marquis Hermona. As usual, he performs his duties; as +usual, he partakes of the communion; as usual, his troops look to him, +and Hermona said: "There exists on earth no purer soul." He has placed +his wife and children in safety; he has ordered his affairs; his horse +stands saddled and bridled; then, tearing off his epaulettes he casts +them at the feet of the Spanish officers, flings himself on his horse, +and rides like the wind out of the camp. The Spaniards are for a moment +paralyzed: they pursue him, but neither hoof nor pistol can reach him. +Toussaint is not to be caught. + +On May 4, 1794, he pulls down the Spanish and hoists the French colors. +Marmalade, Plaisance, Ennery, Dondon, Acul, and Limbé submit to him. +Confusion and fear prevail among the Spaniards; joy exalts the negroes. +Laveaux is saved, and the colony not yet lost to France. Toussaint is a +power in the state: the negroes everywhere respond to the sound of his +voice; they look to him as their hero, defender, guide, and guard. +Toussaint sets himself to his work. The whole province of the north soon +falls into his hands, and he drives the Spanish ally, Jean François, +westward along La Montaigne Noire. Then he hastens into the rich valley +of the Artibonite, attacks and beats back the English and besieges the +strong fortress of St. Marc; but neither forces nor ammunition is +sufficient and he retires to the mountain fastnesses of Marmalade to +recruit his troops. On October 9, 1794, he carries the fortress of San +Miguel by storm. + +Toussaint determines to drive away the English, and he falls with fury +upon General Brisbane in the Artibonite and compels him to retreat. But +Jean François hung over him in the heights of La Grande Rivière. Again +he retires to Dondon and organizes his forces to repel the Spaniards. In +four days he takes and destroys twenty-eight positions, but Jean +François with a superior force threatens his rear while the English are +in front; again he is baffled and he returns to Dondon. Toussaint is no +longer the leader of marauding bands but the head of an army. His troops +are mostly raw and ignorant, badly clothed, armed, and fed, but they +trust in him and have courage. He seeks for efficient officers, and +finds Dessalines, Desroulaux, Maurepas, Clervaux, Christophe and +Lamartinière. These he must command with discretion; his troops he must +provide with arms, ammunition, and food. He must watch the forces of the +Spaniards, the movements of the English. Intrigues abroad and +treacheries at home; henceforth he must organize campaigns. + +The treaty of Basel had secured the cession of the whole Spanish part of +the island to France. Jean François was, therefore, at liberty to retire +to Spain, to enjoy his honors. There remained now but the English to +distract the plans of Toussaint and the French. One more disturbing +element yet existed. The mulattoes felt themselves superior to the +blacks, and the rightful successors to the whites in the honors and +government of the island. Jealous of Toussaint and the favors shown the +blacks, headed by Nillate (Villate), they rose against Laveaux, the +Governor of the Cape, and threw him into prison; his danger was extreme. +Toussaint descended on the town with ten thousand blacks and saved him. +Laveaux appointed him his lieutenant, second in command in the island, +and declared that he was the "Spartacus," foretold by Raynal, who should +avenge the sufferings of his race. Confidence grew now between the +blacks and the whites, and Lacroix--who is in no way friendly to the +blacks--admits that "if Santo Domingo still carried the colors of +France, it was solely owing to an old negro who seemed to bear +a commission from Heaven." The French continued to send +commissioners--Santhonax among them--but Toussaint was the moving mind; +and when Laveaux, having been elected Delegate to the Assembly, sailed +for France, Santhonax finally appointed him commander-in-chief. + +Toussaint, now "Louverture"; a strong hand and a clear head, though +black, now directs the affairs of the island. Daily he gains strength +and the confidence of the negroes. They flock to his army; they listen +and obey his words. Christophe, in the north, had encouraged +cultivation. Toussaint throws his powerful influence into the work. His +maxim, "that the liberty of the blacks can never endure without +agriculture," passes from mouth to mouth among the negroes, and rouses +in them the desire for lands and wealth--for the first time now +possible. He wishes that Cape and the towns along the north should be +rebuilt. It is done; they rise from their ashes. All hopes are centred +in the General-in-Chief: _he_ can restore peace and prosperity; he +alone. + +The English now were sore bestead. The French pressed them in the west; +Desfourneaux in the north; Rigaud in the south; Christophe had carried +the heights of Vallière--the Vendée of Santo Domingo. Toussaint +Louverture again attempts to take St. Marc; thrice he storms it, thrice +he deserves success, but again he fails to clutch this strong fortress. +He turns now to Mirebelois, an interior Thermopylæ, strongly fortified +by the English. His lieutenant, Mornay, intercepted Montalembert, who +was advancing with seven hundred men and two pieces of artillery. The +next day he drives in all the English troops, invests the village of St. +Louis, carries the forts by assault, and in fourteen days totally +defeats the English, taking two hundred prisoners, eleven pieces of +cannon, and military stores. The efforts of the English are nearly at an +end; weak and weary, their strength is spent. Whitlocke, Williamson, +Whyte, Horneck, Brisbane, and Markham, have tried to subdue these rebels +and to wrest the colony from France: they have bitten a file. Millions +of pounds have been wasted; Brisbane and Markham are killed; thousands +of soldiers slain; the yellow fever, too, has done its work. + +General Maitland at last decided to leave the island, and between him +and Toussaint there went on a struggle of diplomacy; but Louverture was +more than his equal: he accepted his honors, but refused his bribes. +They made terms, and Maitland evacuated Port au Prince and St. Nicholas. +One incident illustrates Maitland's confidence in Toussaint. Before the +disembarkation of his troops, he determined to return Louverture's +visit. He proceeded to his camp, through a country full of negroes, with +but three attendants. On his way he heard that Roume, the French +commissioner, had advised Toussaint to seize him; but he proceeded, and +when he reached the camp, after waiting a short time, Toussaint entered, +and, handing him two letters--Roume's and his reply--said: "Read; I +could not see you until I had written, so that you could see that I am +incapable of baseness." + +General Lacroix has written that he saw, in the archives at Port au +Prince, the offers made to Toussaint, securing him in the power and +kingship of the island, and liberty to his race, with a sufficient naval +force on the part of England, provided he would renounce France and form +a commercial treaty with England. The event leads one to regret that +Toussaint's ambition was not superior to his loyalty to France. + +During these proceedings with the English, Santhonax had departed for +France, partly at his own request, partly because he was in the way of +Toussaint's plans for the restoration of the island. With him, Toussaint +sent his two sons to receive some education in France, and to show, as +his letter stated, "his confidence in the Directory--at a time when +complaints were busy against him." He said, "there exist no longer any +internal agitations; and I hold myself responsible for the submission to +order and duty of the blacks, my brethren." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[35] Now, in English, Cape Haitien. The place is a seaport of northern +Haiti.--ED. + + + + +REPUBLICAN FRANCE DEFIES EUROPE + +BATTLE OF VALMY + +A.D. 1792 + +ALPHONSE M. L. LAMARTINE + + In the battle of Valmy the French, under Dumouriez and + Kellermann, repulsed the Prussians and their allies, + commanded by the Duke of Brunswick. Though not in itself a + great victory, its results have led some historians to call + that action one of the decisive battles of the world. The + final withdrawal of the Prussians, owing to Russian + intrigues in Poland, left an open way for the French army + into the Austrian Netherlands, which at Jemapes (November 6, + 1792) were won for France. Other victories for the + Revolution quickly followed, greatly advancing its cause. + + After the fall of the Bastille (July 14, 1789), the National + Assembly abolished special privileges, slavery, and serfdom + in France and all her territories, and decreed equal + taxation. A new constitution was made. These acts heightened + popular enthusiasm for the revolt. Political clubs, chief of + which was that of the Jacobins, were formed in Paris. They + were fiercely uncompromising in their demand for the + overthrow of the monarchy. Many of the nobles hastened to + quit the country. The King was virtually made prisoner in + Paris, whence he attempted to escape, but was captured by + insurgents and closely guarded in the city. + + The National Assembly came to an end and was succeeded + (October 1, 1791) by the Legislative Assembly, a still more + radical body, which for a year practically ruled France over + the head of the King. + + Such was the state of affairs in France when, + notwithstanding the complications in the East, the Emperor + Leopold II and King Frederick William II of Prussia issued + the Convention of Pillnitz (August, 1791). This was the + basis of an alliance for the rescue of Louis XVI from his + enemies, and for his full restoration to power. It led a + little later to a formidable coalition of sovereigns against + the Revolution. Brunswick advanced toward Paris, but while + he hesitated in his progress the French army, under + Dumouriez, was increased in numbers and discipline. + Dumouriez was on the Belgian border, preparing for his + "Argonne campaign," the first events of which no one has + better described than Lamartine. + + +While the interregnum of royalty and republicanism delivered Paris over +to the revolutionists, France, with all its frontiers open, had for +security nothing but the small forest of Argonnes and the genius of +Dumouriez. On September 2, 1792, this general was shut up with sixteen +thousand men in the camp of Grandpré, occupying with weak detachments +the intermediate defiles between Sedan and Sainte-Menehould, by which +the Duke of Brunswick might attempt to break his line and turn his +position. He caused the tocsin to be rung in the villages, hoping to +excite the enthusiasm of the inhabitants; but the captures of Longwi and +Verdun, the understanding between the gentlemen of the country and the +_émigrés_,[36] the hatred of the Revolution, and the disproportionate +amounts of the coalesced army, discouraged resistance. Dumouriez, left +to himself by the inhabitants, could only rely on his own troops. His +sole hope was in forming a junction with Kellermann. If that could be +effected behind the forest of Argonne before the troops of the Duke of +Brunswick could force the natural rampart, Kellermann and Dumouriez, +uniting their troops, would have a body of forty-five thousand soldiers +to ninety thousand Prussians, and might then with some hope hazard the +fate of France on a battle. + +Kellermann, who was worthy to understand and second this grand idea, +served without jealousy Dumouriez's design, satisfied with his share of +the glory if his country should be saved. He marched to Metz, at the +extremity of the Argonne, informing Dumouriez of every step he took. But +their superior intelligence was a mystery for the majority of officers +and soldiery. Provisions were scarce and bad, the general himself eating +black bread. Ministers, deputies, Luckner himself--influenced by his +correspondents in the camp--wrote perpetually to Dumouriez to abandon +his position and retire to Châlons. + +Slight skirmishes with the advanced guard of the Prussians, in which the +French were always victorious, gave the troops patience. Miaczinski, +Stengel, and Miranda drove back the Prussians at all points. Dumouriez, +in his position, deadened the shock of the one hundred thousand men whom +the King of Prussia and the Duke of Brunswick collected at the foot of +Argonne. Chance nearly lost all. + +Overcome by fatigue of body and mind, he had forgotten to reconnoitre +with his own eyes, and quite close to him, the defile of Croix-au-Bois, +which had been described to him as impracticable for troops, +particularly cavalry and artillery. He had placed there, however, a +dragoon regiment, two battalions of volunteers, and two pieces of +cannon, commanded by a colonel; but in consequence of the recall of the +dragoons and the two battalions before the troops ordered to replace +them had come up, the defile was for a moment open to the enemy. A great +many volunteer spies, whom the émigrés had in the villages of Argonne, +hastened to point out this weakness to Clerfayt, the Austrian general, +who instantly despatched eight thousand men, under the command of the +young Prince de Ligne, who seized on the position. + +A few hours afterward, Dumouriez, informed of this reverse, placed +General Chazot at the head of two brigades, six squadrons of his best +troops, four pieces of cannon, besides the artillery belonging to the +battalions, and ordered him to attack the place at the bayonet's point, +and recover the position at any sacrifice. Every hour the impatient +commander despatched aides-de-camp to Chazot to expedite his march and +bring him back information. Twenty-four hours passed away thus in doubt. +On the 14th Dumouriez heard the sound of firing on his left, and judged +by the noise, which receded, that the Imperialists were in retreat and +Chazot had gained the forest. In the evening a note from Chazot informed +him that he had forced the intrenchments of the Austrians, in spite of +their desperate defence; that eight hundred dead lay in the defile, +among whom was the Prince de Ligne. + +Scarcely, however, had this note reached Dumouriez, whose mind had been +thereby set at ease, than Clerfayt, burning to avenge the death of the +Prince de Ligne and make a decisive attack on this rampart of the French +army, advanced all his columns into this defile, gained the heights, +rushed headlong down on Chazot's column in front and on both flanks, +took his cannon, and compelled Chazot himself to leave the forest for +the plain, cutting off his communication with the camp of Grandpré, and +driving him in full flight on the road to Vouziers. At the same moment +the corps of the émigrés attacked General Dubouquet, in the defile of +the Chêne-Populeux. Frenchman against Frenchman, their valor was equal: +the one side fighting to save, the other to reconquer, their country. +Dubouquet gave way and retreated upon Châlons. These two disasters came +upon Dumouriez at the same moment. Chazot and Dubouquet seemed to trace +out to him the road. The clamor of his whole army pointed out to him +Châlons as a refuge. Clerfayt, with twenty-five thousand men, was about +to cut off his communication with Châlons. The Duke of Brunswick, with +eighty thousand Prussians, enclosed him on the three other sides in the +camp of Grandpré. His detachments cut off reduced his army to fifteen +thousand men. + +A retreat before an enemy, conquering in two partial encounters, was to +prostrate the fortune of France before the foreigner. The "audacity" of +Danton passed into the mind and tactics of Dumouriez. He conceived a +plan even more bold than that of Argonne, and closed his ear to the +timid counsels of art. He dictated to his aides-de-camp orders to the +following effect: + +Kellermann was to continue his advance to Sainte-Menehould; Beurnonville +was to march instantly for Rhétel, advancing by the river Aisne, taking +care not to go too near to Argonne, to save its flanks from Clerfayt's +attacks. Dillon was to defend and check the two defiles of Argonne, and +to send out troops beyond the forest in order to perplex the Duke of +Brunswick's motions, and come as soon as possible into communication +with Kellermann's advanced guard. Chazot was to return to Autry. General +Sparre, the commandant at Châlons, was desired to form the advanced camp +at Châlons. + +These orders despatched, he prepared his own troops for the manoeuvre +which he himself intended to execute during the night. He sent to the +heights which cover the left of Grandpré on the side of the +Croix-au-Bois, where Clerfayt made him most uneasy, six battalions, six +squadrons, six pieces of cannon, as a lookout, in case of any sudden +attack on the part of the Austrians. At nightfall he caused the park of +artillery to defile in silence by the two bridges which traverse the +Aisne, and halt on the heights of Autry. + +The Prince of Hohenlohe requested an interview with Dumouriez that +evening, his motive being to judge of the state of the army. Dumouriez +granted this, and substituted for himself in this conference General +Duval, whose advanced years, white hair, and commanding stature imposed +on the Austrian general. Duval affected an appearance of security, +telling the Prince that Beurnonville was expected next day with eighteen +thousand men, and Kellermann at the head of thirty thousand troops. +Discouraged in his offers of arrangement by Duval, the Austrian chief +withdrew, firmly convinced that Dumouriez meant to await the battle in +his camp. + +At midnight Dumouriez left the Château of Grandpré, on horseback, and +went to the camp in the pitchy darkness of the night. All was hushed in +repose: he forbade drums to beat or trumpets to sound, but sent round in +a low voice the order to strike the tents and get under arms. The +darkness and confusion were unfavorable to these orders, but before the +first dawn of day the army was in full march. The troops passed in +double file over the bridges of Senuc and Grand Champ, and ranged +themselves in battle array on the eminences of Autry. Thus covered by +the Aisne, Dumouriez gazed upon the foe to see if they followed; but the +mystery of his movements had disconcerted the Duke of Brunswick and +Clerfayt. The army cut down the bridges behind them, and then, advancing +four leagues from Grandpré to Dumartin, encamped there; and in the +morning General Duval dispersed a host of Prussian hussars. Dumouriez +resumed his march next day, and on the 17th entered his camp of +Sainte-Menehould. + +The camp of Sainte-Menehould seemed to have been designed by nature to +serve as a citadel for a handful of patriot soldiers, against a vast and +victorious army. Protected in the front by a deep valley, on one side by +the Aisne, and on the other by marshes, the back of the camp was +defended by the shallow branches of the river Auve. Beyond these muddy +streamlets and quagmires arose a solid and narrow piece of ground, +admirably adapted for the station of a second camp; and here the general +intended that Kellermann's division should be placed, then commanding +the two routes of Rheims and Châlons. Dumouriez had studied this +position during his leisure hours at Grandpré, and took up his quarters +with the confidence of a man who knows his ground and seizes on success +with certain hand. + +All his arrangements being made and head-quarters established at +Sainte-Menehould, in the centre of the army, Dumouriez, annoyed at the +reports, spread by fugitives, of his having been routed, wrote to the +assembly: "I have been obliged," he wrote to the President, "to abandon +the camp of Grandpré; our retreat was complete, when a panic spread +through the army--ten thousand men fled before one thousand five hundred +Prussian hussars. All is repaired, and I answer for everything." + +At the news of the retreat of Grandpré, Kellermann, believing Dumouriez +defeated, and fearful of falling himself among the Prussian forces, whom +he supposed to be at the extremity of the defile of Argonne, had +retreated as far as Vitry. Couriers from Dumouriez reassuring him, he +again advanced, but with the slowness of a man who fears an ambush at +every step. He hesitated while he obeyed. On the other side, +Beurnonville, the friend and confidant of Dumouriez, had met the +fugitives of Chazot's corps. Wholly disconcerted by their statements of +the complete rout of his general, Beurnonville, with some dragoons, had +ascended a hill, whence he perceived Argonne, and the bare heaths which +extend from Grandpré to Sainte-Menehould. + +It was on the morning of the 17th, at the moment when Dumouriez's army +was moving from Dammartin to Sainte-Menehould. At the sight of this body +of troops, whose uniforms and flags he could not distinguish in the +heavy mist, Beurnonville had no doubt but that it was the Prussian army +advancing in pursuit of the French. He immediately faced about, and +advanced to Châlons by forced marches, in order to join his general. +Hearing his mistake at Châlons, Beurnonville gave only twelve hours' +rest to his harassed men, and arrived on the 19th with the ten thousand +warlike soldiers whom he had led so far to the field of battle. +Dumouriez passed them all in review, recognizing all the officers by +their names, and the soldiers by their countenances, while they all +saluted their leader with the loudest acclamations. The battalions and +squadrons which he had carefully formed, disciplined, and accustomed to +fire during the dilatory proceedings of Luckner with the army of the +North, defiled before him, covered with the dust of their long march, +their horses jaded, uniforms torn, shoes in holes, but their arms as +perfect and as bright as if they were on parade. + +Dumouriez had scarcely dismounted when Westermann and Thouvenot, his two +confidential staff officers, came to inform him that the Prussian army, +_en masse_, had passed the peak of Argonne, and were deploying on the +hills of La Lune, on the other side of the Tourbe, opposite to him. At +the same instant young Macdonald, his aide-de-camp, who had been sent, +on the previous evening, on the road to Vitry, came galloping up, and +brought him intelligence of the approach of the long-expected +Kellermann, who at the head of twenty thousand men of the army of Metz, +and some thousands of volunteers of Lorraine, was only at two hours' +distance. Thus the fortune of the Revolution and the genius of +Dumouriez, seconding each other, brought at the appointed hour and to +the fixed spot, from the two extremities of France and from the depths +of Germany, the forces which were to assail and those which were to +defend the empire. + +At the same moment Dumouriez, recalling his isolated detachments, +prepared for a struggle, by concentrating all his scattered forces. +General Dubouquet had retired to Châlons with three thousand men, where +he also expected to find Dumouriez, but had only found in the city ten +battalions of _fédérés_ and volunteers, who had arrived from Paris, and, +hearing of the retreat of the army, mutinied against their chiefs, cut +off the head of one of their officers, taking others with them, +plundered the army stores, murdered the colonel of the regiment of +Vexin, and then, in confused masses, took the road to Paris, proclaiming +everywhere Dumouriez's treason and demanding his head. Dumouriez was +alarmed lest these ruffians should come in contact with his army, for +such bands sowed sedition wherever they went. + +General Stengel, after having ravaged the country between Argonne and +Sainte-Menehould, in order to cut off all supplies from the Prussians, +fell back beyond the Tourbe, and posted himself with the vanguard on the +hills of Lyron, opposite the heights of La Lune, where the Duke of +Brunswick was posted. + +Dampierre's camp, separated from that of Dumouriez by the trenches and +shallows of the Auve, was assigned to Kellermann, but he passed beyond +this spot, and posted his entire army and baggage on the heights of +Valmy, in advance of Dampierre, on the left of that of Sainte-Menehould. +The line of Kellermann's encampment, nearer to the enemy, on its left, +touched on its right the line of Dumouriez, and thus formed with the +principal army an angle, against which the enemy could not send forth +its attacking columns without being at once overwhelmed by the French +artillery in both flanks. Dumouriez, perceiving in a moment that +Kellermann, who was too much involved and too much isolated on the +plateau of Valmy, might be turned by the Prussian masses, sent General +Chazot, at the head of eight battalions and eight squadrons, to post +them behind the heights of Gizaucourt, and be under Kellermann's orders. +He next desired General Stengel and Beurnonville to advance to the right +of Valmy with twenty-six battalions--his rapid _coup d'oeil_ assuring +him that this would be the Duke of Brunswick's point of attack. + +This plan displayed at a glance the intelligence of the warrior and the +politician. Defiance was thus cast by forty-five thousand men to one +hundred ten thousand soldiers of the coalition. + +The French army had its right flank and retreat covered by the Argonne, +which was impassable by the enemy, and defended by its ravines and +forests. The centre, bristling with batteries and natural obstacles, was +impregnable. The army faced the country toward Champagne, leaving behind +it the road clear to Châlons and Lorraine. + +"The Prussians," argued Dumouriez, "will either fight or advance on +Paris. If the former, they will find the French army in an intrenched +camp as a field of battle. Obliged, in order to attack the centre, to +pass the Auve, the Tourbe, and the Bionne, under the fire of my +redoubts, they will take Kellermann in flank, who will crush their +attacking columns between his battalions, charging down from Valmy and +the batteries of my _corps d'armée_. If they leave the French army, and +cut off its retreat to Paris by marching on Châlons, the army, facing +about, will follow them to Paris, increasing in number at every step. +The reënforcements of the army of the Rhine and army of the North, which +are on the march; the battalions of scattered volunteers, which I shall +assemble as I cross the revolted provinces, will swell the amount of my +armed troops to sixty thousand or seventy thousand men. The Prussians +will march across a hostile country, and make every step with +hesitation, while each advance will give me fresh troops. I shall await +them under the walls of Paris. An invading army, placed between a +capital of six hundred thousand souls, who close their gates, and a +national army, which cuts off their retreat, is a destroyed army. France +will be saved in the heart of France, instead of on the frontiers; but +still she will be saved." + +Thus reasoned Dumouriez, when the first sounds of the Prussian cannon, +resounding from the heights of Valmy, came to announce to him that the +Duke of Brunswick, having perceived the danger of advancing, and thus +leaving the French army behind him, had attacked Kellermann. It was not +the Duke of Brunswick, however, but the young King of Prussia, who had +commanded the attack. The Prussian army, which the generalissimo wished +to extend gradually from Rheims to Argonne, parallel to the French army, +received orders to advance in a body on Kellermann's position. On the +19th it marched to Somme-Tourbe, and remained all night under arms. The +report was spread in the head-quarters of the King of Prussia that the +French were meditating a retreat on Châlons, and that the movements +perceptible in their line were only intended to mask this retrograde +march. The King was vexed at a plan of a campaign which always allowed +them to escape. He thought he should surprise Dumouriez in the false +position of an army which had raised his camp. The Duke of Brunswick, +whose military authority began to suffer with the failure of his +preceding manoeuvres, in vain sought the intervention of General +Koeler to moderate the ardor of the King. The attack was resolved upon. + +On the 20th, at 6 A.M., the Duke marched at the head of the Prussian +advanced guard upon Somme-Bionne, with the intention of attacking +Kellermann, and cutting off his retreat by the high road of Châlons. A +thick autumnal fog floated over the plain into the marshy grounds where +the three rivers flow, in the hollow ravines which separated the two +armies, leaving only the points of the precipices and the crests of the +hills shining in the light above this ocean of fog. An unexpected shock +of the cavalry of the two advanced guards alone revealed, in this +darkness, the march of the Prussians to the French. After a rapid +_mêlée_ and some firing, the advanced guard of the French fell back +upon Valmy, and warned Kellermann of the enemy's approach. The Duke of +Brunswick continued to advance, reached the high road to Châlons, +crossed it, and then deployed his whole army. At ten o'clock, the mist +having suddenly disappeared, showed to the two generals their mutual +situation. + +Kellermann's army was en masse in the plain and behind the mill of +Valmy. This bold position projected like a cape into the midst of the +lines of the Prussian bayonets. General Chazot had not, as yet, come up +with his twenty-six battalions to flank Kellermann's left. General +Leveneur, who was to have flanked his right and to unite it with +Dumouriez's army, advanced with hesitation and slowly, fearing to draw +on his feeble force all the weight of the Prussian body, which he saw in +battle array before him. General Valence, who commanded Kellermann's +cavalry, deployed into high line with a regiment of carbineers, some +squadrons of dragoons, and four battalions of grenadiers, between +Gizaucourt and Valmy, thus covering the whole space which Kellermann +could fill up, and where that general was expected. Kellermann's lines +formed in the centre of the heights. His powerful artillery bristled by +the side of the mill of Valmy, the centre and key to the position. +Almost surrounded by semicircular lines of the enemy, which were +perpetually increasing in numbers, and embarrassed on this very narrow +elevation by his twenty-two thousand men, horses, guns, and baggage, +Kellermann was unable to extend the wings of his army. + +From this height Kellermann saw come in succession, from the white mist +of the morning, and glitter in the sunshine, the countless Prussian +cavalry, which must envelop him, as in a net, if he were driven from his +position. About noon the Duke of Brunswick, having formed his whole army +into two lines, and decided on his plan of the day, was seen to detach +himself from the centre, and advance toward the declivities of +Gizaucourt and La Lune, at the head of a body of infantry, cavalry, and +three batteries. Fresh troops filled up the space these left. + +Such was the horizon of tents, bayonets, horses, cannon, and staff which +displayed itself on September 20th, in the hollows and ravines of +Champagne. At the same hour the convention[37] began its sittings and +deliberations as to a monarchy or a republic. Within and without, France +and liberty sported with destiny. + +The exterior aspect of the two armies seemed to declare beforehand the +issue of the campaign. On the side of the Prussians, one hundred ten +thousand combatants; a system of tactics the inheritance of the Great +Frederick; discipline, which converted battalions into machines of war, +and which, destroying all personal will in the soldier, made him bend +submissively to the thought and voice of his officers; an infantry solid +and impenetrable as walls of iron; cavalry mounted on the splendid +horses of Mecklenburg, whose docility, well-controlled ardor, and high +courage were not alarmed either at the fire of artillery nor the glitter +of cold steel; officers trained from their infancy to fighting as a +trade, born, as it were, in uniforms, knowing their troops and known to +them, exercising over their soldiers the twofold ascendency of nobility +and command; as auxiliaries, the picked regiments of the Austrian Army, +recently from the banks of the Danube, where they had been fighting +against the Turks; the emigrant French nobility, bearing with them all +the great names of the monarchy, every soldier of whom fought for his +own cause and had his individual injuries to avenge--his King to save, +his country to recover at the end of his bayonet or the point of his +sabre; Prussian generals, all pupils of a military king, having to +maintain the superiority of their renown in Europe; a generalissimo +which Germany proclaimed its Agamemnon, and which the genius of +Frederick covered with a prestige of invincibility; and, also, a young +King, brave, adored by his people, dear to his troops, avenger of the +cause of all kings, accompanied by representatives of every court on the +field of battle, and supplying the inexperience of war by a personal +bravery which forgot its rank in the sole consideration of its +honor--such was the Prussian army. + +In the French camp a numerical inferiority of one against three; +regiments reduced to three or four hundred men by the effect of the laws +of 1790, which only admitted volunteers; these regiments, deprived of +their best officers by emigration, which had induced more than half to +go to the enemy's soil, and by the sudden creation of one hundred +battalions of volunteers, at the head of which they had placed the +officers remaining in France as instructors; these battalions and +regiments, without any _esprit de corps_, regarding each other with +jealousy or contempt; two feelings in the same army--the spirit of +discipline in the old ranks, the spirit of insubordination in the new +corps; old officers suspecting their men, soldiers doubtful of their +officers; a cavalry ill equipped and badly mounted; an infantry +competent and firm in regiments, raw and weak in battalions; pay in +arrear and paid in assignats greatly depreciated; insufficiently armed; +uniforms various, threadbare, torn, often in tatters; many soldiers +without shoes, or substituting handfuls of hay tied round the legs with +cord; the troops arriving from different armies and provinces, unknown +to each other, and scarcely knowing the name of the generals under whom +they had been enlisted--these generals themselves young and rash, +passing suddenly from obeying to command, or, old and methodical, unable +to make their formal modes comply with the dash required in desperate +warfare; and, finally, at the head of this incongruous army, a +general-in-chief fifty-three years of age, new to war, whom everybody +had a right to doubt, mistrustful of his troops, at variance with his +second in command, at issue with his government, whose daring yet +dilatory plan was not understood by any, and who had neither services in +the past nor the spell of victory on his sword to give authority or +confidence to his command--such were the French at Valmy. But the +enthusiasm of the country and the Revolution struggled in the heart of +this army, and the genius of war inspired the soul of Dumouriez. + +Uneasy as to Kellermann's position, Dumouriez, on horseback from the +dawn of day, visited his line, extended his troops between +Sainte-Menehould and Gizaucourt, and galloped toward Valmy in order that +he might the better judge himself of the intentions of the Duke of +Brunswick and the point on which the Prussians were to concentrate their +efforts. He there found Kellermann giving his final orders to the +generals, who, on his left and right, were to have the responsibility of +the day. One of these was General Valence, and the other the Duc de +Chartres. + +The Duc de Chartres[38] had been welcomed by the old soldiers as a +prince, by the new ones as a patriot, by all as a comrade. His +intrepidity did not carry him away; he controlled it, and it left him +that quickness of perception and that coolness so essential to a +general; amid the hottest fire he neither quickened nor slackened his +pace, for his ardor was as much the effect of reflection as of +calculation, and as grave as duty. His familiarity--martial with the +officers, soldierly with the soldiers, patriotic with the +citizens--caused them to forgive him for being a prince. But beneath the +exterior of a soldier of the people lurked the _arrière pensée_ of a +prince of the blood; and he plunged into all the events of the +Revolution with the entire yet skilful _abandon_ of a mastermind. Men +feared, in spite of his bravery and his exalted enthusiasm for his +country, to catch a glimpse of a throne raised upon its own ruins and by +the hands of a republic. This presentiment, which invariably precedes +great names and destinies, seemed to reveal to the army that, of all the +leaders of the Revolution, he might one day be the most useful or the +most fatal to liberty. + +Dumouriez, who had seen the young Duc de Chartres with the army at +Luckner, was struck with his intrepidity and coolness during the action, +and, perceiving a spark of no ordinary fire in this young man, resolved +to attach him to himself. + +The Prussians held the heights of La Lune, and had commenced descending +them in battle array. The veteran troops of Frederick the Great, slow +and measured in all their movements, displayed no rash impetuosity and +left naught to chance. + +On their side the French did not behold without a feeling of dread this +immense and hitherto invincible army silently advance its first line in +columns of attack, and extend its wings to pierce their centre and cut +off all retreat, either on Châlons or Dumouriez. The soldiers remained +motionless in their position, fearing to expose by a false movement the +narrow battle-field on which they could defend themselves, but did not +dare manoeuvre. The Prussians descended half-way down the heights of +La Lune, and then opened their fire both in front and flank. + +On this attack Kellermann's artillery moved forward and took up its +position in front of the infantry. More than twenty thousand balls were +exchanged during two hours from one hundred twenty guns, which thundered +from the sides of the opposite hills, as though they strove to batter a +breach in the mountains. The Prussians, more exposed than the French, +suffered more severely, and their fire began to slacken. Kellermann, who +narrowly watched the enemy's movements, fancied he saw some confusion in +their ranks, and charged at the head of a column to carry the guns. A +Prussian battery, masked by an inequality in the ground, suddenly opened +its fire on them, and Kellermann's horse, struck by a ball in the chest, +fell on its rider. His aide-de-camp, Lieutenant-Colonel Lormier, was +killed, and the head of the column, exposed on three sides to a +withering fire, fell back in disorder, while Kellermann, disengaged and +carried off by his troops, sought for a fresh charger. The Prussians, +witnessing his fall and the retreat of his column, redoubled their fire, +and a well-directed volley of shells silenced the French artillery. + +The Duc de Chartres, who for three hours had supported the fire of the +Prussians at the decisive post of Valmy, without drawing a trigger, saw +the danger of his general. He hastened to the second line, put himself +at the head of the reserve of artillery, advanced to the plateau by the +mill, covered the disorder of the centre, rallied the flying caissons, +supported the fire, and checked the enemy's onset. + +The Duke of Brunswick would not give the French time to strengthen their +position, but formed three formidable columns of attack, supported by +two wings of cavalry. These columns advanced in spite of the fire of the +French batteries, and were about to crush beneath their masses the +division of the Duc de Chartres, who at the mill of Valmy awaited the +onset. Kellermann, who had renewed the line, formed his army into +columns by battalions, sprang from his horse, and casting the bridle to +his orderly, bade him lead it behind the ranks, showing the soldiers +that he was resolved to conquer or die. "Comrades," cried Kellermann, in +a voice of thunder, "the moment of victory is at hand. Let us suffer the +enemy to advance, and then charge with the bayonet." Then waving his hat +on the top of his sword, "_Vive la nation!_" cried he more +enthusiastically than before; "let us conquer for her." + +This cry of the general, repeated by the nearest battalions, and taken +up successively by the rest, created an immense clamor like the country +herself encouraging her defenders. This shout of the whole army, +resounding from one hill to another, and heard above the cannon's roar, +reassured the troops, and made the Duke of Brunswick pause, for such +hearts promised equally terrible hands. Kellermann still advanced at the +head of his column. The Duc de Chartres, his sword in one hand and a +tricolored flag in the other, followed the horse artillery with the +cavalry. The Duke of Brunswick, with the quick eye of a veteran soldier, +and that economy of human life that characterizes an able general, saw +that this attack would fail when opposed to such enthusiasm; and he +re-formed the head of his columns, sounded the retreat, and slowly +retired to his positions unpursued. + +The fire ceased on both sides and the battle was as it were suspended +until four in the evening, when the King of Prussia, indignant at the +hesitation of his army, formed in person, and with the flower of his +infantry and cavalry, three formidable columns of attack; then riding +down the line, he bitterly reproached them with suffering the standard +of the monarch to be thus humiliated. At the voice of their sovereign +the troops marched to the conflict, and the King, surrounded by the Duke +of Brunswick and his principal officers, marched in the first rank, +exposed to the fire of the French, which mowed down his staff around +him. Intrepid as the blood of Frederick, he commanded as a king jealous +of the honor of his nation, and exposed himself like a soldier who holds +his life but lightly compared to victory. All was in vain; the Prussian +columns, assailed by the fire of twenty-four pieces of cannon, in +position on the heights of Valmy, retreated at nightfall, leaving behind +them eight hundred dead. Not to have been defeated was to the French +army a victory. Kellermann felt this so fully that he assumed the name +of Valmy in after-years,[39] and in his will bequeathed his heart to the +village of that name, in order that it might repose on the theatre of +his greatest renown, and sleep amid the companions of his first field. + +While the French army fought and triumphed at Valmy, the Convention +decreed the Republic at Paris. + +Dumouriez returned to his camp amid the roar of Kellermann's cannon; but +while he congratulated himself on the success of a day that strengthened +the patriotic feelings of the army, and that rendered the first attack +on the country fatal to her enemies, he was too clear-sighted not to +perceive the faults of Kellermann and the temerity of his position. The +Duke of Brunswick was on the morrow the same as he was the previous +evening, and had, moreover, extended his right wing beyond Gizaucourt +and cut off the route to Châlons. + +Early on the morning of the 21st Dumouriez went to the camp of his +colleague, and ordered him to pass the river Auve, and fall back on the +camp of Dampierre, in the position previously assigned him. This +position, less brilliant, yet more secure, strengthened and united the +French army. Kellermann felt this and obeyed without a murmur. + +The Prussians had lost so much time that they had no longer any to +spare. The rainy season had already affected them, and the winter would +be sufficient in itself to force them to retreat. The Duke of Brunswick +lost ten days in observing the French army; and the rain and fever +season surprised him, while yet undecided. The rains cut up the roads +from Argonne, by which his convoys arrived from Verdun, while his +soldiers, destitute of shelter and provisions, wandered about in the +fields, the orchards and vineyards, plucking the unripe grapes which +these inhabitants of the North tasted for the first time. Their +stomachs, already weakened by bad living, were soon disordered, and they +were attacked by that dysentery which is so fatal to the soldier; the +contagion spread rapidly through the camp, and thinned the corps. + +The situation of Dumouriez did not appear, however, less perilous to +those who were not in the secret of his intentions. Hemmed in on the one +side of Les Evêchés by the Prince de Hohenlohe; on the Paris side by the +King of Prussia, the Prussians were within six leagues of Châlons, the +émigrés still nearer. The Uhlans, the light cavalry of the Prussians, +pillaged at the gates of Rheims, and between Châlons and the capital +there was not a position or an army. Paris dreaded to find itself thus +exposed. Kellermann, a brave, but susceptible general, shaken by the +opinion in Paris, threatened to quit the camp and abandon his colleague +to his fate. Dumouriez, employing alternately the ascendency of his rank +and the seduction of his genius, passed, in order to detain him, from +menace to entreaty, and thus gained day by day his victory of patience. +Sometimes he threatened to deprive of their uniform and arms those who +complained of the want of provisions, and drive them from the camp as +cowards who were unworthy to suffer privations for their country. Eight +battalions of fédérés, recently arrived from the camp at Châlons, and +intoxicated with massacre and sedition, were those who most threatened +the subordination of the camp, saying openly that the ancient officers +were traitors, and that it was necessary to purge the army, as they had +Paris, of its aristocrats. Dumouriez posted these battalions apart from +the others, placed a strong force of cavalry behind them, and two pieces +of cannon on their flank. Then, affecting to review them, he halted at +the head of the line, surrounded by all his staff and an escort of one +hundred hussars. "Fellows," said he--"for I will not call you either +citizens or soldiers--you see before you this artillery, behind you this +cavalry; you are stained with crimes, and I do not tolerate here +assassins or executioners. I know that there are scoundrels among you +charged to excite you to crime. Drive them from among you, or denounce +them to me, for I shall hold you responsible for their conduct." The +battalions trembled and at once assumed the same spirit that pervaded +the army. + +The ancient feelings of honor were associated in the camps with +patriotism, and Dumouriez encouraged it among his troops. Every day he +received from Paris threats of dismissal, to which he replied in terms +of defiance. "I will conceal my dismissal," he wrote, "until the day +when I behold the flight of the enemy: I will then show it to my +soldiers, and return to Paris, to suffer the punishment my country +inflicts on me for having saved her in spite of herself." + +Three commissioners of the Convention, Sillery, Carra, and Prieur, +arrived at the camp on the 24th, to proclaim the Republic, and Dumouriez +did not hesitate. Although a royalist, he yet felt that at present it +was not a question of government, but of the safety of the country; and +besides, his ambition was vast as his genius, vague as the future. A +republic agitated at home, threatened from abroad, could not but be +favorable to an ambitious soldier at the head of an army who adored him; +for when royalty was abolished, there was no one of higher rank in the +nation than its generalissimo. The commissioners had also instructions +to order the retreat of the army behind the Marne. Dumouriez asked and +obtained from them six days' delay; on the seventh, at sunrise, the +French videttes beheld the heights of La Lune deserted, and the columns +of the Duke of Brunswick slowly defiling between the hills of Champagne, +and taking the direction of Grandpré. Fortune had justified +perseverance, and genius had baffled numbers. Dumouriez was triumphant, +and France was saved. + +At this intelligence, one general shout of "Vive la nation!" burst from +the French army. The commissioners, the generals Beurnonville, Miranda, +even Kellermann, threw themselves into the arms of Dumouriez, and +acknowledged the superiority of his judgment and the accuracy of his +perception--while the soldiers proclaimed him the Fabius of his country. +But this name, which he accepted for a day, but ill responded to the +ardor of his soul; and he already meditated playing the part of +Hannibal, which was more consonant with the activity of his character +and the determination of his genius. At home, that of Cæsar might one +day tempt him. This ambition of Dumouriez explains the unmolested +retreat of the Prussians through an enemy's country, and through defiles +which might easily have been converted into Caudine Forks, and under the +cannon of seventy thousand French, before which the weakened and +enervated army of the Duke of Brunswick had to make a flank movement. + +While the military genius of Dumouriez triumphed over the Prussian army, +his political genius was not asleep; for his camp, during the last days +of the campaign, was at once the head-quarters of an army and the centre +of diplomatic negotiations. Dumouriez had created a connection, half +apparent, half secret, with the Duke of Brunswick and those officers and +ministers who had most influence over the King of Prussia. Danton, the +only minister who possessed any authority over Dumouriez, was in the +secret of these negotiations. + +The Duke of Brunswick was no less desirous than Dumouriez to negotiate, +while fighting at the head-quarters of the King of Prussia were two +parties, one of whom wished to retain the King with the army, and the +other to remove him from it. The Count de Schulemberg, the King's +confidential agent, was the leader of the first, the Duke of Brunswick +of the second; Haugwitz, Lucchesini, Lombard, the King's secretary, +Kalkreuth, and the Prince de Hohenlohe were of the party of the latter. +The King resisted with the firmness of a man who has engaged his honor +in a great cause in the eyes of the world, and who wished to come off +with credit, or at least without loss of reputation. He remained with +the army, and sent the Count de Schulemberg to direct the operations in +Poland. From this day the Prince was exposed in his camp to an influence +whose interest it was to slacken his march and enervate his resolutions; +and from this day everything tended to a retreat. + +The Duke of Brunswick only sought a pretext for opening negotiations +with the French at head-quarters. So long as he was behind the Argonne, +within ten leagues of Grandpré, this pretext did not offer itself, for +the King of Prussia would look on these advances as a proof of treason +or cowardice. The combat of Valmy, in the idea of the Duke of Brunswick, +was but a negotiation carried on by the mouth of the cannon. Dumouriez +held the fate of the French Revolution in his hands, and he could not +believe that this general would become the mere tool of anarchical +democracy. "He will cast the weight of his sword," said he, "to weigh +down the scale in favor of a constitutional monarchy; he will turn upon +the jailers of the King and the murderers of September. Guardian of the +frontiers, he has only to threaten to open them to the coalition, to +insure obedience from the National Assembly. An arrangement between +monarchical France and Prussia, under the auspices of Dumouriez, is a +thousand times preferable to a war in which Prussia stakes her army +against the despair of a nation." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[36] The royalists who left Paris or France in 1789 and after, on +account of the Revolution.--ED. + +[37] The National Convention, which succeeded the Legislative Assembly, +actually opened September 21st.--ED. + +[38] This was Louis Philippe, afterward known as "the Citizen-King." He +was the son of Philippe Égalité, Duc d'Orléans, and was at this time +about twenty years old.--ED. + +[39] Kellermann was created Duc de Valmy by Napoleon.--ED. + + + + +INVENTION OF THE COTTON-GIN + +GROWTH OF THE COTTON INDUSTRY IN AMERICA + +A.D. 1793 + +CHARLES W. DABNEY R. B. HANDY DENISON OLMSTED + + Lord Macaulay declared that "what Peter the Great did to + make Russia dominant, Eli Whitney's invention of the + cotton-gin has more than equalled in its relation to the + power and progress of the United States." When Macaulay + delivered this opinion, "King Cotton" was more absolute in + the United States than to-day, for the cultivation of cotton + has since been supplemented in this country by other + industries of equal importance. Yet, what cotton had done + for the United States in Macaulay's day has been far + surpassed by its record since, as one of the great + industrial and commercial interests of the land; and judged + by export values, as estimated by the specialist Dabney, at + one time Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, cotton is still + king of the American market. + + The growth of the cotton industry in the United States, + traced so minutely by Handy, witnesses from one decade to + another to the supreme achievement of the American inventor + so highly estimated by Macaulay. Eli Whitney was born at + Westboro, Massachusetts, in 1765, and died in 1825. In 1792 + he was graduated at Yale College, and that year became a + teacher in Georgia, where he invented the cotton-gin. Before + he could secure a patent his machine was stolen from his + workshop, and others reaped the profits of his ingenuity. It + is pleasing to know that he afterward made a fortune by + other uses of his inventive skill. His service to the cotton + industry in all its departments has not only been vastly + influential in the development of his own country, but has + also greatly affected the relations of the United States + with other industrial nations, especially with Great + Britain, the leading cotton-manufacturing country of the + world. + + +CHARLES W. DABNEY + +Cotton is the principal product of eight great States of the American +Union, and the most valuable "money crop" of the entire country. +Climatic conditions practically restrict its cultivation to a group of +States constituting less than one-fourth of the total area of the +country, and yet the value of the annual crop is exceeded among +cultivated products only by corn, which is grown in every State of the +Union, and occasionally by wheat. Cotton furnishes the raw material for +one of our most important manufacturing industries and from one-fourth +to one-third of our total exports. + +Considered without reference to any particular country, its economic +importance is far beyond numerical expression; for while the total crop +of the world is approximately ascertainable, the effect of cotton upon +the commercial and social relations of mankind is too far-reaching for +estimation. Of the four great staples that provide man with +clothing--cotton, silk, wool, and flax--cotton, by reason of its +cheapness and its many excellencies, is rapidly superseding its several +rivals. Sixty years ago only about two million five hundred thousand +bales of cotton, or less than the present production of Texas, were +annually converted into clothing; the spindles of the world now use over +thirteen million bales per annum. Yet less than half the people of the +world are supplied with cotton goods made by modern machinery, and it +has been estimated that it would require annually a crop of forty-two +million bales of five hundred pounds each to raise the world's standard +of consumption to that of the principal nations. + +Cotton stands preëminent among farm crops in the ease and cheapness of +its production, as compared with the variety and value of its products. +No crop makes so slight a drain upon the fertility of the soil, and for +none has modern enterprise found so many uses for its several parts. The +cotton plant yields, in fact, a double crop--a most beautiful fibre and +a seed yielding both oil and feed, which, although neglected for a long +time, is now esteemed worth one-sixth as much as the fibre. In addition +to this, the stems can be made to yield a fibre which waits only for a +machine to work it, and the roots yield a drug. It is entirely possible, +therefore, that cotton may ultimately be grown as much for these parts +as for the lint. + +The history of cotton production in the United States differs from that +of almost every other agricultural product in several important +particulars. For nearly three-quarters of a century slave labor was +almost exclusively employed in this branch of agricultural industry, and +an immense majority of the colored people of to-day look to it for their +chief support. Cotton was also the great pioneer crop in the new +Southwestern States. Not only has the westward movement of the industry +been more rapid than that of any other crop, but the centre of +production has always been farther in advance of the centre of +population. As long ago as 1839 Mississippi was producing almost +one-fourth of the entire crop of the country. Recent years have +witnessed an enormous development in the regions to the west, which +would have carried the centre of production across the Mississippi River +if the cultivation of cotton, unlike that of wheat and corn and other +products, had not taken a new lease of life in the older States along +the Atlantic seaboard, where the use of manures has both extended the +area and increased the production. + +Probably no equally great industry was ever more completely paralyzed or +had its future placed in greater jeopardy than cotton growing in the +United States during the war of 1861-1865. So great was the decrease in +production which followed the effectual closing of the ports that only +one bale of cotton was grown in 1864-1865 for every fifteen bales raised +in 1861-1862. The chief menace to the future of cotton production lay in +the efforts that were put forth by other cotton-growing countries at +this time to produce those particular varieties which had for so long +given the United States the monopoly of the European markets; and +nothing could more completely demonstrate the remarkable adaptation of +our Southern States to the growing of varieties which the experience of +generations has proved to be the best for manufacturing purposes than +the fact that it took them only thirteen years from the end of the war +to regain the primacy of position which they held at its commencement. + + +ROBERT B. HANDY + +When cotton manufacture was introduced into England is not definitely +settled. There is no mention of the manufacture or use of cotton in the +celebrated poor-law of Elizabeth (1601), though hemp, flax, and wool are +expressly named. The first authentic record is in Roberts' _Treasure of +Traffic_, published in 1641; but it is possible, and even probable, that +the art was imported from Flanders by the artisans who fled from that +country to England in the latter part of the sixteenth century, as it is +probable that the manufacture had established itself more or less +firmly before it attracted the attention of the author of the +above-named pamphlet. We may presume, then, that it was well established +in England by 1641, but after that date the spread was not rapid. The +crudeness of the machinery for spinning was such that fine yarn could +not be made. Both spinning and weaving were done by individuals and +families in their own houses on clumsy and heavy machines. These +implements were but little better than those in use two thousand years +before. The distaff, the earliest of spinning-machines, was still in +use, and the best to be had was the one-thread spinning-wheel. The loom +used was scarcely an improvement on that which the East Indian had used +centuries before, though it was constructed with greater firmness and +compactness. Owing to imperfections in their machines, it was impossible +for the Europeans to make cotton yarn combining strength and firmness. +The yarn when spun was loose and flimsy; to make it strong it had to be +heavy. + +The finished web had often to be carried a long distance to market. It +was only in 1760 that Manchester merchants began to furnish the weavers +in the neighboring villages with linen yarn and raw cotton and to pay a +fixed price for the perfected web, thus relieving the weavers of the +necessity of providing themselves with material and seeking a market for +their cloth, and enabling them to prosecute their employment with +greater regularity. + +It was also about that time that England began to export her cotton +goods, for until then her weavers had not been able to do more than +supply the home demand. This foreign trade at once increased the demand +for cotton goods, and the increased demand presented a problem which the +manufacturers at first found difficult of solution. The procuring of +supplies of linen yarn needed for the warp of these textiles was not +difficult, but where was the cotton yarn to come from? The spinners were +producing already as much as their rude machines would permit, and +additional spinners were not to be had. The demand for cotton thread +exceeded the supply; the price of yarn rose with the demands of trade +and the extension of the manufacture and operated as a check to the +further increase of the exports. The trade had reached the point where +hand carders, single-thread spinning-wheels, and the hand-loom, +requiring a man to each machine, were clearly inadequate to the +service, and the cotton trade of Great Britain in the middle of the +eighteenth century seemed to have reached its limit. About this time +Hargreaves, Arkwright, Crompton, Cartwright, and Watt, men either +directly or indirectly engaged in and familiar with the needs of the +cotton manufacture, invented machines which raised the trade from an +experimental or at least a struggling industry into the most important +manufacture of the world. The carding-engine, the spinning-jenny, the +spinning-frame, the stocking-frame, the power-loom, and the adaptation +of the steam-engine to the propulsion of these machines, at once +supplied the means of producing an immense amount of yarn and cloth. +These inventions, it is true, were not in themselves perfect, but the +principles on which they were built are those on which the most +complicated textile machines of this day are based. + +The supply of raw material to meet the demands of the trade was limited. +The West Indies, the Levant, and India were the countries from which +this supply was drawn, but they were unable to furnish enough raw cotton +to keep the new machines in operation, and it was necessary to look +elsewhere. + +America was the only hope of the cotton manufacturer; but as at that +time the United States produced little or no cotton, for a few years all +the increased supply came from Brazil. + +As Great Britain was the last of the European countries to take up +cotton manufacture, and has carried it to its fullest development, so +the United States was the last to enter the list of cotton-producing +countries, and has been for nearly a hundred years the foremost of them +all. The powerful influence that the production of cotton has had upon +the commerce, industrial development, and civil institutions of the +United States can scarcely be realized by one unfamiliar with the +subject. + +It is doubtful whether cotton is indigenous to any part of this country, +as we have no authentic record of the precise time of its introduction. +Cotton seed was brought in from all quarters of the globe, and the +American plant, the result of innumerable crossings, remains, as to its +origin, a puzzle to botanists. + +The beginning of the culture of cotton in the United States occurred +about one hundred seventy-five years before the industry became at all +important. The first effort to produce cotton on the North American +continent was probably made at Jamestown the year of the arrival of the +colonists. In a pamphlet entitled _Nova Britannica; Offering Most +Excellent Fruits of Planting in Virginia_, published in London in 1609, +it is stated that cotton would grow as well in that province as in +Italy. In another pamphlet, called _A Declaration of the State of +Virginia_, published in London in 1620, the author mentions cotton, +wool, and sugar-cane among the "naturall commodities dispersed up and +downe the divers parts of the world; all of which may also be had in +abundance in Virginia." + +According to Bancroft, the first experiment in cotton culture in the +colonies was made in Virginia during Wyatt's administration of the +government. Writing of that period he says: "The first culture of cotton +in the United States deserves commemoration. In this year (1621) the +seeds were planted as an experiment, and their 'plentiful coming up' was +at that early day a subject of interest in America and England." + +Cotton-wool was listed in that year at eightpence a pound, which shows +that it may have been grown earlier, for it is scarcely possible that it +could have been grown, cleaned, and received in market in the same year. +Seabrook states that the "green-seed," or upland, variety was certainly +grown in Virginia to a limited extent at least one hundred thirty years +before the Revolution. Some of the early governors of that colony were +especially energetic in their efforts to encourage its cultivation. +Among these were Sir William Berkeley; Francis Morrison, his deputy, and +Sir Edmund Andros. The latter, says one authority, "gave particular +marks of his favor toward the propagation of cotton, which since his +time has been much neglected." + +The exports of the Virginia colony during the first thirty years of its +existence were confined almost exclusively to tobacco, but there is +evidence that in the latter half of the seventeenth century cotton was +cultivated and manufactured among the planters for domestic consumption. +Burk states that "after the Restoration (1660) their attention was +strongly attracted to home manufactures as well by the necessities of +their position as by the encouragement of the assembly and the bounty +offered by the King. But the zeal displayed in the outset for these +products gradually cooled, and if we except the manufacture of coarse +cloths and unpainted cotton, nothing remained of the sounding list +prepared with so much labor by the King and recommended by legislation, +premium, and royal bounty." + +Among the earliest historical references to cotton in this country is +that contained in _A Brief Description of the Province of Carolina, on +the Coasts of Florida, and More Particularly of a New Plantation Begun +by the English at Cape Feare, on that River, now by them called Georges +River_, published in London in 1666. The author of this tract, whose +name is not given, says: "In the midst of this fertile province, in the +latitude of 34°, there is a colony of English seated, who landed there +May 29, 1664." After giving an account of the fertility of the soil and +its natural products, he adds: "But they have brought with them most +sorts of seeds and roots of the Barbados, which thrive in this most +temperate clime. They have indigo, very good tobacco, and cotton-wool." +Robert Home mentions cotton among the products of South Carolina in +1666. In Samuel Wilson's _Account of the Province of Carolina in +America_, addressed to the Earl of Craven, and published in London in +1682, it is stated that "cotton of the Cyprus and Smyrna sort grows +well, and good plenty of the seed is sent thither," and among the +instructions given by the proprietors of South Carolina to Mr. West, the +first governor, is the following: "You are then to furnish yourself with +cotton-seed, indigo, and ginger-roots." He was also instructed to +receive the products of the country in payment of rents at certain fixed +valuations, among which cotton was priced at three and one-half pence +per pound. + +In 1697, in a memoir addressed to Count de Pontchartrain on the +importance of establishing a colony in Louisiana, the author, after +describing the natural productions of the country, says: "Such are some +of the advantages which may be reasonably expected, without counting +those resulting from every day's experience. We might, for example, try +the experiment of cultivating long-staple cotton." The presumption is +that the short-staple variety had already been tried. In the very +beginning of the eighteenth century cotton culture in North Carolina had +reached the extent of furnishing one-fifth of the people with their +clothing. Lawson, speaking of the prosperity of the country and +commending the industry of the women, says: "We have not only provision +plentiful, but clothes of our own manufacture, which are made and daily +increase; cotton, wool, and flax being of our own growth; and the women +are to be highly commended for industry in spinning and ordering their +housewifery to so great an advantage as they do." + +About this time cotton became widely distributed and cotton-patches were +common in Carolina. In fact, it is said to have been one of the +principal commodities of Carolina as early as 1708, but its culture was +only for domestic uses, and the same authority speaks of its being spun +by the women. + +Charlevoix, in 1722, while on his voyage down the Mississippi, saw "very +fine cotton on the tree" growing in the garden of Sieur le Noir; and +Captain Roman, of the British Army, saw in East Mississippi black-seeded +cotton growing on the farm of Mr. Krebs, and also a machine invented by +Mr. Krebs for the separation of the seed and lint. This was a +roller-gin, and possibly the first ever in operation in this country. + +Pickett says that in 1728 the colony of Louisiana, which at that date +occupied nearly all the southwest part of the United States, including +Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, was in a flourishing condition, its +fields being cultivated, by more than two thousand slaves, in cotton, +indigo, tobacco, and grain. + +Peter Purry, the founder of Purryville, in South Carolina, in his +description of the Province of South Carolina, drawn up in Charleston in +1731, says, "Flax and cotton thrive admirably." + +In 1734 cotton-seed was planted in Georgia, being sent there by Philip +Nutter, of Chelsea, England. Francis Moore, who visited Savannah in +1735, in his description of that place, says: "At the bottom of the +hill, well sheltered from the north wind and in the warmest part of the +garden, there was a collection of West Indian plants and trees, some +coffee, some cocoa-nuts, cotton, etc." + +About the same time the settlers on the Savannah River, about twenty-one +miles north of Savannah, are said to have experimented with cotton, the +date being fixed by McCall as 1738. One of the striking features +connected with the early culture of cotton in the American colonies is +that it was grown as far north as the 39° of latitude. Trench Coxe, of +Philadelphia, who contributed so greatly to the early success of the +culture and manufacture of cotton in the United States, says: "It is a +fact well authenticated to the writer that the cultivation of cotton on +the garden scale, though not at all as a planter's crop, was intimately +known and thoroughly practised in the vicinity of Easton, in the county +of Talbot, on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, as +early as 1736." + +Its cultivation was so well understood in this part of the country that, +according to the same authority, the necessities of the Revolutionary +War occasioned it to be raised for army use in the counties of Cape May, +New Jersey, and Sussex, Delaware, and it continued to be raised, though +only in small quantities, for family use. At the time of the Revolution, +the home-grown cotton was sufficiently abundant in Pennsylvania to +supply the domestic needs of that State. Cotton was also cultivated in +Charles, St. Mary's, and Dorchester counties, Maryland, as late as 1826. +And at a later date (1861-1864) upland cotton was cultivated, and at the +prices current at that date was a most profitable crop on the eastern +shore of Maryland. Cotton was grown with very good results in +Northampton County, on the eastern shore of Virginia, in those years. + +The culture and improvement of cotton had received considerable +attention by the planters of South Carolina and Georgia as early as +1742. In 1739 Samuel Auspourguer attested under oath that the "climate +and soil of Georgia are very fit for raising cotton." William Spicer +also certified to the adaptability of the country for cotton production, +and that he had "brought over with him (to London) several pods of +cotton which grew in Georgia." + +A tract entitled _A State of the Province of Georgia, Attested Under +Oath in the Court of Savannah_, published in 1740, says of cotton that +"large quantities had been raised, and it is much planted; but the +cotton, which in some parts is perennial, dies here in the winter; +nevertheless the annual is not inferior to it in goodness, but requires +more trouble in cleansing from the seed." In the same tract it was +"proposed that a bounty be settled on every product of the land, viz., +corn, peas, potatoes, wine, silk, cotton," etc. In _A Description of +Georgia, by a Gentleman who has Resided there Upward of Seven Years and +was One of the First Settlers_, published in London in 1741, the author +states that "the annual cotton grows well there, and has been by some +industrious people made into clothes." + +Samuel Seabrook, in _An Important Inquiry into the State and Utility of +Georgia_, published in 1741, says, "Among other beneficial articles of +trade which it is found can be raised there, cotton, of which some has +also been brought over as a sample, is mentioned." In his description of +St. Simon's Island the same author says: "The country is well +cultivated, several parcels of land not far distant from the camp of +General Oglethorpe's regiment having been granted in small lots to the +soldiers, many of whom are married. The soldiers raise cotton, and their +wives spin it and knit it into stockings." + +A publication in London in 1762 says: "What cotton and silk both the +Carolinas send us is excellent and calls aloud for encouragement of its +cultivation in a place well adapted to raise both." + +Captain Robinson, an Englishman who visited the coast of Florida in +1754, says the "cotton-tree was growing in that country." The Florida +territory then extended from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River. That +it was cultivated in East Florida about ten years after this is +evidenced by William Stork, who says, "I am informed of a gentleman +living upon the St. John's that the lands on that river below Piccolata +are in general good, and that there is growing there now (1765) good +wheat, Indian corn, indigo, and cotton." + +Cotton early attracted the attention of the French colonists in +Louisiana. In the year 1752, Michel, in a report to the French minister +on the condition of the country, gave interesting details of the +cultivation of cotton and the difficulty found in separating the wool +from the seed. + +In 1758 white Siam seed was introduced into Louisiana. Du Prate says, +"This East India annual plant has been found to be much better and +whiter than what is cultivated in our colonies, which is of the Turkey +kind." + +Letters from Paris to Governor Roman state that there is among the +French archives at Paris, Department of Marine and Colonies, a most +curious and instructive report on cotton in 1760. It was found to be a +very profitable crop in Louisiana, for in the year 1768 the French +planters, in a memoir to their Government, complained that the parent +Government had turned them over to the Spaniards just "at the time when +a new mine had been discovered; when the culture of cotton, improved by +experience, promises the planter a recompense of his toils, and +furnishes persons engaged in fitting out vessels with the cargoes to +load them." + +In 1762 Captain Bossu, of the French marines, said: "Cotton of this +country (Louisiana) is of the species called the 'white cotton of Siam.' +It is neither so fine nor so long as the silk cotton, but it is, +however, very white and very fine." + +In 1775 the Provincial Congress of South Carolina recommended the +cultivation of cotton, and in the same year a similar enactment was +passed by the Virginia Assembly, which declared that "all persons having +proper land ought to cultivate and raise a quantity of hemp, flax, and +cotton, not only for the use of their own families, but to spare to +others on moderate terms." This legislation no doubt was suggested on +account of the changed relations of the colonies with Great Britain. + +In 1786 Thomas Jefferson, in a letter, says: "The four southernmost +States make a great deal of cotton. Their poor are almost entirely +clothed with it in winter and summer. In winter they wear shirts of it +and outer clothing of cotton and wool mixed. In summer their shirts are +linen, but the outer clothing cotton. The dress of the women is almost +entirely of cotton, manufactured by themselves, except the richer class, +and even many of these wear a great deal of homespun cotton. It is as +well manufactured as the calicoes of Europe." + +At the convention at Annapolis in 1786 James Madison expressed the +conviction that from the experience already had "from the garden +practice in Talbot County, Maryland, and the circumstances of the same +kind abounding in Virginia, there was no reason to doubt that the United +States would one day become a great cotton-producing country." This year +Sea Island cotton-seed was introduced into Georgia, the seed being sent +from the Bahama Islands to Governor Tatnall, William Spaulding, Richard +Leake, and Alexander Pisset, of that State. The cotton adapted itself to +the climate, and every successive year from 1787 saw long-staple cotton +extending itself along the shores of South Carolina and Georgia. + +According to Thomas Spaulding, the first planter who attempted cotton +culture on a large scale was Richard Leake, of Savannah, but the editor +of _Niles Register_ (1824) says that Nichol Turnbull, a native of +Smyrna, was the first planter who cultivated cotton upon a scale for +exportation. His residence was at Deptford Hall, three miles from +Savannah, where he died in 1824. + +In a letter dated Savannah, December 11, 1788, to Colonel Thomas +Proctor, of Philadelphia, Leake says: "I have been this year an +adventurer--and the first that has attempted it on a large scale--in +introducing a new staple for the planting interests--the article of +cotton--samples of which I beg leave now to send you and request you +will lay them before the Philadelphia Society for Encouraging +Manufactures, that the quality may be inspected. Several here, as well +as in North Carolina, have followed me and tried the experiment, and it +is likely to answer our most sanguine expectations. I shall raise about +five thousand pounds in the seed from eight acres of land, and next year +I intend to plant about fifty to one hundred acres if suitable +encouragement is given. The principal difficulty that arises to us is +the cleansing it from the seed, which I am told they do with great +dexterity and ease in Philadelphia with gins or machines made for the +purpose. I am told they make those that will clean thirty to forty +pounds clean cotton in a day and upon very simple construction." + +The first attempt in South Carolina to produce Sea Island cotton was +made in 1788 by Mrs. Kinsey Burden at Burden's Island. As early as 1779 +the short staple was produced by her husband, whose negroes were clothed +in homespun cotton cloth. Mrs. Burden's efforts failed. The plants did +not mature, and this was attributed to the seed, which was of the +Bourbon variety. The first successful variety appears to have been grown +by William Elliot on Hilton Head, near Beaufort, in 1790, with five and +one-half bushels of seed, which he bought in Charleston and for which he +paid fourteen shillings a bushel. He sold his crop for ten and one-half +pence a pound. + +In 1791 John Scriven, of St. Luke's Parish, planted thirty to forty +acres on St. Mary's River. He sold it for from one shilling twopence to +one shilling sixpence per pound. It is certain that at this period many +planters on the Sea Islands and contiguous mainland experimented with +long-staple cotton, and probably it was produced by them for market. + +One of the earliest reports of export of cotton from the colonies is a +bill of lading which certifies that on July 20, 1751, Henry Hansen +shipped, "in good order and well conditioned, in and upon the good snow +called the Mary, whereof is master under God, for this present voyage, +Barnaby Badgers, and now riding in the harbor of New York, and by God's +grace bound for London--to say--eighteen bales of cotton-wool, being +marked and numbered as in the margin, and are to be delivered in like +good order and conditioned, at the aforesaid port of London--the danger +of the sea only excepted--unto Messrs. Horke and Champior or their +assigns, he or they paying freight for the said goods, three farthings +per pound, primage and average accustomed." + +The feeling regarding the culture and manufacture of cotton in the +colonies at this period may be gathered from the following extract from +a letter of July 7, 1749, addressed by the Georgia office of London to +the Governor of Georgia: "You say, sir, likewise in your letter, that +the people of Vernonburgh and Acton are giving visible appearance of +revising their industry; that they are propagating large quantities of +flax and cotton, and that they are provided with weavers, who have +already wove several large pieces of cloth of a useful sort, whereof +they sold divers, and some they made use of in their own families. The +account of their industry is highly satisfactory to the trustees; but as +to manufacturing the produces they raise, they must expect no +encouragement from the trustees, for setting up manufactures which may +interfere with those of England might occasion complaints here, for +which reason you must, as they will, discountenance them; and it is +necessary for you to direct the industry of these people into a way +which might be more beneficial to themselves and would prove +satisfactory to the trustees and the public; that is, to show them what +advantages they will reap from the produce of silk, which they will +receive immediate pay for, and that this will not interfere with or +prevent their raising flax or cotton, or any other produces for +exportation, unmanufactured." + +A pamphlet entitled _A Description of South Carolina_ states that cotton +was imported to Carolina from the West Indies, and it is probable that +the early shipments from this country were of this West Indian cotton, +although English writers mentioned it as an import of Carolina cotton. + +Donnell says: "The first regular exportation of cotton from Charleston +was in 1785, when one bag arrived at Liverpool, per ship Diana, to John +and Isaac Teasdale & Co. The exportation of cotton from the United +States could not have been much earlier, for we find in 1784 eight bags +shipped to England were seized on the ground of fraudulent importation, +as it was not believed that so much cotton could be produced in the +United States." + +The exportation during the next six years was successively 6, 14, 109, +389, 842, and 81 bags. + +Dana gives the following _data_ concerning the export movement from 1739 +to 1793: + + "1739. Samuel Auspourguer, a Swiss living in Georgia, took + over to London, at the time of the controversy about the + introduction of slaves, a sample of cotton raised by him in + Georgia. This we may call, in the absence of a better + starting-point, the first export. + + "1747. During this year several bags of cotton, valued at £3 + 11s. 5d. per bag, were exported from Charleston. Doubts as + to this being of American growth have been expressed, but as + cotton had been cultivated in South Carolina for many years + there does not seem to be any reason for such doubts. + Besides, English writers mention it as an import of Carolina + cotton. + + "1753. 'Some cotton' is mentioned among the exports of + Carolina in 1753, and of Charleston in 1757. + + "1764. Eight (8) bags of cotton imported into Liverpool from + the United States. + + "1770. Three (3) bales shipped to Liverpool from New York; + ten (10) bales from Charleston; four (4) from Virginia and + Maryland; and three (3) barrels from North Carolina. + + "1784. About fourteen (14) bales shipped to great Britain, + of which eight (8) were seized as improperly entered. [See + above.] + + "1785. Five (5) bags imported at Liverpool. + + "1786. Nine hundred (900) pounds imported into Liverpool. + + "1787. Sixteen thousand three hundred fifty (16,350) pounds + imported into Liverpool. + + "1788. Fifty-eight thousand five hundred (58,500) pounds + imported into Liverpool. + + "1789. One hundred twenty-seven thousand five hundred + (127,500) pounds imported into Liverpool. + + "1790. Fourteen thousand (14,000) pounds imported into + Liverpool. We can find no reason for this marked decline in + the exports except it may be that the crop was a failure + that year. Our first supposition was that the cause was one + of price, but on examining the quotations in Took's work on + 'high and low prices' we do not see any marked decline in + the values of other descriptions of cotton, and the American + staple is not given in his list until 1793. + + "1791. One hundred eighty-nine thousand five hundred + (189,500) pounds imported into Liverpool, the price + averaging here 26 cents. + + "1792. One hundred thirty-eight thousand three hundred + twenty-eight (138,328) pounds imported into Liverpool." + +Great difficulty was experienced in separating the seed from the lint of +upland cotton. The work was done by hand, the task being four pounds of +lint cotton per week from each head of a family, in addition to the +usual field-work. This would amount to one bale in two years. A French +planter of Louisiana (Dubreuil) is said to have invented a machine for +separating lint and seed as early as 1742. The demand for such a machine +not being very great at that date, no record as to its character has +been preserved. The roller-gin, in very much the same form as Nearchus, +the admiral of Alexander the Great, found it in India, was still in use. +In 1790 Dr. Joseph Eve, originally from the Bahamas, but then a resident +of Augusta, Georgia, made great improvements on this ancient machine, +and adapted it to be run by horse- or water-power. A correspondent of +the American Museum, writing from Charleston, South Carolina, in July of +that year, states "that a gentleman well acquainted with the cotton +manufacture had already completed and in operation, on the high hills of +Santee, near Statesburg, ginning, carding, and other machines driven by +water, and also spinning-machines with eighty-five spindles each, with +every article necessary for manufacturing cotton." A machine dating +anterior to this year, and having a strong resemblance to the above, +possessing in fact all the essentials of a modern cotton-gin, was +exhibited at the Atlanta Exposition in 1882. It came from the +neighborhood of Statesburg, but its history could not be ascertained. + +In 1793 Eli Whitney petitioned for a patent for the invention of the saw +cotton-gin. His claims were disputed, and he defended them in the State +and Federal courts for nearly a generation, obtaining at last a verdict +in his favor. Meanwhile the saw-gin had become an established fact, and +the planter at last had a machine which enabled him to produce cotton at +a cost that would leave him a good profit. The first saw-gin to be run +by water-power was erected in 1795 by James Kincaid near Monticello, in +Fairfield County, South Carolina. Others were put up near Columbia by +Wade Hampton, Sr., in 1797, and in the year following he gathered and +ginned from six hundred acres six hundred bales of cotton. + +The cotton exportation from the United States increased from four +hundred eighty-seven thousand six hundred pounds in 1793 to one million +six hundred thousand pounds in 1794, the year in which Whitney's gin was +patented. In 1796, a year after he had improved his machine, the +production had risen to ten million pounds. In fact, the increased +production was so great that the planters began to fear they would +overstock the market, and one of them, upon looking at his newly +gathered crop, exclaimed: "Well, I have done with cultivation of cotton; +there's enough in that gin-house to make stockings for all the people in +America." Yet the production of cotton did not advance with that +rapidity to which we are now accustomed. + +The cotton industry being of secondary importance prior to 1790, +information and statistics relative to the amount produced are not +available, but within one hundred years, from 1790 to 1890, the +production of cotton in the United States increased from five thousand +bales to over ten million bales. + +The first cotton-mill erected in the United States was built at Beverly, +Massachusetts, in 1787-1788. This was soon followed by others in various +towns along the east border of the country, especially Pawtucket and +Providence, Rhode Island; Boston, Massachusetts; New Haven and Norwich, +Connecticut; New York City; Paterson, New Jersey; Philadelphia, +Pennsylvania; and Statesburg, South Carolina. In them carding and +spinning were done by machinery, but the weaving was on hand-looms +until 1815, at which date a power-loom mill was started at Waltham, +Massachusetts. The use of hand-looms and spinning-wheels for cotton +manufacture was common in all parts of the country before the +Revolution, especially in the Southern colonies, and these continued to +be used by the women in their houses many years after the erection of +cotton factories. + + +DENISON OLMSTED + +Mr. Whitney had scarcely set his foot in Georgia when he was met by a +disappointment which was an earnest of that long series of adverse +events which, with scarcely an exception, attended all his future +negotiations in the same State. On his arrival he was informed that Mr. +B. had employed another teacher, leaving Whitney entirely without +resources or friends, except those whom he had made in the family of +General Greene. In these benevolent people, however, his case excited +much interest, and Mrs. Greene kindly said to him: "My young friend, you +propose studying the law; make my house your home, your room your +castle, and there pursue what studies you please." He accordingly began +the study of law under that hospitable roof. + +Mrs. Greene was engaged in a piece of embroidery in which she employed a +peculiar kind of frame called a tambour. She complained that it was +badly constructed, and that it tore the delicate threads of her work. +Mr. Whitney, eager for an opportunity to oblige his hostess, set himself +at work and speedily produced a tambour-frame made on a plan entirely +new, which he presented to her. Mrs. Greene and her family were greatly +delighted with it, and thought it a wonderful proof of ingenuity. + +Not long afterward, a large party of gentlemen came from Augusta and the +upper country to visit the family of General Greene, consisting +principally of officers who had served under the General in the +Revolutionary Army. Among the number were Major Bremen, Forsyth, and +Pendleton. They fell into conversation upon the state of agriculture +among them, and expressed great regret that there was no means of +cleaning the green-seed cotton, or separating it from its seed, since +all the lands which were unsuitable for the cultivation of rice would +yield large crops of cotton. But until ingenuity could devise some +machine which would greatly facilitate the process of cleaning, it was +in vain to think of raising cotton for market. Separating one pound of +the clean staple from the seed was a day's work for a woman; but the +time usually devoted to picking cotton was the evening, after the labor +of the field was over. Then the slaves, men, women, and children, were +collected in circles with one whose duty it was to rouse the dozing and +quicken the indolent. While the company were engaged in this +conversation, "Gentlemen," said Mrs. Greene, "apply to my young friend, +Mr. Whitney--he can make anything." Upon which she conducted them into a +neighboring room, and showed them her tambour-frame, and a number of +toys which Mr. Whitney had made or repaired for the children. She then +introduced the gentlemen to Whitney himself, extolling his genius and +commending him to their notice and friendship. He modestly disclaimed +all pretensions to mechanical genius; and when they named their object, +he replied that he had never seen either cotton or cotton-seed in his +life. Mrs. Greene said to one of the gentlemen: "I have accomplished my +aim. Mr. Whitney is a very deserving young man, and to bring him into +notice was my object. The interest which our friends now feel for him +will, I hope, lead to his getting some employment to enable him to +prosecute the study of the law." + +But a new turn that no one of the company dreamed of had been given to +Mr. Whitney's views. It being out of season for cotton in the seed, he +went to Savannah and searched among the warehouses and boats until he +found a small parcel of it. This he carried home, and communicated his +intentions to Mr. Miller, who warmly encouraged him, and assigned him a +room in the basement of the house, where he set himself at work with +such rude materials and instruments as a Georgia plantation afforded. +With these resources, however, he made tools better suited to his +purpose, and drew his own wire--of which the teeth of the earliest gins +were made--an article which was not at that time to be found in the +market of Savannah. Mrs. Greene and Mr. Miller were the only persons +ever admitted to his workshop, and the only persons who knew in what way +he was employing himself. The many hours he spent in his mysterious +pursuits afforded matter of great curiosity and often of raillery to the +younger members of the family. Near the close of the winter, the +machine was so nearly completed as to leave no doubt of its success. + +Mrs. Greene was eager to communicate to her numerous friends the +knowledge of this important invention, peculiarly important at that +time, because then the market was glutted with all those articles which +were suited to the climate and soil of Georgia, and nothing could be +found to give occupation to the negroes, and support to the white +inhabitants. This opened suddenly to the planters boundless resources of +wealth, and rendered the occupations of the slaves less unhealthy and +laborious than they had been before. + +Mrs. Greene, therefore, invited to her house gentlemen from different +parts of the State, and on the first day after they had assembled she +conducted them to a temporary building, which had been erected for the +machine, and they saw with astonishment and delight that more cotton +could be separated from the seed in one day, by the labor of a single +hand, than could be done in the usual manner in the space of many +months. + +Mr. Whitney might now have indulged in bright reveries of fortune and of +fame; but we shall have various opportunities of seeing that he tempered +his inventive genius with an unusual share of the calm, considerate +qualities of the financier. Although urged by his friends to secure a +patent and devote himself to the manufacture and introduction of his +machines, he coolly replied that on account of the great expense and +trouble which always attend the introduction of a new invention, and the +difficulty of enforcing a law in favor of patentees, in opposition to +the individual interests of so large a number of persons as would be +concerned in the culture of this article, it was with great reluctance +that he should consent to relinquish the hopes of a lucrative +profession, for which he had been destined, with an expectation of +indemnity either from the justice or the gratitude of his countrymen, +even should the invention answer the most sanguine anticipations of his +friends. + +The individual who contributed most to incite him to persevere in the +undertaking was Phineas Miller, Esq. Mr. Miller was a native of +Connecticut and graduate of Yale College. Like Mr. Whitney, soon after +he had completed his education at college, he came to Georgia as a +private teacher in the family of General Greene, and after the decease +of the general he became the husband of Mrs. Greene. He had qualified +himself for the profession of law, and was a gentleman of cultivated +mind and superior talents; but he was of an ardent temperament, and +therefore well fitted to enter with zeal into the views which the genius +of his friend had laid open to him. He had also considerable funds at +command, and proposed to Mr. Whitney to become his joint adventurer, and +to be at the whole expense of maturing the invention until it should be +patented. If the machine should succeed in its intended operation, the +parties agreed, under legal formalities, "that the profits and +advantages arising therefrom, as well as all privileges and emoluments +to be derived from patenting, making, vending, and working the same, +should be mutually and equally shared between them." This instrument +bears date May 27, 1793, and immediately afterward they began business, +under the firm of Miller & Whitney. + +An invention so important to the agricultural interest, and, as has +proved, to every department of human industry, could not long remain a +secret. The knowledge of it soon spread through the State, and so great +was the excitement on the subject that multitudes of persons came from +all quarters of the State to see the machine; but it was not deemed safe +to gratify their curiosity until the patent-right had been secured. But +so determined were some of the populace to possess this treasure that +neither law nor justice could restrain them--they broke open the +building by night and carried off the machine. In this way the public +became possessed of the invention; and before Mr. Whitney could complete +his model and secure his patent, a number of machines were in successful +operation, constructed with some slight deviation from the original, +with the hope of evading the penalty for violating the patent-right. + +As soon as the copartnership of Miller & Whitney was formed, Mr. Whitney +repaired to Connecticut, where, as far as possible, he was to perfect +the machine, obtain a patent, and manufacture and ship for Georgia such +a number of machines as would supply the demand. + +Within three days after the conclusion of the copartnership, Mr. Whitney +having set out for the North, Mr. Miller commenced his long +correspondence relative to the cotton-gin. The first letter announces +that encroachments upon their rights had already commenced. "It will be +necessary," says Mr. Miller, "to have a considerable number of gins +made, to be in readiness to send out as soon as the patent is obtained, +in order to satisfy the absolute demand, and make people's heads easy on +the subject; _for I am informed of two other claimants for the honor of +the invention of cotton-gins, in addition to those we knew before_." + +On June 20, 1793, Mr. Whitney presented his petition for a patent to Mr. +Jefferson, then Secretary of State; but the prevalence of the yellow +fever in Philadelphia--which was then the seat of government--prevented +his concluding the business relative to the patent until several months +afterward. To prevent being anticipated, he took, however, the +precaution to make oath to the invention before the notary public of the +city of New Haven, which he did October 28th of the same year. + +Mr. Jefferson, who had much curiosity in regard to mechanical +inventions, took a peculiar interest in this machine, and addressed to +the inventor an obliging letter, desiring further particulars respecting +it, and expressing a wish to procure one for his own use. Mr. Whitney +accordingly sketched the history of the invention, and of the +construction and performances of the machine. "It is about a year," says +he, "since I first turned my attention to constructing this machine, at +which time I was in the State of Georgia. Within about ten days after my +first conception of the plan I made a small though imperfect model. +Experiments with this encouraged me to make one on a larger scale; but +the extreme difficulty of procuring workmen and proper materials in +Georgia prevented my completing the larger one until some time in April +last. This, though much larger than my first attempt, is not above +one-third as large as the machines may be made with convenience. The +cylinder is only two feet two inches in length and six inches diameter. +It is turned _by hand_, and requires the strength of one man to keep it +in constant motion. It is the stated task of one negro to clean fifty +weight--I mean fifty pounds after it is separated from the seed--of the +green-seed cotton per day." In the same letter Mr. Jefferson assured Mr. +Whitney that a patent would be granted as soon as the model was lodged +in the Patent Office. In mentioning the favorable notice of Mr. +Jefferson to his friend Stebbins, he adds, with characteristic +moderation, "_I hope, by perseverance, I shall make something of it +yet._" + +At the close of this year (1793) Mr. Whitney was to return to Georgia +with his cotton-gins, and Mr. Miller had made arrangements for +commencing business immediately after his arrival. The plan was to erect +machines in every part of the cotton district and engross the entire +business themselves. This was evidently an unfortunate scheme. It +rendered the business very extensive and complicated, and, as it did not +at once supply the demands of the cotton-growers, it multiplied the +inducements to make the machines in violation of the patent. Had the +proprietors confined their views to the manufacture of the machines and +to the sale of patent-rights, it is probable they would have avoided +some of the difficulties with which they afterward had to contend. The +prospect of making suddenly an immense fortune by the business of +ginning, where every third pound of cotton (worth at that time from +twenty-five to thirty-three cents) was their own, presented great and +peculiar attractions. Mr. Whitney's return to Georgia was delayed until +the following April. The importunity of Mr. Miller's letters, written +during the preceding period, urging him to come on, evinces how eager +the Georgia planters were to enter the new field of enterprise which the +genius of Whitney had laid open to them. Nor did they at first, _in +general_, contemplate availing themselves of the invention unlawfully. +But the minds of the more honorable class of planters were afterward +deluded by various artifices, set on foot by designing men, with the +view of robbing Mr. Whitney of his just right. + +One of the greatest difficulties experienced by men of enterprise, at +the period under review, was the extreme scarcity of money. In order to +carry on the manufacture of cotton-gins, and to make advances in the +purchase of cotton and establishments for ginning, to an extent in any +degree proportioned to their wishes, Miller & Whitney required a much +greater capital than they could command; and the sanguine temperament of +Mr. Miller was constantly prompting him to advance in hazards much +further than the more cautious spirit of Mr. Whitney would follow. But +even the latter found it necessary sometimes to borrow money at an +enormous interest. The first loan (for $2000) was made on terms which +were deemed at that time peculiarly favorable; yet the company were to +pay 5 per cent. premium in addition to the lawful interest. This was in +1794. In consequence of the numerous speculations in new lands into +which so many of our countrymen were deluded, and the want of confidence +created by the very application for a loan, the pressure for money was +continually increasing. In 1796 Mr. Whitney applied to a friend in +Boston to raise money for him on a loan, and received the following +reply: "I applied to one of those vultures called brokers, who are +preying on the purse-strings of the industrious, and was informed that +he can procure the sum you wish at a premium of 20 per cent. on the +following conditions, viz.: You must make over and deposit with him +public securities, such as funded stock, bank stock, or any kind of +State notes, or Connecticut reservation land certificates, sufficient, +at the going prices, fully to secure the debt and premium." In a more +embarrassed state of Mr. Miller's private affairs, several years +afterward, he paid the enormous interest of 5, 6, and even 7 per cent. +_per month_. + +We have said that the loan contracted by Mr. Whitney, in 1794, at a +premium of 5 per cent. in addition to the lawful interest, was regarded +as peculiarly favorable; this is evident from the fact that, during the +same year, Mr. Miller urges him to contract a new loan, if possible, for +$3000, at 12 or 14 per cent. provided it could be extended over a year. + +In July, 1794, Mr. Whitney was confined by a severe illness, from which +he recovered slowly; but his business received a still further +interruption from a very fatal sickness, the scarlet fever, which +prevailed in New Haven during this year, and which attacked a number of +his workmen. + +Under all these discouragements Mr. Miller was constantly writing the +most urgent letters from Georgia, to press forward the manufacture of +machines. "Do not let a deficiency of money, do not let anything," says +Mr. Miller, "hinder the speedy construction of the gins. The people of +the country are almost running mad for them, and much can be said to +justify their importunity. When the present crop is harvested, there +will be a real property of at least $50,000, yes, of $100,000, lying +useless, unless we can enable the holders to bring it to market. Pray +remember that we must have from fifty to one hundred gins between this +and another fall, if there are any workmen in New England or in the +Middle States to make them. In two years we will begin to take long +steps up-hill, in the business of patent ginning, fortune favoring." + +The general resort of the planters to the cultivation of cotton, and its +consequent production in vast quantities, the value of which depended +entirely upon the chance of getting it cleaned by the gin, created great +uneasiness, which first displayed itself in this pressure upon Miller & +Whitney, and afterward afforded great encouragement to the marauders +upon the patent-right, who were now becoming numerous and audacious. + +The _roller-gin_ was at first the most formidable competitor with +Whitney's machine. It extricated the seeds by means of rollers, crushing +them between revolving cylinders, instead of disengaging them by means +of teeth. The fragments of seeds which remained in the cotton rendered +its execution much inferior in this respect to Whitney's gin, and it was +also much slower in its operation. Great efforts were made, however, to +create an impression in favor of its superiority in other respects. + +But a still more formidable rival appeared early in the year 1795, under +the name of the _saw-gin_. It was Whitney's gin, except that the teeth +were cut in circular rims of iron, instead of being made of wires, as +was the case in the earlier forms of the patent gin. The idea of such +teeth had early occurred to Mr. Whitney, as he afterward established by +legal proof. But they would have been of no use except in connection +with the other parts of his machine, and, therefore, this was a palpable +attempt to evade the patent-right, and it was principally in reference +to this that the lawsuits were afterward held. + +It would be difficult to estimate the full value of Mr. Whitney's +labors, without going into a minuteness of detail inconsistent with our +limits. Every cotton garment bears the impress of his genius, and the +ships that transported it across the waters were the heralds of his +fame, and the cities that have risen to opulence by the cotton trade +must attribute no small share of their prosperity to the inventor of the +cotton-gin. We have before us the declaration of the late Mr. Fulton, +that Arkwright, Watt, and Whitney--we would add Fulton to the +number--were the three men who did most for mankind, of any of their +contemporaries; and in the sense in which he intended it, the remark is +probably true. + + + + +EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVI + +MURDER OF MARAT: CIVIL WAR IN FRANCE + +A.D. 1793 + +THOMAS CARLYLE + + In the early days of the French Revolution many moderates + who favored reform of the monarchy, but not its abolition, + were wholly alienated by the condemnation and execution of + Louis XVI, after what has been regarded as a mock trial by + the National Convention. It was a still graver effect of + this tragedy that it impelled the leading European powers to + join in the great coalition against France contemplated in + the Convention of Pillnitz (August, 1791). + + Scarcely less was the influence upon the internal affairs of + France from the murder of Marat by Charlotte Corday. + + Jean Paul Marat, sometimes called, from the name of a paper + which he published, the "Friend of the People," was one of + the most ultra-revolutionary of the Jacobin leaders in the + National Convention. By his murder the "Red + Republicans"--the extreme radical party in the Convention, + called the "Mountain" because they occupied the higher seats + in the hall--were confirmed in their determination to + destroy their opponents, the moderate republicans, called + Girondists or Girondins. Many of the Girondist leaders, + among them some of the most distinguished men in France, + were soon sent to the guillotine, and the Reign of Terror + was fully inaugurated. Carlyle calls Marat "atrocious," and + so most writers regard him, but there are not wanting some + to vindicate his character and purposes. + + These tragic scenes, and the opening of the civil war which + followed, known as the War of La Vendée, are depicted by + Carlyle in that manner, all his own, which invests his + history of the French Revolution at once with the element of + realism and an air of romance. + + Louis XVI was first deposed by the National Convention, and + then brought to trial for conspiring with foreign enemies of + France, for aiming to subvert French liberties, and for + being the cause of the massacre of the Swiss Guards who + defended the Tuileries (August 10, 1792) against a mob + seeking the King's life. Louis was found "guilty," and, + after a long wrangle in the Convention over the question of + punishment, a small majority was given (January 20, 1793) + for the decree of death. It was voted that there should be + no delay of the execution. + + +To this conclusion, then, hast thou come, O hapless Louis! The Son of +Sixty Kings is to die on the Scaffold by form of Law. Under Sixty Kings +this same form of Law, form of Society, has been fashioning itself +together these thousand years; and has become, one way and other, a most +strange Machine. Surely, if needful, it is also frightful, this Machine; +dead, blind; not what it should be; which, with swift stroke, or by cold +slow torture, has wasted the lives and souls of innumerable men. And +behold now a King himself, or say rather Kinghood in his person, is to +expire here in cruel tortures; like a Phalaris shut in the belly of his +own red-heated Brazen Bull! It is ever so; and thou shouldst know it, O +haughty tyrannous man: injustice breeds injustice; curses and falsehoods +do verily return "always home," wide as they may wander. Innocent Louis +bears the sins of many generations: he too experiences that man's +tribunal is not in this Earth; that if he had no Higher one, it were not +well with him. + +A King dying by such violence appeals impressively to the imagination; +as the like must do, and ought to do. And yet at bottom it is not the +King dying, but the man! Kingship is a coat: the grand loss is of the +skin. The man from whom you take his Life, to him can the whole combined +world do more? Lally went on his hurdle; his mouth filled with a gag. +Miserablest mortals, doomed for picking pockets, have a whole five-act +Tragedy in them, in that dumb pain, as they go to the gallows, +unregarded; they consume the cup of trembling down to the lees. For +Kings and for Beggars, for the justly doomed and the unjustly, it is a +hard thing to die. Pity them all: thy utmost pity, with all aids and +appliances and throne-and-scaffold contrasts, how far short is it of the +thing pitied! + +A Confessor has come; Abbé Edgeworth, of Irish extraction, whom the King +knew by good report, has come promptly on this solemn mission. Leave the +Earth alone, then, thou hapless King; it with its malice will go its +way, thou also canst go thine. A hard scene yet remains: the parting +with our loved ones. Kind hearts environed in the same grim peril with +us; to be left _here_! Let the Reader look with the eyes of Valet Cléry +through these glass doors, where also the Municipality watches, and see +the cruelest of scenes: + +"At half-past eight, the door of the anteroom opened: the Queen appeared +first, leading her Son by the hand; then Madame Royale and Madame +Elizabeth: they all flung themselves into the arms of the King. Silence +reigned for some minutes; interrupted only by sobs. The Queen made a +movement to lead his Majesty towards the inner room where M. Edgeworth +was waiting unknown to them: 'No,' said the King, 'let us go into the +dining-room; it is there only that I can see you.' They entered there; I +shut the door of it, which was of glass. The King sat down, the Queen on +his left hand, Madame Elizabeth on his right, Madame Royale almost in +front; the young Prince remained standing between his Father's legs. +They all leaned toward him, and often held him embraced. This scene of +woe lasted an hour and three-quarters; during which we could hear +nothing; we could see only that always when the King spoke, the sobbings +of the Princesses redoubled, continued for some minutes; and that then +the King began again to speak." + +And so our meetings and our partings do now end! The sorrows we gave +each other; the poor joys we faithfully shared, and all our lovings and +our sufferings, and confused toilings under the earthly Sun, are over. +Thou good soul, I shall never, never through all ages of Time, see thee +any more! + +Never! O Reader, knowest thou that hard word? + +For nearly two hours this agony lasts; then they tear themselves +asunder. "Promise that you will see us on the morrow." He promises: Ah +yes, yes; yet once; and go now, ye loved ones; cry to God for yourselves +and me! It was a hard scene, but it is over. He will not see them on the +morrow. The Queen, in passing through the anteroom, glanced at the +Cerberus Municipals; and, with woman's vehemence, said through her +tears, "_Vous êtes tous des scélérats!_" ("You are all scoundrels!") + +King Louis slept sound, till five in the morning, when Cléry, as he had +been ordered, awoke him. Cléry dressed his hair. While this went +forward, Louis took a ring from his watch, and kept trying it on his +finger: it was his wedding-ring, which he is now to return to the Queen +as a mute farewell. At half-past six, he took the Sacrament; and +continued in devotion, and conference with Abbé Edgeworth. He will not +see his Family: it were too hard to bear. + +At eight, the Municipals enter: the King gives them his Will, and +messages and effects; which they, at first, brutally refuse to take +charge of: he gives them a roll of gold pieces, a hundred and +twenty-five louis; these are to be returned to Malesherbes, who had lent +them. At nine, Santerre says the hour is come. The King begs yet to +retire for three minutes. At the end of three minutes, Santerre again +says the hour is come. "Stamping on the ground with his right foot, +Louis answers: '_Partons_' ('Let us go')." How the rolling of those +drums comes in through the Temple bastions and bulwarks, on the heart of +a queenly wife; soon to be a widow! He is gone then, and has not seen +us? A Queen weeps bitterly; a King's Sister and Children. Over all these +Four does Death also hover: all shall perish miserably save one; she, as +Duchesse d'Angoulême, will live--not happily. + +At the Temple Gate were some faint cries, perhaps from voices of pitiful +women: "_Grâce! Grâce!_" Through the rest of the streets there is +silence as of the grave. No man not armed is allowed to be there: the +armed, did any even pity, dare not express it, each man overawed by all +his neighbors. All windows are down, none seen looking through them. All +shops are shut. No wheel-carriage rolls, this morning, in these streets +but one only. Eighty thousand armed men stand ranked, like armed statues +of men; cannons bristle, cannoneers with match burning, but no word or +movement: it is as a city enchanted into silence and stone: one carriage +with its escort, slowly rumbling, is the only sound. Louis reads, in his +Book of Devotion, the Prayers of the Dying: clatter of this death-march +falls sharp on the ear, in the great silence; but the thought would fain +struggle heavenward, and forget the Earth. + +As the clocks strike ten, behold the Place de la Révolution, once Place +de Louis Quinze: the Guillotine, mounted near the old Pedestal where +once stood the Statue of that Louis! Far round, all bristles with +cannons and armed men: spectators crowding in the rear; D'Orléans +Égalité there in cabriolet. Swift messengers, _hoquetons_, speed to the +Town-hall every three minutes: near by is the Convention +sitting--vengeful for Lepelletier. Heedless of all, Louis reads his +Prayers of the Dying; not till five minutes yet has he finished; then +the Carriage opens. What temper he is in? Ten different witnesses will +give ten different accounts of it. He is in the collision of all +tempers; arrived now at the black Maelstrom and descent of Death: in +sorrow, in indignation, in resignation struggling to be resigned. "Take +care of M. Edgeworth," he straitly charges the Lieutenant who is sitting +with them: then they two descend. + +The drums are beating: "_Taisez-vous!_" ("Silence!") he cries "in a +terrible voice" (_d'une voix terrible_). He mounts the scaffold, not +without delay; he is in _puce_ coat, breeches of gray, white stockings. +He strips off the coat; stands disclosed in a sleeve-waistcoat of white +flannel. The Executioners approach to bind him: he spurns, resists; Abbé +Edgeworth has to remind him how the Saviour, in whom men trust, +submitted to be bound. His hands are tied, his head bare; the fatal +moment is come. He advances to the edge of the Scaffold, "his face very +red," and says: "Frenchmen, I die innocent: it is from the Scaffold and +near appearing before God that I tell you so. I pardon my enemies; I +desire that France----" A General on horseback, Santerre or another, +prances out, with uplifted hand: "_Tambours!_" The drums drown the +voice. "Executioners, do your duty!" The Executioners, desperate lest +themselves be murdered (for Santerre and his Armed Ranks will strike, if +they do not), seize the hapless Louis: six of them desperate, him singly +desperate, struggling there; and bind him to their plank. Abbé +Edgeworth, stooping, bespeaks him: "Son of Saint Louis, ascend to +Heaven." The Axe clanks down; a King's Life is shorn away. It is Monday, +January 21, 1793. He was aged thirty-eight years four months and +twenty-eight days. + +Executioner Samson shows the Head: fierce shout of "_Vive la +République_" rises, and swells; caps raised on bayonets, hats waving: +students of the College of Four Nations take it up, on the far Quais; +fling it over Paris. D'Orléans drives off in his cabriolet: the +Town-hall Councillors rub their hands, saying, "It is done, It is done." +There is dipping of handkerchiefs, of pike-points in the blood. Headsman +Samson, though he afterward denied it, sells locks of the hair: +fractions of the puce coat are long after worn in rings.--And so, in +some half-hour it is done and the multitude has all departed. +Pastry-cooks, coffee-sellers, milkmen sing out their trivial quotidian +cries: the world wags on, as if this were a common day. In the +coffee-houses that evening, says Prudhomme, Patriot shook hands with +Patriot in a more cordial manner than usual. Not till some days after, +according to Mercier, did public men see what a grave thing it was. + +In the leafy months of June and July, several French Departments +germinate a set of rebellious _paper_-leaves, named Proclamations, +Resolutions, Journals, or Diurnals, "of the Union for Resistance to +Oppression." In particular, the Town of Caen, in Calvados, sees its +paper-leaf of _Bulletin de Caen_ suddenly bud, suddenly establish itself +as Newspaper there; under the Editorship of Girondin National +Representatives! + +For among the proscribed Girondins are certain of a more desperate +humor. Some, as Vergniaud, Valazé, Gensonné, "arrested in their own +houses," will await with stoical resignation what the issue may be. +Some, as Brissot, Rabaut, will take to flight, to concealment; which, as +the Paris Barriers are opened again in a day or two, is not yet +difficult. But others there are who will rush, with Buzot, to Calvados; +or far over France, to Lyons, Toulon, Nantes and elsewhither, and then +rendezvous at Caen: to awaken as with war-trumpet the respectable +Departments; and strike down an anarchic "Mountain" Faction; at least +not yield without a stroke at it. Of this latter temper we count some +score or more, of the Arrested, and of the Not-yet-arrested: a Buzot, a +Barbaroux, Louvet, Guadet, Pétion, who have escaped from Arrestment in +their own homes; a Salles, a Pythagorean Valady, a Duchâtel, the +Duchâtel that came in blanket and nightcap to vote for the life of +Louis, who have escaped from danger and likelihood of Arrestment. These, +to the number at one time of Twenty-seven, do accordingly lodge here, at +the "_Intendance_, or Departmental Mansion," of the town of Caen in +Calvados; welcomed by Persons in Authority; welcomed and defrayed, +having no money of their own. And the _Bulletin de Caen_ comes forth, +with the most animating paragraphs: How the Bordeaux Department, the +Lyons Department, this Department after the other is declaring itself; +sixty, or say sixty-nine, or seventy-two respectable Departments either +declaring, or ready to declare. Nay Marseilles, it seems, will march on +Paris by itself, if need be. So has Marseilles Town said, That she will +march. But on the other hand, that Montélimart Town has said, No +thoroughfare; and means even to "bury herself" under her own stone and +mortar first--of this be no mention in _Bulletin de Caen_. + +Such animating paragraphs we read in this new Newspaper; and fervors and +eloquent sarcasm: tirades against the "Mountain," from the pen of Deputy +Salles; which resemble, say friends, Pascal's _Provincials_. What is +more to the purpose, these Girondins have got a General-in-chief, one +Wimpfen, formerly under Dumouriez; also a secondary questionable General +Puisaye, and others; and are doing their best to raise a force for war. +National Volunteers, whosoever is of right heart: gather in, ye national +Volunteers, friends of Liberty; from our Calvados Townships, from the +Eure, from Brittany, from far and near: forward to Paris, and extinguish +Anarchy! Thus at Caen, in the early July days, there is a drumming and +parading, a perorating and consulting: Staff and Army; Council; Club of +_Carabots_, Anti-Jacobin friends of Freedom, to denounce atrocious +Marat. With all which, and the editing of _Bulletins_, a National +Representative has his hands full. + +At Caen it is most animated; and, as one hopes, more or less animated in +the "Seventy-two Departments that adhere to us." And in a France begirt +with Cimmerian invading Coalitions, and torn with an internal La Vendée, +_this_ is the conclusion we have arrived at: to put down Anarchy by +Civil War! _Durum et durum_, the Proverb says, _non faciunt murum_. La +Vendée burns: Santerre can do nothing there; he may return home and brew +beer. Cimmerian bombshells fly all along the North. That Siege of Mainz +is become famed; lovers of the Picturesque (as Goethe will testify), +washed country-people of both sexes, stroll thither on Sundays, to see +the artillery work and counterwork; "you only duck a little while the +shot whizzes past." Condé is capitulating to the Austrians; Royal +Highness of York, these several weeks, fiercely batters Valenciennes. +For, alas, our fortified Camp of Famars was stormed; General Dampierre +was killed; General Custine was blamed--and indeed is now come to Paris +to give "explanations." + +Against all which the Mountain and atrocious Marat must even make head +as they can. They, anarchic Convention as they are, publish Decrees, +expostulatory, explanatory, yet not without severity; they ray forth +Commissioners, singly or in pairs, the olive-branch in one hand, yet +the sword in the other. Commissioners come even to Caen; but without +effect. Mathematical Romme, and Prieur named of the _Côte d'Or_, +venturing thither, with their olive and sword, are packed into prison: +there may Romme lie, under lock and key, "for fifty days"; and meditate +his New Calendar, if he please. Cimmeria, La Vendée, and Civil War! +Never was Republic One and Indivisible at a lower ebb. + +Amid which dim ferment of Caen and the World, History specially notices +one thing: in the lobby of the Mansion de l'Intendance, where busy +Deputies are coming and going, a young Lady with an aged valet, taking +grave, graceful leave of Deputy Barbaroux. She is of stately Norman +figure; in her twenty-fifth year; of beautiful still countenance: her +name is Charlotte Corday, heretofore styled D'Armans, while Nobility +still was. Barbaroux has given her a Note to Deputy Duperret--he who +once drew his sword in the effervescence. Apparently she will to Paris +on some errand? "She was a Republican before the Revolution, and never +wanted energy." + +A completeness, a decision is in this fair female Figure: "by energy she +means the spirit that will prompt one to sacrifice himself for his +country." What if she, this fair young Charlotte, had emerged from her +secluded stillness, suddenly like a Star; cruel-lovely, with +half-angelic, half-dæmonic splendor; to gleam for a moment, and in a +moment be extinguished: to be held in memory, so bright complete was +she, through long centuries! Quitting Cimmerian Coalitions without, and +the dim-simmering Twenty-five Millions within, History will look fixedly +at this one fair Apparition of a Charlotte Corday; will note whither +Charlotte moves, how the little Life burns forth so radiant, then +vanishes swallowed of the Night. + +With Barbaroux's Note of Introduction, and slight stock of luggage, we +see Charlotte on Tuesday, July 9th, seated in the Caen Diligence, with a +place for Paris. None takes farewell of her, wishes her Good-journey: +her Father will find a line left, signifying that she has gone to +England, that he must pardon her, and forget her. The drowsy Diligence +lumbers along; amid drowsy talk of Politics, and praise of the Mountain; +in which she mingles not: all night, all day, and again all night. On +Thursday, not long before noon, we are at the bridge of Neuilly; here +is Paris with her thousand black domes, the goal and purpose of thy +journey! Arrived at the Inn de la Providence in the Rue des Vieux +Augustins, Charlotte demands a room; hastens to bed; sleeps all +afternoon and night, till the morrow morning. + +On the morrow morning, she delivers her Note to Duperret. It relates to +certain Family Papers which are in the Minister of the Interior's hand; +which a Nun at Caen, an old Convent-friend of Charlotte's, has need of; +which Duperret shall assist her in getting: this then was Charlotte's +errand to Paris? She has finished this, in the course of Friday--yet +says nothing of returning. She has seen and silently investigated +several things. The Convention, in bodily reality, she has seen; what +the Mountain is like. The living physiognomy of Marat she could not see; +he is sick at present, and confined to home. + +About eight on the Saturday morning, she purchases a large sheath-knife +in the Palais Royal; then straightway, in the Place des Victoires, takes +a hackney-coach. "To the Rue de l'École de Médecine, Number 44." It is +the residence of the Citoyen Marat! The Citoyen Marat is ill, and cannot +be seen; which seems to disappoint her much. Her business is with Marat, +then? Hapless beautiful Charlotte; hapless squalid Marat! From Caen in +the utmost West, from Neuchâtel in the utmost East, they two are drawing +nigh each other; they two have, very strangely, business together. +Charlotte, returning to her Inn, despatches a short Note to Marat; +signifying that she is from Caen, the seat of rebellion; that she +desires earnestly to see him, and "will put it in his power to do France +a great service." No answer. Charlotte writes another Note, still more +pressing; sets out with it by coach, about seven in the evening, +herself. Tired day-laborers have again finished their Week; huge Paris +is circling and simmering, manifold, according to its vague wont: this +one fair Figure has decision in it; drives straight--toward a purpose. + +It is a yellow July evening, we say, the thirteenth of the month; eve of +the Bastille day, when "M. Marat," four years ago, in the crowd of the +Pont Neuf, shrewdly required of that Besenval Hussar-party, which had +such friendly dispositions, "to dismount, and give up their arms, then"; +and became notable among Patriot men. Four years: what a road he has +travelled; and sits now, about half-past seven o'clock, stewing in +slipper-bath; sore-afflicted; ill of Revolution Fever--of what other +malady this History had rather not name. Excessively sick and worn, poor +man; with precisely eleven-pence-halfpenny of ready-money, in paper; +with slipper-bath; strong three-footed stool for writing on, the while; +and a squalid--Washerwoman, one may call her: that is his civic +establishment in Medical-School Street; thither and not elsewhither has +his road led him. Not to the reign of Brotherhood and Perfect Felicity; +yet surely on the way toward that? + +Hark, a rap again! A musical woman's voice, refusing to be rejected: it +is the Citoyenne who would do France a service. Marat, recognizing from +within, cries, "Admit her!" Charlotte Corday is admitted: "Citoyen +Marat, I am from Caen the seat of rebellion, and wished to speak with +you." "Be seated, _mon enfant_. Now what are the Traitors doing at Caen? +What Deputies are at Caen?" + +Charlotte names some Deputies. + +"Their heads shall fall within a fortnight," croaks the eager "People's +Friend" clutching his tablets to write. + +"_Barbaroux, Pétion_" writes he with bare shrunk arm, turning aside in +the bath: _Pétion_, and _Louvet_, and--Charlotte has drawn her knife +from the sheath; plunges it, with one sure stroke, into the writer's +heart. + +"_À moi, chère amie!_" ("Help, dear!") No more could the Death-choked +say or shriek. The helpful Washerwoman running in, there is no Friend of +the People, or Friend of the Washerwoman left; but his life with a groan +gushes out, indignant, to the shades below. + +And so Marat, "People's Friend" is ended: the lone Stylites has been +hurled down suddenly from his Pillar--whitherward? He that made him +knows. Patriot Paris may sound triple and tenfold, in dole and wail; +reëchoed by Patriot France; and the Convention, "Chabot pale with +terror, declaring that they are to be all assassinated," may decree him +Pantheon Honors, Public Funeral, Mirabeau's dust making way for him; and +Jacobin Societies, in lamentable oratory, summing up his character, +parallel him to One, whom they think it honor to call "the good +Sansculotte"--whom we name not here; also a Chapel may be made, for the +urn that holds his Heart, in the Place du Carrousel; and new-born +children be named Marat; and Lago-di-Como Hawkers bake mountains of +stucco into unbeautiful Busts; and David paint his Picture, or +Death-Scene; and such other Apotheosis take place as the human genius, +in these circumstances, can devise: but Marat returns no more to the +light of this Sun. One sole circumstance we have read with clear +sympathy, in the old _Moniteur_ Newspaper: how Marat's Brother comes +from Neuchâtel to ask of the Convention, "that the deceased Jean Paul +Marat's musket be given him." For Marat, too, had a brother and natural +affections; and was wrapt once in swaddling clothes, and slept safe in a +cradle like the rest of us. Ye children of men! A sister of his, they +say, lives still to this day in Paris.[40] + +As for Charlotte Corday, her work is accomplished; the recompense of it +is near and sure. The _chère amie_, and neighbors of the house, flying +at her, she "overturns some movables," entrenches herself till the +gendarmes arrive; then quietly surrenders; goes quietly to the Abbaye +Prison: she alone quiet, all Paris sounding, in wonder, in rage or +admiration, round her. Duperret is put in arrest, on account of her; his +Papers sealed--which may lead to consequences. Fauchet, in like manner; +though Fauchet had not so much as heard of her. Charlotte, confronted +with these two Deputies, praises the grave firmness of Duperret, +censures the dejection of Fauchet. + +On Wednesday morning, the thronged Palais de Justice and Revolutionary +Tribunal can see her face; beautiful and calm: she dates it "Fourth day +of the Preparation of Peace." A strange murmur ran through the Hall, at +sight of her, you could not say of what character. Tinville has his +indictments and tape papers; the cutler of the Palais Royal will testify +that he sold her the sheath-knife; "All these details are needless," +interrupted Charlotte; "it is I that killed Marat." + +"By whose instigation?" + +"By no one's." + +"What tempted you, then?" + +"His crimes!" + +"I killed one man," added she, raising her voice extremely +(_extrêmement_), as they went on with their questions, "I killed one man +to save a hundred thousand; a villain to save innocents; a savage wild +beast to give repose to my country. I was a Republican before the +Revolution; I never wanted energy." + +There is therefore nothing to be said. The public gazes astonished: the +hasty limners sketch her features, Charlotte not disapproving: the men +of law proceed with their formalities. The doom is Death as a murderess. +To her Advocate she gives thanks; in gentle phrase, in high-flown +classical spirit. To the Priest they send her she gives thanks; but +needs not any shriving, any ghostly or other aid from him. + +On this same evening, therefore, about half past seven o'clock, from the +gate of the Conciergerie, to a City all on tip-toe, the fatal Cart +issues; seated on it a fair young creature, sheeted in red smock of +Murderess; so beautiful, serene, so full of life; journeying toward +death--alone amid the World. Many take off their hats, saluting +reverently; for what heart but must be touched? Others growl and howl. +Adam Lux, of Mainz, declares that she is greater than Brutus; that it +were beautiful to die with her: the head of this young man seems turned. +At the Place de la Révolution, the countenance of Charlotte wears the +same still smile. The executioners proceed to bind her feet; she +resists, thinking it meant as an insult; on a word of explanation, she +submits with cheerful apology. As the last act, all being now ready, +they take the neckerchief from her neck; a blush of maidenly shame +overspreads that fair face and neck; the cheeks were still tinged with +it when the executioner lifted the severed head, to show it to the +people. "It is most true," says Forster, "that he struck the cheek +insultingly; for I saw it with my eyes: the Police imprisoned him for +it." + +But during these same hours, another guillotine is at work on another; +Charlotte, for the Girondins, dies at Paris to-day; Chalier, by the +Girondins, dies at Lyons to-morrow. + +From rumbling of cannon along the streets of that City, it has come to +firing of them, to rabid fighting: Nièvre Chol and the Girondins +triumph; behind whom there is, as everywhere, a Royalist Faction waiting +to strike in. Trouble enough at Lyons; and the dominant party carrying +it with a high hand! For, indeed, the whole South is astir; +incarcerating Jacobins; arming for Girondins: wherefore we have got a +"Congress of Lyons"; also a "Revolutionary Tribunal of Lyons," and +Anarchists shall tremble. So Chalier was soon found guilty, of +Jacobinism, of murderous Plot, "address with drawn dagger on the sixth +of February last"; and, on the morrow, he also travels his final road, +along the streets of Lyons, "by the side of an ecclesiastic, with whom +he seems to speak earnestly"--the axe now glittering nigh. He could +weep, in old years, this man, and "fall on his knees on the pavement," +blessing Heaven at sight of Federation Programmes or the like; then he +pilgrimed to Paris to worship Marat and the Mountain: now Marat and he +are both gone--we said he could not end well. Jacobinism groans +inwardly, at Lyons, but dare not outwardly. Chalier, when the Tribunal +sentenced him, made answer: "My death will cost this City dear." + +Montélimart Town is not buried under its ruins; yet Marseilles is +actually marching, under order of a "Lyons Congress"; is incarcerating +Patriots; the very Royalists now showing face. Against which a General +Cartaux fights, though in small force, and with him an Artillery Major, +of the name of--Napoleon Bonaparte. This Napoleon, to prove that the +Marseillese have no chance ultimately, not only fights but writes; +publishes his _Supper of Beaucaire_, a Dialogue which has become +curious. Unfortunate Cities, with their actions and their reactions! +Violence to be paid with violence in geometrical ratio; Royalism and +Anarchism both striking in--the final net-amount of which geometrical +series, what man shall sum? + +Is not La Vendée still blazing--alas too literally--rogue Rossignol +burning the very corn-mills? General Santerre could do nothing there. +General Rossignol in blind fury, often in liquor, can do less than +nothing. Rebellion spreads, grows ever madder. Happily those lean +Quixote figures, whom we saw retreating out of Mainz, "bound not to +serve against the Coalition for a year," have got to Paris. National +Convention packs them into post-vehicles and conveyances; sends them +swiftly, by post, into La Vendée. There valiantly struggling in obscure +battle and skirmish, under rogue Rossignol, let them, unlaurelled, save +the Republic and "be cut down gradually to the last man." + +Does not the Coalition, like a fire-tide, pour in; Prussia through the +opened Northeast; Austria, England through the Northwest? General +Houchard prospers no better there than General Custine did. Let him look +to it! Through the Eastern and the Western Pyrenees Spain has deployed +itself; spreads, rustling with Bourbon banners, over the face of the +South. Ashes and embers of confused Girondin civil war covered that +region already. Marseilles is damped down, not quenched--to be quenched +in blood. Toulon, terror-struck, too far gone for turning, has flung +itself, ye righteous Powers, into the hands of the English! On Toulon +Arsenal there flies a flag--nay not even the Fleur-de-lis of a Louis +Pretender; there flies that accursed St. George's Cross of the English +and Admiral Hood! What remnant of sea-craft, arsenals, roperies, war +navy France had, has given itself to these enemies of human nature, +"_ennemis du genre humain_." Beleaguer it, bombard it, ye Commissioners +Barras, Fréron, Robespierre Junior; thou General Cartaux, General +Dugommier; above all, thou remarkable Artillery-Major, Napoleon +Bonaparte! Hood is fortifying himself, victualling himself; means, +apparently, to make a new Gibraltar of it. + +But lo, in the Autumn night, late night, among the last of August, what +sudden red sun-blaze is this that has risen over Lyons City; with a +noise to deafen the world? It is the Powder-tower of Lyons, nay the +Arsenal with Four Powder-towers, which has caught fire in the +Bombardment; and sprung into the air, carrying "a hundred and seventeen +houses" after it. With a light, one fancies, as of the noon sun; with a +roar second only to the Last Trumpet! All living sleepers far and wide +it has awakened. What a sight was that, which the eye of History saw, in +the sudden nocturnal sun-blaze! + +The roofs of hapless Lyons, and all its domes and steeples made +momentarily clear; Rhone and Saône streams flashing suddenly visible; +and height and hollow, hamlet and smooth stubble-field, and all the +region round; heights, alas, all scarped and counterscarped, into +trenches, curtains, redoubts; blue Artillery-men, little Powder +devilkins, plying their hell-trade there through the _not_ ambrosial +night! Let the darkness cover it again; for it pains the eye. Of a +truth, Chalier's death is costing the City dear. Convention +Commissioners, Lyons Congresses have come and gone; and action there was +and reaction; bad ever growing worse; till it has come to this; +Commissioner Dubois-Crancé, "with seventy thousand men, and all the +Artillery of several Provinces," bombarding Lyons day and night. + +Worse things still are in store. Famine is in Lyons, and ruin and fire. +Desperate are the sallies of the besieged; brave Précy, their National +Colonel and Commandant, doing what is in man: desperate but ineffectual. +Provisions cut off; nothing entering our city but shot and shell! The +Arsenal has roared aloft; the very Hospital will be battered down, and +the sick buried alive. A black Flag hung on this latter noble Edifice, +appealing to the pity of the besiegers; for though maddened, were they +not still our brethren? In their blind wrath, they took it for a flag of +defiance, and aimed thitherward the more. Bad is growing ever worse +here; and how will the worse stop, till it have grown worst of all? +Commissioner Dubois will listen to no pleading, to no speech, save this +only: "We surrender at discretion." + +Lyons contains in it subdued Jacobins; dominant Girondins; secret +Royalists. And now, mere deaf madness and cannon-shot enveloping them, +will not the desperate Municipality fly, at last, into the arms of +Royalism itself? Majesty of Sardinia was to bring help, but it failed. +Emigrant D'Autichamp, in name of the Two Pretender-Royal-Highnesses, is +coming through Switzerland with help; coming, not yet come: Précy hoists +the Fleur-de-lis! + +At sight of which all true Girondins sorrowfully fling down their arms. +Let our Tricolor brethren storm us then and slay us in their wrath; with +_you_ we conquer not. The famishing women and children are sent forth: +deaf Dubois sends them back--rains in more fire and madness. Our +"redoubts of cotton-bags" are taken, retaken; Précy under his +Fleur-de-lis is valiant as Despair. What will become of Lyons? It is a +siege of seventy days. + +Or see, in these same weeks, far in the Western waters: breasting +through the Bay of Biscay, a greasy dingy little Merchant ship, with +Scotch skipper; under hatches whereof sit, disconsolate, the last +forlorn nucleus of Girondism, the Deputies from Quimper! Several have +dissipated themselves, whithersoever they could. Poor Riouffe fell into +the talons of Revolutionary Committee and Paris Prison. The rest sit +here under hatches; reverend Pétion with his gray hair, angry Buzot, +suspicious Louvet, brave young Barbaroux, and others. They have escaped +from Quimper, in this sad craft; are now tacking and struggling; in +danger from the waves, in danger from the English, in still worse danger +from the French--banished by Heaven and Earth to the greasy belly of +this Scotch skipper's Merchant vessel, unfruitful Atlantic raving round. +They are for Bordeaux, if peradventure hope yet linger there. Enter not +Bordeaux, O Friends! Bloody Convention Representatives, Tallien and such +like, with their Edicts, with their Guillotine, have arrived there; +Respectability is driven under ground; Jacobinism lords it on high. From +that Réole landing-place, or "Beak of Ambès," as it were, pale Death, +waving his Revolutionary Sword of Sharpness, waves you elsewhither! + +On one side or the other of that Bec d'Ambès, the Scotch Skipper with +difficulty moors, a dexterous greasy man; with difficulty lands his +Girondins; who, after reconnoitring, must rapidly burrow in the Earth; +and so, in subterranean ways, in friends' back-closets, in cellars, +barn-lofts, in caves of Saint-Emilion and Libourne, stave off cruel +Death. Unhappiest of all Senators! + +FOOTNOTES: + +[40] Written in 1836-1837.--ED. + + + + +THE REIGN OF TERROR + +A.D. 1794 + +FRANÇOIS P. G. GUIZOT + + By the Reign of Terror, or the "Terror," is meant that + period of the first revolution in France during which the + ruling faction caused thousands of obnoxious persons to be + sent to the guillotine. The Terror is usually considered as + beginning in March, 1793, when the Revolutionary Tribunal + was established by the National Convention. This tribunal + was an extraordinary court empowered to deal with all acts + or persons hostile to the Revolution. + + In July, 1793, Robespierre became a member of the Committee + of Public Safety, and, with Saint-Just, was most prominently + connected with the Terror. He secured a decree, known as the + decree of the 22d Prairial, "to accelerate the movements of + the Committee, and open for them a shorter route to the + guillotine," whereby persons marked for death might be + executed as soon as recognized. Against this bloody decree + it is said that even the "Mountain"--the Red Republican + party in the Convention--recoiled. It was nevertheless + remorselessly carried out, and "caused torrents of blood to + flow." + + The climax of the Terror was reached in 1794, and its end + came in July of that year, when Robespierre and his + associates were overthrown. It was followed by a reaction + against the excesses of the revolutionists, the closing of + the radical clubs of the Jacobins and others, and the + release of those whom the Revolutionary Tribunal had + imprisoned on suspicion. The tribunal itself, together with + the Committee of Public Safety, who had executed the fierce + will of the Convention, was speedily swept away. + + +It is a hideous spectacle to contemplate the enthusiasm of crime, and +see men madly intoxicating themselves with their own atrocities. The +Revolutionary Tribunal was in operation from March, 1793; the registry +of condemnations had reached the number of five hundred seventy-seven. +From 22 Prairial to 9 Thermidor (June 10, to July 27, 1794), two +thousand two hundred eighty-five unfortunates perished on the scaffold. +Fouquier-Tinville[41] comprehended the thought of Robespierre. For the +dock he had substituted benches, upon which he huddled together at one +time the crowd of the accused. One day he erected the guillotine in the +very hall of the tribunal. + +The Committee of Public Safety had a moment of fright. "Thou art wishing +then to demoralize punishment!" cried Collot d'Herbois. A hundred sixty +accused persons had been brought from the Luxembourg under pretence of a +conspiracy in prison. The lower class of prisoners were encouraged to +act as spies, thus furnishing pretexts for punishment. The judges sat +with pistols ready to hand; the President cast his eyes over the lists +for the day and called upon the accused. "Dorival, do you know anything +of the conspiracy?" "No!" + +"I expected that you would make that reply; but it won't succeed. Bring +another." + +"Champigny, are you not an ex-noble?" + +"Yes." + +"Bring another." + +"Guidreville, are you a priest?" + +"Yes, but I have taken the oath." + +"You have no right to say any more. Another." + +"Ménil, were you not a domestic of the ex-constitutional Menou?" + +"Yes." + +"Another." + +"Vély, were you not architect for Madame?" + +"Yes, but I was disgraced in 1789." + +"Another." + +"Gondrecourt, is not your father-in-law at the Luxembourg?" + +"Yes." + +"Another." + +"Durfort, were you not in the bodyguard?" + +"Yes, but I was dismissed in 1789." + +"Another." + +So the examination went on. The questions, the answers, the judgment, +the condemnation, were all simultaneous. The juries did not leave the +hall; they gave their opinions with a word or a look. Sometimes errors +were evident in the lists. "I am not accused," exclaimed a prisoner one +day. + +"No matter; what is thy name? See, it is written now. Another." + +M. de Loizerolles perished under the name of his father. Jokes were +mingled with the sentences. The Maréchale de Mouchy was old, and did not +reply to the questions of President Dumas. "The _citoyenne_ is deaf" +(_sourde_), said the registrar; "Put down that she has conspired +secretly" (_sourdement_), replied Dumas. + +It became necessary to forbid Fouquier-Tinville to send more than sixty +victims a day to the scaffold. "Things go well, and see the heads fall +like slates with my file-firing; the next decade we shall do better +still; I shall want at least four hundred fifty." The lists were +prepared in the prison itself, by the class of informers known as +_moutons_.[42] The public accuser, like the judges and the jailers, was +often ignorant of the names of the human flock crowded in the dungeons. +Death recalled them to recollection. In the evening, under the windows +of each prison, the list of the victims of the day was shouted out. +"These are they who have gained prizes in the lottery of Saint +Guillotine." The unfortunates who crowded to the windows thus learned +the tidings of the execution of those they loved. The horrors of the +unforeseen and unknown were added to the agonies of death and +separation. Under the windows of the Conciergerie the names of the +Maréchale de Noailles, the Duchesse d'Ayen and the Vicomtesse de +Noailles, who died together on the scaffold, were proclaimed. Among the +prisoners was Madame la Fayette, herself awaiting death; happily she did +not recognize in the coarse accents of the criers the cherished names of +her grandmother, mother, and sister. The peasants of the Vendée[43] came +to die at Paris, like the Carmelites of Compiègne or the magistrates of +Toulouse. It was astonishing that there still remained in the dungeons +great lords and noble ladies, bearing the most illustrious names in the +history of France; on the 8th and 9th Thermidor the poets Roucher and +André Chénier; Baron Trenck, famous for his numerous escapes; the +Maréchale d'Armentières, the Princesse de Chimay, the Comtesse de +Narbonne, the Duc de Clermont-Tonnerre, the Marquis de Crussol, and the +Messieurs de Trudaine, counsellors of the Parliament of Paris, perished +upon the scaffold. + +Insulters always surrounded the scaffold, but their number had +decreased; the Committee of Public Safety no longer had recourse to the +popular manoeuvres of its early days. Terror was now sufficient to +insure the silence and submission of the victims. Paris grew weary of +the horrors of which it was witness; the odor of blood had driven away +the residents from the houses adjacent to the Place de la Révolution; a +new guillotine had been erected upon the Place du Trône. Upon the route +along which ran the fatal carts shops were closed, and passers-by +endeavored to avoid meeting the procession. A few rare loungers of the +lowest class alone walked in the gardens of the Tuileries and the +Champs-Élysées. All was silent, but pity was growing in the minds of +men. The distant sound of the horrors that were general throughout +France redoubled the terror of Paris. + +The provincial sufferings were not uniform, and the fury of the +representative commissioners was unequally distributed. Either by a +happy chance, or it might be by an instinctive knowledge of the +character of the population, the revolutionary scaffold was never set up +in Lower Normandy; the Vendée, on the contrary, expiated its long +resistance in its blood, and Carrier filled with terror the city of +Nantes, always favorable to revolution. He had tried guillotine and +grape-shot, but both were too tardy in their action to suit his zeal. He +conceived the idea of crowding the condemned into ships with valves, +launched upon the Loire: the beautiful river saw these unfortunates +struggling in its waters. Henceforth the executioners tied the prisoners +together by one hand and one foot; these "Republican Marriages," as they +were called, insured the speedy death of the victims. The waters of the +Loire became infected; its shores were covered with corpses; the fishes +themselves could no longer serve as nourishment for human beings; fever +decimated the inhabitants of Nantes. The fury of Carrier bordered on +madness: he caused the little Vendean infants, collected by Breton +charity, to be cast into the water. "It is necessary," said he, "to slay +the wolves' cubs." + +The same terror also, and the same atrocities which desolated the West, +reigned in the North and the South. In the Department of Vaucluse, +Maignet, in the Pas-de-Calais, Joseph Lebon, had obtained the erection +of local revolutionary tribunals. "The arrests which I have ordered in +the Departments of Vaucluse and the Bouches-du-Rhône amount to twelve +or fifteen thousand," wrote Maignet to his friend Couthon. "It would +require an army to conduct them to Paris; besides, it is necessary to +appal, and the blow is only terrifying when struck in the sight of those +who have lived with the guilty." They had felled the tree of liberty in +the little town of Bédouin; sixty-three of the inhabitants were +executed; the rest fled. "I have wished to give the national vengeance a +grand character," wrote Maignet to the Committee of Public Safety, "and +I have ordered that the town should be given to the flames. If you think +this new measure too rigorous, let me know your wishes, and do not read +my letter to the Convention." To the complaints of Rovère, +representative of Vaucluse, Robespierre replied, "We are content with +Maignet; he knows well how to guillotine." Joseph Lebon established an +orchestra close by the guillotine; he caused the _Ça ira_[44] to be sung +during the executions, which he witnessed from his balcony. Formerly a +priest and well esteemed, he was moderate at the outburst of the +Revolution, but his reason had yielded to the dizziness of despotic +power; it was of a veritable madman that Barère said: "Lebon has +completely beaten the aristocrats, and he has protected Cambrai against +the approaches of the enemy; besides, what is there that is not +permitted to the hatred of a republican against the aristocracy? The +Revolution and revolutionary measures must only be spoken of with +respect. Liberty is a virgin whose veil it is culpable to raise." + +For some time Robespierre had appeared but rarely at the Committee of +Public Safety; he reserved himself for the department of general police, +that is to say, the direction of the "Terror" throughout France. +Underhand dissensions and jealousies began to creep in among these +criminals, secretly disquieted by projects of which they were +reciprocally suspicious. Billaud-Varennes and Collot d'Herbois dreaded +Robespierre and began to conspire against him. Robespierre established +himself with the Jacobins, as in an impregnable fortress. The President +and Vice-President of the Revolutionary Tribunal, and the commandant of +the armed forces, Henriot, awaited his orders. They pressed him to take +action against the enemies whom he had himself denounced to the +Jacobins. "Formerly," said he, "on the 13th Messidor [July 1st], the +underhand faction that has sprung from the remnant of the followers of +Danton and Camille Desmoulins attacked the committees _en masse_; now +they prefer to attack a few members in particular; in order to succeed +in breaking the bundle, they attribute to a single individual that which +appertains to the whole Government. They dare not say that the +Revolutionary Tribunal has been instituted in order to swallow up the +National Convention; they have spoken of a dictator, and named him; it +is I who have been thus designated, and you would tremble if I told you +in what place." + +A dictatorship had, in fact, been spoken of, but it was Saint-Just, on +returning from the army, who had uttered this terrible word, in a +conference of the Committees of Public Safety and General Security +expressly convoked by Robespierre. The latter had proposed the +institution of four great revolutionary tribunals, in order to forge new +weapons for himself; but the conference refused. Robespierre went out +irritated and gloomy. "Misfortune has reached a climax," cried +Saint-Just. "You are in a state of anarchy. The Convention is inundating +France with laws inoperative and often impracticable. The +representatives accompanying the armies dispose at their will of the +public fortune and our military destinies; the representatives sent as +Commissioners to the Provinces usurp all power and amass gold for which +they substitute assignats. How can such political and legislative +disorder be regulated? I declare upon my honor and my conscience, I see +only one means of safety; and that is the concentration of power in the +hands of one man who has enough genius, force, patriotism, and +generosity to become the embodiment of public authority. It is +necessary, above all, to have a man endowed with long practical +knowledge of the Revolution, its principles, its phases, its modes of +action, and its agents. Finally, he must be a man who has the general +good-will and confidence of the people in his favor, and who is at once +a virtuous and inflexible as well as an incorruptible citizen. That man +is Robespierre; it is he only who can save the State. I ask that he be +invested with the dictatorship, and that the committees make a +proposition to this effect at the Convention to-morrow." + +The imprudence of the speech equalled the audacity of the act. The +members of the two councils looked at each other, hesitating to accept +the declaration of war. A few of them contended for their lives against +the vengeance of Robespierre and his friends. "This Robespierre is +insatiable," said Barère, with anger. "Let him ask for Tallien, Bourdon +de l'Oise, Thuriot, Guffroy, Rovère, Lecointre, Panis, Barras, Fréron, +Legendre, Monestier, Dubois Crancé, Fouché, Cambon, and all the +Dantonist remnant, well and good; but to Duval, Audouin, Léonard +Bourdon, Vadier, Vauland, it is impossible to consent." + +The two parties waited face to face, shrinking from the blows they were +about to exchange, counting on the impatience or temerity of their +adversaries. The boldest among the opposition ventured on a circuitous +attack by denouncing the sect of mystic dreamers led by a demented +woman, Catherine Théot, styled by her followers, Mother of God. Her +principal disciple was Gerle, formerly prior of the Chartreuse, and a +member of the Constituent Assembly. When the papers of this handful of +maniacs were seized, the copy of a letter to Robespierre was found; he +was to have been the Messiah of the sect. Vadier denounced at the +Convention this elementary school of fanaticism, discovered on a third +floor in the Rue Contrescarpe, and who were connected, he said, with the +machinations of Pitt; but he dared not speak of the letter to +Robespierre. The latter undoubtedly took some interest in Catherine +Théot, for he did not allow the affair to be followed up; the prophetess +died in prison soon after. + +Robespierre had said to a deputation from Aisne: "In the situation in +which it now is, gangrened by corruption, and without power to remedy +it, the Convention can no longer save the Republic: both will perish +together. The proscription of patriots is the order of the day. For +myself, I have already one foot in the tomb, in a few days I shall place +the other there; the rest is in the hands of Providence." + +Nevertheless he began the attack, urged forward by men who had attached +their fortunes to his own, and by the disquietudes which agitated his +sour and dissatisfied spirit. He could no longer put up with advice even +from his most faithful friends, and the inflexible Saint-Just told him +to calm himself; "Empire is for the phlegmatic." A menacing petition +from the Jacobins preceded by a few hours a grand discourse from the +dictator. He always reckoned on the effect of his discourses, and all +the committees, one after another, had suffered from the asperity of his +attacks. "The accusations are all concentrated upon me," said he; "if +anyone casts patriots into prison in place of shutting up the +aristocrats there, it is said that Robespierre wills it. If the numerous +agents of the Committee of General Security extend their vexations and +rapine in all directions, it is said that Robespierre has sent them; if +a new law irritates the property-holders, it is Robespierre who is +ruining them; and meanwhile, in what hands are your finances? In the +hands of feuillants, of known cheats, of the Cambons, Mallarmés and +Ramels. Survey the field of victory, look at Belgium; dissensions have +been sown among our generals, the military aristocracy is protected, +faithful generals are persecuted, the military administration is +enveloped with a suspicious authority; they talk to you of war with +academic lightness, as if it cost neither blood nor labor. The truths +that I bring you are surely equal to epigrams. + +"There exists a conspiracy against public liberty; it owes its force to +a criminal coalition which intrigues in the very bosom of the +Convention. That coalition has its accomplices in the Committee of +General Security, and in the _bureaux_, which they control. Some members +of the Committee of Public Safety are implicated in this plot; the +coalition thus formed seeks to ruin patriots and the country. What is +the remedy for this evil? To punish the traitors, to purify the +Committee of General Security, and subordinate it to the Committee of +Public Safety; to purify this committee itself, and constitute it the +Government under the authority of the National Convention, which is the +centre of authority and the chief judicial power. Thus would all the +factions be crushed by raising on their ruins the power of justice and +liberty. If it is impossible to advocate these principles without being +set down as ambitious, I shall conclude that tyranny reigns among us, +but not that I ought to hold my tongue; for what can be objected to a +man who is right, and who knows how to die for his country? I am put +here in order to combat crime, not to govern it. The time has not yet +come when good men can serve their country with impunity." + +They listened in silence; no applause, no complaint had interrupted the +orator. For a long time the Convention had been unaccustomed to see the +masters of their fortunes and their lives making appeal to their supreme +authority. Their _rôle_ had long been limited to taking part in +oratorical tournaments and voting decrees. They did not yield, however, +to the seduction, and their faces remained grave and sombre. No one rose +to speak, but they began to exchange a few remarks, and a murmur ran +from bench to bench. The glove was thrown down, but as yet no champion +advanced to take it up. At length, and as if the courage of all was +reanimated at once by the same resolution, Vadier, Cambon, and +Billaud-Varennes rose together to mount the tribune. Cambon had been +wounded in his just pride as a financier and an honest man; he could +scarcely wait his turn. + +"It is time," cried he, "to speak the entire truth. Is it I who need to +be accused of making myself master in any respect? The man who has made +himself master of everything, the man who paralyzes our will, is he who +has just spoken--Robespierre." At the same moment and from all lips came +the same cries. "It is Robespierre," said Billaud-Varennes. "It is +Robespierre," repeated Panis and Vadier. "Let him give an account of the +crimes of the deputies whose death he demanded from the Jacobins." And +as he hesitated, troubled by the vehemence of the attacks, "You who +pretend to have the courage of virtue, have the courage of truth," cried +Charlier to him; "name, name the individuals." In the midst of a growing +confusion the Assembly revoked the order to print the discourse of +Robespierre. It was to the two committees, filled with his enemies, that +the denunciation of the dictator was referred. + +Robespierre took refuge with the Jacobins; he was troubled by the +opposition he had encountered, without being able to draw from it new +forces for the struggle. He redelivered his discourse, this time +welcomed with loud applause. "My friends," said he, "that which you have +just heard is my dying testament. I have seen to-day that the league of +the wicked is too strong for me to hope to escape it. I am ready to +drink the hemlock." + +"I will drink it with thee," cried David. The men of action were less +resigned. Henriot spoke of marching on the Convention, but Robespierre +still wished to speak; it was the course of May 31st that he wanted to +follow. The hall was crowded; people entered without tickets. + +"Name thy enemies," they shouted to Robespierre; "name them; we will +deliver them to thee." Collot d'Herbois arrived, attempting a few +protestations of devotion; he was hooted and constrained to retire. +Hesitation and doubt still troubled every spirit and paralyzed every +hand. Collot and Billaud-Varennes returned to the Committee of Public +Safety. There they found Saint-Just, who had to read a report, but he +had not brought it with him. The two new-comers apostrophized him with +violence. "Thou art the accomplice of Robespierre; the project of your +infamous triumvirate is to assassinate us all, but if we succumb you +will not long enjoy the fruit of your crimes--the people will tear you +in pieces; thy pockets are full of denunciations against us; produce thy +lists." They advanced menacingly; Saint-Just shrank back, very pale. As +he went out he promised to read his report next day. Neither of the two +parties had as yet taken any effectual measure; they had contracted the +habit of being very prodigal of words. Tallien had endeavored to gain +over all that remained of the Left; three times he was repulsed by +Boissy d'Anglas and his friends. As he returned once more to the charge, +"Yes," they at length replied, with an ingenuousness almost cynical, +"yes, if you are the strongest." Tallien was intrusted to direct the +attack in the Convention. + +Saint-Just had just entered; he had not appeared at the Committee of +Public Safety. "You have blighted my heart," he wrote to his colleagues, +"I am about to open it at the National Assembly." He presented himself, +however, as reporter of the Committee. In seeing him pass, Tallien, +occupied in assembling his forces, said loudly, "It is the moment; let +us enter." Saint-Just commenced: "I am not of any faction; I fight +against all. The course of events has brought it about that this tribune +should be perhaps the Tarpeian rock to him who shall come to tell you +that the members of the Government--" Tallien did not leave him time to +finish; he demanded leave to speak upon a motion of order. "Nor I +either; I am not of any faction; I only belong to myself and to +liberty. It is I who will make you hear the truth: no good citizen can +restrain his tears over the unfortunate condition of public affairs. +Yesterday a member of the Government was here alone and denounced his +colleagues: to-day another comes to do as much by him; these dissensions +aggravate the evils of our country. I demand that the veil be torn +away." Applause echoed from all parts of the hall. + +Saint-Just wished to continue his speech. "Thou art not reporter," +shouted the members. He remained motionless in the tribune, while +Billaud-Varennes came and stood beside him. He cast his eyes over the +hall. "I see here," said he, "one of the men who yesterday, at the +Jacobins, promised the massacre of the National Convention; let him be +arrested." The officers obeyed. "The Assembly is at the present time in +danger of massacre on every hand," continued Billaud; "it will perish if +it is feeble." The contagion of courage spread from man to man; all the +deputies stood up waving their hats. "Be tranquil," they cried to the +orator; "we will not give way." "You will tremble when you see in what +hands you are," continued Billaud; "the armed force is confided to +parricidal hands. The chief of the National Guard is an infamous +conspirator, the accomplice of Hébert; Lavalette was a noble, driven out +of the Army of the North and saved by Robespierre, whom he obeys. The +Revolutionary Tribunal is in his hands; everywhere he has made his will +supreme, and has sought to render himself absolute master; he has +dismissed the best Revolutionary Committee of Paris, he has ceased to +frequent the Committee of Public Safety since the day after the decree +of the 22d Prairial, which has been so disastrous to patriots. He +excites the Jacobins against the Assembly." A few feeble protestations +were now heard. "There is some murmuring, I think," said the speaker, +insolently. + +He was about to continue the course of his accusations; but beside him +in the tribune Robespierre had replaced Saint-Just. His natural pallor +had become livid, rage sparkled in his glance. "I demand liberty to +speak," he cried. A single shout echoed through the hall. "Down with the +tyrant! Down with the tyrant!" "I demand liberty to speak," Robespierre +violently repeated. Tallien dashed into the tribune. "I demand that the +veil be torn away immediately," he cried; "the work is accomplished, +the conspirators are unmasked. Yesterday, at the Jacobins, I saw the +army of the new Cromwell formed, and I have come here armed with a +poignard to pierce his heart if the Assembly has not the courage to +decree his accusation. I demand the arrest of Henriot and his staff. +There will be no May 31st, no proscription; national justice alone will +strike the miscreants." + +"I demand that Dumas be arrested," added Billaud-Varennes, "as well as +Boulanger [formerly lieutenant of Ronsin in the Vendée]; he was the most +ardent yesterday night at the Jacobins." + +Meanwhile Robespierre was still in the tribune. Several times he strove +to begin speaking, but the same cry drowned his voice, "Down with the +tyrant!" The little group of those who were faithful to him, close +pressed together, followed him with their eyes without speaking, without +seconding his efforts; the mass of the Assembly, so docile a few days +before, was agitated with a violence that became more and more hostile. +Barère hesitated no longer. It is said that he had prepared two +statements; one favorable to and the other hostile to Robespierre. He +proposed to abolish the grade of commandant-general, and to call to the +bar the mayor Fleuriot and the National agent Payan, to answer there for +public tranquillity. The decree was voted; on all sides arose +accusations against Robespierre, everyone hastening to denounce him. "I +demand liberty to speak, to bring back this discussion to its true end +and aim," said Tallien. Robespierre raised his head; "I shall know well +how to bring it there," said he, in those imperious accents which +formerly cowed the Assembly. Tallien continued without noticing the +interruption. "The conspiracy is quite complete in the discourse read +and reread yesterday. It is there that I find arms to strike down this +man, whose virtue and patriotism have been so much vaunted; this man, +who appeared three days only after August 10th; this man, who has +abandoned his post at the Committee of Public Safety, in order to come +and calumniate his colleagues. It is not necessary to discuss in any +particular detail of the tyrant's career; his whole life condemns him." + +Robespierre clutched at the tribune with both hands. He no longer sought +aid from the "Mountain," henceforth roused against him; he turned his +face toward the "Plain." "It is to you pure and virtuous men that I +address myself; I don't talk with scoundrels." "Down with the tyrant!" +responded the "Plain." Thuriot, who presided, rang his bell. "President +of assassins," cried Robespierre, "yet once more I demand liberty to +speak." His voice grew feebler. "The blood of Danton is choking him," +cried Gamier de l'Aude. "Will this man long remain master of the +Convention?" asked Charles Duval. "Let us make an end! A decree, a +decree!" shouted Lasseau, at length. "A tyrant is hard to strike down," +said Fréron, in a loud voice. Robespierre remained in the tribune, +turning in his hands an open knife, alone, exposed to the vengeful anger +of them all. "Send me to death!" he cried to his enemies. And the voices +replied: "Thou hast merited it a thousand times. Down with the tyrant!" + +The decree was voted in the midst of tumult. "I ask to share the lot of +my brother," cried the younger Robespierre. "It is understood," said +Lanchet, "that we have voted the arrest of the two Robespierres, of +Couthon, and Saint-Just." "I ask to be comprised in the decree," +protested Lebas, faithfully devoted to Saint-Just. "The triumvirate of +Robespierre, Couthon, and Saint-Just," said Fréron, "recalls the +proscriptions of Sylla. Couthon is a tiger thirsting for the blood of +the National representatives; he has dared to speak at the Jacobins of +five or six heads of the Convention; our corpses were to be the steps +for him to mount the throne!" The paralytic made a gesture of bitter +disdain. "I _mount_ the throne!" said he. + +Thuriot proclaimed the decree; the acclamations that re-echoed were +furious, intoxicated with the joy of triumph. "Long live liberty! Long +live the Republic! Down with the tyrants; to the bar with the accused." +The officers, still bewildered with such an abrupt and sudden change, +had not dared to lay a hand upon the fallen dictator; rage broke forth +in the ranks of the Assembly. Robespierre and his brother, Saint-Just, +Lebas, descended slowly to the place lately reserved for their enemies. +Couthon had just placed himself there. The decree of arrest dispersed +them in different prisons; they had set out when the Assembly suspended +its sitting for an instant. "Let us go out together," said Robespierre. +The crowd, like the Assembly, gazed on them without acclamations and +without manifesting any sympathy for them; their army was re-forming +elsewhere. + +The Commune of Paris and the club of the Jacobins had not laid down +their arms. An officer was sent to the Hôtel de Ville to announce the +decree, which dismissed Henriot and summoned the Mayor to appear at the +bar. He naively demanded a receipt for his message. "On a day like this +we don't give receipts," replied the Mayor. "Tell Robespierre to have no +fear, for we are here." + +The Commune, in fact, was active, while the Committees of the +Convention, stupefied at their own victories, were letting precious time +slip past. Already Henriot, half drunk, galloping along the streets, +stirred up the people, crying out that their faithful representatives +were being massacred, delivering over to insults Merlin de Thionville, +and sending to death the convoy of victims for the day. These the +inhabitants of the Faubourg St. Antoine set about delivering, from +compassion and from a vague instinct that the arrest of Robespierre +necessarily brought about a cessation of executions. The General Council +had sent to the jailers of the prisons an order to refuse to aid in the +incarceration of the accused. Robespierre and his friends were +successively brought to the Mairie. They found themselves again free at +the head of an insurrection precipitately got up, but directed by +desperate men, who felt their lives in danger if power escaped from +them. Henriot, arrested for a moment, and conducted to the Committee of +General Security, had been delivered by Coffinhal at the head of a +handful of men. He was again on horseback, and was menacing in the hall +of their sittings the Assembly, which had again come together. + +The tocsin rang forth a full peal; the gates of Paris were closed. The +rising tumult of the insurrection reached the ears of the deputies; each +minute some inauspicious news arrived. It was said that the gunners of +the National Guard, seduced by Henriot, were coming to direct their +artillery against the palace. Collot d'Herbois mounted slowly to the +chair and seated himself there. "Representatives," said he, with a firm +voice, "the moment has come for us to die at our posts; miscreants have +invaded the National palace." All had taken their places; while the +spectators fled from the galleries with uproar and confusion. "I +propose," said Élie Lacoste with a loud voice, "that Henriot be +outlawed." At the same moment the dismissed commandant ordered his men +to fire. + +Fearful and troubled, the gunners still hesitated. A group of +representatives went forth from the hall and cried, "What are you doing, +soldiers? That man is a rebel, who has just been outlawed." The gunners +had already lowered their matches, while Henriot fled at full gallop. +Barras had just been named commandant of the forces in his place; seven +representatives accompanied him. "Outlaw all those who shall take arms +against the Convention or who shall oppose its decrees," said Barère; +"as well as those who are eluding a decree of accusation or arrest." The +decree was voted; an officer of the Convention boldly accepted the duty +of bearing it to the Commune. The National agent, Payan, seized it from +him, and for bravado read it with a loud voice before the crowd that was +thronging in the hall of the Hôtel de Ville. He added these words which +were not in the decree, "and all those found at this moment in the +galleries." The spectators disappeared as if struck with terror at the +name of the law. Times were changed. The mobile waves of public opinion +no longer upheld the tyrants overthrown by the accomplices who had now +become their enemies. + +It was, without saying it, and possibly without knowing it, the feeling +of this public abandonment and reprobation which paralyzed the energy of +the five accused. Robespierre had arrived pale and trembling in all his +limbs; he had been tranquillized with difficulty. When Couthon, who +alone was retained for a time in the prison of La Bourbe, was at last +brought to the Hôtel de Ville, he found the Council solely occupied with +the attack on the Convention, without making any efforts for rousing the +populace or for the vigorous resumption of power. "Have the armies been +written to?" he asked. "In the name of whom?" said Robespierre, +disheartened but calm. "Of the Convention which exists wherever we are; +the rest are but a handful of factious men, who are about to be +dispersed by armed force." Robespierre reflected; he shook his head. "We +must write in the name of the French people," said he. The words "_Au +nom du peuple_" were found in his handwriting on a sheet of paper. + +It was also in the name of the people that Barras and his companions +reunited the battalions of the sections which slowly assembled; some had +recalled their men from the Hôtel de Ville. The new military school, the +École de Mars, had not appeared well disposed toward Lebas, who had +written to the Commandant Labretèche to hinder his pupils from ranging +themselves under the banners of the Convention; the young men marched +willingly at the request of Barras. The gunners collected on the Place +de Grève permitted Léonard Bourdon to approach. "Go!" said Tallien to +him, "and let the sun when it rises find no more traitors living." The +crowd dispersed on hearing the proclamation which outlawed the Commune +of Paris. The gunners abandoned their pieces; a few hours later they +came to seek them to protect the Convention. "Is it possible," cried +Henriot, as he came forth from the Hôtel de Ville, "that these +scoundrels of gunners have abandoned me? Presently they will be +delivering me to the Tuileries!" He ran to announce the desertion to the +assembled Council-General. Coffinhal, indignant at his cowardice, seized +him by the shoulder and pushed him out by the window. The agents of the +police arrested him in a sewer. + +Meanwhile the section of the Gravilliers had put itself in marching +order, commanded by Léonard Bourdon and by a gendarme named Méda, +intelligent and devoted, and who had acquired an ascendency over those +around him. He advanced toward the Hôtel de Ville without encountering +any obstacle. Méda cried, in mounting the flight of steps, "Long live +Robespierre!" He penetrated into the hall, obstructed by the crowd; the +club of the Jacobins was deserted, Legendre had had the door closed; all +the leaders of the Revolution were assembled round the proscribed +representatives. They were discussing and vociferating, without ardor, +however, and without any true hope. Robespierre was seated at a table, +his head on his left hand, his elbow supported by his knee. + +Méda advanced toward him, pistols in hand. "Surrender, traitor!" he +cried. Robespierre raised his head. "It is thou who art a traitor," he +said, "and I will have thee shot." At the same instant the gendarme +fired, fracturing the lower jaw of Robespierre. As he fell, his brother +opened the window, and, passing along the cornice, leaped out upon the +Place. He was dying when they came to pick him up. + +Saint-Just, leaning over toward Lebas, said, "Kill me." Lebas, looking +him in the face, replied: "I have something better to do," pressing the +trigger of his pistol. He was dead when a fresh report resounded from +the staircase; Méda, who pursued Henriot, had just drawn on Couthon; his +bearer fell grievously wounded. The prisoners, formerly all-powerful, +now dying or condemned, were collected in the same room; thither +Robespierre and Couthon had been brought; the corpse of Lebas lay on the +floor; the crowd who besieged the gates wanted to throw the wounded into +the river. Couthon had great difficulty in making it understood that he +was not dead; Robespierre could not speak, and was carried on a chair to +the door of the Convention. A feeling of horror manifested itself in the +Assembly, "No, not here! not here!" was the cry. A surgeon came to +attend to the wounded man in the hall of the Committee of Public Safety; +he recovered from his swoon, and walked alone toward his chair; until +then he had been extended upon a table, a little deal box supporting his +wounded head. The blood flowed slowly from his mouth, and at times he +made a movement to wipe it away; his clothes and his face were smeared +with it. Robespierre appeared insensible to the injuries of those who +surrounded him; he made no complaint, inaccessible and alone in death as +in life. They carried him to the Conciergerie, where Saint-Just and +Couthon had just arrived. All had been outlawed; no procedure, no delay, +retarded their execution. Saint-Just, looking at a table of the _Rights +of Man_ hanging in the hall, said, "It is I, however, who have done +that." + +The Conciergerie slowly filled; with Dumas, Fleuriot, Payan, Lavalette, +a large proportion of the members of the Council-General had been +arrested. The prisoners already retained here were pressing to the bars +of their windows, curious as to the noise that reached their ears, and +the vague rumors which had already excited mortal fears among the +informers. Before the room where were imprisoned Madame de Beauharnais +and Madame de Fontenay (afterward Madame Tallien), a woman appeared, +who, in a marked manner, held up a stone (_pierre_), enveloped it in her +dress (_robe_), and then made a gesture of beheading. The prisoners +comprehended, a thrill of joy pervaded their gloomy abode; all the +oppressed believed themselves already delivered. + +It was five o'clock, and the carts had just drawn up as usual at the +gate of the prison, but this time they waited for the executioners. The +procession defiled before a dense crowd; all the windows were full of +spectators, all the shops were open, and joy sparkled in every +countenance. Robespierre and his friends had wearied with executions the +people of Paris; the sanguinary emotions to which they had been so long +accustomed regained their first relish; it was Robespierre that they +were about to see die. He was half stretched out in the cart, livid, and +with a blood-stained cloth round his face. When the executioner snatched +it from him on the scaffold, a terrible cry was heard, the first sign of +suffering the condemned had given. To this shriek cries of joy responded +from all around, which were repeated at each stroke from the fatal axe. +In two days a hundred three executions violently sealed the vengeance of +the Convocation. The justice of God and that of history bide their time. + +Robespierre had successively vanquished all his enemies; clever and +bold, protected and served by his reputation for virtue, seconded by the +growing terror which his name inspired, he had usurped the entire power, +and confiscated the Revolution for the profit of despotism. He succumbed +under the blows of those who had constantly pushed him to the front; +wearied or frightened by the tyranny whose vengeance they themselves +dreaded. The hands which overthrew the terrible dictator were not pure +hands, and revolutionary passions continued to animate many minds, but +the public instincts did not err for an instant. The conquerors of the +9th Thermidor could in their turn seize upon power, and the greater +number of them had had no other intention; but they might no longer +spill blood at their pleasure without hindrance and without control. The +culminating point of sufferings and crimes had been attained. Without +wishing it and without knowing it, from envy or from fear, the +"_Thermidoriens_," as they began to be called, in striking down the +triumvirate had changed the course of the Revolution. The nation, always +prompt to concentrate upon the name of one man its affections or its +hatreds, panting and lacerated as it was, began to breathe; the +prisoners ceased to expect death daily; their friends already hoped for +their liberty; timid people ventured forth from their hiding-places; the +bold loudly manifested their joy. People dared to wear mourning for +those who had died on the scaffold; widows came forth from houses in +which they had kept themselves shut up; absent ones reappeared in the +bosom of their families. Robespierre was no more. + +The Convention had revolted almost unanimously against the tyrant; +scarcely was he struck down, when it found itself again a prey to +divisions. Public demonstrations of joy and relief were manifested +everywhere, and this disquieted some of the leaders of the conspiracy +formerly directed against Robespierre; they had thought to overthrow him +in order themselves to occupy his place, and already they perceived that +two tendencies were manifesting themselves in the country. The one, +feeble as yet in the Convention, and with no other point of support than +the remnant of the Right, disposed to retrace the course of events, and +even to visit upon their authors the iniquities committed; the other, +disquieted and gloomy, determined to defend the Revolution at any +hazard, even though it might be at the price of new sacrifices. The +small party of the Thermidorians, Tallien at their head, began to form +themselves between these two irreconcilable parties. The reaction as yet +bore no definite name, it did not and could not exercise any power; +desired or dreaded, it was at the bottom of every thought, it influenced +all decisions, often rendering them apparently contrary. The terrible +glory of Robespierre, and the crushing weight that rests upon his +memory, are due to the sudden transformation effected by his death. In +outward semblance, and for some time longer, the customary terms were +employed, but the character of the situation was radically changed. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[41] Public accuser before the Revolutionary Tribunal.--ED. + +[42] Decoys; literally, sheep.--ED. + +[43] The royalist War of La Vendée against the Republic was now +raging.--ED. + +[44] "It will go." One of the most popular songs at the beginning of the +Revolution (1789), said to have been suggested by Benjamin Franklin, +who, in speaking of the progress of the American Revolution, said: "Ça +ira" meaning, "It will succeed."--ED. + + + + +THE DOWNFALL OF POLAND + +A.D. 1794 + +SIR ARCHIBALD ALISON + + That the French Revolution was not more actively interfered + with by the powers of Eastern Europe was largely due to the + fact that they were all busy with a spoliation of their own. + When Kosciuszko, the great Polish patriot and hero, failed + in his endeavor to rescue his country from foreign thraldom, + the doom of the ancient kingdom was sealed. In the following + year (1795) the third and final partition of Poland--between + Russia, Austria, and Prussia--was made. This destruction of + a heroic nationality was bewailed by the friends of liberty + throughout the world, and it was told in passionate regret + how "Freedom shrieked, as Kosciuszko fell." + + Although brave and liberty-loving, the people of Poland had + not kept pace with political progress among the more + advanced nations. In the fourteenth century Poland had risen + to her greatest power. Her political character, from ancient + days, was peculiar, being at once monarchical and + republican. But she had a feudalism of her own, which + survived long after the European feudal system was outgrown + by other nations. Her political system was cumbrous and + lacking in unity. The first partition, by the powers above + named (1772), left her in still worse disorder. A new + constitution proved unsatisfactory, one party favoring it, + another seeking to overthrow it. Russian interference was + invoked, the Polish patriots resisted, but in 1792 they were + defeated, and Russia, with Prussia, made the second + partition of Poland in 1793. + + In 1794 Kosciuszko was made commander-in-chief and dictator + of Poland. The insurrection began with the murder of the + Russians in Warsaw. But the Poles suffered from their own + dissensions as before, and met with the disaster that led to + their national extinction. + + +There is a certain degree of calamity which overwhelms the courage; but +there is another, which, by reducing men to desperation, sometimes leads +to the greatest and most glorious enterprises. To this latter state the +Poles were now reduced. Abandoned by all the world, distracted with +internal divisions, destitute alike of fortresses and resources, crushed +in the grasp of gigantic enemies, the patriots of that unhappy country, +consulting only their own courage, resolved to make a last effort to +deliver it from its enemies. In the midst of their internal convulsions, +and through all the prostration of their national strength, the Poles +had never lost their individual courage, or the ennobling feelings of +civil independence. They were still the redoubtable hussars who broke +the Mussulman ranks under the walls of Vienna, and carried the Polish +eagles in triumph to the towers of the Kremlin; whose national cry had +so often made the Osmanlis tremble, and who had boasted in their hours +of triumph that if the heaven itself were to fall they would support it +on the points of their lances. A band of patriots at Warsaw resolved at +all hazards to attempt the restoration of their independence, and they +made choice of Kosciuszko, who was then at Leipsic, to direct their +efforts.[45] + +This illustrious hero, who had received the rudiments of military +education in France, had afterward served, not without glory, in the War +of Independence in America. Uniting to Polish enthusiasm French ability, +the ardent friend of liberty and the enlightened advocate for order, +brave, loyal, and generous, he was in every way qualified to head the +last struggle of the oldest republic in existence for its national +independence. But a nearer approach to the scene of danger convinced +him that the hour for action had not yet arrived. The passions, indeed, +were awakened; the national enthusiasm was full; but the means of +resistance were inconsiderable, and the old divisions of the Republic +were not so healed as to afford the prospect of the whole national +strength being exerted in its defence. But the public indignation could +brook no delay; several regiments stationed at Pultusk revolted, and +moved toward Galicia; and Kosciuszko, albeit despairing of success, +determined not to be absent in the hour of danger, hastened to Cracow, +where on March 3d he closed the gates and proclaimed the insurrection. + +Having, by means of the regiments which had revolted, and the junction +of some bodies of armed peasants--imperfectly armed, indeed, but full of +enthusiasm--collected a force of five thousand men, Kosciuszko left +Cracow, and boldly advanced into the open country. He encountered a body +of three thousand Russians at Raslowice, and, after an obstinate +engagement, succeeded in routing it with great slaughter. This action, +inconsiderable in itself, had important consequences; the Polish +peasants exchanged their scythes for the arms found on the field of +battle, and the insurrection, encouraged by this first gleam of success, +soon communicated itself to the adjoining provinces. In vain Stanislaus +disavowed the acts of his subjects; the flame of independence spread +with the rapidity of lightning, and soon all the freemen in Poland were +in arms. Warsaw was the first great point where the flame broke out. The +intelligence of the success at Raslowice was received there on April +12th and occasioned the most violent agitation. For some days afterward +it was evident that an explosion was at hand; and at length, at daybreak +on the morning of the 17th, the brigade of Polish guards, under the +direction of their officers, attacked the governor's house and the +arsenal, and was speedily joined by the populace. The Russian and +Prussian troops in the neighborhood of the capital were about seven +thousand men; and after a prolonged and obstinate contest in the streets +for thirty-six hours, they were driven across the Vistula with the loss +of above three thousand men in killed and prisoners, and the flag of +independence was hoisted on the towers of Warsaw. + +One of the most embarrassing circumstances in the situation of the +Russians was the presence of above sixteen thousand Poles in their +ranks, who were known to sympathize strongly with these heroic efforts +of their fellow-citizens. Orders were immediately despatched to Suvaroff +to assemble a corps and disarm the Polish troops scattered in Podolia +before they could unite in any common measures for their defence. By the +energy and activity of this great commander, the Poles were disarmed +brigade after brigade, and above twelve thousand men reduced to a state +of inaction without much difficulty--a most important operation, not +only by destroying the nucleus of a powerful army, but by stifling the +commencement of the insurrection in Volhynia and Podolia. How different +might have been the fate of Poland and Europe had they been enabled to +join the ranks of their countrymen! + +Kosciuszko and his countrymen did everything that courage or energy +could suggest to put on foot a formidable force to resist their +adversaries; a provisional government was established and in a short +time a force of forty thousand men was raised. But this force, though +highly honorable to the patriotism of the Poles, was inconsiderable when +compared with the vast armies which Russia and Prussia could bring up +for their subjugation. Small as the army was, its maintenance was too +great an effort for the resources of the kingdom, which, torn by +intestine factions, without commerce, harbors, or manufactures; having +no national credit, and no industrious class of citizens but the Jews, +now felt the fatal effects of its long career of democratic anarchy. The +population of the country, composed entirely of unruly gentlemen and +ignorant serfs, was totally unable at that time to furnish those +numerous supplies of intelligent officers which are requisite for the +formation of an efficient military force; while the nobility, however +formidable on horseback in the Hungarian or Turkish wars, were less to +be relied on in a contest with regular troops, where infantry and +artillery constituted the great strength of the army, and courage was +unavailing without the aid of science and military discipline. + +The central position of Poland, in the midst of its enemies, would have +afforded great military advantages, had its inhabitants possessed a +force capable of turning it to account; that is, if they had had, like +Frederick the Great in the Seven Years' War, a hundred fifty thousand +regular troops--which the population of the country could easily have +maintained--and a few well-fortified towns, to arrest the enemy in one +quarter, while the bulk of the national force was precipitated upon them +in another. The glorious stand made by the nation in 1831, with only +thirty thousand regular soldiers at the commencement of the +insurrection, and no fortifications but those of Warsaw and Modlin, +proves what immense advantages this central position affords, and what +opportunities it offers to military genius like that of Skrynecki to +inflict the most severe wounds even on a superior and well-conducted +antagonist. But all these advantages were wanting to Kosciuszko; and it +augments our admiration of his talents, and of the heroism of his +countrymen, that with such inconsiderable means they made so honorable a +stand for their national independence. + +No sooner was the King of Prussia informed of the revolution at Warsaw +than he moved forward at the head of thirty thousand men to besiege that +city; while Suvaroff, with forty thousand veterans, was preparing to +enter the southeastern parts of the kingdom. Aware of the necessity of +striking a blow before the enemy's forces were united, Kosciuszko +advanced with twelve thousand men to attack the Russian General, +Denisoff; but, upon approaching his corps, he discovered that it had +united to the army commanded by the King in person. Unable to face such +superior forces, he immediately retired, but was attacked next morning +at daybreak near Sekoczyre by the allies, and after a gallant resistance +his army was routed, and Cracow fell into the hands of the conquerors. +This check was the more severely felt, as about the same time General +Zayonscheck was defeated at Chelne and obliged to recross the Vistula, +leaving the whole country on the right bank of that river in the hands +of the Russians. + +These disasters produced a great impression at Warsaw; the people as +usual ascribed them to treachery, and insisted that the leaders should +be brought to punishment; and although the chiefs escaped, several +persons in an inferior situation were arrested and thrown into prison. +Apprehensive of some subterfuge if the accused were regularly brought to +trial, the burghers assembled in tumultuous bodies, forced the prisons, +erected scaffolds in the streets, and after the manner of the assassins +of September 2d, put above twelve persons to death with their own hands. +These excesses affected with the most profound grief the pure heart of +Kosciuszko; he flew to the capital, restored order, and delivered over +to punishment the leaders of the revolt. But the resources of the +country were evidently unequal to the struggle; the paper money, which +had been issued in their extremity, was at a frightful discount; and the +sacrifices required of the nation were, on that account, the more +severely felt, so that hardly a hope of ultimate success remained. + +The combined Russian and Prussian armies, about thirty-five thousand +strong, now advanced against the capital, where Kosciuszko occupied an +intrenched camp with twenty-five thousand men. During the whole of July +and August the besiegers were engaged in fruitless attempts to drive the +Poles into the city; and at length a great convoy, with artillery and +stores for a regular siege, which was ascending the Vistula, having been +captured by a gentleman named Minewsky at the head of a body of +peasants, the King of Prussia raised the siege, leaving a portion of his +sick and stores in the hands of the patriots. After this success the +insurrection spread immensely and the Poles mustered nearly eighty +thousand men under arms. But they were scattered over too extensive a +line of country in order to make head against their numerous enemies--a +policy tempting by the prospect it holds forth of exciting an extensive +insurrection, but ruinous in the end, by exposing the patriotic forces +to the risk of being beaten in detail. Scarcely had the Poles recovered +from their intoxication at the raising of the siege of Warsaw when +intelligence was received of the defeat of Sizakowsky, who commanded a +corps of ten thousand men beyond the Bug, by the Russian grand army +under Suvaroff. This celebrated General, to whom the principal conduct +of the war was now committed, followed up his successes with the utmost +vigor. The retreating column was again assailed on the 19th by the +victorious Russians, and after a glorious resistance driven into the +woods between Janoff and Biala, with the loss of four thousand men and +twenty-eight pieces of cannon. Scarcely three thousand Poles, with +Sizakowsky at their head, escaped into Siedlice. + +Upon receiving the accounts of this disaster, Kosciuszko resolved, by +drawing together all his detachments, to fall upon Fersen before he +joined Suvaroff and the other corps which were advancing against the +capital. With this view he ordered General Poninsky to join him, and +marched with all his disposable forces to attack the Russian General, +who was stationed at Maccowice; but fortune on this occasion cruelly +deceived the Poles. Arrived in the neighborhood of Fersen's position he +found that Poninsky had not yet come up; and the Russian commander, +overjoyed at this circumstance, resolved immediately to attack him. In +vain Kosciuszko despatched courier after courier to Poninsky to advance +to his relief. The first was intercepted by the Cossacks, and the second +did not reach that leader in time to enable him to take a decisive part +in the approaching combat. Nevertheless the Polish commander, aware of +the danger of retreating with inexperienced troops in presence of a +disciplined and superior enemy, determined to give battle on the +following day, and drew up his little army with as much skill as the +circumstances would admit. + +The forces on the opposite sides in this action, which decided the fate +of Poland, were nearly equal in point of numbers; but the advantages of +discipline and equipment were decisively on the side of the Russians. +Kosciuszko commanded about ten thousand men, a part of whom were +recently raised and imperfectly disciplined; while Fersen was at the +head of twelve thousand veterans, including a most formidable body of +cavalry. Nevertheless, the Poles in the centre and right wing made a +glorious defence; but the left, which Poninsky should have supported, +having been overwhelmed by the cavalry under Denisoff, the whole army +was, after a severe struggle, thrown into confusion. Kosciuszko, +Sizakowsky, and other gallant chiefs in vain made the most heroic +efforts to rally the broken troops. They were wounded, struck down, and +made prisoners by the Cossacks who swarmed over the field of battle; +while the remains of the army, now reduced to seven thousand men, fell +back in confusion toward Warsaw. + +After the fall of Kosciuszko, who sustained in his single person the +fortunes of the Republic, nothing but a series of disasters overtook the +Poles. The Austrians, taking advantage of the general confusion, +entered Galicia, and occupied the palatinates of Lublin and Sandomir; +while Suvaroff, pressing forward toward the capital, defeated +Mokronowsky, who, at the head of twelve thousand men, strove to retard +the advance of that redoubtable commander. In vain the Poles made the +utmost efforts; they were routed with the loss of four thousand men; and +the patriots, though now despairing of success, resolved to sell their +lives dearly, and shut themselves up in Warsaw to await the approach of +the conqueror. Suvaroff was soon at the gates of Praga, the eastern +suburb of that capital, where twenty-six thousand men and one hundred +pieces of cannon defended the bridge of the Vistula and the approach to +the capital. To assault such a position with forces hardly superior was +evidently a hazardous enterprise; but the approach of winter, rendering +it indispensable that if anything was done at all it should be +immediately attempted, Suvaroff, who was habituated to successful +assaults in the Turkish wars, resolved to storm the city. On November 2d +the Russians made their appearance before the glacis of Praga, and +Suvaroff, having in great haste completed three powerful batteries and +breached the defences with imposing celerity, made his dispositions for +a general assault on the following day. + +The conquerors of Ismail advanced to the attack in the same order which +they had adopted on that memorable occasion. Seven columns at daybreak +approached the ramparts, rapidly filled up the ditches with their +fascines, broke down the defences, and pouring into the intrenched camp +carried destruction into the ranks of the Poles. In vain the defenders +did their utmost to resist the torrent. The wooden houses of Praga +speedily took fire, and amid the shouts of the victors and the cries of +the inhabitants the Polish battalions were borne backward to the edge of +the Vistula. The multitude of fugitives speedily broke down the bridges; +and the citizens of Warsaw beheld with unavailing anguish their +defenders on the other side perishing in the flames, or by the sword of +the conquerors. Ten thousand soldiers fell on the spot, nine thousand +were made prisoners, and above twelve thousand citizens, of every age +and sex, were put to the sword--a dreadful instance of carnage which has +left a lasting stain on the name of Suvaroff and which Russia expiated +in the conflagration of Moscow. The tragedy was at an end. Warsaw +capitulated two days afterward; the detached parties of the patriots +melted away, and Poland was no more. On November 6th Suvaroff made his +triumphant entry into the blood-stained capital. King Stanislaus was +sent into Russia, where he ended his days in captivity, and the final +partition of the monarchy was effected. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[45] Thaddeus Kosciuszko was born in 1755, of a poor but noble family, +and received the first elements of his education in the corps of cadets +at Warsaw. There he was early distinguished by his diligence, ability, +and progress in mathematical science, insomuch that he was selected as +one of the four students annually chosen at that institution to travel +at the expense of the State. He went abroad, accordingly, and spent +several years in France, chiefly engaged in military studies; from +whence he returned in 1778, with ideas of freedom and independence +unhappily far in advance of his country at that period. As war did not +seem likely at that period in the north of Europe, he set sail for +America, then beginning the War of Independence, and was employed by +Washington as his adjutant, and distinguished himself greatly in that +contest beside Lafayette, Lameth, Dumas, and so many of the other ardent +and enthusiastic spirits from the Old World. He returned to Europe on +the termination of the war, decorated with the order of Cincinnatus, and +lived in retirement till 1789, when, as King Stanislaus was adopting +some steps with a view to the assertion of national independence, he was +appointed major-general by the Polish Diet. In 1791 he joined with +enthusiasm in the formation of the Constitution which was proclaimed on +May 5th of that year.--ED. + + + + +THE RISE OF NAPOLEON + +THE FRENCH CONQUEST OF ITALY + +A.D. 1796 + +SIR WALTER SCOTT + + Napoleon, regarded by many as the most remarkable man of + modern times, took control of the forces of the French + Revolution and directed them toward purposes little dreamed + of by the earlier leaders of the uprising. The excesses of + the Reign of Terror had caused such a reaction that even in + Paris men began to talk of restoring the monarchy, and in + 1795 a new tumult began, due in part to the efforts of the + Royalists. Once more a mob marched against the hall of the + National Convention; and the general of the national troops + in the city, uncertain what to do, gladly left affairs in + the hands of a subordinate, one of the few remaining French + officers who had received a regular military training under + the old _régime_. This lesser general, a young man of + twenty-six, was Napoleon Bonaparte, who had already won + repute as a military engineer. Bonaparte met the mob as no + Paris mob had yet been met. He had a row of cannon loaded + with grape-shot, and these were fired to kill. Many of the + rabble fell, the rest fled in dismay. "That whiff of + grape-shot," says Carlyle, "ended the Revolution." + + Bonaparte, made much of by the Convention he had defended, + was appointed commander of the army fighting on the Italian + frontier. Ever since Valmy, Revolutionary France had been + compelled to defend herself against civil war within and the + attacks of the foreign monarchs, friends and relatives of + Louis XVI, from without. The tremendous energy of her + aroused people had made her equal to the task. She had + conquered Holland and the German lands west of the Rhine, + she had forced both Prussia and Spain to sue for peace. But + England from her island throne, and Austria, the most + powerful of France's continental foes, the most closely + related to the murdered Queen Marie Antoinette, were still + threatening the French borders. The Austrians held most of + Italy and it was against them that Napoleon was despatched. + He was the first to carry the war away from the French + border line and into the heart of the countries of her foes. + + France was starving; and Napoleon from the treasuries of + Italy sent her unlimited supplies; sent her splendid works + of art. No wonder the impoverished people hailed him with + delight as their preserver. No wonder the purer aspirations + after liberty perished in the passion for conquest, spoils, + and that Frenchest of French vanities, "_la gloire_." + + +Napoleon has himself observed that no country in the world is more +distinctly marked out by its natural boundaries than Italy. The Alps +seem a barrier erected by nature herself, on which she has inscribed in +gigantic characters "Here let ambition be staid." Yet this tremendous +circumvallation of mountains, as it could not prevent the ancient Romans +from breaking out to desolate the world, so it has been in like manner +found, ever since the days of Hannibal, unequal to protect Italy herself +from invasion. The French nation, in the times of which we treat, spoke +indeed of the Alps as a natural boundary, so far as to authorize them to +claim all which lay on the western side of these mountains, as naturally +pertaining to their dominions; but they never deigned to respect them as +such when the question respected their invading, on their own part, the +territories of other states which lay on or beyond the formidable +frontier. They assumed the law of natural limits as an unchallengeable +rule when it made in favor of France, but never allowed it to be quoted +against her interest. + +During the Revolutionary War, the general fortune of battle had varied +from time to time in the neighborhood of these mighty boundaries. The +King of Sardinia possessed almost all the fortresses which command the +passes on these mountains, and had therefore been said to wear the keys +of the Alps at his girdle. He had indeed lost his dukedom of Savoy, and +the county of Nice, in the last campaign; but he still maintained in +opposition to the French a very considerable army, and was supported by +his powerful ally the Emperor of Austria, always vigilant regarding that +rich and beautiful portion of his dominions which lies in the North of +Italy. The frontiers of Piedmont were therefore covered by a strong +Austro-Sardinian army, opposed to the French armies to which Napoleon +had been just named commander-in-chief. A strong Neapolitan force was +also to be added, so that in general numbers their opponents were much +superior to the French; but a great part of this force was cooped up in +garrisons which could not be abandoned. + +It may be imagined with what delight the General, scarce aged +twenty-six, advanced to an independent field of glory and conquest, +confident in his own powers, and in the perfect knowledge of the country +which he had acquired, when, by his scientific plans of the campaign, +he had enabled General Dumorbion to drive the Austrians back, and obtain +possession of the Col di Tenda, Saorgio, and the gorges of the higher +Alps. Bonaparte's achievements had hitherto been under the auspices of +others. He made the dispositions before Toulon, but it was Dugommier who +had the credit of taking the place. Dumorbion, as we have just said, +obtained the merit of the advantages in Piedmont. Even in the civil +turmoil of 13th Vendémiaire, his actual services had been overshaded by +the official dignity of Barras, as commander-in-chief. But if he reaped +honor in Italy the success would be exclusively his own; and that proud +heart must have throbbed to meet danger upon such terms; that keen +spirit have toiled to discover the means of success. + +For victory, he relied chiefly upon a system of tactics hitherto +unpractised in war, or at least upon any considerable or uniform scale. +As war becomes a profession, and a subject of deep study, it is +gradually discovered that the principles of tactics depend upon +mathematical and arithmetical science; and that the commander will be +victorious who can assemble the greatest number of forces upon the same +point at the same moment, notwithstanding an inferiority of numbers to +the enemy when the general force is computed on both sides. + +No man ever possessed in a greater degree than Bonaparte the power of +calculation and combination necessary for directing such decisive +manoeuvres. It constituted indeed his secret--as it was for some time +called--and that secret consisted in an imagination fertile in +expedients which would never have occurred to others; clearness and +precision in forming his plans; a mode of directing with certainty the +separate moving columns which were to execute them, by arranging so that +each division should arrive on the destined position at the exact time +when their service was necessary; and above all, in the knowledge which +enabled such a master-spirit to choose the most fitting subordinate +implements, to attach them to his person, and by explaining to them so +much of his plan as it was necessary each should execute, to secure the +exertion of their utmost ability in carrying it into effect. + +Thus, not only were his manoeuvres, however daring, executed with a +precision which warlike operations had not attained before his time; but +they were also performed with a celerity which gave them almost the +effect of surprise. Napoleon was like lightning in the eyes of his +enemies; and when repeated experience had taught them to expect this +portentous rapidity of movement, it sometimes induced his opponents to +wait in a dubious and hesitating posture for attacks, which, with less +apprehension of their antagonist, they would have thought it more +prudent to frustrate and to anticipate. + +The forces which Bonaparte had under his command were between fifty and +sixty thousand good troops, having, many of them, been brought from the +Spanish campaign in consequence of the peace with that country; but very +indifferently provided with clothing, and suffering from the hardships +they had endured in those mountains, barren and cold regions. The +cavalry, in particular, were in very poor order; but the nature of their +new field of action not admitting of their being much employed, rendered +this of less consequence. The misery of the French army, until these +Alpine campaigns were victoriously closed by the armistice of Cherasco, +could, according to Bonaparte's authority, scarce bear description. The +officers for several years had received no more than eight livres a +month (twenty-pence sterling a week) in name of pay, and staff-officers +had not among them a single horse. Berthier preserved, as a curiosity, +an order dated on the day of the victory of Albenga, which munificently +conferred a gratuity of three louis d'ors upon every general of +division. Among the generals to whom this donation was rendered +acceptable by their wants were, or might have been, many whose names +became afterward the praise and dread of war. Augereau, Masséna, +Serrurier, Joubert, Lannes, and Murat, all generals of the first +consideration, served under Bonaparte in the Italian campaign. + +The plan of crossing the Alps and marching into Italy suited in every +respect the ambitious and self-confident character of the General to +whom it was now intrusted. It gave him a separate and independent +authority, and the power of acting on his own judgment and +responsibility; for his countryman Salicetti, the deputy who accompanied +him as commissioner of the Government, was not probably much disposed to +intrude his opinions. He had been Bonaparte's patron, and was still his +friend. The young General's mind was made up to the alternative of +conquest or ruin, as may be judged from his words to a friend at taking +leave of him. "In three months," he said, "I will be either at Milan or +at Paris;" intimating at once his desperate resolution to succeed, and +his sense that the disappointment of all his prospects must be the +consequence of a failure. + +With the same view of animating his followers to ambitious hopes, he +addressed the Army of Italy to the following purpose: "Soldiers, you are +hungry and naked; the Republic owes you much, but she has not the means +to acquit herself of her debts. The patience with which you support your +hardships among these barren rocks is admirable, but it cannot procure +you glory. I am come to lead you into the most fertile plains that the +sun beholds: rich provinces, opulent towns; all shall be at your +disposal. Soldiers, with such a prospect before you, can you fail in +courage and constancy?" This was showing the deer to the hound when the +leash is about to be slipped. + +The Austro-Sardinian army, to which Bonaparte was opposed, was commanded +by Beaulieu, an Austrian general of great experience and some talent, +but no less than seventy-five years old; accustomed all his life to the +ancient rules of tactics, and unlikely to suspect, anticipate, or +frustrate those plans formed by a genius so fertile as that of Napoleon. + +Bonaparte's plan for entering Italy differed from that of former +conquerors and invaders, who had approached that fine country by +penetrating or surmounting at some point or other her Alpine barriers. +This inventive warrior resolved to attain the same object by turning +round the southern extremity of the Alpine range, keeping as close as +possible to the shores of the Mediterranean, and passing through the +Genoese territory by the narrow pass called the Boccheta, leading around +the extremity of the mountains, and betwixt these and the sea. Thus he +proposed to penetrate into Italy by the lowest level which the surface +of the country presented, which must be of course where the range of the +Alps unites with that of the Apennines. The point of junction where +these two immense ranges of mountains touch upon each other is at the +heights of Mount St. Jacques, above Genoa, where the Alps, running +northwestward, ascend to Mont Blanc, their highest peak, and the +Appenines, running to the southeast, gradually elevate themselves to +Monte Velino, the tallest mountain of the range. + +To attain this object of turning the Alps in the manner proposed, it was +necessary that Bonaparte should totally change the situation of his +army; those occupying a defensive line, running north and south, being +to assume an offensive position, extending east and west. Speaking of an +army as of a battalion, he was to form into column upon the right of the +line which he had hitherto occupied. This was an extremely delicate +operation to be undertaken in presence of an active enemy, his superior +in numbers; nor was he permitted to execute it uninterrupted. + +No sooner did Beaulieu learn that the French General was concentrating +his forces, and about to change his position, than he hastened to +preserve Genoa, without possession of which, or at least of the adjacent +territory, Bonaparte's scheme of advance could scarce have been +accomplished. The Austrian divided his army into three bodies. Colli, at +the head of a Sardinian division, he stationed on the extreme right at +Ceva; his centre division, under D'Argenteau, having its head at +Sasiello, had directions to march on a mountain called Monte Notte, with +two villages of the same name, near to which was a strong position at a +place called Montelegino, which the French had occupied in order to +cover their flank during their march toward the east. + +At the head of his left wing, Beaulieu himself moved from Novi upon +Voltri, a small town nine miles west of Genoa, for the protection of +that ancient city, whose independence and neutrality were like to be +held in little reverence. Thus it appears, that while the French were +endeavoring to penetrate into Italy by an advance from Sardinia by the +way of Genoa, their line of march was threatened by three armies of +Austro-Sardinians, descending from the skirts of the Alps, and menacing +to attack their flank. But, though a skilful disposition, Beaulieu's +had, from the very mountainous character of the country, the great +disadvantage of wanting connection between the three separate divisions; +neither, if needful, could they be easily united on any point desired, +while the lower line, on which the French moved, permitted constant +communication and coöperation. + +On April 10, 1796, D'Argenteau, with the central division of the +Austro-Sardinian army, descended upon Monte Notte, while Beaulieu on +the left attacked the van of the French army, which had come as far as +Voltri. General Cervoni, commanding the French division which sustained +the attack of Beaulieu, was compelled to fall back on the main body of +his countrymen; and had the assault of D'Argenteau been equally +animated, or equally successful, the fame of Bonaparte might have been +stifled in its birth. But Colonel Rampon, a French officer, who +commanded the redoubts near Montelegino, stopped the progress of +D'Argenteau by the most determined resistance. At the head of not more +than fifteen hundred men, whom he inspired with his own courage, and +caused to swear to maintain their post or die there, he continued to +defend the redoubts, during the whole of the 11th, until D'Argenteau, +whose conduct was afterward greatly blamed for not making more +determined efforts to carry them, drew off his forces for the evening, +intending to renew the attack next morning. + +But on the morning of the 12th, the Austrian General found himself +surrounded with enemies. Cervoni, who retreated before Beaulieu, had +united himself with La Harpe, and both advancing northward during the +night of the 11th, established themselves in the rear of the redoubts of +Montelegino, which Rampon had so gallantly defended. This was not all. +The divisions of Augereau and Masséna had marched, by different routes, +on the flank and on the rear of D'Argenteau's column; so that next +morning, instead of renewing his attack on the redoubts, the Austrian +General was obliged to extricate himself by a disastrous retreat, +leaving behind him colors and cannon, a thousand slain, and two thousand +prisoners. + +Such was the Battle of Monte Notte, the first of Bonaparte's victories; +eminently displaying the truth and mathematical certainty of +combination, which enabled him on many more memorable occasions, even +when his forces were inferior in numbers, and apparently disunited in +position, suddenly to concentrate them and defeat his enemy, by +overpowering him on the very point where he thought himself strongest. +He had accumulated a superior force on the Austrian centre, and +destroyed it, while Colli, on the right, and Beaulieu himself, on the +left, each at the head of numerous forces, did not even hear of the +action till it was fought and won. In consequence of the success at +Monte Notte, and the close pursuit of the defeated Austrians, the +French obtained possession of Cairo, which placed them on that side of +the Alps which slopes toward Lombardy, and where the streams from these +mountains run to join the Po. + +Beaulieu had advanced to Voltri, while the French withdrew to unite +themselves in the attack upon D'Argenteau. He had now to retreat +northward with all haste to Dego, in the valley of the river Bormida, in +order to resume communication with the right wing of his army, +consisting chiefly of Sardinians, from which he was now nearly separated +by the defeat of the centre. General Colli, by a corresponding movement +on the left, occupied Millesimo, a small town about nine miles from +Dego, with which he resumed and maintained communication by a brigade +stationed on the heights of Biastro. From the strength of this position, +though his forces were scarce sufficiently concentrated, Beaulieu hoped +to maintain his ground till he should receive supplies from Lombardy, +and recover the consequences of the defeat at Monte Notte. But the +antagonist whom he had in front had no purpose of permitting him such +respite. + +Determined upon a general attack on all points of the Austrian position, +the French army advanced in three bodies upon a space of four leagues in +extent. Augereau, at the head of the division which had not fought at +Monte Notte, advanced on the left against Millesimo; the centre, under +Masséna, directed themselves upon Dego, by the vale of the Bormida; the +right wing, commanded by La Harpe, manoeuvred on the right of all, for +the purpose of turning Beaulieu's left flank. Augereau was the first who +came in contact with the enemy. He attacked General Colli, April 13th. +His troops, emulous of the honor acquired by their companions, behaved +with great bravery, rushed upon the outposts of the Sardinian army at +Millesimo, forced and retained possession of the gorge by which it was +defended, and thus separated from the Sardinian army a body of about two +thousand men, under the Austrian General Provera, who occupied a +detached eminence called Cossaria, which covered the extreme left of +General Colli's position. But the Austrian showed the most obstinate +courage. Although surrounded by the enemy, he threw himself into the +ruinous castle of Cossaria, which crowned the eminence, and showed a +disposition to maintain the place to the last; the rather that, as he +could see from the turrets of his stronghold the Sardinian troops, from +whom he had been separated, preparing to fight on the ensuing day, he +might reasonably hope to be disengaged. + +Bonaparte in person came up; and seeing the necessity of dislodging the +enemy from his strong post, ordered three successive attacks to be made +on the castle. Joubert, at the head of one of the attacking columns, had +actually, with six or seven others, made his way into the outworks, when +he was struck down by a wound in the head. General Banal and +Adjutant-General Quenin fell, each at the head of the column which he +commanded; and Bonaparte was compelled to leave the obstinate Provera in +possession of the castle for the night. The morning of the 14th brought +a different scene. Contenting himself with blockading the castle of +Cossaria, Bonaparte now gave battle to General Colli, who made every +effort to relieve it. These attempts were all in vain. He was defeated +and cut off from Beaulieu; he retired as well as he could upon Ceva, +leaving to his fate the brave General Provera, who was compelled to +surrender at discretion. + +On the same day, Masséna, with the centre, attacked the heights of +Biastro, being the point of communication betwixt Beaulieu and Colli, +while La Harpe, having crossed the Bormida, where the stream came up to +the soldiers' middle, attacked in front and in flank the village of +Dego, where the Austrian Commander-in-Chief was stationed. The first +attack was completely successful--the heights of Biastro were carried, +and the Piedmontese routed. The assault of Dego was not less so, +although after a harder struggle. Beaulieu was compelled to retreat, and +was entirely separated from the Sardinians, who had hitherto acted in +combination with him. The defenders of Italy now retreated in different +directions, Colli moving westward toward Ceva, while Beaulieu, closely +pursued through a difficult country, retired upon D'Aqui. + +Even the morning after the victory, it was nearly wrested out of the +hands of the conquerors. A fresh division of Austrians, who had +evacuated Voltri later than the others, and were approaching to form a +junction with their General, found the enemy in possession of Beaulieu's +position. They arrived at Dego like men who had been led astray, and +were no doubt surprised at finding it in the hands of the French. Yet +they did not hesitate to assume the offensive, and by a brisk attack +drove out the enemy, and replaced the Austrian eagles in the village. +Great alarm was occasioned by this sudden apparition; for no one among +the French could conceive the meaning of an alarm beginning on the +opposite quarter to that on which the enemy had retreated, and without +its being announced from the outposts toward D'Aqui. + +Bonaparte hastily marched on the village. The Austrians repelled two +attacks; at the third, General Lanusse, afterward killed in Egypt, put +his hat upon the point of his sword, and advancing to the charge +penetrated into the place. Lannes also, afterward Duke of Montebello, +distinguished himself on the same occasion by courage and military +skill, and was recommended by Bonaparte to the Directory for promotion. +In this Battle of Dego, more commonly called of Millesimo, the +Austro-Sardinian army lost five or six thousand men, thirty pieces of +cannon, with a great quantity of baggage. Besides, the Austrians were +divided from the Sardinians; and the two generals began to show not only +that their forces were disunited, but that they themselves were acting +upon separate motives; the Sardinians desiring to protect Turin, whereas +the movements of Beaulieu seemed still directed to prevent the French +from entering the Milanese territory. + +Leaving a sufficient force on the Bormida to keep in check Beaulieu, +Bonaparte now turned his strength against Colli, who, overpowered, and +without hopes of succor, abandoned his line of defence near Ceva, and +retreated to the line of the Tanaro. + +Napoleon in the mean time fixed his head-quarters at Ceva, and enjoyed +from the heights of Montezemoto the splendid view of the fertile fields +of Piedmont, stretching in boundless perspective beneath his feet, +watered by the Po, the Tanaro, and a thousand other streams which +descended from the Alps. Before the eyes of the delighted army of +victors lay this rich expanse like a promised land; behind them was the +wilderness they had passed--not indeed a desert of barren sand, similar +to that in which the Israelites wandered, but a huge tract of rocks and +inaccessible mountains, crested with ice and snow, seeming by nature +designed as the barrier and rampart of the blessed regions, which +stretched eastward beneath them. We can sympathize with the +self-congratulation of the General who had surmounted such tremendous +obstacles in a way so unusual. He said to the officers around him, as +they gazed upon this magnificent scene, "Hannibal took the Alps by +storm. We have succeeded as well by turning their flank." + +The dispirited army of Colli was attacked at Mondovi during his retreat +by two corps of Bonaparte's army from two different points, commanded by +Masséna and Serrurier. The last General the Sardinian repulsed with +loss; but when he found Masséna, in the mean time, was turning the left +of his line, and that he was thus pressed on both flanks, his situation +became almost desperate. The cavalry of the Piedmontese made an effort +to renew the combat. For a time they overpowered and drove back those of +the French; and General Stengel, who commanded the latter, was slain in +attempting to get them into order. But the desperate valor of Murat, +unrivalled perhaps in the heady charge of cavalry combat, renewed the +fortune of the field; and the horse, as well as the infantry of Colli's +army, were compelled to a disastrous retreat. The defeat was decisive; +and the Sardinians, after the loss of the best of their troops, their +cannon, baggage, and appointments, and being now totally divided from +their Austrian allies, and liable to be overpowered by the united forces +of the French army, had no longer hopes of effectually covering Turin. +Bonaparte, pursuing his victory, took possession of Cherasco, within ten +leagues of the Piedmontese capital. + +Thus Fortune, in the course of a campaign of scarce a month, placed her +favorite in full possession of the desired road to Italy, by command of +the mountain-passes, which had been invaded and conquered with so much +military skill. He had gained three battles over forces far superior to +his own; inflicted on the enemy a loss of twenty-five thousand men in +killed, wounded, and prisoners; taken eighty pieces of cannon, and +twenty-one stands of colors; reduced to inaction the Austrian army; +almost annihilated that of Sardinia; and stood in full communication +with France upon the eastern side of the Alps, with Italy lying open +before him, as if to invite his invasion. But it was not even with such +laurels, and with facilities which now presented themselves for the +accomplishment of new and more important victories upon a larger scale, +and with more magnificent results, that the career of Bonaparte's +earliest campaign was to be closed. The head of the royal house of +Savoy, if not one of the most powerful, still one of the most +distinguished in Europe, was to have the melancholy experience, that he +had encountered with the "Man of Destiny," as he was afterward proudly +called, who, for a time, had power, in the emphatic phrase of Scripture, +"to bind kings with chains, and nobles with fetters of iron." + +The shattered relics of the Sardinian army had fallen back, or rather +fled, to within two leagues of Turin, without hope of being again able +to make an effectual stand. The sovereign of Sardinia, Savoy, and +Piedmont had no means of preserving his capital, nay, his existence on +the Continent, excepting by an almost total submission to the will of +the victor. Let it be remembered, that Victor Amadeus III was the +descendant of a race of heroes, who, from the peculiar situation of +their territories, as constituting a neutral ground of great strength +betwixt France and the Italian possessions of Austria, had often been +called on to play a part in the general affairs of Europe, of importance +far superior to that which their condition as a second-rate power could +otherwise have demanded. In general, they had compensated their +inferiority of force by an ability and gallantry which did them the +highest credit, both as generals and as politicians; and now Piedmont +was at the feet, in her turn, of an enemy weaker in numbers than her +own. Besides the reflections on the past fame of his country, the +present humiliating situation of the King was rendered more mortifying +by the state of his family connections. + +Victor Amadeus was the father-in-law of "Monsieur" (by right Louis +XVIII), and of the Comte d'Artois, the reigning King of France. He had +received his sons-in-law at his court at Turin, had afforded them an +opportunity of assembling around them their forces, consisting of the +emigrant _noblesse_, and had strained all the power he possessed, and in +many instances successfully, to withstand both the artifices and the +arms of the French Republicans. And now, so born, so connected, and with +such principles, he was condemned to sue for peace on any terms which +might be dictated, from a general of France aged twenty-six years, who, +a few months before, was desirous of an appointment in the artillery +service of the Grand Seignior! + +An armistice was requested by the King of Sardinia under these +afflicting circumstances, but could only be purchased by placing two of +his strongest fortresses--those keys of the Alps, of which his ancestors +had long been the keepers--Coni and Tortona, in the hands of the French, +and thus acknowledging that he surrendered at discretion. The armistice +was agreed on at Cherasco, but commissioners were sent by the King to +Paris, to arrange with the Directory the final terms of peace. These +were such as victors give to the vanquished. + +Besides the fortresses already surrendered, the King of Sardinia was to +place in the hands of the French five others of the first importance. +The road from France to Italy was to be at all times open to the French +armies; and indeed the King, by surrender of the places mentioned, had +lost the power of interrupting their progress. He was to break off every +species of alliance and connection with the combined powers at war with +France, and become bound not to entertain at his court, or in his +service, any French emigrants whatsoever, or any of their connections; +nor was an exception even made in favor of his own two daughters. In +short, the surrender was absolute. Victor Amadeus exhibited the utmost +reluctance to subscribe this treaty, and did not long survive it. His +son succeeded in name to the kingdom of Piedmont; but the fortresses and +passes which had rendered him a prince of some importance were, +excepting Turin and one or two of minor consequence, all surrendered +into the hands of the French. + +Viewing this treaty with Sardinia as the close of the Piedmontese +campaign, we pause to consider the character which Bonaparte displayed +at that period. The talents as a general which he had exhibited were of +the very first order. There was no disconnection in his objects, they +were all attained by the very means he proposed, and the success was +improved to the utmost. A different conduct usually characterizes those +who stumble unexpectedly on victory, either by good-fortune or by the +valor of their troops. When the favorable opportunity occurs to such +leaders, they are nearly as much embarrassed by it as by a defeat. But +Bonaparte, who had foreseen the result of each operation by his +sagacity, stood also prepared to make the most of the advantages which +might be derived from it. + +His style in addressing the Convention was, at this period, more modest +and simple, and therefore more impressive, than the figurative and +bombastic style which he afterward used in his bulletins. His +self-opinion, perhaps, was not risen so high as to permit him to use the +sesquipedalian words and violent metaphors, to which he afterward seems +to have given a preference. We may remark also, that the young victor +was honorably anxious to secure for such officers as distinguished +themselves the preferment which their services entitled them to. He +urges the promotion of his brethren-in-arms in almost every one of his +despatches--a conduct not only just and generous, but also highly +politic. Were his recommendations successful, their General had the +gratitude due for the benefit; were they overlooked, thanks equally +belonged to him for his good wishes, and the resentment for the slight +attached itself to the Government who did not give effect to them. + + + + +OVERTHROW OF THE MAMELUKES + +THE BATTLE OF THE NILE + +A.D. 1798 + +CHARLES KNIGHT + + Napoleon's Italian victories forced even Austria to seek + peace and acquiesce in the extension of the French Republic + to the Rhine and over a considerable part of Italy. The + Continent was for a moment at peace, only England remaining + in open hostility to France. A great invasion was planned to + subdue the island kingdom, but Britain felt secure in the + power of her ships which had repeatedly defeated those of + France, Spain, and Holland. + + The French Government, which had gradually gathered a strong + fleet on the Mediterranean, now at Bonaparte's urgency + undertook what has often been regarded as the rather + visionary attempt of conquering Egypt, perhaps expecting to + extend French power over all Asia and so destroy British + trade, the source of Britain's wealth. Egypt was nominally + subject to Turkey, but was really ruled by the Mamelukes, an + aristocracy of soldiers who had held the land for centuries. + + Nelson, the English admiral, despatched to discover and + defeat the French fleet, is England's greatest naval hero. + He had already won renown as second in command in an + important victory over the Spaniards off Cape St. Vincent. + The Battle of the Nile was the first of his three most + celebrated achievements, the others being the defeat of the + Danes at Copenhagen[46] and then the final destruction of + the French and Spanish fleets at Trafalgar. + + +Bonaparte with great difficulty persuaded the Directory to postpone +their scheme for the invasion of the British Islands, and to permit him +to embark an army for Egypt, the possession of which country, he +maintained, would open to France the commerce of the East, and prepare +the way for the conquest of India. Having subdued Egypt, he would return +before another winter to plant the tricolor on the Tower of London. In +April, Bonaparte was appointed general-in-chief of the Army of the East. +The secret had been well kept. + +The French fleet under Admiral Brueys was in the harbor of Toulon, +ready to sail upon its secret destination. Something different from the +invasion of England was in contemplation; for on board the admiral's +ship, L'Orient, were a hundred literary men and artists, mathematicians +and naturalists, who were certainly not required to enlighten the French +upon the native productions or the antiquities of the British Isles. +Bonaparte arrived at Toulon on May 9th, and issued one of his +grandiloquent proclamations to his troops. The armament consisted of +thirteen ships of the line, many frigates and corvettes, and four +hundred transports. The army, which it was to carry to some unknown +shore, consisted of forty thousand men. On May 19th this formidable +expedition left the great French harbor of the Mediterranean. + +On the day when Bonaparte arrived at Toulon, Nelson had sailed from +Gibraltar, with three seventy-fours, four frigates, and a sloop, to +watch the movements of the enemy. Since the most daring of British naval +commanders had fought in the Battle of St. Vincent, he had lost an arm +in an unsuccessful attack upon the island of Teneriffe. For some time +his spirit was depressed, and he thought that a left-handed admiral +could never again be useful. He had lost also his right eye, and was +severely wounded in his body. But he had not lost that indomitable +spirit which rose superior to wounds and weakness of constitution. He +rested some time at home; and then, early in 1798, sailed in the +Vanguard to join the fleet under Lord St. Vincent. The Admiralty had +suggested, and Lord St. Vincent had previously determined, that a +detachment of the squadron blockading the Spanish fleet should sail to +the Mediterranean, under the command of Nelson. The seniors of the fleet +were offended at this preference of a junior officer; and men of routine +at home shrugged their shoulders, and feared, with the cold Lord +Grenville, that Nelson "will do something _too_ desperate." He was not +stinted in his means, being finally reënforced with ten of the best +ships of St. Vincent's fleet. + +The first operation of Bonaparte was the seizure of Malta. His fleet was +in sight of the island on June 9th. He had other weapons than his cannon +for the reduction of a place deemed impregnable. The Order of St. John +of Jerusalem had held the real sovereignty of the island since 1530. +These Knights of Malta, powerful at sea, had formed one of the bulwarks +of Christendom against the Ottomans. They had gradually lost their +warlike prowess as well at their religious austerity; and Malta, +protected by its fortifications, became the seat of luxury for this last +of the monastic military orders whose occupation was gone. Bonaparte had +confiscated their property in Italy; and he had sent a skilful agent to +the island to sow dissensions among the Knights, and thus to prepare the +way for the fall of the community. There were many French knights among +them, to whom the principal military commands had been intrusted by the +grand master, a weak German. + +Bonaparte, on June 9th, sent a demand to the grand master, that his +whole fleet should be permitted to enter the great harbor for the +purpose of taking in water. The reply was that, according to the rules +of the Order, only two ships, or at most four, could be allowed to enter +the port at one time. The answer was interpreted as equivalent to a +declaration of hostility; and Bonaparte issued orders that the army +should disembark the next morning on the coasts of the island wherever a +landing could be effected. The island was taken almost without +opposition; the French Knights declaring that they would not fight +against their countrymen. On June 13th, the French were put in +possession of La Valletta and the surrounding forts. Bonaparte made all +sorts of promises of compensation to the recreant Knights, which the +Directory were not very careful to keep. He landed to examine his prize, +when General Caffarelli, who accompanied him, said, "We are very lucky +that there was somebody in the place to open the doors for us." + +Leaving a garrison to occupy the new possession, the French sailed away +on the 20th, with all the gold and silver of the treasury, and all the +plate of the churches and religious houses. "The essential point now," +says Thiers, "was not to encounter the English fleet"; nevertheless, he +adds, "nobody was afraid of the encounter." Nelson was at Naples on the +day when Bonaparte quitted Malta. He immediately sailed. On the 22d, at +night, the two fleets crossed each other's track unperceived, between +Cape Mesurado and the mouth of the Adriatic. The frigates of the British +fleet had been separated from the main body, and thus Nelson had no +certain intelligence. His sagacity made him conjecture that the +destination of the armament was Egypt. He made the most direct course to +Alexandria, which he reached on the 28th. No enemy was there, and no +tidings could be obtained of them. On the morning of July 1st, Admiral +Brueys was off the same port, and learned that Nelson had sailed away in +search of him. Bonaparte demanded that he should be landed at some +distance from Alexandria, for preparations appeared for the defence of +the ancient city. As he and several thousand troops who followed him +reached the shore in boats, a vessel appeared in sight, and the cry went +forth that it was an English sail. "Fortune," he exclaimed, "dost thou +abandon me? Give me only five days!" A French frigate was the cause of +the momentary alarm. Nelson had returned to Sicily. + +The Sultan was at peace with France; a French minister was at +Constantinople. Such trifling formalities in the laws of nations were +little respected by the man who told his soldiers that "the genius of +Liberty having rendered the Republic the arbiter of Europe, had assigned +to her the same power over the seas and over the most distant nations." +Four thousand of the French army were landed, and marched in three +columns to the attack of Alexandria. It was quickly taken by assault. +Bonaparte announced that he came neither to ravage the country nor to +question the authority of the Grand Seignior, but to put down the +domination of the Mamelukes, who tyrannized over the people by the +authority of the beys. He proclaimed to the population of Egypt, in +magnificent language that he caused to be translated into Arabic, that +he came not to destroy their religion. We Frenchmen are true Mussulmans. +Have not we destroyed the pope, who called upon Europe to make war upon +Mussulmans? Have not we destroyed the Knights of Malta, because these +madmen believed that God had called them to make war upon Mussulmans? + +Leaving a garrison of three thousand men in Alexandria, the main army +commenced its march to Cairo. Bonaparte was anxious to arrive there +before the periodical inundation of the Nile. The fleet of Brueys +remained at anchor in the road of Abukir. Bonaparte chose the shorter +route to Cairo through the desert of Damanhour, leading thirty thousand +men--to each of whom he had promised to grant seven acres of fertile +land in the conquered territories--through plains of sand without a drop +of water. They murmured, and almost mutinied, but they endured, and at +length reached the banks of the Nile, at Rahmaniyeh, where a flotilla, +laden with provisions, baggage, and artillery, awaited them. The +Mamelukes, with Amurath Bey at their head, were around the French. The +invaders had to fight with enemies who came upon them in detachments, +gave a fierce assault, and then fled. As they approached the great +Pyramids of Gizeh, they found an enemy more formidable than these +scattered bands. Amurath Bey was encamped with twelve thousand Mamelukes +and eight thousand mounted Bedouins, on the west bank of the Nile, and +opposite Cairo. + +The French looked upon the great entrepôt, where the soldiers expected +to find the gorgeous palaces and the rich bazaars of which some had read +in Galland's _Arabian Nights_, whose tales they had recounted to their +comrades on their dreary march under a burning sun. They had to sustain +the attack of Amurath and his Mamelukes, who came upon them with the +fury of a tempest. In the East, Bonaparte was ever in his altitudes; and +he now pointed to the Pyramids, and exclaimed to his soldiers, "Forty +centuries look down upon you." The chief attack of the Mamelukes was +upon a square which Desaix commanded. In spite of the desperate courage +of this formidable cavalry, the steadiness of the disciplined soldiery +of the army of Italy repelled every assault; and after a tremendous loss +Amurath Bey retreated toward Upper Egypt. His intrenched camp was +forced, amid a fearful carnage. The conquerors had no difficulty in +obtaining possession of Cairo. + +Ibrahim Bey evacuated the city, which on July 25th Bonaparte entered. +His policy now was to conciliate the people instead of oppressing them. +He addressed himself to the principal sheiks, and obtained from them a +declaration in favor of the French. It went forth with the same +authority among the Mussulmans as a brief of the pope addressed to Roman +Catholics. In the grand mosque a litany was sung to the glory of "the +Favorite of Victory, who at the head of the valiant of the West has +destroyed the infantry and the horse of the Mamelukes." A few weeks +later "the Favorite of Victory" was seated in the grand mosque at the +"Feast of the Prophets," sitting cross-legged as he repeated the words +of the _Koran_, and edifying the sacred college by his piety. + +From the beginning to the end of July, Mr. Pitt was waiting with anxious +expectation for news from the Mediterranean. During this suspense he +wrote to the Speaker that he "could not be quite sure of keeping any +engagement he might make." It was not till September 26th that the +English Government knew the actual result of the toils and +disappointments to which Nelson had been subjected. When it was known in +England that he had been to Egypt and had returned to Sicily, the +journalists talked of naval mismanagement; and worn out captains who +were hanging about the Admiralty asking for employment marvelled at the +rashness of Lord St. Vincent in sending so young a commander upon so +great an enterprise. + +The Neapolitan Ministry, dreading to offend the French Directory, +refused Nelson the supplies of provision and water which he required +before he again started in pursuit of the fleet which "Cæsar and his +fortune bare at once." Sir William Hamilton was our minister at Naples; +his wife was the favorite of the Queen of Naples, and one of the most +attractive of the ladies of that luxurious court. Nelson had a slight +acquaintance with Lady Hamilton; and upon his representations of the +urgent necessity for victualling his fleet, secret instructions were +given that he should be supplied with all he required. In 1805 Nelson +requested Mr. Rose to urge upon Mr. Pitt the claims of Lady Hamilton +upon the national gratitude, because "it was through her interposition, +exclusively, he obtained provisions and water for the English ships at +Syracuse, in the summer of 1798; by which he was enabled to return to +Egypt in quest of the enemy's fleet; to which, therefore, the success of +his brilliant action of the Nile was owing, as he must otherwise have +gone down to Gibraltar to refit, and the enemy would have escaped." + +On July 25th Nelson sailed from Syracuse. It was three days before he +gained any intelligence of the French fleet, and he then learned that +they had been seen about four weeks before, steering to the southeast +from Candia. He was again convinced that their destination was Egypt; +and he made all sail for Alexandria. On August 1st he beheld the +tricolored flag flying upon its walls. His anxiety was at an end. For a +week he had scarcely taken food or slept. The signal was made for the +enemy's fleet; and he now ordered dinner to be served, and when his +officers rose to prepare for battle he exclaimed that before the morrow +his fate would be a peerage or Westminster Abbey. + +The fleet of Admiral Brueys was at anchor in the bay Abukir. The +transports and other small vessels were within the harbor. Bonaparte +told O'Meara that he had sent an officer from Cairo with peremptory +orders that Brueys should enter the harbor, but that the officer was +killed by the Arabs on the way. Brueys had taken measures to ascertain +the practicability of entering the harbor with his larger ships, and had +found that the depth of water was insufficient. He was unwilling to sail +away to Corfu--as Bonaparte affirmed that he had ordered him to do if to +enter the harbor were impracticable--until he knew that the army was +securely established at Cairo. The French Admiral moored his fleet in +what he judged the best position; a position described by Nelson himself +as "a strong line of battle for defending the entrance of the bay (of +shoals), flanked by numerous gunboats, four frigates, and a battery of +guns and mortars." + +The French ships were placed "at a distance from each other of about a +hundred sixty yards, with the van-ship close to a shoal in the +northwest, and the whole of the line just outside a four-fathom +sand-bank; so that an enemy, it was considered, could not turn either +flank." Nelson, with the rapidity of genius, at once grasped this plan +of attack. Where there was room for a French ship to swing, there was +room for an English ship to anchor. He would place half his ships on the +inner side of the French line, and half on the outer side. The number of +ships in the two fleets was nearly equal, but four of the French were of +larger size. At 3 P.M. the British squadron was approaching the bay, +with a manifest intention of giving battle. Admiral Brueys had thought +that the attack would be deferred to the next morning. Nelson had no +intention of permitting the enemy to weigh anchor and get to sea in the +darkness. + +By six o'clock Nelson's line was formed, without any precise regard to +the succession of the vessels according to established forms. The shoal +at the western extremity of the bay was rounded by eleven of the +British squadron. The Goliath led the way, and when her commander, +Foley, reached the enemy's van, he steered between the outermost ship +and the shoal. The Zealous--Captain Hood--instantly followed. At twenty +minutes past six the two van-ships of the French opened their fire upon +these vessels, but they were soon disabled. Four other British ships +also took their stations inside the French line. Nelson, in the +Vanguard, followed by five of his seventy-fours, anchored on the outer +side of the enemy. Nine of the French fleet were thus placed between the +two fires of eleven of the British ships. The Leander had not been +engaged, having been occupied in the endeavor to assist the Culloden, +which, coming up after dark, ran aground. + +Before the sun went down the shore was crowded with the people of the +country gazing upon this terrible conflict. When darkness fell, the +flashes of the guns faintly indicated the positions of the contending +fleets. Each British ship was ordered to carry four lanterns at her +mizzen-peak, and these were lighted at seven o'clock. Each ship also +went into action with the white ensign of St. George, of which the red +cross in the centre rendered it easily distinguishable in the darkest +night at sea. But there was another illumination, more awful than the +flashes of two thousand cannon, which was that night to strike unwonted +dismay into the bravest of the combatants of either nation. Five of the +French ships had surrendered. The Vanguard had been engaged with the +Spartiate and the Aquilon. Her loss was severe. + +A splinter had struck Nelson on the head, cutting a large piece of the +flesh and skin from the forehead, which fell over his remaining eye. He +was carried down to the cockpit, and the effusion of blood being very +great, his wound was held to be dangerous, if not mortal, by the anxious +shipmates around him. He was carried where his men were also carried, +without regard to rank, to be tended by the busy surgeons. These left +their wounded to bestow their care on the first man of the fleet. "No," +said Nelson, "I will take my turn with my brave fellows." Sidney, in the +field of Zuetphen, taking the cup of water from his lips to give to the +dying soldier, with the memorable words, "This man's necessity is more +than mine," was a parallel example of heroism. The Admiral did wait his +turn; and meanwhile, in the belief that his career was ended, called to +his chaplain to deliver a last token of affection to his wife. The wound +was found to be superficial. He was carried to his cabin, and left +alone, amid the din of the battle. + +Suddenly the cry was heard that L'Orient, the French flagship of one +hundred twenty guns, was on fire. Nelson groped his way to the deck, to +the astonishment of the crew, who heard their beloved commander giving +his orders that the boats should be lowered to proceed to the help of +the burning vessel. The Bellerophon had been overpowered by the weight +of metal of L'Orient, and had lost her masts. The Swiftsure had also +been engaged with this formidable vessel. Both had maintained an +unremitting fire upon the French flagship. Admiral Brueys had fallen, +and had died the death of a brave man on his deck. The ship was in +flames; at ten o'clock she blew up, the conflagration having lasted for +nearly an hour. When the explosion came, there was an awful silence. For +ten minutes not a gun was fired on either side. The instinct of +self-preservation, as well as the sudden awe on this sublime event, +produced this pause in the battle. + +Some of the French, endeavoring to get out of the vicinity of the +burning wreck, had slipped their cables. The nearest of the English took +every precaution to prevent the combustible materials doing them injury. +The shock of the explosion shook the Alexander, Swiftsure, and Orion to +their kelsons and materially injured them. None of the British ships, +however, took fire. About seventy only of the crew of L'Orient were +saved by the English boats. The battle was resumed by the French ship, +the Franklin; and it went on, at intervals, till daybreak. The contest +was sustained by four French line-of-battle ships, and four of the +English. Finally, two of the French line-of-battle ships and two +frigates escaped. Of thirteen sail of the line, nine were taken, two +were burned. Of the British, about nine hundred men were killed and +wounded. No accurate account was obtained of the French loss. The +estimate which represented that loss at five thousand was evidently +exaggerated. About three thousand French prisoners were sent on shore. +Kléber, the French general, wrote to Napoleon, "The English have had the +disinterestedness to restore everything to their prisoners." + +After the victory of the Nile, Nelson returned to Naples. He required +rest; and in the ease and luxury, the flattery and the honors which +there awaited him, he forgot his quiet home, and after a time was +involved in public acts which reflect discredit upon his previously +spotless name. At Palermo, Lord Cochrane had opportunities of +conversation with him. He says, "To one of his frequent injunctions, +'Never mind manoeuvres, always go at them,' I subsequently had reason +to consider myself indebted for successful attacks under apparently +difficult circumstances." Cochrane considered Nelson "an embodiment of +dashing courage, which would not take much trouble to circumvent an +enemy, but being confronted with one would regard victory so much a +matter of course as hardly to deem the chance of defeat worth +consideration." This opinion is borne out by a letter which Nelson wrote +to his old friend, Admiral Locker, from Palermo: "It is you who always +said, 'Lay a Frenchman close and you will beat him'; and my only merit +in my profession is being a good scholar." Nelson was himself a master +who made many good scholars. + +M. Thiers, having described the great naval battle of Abukir with +tolerable fairness, admits that it was the most disastrous that the +French navy had yet experienced--one from which the most fatal military +consequences might be apprehended. The news of the disaster caused a +momentary despair in the French army. Bonaparte received the +intelligence with calmness. "Well," he exclaimed, "we must die here; or +go forth, great, as were the ancients." He wrote to Kléber, "We must do +great things"; and Kléber replied, "Yes, we must do great things: I +prepare my faculties." It would have been fortunate for the fame of +Bonaparte, if he had abstained from doing some of "the great things" +which he accomplished while he remained in the East. + +The victory of Nelson formed the great subject of congratulation in the +royal speech, when the session was opened on November 20th. "By this +great and brilliant victory, an enterprise of which the injustice, +perfidy, and extravagance had fixed the attention of the world, and was +peculiarly directed against some of the most valuable interests of the +British Empire, has, in the first instance, been turned to the confusion +of its authors." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[46] The "Battle of the Baltic," April 2, 1801.--ED. + + + + +JENNER INTRODUCES VACCINATION + +A.D. 1798 + +SIR THOMAS J. PETTIGREW + + In the advance of medical science no more famous discovery + has been made than that of vaccination, that is, inoculation + with the modified virus of a disease, thereby causing a mild + form of it, in order to prevent a virulent attack. This + treatment has in recent years been applied by the use of + various serums and antitoxins against different diseases; + but, originally and specifically, vaccination, as now + understood, is inoculation with cowpox for the prevention of + smallpox. + + Jenner's work in connection with the modern introduction of + this practice is fully described in the following pages. In + a more primitive manner inoculation against smallpox was + practised many centuries ago in India, China, and other + lands. The first modern accounts of it are said to have been + given by a Turkish physician in 1714. In England it was + first actually employed through the efforts of Lady Mary + Wortley Montagu, who (1716-1718) had observed it in + Constantinople, and there seen her son inoculated. The + practice soon spread through Western Europe and to North + America. + + Jenner's discoveries and demonstrations as to the specific + value of the vaccine virus of cowpox, which led to the + modern methods of vaccination for prevention of smallpox, + proved of such efficacy and importance that the whole credit + for this service to medical science has been popularly given + to him. But among the intelligent it detracts nothing from + his just fame to make due acknowledgment of previous work + along similar lines. + + There have always been some, since Jenner's time, and are + still considerable numbers of people in different countries, + strongly opposed to vaccination for smallpox, on the ground + of what they deem its unscientific and dangerous nature. But + the vast majority of medical practitioners, and of the world + at large, are convinced of its vital benefits, and in + several countries vaccination is made compulsory by the + State. + + +Edward Jenner was born on May 17, 1749. He was a native of Berkeley in +Gloucestershire, England. His father was the vicar of this place, and +his mother was descended from an ancient family in Berkshire. In early +life Jenner was deprived of his father, and the direction of his +education devolved upon an elder brother, the Rev. Stephen Jenner. He +attained a respectable proficiency in the classics, and his taste for +natural history manifested an early development; for, at the age of +nine, he had made a collection of the nests of the dormouse, and he +employed the hours usually devoted by boys to play, in searching for +fossils in the neighborhood. "No childish play to him was pleasing." + +Intended for the medical profession, Jenner was apprenticed to Daniel +Ludlow, of Sodbury, near Bristol, to acquire a knowledge of surgery and +pharmacy; and, after the period of his apprenticeship had expired in +1770, he went to London to complete his professional studies, and was a +student at St. George's Hospital, and a resident, for two years, in the +family of the celebrated John Hunter. The similarity of their tastes and +spirit of research will render it a matter of no surprise that he should +become a most favorite pupil. That this was the case in an eminent +degree the correspondence which was maintained between the two great +physiologists sufficiently proves. "There was in both a directness and +plainness of conduct, an unquestionable desire of knowledge, and a +congenial love of truth." + +Jenner was remarkable for the neatness and precision with which he made +preparations of anatomy and natural history. His dissection of tender +and delicate organs, his success in minute injections, and the taste he +displayed in their arrangement are said to have been almost unrivalled. +Hunter recommended him to Sir Joseph Banks, to prepare and arrange the +various specimens brought home by the celebrated circumnavigator, +Captain Cook, in his first voyage of discovery in 1771, and he was +solicited to become the naturalist of the succeeding expedition in the +year following; but Jenner's partiality to his native soil, and his +desire of settling in the place of his birth, were too strong to admit +of his being allured into such an appointment. He preferred the +seclusion of a country village; and to this selection do we owe one of +the greatest blessings ever bestowed upon mankind. It is not +unreasonable to suppose that the subject by which he should afterward be +known to the whole world, dwelt upon his mind with considerable force +even at this early period, for the prophylactic powers of the cowpox +were known, or rather rumored of, in a few districts, and the subject +had been mentioned by Jenner to Hunter and others, though he had not +been successful in directing their attention sufficiently to the +importance of it. Indeed, he pressed this subject so much upon his +professional brethren, that, at a medical club at Redborough to which he +belonged, he was threatened to be expelled if he persisted in harassing +them with a proposition which they then conceived had no foundation but +in popular and idle rumor, and which had become so entirely distasteful +to them. It remained, therefore, to Jenner to pursue the inquiry and to +place the whole matter upon a proper physiological basis, by which it +might be rendered permanently beneficial. This inquiry was perfected +amid the labors and anxious toils attendant on the life of "a country +surgeon," with few books to consult, and little leisure to devote to +their perusal. Observation necessarily supplied the place of literary +research; the book of nature was open to his view, and it was one he was +well calculated to comprehend; it surpassed all others, and its +contemplation amply repaid the student. + +Of all classes of men with whom it has been the fortune of the writer of +this sketch to associate, there is none, in his opinion, so generally +and so truly amiable as the naturalists. The contemplation of nature +seldom fails to produce an elevation of character; it also begets a +sweetness of disposition flowing from a sense of what is beautiful in +creation; and the evidences of beneficence, everywhere so abundant, +soften the feelings and impart to the individual a sincere benevolence +of heart. This disposition was strikingly manifested in Jenner, to whose +affection, kindness, meekness, good-will, and benevolence so many have +borne the most ample testimony. It was no uncommon thing for Jenner to +be accompanied in his daily professional tour of many miles by friends, +who have eagerly listened to the outpourings of his mind called forth by +the beauties which in the vale of Gloucester surrounded him. + +His observations on the structure and economy of the various objects of +natural history were delivered with the most captivating simplicity and +ingenuity. Full of information himself, he delighted to impart it, and +was equally solicitous of obtaining a return from others. He was an +enthusiast in his devotion to nature, and he anxiously desired that all +should participate in the gratification which such a study never failed +to afford. He united in an especial manner a talent for the most +profound observations to a disposition most lively and ardent +distinguished by mirth, playfulness, and wit. With these powers, it is +not surprising that his society should have been much courted; and, +fully engaged as he was by the duties of an extensive practice, he yet +found time to cultivate an acquaintance with polite literature. Many +little productions of his muse have appeared in print; they were +addressed to some of his more favored correspondents, or occasionally +read at convivial meetings, and display the turn of his mind, the +benevolence of his disposition, and the liveliness of his imagination. +His best poetical productions find their subjects in natural history. +_The Signs of Rain_ unites the accuracy of the naturalist with the fancy +of the poet. + +Jenner had nearly passed half a century before he made known to the +world his experiments and investigations relative to the vaccine +disease. His first successful vaccination was made May 14, 1769. His +ardor from an early period had been noticed, and it took its rise from +the following accidental circumstance. While a pupil with Mr. Ludlow, a +young countrywoman applied for advice. The subject of smallpox was +mentioned, upon which she observed, "I cannot take that disease, for I +have had the cowpox." This was sufficient to excite the attention of +Jenner, and the incident never escaped his recollection. It is easier to +conceive than to express the emotions which would naturally spring from +reflection on such a subject; his benevolent feelings were at once +aroused to full activity; he pictured to himself all the horrors of that +pestilential and most loathsome disease, disfiguring Nature's greatest +work, slaying thousands upon thousands, and he was yet sufficiently +young to recollect the severity of discipline to which he had himself +submitted in the process preparatory to the practice of inoculation, +which, to use his own words, in that day was no less than that of +"bleeding till the blood was thin; purging till the body was wasted to a +skeleton; and starving on vegetable diet to keep it so." + +The patience manifested by Jenner in the prosecution of his inquiry into +the cowpox, the scrutiny to which he subjected every appearance that +presented itself, and the fortitude with which he withstood every +untoward circumstance entitle him to all praise and show forth his +great capabilities for conducting a philosophical investigation. He +divested the subject of all its difficulties and obscurities, and gave +to "vague, inapplicable and useless rumor the certainty and precision of +scientific knowledge." The extent of his anticipations upon this truly +momentous subject do not appear to have been fully stated until 1780, +ten years subsequent to his mention of it to John Hunter. He then +confidentially disclosed to his intimate friend, Edward Gardner--who +gave evidence upon the subject before the committee of the House of +Commons--the opinions he entertained upon the natural history of the +cowpox; dated its origin from the diseased heel of a horse; alluded to +the different diseases with which the hands of the milkers became +affected from handling the infected cows; distinguished that which was +calculated to afford security against the smallpox; and divulged the +hope he entertained of being able finally to eradicate that disease from +the face of the globe. Doctor Baron has recorded the remarkable words +with which this important communication was made: + +"I have intrusted a most important matter to you, which I firmly believe +will prove of essential benefit to the human race. I know you, and +should not wish what I have stated to be brought into conversation; for +should anything untoward turn up in my experiments I should be made, +particularly by my medical brethren, the subject of ridicule--for I am +the mark they all shoot at." + +Jenner's reasons for concealment did not arise from any selfish or +unworthy motive. The publicity he had always given to the subject and +the efforts he had made among his professional associates to pursue the +inquiry exclude the possibility of entertaining such a suspicion. It +arose from a dread of disappointment and the fear of failure should the +matter be brought forward in a state other than that of a maturity +sufficient to carry conviction immediately upon its promulgation. In the +course of his researches he was led to conclude that swinepox, as well +as cowpox, was only a variety of smallpox. He inoculated his eldest son +with the matter of swinepox and produced a disease similar to a very +mild smallpox. After this, the inoculation of variolous matter would +produce no effect. + +He ascertained that cowpox, as it was commonly termed by the milkers, +would frequently fail in effecting a security against the smallpox. This +led him to inquire more particularly into the variety of spontaneous +eruptions to which the teats of the cow were liable, and to discriminate +the different kinds of sores produced by them on the hands of the +milkers, and to establish the character of those which possessed a +specific power over the constitution, and those which had no such +efficacy. He found that instances occurred in which the true cowpox +failed in preventing smallpox; but nothing daunted by this apparently +fatal discovery he set about ascertaining the causes of this deviation. +He found the specific virtues of the virus to have been lost or +deteriorated so that it was rendered capable only of producing a local +affection and had no influence whatever upon the constitution; and by +the greatest ingenuity and patience of observation of the analogies +drawn from the virus of smallpox, aided by his knowledge of the laws of +the animal economy, he discovered that it was only in a certain state of +the vesicle that the virus was capable of affording its protecting +agency, and that when taken under other conditions, or at other periods, +it could produce a local disease, yet that it was not able to manifest +any constitutional effect, or afford immunity from the invasions of the +smallpox. + +On May 14, 1796, Jenner inserted lymph taken from the hand of Sarah +Nelmes who was infected with cowpox, into the arm of James Phipps, a +healthy boy about eight years of age. This is the first instance of +regular inoculation of the vaccine disease by Jenner. The boy went +through the disorder, and on July 1st following he had the matter of +smallpox introduced into his arm, but no effect followed. Jenner had not +before seen the cowpox but as presented on the hands of the milkers, nor +had it been transmitted from one human being to another. He was struck +with its great resemblance to the smallpox pustule. The success of this +case must necessarily have operated powerfully upon him, and have urged +him to continue the research with increased energy. + +His anticipations thus realized, his intentions accomplished, what must +have been the feelings of such a man as Jenner? They were suited to the +magnitude of the occasion, and mark the character of the philosopher, +distinguished as it ever was by great simplicity, benevolence, and +humility. "While," says he, "the vaccine discovery was progressive, the +joy I felt at the prospect before me of being the instrument destined to +take away from the world one of its greatest calamities, blended with +the fond hope of enjoying independence and domestic peace and happiness, +was often so excessive, that in pursuing my favorite subject among the +meadows I have sometimes found myself in a kind of reverie. It is +pleasant to me to recollect that these reflections always ended in +devout acknowledgments to that Being from whom this and all other +mercies flow." Lord Bacon said that "it is Heaven upon earth to have a +man's mind move in charity, rest in Providence, and turn upon the poles +of truth." Jenner was a striking illustration of the truth of that +remark. + +The modesty of Jenner was evidenced in his original intention of +submitting his observations on the cowpox in a paper addressed to the +Royal Society. Doctor Baron tells us that "when the subject was laid +before the president (the late Sir Joseph Banks), Jenner was given to +understand that he should be cautious and prudent; that he had already +gained some credit by his communications to the Royal Society and ought +not to risk his reputation by presenting to the learned body anything +which appeared so much at variance with established knowledge, and +withal so incredible." It came forth most unostentatiously, about the +end of June, 1798, dedicated to his friend Doctor Parry of Bath. Doctor +Jenner visited London in the month of April of that year, and remained +until July 14th. His object in this visit was to demonstrate the disease +to his professional friends, but such was the distrust, or apathy, felt +on the occasion, that Jenner returned to the country, without having +been able to prevail on a single individual to submit to the inoculation +of the virus. + +The virus Jenner brought to London was consigned to the care of the late +Mr. Cline, of St. Thomas's Hospital. This celebrated surgeon inserted +some of it, by two punctures, into the hip of a young patient with a +disease of that part of the body. This calescent mode of proceeding was +adopted with the idea of exciting a counter-irritation in the diseased +part. The intention was to convert the vesicles into an issue, after the +progress of the cowpox had been observed. This idea was, however, +abandoned. Smallpox matter was afterward inserted into this child in +three places. It produced a slight inflammation on the third day, and +then subsided. The child was effectually protected against the disease. +Mr. Cline now became very sanguine as to the result and inoculated three +other children with lymph taken from the vesicles of the child, but no +evil effect ensued. The subject began to excite the attention of the +profession, and all were eager to put the matter to the test of +experiment. Mr. Cline urged Doctor Jenner to settle in London. He +promised him ten thousand pounds a year as the result of his practice. +What was his reply? + +"Shall I, who even in the morning of my days, sought the lowly and +sequestered paths of life, the valley, and not the mountain; shall I, +now my evening is fast approaching, hold myself up as an object for +fortune and for fame? Admitting it as a certainty that I obtain both, +what stock should I add to my little fund of happiness? My fortune, with +what flows in from my profession, is sufficient to gratify my wishes; +indeed, so limited is my ambition, and that of my nearest connections, +that even were I precluded from future practice I should be enabled to +satisfy all my wants. As for fame, what is it? A gilded butt, forever +pierced with the arrows of malignancy." + +That a discovery of such importance to mankind, once divulged, should +bring forth many claimants, and that its author should be subjected to +virulent attacks, is easy to be conceived. Jenner, however, never +thought it necessary to reply to unfounded and harsh aspersions, +satisfied in the strength of his own case, and feeling the justice and +truth of his own claims and position. The practice being now +established, it is unnecessary even to refer to the names of the +opponents of vaccination. Many mistakes, and some of a serious nature, +occurred to interrupt the progress of the discovery; these had been for +the most part foreseen by Jenner, and were satisfactorily explained. In +a letter to a friend, Jenner says, "I will just drop a hint. The vaccine +disease, in my opinion, is not a preventive of the smallpox, but the +smallpox itself; that is to say, the horrible form under which the +disease appears in its contagious state is, as I conceive, a malignant +variety." Again: "What I have said on this vaccine subject is true. If +properly conducted, it secures the constitution as much as variolous +inoculation possibly can. It is the smallpox in a purer form than that +which has been current among us for twelve centuries past." And, in a +letter to Mr. Pruen, "I have ever considered the variola and the vaccine +radically and essentially the same. As the inoculation of the former has +been known to fail, in instances so numerous, it would be very +extraordinary if the latter should always be exempt from failure. It +would tend to invalidate my early doctrine on this point." + +It is not necessary here to dwell upon the fatality of the smallpox when +taken in the natural way, or to show that the mortality has been +increased by the practice of inoculation, which creates an atmosphere +for the constant propagation of the disease; these have been +satisfactorily demonstrated in evidence before the House of Commons, and +anyone may readily obtain this information. It is, however, interesting +to record the names of those who, abandoning all prejudice and +solicitous to promote a general good, submitted to the practice at its +earliest period. Mr. Henry Hicks was the first to submit his own +children to the vaccination. Lady Frances Morton (Lady Ducie) was the +first personage of rank who had her child, and her only child, +vaccinated. The Countess of Berkeley was instrumental in forwarding it; +and the children of King William IV were vaccinated by Mr. Knight. + +Jenner's discovery entailed upon him a most extensive correspondence, +and obliged him frequently to travel in London. His professional +engagements were not only interrupted, but almost annihilated, and his +private fortune encroached upon by such circumstances. His friends urged +an application to Parliament. A petition to Parliament was presented on +March 17, 1802, and Mr. Addington--later, Lord Sidmouth--informed the +House that he had taken the King's pleasure on the contents of the +petition and that His Majesty recommended it strongly to the +consideration of Parliament. A committee was appointed, of which Admiral +Berkeley was the chairman. A great mass of evidence was brought forward, +and many professional and other persons examined. The Duke of Clarence +gave his testimony, and manifested strongly his conviction of the +prophylactic powers of the vaccine disease. Much opposition was offered +to the claims of Jenner. He felt this deeply, and in a letter to his +friend Mr. Hicks, dated April 28, 1802, he writes: "I sometimes wish +this business had never been brought forward. It makes me feel indignant +to reflect that one who has, through a most painful and laborious +investigation, brought to light a subject that will add to the happiness +of every human being in the world, should appear among his countrymen as +a supplicant for the means of obtaining a few comforts for himself and +family." + +The committee reported, and the House voted ten thousand pounds to +Doctor Jenner. An amendment, proposing twenty thousand pounds, was lost +by a majority of three! Sir Gilbert Blane, Doctor Lettsom, and others, +feeling the utter inadequacy of this reward to the merits of the case, +proposed to raise a fund by public subscription; but it was not carried +into effect. + +The Royal Jennerian Society was established in 1803, and had the King +for the patron, the Queen for the patroness, and various members of the +royal family and nobility for its supporters. The design of the +institution was to vaccinate the poor gratuitously, and supply virus to +all parts of the world. It effected great good, and reduced the number +of deaths by smallpox in a very remarkable degree. But dissensions +sprang up, chiefly through the conduct of the resident inoculator +recommending practices contrary to the printed regulations of the +society, and it was virtually dissolved in 1806. + +Lord Henry Petty--later, Marquis of Lansdowne--was the chancellor of the +exchequer in 1806, and on July 2d brought the subject of vaccination +again before the House of Parliament. Upon this, the College of +Physicians was directed to make inquiry into its state and condition, +and a report was made on April 19, 1807. The report was highly +satisfactory as to the advantages of the practice. On July 29th the +Right Honorable Spencer Perceval,[47] being then chancellor of +exchequer, called the attention of the House to it, and moved an +additional grant of ten thousand pounds, when an amendment to double the +sum was proposed by Mr. Edward Morris, M.P. for Newport, in Cornwall, +and carried by a majority of thirteen. In 1808 the "National Vaccine +Establishment" was formed, where the practice of vaccination and the +supply of lymph has ever since been continued. + +Foreign academies and societies enrolled Doctor Jenner in the lists of +their associates, and the medical societies of his own country were not +less anxious to adorn their roster with his name. In 1808 he was elected +a corresponding member of the National Institute, and in 1811 was chosen +an associate, in place of Doctor Mackelyne, deceased. The Empress +Dowager of Russia sent him a diamond ring, accompanied by a letter in +testimony of her admiration of vaccination. She had the first child +vaccinated in Russia named "Vaccinoff," and fixed a pension upon it for +life. The Medical Society of London presented him with a gold medal; the +Physical Society of Guy's Hospital instituted a new order of members, +under the title of "Honorary Associates," and named Jenner for the +first; the nobility and gentry of Gloucestershire presented him with a +handsome gold cup; and various other marks of consideration were +bestowed upon him as testimonies to the benefits he had conferred upon +mankind. He was chosen mayor of his native town; received the freedom of +the corporation of Dublin; the freedom of the city of Edinburgh; and +elected an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of that +city. In 1813 the University of Oxford granted him a degree of Doctor in +Physic, by a decree of the convocation. The diploma was presented him by +Sir C. Pegge and Doctor Kidd, the professors of anatomy and chemistry. +On this occasion--and a similar honor had not been conferred by the +university on any man for nearly seventy years before--Doctor Jenner +observed, "It is remarkable that I should have been the only one of a +long line of ancestors and relations who was not educated at Oxford. +They were determined to turn me into the meadows, instead of allowing me +to flourish in the groves of Academus. It is better, perhaps, as it is, +especially as I have arrived at your highest honors without complying +with your ordinary rules of discipline." The conduct of the London +College of Physicians, it is painful to remark, was not characterized by +such liberality. The majority of the fellows refused to admit him +without the usual examination. Many of the fellows were anxious upon +the subject, but their wishes did not prevail. + +The commander-in-chief of the army, upon the recommendation of the Army +Medical Board and the Lords of the Admiralty, recommended the adoption +of vaccination in the army and navy, and the naval physicians and +surgeons presented a gold medal to Jenner for his discovery. The +practice extended itself through France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Russia, +and the United States. In the East, it overcame even the scruples of the +Hindu and the Chinese. The writer of this memoir, by the kindness of Sir +George Staunton, is in possession of a treatise on vaccination drawn up +by Mr. Pearson and translated by Sir George into the Chinese language. +It was of great use in encouraging the natives to the adoption of the +salutary practice. The King of Prussia submitted his own children to +vaccination. He was the first monarch to do so. + +On September 13, 1815, Doctor Jenner lost his wife. He retired to +Berkeley, and thereafter lived in retirement. He died January 26, 1823, +in the seventy-fourth year of his age, and was buried on February 3d in +the chancel of the parish church of Berkeley. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[47] Two years later Perceval was premier (1809-1812) and he was +assassinated in the lobby of the House of Commons, May 11, 1812.--ED. + + + + +CHRONOLOGY OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY + +EMBRACING THE PERIOD COVERED IN THIS VOLUME + +A.D. 1775-1799 + +JOHN RUDD, LL.D. + + +Events treated at length are here indicated in large type; the numerals +following give volume and page. + +Separate chronologies of the various nations, and of the careers of +famous persons, will be found in the INDEX VOLUME, with volume and page +references showing where the several events are fully treated. + + +A.D. + +1775. Burke speaks for conciliation with America; Lord Effingham resigns +his military command rather than fight against the colonists of America. + +Beginning of the American Revolution: "BATTLE OF LEXINGTON." See xiv, 1. + +Fort Ticonderoga and Crown Point surprised by Ethan Allen. + +"BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL." See xiv, 19. + +Washington appointed Commander-in-Chief by the Continental Congress. + +Montgomery slain in an attack on Quebec. See "CANADA REMAINS LOYAL TO +ENGLAND," xiv, 30. + +All intercourse between the American colonists and Denmark interdicted +by its King, Christian VII. + + +1776. General Howe evacuates Boston, March 17th. British repulse at +Charleston by Colonel Moultrie. + +Declaration of Independence adopted by the Continental Congress, July +4th. See "SIGNING OF AMERICAN DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE," xiv, 39. + +Battle of Long Island; defeat of the Americans. New York occupied by the +British. Howe defeats the Americans at White Plains. Fort Washington +taken by the British November 16th. Washington successfully surprises +the Hessians at Trenton, December 26th. + +Riots in England to destroy machinery. + +Publication in England of the first volume of Gibbon's _Decline and Fall +of the Roman Empire_. + + +1777. Washington defeats Cornwallis at Princeton, January 3d. The +British burn Danbury. Ticonderoga captured by Burgoyne. Battles of +Brandywine and Germantown; defeat of the Americans. Lafayette and +Steuben arrive in America. + +"DEFEAT OF BURGOYNE AT SARATOGA." See xiv, 51. + +Division of the Crim Tartars into two distinct parties, the Russian and +Turkish. + +Execution in England of Dr. Dodd for forgery. + +Austria annexes Bukowina. + + +1778. France recognizes the independence of the United States and forms +an alliance with them. Evacuation of Philadelphia by the British. A +French fleet and army arrive in America to aid the United States. +Savannah captured by the British. Massacre of Wyoming. Congress refuses +to treat with the British commissioners. + +Beginning of the War of the Bavarian Succession. + +Cook discovers the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands. + +France declares war against England. + + +1779. Battle of Brier Creek; defeat of the Americans. Stony Point +stormed by the Americans under Wayne. + +Paul Jones gains a naval victory off the English coast; see "FIRST +VICTORY OF THE AMERICAN NAVY," xiv, 68. + +Repulse by the British of the Americans and French at Savannah. + +Spain declares war against England; Gibraltar invested by the French and +Spanish fleets. + + +1780. Siege and capture of Charleston by the British. First Battle of +Camden; defeat of the Americans. Treachery of Arnold, who agrees to +deliver West Point to the British. Execution of Major André. Victory of +the Americans at King's Mountain. + +Gordon "No Popery" riots in England. + +England declares war against Holland for allowing Paul Jones to take his +prizes into her harbors. + +Revolt of Tupac Amaru in Peru. + +"JOSEPH II ATTEMPTS REFORMS IN HUNGARY." See xiv, 85. + + +1781. Battles of the Cowpens and Guilford Court House; defeat of the +British. British victory at Hobkirk's Hill. Eutaw Springs the scene of a +drawn battle. Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown. See "SIEGE AND +SURRENDER OF YORKTOWN," xiv, 97. + +Arnold burns New London and captures Fort Griswold. + +Completion of the ratification of the Articles of Confederation by the +States of the Union. + +Continuation of the siege of Gibraltar by the French and Spanish. + +Institution of the first Sunday-school at Gloucester, England, by Robert +Raikes. + + +1782. Evacuation by the British of Savannah and Charleston. + +A preliminary treaty of peace between the United States and Great +Britain signed by John Adams, Franklin, Jay, and Laurens. See "CLOSE OF +THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION," xiv, 137. + +Great naval victory of the British admiral, Rodney, over the French, in +the West Indies. + +Tippoo Sahib, in Mysore, succeeds his father, Hyder Ali. + +Grattan secures the independence of the Irish Parliament. + +"BRITISH DEFENCE OF GIBRALTAR." See xiv, 116. + + +1783. Peace of Paris between the United States and Great Britain. + +New York evacuated by the British. + +Peace of Versailles between Britain, France, and Spain. + +Catharine II seizes the Crimea for Russia. + +Many colonists of America settle in Canada on conclusion of the war. See +"SETTLEMENT OF AMERICAN LOYALISTS IN CANADA," xiv, 156. + +Perfidious massacre of Tartars by Potemkin, Russian general and first +favorite of Catharine II. + +A patent granted to Henry Johnson and John Walter of the _Times_ for +stereotype or logographic printing. + +"FIRST BALLOON ASCENSION." See xiv, 163. + + +1784. Treaty of peace between England and Holland. + +Founding of the first daily newspaper in America, at Philadelphia. + +The scandal of the Diamond Necklace in France. + +In Ireland the Peep-o'-Day Boys make their appearance. + +Iceland for nearly twelve months desolated by an irruption of Hecla. + + +1785. Negotiations between the United States and Spain for free +navigation of the Mississippi. + +John Adams, first minister of the United States to England, received by +the King. + +Establishment of the Philippine Company in Spain. + +John Howard, English philanthropist, sets out on his travels to visit +the plague hospitals. + +La Pérouse, French Admiral, proceeds to explore the Northern Pacific. + + +1786. A negro colony sent from London to found the settlement of Sierra +Leone. + +Outbreak of Shay's revolt in Massachusetts. + +Impeachment of Warren Hastings, England, for peculation in India. + +Galvani makes electrical discoveries. + + +1787. "FRAMING OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES." See xiv, 173. + +Civil liberty taught in France by Lafayette and his companions in +America, leads to the French Revolution. + +Shay's rebellion repressed. Congress undertakes the government of the +Northwest Territory. + +Wedgwood manufactures his imitations of Etruscan ware. + +Swedenborg's New Jerusalem Church founded. + + +1788. Revolution in the Austrian Netherlands provinces. + +Ratification in eleven of the states of the Constitution of the United +States. Founding of Cincinnati. The members of the Society of Friends in +Philadelphia emancipate their slaves. + +Mental derangement of George III of England. A penal settlement formed +by the English in Australia. + +Louis XVI of France appoints Necker chief minister. New Assembly of +Notables; the Third Estate admitted, numbering one-half. + +War against Russia declared by Sweden. + + +1789. Washington elected President of the United States. The first +Congress under the Constitution supersedes the Continental Congress. +Inauguration of Washington at New York, April 30. See "INAUGURATION OF +WASHINGTON: HIS FAREWELL ADDRESS," xiv, 197. + +War in India between the English and Tippoo Sahib. + +A Roman Catholic episcopal see erected at Baltimore, the first in the +United States. + +Battle of Fokshani; defeat of the Turks by the Austrians and Russians. + +Meeting of the States-General of France; power is seized by the Third +Estate. See "FRENCH REVOLUTION: STORMING OF THE BASTILLE," xiv, 212. + +Mutiny of the Bounty, English ship. + + +1790. Philadelphia becomes the seat of government of the United States. +Harmar makes an unsuccessful expedition against the Indians of the +Northwest Territory. + +First issue of French Assignats. + +Declaration of independence by the Belgian provinces; Congress of +Brussels convened. + + +1791. "ESTABLISHMENT OF THE UNITED STATES BANK." See xiv, 230. + +Vermont admitted into the Union. Defeat of St. Clair by the Miamis. + +Passage of the constitutional act of Canada dividing it into Upper and +Lower Canada. + +Buckle-makers of England petition Parliament against the use of +shoe-strings. + +Guillotin introduces the machine for decapitation, bearing his name. + +"NEGRO REVOLUTION IN HAITI." See xiv, 236. + +Flight of the French royal family; they are stopped at Varennes and +taken back to Paris. Insurrections in La Vendée and Brittany; massacres +at Avignon, Marseilles, and Aix. + +A new constitution adopted by the King and Diet of Poland, which gives +offence to Catharine of Russia. + +Hungary secures constitutional liberties from Leopold II; the rights of +Protestants sanctioned. + + +1792. Washington reëlected President of the United States. The national +mint established at Philadelphia. Admission of Kentucky into the Union. + +Confiscation of the property of the French _Émigrés_; a Girondist +ministry formed by Louis XVI; he is compelled to declare war against +Austria and Prussia. See "REPUBLICAN FRANCE DEFIES EUROPE: BATTLE OF +VALMY," xiv, 252. + + +1793. Congress passes the first fugitive-slave law of the United States. +Washington begins his second administration. + +"INVENTION OF THE COTTON-GIN." See xiv, 271. + +"EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVI: MURDER OF MARAT: CIVIL WAR IN FRANCE." See xiv, +295. + +Toulon retaken by the French from the English; Napoleon Bonaparte +commands the French artillery. + +Further partition of Poland; the western portion annexed by Prussia; she +also seizes Dantzic, a free city; Russia takes the more eastern +provinces. + +Volta makes known his galvanic battery. + + +1794. Battle of Maumee Rapids; the power of the Miamis broken by General +Wayne. The great Whiskey Insurrection in Pennsylvania. Jay arranges a +treaty with Great Britain. + +Climax of the Reign of Terror in France; fall and death of Danton; +Robespierre and the Jacobin Club both fall. See "THE REIGN OF TERROR," +xiv, 311. + +Victory of the English, under Lord Howe, over the French fleet. + +"DOWNFALL OF POLAND." See xiv, 330. + +Trial in England of Hardy, Horne Tooke, and others for constructive high +treason. + + +1795. Sale of the Western Reserve (in Ohio) of Connecticut. + +Holland completely conquered by the French; insurrection in Paris by the +bourgeois against the Convention; the Constitution of the year 111 +adopted; Bonaparte crushes the insurrection of Vendémiaire; government +of the Directory. + +Formation of the Orange Society in Ireland. + +Third partition of Poland. + + +1796. Tennessee admitted into the Union. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson +elected President and Vice-President of the United States. Publication +of Washington's Farewell Address. + +Bonaparte given command of the French in Italy; Sardinia submits; the +Austrians driven from Lombardy; the Cispadane Republic formed. +Unsuccessful attempt of the French on Ireland. + +"RISE OF NAPOLEON: FRENCH CONQUEST OF ITALY." See xiv, 339. + +Ceylon taken from the Dutch by the English. + +Alliance of France with Tippoo Sahib and Spain against England. + + +1797. Difficulties between the United States and France nearly lead to +war. + +Suspension of specie payments in England; naval victories of the +British, Cape Vincent, over the Spaniards, and of Camperdown, over the +Dutch. + + +1798. Passage in the United States of the Alien and Sedition laws. + +"OVERTHROW OF THE MAMELUKES: THE BATTLE OF THE NILE." See xiv, 353. + +Imprisonment of the pope and formation of the Roman republic by the +French; the Helvetian republic founded by them. + +"JENNER INTRODUCES VACCINATION." See xiv, 363. + +Gas-lights introduced by Watt and Boulton. + + +1798. English expedition against Holland; capture of the Dutch fleet. + +Mysore taken by the English; death of Tippoo Sahib. + +Sugar first extracted from the beet-root by Achard. + +"THE GREAT IRISH REBELLION." See xv, 1. + +Count Rumford discovers that heat is a mode of motion. + +Greathead, England, invents the lifeboat. + +Gradual emancipation of negroes in New York. + + +1799. Advance into Syria by Napoleon; repulsed from Acre; victorious +over the Turks at Abukir; he reëmbarks for France; Kléber left in +command in Egypt. + +Napoleon, Sieyès, and Fouché effect a change of government in France; +military force used; Napoleon first consul. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Great Events by Famous Historians, +Volume 14, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREAT EVENTS, VOLUME 14 *** + +***** This file should be named 32690-8.txt or 32690-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/6/9/32690/ + +Produced by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 14 + +Author: Various + +Editor: Rossiter Johnson + Charles Horne + John Rudd + +Release Date: June 4, 2010 [EBook #32690] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREAT EVENTS, VOLUME 14 *** + + + + +Produced by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<p><a name="Front" id="Front"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 538px;"> +<img src="images/frontb.jpg" width="538" height="480" alt="Charlotte Corday, after the assassination of Marat, +apprehended by the Jacobin mob + +Painting by J. Weerts." title="" /> +</div> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 448px;"> +<img src="images/fronttitle.jpg" width="448" height="203" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 322px;"> +<img src="images/fronta.jpg" width="322" height="448" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1>THE GREAT EVENTS</h1> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>FAMOUS HISTORIANS</h2> + +<p class="center">A COMPREHENSIVE AND READABLE ACCOUNT OF THE WORLD'S HISTORY, EMPHASIZING +THE MORE IMPORTANT EVENTS, AND PRESENTING THESE AS COMPLETE NARRATIVES +IN THE MASTER-WORDS OF THE MOST EMINENT HISTORIANS</p> + +<h4>NON-SECTARIAN NON-PARTISAN NON-SECTIONAL</h4> + +<p class="center"><b>ON THE PLAN EVOLVED FROM A CONSENSUS OF OPINIONS GATHERED FROM THE MOST +DISTINGUISHED SCHOLARS OF AMERICA AND EUROPE, INCLUDING BRIEF +INTRODUCTIONS BY SPECIALISTS TO CONNECT AND EXPLAIN THE CELEBRATED +NARRATIVES, ARRANGED CHRONOLOGICALLY, WITH THOROUGH INDICES, +BIBLIOGRAPHIES, CHRONOLOGIES, AND COURSES OF READING</b></p> + +<h3>EDITOR-IN-CHIEF</h3> + +<h2>ROSSITER JOHNSON, LL.D.</h2> + +<h4>ASSOCIATE EDITORS</h4> + +<h3>CHARLES F. HORNE, Ph.D.</h3> + +<h3>JOHN RUDD, LL.D.</h3> + +<h4><i>With a staff of specialists</i></h4> + +<h4><i>VOLUME XIV</i></h4> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 118px;"> +<img src="images/deco.jpg" width="118" height="50" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<h4>The National Alumni</h4> + +<p class="center">COPYRIGHT, 1905,<br /><br /> + +<span class="smcap">By THE NATIONAL ALUMNI</span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<h3>VOLUME XIV</h3> + +<p> +<span class="tocnum">PAGE</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>An Outline Narrative of the Great Events</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href="#Page_xiii">xiii</a></span><br /> +CHARLES F. HORNE<br /> +<br /> +<i>The Battle of Lexington (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1775)</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_1'>1</a></span><br /> +RICHARD FROTHINGHAM<br /> +<br /> +<i>The Battle of Bunker Hill (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1775)</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_19'>19</a></span><br /> +JOHN BURGOYNE<br /> +JOHN HENEAGE JESSE<br /> +JAMES GRAHAME<br /> +<br /> +<i>Canada Remains Loyal to England</i><br /> +<i>Montgomery's Invasion (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1775)</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_30'>30</a></span><br /> +JOHN M'MULLEN<br /> +<br /> +<i>Signing of the American Declaration of Independence<br /> +(<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1776)</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_39'>39</a></span><br /> +THOMAS JEFFERSON<br /> +JOHN A. DOYLE<br /> +<br /> +<i>The Defeat of Burgoyne at Saratoga (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1777)</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_51'>51</a></span><br /> +SIR EDWARD SHEPHERD CREASY<br /> +<br /> +<i>The First Victory of the American Navy (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1779)</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_68'>68</a></span><br /> +ALEXANDER SLIDELL MACKENZIE<br /> +<br /> +<i>Joseph II Attempts Reform in Hungary (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1780)</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_85'>85</a></span><br /> +ARMINIUS VAMBERY<br /> +<br /> +<i>Siege and Surrender of Yorktown (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1781)</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_97'>97</a></span><br /> +HENRY B. DAWSON<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span>LORD CORNWALLIS<br /> +<br /> +<i>British Defence of Gibraltar (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1782)</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_116'>116</a></span><br /> +FREDERICK SAYER<br /> +<br /> +<i>Close of the American Revolution (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1782)</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_137'>137</a></span><br /> +JOHN ADAMS<br /> +JOHN JAY<br /> +BENJAMIN FRANKLIN<br /> +HENRY LAURENS<br /> +JOHN M. LUDLOW<br /> +<br /> +<i>Settlement of American Loyalists in Canada (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1783)</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_156'>156</a></span><br /> +SIR JOHN G. BOURINOT<br /> +<br /> +<i>The First Balloon Ascension (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1783)</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_163'>163</a></span><br /> +HATTON TURNOR<br /> +<br /> +<i>Framing of the Constitution of the United States (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1787)</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_173'>173</a></span><br /> +ANDREW W. YOUNG<br /> +JOSEPH STORY<br /> +<br /> +<i>Inauguration of Washington</i><br /> +<i>His Farewell Address (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1789-1797)</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_197'>197</a></span><br /> +JAMES K. PAULDING AND GEORGE WASHINGTON<br /> +<br /> +<i>French Revolution: Storming of the Bastille (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1789)</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_212'>212</a></span><br /> +WILLIAM HAZLITT<br /> +<br /> +Hamilton Establishes the United States Bank (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1791), <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_230'>230</a></span><br /> +ALEXANDER HAMILTON AND LAWRENCE LEWIS, JR.<br /> +<br /> +<i>The Negro Revolution in Haiti (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1791)</i><br /> +<i>Toussaint Louverture Establishes the Dominion of his Race</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_236'>236</a></span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span>CHARLES WYLLYS ELLIOTT<br /> +<br /> +<i>Republican France Defies Europe</i><br /> +<i>The Battle of Valmy (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1792)</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_252'>252</a></span><br /> +ALPHONSE M. L. LAMARTINE<br /> +<br /> +<i>The Invention of the Cotton-gin (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1793)</i><br /> +<i>Enormous Growth of the Cotton Industry in America</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_271'>271</a></span><br /> +CHARLES W. DABNEY<br /> +R. B. HANDY<br /> +DENISON OLMSTED<br /> +<br /> +<i>The Execution of Louis XVI (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1793)</i><br /> +<i>Murder of Marat: Civil War in France</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_295'>295</a></span><br /> +THOMAS CARLYLE<br /> +<br /> +<i>The Reign of Terror (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1794)</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_311'>311</a></span><br /> +FRANÇOIS P. G. GUIZOT<br /> +<br /> +<i>The Downfall of Poland (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1794)</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_330'>330</a></span><br /> +SIR ARCHIBALD ALISON<br /> +<br /> +<i>The Rise of Napoleon</i><br /> +<i>The French Conquest of Italy (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1796)</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_339'>339</a></span><br /> +SIR WALTER SCOTT<br /> +<br /> +<i>Overthrow of the Mamelukes (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1798)</i><br /> +<i>The Battle of the Nile</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_353'>353</a></span><br /> +CHARLES KNIGHT<br /> +<br /> +<i>Jenner Introduces Vaccination (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1798)</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_363'>363</a></span><br /> +SIR THOMAS J. PETTIGREW<br /> +<br /> +<i>Universal Chronology (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1775-1799)</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_377'>377</a></span><br /> +JOHN RUDD<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + +<h3>VOLUME XIV</h3> + + +<p> +<span class="tocnum">PAGE</span><br /> +<i>Charlotte Corday, after the assassination of Marat, +apprehended by the Jacobin mob (page 305)</i>,<br /> +Painting by J. Weerts. <span class="tocnum"><a href="#Front">Frontispiece</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<i>The Siege of Yorktown</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_108'>108</a></span><br /> +Painting by L. C. A. Couder.<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE</h3> + +<h4>TRACING BRIEFLY THE CAUSES, CONNECTIONS, AND CONSEQUENCES OF</h4> + +<h2>THE GREAT EVENTS</h2> + +<h4>(THE EPOCH OF REVOLUTION)</h4> + +<h3>CHARLES F. HORNE</h3> + + +<p>"After us, the deluge!" said Louis XV of France. He died in 1774, and +the remaining quarter of the eighteenth century witnessed social changes +the most radical, the most widespread which had convulsed civilization +since the fall of Rome. "As soon as our peasants seek education," said +Catharine II of Russia to one of her ministers, "neither you nor I will +retain our places." Catharine, one of the shrewdest women of her day, +judged her own people by the more advanced civilization of Western +Europe. She saw that it was the growth of ideas, the intellectual +advance, which had made Revolution, world-wide Revolution, inevitable.</p> + +<p>If we look back to the beginnings of Teutonic Europe, we see that the +social system existing among the wild tribes that overthrew Rome, was +purely republican. Each man was equal to every other; and they merely +conferred upon their sturdiest warrior a temporary authority to lead +them in battle. When these Franks (the word itself means freemen) found +themselves masters of the imperial, slave-holding world of Rome, the two +opposing systems coalesced in vague confusing whirl, from which emerged +naturally enough the "feudal system," the rule of a warrior aristocracy. +Gradually a few members of this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[Pg xiv]</a></span> nobility rose above the rest, became +centres of authority, kings, ruling over the States of modern Europe. +The lesser nobles lost their importance. The kings became absolute in +power and began to regard themselves as special beings, divinely +appointed to rule over their own country, and to snatch as much of their +neighbors' as they could.</p> + +<p>Secure in their undisputed rank, the monarchs tolerated or even +encouraged the intellectual advance of their subjects, until those +subjects saw the selfishness of their masters, saw the folly of +submission and the ease of revolt, saw the world-old truth of man's +equality, to which tyranny and misery had so long blinded them.</p> + +<p>Of course these ideas still hung nebulous in the air in the year 1775, +and Europe at first scarce noted that Britain was having trouble with +her distant colonies. Yet to America belongs the honor of having first +maintained against force the new or rather the old and now re-arisen +principles. England, it is true, had repudiated her Stuart kings still +earlier; but she had replaced their rule by that of a narrow +aristocracy, and now George III, the German king of the third generation +whom she had placed as a figure-head upon her throne, was beginning, +apparently with much success, to reassert the royal power. George III +was quite as much a tyrant to England as he was to America, and Britons +have long since recognized that America was fighting their battle for +independence as well as her own.</p> + +<p>The English Parliament was not in those days a truly representative +body. The appointment of a large proportion of its members rested with a +few great lords; other members were elected by boards of aldermen and +similar small bodies. The large majority of Englishmen had no votes at +all, though the plea was advanced that they were "virtually +represented," that is, they were able to argue with and influence their +more fortunate brethren, and all would probably be actuated by similar +sentiments. This plea of "virtual representation" was now extended to +America, where its absurdity as applied to a people three thousand miles +away and engaged in constant protest against the course of the English +Government, became at once manifest, and the cry against "Taxation +without representation" became the motto of the Revolution.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[Pg xv]</a></span></p> + + +<h4>THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION</h4> + +<p>Parliament, finding the Americans most unexpectedly resolute against +submitting to taxation, would have drawn back from the dispute; but King +George insisted on its continuance. He could not realize the difference +between free-born Americans long trained in habits of self-government, +and the unfortunate peasantry of Continental Europe, bowed by centuries +of suffering and submission. He thought it only necessary to bully the +feeble colonists, as Louis XIV had bullied the Huguenots by dragonnades. +Soldiers were sent to America to live on the inhabitants; and in Boston, +General Gage to complete the terror sent out a force to seize the +patriot leaders and destroy their supplies.</p> + +<p>Then came "the shot heard round the world." Instead of cringing humbly, +the Americans resisted. Several were shot down at Lexington, and in +return the remainder attacked the soldiers with a resolution and skill +which the peasantry of an open country had never before displayed +against trained troops. These farmers had learned fighting from the +Indians, they had learned self-reliance, and each man acting for +himself, seeking what shelter he could find from tree or fence, fired +upon the Britons, until the most famous soldiery of Europe fled back to +Boston "their tongues hanging out of their mouths like dogs."<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>The astonished Britons clamored that their opponents did not "fight +fair," meaning that the peasants did not stand still like sheep to be +slaughtered, or rush in bodies to be massacred by the superior weapons +and trained manœuvres of the professional troops. Therein the +objection touched the very point of the world's advance: the common +people, the country folk of one land at least, had ceased to be mere +unthinking cattle; they acted from intellect, not from sheer brute +despair.</p> + +<p>Within a week of Lexington an army of the Americans were gathered round +Boston to defend their homes from further invasions by these foreigners. +The English tried the issue again, and attacked the Americans at Bunker +Hill.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> The steady valor of the regular troops, engaged on a regular +battle-ground, enabled them to drive the poorly armed peasants from +their intrenchments. But the victory was won at such frightful expense<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">[Pg xvi]</a></span> +of life to the British that it was not until forty years had brought +forgetfulness, that they tried a similar assault in military form +against the Americans at New Orleans. The farmers could shoot as well as +think. After Bunker Hill the Revolution was recognized as a serious war, +not a mere mad uprising of hopelessness. Washington took control of the +destinies of America. Congress proclaimed its Independence.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<p>At this period Northern America became unfortunately and apparently +permanently divided against itself. Canada, largely from its French +origin and language, had always stood apart from the more southern +English-speaking colonies. There had been repeated wars between them. +But now when England had seized possession of Canada and within fifteen +years of that event the southern colonists were fighting England, it did +seem probable or at least hopeful that all America might unite against +the common foe.</p> + +<p>So thought the American Congress, and despatched a force, not against +the inhabitants of Canada, but against the British troops there, to +enable the Canadians to join in the revolt. The Canadians refused; the +British forces were brilliantly handled, and the tiny American army, +totally unequal to coping single-handed against the enemy and against +the gigantic natural difficulties of the expedition, failed—failed +gloriously but totally—and only roused anew against the southland the +antagonism of the Canadians, mingled now with contempt and a growing +admiration and even loyalty toward the Britons.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + +<p>Canada became a depot into which British troops were poured, and when +Lord Howe and his army had captured New York, the English Government +planned a powerful expedition to descend the Hudson valley, unite with +Howe and so isolate New England from the less violently rebellious +colonies farther south. On the success or failure of this undertaking +hung the fate not only of the new continent, but one seeing the +consequences now is almost tempted to say, the fate of the world.</p> + +<p>The command was intrusted to Burgoyne, an experienced and capable +general. Troops were given to him, it was thought, amply sufficient to +overbear all opposition. There was no regular<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xvii" id="Page_xvii">[Pg xvii]</a></span> army to resist him. But +the American farmers of the region rallied in their own defence, they +hung like a cloud around Burgoyne's advance, they cut off his supplies, +they became ever more numerous in his front, until at last he fought +desperate battles against them, could not advance, and was compelled to +surrender his entire army.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + +<p>Instantly the war assumed a new aspect. Europe awoke to the fact that +England was engaged against a worthy foe. France, humbled in India, +driven from America, defeated on her own borders, saw her opportunity +for revenge, revenge against her hated rival. Moreover, the spirit of +freedom which had been proclaimed by Voltaire, by Rousseau, by a +thousand other voices, was awake in France; it saw its own cause, +hopeless at home, being triumphantly defended in America; and it cried +enthusiastically that the heroes should have aid. Spain, too, had sore +causes of complaint against England. So France first and then Spain made +alliance with the Americans. George III by his obstinacy had plunged his +realm into sore difficulties, had given the final blow to any possible +reëstablishment of kingly power in England.</p> + +<p>The most immediate shock caused the Britons by the changed aspect of the +world, was given them by Paul Jones, an American naval officer. He took +advantage of the French alliance to secure a little fleet, part American +but mostly French; and with it he cruised boldly around Great Britain, +bidding defiance to her navy and plundering her shores, in some faint +imitation of the depredations her troops had committed in America. The +fight of Jones in his flagship against the English frigate Serapis has +become world-famous, and the grim resolution with which the American won +his way to victory in face of apparent impossibilities, taught the +Britons that on sea as well as on land they had met their match.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p> + +<p>For a time the island kingdom bore up against all her foes. The most +famous of the many sieges of Gibraltar occurred; and for three years the +French and Spanish fleets sought unavailingly to batter the stubborn +rock into surrender.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> But at last a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xviii" id="Page_xviii">[Pg xviii]</a></span>second British army was trapped +and captured at Yorktown by the French and Americans.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> Then England +yielded. It was impossible for her longer to undertake the enormous task +of transporting troops across three thousand miles of ocean. She needed +them at home; and many of the English people had always protested +against the fratricidal war with their brethren in America. American +independence was acknowledged, and England was left free to demand a +peace of her European foes.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p> + +<p>The antagonisms roused by this bitter war, in which British troops had +repeatedly and cruelly ravaged the American lands and homes, were long +in fading. Canada had stood loyally by Great Britain, and the break +between the northern land and the other colonies was sharp and final. +Even throughout the States which had become independent, a portion of +the people had loyally upheld British rule; and on these unfortunates +the liberated Americans threatened to wreak vengeance for all that had +been endured. Thus came about a vast emigration of the "Tories" or +Loyalists from the new States to Canada. They brought with them the +bitterness of the expatriated, and Canada became yet more firmly +British, more "anti-American" than before.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> + + +<h4>THE FRENCH REVOLUTION</h4> + +<p>Of even greater influence were the consequences of the American +Revolution as affecting Continental Europe. Estimates have differed +widely as to just how much the French Revolution was caused by that +across the ocean. Certain it is that Frenchmen had been enthusiastic in +America's cause, that many of their officers fought under Washington, +and returned home deeply infused with devotion to liberty. It has long +been a popular error, encouraged by historians of a former generation, +that the French Revolution arose from a starving peasantry driven to +madness by intolerable oppression. We know better now. It was in Paris, +not in the provinces, that the revolt began. Judged by modern standards, +of course, the French peasantry were oppressed; but if we measure their +condition by that of surrounding nations at the time, by the Austrians +under kind-hearted <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xix" id="Page_xix">[Pg xix]</a></span>Maria Theresa, or even by the Prussians under +Frederick the Great, most advanced of the upholders of "benevolent +despotism," in whose lands serfs were still "sold with the soil" +compared with these, Frenchmen were free, prosperous, and happy. It is +even true that the lower classes were unready for change. In Hungary, +Joseph II, son of Maria Theresa, attempted a complete and radical reform +of all abuses, and the mob rose in fury against his innovations, +compelled him to restore their "ancient customs." They had grown +familiar with their chains.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> + +<p>The French Revolution was an uprising of the middle classes. Its great +leaders in the earlier stages were Mirabeau, son of a baron, and +America's own friend the Marquis Lafayette. Even the King, Louis XVI, at +least partly approved the movement. The States-General was summoned in +1789 after an interval of nearly two centuries, to decide on the best +way of relieving the country from its financial embarrassments. This +gathering was soon resolved into a National Assembly which insisted on +giving France a constitution, making it a limited instead of an absolute +monarchy.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> + +<p>On the 14th of July the mob of Paris rose in sudden fury and stormed the +ancient state prison, the Bastille. The King sent no troops to resist +them; and from that time his power was but a shadow. His overthrow, +however, was not yet contemplated. The Revolution was still to be one of +dignity and intellect. An entire year after the fall of the Bastille, +the president of the National Assembly could still say in addressing a +deputation of Americans headed by Paul Jones: "It was by helping you to +conquer liberty that the French learned to understand and love it. The +hands which went to burst your fetters were not made to wear them +themselves; but, more fortunate than you, it is our King himself, it is +a patriot and citizen king, who has called us to the happiness which we +are enjoying that happiness which has cost us merely sacrifices, but +which you paid for with torrents of blood Courage broke your chains; +reason has made ours fall off."</p> + +<p>But alas! reason was soon to lose control. The lower classes had wakened +to a sense of their power, they began to use it savagely. Hatred of the +haughty aristocracy, long smoldering,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xx" id="Page_xx">[Pg xx]</a></span> burst everywhere into flame. Mobs +of country peasants plundered isolated chateaux and slew their inmates. +Meanwhile the National Assembly had been abolishing all titles of +nobility; the vast estates of the clergy were confiscated. The +aristocrats began fleeing from France, and the possessions of all who +fled were declared forfeited to the new government.</p> + +<p>Imagine the tumult that this upheaval caused to the rest of Europe. News +travelled slowly in those days; but these "<i>émigrés</i>," these banished +nobles, were palpable evidences of what had occurred. The common folk +everywhere, especially along the French borders in Germany, Switzerland, +and Italy, celebrated the French triumph as their own. Liberty was at +hand! For them, too, it would come presently! Murmurings of revolt grew +loud. The monarchs of Europe, terrified, took up the cause of the +<i>Émigrés</i> as their own. France was threatened with invasion. King Louis +threw in his lot with his royal friends and attempted flight from Paris. +He was caught and brought back a prisoner. A foreign army marched +against France.</p> + +<p>This invasion was met and repelled in the Battle of Valmy (1792), not an +extensive or bloody contest in itself, but one of incalculable +importance in human history, because like Bunker Hill it showed that a +new force had arisen to upset all the military calculations of the past. +Raw troops could now be found to meet on equal terms with veterans. +Liberty, hitherto an impalpable idea, a mere phantom in the brains of a +few philosophers, proved able to call up armies at a word, able +physically to hold its own against embattled despotism. Even the German +Goethe wrote of Valmy, "In this place and on this day a new era of the +world begins."<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> + +<p>France however had already gone mad with its success. Even before Valmy +wholesale murder had begun in Paris. The prisons were broken open and a +thousand "aristocrats" hideously butchered without trial. The day after +Valmy, the land was proclaimed a republic. King Louis was put on trial +for his life, and in January, 1793, was executed.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> Frenchmen began +fighting among themselves. The reign of "terror" began as that of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxi" id="Page_xxi">[Pg xxi]</a></span> kings +was abolished. Chiefs of each faction accused all others as traitors, +and executions by the guillotine rose to fifty a day. "We must have a +hundred!" cried Robespierre, the lunatic leader of the moment.</p> + +<p>The excesses in Paris roused civil war, and through all France men slew +one another in the name of liberty. In Brittany the peasants even rose +in support of royalty, and refused allegiance to the republic. Never has +the most hideous brutality of man been more openly displayed than in +those days of vengeance. The intellectual classes of Europe everywhere +shrank back, terrified at the spectre they had evoked.</p> + +<p>The Reign of Terror ended in 1794 with the downfall and execution of its +leader, Robespierre.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> The civil war was trampled out in blood. And +with Titanic energy the French Republic defended itself against its +foreign foes.</p> + +<p>All Europe had joined in a coalition against France—all the kings, that +is. Their subjects still doubted, still hoped, still looked anxiously to +France to see if freedom were in truth a possibility. Then from the +ranks of the liberated French arose great generals, aristocrats no +longer, but men of the people, fitted to lead the new-born armies of the +people. Greatest of these and grimmest of them was Napoleon Bonaparte. +He taught the timorous legislative authorities of Paris how to reassert +their dominion over "King Mob," who had ruled them and the country for +four hideous years. He checked a new uprising by a discharge of +well-stationed cannon, aimed to kill.</p> + +<p>Order being thus established at home, the French began to pour over the +border in attack upon those kings who had threatened them. In many +places they were still received as the apostles of liberty. Holland, +Switzerland, the Rhine lands, became allies or dependents of France. +Kings were helpless against them. To the spirit of Republicanism, to the +impassioned courage of Frenchmen, was added the genius of Bonaparte. He +conquered Italy. He plundered her and sent home priceless treasures to +delight his countrymen and fill their exhausted treasury. He became the +man of the hour.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p> + +<p>Far beyond France spread the influence of her example. In<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxii" id="Page_xxii">[Pg xxii]</a></span> Eastern +Europe, Poland was roused against the despoilers who had already seized +a portion of her territory. She began a rebellion under Kosciuszko, who, +like Lafayette, had imbibed the love of freedom in America. But Poland +was crushed by the overpowering forces of Russia, Prussia, and Austria. +Her remaining provinces were divided among the plunderers and the last +fragment of her independence was extinguished.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p> + +<p>In Haiti also there was a rebellion. The negroes of the island rose +against their Spanish masters and drove them into exile. Toussaint +Louverture, often regarded as the greatest hero of his race, led the +insurgents victoriously against both Spanish and English forces, and +finally with French help established the independence of Haiti as a +negro republic. He became administrator as well as warrior. After a few +successful years he was treacherously seized and held prisoner by +Napoleon; but the monument he had erected for himself, the "Black +Republic," continued and still continues to exist.<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p> + +<p>In a period so tumultuous as was this quarter-century, one could scarce +expect that the world would make much progress in science. Men were too +intent on sterner things. There was, however, just before the beginning +of the French Revolution, one event which to a future generation may +seem more important even than to us. Aërial navigation began. The first +successful balloon ascension was made by the Montgolfier brothers, and +the sport became for a while a Parisian fad.<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> Still more noteworthy +was the employment of vaccination as a preventive against smallpox. The +system was introduced in England by Jenner in 1798, and its use spread +rapidly over Europe. More recently it has been employed against other +diseases as well, and the resultant increase in the general health of +mankind is beyond computation.<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></p> + + +<h4>FORMATION OF THE UNITED STATES</h4> + +<p>Meanwhile America, the source or at least the partial source of all this +republican tumult, was having difficulties of her own. The peace after +Yorktown left her exhausted. The Articles of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxiii" id="Page_xxiii">[Pg xxiii]</a></span> Confederation which had +sufficed to hold the colonies together under the stress of their great +necessity, had proven insufficient to give any real unity. Each little +colony was jealous of its own power as an independent State: and for a +time it seemed as if they must disband, that America must become like +Europe, divided into a collection of separate ever-jarring States, +devastated by constant wars.</p> + +<p>That this was not our own country's fate, we owe to Washington. Our +saviour in war, he became also our saviour in peace. After watching +through some years of this disorganization, he emerged from the peaceful +retirement of his country home, to urge that some means be taken to form +a more perfect union. It was largely through his instrumentality that +the convention of 1787 was called; and he presided over its labors. +Again and again it seemed as if the convention would disband in anarchy. +The antagonisms between the various delegates appeared irreconcilable. +But always there was Washington to control the flaming passions, to +insist upon moderation, upon union. And in the end that convention drew +up the Constitution of the United States.<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></p> + +<p>Even then there remained the task of persuading each State to accept the +Constitution; and this also would have been impossible had not all men +looked to Washington to act as president of the new republic, to do +justice between its differing sections. Relying equally on his wisdom, +his caution, and his incorruptibility, the States intrusted to him a +power they would have conferred upon no other.</p> + +<p>Two years were occupied in arranging matters, and then, in 1789, the +date so memorable to France as well, the new government was organized, +Washington was inaugurated as President, and the United States began its +stupendous career as a single nation.<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p> + +<p>There were difficulties, of course. American finances seemed as +hopelessly involved as had been those of monarchical France. But this +rock upon which the French projects of reform all split, our government +escaped by the financial genius of Alexander Hamilton.<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> The natural +summons of the French that the Americans<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxiv" id="Page_xxiv">[Pg xxiv]</a></span> should become their allies, +should help them to win freedom in their turn, proved another source of +danger. A thousand others were not lacking. But Washington's +conservatism preserved his government through all. He proclaimed +America's well-known policy toward the European States: "Friendship with +all, entangling alliances with none." The material prosperity of the +country increased rapidly. Eli Whitney invented the cotton-gin, which +made cotton cultivation so remunerative that the South grew rich, and +also, alas, became wedded to the system of slavery under which it was +supposed cotton could best be produced.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p> + +<p>For eight years Washington guided the destinies of the infant nation, +and then resigned his authority to one of his lieutenants. So that +really the great leader's influence continued predominant until he died +in December, 1799. Already however the more radical of Americans were +grown restive under his restraining hand. Federalism, conservatism, was +losing its control upon the national counsels, a change toward wider and +more radical democracy was at hand.</p> + + +<h4>OVERTHROW OF DEMOCRACY IN FRANCE</h4> + +<p>The year of 1799 saw also a great change in France, but in the opposite +direction, away from democracy and back toward absolutism. The French +government, grown rash with its marvellous victories, had dared to +despatch Bonaparte, its ablest general, on an ill-considered and +somewhat fanciful expedition to distant Egypt. There his fleet was +destroyed by the English admiral, Nelson, in the celebrated Battle of +the Nile, and he and his army were left practically prisoners in +Egypt.<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></p> + +<p>Deprived of his genius at home, French military affairs went badly. +Monarchy rallied from its momentary depression. Russian troops drove the +French from Switzerland; Germans defeated them along the Rhine. The +Constitutional government in Paris was proving impracticable, its +members incompetent. Bonaparte saw his opportunity. Leaving his army in +Egypt, he escaped the British and returned alone to France. In Paris he +summoned the soldiers around him, entered the hall of the assembly,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxv" id="Page_xxv">[Pg xxv]</a></span> +and, much as Cromwell had once done in England, bade the wrangling +members disperse. Then he constructed a new government, which he still +called a republic. But as he himself was to be First Consul, with almost +all power in his own hands, the Government proved in reality as complete +an absolutism as that of Richelieu or Louis XIV. The first European +attempt at democracy had perished. The new century was to learn what +this suddenly risen dictator would establish in its stead.</p> + +<h4>[FOR THE NEXT SECTION OF THIS GENERAL SURVEY SEE VOLUME XV]</h4> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> See <i>Battle of Lexington</i>, page <a href='#Page_1'>1</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> See <i>Battle of Bunker Hill</i>, page <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> See <i>Signing of American Declaration of Independence</i>, page +39.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> See <i>Canada Remains Loyal to England</i>, page <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> See <i>Defeat of Burgoyne at Saratoga</i>, page <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> See <i>First Victory of the American Navy</i>, page <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> See <i>British Defence of Gibraltar</i>, page <a href='#Page_116'>116</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> See <i>Siege and Surrender of Yorktown</i>, page <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> See <i>Close of the American Revolution</i>, page <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> See <i>Settlement of American Loyalists in Canada</i>, page <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> See <i>Joseph II Attempts Reform in Hungary</i>, page <a href='#Page_85'>85</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> See <i>French Revolution: Storming of the Bastille</i>, page <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> See <i>Republican France Defies Europe: Battle of Valmy</i>, +page <a href='#Page_252'>252</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> See <i>Execution of Louis XVI: Murder of Marat: Civil War in +France</i>, page <a href='#Page_295'>295</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> See <i>The Reign of Terror</i>, page <a href='#Page_311'>311</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> See <i>The Rise of Napoleon: The French Conquest of Italy</i>, +page <a href='#Page_339'>339</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> See <i>The Downfall of Poland</i>, page <a href='#Page_330'>330</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> See <i>Negro Revolution in Haiti</i>, page <a href='#Page_236'>236</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> See <i>First Balloon Ascension</i>, page <a href='#Page_63'>63</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> See <i>Jenner Introduces Vaccination</i>, page <a href='#Page_363'>363</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> See <i>Framing of the Constitution of the United States</i>, +page <a href='#Page_173'>173</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> See <i>Inauguration of Washington: His Farewell Address</i>, +page <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> See <i>Hamilton Establishes the United States Bank</i>, page +230.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> See <i>Invention of the Cotton-gin</i>, page <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> See <i>Overthrow of the Mamelukes: The Battle of the Nile</i>, +page <a href='#Page_353'>353</a>.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> +<h2>BATTLE OF LEXINGTON</h2> + +<h4><span class="smcap">a.d. 1775</span></h4> + +<h3>RICHARD FROTHINGHAM</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>April 19, 1775, is memorable in American history as the day +on which occurred the first bloodshed of the Revolution. The +two combats of the day—that at Lexington and that at +Concord—really constituted one action, which ended in a +long running fight. As a single action, it is usually called +the Battle of Lexington. The engagement at Concord, +separately considered, is called the Battle of Concord, or +the Concord Fight.</p> + +<p>At both places, on that fateful day, "the embattled farmers" +faced the troops of their own sovereign, to resist what was +felt to be an unwarranted and menacing invasion of American +liberties. While the soldiers of King George were doing +their own loyal duty, the New England yeomen who "fired the +shot heard round the world" obeyed a conviction still more +compelling. Hence came the first physical struggle in what +was already an "irrepressible conflict" of principle between +Englishmen and their kinsmen on the American continent.</p> + +<p>The Revolutionary War was begun on the part of the Americans +for the redress of grievances for which they had exhausted +all peaceable endeavors to secure a remedy. It was afterward +successfully waged for independence. Repressive measures of +Great Britain in the colonies began with the issuance by +colonial courts of "writs of assistance." These writs +authorized officers to summon assistance in searching +certain premises under certain laws. In the first attempt to +enforce such a writ—in Massachusetts, 1761—the policy was +defeated through popular opposition, brilliantly led by +James Otis, who by a single speech produced such an effect +that John Adams said of the occasion: "Then and there was +the first scene of the first act of opposition to the +arbitrary claims of Great Britain. Then and there the child +Independence was born."</p> + +<p>Later grievances were those of the Stamp Act (1765), taxes +on paints, glass, etc. (1767), and the Boston Port Bill +(1774), ordering the closing of the port on account of the +rebellious acts of the citizens, especially in the +"tea-party" of December 16, 1773, when they threw into the +waters of the harbor from English ships tea valued at +eighteen thousand pounds. As early as 1770 had occurred the +"Boston Massacre," a collision between citizens and British +soldiers, which added to earlier discontents and increased +the sensitiveness to later irritations.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span></p> + +<p>The first Continental Congress, in 1774, though strongly +pacific, favored resistance to aggressions of the Crown. +During this year and the next two Provincial Congresses met +in Massachusetts, the collection of military stores was +authorized, a committee of safety was created, and the +"minute-men" were organized.</p> + +<p>General Gage, the British commander in Boston, denounced +these proceedings as treasonable. Parliament vainly sought +to adjust the difficulties and enforce its authority. +Conciliatory efforts on both sides failing, it soon became +evident that a conflict of arms was at hand. By April 4, +1775, it was known in Boston that reënforcements were on +their way to General Gage. Soon after their arrival he was +ready for the movement with which the narrative of +Frothingham, a high authority on these events, begins.</p></div> + + +<p>General Gage had, in the middle of April, 1775, about four thousand men +in Boston. He resolved, by a secret expedition, to destroy the magazines +collected at Concord. This measure was neither advised by his council +nor by his officers. It was said that he was worried into it by the +importunities of the Tories; but it was undoubtedly caused by the +energetic measures of the Whigs. His own subsequent justification was +that when he saw an assembly of men, unknown to the Constitution, +wresting from him the public moneys and collecting warlike stores, it +was alike his duty and the dictate of humanity to prevent the calamity +of civil war by destroying these magazines. His previous belief was that +should the Government show a respectable force in the field, seize the +most obnoxious patriot leaders, and proclaim a pardon for others, it +would come off victorious.</p> + +<p>On April 15th the grenadiers and light infantry, on the pretence of +learning a new military exercise, were relieved from duty; and at night +the boats of the transport ships which had been hauled up to be repaired +were launched and moored under the sterns of the men-of-war. These +movements looked suspicious to the vigilant patriots, and Dr. Joseph +Warren sent intelligence of them to Hancock and Adams, who were in +Lexington. It was this timely notice that induced the committee of +safety to take additional measures for the security of the stores in +Concord, and to order (on the 17th) cannon to be secreted, and a part of +the stores to be removed to Sudbury and Groton.</p> + +<p>On Tuesday, April 18th, General Gage directed several officers to +station themselves on the roads leading out of Boston, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> prevent any +intelligence of his intended expedition that night from reaching the +country. A party of them, on that day, dined at Cambridge. The +committees of safety and supplies, which usually held their sessions +together, also met that day, at Wetherby's Tavern, in Menotomy, now West +Cambridge. Elbridge Gerry and Colonels Orne and Lee, of the members, +remained to pass the night. Richard Devens and Abraham Watson rode in a +chaise toward Charlestown, but, soon meeting a number of British +officers on horseback, they returned to inform their friends at the +tavern, waited there until the officers rode by, and then rode to +Charlestown. Gerry immediately sent an express to Hancock and Adams, +that "eight or nine officers were out, suspected of some evil design," +which caused precautionary measures to be adopted at Lexington.</p> + +<p>Richard Devens, an efficient member of the committee of safety, soon +received intelligence that the British troops were in motion in Boston, +and were certainly preparing to go into the country. Shortly after, the +signal agreed upon in this event was given, namely, a lantern hung out +from the North Church steeple in Boston, when Devens immediately +despatched an express with this intelligence to Menotomy and Lexington. +All this while General Gage supposed his movements were a profound +secret, and as such in the evening communicated them in confidence to +Lord Percy. But as this nobleman was crossing the Common on his way to +his quarters he joined a group of men engaged in conversation, when one +said, "The British troops have marched, but will miss their aim!"</p> + +<p>"What aim?" inquired Lord Percy.</p> + +<p>"Why, the cannon at Concord." He hastened back to General Gage with this +information, when orders were immediately issued that no person should +leave town. Dr. Warren, however, a few minutes previous, had sent Paul +Revere and William Dawes into the country. Revere, about eleven o'clock, +rowed across the river to Charlestown, was supplied by Richard Devens +with a horse, and started to alarm the country. Just outside of +Charlestown Neck he barely escaped capture by British officers; but +leaving one of them in a clay-pit, he got to Medford, awoke the captain +of the minute-men, gave the alarm on the road, and reached the Rev. +Jonas Clark's house in safety, where the evening<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> before a guard of +eight men had been stationed to protect Hancock and Adams.</p> + +<p>It was midnight as Revere rode up and requested admittance. William +Monroe, the sergeant, told him that the family, before retiring to rest, +had requested that they might not be disturbed by noise about the house. +"Noise!" replied Revere; "you'll have noise enough before long—the +regulars are coming out!" He was then admitted. Dawes, who went out +through Roxbury, soon joined him. Their intelligence was "that a large +body of the King's troops, supposed to be a brigade of twelve or fifteen +hundred, had embarked in boats from Boston, and gone over to Lechmere's +Point, in Cambridge, and it was suspected they were ordered to seize and +destroy the stores belonging to the colony, then deposited at Concord."</p> + +<p>The town of Lexington, Major Phinney writes, is "about twelve miles +northwest of Boston and six miles southeast of Concord. It was +originally a part of Cambridge, and previous to its separation from that +town was called the Cambridge Farms." The act of incorporation bears +date March 20, 1712. The inhabitants consist principally of hardy and +independent yeomanry. In 1775 the list of enrolled militia bore the +names of over one hundred citizens. The road leading from Boston divides +near the centre of the village in Lexington. The part leading to Concord +passes to the left, and that leading to Bedford to the right, of the +meeting-house, and form two sides of a triangular green or common, on +the south corner of which stands the meeting-house, facing directly down +the road leading to Boston. At the right of the meeting-house, on the +opposite side of Bedford road, was Buckman's Tavern.</p> + +<p>About one o'clock the Lexington alarm-men and militia were summoned to +meet at their usual place of parade, on the Common; and messengers were +sent toward Cambridge for additional information. When the militia +assembled, about two o'clock in the morning, Captain John Parker, its +commander, ordered the roll to be called, and the men to load with +powder and ball. About one hundred thirty were now assembled with arms. +One of the messengers soon returned with the report that there was no +appearance of troops on the roads; and the weather being chilly, the +men, after being on parade some time, were dismissed with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> orders to +appear again at the beat of the drum. They dispersed into houses near +the place of parade—the greater part going into Buckman's Tavern. It +was generally supposed that the movements in Boston were only a feint to +alarm the people.</p> + +<p>Revere and Dawes started to give the alarm in Concord, and soon met Dr. +Samuel Prescott, a warm patriot, who agreed to assist in arousing the +people. While they were thus engaged they were suddenly met by a party +of officers, well armed and mounted, when a scuffle ensued, during which +Revere was captured; but Prescott, by leaping a stone-wall, made his +escape. The same officers had already detained three citizens of +Lexington, who had been sent out the preceding evening to watch their +movements. All the prisoners, after being questioned closely, were +released near Lexington, when Revere rejoined Hancock and Adams, and +went with them toward Woburn, two miles from Clark's house.</p> + +<p>While these things were occurring, the British regulars were marching +toward Concord. Lieutenant-Colonel Smith, at the head of about eight +hundred troops—grenadiers, light infantry, and marines—embarked about +ten o'clock at the foot of Boston Common, in the boats of the ships of +war. They landed, just as the moon arose, at Phipps' Farm, now Lechmere +Point, took an unfrequented path over the marshes, where in some places +they had to wade through water, and entered the old Charlestown and West +Cambridge road. No martial sounds enlivened their midnight march; it was +silent, stealthy, inglorious. The members of the "Rebel Congress" arose +from their beds at the tavern in Menotomy, to view them. They saw the +front pass on with the regularity of veteran discipline. But when the +centre was opposite the window, an officer and file of men were detached +toward the house. Gerry, Orne, and Lee, half-dressed as they were, then +took the hint and escaped to an adjoining field, while the British in +vain searched the house.</p> + +<p>Colonel Smith had marched but few miles when the sounds of guns and +bells gave the evidence that, notwithstanding the caution of General +Gage, the country was alarmed. He detached six companies of light +infantry, under the command of Major Pitcairn, with orders to press +forward and secure the two bridges at Concord, while he sent a messenger +to Boston for a reënforcement.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> The party of officers who had been out +joined the detachment, with the exaggerated report that five hundred men +were in arms to oppose the King's forces. Major Pitcairn, as he +advanced, succeeded in capturing everyone on the road until he arrived +within a mile and a half of Lexington Meeting-house, when Thaddeus +Bowman succeeded in eluding the advancing troops, and, galloping to the +Common, gave the first certain intelligence to Captain Parker of their +approach.</p> + +<p>It was now about half-past four in the morning. Captain Parker ordered +the drum to beat, alarm-guns to be fired, and Sergeant William Monroe to +form his company in two ranks a few rods north of the meeting-house. It +was a part of "the constitutional army," which was authorized to make a +regular and forcible resistance to any open hostility by the British +troops; and it was for this purpose that this gallant and devoted band +on this memorable morning appeared on the field. Whether it ought to +maintain its ground or whether it ought to retreat would depend upon the +bearing and numbers of the regulars. It was not long in suspense. At a +short distance from the parade-ground the British officers, regarding +the American drum as a challenge, ordered their troops to halt, to prime +and load, and then to march forward in double-quick time.</p> + +<p>Meantime sixty or seventy of the militia had collected, and about forty +spectators, a few of whom had arms. Captain Parker ordered his men not +to fire unless they were fired upon. A part of his company had time to +form in a military position facing the regulars; but while some were +joining the ranks and others were dispersing, the British troops rushed +on, shouting and firing, and their officers—among whom was Major +Pitcairn—exclaiming, "Ye villains! ye rebels! disperse!" "Lay down your +arms!" "Why don't you lay down your arms?" The militia did not instantly +disperse nor did they proceed to lay down their arms.</p> + +<p>The first guns, few in number, did no execution. A general discharge +followed, with fatal results. A few of the militia who had been wounded, +or who saw others killed or wounded by their side, no longer hesitated, +but returned the fire of the regulars. Jonas Parker, John Monroe, and +Ebenezer Monroe, Jr., and others, fired before leaving the line; Solomon +Brown and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> James Brown fired from behind a stone wall; one other person +fired from the back door of Buckman's house; Nathan Monroe, Lieutenant +Benjamin Tidd and others retreated a short distance and fired. Meantime +the regulars continued their fire as long as the militia remained in +sight, killing eight and wounding ten. Jonas Parker, who repeatedly said +he never would run from the British, was wounded at the second fire, but +he still discharged his gun, and was killed by a bayonet. "A truer heart +did not bleed at Thermopylæ."</p> + +<p>Isaac Muzzy, Jonathan Harrington, and Robert Monroe were also killed on +or near the place where the line was formed. "Harrington's was a cruel +fate. He fell in front of his own house, on the north of the Common. His +wife at the window saw him fall and then start up, the blood gushing +from his breast. He stretched out his hands toward her as if for +assistance, and fell again. Rising once more on his hands and knees, he +crawled across the road toward his dwelling. She ran to meet him at the +door, but it was to see him expire at her feet."</p> + +<p>Monroe was the standard-bearer of his company at the capture of +Louisburg. Caleb Harrington was killed as he was running from the +meeting-house after replenishing his stock of powder; Samuel Hadley and +John Brown, after they had left the Common; Asahel Porter, of Woburn, +who had been taken prisoner by the British as he was endeavoring to +effect his escape.</p> + +<p>The British suffered but little; a private of the Tenth regiment and +probably one other were wounded, and Major Pitcairn's horse was struck. +Some of the Provincials retreated up the road leading to Bedford, but +most of them across a swamp to a rising ground north of the Common. The +British troops formed on the Common, fired a volley, and gave three +huzzas in token of victory. Colonel Smith, with the remainder of the +troops, soon joined Major Pitcairn, and the whole detachment marched +toward Concord, about six miles distant, which it reached without +further interruption. After it left Lexington six of the regulars were +taken prisoners.</p> + +<p>Concord was described in 1775, by Ensign Berniere, as follows: "It lies +between two hills, that command it entirely. There is a river runs +through it, with two bridges over it. In<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> summer it is pretty dry. The +town is large, and contains a church, jail, and court-house; but the +houses are not close together, but in little groups." The road from +Lexington entered Concord from the southeast along the side of a hill, +which commences on the right of it about a mile below the village, rises +abruptly from thirty to fifty feet above the road, and terminates at the +northeasterly part of the square. The top forms a plain, which commands +a view of the town. Here was the liberty-pole. The court-house stood +near the present county-house. The main branch of the Concord River +flows sluggishly, in a serpentine direction, on the westerly and +northerly side of the village, about half a mile from its centre. This +river was crossed by two bridges—one called the Old South bridge—the +other, by the Rev. William Emerson's, called the Old North bridge. The +road beyond the North bridge led to Colonel James Barrett's, about two +miles from the centre of the town.</p> + +<p>Dr. Samuel Prescott, whose escape has been related, gave the alarm in +Lincoln and Concord. It was between one and two o'clock in the morning +when the quiet community of Concord were aroused from their slumbers by +the sounds of the church-bell. The committee of safety, the military +officers, and prominent citizens assembled for consultation. Messengers +were despatched toward Lexington for information; the militia and +minute-men were formed on the customary parade-ground near the +meeting-house; and the inhabitants, with a portion of the militia, under +the able superintendence of Colonel Barrett, zealously labored in +removing the military stores into the woods and by-places for safety. +These scenes were novel and distressing; and among others, Rev. William +Emerson, the patriotic clergyman, mingled with the people, and gave +counsel and comfort to the terrified women and children.</p> + +<p>Reuben Brown, one of the messengers sent to obtain information, returned +with the startling intelligence that the British regulars had fired upon +his countrymen at Lexington, and were on their march for Concord. It was +determined to go out to meet them. A part of the military of +Lincoln—the minute-men, under Captain William Smith, and the militia, +under Captain Samuel Farrar—had joined the Concord people; and after +parading on the Common, some of the companies marched down the +Lexington<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> road until they saw the British two miles from the centre of +the town. Captain Minot, with the alarm company, remained in town, and +took possession of the hill near the liberty-pole. He had no sooner +gained it, however, than the companies that had gone down the road +returned with the information that the number of the British was treble +that of the Americans. The whole then fell back to an eminence about +eighty rods distance, back of the town, where they formed in two +battalions. Colonel Barrett, the commander, joined them here, having +previously been engaged in removing the stores. They had scarcely formed +when the British troops appeared in sight at the distance of a quarter +of a mile, and advancing with great celerity—their arms glittering in +the splendor of early sunshine. But little time remained for +deliberation. Some were in favor of resisting the further approach of +the troops; while others, more prudent, advised a retreat and a delay +until further reënforcements should arrive. Colonel Barrett ordered the +militia to retire over the North bridge to a commanding eminence about a +mile from the centre of the town.</p> + +<p>The British troops then marched into Concord in two divisions—one by +the main road, and the other on the hill north of it, from which the +Americans had just retired. They were posted in the following manner:</p> + +<p>The grenadiers and light infantry, under the immediate command of +Colonel Smith, remained in the centre of the town. Captain Parsons, with +six light companies, about two hundred men, was detached to secure the +North bridge and to destroy stores, who stationed three companies, under +Captain Laurie, at the bridge, and proceeded with the other three +companies to the residence of Colonel Barrett, about two miles distant, +to destroy the magazines deposited there. Captain Pole, with a party, +was sent, for a similar purpose, to the South bridge. The British met +with but partial success in the work of destruction, in consequence of +the diligent concealment of the stores. In the centre of the town they +broke open about sixty barrels of flour, nearly half of which was +subsequently saved; knocked off the trunnions of three iron +twenty-four-pound cannon, and burned sixteen new carriage-wheels and a +few barrels of wooden trenchers and spoons. They cut down the +liberty-pole, and set the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> court-house on fire, which was put out, +however, by the exertions of Mrs. Moulton. The parties at the South +bridge and at Colonel Barrett's met with poor success. While engaged in +this manner the report of guns at the North bridge put a stop to their +proceedings.</p> + +<p>The British troops had been in Concord about two hours. During this time +the minute-men from the neighboring towns had been constantly arriving +on the high grounds, a short distance from the North bridge, until they +numbered about four hundred fifty. They were formed in line by Joseph +Hosmer, who acted as adjutant. It is difficult, if not impossible, to +ascertain certainly what companies were present thus early in the day. +They came from Carlisle, from Chelmsford, from Westford, from Littleton, +and from Acton. The minute-men of Acton were commanded by Captain Isaac +Davis, a brave and energetic man. Most of the operations of the British +troops were visible from this place of rendezvous, and several fires +were seen in the middle of the town. Anxious apprehensions were then +felt for its fate. A consultation of officers and of prominent citizens +was held. It was probably during this conference that Captain William +Smith, of Lincoln, volunteered, with his company, to dislodge the +British guard at the North bridge. Captain Isaac Davis, as he returned +from it to his ranks, also remarked, "I haven't a man that's afraid to +go." The result of this council was that it was expedient to dislodge +the guard at the North bridge. Colonel Barrett accordingly ordered the +militia to march to it, and to pass it, but not to fire on the King's +troops unless they were fired upon. He designated Major John Buttrick to +lead the companies to effect this object. Lieutenant-Colonel Robinson +volunteered to accompany him. On the march Major Buttrick requested +Colonel Robinson to act as his superior, but he generously declined.</p> + +<p>It was nearly ten o'clock in the morning when the Provincials, about +three hundred in number, arrived near the river. The company from Acton +was in front, and Major Buttrick, Colonel Robinson, and Captain Davis +were at their head. Captains David Brown, Charles Miles, Nathan Barrett, +and William Smith, with their companies, and also other companies, fell +into the line. Their positions, however, are not precisely known.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> They +marched in double file, and with trailed arms. The British guard, under +Captain Laurie, about one hundred in number, were then on the west side +of the river, but on seeing the Provincials approach they retired over +the bridge to the east side of the river, formed as if for a fight, and +began to take up the planks of the bridge. Major Buttrick remonstrated +against this and ordered his men to hasten their march.</p> + +<p>When they had arrived within a few rods of the bridge the British began +to fire upon them. The first guns, few in number, did no execution; +others followed with deadly effect. Luther Blanchard, a fifer in the +Acton company, was first wounded; and afterward Captain Isaac Davis and +Abner Hosmer, of the same company, were killed. On seeing the fire take +effect Major Buttrick exclaimed, "Fire, fellow-soldiers! for God's sake, +fire!" The Provincials then fired, and killed one and wounded several of +the enemy. The fire lasted but a few minutes. The British immediately +retreated in great confusion toward the main body—a detachment from +which was soon on its way to meet them. The Provincials pursued them +over the bridge, when one of the wounded of the British was cruelly +killed by a hatchet.</p> + +<p>Part of the Provincials soon turned to the left, and ascended the hill +on the east of the main road, while another portion returned to the high +grounds, carrying with them the remains of the gallant Davis and Hosmer. +Military order was broken, and many who had been on duty all the morning +and were hungry and fatigued improved the time to take refreshment. +Meantime the party under Captain Parsons—who was piloted by Ensign +Berniere—returned from Captain Barrett's house, repassed the bridge +where the skirmish took place, and saw the bodies of their companions, +one of which was mangled. It would have been easy for the Provincials to +have cut them off. But war had not been declared; and it is evident that +it had not been fully resolved to attack the British troops. Hence this +party of about one hundred were allowed, unmolested, to join the main +body. Colonel Smith concentrated his force, obtained conveyances for the +wounded, and occupied about two hours in making preparations to return +to Boston—a delay that nearly proved fatal to the whole detachment.</p> + +<p>While these great events were occurring at Lexington and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> Concord, the +intelligence of the hostile march of the British troops was spreading +rapidly through the country; and hundreds of local communities, animated +by the same determined and patriotic spirit, were sending out their +representatives to the battle-field. The minute-men, organized and ready +for action, promptly obeyed the summons to parade. They might wait in +some instances to receive a parting blessing from their minister, or to +take leave of weeping friends; but in all the roads leading to Concord, +they were hurrying to the scene of action. They carried the firelock +that had fought the Indian, and the drum that beat at Louisburg; and +they were led by men who had served under Wolfe at Quebec. As they drew +near the places of bloodshed and massacre they learned that in both +cases the regulars had been the aggressors—"had fired the first"—and +they were deeply touched by the slaughter of their brethren. Now the +British had fairly passed the Rubicon. If any still counselled +forbearance, moderation, peace, the words were thrown away. The +assembling bands felt that the hour had come in which to hurl back the +insulting charges on their courage that had been repeated for years, and +to make good the solemn words of their public bodies. And they +determined to attack on their return the invaders of their native soil.</p> + +<p>Colonel Smith, about twelve o'clock, commenced his march for Boston. His +left was covered by a strong flank-guard that kept the height of land +that borders the Lexington road, leading to Merriam's Corner; his right +was protected by a brook; the main body marched in the road. The British +soon saw how thoroughly the country had been alarmed. It seemed, one of +them writes, that "men had dropped from the clouds," so full were the +hills and roads of the minute-men. The Provincials left the high grounds +near the North bridge and went across the pastures known as "the Great +Fields," to Bedford road. Here the Reading minute-men, under Major +Brooks, afterward Governor Brooks, joined them; and a few minutes after, +Colonel William Thompson, with a body of militia from Billerica and +vicinity, came up. It is certain, from the diaries and petitions of this +period, that minute-men from other towns also came up in season to fire +upon the British while leaving Concord.</p> + +<p>The Reverend Foster, who was with the Reading company,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> relates the +beginning of the afternoon contest in the following manner: "A little +before we came to Merriam's hill we discovered the enemy's flank-guard, +of about eighty or one hundred men, who, on their retreat from Concord, +kept that height of land, the main body in the road. The British troops +and the Americans at that time were equally distant from Merriam's +Corner. About twenty rods short of that place the Americans made a halt. +The British marched down the hill, with very slow but steady step, +without music, or a word being spoken that could be heard. Silence +reigned on both sides. As soon as the British had gained the main road, +and passed a small bridge near that corner, they faced about suddenly +and fired a volley of musketry upon us. They overshot; and no one, to my +knowledge, was injured by the fire. The fire was immediately returned by +the Americans, and two British soldiers fell dead, at a little distance +from each other, in the road, near the brook."</p> + +<p>The battle now began in earnest, and as the British troops retreated a +severe fire was poured in upon them from every favorable position. Near +Hardy's hill, the Sudbury company, led by Captain Nathaniel Cudworth, +attacked them, and there was a severe skirmish below Brooks' Tavern on +the old road north of the school-house. The woods lined both sides of +the road which the British had to pass, and it was filled with the +minute-men. "The enemy," says Mr. Foster, "was now completely between +two fires, renewed and briskly kept up. They ordered out a flank-guard +on the left to dislodge the Americans from their posts behind large +trees, but they only became a better mark to be shot at." A short and +sharp battle ensued. And for three or four miles along these woody +defiles the British suffered terribly. Woburn had "turned out +extraordinary"; it sent out a force one hundred eighty strong, "well +armed and resolved in defence of the common cause." Major Loammi +Baldwin, afterward Colonel Baldwin, was with this body. At Tanner brook, +at Lincoln bridge, they concluded to scatter, make use of the trees and +walls as defences, and thus attack the British. And in this way they +kept on pursuing and flanking them. In Lincoln, also, Captain Parker's +brave Lexington company again appeared in the field, and did efficient +service. "The enemy," says Colonel Baldwin, "marched very fast, and left +many dead and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> wounded and a few tired." Eight were buried in Lincoln +graveyard. It was at this time that Captain Jonathan Wilson, of Bedford, +Nathaniel Wyman, of Billerica, and Daniel Thompson, of Woburn, were +killed.</p> + +<p>In Lexington, at Fiske's hill, an officer on a fine horse, with a drawn +sword in his hand, was actively engaged in directing the troops, when a +number of the pursuers, from behind a pile of rails, fired at him with +effect. The officer fell, and the horse, in affright, leaped the wall, +and ran toward those who had fired. It was here that Lieutenant-Colonel +Smith was severely wounded in the leg. At the foot of this hill a +personal contest between James Hayward, of Acton, and a British soldier +took place. The Briton drew up his gun, remarking, "You are a dead man!" +"And so are you!" answered Hayward. The former was killed. Hayward was +mortally wounded and died the next day.</p> + +<p>The British troops, when they arrived within a short distance of +Lexington Meeting-house, again suffered severely from the close pursuit +and the sharp fire of the Provincials. Their ammunition began to fail, +while their light companies were so fatigued as to be almost unfitted +for service. The large number of wounded created confusion, and many of +the troops rather ran than marched in order. For some time the officers +in vain tried to restore discipline. They saw the confusion increase +under their efforts, until, at last, they placed themselves in front, +and threatened the men with death if they advanced. This desperate +exertion, made under a heavy fire, partially restored order. The +detachment, however, must have soon surrendered had it not in its +extreme peril found shelter in the hollow square of a reënforcement sent +to their relief.</p> + +<p>General Gage received, early in the morning, a request from Colonel +Smith for a reënforcement. About nine o'clock he detached three +regiments of infantry and two divisions of marines, with two +field-pieces, under Lord Percy, to support the grenadiers and light +infantry. Lord Percy marched through Roxbury, to the tune of <i>Yankee +Doodle</i> to the great alarm of the country. To prevent or to impede his +march, the select-men of Cambridge had the planks of the Old bridge, +over which he was obliged to pass, taken up; but instead of being +removed, they were piled on the causeway on the Cambridge<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> side of the +river. Hence Lord Percy found no difficulty in replacing them so as to +admit his troops to cross. But a convoy of provisions was detained until +it was out of the protection of the main body. This was captured at West +Cambridge. According to Gordon, Rev. Dr. Payson led this party. David +Lamson, a half-Indian, distinguished himself in the affair. Percy's +brigade met the harassed and retreating troops about two o'clock, within +half a mile of Lexington Meeting-house. "They were so much exhausted +with fatigue," the British historian Stedman writes, "that they were +obliged to lie down for rest on the ground, their tongues hanging out of +their mouths like those of dogs after a chase." The field-pieces from +the high ground below Monroe's Tavern played on the Provincials, and for +a short period there was, save the discharge of cannon, a cessation of +battle. From this time, however, the troops committed the most wanton +destruction. Three houses, two shops, and a barn were laid in ashes in +Lexington; buildings on the route were defaced and plundered, and +individuals were grossly abused.</p> + +<p>At this time, Dr. Warren and General Heath were active in the field, +directing and encouraging the militia. General Heath was one of the +generals who were authorized to take the command when the minute-men +should be called out. On his way to the scene of action he ordered the +militia of Cambridge to make a barricade of the planks of the bridge, +take post there, and oppose the retreat of the British in that direction +from Boston. At Lexington, when the minute-men were somewhat checked and +scattered by Percy's field-pieces, he labored to form them into military +order. Dr. Warren, about ten o'clock, rode on horseback through +Charlestown. He had received by express intelligence of the events of +the morning, and told the citizens of Charlestown that the news of the +firing was true. Among others he met Dr. Welsh, who said, "Well, they +are gone out." "Yes," replied the doctor, "and we'll be up with them +before night."</p> + +<p>Lord Percy had now under his command about eighteen hundred troops of +undoubted bravery and of veteran discipline. He evinced no disposition, +however, to turn upon his assailants and make good the insulting boasts +of his associates. After a short interval of rest and refreshment the +British recommenced<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> their retreat. Then the Provincials renewed their +attack. In West Cambridge the skirmishing again became sharp and bloody +and the troops increased their atrocities. Jason Russell, an invalid and +a noncombatant, was barbarously butchered in his own house. In this town +a mother was killed while nursing her child. Others were driven from +their dwellings, and their dwellings were pillaged. Here the Danvers +company, which marched in advance of the Essex regiment, met the enemy. +Some took post in a walled enclosure, and made a breastwork of bundles +of shingles; others planted themselves behind trees on the side of the +hill west of the meeting-house. The British came along in solid column +on their right, while a large flank guard came up on their left. The +Danvers men were surrounded, and many were killed and wounded. Here +Samuel Whittemore was shot and bayoneted, and left for dead. Here Dr. +Eliphalet Downer, in single combat with a soldier, killed him with a +bayonet. Here a musket-ball struck a pin out of the hair of Dr. Warren's +earlock.</p> + +<p>The wanton destruction of life and property that marked the course of +the invaders added revenge to the natural bravery of the minute-men. +"Indignation and outraged humanity struggled on the one hand; veteran +discipline and desperation on the other." The British had many struck in +West Cambridge, and left an officer wounded in the house still standing +at the rail-road depot. The British troops took the road that winds +round Prospect hill. When they entered this part of Charlestown their +situation was critical. The large numbers of the wounded proved a +distressing obstruction to their progress, while they had but few rounds +of ammunition left. Their field-pieces had lost their terror. The main +body of the Provincials hung closely on their rear; a strong force was +advancing upon them from Roxbury, Dorchester, and Milton; while Colonel +Pickering, with the Essex militia, seven hundred strong, threatened to +cut off their retreat to Charlestown.</p> + +<p>Near Prospect hill the fire again became sharp and the British again had +recourse to their field-pieces. James Miller, of Charlestown, was killed +here. Along its base, Lord Percy, it is stated, received the hottest +fire he had during his retreat. General Gage, about sunset, might have +beheld his harassed troops,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> almost on the run, coming down the old +Cambridge road to Charlestown Neck, anxious to get under the protection +of the guns of the ships-of-war. The minute-men closely followed, but, +when they reached the Charlestown Common, General Heath ordered them to +stop the pursuit.</p> + +<p>Charlestown, throughout the day, presented a scene of intense excitement +and great confusion. It was known early in the morning that the regulars +were out. Rumors soon arrived of the events that had occurred at +Lexington. The schools were dismissed, and citizens gathered in groups +in the streets. After Dr. Warren rode through the town, and gave the +certain intelligence of the slaughter at Lexington, a large number went +out to the field, and the greater part who remained were women and +children. Hon. James Russell received, in the afternoon, a note from +General Gage to the effect that he had been informed that citizens had +gone out armed to oppose his majesty's troops, and that if a single man +more went out armed the most disagreeable consequences might be +expected. It was next reported, and correctly, that Cambridge bridge had +been taken up, and that hence the regulars would be obliged to return to +Boston through the town. Many then prepared to leave, and every vehicle +was employed to carry away their most valuable effects. Others, however, +still believing the troops would return the way they went out, +determined to remain, and in either event to abide the worst. Just +before sunset the noise of distant firing was heard, and soon the +British troops were seen in the Cambridge road.</p> + +<p>The inhabitants then rushed toward the neck. Some crossed Mystic River, +at Penny Ferry. Some ran along the marsh, toward Medford. The troops, +however, soon approached the town, firing as they came along. A lad, +Edward Barber, was killed on the neck. The inhabitants then turned back +into the town panic-stricken.</p> + +<p>Word ran through the crowd that "the British were massacring the women +and children!" Some remained in the streets, speechless with terror; +some ran to the clay-pits, back of Breed's Hill, where they passed the +night. The troops, however, offered no injury to the inhabitants. Their +officers directed the women and children, half-distracted with fright, +to go into their houses, and they would be safe, but requested them to +hand out drink to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> the troops. The main body occupied Bunker Hill, and +formed a line opposite the neck. Additional troops also were sent over +from Boston. The officers flocked to the tavern in the square, where the +cry was for drink. Guards were stationed in various parts of the town. +One was placed at the neck, with orders to permit no one to go out. +Everything, during the night, was quiet. Some of the wounded were +carried over immediately, in the boats of the Somerset, to Boston. +General Pigot had the command in Charlestown the next day, when the +troops all returned to their quarters.</p> + +<p>The Americans lost forty-nine killed, thirty-nine wounded, and five +missing. A committee of the Provincial Congress estimated the value of +the property destroyed by the ravages of the troops to be: In Lexington, +£1761 15s. 5d.; in Concord, £274 16s. 7d.; in Cambridge, £1202 8s. 7d. +Many petitions of persons who engaged the enemy on this day are on file. +They lost guns or horses or suffered other damage. The General Court +indemnified such losses.</p> + +<p>The British lost seventy-three killed, one hundred seventy-four wounded, +and twenty-six missing—the most of whom were taken prisoners. Of these, +eighteen were officers, ten sergeants, two drummers, and two hundred +forty were rank and file. Lieutenant Hall, wounded at the North bridge, +was taken prisoner on the retreat, and died the next day. His remains +were delivered to General Gage. Lieutenant Gould was wounded at the +bridge, and taken prisoner, and was exchanged, May 28th, for Josiah +Breed, of Lynn. He had a fortune of one thousand nine hundred pounds a +year, and is said to have offered two thousand pounds for his ransom. +The prisoners were treated with great humanity, and General Gage was +notified that his own surgeons, if he desired it, might dress the +wounded.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p> +<h2>BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL</h2> + +<h4><span class="smcap">a.d. 1775</span></h4> + +<h3>JOHN BURGOYNE JOHN H. JESSE JAMES GRAHAME</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>This action, which took place about two months after the +Battle of Lexington, though resulting in the physical defeat +of the Americans, proved for them a moral victory. As at +Lexington and Concord, the colonial soldiers showed that +they were prepared to stand their ground in defence of the +cause which called them to arms, and Bunker Hill became a +watchword of the Revolution. This event also made it clear +that the contest must be fought out. Thenceforth the two +sides in the war were sharply defined.</p> + +<p>The immediate occasion of this battle was the necessity, as +seen by the British general, Gage, of driving the Americans +from an eminence commanding Boston. This elevation was one +of several hills on a peninsula just north of the town and +running out into the harbor. It was the intention of the +Americans to seize and fortify Bunker Hill, but for some +unexplained reason they took Breed's Hill, much nearer +Boston, and there the battle was mainly fought. Breed's Hill +is now usually called Bunker Hill, and upon it stands the +Bunker Hill monument.</p> + +<p>The following accounts of the battle are all from British +writers; one is that of the English officer General +Burgoyne, who was afterward defeated at Saratoga; another is +by the English historical author Jesse, whose best work +covers the reign of George III. The third is from James +Grahame, a native of Glasgow, Scotland, who died in 1842, of +whose <i>History of America</i> a high authority says: "The +thoroughly American spirit in which it is written prevented +the success of the book in England." The historian Prescott +gave it high praise for accuracy and fairness.</p></div> + + +<h4>JOHN BURGOYNE</h4> + +<p>Now ensued one of the greatest scenes of war that can be conceived. If +we look to the height, Howe's corps, ascending the hill in face of +intrenchments, and in a very disadvantageous ground, was much engaged; +to the left the enemy, pouring in fresh troops by thousands over the +land; and in the arm of the sea our ships and floating batteries, +cannonading them. Straight<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> before us a large and noble town<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> in one +great blaze; and the church-steeples, being timber, were great pyramids +of fire above the rest. Behind us the church-steeples and heights of our +own camp covered with spectators of the rest of our army which was +engaged; the hills round the country also covered with spectators; the +enemy all in anxious suspense; the roar of cannon, mortars, and +musketry; the crash of churches, ships upon the stocks, and whole +streets falling together, to fill the ear; the storm of the redoubts, +with the objects above described, to fill the eye; and the reflection +that perhaps a defeat was a final loss to the British empire of America, +to fill the mind, made the whole a picture and a complication of horror +and importance beyond anything that ever came to my lot to witness.</p> + + +<h4>JOHN HENEAGE JESSE</h4> + +<p>About 11 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> on June 16th a detachment of about a thousand men, who had +previously joined solemnly together in prayer, ascended silently and +stealthily a part of the heights known as Bunker Hill, situated within +cannon range of Boston and commanding a view of every part of the town. +This brigade was composed chiefly of husbandmen, who wore no uniform, +and who were armed with fowling-pieces only, unequipped with bayonets. +The person selected to command them on this daring service was one of +the lords of the soil of Massachusetts, William Prescott, of Pepperell, +the colonel of a Middlesex regiment of militia. "For myself," he said to +his men, "I am resolved never to be taken alive." Preceded by two +sergeants bearing dark-lanterns, and accompanied by his friends, Colonel +Gridley and Judge Winthrop, the gallant Prescott, distinguished by his +tall and commanding figure, though simply attired in his ordinary calico +smock-frock, calmly and resolutely led the way to the heights. Those who +followed him were not unworthy of their leader.</p> + +<p>It was half-past eleven before the engineers commenced drawing the lines +of the redoubt. As the first sod was being upturned, the clocks of +Boston struck twelve. More than once during the night—which happened to +be a beautifully calm and starry one—Colonel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> Prescott descended to the +shore, where the sound of the British sentinels walking their rounds, +and their exclamations of "All's well!" as they relieved guard, +continued to satisfy him that they entertained no suspicion of what was +passing above their heads. Before daybreak the Americans had thrown up +an intrenchment, which extended from the Mystic to a redoubt on their +left. The astonishment of Gage, when on the following morning he found +this important site in the hands of the enemy, may be readily conceived. +Obviously not a moment was to be lost in attempting to dislodge them; +and accordingly a detachment, under General Howe, was at once ordered on +this critical service.</p> + +<p>In the mean time a heavy cannonade, first of all from the Lively +(sloop-of-war), and afterward from a battery of heavy guns from Copp's +hill, in Boston, was opened upon the Americans. Exposed, however, as +they were to a storm of shot and shell, unaccustomed, as they also were, +to face an enemy's fire, they nevertheless pursued their operations with +the calm courage of veteran soldiers.</p> + +<p>Late in the day, indeed, when the scorching sun rose high in the +cloudless heavens, when the continuous labors of so many hours +threatened to prostrate them, and when they waited, but waited in vain, +for provisions and refreshments, the hearts of a few began to fail them, +and the word retreat was suffered to escape from their lips. There was +among them, however, a master spirit, whose cheering words and +chivalrous example never failed to restore confidence. On the +spot—where now a lofty column, overlooking the fair landscape and calm +waters, commemorates the events of that momentous day—was then seen, +conspicuous above the rest, the form of Prescott of Pepperell, in his +calico frock, as he paced the parapet to and fro, instilling resolution +into his followers by the contempt which he manifested for danger, and +amid the hottest of the British fire delivering his orders with the same +serenity as if he had been on parade. "Who is that person?" inquired +Governor Gage of a Massachusetts gentleman, as they stood reconnoitring +the American works from the opposite side of the river Charles. "My +brother-in-law, Colonel Prescott," was the reply. "Will he fight?" asked +Gage. "Ay," said the other, "to the last drop of his blood."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p> + +<p>It was after 3 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> when General Howe's detachment, consisting of about +two thousand men, landed at Charlestown and formed for the attack. +Prescott's instructions to his men, as the British approached, were +sufficiently brief. "The red-coats," he said, "will never reach the +redoubt if you will but withhold your fire till I give the order, and be +careful not to shoot over their heads." In the mean time, ascending the +hill under the protection of a heavy cannonade, the British infantry had +advanced unmolested to within a few yards of the enemy's works, when +Prescott gave the word "Fire!" So promptly and effectually were his +orders obeyed that nearly the whole front rank of the British fell. +Volley after volley was now opened upon them from behind the +intrenchments, till at length even the bravest began to waver and fall +back; some of them, in spite of the threats and passionate entreaties of +their officers, even retreating to the boats.</p> + +<p>Minutes, many minutes apparently, elapsed before the British troops were +rallied and returned to the attack, exposed to the burning rays of the +sun, encumbered with heavy knapsacks containing provisions for three +days, compelled to toil up very disadvantageous ground with grass +reaching to their knees, clambering over rails and hedges, and led +against men who were fighting from behind intrenchments and constantly +receiving reënforcements by hundreds—few soldiers, perhaps, but British +infantry would have been prevailed upon to renew the conflict. Again, +however, they advanced to the charge; again, when within five or six +rods of the redoubt, the same tremendous discharge of musketry was +opened upon them; and again, in spite of many heroic examples of +gallantry set them by their officers, they retreated in the same +disorder as before.</p> + +<p>By this time the grenadiers and light infantry had lost three-fourths of +their men; some companies had only eight or nine men left, one or two +had even fewer. When the Americans looked forth from their intrenchments +the ground was literally covered with the wounded and dead. According to +an American who was present, "the dead lay as thick as sheep in a fold." +For a few seconds General Howe was left almost alone. Nearly every +officer of his staff had been either killed or wounded. The Americans, +who have done honorable justice to his gallantry,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> remarked that, +conspicuous as he stood in his general officer's uniform, it was a +marvel that he escaped unhurt. He retired, but it was with the stern +resolve of a hero to rally his men—to return and vanquish.</p> + +<p>The third and last attack made by General Howe upon the enemy's +intrenchments appears to have taken place after a considerably longer +interval than the previous one. This interval was employed by Prescott +in addressing words of confidence and exhortation to his followers, to +which their cheers returned an enthusiastic response. "If we drive them +back once more," he said, "they cannot rally again." General Howe, in +the mean time, by disencumbering his men of their knapsacks, and by +bringing the British artillery to play so as to rake the interior of the +American breastwork, had greatly enhanced his chances of success. Once +more, at the word of command, in steady unbroken line, the British +infantry mounted to the deadly struggle; once more the cheerful voice of +Prescott exhorted his men to reserve their fire till their enemies were +close upon them; once more the same deadly fire was poured down upon the +advancing royalists. Again on their part there was a struggle, a pause, +an indication of wavering; but on this occasion it was only momentary. +Onward and headlong against breastwork and against vastly superior +numbers dashed the British infantry, with a heroic devotion never +surpassed in the annals of chivalry. Almost in a moment of time, in +spite of a second volley as destructive as the first, the ditch was +leaped and the parapet mounted.</p> + +<p>In that final charge fell many of the bravest of the brave. Of the +Fifty-second regiment alone, three captains, the moment they stood on +the parapet, were shot down. Still the English infantry continued to +pour forward, flinging themselves among the American militiamen, who met +them with a gallantry equal to their own. The powder of the latter +having by this time become nearly exhausted, they endeavored to force +back their assailants with the butt-ends of their muskets. But the +British bayonets carried all before them. Then it was, when further +resistance was evidently fruitless, and not till then, that the heroic +Prescott gave the order to retire. From the nature of the ground it was +necessarily more a flight than a retreat. Many of the Americans,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> +leaping over the walls of the parapet, attempted to fight their way +through the British troops; while the majority endeavored to escape by +the narrow entrance to the redoubt. In consequence of the fugitives +being thus huddled together, the slaughter became terrific.</p> + +<p>"Nothing," writes a young British officer, who was engaged in the +<i>mêlée</i>, "could be more shocking than the carnage that followed the +storming of this work. We tumbled over the dead to get at the living, +who were crowding out of the gap of the redoubt, in order to form under +the defences which they had prepared to cover their retreat." Prescott +was one of the last to quit the scene of slaughter. Although more than +one British bayonet had pierced his clothes, he escaped without a wound.</p> + +<p>That night the British intrenched themselves on the heights, lying down +in front of the recent scene of contest. The loss in killed and wounded +was ten hundred fifty-four. According to the American account their loss +was one hundred forty-five killed and three hundred four wounded; of +their six pieces of artillery, they only succeeded in carrying off one.</p> + +<p>Such was the result of the famous Battle of Bunker Hill, a contest from +which Great Britain derived little advantage beyond the credit of having +achieved a brilliant passage of arms, but which, on the other hand, +produced the significant effect of manifesting, not only to the +Americans themselves, but to Europe, that the colonists could fight with +a steadiness and courage which ere long might render them capable of +coping with the disciplined troops of the mother-country.</p> + + +<h4>JAMES GRAHAME</h4> + +<p>About the latter part of May, a great part of the reënforcements ordered +from Great Britain arrived at Boston. Three British generals, Howe, +Burgoyne, and Clinton, whose behavior in the preceding war had gained +them great reputation, arrived about the same time. General Gage, thus +reënforced, prepared for acting with more decision; but before he +proceeded to extremities, he conceived it due to ancient forms to issue +a proclamation, holding forth to the inhabitants the alternative of +peace or war. He therefore offered pardon, in the King's name, to all +who should forthwith lay down their arms and return to their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> respective +occupations and peaceable duties: excepting only from the benefit of +that pardon "Samuel Adams and John Hancock, whose offences were said to +be of too flagitious a nature to admit of any other consideration than +that of condign punishment." He also proclaimed that not only the +persons above named and excepted, but also all their adherents, +associates, and correspondents, should be deemed guilty of treason and +rebellion, and treated accordingly. By this proclamation it was also +declared "that as the courts of judicature were shut, martial law should +take place till a due course of justice should be reëstablished."</p> + +<p>It was supposed that this proclamation was a prelude to hostilities; and +preparations were accordingly made by the Americans. A considerable +height, by the name of Bunker Hill, just at the entrance of the +peninsula of Charlestown, was so situated as to make the possession of +it a matter of great consequence to either of the contending parties. +Orders were therefore issued, by the provincial commanders, that a +detachment of a thousand men should intrench upon this height. By some +mistake, Breed's Hill, high and large like the other, but situated +nearer Boston, was marked out for the intrenchments, instead of Bunker +Hill. The provincials proceeded to Breed's Hill and worked with so much +diligence that between midnight and the dawn of the morning they had +thrown up a small redoubt about eight rods square. They kept such a +profound silence that they were not heard by the British, on board their +vessels, though very near. These having derived their first information +of what was going on from the sight of the works, early completed, began +an incessant firing upon them.</p> + +<p>The provincials bore this with firmness, and, though they were only +young soldiers, continued to labor till they had thrown up a small +breastwork extending from the east side of the redoubt to the bottom of +the hill. As this eminence overlooked Boston, General Gage thought it +necessary to drive the provincials from it. About noon, therefore, he +detached Major-General Howe and Brigadier-General Pigot, with the flower +of his army, consisting of four battalions, ten companies of the +grenadiers and ten of light infantry, with a proportion of field +artillery, to effect this business. These troops landed at Moreton's +Point, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> formed after landing, but remained in that position till +they were reënforced by a second detachment of light infantry and +grenadier companies, a battalion of land forces, and a battalion of +marines, making in the whole nearly three thousand men. While the troops +who first landed were waiting for this reënforcement, the provincials, +for their further security, pulled up some adjoining post and rail +fences, and set them down in two parallel lines at a small distance from +each other, and filled the space between with hay, which, having been +lately mowed, was found lying on the adjacent ground.</p> + +<p>The King's troops formed in two lines, and advanced slowly to give their +artillery time to demolish the American works. While the British were +advancing to the attack they received orders to burn Charlestown. These +were not given because they were fired upon from the houses in that +town, but from the military policy of depriving enemies of a cover in +their approaches. In a short time this ancient town, consisting of about +five hundred buildings, chiefly of wood, was in one great blaze. The +lofty steeple of the meeting-house formed a pyramid of fire above the +rest, and struck the astonished eyes of numerous beholders with a +magnificent but awful spectacle. In Boston the heights of every kind +were covered with citizens, and such of the King's troops as were not on +duty. The hills around the adjacent country, which afforded a safe and +distinct view, were occupied by the inhabitants of the country.</p> + +<p>Thousands, both within and without Boston, were anxious spectators of +the bloody scene. Regard for the honor of the British army caused hearts +to beat high in the breasts of many; while others, with keener +sensibilities, sorrowed for the liberties of a great and growing +country. The British moved on slowly, which gave the provincials a +better opportunity for taking aim. The latter, in general, reserved +their fire until their adversaries were within ten or twelve rods, and +then began a furious discharge of small arms. The stream of the American +fire was so incessant, and did so great execution, that the King's +troops retreated with precipitation and disorder. Their officers rallied +them and pushed them forward with their swords; but they returned to the +attack with great reluctance. The Americans again reserved their fire +till their adversaries were near, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> then put them a second time to +flight. General Howe and the officers redoubled their exertions, and +were again successful, though the soldiers displayed a great aversion to +going on. By this time the powder of the Americans began so far to fail +that they were not able to keep up the same brisk fire. The British then +brought some cannon to bear, which raked the inside of the breastwork +from end to end. The fire from the ships, batteries, and field artillery +was redoubled; the soldiers in the rear were goaded on by their +officers. The redoubt was attacked on three sides at once. Under these +circumstances a retreat from it was ordered, but the provincials delayed +so long, and made resistance with their discharged muskets as if they +had been clubs, that the King's troops, who had easily mounted the +works, half filled the redoubt before it was given up to them.</p> + +<p>While these operations were going on at the breastwork and redoubt, the +British light infantry were attempting to force the left point of the +former, that they might take the American line in flank. Though they +exhibited the most undaunted courage, they met with an opposition which +called for its greatest exertions. The provincials reserved their fire +till their adversaries were near, and then discharged it upon the light +infantry in such an incessant stream, and with so true an aim, as that +it quickly thinned their ranks. The engagement was kept up on both sides +with great resolution. The persevering exertions of the King's troops +could not compel the Americans to retreat till they observed that their +main body had left the hill. This, when begun, exposed them to new +dangers; for it could not be effected but by marching over Charlestown +Neck, every part of which was raked by the shot of the Glasgow +(man-of-war) and of two floating batteries. The incessant fire kept up +across the Neck prevented any considerable reënforcement from joining +their countrymen who were engaged; but the few who fell on their retreat +over the same ground proved that the apprehensions of those provincial +officers, who declined passing over to succor their companies, were +without any solid foundation.</p> + +<p>The number of Americans engaged amounted only to fifteen hundred. It was +apprehended that the conquerors would push the advantage they had +gained, and march immediately to American head-quarters at Cambridge; +but they advanced no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> farther than Bunker Hill. There they threw up +works for their own security. The provincials did the same, on Prospect +Hill, in front of them. Both were guarding against an attack; and both +were in a bad condition to receive one. The loss of the peninsula +depressed the spirits of the Americans; and the great loss of men +produced the same effect on the British. There have been few battles in +modern wars in which, all circumstances considered, there was a greater +destruction of men than in this short engagement.</p> + +<p>The loss of the British, as acknowledged by General Gage, amounted to +one thousand fifty-four. Nineteen commissioned officers were killed and +seventy more were wounded. The Battle of Quebec, in 1759, which gave +Great Britain the colony of Canada, was not so destructive to British +officers as this affair of a slight intrenchment, the work only of a few +hours. That the officers suffered so much must be imputed to their being +aimed at. None of the provincials in this engagement were riflemen, but +they were all good marksmen. The whole of their previous military +knowledge had been derived from hunting and the ordinary amusements of +sportsmen. The dexterity which by long habit they had acquired in +hitting beast, birds, and marks, was fatally applied to the destruction +of British officers. From their fall, much confusion was expected. They +were therefore particularly singled out. Most of those who were near the +person of General Howe were either killed or wounded; but the General, +though he greatly exposed himself, was unhurt. The light infantry and +grenadiers lost three-fourths of their men. Of one company not more than +five, and of another not more than fourteen, escaped.</p> + +<p>The unexpected resistance of the Americans was such as wiped away the +reproach of cowardice, which had been cast upon them by their enemies in +Britain. The spirited conduct of the British officers merited and +obtained great applause; but the provincials were justly entitled to a +large share of the glory for having made the utmost exertions of their +adversaries necessary to dislodge them from lines which were the work of +only a single night.</p> + +<p>The Americans lost five pieces of cannon. Their killed amounted to one +hundred thirty-nine; their wounded and missing,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> to three hundred +fourteen. Thirty of the former fell into the hands of the conquerors. +They particularly regretted the death of General Warren. To the purest +patriotism and most undaunted bravery he added the virtues of domestic +life, the eloquence of an accomplished orator, and the wisdom of an able +statesman. Only a regard for the liberty of his country induced him to +oppose the measures of Government. He aimed not at a separation from, +but a coalition with, the mother-country.</p> + +<p>The burning of Charlestown, though a place of great trade, did not +discourage the provincials. It excited resentment and execration, but +not any disposition to submit. Such was the high-strung state of the +public mind, and so great the indifference of property when put in +competition with liberty, that military conflagrations, though they +distressed and impoverished, had no tendency to subdue, the colonists. +Such means might suffice in the Old World, but were not effectual in the +New, where the war was undertaken, not for a change of masters, but for +securing essential rights.</p> + +<p>The action at Breed's Hill, or Bunker Hill, as it has since been +commonly called, produced many and very important consequences. It +taught the British so much respect for the Americans, intrenched behind +works, that their subsequent operations were retarded with a caution +that wasted away a whole campaign to very little purpose. It added to +the confidence the Americans began to have in their own abilities. It +inspired some of the leading members of Congress with such high ideas of +what might be done by militia, or men engaged for a short term of +enlistment, that it was long before they assented to the establishment +of a permanent army.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Charlestown. A body of American riflemen, posted in the +houses, galled the left line as it marched; therefore, by Howe's orders, +the town was set on fire.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p> +<h2>CANADA REMAINS LOYAL TO ENGLAND</h2> + +<h3>MONTGOMERY'S INVASION</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">a.d. 1775</span></h4> + +<h3>JOHN McMULLEN</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War there was a belief, +or at least a hope, among the thirteen rebellious colonies +that Canada would join them and thus enable the entire +continent to present a united front against England. Had she +done so the course of Canadian and perhaps of American +destiny would have been widely changed.</p> + +<p>The condition of Canada was different from that of the more +southern colonies, in that it was a conquered country, +guarded by British soldiers. The great majority of the +inhabitants were of French descent; until 1760 they had been +under French rule; and it was hoped that, especially in the +Quebec Province and along the St. Lawrence Valley, the +French <i>habitants</i> would seize eagerly on an opportunity for +revolt. An expedition was therefore planned under Generals +Montgomery and Arnold; and though it failed, so great was +the heroism of the men who attempted it that we may leave +their story to their foes to tell. The following account is +by the standard Canadian historian McMullen.</p> + +<p>That Canada was saved to England from this, the first and +most serious of the invasions of her independent neighbors +to the south, was due chiefly to Sir Guy Carleton, the able +general then governing the Province and commanding the +British forces there. It was due also to the French clergy, +who favored British rule and bade their parishioners stand +neutral or even urged them to fight against the invaders.</p></div> + + +<p>The American Congress, in 1775, believed the Canadian people to be +favorable to their cause, and resolved to anticipate the British by +striking a decided blow in the North. They accordingly despatched a +force of nearly two thousand men, under Schuyler and Montgomery, to +penetrate into Canada by the Richelieu. After taking the forts along +that river, they were next to possess themselves of Montreal, and then +descend to Quebec, and form a junction there with Colonel Arnold, who +was to proceed up the Kennebec with eleven hundred men and surprise the +capital of Canada if possible.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p> + +<p>On September 5th the American army arrived at the Ileaux-Noix, whence +Schuyler and Montgomery scattered a proclamation among the Canadians +stating that they came only against the British, and had no design +whatever on the lives, the properties, or religion of the inhabitants. +General Schuyler being unwell now returned to Albany, and the chief +command devolved on Montgomery, who, having received a reënforcement, +invested Fort St. John on the 17th, and at the same time sent some +troops to attack the fort at Chambly, while Ethan Allan was despatched +with a reconnoitring party toward Montreal. Allan accordingly proceeded +to the St. Lawrence, and being informed that the town was weakly +defended, and believing the inhabitants were favorable to the Americans, +he resolved to capture it by surprise, although his force was under two +hundred men. General Carleton had already arrived at Montreal to make +disposition for the protection of the frontier. Learning on the night of +the 24th that a party of Americans had crossed the river and were +marching on the town, he promptly drew together two hundred fifty of the +local militia, chiefly English and Irish, and with thirty men of the +Twenty-sixth regiment, in addition, prepared for its defence. Allan, +however, instead of proceeding to attack Montreal, becoming intimidated, +took possession of some houses and barns in the neighborhood, where he +was surrounded next day and compelled to surrender after a loss of five +killed and ten wounded. The British lost their commanding officer, Major +Carsden, Alexander Paterson, a merchant of Montreal, and two privates. +Allan and his men were sent prisoners to England, where they were +confined in Pendennis castle.</p> + +<p>While these occurrences were transpiring at Montreal, Montgomery was +vigorously pressing forward the siege of Fort St. John, which post was +gallantly defended by Major Preston of the Twenty-sixth regiment. His +conduct was not imitated by Major Stopford, of the Seventh, who +commanded at Chambly, and who surrendered, in a cowardly manner, on two +hundred Americans appearing before the works with two six-pounders. This +was a fortunate event for Montgomery, whose powder was nearly exhausted, +and who now procured a most seasonable supply from the captured fort. +His fire was again renewed, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> was bravely replied to by the garrison, +who hoped that General Carleton would advance and raise the siege. This +the latter was earnestly desirous to do, and drew together all the +militia he could collect and the few troops at his disposal for that +purpose, and pushed across the river toward Longueil on one of the last +days of October. General Montgomery had foreseen this movement, and +detached a force, with two field-pieces, to prevent it. This force took +post near the river, and allowed the British to approach within +pistol-shot of the shore, when they opened such a hot fire of musketry +and cannon that General Carleton was compelled to order a retreat on +Montreal. Montgomery duly apprized Major Preston of these occurrences, +and the garrison being now short of provisions and ammunition, and +without any hope of succor, surrendered on October 31st, and marched out +with all the honors of war.</p> + +<p>With Fort St. John and Chambly a large portion of the regular troops in +Canada was captured, and the Governor was in no condition to resist the +American army, the main body of which now advanced upon Montreal, while +a strong detachment proceeded to Sorel, to cut off the retreat of the +British toward Quebec. General Carleton, with Brigadier Prescott and one +hundred twenty soldiers, left Montreal, after destroying all the public +stores possible, just as the American army was entering it. At Sorel, +however, their flight was effectually intercepted by an armed vessel and +some floating batteries, and Prescott, finding it impossible to force a +passage, was compelled to surrender. The night before, General Carleton +fortunately eluded the vigilance of the Americans, and passed down the +river in a boat with muffled oars. Montgomery treated the people of +Montreal with great consideration, and gained their good-will by the +affability of his manners and the nobleness and generosity of his +disposition.</p> + +<p>While the main body of the American invading force had been completely +successful thus far, Arnold sailed up the Kennebec, and proceeded +through the vast forests lying between it and the St. Lawrence, in the +hope of surprising Quebec. The sufferings of his troops from hunger and +fatigue were of the most severe description. So great were their +necessities that they were obliged to eat dog's flesh, and even the +leather of their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> cartouch-boxes; still, they pressed on with unflagging +zeal and wonderful endurance, and arrived at Point Levi on November 9th. +But their approach was already known at Quebec. Arnold had enclosed a +letter for Schuyler to a friend in that city, and imprudently intrusted +its delivery to an Indian, who carried it to the Lieutenant-Governor. +The latter immediately began to make defensive preparations, and when +the Americans arrived on the opposite side of the river they found all +the shipping and boats removed, and a surprise out of the question.</p> + +<p>On the 12th Colonel M'Clean, who had retreated from Sorel, arrived at +Quebec, with a body of Fraser's Highlanders, who had settled in the +country, were now reëmbodied, and amounted to one hundred fifty men. In +addition to these there were four hundred eighty Canadian militia, five +hundred British, and some regular troops and seamen for the defence of +the town. The Hunter (sloop-of-war) gave the garrison the command of the +river, yet, despite the vigilance exercised by her commander, Arnold +crossed over during the night of the 13th, landed at Wolfe's Cove, and +next morning appeared on the Plains of Abraham, where he gave his men +three cheers, which were promptly responded to by the besieged, who in +addition complimented them with a few discharges of grape-shot, which +compelled them to retire. Finding he could effect nothing against the +city, Arnold retired up the river to Point-aux-Trembles, to await the +arrival of Montgomery.</p> + +<p>On the 19th, to the great joy of the garrison, General Carleton arrived +from Montreal, bringing down with him two armed schooners which had been +lying at Three Rivers. One of his first measures was to strengthen the +hands of the loyalists, by ordering those liable to serve in the +militia, and who refused to be enrolled, to quit the city within four +days. By this means several disaffected persons were got rid of, and the +garrison was speedily raised to eighteen hundred men, who had plenty of +provisions for eight months.</p> + +<p>On December 1st Montgomery joined Arnold at Point-aux-Trembles, when +their united forces, amounting to about two thousand men, proceeded to +attack Quebec, in the neighborhood of which they arrived on the 4th, and +soon after quartered their men in the houses of the suburbs. Montgomery +now sent a flag<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> to summon the besieged to surrender, but this was fired +upon by order of General Carleton, who refused to hold any intercourse +with the American officers. Highly indignant at this treatment, the +besiegers proceeded to construct their batteries, although the weather +was intensely cold. But their artillery was too light to make any +impression on the fortifications, the fire from which cut their fascines +to pieces and dismounted their guns; so Montgomery determined to carry +the works by escalade. He accordingly assembled his men on December 30th +and made them a very imprudent speech, in which he avowed his resolution +of attacking the city by storm. A deserter carried intelligence of his +intention that very day to General Carleton, who made the necessary +preparations for defence. On the night of the 31st the garrison pickets +were on the alert. Nothing, however, of importance occurred till next +morning, when Captain Fraser, the field officer on duty, on going his +rounds, perceived some suspicious signals at St. John's Gate, and +immediately turned out the guard, when a brisk fire was opened by a body +of the enemy, concealed by a snow-bank. This was a mere feint to draw +off attention from the true points of attack, at the southern and +northern extremities of the Lower Town. It had, however, the effect of +putting the garrison more completely on their guard, and thus was fatal +to the plans of the assailants.</p> + +<p>Montgomery led a column of five hundred men toward the southern side of +the town, and halted to reconnoitre at a short distance from the first +battery, near the Près de Ville, defended chiefly by Canadian militia, +with nine seamen to work the guns, the whole under the command of +Captain Barnsfair. The guard were on the alert, and the sailors with +lighted matches waited the order to fire, while the strictest silence +was preserved. Presently the officer who had made the reconnoissance +returned and reported everything still. The Americans now rushed forward +to the attack, when Barnsfair gave the command to fire, and the head of +the assailing column went instantly down under the unexpected and fatal +discharge of guns and musketry. The survivors made a rapid retreat, +leaving thirteen of their dead behind to be shrouded in the falling +snow, among whom was the gallant Montgomery. Of a good family in the +north of Ireland, he had served under Wolfe with credit, married an +American<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> lady, Miss Livingston, after the peace, and had joined the +cause of the United States with great enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>At the other end of the Lower Town Arnold at the head of six hundred men +had assaulted the first barrier with great impetuosity, meeting with +little resistance. He was wounded in the first onset and borne to the +rear. But his place was ably supplied by Captain Morgan, who forced the +guard and drove them back to a second barrier, two hundred yards nearer +the centre of the town. Owing to the prompt arrangements, however, of +General Carleton, who soon arrived on the ground, the Americans were +speedily surrounded, driven out of a strong building by the bayonet, and +compelled to surrender to the number of four hundred twenty-six, +including twenty-eight officers. In this action the garrison had ten men +killed and thirteen wounded; the American loss in killed and wounded was +about one hundred.</p> + +<p>The besieging force was now reduced to a few hundred men, and they were +at a loss whether to retreat toward home or continue the siege. As they +were in expectation of soon receiving aid they at length determined to +remain in the neighborhood, and elected Arnold as their general, who +contented himself with a simple blockade of the besieged, at a +considerable distance from the works. Carleton would have now gladly +proceeded to attack him, but several of the Canadians outside the city +were disaffected, as well as many persons within the defences, and he +considered, with his motley force, his wisest course was to run no risk, +and wait patiently for the succor which the opening of navigation must +give him.</p> + +<p>During the month of February a small reënforcement from Massachusetts +and some troops from Montreal raised Arnold's force to over one thousand +men, and he now resumed the siege, but could make no impression on the +works. His men had already caught the smallpox, and the country people +becoming more and more unwilling to supply provisions, his difficulties +increased rather than diminished. When the Americans first came into the +country the habitants were disposed to sell them what they required at a +fair price, and a few hundred of the latter even joined their army. But +they soon provoked the hostility of the bulk of the people by a want of +respect for their clergy, by compelling them to furnish articles below +the current prices, and by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> giving them illegal certificates of payment, +which were rejected by the American quartermaster-general. In this way +the Canadians began gradually to take a deeper interest in the struggle +in progress, and to regard the British as their true friends and +protectors, while they came to look upon the Americans as a band of +armed plunderers, who made promises they had no intention of performing, +and refused to pay their just debts.</p> + +<p>All the Canadians now required was a proper leader and a system of +organization to cause them to act vigorously against Arnold. Even in the +absence of these requisites they determined to raise the siege, and, led +by a gentleman of the name of Beajeau, a force advanced toward Quebec, +on March 25th, but was defeated by the Americans, and compelled to +retreat. This check, however, did not discourage the Canadians, who now +resolved to surprise a detachment of the enemy at Point Levi. By some +means their design became known, and they were very roughly handled.</p> + +<p>The month of April passed without producing any events of importance. +The Americans had meanwhile been reënforced to over two thousand men, +and Major-General Thomas had arrived to take the command. The smallpox +still continued to rage among them; besides they could make no +impression on the fortifications, and the hostile attitude of the +Canadians disheartened them, so nothing was effected. On May 5th Thomas +called a council of war, at which an immediate retreat was determined +on.</p> + +<p>On the following morning, to the great joy of the besieged, the Surprise +frigate and a sloop arrived in the harbor, with one hundred seventy men +of the Twenty-ninth regiment and some marines, who were speedily landed. +Now General Carleton at once resolved on offensive operations, and +marched out at noon with one thousand men and a few field-pieces to +attack the Americans. But the latter did not await his approach, and +fled with the utmost precipitation, leaving all their cannon, stores, +ammunition, and even their sick behind. These were treated with the +utmost attention by General Carleton, whose humanity won the esteem of +all his prisoners, who were loud in his praise on returning home. For +his services during the siege the Governor was knighted by his +sovereign.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Americans retreated as rapidly as possible for a distance of +forty-five miles up the river, but finding they were not pursued they +halted for a few days to rest themselves. They then proceeded in a +distressed condition to Sorel, where they were joined by some +reënforcements, and where, also, their general, Thomas, died of the +smallpox, which still continued to afflict them. He was succeeded in the +chief command by General Sullivan.</p> + +<p>Meantime some companies of the Eighth regiment, which were scattered +through the frontier posts on the Lakes, had descended to Ogdensburg. +From thence Captain Forster was detached, on May 11th, with one hundred +twenty-six soldiers and an equal number of Indians, to capture a +stockade at the Cedars, garrisoned by three hundred ninety Americans, +under the command of Colonel Bedell. The latter surrendered on the 19th, +after sustaining only a few hours' fire of musketry, and the following +day one hundred men advancing to his assistance were attacked by the +Indians and a few Canadians. A smart action ensued which lasted for ten +minutes, when the Americans laid down their arms and were marched +prisoners to the fort, where they were with difficulty saved from +massacre.</p> + +<p>After providing for the safety of his numerous prisoners, Forster pushed +down the river toward Lachine, but, learning that Arnold was advancing +to attack him with a force treble his own number, he halted and prepared +for action. Placing his men in an advantageous position on the edge of +the river, and spreading the Indians out on his flanks, he made such a +stout defence that the Americans were compelled to retire to St. Anne's. +Forster, encumbered with his prisoners, now proposed a cartel, which +Arnold at once assented to, and an exchange was effected, on May 27th, +for two majors, nine captains, twenty subalterns, and four hundred +forty-three privates. This cartel was broken by Congress, on the ground +that the prisoners had been cruelly used, which was not the case. They +had been treated with all the humanity possible, when the difficulty of +guarding so large a number, with less than three hundred men, is taken +into consideration.</p> + +<p>While these events were in progress above Montreal, a large body of +troops had arrived from England, under the command<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> of Major-General +Burgoyne. Brigadier Fraser was at once sent on by the Governor with the +first division to Three Rivers. While the troops still remained on board +their transports off this place, General Thompson advanced with eighteen +hundred men to surprise the town, and would have effected his object had +not one of his Canadian guides escaped and warned the British of his +approach. General Fraser immediately landed his troops, with several +field-pieces, and posted them so advantageously that the Americans were +speedily defeated, their general, his second in command, and five +hundred men made prisoners, while, the retreat of their main body being +cut off, they were compelled to take shelter in a wood full of swamps. +Here they remained in great distress till the following day, when +General Carleton, who had meanwhile come up, humanely drew the guard +from the bridge over the Rivière du Loup, and allowed them to escape +toward Sorel. Finding themselves unable to oppose the force advancing +against them, the American army, under Sullivan, retreated to Crown +Point, whither Arnold also retired from Montreal on June 15th. Thus +terminated the invasion of Canada, which produced no advantage to the +American cause, but on the contrary aroused the hostility of the +inhabitants and drew them closer to Great Britain.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p> +<h2>SIGNING OF AMERICAN DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE</h2> + +<h4><span class="smcap">a.d. 1776</span></h4> + +<h3>THOMAS JEFFERSON JOHN A. DOYLE</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Among historic acts and political deliverances there is none +more weighty in significance and results, none more famous +in the annals of the world, than the American Declaration of +Independence. The document which preserves it to all ages is +"a witness to the world that freedom, resting not on +institutions, but on the necessities of human nature, is no +mere abstract idea, but a vital principle of national life."</p> + +<p>At the beginning of 1776 the tide of public opinion in the +colonies was setting strongly toward national independence. +Lexington and Bunker Hill had spoken their message to +America and to the British Government. All the other +colonies had come into line with New England. The earliest +declaration of independence, that of the people of +Mecklenburg County, North Carolina (May, 1775), had preluded +the general proclamation. The second Continental Congress +was at work with growing legislative powers; the New England +forces had been adopted as the Continental Army, with +Washington as commander-in-chief; that army was besieging +the British in Boston; and a movement was in progress +against Canada. In March, 1776, Boston was evacuated. On +June 28th a British attack on Sullivan's Island, off +Charleston, South Carolina, was repulsed by Moultrie. Before +the end of 1775 the Continental Congress had ordered the +building of several ships—the nucleus of the American +navy—and its sea-power was rapidly increased by privateers. +Meanwhile King George III and his minister, Lord North, had +continued their coercive policy and strengthened their war +measures.</p> + +<p>Thomas Paine's <i>Common Sense</i>, published early in 1776, one +of the most effective popular appeals that ever "went to the +bosoms of a nation," completed the preparation of the public +mind for the great step about to be taken by the Congress.</p> + +<p>Jefferson's account of the proceedings day by day, given in +his own <i>Memoirs</i>, is the best contemporary record of the +momentous deliberations and decision of this body, assembled +in Independence Hall, Philadelphia. A quarter of a century +before, upon the fillet of the "Liberty Bell," which hung in +the steeple of that Old State House, had been cast the words +of ancient Hebrew Scripture: "Proclaim liberty throughout +all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p> + +<p>Doyle's reflections, as representing an enlightened English +view of the Declaration and the great struggle which it +lifted to its climax, is placed as a suggestive commentary +after the uncolored narrative of the chief author of the +great instrument itself.</p></div> + + +<h4>THOMAS JEFFERSON</h4> + +<p>In Congress, Friday, June 7, 1776, the delegates from Virginia moved, in +obedience to instructions from their constituents, that the Congress +should declare that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, +free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance +to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and +the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; that +measures should be immediately taken for procuring the assistance of +foreign powers, and a confederation be formed to bind the colonies more +closely together.</p> + +<p>The House being obliged to attend at that time to some other business, +the proposition was referred to the next day, when the members were +ordered to attend punctually at ten o'clock.</p> + +<p>Saturday, June 8th. They proceeded to take it into consideration, and +referred it to a committee of the whole, into which they immediately +resolved themselves, and passed that day and Monday, the 10th, in +debating on the subject.</p> + +<p>It was argued by Wilson, Robert R. Livingston, E. Rutledge, Dickinson, +and others—that, though they were friends to the measures themselves, +and saw the impossibility that we should ever again be united with Great +Britain, yet they were against adopting them at this time:</p> + +<p>That the conduct we had formerly observed was wise, and proper now, of +deferring to take any capital step till the voice of the people drove us +into it:</p> + +<p>That they were our power, and without them our declarations could not be +carried into effect:</p> + +<p>That the people of the middle colonies (Maryland, Delaware, +Pennsylvania, the Jerseys, and New York) were not yet ripe for bidding +adieu to British connection, but that they were fast ripening, and, in a +short time, would join in the general voice of America:</p> + +<p>That the resolution, entered into by this House on May 15th, for +suppressing the exercise of all powers derived from the Crown,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> had +shown, by the ferment into which it had thrown these middle colonies, +that they had not yet accommodated their minds to a separation from the +mother-country:</p> + +<p>That some of them had expressly forbidden their delegates to consent to +such a declaration, and others had given no instructions, and +consequently no powers to give such consent:</p> + +<p>That if the delegates of any particular colony had no power to declare +such colony independent, certain they were the others could not declare +it for them, the colonies being as yet perfectly independent of each +other:</p> + +<p>That the Assembly of Pennsylvania was now sitting above stairs, their +convention would sit within a few days, the convention of New York was +now sitting, and those of the Jerseys and Delaware counties would meet +on the Monday following, and it was probable these bodies would take up +the question of Independence, and would declare to their delegates the +voice of their State:</p> + +<p>That if such a declaration should now be agreed to, these delegates must +retire, and possibly their colonies might secede from the Union:</p> + +<p>That such a secession would weaken us more than could be compensated by +any foreign alliance:</p> + +<p>That in the event of such a division, foreign powers would either refuse +to join themselves to our fortunes, or, having us so much in their power +as that desperate declaration would place us, they would insist on terms +proportionately more hard and prejudicial:</p> + +<p>That we had little reason to expect an alliance with those to whom alone +as yet we had cast our eyes:</p> + +<p>That France and Spain had reason to be jealous of that rising power, +which would one day certainly strip them of all their American +possessions:</p> + +<p>That it was more likely they should form a connection with the British +court, who, if they should find themselves unable otherwise to extricate +themselves from their difficulties, would agree to a partition of our +territories, restoring Canada to France, and the Floridas to Spain, to +accomplish for themselves a recovery of these colonies:</p> + +<p>That it would not be long before we should receive certain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> information +of the disposition of the French court, from the agent whom we had sent +to Paris for that purpose:</p> + +<p>That if this disposition should be favorable by waiting the event of the +present campaign, which we all hoped would be successful, we should have +reason to expect an alliance on better terms:</p> + +<p>That this would in fact work no delay of any effectual aid from such +ally, as, from the advance of the season and distance of our situation, +it was impossible we could receive any assistance during this campaign:</p> + +<p>That it was prudent to fix among ourselves the terms on which we should +form alliance, before we declared we would form one at all events:</p> + +<p>And that if these were agreed on, and our Declaration of Independence +ready by the time our ambassador should be prepared to sail, it would be +as well as to go into the Declaration at this day.</p> + +<p>On the other side, it was urged by J. Adams, Lee, Wythe, and others that +no gentleman had argued against the policy or the right of separation +from Britain, nor had supposed it possible we should ever renew our +connection; that they had only opposed its being now declared:</p> + +<p>That the question was not whether, by a Declaration of Independence, we +should make ourselves what we are not; but whether we should declare a +fact which already exists:</p> + +<p>That, as to the people or Parliament of England, we had always been +independent of them, their restraints on our trade deriving efficacy +from our acquiescence only, and not from any rights they possessed of +imposing them, and that so far, our connection had been federal only, +and was now dissolved by the commencement of hostilities:</p> + +<p>That, as to the King, we had been bound to him by allegiance, but that +this bond was now dissolved by his assent to the last act of Parliament, +by which he declares us out of his protection, and by his levying war on +us, a fact which had long ago proved us out of his protection; it being +a certain position in law, that allegiance and protection are +reciprocal, the one ceasing when the other is withdrawn:</p> + +<p>That James the II never declared the people of England out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> of his +protection, yet his actions proved it, and the Parliament declared it:</p> + +<p>No delegates then can be denied, or ever want, a power of declaring an +existing truth:</p> + +<p>That the delegates from the Delaware counties having declared their +constituents ready to join, there are only two colonies, Pennsylvania +and Maryland, whose delegates are absolutely tied up, and that these +had, by their instructions, only reserved a right of confirming or +rejecting the measure:</p> + +<p>That the instructions from Pennsylvania might be accounted for from the +times in which they were drawn, near a twelvemonth ago, since which the +face of affairs has totally changed:</p> + +<p>That within that time it had become apparent that Britain was determined +to accept nothing less than a <i>carte-blanche</i>, and that the King's +answer to the lord mayor, aldermen and common-council of London, which +had come to hand four days ago, must have satisfied everyone of this +point:</p> + +<p>That the people wait for us to lead the way:</p> + +<p>That <i>they</i> are in favor of the measure, though the instructions given +by some of their <i>representatives</i> are not:</p> + +<p>That the voice of the representatives is not always consonant with the +voice of the people, and that this is remarkably the case in these +middle colonies:</p> + +<p>That the effect of the resolution of May 15th has proved this, which, +raising the murmurs of some in the colonies of Pennsylvania and +Maryland, called forth the opposing voice of the freer part of the +people, and proved them to be the majority even in these colonies:</p> + +<p>That the backwardness of these two colonies might be ascribed, partly to +the influence of proprietary power and connections, and partly to their +having not yet been attacked by the enemy:</p> + +<p>That these causes were not likely to be soon removed, as there seemed no +probability that the enemy would make either of these the seat of this +summer's war:</p> + +<p>That it would be vain to wait either weeks or months for perfect +unanimity, since it was impossible that all men should ever become of +one sentiment on any question:</p> + +<p>That the conduct of some colonies, from the beginning of this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> contest, +had given reason to suspect it was their settled policy to keep in the +rear of the confederacy, that their particular prospect might be better, +even in the worst event:</p> + +<p>That, therefore, it was necessary for those colonies who had thrown +themselves forward and hazarded all from the beginning, to come forward +now also, and put all again to their own hazard:</p> + +<p>That the history of the Dutch Revolution, of whom three states only +confederated at first, proved that a secession of some colonies would +not be so dangerous as some apprehended:</p> + +<p>That a declaration of independence alone could render it consistent with +European delicacy, for European powers to treat with us, or even to +receive an ambassador from us:</p> + +<p>That till this they would not receive our vessels into their ports, nor +acknowledge the adjudications of our courts of admirality to be +legitimate in cases of capture of British vessels:</p> + +<p>That though France and Spain may be jealous of our rising power, they +must think it will be much more formidable with the addition of Great +Britain; and will therefore see it their interest to prevent a +coalition; but should they refuse, we shall never know whether they will +aid us or not:</p> + +<p>That the present campaign may be unsuccessful, and therefore we had +better propose an alliance while our affairs wear a hopeful aspect:</p> + +<p>That to wait the event of this campaign will certainly work delay, +because, during the summer, France may assist us effectually, by cutting +off those supplies of provisions from England and Ireland on which the +enemy's armies here are to depend; or by setting in motion the great +power they have collected in the West Indies, and calling our enemy to +the defence of the possessions they have there:</p> + +<p>That it would be idle to lose time in settling the terms of alliance, +till we had first determined we would enter into alliance:</p> + +<p>That it is necessary to lose no time in opening a trade for our people, +who will want clothes, and will want money too for the payment of taxes:</p> + +<p>And that the only misfortune is that we did not enter into alliance with +France six months sooner, as, besides opening her ports for the vent of +our last year's produce, she might have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> marched an army into Germany, +and prevented the petty princes there from selling their unhappy +subjects to subdue us.</p> + +<p>It appearing in the course of these debates that the colonies of New +York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and South Carolina +were not yet matured for falling from the parental stem, but that they +were fast advancing to that state, it was thought most prudent to wait a +while for them, and to postpone the final decision to July 1st; but, +that this might occasion as little delay as possible, a committee was +appointed to prepare a Declaration of Independence. The committee were +John Adams, Dr. Franklin, Roger Sherman, Robert R. Livingston, and +myself. Committees were also appointed, at the same time, to prepare a +plan of confederation for the colonies, and to state the terms proper to +be proposed for foreign alliance.</p> + +<p>The committee for drawing the Declaration of Independence desired me to +do it. It was accordingly done, and, being approved by them, I reported +it to the House on Friday, June 28th, when it was read, and ordered to +lie on the table. On Monday, July 1st, the House resolved itself into a +committee of the whole, and resumed the consideration of the original +motion made by the delegates of Virginia, which, being again debated +through the day, was carried in the affirmative by the votes of New +Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, +Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia. South Carolina and +Pennsylvania voted against it. Delaware had but two members present, and +they were divided. The delegates of New York declared they were for it +themselves, and were assured their constituents were for it; but that +their instructions having been drawn near a twelvemonth before, when +reconciliation was still the general object, they were enjoined by them +to do nothing which should impede that object. They, therefore, thought +themselves not justifiable in voting on either side, and asked leave to +withdraw from the question; which was given them.</p> + +<p>The committee rose and reported their resolution to the House. Mr. +Edward Rutledge, of South Carolina, then requested the determination +might be put off to the next day, as he believed his colleagues, though +they disapproved of the resolution, would then join in it for the sake +of unanimity. The ultimate question, whether the House would agree to +the resolution<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> of the committee, was accordingly postponed to the next +day, when it was again moved, and South Carolina concurred in voting for +it.</p> + +<p>In the mean time a third member had come post from the Delaware +counties, and turned the vote of that colony in favor of the resolution. +Members of a different sentiment attending that morning from +Pennsylvania also, her vote was changed, so that the whole twelve +colonies who were authorized to vote at all, gave their voices for it; +and, within a few days, the convention of New York approved of it; and +thus supplied the void occasioned by the withdrawing of her delegates +from the vote.</p> + +<p>Congress proceeded the same day to consider the Declaration of +Independence, which had been reported and laid on the table the Friday +preceding, and on Monday referred to a committee of the whole. The +pusillanimous idea that we had friends in England worth keeping terms +with still haunted the minds of many. For this reason, those passages +which conveyed censures on the people of England were struck out, lest +they should give them offence. The clause, too, reprobating the +enslaving the inhabitants of Africa, was struck out in complaisance to +South Carolina and Georgia, who had never attempted to restrain the +importation of slaves, and who, on the contrary, still wished to +continue it.</p> + +<p>Our northern brethren also, I believe, felt a little tender under those +censures; for though their people had very few slaves themselves, yet +they had been pretty considerable carriers of them to others. The +debates, having taken up the greater parts of July 2d, 3d, and 4th, +were, on the evening of the last, closed; the Declaration was reported +by the committee, agreed to by the House, and signed by every member +present except Mr. Dickinson.</p> + + +<h4>JOHN ANDREW DOYLE</h4> + +<p>Before this it had become evident that to defer any longer the formation +of an independent government was to keep up an unnecessary source of +weakness. Already the voice of the nation had protested unmistakably +against the longer continuance of anarchy. The first definite step +toward such a change had been taken in 1775 by New Hampshire. On October +11th their delegates<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> had petitioned Congress to allow them to establish +a government, but Congress, having still hopes of the success of the +petition, had deferred answering their appeal. The majority of Congress +saw at last that independence was only a question of time. An answer was +sent to the Convention of New Hampshire, recommending it to form a +government. Similar advice was sent the next day to South Carolina, and +a little later to Virginia. Yet New Hampshire shrank from so decisive a +step, and coupled the formation of their new government with a studious +expression of their allegiance. Virginia showed a nobler spirit.</p> + +<p>In January the convention passed a motion, instructing their delegates +to recommend Congress to throw their ports open to all nations, and thus +to cast off the commercial supremacy of England. But the mere +establishment of independent State governments was not enough. An +imperial government, also independent of England, was essential. To +establish independence without confederation would be only doing half +the work. In the words of Franklin, "We must all hang together, unless +we would all hang separately." About this time Franklin's scheme for a +confederation was laid before Congress. The scheme did not include, but +it evidently implied, independence. Franklin had been throughout a +strenuous advocate of reconciliation, as long as reconciliation was +possible, and his opinion ought to have convinced all that the time for +separation had come. But the timid counsels of his colleague, Dickinson, +overruled the motion, and the scheme of a confederation was not even +formally considered. On February 16th the question of opening the ports +was formally laid before Congress. In the next month measures were taken +which clearly showed that independence was at hand. A private agent was +sent to France by the authority of the committee of secret +correspondence, and the instructions of the commissioners sent to Canada +contained a clause inviting the people of Canada to "set up such a form +of government as will be most likely in their judgment to produce their +happiness." The clause was objected to as implying independence, and +gave rise to a debate, but was ultimately carried. At last, after seven +weeks' deliberation, the Congress resolved to emancipate the colonies +from all commercial restrictions, and on April 6th the ports of America +were thrown open to the world.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p> + +<p>On March 27th South Carolina proceeded to construct a government. They +asserted as their principle of action that the good of the people is the +origin and end of all government, and they set forth the misconduct of +the King, the Parliament, and the officers of the English Government. At +the same time they introduced no change into the system of +representation or the qualification of voters. On May 4th the Assembly +of Rhode Island passed an act discharging the inhabitants of the colony +from allegiance to the King, and at the same time authorized its +delegates in Congress to conclude a treaty with any independent power +for the security of the colonies. On May 6th the Assembly of Virginia +met at Williamsburg. After a declaration that all pacific measures were +useless, and that "they had no alternative left but an abject submission +to the will of those overbearing tyrants, or a total separation from the +Crown and Government of Great Britain," they passed two resolutions; the +first empowering their delegates at the convention to propose a +declaration of independence and a confederation of the colonies; the +second appointing a committee to draw up a declaration of rights and a +scheme of government for the colony. On June 12th the Declaration of +Rights was laid before the Assembly, and on the 29th a constitution was +produced.</p> + +<p>The Assembly then proceeded to elect a governor. The choice fell on +Patrick Henry. Rightly was he, who had first foreseen independence and +bidden his countrymen look the danger of it in the face, deemed worthy +to be the first to govern the State which he had called into being. All +the colonies except Pennsylvania and Maryland followed the example of +Virginia, and when, on July 1st, the motion for independence was laid +before the Congress, the delegates of nine colonies were pledged to vote +in its favor. The delegates of Pennsylvania and Maryland were divided, +those of South Carolina unanimously opposed independence. The New York +delegates were all in favor of independence, and represented the opinion +of the colony, but could not vote, as their convention had not yet been +duly elected. When the question came forward for decision next day, +Dickinson, who had opposed it on the first day with great earnestness, +stayed away, as did one of his colleagues, and the vote of Pennsylvania +was altered. Another delegate arrived from Delaware, whose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> vote turned +the scale, and South Carolina, rather than stand alone, withdrew its +opposition. New York alone was unable to vote, and on July 2d, by the +decision of twelve colonies, without one adverse vote, it was resolved +"that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and +independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the +British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the +state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." Seldom +was the irony of history more strikingly illustrated than when Hancock, +a rebel specially selected for proscription by the English government, +put the question to the vote, and declared the American colonies forever +independent.</p> + +<p>Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, was selected to draw up the Declaration +which had been resolved upon. His pen had already served his country. In +1774 he had published <i>A Summary View of the Rights of British America</i>, +setting forth the dangers which menaced the country, and encouraging the +people in defence of their liberties. He had signalized himself in his +own colony by his opposition to slavery. "Wherever he was, there was +found a soul devoted to the cause of liberty, power to defend and +maintain it, and willingness to incur all its hazards."</p> + +<p>On July 4th the Declaration was produced. It declared the abstract +principles on which their secession was justified; it then drew up an +indictment against the King, in eighteen heads, setting forth the +various ways in which he had proved himself "a tyrant unfit to be the +ruler of a free people." Finally it declared that the united colonies +were free and independent states; that the connection with Great Britain +was and ought to be totally dissolved, and that as free and independent +states, they had full power to "levy war, conclude peace, contract +alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which +independent states may of right do."</p> + +<p>Seldom in human events do the facts of history carry their own +explanation so clearly with them. A people who had grown up gradually, +almost unconsciously, under democratic institutions, at last saw those +institutions subverted. To preserve the spirit of them, they changed +their form. We must not be misled into the error of underrating the +importance of the American struggle by any idea of the insignificance of +the issue at stake.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> We must not suppose that it was, as an earnest and +eloquent writer has called it, "a war for the vindication of the +principle of representative taxation." Its immediate origin, it is true, +involved no vital interest, such as often has been at stake when nations +have risen against their rulers. But "rebellions may fall out on small +occasions; they do not spring from small causes," was said by the first +and wisest of political philosophers. Taxation was, as Burke says, that +by which the colonists felt the pulse of liberty, "and as they found +that beat, they thought themselves sick or sound."</p> + +<p>The whole key to the American Revolution lies in two facts; it was a +democratic and a conservative revolution. It was the work of the people, +and its end was to preserve, not to destroy or to construct afresh. The +policy of an early father of New England, "In a revolution burn all, and +build afresh," was far from being that of his descendants. Throughout +the whole War of Independence the colonists had a fixed known end in +view. More than that, they had already within themselves the means for +effecting that end, and making it enduring, as far as what is human can +endure. The future that they proposed to themselves was not independent +of their past: it was a fuller development of it. There was no need for +beginning with the year one, or for throwing aside as worn out anything +that their ancestors had left them. And it was essentially a democratic +revolution. Throughout, the movement came from the people. The very +blunders made by the hesitation and timidity of Congress were the +mistakes of an assembly of delegates, not of representative statesmen. +When the final step was taken, the Congress was not the originator of +it, but was little more than a mouthpiece giving expression to the +declared wishes of the nation.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p> +<h2>DEFEAT OF BURGOYNE AT SARATOGA</h2> + +<h4><span class="smcap">a.d. 1777</span></h4> + +<h3>SIR EDWARD SHEPHERD CREASY</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Viewed by itself, the victory over Burgoyne might have +little appearance of being one of the decisive battles of +the world, among which Creasy reckons it. That it acquired +such importance was due, as Creasy himself shows, to its +direct consequences, especially its influence upon the +French. It led them to espouse the American cause, and by +their aid the Revolution was brought to a successful ending.</p> + +<p>Since the Declaration of Independence the American forces +had met with varying fortunes. They had been defeated in the +Battle of Long Island, August 27, 1776, and at White Plains, +October 28th. Forts Washington and Lee, defences of the +Hudson, were both lost, and the Americans retreated through +New Jersey. By a masterly return movement Washington +retrieved the situation, winning the Battle of Trenton, +December 26, 1776, and that of Princeton, January 3, 1777. +On August 16, 1777, Stark gained the Battle of Bennington, +but within a month (September 11th) Washington was beaten by +Howe on the Brandywine, and the Americans suffered defeat at +Germantown October 4th. In this state of affairs the +movements of Burgoyne, who had invaded New York from Canada, +were watched with deep concern on both sides.</p> + +<p>The final operations between the Americans and Burgoyne's +forces included two engagements, which are often spoken of +as the Battles of Saratoga, also as the Battles of +Stillwater or of Bemis' Heights, from the local names.</p> + +<p>The first of these actions, that of September 19, 1777, in +which Gates, with Morgan and Arnold under him, commanded the +Americans, was indecisive. Under the same commanders the +Americans (October 7th) won the decisive victory which +Creasy describes. His opening statement shows the modern +English sentiment concerning the American Revolution, and +this feeling finds its correlative in the gradual change of +tone on the part of American writers.</p></div> + + +<p>The war which rent away the North American colonies from England is, of +all subjects in history, the most painful for an Englishman to dwell on. +It was commenced and carried on by the British ministry in iniquity and +folly, and it was concluded in disaster and shame. But the contemplation +of it cannot be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> evaded by the historian, however much it may be +abhorred. Nor can any military event be said to have exercised more +important influence on the future fortunes of mankind than the complete +defeat of Burgoyne's expedition in 1777; a defeat which rescued the +revolted colonists from certain subjection, and which, by inducing the +courts of France and Spain to attack England in their behalf, insured +the independence of the United States, and the formation of that +transatlantic power which not only America, but both Europe and Asia, +now see and feel.</p> + +<p>Still, in proceeding to describe this "decisive battle of the world," a +very brief recapitulation of the earlier events of the war may be +sufficient; nor shall I linger unnecessarily on a painful theme.</p> + +<p>The five Northern colonies of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, +New Hampshire, and Vermont, usually classed together as the New England +colonies, were the strongholds of the insurrection against the +mother-country. The feeling of resistance was less vehement and general +in the central settlement of New York, and still less so in +Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the other colonies of the South, although +everywhere it was formidably strong.</p> + +<p>But it was among the descendants of the stern Puritans that the spirit +of Cromwell and Vane breathed in all its fervor; it was from the New +Englanders that the first armed opposition to the British crown had been +offered; and it was by them that the most stubborn determination to +fight to the last, rather than waive a single right or privilege, had +been displayed. In 1775 they had succeeded in forcing the British troops +to evacuate Boston; and the events of 1776 had made New York—which the +royalists captured in that year—the principal basis of operations for +the armies of the mother-country.</p> + +<p>A glance at the map will show that the Hudson River, which falls into +the Atlantic at New York, runs down from the north at the back of the +New England States, forming an angle of about forty-five degrees with +the line of the coast of the Atlantic, along which the New England +States are situate. Northward of the Hudson we see a small chain of +lakes communicating with the Canadian frontier. It is necessary to +attend closely to these geographical points in order to understand the +plan of the operations<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> which the English attempted in 1777, and which +the battle of Saratoga defeated.</p> + +<p>The English had a considerable force in Canada, and in 1776 had +completely repulsed an attack which the Americans had made upon that +province. The British ministry resolved to avail themselves, in the next +year, of the advantage which the occupation of Canada gave them, not +merely for the purpose of defence, but for the purpose of striking a +vigorous and crushing blow against the revolted colonies. With this view +the army in Canada was largely reënforced. Seven thousand veteran troops +were sent out from England, with a corps of artillery, abundantly +supplied and led by select and experienced officers. Large quantities of +military stores were also furnished for the equipment of the Canadian +volunteers, who were expected to join the expedition.</p> + +<p>It was intended that the force thus collected should march southward by +the line of the Lakes, and thence along the banks of the Hudson River. +The British army from New York—or a large detachment of it—was to make +a simultaneous movement northward, up the line of the Hudson, and the +two expeditions were to unite at Albany, a town on that river. By these +operations, all communication between the Northern colonies and those of +the Centre and South would be cut off. An irresistible force would be +concentrated, so as to crush all further opposition in New England; and +when this was done, it was believed that the other colonies would +speedily submit. The Americans had no troops in the field that seemed +able to baffle these movements.</p> + +<p>Their principal army, under Washington, was occupied in watching over +Pennsylvania and the South. At any rate, it was believed that, in order +to oppose the plan intended for the new campaign, the insurgents must +risk a pitched battle, in which the superiority of the royalists in +numbers, in discipline, and in equipment seemed to promise to the latter +a crowning victory. Without question, the plan was ably formed; and had +the success of the execution been equal to the ingenuity of the design, +the reconquest or submission of the thirteen United States must in all +human probability have followed, and the independence which they +proclaimed in 1776 would have been extinguished before it existed a +second year.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p> + +<p>No European power had as yet come forward to aid America. It is true +that England was generally regarded with jealousy and ill-will, and was +thought to have acquired, at the Treaty of Paris, a preponderance of +dominion which was perilous to the balance of power; but, though many +were willing to wound, none had yet ventured to strike; and America, if +defeated in 1777, would have been suffered to fall unaided.</p> + +<p>Burgoyne had gained celebrity by some bold and dashing exploits in +Portugal during the last war; he was personally as brave an officer as +ever headed British troops, he had considerable skill as a tactician; +and his general intellectual abilities and acquirements were of a high +order. He had several very able and experienced officers under him, +among whom were Major-General Philips and Brigadier-General Frazer. His +regular troops amounted, exclusively of the corps of artillery, to about +seven thousand two hundred men, rank and file. Nearly half of these were +Germans.</p> + +<p>He had also an auxiliary force of from two to three thousand Canadians. +He summoned the warriors of several tribes of the red Indians near the +Western Lakes to join his army. Much eloquence was poured forth both in +America and in England in denouncing the use of these savage +auxiliaries. Yet Burgoyne seems to have done no more than Montcalm, +Wolfe, and other French, American, and English generals had done before +him. But, in truth, the lawless ferocity of the Indians, their +unskilfulness in regular action, and the utter impossibility of bringing +them under any discipline made their services of little or no value in +times of difficulty; while the indignation which their outrages inspired +went far to rouse the whole population of the invaded districts into +active hostilities against Burgoyne's force.</p> + +<p>Burgoyne assembled his troops and confederates near the River Bouquet, +on the west side of Lake Champlain. He then, on June 21, 1777, gave his +red allies a war-feast, and harangued them on the necessity of +abstaining from their usual cruel practices against unarmed people and +prisoners. At the same time he published a pompous manifesto to the +Americans, in which he threatened the refractory with all the horrors of +war, Indian as well as European.</p> + +<p>The army proceeded by water to Crown Point, a fortification<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> which the +Americans held at the northern extremity of the inlet, by which the +water from Lake George is conveyed to Lake Champlain. He landed here +without opposition, but the reduction of Ticonderoga—a fortification +about twelve miles to the south of Crown Point—was a more serious +matter, and was supposed to be the critical part of the expedition. +Ticonderoga commanded the passage along the lakes, and was considered to +be the key to the route which Burgoyne wished to follow. The English had +been repulsed in an attack on it in the war with the French in 1758, +with severe loss. But Burgoyne now invested it with great skill; and the +American general, St. Clair, who had only an ill-equipped army of about +three thousand men, evacuated it on July 5th.</p> + +<p>It seems evident that a different course would have caused the +destruction or capture of his whole army, which, weak as it was, was the +chief force then in the field for the protection of the New England +States. When censured by some of his countrymen for abandoning +Ticonderoga, St. Clair truly replied "that he had lost a post, but saved +a province." Burgoyne's troops pursued the retiring Americans, gained +several advantages over them, and took a large part of their artillery +and military stores.</p> + +<p>The loss of the British in these engagements was trifling. The army +moved southward along Lake George to Skenesborough, and thence, slowly +and with great difficulty, across a broken country, full of creeks and +marshes, and clogged by the enemy with felled trees and other obstacles, +to Fort Edward, on the Hudson River, the American troops continuing to +retire before them.</p> + +<p>Burgoyne reached the left bank of the Hudson River on July 30th. +Hitherto he had overcome every difficulty which the enemy and the nature +of the country had placed in his way. His army was in excellent order +and in the highest spirits, and the peril of the expedition seemed over +when they were once on the bank of the river which was to be the channel +of communication between them and the British army in the South. But +their feelings, and those of the English nation in general, when their +successes were announced, may best be learned from a contemporary +writer. Burke, in the <i>Annual Register</i> for 1777, describes them thus:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Such was the rapid torrent of success, which swept everything away +before the Northern army in its onset. It is not to be wondered at if +both officers and private men were highly elated with their +good-fortune, and deemed that and their prowess to be irresistible; if +they regarded their enemy with the greatest contempt; considered their +own toils to be nearly at an end; Albany to be already in their hands; +and the reduction of the Northern provinces to be rather a matter of +some time than an arduous task full of difficulty and danger.</p> + +<p>"At home the joy and exultation were extreme; not only at court, but +with all those who hoped or wished the unqualified subjugation and +unconditional submission of the colonies. The loss in reputation was +greater to the Americans, and capable of more fatal consequences, than +even that of ground, of posts, of artillery, or of men. All the +contemptuous and most degrading charges which had been made by their +enemies, of their wanting the resolution and abilities of men, even in +their defence of whatever was dear to them, were now repeated and +believed.</p> + +<p>"Those who still regarded them as men, and who had not yet lost all +affection for them as brethren; who also retained hopes that a happy +reconciliation upon constitutional principles, without sacrificing the +dignity of the just authority of government on the one side or a +dereliction of the rights of freedmen on the other, was not even now +impossible, notwithstanding their favorable dispositions in general, +could not help feeling upon this occasion that the Americans sunk not a +little in their estimation. It was not difficult to diffuse an opinion +that the war in effect was over, and that any further resistance could +serve only to render the terms of their submission the worse. Such were +some of the immediate effects of the loss of those grand keys of North +America—Ticonderoga and the Lakes."</p> + +<p>The astonishment and alarm which these events produced among the +Americans were naturally great; but in the midst of their disasters, +none of the colonists showed any disposition to submit. The local +governments of the New England States, as well as the Congress, acted +with vigor and firmness in their efforts to repel the enemy. General +Gates was sent to take the command of the army at Saratoga; and Arnold, +a favorite leader of the Americans, was despatched by Washington to act +under him,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> with reënforcements of troops and guns from the main +American army.</p> + +<p>Burgoyne's employment of the Indians now produced the worst possible +effects. Though he labored hard to check the atrocities which they were +accustomed to commit, he could not prevent the occurrence of many +barbarous outrages, repugnant both to the feelings of humanity and to +the laws of civilized warfare. The American commanders took care that +the reports of these excesses should be circulated far and wide, well +knowing that they would make the stern New Englanders, not droop, but +rage. Such was their effect; and though, when each man looked upon his +wife, his children, his sisters, or his aged parents, and thought of the +merciless Indian "thirsting for the blood of man, woman, and child," of +"the cannibal savage torturing, murdering, roasting, and eating the +mangled victims of his barbarous battles," might raise terror in the +bravest breasts; this very terror produced a directly contrary effect to +causing submission to the royal army.</p> + +<p>It was seen that the few friends of the royal cause, as well as its +enemies, were liable to be the victims of the indiscriminate rage of the +savages; and thus "the inhabitants of the open and frontier countries +had no choice of acting: they had no means of security left but by +abandoning their habitations and taking up arms. Every man saw the +necessity of becoming a temporary soldier, not only for his own +security, but for the protection and defence of those connections which +are dearer than life itself. Thus an army was poured forth by the woods, +mountains, and marches, which in this part were thickly sown with +plantations and villages. The Americans recalled their courage, and, +when their regular army seemed to be entirely wasted, the spirit of the +country produced a much greater and more formidable force."</p> + +<p>While resolute recruits, accustomed to the use of fire-arms, and all +partially trained by service in the provincial militias, were thus +flocking to the standard of Gates and Arnold at Saratoga, and while +Burgoyne was engaged at Fort Edward in providing the means of the +further advance of the army through the intricate and hostile country +that still lay before him, two events occurred, in each of which the +British sustained loss and the Americans obtained advantage, the moral +effects of which were even more important<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> than the immediate result of +the encounters. When Burgoyne left Canada, General St. Leger was +detached from that province with a mixed force of about one thousand men +and some light field-pieces across Lake Ontario against Fort Stanwix, +which the Americans held. After capturing this, he was to march along +the Mohawk River to its confluence with the Hudson, between Saratoga and +Albany, where his force and that of Burgoyne's were to unite. But, after +some successes, St. Leger was obliged to retreat, and to abandon his +tents and large quantities of stores to the garrison.</p> + +<p>At the very time that General Burgoyne heard of this disaster he +experienced one still more severe in the defeat of Colonel Baum, with a +large detachment of German troops, at Bennington, whither Burgoyne had +sent them for the purpose of capturing some magazines of provisions, of +which the British army stood greatly in need. The Americans, augmented +by continual accessions of strength, succeeded, after many attacks, in +breaking this corps, which fled into the woods, and left its commander +mortally wounded on the field: they then marched against a force of five +hundred grenadiers and light infantry, which was advancing to Colonel +Baum's assistance under Lieutenant-Colonel Breyman, who, after a gallant +resistance, was obliged to retreat on the main army. The British loss in +these two actions exceeded six hundred men; and a party of American +loyalists, on their way to join the army, having attached themselves to +Colonel Baum's corps, were destroyed with it.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding these reverses, which added greatly to the spirit and +numbers of the American forces, Burgoyne determined to advance. It was +impossible any longer to keep up his communications with Canada by way +of the Lakes, so as to supply his army on his southward march; but +having, by unremitting exertions, collected provisions for thirty days, +he crossed the Hudson by means of a bridge of rafts, and, marching a +short distance along its western bank, he encamped on September 14th on +the heights of Saratoga, about sixteen miles from Albany. The Americans +had fallen back from Saratoga, and were now strongly posted near +Stillwater, about half way between Saratoga and Albany, and showed a +determination to recede no farther.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Lord Howe, with the bulk of the British army<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> that had lain at +New York, had sailed away to the Delaware, and there commenced a +campaign against Washington, in which the English general took +Philadelphia, and gained other showy but unprofitable successes. But Sir +Henry Clinton, a brave and skilful officer, was left with a considerable +force at New York, and he undertook the task of moving up the Hudson to +coöperate with Burgoyne. Clinton was obliged for this purpose to wait +for reënforcements which had been promised from England, and these did +not arrive till September. As soon as he received them, Clinton embarked +about three thousand of his men on a flotilla, convoyed by some +ships-of-war under Commander Hotham, and proceeded to force his way up +the river.</p> + +<p>The country between Burgoyne's position at Saratoga and that of the +Americans at Stillwater was rugged, and seamed with creeks and +water-courses; but, after great labor in making bridges and temporary +causeways, the British army moved forward. About four miles from +Saratoga, on the afternoon of September 19th, a sharp encounter took +place between part of the English right wing, under Burgoyne himself, +and a strong body of the enemy, under Gates and Arnold. The conflict +lasted till sunset. The British remained masters of the field; but the +loss on each side was nearly equal—from five to six hundred men—and +the spirits of the Americans were greatly raised by having withstood the +best regular troops of the English army.</p> + +<p>Burgoyne now halted again, and strengthened his position by field-works +and redoubts; and the Americans also improved their defences. The two +armies remained nearly within cannon-shot of each other for a +considerable time, during which Burgoyne was anxiously looking for +intelligence of the promised expedition from New York, which, according +to the original plan, ought by this time to have been approaching Albany +from the south. At last a messenger from Clinton made his way, with +great difficulty, to Burgoyne's camp, and brought the information that +Clinton was on his way up the Hudson to attack the American forts which +barred the passage up that river to Albany. Burgoyne, in reply, stated +his hopes that the promised coöperation would be speedy and decisive, +and added that, unless he received assistance before October 10th, he +would be obliged to retreat to the Lakes through want of provisions.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Indians and Canadians now began to desert Burgoyne, while, on the +other hand, Gates' army was continually reënforced by fresh bodies of +the militia. An expeditionary force was detached by the Americans, which +made a bold though unsuccessful attempt to retake Ticonderoga. And +finding the number and spirit of the enemy to increase daily, and his +own stores of provisions to diminish, Burgoyne determined on attacking +the Americans in front of him, and, by dislodging them from their +position, to gain the means of moving upon Albany, or, at least, of +relieving his troops from the straitened position in which they were +cooped up.</p> + +<p>Burgoyne's force was now reduced to less than six thousand men. The +right of his camp was on high ground a little to the west of the river; +thence his intrenchments extended along the lower ground to the bank of +the Hudson, their line being nearly at a right angle with the course of +the stream. The lines were fortified in the centre and on the left with +redoubts and field-works. The numerical force of the Americans was now +greater than the British, even in regular troops, and the numbers of the +militia and volunteers which had joined Gates and Arnold were greater +still. The right of the American position—that is to say, the part of +it nearest to the river—was too strong to be assailed with any prospect +of success, and Burgoyne therefore determined to endeavor to force their +left. For this purpose he formed a column of fifteen hundred regular +troops, with two twelve-pounders, two howitzers, and six six-pounders. +He headed this in person, having Generals Philips, Reidesel, and Frazer +under him. The enemy's force immediately in front of his lines was so +strong that he dared not weaken the troops who guarded them by detaching +any more to strengthen his column of attack. The right of the camp was +commanded by Generals Hamilton and Spaight; the left part of it was +committed to the charge of Brigadier Goll.</p> + +<p>It was on October 7th that Burgoyne led his column on to the attack; and +on the preceding day, the 6th, Clinton had successfully executed a +brilliant enterprise against the two American forts which barred his +progress up the Hudson. He had captured them both, with severe loss to +the American forces opposed to him; he had destroyed the fleet which the +Americans had been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> forming on the Hudson, under the protection of their +forts; and the upward river was laid open to his squadron. He was now +only a hundred fifty-six miles distant from Burgoyne, and a detachment +of one thousand seven hundred men actually advanced within forty miles +of Albany. Unfortunately, Burgoyne and Clinton were each ignorant of the +other's movements; but if Burgoyne had won his battle on the 7th, he +must, on advancing, have soon learned the tidings of Clinton's success, +and Clinton would have heard of his.</p> + +<p>A junction would soon have been made of the two victorious armies, and +the great objects of the campaign might yet have been accomplished. All +depended on the fortune of the column with which Burgoyne, on the +eventful October 7, 1777, advanced against the American position. There +were brave men, both English and German, in its ranks; and, in +particular, it comprised one of the best bodies of grenadiers in the +British service.</p> + +<p>Burgoyne pushed forward some bodies of irregular troops to distract the +enemy's attention, and led his column to within three-quarters of a mile +from the left of Gates' camp, and then deployed his men into line. The +grenadiers under Major Ackland were drawn up on the left, a corps of +Germans in the centre, and the English light infantry and the +Twenty-fourth regiment on the right. But Gates did not wait to be +attacked; and directly the British line was formed and began to advance, +the American general, with admirable skill, caused a strong force to +make a sudden and vehement rush against its left. The grenadiers under +Ackland sustained the charge of superior numbers nobly. But Gates sent +more Americans forward, and in a few minutes the action became general +along the centre, so as to prevent the Germans from sending any help to +the grenadiers.</p> + +<p>Burgoyne's right was not yet engaged; but a mass of the enemy were +observed advancing from their extreme left, with the evident intention +of turning the British right and cutting off its retreat. The light +infantry and the Twenty-fourth now fell back, and formed an oblique +second line which enabled them to baffle this manœuvre, and also to +succor their comrades in the left wing, the gallant grenadiers, who were +overpowered by superior numbers, and, but for this aid, must have been +cut to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> pieces. Arnold now came up with three American regiments and +attacked the right flanks of the English double line.</p> + +<p>Burgoyne's whole force was soon compelled to retreat toward their camp; +the left and centre were in complete disorder; but the light infantry +and the Twenty-fourth checked the fury of the assailants, and the +remains of Burgoyne's column with great difficulty effected their return +to their camp, leaving six of their guns in the possession of the enemy, +and great numbers of killed and wounded on the field; and especially a +large proportion of the artillerymen, who had stood to their guns until +shot down or bayoneted beside them by the advancing Americans.</p> + +<p>Burgoyne's column had been defeated, but the action was not yet over. +The English had scarcely entered the camp, when the Americans, pursuing +their success, assaulted it in several places with uncommon fierceness, +rushing to the lines through a severe fire of grape-shot and musketry +with the utmost fury. Arnold especially, who on this day appeared +maddened with the thirst of combat and carnage, urged on the attack +against a part of the intrenchments which was occupied by the light +infantry under Lord Balcarras. But the English received him with vigor +and spirit. The struggle here was obstinate and sanguinary. At length, +as it grew toward evening, Arnold having forced all obstacles, entered +the works with some of the most fearless of his followers. But in this +critical moment of glory and danger, he received a painful wound in the +same leg which had already been injured at the assault on Quebec. To his +bitter regret, he was obliged to be carried back. His party still +continued the attack; but the English also continued their obstinate +resistance and at last night fell, and the assailants withdrew from this +quarter of the British intrenchments.</p> + +<p>But in another part the attack had been more successful. A body of the +Americans, under Colonel Brooke, forced their way in through a part of +the intrenchments on the extreme right, which was defended by the German +reserve under Colonel Breyman. The Germans resisted well, and Breyman +died in defence of his post, but the Americans made good the ground +which they had won, and captured baggage, tents, artillery, and a store +of ammunition, which they were greatly in need of. They had, by +establishing themselves on this point, acquired the means of completely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> +turning the right flank of the British and gaining their rear.</p> + +<p>To prevent this calamity, Burgoyne effected during the night a complete +change of position. With great skill he removed his whole army to some +heights near the river, a little northward of the former camp, and he +there drew up his men, expecting to be attacked on the following day. +But Gates was resolved not to risk the certain triumph which his success +had already secured for him. He harassed the English with skirmishes, +but attempted no regular attack. Meanwhile he detached bodies of troops +on both sides of the Hudson to prevent the British from recrossing that +river and to bar their retreat. When night fell it became absolutely +necessary for Burgoyne to retire again, and, accordingly, the troops +were marched through a stormy and rainy night toward Saratoga, +abandoning their sick and wounded, and the greater part of their baggage +to the enemy.</p> + +<p>Before the rear-guard quitted the camp, the last sad honors were paid to +the brave General Frazer, who had been mortally wounded on the 7th, and +expired on the following day. The funeral of this gallant soldier is +thus described by the Italian historian Botta:</p> + +<p>"Toward midnight the body of General Frazer was buried in the British +camp. His brother-officers assembled sadly round while the funeral +service was read over the remains of their brave comrade, and his body +was committed to the hostile earth. The ceremony, always mournful and +solemn of itself, was rendered even terrible by the sense of recent +losses, of present and future dangers, and of regret for the deceased. +Meanwhile the blaze and roar of the American artillery amid the natural +darkness and stillness of the night came on the senses with startling +awe. The grave had been dug within range of the enemy's batteries, and, +while the service was proceeding, a cannon-ball struck the ground close +to the coffin, and spattered earth over the face of the officiating +chaplain."</p> + +<p>Burgoyne now took up his last position on the heights near Saratoga; and +hemmed in by the enemy, who refused any encounter, and baffled in all +his attempts at finding a path of escape, he there lingered until famine +compelled him to capitulate. The fortitude of the British army during +this melancholy period has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> been justly eulogized by many native +historians, but I prefer quoting the testimony of a foreign writer, as +free from all possibility of partiality. Botta says:</p> + +<p>"It exceeds the power of words to describe the pitiable condition to +which the British army was now reduced. The troops were worn down by a +series of toil, privation, sickness, and desperate fighting. They were +abandoned by the Indians and Canadians, and the effective force of the +whole army was now diminished by repeated and heavy losses, which had +principally fallen on the best soldiers and the most distinguished +officers, from ten thousand combatants to less than one-half that +number. Of this remnant little more than three thousand were English.</p> + +<p>"In these circumstances, and thus weakened, they were invested by an +army of four times their own numbers whose position extended three parts +of a circle round them, who refused to fight them, as knowing their +weakness, and who, from the nature of the ground, could not be attacked +in any part. In this helpless condition, obliged to be constantly under +arms, while the enemy's cannon played on every part of their camp, and +even the American rifle-balls whistled in many parts of the lines, the +troops of Burgoyne retained their customary firmness, and, while sinking +under a hard necessity, they showed themselves worthy of a better fate. +They could not be reproached with an action or a word which betrayed a +want of temper or of fortitude."</p> + +<p>At length October 13th arrived, and as no prospect of assistance +appeared, and the provisions were nearly exhausted, Burgoyne, by the +unanimous advice of a council of war, sent a messenger to the American +camp to treat of a convention.</p> + +<p>General Gates in the first instance demanded that the royal army should +surrender prisoners of war. He also proposed that the British should +ground their arms. Burgoyne replied:</p> + +<p>"This article is inadmissible in every extremity; sooner than this army +will consent to ground their arms in their encampment they will rush on +the enemy, determined to take no quarter."</p> + +<p>After various messages, a convention for the surrender of the army was +settled, which provided that "the troops under General Burgoyne were to +march out of their camp with the honors of war, and the artillery of the +intrenchments, to the verge of the river, where the arms and artillery +were to be left. The arms to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> piled by word of command from their own +officers. A free passage was to be granted to the army under +Lieutenant-General Burgoyne to Great Britain, under condition of not +serving again in North America during the present contest."</p> + +<p>The articles of capitulation were settled on October 15th, and on that +very evening a messenger arrived from Clinton with an account of his +successes, and with the tidings that part of his force had penetrated as +far as Esopus, within fifty miles of Burgoyne's camp. But it was too +late. The public faith was pledged; and the army was indeed too +debilitated by fatigue and hunger to resist an attack, if made; and +Gates certainly would have made it if the convention had been broken +off. Accordingly, on the 17th, the Convention of Saratoga was carried +into effect. By this convention five thousand seven hundred ninety men +surrendered themselves as prisoners. The sick and wounded left in the +camp when the British retreated to Saratoga, together with the numbers +of the British, German, and Canadian troops who were killed, wounded, or +taken, and who had deserted in the preceding part of the expedition, +were reckoned to be four thousand six hundred eighty-nine.</p> + +<p>The British sick and wounded who had fallen into the hands of the +Americans after the battle of the 7th were treated with exemplary +humanity: and when the convention was executed, General Gates showed a +notable delicacy of feeling, which deserves the highest degree of honor. +Every circumstance was avoided which could give the appearance of +triumph. The American troops remained within their lines until the +British had piled their arms; and when this was done, the vanquished +officers and soldiers were received with friendly kindness by their +victors, and their immediate wants were promptly and liberally supplied. +Discussions and disputes afterward arose as to some of the terms of the +convention, and the American Congress refused for a long time to carry +into effect the article which provided for the return of Burgoyne's men +to Europe; but no blame was imputable to General Gates or his army, who +showed themselves to be generous as they had proved themselves to be +brave.</p> + +<p>Gates, after the victory, immediately despatched Colonel Wilkinson to +carry the happy tidings to Congress. On being introduced into the hall +he said: "The whole British army has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> laid down its arms at Saratoga; +our own, full of vigor and courage, expect your orders. It is for your +wisdom to decide where the country may still have need for their +service."</p> + +<p>Honors and rewards were liberally voted by the Congress to their +conquering general and his men; and it would be difficult, says the +Italian historian, to describe the transports of joy which the news of +this event excited among the Americans. They began to flatter themselves +with a still more happy future. No one any longer felt any doubt about +their achieving their independence. All hoped, and with good reason, +that a success of this importance would at length determine France, and +the other European powers that waited for her example, to declare +themselves in favor of America. "There could no longer be any question +respecting the future, since there was no longer the risk of espousing +the cause of a people too feeble to defend themselves."</p> + +<p>The truth of this was soon displayed in the conduct of France. When the +news arrived at Paris of the capture of Ticonderoga, and of the +victorious march of Burgoyne toward Albany, events which seemed decisive +in favor of the English, instructions had been immediately despatched to +Nantes and the other ports of the kingdom that no American privateers +should be suffered to enter them, except from indispensable necessity; +as to repair their vessels, to obtain provisions, or to escape the +perils of the sea.</p> + +<p>The American commissioners at Paris, in their disgust and despair, had +almost broken off all negotiations with the French Government; and they +even endeavored to open communications with the British Ministry. But +the British Government, elated with the first successes of Burgoyne, +refused to listen to any overtures for accommodation. But when the news +of Saratoga reached Paris the whole scene was changed. Franklin and his +brother-commissioners found all their difficulties with the French +Government vanish. The time seemed to have arrived for the house of +Bourbon to take a full revenge for all its humiliations and losses in +previous wars. In December a treaty was arranged, and formally signed in +the February following, by which France acknowledged <i>the Independent +United States of America</i>. This was, of course, tantamount to a +declaration of war with England.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p> + +<p>Spain soon followed France; and, before long, Holland took the same +course. Largely aided by French fleets and troops, the Americans +vigorously maintained the war against the armies which England, in spite +of her European foes, continued to send across the Atlantic. But the +struggle was too unequal to be maintained by Great Britain for many +years; and when the treaties of 1783 restored peace to the world, the +independence of the United States was reluctantly recognized by their +ancient parent and recent enemy.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p> +<h2>FIRST VICTORY OF THE AMERICAN NAVY</h2> + +<h4><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1779</h4> + +<h3>ALEXANDER SLIDELL MACKENZIE</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>American naval officers look back with intensest pride to +Paul Jones, their earliest hero, the founder of those high +traditions which have done so much to raise the navy to its +present standard of efficiency. Decatur, Perry, Farragut, +Dewey, these and a thousand others of their kind, have but +followed the lead of Paul Jones, have learned their deepest +lesson in the thrill that came to each of them in boyhood on +hearing that proud defiance hurled at the ancient mistress +of the seas, "I have not yet begun to fight."</p> + +<p>Although much greater sea-battles, in point of numbers of +both ships and men engaged, are recorded in history, yet +this, the first naval engagement by an American vessel, is +counted among the most famous of all on account of its +stubbornness. The child was matched against the parent; an +American vessel against a British, the latter far the +stronger. The combat was mainly between the Bonhomme +Richard, Jones' ship, with forty guns, many of them +unserviceable, and the British ship, Serapis, of superior +armament, as shown below.</p> + +<p>John Paul Jones, commonly known as Paul Jones, was born in +Scotland in 1747, the son of John Paul, a gardener. He +emigrated to Virginia, and, assuming the name of Jones, +became first lieutenant (1775) in the American navy. When in +1778 France joined the colonies against England, Jones, who +had already performed several noteworthy exploits, was in +that country. Through the influence of Franklin an old +merchant vessel, the Duc de Duras, was converted into a +ship-of-war and, with four others, placed under the command +of Jones. In honor of Franklin he named the Duras "Poor +Richard," and, in compliment to the French language and +people, she was called the Bonhomme Richard, the French +colloquial equivalent.</p> + +<p>With a squadron of five ships, each except his own under a +French commander and three of them with French crews as +well, Jones sailed from L'Orient, France, August 14, 1779. +He passed around the west coast of Ireland and around +Scotland. There was much discontent among the French +officers, and, though four of his ships were still with him +when he sighted the Baltic fleet, Jones could not count on +loyal service, especially from the Alliance, whose captain +had already shown much insubordination.</p> + +<p>The memorable fight has never been better described than in +the following<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> plain and direct account of Mackenzie, +himself an officer of the United States navy.</p></div> + + +<p>The battle between the Bonhomme and the Serapis is invested with a +heroic interest of the highest stamp. Jones had been cruising off the +mouth of the Humber and along the Yorkshire coast, intercepting the +colliers bound to London, many of which he destroyed (1779). On the +morning of September 23d he fell in with the Alliance.<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> This +rencounter was a real misfortune; as, in the battle which ensued, the +former disobedience and mad vagaries of Landais, her commander, were +about to be converted into absolute treason. The squadron now consisted +of the Richard, the Alliance, the Pallas, and the Vengeance.</p> + +<p>About noon Jones despatched his second lieutenant, Henry Lunt, with +fifteen of his best men, to take possession of a brigantine which he had +chased ashore. Soon after, as the squadron was standing to the northward +toward Flamborough Head, with a light breeze from south-southwest, +chasing a ship, which was seen doubling the cape, in opening the view +beyond, they gradually came in sight of a fleet of forty-one sail +running down the coast from the northward, very close in with the land. +On questioning the pilot, the Commodore discovered that this was the +Baltic fleet, with which he had been so anxious to fall in, and that it +was under convoy of the Serapis, a new ship, of an improved +construction, mounting forty-four guns, and the Countess of Scarborough, +of twenty guns.</p> + +<p>Signal was immediately made to form the line of battle, which the +Alliance, as usual, disregarded. The Richard crossed her royal yards, +and immediately gave chase to the northward, under all sail, to get +between the enemy and the land. At the same time signal of recall was +made to the pilot of the boat; but she did not return until after the +action. On discovering the American squadron, the headmost ships of the +convoy were seen to haul their wind suddenly and go about so as to +stretch back under the land toward Scarborough and place themselves +under cover<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> of the cruisers; at the same time they fired signal-guns, +let fly their topgallant sheets, and showed every symptom of confusion +and alarm. Soon afterward the Serapis was seen reaching to windward to +get between the convoy and the American ships, which she soon effected. +At four o'clock the English cruisers were in sight from deck. The +Countess of Scarborough was standing out to join the Serapis, which was +lying-to for her, while the convoy continued to run for the fort, in +obedience to the signals displayed from the Serapis, which was also seen +to fire guns. At half-past five the two ships had joined company, when +the Serapis made sail by the wind; at six both vessels tacked, heading +up to the westward, across the bows of the Richard, so as to keep their +position between her and the convoy.</p> + +<p>The opposing ships thus continued to approach each other slowly under +the light southwesterly air. The weather was beautifully serene, and the +breeze, being off the land, which was now close on board, produced no +ripple on the water, which lay still and peaceful, offering a fair field +to the combatants about to grapple in such deadly strife. The decks of +the opposing vessels were long since cleared for action, and ample +leisure remained for reflection, as the ships glided toward each other +at a rate but little in accordance with the impatience of the opponents. +From the projecting promontory of Flamborough Head, which was less than +a league distant, thousands of the inhabitants, whom the recent attempt +upon Leith had made aware of the character of the American ships, and +the reckless daring of their leader, looked down upon the scene, +awaiting the result with intense anxiety. The ships also were in sight +from Scarborough, the inhabitants of which thronged the piers. The sun +had already sunk behind the land before the ships were within gun-shot +of each other; but a full harvest-moon rising above the opposite +horizon, lighted the combatants in their search for each other, and +served to reveal the approaching scene to the spectators on the land +with a vague distinctness which rendered it only the more terrible.</p> + +<p>We have seen that the Alliance had utterly disregarded the signal to +form the line of battle when the Baltic fleet was first discovered, and +our squadron bore down upon them. She stood for the enemy without +reference to her station, and, greatly out-sailing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> the other vessels, +was much sooner in a condition to engage. Captain Landais seemed for +once to be actuated by a chivalrous motive and likely to do something to +redeem the guilt of his disobedience. The officers of the Richard were +watching this new instance of eccentricity, for which Landais' past +conduct had not prepared them, with no little surprise; when after +getting near to where the Serapis lay, with her courses hauled up, and +St. George's ensign—the white cross of England—proudly displayed, he +suddenly hauled his wind, leaving the path of honor open to his +commander. While the Pallas stood for the Countess of Scarborough, the +Alliance sought a position in which she could contemplate the double +engagement without risk, as though her commander had been chosen umpire, +instead of being a party interested in the approaching battle. Soon +afterward the Serapis was seen to hoist the red ensign instead of St. +George's, and it was subsequently known that her captain had nailed it +to the flag-staff with his own hand.</p> + +<p>About half-past seven the Bonhomme Richard hauled up her courses and +rounded-to on the weather or larboard quarter of the Serapis, and within +pistol-shot, and steered a nearly parallel course, though gradually +edging down upon her. The Serapis now triced up her lower-deck ports, +showing two complete batteries, besides her spar deck, lighted up for +action, and making a most formidable appearance. At this moment Captain +Pearson, her commander, hailed the Bonhomme Richard and demanded, "What +ship is that?" Answer was made, "I can't hear what you say." The hail +was repeated: "What ship is that? Answer immediately, or I shall be +under the necessity of firing into you!" A shot was fired in reply by +the Bonhomme Richard, which was instantly followed by a broadside from +each vessel. Two of the three old eighteen-pounders in the Richard's +gunroom burst at the first fire, spreading around an awful scene of +carnage. Jones immediately gave orders to close the lower-deck ports and +abandon that battery during the rest of the action.</p> + +<p>The Richard, having kept her headway and becalmed the sails of the +Serapis, passed across her forefoot, when the Serapis, luffing across +the stern of the Richard, came up in turn on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> weather or larboard +quarter; and, after an exchange of several broadsides from the fresh +batteries, which did great damage to the rotten sides of the Richard and +caused her to leak badly, the Serapis likewise becalmed the sails of the +Richard, passed ahead, and soon after bore up and attempted to cross her +forefoot so as to rake her from stem to stern.</p> + +<p>Finding, however, that he had not room for the evolution, and that the +Richard would be on board of him, Captain Pearson put his helm a-lee, +which brought the two ships in a line ahead, and, the Serapis having +lost her headway by the attempted evolution, the Richard ran into her +weather or larboard quarter. While in this position, neither ship being +able to use her great guns, Jones attempted to board the Serapis, but +was repulsed, when Captain Pearson hailed him and asked, "Has your ship +struck?" to which he at once returned the immortal answer:</p> + +<p>"<i>I have not yet begun to fight!</i>"</p> + +<p>Jones now backed his topsails, and the sails of the Serapis remaining +full, the two ships separated. Immediately after, Pearson also laid his +topsails back, as he says in his official report, to get square with the +Richard again; Jones at the same instant filled away, which brought the +two ships once more broadside and broadside. As he had already suffered +greatly from the superior force of the Serapis, and from her being more +manageable and a faster sailer than the Richard, which had several times +given her the advantage in position, Jones now determined to lay his +ship athwart the enemy's hawse; he accordingly put his helm up, but, +some of his braces being shot away, his sails had not their full power, +and, the Serapis having sternway, the Richard fell on board of her +farther aft than Jones had intended. The Serapis' jib-boom hung her for +a few minutes, when, carrying away, the two ships swung broadside and +broadside, the muzzles of the guns touching each other. Jones sent Mr. +Stacy, the acting master, to pass up the end of a hawser to lash the two +ships together, and, while he was gone on this service, assisted with +his own hand in making fast the jib-stay of the Serapis to the Richard's +mizzen-mast.</p> + +<p>Accident, however, unknown for the moment to either party, more +effectually secured the two vessels together; for, the anchor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> of the +Serapis having hooked the quarter of the Richard, the two ships lay +closely grappled. In order to escape from this close embrace, and +recover the advantage of his superior sailing and force, Captain Pearson +now let go an anchor, when the two ships tended round to the tide, which +was setting toward Scarborough. The Richard being held by the anchor of +the Serapis, and the yards being entangled fore and aft, they remained +firmly grappled. This happened about half-past eight, the engagement +having already continued an hour.</p> + +<p>Meantime the firing had recommenced with fresh fury from the starboard +sides of both vessels. The guns of either ship actually touched the +sides of the other, and, some of them being opposite the ports, the +rammers entered those of the opposite ship when in the act of loading, +and the guns were discharged into the side or into the open decks. The +effect of this cannonade was terrible to both ships, and wherever it +could be kept up in one ship it was silenced in the other. Occasional +skirmishing with pikes and pistols took place through the ports, but +there does not appear to have been any concerted effort to board from +the lower decks of the Serapis, which had the advantage below.</p> + +<p>The Richard had already received several eighteen-pound shot between +wind and water, causing her to leak badly; the main battery of +twelve-pounders was silenced; as for the gunroom battery of six +eighteen-pounders, we have seen that two out of the three starboard ones +burst at the first fire, killing most of their crews. During the whole +action but eight shots were fired from this heavy battery, the use of +which was so much favored by the smoothness of the water. The bursting +of these guns, and the destruction of the crew, with the partial blowing +up of the deck above, so early in the action, were discouraging +circumstances, which, with a less resolutely determined commander, might +well have been decisive of the fate of the battle.</p> + +<p>Colonel Chamillard, who was stationed on the poop, with a party of +twenty marines, had already been driven from his post, with the loss of +a number of his men. The Alliance kept studiously aloof, and, hovering +about the Pallas and the Countess of Scarborough, until the latter +struck, after half an hour's action, Landais endeavored to get +information as to the force of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> the Serapis. He now ran down, under easy +sail, to where the Richard and Serapis grappled. At about half-past nine +he ranged up on the larboard quarter of the Richard, of course having +the Richard between him and the Serapis, though the brightness of the +moonlight, the greater height of the Richard, especially about the poop, +and the fact of her being painted entirely black, while the Serapis had +a yellow streak, could have left no doubt as to her identity; moreover, +the Richard displayed three lights at the larboard bow, gangway, and +stern, which was an appointed signal of recognition.</p> + +<p>Landais now deliberately fired into the Richard's quarter, killing many +of her men. Standing on, he ranged past her larboard bow, where he +renewed his raking fire, with like fatal effect. To remove the chance of +misconception, many voices cried out that the Alliance was firing into +the wrong ship; still the raking fire continued from her. Captain +Pearson also suffered from this fire, as he states in his report to the +Admiralty, but necessarily in a much less degree than the Richard, which +lay between them. There is ample evidence of Landais having returned +there several times to fire on the Richard, and always on the larboard +side, or opposite one to that on which the Richard was grappled with the +Serapis.</p> + +<p>While the fire of the Serapis was continued without intermission from +the whole of her lower-deck battery, the only guns that were still fired +from the Richard were two nine-pounders on the quarter-deck, commanded +by Mr. Mease, the purser. This officer having received a dangerous wound +in the head, Jones took his place, and, having collected a few men, +succeeded in shifting over one of the larboard guns; so that three guns +were now kept playing on the enemy, and these were all that were fired +from the Richard during the remainder of the action. One of these guns +was served with double-headed shot and directed at the main-mast, by +Jones' command, while the other two were loaded with grape and canister, +to clear the enemy's deck.</p> + +<p>In this service great aid was rendered by the men stationed in the tops +of the Richard, who, having cleared the tops of the Serapis, committed +great havoc among the officers and crew upon her upper deck. Thus, the +action was carried on with decided advantage to the Serapis' men on the +lower decks, from which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> they might have boarded the Richard with a good +prospect of success, as nearly the whole crew of the latter had been +driven from below by the fire of the Serapis and had collected on the +upper deck. In addition to the destructive fire from the tops of the +Richard, great damage was done by the hand-grenades thrown from her tops +and yard-arms. The Serapis was set on fire as often as ten or twelve +times in various parts, and the conflagration was only with the greatest +exertions kept from becoming general.</p> + +<p>About a quarter before ten a hand-grenade, thrown by one of the +Richard's men from the main-top of the Serapis, struck the combing of +the main-hatch, and, glancing inward upon the main deck, set fire to a +cartridge of powder. Owing to mismanagement and defective training, the +powder-boys on this deck had bought up the cartridges from the magazine +faster than they were used, and, instead of waiting for the loaders to +receive and charge them, had laid them on the deck, where some of them +were broken. The cartridge fired by the grenade now communicated to +these, and the explosion spread from the main-mast aft on the starboard +side, killing twenty men and disabling every man there stationed at the +guns, those who were not killed outright being left stripped of their +clothes and scorched frightfully.</p> + +<p>At this conjuncture, being about ten o'clock, the gunner and the +carpenter of the Richard, who had been slightly wounded, became alarmed +at the quantity of water which entered the ship through the shot-holes +which she had received between wind and water, and which, by her +settling, had got below the surface. The carpenter expressed an +apprehension that she would speedily sink, which the gunner, mistaking +for an assertion that she was actually sinking, ran aft on the poop to +haul down the colors. Finding that the ensign was already down in +consequence of the staff having been shot away, the gunner set up the +cry, "Quarter! for God's sake, quarter! Our ship is sinking!" which he +continued until silenced by Jones, who threw at the recreant a pistol he +had just discharged at the enemy, which fractured his skull, and sent +him headlong down the hatchway. Captain Pearson, hearing the gunner's +cry, asked Jones if he called for quarter, to which, according to his +own words, he replied "in the most determined negative."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span></p> + +<p>Captain Pearson now called away his boarders and sent them on board the +Richard, but, when they had reached her rail, they were met by Jones +himself, at the head of a party of pikemen, and driven back. They +immediately returned to their ship, followed by some of the Richard's +men, all of whom were cut off.</p> + +<p>About the same time that the gunner set up his cry for quarter, the +master-at-arms, who had been in consultation with the gunner and the +carpenter in regard to the sinking condition of the ship, hearing the +cry for quarter, proceeded, without orders from Jones, and either from +treachery or the prompting of humane feelings, to release all the +prisoners, amounting to more than a hundred. One of these, being the +commander of the letter-of-marque Union, taken on August 31st, passed, +with generous self-devotion, through the lower ports of the Richard and +the Serapis, and, having reached the quarter-deck of the latter, +informed Captain Pearson that if he would hold out a little longer the +Richard must either strike or sink; he moreover informed him of the +large number of prisoners who had been released with himself, in order +to save their lives. Thus encouraged, the battle was renewed from the +Serapis with fresh ardor.</p> + +<p>The situation of Jones at this moment was indeed hopeless beyond +anything that is recorded in the annals of naval warfare. In a sinking +ship, with a battery silenced everywhere, except where he himself +fought, more than a hundred prisoners at large in his ship, his consort, +the Alliance, sailing round and raking him deliberately, his superior +officers counselling surrender, while the inferior ones were setting up +disheartening cries of fire and sinking and calling loudly for +quarter—the chieftain still stood undismayed. He immediately ordered +the prisoners to the pumps, and took advantage of the panic they were +in, with regard to the reported sinking of the ship, to keep them from +conspiring to overcome the few efficient hands that remained of his +crew.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the action was continued with the three light quarter-deck +guns, under Jones' immediate inspection. In the moonlight, blended with +the flames that ascended the rigging of the Serapis, the yellow +main-mast presented a palpable mark, against which the guns were +directed with double-headed shot. Soon after ten o'clock the fire of the +Serapis began to slacken, and at half-past ten she struck.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p> + +<p>Mr. Dale, the first lieutenant of the Richard, was now ordered on board +the Serapis to take charge of her. He was accompanied by Midshipman +Mayrant and a party of boarders. Mr. Mayrant was run through the thigh +with a boarding-pike as he touched the deck of the Serapis, and three of +the Richard's crew were killed, after the Serapis had struck, by some of +the crew of the latter who were ignorant of the surrender of their ship.</p> + +<p>Lieutenant Dale found Captain Pearson on the quarter-deck, and told him +he was ordered to send him on board the Richard. It is a remarkable +evidence of the strange character of this engagement, and the doubt +which attended its result, that the first lieutenant of the Serapis, who +came upon deck at this moment, should have asked his commander whether +the ship alongside had struck. Lieutenant Dale immediately answered: +"No, sir; on the contrary, he has struck to us!"</p> + +<p>The British lieutenant, like a true officer, then questioned his +commander, "Have you struck, sir?" Captain Pearson replied, "Yes, I +have!" The lieutenant replied, "I have nothing more to say," and was +about to return below, when Mr. Dale informed him that he must accompany +Captain Pearson on board the Richard. The lieutenant rejoined, "If you +will permit me to go below, I will silence the firing of the lower-deck +guns." This offer Mr. Dale very properly declined, and the two officers +went on board the Richard and surrendered themselves to Jones.</p> + +<p>Pearson, who had risen, like Jones, from a humble station by his own +bravery, but who was as inferior officer to Jones in courtesy as he had +proved himself in obstinacy of resistance, evinced from the first a +characteristic surliness, which he maintained throughout the whole of +his intercourse with his victor. In surrendering he said that it was +painful for him to deliver up his sword to a man who had fought with a +halter around his neck. Jones did not forget himself, but replied with a +compliment, which, though addressed to Pearson, necessarily reverted to +himself, "Sir! you have fought like a hero, and I make no doubt but your +sovereign will reward you in a most ample manner."</p> + +<p>As another evidence of the strange <i>mêlée</i> which attended this +engagement, and of the discouraging circumstances under which the +Richard fought, it may be mentioned that eight or ten of her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> crew, who +were, of course, Englishmen, got into a boat, which was towing astern of +the Serapis, and escaped to Scarborough during the height of the +engagement. This defection, together with the absence of the second +lieutenant with fifteen of the best men, the loss of twenty-four men on +the coast of Ireland, added to the number who had been sent away in +prizes, reduced Jones' crew to a very small number, and greatly +diminished his chance of success, which was due at length solely to his +own indomitable courage.</p> + +<p>Meantime the fire, which was still kept up from the lower-deck guns of +the Serapis, where the seamen were ignorant of the scene of surrender +which had taken place above, was arrested by an order from Lieutenant +Dale. The action had continued without cessation for three hours and a +half. When it at length ceased, Jones got his ship clear of the Serapis +and made sail. As the two separated, after being so long locked in +deadly struggle, the main-mast of the Serapis, which had been for some +time tottering, and which had only been sustained by the interlocking of +her yards with those of the Richard, went over the side with a +tremendous crash, carrying the mizzen-topmast with it. Soon after, the +Serapis cut her cable and followed the Richard.</p> + +<p>The exertions of captors and captives were now necessary to extinguish +the flames which were raging furiously in both vessels. Its violence was +greatest in the Richard, where it had been communicated below from the +lower-deck guns of the Serapis. Every effort to subdue the flames seemed +for a time to be unavailing. In one place they were raging very near the +magazine, and Jones at length had all the powder taken out and brought +on deck, in readiness to be thrown overboard. In this work the officers +of the Serapis voluntarily assisted.</p> + +<p>While the fire was raging in so terrifying a manner, the water was +entering the ship in many places. The rudder had been cut entirely +through, the transoms were driven in, and the rotten timbers of the old +ship, from the main-mast aft, were shattered and almost entirely +separated, as if the ship had been sawn through by ice; so much so that +Jones says that toward the close of the action the shot of the Serapis +passed completely through the Richard; and the stern-post and a few +timbers alone prevented the stern from falling down on the gunroom deck. +The water<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> rushed in through all these apertures, so that at the close +of the action there were already five feet of water in the hold. The +spectacle which the old ship presented the following morning was +dreadful beyond description. Jones says in his official report: "A +person must have been eye-witness to form a just idea of the tremendous +scene of carnage, wreck, and ruin that everywhere appeared. Humanity +cannot but recoil from the prospect of such finished horror, and lament +that war should produce such fatal consequences."</p> + +<p>Captain Pearson also notices, in his official letter to the Admiralty, +the dreadful spectacle the Richard presented. He says: "On my going on +board the Bonhomme Richard I found her to be in the greatest distress; +her counters and quarters on the lower deck entirely drove in, and the +whole of her lower-deck guns dismounted; she was also on fire in two +places, and six or seven feet of water in her hold, which kept +increasing all night and the next day till they were obliged to quit +her, and she sunk with a great number of her wounded people on board +her." The regret which he must, at any rate, have felt in surrendering, +must have been much augmented by these observations, and by what he must +have seen of the motley composition of the Richard's crew.</p> + +<p>On the morning after the action a survey was held upon the "Poor +Richard," which was now, more than ever, entitled to her name. After a +deliberate examination, the carpenters and other surveying officers were +unanimously of opinion that the ship could not be kept afloat so as to +reach port, if the wind should increase. The task of removing the +wounded was now commenced, and completed in the course of the night and +following morning. The prisoners who had been taken in merchant-ships +were left until the wounded were all removed. Taking advantage of the +confusion, and of their superiority in numbers, they took possession of +the ship, and got her head in for the land, toward which the wind was +now blowing. A contest ensued, and, as the Englishmen had few arms, they +were speedily overcome. Two of them were shot dead, several wounded and +driven overboard, and thirteen of them got possession of a boat and +escaped to the shore.</p> + +<p>Jones was very anxious to keep the Richard afloat, and, if possible, to +bring her into port, doubtless from the very justifiable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> vanity of +showing how desperately he had fought her. In order to effect this +object he kept the first lieutenant of the Pallas on board of her with a +party of men to work the pumps, having boats in waiting to remove them +in the event of her sinking. During the night of the 24th the wind had +freshened, and still continued to freshen on the morning of the 25th, +when all further efforts to save her were found unavailing. The water +was running in and out of her ports and swashing up her hatchways. About +nine o'clock it became necessary to abandon her, the water then being up +to the lower deck; an hour later, she rolled as if losing her balance, +and, settling forward, went down bows first, her stern and mizzen-mast +being last seen.</p> + +<p>"A little after ten," says Jones in his report, "I saw, with +inexpressible grief, the last glimpse of the Bonhomme Richard." The +grief was a natural one, but, far from being destitute of consolation, +the closing scene of the "Poor Richard," like the death of Nelson on +board the Victory in the moment of winning a new title to the name, was +indeed a glorious one. Her shattered shell afforded an honorable +receptacle for the remains of the Americans who had fallen during the +action.</p> + +<p>The Richard was called by Captain Pearson a forty-gun ship, while the +Serapis was stated by the pilot, who described her to Jones when she was +first made, to have been a forty-four. Jones and Dale also gave her the +same rate. The Richard, as we have seen, mounted six eighteen-pounders +in her gunroom on her berth deck, where port-holes had been opened near +the water; fourteen twelve, and fourteen nine-pounders on her main deck, +and eight six-pounders on her quarter-deck, gangways, and forecastle. +The weight of shot thrown by her at a single broadside would thus be two +hundred and twenty-five pounds. With regard to her crew, she started +from L'Orient with three hundred eighty men. She had manned several +prizes, which, with the desertion of the barge's crew on the coast of +Ireland, and the absence of those who went in pursuit under the master +and never returned, together with the fifteen men sent away in the +pilot-boat, under the second lieutenant, just before the action, and who +did not return until after it was over, reduced the crew, according to +Jones' statement, to three hundred forty men at its commencement.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p> + +<p>This calculation seems a very fair one; for, by taking the statement of +those who had landed on the coast of Ireland, as given in a contemporary +English paper, at twenty-four, those who were absent in the pilot-boat +being sixteen in number, and allowing five of the nine prizes taken by +the Richard to have been manned from her, with average crews of five men +each, the total reduction from her original crew may be computed to be +seventy men. Eight or ten more escaped, during the action, in a boat +towing astern of the Serapis. To have had three hundred forty men at the +commencement of the action, as Jones states he had, he must have +obtained recruits from the crews of his prizes.</p> + +<p>In the muster-roll of the Richard's crew in the battle, as given by Mr. +Sherburne from an official source, we find only two hundred twenty-seven +names. This can hardly have been complete; still the document is +interesting, inasmuch as it enumerates the killed and wounded by name, +there being forty-two killed and forty wounded. It also states the +country of most of the crew; by which it appears that there were +seventy-one Americans, fifty-seven acknowledged Englishmen, twenty-one +Portuguese, and the rest of the motley collection was made up of Swedes, +Norwegians, Irish, and East Indians. Many of those not named in this +imperfect muster-roll were probably Americans.</p> + +<p>With regard to the Serapis, her battery consisted of twenty eighteens on +the lower gun-deck, twenty nines on the upper gun-deck, and ten sixes on +the quarter-deck and forecastle. She had two complete batteries, and her +construction was, in all respects, that of a line-of-battle ship. The +weight of shot thrown by her single broadside was three hundred pounds, +being seventy-five pounds more than that of the Richard. Her crew +consisted of three hundred twenty; all Englishmen except fifteen +Lascars; and as such, superior to the motley and partially disaffected +assemblage of the Richard. The superiority of the Serapis, in size and +weight, as well as efficiency of battery, was, moreover, greatly +increased by the strength of her construction. She was a new ship, built +expressly for a man-of-war, and equipped in the most complete manner by +the first of naval powers. The Richard was originally a merchantman, +worn out by long use and rotten from age. She was fitted, in a makeshift +manner, with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> whatever refuse guns and materials could be hastily +procured, at a small expense, from the limited means appropriated to her +armament.</p> + +<p>The overwhelming superiority thus possessed by the Serapis was evident +in the action. Two of the three lower-deck guns of the Richard burst at +the first fire, scattering death on every side, while the guns of the +Serapis remained serviceable during the whole action, and their effect +on the decayed sides of the Richard was literally to tear her to pieces. +On the contrary, the few light guns which continued to be used in the +Richard, under the immediate direction of her commander, produced little +impression on the hull of the Serapis. They were usefully directed to +destroy her masts and clear her upper deck, which, with the aid of the +destructive and well-sustained fire from the tops, was eventually +effected. The achievement of the victory was, however, wholly and solely +due to the immovable courage of Paul Jones. The Richard was beaten more +than once; but the spirit of Jones could not be overcome. Captain +Pearson was a brave man, and well deserved the honor of knighthood which +awaited him on his arrival in England; but Paul Jones had a nature which +never could have yielded. Had Pearson been equally indomitable, the +Richard, if not boarded from below, would, at last, have gone down with +her colors still flying in proud defiance.</p> + +<p>The wounded of the Serapis appear, by the surgeon's report accompanying +Captain Pearson's letter to the Admiralty, to have amounted to +seventy-five men, eight of whom died of their wounds. Of the wounded, +thirty-three are stated to have been "miserably scorched," doubtless by +the explosion of the cartridges on the main deck. Captain Pearson states +that there were many more, both killed and wounded, than appeared on the +list, but that he had been unable to ascertain their names. Jones gave +the number of wounded on board the Serapis as more than a hundred, and +the killed probably as numerous. The surviving prisoners, taken from the +Serapis and the Countess of Scarborough, amounted to three hundred +fifty; the whole number of prisoners, including those previously taken +from captured merchant-vessels, amounted to near five hundred.</p> + +<p>During the engagement between the Richard and the Serapis, the Pallas, +commanded by Captain Cottineau, seems to have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> done her duty. She +engaged the Countess of Scarborough, and captured her after an hour's +close action. The Pallas was a frigate of thirty-two guns, and the +Countess of Scarborough a single-decked ship, mounting twenty +six-pounders. The Alliance, in the course of the night, also fired into +the Pallas and the Countess of Scarborough, while engaged, and killed +several of the Pallas' men. Subsequent to the engagement it was attested +by the mass of officers in the squadron that, about eight o'clock, the +Alliance raked the Bonhomme Richard with grape and cross-bar, killing a +number of men and dismounting several guns. He afterward made sail for +where the Pallas and the Scarborough were engaged, and after hovering +about until the latter struck, communicated by hailing with both +vessels, and then stood back to the Richard, and coming up on her +larboard quarter, about half-past nine, fired again into her; passing +along her larboard beam, he then luffed up on her lee bow, and renewed +his raking fire. It was proved that the Alliance never passed on the +larboard side of the Serapis, but always kept the Richard between her +and the enemy. The officers of the Richard were of opinion that Landais' +intention was to kill Jones and disable his ship, so as afterward to +have himself an easy victory over the Serapis. As it was, he +subsequently claimed the credit of the victory, on the plea of having +raked the Serapis. There can be little doubt that he was actuated by +jealous and treacherous feelings toward Jones, and by base cowardice. +The Vengeance also behaved badly; neither she nor the Alliance made any +prizes from among the fleet of merchantmen, and the whole escaped under +cover of Flamborough Head and the adjacent harbors. Lieutenant Henry +Lunt, who was absent in the pilot-boat with fifteen of the Richard's +best men, lay in sight of the Richard during the action, but "thought it +not prudent to go alongside in time of action." His conduct at least +involved a great error of judgment, which no doubt he lived to repent.</p> + +<p>The conduct of Jones throughout this battle displayed great skill and +the noblest heroism. He carried his ship into action in the most gallant +style, and, while he commanded with ability, excited his followers by +his personal example. We find him, in the course of the action, himself +assisting to lash the ships together, aiding in the service of the only +battery from which a fire<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> was still kept up, and, when the Serapis +attempted to board, rushing, pike in hand, to meet and repel the +assailants. No difficulties or perplexities seemed to appal him or +disturb his judgment, and his courage and skill were equalled by his +immovable self-composure. The achievement of this victory was solely due +to his brilliant display of all the qualities essential to the formation +of a great naval commander.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> The Alliance had deliberately separated from the squadron. +As to the other vessels, the Pallas was a French frigate weaker than the +Richard, but much stronger than the second English ship, which she +captured. The Vengeance was only a sloop of twelve guns, and took no +part in the contest.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p> +<h2>JOSEPH II ATTEMPTS REFORM IN HUNGARY<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a></h2> + +<h4><span class="smcap">a.d. 1780</span></h4> + +<h3>ARMINIUS VAMBERY</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>As King of Hungary and Bohemia, and as Germanic Emperor, +Joseph II, a man of ideals, found himself hampered by +hereditary institutions and traditions. The attempted +reforms of this ruler, though too advanced for their times, +are justly deemed worthy of commemoration by historians. +Like the work of all leaders who aim at improvement before +the world is ready, they were prophetic of a better day.</p> + +<p>Joseph II, son of Francis I, Emperor of the Holy Roman +Empire, and Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Austria and Queen +of Hungary and Bohemia, was born at Vienna in 1741. He +succeeded to the possessions of the house of Austria on the +death of his mother in 1780. The troubles of his reign, +especially in Hungary, were due to his own progressive and +technically illegal acts on the one hand, and to the narrow +conservatism of the people, and the illiberality of the +nobles, on the other.</p> + +<p>By most of the historians of Hungary and Bohemia the reign +of Joseph II is described as disastrous for both countries. +But a more philosophical view than those historians often +furnish is presented by Vambery, the great Hungarian writer, +who gives to the endeavors of Joseph the credit of enduring +significance.</p></div> + + +<p>The royal crown of Hungary has ever been, from the time it encircled the +brow of St. Stephen, an object of jealous solicitude and almost +superstitious veneration with the nation. It continued to loom up as a +brilliant and rallying point in the midst of the vicissitudes and +stirring events of the history of the country during all the centuries +that followed the coronation of the first king. The people looked upon +it as a hallowed relic, the glorious bequest of a long line of +generations past and gone, and as the symbol and embodiment of the unity +of the state. The different countries composing Hungary were known under +the collective name of the "Lands of the Sacred Crown," and, at the +period when the privileged nobility was still enjoying exceptional +immunities, each noble styled himself <i>membrum sacræ coronæ</i> ("a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> member +of the sacred crown"). In the estimation of the people it had ceased to +be a religious symbol, and had become a cherished national and political +memorial, to which the followers of every creed and all the classes +without distinction might equally do homage. Nor was the crown an +every-day ornament to be displayed by royalty on solemn occasions of +pageant. The King wore it only once in his life, on the day of his +coronation, when he was bound solemnly to swear fidelity to the +constitution, before the high dignitaries of the state, first in church, +and to repeat afterward in the open air his vow to govern the country +within the limits of the law. Thus in Hungary it has ever been the +ancient custom, prevailing to this day, that, on the king's accession to +the throne, it is he who, on his coronation, takes the oath of fidelity +to his people, instead of the latter swearing fealty to the king. The +right of succession to the throne is hereditary, but the lawful rule of +the king begins with the ceremony of coronation only. It requires this +ceremonial, which to this day is characterized by the attributes of +mediæval pomp and splendor, to render the acts of the ruler valid and +binding upon the people; without it every public act of such ruler is a +usurpation.</p> + +<p>During eight centuries all the kings and queens, without exception, had +been eager to place the crown on their heads, in order to come into the +full possession of their regal privileges. Joseph II was the first king +who refused to be crowned. He felt a reluctance to swear fidelity to the +constitution, and to promise, by a solemn oath, to govern the country in +accordance with its ancient usages and laws. The people, therefore, +never called him their crowned king; he was either styled "Emperor" by +them, or nicknamed the <i>kalapos</i> ("hatted") king. His reign was but a +series of illegal and unconstitutional acts, and a succession of bitter +and envenomed struggles between the nation and her ruler. The contest +finally ended with Joseph's defeat. He retracted on his death-bed all +his arbitrary measures, and conceded to the people the tardy restoration +of their ancient constitution. The conflict, however, had left deep +traces in the minds of his Hungarian subjects. It roused them from the +dormant state into which they had been lulled by the gentle and maternal +absolutism of Maria Theresa. Thus Joseph's schemes not only failed, but, +in their effects, they were destined to bring about the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> triumph of +ideas, fraught with important consequences, such as he had hardly +anticipated. The nation, waking from her lethargy, gave more prominence +than ever to the idea of nationality, an idea which, as time advanced, +increased in potency and intensity.</p> + +<p>Yet this ruler, who on ascending the throne disregarded all +constitutional obligations and waged a relentless war against the +Hungarian nationality, must be, nevertheless, ranked among the noblest +characters of his century. Thoroughly imbued with the enlightened views +of the eighteenth century, and those new ideas which had triumphed in +the War of Independence across the ocean, he was ever in pursuit of +generous and exalted aims. He sincerely desired the welfare of the +people, and in engaging in this fruitless conflict he was by no means +actuated by sinister intentions or by a despotic disposition. To +introduce reforms, called for by the spirit of the age, into the Church, +the schools, and every department of his Government, was the lofty task +he had imposed upon himself. A champion of the oppressed, he freed the +human conscience from its mediæval fetters, granted equal rights to the +persecuted creeds, protected the enslaved peasantry against their +arbitrary masters, and enlarged the liberty of the press. He endeavored +to establish order and honesty in every branch of the public service, +being mindful at the same time of all the agencies affecting the +prosperity of the people. In a word, his remarkable genius embraced +every province of human action where progress, reforms, and +ameliorations were desirable.</p> + +<p>Unhappily for his own peace of mind and for the destinies of the nation +he was called upon to rule, he committed a fatal error in the selection +of the methods for accomplishing his humane and philanthropic objects. +He desired to render Hungary happy, yet he excluded the nation from the +direction of her own affairs. He wished to enact salutary laws, yet he +reigned as an absolute monarch, unwilling to call the Diet to his aid in +the great work of reformation, ignoring and disdaining the constitution +and laws of the country. He was impolitic enough to attack a +constitution which, thanks to the devotion of the people, had withstood +the shock of seven centuries. He was unwise enough to suppose that the +people, in whose hearts the love of their ancient constitution had taken +deep root, for the defence of which rivers of blood had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> been shed, +could be prevailed upon to relinquish it to satisfy a theory of royalty.</p> + +<p>The old political organization was eminently an outgrowth of the +Hungarian nationality, and all classes of the people, including the very +peasantry to whom the ancient constitution meant only oppression, clung +to it with devoted fervor. The people were as anxious for reforms as +Joseph himself, but they wanted them by lawful methods, and with the +coöperation of the nation and their Diet. Joseph might have become the +regenerator and benefactor of Hungary if he had availed himself, for the +realization of his grand objects, of the national and lawful channels +which lay ready to his hand. But he unfortunately preferred attempting +to achieve his purpose out of the plenitude of his own power, by +imperial edicts and arbitrary measures, thus conjuring up a storm +against himself which wellnigh shook his throne, and plunging the nation +into a wild ferment of passion bordering on revolution.</p> + +<p>The people presented a solid phalanx against Joseph's attack upon their +nationality and language, which to them were objects dearer than +everything else. They little cared for the Emperor's well-intentioned +endeavors to make them prosperous and happy as long as he asked, in +exchange, for the relinquishment of their nationality. And this, above +all, was his most ardent wish. He wanted Hungary to be Hungarian no +more, and wished its people to cast off the distinctive marks of their +individuality, and to adopt the German language, instead of their own, +in the schools, the public administration, and in judicial proceedings. +In a word, he made German the official language of the country, and was +bent on forcing it upon the people.</p> + +<p>Henceforth every reform coming from Joseph became hateful to the people. +The oppressed classes themselves spurned relief which involved the +sacrifice of their sweet mother-tongue. By proclaiming equal rights and +equal subjection to the burdens of the state, he arrayed the privileged +classes against his person. The Protestants and the peasantry, who had +hailed him in the beginning as their new messiah, and fondly saw in his +innovations the dawn of brighter days, also turned from him as soon as +he attacked them in what they prized even more than liberty and justice. +It was not long before the whole country, without distinction<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> of class, +social standing, or creed, combined to set at naught the Germanizing +efforts of Joseph. The hard-fought struggle roused the people, hitherto +divided by antagonisms of class and creed, to a sense of national +solidarity. It was during the critical days of these constitutional +conflicts that the foundations of the modern homogeneousness of the +Hungarian nation and society were laid down.</p> + +<p>The privileged classes looked upon Joseph, on his advent to the throne, +with distrust. They foresaw that he would not allow himself to be +crowned, in order to avoid taking the oath of fidelity to the +Constitution of Hungary. The first measures of his reign concerned the +organization of the various churches of the country. He extended the +religious freedom of the Protestant Church. By virtue of the apostolic +rights of the Hungarian kings, he introduced signal reforms into the +Catholic Church, especially regarding the education of the clergy, which +proved, in part, exceedingly salutary.</p> + +<p>He abolished numerous religious orders, especially those which were not +engaged either in teaching or in nursing the sick. One hundred forty +monasteries and nunneries were closed by him in Hungary. The ample +property of these convents he employed for ecclesiastical and public +purposes and for the advancement of instruction. He exerted himself +strenuously and successfully in the establishment of public schools and +in the interest of popular education. He removed the only university of +which the country could then boast from Buda to Pesth, a city which was +rapidly increasing, and added a theological department to that seat of +learning. All these innovations met with the approval of the enlightened +elements of the nation, while the privileged classes and the clergy +opposed them with sullen discontent. The opposition was all the more +successful, as the Emperor had contrived to insult the moral +susceptibilities of the common people by some of his measures.</p> + +<p>Thus, with a view to economizing the boards required for coffins, he +ordered the dead to be sewed up in sacks and to be buried in this +apparel. This uncalled-for meddling with the prejudices of the lower +classes had the effect of creating a great indignation among them and of +driving them into the camp of the opposition. Trifling and thoughtless +measures of a similar<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> nature impaired the credit of the most salutary +innovations. The people looked with suspicion at every change, and, +heedless of the lofty endeavors of the Emperor, everybody, including the +officials themselves, rejected the entire governmental system of Joseph.</p> + +<p>The Emperor also wounded the national feeling of piety by his action +concerning the crown he had spurned. According to ancient custom and law +the sacred crown was kept in safety in Presburg, in a building provided +for that purpose. In 1784 the Emperor ordered the crown to be removed to +Vienna, in order to be placed there in the royal treasury side by side +with the crowns of his other lands. The nation revolted at this +profanation of their hallowed relic, and the highest official +authorities throughout the land protested against a measure which, while +it created such widespread ill-feeling, was not justified by any +necessity. A dreadful storm, accompanied by thunder and lightning, was +raging when the crown was removed to Vienna, and the people saw in this +a sign that Nature herself rebelled against the sacrilege committed by +the Emperor. The counties continued to urge the return of the crown, in +addresses which were sometimes humbly suppliant in their tone and +sometimes threatening, but Joseph did not yield either to supplications +or menaces.</p> + +<p>When the edict which made German the official language of the country +was published, the minds of men all over the country were greatly +disturbed. It is true that hitherto the Latin, and not the Hungarian, +language had been the medium of communication employed by the state. But +the national spirit and the native tongue, which during the first +seventy years of the eighteenth century had sadly degenerated, were +awakening to new life during Joseph's reign. The literature of the +country began to be assiduously cultivated in different spheres. Royal +body-guards belonging to distinguished families, gentlemen of +refinement, clergymen of modest position, and other sons of the native +soil labored with equal zeal and enthusiasm to foster their cherished +mother-tongue.</p> + +<p>It would, therefore, have been an easy matter for Joseph to replace the +Latin language, which had become an anachronism, by the Hungarian, and +thus to restore the latter to its natural and legal position in the +state. He was perfectly right in ridding the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> country of the mastery of +a dead tongue, but he committed a most fatal error in trying to +substitute for it the German, an error which avenged itself most +bitterly. Joseph entertained a special antipathy to the Hungarian +tongue, a dislike which betrayed him into omitting the teaching of the +native language from the course of public instruction, and refusing to +allow an academy of sciences to be established which had its cultivation +for its object.</p> + +<p>The Emperor's attack upon the language of the nation irremediably broke +the last tie between him and the country, and henceforth the relations +between them could be only hostile. The counties assumed a threatening +attitude, some of them refusing obedience altogether. Thus most of them +declined to give their official coöperation to the army officers who had +been delegated by the Emperor to take the census. The count, +nevertheless, proceeded, but in many places the inhabitants escaped to +the woods, and in some there were serious riots in consequence of the +opposition to the commissioners of the census.</p> + +<p>A rising of a different character took place among the Wallachs. The +Wallachs, smarting under abuses of long standing, buoyed up by +exaggerated expectations consequent upon the Emperor's innovations, and +stirred up by evil-minded agitators, took to arms and perpetrated the +most outrageous atrocities against their Hungarian landlords. The +ignorant common people were assured by their leaders, Hora and Kloska, +that the Emperor himself sided with them. The Wallach insurgents +assassinated the Government's commissioners sent to them, destroyed +sixty villages and one hundred eighty-two gentlemen's mansions, and +killed four thousand Hungarians before they could be checked in their +bloody work. Although they were finally crushed and punished, a strong +belief prevailed in the country that the court of Vienna had been privy +to the Wallach rising.</p> + +<p>Joseph subsequently laid down most humane rules regulating the relations +between the bondmen and their landlords. But the country could not be +appeased by any boon, especially as the high protective tariff, just +then established for the benefit of the Austrian provinces, was +seriously damaging the prosperity of the people. Joseph's foreign policy +tended to increase the domestic disaffection. In 1788 he declared war +against Turkey, but the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> campaign turned out unsuccessful, and nearly +terminated with the Emperor's capture. The nation, emboldened by his +defeat, urged now more emphatically her demands, and requested the +Emperor to annul his illegal edicts, to submit to be crowned, and to +restore the ancient constitution. Joseph continuing to resist her +demands, most of the counties refused to contribute in aid of the war +either money or produce. In addition to their recalcitrant attitude, +they most energetically pressed the Emperor to convoke the Diet at Buda, +a few counties going even so far as to insist upon the chief justice's +convoking it, if the Emperor failed to do so before May, 1790.</p> + +<p>The courage of the nation rose still higher when the news of the +Revolution in France and the revolt in Belgium reached the country. The +people refused to furnish recruits and military aid, and the Emperor was +compelled to use violence in order to obtain either. The counties +remained firm and continued to remonstrate in addresses characterized by +sharp and energetic language. Joseph yielded at last. He was prostrated +by a grave illness, and, feeling his end approaching, he wished to die +in peace with the exasperated nation he had so deeply wounded. On +January 28, 1790, he retracted all his illegal edicts, excepting those +that had reference to religious toleration, the peasantry, and the +clergy, and reëstablished the ancient constitution of the country. Soon +after he sent back the crown to Buda, where its return was celebrated +with great pomp, amid the enthusiastic shouts of the people. Before he +could yet convoke the Diet death terminated the Emperor's career on +February 20th.</p> + +<p>The world lost in him a great and noble-minded man, a friend to +humanity, who, however, had been unable to realize all his lofty +intentions. The effect of his reign was to rouse Hungary from the apathy +into which it had sunk, and at the time of Joseph's death the minds of +the people were a prey to an excitement no less feverish than that which +had seized revolutionary France at the same period. But while in Paris +democracy was victorious over royalty, the latter had to yield in +Hungary to the privileged nobility. The restored constitution was a +charter of political privileges for the nobles only, and as such was +most jealously guarded by them. This class kept a strict watch over the +liberal tendencies of the age, preventing the importation of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> democratic +ideas from France from fear of harm to their exclusive immunities.</p> + +<p>Joseph was succeeded by his brother, Leopold II, who until now had been +Grand Duke of Tuscany. The new ruler was as enlightened as his +predecessor, and had as much the welfare of the people at heart; but he +respected, at the same time, the laws and the constitution. He +immediately convoked the Diet in order to be crowned, and by this act he +solemnly sealed the peace with the nation. The people hailed with joy +this first step of their new King, and there was nothing in the way of +their now obtaining lawfully from the good-will of the King the salutary +legislation which Joseph had attempted to force arbitrarily upon them. +But the fond hopes in this direction were doomed to disappointment. The +national movement had not helped to power those who were in favor of +progress, equality of rights, and democracy.</p> + +<p>No doubt there were people in the country who differed from the men in +authority, who were sincerely attached to the doctrines of the French +Revolution and eager to supplant the privileges of the nobles by the +broader rights belonging to all humanity. The national literature was in +the hands of men of this class. They combated the reactionary spirit of +the nobility, and contended for the recognition of the civil and +political rights of by far the largest portion of the people, the +non-nobles. They boldly and with generous enthusiasm wielded the pen in +defence of those noble ideas, and indoctrinated the people with them as +much as the restraints placed upon the press allowed it at that period. +They succeeded in obtaining recruits for their ideas from the very ranks +of the privileged classes, and many an enlightened magnate admitted that +the time had arrived for modernizing the Constitution of Hungary by an +extension of political rights.</p> + +<p>Their number was swelled also by the more intelligent portion of the +inhabitants of the cities, and those educated patriotic people who, +although no gentle blood flowed in their veins, had either obtained +office under Joseph's reign or had imbibed the political views of that +monarch. But all of these men combined formed but an insignificant +fraction of the people compared to the numerous nobility, who, after +their enforced submission<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> during ten years, were eager to turn to the +advantage of their own class the victory they had achieved over Joseph. +During the initial preparations for the elections to the Diet, and in +the course of the elections, sentiments were publicly uttered and +obtained a majority in the county assemblies, which caused a feverish +commotion among the common people and the peasantry.</p> + +<p>The latter especially now eagerly clung to innovations introduced by the +Emperor Joseph, so beneficial as regarded their own class, and were +reluctant to submit to the restoration of the former arbitrary landlord +system. Their remonstrances were answered by the counties to the effect +that Providence had willed it so that some men should be kings, others +nobles, and others again bondmen. Such cruel reasoning failed to satisfy +the aggrieved peasantry. Symptoms of a dangerous revolutionary spirit +showed themselves throughout a large portion of the country, and an +outbreak could be prevented only by the timely assurance, on the part of +the counties, that the matter would be submitted to the Diet about to +assemble.</p> + +<p>The Diet, which had not been convened for twenty-five years, opened in +Buda in the beginning of June, 1790. The coronation soon took place. +Fifty years had elapsed since the last similar pageant had been enacted +in Hungary. After a lengthy and vehement contest extending over ten +months, in the course of which the Diet was removed from Buda to +Presburg, the laws of 1790-1791, which form part of the fundamental +articles of the Hungarian Constitution, were finally passed. By them the +independence of Hungary as a state obtained the fullest recognition. The +laws, which were the result of the coõperation of the crown and the +Estates, declared that Hungary was an independent country, subject to no +other country, possessing her own constitution, by which alone she was +to be governed.</p> + +<p>Important concessions were also made to the rights of the citizens of +the country. The privileges of the nobility were left intact, but the +extreme wing of the reactionary nobles had to rest satisfied with this +acquiescence in the former state of things, and were not allowed to push +the narrow-minded measures advocated by them. The majority of the Diet +was influenced in their wise moderation, partly by the exalted views of +the King<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> and to a greater extent yet by the disaffected spirit rife +among the people, and especially threatening among the Serb population +of the country. The laws secured the liberties of the Protestant and the +Greek united churches, remedied the most urgent griefs of the peasantry, +and declared those who were not noble capable of holding minor offices. +Although the most important measures of reform were put off to a future +time by the Diet of 1790-1791, several preparatory royal commissions +having been appointed for their consideration, yet the work it +accomplished was the salutary beginning of a liberal legislation which +culminated, not quite sixty years later, in the declaration of the equal +rights of the people as the basis of the Hungarian commonwealth.</p> + +<p>After the meeting of this Diet, however, very little was done in the +direction of reforms. The good work was interrupted, partly by the +premature death of Leopold II (March 1, 1792), and partly by the warlike +period, extending over twenty-five years, which, in Hungary as +throughout all Europe, claimed public attention, and diverted the minds +of the leaders of the nation from domestic topics. Francis I, the son +and successor of Leopold II, caused himself to be crowned in due form, +and much was at first hoped from his reign. But the Jacobin rule of +terror in Paris, and the dread of seeing the revolutionary scenes +repeated in his own realm, wrought a complete change in his character +and policy.</p> + +<p>He soon stubbornly rejected every innovation, and gradually became a +pillar of strength for the European reaction, that extravagant +conservatism which expected to efface the effects of the French +Revolution by an unquestioning adherence to the old and traditional +order of things. This illiberal spirit of the monarch rendered +impossible for the time any further reform movement in Hungary. Every +question of desirable change met with the most obstinate opposition on +the part of the King, and the reforms submitted by the royal commissions +were considered by every successive Diet without ever becoming law.</p> + +<p>The period which now followed was gloomy in the extreme, as well for +Hungary as for the Austrian provinces of Francis I. The inhabitants of +these countries were constantly called upon by the King in the course of +the wars to make sacrifices in treasure<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> and blood, by furnishing +recruits and by paying high taxes. At the same time the Government +resorted to the most absolute and arbitrary measures to prevent the +people from being contaminated with French ideas. The press was crushed +by severe penalties. Every enlightened idea was banished from the +schools and expunged from the school-books. Only men for whose extreme +reactionary spirit the police could vouch were appointed to the +professorships or to other offices. A system of universal spying and +secret information caused everybody to be suspected and to suffer from +private vindictiveness, while those who dared to avow liberal views were +the objects of cruel persecution.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> From Vambery's <i>Hungary</i>, in Story of the Nations Series +(New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons), by permission.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p> +<h2>SIEGE AND SURRENDER OF YORKTOWN</h2> + +<h4><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1781</h4> + +<h3>HENRY B. DAWSON LORD CORNWALLIS</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>After almost seven years of struggle, the American colonies, +with the aid of France, won by the success of their arms +that independence which they declared in 1776. The close of +the Yorktown campaign with the surrender of Cornwallis +virtually ended the Revolutionary War.</p> + +<p>While the victory of the Americans over Burgoyne at Saratoga +(1777) produced a most encouraging effect upon the colonies, +their scattered forces still had much arduous work before +them. The defeat of Washington at Brandywine and at +Germantown (September and October, 1777) left the British, +under Howe, in possession of Philadelphia. Being in no +condition to keep the field, Washington went into winter +quarters at Valley Forge, twenty miles northwest of that +city. There, in the most inhospitable surroundings, the army +remained from the middle of December, 1777, suffering untold +privations, while the British passed a winter of gayety in +Philadelphia. The American camp consisted of log huts with +windows of oiled paper. The soldiers built the huts in +bitter weather, their only food being cakes of flour and +water which they baked at the open fires. To the hardships +of exposure were added the sufferings of disease; to +scarcity of provisions, lack of clothing. The men, said +Lafayette, "were in want of everything; they had neither +coats, hats, shirts, nor shoes; their feet and their legs +froze till they became black, and it was often necessary to +amputate them."</p> + +<p>After such a winter it seems remarkable that Washington +could have so strengthened his army as to win the Battle of +Monmouth in the following June. The next considerable events +of the war were the taking of Stony Point by the British in +1779, and its recapture by Anthony Wayne in the same year. +The war went on during the next two years with varying +results, but none decisive. The defection of Benedict Arnold +deprived the Americans of a capable soldier and gave him to +the enemy. The American victory at the Battle of the +Cowpens, January 17, 1781, was offset by the triumph of +Cornwallis at Guilford Court House, March 15th, but this was +that general's last success on American soil. His own +account of the surrender of Yorktown, in a letter addressed +to Sir Henry Clinton, here follows the complete narrative of +Dawson, which covers the final year of the actual War of the +American Revolution.</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span></p> + + +<h4>HENRY B. DAWSON</h4> + +<p>The seventh year of the War of the Revolution was productive of great +events. Opening with the mutiny of the Pennsylvania line of troops, its +progress soon developed the disaffection of the New Jersey line also, +and all the skill of General Washington was necessary to maintain that +discipline in the army on which the salvation of the country depended. +The resources of the country, from the long-continued struggle through +which it had passed during six years, had become exhausted; its currency +had become depreciated beyond precedent; and the people, weary of the +contest, were lukewarm as well as enervated.</p> + +<p>At that time, also, the Federal Congress appeared to lack that nerve and +decision which had marked the proceedings of the same body earlier in +the war; and contenting itself with "recommendations," without +attempting to enforce its requisitions or even to advise the adoption of +compulsory measures by the States, it left the troops who were in the +field without clothing, provisions, or pay, and indirectly forced upon +them those acts of apparent insurrection which, resolved to their first +elements, might not improperly have been called "acts of necessity," and +been justified, in charity, as essential to their self-preservation.</p> + +<p>So gloomy, indeed, were the prospects of American independence at that +time that the interposition of some foreign government was, by general +consent, considered absolutely essential; and never were the good +qualities of the Commander-in-Chief more nobly displayed than at this +period, when, amid the most pressing discouragements, referred to, he +urged the States to strengthen the bonds of the confederacy and to renew +their efforts for the great final struggle with their haughty and +determined enemy.</p> + +<p>The enemy, still anxiously seeking to establish his power in the +Southern States, had sent General Arnold to Virginia, with a strong +detachment of troops, to coöperate with Lord Cornwallis, who was busily +engaged, in a series of movements, in measuring his strength and his +skill with General Greene; and, soon afterward, a second detachment, +under General Phillips, was sent to the same State.</p> + +<p>Early in May the Count de Barras arrived from Europe with the welcome +intelligence of the approach of reënforcements from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> France; and that a +strong fleet from the West Indies, under Count de Grasse, might be +expected in the American waters within a few weeks. In view of these +facts a conference between General Washington and the Count de +Rochambeau was held at Weathersfield soon afterward, and the plans of +the campaign were discussed and determined on.</p> + +<p>Among the principal operations proposed was an attack on the city of New +York; and in accordance with these plans the allied forces of America +and France moved against that city. Every necessary preparation had been +made for the commencement of active operations, when, on August 14th, a +letter reached General Washington in which the Count de Grasse informed +him that the entire French West Indian fleet, with more than three +thousand land forces, would shortly sail from Santo Domingo for the +Chesapeake, intimating, however, that he could not remain longer than +the middle of October, at which time it would be necessary for him to be +on his station again. As the limited period which the Count could spend +in the service of the allies was not sufficient to warrant the +supposition that he could be useful before New York, the entire plan of +the campaign was changed; and it was resolved to proceed to Virginia, +with the whole of the French troops and as many of the Americans as +could be spared from the defence of the posts on the Hudson; and instead +of besieging Sir Henry Clinton, in his head-quarters in New York, a +movement against Lord Cornwallis and the powerful detachment under his +command was resolved on.</p> + +<p>At the period in question Lord Cornwallis had moved out of the +Carolinas, formed a junction with the force under General Phillips, and +had overrun the lower counties of Virginia, until General Lafayette, who +had been sent to the State some weeks after, by superior skill and the +most active exertions had succeeded in checking his progress. The +purpose of the allies was to prevent the escape of Lord Cornwallis from +his position near Yorktown; and General Lafayette was ordered to make +such a disposition of his army as should be best calculated to effect +that purpose. In case this purpose should be defeated, and Lord +Cornwallis succeed in effecting a retreat into North Carolina, it was +designed to pursue him with sufficient force to overawe him: while the +remainder of the armies, at the same time, should proceed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> with the +French fleet, to Charleston, which was, at the same time, the enemy's +head-quarters in the South.</p> + +<p>The marine force of the allies was composed of two fleets—that of +Admiral Count de Grasse, then on its way from the West Indies, composed +of twenty-six sail of the line and several frigates; and that of Admiral +Count de Barras, then at anchor in Newport, composed of eight sail of +the line, besides transports and victuallers: their military force +embraced the main bodies of the American and French armies, under +Generals Washington and Rochambeau, then near New York; the detachment +of American troops, under General Lafayette, then in Virginia; and more +than three thousand French troops, under General Saint-Simon, who were +then on their way from the West Indies with the Count de Grasse.</p> + +<p>The main body of the enemy's force, under Sir Henry Clinton, was in the +city of New York and its immediate vicinity; Lord Cornwallis, with his +own command and that which, under Generals Phillips and Arnold, had +overrun some portions of Virginia, numbering in the aggregate about +seven thousand three hundred fifty men, exclusive of seamen and Tories, +was occupying the neck of land between the James and York rivers, where +General Lafayette was holding him in check; while the Southern army, +under Lieutenant-Colonel Balfour, through the successful movements of +General Greene, was mostly confined to Charleston and its immediate +vicinity. Admiral Rodney, with a large naval force, was leisurely +spending his time in securing his portion of the spoils in the West +Indies; Sir Samuel Hood, with fifteen sail of the line and six smaller +vessels, had been detached by Admiral Rodney to intercept Admiral de +Grasse, and to maintain an equality of power in the American waters; and +Admiral Graves, with part of his fleet in New York and a part before +Newport, caused the enemy to feel perfectly secure in the positions he +occupied.</p> + +<p>As has been stated, the intelligence from Admiral de Grasse changed the +plans of the allies; and, instead of General Clinton and the main body +of the enemy in the city of New York, Lord Cornwallis and the combined +forces under his command, then at Yorktown, were made the objects of +General Washington's attention. In executing this plan, however, it was +necessary to exercise<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> great caution, not only to prevent Sir Henry +Clinton from moving to the assistance of Lord Cornwallis, but also to +prevent Admiral Graves from joining Sir Samuel Hood, and, by occupying +the Chesapeake, keeping open the communication by sea between Yorktown +and New York.</p> + +<p>For this purpose, on August 19th the New Jersey line and Colonel Hazen's +regiment were sent to New Jersey, by way of Dobbs Ferry, to protect a +large number of "ovens" which were ordered to be erected near +Springfield and Chatham in that State; and forage and boats, with some +efforts to display the same, were also collected on the west side of the +Hudson, by which the enemy was led to suppose that an attack was +intended from that quarter. Fictitious letters were also written and put +in the way of the enemy, by which the deception was confirmed; and Sir +Henry Clinton appears to have supposed that Staten Island, or a position +near Sandy Hook, to cover the entrance of the French fleet into the +harbor, was the real object of the movements, until the allied +forces—which had crossed the Hudson, leaving General Heath, with a +respectable force, on its eastern bank—had passed the Delaware, and +rendered the true object of the movement a matter of obvious certainty.</p> + +<p>The body of troops with which General Washington moved to the South +embraced all the French auxiliaries, led by Count Rochambeau; the light +infantry of the Continental army, led by Colonel Alexander Scammel; +detachments of light troops from the Connecticut and New York State +troops; the Rhode Island regiment; the regiment known as "Congress' +Own," under Colonel Hazen; two New York regiments; a detachment of New +Jersey troops; and the artillery, under Colonel John Lamb, numbering in +the aggregate about two thousand Americans and a strong body of French. +It is said that the American troops, who were mostly from New England +and the Middle States, marched with reluctance to the southward, showing +"strong symptoms of discontent when they passed through Philadelphia," +and becoming reconciled only when an advance of a month's pay, in +specie—which was borrowed from Count Rochambeau for that purpose—was +paid to them.</p> + +<p>The allies, having thus successfully eluded the watchfulness of the +enemy in New York, pressed forward toward Annapolis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> and the Head of +Elk, whither transports had been despatched from the French fleet to +convey them to Virginia; and, on September 25th, the last division +reached Williamsburg, where, with General Lafayette and his command, and +the auxiliary troops, the entire army had rendezvoused.</p> + +<p>In the mean time the enemy, as well as the French auxiliaries, had not +been inactive. Lord Cornwallis, vainly expecting reënforcements from New +York, had concentrated his army at Yorktown and Gloucester, on opposite +sides of the York River, and had been busily employed in throwing up +strong works of defence, and preparing to sustain a siege.</p> + +<p>Admiral Graves, after a bootless cruise to the eastward for the purpose +of intercepting some French storeships, had returned to New York on +August 16th or 17th, and since that time had been employed in refitting, +taking in stores, etc., in blissful ignorance of the approach of Admiral +de Grasse. Admiral Rodney, advised of the movements of the French fleet, +had sent "early notice" to the Admiral commanding in America; but his +despatches, which were sent by the Swallow, Captain Wells, never reached +Admiral Graves. Sir Samuel Hood's squadron also had been sent to the +northward to check the movements of the French fleet or to strengthen +the fleet of Admiral Graves, after touching at the Chesapeake, before +the French fleet arrived there, had sailed for New York, and on the +afternoon of August 28th had reached that port, and communicated to the +Admiral the first intelligence of the movements of the French fleet +which he had received. On August 31st the Admiral, with five ships +belonging to his own command, and the squadron under Sir Samuel Hood, +sailed for the Chesapeake, where he found the French fleet, and on +September 5th accepted the invitation to fight which the Admiral de +Grasse extended to him; but considered it prudent to return to New York +immediately afterward.</p> + +<p>The Admiral Count de Grasse, with a naval force of twenty-six sail of +the line and some smaller vessels, had sailed from Santo Domingo on +August 5th; on the 30th of the same month he entered the Chesapeake and +anchored at Lynn Haven; on the following day he had blockaded the mouths +of the James and York rivers, and prevented the retreat of the enemy by +water; and, as has been before stated—notwithstanding the absence of +about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> nineteen hundred of his men, besides three ships of the line and +two fifties with their crews—had gone out and fought with Admiral +Graves and nineteen sail of the line. General the Marquis Saint-Simon, +at the head of thirty-three hundred French troops, had been landed from +the fleet on September 2d; joined General Lafayette on the 3d; and on +the 5th, with the latter officer and his command, had moved down to +Williamsburg, fifteen miles from York, and cut off the retreat of the +enemy by land. Admiral de Barras, with his squadron and ten transports, +having on board the siege-artillery and a large body of French troops +under M. de Choisy, sailed from Newport on August 25th, and entered Lynn +Haven Bay in safety on September 10th, while Admiral de Grasse was +absent in engagement with Admiral Graves.</p> + +<p>As before mentioned, the different divisions of the allied forces +rendezvoused at Williamsburg, in the vicinity of Yorktown, in the latter +part of September. At the same time the enemy's fleet, overawed by the +superior force of the combined fleets under Admirals de Grasse and de +Barras, had returned to New York, leaving General Cornwallis and his +army to the fortunes of war; and enabling the naval force of the allies +to coöperate with their military in all the operations of the siege. +General Heath, with two New Hampshire, ten Massachusetts, and five +Connecticut regiments, the corps of invalids, Sheldon's Legion of +Dragoons, the Third regiment of artillery, and "all such State troops +and militia as were retained in service," remained in the vicinity of +New York to protect the passes in the Highlands, and to check any +movement which Sir Henry Clinton might make for the relief of Lord +Cornwallis.</p> + +<p>At daybreak on September 28th the entire body of the army moved from +Williamsburg, and occupied a position within two miles of the enemy's +line; the American troops occupied the right of the line; the French +auxiliaries the left. York, the scene of operations referred to, is a +small village, the seat of justice of York County, Virginia, and is +situated on the southern bank of the York River, eleven miles from its +mouth. On the opposite side of the river is Gloucester Point, on which +the enemy had also taken a position; and the communication between the +two posts was commanded by his land-batteries and by some vessels-of-war +which lay at anchor under his guns.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p> + +<p>On September 29th the besiegers were principally employed in +reconnoitring the situation of the enemy and in arranging their plans of +attack. The main body of the enemy was found intrenched in the open +ground about Yorktown, with the intention of checking the progress of +the allies, while an inner line of works, near the village, had been +provided for his ultimate defence; Lieutenant-Colonel Simcoe, with his +legion, the Eightieth regiment of the line, and the Hereditary Prince's +regiment of Hessians, the whole under Lieutenant-Colonel Dundas, being +in possession of Gloucester Point. The only movement was an extension of +the right wing of the allied armies, and the consequent occupation of +the ground east of the Beaver-dam Creek, by the American forces.</p> + +<p>On the evening of that day Lord Cornwallis received despatches from New +York in which Sir Henry Clinton advised his lordship that "at a meeting +of the general and flag officers, held this day (September 24, 1781) it +is determined that above five thousand men, rank and file, shall be +embarked on board the King's ships, and the joint exertions of the navy +and army made in a few days to relieve you, and afterward to operate +with you. The fleet consists of twenty-three sail of the line, three of +which are three-deckers. There is every reason to hope that we start +from hence October 5th." Gratified with this promise of assistance, and +probably confident of his ability to hold his inner position until he +could be relieved, Lord Cornwallis imprudently retired from the outer +line of works which he had occupied, and on the same night (September +29th) occupied the town, leaving the outer lines to be occupied by the +allies, without resistance, on the next day.</p> + +<p>On September 30th the allies occupied the deserted positions, and were +thereby "enabled to shut up the enemy in a much narrower circle, giving +them the greatest advantages." Before the allies moved to the positions +which had been thus deserted, Colonel Alexander Scammell, the officer of +the day, approached them for the purpose of reconnoitring, when he was +attacked by a party of the enemy's horse, which was ambushed in the +neighborhood, and, after being mortally wounded, was taken prisoner. On +the same day the transports, having on board the battering-train, came +up to Trubell's, seven miles from York, whence they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> were transported to +the lines; and the lines were completely and effectively occupied. The +French extended from the river above the town, to a morass in the +centre, while the Americans continued the lines from the morass to the +river, below the town, the whole forming a semicircle, with the river +for a chord.</p> + +<p>On the same day the Duc de Lauzun, with his legion of cavalry, and +General Weedon, with a body of Virginian militia, the whole under Sieur +de Choisy, invested Gloucester, in the course of which a party of the +Queen's Rangers, which had been sent out to observe the movements of the +allies, was driven in with considerable loss.</p> + +<p>On the following day (October 1st) eight hundred marines were landed +from the fleet to strengthen the party which was investing Gloucester; +and from that time until the 6th both the allies and the enemy +vigorously prosecuted their several works of attack or defence, or +otherwise prepared for the great struggle which was then inevitable.</p> + +<p>On the night of October 6th, under the command of General Lincoln, the +besiegers opened their trenches within six hundred yards of the enemy's +lines, yet with so much silence was it conducted that it appears to have +been undiscovered until daylight on the 7th, when the works were so far +completed that they afforded ample shelter for the men, and but one +officer and sixteen privates were injured. In this attack the enemy +appears to have bent his energies chiefly against the French, on the +left of the trenches; and the regiments of Bourbonnois, Soissonnois, and +Touraine, commanded by the Baron de Viomenil, were most conspicuous in +the defence of the lines.</p> + +<p>The 7th, 8th, and 9th of October were employed in strengthening the +first parallel, and in constructing batteries somewhat in advance of it, +for the purpose of raking the enemy's works and of battering his +shipping. Communications were also made in the rear of the left of the +line, in order to secure the greater number of openings. On the night of +the 10th the trenches on the left were occupied by the regiments of +Agenois and Saintonge, under the Marquis de Chastellux; on that of the +8th by the regiments of Gatinois and Royal-Deux-Ponts, under the Marquis +de Saint-Simon.</p> + +<p>At 5 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> of the 9th the American battery on the right of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> line +opened its fire—General Washington in person firing the first gun—and +six eighteen and twenty-four pounders, two mortars, and two howitzers +were steadily engaged during the entire night. At an early hour on the +morning of the 10th the French battery on the left, with four +twelve-pounders and six mortars and howitzers, also opened fire; and on +the same day this fire was increased by the fire from two other French +and two American batteries—the former mounting ten eighteen and +twenty-four pounders, and six mortars and howitzers, and four +eighteen-pounders respectively; the latter mounting four +eighteen-pounders and two mortars. "The fire now became so excessively +heavy that the enemy withdrew their cannon from their embrasures, placed +them behind the merlins, and scarcely fired a shot during the whole +day." In the evening of the 10th the Charon, a frigate of forty-four +guns, and three transports were set on fire by the shells of hot shot +and entirely consumed; and the enemy's shipping was warped over the +river, as far as possible, to protect it from similar disaster.</p> + +<p>On the night of the 11th the second parallel was opened within three +hundred yards of the enemy's lines; and, as in the former instance, it +was so far advanced before morning that the men employed in them were in +a great measure protected from injury when the enemy opened fire. The +three following days were spent in completing this parallel and the +redoubts and batteries belonging to it, during which time the enemy's +fire was well sustained and more than usually destructive. Two advanced +batteries, three hundred yards in front of the enemy's left, were +particularly annoying, inasmuch as they flanked the second parallel of +the besiegers; and as the engineers reported that they had been severely +injured by the fire of the allies it was resolved to attempt to carry +them by assault.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, in the evening of the 14th, these redoubts were +assaulted—that on the extreme right by a detachment embracing the light +infantry of the American army, under General Lafayette; the latter by a +detachment of grenadiers and chasseurs from the French army, commanded +by Baron Viomenil. The attacks were made at 8 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, and in that of the +Americans the advance was led by Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Hamilton, +with his own battalion and that of Colonel Gimat, the latter in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> the +van; while Lieutenant-Colonel John Laurens, at the head of eighty men, +took the garrison in reverse and cut off its retreat. Not a single +musket was loaded; and the troops rushed forward with the greatest +impetuosity—passing over the abatis and palisades—and carrying the +work with the bayonet, with the loss of nine killed, and six officers +and twenty-six rank and file wounded. The French performed their part of +the duty with equal gallantry, although from the greater strength of +their opponents it was not done so quickly as that of the Americans. The +German grenadier regiment of Deux-Ponts, led by Count William Forback de +Deux-Ponts, led the column; and Captain Henry de Kalb, of that regiment, +was the first officer who entered the work. The chasseur regiment of +Gatinois supported the attack; and, in like manner with that on the +right, the redoubt was carried at the point of the bayonet.</p> + +<p>During the night these redoubts were connected with the second parallel; +and during the next day (October 15th) several howitzers were placed on +them and a fire opened on the town. These works, important as they had +been to the enemy, were no less so to the allies, from the fact that, +with them, the entire line of the enemy's works could be enfiladed, and +the line of communication between York and Gloucester commanded.</p> + +<p>The situation of Lord Cornwallis had now become desperate. He "dared not +show a gun to the old batteries" of the allies, and their new ones, then +about to open fire, threatened to render his position untenable in a few +hours. "Experience has shown," he then wrote, "that our fresh earthen +works do not resist their powerful artillery, so that we shall soon be +exposed to an assault in ruined works, in a bad position, and with +weakened numbers." To retard as much as possible what now appeared to be +inevitable, at an early hour next morning (October 16th) the garrison +made a sortie; when three hundred fifty men, led by Lieutenant-Colonel +Abercrombie, attacked two batteries within the second parallel, carried +them with inconsiderable loss, and spiked the guns; but the guards and +pickets speedily assembled, and drove the assailants back into the town +before any other damage was done.</p> + +<p>About 4 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> of the 16th the fire of several batteries in the second +parallel were opened on the town, while the entire line<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> was rapidly +approaching completion. At this time the situation of the enemy was +peculiarly distressing; his defences being in ruins, his guns +dismounted, and his ammunition nearly exhausted while an irresistible +force was rapidly concentrating its powers to overwhelm and destroy him. +At this time Lord Cornwallis entertained the bold and novel design of +abandoning his sick and baggage, and by crossing the river to Gloucester +and overpowering the force under General de Choisy, which was then +guarding that position, to fly for his life, through Virginia, +Pennsylvania, and the Jerseys, to New York. As no time could be lost, +the attempt was made during the same night, but a violent storm, coming +on while the first detachment was still on the river, preventing the +landing of part of it, the movement was abandoned; and those troops who +had crossed the river returned to York during the next day.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 502px;"> +<img src="images/image108b.jpg" width="502" height="480" alt="The Siege of Yorktown + +Painting by L. C. A. Couder." title="" /> +</div> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 160px;"> +<img src="images/image108title.jpg" width="160" height="76" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 334px;"> +<img src="images/image108a.jpg" width="334" height="448" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>On the morning of the next day (October 17th) the several new batteries, +which supported the second parallel, opened fire; when Lord Cornwallis +considered it no longer incumbent on him to attempt to hold his position +at the cost of his troops, and at 10 <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> he beat a parley and asked a +cessation of hostilities, that commissioners might meet to settle the +terms for the surrender of the posts of York and Gloucester.</p> + +<p>A correspondence ensued between the commanders-in-chief; and on the 18th +the Viscount de Noailles and Lieutenant-Colonel John Laurens met Colonel +Dundas and Major Ross to arrange the terms of surrender. Without being +able to agree on all points, the commissioners separated; when General +Washington sent a rough copy of the articles, which had been prepared, +to Lord Cornwallis, with a note expressing his expectation that they +would be signed by 11 <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> on the 19th, and that the garrison would be +ready to march out of the town within three hours afterward. Finding all +attempts to obtain more advantageous terms unavailing, Lord Cornwallis +yielded to the necessities of the case and surrendered, with his entire +force, military and naval, to the arms of the allies.</p> + +<p>The army, with all its artillery, stores, military-chest, etc., was +surrendered to General Washington; the navy, with its appointments, to +Admiral de Grasse.</p> + +<p>The terms were precisely similar to those which the enemy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> had granted +to the garrison of Charleston in the preceding year; and General +Lincoln, the commander of that garrison, on whom the illiberality of the +enemy then fell, was designated as the officer to whom the surrender +should be made.</p> + +<p>"At about 12, noon," says an eye-witness, "the combined army was +arranged and drawn up in two lines extending more than a mile in length. +The Americans were drawn up in a line on the right side of the road, and +the French occupied the left. At the head of the former the great +American commander, mounted on his noble courser, took his station, +attended by his aides. At the head of the latter was posted the +excellent Count Rochambeau and his suite. The French troops, in complete +uniform, displayed a martial and noble appearance; their band of music, +of which the timbrel formed a part, was a delightful novelty, and +produced while marching to the ground a most enchanting effect. The +Americans, though not all in uniform nor their dress so neat, yet +exhibited an erect, soldierly air, and every countenance beamed with +satisfaction and joy. The concourse of spectators from the country was +prodigious, in point of numbers probably equal to the military, but +universal silence and order prevailed. It was about two o'clock when the +captive army advanced through the line formed for their reception. Every +eye was prepared to gaze on Cornwallis, the object of peculiar interest +and solicitation; but he disappointed our anxious expectations; +pretending indisposition, he made General O'Hara his substitute as the +leader of his army. This officer was followed by the conquered troops in +a slow and solemn step, with shouldered arms, colors cased, and drums +beating a British march."</p> + +<p>"Having arrived at the head of the line, General O'Hara, elegantly +mounted, advanced to His Excellency the Commander-in-Chief, taking off +his hat, and apologizing for the non-appearance of Earl Cornwallis. With +his usual dignity and politeness, His Excellency pointed to +Major-General Lincoln for directions, by whom the British army was +conducted into a spacious field, where it was intended they should +ground their arms. The royal troops, while marching through the line +formed by the allied army, exhibited a decent and neat appearance as +respects arms and clothing, for their commander opened his stores and +directed every soldier to be furnished with a new suit complete prior +to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> the capitulation. But in their line of march we remarked a +disorderly and unsoldierly conduct, their step was irregular and their +ranks frequently broken. But it was in the field, when they came to the +last act of the drama, that the spirit and pride of the British soldier +was put to the severest test; here their mortification could not be +concealed. Some of the platoon officers appeared to be exceedingly +chagrined when given the order 'ground arms'; and I am a witness that +they performed this duty in a very unofficer-like manner, and that many +of the soldiers manifested a sullen temper, throwing their arms on the +pile with violence, as if determined to render them useless. This +irregularity, however, was checked by the authority of General Lincoln. +After having grounded their arms and divested themselves of their +accoutrements, the captive troops were conducted back to Yorktown and +guarded by our troops till they could be removed to the place of their +destination.</p> + +<p>"The British troops that were stationed at Gloucester surrendered at the +same time, and in the same manner, to the command of the French general, +De Choisy. This must be a very interesting and gratifying transaction to +General Lincoln, who, having himself been obliged to surrender an army +to a haughty foe the last year, has now assigned him the pleasing duty +of giving laws to a conquered army in return, and of reflecting that the +terms which were imposed on him are adopted as a basis of the surrender +in the present instance."</p> + +<p>The General-in-Chief on October 20th issued a "general order" +congratulating the army "upon the glorious event of yesterday"; and +after thanking the officers and troops of his ally, several of his own +officers, and Governor Nelson of Virginia and the militia under his +command, he concludes with these words: "To spread the general joy in +all hearts, the General commands that those of the army who are now held +under arrest be pardoned, set at liberty, and that they join their +respective corps.</p> + +<p>"Divine service shall be performed in the different brigades and +divisions. The Commander-in-Chief recommends that all the troops that +are not upon duty, to assist at it with a serious deportment, and that +sensibility of heart which the recollection of the surprising and +particular interposition of Providence in our favor claims."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span></p> + +<p>The intelligence of the surrender, as it spread over the country, gave +general satisfaction and filled every American heart with joy. Congress +went in procession to the Dutch Lutheran Church to return thanks to +Almighty God for the victory, and a day was set apart for general +thanksgiving and prayer; the thanks of the same body were voted to the +forces, both of America and France; and in the plenitude of its +good-feeling it "resolved" to do that which it has not yet commenced to +perform—to erect a marble column at York, in commemoration of the +event.<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p> + +<p>But a greater and more enduring monument than any which the Congress has +ever "resolved" to erect, commemorates the capture of Cornwallis: the +fall of British dominion in the thirteen colonies on the Atlantic +seaboard, the disinterested self-sacrifices of General Washington and +the very few who enjoyed his confidence and regard, and the triumph of +"the true principles of government." A country which, from small things, +has become prosperous, powerful, and happy; a people, whose intelligence +and enterprise and independence have astonished the old nations and +their rulers; and the homage of admiring millions, freely and +voluntarily offered, in every quarter of the globe—these form a +monument which will commemorate the fall of Cornwallis, and the +patriotism of Washington and Greene, of Wayne and Hamilton, of the +honest yeomanry and the devoted "regulars" of that day, long after the +resolutions of the Congress—if not the Congress itself—shall have sunk +into obscurity and been entirely forgotten.</p> + + +<h4>LORD CORNWALLIS</h4> + +<p>I have the mortification to inform your Excellency that I have been +forced to give up the posts of York and Gloucester, and to surrender the +troops under my command, by capitulation, on the 19th instant, as +prisoners of war to the combined forces of America and France.</p> + +<p>I never saw this post in a very favorable light, but when I found I was +to be attacked in it in so unprepared a state, by so powerful an army +and artillery, nothing but the hopes of relief would have induced me to +attempt its defence, for I would either<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> have endeavored to escape to +New York by rapid marches from the Gloucester side, immediately on the +arrival of General Washington's troops at Williamsburg, or I would, +notwithstanding the disparity of numbers, have attacked them in the open +field, where it might have been just possible that fortune would have +favored the gallantry of the handful of troops under my command; but +being assured by your Excellency's letters that every possible means +would be tried by the navy and army to relieve us, I could not think +myself at liberty to venture upon either of these desperate attempts; +therefore, after remaining for two days in a strong position in front of +this place in hopes of being attacked, upon observing that the enemy +were taking measures which could not fail of turning my left flank in a +short time, and receiving on the second evening your letter of September +24th informing me that the relief would sail about October 5th, I +withdrew within the works on the night of September 29th, hoping by the +labor and firmness of the soldiers to protract the defence until you +could arrive. Everything was to be expected from the spirit of the +troops, but every disadvantage attended their labor, as the works were +to be continued under the enemy's fire, and our stock of intrenching +tools, which did not much exceed four hundred when we began to work in +the latter end of August, was now much diminished.</p> + +<p>The enemy broke ground on the night of the 30th, and constructed on that +night, and the two following days and nights, two redoubts, which, with +some works that had belonged to our outward position, occupied a gorge +between two creeks or ravines which come from the river on each side of +the town. On the night of October 6th they made their first parallel, +extending from its right on the river to a deep ravine on the left, +nearly opposite to the centre of this place, and embracing our whole +left at a distance of six hundred yards. Having perfected this parallel, +their batteries opened on the evening of the 9th against our left, and +other batteries fired at the same time against a redoubt advanced over +the creek upon our right, and defended by about a hundred twenty men of +the Twenty-third regiment and marines, who maintained that post with +uncommon gallantry. The fire continued incessant from heavy cannon, and +from mortars and howitzers throwing shells from 8 to 16 inches, until +all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> our guns on the left were silenced, our work much damaged, and our +loss of men considerable. On the night of the 11th they began their +second parallel, about three hundred yards nearer to us. The troops +being much weakened by sickness, as well as by the fire of the +besiegers, and observing that the enemy had not only secured their +flanks, but proceeded in every respect with the utmost regularity and +caution, I could not venture so large sorties as to hope from them any +considerable effect, but otherwise I did everything in my power to +interrupt this work by opening new embrasures for guns and keeping up a +constant fire from all the howitzers and small mortars that we could +man.</p> + +<p>On the evening of the 14th they assaulted and carried two redoubts that +had been advanced about three hundred yards for the purpose of delaying +their approaches, and covering our left flank, and during the night +included them in their second parallel, on which they continued to work +with the utmost exertion. Being perfectly sensible that our works could +not stand many hours after the opening of the batteries of that +parallel, we not only continued a constant fire with all our mortars, +and every gun that could be brought to bear upon it, but a little before +daybreak on the morning of the 16th I ordered a sortie of about three +hundred fifty men, under the direction of Lieutenant-Colonel +Abercrombie, to attack two batteries which appeared to be in the +greatest forwardness, and to spike the guns. A detachment of guards with +the Eightieth company of grenadiers, under the command of +Lieutenant-Colonel Lake, attacked the one, and one of light infantry, +under the command of Major Armstrong, attacked the other, and both +succeeded in forcing the redoubts that covered them, spiking eleven +guns, and killing or wounding about one hundred of the French troops, +who had the guard of that part of the trenches, and with little loss on +our side. This action, though extremely honorable to the officers and +soldiers who executed it, proved of little public advantage, for the +cannon, having been spiked in a hurry, were soon rendered fit for +service again, and before dark the whole parallel and batteries appeared +to be nearly complete. At this time we knew that there was no part of +the whole front attacked on which we could show a single gun, and our +shells were nearly expended. I therefore had only to choose between +preparing to surrender next day or endeavoring to get off with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> the +greatest part of the troops, and I determined to attempt the latter.</p> + +<p>In this situation, with my little force divided, the enemy's batteries +opened at daybreak. The passage between this place and Gloucester was +much exposed, but the boats, having now returned, they were ordered to +bring back the troops that had passed during the night, and they joined +us in the forenoon without much loss. Our works, in the mean time, were +going to ruin, and not having been able to strengthen them by an abatis, +nor in any other manner but by a slight fraising, which the enemy's +artillery were demolishing wherever they fired, my opinion entirely +coincided with that of the engineer and principal officers of the army, +that they were in many places assailable in the forenoon, and that by +the continuance of the same fire for a few hours longer they would be in +such a state as to render it desperate, with our numbers, to attempt to +maintain them. We at that time could not fire a single gun; only one +8-inch and little more than one hundred Cohorn shells remained. A +diversion by the French ships-of-war that lay at the mouth of York River +was to be expected.</p> + +<p>Our numbers had been diminished by the enemy's fire, but particularly by +sickness, and the strength and spirits of those in the works were much +exhausted by the fatigue of constant watching and unremitting duty. +Under all these circumstances I thought it would have been wanton and +inhuman to the last degree to sacrifice the lives of this small body of +gallant soldiers, who had ever behaved with so much fidelity and +courage, by exposing them to an assault which, from the numbers and +precautions of the enemy, could not fail to succeed. I therefore +proposed to capitulate; and I have the honor to enclose to your +excellency the copy of the correspondence between General Washington and +me on that subject, and the terms of capitulation agreed upon. I +sincerely lament that better could not be obtained, but I have neglected +nothing in my power to alleviate the misfortune and distress of both +officers and soldiers. The men are well clothed and provided with +necessaries, and I trust will be regularly supplied by the means of the +officers that are permitted to remain with them. The treatment, in +general, that we have received from the enemy since our surrender has +been perfectly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> good and proper, but the kindness and attention that +have been shown to us by the French officers in particular—their +delicate sensibility of our situation—their generous and pressing offer +of money, both public and private, to any amount—has really gone beyond +what I can possibly describe, and will, I hope, make an impression in +the breast of every British officer, whenever the fortune of war should +put any of them into our power.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Yorktown</span>, Virginia, October 20, 1781.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> A commemorative column, surmounted by a statue of General +Rochambeau, heroic size, was unveiled at Washington May 24, 1902.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p> +<h2>BRITISH DEFENCE OF GIBRALTAR</h2> + +<h4><span class="smcap">a.d. 1782</span></h4> + +<h3>FREDERICK SAYER</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>To Great Britain it was of the utmost importance that, once +having secured possession of Gibraltar, she should keep that +famous stronghold. By successfully defending it during the +long siege of 1779-1783, she retained it in what has proved +a lasting tenure.</p> + +<p>The fortified promontory and town of Gibraltar, now a +British crown colony, have long been objects of historical +interest. The Rock of Gibraltar, anciently called Calpe, one +of the Pillars of Hercules, is on the southern coast of +Spain. Its name has been for centuries a synonyme of +strength. Near it in the eighth century landed Tarik, the +first Saracen invader of Spain. The Moors mainly held it +till 1462, when it was finally taken by the Spaniards. +Charles V fortified it; in 1704 it was captured by an +English and Dutch force under Sir George Rooke. The +Spaniards and French unsuccessfully besieged it in +1704-1705, and the Spaniards again in 1727.</p> + +<p>No further attempt was made to capture this seemingly +impregnable fastness until the great siege here described by +Sayer, when once more the Spaniards and French combined +against it. England was now somewhat weakened by the war +with the American colonies and France. All Europe was +unfriendly to her, and Spain, as well as France, was +actively hostile. Gibraltar was closely invested in 1779, +and so remained for three years, when the final assault was +made. In 1782 Alvarez, the Spanish commander, was superseded +by the Duc de Crillon, who had just taken Minorca from the +British.</p> + +<p>George Augustus Eliot, afterward Lord Heathfield, Baron of +Gibraltar, who made the memorable defence, was appointed +governor of Gibraltar in 1775. Lord Howe, who went to his +assistance, had conducted the English naval operations in +America. He returned to England in 1778, in 1782 was made a +viscount of Great Britain, and was sent to relieve +Gibraltar, where he arrived too late to assist against the +grand attack, but landed welcome troops and supplies.</p></div> + + +<p>Piqued at the successful defence which for three years had baffled every +effort, and burning with the desire to wipe out the stain on the +national honor, the Spaniards were urged on in this last struggle by all +the impulses of pride, ambition, and revenge. The slow and regular +operations of a siege having<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> proved but labor lost against this +stubborn rock, rewards were offered to the most skilful engineers in +Europe for plans to subdue the fortress.</p> + +<p>Stimulated by these liberal offers, a thousand schemes had reached +Madrid, some bold to extravagance, others too ludicrous to deserve +attention. Among them, however, was one, the invention of the Chevalier +d'Arçon, of such superior merit that it instantly arrested the attention +even of the King himself. His plan consisted of a combined attack by sea +and land upon a scale so tremendously formidable, and assisted by such +ingenious inventions of art, that it held out a prospect of certain +success.</p> + +<p>After a brief consideration the Court of Madrid announced its +unqualified approval of the scheme, and orders were at once issued for +its adoption. Not only was the reduction of the fort now considered +certain, but so vast were the powers to be employed, and so prodigious +the armament to be brought against the walls, that the annihilation of +every stone upon the rock was not unexpected. The plan embraced two +leading features: first, a bombardment from the isthmus, upon a scale +hitherto unknown; secondly, an attack by sea along the whole length of +the line-wall. For this purpose floating batteries of such construction +that they were to be "at once incombustible and insubmergible," were to +be employed.</p> + +<p>Each battery was clad on its fighting side with three successive layers +of squared timber, three feet in thickness; within this wall ran a body +of wet sand, and within that again was a line of cork soaked in water +and calculated to prevent the effects of splinters, the whole being +bound together by strong wooden bolts. To protect the crews from shells +or dropping shot, a hanging roof was contrived, composed of strong +rope-work netting, covered with wet hides, and shelving sufficiently to +prevent the shot from lodging.</p> + +<p>Not the least remarkable part of these vessels was a plan for the +prevention of combustion from red-hot shot. A reservoir was placed +beneath the roof from which numerous pipes, like the veins of the human +body, circulated through the sides of the ship, giving a constant supply +of water to every part, and keeping the wood continually saturated.</p> + +<p>To form these powerful batteries, ten ships, from six hundred<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> to +fourteen hundred tons burden, were cut down to the proper proportions, +and upward of two hundred thousand cubic feet of timber were used in +their construction. Each battery was armed with from eight to twenty +heavy brass cannon of new manufacture, with a reserve of spare pieces. +The crews varied in number from seven hundred sixty to two hundred fifty +men. One large sail propelled each ship.</p> + +<p>Besides this tremendous armament which was to annihilate the line of +defence from the sea, preparations of no less magnitude were being made +for the attack on the northern front. Not fewer than twelve hundred +pieces of heavy ordnance were ready for use in the artillery park, +enormous quantities of ammunition and warlike stores were in the +magazines, and the reserve of gunpowder alone was reported at +eighty-three thousand barrels. Immense works were being hurried forward +on the isthmus of a grandeur which eclipsed anything that had been +previously constructed.</p> + +<p>In twenty-four hours a flying sap was thrown out with a rapidity of +execution unequalled. The parallel extended to a length of two hundred +thirty <i>toises</i>, with a <i>boyau</i> of six hundred thirty toises from the +place where it joined the principal barrier of the lines. The +construction of this boyau required one million six hundred thousand +bags of sand, and thousands of casks were used in forming the parallel. +In a single night this enormous work was raised to the height of twelve +feet with eighteen feet of thickness, and it was supposed that during +the seven hours in which it was erected ten thousand men were at labor.</p> + +<p>To assist in the assault by sea, the combined fleets of France and +Spain, amounting to fifty sail of the line, with forty gunboats, +numerous frigates, and fifty mortar-vessels, were to act in support. +Three hundred boats, fitted with hinged platforms at their prows, were +to accompany the expedition, and at the proper moment to land the +troops.</p> + +<p>The outline of the attack having been arranged, the plan was drawn out +by the Duc de Crillon, and submitted for approval, first to the Court of +Madrid, and afterward to the King of France. Subsequently the details +were very materially altered, but the principle remained the same. The +method originally proposed was as follows:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p> + +<p>"The plan for taking Gibraltar, presented by Crillon, with the opinion +of the minister, was imparted, by order of his majesty, to France, by +the hand of Aranda, and, it being approved of, that Court offered +twenty-seven auxiliary ships. According to this plan the assault will be +conducted in the following manner: Brigadier Don Ventura Moreno will +command the fire of the fleet. The vanguard of the combined squadron +will be commanded by Señor Cordova, and among the divisions that compose +it will be included the third of twelve fireproof ships, which will +anchor in Algeciras until Señor Alvarez completes the sixty paces of +intrenchment opposite the fortress. Our ships will then attack; four by +the Europa Point, two by the New Mole, their fire being supported by +that of the gun- and mortar-boats and bomb-ketches, which will hold +themselves in readiness to support where it may be required.</p> + +<p>"At a given signal the fire from our whole line will open with that of +the intrenchment, which will not cease until a breach shall have been +made at the Europa Point. The battering-ships will not be allowed to +quit their respective posts till they require relief, and they will then +retire to Algeciras, whence others will proceed to supply their places, +taking up the same points. The officer who shall act counter to his +orders will be removed from his post without its being referred to the +King. The breach having been made, the commander-in-chief, the Duc de +Crillon, will notify to the governor the surrender of the fortress; and +should he consent to the capitulation, the preliminaries will be +arranged, conceding to him military honors; if he persist in the +defence, the operations will continue in the following manner:</p> + +<p>"The fire by sea and land will protect the disembarkation of our troops +on the flanks of the advance. The boats conveying them will be covered +by large planks on hinges, which on unfolding will fall on the moles on +the right, while on the left others will rest on the transports that +follow, in order to link them to each other and adjust them to the +breach, binding them firmly together, the first boat being attached to +the ground by means of grappling-irons, which it will carry for the +purpose. The troops will advance along these in the following order: Two +companies of grenadiers of about seventy men each, and as many more of +chasseurs, with three companies of dragoons, the whole under<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> the +command of Señor Cagigal, general of the second column, and his +subaltern officers, the brigadier Don Francesco Pacheco, Colonel of +Seville, and Señor Aviles, Colonel of Villaviciosa. Two battalions of +volunteers of Catalonia will form the flying troops to effect a support +where it may be necessary, and to strengthen either flank, or profiting +by any opportunity the enemy may offer of attacking him. This corps will +be commanded by Brigadier Don Benito Panogo.</p> + +<p>"The army will be formed into three divisions; its right commanded by +Lieutenant-General Buch, its left by the Count of Cifuentes, and its +centre by Marshal Burghesi. The best company of grenadiers from each +regiment will be detached to cover its respective corps, and when the +disembarkation of the troops, or part of them, shall have been executed, +the boats carrying the fascines, powder-saucisses, gabions, panniers, +pickaxes, etc., will be sent forward in order that they may cover +themselves as the disembarkation proceeds, keeping up at the same time a +lively fire along with the rest of the army. Detached parties will scour +with promptitude the Campo Huevo in order to intercept the advanced +guard and to cut off the retreat of the enemy to the mountain; which +dispositions being well concerted, the enemy will be reduced to the +extremity of either surrendering or being destroyed.</p> + +<p>"The squadron of Señor Cordova will cover the mouth of the Straits, and +the French will place itself as much within as circumstances may +require; two hundred <i>muheletes</i> and two hundred artillerymen more have +been asked for from the camp, those that are present being required for +the intrenchment. These have been sent for from their respective corps."</p> + +<p>The fame of the siege of Gibraltar had ere this spread to the remotest +corners of Europe. The Count d'Artois, brother to the King of France, +and the Duc de Bourbon arrived in the camp in August, impatient to +witness the fall of the invincible fortress, and they were followed by +crowds of the nobility of Spain, eager to join in an enterprise which it +was anticipated would result in a victory most glorious to their arms.</p> + +<p>General Eliot regarded the progress of the tremendous armaments without +despondency. He prepared for the coming storm, and made every effort to +meet it manfully and with success.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> An experiment which had lately been +tried with red-hot shot produced such effects that he founded his hopes +of destroying the enemy's battering-ships almost solely upon that +expedient, and great numbers of furnaces for heating the shot were +immediately prepared and placed in convenient positions within the +principal batteries. The defences too were thoroughly repaired, the Land +Port was more carefully protected, and unserviceable guns were laid +across the tops of the embrasures in many of the works, as a protection +to the artillerymen when under fire.</p> + +<p>The arrival of the Count d'Artois in the camp gave rise to an +interchange of courtesies between the governor and the Duc de Crillon, +and though the two chiefs were on the eve of a great struggle for the +mastery, letters couched in the most affable and peaceful terms passed +between them. The Count having brought with him a packet of letters for +some officers of the garrison, the Duc de Crillon took advantage of the +opportunity, and, when the parcel was sent into the fortress, +accompanied it by a letter from himself to General Eliot, in which he +expressed the highest esteem for the governor's person and character, +and assured him how anxiously he looked forward to becoming his friend; +at the same time he offered a present of a few luxuries for the +General's table. In reply to this courteous note the governor returned +his sincerest thanks for the gift, but begged that in future no such +favor might be heaped upon him, as by accepting the present he had +broken through a rule to which he had faithfully adhered since the +beginning of the war, never to receive anything for his own private use, +but to partake both of plenty and scarcity in common with the lowest of +his brave fellow-soldiers.</p> + +<p>Toward the end of August, 1782, a grand inspection of the floating +batteries took place at Algeciras, at which the French princes were +present. To exhibit the ease and simplicity with which they could be +manœuvred, the vessels were put through various movements, to the +admiration and surprise of the spectators. So satisfactory was this +trial considered that it became the popular opinion that twenty-four +hours would suffice for the demolition of the fortress, and the Duc de +Crillon was made the subject of the greatest ridicule when he cautiously +hinted that fourteen days might elapse ere the place fell. Crillon, in +fact<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> had no affection for the schemes of the Chevalier d'Arçon, and, as +we shall presently see, he attributed his subsequent failure almost +entirely to the blind confidence that was placed in the floating +batteries.</p> + +<p>As the time approached, the greatest impatience was manifested not only +by the troops, but throughout all Spain, for the commencement of the +attack, and so loud was the clamor for immediate action that D'Arçon was +ordered to hurry on the completion of the floating batteries with every +despatch.</p> + +<p>Late in August a council of war was held in the camp, at which the +French princes were present, and it was then proposed that the command +and direction of the floating batteries should be confided to the +officer of the navy, Crillon taking upon himself the responsibility of +the attack by land. Disputes had already arisen as to the proper +dispositions for the bombardment, Crillon claiming an undivided +authority over the whole proceeding, while the Minister of Marine was +anxious that the Admiral should direct the movements of the batteries +and their mode of equipment.</p> + +<p>When the before-mentioned proposal was conveyed to Crillon he +peremptorily refused to accede to it. Nor could any decision be arrived +at regarding the most proper point of attack; the Old Mole, which at +first appeared the weakest part of the fortress, was found to be covered +by the guns of the principal batteries on the Rock, while the New Mole +presented even greater difficulties. There was another matter too which +became the subject of discussion up to the very moment of the attack, +and this was whether it would not be expedient to supply each floating +battery with warp-anchors and the double cables, that they might +withdraw in case of accident.</p> + +<p>These unfortunate disputes, which arose at a time when perfect unanimity +was most essential, hampered the progress of operations, and destroyed +that harmony which should have existed between Crillon and his +subordinates. D'Arçon especially was offended and annoyed; he claimed +for himself the merit of having invented the machines which were to +annihilate the place, and insisted upon his right to have the sole +direction of their movements. Crillon, on the other hand, perceived that +if the command were divided, and the attack should prove successful,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> +the glory of the triumph would be appropriated by the French engineer. +In the many councils of war that preceded the bombardment the Duke did +not care to conceal his jealousy of the Chevalier d'Arçon. On one +occasion, deriding the propositions of the engineer, he exclaimed: "You +have a fatherly love for your batteries, and are only anxious for their +preservation. Should the enemy attempt to take possession of them, I +will burn them before his face." On another occasion, when in the +presence of the French princes, he said: "You were summoned into Spain +to execute <i>my</i> plan for the attack of Gibraltar by floating batteries. +<i>Your</i> commission is performed: the rest belongs to me."</p> + +<p>While these discussions and misunderstandings were distracting the +councils of the besiegers, a master hand was guiding the preparations +for the defence within the fortress. Every emergency that might occur +was provided for, every danger that could be foreseen averted, and the +garrison itself reënforced by a marine brigade of six hundred men under +command of Brigadier Curtis. In the first week of September the land +works of the enemy had progressed with gigantic strides, immense +batteries, some containing as many as sixty-four guns, only waited to be +unmasked, and long strings of mules streamed hourly into the trenches, +laden with shot, shell, and ammunition.</p> + +<p>The advanced works were not, except in some instances, yet armed, and +large masses of material which had accumulated in their vicinity +cumbered the embrasures and rendered their parapets liable to +destruction by fire. Seizing upon the opportunity thus afforded by the +negligence of the Spaniards, General Boyd wrote to the governor +recommending the use of red-hot shot against these works. Though the +distance was great, and the effect of heated shot had not then been +thoroughly ascertained, Eliot acquiesced in the proposition, and Major +Lewis, commanding the artillery, was ordered to execute the attack.</p> + +<p>On September 8th the preparations were completed, and at 7 <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> the +guards having been relieved, a tremendous fire was opened from all the +northern batteries. Throughout the day this fiery cannonade was kept up +with unabated fury. By 10 <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> the Mahon battery and another work of two +guns were in flames and by five in the evening were entirely consumed, +with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> all their gun-carriages, platforms, and magazines. The effect of +the red-hot shot exceeded the most sanguine expectations; the damage +done was extensive and for a time irreparable; the greater part of the +communication to the eastern parallel was destroyed, and the batteries +of St. Carlos and St. Martin so much injured that they were no longer +serviceable. At one moment the works were on fire in fifty places, and +the flames, lifted by the wind, spread with terrible rapidity; but by +the prodigious exertions of the enemy's troops, who, notwithstanding the +galling fire from the garrison to which they were exposed, displayed a +reckless intrepidity, the work of destruction was arrested and many of +the batteries saved from ruin. Irritated at this unexpected attack upon +works which had cost him so much labor and anxiety, Crillon was +precipitated into a premature bombardment, which, while it exposed to +view the hitherto masked batteries, and thus gave General Eliot an +opportunity of preparing counter-works upon the Rock, at the same time +did considerable damage to the unfinished lines.</p> + +<p>On the morning of September 9th a battery of sixty-four guns opened at +daybreak and a tremendous discharge from one hundred seventy pieces of +cannon announced the commencement of the final bombardment. At the same +time a squadron of seven Spanish and two French line-of-battle ships got +under way at Orange Grove, and, dropping slowly past the sea-line wall, +delivered several broadsides against the south bastion and Ragged Staff, +until they arrived off Europa. Then, having first formed line to +eastward of the Rock, they attacked the batteries from the Point as far +as the New Mole, with some energy. On the following day this manœuvre +was repeated, and the cannonade from the lines was renewed with all its +fierceness, six thousand five hundred shot and two thousand eighty shell +being thrown into the fortress every twenty-four hours. Notwithstanding +this overwhelming fire the loss in the garrison was exceedingly small.</p> + +<p>On the 12th the combined fleets of Spain and France, numbering +thirty-nine ships of the line, entered the Bay of Algeciras, and having +formed a junction with the squadron already at anchor, raised the naval +force to fifty ships of the line and two second-rates; nine vessels bore +an admiral's flag.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p> + +<p>General Eliot was conscious that the hour of trial approached, and so +ably had he conducted his preparations that during the twenty-four hours +preceding the attack not a single alteration had to be made, even in the +most minute directions that had been given to the troops. Every man knew +his place, each gun was told off for one particular duty, simple and +efficient arrangements had been made for a constant supply of +ammunition, and every bastion was furnished with its fuel and furnace +for the dreaded red-hot shot.</p> + +<p>It was during the morning of the 12th that the governor received +information that the combined attack would commence on the following +day. Calmly as this courageous man awaited the hour of trial, he could +not but be influenced by the gravest anxiety for the result. He had +witnessed the gigantic armaments that were preparing for the assault; +and though ignorant of the exact force which was to be brought against +him, he was aware that neither France nor Spain had spared labor or +expense to accumulate a strength hitherto unknown in the history of +sieges. On the land he was threatened by two hundred forty-six pieces of +cannon, mortars, and howitzers, and an army of near forty thousand men; +while by sea fifty sail of the line, ten floating batteries, of a +construction supposed to be indestructible, with countless gun- and +mortar-boats, and three hundred smaller craft were waiting only the +signal for the attack. To this enormous armament, but seven thousand men +and ninety-six guns could be opposed. At a council of war held in the +Spanish camp on September 4th the final details for the arrangement of +the grand attack had been settled, and it was decided to open the +bombardment on the 13th of the month.</p> + +<p>At this council M. d'Arçon vehemently protested against the precipitate +haste with which the preparations of the floating batteries had been +hurried on, and vainly pleaded for a few days' further delay, in order +that some experiments might be made upon the vessels, and especially +that the effectiveness of the water apparatus might be tested. His +arguments were met by others equally cogent. Lord Howe with a powerful +fleet was known to be on his way to relieve the fortress, and it was of +vital importance that his arrival should be anticipated. The season was +already far advanced, and the works on the land side, which had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> only +just been repaired, were at any moment exposed to a second partial +destruction by red-hot shot. All objections, therefore, were overruled, +and the day was named.</p> + +<p>At about seven o'clock on the morning of September 13th the enemy's +fleet was observed to be in motion off the Orange Grove, and shortly +afterward the ten floating batteries were under way, and with a crowd of +boats standing for the southward with a light northwest breeze.</p> + +<p>Shortly after ten o'clock they had reached their respective stations off +the line-wall, and Admiral Don Buenoventura Moreno, in the Pastora, +having taken up a position opposite the capital of the King's Bastion, +the others anchored in admirable order on his right and left flanks, at +about one thousand yards distance from the walls of the fortress.</p> + +<p>At this time the enemy's camp and the surrounding hills were covered +with countless thousands of spectators, who had hurried from all parts +of Spain to witness the fall of Gibraltar. The batteries had no sooner +let go their anchors than a tremendous cannonade of hot and cold shot +was opened upon them all along the line; at the same instant the +ponderous vessels replied from all their guns, supported by the fire of +one hundred eighty-six pieces of ordnance from the works on the isthmus.</p> + +<p>Never before in the annals of war had a spectacle so magnificently grand +been witnessed—four hundred cannon belched forth their volleys of fire +at the same moment, the whole heaven was obscured by the curling clouds +of smoke which clung around the rugged peaks of the rocks, while the +misty gloom was fitfully illumined by the flashes of a thousand +saucisses and shells. The whole peninsula was overwhelmed with a torrent +of shot.</p> + +<p>For two hours this terrible cannonade continued without intermission, +and no impression had been made upon the floating batteries; so well +calculated was their construction to withstand the effects of artillery +that the heaviest shells rebounded from their roofs and the shot struck +harmless on their sides. Upward of two thousand red-hot balls had been +thrown against them, and no symptoms of combustion appeared, except here +and there a feeble flame, which ere it could spread was quenched.</p> + +<p>At noon the enemy slackened their fire from the sea for a moment, but +seemingly only for the purpose of amending the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> direction of their guns, +which had previously been uncertain and too high; the pause was but for +an instant, and the artillery again burst forth with a more powerful and +better-directed fire. Showers of every missile swept over the walls, and +already the British troops, disappointed with the effects of the red-hot +shot, and fatigued with the mid-day sun, began to look gloomily upon the +issue of the fight. But about two o'clock slight wreaths of flame were +observed issuing from the Admiral's ship, and at the same time a strange +confusion was remarked among the men on board the Talla Piedra. On board +this battery was the Chevalier d'Arçon, who was present in the action as +a volunteer to watch the success of his own inventions. Several red-hot +shot had struck this ship, but one alone gave any uneasiness to those on +board; to reach the smouldering woodwork the guns were silenced, and the +smoke clearing away left the vessel exposed to such a concentrated fire +that all efforts to arrest the progress of the flames were in vain. The +blaze rapidly spread, the crew were seized with a panic, and, fearful of +an explosion, turned the water into the powder-magazines. Thus one +battery was rendered useless during the remainder of the action.</p> + +<p>In the Admiral's ship the flames were for some hours subdued, and her +guns continued to play upon the walls until nightfall; but the disorder +which was immediately visible in the Talla Piedra and the Pastora soon +affected the whole line of attack, and by 7 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> the fire from the +fortress had gained a commanding superiority.</p> + +<p>At midnight signals of distress were made from all parts of the bay. The +Admiral's ship was in flames from stem to stern, and others had been set +on fire. The enemy now determined to abandon all the ships, and those +which had hitherto resisted the effects of the red-hot shots were, by +order of the Admiral, set in flames.</p> + +<p>As the gray morning dawned, the scene on the waters of the bay was +sublimely terrible; masses of shattered wreck, to which were clinging +the drowning crews, floated over the troubled waves; groans and cries +for help reached even to the walls, or were drowned in the thunders of +the exploding magazines, while the glaring flames of the burning vessels +cast a lurid light over the awful spectacle.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span></p> + +<p>At two o'clock in the morning Brigadier Curtis, who with his squadron of +gunboats lay at the New Mole ready to take advantage of any opportunity +to harass the enemy, pushed out to the westward and with great +expedition formed line upon the flank of the battering-ships. This +sudden movement completely disconcerted the Spaniards, who were engaged +in removing the crews from the vessels, and they fled precipitately, +abandoning the wounded and leaving them to perish in the flames. As +daylight appeared two feluccas, which had not been able before to +escape, were discovered endeavoring to get away, but, a shot from one of +the gunboats killing five of their men, they both surrendered.</p> + +<p>Hearing from the prisoners that hundreds of officers and men, some +wounded, still remained on board the batteries and must certainly +perish, Captain Curtis, at the utmost risk of his own life, made the +most heroic efforts to effect their rescue. Careless of danger from the +explosions which every instant scattered showers of <i>débris</i> around him, +he passed from ship to ship and literally dragged from the burning decks +the miserable men who yet remained on board. With the coolest +intrepidity he pushed his pinnace close alongside one of the largest +batteries at the very moment she blew up, covering the sea with +fragments of her wreck. For a time the boat was engulfed amid the +falling ruin, and her escape was miraculous. A huge balk of timber fell +through her flooring, killing the coxswain, wounding others of the crew, +and starting a large hole in her bottom. Through this leak the water +rushed so rapidly that little hope was left of reaching the shore, but, +the sailors' jackets being stuffed into the aperture, the hole was +plugged, and the gallant men got safe to land. By the heroic and humane +exertions of Captain Curtis and his boat's crew three hundred +fifty-seven persons were saved from a horrible death.</p> + +<p>While these disasters were occurring in the bay, the land batteries on +the isthmus never for an instant slackened the tremendous fire that had +been commenced on the previous morning; until at daybreak on the 14th +the Spaniards, having become aware of the fate of their comrades on +board the vessels, ordered the cannonade to cease.</p> + +<p>Captain Curtis had scarcely completed his service of humanity<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> before +eight of the remaining ships blew up and one only remained unconsumed. +At first it was hoped that she might be saved as a trophy of the +glorious action, but this was afterward found impossible, and she was +set fire to like the rest. The flag of Admiral Moreno remained flying +until his battery was totally destroyed.</p> + +<p>Desperate had been the struggle and great was the victory. During the +hottest of the fire General Eliot took his station on the King's +Bastion, exposed to the guns of the two most powerful battering-ships. +Nothing could exceed the coolness and courage of the troops during this +trying day; the steady and incessant fire was never allowed to slacken, +the guns were served, says the governor, "with the deliberate coolness +and precision of school practice, but the exertions of the men were +infinitely superior."</p> + +<p>The furnaces for heating the shot were found to be too few, and huge +fires were kindled in convenient corners of the streets. An immense +amount of ammunition was expended on both sides; three hundred twenty of +the enemy's cannon were in play throughout the day, and to these were +opposed only ninety-six guns from the garrison. Upward of eight thousand +shot and seven hundred sixteen barrels of gunpowder were fired away by +the garrison.</p> + +<p>When the unparalleled force of the bombardment is considered, the +casualties among the troops were remarkably few: one officer, two +sergeants, and thirteen men only were killed, and five officers and +sixty-three men wounded. The enemy's losses, on the contrary, were very +great; on the floating batteries alone one thousand four hundred +seventy-three men were either killed, wounded, or missing.</p> + +<p>By the evening of the 14th the bay was cleared of the shattered wrecks, +and not a vestige of the formidable armament, which the day before had +been the hope and pride of Spain, remained.</p> + +<p>The contest was at an end, and the united strength of two ambitious and +powerful nations had been humbled by a straitened garrison of six +thousand effective men. With the destruction of the floating batteries +the siege was virtually concluded.</p> + +<p>In Spain the news was received with consternation and despair. The +thousands who on the preceding day crowded upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> the neighboring hills, +and with eager anxiety awaited the anticipated victory, returned to +their homes disappointed and chagrined. They had been taught to believe +that the attack would be crushing and invincible; that the batteries +were indestructible; that the fortress must be annihilated by their +overwhelming fire; but instead of these disasters they had seen every +ship destroyed or sunk, with all their guns, and two thousand men of +their crews either killed, wounded, or taken prisoner. In the first +moment of consternation the inventor of those vast machines, upon the +success of which the whole attack depended, could not restrain his +poignant grief and was led into confessions which he afterward +regretted. Writing to the French ambassador, Montmorin, he said: "I have +burned the Temple of Ephesus; everything is lost, and through my fault. +What comforts me under my misfortune is that the honor of the two kings +remains untarnished."</p> + +<p>At Madrid the news of the disaster was received with dismay; and the +King, who was at the palace of Ildefonso, listened to the intelligence +in mute despair. The recovery of Gibraltar had been his unswerving aim, +and with this repulse almost his last hope was extinguished. In Paris +the intelligence was no less unexpected and unwelcome; so certain indeed +had the fall of the fortress been considered that a drama illustrative +of the destruction of Gibraltar by the floating batteries was acted +nightly to applauding thousands.</p> + +<p>It has been before remarked that the Duc de Crillon never held that +blindly confident opinion of the inventions of D'Arçon which had turned +the heads of the two Bourbon courts. He had always urged the necessity +of a complete attack by sea, in which the whole fleet should engage, and +of which the floating batteries would form an integral part. The French +engineer ridiculed this idea, and affirmed that the ships would be +destroyed before they could inflict any damage upon the walls.</p> + +<p>The result of the attack showed how completely D'Arçon was mistaken. +During the day the assistance of the combined fleet was urgently +required; but when its coöperation might have turned the tide of +victory, an adverse wind arose, and the vessels could not beat up within +range of the Rock.</p> + +<p>The distinguished part which Captain Curtis had taken in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> the defence of +the fortress ever since he had joined the command drew from General +Eliot commendations no less merited than sincere. Writing to Lord Howe +on October 15th he says:</p> + +<p>"Unknown to Brigadier Curtis, I must entreat your lordship to reflect +upon the unspeakable assistance he has been in the defence of this place +by his advice, and the lead he has taken in every hazardous enterprise. +You know him well, my lord, therefore such conduct on his part is no +more than you expect; but let me beg of you not to leave him unrewarded +for such signal services. You alone can influence his majesty to +consider such an officer for what he has, and what he will in future +deserve wherever employed. If Gibraltar is of the value intimated to me +from office, and to be presumed by the steps adventured to relieve it, +Brigadier Curtis is the man to whom the King will be chiefly indebted +for its security. Believe me, there is nothing affected in this +declaration on my part."</p> + +<p>Again, when on his return to England he was created Lord Heathfield, he +expressed his indignation that Curtis only received the honor of +knighthood and a pension of five hundred pounds per annum. "It is a +shame," he said, "that I should be overloaded, and so scanty a pittance +be the lot of him who bore the greatest share of the burthen." Such was +the unaffected modesty of this great man!</p> + +<p>When the confusion arising from their disastrous defeat had subsided in +the enemy's camp, a heavy cannonade was again opened from their lines +and advanced works. The firing generally commenced about five or six +o'clock in the morning and continued till noon, then for two hours the +batteries were silent, but again opened till seven o'clock in the +evening, when the mortars took up the fire till daybreak. During the +twenty-four hours six hundred shells and about one thousand shots were +thrown into the garrison.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding the ill-success which had attended the combined attack, +and the signal proof the enemy had received of the impregnable strength +of the fortress, the Spaniards did not entirely despair of eventually +reducing the place by famine, could the arrival of Lord Howe's fleet +with the convoy be prevented.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p> + +<p>In August the English Government, being aware of the vast preparations +which had been making in Spain for the siege of Gibraltar, had collected +a fleet of thirty-four sail of the line, six frigates, and three +fire-ships, under command of Admiral Lord Howe, which was to convoy a +flotilla of merchantmen with relief for the garrison.</p> + +<p>By September 11th the preparations were completed, and on that day Howe +set sail from Spithead with one hundred eighty-three sail, including the +convoy, under the command of Vice-Admirals Barrington and Milbank, Rear +Admirals Hood and Hughes, and Commodore Hotham.</p> + +<p>Hampered by the difficulty of keeping the merchantmen together, and +baffled by contrary winds and violent weather, Howe's passage was +unusually slow and tedious.</p> + +<p>The Spanish Government having gained intelligence of the approach of +this powerful force, instantly took measures to attack the expedition +before it could arrive at its destination. For this purpose the combined +fleets of Spain and France which lay in the harbor of Algeciras were +reënforced, and dispositions were made for intercepting the British +ships on their passage through the Straits.</p> + +<p>These arrangements had scarcely been completed when, on the evening of +October 10th, a fresh westerly wind sprang up in the bay, and toward +night gradually increased in violence till it blew a hurricane. Soon the +enemy's vessels were in distress, many were dragging their anchors, and +signal-guns were fired for help in rapid succession. Throughout the +night the fury of the storm did not abate, and daybreak disclosed the +havoc among the squadrons at Algeciras; a ship of the line and a frigate +were ashore at Orange Grove, a French liner had suffered great damage to +her masts and rigging, and the St. Michael, of seventy-two guns, was +discovered close in shore off the Orange Bastion in distress. She was +immediately fired at and after having lost four men she was run ashore +on the line-wall, and taken possession of by Captain Curtis. Her +commander, Admiral Don Juan Moreno, and her crew of six hundred fifty +men were landed as prisoners. These misfortunes materially affected the +ulterior movements of the combined fleets. In the mean time Lord Howe +had on the 8th of the month arrived off Cape St.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> Vincent, and a frigate +was sent on from there to gain information from the consul at Faro of +the enemy's dispositions. Two days afterward she returned with the +intelligence that the combined fleets, consisting of nearly fifty sail, +lay at anchor at Algeciras.</p> + +<p>Upon the receipt of this news a council of war was held, and clear and +stringent orders were afterward issued for the guidance of the masters +in charge of the merchantmen, that the convoy might be conducted safely +into the harbor of Gibraltar. On the 11th, the fleet passed through the +Straits in three divisions, the third and centre squadrons in line of +battle ahead, the second squadron in reserve; the Victory led ahead of +the third squadron.</p> + +<p>By sunset the van had arrived off Europa Point, and before nightfall +four of the transports had anchored under the guns of the fortress. By +an unpardonable inattention to the orders they had received, the masters +of the other vessels failed to make the bay and were driven away to the +eastward of the Rock. To the astonishment of Howe, who had looked upon +an engagement as inevitable, the Spaniards did not attempt to intercept +the convoy.</p> + +<p>During the two following days the British Admiral was engaged in +collecting the transports to the eastward, and preparing for action in +case the Spaniards should attack.</p> + +<p>On the 13th the combined fleets, consisting of forty-four ships of the +line, five frigates, and twenty-nine xebec-cutters and brigs, got under +way and stood to the southward, with the apparent intention of bearing +down upon Lord Howe's force. But though the Spanish Admiral had the +weather-gauge, and notwithstanding his fleet was greatly superior in +numbers to the English, he contented himself with the execution of some +harmless manœuvres, and permitted the whole of the transports to be +conducted safely into Gibraltar under the very muzzles of his guns. The +stores and provisions were immediately landed, and two regiments of +infantry—Twenty-fifth and Twenty-ninth—were disembarked under the +superintendence of Lord Mulgrave.</p> + +<p>Having accomplished his mission and relieved the fortress, Lord Howe +prepared to return to England.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span></p> + +<p>On October 19th, taking advantage of an easterly wind, he formed his +fleet in order of battle and sailed through the Straits. At this time +the combined fleets were cruising a few miles north-east of Ceuta, and +in view of Howe's squadron, of which they had the weather-gauge.</p> + +<p>The two fleets remained near each other during the night, and on the +following morning, the wind having come round to the northward, the +Spaniards still held the advantage and could have closed for action at +any moment. It was Lord Howe's desire, if possible, to avoid an +engagement in the narrow and dangerous waters of the Straits, and to +entice the enemy to accept battle in the open sea; with this object he +continued on his course to the westward.</p> + +<p>At sunset on the 20th the combined fleets, greatly superior to the +English in force and numbers, came up with the rear division, under +Admiral Barrington, and a partial action commenced, but the enemy +remained at such a respectful distance, keeping as near as they could +haul to the wind, that the firing was comparatively harmless on both +sides. The two admirals De Guichen and Cordova led the enemy's van, and +it was apparently their intention to cut off and destroy the rear +division of the British fleet; but though they had the superiority in +force and the advantage of the wind, they could not be induced to close, +and soon after midnight the firing ceased. The next morning the two +fleets were still in sight, but as the Spaniards evinced no disposition +to renew the engagement, Howe, whose orders did not permit him to +provoke the enemy, continued on his homeward voyage.</p> + +<p>The successful passage of the British fleet through the Straits, in the +face of the combined forces, was regarded in Madrid as a glorious +victory for the Spanish arms. The despatches of Don Louis de Cordova +described the partial engagement as a complete rout, and Howe was made +to flee with all press of sail from his brave pursuers.</p> + +<p>Seizing upon this exaggerated intelligence as a counterpoise to the +recent disastrous news from Gibraltar, the Government extolled the valor +of the navy, and spread ludicrously bombastic accounts of the "glorious +victory" throughout the country. Pamphlets descriptive of the engagement +were published and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> disseminated, in which the casualties of the English +were put down in numbers imposingly enormous.</p> + +<p>Gibraltar having thus been again successfully relieved, the Spanish +government relinquished all hope of securing its possession by force of +arms; but the King still fondly retained some expectation of succeeding +by negotiation. In order to conceal the actual hopelessness of the +enterprise, and "to give a reasonable color to the formal prosecution of +the siege," private instructions were sent to Crillon to continue the +offensive. But the Spanish commander was in truth no less disheartened +than the ministers of his government, and with the exception of daily +attacks by gun- and mortar-boats, seconded by a warm fire from the +isthmus, active operations completely ceased.</p> + +<p>On February 2, 1783, the news of the signature of the preliminaries of a +general peace reached the garrison by a flag of truce, and on March 12th +the gates of the fortress, which had been closed for nearly four years, +were once more thrown open.</p> + +<p>The announcement of the peace was received with general joy throughout +the garrison, and this feeling was most fully reciprocated by the +disheartened and weary enemy. The two chiefs, who, since they had been +opposed to each other as antagonists in a struggle which riveted the +attention of all Europe, had learned to regret that they were foes, now +met with the cordial embrace of friendship, and no opportunity was lost +which could tend to obliterate the remembrances of former rivalry. +Friendly meetings were interchanged between them, and all memory of +previous antagonism was buried in oblivion.</p> + +<p>Being introduced to the officers of the Royal Artillery, through whose +courage and ability his brightest hopes of victory had been destroyed, +Crillon met them with praises of their noble conduct, and remarked that +"he would rather see them there as friends than on their batteries as +enemies, where," he added, "they never spared me."</p> + +<p>One day when inspecting the immense lines of fortification on the +northern face of the Rock, all of which had been constructed during the +progress of the siege, lost in astonishment at the magnitude of the +works, he exclaimed, "This is indeed worthy of the Romans!"</p> + +<p>Early in April, the Spanish camp having commenced to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> break up, and the +lines on the isthmus having been dismantled, the Duc de Crillon handed +over his command to the Marquis de Saya, and returned to Madrid.</p> + +<p>Thus after a duration of three years seven months and twelve days ended +this memorable siege; a siege which, in the words of Lord North, "was +one of those astonishing instances of British valor, discipline, +military skill, and humanity that no other age or country could produce +an example of." At length the devoted garrison was relieved from a +situation of suffering, peril, and privation almost unparalleled in the +annals of war.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span></p> +<h2>END OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION</h2> + +<h4><span class="smcap">a.d. 1782</span></h4> + +<h3>JOHN ADAMS BENJAMIN FRANKLIN JOHN JAY<br /> + HENRY LAURENS JOHN M. LUDLOW</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Concerning the momentous consequences of the American +Revolution, not only for America herself but for the whole +world, history has raised no question of doubt. Regarding +its causes and its justification there has been substantial +agreement of both learned and popular opinion in all +progressive countries. But various and often contradictory +are the judgments pronounced upon the course and conduct of +the war itself, even among American writers.</p> + +<p>Until recently it has been impossible that either in the +United States or Great Britain a wholly dispassionate view +of the War of Independence should be shared by both critical +students and general readers. In America it has been the +fashion to glorify indiscriminately the actors on the +colonial side and all their achievements. The provincial +note of national heroics has been transmitted from one +generation to another, and the breath of the school children +has been carefully laden with it from tenderest years. On +the English side, the quite natural early resentment against +the lost colonies—mainly confined to official circles and +hereditary interests—may be said to have been later +softened into "a certain condescension," such as Lowell +pointed out in foreigners generally toward America.</p> + +<p>But that condescension, like the earlier acrimony, is a +thing of the past. Here, as elsewhere, history is being +rewritten. American self-glorification, as well as wounded +English pride, gives way to better teachings, and the larger +lessons of humanity, which is more than nationality, are +giving to all nations clearer visions of a federated world.</p> + +<p>The growth of this new historic sense, informed with clearer +knowledge and a more discriminating love of justice, is well +illustrated in the following critical examination, wherein +Ludlow, a living English historian, carefully considers the +various factors at work in the Revolution, and the personal +forces through which its results were produced. Prefixed to +this is the official statement of the American peace +commissioners—John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and +Henry Laurens—to Robert R. Livingston, then superintendent +of foreign affairs, of the conditions of the preliminary +treaty, which ended the war in 1782. This was followed by +the definitive Treaty of Paris, September 3, 1783.</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span></p> + + +<h4>THE AMERICAN PEACE COMMISSIONERS</h4> + +<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Paris</span>, 14 December, 1782.</p> + +<p>We have the honor to congratulate Congress on the signature of the +preliminaries of a peace between the Crown of Great Britain and the +United States of America, to be inserted in a definitive treaty so soon +as the terms between the crowns of France and Great Britain shall be +agreed on. A copy of the articles is here enclosed, and we cannot but +flatter ourselves that they will appear to Congress, as they do to all +of us, to be consistent with the honor and interest of the United +States, and we are persuaded Congress would be more fully of that +opinion if they were apprised of all the circumstances and reasons which +have influenced the negotiation. Although it is impossible for us to go +into that detail, we think it necessary, nevertheless, to make a few +remarks on such of the articles as appear most to require elucidation.</p> + + +<h4><i>Remarks on Article 2d, relative to Boundaries</i></h4> + +<p>The Court of Great Britain insisted on retaining all the territories +comprehended within the Province of Quebec, by the act of Parliament +respecting it. They contended that Nova Scotia should extend to the +river Kennebec; and they claimed not only all the lands in the Western +country and on the Mississippi, which were not expressly included in our +charters and governments, but also such lands within them as remained +ungranted by the King of Great Britain. It would be endless to enumerate +all the discussions and arguments on the subject.</p> + +<p>We knew this Court and Spain to be against our claims to the Western +country, and, having no reason to think that lines more favorable could +ever have been obtained, we finally agreed to those described in this +article; indeed, they appear to leave us little to complain of and not +much to desire. Congress will observe that, although our northern line +is in a certain part below the latitude of 45°, yet in others it extends +above it, divides the Lake Superior, and gives us access to its western +and southern waters, from which a line in that latitude would have +excluded us.</p> + + +<h4><i>Remarks on Article 4th, respecting Creditors</i></h4> + +<p>We had been informed that some of the States had confiscated British +debts; but although each State has a right to bind its own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> citizens, +yet, in our opinion, it appertains solely to Congress, in whom +exclusively are vested the rights of making war and peace, to pass acts +against the subjects of a power with which the Confederacy may be at +war. It therefore only remained for us to consider whether this article +is founded in justice and good policy.</p> + +<p>In our opinion no acts of government could dissolve the obligations of +good faith resulting from lawful contracts between individuals of the +two countries prior to the war. We knew that some of the British +creditors were making common cause with the refugees and other +adversaries of our independence; besides, sacrificing private justice to +reasons of state and political convenience is always an odious measure; +and the purity of our reputation in this respect, in all foreign +commercial countries, is of infinitely more importance to us than all +the sums in question. It may also be remarked that American and British +creditors are placed on an equal footing.</p> + + +<h4><i>Remarks on Articles 5th and 6th, respecting Refugees</i></h4> + +<p>These articles were among the first discussed and the last agreed to. +And had not the conclusion of this business at the time of its date been +particularly important to the British administration, the respect, which +both in London and Versailles is supposed to be due to the honor, +dignity, and interest of royalty, would probably have forever prevented +our bringing this article so near to the views of Congress and the +sovereign rights of the States as it now stands. When it is considered +that it was utterly impossible to render this article perfectly +consistent, both with American and British ideas of honor, we presume +that the middle line adopted by this article is as little unfavorable to +the former as any that could in reason be expected.</p> + +<p>As to the separate article, we beg leave to observe that it was our +policy to render the navigation of the river Mississippi so important to +Britain as that their views might correspond with ours on that subject. +Their possessing the country on the river north of the line from the +Lake of the Woods affords a foundation for their claiming such +navigation. And as the importance of West Florida to Britain was for the +same reason rather to be strengthened than otherwise, we thought it +advisable to allow them the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> extent contained in the separate article, +especially as before the war it had been annexed by Britain to West +Florida, and would operate as an additional inducement to their joining +with us in agreeing that the navigation of the river should forever +remain open to both. The map used in the course of our negotiations was +Mitchell's.</p> + +<p>As we had reason to imagine that the articles respecting the boundaries, +the refugees, and fisheries did not correspond with the policy of this +court, we did not communicate the preliminaries to the minister until +after they were signed (and not even then the <i>separate article</i>). We +hope that these considerations will excuse our having so far deviated +from the spirit of our instructions. The Count de Vergennes, on perusing +the articles, appeared surprised (but not displeased) at their being so +favorable to us.</p> + +<p>We beg leave to add our advice that copies be sent us of the accounts +directed to be taken by the different States, of the unnecessary +devastations and sufferings sustained by them from the enemy in the +course of the war. Should they arrive before the signature of the +definitive treaty, they might possibly answer very good purposes.</p> + + +<h4>JOHN M. LUDLOW</h4> + +<p>Paradoxical as it may seem, two things must equally surprise the reader +on studying the history of the war of American Independence—the first, +that England should ever have considered it possible to succeed in +subduing her revolted colonies; the second, that she should not have +succeeded in doing so. At a time when steam had not yet baffled the +winds, to dream of conquering by force of arms on the other side of the +Atlantic a people of English race numbering between three millions and +four millions with something like twelve hundred miles of seaboard, was +surely an act of enormous folly. Horace Walpole had wittily said, at the +very commencement of the so-called rebellion, that "if computed by the +tract of the country it occupies, we, as so diminutive in comparison, +ought rather be called in rebellion to that."</p> + +<p>We have seen in our own days the difficulties experienced by the far +more powerful and populous Northern States in quelling the secession of +the Southern, when between the two there was no other frontier than at +most a river, very often a mere ideal line,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> and when armies could be +raised by a hundred thousand men at a time. England attempted a far more +difficult task with forces which, till 1781, never reached 35,000 men, +and never exceeded 42,075, including "provincials," <i>i.e.</i>, American +loyalists.</p> + +<p>Yet it is impossible to doubt that, not once only, but repeatedly during +the course of the struggle, England was on the verge of triumph. The +American armies were perpetually melting away before the enemy directly +through the practice of short enlistments, and indirectly through +desertions. These desertions, if they might be often palliated by the +straits to which the men were reduced through arrears in pay and want of +supplies, arose in other cases, as after the retreat from New York, from +sheer loss of heart in the cause. The main army under Washington was +seldom even equal in number to that opposed to him. In the winter of +1776-1777, when his troops were only about four thousand strong, it is +difficult to understand how it was that Sir William Howe, with more than +double the number, should have failed to annihilate the American army.</p> + +<p>In the winter of 1777-1778 the "dreadful situation of the army for want +of provisions" made Washington "admire" that they should not have been +excited to a general mutiny and desertion. In May, 1779, he hardly knew +any resource for the American cause except in reënforcements from +France, and did not know what might be the consequence if the enemy had +it in his power to press the troops hard in the ensuing campaign. In +December of that year his forces were "mouldering away daily," and he +considered that Sir Henry Clinton, with more than twice his numbers, +could "not justify remaining inactive with a force so superior." A year +later he was compelled for want of clothing to discharge levies which he +had so much trouble in obtaining, and "want of flour would have +disbanded the whole army" if he had not adopted this expedient. In +March, 1781, again, the crisis was "perilous," and, though he did not +doubt the happy issue of the contest, he considered that the period for +its accomplishment might be too far distant for a person of his years.</p> + +<p>In April he wrote: "We cannot transport the provisions from the States +in which they are assessed to the army, because we cannot pay the +teamsters, who will no longer work for certificates. It is equally +certain that our troops are approaching fast to nakedness,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> and that we +have nothing to clothe them with; that our hospitals are without +medicines, and our sick without nutriment except such as well men eat; +and that our public works are at a stand and the artificers disbanding. +It may be declared in a word that we are at the end of our tether, and +that now or never our deliverance must come." Six months later, when +Yorktown capitulated, the British forces still remaining in North +America after the surrender of that garrison were more considerable than +they had been as late as February, 1779; and Sir Henry Clinton even then +declared that with a reënforcement of ten thousand men he would be +responsible for the conquest of America.</p> + +<p>How shall we explain either puzzle—that England should have so nearly +missed success, to fail at last? or that America should have succeeded, +after having been almost constantly on the brink of failure?</p> + +<p>The main hope of success on the English side lay in the idea that the +spirit and acts of resistance to the authority of the mother-country +were in reality only on the part of a turbulent minority; that the bulk +of the people desired to be loyal. It is certain indeed that the +struggle was, in America itself, much more of a civil war than the +Americans are now generally disposed to admit. In December, 1780, there +were eight thousand nine hundred fifty-four provincials among the +British forces in America, and on March 7, 1781, a letter from Lord +George Germain to Sir H. Clinton, intercepted by the Americans, says, +"The American levies in the King's service are more in number than the +whole of the enlisted troops in the service of Congress."</p> + +<p>As late as September 1, 1781, there were seven thousand two hundred +forty-one. We hear of "loyal associates" in Massachusetts, Maryland, and +Pennsylvania, of "associated loyalists" in New York, of a fort built and +maintained by "associated refugees," and everywhere of "Tories," whose +arrest Washington is found suggesting to Governor Trumbull, of +Connecticut, as early as November 12, 1775. New England may indeed be +considered to have been cleared of active opposition to the American +cause when more than one thousand refugees left Boston in March, 1776, +with the British troops. But New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania +remained long full of Tories. By June 28, 1776, the disaffected on Long +Island had taken up arms, and after the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> evacuation of New York by +Washington a brigade of loyalists was raised on the island, and +companies were formed in two neighboring counties to join the King's +troops.</p> + +<p>During Washington's retreat through New Jersey "the inhabitants, either +from fear or disaffection, almost to a man refused to turn out." In +Pennsylvania the militia, instead of giving any assistance in repelling +the British, exulted at their approach, and over the misfortunes of +their countrymen. On the 20th of that month the British were "daily +gathering strength from the disaffected." In 1777 the Tories who joined +Burgoyne in his invasion from the north are said to have doubled his +force. In 1778 Tories joined the Indians in the devastation of Wyoming +and Cherry Valley; and although the indiscriminate ravages of the +British, or of the Germans in their pay, seem to have roused the three +States above mentioned to self-defence, yet, as late as May, 1780, +Washington still speaks of sending a small party of cavalry to escort +Lafayette "safely through the Tory settlements" of New York. Virginia, +as late as the spring of 1776, was "alarmed at the idea of +independence."</p> + +<p>Washington admitted that his countrymen—of that State—"from their form +of government, and steady attachment heretofore to royalty," would "come +reluctantly" to that idea, but trusted to "time and persecution." In +1781 the ground for transferring the seat of war to the Chesapeake was +the number of loyalists in that quarter. In the Southern States the +division of feeling was still greater. In the Carolinas, a Loyalist +regiment was raised in a few days in 1776, and again in 1779. In +Georgia, in South Carolina, the bitterest partisan warfare was carried +on between the Whig and Tory bands; and a body of New York Tories +contributed powerfully to the fall of Savannah in 1778 by taking the +American forces in the rear.</p> + +<p>On the other hand it is unquestionable that in the extent and quality of +the support which they met with, the British generals were cruelly +disappointed. Up to May, 1778, General Howe had declared that in +thirteen corps raised, with a nominal strength of six thousand five +hundred men, the whole number amounted only to three thousand six +hundred nine, of whom only a small proportion were Americans, and that +"all the force that could be collected in Pennsylvania, after the most +indefatigable exertions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> during eight months," was only nine hundred +seventy-four men. Of the far more numerous loyalist levies in the South, +Lord Cornwallis speaks in the most disparaging terms. A whole regiment +in South Carolina marched off on one occasion in a body. Speaking of the +friends to the British cause in North Carolina he wrote, "If they are as +dastardly and pusillanimous as our friends to the southward, we must +leave them to their fate." At the time of the battle of Guilford Court +House (1781) the idea of such friends "rising in any number and to any +purpose had totally failed." No "provincial" general ever rose to +eminence on the British side, although more than one was appointed, and +it is clear that if the struggle was so long protracted it was not +through the valor or constancy of the loyalists.</p> + +<p>The real causes of its protraction—though it may be hard to an American +to admit the fact—lay in the incapacity of American politicians, and, +it must be added, in the supineness and want of patriotism of the +American people. If, indeed, importing into the struggle views of a +later date, we look upon it as one between two nations, the +mismanagement of the war by the Americans, on all points save one—the +retention of Washington in the chief command—is seen to have been so +pitiable from first to last as to be in fact almost unintelligible. We +only understand the case when we see that there was no such thing as an +American nation in existence, but only a number of revolted colonies, +jealous of one another, and with no tie but that of a common danger.</p> + +<p>Even in the army, divisions broke out. Washington, in a general order of +August 1, 1776, says: "It is with great concern that the general +understands that jealousies have arisen among the troops from the +different provinces, and reflections are frequently thrown out which can +only tend to irritate each other and injure the noble cause in which we +are engaged." It was seldom that much help could be obtained in troops +from any State, unless that State were immediately threatened by the +enemy; and even then these troops would be raised by that State for its +own defence, irrespectively of the general or "Continental Army."</p> + +<p>"Those at a distance from the seat of War," wrote Washington in April, +1778, "live in such perfect tranquillity that they conceive the dispute +to be in a manner at an end; and those near it are so disaffected that +they serve only as embarrassments." In January,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> 1779, we find him +remonstrating with the Governor of Rhode Island because that State had +"ordered several battalions to be raised for the defence of the State +only, and this before proper measures were taken to fill the Continental +regiments." The different bounties and rates of pay allowed by the +various States were a constant source of annoyance to him. After the +first year, the best men were not returned to Congress, or did not +return to it. Whole States remained frequently unrepresented. In the +winter of 1777-1778 Congress was reduced to twenty-one members. But even +with a full representation it could do little. "One State will comply +with a requisition of Congress," writes Washington in 1780, "another +neglects to do it, a third executes it by halves, and all differ either +in the manner, the matter, or so much in point of time that we are +always working up-hill." At first Congress was really nothing more than +a voluntary committee. When the Confederation was completed—which was +only, be it remembered, on March 1, 1781—it was still, as Washington +wrote in 1785, "little more than a shadow without the substance, and the +Congress a nugatory body"; or, as it was described by a later writer, +"powerless for government, and a rope of sand for union."</p> + +<p>Like politicians, like people. There was no doubt a brilliant display of +patriotic ardor at the first flying to arms of the colonists. Lexington +and Bunker Hill were actions decidedly creditable to their raw troops. +The expedition to Canada, foolhardy though it proved, was pursued up to +a certain point with real heroism. But with it the heroic period of the +war—individual instances excepted—may be said to have closed. There +seems little reason to doubt that the Revolution would never have been +commenced if it had been expected to cost so tough a struggle. "A false +estimate of the power and perseverance of our enemies," wrote James +Duane to Washington, "was friendly to the present revolution, and +inspired that confidence of success in all ranks of people which was +necessary to unite them in so arduous a cause."</p> + +<p>As early as November, 1775, Washington wrote, speaking of military +arrangements, "Such a dearth of public spirit, and such want of virtue, +such stock-jobbing and fertility in all the low arts to obtain +advantages of one kind or another, I never saw before, and pray God's +mercy that I may never be witness to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> again." Such "a mercenary spirit" +pervaded the whole of the troops, that he should not have been "at all +surprised at any disaster."</p> + +<p>At the same date, besides desertions of thirty or forty soldiers at a +time, he speaks of the practice of plundering as so rife that "no man is +secure in his effects, and scarcely in his person." People "were +frightened out of their houses under pretence of those houses being +ordered to be burnt, with a view of seizing the goods"; and to conceal +the villainy more effectually some houses were actually burnt down. On +February 28, 1777, "the scandalous loss, waste, and private +appropriation of public arms during the last campaign" had been "beyond +all conception." Officers drew "large sums under pretence of paying +their men," and appropriated them. In one case an officer led his men to +robbery, offered resistance to a brigade-major who ordered him to return +the goods, and was only with difficulty cashiered.</p> + +<p>"Can we carry on the war much longer?" Washington asks in 1778—after +the treaty with France and the appearance of a French fleet off the +coast. "Certainly not, unless some measures can be devised and speedily +executed to restore the credit of our currency, restrain extortion, and +punish forestallers." A few days later, "To make and extort money in +every shape that can be devised, and at the same time to decry its +value, seem to have become a mere business and an epidemical disease." +On December 30, 1778, "speculation, peculation, and an insatiable thirst +for riches seem to have got the better of every other consideration, and +almost of every order of men; party disputes and personal quarrels are +the great business of the day; whilst the momentous concerns of an +empire, a great and accumulating debt, ruined finances, depreciated +money, and want of credit, which in its consequences is the want of +everything, are but secondary considerations."</p> + +<p>After a first loan had been obtained from France and spent, a further +one was granted in 1782. So utterly unpatriotic and selfish was known to +be the temper of the people that the loan had to be kept secret, in +order not to diminish such efforts as might be made by the Americans +themselves. On July 10th, of that year, with New York and Charlestown +still in British hands, Washington<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> writes: "That spirit of freedom +which at the commencement of this contest would have gladly sacrificed +everything to the attainment of its object, has long since subsided, and +every selfish passion has taken its place." But indeed the mere fact +that from the date of the battle of Monmouth (July 28, 1778), Washington +was never supplied with sufficient means, even with the assistance of +the French fleets and troops, to strike one blow at the English in New +York—though these were but sparingly reënforced during the +period—shows an absence of public spirit, one might almost say of +national shame, scarcely conceivable, and in singular contrast with the +terrible earnestness exhibited on both sides some eighty years later in +the Secession War.</p> + +<p>Why, then, must we ask on the other side, did England fail at last? The +English were prone to attribute their ill-success to the incompetency of +their generals. Lord North, with his quaint humor, would say, "I do not +know whether our generals will frighten the enemy, but I know they +frighten me whenever I think of them." When in 1778, Lord Carlisle came +out as commissioner, in a letter speaking of the great scale of all +things in America, he says: "We have nothing on a great scale with us +but our blunders, our misconduct, our ruin, our losses, our disgraces +and misfortunes." Pitt, in a speech of 1781, aptly described the war as +having been, on the part of England, "a series of ineffective victories +or severe defeats." No doubt it is difficult to account for Gage's early +blunders; for Howe's repeated failure to follow up his own success or +profit by his enemy's weakness; and Cornwallis' movement, justly +censured by Sir Henry Clinton, in transferring the bulk of his army from +the far south to Virginia, within marching distance of Washington, +opened the way to that crowning disaster at Yorktown, without which it +is by no means impossible that Georgia and the Carolinas might have +remained British.</p> + +<p>But no allowance for bad generalship can account for the failure of the +British. Washington and Greene appear to have been the only two American +generals of marked ability, though they unquestionably derived great +advantage from the talents of their foreign allies, Lafayette, Pulaski, +Steuben, Rochambeau—and Washington was more than once out-manœuvred. +Gates evidently owed his one signal triumph to enormous superiority<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> of +numbers on his own ground, and was as signally defeated, under +circumstances infinitely less creditable to him than those of Burgoyne's +surrender. Lee's vaunted abilities came to nothing.</p> + +<p>Political incapacity was of course charged upon ministers as another +cause of disaster; and no doubt their miscalculation of the severity of +the struggle was almost childish. When Parliament met in the autumn of +1776—<i>i.e.</i>, after the Declaration of Independence had gone forth to +the world—it was held out in the King's speech that another campaign +would be sufficient to end the war, while in spite of all the warnings +of the Opposition, they persisted in blinding themselves to the force of +the temptations which must inevitably bring down France, if not Spain, +into the lists against them, until the treaties of these powers with +America were actually concluded. The forces sent out were miserably +inadequate for a war on so large a scale—"too many to make peace, too +few to make war," as Lord Chatham told the Ministry. When for once a +really considerable force was sent out under Burgoyne, it failed for +want of timely coöperation by Howe, and this failure is stated, by Lord +Shelburne, to have arisen from Lord George Germain's not having had +patience to wait after signing the despatch to Burgoyne, till that to +Howe had been fair-copied; so that instead of going out together, the +second, owing to further mischances, did not leave till some time later. +The English generals complained almost as bitterly as the American of +the want of adequate reënforcements, and the best of them, Sir Henry +Clinton, is found writing (1779) in a strain which might be mistaken for +Washington's of his spirits being "worn out" by the difficulties of his +position.</p> + +<p>But no mistakes in the management of the war by British statesmen can +account for their ultimate failure. However great British mismanagement +may have been, it was far surpassed by American. Until Robert Morris +took the finances in hand, the administration of them was beneath not +only contempt but conception. There was nothing on the British side +equal to that caricature of a recruiting system, in which different +bounties were offered by Congress, by the States, by the separate towns, +as to make it the interest of the intending soldier to delay enlistment +as long as possible in order to sell himself to the highest bidder;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> to +that caricature of a war establishment the main bulk of which broke up +every twelvemonth in front of the enemy, which was only paid, if at all, +in worthless paper, and left almost habitually without supplies.</p> + +<p>To mention one fact only, commissions in British regiments on American +soil continued to be sold for large sums, while Washington's officers +were daily throwing up theirs, many from sheer starvation. On the whole, +no better idea can be had of the nature of the struggle on the American +side, after the first heat of it had cooled down, than from the words of +Count de Rochambeau, writing to Count de Vergennes, July 10, 1780: "They +have neither money nor credit; their means of resistance are only +momentary, and called forth when they are attacked in their own homes. +They then assemble for the moment of immediate danger and defend +themselves."</p> + +<p>A far more important cause in determining the ultimate failure of the +British was the aid afforded by France to America, followed by that of +Spain and Holland. It was impossible for England to reconquer a +continent, and carry on war at the same time with the three most +powerful states of Europe. The instincts of race have tended on both the +English and the American sides to depreciate the value of the aid given +by France to the colonists. It may be true that Rochambeau's troops +which disembarked in Rhode Island in July, 1780, did not march till +July, 1781,—that they were blockaded soon after their arrival, +threatened with attack from New York, and only disengaged by a feint of +Washington's on that city. But more than two years before their arrival, +Washington wrote to a member of Congress, "France, by her supplies, has +saved us from the yoke thus far." The treaty with France alone was +considered to afford a "certain prospect of success"—to "secure" +American independence.</p> + +<p>The arrival of D'Estaing's fleet, although no troops joined the American +army, and nothing eventually was done, determined the evacuation of +Philadelphia. The discipline of the French troops when they landed in +1780 set an example to the Americans; chickens and pigs walked between +the lines without being disturbed. The recruits of 1780 could not have +been armed without fifty tons of ammunition supplied by the French. In +September of that year, Washington, writing to the French envoy,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> speaks +of the "inability" of the Americans to expel the British from the South +"unassisted, or perhaps even to stop their career," and he writes in +similar terms to Congress a few days later. To depend "upon the +resources of the country, unassisted by foreign loans," he writes to a +member of Congress two months later, "will, I am confident, be to lean +upon a broken reed."</p> + +<p>In January, 1781, writing to Colonel Laurens, the American envoy in +Paris, he presses for "an immediate, ample, and efficacious succor in +money" from France, for the maintenance of the American coasts of "a +constant naval superiority," and for "an additional succor in troops." +And since the assistance so requested was in fact granted in every +shape, and the surrender of Yorktown was obtained by the coöperation +both of the French army and fleet, we must hold that Washington's words +were justified by the event.</p> + +<p>The real cause, however, why England yielded in 1782-1783 to her +revolted colonies was probably this: The English nation at large had +never realized the nature of the struggle; when it did, it refused to +carry it on. Enormous ignorance no doubt prevailed at the beginning of +the struggle as to the North American colonies. They had been till then +entirely overshadowed by the West Indies, which were perhaps at that +time the greatest source of English commercial wealth; and the time was +not far past when, it is said, they were supposed, like the latter, to +be chiefly inhabited by negroes. The prominence of the slave colonies +seems to have associated the idea of colonies with that of absolute +government. Englishmen did not generally realize the existence in North +America of vast countries inhabited by communities of their own race, +which enjoyed in general a larger measure of self-government than the +mother-country herself. That a colony should resist the mother-country +seemed in a manner preposterous. It appears certain, therefore, that +when the war at first broke out it was popular, and that the King and +Lord North, as has been already stated, were themselves amazed at the +loyal addresses which it called forth.</p> + +<p>But the early resort to the aid of German mercenaries showed that this +popularity was only skin-deep—that the heart of the masses was not +engaged in the war. The very employment of these mercenaries, as well as +of the Indian auxiliaries of the royal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> forces, tended to lower the +character of the war in English eyes. When Chatham, in his scathing +invectives, would speak of the Ministers' "traffic and barter with every +little pitiful German prince that sells and sends his subjects to the +shambles," or of their sending "the infidel savage—against whom? +against your Protestant brethren, to lay waste their country, to +desolate their dwellings, and extirpate their race and name," he might +not carry with him the votes of the House of Lords, but his words would +burn their way into English hearts.</p> + +<p>That the war with the American colonies themselves was repugnant to the +deepest feelings of the nation is proved by contrast through the sudden +burst of warlike spirit which followed (1778-1779) on the outbreak of +war with France and Spain. A few days before the French treaty with +America was known, Horace Walpole had written to Mason that the new +levies "don't come, consequently they will not go." By July of the same +year he writes to Sir Horace Mann, "The country is covered with camps." +In 1776 the King had reviewed the Guards on Wimbledon Common, and pulled +off his hat to them before their departure for America. He had now +(1779) to review volunteers. The passionate interest which is henceforth +taken in so much of the struggle as is carried on with foreign foes, +Keppel's scarcely deserved popularity, the riotous popular joy on his +acquittal, the outburst of universal rejoicing over Rodney's victories, +show a totally different temper to that brought out by either victory or +defeat in what was now felt to be a dread civil war with our American +kinsmen.</p> + +<p>Hence it was, no doubt, that after the surrender of Yorktown, +hostilities were practically at an end with America, while the naval +warfare with France and Spain was carried on for another twelvemonth, +and that the signing of provisional articles of peace with the United +States preceded by two months that of similar articles with France and +Spain, the armistice with Holland being of still later date. It may even +be conjectured that the outbreak of war with France and Spain, instead +of incensing the mind of the English people against the Americans, +rather gave different objects to their angry passions, and tended to +diminish their bitterness toward the colonists. It must have been a kind +of relief to Englishmen to find themselves fighting once more against +those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> whom they considered hereditary enemies, against men who did not +speak their own mother-tongue; and the wholly unprovoked character of +these foreign hostilities would soften men's feelings toward the +stubbornness of those colonists of their own blood, who after all asked +only to be left alone. It is moreover observable that when peace came, +though it upset the Shelburne ministry, yet that of the coalition which +succeeded it was most unpopular, and addresses came pouring in from +counties and towns to thank the King for making the peace.</p> + +<p>Substantially indeed—although colonial independence would no doubt have +been achieved sooner or later—the more we look into the events of the +war of 1775-1783, the more, perhaps, shall we be convinced that it +resolves itself into a duel between two men who never saw each other in +the flesh, Washington and George III.</p> + +<p>Take Washington out of the history on the American side, and it is +impossible to conceive of American success. It is barely possible that +under Greene—the one general after Washington's own heart, who wrote to +him from his command in the South, "We fight, get beaten, and fight +again"—the army itself might have been commanded with an ability which +would enable it to withstand its British opponents. But neither Greene +nor any other general possessed that weight of personal character which +fixed the trust of Congress and people on Washington, maintained him in +authority through all reverses, and enabled him to criticise with such +unflinching frankness the measures of Congress.</p> + +<p>Take, on the other hand, George III out of the history on the British +side, and it is beyond question that if the war had ever broken out, it +would have been put a stop to long before its ultimate failure. In him +alone is to be found the real centre of resistance to American +independence. It is now well known that at least from the beginning of +1778, if not from the end of 1775, Lord North was anxious to resign, and +desirous of conciliation, and that it was only through the King's +constant appeals to his sense of honor, not to "desert" him, that the +minister was prevailed upon to remain in office. "Till I see things +change to a more favorable position," the King wrote to Lord North as +late as May 19, 1780, "I shall not feel at liberty to grant your +resignation";<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> and it was only on March 20, 1781, that Lord North at +last compelled his master to accept it. Three ideas were fixed in the +King's mind, the first of which was a delusion, the second a mistake, +and the third contrary to all principles of constitutional government.</p> + +<p>First, he had persuaded himself that the country was radically opposed +to American independence. In January, 1778, he opposes conciliatory +measures, "lest they should dissatisfy this country, which so cheerfully +and handsomely carries on the contest." In the autumn of that year he is +certain that "if ministers show that they never will consent to the +independence of America, the cry will be strong in their favor." Two +years later he "can never suppose this country so far lost to all ideas +of self-importance as to be willing to grant American independence."</p> + +<p>Secondly, he was convinced—and this conviction, it must be admitted, +was shared by some of the strongest opponents of the war—that if the +independence of the North American colonies were acknowledged, all the +others, as well as Ireland, would be lost. If any one branch of the +empire is allowed to throw off its dependency, the others will +inevitably follow the example. "Should America succeed, the West Indies +must follow, not in independence, but dependence on America. Ireland +would soon follow, and this island reduce itself to a poor island +indeed."</p> + +<p>Thirdly, he would not allow the Opposition to rule. "He would run any +personal risk rather than submit to the Opposition; rather than be +shackled by these desperate men he would lose his crown." If he +authorizes the attempt at a coalition (1779), it is "provided it be +understood that every means are to be employed to keep the empire +entire, to prosecute the present just and unprovoked war in all its +branches with the utmost vigor, and that his majesty's past measures be +treated with proper respect," <i>i.e.</i>, provided the Opposition are ready +to stultify themselves, and do all that the King thinks right, and admit +that all for which they have contended is wrong. Before the spectacle of +such narrow obstinacy it is difficult not to sympathize with an +expression of Fox in one of his letters—"it is intolerable to think +that it should be in the power of one blockhead to do so much mischief."</p> + +<p>Between these two men—it may be conceded, equally sincere,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> equally +resolute—but the one reasoning, like the madman that he was to be, from +false premises, self-deluded as to the feelings of his people, +anticipating consequences which a century sees yet unrealized and the +other with eyes at all times almost morbidly open to all the gloomier +features of this cause, void of all self-delusion—the one conceiving +himself justified in imposing dictates of his own self-will on every +minister whom he might employ, entitled alike to chain an unwilling +friend to office, and to shut the door of office to opponents except on +terms of surrendering all their principles; the other always ready to +accept the inevitable, to make the most use of the least means, to curb +himself for the sake of his cause in all things except fearless +plain-speaking—the one, finally resolved only to hinder the making of a +nation; the other resolved to make one, if anyhow possible—the issue of +the contest could not be doubtful, if both lives were prolonged. From +that contest the one emerged as the mad king who threw away half a +continent from England; the other as the father of the American nation.</p> + +<p>The common consent of mankind has ranked Washington among its great men; +and although the title may have been fully justified by the course of +his civil life, whether in or out of office, after the termination of +the War of Independence, it is hardly to be doubted that it would freely +have been accorded to him had his career been cut short immediately +after the resignation of his military command. Yet of those who have +enjoyed the title, few, if any, have ever earned it by actions of less +brilliancy. The fame of no conspicuous victory is bound up with +Washington's name. His one dashing exploit was the surprise of Trenton. +His one victory, that of Monmouth, had no results; his most considerable +battle, that of Brandywine, was a severe defeat. His greatness as a +general consisted in doing much with little means, never missing an +opportunity, rising superior to every disaster. When he had recovered +Boston he could say, "I have been here months together with not thirty +rounds of musket cartridges to a man, and have been obliged to submit to +all insults of the enemy's cannon for want of powder, keeping what +little we had for pistol-distance. We have maintained our ground against +the enemy under this want of powder, and we have disbanded one army and +recruited another, within musket-shot of two-and-twenty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> regiments, the +flower of the British Army, while our force has been but little if any +superior to theirs, and at last have beaten them into a shameful and +precipitate retreat out of a place the strongest by nature on this +continent, and strengthened and fortified at an enormous expense."</p> + +<p>The character of Washington as a commander recalls in various respects +that of Wellington. In both we see the same dogged perseverance under +all the various phases of fortune; the same strict discipline, hardening +readily into sternness, coupled with the same careful consideration for +the wants and welfare of the soldier; the same patient, constant +attention to every detail of military organization; the same ability in +maintaining a defensive warfare against an enemy superior in force, with +the same quickness to strike a blow in any unguarded quarter; the same +unflinching frankness in exposing the evils of the military +administration of the day. Many of Wellington's despatches from the +Peninsula might almost have been written by Washington. The difference +between them, while the war lasts, is mainly this: that in Wellington +the soldier is all, while in Washington the statesman and the patriot +are never merged in the soldier. Hence, while in after-life Wellington +had to serve his apprenticeship as a statesman after ceasing to be a +soldier, and often bungled over his new craft, Washington's after-life +was simply that of a statesman who had been called to take up arms and +had laid them down again.</p> + +<p>In short, though England had never a more successful foe than +Washington, it is impossible not to feel, in studying his character, +that no more typical Englishman ever lived.</p> + +<p>Let us now cast a final glance at the state of the world at the close of +the war. Except that an independent state had grown up for the first +time since the downfall of Aztec and Inca empires on the American +continent, and that England had been politically lessened, the balance +of power had been little affected by the war. France had one West Indian +island more, Holland one Indian settlement less. Spain had recovered +Minorca and the Floridas. But she was irrevocably shut out from one +great object of her ambition, the eastern half of the Mississippi +Basin.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span></p> +<h2>SETTLEMENT OF AMERICAN LOYALISTS IN CANADA<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a></h2> + +<h4><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1783</h4> + +<h3>SIR JOHN G. BOURINOT</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>In the American Revolutionary War there were many in the +then new-born Republic who either refrained from +participating or took the loyalist side in the conflict. +These were called "United Empire Loyalists," for they clung +to the unity of the empire and refused to ally themselves +with their fellow-colonists in revolt. When the war was +over, those who took up arms on the loyal side found +themselves in a hopeless minority, loaded with obloquy, and +subjected to indignity at the hands of the victorious +republicans. Rather than live under these humiliating +conditions, some of the Loyalists returned to England; but +most of them, preferring voluntary expatriation in Western +wilds to living in a country that had become independent +through rebellion, sought new homes for themselves in Acadia +and Canada.</p> + +<p>Their act was not lost upon the home Government, for the +latter sent instructions to Canada to make provision for +their reception and settlement, and for the mitigation, in +some measure, of their trials and privations. This provision +consisted of seed, farm implements, tools for building +purposes, and food and clothing for a year or two after +settling in the country. To make good in part their losses +the British Government also voted about three millions +sterling to be divided among the incoming settlers, and gave +them munificent grants of land, chiefly in the western +portion of the country, the then virgin Province of Upper +Canada. There, as well as in desirable locations in Nova +Scotia and New Brunswick, streamed in the Loyalists and +their families, to begin their sad experience of exile in +the wilderness. By their coming, Western Canada—chiefly on +the banks of the St. Lawrence, on the Bay of Quinte, in the +Niagara district, and round the shores of Lake +Ontario—received that contribution of brawn and muscle so +essential to the carving out of a new province and the +founding of a strong and enduring community.</p></div> + + +<p>It was during Governor Haldimand's administration that one of the most +important events in the history of Canada occurred as a result of the +American War of Independence. This event was the coming to the Provinces +of many thousand people, known<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> as United Empire Loyalists, who, during +the progress of the war, but chiefly at its close, left their old homes +in the thirteen colonies. When the Treaty of 1783 was under +consideration, the British representatives made an effort to obtain some +practical consideration from the new nation for the claims of this +unfortunate people who had been subject to so much loss and obloquy +during the war. All that the English envoys could obtain was the +insertion of a clause in the treaty to the effect that Congress would +recommend to the legislatures of the several States measures of +restitution—a provision which turned out, as Franklin intimated at the +time, a perfect nullity. The English Government subsequently indemnified +these people in a measure for their self-sacrifice, and among other +things gave a large number of them valuable tracts of land in the +Provinces of British North America. Many of them settled in Nova Scotia, +others founded New Brunswick and Upper Canada, now Ontario. Their +influence on the political fortunes of Canada has been necessarily very +considerable. For years they and their children were animated by a +feeling of bitter animosity against the United States, the effects of +which could be traced in later times when questions of difference arose +between England and her former colonies. They have proved with the +French Canadians a barrier to the growth of any annexation party, and as +powerful an influence in national and social life as the Puritan element +itself in the Eastern and Western States.</p> + +<p>Among the sad stories of the past the one which tells of the exile of +the Loyalists from their homes, of their trials and struggles in the +valley of the St. Lawrence, then a wilderness, demands our deepest +sympathy. In the history of this continent it can be only compared with +the melancholy chapter which relates the removal of the French +population from their beloved Acadia. During the Revolution they +comprised a very large, intelligent, and important body of people, in +all the old colonies, especially in New York and at the South, where +they were in the majority until the peace. They were generally known as +Tories, while their opponents, who supported independence, were called +Whigs. Neighbor was arrayed against neighbor, families were divided, the +greatest cruelties were inflicted, as the war went on, upon men and +women who believed it was their duty to be faithful to king and +country.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span></p> + +<p>As soon as the contest was ended, their property was confiscated in +several States. Many persons were banished and prohibited from returning +to their homes. An American writer, Sabine, tells us that previous to +the evacuation of New York, in September, 1783, "upward of twelve +thousand men, women, and children embarked at the city, at Long and +Staten islands, for Nova Scotia and the Bahamas." Very wrong impressions +were held in those days of the climate and resources of the Provinces to +which these people fled. Time was to prove that the lot of many of the +Loyalists had actually fallen in pleasant places, in Nova Scotia, New +Brunswick, and Upper Canada; that the country where most of them settled +was superior in many respects to the New England States, and equal to +the State of New York, from which so many of them came.</p> + +<p>It is estimated that between forty and fifty thousand people reached +British North America by 1786. They commenced to leave their old homes +soon after the breaking out of the war, but the great migration took +place in 1783-1784. Many sought the shores of Nova Scotia, and founded +the town of Shelburne, which at one time held a population of ten or +twelve thousand souls, the majority of whom were entirely unsuited to +the conditions of the rough country around them and soon sought homes +elsewhere. Not a few settled in more favorable parts of Nova Scotia, and +even in Cape Breton. Considerable numbers found rest in the beautiful +valley of the St. John River, and founded the Province of New Brunswick. +As many more laid the beginnings of Upper Canada, in the present county +of Glengarry, in the neighborhood of Kingston and the Bay of Quinte, on +the Niagara River, and near the French settlements on the Detroit. A few +also settled in the country now known as the Eastern Townships of French +Canada. A great proportion of the men were officers and soldiers of the +regiments which were formed in several colonies out of the large loyal +population.</p> + +<p>Among them were also men who had occupied positions of influence and +responsibility in their respective communities, divines, judges, +officials, and landed proprietors, whose names were among the best in +the old colonies, as they are certainly in Canada. Many among them gave +up valuable estates which had been acquired by the energy of their +ancestors. Unlike the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> Puritans who founded New England, they did not +take away with them their valuable property in the shape of money and +securities or household goods. A rude log hut by the side of a river or +lake, where poverty and wretchedness were their lot for months, and even +years in some cases, was the refuge of thousands, all of whom had +enjoyed every comfort in well-built houses, and not a few even luxury in +stately mansions, some of which have withstood the ravages of time and +can still be pointed out in New England. Many of the Loyalists were +quite unfitted for the rude experiences of a pioneer life, and years +passed before they and their children conquered the wilderness and made +a livelihood. The British Government was extremely liberal in its grants +of lands to this class of persons in all the Provinces.</p> + +<p>The Government supplied these pioneers in the majority of cases with +food, clothing, and necessary farming implements. For some years they +suffered many privations; one was called "the year of famine," when +hundreds in Upper Canada had to live on roots and even the buds of trees +or anything that might sustain life. Fortunately some lived in favored +localities, where pigeons and other birds, and fish of all kinds, were +plentiful. In the summer and fall there were quantities of wild fruit +and nuts. Maple sugar was a great luxury, when the people once learned +to make it from the noble tree, whose symmetrical leaf may well be made +the Canadian national emblem. It took the people a long while to +accustom themselves to the conditions of their primitive pioneer life, +but now the results of the labors of these early settlers and their +descendants can be seen far and wide in smiling fields, richly laden +orchards, and gardens of old-fashioned flowers throughout the country +which they first made to blossom like the rose. The rivers and lakes +were the only means of communication in those early times, roads were +unknown, and the wayfarer could find his way through the illimitable +forests only by the help of the "blazed" trees and the course of +streams. Social intercourse was infrequent except in autumn and winter, +when the young managed to assemble as they always will. Love and +courtship went on even in this wilderness, though marriage was +uncertain, as the visits of clergymen were very rare in many places, and +magistrates could alone tie the nuptial knot—a very unsatisfactory +performance to the cooler lovers who loved their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> church, its ceremonies +and traditions, as dearly as they loved their sovereign.</p> + +<p>The story of those days of trial has not yet been adequately written; +perhaps it never will be, for few of those pioneers have left records +behind them. As we wander among the old burying-grounds of those +founders of Western Canada and New Brunswick, and stand by the gray, +moss-covered tablets, with names effaced by the ravages of years, the +thought will come to us, what interesting stories could be told by those +who are laid beneath the sod, of sorrows and struggles, of hearts sick +with hope deferred, of expectations never realized, of memories of +misfortune and disaster in another land where they bore so much for a +stubborn and unwise king. Yet these grass-covered mounds are not simply +memorials of suffering and privation; each could tell a story of +fidelity to principle, of forgetfulness of self-interest, of devotion +and self-sacrifice—the grandest story that human annals can tell—a +story that should be ever held up to the admiration and emulation of the +young men and women of the present times, who enjoy the fruits of the +labors of those loyal pioneers.</p> + +<p>Although no noble monument has yet been raised to the memory of these +founders of new provinces—of English-speaking Canada; although the +majority lie forgotten in old grave-yards where the grass has grown +rank, and common flowers alone nod over their resting-places, yet the +names of all are written in imperishable letters in Provincial annals. +Those Loyalists, including the children of both sexes, who joined the +cause of Great Britain before the Treaty of Peace in 1783, were allowed +the distinction of having after their name the letters U. E. to preserve +the memory of their fidelity to a United Empire. A Canadian of these +modern days, who traces his descent from such a source, is as proud of +his lineage as if he were a Derby or a Talbot of Malahide, or inheritor +of other noble names famous in the annals of the English peerage.</p> + +<p>The records of all the provinces show the great influence exercised on +their material, political, and intellectual development by this devoted +body of immigrants. For more than a century they and their descendants +have been distinguished for the useful and important part they have +taken in every matter deeply associated with the best interests of the +country. In New<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> Brunswick we find among those who did good service in +their day and generation the names of Wilmot, Allen, Robinson, Jarvis, +Hazen, Burpee, Chandler, Tilley, Fisher, Bliss, Odell, Botsford; in Nova +Scotia, Inglis (the first Anglican bishop in the colonies), Wentworth, +Brenton, Blowers (Chief Justice), Cunard, Cutler, Howe, Creighton, +Chipman, Marshall, Halliburton, Wilkins, Huntingdon, Jones; in Ontario, +Cartwright, Robinson, Hagerman, Stuart (the first Anglican clergyman), +Gamble, Van Alstine, Fisher, Grass, Butler, Macaulay, Wallbridge, +Chrysler, Bethune, Merritt, McNab, Crawford, Kirby, Tisdale, and +Ryerson. Among these names stand out prominently those of Wilmot, Howe, +and Huntingdon, who were among the fathers of responsible government; +those of Tilley, Tupper, Chandler, and Fisher, who were among the +fathers of confederation; of Ryerson, who exercised a most important +influence on the system of free education which Ontario now enjoys. +Among the eminent descendants of U. E. Loyalists are Sir Charles Tupper, +long a prominent figure in politics; Christopher Robinson, a +distinguished lawyer, who was counsel for Canada at the Bering Sea +arbitration; Sir Richard Cartwright, a liberal leader remarkable for his +keen, incisive style of debate, and his knowledge of financial +questions; Honorable George E. Foster, a former finance minister of +Canada. We might extend the list indefinitely did space permit. In all +walks of life we see the descendants of the Loyalists, exercising a +decided influence over the fortunes of the Dominion.</p> + +<p>Conspicuous among the people who remained faithful to England during the +American Revolution was the famous Iroquois chief Joseph Brant, best +known by his Mohawk name of Thayendanegea, who took part in the war, and +was for many years wrongly accused of having participated in the +massacre and destruction of Wyoming, that beauteous vale of the +Susquehanna. It was he whom the poet Campbell would have consigned to +eternal infamy in the verse</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The mammoth comes—the foe, the monster, Brandt—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With all his howling, desolating band;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These eyes have seen their blade and burning pine<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Awake at once, and silence half your land.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Red is the cup they drink, but not with wine—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Awake and watch to-night, or see no morning shine."<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span></div></div> + +<p>Posterity has, however, recognized the fact that Joseph Brant was not +present at this sad episode of the American War, and the poet in a note +to a later edition admitted that the Indian chief in his poem was "a +pure and declared character of fiction." He was a sincere friend of +English interests, a man of large and statesmanlike views, who might +have taken an important part in colonial affairs had he been educated in +these later times. When the war was ended, he and his tribe moved into +the valley of the St. Lawrence, and received from the Government fine +reserves of land on the Bay of Quinte, and on the Grand River in the +western part of the Province of Upper Canada, where the prosperous city +and county of Brantford and the township of Tyendinaga—a corruption of +Thayendanegea—illustrate the fame he has won in Canadian annals. The +descendants of his nation live in comfortable homes, till fine farms in +a beautiful section of Western Canada, and enjoy all the franchises of +white men. It is an interesting fact that the first church built in +Ontario was that of the Mohawks, who still preserve the communion +service presented to the tribe in 1710 by Queen Anne of England.</p> + +<p>General Haldimand's administration will always be noted in Canadian +history for the coming of the Loyalists, and for the sympathetic +interest he took in settling these people on the lands of Canada, and in +alleviating their difficulties by all the means in the power of his +government. In these and other matters of Canadian interest he proved +conclusively that he was not the mere military martinet that some +Canadian writers with inadequate information would make him. When he +left Canada he was succeeded by Sir Guy Carleton, then elevated to the +peerage as Lord Dorchester.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> From <i>The Story of Canada</i> (New York, 1896: G. P. Putnam's +Sons), by permission.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span></p> +<h2>FIRST BALLOON ASCENSION</h2> + +<h4><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1783</h4> + +<h3>HATTON TURNOR</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Few problems of invention have ever engaged more students +and experimenters than those which bear upon aërial +navigation. The history of early experiments in this +direction has a peculiar interest at present, in view of the +numerous recent trials by aëronauts in different countries.</p> + +<p>At the time of the first balloon ascension, described by +Turnor, interest in the possibilities of aërostatics was +very active and widespread, especially among the scientific +mechanicians of Europe. Many experiments with "aërostatical +globes" and the like had been made in Great Britain and on +the Continent. Leonhard Euler, to whom Turnor refers, was a +famous Swiss mathematician who had given much study to these +things. He was in Russia, and about to die, when in France +the first aërostat, or balloon, was sent up by the +inventors, the brothers Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier, +French mechanicians, who were made corresponding members of +the Academy. This form of air-balloon—the first successful +one—is known as the "Montgolfier."</p></div> + + +<p>A shout of joy rang through Europe, and reached the ear of the aged +Euler, on the banks of the Neva, who, between attacks of vertigo, which +were soon to carry him from this scene to a better, dictated to his sons +the calculations he had made on aërostatical globes. It is said he +ceased to calculate and live at the same instant.</p> + +<p>The cause of so great enthusiasm had better be given in the accurate +description that immediately circulated among the peoples:</p> + +<p>"On Thursday, June 5, 1783, the States of Vivarais being assembled at +Annonay (37 miles from Lyons), Messrs. Montgolfier invited them to see +their new aërostatic experiment.</p> + +<p>"Imagine the surprise of the Deputies and spectators on seeing in the +public square a ball, 110 feet in circumference, attached at its base to +a wooden frame of 16 feet surface. This enormous bag, with frame, +weighed 300 lbs., and could contain 22,000 feet of vapor.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Imagine the general astonishment when the inventors announced that, as +soon as it should be filled with gas—which they had a simple means of +making—it would rise of itself to the clouds. One must here remark +that, notwithstanding the general confidence in the knowledge and wisdom +of Messrs. Montgolfier, such an experiment appeared so incredible to +those who were present, that all doubted of its success.</p> + +<p>"But Messrs. Montgolfier, taking it in hand, proceed to make the vapors, +which gradually swell it out till it assumes a beautiful form.</p> + +<p>"Strong arms are now required to retain it; at a given signal it is +loosed, rises with rapidity, and in ten minutes attains a height of 6000 +feet; it proceeds 7668 feet in a horizontal direction, and gently falls +to the ground.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Just as the Omnipotent, who turns<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The system of a world's concerns,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From mere minutiæ can educe<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Events of the most important use;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But who can tell how vast the plan,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which this day's incident began?"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The effect of this letter in England was to cause a display of jealousy +at which we might now blush, if we do not remember that the sagacious +and convincing views of Adam Smith on political economy had only just +been published and had not yet had time to circulate; for, though we +were obliged to admit a discovery had been made in France, yet the +periodicals argued that all the experiments that had led to it were made +in England. Many were the caricatures which appeared.</p> + +<p>In a discourse at the Academy of Lyons, Jacques Montgolfier says that a +French copy of Priestley's <i>Experiments relating to the Different Kinds +of Air</i> came in his way, and was to him like light in darkness; as from +that moment he conceived the possibility of navigating the air, but, +after some experiments in gas, he again tried smoke and hot air.</p> + +<p>In Paris this intelligence caused a meeting of savants, who, by the +advice of M. Faujas de Saint-Fond, started a public subscription for +defraying the expense of making inflammable gas (hydrogen), the +materials of which were expensive: one thousand pounds of iron filings +and four hundred ninety-eight pounds of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> sulphuric acid were consumed to +fill a globular bag of varnished silk, which, for the first time, was +designated a ballon, or balloon, as we call it, meaning a great ball.</p> + +<p>The filling commenced on August 23d, in the Place des Victoires. +Bulletins were published daily of its progress, but, as the crowd was +found to be immense, it was moved on the night of the 26th to the +Champ-de-Mars, a distance of two miles. It was done secretly and in the +dark, to avoid a mob.</p> + +<p>A description by an eye-witness is as follows: "No more wonderful scene +could be imagined than the balloon being thus conveyed, preceded by +lighted torches, surrounded by a <i>cortēge</i>, and escorted by a +detachment of foot and horse-guards; the nocturnal march, the form and +capacity of the body carried with so much precaution; the silence that +reigned, the unseasonable hour, all tended to give a singularity and +mystery truly imposing to all those who were unacquainted with the +cause. The cab-drivers on the road were so astonished that they were +impelled to stop their carriages, and to kneel humbly, hat in hand, +while the procession was passing."</p> + +<p>In the morning the Champ-de-Mars was lined with troops, every house to +its very top, and every avenue, was crowded with anxious spectators. The +discharge of a cannon at 5 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> was the signal for ascent, and the globe +rose, to the great surprise of the spectators, to a height of three +thousand one hundred twenty-three feet in two minutes, where it entered +the clouds. The heavy rain which descended as it rose did not impede, +and tended to increase, surprise. The idea that a body leaving the earth +was travelling in space was so sublime, and appeared to differ so +greatly from ordinary laws, that all the spectators were overwhelmed +with enthusiasm. The satisfaction was so great that ladies in the +greatest fashions allowed themselves to be drenched with rain, to avoid +losing sight of the globe for an instant.</p> + +<p>The balloon, after remaining in the atmosphere three-quarters of an +hour, fell in a field near Gonesse, a village fifteen miles from the +Champ-de-Mars. The descent was imputed to a tear in the silk.</p> + +<p>The effect on the inhabitants of this village well illustrates that the +human character with an unawakened intellect is the same in all +countries and ages:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span></p> + +<p>"For on first sight it is supposed by many to have come from another +world; many fly; others, more sensible, think it a monstrous bird. After +it has alighted, there is yet motion in it from the gas it still +contains. A small crowd gains courage from numbers, and for an hour +approaches by gradual steps, hoping meanwhile the monster will take +flight. At length one bolder than the rest takes his gun, stalks +carefully to within shot, fires, witnesses the monster shrink, gives a +shout of triumph, and the crowd rushes in with flails and pitchforks. +One tears what he thinks to be the skin, and causes a poisonous stench; +again all retire. Shame, no doubt, now urges them on, and they tie the +cause of alarm to a horse's tail, who gallops across the country, +tearing it to shreds."</p> + +<p>A similar tale has lately been told me as having occurred in Persia, +where a fire-balloon was let off by some French visitors to the Shah's +palace at Teheran, when it alighted. No less than three shots were fired +at it when on the ground, before anyone would venture nearer.</p> + +<p>It is no wonder, then, that the paternal government of France deemed it +necessary to publish the following "<i>avertissement</i>" to the public:</p> + + +<h4>"INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE ON THE ASCENT OF BALLOONS, OR GLOBES, IN THE +AIR</h4> + +<p class="right">"<span class="smcap">Paris</span>, August 27, 1783.</p> + +<p>"The one in question has been raised in Paris this said day, +August 27, 1783, at 5 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, in the Champ-de-Mars.</p> + +<p>"A discovery has been made, which the Government deems it +right to make known, so that alarm be not occasioned to the +people.</p> + +<p>"On calculating the different weights of inflammable and +common air, it has been found that a balloon filled with +inflammable air will rise toward heaven till it is in +equilibrium with the surrounding air; which may not happen +till it has attained a great height.</p> + +<p>"The first experiment was made at Annonay, in Vivarais, by +Messrs. Montgolfier, the inventors. A globe formed of canvas +and paper, 105 feet in circumference, filled with +inflammable air, reached an incalculated height.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p> + +<p>"The same experiment has just been renewed at Paris (August +27th, 5 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>), in presence of a great crowd. A globe of +taffeta, covered with elastic gum, thirty-six feet in +circumference, has risen from the Champ-de-Mars, and been +lost to view in the clouds, being borne in a northeasterly +direction; one cannot foresee where it will descend.</p> + +<p>"It is proposed to repeat these experiments on a larger +scale. Any one who shall see in the sky such a globe (which +resembles the moon in shadow) should be aware that, far from +being an alarming phenomenon, it is only a machine, made of +taffeta or light canvas, covered with paper, that cannot +possibly cause any harm, and which will some day prove +serviceable to the wants of society.</p> + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'>"Read and approved, September 3, 1783.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='right'>"<span class="smcap">De Sauvigny.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>"Permission for printing.</td><td align='right'><span class="smcap">Lenoir.</span>"</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<p>Balloons made of paper and goldbeater's-skin were now sent up by +amateurs from all places which this intelligence reached; and in +September another important step was made, an account of which, and of +the ascents which followed during the next two years, I take from the +quaint but graphic <i>History of Aërostation</i>, by Tiberius Cavallo.</p> + +<p>Tiberius Cavallo was an electrician and natural philosopher, born at +Naples, 1749. He came to England in 1771, where he devoted his time to +science and literature till his death, in 1809.</p> + +<p>On September 19, 1783, the King, Queen,<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> the court, and innumerable +people of every rank and age assembled at Versailles, Jacques +Montgolfier being present to explain every particular. About one o'clock +the fire was lighted, in consequence of which the machine began to +swell, acquired a convex form, soon stretched itself on every side, and +in eleven minutes' time, the cords being cut, it ascended, together with +a wicker cage, which was fastened to it by a rope. In this cage they had +put a sheep, a cock, and a duck, which were the first animals that ever +ascended into the atmosphere with an aërostatic machine. When the +machine went up, its power of ascension or levity was six hundred +ninety-six pounds, allowing for the cage and animals.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span></p> +<p>The machine raised itself to the height of about one thousand four +hundred forty feet; and being carried by the wind, it fell gradually in +the wood of Vaucresson, at the distance of ten thousand two hundred feet +from Versailles, after remaining in the atmosphere only eight minutes. +Two game-keepers, who were accidentally in the wood, saw the machine +fall very gently, so that it just bent the branches of the trees upon +which it alighted. The long rope to which the cage was fastened, +striking against the wood, was broken, and the cage came to the ground +without hurting in the least the animals that were in it, so that the +sheep was even found feeding. The cock, indeed, had its right wing +somewhat hurt; but this was the consequence of a kick it had received +from the sheep, at least half an hour before, in presence of at least +ten witnesses.</p> + +<p>It has been sufficiently demonstrated by experiments that little or no +danger is to be apprehended by a man who ascends with such an aërostatic +machine. The steadiness of the aërostat while in the air, its gradual +and gentle descent, the safety of the animals that were sent up with it +in the last-mentioned experiment, and every other observation that could +be deduced from all the experiments hitherto made in this new field of +inquiry seem more than sufficient to expel any fear for such an +enterprise; but as no man had yet ventured in it, and as most of the +attempts at flying, or of ascending into the atmosphere, on the most +plausible schemes, had from time immemorial destroyed the reputation or +the lives of the adventurers, we may easily imagine and forgive the +hesitation that men might express, of going up with one of those +machines: and history will probably record, to the remotest posterity, +the name of M. Pilâtre de Rozier, who had the courage of first venturing +to ascend with a machine, which in a few years hence the most timid +woman will perhaps not hesitate to trust herself to.</p> + +<p>The King, aware of the difficulties, ordered that two men under sentence +of death should be sent up; but Pilâtre de Rozier was indignant, saying, +"<i>Eh quoi! de vils criminels auraient les premiers la gloire de s'élever +dans les airs! Non, non cela ne sera point!</i>" ("What! Vile criminals to +have the glory of the first aërial ascension! No, not on any account!") +He stirs up the city in his behalf, and the King at length yields to the +earnest entreaties<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> of the Marquis d'Arlandes, who said that he would +accompany him.</p> + +<p>Scarce ten months had elapsed since M. Montgolfier made his first +aërostatic experiment, when M. Pilâtre de Rozier publicly offered +himself to be the first adventurer in the newly invented aërial machine. +His offer was accepted; his courage remained undaunted; and on October +15, 1783, he actually ascended, to the astonishment of a gazing +multitude. The following are the particulars of this experiment:</p> + +<p>"The accident which happened to the aërostatic machine at Versailles, +and its imperfect construction, induced M. Montgolfier to construct +another machine, of a larger size and more solid. With this intent, +sufficient time was allowed for the work to be properly done; and by +October 10th the aërostat was completed, in a garden in the Faubourg +St.-Antoine. It had an oval shape; its diameter being about forty-eight +feet, and its height about seventy-four. The outside was elegantly +painted and decorated with the signs of the zodiac, with the cipher of +the King's name in <i>fleurs-de-lis</i>, etc. The aperture or lower part of +the machine had a wicker gallery about three feet broad, with a +balustrade both within and without about three feet high. The inner +diameter of this gallery, and of the aperture of the machine, the neck +of which passed through it, was near sixteen feet. In the middle of this +aperture an iron grate or brazier was supported by chains which came +down from the sides of the machine.</p> + +<p>"In this construction, when the machine was in the air, with a fire +lighted in the grate, it was easy for a person who stood in the gallery, +and had fuel with him, to keep up the fire in the mouth of the machine, +by throwing the fuel on the grate through port-holes made in the neck of +the machine. By this means it was expected, as indeed it was found by +experience, that the machine might have been kept up as long as the +person in its gallery thought proper, or while he had fuel to supply the +fire with. The weight of this aërostat was upward of 16,000 pounds.</p> + +<p>"On Wednesday, October 15th, this memorable experiment was performed. +The fire being lighted, and the machine inflated, M. Pilâtre de Rozier +placed himself in the gallery, and, after a few trials close to the +ground, he desired to ascend to a great height; the machine was +accordingly permitted to rise, and it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> ascended as high as the ropes, +which were purposely placed to detain it, would allow, which was about +eighty-four feet from the ground. There M. de Rozier kept the machine +afloat during four minutes twenty-five seconds, by throwing straw and +wool into the grate to keep up the fire; then the machine descended very +gently; but such was its tendency to ascend, that after touching the +ground, the moment M. de Rozier came out of the gallery, it rebounded +again to a considerable height. The intrepid adventurer, returning from +the sky, assured his friends, and the multitude that gazed on him with +admiration, with wonder, and with fear, that he had not experienced the +least inconvenience, either in going up, in remaining there, or in +descending; no giddiness, no incommoding motion, no shock whatever. He +received the compliments due to his courage and audacity, having shown +the world the accomplishment of that which had been for ages desired, +but attempted in vain.</p> + +<p>"On October 17th, M. Pilâtre de Rozier repeated the experiment with +nearly the same success as he had two days before. The machine was +elevated to about the same height, being still detained by ropes; but +the wind being strong, it did not sustain itself so well, and +consequently did not afford so fine a spectacle to the concourse of +people, which at this time was much greater than at the preceding +experiment.</p> + +<p>"On the Sunday following, which was the 19th, the weather proving +favorable, M. Montgolfier employed his machine to make the following +experiments. At half past four o'clock the machine was filled, in five +minutes' time; then M. Pilâtre de Rozier placed himself in the gallery, +a counterpoise of 100 pounds being put in the opposite side of it, to +preserve the balance. The size of the gallery had now been diminished. +The machine was permitted to ascend to the height of about 210 feet, +where it remained during six minutes, not having any fire in the grate; +and then it descended very gently.</p> + +<p>"Soon after, everything remaining as before, except that now a fire was +put into the grate, the machine was permitted to ascend to about 262 +feet, where it remained stationary during eight minutes and a half. On +pulling it down, a gust of wind carried it over some large trees in an +adjoining garden, where it would have been in great danger had not M. de +Rozier, with great presence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> of mind and address, increased the fire by +throwing some straw upon it; by which means the machine was extricated +from so dangerous a situation, and rose majestically to its former +situation, among the acclamations of the spectators. On descending, M. +de Rozier threw some straw upon the fire, which made the machine ascend +once more, remaining up for about the same length of time.</p> + +<p>"This experiment showed that the aërostat may be made to ascend and +descend at the pleasure of those who are in it; to effect which, they +have nothing more to do than to increase or diminish the fire in the +grate; which was an important point in the subject of aërostation.</p> + +<p>"After this, the machine was raised again with two persons in its +gallery, M. Pilâtre de Rozier and M. Girond de Villette, the latter of +whom was therefore the second aërostatic adventurer. The machine +ascended to the height of about 300 feet, where it remained perfectly +steady for at least nine minutes, hovering over Paris, in sight of its +numerous inhabitants, many of whom could plainly distinguish, through +telescopes, the aërostatic adventurers, and especially M. de Rozier, who +was busy in managing the fire. When the machine came down, the Marquis +d'Arlandes, a major of infantry, took the place of M. Villette, and the +balloon was sent up once more. This last experiment was attended with +the same success as the preceding; which proved that the persons who +ascended with the machine did not suffer the least inconvenience, owing +to the gradual and gentle ascent and descent of the machine, and to its +steadiness or equilibrium while it remained in the air.</p> + +<p>"If we consider for a moment the sensation which these first aërial +adventurers must have felt in their exalted situation, we can almost +feel the contagion of their thrilling experience ourselves. Imagine a +man elevated to such a height, into immense space, by means altogether +new, viewing under his feet, like a map, a vast tract of country, with +one of the greatest existing cities—the streets and environs of which +were crowded with spectators—attentive to him alone, and all expressing +in every possible manner their amazement and anxiety. Reflect on the +prospect, the encomiums, and the consequences; then see if your mind +remains in a state of quiet indifference.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span></p> + +<p>"An instructive observation may be derived from these experiments; which +is, that when an aërostatic machine is attached to the earth by +ropes—especially when it is at a considerable height—the wind, blowing +on it, will drive it in its own horizontal direction; so that the cords +which hold the machine must make an angle with the horizon (which is +greater when the wind is stronger, and contrariwise); in consequence of +which the machine must be severely strained, it being acted on by three +forces in three different directions; namely, its power of ascension, +the tension of the ropes, which is opposite to the first, and the action +of the wind, which is across the other two. It is therefore infinitely +more judicious to abandon the machine entirely to the air, because it +will then stand perfectly balanced, and, therefore, under no strain +whatever."</p> + +<p>In consequence of the report of the foregoing experiments, signed by the +commissaries of the Academy of Sciences, that learned and respectable +body ordered: (1) That the said report should be printed and published; +and (2) that the annual prize of six hundred livres, from the fund +provided by an anonymous citizen, be given to Messrs. Montgolfier, for +the year 1783.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span></p> +<h2>FRAMING OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES</h2> + +<h4><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1787</h4> + +<h3>ANDREW W. YOUNG JOSEPH STORY</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>It was a "critical period of American history" in which the +fundamental or organic law of the United States, the Federal +Constitution, was formulated. That instrument has not only +commanded the reverence of American patriots—statesmen and +people—during a century and more; it has engaged the +attentive study and aroused the respect and admiration of +foreign students and critics of political institutions. +"After all deductions," says Bryce, it "ranks above every +other written constitution, for the intrinsic excellence of +its scheme, its adaptation to the circumstances of the +people, the simplicity, brevity, and precision of its +language, its judicious mixture of definiteness in principle +with elasticity in details."</p> + +<p>The story of this Constitution is as plain and simple as any +in American annals; yet its real features have sometimes +been missed even by friendly commentators. It is a mistake +to say, with Gladstone, that "it is the greatest work ever +struck off at any one time by the mind and purpose of man," +for the true record of its making shows how deliberate and +difficult the process was. Equally misleading is the +judgment of so profound a master in legal history as Sir +Henry Sumner Maine, when he says that the "Constitution of +the United States is a modified version of the British +Constitution which was in existence between 1760 and 1787."</p> + +<p>A juster view is held by the critical scholars of America, a +view which indeed should be deducible, without need of +special scholarship, from the recorded history of the +Constitutional period. "The real source of the +Constitution," says a living American historian, "is the +experience of Americans. They had established and developed +admirable little commonwealths in the colonies; since the +beginning of the Revolution they had had experience of State +governments organized on a different basis from the +colonial; and, finally, they had carried on two successive +national governments, with which they had been profoundly +discontented. The general outline of the new Constitution +seems to be English; it was really colonial."</p> + +<p>From the year 1775 there was a federal union in which each +colony regulated its internal affairs by its own +constitution, while the general affairs of the union were +controlled by the Continental Congress. This<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> mode was +substantially continued after the colonies (1776-1779) +became States, with new State constitutions. It was not +finally superseded until the Articles of Confederation, +adopted by the Continental Congress in 1777, had been +ratified by all the separate colonies or States. Under the +articles a new government went into effect March 1, 1781.</p> + +<p>The Articles of Confederation proving inadequate to the +requirements of the Federal Government, it came to be seen +that a general revision of them was needed, and a convention +for that purpose was called. This convention went beyond its +original purpose, which proved impracticable, and took upon +itself the task of framing wholly anew the present +Constitution of the United States. The following accounts +furnish the reader with the circumstances which directly led +to the calling of the convention, and with a clear and +concise report of its proceedings and the subsequent action +thereon taken by the States.</p></div> + + +<h4>ANDREW W. YOUNG</h4> + +<p>The day appointed for the assembling of the Convention<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> to revise the +Articles of Confederation was May 14, 1787. Delegations from a majority +of the States did not attend until the 25th, on which day the business +of the convention commenced. The delegates from New Hampshire did not +arrive until July 23d. Rhode Island did not appoint delegates.</p> + +<p>A political body combining greater talents, wisdom, and patriotism, or +whose labors have produced results more beneficial to the cause of civil +and religious liberty, has probably never assembled. The two most +distinguished members were Washington and Franklin, to whom the eyes of +the convention were directed for a presiding officer. Washington, having +been nominated by Lewis Morris, of Pennsylvania, was elected president +of the convention. William Jackson was appointed secretary. The rules of +proceeding adopted by the convention were chiefly the same as those of +Congress. A quorum was to consist of the deputies of at least seven +States, and all questions were to be decided by the greater number of +those which were fully represented—at least two delegates being +necessary to constitute a full representation. Another rule was the +injunction of secrecy upon all their proceedings.</p> + +<p>The first important question determined by the convention was, whether +the confederation should be amended or a new government formed? The +delegates of some States had been instructed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> only to amend. And the +resolution of Congress sanctioning a call for a convention recommended +it "for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of +Confederation." A majority, however, considering the plan of +confederation radically defective, resolved to form "a national +government, consisting of a supreme judicial, legislative, and +executive." The objection to the new system on the ground of previous +instructions was deemed of little weight, as any plan that might be +agreed on would necessarily be submitted to the people of the States for +ratification.</p> + +<p>In conformity with this decision Edmund Randolph, of Virginia, on May +29th, offered fifteen resolutions, containing the outlines of a plan of +government for the consideration of the convention. These resolutions +proposed: That the voice of each State in the National Legislature +should be in proportion to its taxes or to its free population; that the +Legislature should consist of two branches, the members of the first to +be elected by the people of the States, those of the second to be chosen +by the members of the first, out of a proper number of persons nominated +by the State legislatures; and the National Legislature to be vested +with all the powers of "Congress under the Confederation," with the +additional power to legislate in all cases to which the separate States +were incompetent; to negative all State laws which should, in the +opinion of the National Legislature, be repugnant to the Articles of +Union or to any treaty subsisting under them; to call out the force of +the Union against any State refusing to fulfil its duty:</p> + +<p>That there should be a national executive, to be chosen by the National +Legislature, and to be ineligible a second time. The executive, with a +convenient number of the national judiciary, was to constitute a council +of revision, with a qualified negative upon all laws, State and +national:</p> + +<p>A national judiciary, the judges to hold their offices during good +behavior.</p> + +<p>In discussing this plan, called the "Virginia plan," the lines of party +were distinctly drawn. We have already had occasion to allude to the +jealousy, on the part of States, of the power of the General Government. +A majority of the peculiar friends of State rights in the convention +were from the small States. These<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> States, apprehending danger from the +overwhelming power of a strong national government, as well as from the +combined power of the large States, represented in proportion to their +wealth and population, were unwilling to be deprived of their equal vote +in Congress. Not less strenuously did the friends of the national plan +insist on a proportional representation. This opposition of sentiment, +which divided the convention into parties, did not terminate with the +proceedings of that body, but has at times marked the politics of the +nation down to the present day. It is worthy of remark, however, that +the most jealous regard for State rights now prevails in States in which +the plan of a national government then found its ablest and most zealous +advocates.</p> + +<p>The plan suggested by Randolph's resolutions was the subject of +deliberation for about two weeks, when, having been in several respects +modified in committee, and reduced to form, it was reported to the +House. It contained the following provisions:</p> + +<p>A national legislature to consist of two branches, the first to be +elected by the people for three years; the second to be chosen by the +State legislatures for seven years, the members of both branches to be +apportioned on the basis finally adopted; the Legislature to possess +powers nearly the same as those originally proposed by Edmund Randolph. +The executive was to consist of a single person to be chosen by the +National Legislature for seven years, and limited to a single term, and +to have a qualified veto; all bills not approved by him to be passed by +a vote of three-fourths of both Houses in order to become laws. A +national judiciary to consist of a supreme court, the judges to be +appointed by the second branch of the Legislature for the term of good +behavior, and of such inferior courts as Congress might think proper to +establish.</p> + +<p>This plan being highly objectionable to the State rights party, a scheme +agreeable to their views was submitted by William Paterson, of New +Jersey. This scheme, called the "New Jersey plan," proposed no +alteration in the constitution of the Legislature, but simply to give it +the additional power to raise a revenue by duties on foreign goods +imported, and by stamp and postage taxes; to regulate trade with foreign +nations and among the States; and, when requisitions made upon the +States were not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> complied with, to collect them by its own authority. +The plan proposed a federal executive, to consist of a number of persons +selected by Congress; and a federal judiciary, the judges to be +appointed by the executive, and to hold their offices during good +behavior.</p> + +<p>The Virginia and New Jersey plans were now (June 19th) referred to a new +committee of the whole. Another debate arose, in which the powers of the +convention was the principal subject of discussion. It was again urged +that their power had been, by express instruction, limited to an +amendment of the existing confederation, and that the new system would +not be adopted by the States. The vote was taken on the 19th, and the +propositions of William Paterson were rejected; only New York, New +Jersey, and Delaware voting in the affirmative; seven States in the +negative, and the members from Maryland equally divided.</p> + +<p>Randolph's propositions, as modified and reported by the committee of +the whole, were now taken up and considered separately. The division of +the Legislature into two branches, a House of Representatives and a +Senate, was agreed to almost unanimously, one State only, Pennsylvania, +dissenting; but the proposition to apportion the members to the States +according to population was violently opposed. The small States insisted +strenuously on retaining an equal vote in the Legislature, but at length +consented to a proportional representation in the House on condition +that they should have an equal vote in the Senate.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, on June 29th, Oliver Ellsworth, of Connecticut, offered a +motion, "that in the second branch, each State shall have an equal +vote." This motion gave rise to a protracted and vehement debate. It was +supported by Messrs. Ellsworth; Baldwin, of Georgia; Bradford, of +Delaware, and others. It was urged on the ground of the necessity of a +compromise between the friends of the confederation and those of a +national government, and as a measure which would secure tranquillity +and meet the objections of the larger States. Equal representation in +one branch would make the government partly federal, and a proportional +representation in the other would make it partly national. Equality in +the second branch would enable the small States to protect themselves +against the combined power of the large States.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> Fears were expressed +that without this advantage to the small States, it would be in the +power of a few large States to control the rest. The small States, it +was said, must possess this power of self-defence, or be ruined.</p> + +<p>The motion was opposed by Messrs. Madison, Wilson, of Pennsylvania; +King, of Massachusetts, and Dr. Franklin. Mr. Madison thought there was +no danger from the quarter from which it was apprehended. The great +source of danger to the General Government was the opposing interests of +the North and the South, as would appear from the votes of Congress, +which had been divided by geographical lines, not according to the size +of the States. James Wilson objected to State equality; that it would +enable one-fourth of the Union to control three-fourths. Respecting the +danger of the three larger States combining together to give rise to a +monarchy or an aristocracy, he thought it more probable that a rivalship +would exist between them than that they would unite in a confederacy. +Rufus King said the rights of Scotland were secure from all danger, +though in the Parliament she had a small representation. Dr. Franklin, +now in his eighty-second year, said, as it was not easy to see what the +greater States could gain by swallowing up the smaller, he did not +apprehend they would attempt it. In voting by States—the mode then +existing—it was equally in the power of the smaller States to swallow +up the greater. He thought the number of representatives ought to bear +some proportion to the number of the represented.</p> + +<p>On July 2d the question was taken on Mr. Ellsworth's motion, and lost: +Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland voting in the +affirmative; Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, and +South Carolina in the negative; Georgia divided. It will be remembered +that the delegates from New Hampshire were not yet present, and that +Rhode Island had appointed none. This has been regarded by some as a +fortunate circumstance, as the votes of these two small States would +probably have given an equal vote to the States in both Houses, if not +have defeated the plan of national government.</p> + +<p>The excitement now became intense, and the convention seemed to be on +the point of dissolution. Luther Martin, of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> Maryland, who had taken a +leading part in advocating the views of the State rights party, said +each State must have an equal vote, or the business of the convention +was at an end. It having become apparent that this unhappy result could +be avoided only by a compromise, Roger Sherman, of Connecticut, moved +the appointment of a committee of conference, to consist of one member +from each State, and the motion prevailed. The convention then adjourned +for three days, thus giving time for consultation, and an opportunity to +celebrate the anniversary of independence.</p> + +<p>The report of this committee, which was made on July 5th, proposed: (1) +That in the first branch of the Legislature each State should have one +representative for every forty thousand inhabitants (three-fifths of the +slaves being counted); that each State not containing that number should +be allowed one representative; and that money bills should originate in +this branch; (2) that in the second branch each State should have one +vote. These propositions were reported, it is said, at the suggestion of +Dr. Franklin, one of the committee of conference.</p> + +<p>The report, of course, met with greater favor from the State rights +party than from their opponents. The equal vote in the Senate continued +to receive the most determined opposition from the National party. In +relation to the rule of representation in the first branch of the +Legislature, also, a great diversity of opinion prevailed. The +conflicting interests to be reconciled in the settlement of this +question, however, were those of the Northern and Southern, commercial +and planting, rather than the imaginary interests of small and large +States.</p> + +<p>In settling a rule of apportionment, several questions were to be +considered: What should be the number of representatives in the first +branch of the Legislature? Ought the number from each State to be fixed, +or to increase with the increase of population? Ought population alone +to be the basis of apportionment, or should property be taken into +account? Whatever rule might be adopted, no apportionment founded upon +population could be made until an enumeration of the inhabitants should +have been taken. The number of representatives was, therefore, for the +time being, fixed at sixty-five, and apportioned as directed by the +Constitution.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span></p> + +<p>In establishing a rule of future apportionment, great diversity of +opinion was expressed. Although slavery then existed in all the States +except Massachusetts, the great mass of the slave population was in the +Southern States. These States claimed a representation according to +numbers, bond and free, while the Northern States were in favor of a +representation according to the number of free persons only. This rule +was forcibly urged by several of the Northern delegates. Mr. Paterson +regarded slaves only as property. They were not represented in the +States; why should they be in the General Government? They were not +allowed to vote; why should they be represented? It was an encouragement +of the slave trade. Said Mr. Wilson: "Are they admitted as citizens? +Then why not on an equality with citizens? Are they admitted as +property? Then why is not other property admitted into the computation?" +A large portion of the members of the convention, from both sections of +the Union, aware that neither extreme could be carried, favored the +proposition to count the whole number of free citizens and three-fifths +of all others.</p> + +<p>Prior to this discussion, a select committee, to whom this subject had +been referred, had reported in favor of a distribution of the members on +the basis of wealth and numbers, to be regulated by the Legislature. +Before the question was taken on this report, a proviso was moved and +agreed to that direct taxes should be in proportion to representation. +Subsequently a proposition was moved for reckoning three-fifths of the +slaves in estimating taxes, and making taxation the basis of +representation, which was adopted, New Jersey and Delaware against it, +Massachusetts and South Carolina divided; New York not represented, her +three delegates being all absent. Yates and Lansing, both of the State +rights party, considering their powers explicitly confined to a revision +of the confederation, and being chagrined at the defeat of their +attempts to secure an equal vote in the first branch of the Legislature, +had left the convention, not to return. From that time (July 11th) New +York had no vote in the convention. Alexander Hamilton had left before +the others, to be absent six weeks; and though he returned and took part +in the deliberations, the State, not having two delegates present, was +not entitled to a vote. On the 23d Gilman and Langdon, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> delegates +from New Hampshire, arrived, when eleven States were again represented.</p> + +<p>The term of service of members of the first branch was reduced to two +years, and of those of the second branch to six years; one-third of the +members of the latter to go out of office every two years; the +representation in this body to consist of two members from each State, +voting individually, as in the other branch, and not by States, as under +the confederation. Sundry other modifications were made in the +provisions relating to this department.</p> + +<p>The reported plan of the executive department was next considered. After +much discussion, and several attempts to strike out the ineligibility of +the executive a second time, and to change the term of office and the +mode of election, these provisions were retained.</p> + +<p>The report of the committee of the whole, as amended, was accepted by +the convention, and, together with the New Jersey plan, and a third +drawn by Charles Pinckney, of South Carolina, was referred to a +committee of detail, consisting of Messrs. Rutledge, Randolph, Gorham, +Ellsworth, and Wilson, who, on August 6th, after an adjournment of ten +days, reported the Constitution in proper form, having inserted some new +provisions and altered certain others. Our prescribed limits forbid a +particular account of the subsequent alterations which the Constitution +received before it was finally adopted by the convention. There is one +provision, however, which, as it forms one of the great "Compromises of +the Constitution," deserves notice.</p> + +<p>To render the Constitution acceptable to the Southern States, which were +the principal exporting States, the committee of detail had inserted a +clause providing that no duties should be laid on exports, or on slaves +imported; and another, that no navigation act might be passed except by +a two-thirds vote. By depriving Congress of the power of giving any +preference to American over foreign shipping, it was designed to secure +cheap transportation to Southern exports. As the shipping was +principally owned in the Eastern States, their delegates were equally +anxious to prevent any restriction of the power of Congress to pass +navigation laws. All the States, except North Carolina, South Carolina, +and Georgia, had prohibited the importation of slaves; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> North +Carolina had proceeded so far as to discourage the importation by heavy +duties. The prohibition of duties on the importation of slaves was +demanded by the delegates from South Carolina and Georgia, who declared +that, without a provision of this kind, the Constitution would not +receive the assent of these States. The support which the proposed +restriction received from other States was given to it from a +disposition to compromise, rather than from an approval of the measure +itself. The proposition not only gave rise to a discussion of its own +merits, but revived the opposition to the apportionment of +representatives according to the three-fifths ratio, and called forth +some severe denunciations of slavery.</p> + +<p>Rufus King, in reference to the admission of slaves as a part of the +representative population, remarked: "He had not made a strenuous +opposition to it heretofore because he had hoped that this concession +would have produced a readiness, which had not been manifested, to +strengthen the General Government. The report of the committee put an +end to all these hopes. The importation of slaves could not be +prohibited; exports could not be taxed. If slaves are to be imported, +shall not the exports produced by their labor supply a revenue to help +the government defend their masters? There was so much inequality and +unreasonableness in all this that the people of the Northern States +could never be reconciled to it. He had hoped that some accommodation +would have taken place on the subject; that at least a time would have +been limited for the importation of slaves. He could never agree to let +them be imported without limitation, and then be represented in the +National Legislature. Either slaves should not be represented, or +exports should be taxable."</p> + +<p>Gouverneur Morris pronounced slavery "a nefarious institution. It was +the curse of Heaven on the States where it prevailed. Compare the free +regions of the Middle States, where a rich and noble cultivation marks +the prosperity and happiness of the people, with the misery and poverty +which overspread the barren wastes of Virginia, Maryland, and the other +States having slaves. Travel through the whole continent, and you behold +the prospect continually varying with the appearance and disappearance +of slavery. The admission of slaves into the representation, when fairly +explained, comes to this, that the inhabitant of Georgia<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> and South +Carolina, who goes to the coast of Africa in defiance of the most sacred +laws of humanity, tears away his fellow-creatures from their dearest +connections, and damns them to the most cruel bondage, shall have more +votes in a government instituted for the protection of the rights of +mankind, than the citizen of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, who views with +a laudable horror so nefarious a practice.</p> + +<p>"And what is the proposed compensation to the Northern States for a +sacrifice of every principle of right, every impulse of humanity? They +are to bind themselves to march their militia for the defence of the +Southern States, against those very slaves of whom they complain. The +Legislature will have indefinite power to tax them by excises and duties +on imports, both of which will fall heavier on them than on the Southern +inhabitants; for the Bohea tea used by a Northern freeman will pay more +tax than the whole consumption of the miserable slave, which consists of +nothing more than his physical subsistence and the rag which covers his +nakedness. On the other side, the Southern States are not to be +restrained from importing fresh supplies of wretched Africans, at once +to increase the danger of attack and the difficulty of defence; nay, +they are to be encouraged to it by an assurance of having their votes in +the National Government increased in proportion, and, at the same time, +are to have their slaves and their exports exempt from all contributions +to the public service." Gouverneur Morris moved to make the free +population alone the basis of representation.</p> + +<p>Roger Sherman, who had on other occasions manifested a disposition to +compromise, again favored the Southern side. He "did not regard the +admission of the negroes as liable to such insuperable objections. It +was the freemen of the Southern States who were to be represented +according to the taxes paid by them, and the negroes are only included +in the estimate of the taxes."</p> + +<p>After some further discussion the question was taken upon Morris' +motion, and lost, New Jersey only voting for it.</p> + +<p>With respect to prohibiting any restriction upon the importation of +slaves, Luther Martin, of Maryland, who moved to allow a tax upon slaves +imported, remarked: "As five slaves in the apportionment of +representatives were reckoned as equal to three<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> freemen, such a +permission amounted to an encouragement of the slave trade. Slaves +weakened the Union which the other parts were bound to protect; the +privilege of importing them was therefore unreasonable. Such a feature +in the Constitution was inconsistent with the principles of the +Revolution, and dishonorable to the American character."</p> + +<p>John Rutledge "did not see how this section would encourage the +importation of slaves. He was not apprehensive of insurrections, and +would readily exempt the other States from every obligation to protect +the South. Religion and humanity had nothing to do with this question. +Interest alone is the governing principle with nations. The true +question at present is, whether the Southern States shall or shall not +be parties to the Union? If the Northern States consult their interest, +they will not oppose the increase of slaves, which will increase the +commodities of which they will become the carriers."</p> + +<p>Oliver Ellsworth said: "Let every State import what it pleases. The +morality or wisdom of slavery is a consideration belonging to the +States. What enriches a part enriches the whole, and the States are the +best judges of their particular interests."</p> + +<p>Charles Pinckney said: "South Carolina can never receive the plan if it +prohibits the slave trade. If the States be left at liberty on this +subject, South Carolina may, perhaps, by degrees, do of herself what is +wished, as Maryland and Virginia already have done."</p> + +<p>Roger Sherman concurred with his colleague Mr. Ellsworth. "He +disapproved of the slave trade; but as the States now possessed the +right, and the public good did not require it to be taken away, and as +it was expedient to have as few objections as possible to the proposed +scheme of government, he would leave the matter as he found it. The +abolition of slavery seemed to be going on, and the good sense of the +several States would probably, by degrees, soon complete it."</p> + +<p>George Mason said: "Slavery discourages arts and manufactures. The poor +despise labor when performed by slaves. They prevent the immigration of +whites, who really enrich and strengthen a country. They produce a +pernicious effect on manners. Every master of slaves is born a petty +tyrant. They bring<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> the judgment of Heaven on a country. He lamented +that some of our Eastern brethren, from a lust of gain, had embarked in +this nefarious traffic. As to the States being in possession of the +right to import, that was the case of many other rights now to be given +up. He held it essential, in every point of view, that the General +Government should have power to prevent the increase of slavery."</p> + +<p>Ellsworth, not well pleased with this thrust at his slave-trading +friends at the North by a slaveholder, tartly replied: "As I have never +owned a slave, I cannot judge of the effects of slavery on character; +but if slavery is to be considered in a moral light, the convention +ought to go further, and free those already in the country." The +opposition of Virginia and Maryland to the importation of slaves he +attributed to the fact that, on account of their rapid increase in those +States, "it was cheaper to raise them there than to import them, while +in the sickly rice-swamps foreign supplies were necessary. If we stop +short with prohibiting their importation, we shall be unjust to South +Carolina and Georgia. Let us not intermeddle. As population increases, +poor laborers will be so plenty as to render slaves useless. Slavery, in +time, will not be a speck in our country."</p> + +<p>Delegates from South Carolina and Georgia repeated the declaration that +"if the slave trade were prohibited, these States would not adopt the +Constitution." "Virginia," it was said, "would gain by stopping the +importation, she having slaves to sell; but it would be unjust to South +Carolina and Georgia to be deprived of the right of importing. Besides, +the importation of slaves would be a benefit to the whole Union: The +more slaves, the more produce, the greater carrying trade, the more +consumption, the more revenue."</p> + +<p>The injustice of exempting slaves from duty, while every other import +was subject to it, having been urged by several members in the course of +the debate, Charles Pinckney expressed his consent to a tax not +exceeding the same on other imports, and moved to refer the subject to a +committee. The motion was seconded by John Rutledge, and, at the +suggestion of Gouverneur Morris, was so modified as to include the +clauses relating to navigation laws and taxes on exports. The commitment +was opposed by Messrs. Sherman and Ellsworth; the former on the ground +that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> taxes on slaves imported implied that they were property; the +latter from the fear of losing two States. Edmund Randolph was in favor +of the motion, hoping to find some middle ground upon which they could +unite. The motion prevailed, and the subject was referred to a committee +of one from each State. The committee retained the prohibition of duties +on exports; struck out the restriction on the enactment of navigation +laws; and left the importation of slaves unrestricted until the year +1800; permitting Congress, however, to impose a duty upon the +importation.</p> + +<p>The debate upon this report of the "grand committee" is condensed, by +Hildreth, into the two following paragraphs:</p> + +<p>"Williamson declared himself, both in opinion and practice, against +slavery; but he thought it more in favor of humanity, from a view of all +circumstances, to let in South Carolina and Georgia on these terms, than +to exclude them from the Union. Sherman again objected to the tax, as +acknowledging men to be property. Gorham replied that the duty ought to +be considered, not as implying that men are property, but as a +discouragement to their importation. Sherman said the duty was too small +to bear that character. Madison thought it 'wrong to admit, in the +Constitution, the idea that there could be property in man'; and the +phraseology of one clause was subsequently altered to avoid any such +implication. Gouverneur Morris objected that the clause gave Congress +power to tax freemen imported; to which George Mason replied that such a +power was necessary to prevent the importation of convicts. A motion to +extend the time from 1800 to 1808, made by Pinckney, and seconded by +Gorham, was carried against New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and +Virginia; Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire voting this time +with Georgia and South Carolina. That part of the report which struck +out the restriction on the enactment of navigation acts was opposed by +Charles Pinckney in a set speech, in which he enumerated five distinct +commercial interests: the fisheries and West India trade, belonging to +New England; the interest of New York in a free trade; wheat and flour, +the staples of New Jersey and Pennsylvania; tobacco, the staple of +Maryland and Virginia and partly of North Carolina; rice and indigo, the +staples of South Carolina and Georgia. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> same ground was taken by +Williamson and Mason, and very warmly by Randolph, who declared that an +unlimited power in Congress to enact navigation laws would complete the +deformity of a system having already so many odious features that he +hardly knew if he could agree to it. Any restriction of the power of +Congress over commerce was warmly opposed by Gouverneur Morris, Wilson, +and Gorham. Madison also took the same side. Charles C. Pinckney did not +deny that it was the true interest of the South to have no regulation of +commerce; but considering the commercial losses of the Eastern States +during the Revolution, their liberal conduct toward the views of South +Carolina—in the vote just taken, giving eight years' further extension +to the slave trade—and the interest of the weak Southern States in +being united with the strong Eastern ones, he should go against any +restriction on the power of commercial regulation. 'He had himself +prejudices against the Eastern States before he came here, but would +acknowledge that he found them as liberal and candid as any men +whatever.' Butler and Rutledge took the same ground, and the same report +was adopted, against the votes of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, +and Georgia.</p> + +<p>"Thus, by an understanding, or, as Gouverneur Morris called it, 'a +bargain,' between the commercial representatives of the Northern States +and the delegates of South Carolina and Georgia, and in spite of the +opposition of Maryland and Virginia, the unrestricted power of Congress +to pass navigation laws was conceded to the Northern merchants; and to +the Carolina rice-planters, as an equivalent, twenty years' continuance +of the African slave trade. This was the third 'Great Compromise' of the +Constitution. The other two were the concessions to the smaller States +of an equal representation in the Senate, and, to the slaveholders, the +counting of three-fifths of the slaves in determining the ratio of +representation. If this third compromise differed from the other two by +involving not only a political but a moral sacrifice, there was this +partial compensation about it, that it was not permanent, like the +others, but expired at the end of twenty years by its own limitation."</p> + +<p>Of the important subjects remaining to be disposed of, that of the +executive department was, perhaps, the most difficult. The modified plan +of Edmund Randolph left the executive to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> elected by the Legislature +for a single term of seven years. The election was subsequently given to +a college of electors, to be chosen in the States in such manner as the +legislatures of the States should direct. The term of service was +reduced from seven years to four years, and the restriction of the +office to a single term was removed. Numerous other amendments and +additions were made in going through with the draft. This amended draft +was referred, for final revision, to a committee consisting of Messrs. +Hamilton, Johnson, G. Morris, Madison, and King. Several amendments were +made even after this revision; one of which was the substitution of a +two-thirds for the three-fourths majority required to pass bills against +the veto of the President. Another was a proposition of Mr. Gorham, to +reduce the minimum ratio of representation from forty thousand, as it +stood, to thirty thousand, intended to conciliate certain members who +thought the House too small. This was offered the day on which the +Constitution was signed. General Washington having briefly addressed the +convention in favor of the proposed amendment, it was carried almost +unanimously.</p> + +<p>The whole number of delegates who attended the convention was +fifty-five, of whom thirty-nine signed the Constitution. Of the +remaining sixteen, some had left the convention before its close; others +refused to give it their sanction. Several of the absentees were known +to be in favor of the Constitution.</p> + +<p>Some, as has been observed, were opposed to the plan of a national +government, contending for the preservation of the confederation, with a +mere enlargement of its powers; others, though in favor of the plan +adopted, believed too much power had been given to the General +Government. Some thought that not only the powers of Congress, but those +of the executive, were too extensive; others that the executive was +"weak and contemptible," and without sufficient power to defend himself +against encroachments by the Legislature; others, still, that the +executive power of the nation ought not to be intrusted in a single +person. Although some deprecated the extensive powers of the Federal +Government as dangerous to the rights of the States, "ultra democracy" +seems to have had no representatives in the convention; while, on the +other hand, there were not a few who thought it unsafe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> to trust the +people with a direct exercise of power in the General Government.</p> + +<p>Sherman and Gerry were opposed to the election of the first branch of +the Legislature by the people; as were some of the Southern delegates. +Others, among whom were Madison, Mason, and Wilson, thought no +republican government could be permanent in which the people were denied +a direct voice in the election of their representatives. Hamilton, +though in favor of making the first branch elective, proposed that the +Senate should be chosen by the people, and the executive by electors, +<i>chosen by electors</i>, who were to be chosen by the people in districts; +Senators and the President both to hold their offices during good +behavior. He was also, as were a few others, in favor of an absolute +executive veto on acts of the Legislature. He, however, signed the +Constitution, and urged others to do the same, as the only means of +preventing anarchy and confusion. While the proposed Constitution was in +every particular satisfactory to none, very few were disposed to +jeopardize the Union by the continuance of a system which <i>all</i> admitted +to be inadequate to the objects of the Union. To the hope, therefore, of +finding the new plan an improvement on the old, and of amending its +defects if any should appear, is to be attributed the general sanction +which it received.</p> + +<p>It is indeed remarkable that a plan of government, containing so many +provisions to which the most strenuous opposition was maintained to the +end, should have received the signatures of so large a majority of the +convention. Perhaps there never was another political body in which +views and interests more varied and opposite have been represented or a +greater diversity of opinion has prevailed. Nor is it less remarkable +that a system deemed so imperfect, not only by the mass of its framers, +but by a large portion of the eminent men who composed the State +conventions that ratified it, should have been found to answer so fully +the purpose of its formation as to require, during an experiment of more +than sixty years, no essential alteration; and that it should be +esteemed as a model form of republican government by the enlightened +friends of freedom in all countries.</p> + +<p>Not a single provision of the Constitution, as it came from the hands of +the framers, except that which prescribed the mode of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> electing a +President and Vice-President, has received the slightest amendment. Of +the twelve articles styled "amendments," the first eleven are merely +additions; some of which were intended to satisfy the scruples of those +who objected to the Constitution as incomplete without a bill of rights, +supposing their common-law rights would be rendered more secure by an +express guarantee; others are explanatory of certain provisions of the +Constitution which were considered liable to misconstruction. The +twelfth article is the amendment changing the mode of electing the +President and Vice-President.</p> + +<p>In the differences of opinion between the friends and opponents of the +Constitution originated the two great political parties into which the +people were divided during a period of about thirty years. It is +generally supposed that the term "Federalist" was first applied to those +who advocated the plan of the present Constitution. This opinion, +however, is not correct. Those members of the convention who were in +favor of the old plan of union, which was a simple confederation or +federal alliance of equal independent States, were called "Federalists," +and their opponents "Anti-Federalists." After the new Constitution had +been submitted to the people for ratification, its friends, regarding +its adoption as indispensable to union, took the name of "Federalists," +and bestowed upon the other party that of "Anti-Federalists," intimating +that to oppose the adoption of the Constitution was to oppose any union +of the States.</p> + +<p>The new Constitution bears the date September 17, 1787. It was +immediately transmitted to Congress, with a recommendation to that body +to submit it to State conventions for ratification, which was +accordingly done. It was adopted by Delaware, December 7th; by +Pennsylvania, December 12th; by New Jersey, December 18th; by Georgia, +January 2d, 1788; by Connecticut, January 9th; by Massachusetts, +February 7th; by Maryland, April 28th; by South Carolina, May 23d; by +New Hampshire, June 21st, which, being the <i>ninth</i> ratifying State, gave +effect to the Constitution. Virginia ratified June 27th; New York, July +26th; and North Carolina, conditionally, August 7th. Rhode Island did +not call a convention.</p> + +<p>In Massachusetts, Virginia, and New York the new Constitution +encountered a most formidable opposition, which rendered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> its adoption +by these States for a time extremely doubtful. In their conventions were +men on both sides who had been members of the national convention, +associated with others of distinguished abilities. In Massachusetts +there were several adverse influences which would probably have defeated +the ratification in that State had it not been accompanied by certain +proposed amendments to be submitted by Congress to the several States +for ratification. The adoption of these by the convention gained for the +Constitution the support of Hancock and Samuel Adams; and the question +on ratification was carried by one hundred eighty-seven against one +hundred sixty-eight.</p> + +<p>In the Virginia convention the Constitution was opposed by Patrick +Henry, James Monroe, and George Mason, the last of whom had been one of +the delegates to the constitutional convention. On the other side were +John Marshall, Edmund Pendleton, James Madison, George Wythe, and Edmund +Randolph, the three last also having been members of the national +convention. Randolph had refused to sign the Constitution, but had since +become one of its warmest advocates. In the convention of this State, +also, the ratification was aided by the adoption of a bill of rights and +certain proposed amendments, and was carried, eighty-eight yeas against +eighty nays.</p> + +<p>In the convention of New York the opposition embraced a majority of its +members, among whom were Yates and Lansing, members of the general +convention, and George Clinton. The principal advocates of the +Constitution were John Jay, Robert R. Livingston, and Alexander +Hamilton. Strong efforts were made for a conditional ratification, which +were successfully opposed, though not without the previous adoption of a +bill of rights and numerous amendments. With these, the absolute +ratification was carried, thirty-one to twenty-nine.</p> + +<p>The ratification of North Carolina was not received by Congress until +January, 1790; and that of Rhode Island not until June of the same year.</p> + +<p>After the ratification of New Hampshire had been received by Congress, +the ratifications of the nine States were referred to a committee, who, +on July 14, 1788, reported a resolution for carrying the new government +into operation. The passage of the resolution, owing to the difficulty +of agreeing upon the place for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> meeting of the first Congress, was +delayed until September 13th. The first Wednesday in January, 1789, was +appointed for choosing electors of President, and the first Wednesday in +February for the electors to meet in their respective States to vote for +President and Vice-President; and the first Wednesday, March 4th, as the +time, and New York as the place, to commence proceedings under the new +Constitution.</p> + + +<h4>JOSEPH STORY</h4> + +<p>Commissioners were appointed by the Legislatures of Virginia and +Maryland, early in 1785, to form a compact relative to the navigation of +the Potomac and Pocomoke rivers and Chesapeake Bay. The commissioners, +having met in March in that year, felt the want of more enlarged powers, +and particularly of powers to provide for a local naval force, and a +tariff of duties upon imports. Upon receiving their recommendation, the +Legislature of Virginia passed a resolution for laying the subject of a +tariff before all the States composing the Union. Soon afterward, in +January, 1786, the Legislature adopted another resolution, appointing +commissioners, "who were to meet such as might be appointed by the other +States in the Union, at a time and place to be agreed on, to take into +consideration the trade of the United States; to examine the relative +situation and trade of the States; to consider how far a uniform system +in their commercial relations may be necessary to their common interest +and their permanent harmony; and to report to the several States such an +act, relative to this great object, as, when unanimously ratified by +them, will enable the United States in Congress assembled to provide for +the same."</p> + +<p>These resolutions were communicated to the States, and a convention of +commissioners from five States only, viz., New York, New Jersey, +Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Virginia, met at Annapolis in September, +1786. After discussing the subject, they deemed more ample powers +necessary, and, as well from this consideration as because a small +number only of the States was represented, they agreed to come to no +decision, but to frame a report to be laid before the several States, as +well as before Congress. In this report they recommended the appointment +of commissioners from all the States, "to meet at Philadelphia, on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> +second Monday of May next, to take into consideration the situation of +the United States; to devise such further provisions as shall appear to +them necessary to render the Constitution of the Federal Government +adequate to the exigencies of the Union; and to report such an act for +that purpose to the United States in Congress assembled as, when agreed +to by them, and afterward confirmed by the legislature of every State, +will effectually provide for the same."</p> + +<p>On receiving this report the Legislature of Virginia passed an act for +the appointment of delegates to meet such as might be appointed by other +States, at Philadelphia. The report was also received in Congress, but +no step was taken until the Legislature of New York instructed its +delegation in Congress to move a resolution recommending to the several +States to appoint deputies to meet in convention for the purpose of +revising and proposing amendments to the Federal Constitution. On +February 21, 1787, a resolution was accordingly moved and carried in +Congress recommending a convention to meet in Philadelphia, on the +second Monday of May ensuing, "For the purpose of revising the Articles +of Confederation, and reporting to Congress and the several +legislatures, such alterations and provisions therein as shall, when +agreed to in Congress and confirmed by the States, render the Federal +Constitution adequate to the exigencies of government and the +preservation of the Union." The alarming insurrection then existing in +Massachusetts, without doubt, had no small share in producing this +result. The report of Congress on that subject at once demonstrates +their fears and their political weakness.</p> + +<p>At the time and place appointed the representatives of twelve States +assembled. Rhode Island alone declined to appoint any on this momentous +occasion. After very protracted deliberations, the convention finally +adopted the plan of the present Constitution on September 17, 1787; and +by a contemporaneous resolution, directed it to be "laid before the +United States in Congress assembled," and declared their opinion "that +it should afterward be submitted to a convention of delegates chosen in +each State by the people thereof, under a recommendation of its +legislature for their assent and ratification"; and that each convention +assenting to and ratifying the same should give notice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> thereof to +Congress. The convention, by a further resolution, declared their +opinion that as soon as nine States had ratified the Constitution, +Congress should fix a day on which electors should be appointed by the +States which should have ratified the same, and a day on which the +electors should assemble and vote for the President, and the time and +place of commencing proceedings under the Constitution; and that after +such publication the electors should be appointed, and the Senators and +Representatives elected. The same resolution contained further +recommendations for the purpose of carrying the Constitution into +effect.</p> + +<p>The convention, at the same time, addressed a letter to Congress, +expounding their reasons for their acts, from which the following +extract cannot but be interesting: "It is obviously impracticable [says +the address] in the federal government of these States, to secure all +rights of independent sovereignty to each, and yet provide for the +interest and safety of all. Individuals entering into society must give +up a share of liberty to preserve the rest. The magnitude of the +sacrifice must depend as well on situation and circumstance as on the +object to be obtained. It is at all times difficult to draw with +precision the line between those rights which must be surrendered and +those which may be reserved; and on the present occasion this difficulty +was increased by a difference among the several States as to their +situation, extent, habits, and particular interests. In all our +deliberations on this subject we kept steadily in our view that, which +appears to us the greatest interest of every true American, the +consolidation of our Union, in which is involved our prosperity, +felicity, safety, perhaps our national existence. This important +consideration, seriously and deeply impressed on our minds, led each +State in the convention to be less rigid on points of inferior magnitude +than might have been otherwise expected. And thus the Constitution which +we now present is the result of the spirit of amity, and of that mutual +deference and concession, which the peculiarity of our political +situation rendered indispensable."</p> + +<p>Congress, having received the report of the convention on September 28, +1787, unanimously resolved "that the said report, with the resolutions +and letter accompanying the same, be transmitted to the several +legislatures in order to be submitted to a convention of delegates +chosen in each State by the people thereof<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> in conformity to the +resolves of the convention, made and provided in that case."</p> + +<p>Conventions in the various States which had been represented in the +general convention were accordingly called by their respective +legislatures; and the Constitution having been ratified by eleven out of +the twelve States, Congress, on September 13, 1788, passed a resolution +appointing the first Wednesday in January following for the choice of +electors of President; the first Wednesday of February following for the +assembling of the electors to vote for a President; and the first +Wednesday of March following, at the then seat of Congress (New York) +the time and place for commencing proceedings under the Constitution. +Electors were accordingly appointed in the several States, who met and +gave their votes for a President; and the other elections for Senators +and Representatives having been duly made, on Wednesday, March 4, 1789, +Congress assembled under the new Constitution and commenced proceedings +under it.</p> + +<p>A quorum of both Houses, however, did not assemble until April 6th, +when, the votes for President being counted, it was found that George +Washington was unanimously elected President, and John Adams was elected +Vice-President.</p> + +<p>On April 30th President Washington was sworn into office, and the +government then went into full operation in all its departments.</p> + +<p>North Carolina had not, as yet, ratified the Constitution. The first +convention called in that State, in August, 1788, refused to ratify it +without some previous amendments and a declaration of rights. In a +second convention, however, called in November, 1789, this State adopted +the Constitution. The State of Rhode Island had declined to call a +convention; but finally, by a convention held in May, 1790, its assent +was obtained; and thus all the thirteen original States became parties +to the new government.</p> + +<p>Thus was achieved another and still more glorious triumph in the cause +of national liberty than even that which separated us from the +mother-country. By it we fondly trust that our republican institutions +will grow up, and be nurtured into more mature strength and vigor; our +independence be secured against foreign usurpation and aggression; our +domestic blessings be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> widely diffused, and generally felt; and our +nation, as a people, be perpetuated, as our own truest glory and +support, and as a proud example of a wise and beneficent government, +entitled to the respect, if not to the admiration, of mankind.</p> + +<p>Let it not, however, be supposed that a Constitution, which is now +looked upon with such general favor and affection by the people, had no +difficulties to encounter at its birth. The history of those times is +full of melancholy instruction on this subject, at once to admonish us +of past dangers, and to awaken us to a lively sense of the necessity of +future vigilance. The Constitution was adopted unanimously by Georgia, +New Jersey, and Delaware. It was supported by large majorities in +Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maryland, and South Carolina. It was carried +in the other States by small majorities; and especially in +Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia by little more than a +preponderating vote. Indeed, it is believed that in each of these +States, at the first assembling of the conventions, there was a decided +majority opposed to the Constitution. The ability of the debates, the +impending evils, and the absolute necessity of the case seem to have +reconciled some persons to the adoption of it, whose opinions had been +strenuously the other way.</p> + +<p>"In our endeavors," said Washington, "to establish a new general +government, the contest, nationally considered, seems not to have been +so much for glory as for existence. It was for a long time doubtful +whether we were to survive, as an independent republic, or decline from +our federal dignity into insignificant and withered fragments of +empire."</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> Called the "Constitutional Convention."—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span></p> +<h2>INAUGURATION OF WASHINGTON</h2> + +<h3>HIS FAREWELL ADDRESS</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1789-1797</h4> + +<h3>JAMES K. PAULDING and GEORGE WASHINGTON</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>In times when "logical candidates" for the Presidency of the +United States are periodically exploited by rival parties, +it is a salutary thing, which can never too often be +repeated, to look back to the first filling of the chief +magistracy of the country.</p> + +<p>No parallel is seen in history to the unanimity of +Washington's election, a call which his modest reluctance +could not refuse, for there was no other who could serve his +country's need. The tribute of a nation was again paid in +his unanimous reëlection to a second term, which nothing +except his own will determined for the last.</p> + +<p>Familiar as is the fame of Washington and of his services to +his country and mankind, there is no name in the records of +the world which still commands a more universal veneration. +Nor is this sentiment diminished, among intelligent people, +now that his character and work have been divested of those +elements of myth or tradition which formerly enveloped them; +rather by the critical process of humanizing is his +reputation more endeared to his countrymen and more firmly +established in the eyes of the world.</p> + +<p>To enter here upon the innumerable details of Washington's +presidential labors is impossible; they belong to general +history. But among the great events of history the civil and +political acts of the man who was first in peace as well as +in war stand conspicuous, and in Paulding's narrative and +appreciation they are fittingly commemorated.</p></div> + + +<p>The convention which framed the United States Constitution met at +Philadelphia, and unanimously chose Washington its president. This +situation in some measure precluded him from speaking, if he had been so +inclined; but his influence was not the less in producing the results +which followed. It is highly probable that but for the exertions he made +in private, and the vast authority of his character and services, the +objects of the convention might not have been obtained. The great +talents of Madison, Hamilton, and Jay, exerted in that celebrated work +called <i>The Federalist</i>, and the influence of many of the leading<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> men +of the different States, aided by the name of Washington, alone, +perhaps, secured to the country the great charter of its liberties.</p> + +<p>Under the new Constitution a chief magistrate became necessary to +administer the government. The eyes of the whole people of the United +States were at once directed to Washington, and their united voices +called upon him who had led their armies in war, to direct their affairs +in peace. His old companions came forth and besought him to leave his +retirement once more to serve his country. The leading men of all +parties wrote letters to the same purport, and on all hands he was +assailed by the warmest, most earnest applications.</p> + +<p>His replies are extant, and those who have ever seen them cannot for a +moment question the deep reluctance with which he undertook this new and +trying service. Both in its external and internal relations, the country +was at this time in a most critical state; and the man who accepted the +hard task of administering its government might rationally anticipate +little of the sweets and all the bitterness of power. He who already +possessed the hearts of the people; he who had already gained the most +lofty eminence, the noblest of all rewards, the hallowed title of his +country's father, and the gratitude of a nation, would risk everything +and gain nothing by embarking again on the troubled ocean of political +strife, in a vessel whose qualities for the voyage had never been tried. +But Washington thought he might be of service to his country, and once +more sacrificed his rural happiness and cherished tastes at that shrine +where he had often offered up his life and all its enjoyments.</p> + +<p>He was unanimously elected President of the United States on March 4, +1789, but owing to some formal or accidental delays this event was not +notified to him officially until April 14th following. Referring to this +delay he thus expresses himself in a letter to General Knox, who +possessed and deserved his friendship to the last moment of his life:</p> + +<p>"As to myself, the delay may be compared to a reprieve; for in +confidence I tell you (with the world it would obtain little credit) +that my movements toward the chair of government will be accompanied by +feelings not unlike those of a culprit going to the place of execution; +so unwilling am I, in the evening of a life<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> consumed in public cares, +to quit my peaceful abode for an ocean of difficulties, without the +competency of political skill, abilities, and inclination which is +necessary to manage the helm. I am sensible that I am embarking with the +voice of the people, and a good name of my own, on this voyage, and what +returns will be made for them, Heaven alone can foretell. Integrity and +firmness are all I can promise. These, be the voyage long or short, +shall never forsake me, though I may be deserted by all men; for of the +consolations to be derived from these, the world cannot deprive me."</p> + +<p>Such was the foundation of his modest confidence—firmness and +integrity, the true pillars of honest greatness. And these never +deserted him. He kept his promise to himself in all times, +circumstances, and temptations; and though, on a few rare occasions +during the course of a stormy season, in which the hopes, fears, and +antipathies of his fellow-citizens were strongly excited, his conduct +may have been assailed, his motives were never questioned. None ever +doubted his firmness, and the general conviction of his integrity was +founded on a rock that could neither be undermined nor overthrown.</p> + +<p>His progress from Mount Vernon to New York, where Congress was then +sitting, was a succession of the most affecting scenes which the +sentiment of a grateful people ever presented to the contemplation of +the world. His appearance awakened in the bosoms of all an enthusiasm so +much the more glorious because so little characteristic of our +countrymen. Men, women, and children poured forth and lined the roads in +throngs to see him pass and hail his coming. The windows shone with +glistening eyes, watching his passing footsteps; the women wept for joy; +the children shouted, "God save Washington!" and the iron hearts of the +stout husbandmen yearned with inexpressible affection toward him who had +caused them to repose in safety under their own vine and fig-tree. His +old companions-in-arms came forth to renovate their honest pride, as +well as undying affection, by a sight of their general, and a shake of +his hand. The pulse of the nation beat high with exultation, for now, +when they saw their ancient pilot once more at the helm, they hoped for +a prosperous voyage and a quiet haven in the bosom of prosperity.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span></p> + +<p>His reception at Trenton was peculiarly touching. It was planned by +those females and their daughters whose patriotism and sufferings in the +cause of liberty were equal to those of their fathers, husbands, sons, +and brothers. It was here, when the hopes of the people lay prostrate on +the earth, and the eagle of freedom seemed to flap his wings, as if +preparing to forsake the world, that Washington performed those prompt +and daring acts which, while they revived the drooping spirits of his +country, freed, for a time, the matrons of Trenton from the insults and +wrongs of an arrogant soldiery. The female heart is no sanctuary for +ingratitude; and when Washington arrived at the bridge over the +Assumpink, which here flows close to the borders of the city, he met the +sweetest reward that, perhaps, ever crowned his virtues.</p> + +<p>Over the bridge was thrown an arch of evergreens and flowers bearing +this affecting inscription in large letters:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i20">"December 26, 1776.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"The hero who defended the mothers will protect the daughters."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>At the other extremity of the bridge were assembled many hundreds of +young girls of various ages, arrayed in white, the emblem of truth and +innocence, their brows circled with garlands, and baskets of flowers in +their hands. Beyond these were disposed the grown-up daughters of the +land, clothed and equipped like the others, and behind them the matrons, +all of whom remembered the never-to-be-forgotten twenty-sixth of +December, 1776. As the good Washington left the bridge, they joined in a +chorus, touchingly expressive of his services and their gratitude, +strewing, at the same time, flowers as he passed along. That mouth whose +muscles of gigantic strength indicated the firmness of his character and +the force of his mind, was now observed to quiver with emotion; that eye +which looked storms and tempests, enemies and friends, undauntedly in +the face, and never quailed in the sight of man, now glistened with +tears; and that hand which had not trembled when often life, fame, and +the liberty of his country hung on the point of a single moment, now +refused its office. His hat dropped from his hand as he drew it across +his brow.</p> + +<p>His reception everywhere was worthy of his services and of a grateful +people. At New York the vessels were adorned with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> flags, and the river +alive with boats gayly decked out in like manner, with bands of music on +board; the place of his landing was thronged with crowds of citizens, +gathered together to welcome his arrival. The roar of cannon and the +shouts of the multitude announced his landing, and he was conducted to +his lodging by thousands of grateful hearts, who remembered what he had +done for them in the days of their trial.</p> + +<p>It had been arranged that a military escort should attend him; but when +the officer in command announced his commission, Washington replied, "I +require no guard but the affections of the people," and declined their +attendance.</p> + +<p>At this moment, so calculated to inflate the human heart with vanity, +Washington, though grateful for these spontaneous proofs of affectionate +veneration, was not elated. In describing the scene in one of his +familiar letters, he says: "The display of boats on this occasion with +vocal and instrumental music on board, the decorations of the ships, the +roar of cannon, and the loud acclamations of the people, as I passed +along the wharves, gave me as much pain as pleasure, contemplating the +probable reversal of this scene, after all my endeavors to do good." +Happily, his anticipations were never realized. Although his policy in +relation to the French Revolution, which was as wise as it was happy in +its consequences, did not give universal satisfaction, still he remained +master of the affections and confidence of the people. The laurels he +had won in defence of the liberties of his country continued to flourish +on his brow while living, and will grow green on his grave to the end of +time.</p> + +<p>On April 30, 1789, he took the oath and entered on the office of +President of the United States, one of the highest as well as most +thankless that could be undertaken by man. The head of this free +Government is no idle, empty pageant set up to challenge the admiration +and coerce the absolute submission of the people; his duties are arduous +and his responsibilities great; he is the first servant, not the master, +of the state, and is amenable for his conduct, like the humblest +citizen. As the executor of the laws, he is bound to see them obeyed; as +the first of our citizens, he is equally bound to set an example of +obedience. The oath, "to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution +of the United States," was administered in the balcony of the old +Federal Hall<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> in New York, by the chancellor of the State, and the Bible +on which it was sworn is still preserved as a sacred relic.</p> + +<p>At the time Washington assumed the high functions of President of the +United States, there was ample room for the exertion of all his +firmness, integrity, and talents. A new constitution to be administered, +without the aid of experience or precedent, by an authority to which the +people were strangers; serious and alarming difficulties to be adjusted +with England; the Indian nations all along our frontier brandishing +their tomahawks and whetting their scalping-knives; war with +Mediterranean pirates; the Spaniards denying our right to navigate the +Mississippi, and the people of Kentucky threatening a separation from +the Union unless that right was successfully asserted by the Government. +Other difficulties stared the new President full in the face. Some of +the States still declined to accept the new Constitution, and become +members of the Confederation; others nearly equally divided on the +subject; and a debt of eighty million dollars; to meet all which there +was an army of less than a thousand men and an empty treasury.</p> + +<p>Here was enough, and more than enough, to call forth all the energies, +if not to produce despair in the mind, of an ordinary man. But +Washington was not such a man. Conscious of the purity of his purposes, +he relied on the protection of that Power which is all purity. His first +care was to provide for the civil and judicial administration of the +government, by the appointment of men in whose virtue and capacity a +long experience had given him confidence. Having done this he took the +reins with a firm, steady hand, and commenced the ascent of the rugged +steep before him.</p> + +<p>The next object that called his attention was the situation of the +inland frontier, now exposed to the inroads of the savages, who had not +been included in the general pacification, although a proposition to +that effect had been made by the British commissioners. Although our +Government has always treated with the Indians as independent tribes, it +has never placed them on the footing of civilized nations, or admitted +any mediation on the part of foreign powers. The United States do not +recognize them as parties in civilized warfare; they neither avail +themselves of their alliance nor acknowledge them as the auxiliaries of +other nations.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span></p> + +<p>A system was devised for the conduct of those singular relations which +alone can subsist between people so different in all respects, moral and +political. The wisdom of that system has been exemplified in having +uniformly been acted upon to this time, and though it may perhaps be +questioned as to its abstract principles, it would be perhaps difficult +if not impossible to devise a better. Our ancestors came to this country +under the sanction of a principle at that time universally acknowledged +among civilized nations, and when once here, the first law of nature, +self-defence, furnishes their only justification. While weak, they were +obliged to defend themselves, and when they became strong they were +probably too apt to remember their former sufferings.</p> + +<p>The policy of Washington, with regard to these unfortunate people, was +successful in quieting, if not conciliating many of the Indian tribes; +but others remained refractory and continued their atrocities. After +defeating two American armies with great slaughter, they were at length +brought to terms by the gallant Wayne, who gave them so severe a beating +in a great general action that they sued for peace. This was concluded +at Greenville; and the cession of a vast territory not only relieved the +frontier from savage inroads, but paved the way for the progress of +civilization into a new world of wilderness.</p> + +<p>He was equally successful at a subsequent period in his negotiations +with Spain. His high character for veracity and honor gave him singular +advantages in his foreign intercourse. He proceeded in a +straightforward, open manner, stated what was wanted, and what would be +given in return; relied on justice, and enforced its claims with the +arguments of truth. He disdained to purchase advantages by corruption, +or to deceive by insincerity. As in private, so in public life, he +proceeded inflexibly upon the noble maxim, whose truth is every day +verified, that "Honesty is the best policy." The conviction of a man's +integrity gives him far greater advantages in his intercourse with the +world than he can ever gain by hypocrisy and falsehood. The right of +navigating the Mississippi was finally conceded by Spain.</p> + +<p>The settlement of the controversies growing out of the treaty with +England proved even more difficult than those with Spain.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> The wounds +inflicted on both nations by a war of so many years were healed, but the +scars remained, to remind the one of what it had suffered, the other of +what it had lost. Time and mutual good offices were necessary to allay +that spirit which had been excited on one hand by injuries, on the other +by successful resistance; and time indeed had passed away, but it had +left behind it neither forgiveness nor oblivion. It was accompanied on +one hand by new provocations, on the other by additional remonstrances +and renewed indignation. Negotiations continued for a long while, +without any result but mortification and impatience on the part of the +people of the United States; and it was not until the French Revolution +threatened the existence of all the established governments of Europe, +and England among the rest, that a treaty was concluded, which brought +with it an adjustment of the principal points that had so long embroiled +the two nations and fostered a spirit of increasing hostility. The most +vexing question of all however—that of the right of entering our ships +and impressing seamen—was left unsettled, and it became obvious that it +would never be adjusted except on the principle of the right of the +strongest. About the same time peace was concluded between the United +States and the Emperor of Morocco, and thus, for a while, our commerce +remained unmolested on that famous sea where, some years afterward, our +gallant navy laid the foundation of its present and future glories.</p> + +<p>It is not my design to enter minutely into the principles or conduct of +the two great parties, which, from the period of the adoption of the +Constitution down to the present time, have been struggling for +ascendency in the Government of the United States. My limits will not +permit me, if I wished; but if they did, I should decline the task. My +youthful readers will know and feel their excitement soon enough, +perhaps too soon; and I wish not to become instrumental in implanting in +their tender minds the seeds of social and political antipathies. I am +attempting to picture a great and virtuous man; to exhibit a noble moral +example for the imitation of the children of my country. My business is +with the actions of Washington, not with the imputations of his enemies +or the struggles of ambitious politicians. Posterity has placed him far +above such puny trifles and triflers, and I will not assist, however +humbly, in reviving imputations which have long<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> since sunk into +oblivion or insignificance under the weight of his mighty name.</p> + +<p>The French Revolution, which set the Old World in a blaze, but for the +wisdom and firmness of Washington would have involved the United States +in the labyrinth of European policy. He it was that prevented their +becoming parties in that series of tremendous wars which desolated some +of the fairest portions of the earth; caused the rivers to run red with +blood; overturned and erected thrones; converted kings into the +playthings of fortune; and ended in the creation of a mighty phantom, +which, after being the scourge and terror of the world, vanished from +our sight on a desolate rock of the ocean.</p> + +<p>The people of the United States had continued to cherish a strong +feeling of gratitude for the good offices of France during their +struggle for independence; and in addition to this, their sympathies +were deeply engaged in behalf of a contest so similar in many respects +to their own. The institution of the French Republic was hailed with an +enthusiasm equal to that they felt on the establishment of their own +liberties; and, but for the firm and steady hand of Washington, they +would have taken the bridle between their teeth and run headlong into +the vortex of European revolution.</p> + +<p>Washington issued his famous Proclamation of Neutrality, from which Mr. +Genet, the minister of the French Republic, threatened to appeal to the +people, a measure understood to mean nothing less than revolution. From +that moment the people began to rally around their beloved chief, like +children who will not allow their father to be insulted, although they +themselves may think him wrong. They sanctioned the proclamation, and +time has ratified their decision. It is believed there is not a rational +American who does not now feel that the course of Washington was founded +in consummate wisdom, deep feeling, and eternal justice.</p> + +<p>Having been twice unanimously elected to the highest office in the gift +of men; having served his country faithfully eight years in war and +eight in peace, having settled the government on a permanent basis, +established a series of precedents for the imitation of his successors, +and seeing the United States now resting happily in the lap of repose +and prosperity; having fulfilled all and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> more than they had a right to +ask of him, and consummated all his public duties, Washington now +signified his intention of declining a reëlection. During the arduous +services of the preceding term, he had been obliged to retire for a +while to the repose of Mount Vernon for the reëstablishment of his +health, and he now resolved to relieve himself finally from all the +duties and cares of public life. He had earned this privilege by a whole +life of arduous patriotism, and without doubt wished to close his public +career by one more act of moderation, as a guide to those who might come +after him. He believed eight years to be a sufficient term of service in +the office of President for any one single man, and determined to +establish the precedent by setting the example himself.</p> + +<p>Feeling on this occasion like a father about to take a final leave of +his children, and give them his parting blessing, Washington, at the +moment of announcing his intention of retiring from the world, addressed +to the people of the United States his last memorable words. These were +conveyed in a letter to his "friends and fellow-citizens," fraught with +lessons of virtue and patriotism, adorned by the most touching +simplicity, the most mature wisdom, the most affectionate and endearing +earnestness of paternal solicitude. He was now about to withdraw his +long and salutary guardianship from his young and vigorous country, his +only offspring, and he left her the noblest legacy in his power, the +priceless riches of his precepts and example.</p> + +<p>"In looking forward," he says, "to the moment which is intended to +terminate the career of my public life, my feelings do not permit me to +suspend the deep acknowledgment of that debt of gratitude which I owe to +my beloved country for the many honors it has conferred upon me, or +still more for the steadfast confidence with which it has supported me, +and for the opportunities thence enjoyed of manifesting my inviolable +attachment by services, useful and persevering, though in usefulness +unequal to my zeal.</p> + +<p>"Profoundly penetrated with this idea, I shall carry it with me to my +grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing vows, that Heaven may +continue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence; that your union +and brotherly affection may be perpetual; that the free constitution +which is the work of your hands may be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> sacredly maintained; that its +administration in every department may be stamped with wisdom and +virtue; that in fine, the happiness of these States, under the auspices +of liberty, may be made complete by so careful a preservation and so +prudent a use of this blessing as will acquire to them the glory of +recommending it to the applause, the affection, and the adoption of +every nation which is yet a stranger to it.</p> + +<p>"Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But solicitude for your welfare, which +cannot end but with my life, and the apprehension of danger natural to +such solicitude, urge me, on an occasion like the present, to offer to +your solemn contemplation, and to recommend to your frequent review, +some sentiments which are the result of much reflection, of no +inconsiderable observation, and which appear to me all-important to your +felicity as a people. These will be offered to you with the more +freedom, as you can only see in them the disinterested warnings of a +parting friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to bias his +counsel.</p> + +<p>"Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your +hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify the +attachment.</p> + +<p>"The unity of government, which constitutes you one people, is also now +dear to you. It is justly so; for it is the main pillar in the edifice +of your real independence, the support of your tranquillity at home and +your peace abroad; of your prosperity, of that liberty which you so +highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that from different causes +and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices +employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth—as this +is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of +internal and external enemies will be constantly and actively, though +often covertly and insidiously directed—it is of infinite moment that +you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to +your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a +cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it, accustoming +yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your +political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with +jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion +that it may be in any event abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon +every attempt to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or +to enfeeble the sacred ties that now link together the various parts."</p> + +<p>He then proceeds to caution his fellow-citizens against those +geographical distinctions of "North," "South," "East," and "West," +which, by fostering ideas of separate interests and character, are +calculated to weaken the bonds of our union, and to create prejudices, +if not antipathies, dangerous to its existence. He shows, by a simple +reference to the great paramount interests of each of the different +sections, that they are inseparably intertwined in one common bond; that +they are mutually dependent on each other; and that they cannot be rent +asunder without deeply wounding our prosperity at home, our character +and influence abroad, laying the foundation for perpetual broils among +ourselves, and creating a necessity for great standing armies, +themselves the most fatal enemies to the liberties of mankind.</p> + +<p>He earnestly recommends implicit obedience to the laws of the land, as +one of the great duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of liberty. +"The basis of our political system," he says, "is the right of the +people to make and alter their constitutions of government; but the +constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and +authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The +very idea of the power and right of the people to establish government +presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established +government."</p> + +<p>He denounces "all combinations and associations under whatever plausible +character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe +the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities," as +destructive to this fundamental principle and of fatal tendency. He +cautions his countrymen against the extreme excitements of party spirit; +the factious opposition and pernicious excesses to which they inevitably +tend, until by degrees they gradually incline the minds of men to seek +security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner +or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more +fortunate than his competitors, turns his disposition to the purposes of +his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.</p> + +<p>He warns those who are to administer the government after him, "to +confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, +refraining, in the exercise of the powers of one department,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> to +encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate +the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever +the form of government, real despotism."</p> + +<p>He inculcates, with the most earnest eloquence, a regard to religion and +morality.</p> + +<p>"Of all the dispositions and habits," he says, "which lead to political +prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain +would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to +subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of +men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought +to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their +connections with private and public felicity. Let it be simply added, +where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the +sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments +of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge +the supposition that morality can be attained without religion. Whatever +may be conceded to a refined education, or minds of peculiar cast, +reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality +can prevail in the exclusion of religious principles."</p> + +<p>He recommends the general diffusion of knowledge among all classes of +the people. "Promote, then," he says, "as an object of primary +importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In +proportion as the structure of government gives force to public opinion, +it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened."</p> + +<p>He recommends the practice of justice and good faith, and the +cultivation of the relations of peace with all mankind, as not only +enforced by the obligations of religion and morality, but by all the +maxims of sound policy. For the purpose of a successful pursuit of this +great object, he cautions his fellow-citizens against the indulgence of +undue partiality or prejudice in favor or against any nation whatever, +as leading to weak sacrifices on one hand, senseless hostility on the +other.</p> + +<p>Most emphatically does he warn them against the wiles of foreign +influence, the fatal enemy of all the ancient republics. He enjoins a +watchful jealousy of all equally impartial, otherwise<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> it may only lead +to the suspicion of visionary dangers on one hand and wilful blindness +on the other.</p> + +<p>Then, after recommending a total abstinence from all political alliances +with the nations of Europe; a due regard to the national faith toward +public creditors; suitable establishments for the defence of the +country, that we may not be tempted to rely on foreign aid, and which +will never be afforded, in all probability without the price of great +sacrifices on the part of the nation depending on the hollow friendship +of jealous rivals, he concludes this admirable address, which ought to +be one of the early lessons of every youth of our country, in the +following affecting words:</p> + +<p>"Though in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am +unconscious of international error, I am nevertheless too sensible of my +defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors. +Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or +mitigate the evils of which they may tend. I shall always carry with me +the hope that my country will never cease to view them with indulgence, +and that after forty-five years of a life dedicated to its service, with +an upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned +to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest.</p> + +<p>"Relying on its kindness in this as in all things, and actuated by that +fervent love toward it which is so natural to a man who views it as the +native soil of himself and his progenitors for several generations, I +anticipate with pleasing expectations that retreat in which I promise +myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking in +the midst of my fellow-citizens the benign influence of good laws under +a free government, the ever-favorite object of my heart, and the happy +reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers."</p> + +<p>On March 4, 1797, he bade a last farewell to public life. Those who have +read in history the struggles of ambitious men for power, and have seen +them in every age and country involving whole nations in the horrors of +civil strife, only for the worthless privilege of choosing a master, +will do well to mark the conduct of Washington on this occasion. He +waited only in Philadelphia to congratulate his successor and pay +respect to the choice of the people in the person of Mr. Adams. He +entered the Senate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> chamber as a private citizen, and, while every eye +glistened at thus seeing him, perhaps for the last time, grasped the +hand of the new President, wished that his administration might prove as +happy for himself as for his country, and, bowing to the assemblage, +retired unattended as he came.</p> + +<p>As he was hailed with blessings on entering, so was he greeted with +blessings when he quitted forever, the Presidential chair. He came from +his retirement at Mount Vernon accompanied by joyful acclamations of +welcome, and he was followed thither by the love and veneration of +millions of grateful people. Blessed, and thrice blessed, is he who +closes a life of honest fame in such a dignified and happy repose; +fortunate the nation that can boast of such an example, and still more +fortunate the children who can call him "Father of their Country."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span></p> +<h2>FRENCH REVOLUTION: STORMING OF THE BASTILLE</h2> + +<h4><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1789</h4> + +<h3>WILLIAM HAZLITT</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>In the scenes of blood and terror which accompanied it, and +in the dramatic episodes and strange actors appearing upon +its stage—in these respects, if not in the calculable +effects of the uprising on France and the world, the French +Revolution was the most extraordinary outbreak of modern +times.</p> + +<p>Matters in France at this time, or during the next few +years, might have taken a very different course had not the +Eastern powers of Europe been absorbed in their own +quarrels, which culminated in the final "scramble for Polish +territory." As it was, France was left through the early +years of the Revolution to struggle with her own affairs.</p> + +<p>Under Louis XV, loved at the beginning of his reign, +execrated by his people at its close, France had fallen into +bankruptcy and disgrace. The monarchy was weakened through +its head. Louis determined that it should live as long as he +survived; he cared nothing for its future. The peasantry of +France at this time had become keenly alive to the wrongs +under which they had long suffered in comparative silence. +The disfranchised bourgeois, or middle class, had lately +grown in wealth and now thought more about their political +rights. The "common" people were staggering under the burden +of taxation, from which the privileged nobility and clergy +were largely exempt.</p> + +<p>The intellectual life of France during the second half of +the eighteenth century was profoundly affected by the +literature of the period, especially by the radical and +revolutionary writings of Voltaire, Rousseau, and their +followers, and in many things the extreme views of these men +seemed to find confirmation in the calmer reasonings of +Montesquieu on the powers and limitations of governments. +Democratic ideas were in the air, and all except the +privileged classes were ready for general revolt. Frenchmen +returning from America reported the successful working of +the new order of things inaugurated by the Revolution there, +and this gave stronger impulse to the revolutionary tendency +in France.</p> + +<p>When the well-meaning but weak-willed Louis XVI came to the +throne he found himself confronted with conditions before +which a far abler monarch might well have quailed. How the +storm broke upon him, and began its sweep over the kingdom +which he was set to rule, is told<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> by Hazlitt without the +rhetorical flourishes indulged by many writers on this +subject, but with clear narration and philosophic judgment +of the facts recounted.</p></div> + + +<p>Louis XVI succeeded to the throne of France in 1774, and soon after +married Marie Antoinette, a daughter of the house of Austria. She was +young, beautiful, and thoughtless. In her the pride of birth was +strengthened and rendered impatient of the least restraint by the pride +of sex and beauty; and all three together were instrumental in hastening +the downfall of the monarchy. Devoted to the licentious pleasures of a +court, she looked both from education and habit on the homely comforts +of the people with disgust or indifference, and regarded the distress +and poverty which stood in the way of her dissipation with incredulity +or loathing.<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> Louis XVI himself, though a man of good intentions, and +free, in a remarkable degree, from the common vices of his situation, +had not firmness of mind to resist the passions and importunity of +others, and, in addition to the extravagance, petulance, and extreme +counsels of the Queen, fell a victim to the intrigues and officious +interference of those about him, who had neither the wisdom nor spirit +to avert those dangers and calamities which they had provoked by their +rashness, presumption, and obstinacy.</p> + +<p>The want of economy in the court, or a maladministration of the +finances, first occasioned pecuniary difficulties to the Government, for +which a remedy was in vain sought by a succession of ministers, Necker, +Calonne, Maupeou, and by the Parliament. Considerable embarrassment and +uneasiness began to be felt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> throughout the kingdom when in 1787 the +King undertook to convoke the States-General, as alone competent to meet +the emergency, and to confer on other topics of the highest consequence, +which were at this time agitated with general anxiety and interest. The +necessity of raising the supplies to defray the expenses of government +was indeed only made the handle to introduce and enforce other more +important and widely extended plans of reform.</p> + +<p>For some time past the public mind had been growing critical and +fastidious with the progress of civilization and letters; the monarchy, +as it existed at the period "with all its imperfections on its head," +had been weighed in the balance of reason and opinion, and found +wanting; and a favorable opportunity was only required, and the first +that presented itself was eagerly seized to put in practice what had +been already resolved upon in theory by the wits, philosophers, and +philanthropists of the eighteenth century. From the first calling +together the general council of the nation to deliberate and determine +for the public good, in the then prevailing ferment of the popular +feeling and with the predisposing causes, not a measure of finance was +to be looked to, but a revolution became inevitable. All the <i>cahiers</i>, +or instructions given to the deputies by the great mass of their +constituents, show that the kingdom at large was ripe for a material +change in its civil and political institutions, and for the most part +point out the individual grievances which were afterward done away with.</p> + +<p>The States-General met at Versailles on May 5, 1789. They consisted of +the representatives of the nobility, of the clergy, and of the <i>Tiers +État</i> or people in general, the number of the last having been doubled +in order to equal that of the other two. They heard mass the evening +before at the Church of St. Louis, in the same dresses, and with the +same forms and order of precedence as in 1614, the last time they had +ever been assembled. The King opened the sitting with a speech which +gave little satisfaction, as it dwelt chiefly on the liquidation of the +debt and the unsettled state of the public mind, and did not go into +those general measures on which the views of the assembly were bent and +from which alone relief was expected. The first question which divided +opinion and led to a conflict was that regarding the vote by head or by +order. By the first mode, that of counting voices,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> the commons would be +numerically on a par with the privileged classes; by the latter, their +opponents would always have the advantage of two to one. In order to +keep this advantage, and prevent that reform of abuses which the Third +Estate was supposed to have principally at heart, the Court did all it +could to separate the different orders, first by adhering to etiquette, +afterward by means of intrigue, and in the end by force.</p> + +<p>On the day following the meeting, the deputies of the three estates were +called upon to verify their powers, which the nobles and clergy wished +to do apart; but the commons refused to take any steps toward this +object, except conjointly, or as a general legislative body. This led to +various overtures and discussions, which lasted for several weeks. The +Court offered its mediation; but the nobles giving a peremptory refusal +to come to any compromise, at the motion of the Abbé Sieyès, the Third +Estate, after in vain inviting the two others to join them, constituted +themselves into a national assembly.</p> + +<p>This was the first act of the Revolution, or the first occasion on which +a part of a given body of individuals took upon them to decide for the +rest, from the urgency and magnitude of the case, without the consent of +their coadjutors, and contrary to established rules. It was a stroke of +state necessity, to be defended not by the forms but by the essence of +justice, and by the great ends of human society. The usurpation of a +discretionary and illegal power was clear, but nothing could be done +without it, everything with it. Yet so strong and natural is the +prejudice against every appearance of what is violent and arbitrary, +that serious attempts were made to reconcile the letter with the spirit +of justice in this instance, and to prove that the Tiers État, being the +representatives of the nation, and the nation being everything, the +nobility and clergy were included in it and had nothing to complain of. +It is not worth while to answer this sophistry. The truth is that the +Third Estate erected themselves from parties concerned into framers of +the law and judges of the reason of the case, and must themselves be +judged, not by precedent and tradition, but by posterity, to whom, from +the scale on which they acted, the benefit or the injury of their +departure from common and worn-out forms will reach. Acts that supersede +old established rules and create a new era in human affairs are to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> +approved or condemned by what comes after, not by what has gone before, +them.</p> + +<p>This first independent and spirited step on the part of the commons +produced a reaction on the part of the Court. They shut up the place of +sitting. The King had been prevailed on to consent to hostile measures +against the popular side during an excursion to Marly with the Queen and +princes of the blood. Bailly, afterward mayor of Paris, had been chosen +president of the new National Assembly, and, arriving with other +members, and finding the doors of the hall shut against them, they +repaired to the <i>Jeu de Paumes</i> ("Tennis-court") at Versailles, followed +by the people and soldiers in crowds, and there, enclosed by bare walls, +with heads uncovered, and a strong and spontaneous burst of enthusiasm, +made a solemn vow, with the exception of only one person present, never +to separate till they had given France a constitution.</p> + +<p>This memorable and decisive event took place on June 20th. On the 23d +the King came to the Church of St. Louis, whither they had been +compelled to remove, and where they were joined by a considerable number +of the clergy; addressed them in a tone of authority and reprimand, +treated them as simply the Tiers État, pointed out certain partial +reforms which he approved, and which he enjoined them to effect in +conjunction with the other orders, or threatened to dissolve them and +take the whole management of the government upon himself, and ended with +a command that they should separate. The nobles and the clergy obeyed; +the deputies of the people remained firm, immovable, silent.</p> + +<p>Mirabeau then started from his seat and appealed to the Assembly in that +mixed style of the academician and the demagogue which characterized his +eloquence. The words are worth repeating here, both as a sample of the +unqualified tone of the period and on account of the fierce and personal +attack on the King, whom he stigmatizes by a sort of nickname. +"Gentlemen, I acknowledge that what you have just heard might be a +pledge of the welfare of the country, if the offers of despotism were +not always dangerous. What is the meaning of this insolent dictation, +the array of arms, the violation of the national temple, merely to +command you to be happy? Who gives you this command?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> your <i>Mandatory</i> +['deputy']. Who imposes his imperious laws? your Mandatory, he who ought +to receive them from you; from us, gentlemen, who are invested with an +inviolable political priesthood; from us, in short, to whom, and to whom +alone, twenty-five millions of men look up for a happiness insured by +its being agreed upon, given, and received by all. But the freedom of +your deliberations is suspended: a military force surrounds the +Assembly! Where are the enemies of the nation, that this outrage should +be attempted? Is Catiline at our gates? I demand that in asserting the +claims of your insulted dignity, of your legislative power, you arm +yourselves with the sanctity of your oath: it does not permit us to +separate till we have achieved the constitution."</p> + +<p>From this unbridled effusion of bombast, affectation, and real passion +two things are evident: first, that the designs of the Court were +already looked upon as altogether hostile and alien to the patriotic +side; secondly, that the Assembly, from the beginning, felt in +themselves the strong and undoubted conviction of their being called to +the task of removing the abuses of power and regenerating the hopes of a +mighty people. The die was cast, the lists were marked out in the +opinions and sentiments of the two parties toward each other. The grand +master of the ceremonies of this occasion, seeing that the Assembly did +not break up, reminded them of the command of the King. "Go tell your +master," cried Mirabeau, "that we are here by order of the people; and +that we shall not retire but at the point of the bayonet." This was at +once an invitation to violence and a defiance of authority. Sieyès +added, with his customary coolness: "You are to-day in the same +situation that you were yesterday; let us deliberate!" The Assembly +immediately confirmed its former resolutions, and, at the instance of +Mirabeau, decreed the inviolability of its members.</p> + +<p>Such was at one time the brilliant, daring, and forward zeal of a man +who not long after sold himself to the Court: so little has flashy +eloquence or bold pretension to do with steadiness of principle! Indeed, +the Revolution, of which he was one of the most prominent leaders, +presented too many characters of this kind—dazzling, ardent, wavering, +corrupt—a succession of momentary fires, made of light and worthless +materials, soon kindled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> and soon exhausted, and requiring some new fuel +to repair them: nothing deep, internal, relying on its own +resources—"outliving fortunes outward with a mind that doth renew +swifter than blood decays"—but a flame rash and violent, fanned by +circumstances, kept alive by vanity, smothered by sordid interest, and +wandering from object to object in search of the most contemptible and +contradictory excitement! We may also remark, in the debates and +proceedings of this early period, the fevered and anxious state of the +public mind; while galling and intolerable abuses, called in question +for the first time and defended with blind confidence, were exposed in +the most naked and flagrant point of view; and the drapery of forms and +circumstances was torn from rank and power with sarcastic petulance or a +ruthless logic.</p> + +<p>The resistance of the Assembly alarmed the Court, who did not, however, +as yet dare to proceed against it. Necker, who had disapproved of the +royal interference, and whose dismission had been determined on in the +morning, was the same night entreated both by the King and Queen to +stay. On the next meeting of the Assembly a large portion of the clergy +again repaired to their place of sitting; and four days after, forty +members of the <i>noblesse</i> joined them, with the Duke of Orléans at their +head. The conduct of this nobleman, all through the Revolution, was in +my opinion uncalled for, indecent, and profligate, and his fate not +unmerited. Persons situated as he was cannot take a decided part one way +or the other, without doing violence either to the dictates of reason +and justice or to all their natural sentiments, unless they are +characters of that heroic stamp as to be raised above suspicion or +temptation: the only way for all others is to stand aloof from a +struggle in which they have no alternative but to commit a parricide on +their country or their friends, and to await the issue in silence and at +a distance.</p> + +<p>The people should not ask the aid of their lordly taskmasters to shake +off their chains; nor can they ever expect to have it cordial and +entire. No confidence can be placed in those excesses of public +principle which are founded on the sacrifice of every private affection +and of habitual self-esteem! The Court, soon after this reënforcement to +the popular party, came forward of its own accord to request the +attendance of the dissentient orders, which took place on June 27th; and +after some petty ebullitions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> of jealousy and contests for precedence, +the Assembly became general, and all distinctions were lost.</p> + +<p>The King's secret advisers were, however, by no means reconciled to this +new triumph over ancient privilege and existing authority, and meditated +a reprisal by removing the Assembly farther from Paris, and there +dissolving, if it could not overawe them. For this purpose the troops +were collected from all parts; Versailles, where the Assembly sat, was +like a camp; Paris looked as if it were in a state of siege. These +extensive military preparations, the trains of artillery arriving every +hour from the frontier, with the presence of the foreign regiments, +occasioned great suspicion and alarm; and on the motion of Mirabeau, the +Assembly sent an address to the King, respectfully urging him to remove +the troops from the neighborhood of the capital; but this he declined +doing, hinting at the same time that they might retire, if they chose, +to Noyon or Soissons, thus placing themselves at the disposal of the +Crown, and depriving themselves of the aid of the people.</p> + +<p>Paris was in a state of extreme agitation. This immense city was +unanimous in its devotedness to the Assembly. A capital is at all times, +and Paris was then more particularly, the natural focus of a revolution. +To this many causes contribute. The actual presence of the monarch +dissipates the illusions of royalty; and he is no longer, as in the +distant province or petty village, an abstraction of power and majesty, +another name for all that is great and exalted, but a common mortal, one +man among a million of men, perhaps one of the meanest of his race. +Pageants and spectacles may impose on the crowd; but a weak or haughty +look undoes the effect, and leads to disadvantageous reflections on the +title to or the good resulting from all this display of pomp and +magnificence. From being the seat of the court, its vices are better +known, its meannesses are more talked of.<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> In the number and +distraction of passing objects and interests, the present occupies the +mind alone—the chain of antiquity is broken, and custom loses its +force. Men become "flies of a summer." Opinion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> has here many ears, many +tongues, and many hands to work with. The slightest whisper is rumored +abroad, and the roar of the multitude breaks down the prison or the +palace gates. They are seldom brought to act together but in extreme +cases; nor is it extraordinary that, in such cases, the conduct of the +people is violent, from the consciousness of transient power, its +impatience of opposition, its unwieldy bulk and loose texture, which +cannot be kept within nice bounds or stop at half-measure.</p> + +<p>Nothing could be more critical or striking than the situation of Paris +at this moment. Everything betokened some great and decisive change. +Foreign bayonets threatened the inhabitants from without, famine within. +The capitalists dreaded a bankruptcy; the enlightened and patriotic the +return of absolute power; the common people threw all the blame on the +privileged classes. The press inflamed the public mind with innumerable +pamphlets and invectives against the government, and the journals +regularly reported the proceedings and debates of the Assembly. +Everywhere in the open air, particularly in the Palais-Royal, groups +were formed, where they read and harangued by turns. It was in +consequence of a proposal made by one of the speakers in the +Palais-Royal that the prison of the Abbaye was forced open and some +grenadiers of the French Guards, who had been confined for refusing to +fire upon the people, were set at liberty and led out in triumph.</p> + +<p>Paris was in this state of excitement and apprehension when the Court, +having first stationed a number of troops at Versailles, at Sèvres, at +the Champ-de-Mars, and at St. Denis, commenced offensive measures by the +complete change of all the ministers and by the banishment of Necker. +The latter, on Saturday, July 11th, while he was at dinner, received a +note from the King, enjoining him to quit the kingdom without a moment's +delay. He calmly finished his dinner, without saying a word of the order +he had received, and immediately after got into his carriage with his +wife and took the road to Brussels. The next morning the news of his +disgrace reached Paris. The whole city was in a tumult: above ten +thousand persons were, in a short time, collected in the garden of the +Palais-Royal. A young man of the name of Camille Desmoulins, one of the +habitual and most enthusiastic haranguers of the crowd, mounted on a +table and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> cried out that "there was not a moment to lose; that the +dismission of Necker was the signal for the St. Bartholomew of liberty; +that the Swiss and German regiments would presently issue from the +Champ-de-Mars to massacre the citizens; and that they had but one +resource left, which was to resort to arms." And the crowd, tearing each +a green leaf, the color of hope, from the chestnut-trees in the garden, +which were nearly laid bare, and wearing it as a badge, traversed the +streets of Paris, with the busts of Necker and of the Duke of Orléans, +who was also said to be arrested, covered with crape and borne in solemn +pomp.</p> + +<p>They had proceeded in this manner as far as the Place Vendôme, when they +were met by a party of the Royal Allemand, whom they put to flight by +pelting them with stones; but at the Place Louis XV they were assailed +by the dragoons of the Prince of Lambesc; the bearer of one of the busts +and a private of the French Guards were killed; the mob fled into the +Garden of the Tuileries, whither the Prince followed them at the head of +his dragoons, and attacked a number of persons who knew nothing of what +was passing, and were walking quietly in the gardens. In the scuffle, an +old man was wounded; the confusion as well as the resentment of the +people became general; and there was but one cry, "To arms!" to be heard +throughout the Tuileries, the Palais-Royal, in the city, and the +suburbs.</p> + +<p>The French Guards had been ordered to their quarters in the +Chaussée-d'Antin, where sixty of Lambesc's dragoons were posted opposite +to watch them. A dispute arose, and it was with much difficulty they +were prevented from coming to blows. But when the former learned that +one of their comrades had been slain, their indignation could no longer +be restrained; they rushed out, killed two of the foreign soldiers, +wounded three others, and the rest were forced to fly. They then +proceeded to the Place Louis XV, where they stationed themselves between +the people and the troops, and guarded this position the whole of the +night. The soldiers in the Champ-de-Mars were then ordered to attack +them, but refused to fire, and were remanded back to their quarters.</p> + +<p>The defection of the French Guards, with the repugnance of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> the other +troops to march against the capital, put a stop for the present to the +projects of the Court. In the mean time the populace had assembled at +the Hôtel de Ville, and loudly demanded the sounding of the tocsin and +the arming of the citizens. Several highly respectable individuals also +met here, and did much good in repressing a spirit of violence and +mischief. They could not, however, effect everything. A number of +disorderly people and of workmen out of employ, without food or place of +abode, set fire to the barriers, infested the streets, and pillaged +several houses in the night between the 12th and 13th.</p> + +<p>The departure of Necker, which had excited such a sensation in the +capital, produced as deep an impression at Versailles and on the +Assembly, who manifested surprise and indignation, but not dejection. +Lally Tollendal pronounced a formal eulogium on the exiled minister. +After one or two displays of theatrical vehemence, which is inseparable +from French enthusiasm and eloquence, they despatched a deputation to +the King, informing him of the situation and troubles of Paris, and +praying him to dismiss the troops and intrust the defence of the capital +to the city militia. The deputation received an answer which amounted to +a repulse. The Assembly now perceived that the designs of the Court +party were irrevocably fixed, and that it had only itself to rely upon. +It instantly voted the responsibility of the ministers and of all the +advisers of the Crown, "of whatsoever rank or degree."</p> + +<p>This last clause was pointed at the Queen, whose influence was greatly +dreaded. They then, from an apprehension that the doors might be closed +during the night in order to dissolve the Assembly, declared their +sittings permanent. A vice-president was chosen, to lessen the fatigue +of the Archbishop of Vienne. The choice fell upon Lafayette. In this +manner a part of the Assembly sat up all night. It passed without +deliberation, the deputies remaining on their seats, silent, but calm +and serene. What thoughts must have revolved through the minds of those +present on this occasion! Patriotism and philosophy had here taken up +their sanctuary. If we consider their situation; the hopes that filled +their breasts; the trials they had to encounter; the future destiny of +their country, of the world, which hung on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> their decision as in a +balance; the bitter wrongs they were about to sweep away; the good they +had it in their power to accomplish—the countenances of the Assembly +must have been majestic, and radiant with the light that through them +was about to dawn on ages yet unborn. They might foresee a struggle, the +last convulsive efforts of pride and power to keep the world in its +wonted subjection—but that was nothing—their final triumph over all +opposition was assured in the eternal principles of justice and in their +own unshaken devotedness to the great cause of mankind! If the result +did not altogether correspond to the intentions of those firm and +enlightened patriots who so nobly planned it, the fault was not in them, +but in others.</p> + +<p>At Paris the insurrection had taken a more decided turn. Early in the +morning the people assembled in large bodies at the Hôtel de Ville; the +tocsin sounded from all the churches; the drums beat to summon the +citizens together, who formed themselves into different bands of +volunteers. All that they wanted was arms. These, except a few at the +gunsmiths' shops, were not to be had. They then applied to M. de +Flesselles, a provost of the city, who amused them with fair words. "My +children," he said, "I am your father!" This paternal style seems to +have been the order of the day. A committee sat at the Hôtel de Ville to +take measures for the public safety. Meanwhile a granary had been broken +open: the Garde-Meuble had been ransacked for old arms; the armorers' +shops were plundered; all was a scene of confusion, and the utmost +dismay everywhere prevailed. But no private mischief was done. It was a +moment of popular frenzy, but one in which the public danger and the +public good overruled every other consideration. The grain which had +been seized, the carts loaded with provisions, with plate or furniture, +and stopped at the barriers, were all taken to the Grève as a public +depot.</p> + +<p>The crowd incessantly repeated the cry for arms, and were pacified by an +assurance that thirty thousand muskets would speedily arrive from +Charleville. The Duc d'Aumont was invited to take the command of the +popular troops; and on hesitating, the Marquis of Salle was nominated in +his stead. The green cockade was exchanged for one of red and blue, the +colors of the city. A quantity of powder was discovered, as it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> was +about to be conveyed beyond the barriers; and the cases of fire-arms +promised from Charleville turned out, on inspection, to be filled with +old rags and logs of wood. The rage and impatience of the multitude now +became extreme. Such perverse, trifling, and barefaced duplicity would +be unaccountable anywhere else; but in France they pay with promises; +and the provost, availing himself of the credulity of his audience, +promised them still more arms at the Chartreux. To prevent a repetition +of the excesses of the mob, Paris was illuminated at night and a patrol +paraded the streets.</p> + +<p>The following day, the people being deceived as to the convoy of arms +that was to arrive from Charleville, and having been equally +disappointed in those at the Chartreux, broke into the Hospital of +Invalids, in spite of the troops stationed in the neighborhood, and +carried off a prodigious number of stands of arms concealed in the +cellars. An alarm had been spread in the night that the regiment +quartered at St. Denis was on its way to Paris, and that the cannon of +the Bastille had been pointed in the direction of the street of St. +Antoine. This information, the dread which this fortress inspired, the +recollection of the horrors which had been perpetrated there, its very +name, which appalled all hearts and made the blood run cold, the +necessity of wresting it from the hands of its old and feeble +possessors, drew the attention of the multitude to this hated spot. From +nine in the morning of the memorable July 14th, till two, Paris from one +end to the other rang with the same watchword: "To the Bastille! To the +Bastille!" The inhabitants poured there in throngs from all quarters, +armed with different weapons; the crowd that already surrounded it was +considerable; the sentinels were at their posts, and the drawbridges +raised as in war-time.</p> + +<p>A deputy from the district of St. Louis de la Culture, Thuriot de la +Rosière, then asked to speak with the governor, M. Delaunay. Being +admitted into his presence, he required that the direction of the cannon +should be changed. Three guns were pointed against the entrance, though +the governor pretended that everything remained in the state in which it +had always been. About forty Swiss and eighty Invalids garrisoned the +place, from whom he obtained a promise not to fire on the people unless +they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> were themselves attacked. His companions began to be uneasy and +called loudly for him. To satisfy them, he showed himself on the +ramparts, from whence he could see an immense multitude flocking from +all parts, and the Faubourg St. Antoine advancing as it were in a mass. +He then returned to his friends and gave them what tidings he had +collected.</p> + +<p>But the crowd, not satisfied, demanded the surrender of the fortress. +From time to time the angry cry was repeated: "Down with the Bastille!" +Two men, more determined than the rest, pressed forward, attacked a +guard-house, and attempted to break down the chains of the bridge with +the blows of an axe. The soldiers called out to them to fall back, +threatening to fire if they did not. But they repeated their blows, +shattered the chains, and lowered the drawbridge, over which they rushed +with the crowd. They threw themselves upon the second bridge, in the +hopes of making themselves masters of it in the same manner, when the +garrison fired and dispersed them for a few minutes. They soon, however, +returned to the charge; and for several hours, during a murderous +discharge of musketry, and amid heaps of the wounded and dying, renewed +the attack with unabated courage and obstinacy, led on by two brave men, +Elie and Hulia, their rage and desperation being inflamed to a pitch of +madness by the scene of havoc around them. Several deputations arrived +from the Hôtel de Ville to offer terms of accommodation; but in the +noise and fury of the moment they could not make themselves heard, and +the storming continued as before.</p> + +<p>The assault had been carried on in this manner with inextinguishable +rage and great loss of blood to the besiegers, though with little +progress made, for above four hours, when the arrival of the French +Guards with cannon altered the face of things. The garrison urged the +governor to surrender. The wretched Delaunay, dreading the fate which +awaited him, wanted to blow up the place and bury himself under the +ruins, and was advancing for this purpose with a lighted match in his +hand toward the powder-magazine, but was prevented by the soldiers, who +planted the white flag on the platform, and reversed their arms in token +of submission. This was not enough for those without. They demanded with +loud and reiterated cries to have the drawbridges let down; and on an +assurance being given that no harm was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> intended, the bridges were +lowered and the assailants tumultuously rushed in. The endeavors of +their leaders could not save the governor or a number of the soldiers, +who were seized on by the infuriated multitude, and put to death for +having fired on their fellow-citizens.</p> + +<p>Thus fell the Bastille; and the shout that accompanied its downfall was +echoed through Europe, and men rejoiced that "the grass grew where the +Bastille stood!" Earth was lightened of a load that oppressed it, nor +did this ghastly object any longer startle the sight, like an ugly +spider lying in wait for its accustomed prey, and brooding in sullen +silence over the wrongs which it had the will, though not the power, to +inflict.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[The Bastille was taken about a quarter before six o'clock +in the evening (Tuesday, July 14th), after a four-hours' +attack. Only one cannon was fired from the fortress, and +only one person was killed among the besieged. The garrison +consisted of 82 Invalids, 2 cannoneers, and 32 Swiss. Of the +assailants, 83 were killed on the spot, 60 were wounded, of +whom 15 died of their wounds, and 13 were disabled. A great +many barrels of gunpowder had been conveyed here from the +arsenal, in the night between the 12th and 13th. Delaunay, +the governor, was killed on the steps of the Hôtel de Ville, +as also Delosme, the mayor. Only seven prisoners were found +in the Bastille; four of these, Pujade, Bechade, La Roche, +and La Caurege, were for forgery. M. de Solages was put in +in 1782, at the desire of his father, since which time every +communication from without was carefully withheld from him. +He did not know the smallest event that had taken place in +all that time, and was told by the turnkey, when he heard +the firing of the cannon, that it was owing to a riot about +the price of bread. M. Tavernier, a bastard son of Paris +Duverney, had been confined ever since August 4, 1759. The +last prisoner was a Mr. White, who went mad, and it could +never be discovered who or what he was: by the name he must +have been English.</p> + +<p>When Lord Albemarle was ambassador at Paris, in the year +1753, he by mere accident caught a sight of the list of +persons confined in the Bastille, lying on the table of the +French minister, with the name of Gordon at their head. +Being struck with the circumstance, he inquired into the +meaning of it; but the French minister could give no account +of it; and on the prisoner himself being released and sent +for, he could only state that he had been confined there +thirty years, but had not the slightest knowledge or +suspicion of the cause for which he had been arrested. Nor +is this wonderful, when we consider that <i>lettres de cachet</i> +were sold, with blanks left for the names to be filled up at +the pleasure or malice of the purchasers.</p> + +<p>If it was only to prevent the recurrence of one such +instance (with the feeling in society at once shrinking from +and tamely acquiescing in it),<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> the Revolution was well +purchased. When the crowd gained possession of this +loathsome spot, they eagerly poured into every corner and +turning of it, went down into the lowest dungeons with a +breathless curiosity and horror, knocking with +sledge-hammers at their triple portals, and breaking down +and destroying everything in their way. The stones and +devices on the battlements were torn off and thrown into the +ditch, and the papers and documents were at the same time +unfortunately destroyed.</p> + +<p>A low range of dungeons was discovered underground, close to +the moat; and so contrived that, if those within had forced +a passage through, they would have let in the water of the +ditch and been suffocated. In one of these a skeleton was +found hanging to an iron cramp in the wall. In reading the +accounts of the demolition of this building, one feels that +indignation should have melted the stone walls like flax, +and that the dungeons should have given up their dead to +assist the living!</p> + +<p>The Bastille was begun in 1370, in Charles V's time, by one +Hugh Abriot, provost of the city, who was afterward shut up +in it in 1381. It at first consisted only of two towers: two +more were added by Charles VI, and four more in 1383. Two +days after it was taken, it was ordered by the National +Assembly to be razed to the ground, and in May, 1790, not a +trace of it was left.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span>]</p></div> + +<p>The stormers of the Bastille arrived at the Place de la Grève, rending +the air with shouts of victory. They marched on to the great hall of the +Hôtel de Ville, in all the terrific and unusual pomp of a popular +triumph. Such of them as had displayed most courage and ardor were borne +on the shoulders of the rest, crowned with laurel. They were escorted up +the hall by near two thousand of the populace, their eyes flaming, their +hair in wild disorder, variously accoutred, pressing tumultuously on +each other, and making the heavy floors almost crack beneath their +footsteps. One bore the keys and flag of the Bastille, another the +regulations of the prison brandished on the point of a bayonet; a +third—a thing horrible to relate!—held in his bloody fingers the +buckle of the governor's stock. In this order it was that they entered +the Hôtel de Ville to announce their victory to the Committee, and to +decide on the fate of their remaining prisoners, who, in spite of the +impatient cries to give no quarter, were rescued by the exertions of the +commandant La Salle, Moreau de St. Mery, and the intrepid Elie.</p> + +<p>Then came the turn of the despicable Flesselles, that caricature of +vapid, frothy impertinence, who thought he could baffle the roaring +tiger with grimace and shallow excuses. "To the Palais-Royal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> with him!" +was the word; and he answered with callous indifference, "Well, to the +Palais-Royal if you will." He was hemmed in by the crowd and borne along +without any violence being offered him to the place of destination; but +at the corner of the Quai le Pelletier an unknown hand approached him +and stretched him lifeless on the spot with a pistol-shot. During the +night succeeding this eventful day Paris was in the greatest agitation, +hourly expecting, in consequence of the statements of intercepted +letters, an attack from the troops. Every preparation was made to defend +the city. Barricades were formed, the streets unpaved, pikes forged, the +women piled stones on the tops of houses to hurl them down on the heads +of the soldiers, and the National Guard occupied the outposts.</p> + +<p>While all this was passing, and before it became known at Versailles, +the Court was preparing to carry into effect its designs against the +Assembly and the capital. The night between the 14th and 15th was fixed +upon for their execution. The new minister, Breteuil, had promised to +reëstablish the royal authority within three days. Marshal Broglie, who +commanded the army round Paris, was invested with unlimited powers. The +Assembly, it was agreed upon, were to be dissolved, and forty thousand +copies of a proclamation to this effect were ready to be circulated +throughout the kingdom. The rising of the populace was supposed to be a +temporary evil, and it was thought to the last moment an impossibility +that a mob of citizens should resist an army. The Assembly was duly +apprised of all these projects. It sat for two days in a state of +constant inquietude and alarm. The news from Paris was doubtful. A +firing of cannon was supposed to be heard, and persons anxiously placed +their ears to the ground to listen. The escape of the King was also +expected, as a carriage had been kept in readiness, and the bodyguard +had not pulled off their boots for several days.</p> + +<p>In the orangery belonging to the palace, meat and wine had been +distributed among the foreign troops to encourage and spirit them up. +The Viscount of Noailles and another deputy, Wimpfen, brought word of +the latest events in the capital, and of the increasing violence of the +people. Couriers were despatched every half-hour to gather intelligence. +Deputations waited on the King to lay before him the progress of the +insurrection, but he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> still gave evasive and unsatisfactory answers. In +the night of the 14th the Duke of Liancourt had informed Louis XVI of +the taking of the Bastille and the massacre of the garrison on the +preceding day. "It is a revolt!" exclaimed the monarch, taken by +surprise. "No, sire, it is a revolution," was the answer.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> Edmund Burke passed a splendid and well-known eulogium on +the beauty and accomplishments of the Queen, and it was in part the +impression which her youthful charms had left in his mind that threw the +casting-weight of his talents and eloquence into the scale of opposition +to the French Revolution. I have heard another very competent judge, Mr. +Northcote, describe her entering a small anteroom, where he stood, with +her large hoop sideways, and gliding by him from one end to the other +with a grace and lightness as if borne on a cloud. It was possibly to +"this air with which she trod or rather disdained the earth," as if +descended from some higher sphere, that she owed the indignity of being +conducted to a scaffold. Personal grace and beauty cannot save their +possessors from the fury of the multitude, more than from the raging +elements, though they may inspire that pride and self-opinion which +expose them to it.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> It was observed that almost all the greatest cruelties of +the Reign of Terror were resolved on by committees of persons who had +been in the immediate employment of the great, and had suffered by their +caprice and insolence.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span></p> +<h2>ESTABLISHMENT OF THE UNITED STATES BANK</h2> + +<h4><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1791</h4> + +<h3><span class="smcap">ALEXANDER HAMILTON and LAWRENCE LEWIS, Jr.</span></h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Through the founding of the first Bank of the United States, +which existed from 1791 to 1811, and was succeeded by +another national bank in 1817, the monetary affairs of the +Republic, under Hamilton's able administration, were placed +upon a sounder basis, and the transaction of public business +was greatly facilitated.</p> + +<p>During the seventeenth century Indian money (wampum) was +much used by the colonists, especially in their trade with +the Indians. For a long time it was a legal tender in common +with other currencies. The earliest American coinage is said +to date from 1612. In Massachusetts, the "pine-tree" +money—silver coins bearing the emblem of a pine-tree—was +used from 1652 to 1686. Soon began the issue of various +paper moneys in the colonies, and the establishment of banks +under the colonial governments. The "Continental currency" +of the Revolution, first issued in 1775 by authority of the +Continental Congress, began to depreciate almost as soon as +it appeared, and in 1780 ceased to circulate.</p> + +<p>In 1780 the Pennsylvania Bank, in Philadelphia, began to +assist the Government, and rendered useful service until +1784. But the need of a national bank had already become +evident. Robert Morris, Superintendent of Finance for the +United States, secured the organization, at Philadelphia, of +the Bank of North America, with a capital of four hundred +thousand dollars. It was incorporated by Congress in +December, 1781, and soon after by the State of Pennsylvania. +Its success led to the founding of the Bank of New York in +1784.</p> + +<p>On the organization of the Government under the Federal +Constitution, the genius of Alexander Hamilton was called +into service for the work of constructive statesmanship. +From 1789 to 1795 he was Secretary of the Treasury; and one +of his first acts, as shown by Lewis, was the unfolding of a +plan which led to the establishment of the first Bank of the +United States.</p></div> + + +<p>In March, 1789, a great and fortunate change took place in the +management of American public affairs. The Constitution of the United +States went into operation. A vigorous, responsible executive was +conferred upon the country, and an incredible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> impulse given to all +schemes of national importance. Among those now called upon to take part +in the administration of public affairs was Alexander Hamilton. Placed +in charge of the Department of the Treasury, he found before him the +prodigious task of settling the financial affairs of the United States +upon a sure and satisfactory basis. Toward the attainment of this end no +measure seemed more important to him than his old and favorite one for +the establishment of a national bank. Without loss of time he devised a +plan for such an institution which seemed to him practicable, and in +1790 spread before Congress the result of his labors.</p> + +<p>"The establishment of banks in this country," says Hamilton in the +course of his report, "seems to be recommended by reasons of a peculiar +nature. Previously to the Revolution, circulation was in a great measure +carried on by paper emitted by the several local governments. This +auxiliary may be said to be now at an end. And it is generally supposed +that there has been for some time past a deficiency of circulating +medium.</p> + +<p>"If the supposition of such a deficiency be in any degree founded, and +some aid to circulation be desirable, it remains to inquire what ought +to be the nature of that aid.</p> + +<p>"The emitting of paper money by the authority of government is wisely +prohibited to the individual States by the national Constitution; and +the spirit of that prohibition ought not be disregarded by the +Government of the United States.</p> + +<p>"Among other material differences between a paper currency issued by the +mere authority of Government, and one issued by a bank, payable in coin, +is this: that in the first case there is no standard to which an appeal +can be made, as to the quantity which will only satisfy or which will +surcharge the circulation; in the last, that standard results from the +demand. If more should be issued than is necessary, it will return upon +the bank. Its emissions must always be in a compound ratio to the fund +and the demand. Whence it is evident that there is a limitation in the +nature of the thing; while the discretion of the Government is the only +measure of the extent of the emissions by its own authority.</p> + +<p>"The payment of the interest of the public debt at thirteen different +places is a weighty reason, peculiar to our immediate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> situation, for +desiring a bank circulation. Without a paper, in general currency, +equivalent to gold and silver, a considerable proportion of the specie +of the country must always be suspended from circulation, and left to +accumulate preparatorily to each day of payment; and as often as one +approaches, there must in several cases be an actual transportation of +the metals at both expense and risk, from their natural and proper +reservoirs, to distant places."</p> + +<p>The report then goes on to explain the practical details of the plan +proposed.</p> + +<p>The measure met generally with popular applause, but there were some who +doubted its wisdom. Among other difficulties that were thrown in its +path was a suggestion that a new bank was quite unnecessary, since an +institution was in existence which owed its origin to national bounty, +and which had already, upon more than one occasion, manifested both its +readiness and ability to extend a helping hand to the Government. With +this objection Hamilton dealt most courteously.</p> + +<p>"The aid afforded to the United States," said he, "by the Bank of North +America during the remaining period of the war was of essential +consequence, and its conduct toward them since the peace has not +weakened its title to their patronage and favor. So far its pretensions +to the character of a national bank are respectable, but there are +circumstances which militate against them and considerations which +indicate the propriety of an establishment on different principles.</p> + +<p>"The directors of this bank, on behalf of their constituents, have since +acted under a new charter from the State of Pennsylvania, materially +variant from their original one, and which so narrows the foundation of +the institution as to render it an incompetent basis for the extensive +purposes of a national bank.</p> + +<p>"There is nothing in the acts of Congress which implies an exclusive +right in the institution to which they relate, except during the time of +the war. There is, therefore, nothing, if the public good require it, +which prevents the establishment of another. It may, however, be +incidentally remarked that in the general opinion of the citizens of the +United States, the Bank of North America has taken the station of a bank +of Pennsylvania only. This is a strong argument for a new institution, +or for a renovation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> of the old, to restore it to the situation in which +it originally stood in the view of the United States. But—there may be +room to allege that the Government of the United States ought not, in +point of candor or equity, to establish any rival or interfering +institution in prejudice of the one already established, especially as +this has, from services rendered, well-founded claims to protection and +regard.</p> + +<p>"The justice of this observation ought, within proper bounds, to be +admitted. A new establishment of the sort ought not to be made without +cogent and sincere reasons of public good. And in the manner of doing it +every facility should be given to a consolidation of the old with the +new, upon terms not injurious to the parties concerned. But there is no +ground to maintain that in a case in which the Government has made no +condition restricting its authority, it ought voluntarily to restrict +it, through regard to the interests of a particular institution, when +those of the State dictate a different course; especially, too, after +such circumstances have intervened as characterize the actual situation +of the Bank of North America.</p> + +<p>"If the objections, which have been stated, to the constitution of the +Bank of North America are admitted to be well founded, they, +nevertheless, will not derogate from the merit of the main design, or of +the services which that bank has rendered, or of the benefits which it +has produced. The creation of such an institution, at the time it took +place, was a measure dictated by wisdom. Its utility has been amply +evinced by its fruits. American independence owes much to it.</p> + +<p>"The Secretary begs leave to conclude with this general observation, +that if the Bank of North America shall come forward with any +propositions which have for their object the ingrafting upon that +institution the characteristics which shall appear to the Legislature +necessary to the due extent and safety of a national bank, there are, in +his judgment, weighty inducements to giving every reasonable facility to +the measure. Not only the pretensions of that institution, from its +original relation to the Government of the United States, and from the +services it has rendered, are such as to claim a disposition favorable +to it, if those who are interested in it are willing, on their part, to +place it on a footing satisfactory to the Government and equal to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> +purposes of a bank of the United States; but its coöperation would +naturally accelerate the accomplishment of the great object, and the +collision, which might otherwise arise, might, in a variety of ways, +prove equally disagreeable and injurious. The incorporation and union +here contemplated may be effected in different modes, under the auspices +of an act of the United States, if it shall be desired, by the Bank of +North America, upon terms which shall appear expedient to the +Government."</p> + +<p>As far as can be ascertained, however, the management of the bank took +no steps in accordance with the suggestions of the report. The quiet and +prosperous business in which they were engaged, under State auspices, +was to them preferable to the anxieties and hazards which would probably +attend the new national undertaking; the scheme of a separate +institution was, therefore, rapidly pushed forward, and on February 19, +1791, the first Bank of the United States began its corporate existence.</p> + +<p>The Bank of North America now sustained a serious loss in the +resignation of its president, Mr. Willing, on January 9, 1792, after a +term of service extending over a little more than ten years. He had been +chosen to preside over the affairs of the Bank of the United States, a +station for which it was justly supposed that his talents and experience +eminently qualified him. He was succeeded in office by John Nixon, an +almost equally well-known and respected citizen. Born in 1733 of Irish +parentage, Mr. Nixon for a number of years did a prosperous business in +the city of Philadelphia. He was one of the many signers of the +Non-importation Resolutions, and upon the breaking out of the Revolution +made himself prominent by his strenuous efforts and warm interest in the +national cause. He was a member of the Committee of Safety, and had the +honor of first proclaiming to the citizens of Philadelphia the +Declaration of Independence. During some portion of the war he did +active service, with the rank of colonel, in the Continental Army. He +was one of the original subscribers to the bank, and had been a director +since 1784. He retained the office of president for seventeen years +until his death, which occurred on December 24, 1808.</p> + +<p>Meantime the business of the bank was rapidly increasing as the commerce +of the country grew. The profits were so great that annual dividends of +12 per cent. were paid to the various<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> stockholders. Nor did the +institution cease to accommodate the public from time to time with loans +of considerable extent. During the year 1791 the bank advanced to the +Commonwealth, at different times, in all one hundred sixty thousand +dollars, and in the following year something over fifty-three thousand +dollars.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span></p> +<h2>NEGRO REVOLUTION IN HAITI</h2> + +<h3>TOUSSAINT LOUVERTURE ESTABLISHES THE DOMINION OF HIS RACE</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1791</h4> + +<h3>CHARLES WYLLYS ELLIOTT</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Haiti, the Spanish Santo Domingo, earlier called Española, +is the largest of the West Indian islands except Cuba. The +bloody revolutionary and slave revolts which began in 1791 +and ended in the supremacy of the negroes, form the most +memorable passages in its history. From 1797 their great +leader, Toussaint Louverture, whose achievements are here +recounted, was Governor of the whole island, whose +independence he proclaimed in 1801. Having afterward opposed +Napoleon's attempt to reëstablish slavery, Toussaint was +treacherously arrested and sent to France, where, in a +dungeon, he died in 1803. But white supremacy was never +restored in Haiti.</p> + +<p>In 1697 France, by treaty, acquired the western part of the +island, the eastern portion remaining in the possession of +Spain, which had held it ever since its discovery by +Columbus. The French found their Haitian lands very +profitable in cotton and sugar, and the western region +prospered, while the Spanish community was stagnant. At the +outbreak of the French Revolution (1789) the whole island +was thrown into a ferment, out of which came the changes +that Elliott relates.</p> + +<p>At that time the French portion of Haiti had about half a +million inhabitants, of whom some forty thousand were of +European blood, thirty thousand free negroes, the rest negro +slaves. The free colored people, mostly mulattoes, had no +voice in the Government, but in 1790 the French National +Assembly decreed to those born of free parents full +citizenship. Opposition on the part of the whites caused +delay in carrying out the decree. Taking advantage of the +ensuing commotion, the slaves rose in revolt (August, 1791), +and the conditions which Toussaint at length was called upon +to meet were inevitably brought about.</p> + +<p>This black hero, of whose origin and personality information +is given below, has been made the subject of a noble sonnet +by Wordsworth, of an equally fine eulogy by Wendell +Phillips, of a tragedy by Lamartine, and of a romance, <i>The +Hour and the Man</i>, by Harriet Martineau. Auguste Comte, the +founder of positivism, placed Toussaint in his new calendar +among the great modern liberators—Hampden, Cromwell, +Algernon Sidney, Washington, and Bolivar.</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span></p> + + +<p>On August 25, 1791, was the feast of St. Louis. For the week preceding, +the planters gathered at Cap François<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> to concert measures against +the mulattoes; against the National Assembly; and—to dine. The great +men, and the rich, and the brave, were there. It was not a time to drive +the slaves; and during that week they "danced" more than before. On the +evening of August 23d, the best dishes of the cook Henri, a born prince, +whose future no one could suspect, tempted the palates of the born +whites. In brave counsels, in denunciations of the mulattoes, in songs +for Governor Blanchelande and "Liberty," the time passed, the wine +flowed, and hearts swelled. So the shadows of the night stole on. Light! +More light! was called for; they threw open the jalousies; curious black +faces swarmed about the piazzas—but what meant that dull glare which +reached the sultry sky? The party was broken up: they rushed to the +windows; they could smell the heavy smoke, they could hear the distant +tramp of feet. The band, unbidden, struck up the <i>Marsellaise</i>; it was +caught up in the streets; and from mouth to mouth, toward the rich Plain +du Nord, passed along the song:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"<i>Le jour de gloire est arrivé!</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Aux armes! aux armes! pour Liberté!</i>"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Consternation followed the feast. Each man grasped his arms: into the +midst of the company rushed a negro covered with dust; panting with +heat. He sought his master. Pale with fear and excited with wine, he +received him on the point of his sword. As the life and blood flowed he +gasped, "O master! O master!" Murmurs of disapprobation filled the room, +but it was too late: the hour had come! The slaves had risen. This poor +creature had wished to save the man that owned him.</p> + +<p>The rebellion broke out on the plantation of Noe, nine miles from Cap +François. At midnight the slaves sought the refiner and his apprentice +and hewed them in pieces. The overseer they shot. They then proceeded to +the house of Mr. Clement: he was killed by his postilion. They proceeded +from plantation to plantation murdering the whites; their ranks swelled +by crowds of scarred and desperate men who had nothing to lose but +life;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> and life with slavery was not so sweet as revenge. Everywhere +they applied the torch to the sugar-mills—those bastilles, consecrated +to the rites of the lash and to forced labor, dumb with fear—and to the +cane fields, watered with sweat and blood.</p> + +<p>Toward morning crowds of whites came pouring into Cap François, pale, +terror-stricken, blood-stained. Men, women, and children found the day +of judgment was come: none knew what to do; all was confusion. The +signal-gun boomed through the darkness warning of danger, and every man +stood to his arms. The inhabitants of the city were paralyzed with fear. +They barred their doors and locked up their house-slaves. The only +living objects in the streets were a few soldiers marching to their +posts. Panic ruled the hour. The Assembly sat through the night. Touzard +was sent out to attack the negroes, but was driven back. Guns were +mounted, and the streets barricaded.</p> + +<p>The morning dawned, and with the rising sun came rising courage. "It is +nothing," said some; "burn and hang a few negroes and all will go on as +before." The exasperation against the mulattoes, who were charged with +having fomented the rising, resulted in hatred, insult, bloodshed and +murder in and around Cap François; and a butchery was only stayed by the +vigorous opposition of the Governor. Whatever negroes were seized were +tortured and massacred. "Frequently," says Lacroix, "did the faithful +slave perish by the hands of an irritated master whose confidence he +sought."</p> + +<p>The maddened negroes had tasted blood. They seized Mr. Blen, an officer +of police, nailed him alive to one of the gates of his plantation, and +chopped off his limbs with an axe.</p> + +<p>M. Cardineau had two sons by a black woman. He had freed them and shown +them much kindness; but they belonged to the hated race, and they joined +the revolt. The father remonstrated, and offered them money. They took +his money and stabbed him to the heart. If they were bastards, who had +made them so? "One's pleasant vices often come home to roost." Horrors +were piled on horrors: white women were ravished and murdered; black +were broken on the wheel: whites were crucified; blacks were burned +alive: long pent-up hatreds were having their riot and revenge. M. +Odeluc was wrong, then!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> The slaves did <i>not</i> seem to love their +masters. What could it mean?</p> + +<p>Pork and bananas: slavery and ignorance; with some, dancing and the free +use of the whip seemed to be producing surprising results. The whites +could not understand it. Much sugar was raised, and yet the negroes were +not satisfied, and now seemed to have gone mad. Destruction hung over +the whites, and they concluded to try hanging and burning in their +extremity—having no faith in justice and honesty for the blacks. +Hundreds, perhaps thousands, owed their safety to the kindness of their +house-slaves.</p> + +<p>Monsieur and Madame Baillou with their daughter, her husband, and two +white servants lived about thirty miles from Cap François, among the +mountains. A slave gave them notice of the rising: he hid them in the +forest and joined the revolt. At night he brought them food and led them +to another place of safety. He did this again and again: led them +through every danger and difficulty till they escaped to the sea. For +nineteen nights they were in the woods, and the negro risked his life to +save theirs. Why repeat instances? This was one of hundreds.</p> + +<p>M. Odeluc was the superintendent of the Gallifet estate, the largest on +the Plain. "As happy as one of Gallifet's negroes," was a saying in the +district. He was sure of <i>his</i> hands, and regretted the exaggerated +terror of the whites. With a friend and three or four soldiers he rode +out to the estate and found his negroes in arms with the body of a white +child for a standard. Alas! poor Odeluc! He believed the negroes were +dogs and would lick the hand that struck the blow. It was too late: he +and his attendants were cut down without mercy. Two only escaped to tell +the tale. Four thousand negroes were in arms and they were everywhere +successful. The Plain was in their possession; the quarters of Morin and +Limonade were in flames, and their ravages extended from the shore to +the mountains. Their recklessness was succeeded by regular organization +and systematic war. In the first moments of their headlong fury all +whites were murdered indiscriminately. This did not last: they soon +distinguished their enemies; and women and children were saved. The +blacks were headed by Jean François and Biassou—generals not to be +despised. Brave, rapid, unscrupulous; vain of grandeur,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> greedy of +plunder, they were not far from the marshals of France.</p> + +<p>This, then, was not a revolt, but a revolution! Success would decide. +Never could the whites believe that the blacks were men. Ogé had +revealed a widespread conspiracy, headed by well-known slaves. The +whites concealed this. They did not believe him; they believed only that +the blacks were their born slaves, fit for the whip, incapable of +courage or honor or martyrdom. Experience only was to teach them.</p> + +<p>At first the whites acted upon the defensive. The Assembly was rancorous +against France in the midst of this destruction, and effaced from behind +the Speaker's chair the motto "<i>Vive la Nation, la Loi, et le Roi!</i>" +Even when destruction was over them they heeded not: their bickerings +continued. The negro generals declared that they were fighting for their +King, and against slavery—for a rumor had reached them that Louis +favored emancipation. They had the strongest party and the strongest +side. At length the whites determined upon a war of extermination. The +blacks responded. Heads of whites were stuck on poles around the negro +camps. Bodies of negroes swung on gibbets in the white encampments and +on trees by the roadside. Within two months two thousand whites and ten +thousand blacks perished. <i>Te Deum</i> was sung in both camps and daily +thanksgivings were said for what was done. Pale ghosts hovered over them +and sighed in the tropical groves; but they could not speak for pity or +for justice. The insurrection spread to the southwest, and two thousand +mulattoes, headed by Rigaud, rose to revenge the death of some of their +comrades; many negroes joined them and they threatened Port au Prince. +The colonists were now thoroughly alarmed, and proceeded to try +reconciliation. The inhabitants of Port au Prince and Rigaud agreed upon +a truce, and the whites admitted that the slaughter of certain mulattoes +had been "infamous," and agreed that the civil rights of the mulattoes +should be allowed them. At last! Was it not too late?</p> + +<p>Governor Blanchelande issued a proclamation earnestly entreating the +revolted negroes to lay down their arms and return to their duty. It was +too late. They laughed in derision at his small request. What! to +slavery and work and degradation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> and cruelty, even! They had burst +their fetters and stood with arms in their hands. "Will you," they +replied to the Governor, "will you, brave General, that we should, like +sheep, throw ourselves into the jaws of the wolf? It is too late. It is +for us to conquer or die!"</p> + +<p>On September 11, 1791, the whites at Port au Prince had consented to the +civil rights of the mulattoes. On October 23d the <i>Concordat</i> had been +signed; the whites and mulattoes had walked arm in arm through the city +and peace seemed possible, when word came that on September 24th the +National Assembly at Paris had reversed the decree of May 15th. The +mulattoes at once flew to arms, and the struggle between them and the +whites went on with increased carnage and cruelty. This continued with +varied results through 1792. "You kill mine and I'll kill yours," was +the cry. As it had been from the outset, so it continued among the +whites: open war between the colonists and the governors; between the +people of the North and the South; contention and bitterness, intrigue, +treachery. They made head nowhere against the mulattoes; nowhere against +the negroes. In December, 1791, three commissioners arrived from France +to distract the confusion. They accomplished nothing, and were succeeded +in September, 1792, by Santhonax, Polverel, and Ailhaud, ordinary men; +not sufficient for so extraordinary a state of things as this.</p> + +<p>The hour had come, but not the man. The world waited for him, but none +knew where to look; for none believed him to be among the degraded +negroes. The old custom of master and slave was broken in pieces, and a +nation of men, with no cultivation, with no education in +self-government, with none of the conservative strength which hangs +about privilege and possession and long-honored habit, were now up, +inspired only with a hatred of slavery and vague aspirations for that +which they knew not how to name. In this chaotic hour the man who could +express this longing for freedom, this need of growth, this aspiration +for infinite good—not only in words, but in deeds and in life—was +needed: without him all would come to nothing, and the struggle of the +blacks would be but a spasm, to end in exhaustion and discouragement; +for successful revolutions have been secured by developing, from among +the unknown, the known man, around<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> whom the elements of the new state +could gather for new order.</p> + +<p>Among the half-million blacks there must be one, and more than one, who +could redeem his race; to whom the outcast and despairing might look and +take courage and say, "Such as he is, I may try to be." This man was +longed for; consciously or not, the blacks yearned for their king, could +they but see him. The presentiment existed, for had not the Abbé Raynal +long before predicted a vindicator for the race? No man can save +another, and no nation. Each race must look for its salvation and its +leaders in its own comprehensive soul. The Moses who will lead the +blacks out of bondage must be a <i>black</i>, and he will come!</p> + +<p>Let us go back for a moment. On the arrival of the first commissioners, +Mirbeck, Roume, and St. Leger, the mulattoes in the West were in arms +under Rigaud; the blacks in the North, under Jean François and Biassou. +They were a ragged crowd: pikes, muskets, cane-knives, axes, whatever +the hand could find, were their arms, and they fought without order or +discipline, inspired by revenge and hatred to slavery. Jean François, if +vain and ostentatious, was sagacious and full of resource. Biassou was +bold, fiery, and vindictive. The blacks had slaughtered and been +slaughtered, hanged and been hanged, plundered and been plundered. There +seemed no end to it and no object. They heard that the commissioners +were placable, so they wished to make terms. But who would dare to +venture among the whites? Were not all outcasts, hunted beasts, fugitive +slaves? Raynal and Duplessis (mulattoes) at last took the hazard. The +Governor sent them to the commissioners, they to the Colonial Assembly. +The Assembly that day was in an exalted state: it emulated the gods. It +replied loftily: "Emissaries of the revolted negroes, the Assembly, +established on the law and by the law, cannot correspond with people +armed against the law. The Assembly might extend grace to guilty men, +if, being repentant, etc.," and Raynal and Duplessis were ordered +sharply to "withdraw."</p> + +<p>They did withdraw, amid the hooting of the mob. They returned to Grande +Rivière. The army and the people came out to meet them, wishing peace: +they told their story, and peace was turned to war, love to hatred. +Biassou, in a rage, ordered all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> the white prisoners in the camp to be +put to death. "Death to the whites!" went along the lines and among the +people. The insane pride of the whites worked its own punishment, and +now a hundred more were to be slaughtered. No white was there to save +them, and no God to wrest them away. Then a man, black, indifferent in +person, unpleasing of visage, meanly dressed, makes his way among the +crowd to Biassou swelling with rage. He speaks to him a few words, +quietly, calmly; they are to the purpose. The General's face is +composed; he listens; he countermands his orders, and the whites are +saved.</p> + +<p>The negro who saves them is Toussaint Breda, afterward called +Louverture. The son of an African chief, Gaou-Guinon, with no drop of +white blood in his veins. He had been the born slave of the Count de +Breda, and had been well treated by his manager, Bayou de Libertas. He +was the husband of one wife and the father of children. With religious +aspirations, an inflexible integrity, and an inquiring mind, he had been +a valuable slave and had been raised from a field-hand to be M. Bayou's +coachman.</p> + +<p>Toussaint was never hungry while a slave; he was not whipped. His hut +was comfortable; vines twined around his door. Bananas and potatoes grew +in his garden. Toussaint, it seems, was not a beast of burden. To make +sugar he was worth no more than a Bozal just stolen; but with these rare +virtues—patience, courage, intelligence, fidelity—he might have sold +for five hundred dollars and might be trusted to drive horses. When the +rebellion broke out he did not join it, but assisted M. Bayou with his +family to escape, and shipped a rich cargo to the United States for his +maintenance.</p> + +<p>Toussaint was then fifty years old. None knew the day of his birth; the +records of stock then and there were not carefully kept. For fifty years +this negro had lived the life of a slave; his only occupation the hoeing +of cane and the grooming of horses. What thoughts, what struggles, what +hopes had taken shape in that uncultivated brain no man knows—for +Toussaint was a man of few words, and he left no writings. It was late +in life to begin a new trade; late to begin to find out his own powers +and strength; late to trust himself to freedom, he who had always had a +master; late to speculate upon the destinies of the black race; late to +attempt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> to shape them. But in revolutionary times men learn fast; great +men need only the opportunity; they rise to the emergency. Cromwell was +not a born or trained general or ruler, nor was Washington, nor was +William Tell. Toussaint had bided his time. This slave was ignorant, +knew nothing. He learned to read when approaching his declining years; +then he studied: Raynal, Epictetus, Cæsar, Saxe, Herodotus, Plutarch, +Nepos—these were the books and lives he knew.</p> + +<p>He decided to join his race, and having some knowledge of simples was +made physician of the forces commanded by Jean François. Here he served +well, as he always did, and learned the trade of war. Shocked at the +cruelties of whites and blacks he took the side of mercy and saved lives +from the sword as well as from disease. He saw the vanity of François, +the rashness of Biassou, the cruelty of Jeannot; but he retired +disgusted to no stupid monastery; he returned not to the ease and +degradation of slavery, but was equal to the facts of life, however +hard, and grappled with them and mastered them as a man should. He was +then loyal to the King, and he was loyal to the Church, a devout +Catholic.</p> + +<p>In 1792, the three commissioners, sent out from France to "settle" the +affairs of the colony, had been thwarted and finally driven away by the +whites. In September (1792), Santhonax, Polverel, and Ailhaud had +arrived with troops, money, and instructions and a new governor, +Desparbes, in place of Blanchelande. He soon became disgusted, alarmed, +and he fled. The commissioners bestirred themselves to settle the +commotion. The rich planters were for the King; the <i>Petits Blancs</i> were +for the Directory; the mulattoes, under Rigaud, ravaged the West: the +revolted negroes, under Jean François, Biassou and others, threatened on +the North. France herself, that ancient kingdom, was now fermenting; +struggling—yet with hope—to realize in the state her unformed faith in +democracy, and with the energy of despair striving to beat back the +waves of bayonets which beat and bristled on her borders. Thus matters +stood in France, thus in Santo Domingo. The slaves in both countries had +risen, and rushed to arms. Their remedy was desperate; so was their +disease.</p> + +<p>General Galbaud, a new governor, arrived from France in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> May (1793). The +commissioners were engaged in the west in fighting Rigaud. They returned +to Cap François to fight the Governor whose authority they disputed. +Galbaud held the ships and the arsenals and determined to assert his +authority. His soldiers and sailors entered the town and abandoned +themselves to drunkenness, pillage and brutality. The commissioners +armed the slaves in the town, promised them freedom, and sent for aid to +the negro generals. Jean François and Biassou refused; but a chief, +Macayo, at the head of three thousand blacks, entered the town, and the +conflict raged. The whites were driven into the sea and slaughtered. +Madness ruled, and none fiercer than the mulattoes. Galbaud fled, and +half the city was destroyed by fire. At last—for a while—the whites +gave up the hope of recovering their slaves. Thousands fled—some +suppose nine-tenths—and found refuge along the American coasts.</p> + +<p>Famine had more than once increased the misery during these three years, +yet the island was fruitful, and cultivation, here and there, went on. +The sagacious Jean François had initiated cultivation along the +mountain-sides, and in the valleys; and thus secured an unfailing +magazine of supply.</p> + +<p>Toussaint, meanwhile, continues his duties with the negro troops. +Steadily and surely, if not rapidly, he gains strength and influence and +knowledge of war. He has measured himself with Jean and Biassou, and is +not wanting. His prudence, patience, silent will, and courage make him +useful to them, and his justice and determination and mercy make him the +idol of the men. The Marquis Hermona, Governor of the Spanish part of +the island, made advances to the negro chiefs. Santhonax, in his +extremity after the destruction of Cap François, sent Macayo to propose +an alliance, but they distrusted him.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Louis XVI was beheaded. They said, "We have lost the King of +France, but the King of Spain esteems us and gives us succor." They +declined the proposals of the commissioners, and ranged themselves on +the side of Spain. Toussaint was loyal to the memory of the King, and +followed François and Biassou. Hermona saw that Toussaint was a <i>man</i>; +and while Jean François was advanced to the first rank, Toussaint was +raised to that of colonel in the Spanish army. He at once applied<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> +himself to his duties, and what he did was always well done. His troops +became, as if by a word, the best disciplined in the army. The reason +was plain: he knew what men ought to do and what they can do; and the +men knew that he was upright and wise. So these ragged, ignorant, roving +hordes became efficient troops. Confidence begat confidence: the +commander trusted his men, and they relied on him; together they were +strong. Idleness was not Toussaint's policy. The insurgents under Jean +François, Biassou, and Toussaint held strong positions in the mountains +south of Cap François. Brandicourt, the general of the French troops, +was at once trapped and compelled to order his troops to lay down their +arms. Grande Rivière, Dondon, Plaisance, Marmalade, and Ennery, the most +important places in the north, quickly fell into Toussaint's hands.</p> + +<p>The French commissioners were getting into straits. The Spanish troops +were against them; the blacks were against them. The remaining whites +were divided; some wore the black cockade, others the white; the troops, +and friends of the commissioners, the tricolor; the mulattoes, the red. +War was everywhere, and no man was safe but with arms in his hands and +in the strongest party. But this was not enough: some of the planters +mounted the English hat and sent to the English for succor. Even +"<i>perfide Albion</i>" was welcome, if they might but reëstablish slavery +and get again their estates. In this extremity, Santhonax decided to +make friends with the blacks, and proclaimed at Cap François universal +freedom (August 20, 1793). Polverel repeated the proclamation at Port au +Prince. The enthusiasm among the negroes was great, but not universal. +Their leaders were not moved; they distrusted the commissioners and they +doubted the stability of the French Republic—so the war went on.</p> + +<p>In September, the English landed at Jeremie, in the extreme southwest. +They took possession of St. Nicholas, in the extreme northwest, and +during the year 1794 the whole western coast was in their +possession—St. Nicholas, St. Marc, St. Jacmel, Tiburon, Jeremie; and at +last, on June 4th, Port au Prince, the capital, yielded. "Twenty-two +topsail vessels," with their cargoes, worth four hundred thousand pounds +sterling, were a part of the spoil. The mulatto chief, Rigaud, had taken +the side of France. Educated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> in Bordeaux, he had followed, in Santo +Domingo, his trade of a goldsmith, which the whites thought too good for +a "nigger." He was a brave man, mild in peace, and terrible in war, and, +aided by Pétion, he kept up a harassing fight against the English. +Shortly after the fall of Port au Prince, a ship arrived with a +requisition for the commissioners to return to France; they must answer +for their doings there, and General Laveaux was left as provisional +governor.</p> + +<p>His case, and that of the French, was desperate. Shut up in Port de +Paix, the last stronghold of the French, he wrote (May 24, 1794): "For +more than six months we have been reduced to six ounces of bread a day, +officers as well as men, but from the 13th we have none whatever, the +sick only excepted. If we had powder we should have been consoled. We +have in our magazines neither shoes, nor shirts, nor clothes, nor soap, +nor tobacco. The most of the soldiers mount guard barefoot; we have no +flints for the men; but be assured that we will never surrender; be +assured too, that after us, the enemy will not find the slightest trace +of Port de Paix." Dark was the outlook, but brave was the heart of +General Laveaux.</p> + +<p>The hour was nigh: the hands advanced on the dial of time. Events, which +no man could have foreseen or controlled, had gathered for judgment, and +at last a great nation had decreed freedom to a poor, debauched, and +servile race. But who should lead them, who should now defend them +against themselves; give shape and system to their undisciplined wishes, +carry them safely through the anarchy of unbounded liberty and +crystallize them into a state whose only sure basis is the Rights and +Duties of Labor, Thought, Speech, and Worship, the Rights and Duties of +Man. The hour has come and the man—Toussaint Breda! from his eyrie near +Dondon, sweeps the horizon. In the east he sees the decadent power of +Spain: it has spoken no word of freedom for the blacks. In the west he +sees the white sails of England: she is hand and glove with the planters +to reëstablish slavery. In the north France and Laveaux are nigh death. +France only has proclaimed liberty to the blacks. Toussaint sees the +"opening" for his race and for himself, and from this day he is +Toussaint Louverture—the first of the blacks. Bone of their bone and +skin of their skin, he alone knows their needs,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> their capacities, and +their hearts. With the clear glance of inspiration he sees the moment, +with the firm grasp of talent he seizes it.</p> + +<p>General Laveaux saw this, and through the priest, La Haye, made advances +to him. Toussaint is wise and he is wary; he keeps his own counsel; he +consults not Jean François, who had once cast him into prison; nor +Biassou, nor the Marquis Hermona. As usual, he performs his duties; as +usual, he partakes of the communion; as usual, his troops look to him, +and Hermona said: "There exists on earth no purer soul." He has placed +his wife and children in safety; he has ordered his affairs; his horse +stands saddled and bridled; then, tearing off his epaulettes he casts +them at the feet of the Spanish officers, flings himself on his horse, +and rides like the wind out of the camp. The Spaniards are for a moment +paralyzed: they pursue him, but neither hoof nor pistol can reach him. +Toussaint is not to be caught.</p> + +<p>On May 4, 1794, he pulls down the Spanish and hoists the French colors. +Marmalade, Plaisance, Ennery, Dondon, Acul, and Limbé submit to him. +Confusion and fear prevail among the Spaniards; joy exalts the negroes. +Laveaux is saved, and the colony not yet lost to France. Toussaint is a +power in the state: the negroes everywhere respond to the sound of his +voice; they look to him as their hero, defender, guide, and guard. +Toussaint sets himself to his work. The whole province of the north soon +falls into his hands, and he drives the Spanish ally, Jean François, +westward along La Montaigne Noire. Then he hastens into the rich valley +of the Artibonite, attacks and beats back the English and besieges the +strong fortress of St. Marc; but neither forces nor ammunition is +sufficient and he retires to the mountain fastnesses of Marmalade to +recruit his troops. On October 9, 1794, he carries the fortress of San +Miguel by storm.</p> + +<p>Toussaint determines to drive away the English, and he falls with fury +upon General Brisbane in the Artibonite and compels him to retreat. But +Jean François hung over him in the heights of La Grande Rivière. Again +he retires to Dondon and organizes his forces to repel the Spaniards. In +four days he takes and destroys twenty-eight positions, but Jean +François with a superior force threatens his rear while the English are +in front; again<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> he is baffled and he returns to Dondon. Toussaint is no +longer the leader of marauding bands but the head of an army. His troops +are mostly raw and ignorant, badly clothed, armed, and fed, but they +trust in him and have courage. He seeks for efficient officers, and +finds Dessalines, Desroulaux, Maurepas, Clervaux, Christophe and +Lamartinière. These he must command with discretion; his troops he must +provide with arms, ammunition, and food. He must watch the forces of the +Spaniards, the movements of the English. Intrigues abroad and +treacheries at home; henceforth he must organize campaigns.</p> + +<p>The treaty of Basel had secured the cession of the whole Spanish part of +the island to France. Jean François was, therefore, at liberty to retire +to Spain, to enjoy his honors. There remained now but the English to +distract the plans of Toussaint and the French. One more disturbing +element yet existed. The mulattoes felt themselves superior to the +blacks, and the rightful successors to the whites in the honors and +government of the island. Jealous of Toussaint and the favors shown the +blacks, headed by Nillate (Villate), they rose against Laveaux, the +Governor of the Cape, and threw him into prison; his danger was extreme. +Toussaint descended on the town with ten thousand blacks and saved him. +Laveaux appointed him his lieutenant, second in command in the island, +and declared that he was the "Spartacus," foretold by Raynal, who should +avenge the sufferings of his race. Confidence grew now between the +blacks and the whites, and Lacroix—who is in no way friendly to the +blacks—admits that "if Santo Domingo still carried the colors of +France, it was solely owing to an old negro who seemed to bear a +commission from Heaven." The French continued to send +commissioners—Santhonax among them—but Toussaint was the moving mind; +and when Laveaux, having been elected Delegate to the Assembly, sailed +for France, Santhonax finally appointed him commander-in-chief.</p> + +<p>Toussaint, now "Louverture"; a strong hand and a clear head, though +black, now directs the affairs of the island. Daily he gains strength +and the confidence of the negroes. They flock to his army; they listen +and obey his words. Christophe, in the north, had encouraged +cultivation. Toussaint throws his powerful influence into the work. His +maxim, "that the liberty of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> blacks can never endure without +agriculture," passes from mouth to mouth among the negroes, and rouses +in them the desire for lands and wealth—for the first time now +possible. He wishes that Cape and the towns along the north should be +rebuilt. It is done; they rise from their ashes. All hopes are centred +in the General-in-Chief: <i>he</i> can restore peace and prosperity; he +alone.</p> + +<p>The English now were sore bestead. The French pressed them in the west; +Desfourneaux in the north; Rigaud in the south; Christophe had carried +the heights of Vallière—the Vendée of Santo Domingo. Toussaint +Louverture again attempts to take St. Marc; thrice he storms it, thrice +he deserves success, but again he fails to clutch this strong fortress. +He turns now to Mirebelois, an interior Thermopylæ, strongly fortified +by the English. His lieutenant, Mornay, intercepted Montalembert, who +was advancing with seven hundred men and two pieces of artillery. The +next day he drives in all the English troops, invests the village of St. +Louis, carries the forts by assault, and in fourteen days totally +defeats the English, taking two hundred prisoners, eleven pieces of +cannon, and military stores. The efforts of the English are nearly at an +end; weak and weary, their strength is spent. Whitlocke, Williamson, +Whyte, Horneck, Brisbane, and Markham, have tried to subdue these rebels +and to wrest the colony from France: they have bitten a file. Millions +of pounds have been wasted; Brisbane and Markham are killed; thousands +of soldiers slain; the yellow fever, too, has done its work.</p> + +<p>General Maitland at last decided to leave the island, and between him +and Toussaint there went on a struggle of diplomacy; but Louverture was +more than his equal: he accepted his honors, but refused his bribes. +They made terms, and Maitland evacuated Port au Prince and St. Nicholas. +One incident illustrates Maitland's confidence in Toussaint. Before the +disembarkation of his troops, he determined to return Louverture's +visit. He proceeded to his camp, through a country full of negroes, with +but three attendants. On his way he heard that Roume, the French +commissioner, had advised Toussaint to seize him; but he proceeded, and +when he reached the camp, after waiting a short time, Toussaint entered, +and, handing him two letters—Roume's and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> his reply—said: "Read; I +could not see you until I had written, so that you could see that I am +incapable of baseness."</p> + +<p>General Lacroix has written that he saw, in the archives at Port au +Prince, the offers made to Toussaint, securing him in the power and +kingship of the island, and liberty to his race, with a sufficient naval +force on the part of England, provided he would renounce France and form +a commercial treaty with England. The event leads one to regret that +Toussaint's ambition was not superior to his loyalty to France.</p> + +<p>During these proceedings with the English, Santhonax had departed for +France, partly at his own request, partly because he was in the way of +Toussaint's plans for the restoration of the island. With him, Toussaint +sent his two sons to receive some education in France, and to show, as +his letter stated, "his confidence in the Directory—at a time when +complaints were busy against him." He said, "there exist no longer any +internal agitations; and I hold myself responsible for the submission to +order and duty of the blacks, my brethren."</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> Now, in English, Cape Haitien. The place is a seaport of +northern Haiti.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span></p> +<h2>REPUBLICAN FRANCE DEFIES EUROPE</h2> + +<h3>BATTLE OF VALMY</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1792</h4> + +<h3>ALPHONSE M. L. LAMARTINE</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>In the battle of Valmy the French, under Dumouriez and +Kellermann, repulsed the Prussians and their allies, +commanded by the Duke of Brunswick. Though not in itself a +great victory, its results have led some historians to call +that action one of the decisive battles of the world. The +final withdrawal of the Prussians, owing to Russian +intrigues in Poland, left an open way for the French army +into the Austrian Netherlands, which at Jemapes (November 6, +1792) were won for France. Other victories for the +Revolution quickly followed, greatly advancing its cause.</p> + +<p>After the fall of the Bastille (July 14, 1789), the National +Assembly abolished special privileges, slavery, and serfdom +in France and all her territories, and decreed equal +taxation. A new constitution was made. These acts heightened +popular enthusiasm for the revolt. Political clubs, chief of +which was that of the Jacobins, were formed in Paris. They +were fiercely uncompromising in their demand for the +overthrow of the monarchy. Many of the nobles hastened to +quit the country. The King was virtually made prisoner in +Paris, whence he attempted to escape, but was captured by +insurgents and closely guarded in the city.</p> + +<p>The National Assembly came to an end and was succeeded +(October 1, 1791) by the Legislative Assembly, a still more +radical body, which for a year practically ruled France over +the head of the King.</p> + +<p>Such was the state of affairs in France when, +notwithstanding the complications in the East, the Emperor +Leopold II and King Frederick William II of Prussia issued +the Convention of Pillnitz (August, 1791). This was the +basis of an alliance for the rescue of Louis XVI from his +enemies, and for his full restoration to power. It led a +little later to a formidable coalition of sovereigns against +the Revolution. Brunswick advanced toward Paris, but while +he hesitated in his progress the French army, under +Dumouriez, was increased in numbers and discipline. +Dumouriez was on the Belgian border, preparing for his +"Argonne campaign," the first events of which no one has +better described than Lamartine.</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span></p> + + +<p>While the interregnum of royalty and republicanism delivered Paris over +to the revolutionists, France, with all its frontiers open, had for +security nothing but the small forest of Argonnes and the genius of +Dumouriez. On September 2, 1792, this general was shut up with sixteen +thousand men in the camp of Grandpré, occupying with weak detachments +the intermediate defiles between Sedan and Sainte-Menehould, by which +the Duke of Brunswick might attempt to break his line and turn his +position. He caused the tocsin to be rung in the villages, hoping to +excite the enthusiasm of the inhabitants; but the captures of Longwi and +Verdun, the understanding between the gentlemen of the country and the +<i>émigrés</i>,<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> the hatred of the Revolution, and the disproportionate +amounts of the coalesced army, discouraged resistance. Dumouriez, left +to himself by the inhabitants, could only rely on his own troops. His +sole hope was in forming a junction with Kellermann. If that could be +effected behind the forest of Argonne before the troops of the Duke of +Brunswick could force the natural rampart, Kellermann and Dumouriez, +uniting their troops, would have a body of forty-five thousand soldiers +to ninety thousand Prussians, and might then with some hope hazard the +fate of France on a battle.</p> + +<p>Kellermann, who was worthy to understand and second this grand idea, +served without jealousy Dumouriez's design, satisfied with his share of +the glory if his country should be saved. He marched to Metz, at the +extremity of the Argonne, informing Dumouriez of every step he took. But +their superior intelligence was a mystery for the majority of officers +and soldiery. Provisions were scarce and bad, the general himself eating +black bread. Ministers, deputies, Luckner himself—influenced by his +correspondents in the camp—wrote perpetually to Dumouriez to abandon +his position and retire to Châlons.</p> + +<p>Slight skirmishes with the advanced guard of the Prussians, in which the +French were always victorious, gave the troops patience. Miaczinski, +Stengel, and Miranda drove back the Prussians at all points. Dumouriez, +in his position, deadened the shock of the one hundred thousand men whom +the King of Prussia<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> and the Duke of Brunswick collected at the foot of +Argonne. Chance nearly lost all.</p> + +<p>Overcome by fatigue of body and mind, he had forgotten to reconnoitre +with his own eyes, and quite close to him, the defile of Croix-au-Bois, +which had been described to him as impracticable for troops, +particularly cavalry and artillery. He had placed there, however, a +dragoon regiment, two battalions of volunteers, and two pieces of +cannon, commanded by a colonel; but in consequence of the recall of the +dragoons and the two battalions before the troops ordered to replace +them had come up, the defile was for a moment open to the enemy. A great +many volunteer spies, whom the émigrés had in the villages of Argonne, +hastened to point out this weakness to Clerfayt, the Austrian general, +who instantly despatched eight thousand men, under the command of the +young Prince de Ligne, who seized on the position.</p> + +<p>A few hours afterward, Dumouriez, informed of this reverse, placed +General Chazot at the head of two brigades, six squadrons of his best +troops, four pieces of cannon, besides the artillery belonging to the +battalions, and ordered him to attack the place at the bayonet's point, +and recover the position at any sacrifice. Every hour the impatient +commander despatched aides-de-camp to Chazot to expedite his march and +bring him back information. Twenty-four hours passed away thus in doubt. +On the 14th Dumouriez heard the sound of firing on his left, and judged +by the noise, which receded, that the Imperialists were in retreat and +Chazot had gained the forest. In the evening a note from Chazot informed +him that he had forced the intrenchments of the Austrians, in spite of +their desperate defence; that eight hundred dead lay in the defile, +among whom was the Prince de Ligne.</p> + +<p>Scarcely, however, had this note reached Dumouriez, whose mind had been +thereby set at ease, than Clerfayt, burning to avenge the death of the +Prince de Ligne and make a decisive attack on this rampart of the French +army, advanced all his columns into this defile, gained the heights, +rushed headlong down on Chazot's column in front and on both flanks, +took his cannon, and compelled Chazot himself to leave the forest for +the plain, cutting off his communication with the camp of Grandpré,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> and +driving him in full flight on the road to Vouziers. At the same moment +the corps of the émigrés attacked General Dubouquet, in the defile of +the Chêne-Populeux. Frenchman against Frenchman, their valor was equal: +the one side fighting to save, the other to reconquer, their country. +Dubouquet gave way and retreated upon Châlons. These two disasters came +upon Dumouriez at the same moment. Chazot and Dubouquet seemed to trace +out to him the road. The clamor of his whole army pointed out to him +Châlons as a refuge. Clerfayt, with twenty-five thousand men, was about +to cut off his communication with Châlons. The Duke of Brunswick, with +eighty thousand Prussians, enclosed him on the three other sides in the +camp of Grandpré. His detachments cut off reduced his army to fifteen +thousand men.</p> + +<p>A retreat before an enemy, conquering in two partial encounters, was to +prostrate the fortune of France before the foreigner. The "audacity" of +Danton passed into the mind and tactics of Dumouriez. He conceived a +plan even more bold than that of Argonne, and closed his ear to the +timid counsels of art. He dictated to his aides-de-camp orders to the +following effect:</p> + +<p>Kellermann was to continue his advance to Sainte-Menehould; Beurnonville +was to march instantly for Rhétel, advancing by the river Aisne, taking +care not to go too near to Argonne, to save its flanks from Clerfayt's +attacks. Dillon was to defend and check the two defiles of Argonne, and +to send out troops beyond the forest in order to perplex the Duke of +Brunswick's motions, and come as soon as possible into communication +with Kellermann's advanced guard. Chazot was to return to Autry. General +Sparre, the commandant at Châlons, was desired to form the advanced camp +at Châlons.</p> + +<p>These orders despatched, he prepared his own troops for the manœuvre +which he himself intended to execute during the night. He sent to the +heights which cover the left of Grandpré on the side of the +Croix-au-Bois, where Clerfayt made him most uneasy, six battalions, six +squadrons, six pieces of cannon, as a lookout, in case of any sudden +attack on the part of the Austrians. At nightfall he caused the park of +artillery to defile in silence by the two bridges which traverse the +Aisne, and halt on the heights of Autry.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Prince of Hohenlohe requested an interview with Dumouriez that +evening, his motive being to judge of the state of the army. Dumouriez +granted this, and substituted for himself in this conference General +Duval, whose advanced years, white hair, and commanding stature imposed +on the Austrian general. Duval affected an appearance of security, +telling the Prince that Beurnonville was expected next day with eighteen +thousand men, and Kellermann at the head of thirty thousand troops. +Discouraged in his offers of arrangement by Duval, the Austrian chief +withdrew, firmly convinced that Dumouriez meant to await the battle in +his camp.</p> + +<p>At midnight Dumouriez left the Château of Grandpré, on horseback, and +went to the camp in the pitchy darkness of the night. All was hushed in +repose: he forbade drums to beat or trumpets to sound, but sent round in +a low voice the order to strike the tents and get under arms. The +darkness and confusion were unfavorable to these orders, but before the +first dawn of day the army was in full march. The troops passed in +double file over the bridges of Senuc and Grand Champ, and ranged +themselves in battle array on the eminences of Autry. Thus covered by +the Aisne, Dumouriez gazed upon the foe to see if they followed; but the +mystery of his movements had disconcerted the Duke of Brunswick and +Clerfayt. The army cut down the bridges behind them, and then, advancing +four leagues from Grandpré to Dumartin, encamped there; and in the +morning General Duval dispersed a host of Prussian hussars. Dumouriez +resumed his march next day, and on the 17th entered his camp of +Sainte-Menehould.</p> + +<p>The camp of Sainte-Menehould seemed to have been designed by nature to +serve as a citadel for a handful of patriot soldiers, against a vast and +victorious army. Protected in the front by a deep valley, on one side by +the Aisne, and on the other by marshes, the back of the camp was +defended by the shallow branches of the river Auve. Beyond these muddy +streamlets and quagmires arose a solid and narrow piece of ground, +admirably adapted for the station of a second camp; and here the general +intended that Kellermann's division should be placed, then commanding +the two routes of Rheims and Châlons. Dumouriez had studied this +position during his leisure hours at Grandpré, and took up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> his quarters +with the confidence of a man who knows his ground and seizes on success +with certain hand.</p> + +<p>All his arrangements being made and head-quarters established at +Sainte-Menehould, in the centre of the army, Dumouriez, annoyed at the +reports, spread by fugitives, of his having been routed, wrote to the +assembly: "I have been obliged," he wrote to the President, "to abandon +the camp of Grandpré; our retreat was complete, when a panic spread +through the army—ten thousand men fled before one thousand five hundred +Prussian hussars. All is repaired, and I answer for everything."</p> + +<p>At the news of the retreat of Grandpré, Kellermann, believing Dumouriez +defeated, and fearful of falling himself among the Prussian forces, whom +he supposed to be at the extremity of the defile of Argonne, had +retreated as far as Vitry. Couriers from Dumouriez reassuring him, he +again advanced, but with the slowness of a man who fears an ambush at +every step. He hesitated while he obeyed. On the other side, +Beurnonville, the friend and confidant of Dumouriez, had met the +fugitives of Chazot's corps. Wholly disconcerted by their statements of +the complete rout of his general, Beurnonville, with some dragoons, had +ascended a hill, whence he perceived Argonne, and the bare heaths which +extend from Grandpré to Sainte-Menehould.</p> + +<p>It was on the morning of the 17th, at the moment when Dumouriez's army +was moving from Dammartin to Sainte-Menehould. At the sight of this body +of troops, whose uniforms and flags he could not distinguish in the +heavy mist, Beurnonville had no doubt but that it was the Prussian army +advancing in pursuit of the French. He immediately faced about, and +advanced to Châlons by forced marches, in order to join his general. +Hearing his mistake at Châlons, Beurnonville gave only twelve hours' +rest to his harassed men, and arrived on the 19th with the ten thousand +warlike soldiers whom he had led so far to the field of battle. +Dumouriez passed them all in review, recognizing all the officers by +their names, and the soldiers by their countenances, while they all +saluted their leader with the loudest acclamations. The battalions and +squadrons which he had carefully formed, disciplined, and accustomed to +fire during the dilatory proceedings of Luckner with the army of the +North, defiled before him, covered with the dust of their long march, +their horses jaded,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> uniforms torn, shoes in holes, but their arms as +perfect and as bright as if they were on parade.</p> + +<p>Dumouriez had scarcely dismounted when Westermann and Thouvenot, his two +confidential staff officers, came to inform him that the Prussian army, +<i>en masse</i>, had passed the peak of Argonne, and were deploying on the +hills of La Lune, on the other side of the Tourbe, opposite to him. At +the same instant young Macdonald, his aide-de-camp, who had been sent, +on the previous evening, on the road to Vitry, came galloping up, and +brought him intelligence of the approach of the long-expected +Kellermann, who at the head of twenty thousand men of the army of Metz, +and some thousands of volunteers of Lorraine, was only at two hours' +distance. Thus the fortune of the Revolution and the genius of +Dumouriez, seconding each other, brought at the appointed hour and to +the fixed spot, from the two extremities of France and from the depths +of Germany, the forces which were to assail and those which were to +defend the empire.</p> + +<p>At the same moment Dumouriez, recalling his isolated detachments, +prepared for a struggle, by concentrating all his scattered forces. +General Dubouquet had retired to Châlons with three thousand men, where +he also expected to find Dumouriez, but had only found in the city ten +battalions of <i>fédérés</i> and volunteers, who had arrived from Paris, and, +hearing of the retreat of the army, mutinied against their chiefs, cut +off the head of one of their officers, taking others with them, +plundered the army stores, murdered the colonel of the regiment of +Vexin, and then, in confused masses, took the road to Paris, proclaiming +everywhere Dumouriez's treason and demanding his head. Dumouriez was +alarmed lest these ruffians should come in contact with his army, for +such bands sowed sedition wherever they went.</p> + +<p>General Stengel, after having ravaged the country between Argonne and +Sainte-Menehould, in order to cut off all supplies from the Prussians, +fell back beyond the Tourbe, and posted himself with the vanguard on the +hills of Lyron, opposite the heights of La Lune, where the Duke of +Brunswick was posted.</p> + +<p>Dampierre's camp, separated from that of Dumouriez by the trenches and +shallows of the Auve, was assigned to Kellermann, but he passed beyond +this spot, and posted his entire army and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> baggage on the heights of +Valmy, in advance of Dampierre, on the left of that of Sainte-Menehould. +The line of Kellermann's encampment, nearer to the enemy, on its left, +touched on its right the line of Dumouriez, and thus formed with the +principal army an angle, against which the enemy could not send forth +its attacking columns without being at once overwhelmed by the French +artillery in both flanks. Dumouriez, perceiving in a moment that +Kellermann, who was too much involved and too much isolated on the +plateau of Valmy, might be turned by the Prussian masses, sent General +Chazot, at the head of eight battalions and eight squadrons, to post +them behind the heights of Gizaucourt, and be under Kellermann's orders. +He next desired General Stengel and Beurnonville to advance to the right +of Valmy with twenty-six battalions—his rapid <i>coup d'œil</i> assuring +him that this would be the Duke of Brunswick's point of attack.</p> + +<p>This plan displayed at a glance the intelligence of the warrior and the +politician. Defiance was thus cast by forty-five thousand men to one +hundred ten thousand soldiers of the coalition.</p> + +<p>The French army had its right flank and retreat covered by the Argonne, +which was impassable by the enemy, and defended by its ravines and +forests. The centre, bristling with batteries and natural obstacles, was +impregnable. The army faced the country toward Champagne, leaving behind +it the road clear to Châlons and Lorraine.</p> + +<p>"The Prussians," argued Dumouriez, "will either fight or advance on +Paris. If the former, they will find the French army in an intrenched +camp as a field of battle. Obliged, in order to attack the centre, to +pass the Auve, the Tourbe, and the Bionne, under the fire of my +redoubts, they will take Kellermann in flank, who will crush their +attacking columns between his battalions, charging down from Valmy and +the batteries of my <i>corps d'armée</i>. If they leave the French army, and +cut off its retreat to Paris by marching on Châlons, the army, facing +about, will follow them to Paris, increasing in number at every step. +The reënforcements of the army of the Rhine and army of the North, which +are on the march; the battalions of scattered volunteers, which I shall +assemble as I cross the revolted provinces, will swell the amount of my +armed troops to sixty thousand or seventy thousand men. The Prussians +will march across a hostile country, and make<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> every step with +hesitation, while each advance will give me fresh troops. I shall await +them under the walls of Paris. An invading army, placed between a +capital of six hundred thousand souls, who close their gates, and a +national army, which cuts off their retreat, is a destroyed army. France +will be saved in the heart of France, instead of on the frontiers; but +still she will be saved."</p> + +<p>Thus reasoned Dumouriez, when the first sounds of the Prussian cannon, +resounding from the heights of Valmy, came to announce to him that the +Duke of Brunswick, having perceived the danger of advancing, and thus +leaving the French army behind him, had attacked Kellermann. It was not +the Duke of Brunswick, however, but the young King of Prussia, who had +commanded the attack. The Prussian army, which the generalissimo wished +to extend gradually from Rheims to Argonne, parallel to the French army, +received orders to advance in a body on Kellermann's position. On the +19th it marched to Somme-Tourbe, and remained all night under arms. The +report was spread in the head-quarters of the King of Prussia that the +French were meditating a retreat on Châlons, and that the movements +perceptible in their line were only intended to mask this retrograde +march. The King was vexed at a plan of a campaign which always allowed +them to escape. He thought he should surprise Dumouriez in the false +position of an army which had raised his camp. The Duke of Brunswick, +whose military authority began to suffer with the failure of his +preceding manœuvres, in vain sought the intervention of General +Koeler to moderate the ardor of the King. The attack was resolved upon.</p> + +<p>On the 20th, at 6 <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>, the Duke marched at the head of the Prussian +advanced guard upon Somme-Bionne, with the intention of attacking +Kellermann, and cutting off his retreat by the high road of Châlons. A +thick autumnal fog floated over the plain into the marshy grounds where +the three rivers flow, in the hollow ravines which separated the two +armies, leaving only the points of the precipices and the crests of the +hills shining in the light above this ocean of fog. An unexpected shock +of the cavalry of the two advanced guards alone revealed, in this +darkness, the march of the Prussians to the French. After a rapid +<i>mêlée</i> and some firing, the advanced guard of the French fell back +upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> Valmy, and warned Kellermann of the enemy's approach. The Duke of +Brunswick continued to advance, reached the high road to Châlons, +crossed it, and then deployed his whole army. At ten o'clock, the mist +having suddenly disappeared, showed to the two generals their mutual +situation.</p> + +<p>Kellermann's army was en masse in the plain and behind the mill of +Valmy. This bold position projected like a cape into the midst of the +lines of the Prussian bayonets. General Chazot had not, as yet, come up +with his twenty-six battalions to flank Kellermann's left. General +Leveneur, who was to have flanked his right and to unite it with +Dumouriez's army, advanced with hesitation and slowly, fearing to draw +on his feeble force all the weight of the Prussian body, which he saw in +battle array before him. General Valence, who commanded Kellermann's +cavalry, deployed into high line with a regiment of carbineers, some +squadrons of dragoons, and four battalions of grenadiers, between +Gizaucourt and Valmy, thus covering the whole space which Kellermann +could fill up, and where that general was expected. Kellermann's lines +formed in the centre of the heights. His powerful artillery bristled by +the side of the mill of Valmy, the centre and key to the position. +Almost surrounded by semicircular lines of the enemy, which were +perpetually increasing in numbers, and embarrassed on this very narrow +elevation by his twenty-two thousand men, horses, guns, and baggage, +Kellermann was unable to extend the wings of his army.</p> + +<p>From this height Kellermann saw come in succession, from the white mist +of the morning, and glitter in the sunshine, the countless Prussian +cavalry, which must envelop him, as in a net, if he were driven from his +position. About noon the Duke of Brunswick, having formed his whole army +into two lines, and decided on his plan of the day, was seen to detach +himself from the centre, and advance toward the declivities of +Gizaucourt and La Lune, at the head of a body of infantry, cavalry, and +three batteries. Fresh troops filled up the space these left.</p> + +<p>Such was the horizon of tents, bayonets, horses, cannon, and staff which +displayed itself on September 20th, in the hollows and ravines of +Champagne. At the same hour the convention<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span></a> began its sittings and +deliberations as to a monarchy or a republic. Within and without, France +and liberty sported with destiny.</p> + +<p>The exterior aspect of the two armies seemed to declare beforehand the +issue of the campaign. On the side of the Prussians, one hundred ten +thousand combatants; a system of tactics the inheritance of the Great +Frederick; discipline, which converted battalions into machines of war, +and which, destroying all personal will in the soldier, made him bend +submissively to the thought and voice of his officers; an infantry solid +and impenetrable as walls of iron; cavalry mounted on the splendid +horses of Mecklenburg, whose docility, well-controlled ardor, and high +courage were not alarmed either at the fire of artillery nor the glitter +of cold steel; officers trained from their infancy to fighting as a +trade, born, as it were, in uniforms, knowing their troops and known to +them, exercising over their soldiers the twofold ascendency of nobility +and command; as auxiliaries, the picked regiments of the Austrian Army, +recently from the banks of the Danube, where they had been fighting +against the Turks; the emigrant French nobility, bearing with them all +the great names of the monarchy, every soldier of whom fought for his +own cause and had his individual injuries to avenge—his King to save, +his country to recover at the end of his bayonet or the point of his +sabre; Prussian generals, all pupils of a military king, having to +maintain the superiority of their renown in Europe; a generalissimo +which Germany proclaimed its Agamemnon, and which the genius of +Frederick covered with a prestige of invincibility; and, also, a young +King, brave, adored by his people, dear to his troops, avenger of the +cause of all kings, accompanied by representatives of every court on the +field of battle, and supplying the inexperience of war by a personal +bravery which forgot its rank in the sole consideration of its +honor—such was the Prussian army.</p> + +<p>In the French camp a numerical inferiority of one against three; +regiments reduced to three or four hundred men by the effect of the laws +of 1790, which only admitted volunteers; these regiments, deprived of +their best officers by emigration, which had induced more than half to +go to the enemy's soil, and by the sudden creation of one hundred +battalions of volunteers, at the head of which they had placed the +officers remaining in France<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> as instructors; these battalions and +regiments, without any <i>esprit de corps</i>, regarding each other with +jealousy or contempt; two feelings in the same army—the spirit of +discipline in the old ranks, the spirit of insubordination in the new +corps; old officers suspecting their men, soldiers doubtful of their +officers; a cavalry ill equipped and badly mounted; an infantry +competent and firm in regiments, raw and weak in battalions; pay in +arrear and paid in assignats greatly depreciated; insufficiently armed; +uniforms various, threadbare, torn, often in tatters; many soldiers +without shoes, or substituting handfuls of hay tied round the legs with +cord; the troops arriving from different armies and provinces, unknown +to each other, and scarcely knowing the name of the generals under whom +they had been enlisted—these generals themselves young and rash, +passing suddenly from obeying to command, or, old and methodical, unable +to make their formal modes comply with the dash required in desperate +warfare; and, finally, at the head of this incongruous army, a +general-in-chief fifty-three years of age, new to war, whom everybody +had a right to doubt, mistrustful of his troops, at variance with his +second in command, at issue with his government, whose daring yet +dilatory plan was not understood by any, and who had neither services in +the past nor the spell of victory on his sword to give authority or +confidence to his command—such were the French at Valmy. But the +enthusiasm of the country and the Revolution struggled in the heart of +this army, and the genius of war inspired the soul of Dumouriez.</p> + +<p>Uneasy as to Kellermann's position, Dumouriez, on horseback from the +dawn of day, visited his line, extended his troops between +Sainte-Menehould and Gizaucourt, and galloped toward Valmy in order that +he might the better judge himself of the intentions of the Duke of +Brunswick and the point on which the Prussians were to concentrate their +efforts. He there found Kellermann giving his final orders to the +generals, who, on his left and right, were to have the responsibility of +the day. One of these was General Valence, and the other the Duc de +Chartres.</p> + +<p>The Duc de Chartres<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> had been welcomed by the old soldiers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> as a +prince, by the new ones as a patriot, by all as a comrade. His +intrepidity did not carry him away; he controlled it, and it left him +that quickness of perception and that coolness so essential to a +general; amid the hottest fire he neither quickened nor slackened his +pace, for his ardor was as much the effect of reflection as of +calculation, and as grave as duty. His familiarity—martial with the +officers, soldierly with the soldiers, patriotic with the +citizens—caused them to forgive him for being a prince. But beneath the +exterior of a soldier of the people lurked the <i>arrière pensée</i> of a +prince of the blood; and he plunged into all the events of the +Revolution with the entire yet skilful <i>abandon</i> of a mastermind. Men +feared, in spite of his bravery and his exalted enthusiasm for his +country, to catch a glimpse of a throne raised upon its own ruins and by +the hands of a republic. This presentiment, which invariably precedes +great names and destinies, seemed to reveal to the army that, of all the +leaders of the Revolution, he might one day be the most useful or the +most fatal to liberty.</p> + +<p>Dumouriez, who had seen the young Duc de Chartres with the army at +Luckner, was struck with his intrepidity and coolness during the action, +and, perceiving a spark of no ordinary fire in this young man, resolved +to attach him to himself.</p> + +<p>The Prussians held the heights of La Lune, and had commenced descending +them in battle array. The veteran troops of Frederick the Great, slow +and measured in all their movements, displayed no rash impetuosity and +left naught to chance.</p> + +<p>On their side the French did not behold without a feeling of dread this +immense and hitherto invincible army silently advance its first line in +columns of attack, and extend its wings to pierce their centre and cut +off all retreat, either on Châlons or Dumouriez. The soldiers remained +motionless in their position, fearing to expose by a false movement the +narrow battle-field on which they could defend themselves, but did not +dare manœuvre. The Prussians descended half-way down the heights of +La Lune, and then opened their fire both in front and flank.</p> + +<p>On this attack Kellermann's artillery moved forward and took up its +position in front of the infantry. More than twenty thousand balls were +exchanged during two hours from one hundred twenty guns, which thundered +from the sides of the opposite<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> hills, as though they strove to batter a +breach in the mountains. The Prussians, more exposed than the French, +suffered more severely, and their fire began to slacken. Kellermann, who +narrowly watched the enemy's movements, fancied he saw some confusion in +their ranks, and charged at the head of a column to carry the guns. A +Prussian battery, masked by an inequality in the ground, suddenly opened +its fire on them, and Kellermann's horse, struck by a ball in the chest, +fell on its rider. His aide-de-camp, Lieutenant-Colonel Lormier, was +killed, and the head of the column, exposed on three sides to a +withering fire, fell back in disorder, while Kellermann, disengaged and +carried off by his troops, sought for a fresh charger. The Prussians, +witnessing his fall and the retreat of his column, redoubled their fire, +and a well-directed volley of shells silenced the French artillery.</p> + +<p>The Duc de Chartres, who for three hours had supported the fire of the +Prussians at the decisive post of Valmy, without drawing a trigger, saw +the danger of his general. He hastened to the second line, put himself +at the head of the reserve of artillery, advanced to the plateau by the +mill, covered the disorder of the centre, rallied the flying caissons, +supported the fire, and checked the enemy's onset.</p> + +<p>The Duke of Brunswick would not give the French time to strengthen their +position, but formed three formidable columns of attack, supported by +two wings of cavalry. These columns advanced in spite of the fire of the +French batteries, and were about to crush beneath their masses the +division of the Duc de Chartres, who at the mill of Valmy awaited the +onset. Kellermann, who had renewed the line, formed his army into +columns by battalions, sprang from his horse, and casting the bridle to +his orderly, bade him lead it behind the ranks, showing the soldiers +that he was resolved to conquer or die. "Comrades," cried Kellermann, in +a voice of thunder, "the moment of victory is at hand. Let us suffer the +enemy to advance, and then charge with the bayonet." Then waving his hat +on the top of his sword, "<i>Vive la nation!</i>" cried he more +enthusiastically than before; "let us conquer for her."</p> + +<p>This cry of the general, repeated by the nearest battalions, and taken +up successively by the rest, created an immense clamor like the country +herself encouraging her defenders. This shout<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> of the whole army, +resounding from one hill to another, and heard above the cannon's roar, +reassured the troops, and made the Duke of Brunswick pause, for such +hearts promised equally terrible hands. Kellermann still advanced at the +head of his column. The Duc de Chartres, his sword in one hand and a +tricolored flag in the other, followed the horse artillery with the +cavalry. The Duke of Brunswick, with the quick eye of a veteran soldier, +and that economy of human life that characterizes an able general, saw +that this attack would fail when opposed to such enthusiasm; and he +re-formed the head of his columns, sounded the retreat, and slowly +retired to his positions unpursued.</p> + +<p>The fire ceased on both sides and the battle was as it were suspended +until four in the evening, when the King of Prussia, indignant at the +hesitation of his army, formed in person, and with the flower of his +infantry and cavalry, three formidable columns of attack; then riding +down the line, he bitterly reproached them with suffering the standard +of the monarch to be thus humiliated. At the voice of their sovereign +the troops marched to the conflict, and the King, surrounded by the Duke +of Brunswick and his principal officers, marched in the first rank, +exposed to the fire of the French, which mowed down his staff around +him. Intrepid as the blood of Frederick, he commanded as a king jealous +of the honor of his nation, and exposed himself like a soldier who holds +his life but lightly compared to victory. All was in vain; the Prussian +columns, assailed by the fire of twenty-four pieces of cannon, in +position on the heights of Valmy, retreated at nightfall, leaving behind +them eight hundred dead. Not to have been defeated was to the French +army a victory. Kellermann felt this so fully that he assumed the name +of Valmy in after-years,<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> and in his will bequeathed his heart to the +village of that name, in order that it might repose on the theatre of +his greatest renown, and sleep amid the companions of his first field.</p> + +<p>While the French army fought and triumphed at Valmy, the Convention +decreed the Republic at Paris.</p> + +<p>Dumouriez returned to his camp amid the roar of Kellermann's cannon; but +while he congratulated himself on the success of a day that strengthened +the patriotic feelings of the army,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> and that rendered the first attack +on the country fatal to her enemies, he was too clear-sighted not to +perceive the faults of Kellermann and the temerity of his position. The +Duke of Brunswick was on the morrow the same as he was the previous +evening, and had, moreover, extended his right wing beyond Gizaucourt +and cut off the route to Châlons.</p> + +<p>Early on the morning of the 21st Dumouriez went to the camp of his +colleague, and ordered him to pass the river Auve, and fall back on the +camp of Dampierre, in the position previously assigned him. This +position, less brilliant, yet more secure, strengthened and united the +French army. Kellermann felt this and obeyed without a murmur.</p> + +<p>The Prussians had lost so much time that they had no longer any to +spare. The rainy season had already affected them, and the winter would +be sufficient in itself to force them to retreat. The Duke of Brunswick +lost ten days in observing the French army; and the rain and fever +season surprised him, while yet undecided. The rains cut up the roads +from Argonne, by which his convoys arrived from Verdun, while his +soldiers, destitute of shelter and provisions, wandered about in the +fields, the orchards and vineyards, plucking the unripe grapes which +these inhabitants of the North tasted for the first time. Their +stomachs, already weakened by bad living, were soon disordered, and they +were attacked by that dysentery which is so fatal to the soldier; the +contagion spread rapidly through the camp, and thinned the corps.</p> + +<p>The situation of Dumouriez did not appear, however, less perilous to +those who were not in the secret of his intentions. Hemmed in on the one +side of Les Evêchés by the Prince de Hohenlohe; on the Paris side by the +King of Prussia, the Prussians were within six leagues of Châlons, the +émigrés still nearer. The Uhlans, the light cavalry of the Prussians, +pillaged at the gates of Rheims, and between Châlons and the capital +there was not a position or an army. Paris dreaded to find itself thus +exposed. Kellermann, a brave, but susceptible general, shaken by the +opinion in Paris, threatened to quit the camp and abandon his colleague +to his fate. Dumouriez, employing alternately the ascendency of his rank +and the seduction of his genius, passed, in order to detain him, from +menace to entreaty, and thus gained<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> day by day his victory of patience. +Sometimes he threatened to deprive of their uniform and arms those who +complained of the want of provisions, and drive them from the camp as +cowards who were unworthy to suffer privations for their country. Eight +battalions of fédérés, recently arrived from the camp at Châlons, and +intoxicated with massacre and sedition, were those who most threatened +the subordination of the camp, saying openly that the ancient officers +were traitors, and that it was necessary to purge the army, as they had +Paris, of its aristocrats. Dumouriez posted these battalions apart from +the others, placed a strong force of cavalry behind them, and two pieces +of cannon on their flank. Then, affecting to review them, he halted at +the head of the line, surrounded by all his staff and an escort of one +hundred hussars. "Fellows," said he—"for I will not call you either +citizens or soldiers—you see before you this artillery, behind you this +cavalry; you are stained with crimes, and I do not tolerate here +assassins or executioners. I know that there are scoundrels among you +charged to excite you to crime. Drive them from among you, or denounce +them to me, for I shall hold you responsible for their conduct." The +battalions trembled and at once assumed the same spirit that pervaded +the army.</p> + +<p>The ancient feelings of honor were associated in the camps with +patriotism, and Dumouriez encouraged it among his troops. Every day he +received from Paris threats of dismissal, to which he replied in terms +of defiance. "I will conceal my dismissal," he wrote, "until the day +when I behold the flight of the enemy: I will then show it to my +soldiers, and return to Paris, to suffer the punishment my country +inflicts on me for having saved her in spite of herself."</p> + +<p>Three commissioners of the Convention, Sillery, Carra, and Prieur, +arrived at the camp on the 24th, to proclaim the Republic, and Dumouriez +did not hesitate. Although a royalist, he yet felt that at present it +was not a question of government, but of the safety of the country; and +besides, his ambition was vast as his genius, vague as the future. A +republic agitated at home, threatened from abroad, could not but be +favorable to an ambitious soldier at the head of an army who adored him; +for when royalty was abolished, there was no one of higher rank in the +nation than its generalissimo. The commissioners had also instructions +to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> order the retreat of the army behind the Marne. Dumouriez asked and +obtained from them six days' delay; on the seventh, at sunrise, the +French videttes beheld the heights of La Lune deserted, and the columns +of the Duke of Brunswick slowly defiling between the hills of Champagne, +and taking the direction of Grandpré. Fortune had justified +perseverance, and genius had baffled numbers. Dumouriez was triumphant, +and France was saved.</p> + +<p>At this intelligence, one general shout of "Vive la nation!" burst from +the French army. The commissioners, the generals Beurnonville, Miranda, +even Kellermann, threw themselves into the arms of Dumouriez, and +acknowledged the superiority of his judgment and the accuracy of his +perception—while the soldiers proclaimed him the Fabius of his country. +But this name, which he accepted for a day, but ill responded to the +ardor of his soul; and he already meditated playing the part of +Hannibal, which was more consonant with the activity of his character +and the determination of his genius. At home, that of Cæsar might one +day tempt him. This ambition of Dumouriez explains the unmolested +retreat of the Prussians through an enemy's country, and through defiles +which might easily have been converted into Caudine Forks, and under the +cannon of seventy thousand French, before which the weakened and +enervated army of the Duke of Brunswick had to make a flank movement.</p> + +<p>While the military genius of Dumouriez triumphed over the Prussian army, +his political genius was not asleep; for his camp, during the last days +of the campaign, was at once the head-quarters of an army and the centre +of diplomatic negotiations. Dumouriez had created a connection, half +apparent, half secret, with the Duke of Brunswick and those officers and +ministers who had most influence over the King of Prussia. Danton, the +only minister who possessed any authority over Dumouriez, was in the +secret of these negotiations.</p> + +<p>The Duke of Brunswick was no less desirous than Dumouriez to negotiate, +while fighting at the head-quarters of the King of Prussia were two +parties, one of whom wished to retain the King with the army, and the +other to remove him from it. The Count de Schulemberg, the King's +confidential agent, was the leader of the first, the Duke of Brunswick +of the second; Haugwitz, Lucchesini,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> Lombard, the King's secretary, +Kalkreuth, and the Prince de Hohenlohe were of the party of the latter. +The King resisted with the firmness of a man who has engaged his honor +in a great cause in the eyes of the world, and who wished to come off +with credit, or at least without loss of reputation. He remained with +the army, and sent the Count de Schulemberg to direct the operations in +Poland. From this day the Prince was exposed in his camp to an influence +whose interest it was to slacken his march and enervate his resolutions; +and from this day everything tended to a retreat.</p> + +<p>The Duke of Brunswick only sought a pretext for opening negotiations +with the French at head-quarters. So long as he was behind the Argonne, +within ten leagues of Grandpré, this pretext did not offer itself, for +the King of Prussia would look on these advances as a proof of treason +or cowardice. The combat of Valmy, in the idea of the Duke of Brunswick, +was but a negotiation carried on by the mouth of the cannon. Dumouriez +held the fate of the French Revolution in his hands, and he could not +believe that this general would become the mere tool of anarchical +democracy. "He will cast the weight of his sword," said he, "to weigh +down the scale in favor of a constitutional monarchy; he will turn upon +the jailers of the King and the murderers of September. Guardian of the +frontiers, he has only to threaten to open them to the coalition, to +insure obedience from the National Assembly. An arrangement between +monarchical France and Prussia, under the auspices of Dumouriez, is a +thousand times preferable to a war in which Prussia stakes her army +against the despair of a nation."</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> The royalists who left Paris or France in 1789 and after, +on account of the Revolution.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> The National Convention, which succeeded the Legislative +Assembly, actually opened September 21st.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> This was Louis Philippe, afterward known as "the +Citizen-King." He was the son of Philippe Égalité, Duc d'Orléans, and +was at this time about twenty years old.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> Kellermann was created Duc de Valmy by Napoleon.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span></p> +<h2>INVENTION OF THE COTTON-GIN</h2> + +<h3>GROWTH OF THE COTTON INDUSTRY IN AMERICA</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1793</h4> + +<h3>CHARLES W. DABNEY R. B. HANDY DENISON OLMSTED</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Lord Macaulay declared that "what Peter the Great did to +make Russia dominant, Eli Whitney's invention of the +cotton-gin has more than equalled in its relation to the +power and progress of the United States." When Macaulay +delivered this opinion, "King Cotton" was more absolute in +the United States than to-day, for the cultivation of cotton +has since been supplemented in this country by other +industries of equal importance. Yet, what cotton had done +for the United States in Macaulay's day has been far +surpassed by its record since, as one of the great +industrial and commercial interests of the land; and judged +by export values, as estimated by the specialist Dabney, at +one time Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, cotton is still +king of the American market.</p> + +<p>The growth of the cotton industry in the United States, +traced so minutely by Handy, witnesses from one decade to +another to the supreme achievement of the American inventor +so highly estimated by Macaulay. Eli Whitney was born at +Westboro, Massachusetts, in 1765, and died in 1825. In 1792 +he was graduated at Yale College, and that year became a +teacher in Georgia, where he invented the cotton-gin. Before +he could secure a patent his machine was stolen from his +workshop, and others reaped the profits of his ingenuity. It +is pleasing to know that he afterward made a fortune by +other uses of his inventive skill. His service to the cotton +industry in all its departments has not only been vastly +influential in the development of his own country, but has +also greatly affected the relations of the United States +with other industrial nations, especially with Great +Britain, the leading cotton-manufacturing country of the +world.</p></div> + + +<h4>CHARLES W. DABNEY</h4> + +<p>Cotton is the principal product of eight great States of the American +Union, and the most valuable "money crop" of the entire country. +Climatic conditions practically restrict its cultivation to a group of +States constituting less than one-fourth of the total area of the +country, and yet the value of the annual crop is exceeded among +cultivated products only by corn, which is grown<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> in every State of the +Union, and occasionally by wheat. Cotton furnishes the raw material for +one of our most important manufacturing industries and from one-fourth +to one-third of our total exports.</p> + +<p>Considered without reference to any particular country, its economic +importance is far beyond numerical expression; for while the total crop +of the world is approximately ascertainable, the effect of cotton upon +the commercial and social relations of mankind is too far-reaching for +estimation. Of the four great staples that provide man with +clothing—cotton, silk, wool, and flax—cotton, by reason of its +cheapness and its many excellencies, is rapidly superseding its several +rivals. Sixty years ago only about two million five hundred thousand +bales of cotton, or less than the present production of Texas, were +annually converted into clothing; the spindles of the world now use over +thirteen million bales per annum. Yet less than half the people of the +world are supplied with cotton goods made by modern machinery, and it +has been estimated that it would require annually a crop of forty-two +million bales of five hundred pounds each to raise the world's standard +of consumption to that of the principal nations.</p> + +<p>Cotton stands preëminent among farm crops in the ease and cheapness of +its production, as compared with the variety and value of its products. +No crop makes so slight a drain upon the fertility of the soil, and for +none has modern enterprise found so many uses for its several parts. The +cotton plant yields, in fact, a double crop—a most beautiful fibre and +a seed yielding both oil and feed, which, although neglected for a long +time, is now esteemed worth one-sixth as much as the fibre. In addition +to this, the stems can be made to yield a fibre which waits only for a +machine to work it, and the roots yield a drug. It is entirely possible, +therefore, that cotton may ultimately be grown as much for these parts +as for the lint.</p> + +<p>The history of cotton production in the United States differs from that +of almost every other agricultural product in several important +particulars. For nearly three-quarters of a century slave labor was +almost exclusively employed in this branch of agricultural industry, and +an immense majority of the colored people of to-day look to it for their +chief support. Cotton was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> also the great pioneer crop in the new +Southwestern States. Not only has the westward movement of the industry +been more rapid than that of any other crop, but the centre of +production has always been farther in advance of the centre of +population. As long ago as 1839 Mississippi was producing almost +one-fourth of the entire crop of the country. Recent years have +witnessed an enormous development in the regions to the west, which +would have carried the centre of production across the Mississippi River +if the cultivation of cotton, unlike that of wheat and corn and other +products, had not taken a new lease of life in the older States along +the Atlantic seaboard, where the use of manures has both extended the +area and increased the production.</p> + +<p>Probably no equally great industry was ever more completely paralyzed or +had its future placed in greater jeopardy than cotton growing in the +United States during the war of 1861-1865. So great was the decrease in +production which followed the effectual closing of the ports that only +one bale of cotton was grown in 1864-1865 for every fifteen bales raised +in 1861-1862. The chief menace to the future of cotton production lay in +the efforts that were put forth by other cotton-growing countries at +this time to produce those particular varieties which had for so long +given the United States the monopoly of the European markets; and +nothing could more completely demonstrate the remarkable adaptation of +our Southern States to the growing of varieties which the experience of +generations has proved to be the best for manufacturing purposes than +the fact that it took them only thirteen years from the end of the war +to regain the primacy of position which they held at its commencement.</p> + + +<h4>ROBERT B. HANDY</h4> + +<p>When cotton manufacture was introduced into England is not definitely +settled. There is no mention of the manufacture or use of cotton in the +celebrated poor-law of Elizabeth (1601), though hemp, flax, and wool are +expressly named. The first authentic record is in Roberts' <i>Treasure of +Traffic</i>, published in 1641; but it is possible, and even probable, that +the art was imported from Flanders by the artisans who fled from that +country to England in the latter part of the sixteenth century, as it is +probable that the manufacture had established itself more or less<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> +firmly before it attracted the attention of the author of the +above-named pamphlet. We may presume, then, that it was well established +in England by 1641, but after that date the spread was not rapid. The +crudeness of the machinery for spinning was such that fine yarn could +not be made. Both spinning and weaving were done by individuals and +families in their own houses on clumsy and heavy machines. These +implements were but little better than those in use two thousand years +before. The distaff, the earliest of spinning-machines, was still in +use, and the best to be had was the one-thread spinning-wheel. The loom +used was scarcely an improvement on that which the East Indian had used +centuries before, though it was constructed with greater firmness and +compactness. Owing to imperfections in their machines, it was impossible +for the Europeans to make cotton yarn combining strength and firmness. +The yarn when spun was loose and flimsy; to make it strong it had to be +heavy.</p> + +<p>The finished web had often to be carried a long distance to market. It +was only in 1760 that Manchester merchants began to furnish the weavers +in the neighboring villages with linen yarn and raw cotton and to pay a +fixed price for the perfected web, thus relieving the weavers of the +necessity of providing themselves with material and seeking a market for +their cloth, and enabling them to prosecute their employment with +greater regularity.</p> + +<p>It was also about that time that England began to export her cotton +goods, for until then her weavers had not been able to do more than +supply the home demand. This foreign trade at once increased the demand +for cotton goods, and the increased demand presented a problem which the +manufacturers at first found difficult of solution. The procuring of +supplies of linen yarn needed for the warp of these textiles was not +difficult, but where was the cotton yarn to come from? The spinners were +producing already as much as their rude machines would permit, and +additional spinners were not to be had. The demand for cotton thread +exceeded the supply; the price of yarn rose with the demands of trade +and the extension of the manufacture and operated as a check to the +further increase of the exports. The trade had reached the point where +hand carders, single-thread spinning-wheels, and the hand-loom, +requiring a man to each machine,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> were clearly inadequate to the +service, and the cotton trade of Great Britain in the middle of the +eighteenth century seemed to have reached its limit. About this time +Hargreaves, Arkwright, Crompton, Cartwright, and Watt, men either +directly or indirectly engaged in and familiar with the needs of the +cotton manufacture, invented machines which raised the trade from an +experimental or at least a struggling industry into the most important +manufacture of the world. The carding-engine, the spinning-jenny, the +spinning-frame, the stocking-frame, the power-loom, and the adaptation +of the steam-engine to the propulsion of these machines, at once +supplied the means of producing an immense amount of yarn and cloth. +These inventions, it is true, were not in themselves perfect, but the +principles on which they were built are those on which the most +complicated textile machines of this day are based.</p> + +<p>The supply of raw material to meet the demands of the trade was limited. +The West Indies, the Levant, and India were the countries from which +this supply was drawn, but they were unable to furnish enough raw cotton +to keep the new machines in operation, and it was necessary to look +elsewhere.</p> + +<p>America was the only hope of the cotton manufacturer; but as at that +time the United States produced little or no cotton, for a few years all +the increased supply came from Brazil.</p> + +<p>As Great Britain was the last of the European countries to take up +cotton manufacture, and has carried it to its fullest development, so +the United States was the last to enter the list of cotton-producing +countries, and has been for nearly a hundred years the foremost of them +all. The powerful influence that the production of cotton has had upon +the commerce, industrial development, and civil institutions of the +United States can scarcely be realized by one unfamiliar with the +subject.</p> + +<p>It is doubtful whether cotton is indigenous to any part of this country, +as we have no authentic record of the precise time of its introduction. +Cotton seed was brought in from all quarters of the globe, and the +American plant, the result of innumerable crossings, remains, as to its +origin, a puzzle to botanists.</p> + +<p>The beginning of the culture of cotton in the United States occurred +about one hundred seventy-five years before the industry became at all +important. The first effort to produce<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> cotton on the North American +continent was probably made at Jamestown the year of the arrival of the +colonists. In a pamphlet entitled <i>Nova Britannica; Offering Most +Excellent Fruits of Planting in Virginia</i>, published in London in 1609, +it is stated that cotton would grow as well in that province as in +Italy. In another pamphlet, called <i>A Declaration of the State of +Virginia</i>, published in London in 1620, the author mentions cotton, +wool, and sugar-cane among the "naturall commodities dispersed up and +downe the divers parts of the world; all of which may also be had in +abundance in Virginia."</p> + +<p>According to Bancroft, the first experiment in cotton culture in the +colonies was made in Virginia during Wyatt's administration of the +government. Writing of that period he says: "The first culture of cotton +in the United States deserves commemoration. In this year (1621) the +seeds were planted as an experiment, and their 'plentiful coming up' was +at that early day a subject of interest in America and England."</p> + +<p>Cotton-wool was listed in that year at eightpence a pound, which shows +that it may have been grown earlier, for it is scarcely possible that it +could have been grown, cleaned, and received in market in the same year. +Seabrook states that the "green-seed," or upland, variety was certainly +grown in Virginia to a limited extent at least one hundred thirty years +before the Revolution. Some of the early governors of that colony were +especially energetic in their efforts to encourage its cultivation. +Among these were Sir William Berkeley; Francis Morrison, his deputy, and +Sir Edmund Andros. The latter, says one authority, "gave particular +marks of his favor toward the propagation of cotton, which since his +time has been much neglected."</p> + +<p>The exports of the Virginia colony during the first thirty years of its +existence were confined almost exclusively to tobacco, but there is +evidence that in the latter half of the seventeenth century cotton was +cultivated and manufactured among the planters for domestic consumption. +Burk states that "after the Restoration (1660) their attention was +strongly attracted to home manufactures as well by the necessities of +their position as by the encouragement of the assembly and the bounty +offered by the King. But the zeal displayed in the outset for these +products gradually cooled, and if we except the manufacture of coarse<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> +cloths and unpainted cotton, nothing remained of the sounding list +prepared with so much labor by the King and recommended by legislation, +premium, and royal bounty."</p> + +<p>Among the earliest historical references to cotton in this country is +that contained in <i>A Brief Description of the Province of Carolina, on +the Coasts of Florida, and More Particularly of a New Plantation Begun +by the English at Cape Feare, on that River, now by them called Georges +River</i>, published in London in 1666. The author of this tract, whose +name is not given, says: "In the midst of this fertile province, in the +latitude of 34°, there is a colony of English seated, who landed there +May 29, 1664." After giving an account of the fertility of the soil and +its natural products, he adds: "But they have brought with them most +sorts of seeds and roots of the Barbados, which thrive in this most +temperate clime. They have indigo, very good tobacco, and cotton-wool." +Robert Home mentions cotton among the products of South Carolina in +1666. In Samuel Wilson's <i>Account of the Province of Carolina in +America</i>, addressed to the Earl of Craven, and published in London in +1682, it is stated that "cotton of the Cyprus and Smyrna sort grows +well, and good plenty of the seed is sent thither," and among the +instructions given by the proprietors of South Carolina to Mr. West, the +first governor, is the following: "You are then to furnish yourself with +cotton-seed, indigo, and ginger-roots." He was also instructed to +receive the products of the country in payment of rents at certain fixed +valuations, among which cotton was priced at three and one-half pence +per pound.</p> + +<p>In 1697, in a memoir addressed to Count de Pontchartrain on the +importance of establishing a colony in Louisiana, the author, after +describing the natural productions of the country, says: "Such are some +of the advantages which may be reasonably expected, without counting +those resulting from every day's experience. We might, for example, try +the experiment of cultivating long-staple cotton." The presumption is +that the short-staple variety had already been tried. In the very +beginning of the eighteenth century cotton culture in North Carolina had +reached the extent of furnishing one-fifth of the people with their +clothing. Lawson, speaking of the prosperity of the country and +commending the industry of the women, says: "We have not only provision<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> +plentiful, but clothes of our own manufacture, which are made and daily +increase; cotton, wool, and flax being of our own growth; and the women +are to be highly commended for industry in spinning and ordering their +housewifery to so great an advantage as they do."</p> + +<p>About this time cotton became widely distributed and cotton-patches were +common in Carolina. In fact, it is said to have been one of the +principal commodities of Carolina as early as 1708, but its culture was +only for domestic uses, and the same authority speaks of its being spun +by the women.</p> + +<p>Charlevoix, in 1722, while on his voyage down the Mississippi, saw "very +fine cotton on the tree" growing in the garden of Sieur le Noir; and +Captain Roman, of the British Army, saw in East Mississippi black-seeded +cotton growing on the farm of Mr. Krebs, and also a machine invented by +Mr. Krebs for the separation of the seed and lint. This was a +roller-gin, and possibly the first ever in operation in this country.</p> + +<p>Pickett says that in 1728 the colony of Louisiana, which at that date +occupied nearly all the southwest part of the United States, including +Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, was in a flourishing condition, its +fields being cultivated, by more than two thousand slaves, in cotton, +indigo, tobacco, and grain.</p> + +<p>Peter Purry, the founder of Purryville, in South Carolina, in his +description of the Province of South Carolina, drawn up in Charleston in +1731, says, "Flax and cotton thrive admirably."</p> + +<p>In 1734 cotton-seed was planted in Georgia, being sent there by Philip +Nutter, of Chelsea, England. Francis Moore, who visited Savannah in +1735, in his description of that place, says: "At the bottom of the +hill, well sheltered from the north wind and in the warmest part of the +garden, there was a collection of West Indian plants and trees, some +coffee, some cocoa-nuts, cotton, etc."</p> + +<p>About the same time the settlers on the Savannah River, about twenty-one +miles north of Savannah, are said to have experimented with cotton, the +date being fixed by McCall as 1738. One of the striking features +connected with the early culture of cotton in the American colonies is +that it was grown as far north as the 39° of latitude. Trench Coxe, of +Philadelphia, who contributed so greatly to the early success of the +culture and manufacture<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> of cotton in the United States, says: "It is a +fact well authenticated to the writer that the cultivation of cotton on +the garden scale, though not at all as a planter's crop, was intimately +known and thoroughly practised in the vicinity of Easton, in the county +of Talbot, on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, as +early as 1736."</p> + +<p>Its cultivation was so well understood in this part of the country that, +according to the same authority, the necessities of the Revolutionary +War occasioned it to be raised for army use in the counties of Cape May, +New Jersey, and Sussex, Delaware, and it continued to be raised, though +only in small quantities, for family use. At the time of the Revolution, +the home-grown cotton was sufficiently abundant in Pennsylvania to +supply the domestic needs of that State. Cotton was also cultivated in +Charles, St. Mary's, and Dorchester counties, Maryland, as late as 1826. +And at a later date (1861-1864) upland cotton was cultivated, and at the +prices current at that date was a most profitable crop on the eastern +shore of Maryland. Cotton was grown with very good results in +Northampton County, on the eastern shore of Virginia, in those years.</p> + +<p>The culture and improvement of cotton had received considerable +attention by the planters of South Carolina and Georgia as early as +1742. In 1739 Samuel Auspourguer attested under oath that the "climate +and soil of Georgia are very fit for raising cotton." William Spicer +also certified to the adaptability of the country for cotton production, +and that he had "brought over with him (to London) several pods of +cotton which grew in Georgia."</p> + +<p>A tract entitled <i>A State of the Province of Georgia, Attested Under +Oath in the Court of Savannah</i>, published in 1740, says of cotton that +"large quantities had been raised, and it is much planted; but the +cotton, which in some parts is perennial, dies here in the winter; +nevertheless the annual is not inferior to it in goodness, but requires +more trouble in cleansing from the seed." In the same tract it was +"proposed that a bounty be settled on every product of the land, viz., +corn, peas, potatoes, wine, silk, cotton," etc. In <i>A Description of +Georgia, by a Gentleman who has Resided there Upward of Seven Years and +was One of the First Settlers</i>, published in London in 1741, the author +states that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> "the annual cotton grows well there, and has been by some +industrious people made into clothes."</p> + +<p>Samuel Seabrook, in <i>An Important Inquiry into the State and Utility of +Georgia</i>, published in 1741, says, "Among other beneficial articles of +trade which it is found can be raised there, cotton, of which some has +also been brought over as a sample, is mentioned." In his description of +St. Simon's Island the same author says: "The country is well +cultivated, several parcels of land not far distant from the camp of +General Oglethorpe's regiment having been granted in small lots to the +soldiers, many of whom are married. The soldiers raise cotton, and their +wives spin it and knit it into stockings."</p> + +<p>A publication in London in 1762 says: "What cotton and silk both the +Carolinas send us is excellent and calls aloud for encouragement of its +cultivation in a place well adapted to raise both."</p> + +<p>Captain Robinson, an Englishman who visited the coast of Florida in +1754, says the "cotton-tree was growing in that country." The Florida +territory then extended from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River. That +it was cultivated in East Florida about ten years after this is +evidenced by William Stork, who says, "I am informed of a gentleman +living upon the St. John's that the lands on that river below Piccolata +are in general good, and that there is growing there now (1765) good +wheat, Indian corn, indigo, and cotton."</p> + +<p>Cotton early attracted the attention of the French colonists in +Louisiana. In the year 1752, Michel, in a report to the French minister +on the condition of the country, gave interesting details of the +cultivation of cotton and the difficulty found in separating the wool +from the seed.</p> + +<p>In 1758 white Siam seed was introduced into Louisiana. Du Prate says, +"This East India annual plant has been found to be much better and +whiter than what is cultivated in our colonies, which is of the Turkey +kind."</p> + +<p>Letters from Paris to Governor Roman state that there is among the +French archives at Paris, Department of Marine and Colonies, a most +curious and instructive report on cotton in 1760. It was found to be a +very profitable crop in Louisiana, for in the year 1768 the French +planters, in a memoir to their Government,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> complained that the parent +Government had turned them over to the Spaniards just "at the time when +a new mine had been discovered; when the culture of cotton, improved by +experience, promises the planter a recompense of his toils, and +furnishes persons engaged in fitting out vessels with the cargoes to +load them."</p> + +<p>In 1762 Captain Bossu, of the French marines, said: "Cotton of this +country (Louisiana) is of the species called the 'white cotton of Siam.' +It is neither so fine nor so long as the silk cotton, but it is, +however, very white and very fine."</p> + +<p>In 1775 the Provincial Congress of South Carolina recommended the +cultivation of cotton, and in the same year a similar enactment was +passed by the Virginia Assembly, which declared that "all persons having +proper land ought to cultivate and raise a quantity of hemp, flax, and +cotton, not only for the use of their own families, but to spare to +others on moderate terms." This legislation no doubt was suggested on +account of the changed relations of the colonies with Great Britain.</p> + +<p>In 1786 Thomas Jefferson, in a letter, says: "The four southernmost +States make a great deal of cotton. Their poor are almost entirely +clothed with it in winter and summer. In winter they wear shirts of it +and outer clothing of cotton and wool mixed. In summer their shirts are +linen, but the outer clothing cotton. The dress of the women is almost +entirely of cotton, manufactured by themselves, except the richer class, +and even many of these wear a great deal of homespun cotton. It is as +well manufactured as the calicoes of Europe."</p> + +<p>At the convention at Annapolis in 1786 James Madison expressed the +conviction that from the experience already had "from the garden +practice in Talbot County, Maryland, and the circumstances of the same +kind abounding in Virginia, there was no reason to doubt that the United +States would one day become a great cotton-producing country." This year +Sea Island cotton-seed was introduced into Georgia, the seed being sent +from the Bahama Islands to Governor Tatnall, William Spaulding, Richard +Leake, and Alexander Pisset, of that State. The cotton adapted itself to +the climate, and every successive year from 1787 saw long-staple cotton +extending itself along the shores of South Carolina and Georgia.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span></p> + +<p>According to Thomas Spaulding, the first planter who attempted cotton +culture on a large scale was Richard Leake, of Savannah, but the editor +of <i>Niles Register</i> (1824) says that Nichol Turnbull, a native of +Smyrna, was the first planter who cultivated cotton upon a scale for +exportation. His residence was at Deptford Hall, three miles from +Savannah, where he died in 1824.</p> + +<p>In a letter dated Savannah, December 11, 1788, to Colonel Thomas +Proctor, of Philadelphia, Leake says: "I have been this year an +adventurer—and the first that has attempted it on a large scale—in +introducing a new staple for the planting interests—the article of +cotton—samples of which I beg leave now to send you and request you +will lay them before the Philadelphia Society for Encouraging +Manufactures, that the quality may be inspected. Several here, as well +as in North Carolina, have followed me and tried the experiment, and it +is likely to answer our most sanguine expectations. I shall raise about +five thousand pounds in the seed from eight acres of land, and next year +I intend to plant about fifty to one hundred acres if suitable +encouragement is given. The principal difficulty that arises to us is +the cleansing it from the seed, which I am told they do with great +dexterity and ease in Philadelphia with gins or machines made for the +purpose. I am told they make those that will clean thirty to forty +pounds clean cotton in a day and upon very simple construction."</p> + +<p>The first attempt in South Carolina to produce Sea Island cotton was +made in 1788 by Mrs. Kinsey Burden at Burden's Island. As early as 1779 +the short staple was produced by her husband, whose negroes were clothed +in homespun cotton cloth. Mrs. Burden's efforts failed. The plants did +not mature, and this was attributed to the seed, which was of the +Bourbon variety. The first successful variety appears to have been grown +by William Elliot on Hilton Head, near Beaufort, in 1790, with five and +one-half bushels of seed, which he bought in Charleston and for which he +paid fourteen shillings a bushel. He sold his crop for ten and one-half +pence a pound.</p> + +<p>In 1791 John Scriven, of St. Luke's Parish, planted thirty to forty +acres on St. Mary's River. He sold it for from one shilling twopence to +one shilling sixpence per pound. It is certain that at this period many +planters on the Sea Islands and contiguous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> mainland experimented with +long-staple cotton, and probably it was produced by them for market.</p> + +<p>One of the earliest reports of export of cotton from the colonies is a +bill of lading which certifies that on July 20, 1751, Henry Hansen +shipped, "in good order and well conditioned, in and upon the good snow +called the Mary, whereof is master under God, for this present voyage, +Barnaby Badgers, and now riding in the harbor of New York, and by God's +grace bound for London—to say—eighteen bales of cotton-wool, being +marked and numbered as in the margin, and are to be delivered in like +good order and conditioned, at the aforesaid port of London—the danger +of the sea only excepted—unto Messrs. Horke and Champior or their +assigns, he or they paying freight for the said goods, three farthings +per pound, primage and average accustomed."</p> + +<p>The feeling regarding the culture and manufacture of cotton in the +colonies at this period may be gathered from the following extract from +a letter of July 7, 1749, addressed by the Georgia office of London to +the Governor of Georgia: "You say, sir, likewise in your letter, that +the people of Vernonburgh and Acton are giving visible appearance of +revising their industry; that they are propagating large quantities of +flax and cotton, and that they are provided with weavers, who have +already wove several large pieces of cloth of a useful sort, whereof +they sold divers, and some they made use of in their own families. The +account of their industry is highly satisfactory to the trustees; but as +to manufacturing the produces they raise, they must expect no +encouragement from the trustees, for setting up manufactures which may +interfere with those of England might occasion complaints here, for +which reason you must, as they will, discountenance them; and it is +necessary for you to direct the industry of these people into a way +which might be more beneficial to themselves and would prove +satisfactory to the trustees and the public; that is, to show them what +advantages they will reap from the produce of silk, which they will +receive immediate pay for, and that this will not interfere with or +prevent their raising flax or cotton, or any other produces for +exportation, unmanufactured."</p> + +<p>A pamphlet entitled <i>A Description of South Carolina</i> states that cotton +was imported to Carolina from the West Indies, and it is probable that +the early shipments from this country were of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> this West Indian cotton, +although English writers mentioned it as an import of Carolina cotton.</p> + +<p>Donnell says: "The first regular exportation of cotton from Charleston +was in 1785, when one bag arrived at Liverpool, per ship Diana, to John +and Isaac Teasdale & Co. The exportation of cotton from the United +States could not have been much earlier, for we find in 1784 eight bags +shipped to England were seized on the ground of fraudulent importation, +as it was not believed that so much cotton could be produced in the +United States."</p> + +<p>The exportation during the next six years was successively 6, 14, 109, +389, 842, and 81 bags.</p> + +<p>Dana gives the following <i>data</i> concerning the export movement from 1739 +to 1793:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"1739. Samuel Auspourguer, a Swiss living in Georgia, took +over to London, at the time of the controversy about the +introduction of slaves, a sample of cotton raised by him in +Georgia. This we may call, in the absence of a better +starting-point, the first export.</p> + +<p>"1747. During this year several bags of cotton, valued at £3 +11s. 5d. per bag, were exported from Charleston. Doubts as +to this being of American growth have been expressed, but as +cotton had been cultivated in South Carolina for many years +there does not seem to be any reason for such doubts. +Besides, English writers mention it as an import of Carolina +cotton.</p> + +<p>"1753. 'Some cotton' is mentioned among the exports of +Carolina in 1753, and of Charleston in 1757.</p> + +<p>"1764. Eight (8) bags of cotton imported into Liverpool from +the United States.</p> + +<p>"1770. Three (3) bales shipped to Liverpool from New York; +ten (10) bales from Charleston; four (4) from Virginia and +Maryland; and three (3) barrels from North Carolina.</p> + +<p>"1784. About fourteen (14) bales shipped to great Britain, +of which eight (8) were seized as improperly entered. [See +above.]</p> + +<p>"1785. Five (5) bags imported at Liverpool.</p> + +<p>"1786. Nine hundred (900) pounds imported into Liverpool.</p> + +<p>"1787. Sixteen thousand three hundred fifty (16,350) pounds +imported into Liverpool.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span></p> + +<p>"1788. Fifty-eight thousand five hundred (58,500) pounds +imported into Liverpool.</p> + +<p>"1789. One hundred twenty-seven thousand five hundred +(127,500) pounds imported into Liverpool.</p> + +<p>"1790. Fourteen thousand (14,000) pounds imported into +Liverpool. We can find no reason for this marked decline in +the exports except it may be that the crop was a failure +that year. Our first supposition was that the cause was one +of price, but on examining the quotations in Took's work on +'high and low prices' we do not see any marked decline in +the values of other descriptions of cotton, and the American +staple is not given in his list until 1793.</p> + +<p>"1791. One hundred eighty-nine thousand five hundred +(189,500) pounds imported into Liverpool, the price +averaging here 26 cents.</p> + +<p>"1792. One hundred thirty-eight thousand three hundred +twenty-eight (138,328) pounds imported into Liverpool."</p></div> + +<p>Great difficulty was experienced in separating the seed from the lint of +upland cotton. The work was done by hand, the task being four pounds of +lint cotton per week from each head of a family, in addition to the +usual field-work. This would amount to one bale in two years. A French +planter of Louisiana (Dubreuil) is said to have invented a machine for +separating lint and seed as early as 1742. The demand for such a machine +not being very great at that date, no record as to its character has +been preserved. The roller-gin, in very much the same form as Nearchus, +the admiral of Alexander the Great, found it in India, was still in use. +In 1790 Dr. Joseph Eve, originally from the Bahamas, but then a resident +of Augusta, Georgia, made great improvements on this ancient machine, +and adapted it to be run by horse- or water-power. A correspondent of +the American Museum, writing from Charleston, South Carolina, in July of +that year, states "that a gentleman well acquainted with the cotton +manufacture had already completed and in operation, on the high hills of +Santee, near Statesburg, ginning, carding, and other machines driven by +water, and also spinning-machines with eighty-five spindles each, with +every article necessary for manufacturing cotton." A machine dating +anterior to this year, and having a strong resemblance to the above, +possessing in fact all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> the essentials of a modern cotton-gin, was +exhibited at the Atlanta Exposition in 1882. It came from the +neighborhood of Statesburg, but its history could not be ascertained.</p> + +<p>In 1793 Eli Whitney petitioned for a patent for the invention of the saw +cotton-gin. His claims were disputed, and he defended them in the State +and Federal courts for nearly a generation, obtaining at last a verdict +in his favor. Meanwhile the saw-gin had become an established fact, and +the planter at last had a machine which enabled him to produce cotton at +a cost that would leave him a good profit. The first saw-gin to be run +by water-power was erected in 1795 by James Kincaid near Monticello, in +Fairfield County, South Carolina. Others were put up near Columbia by +Wade Hampton, Sr., in 1797, and in the year following he gathered and +ginned from six hundred acres six hundred bales of cotton.</p> + +<p>The cotton exportation from the United States increased from four +hundred eighty-seven thousand six hundred pounds in 1793 to one million +six hundred thousand pounds in 1794, the year in which Whitney's gin was +patented. In 1796, a year after he had improved his machine, the +production had risen to ten million pounds. In fact, the increased +production was so great that the planters began to fear they would +overstock the market, and one of them, upon looking at his newly +gathered crop, exclaimed: "Well, I have done with cultivation of cotton; +there's enough in that gin-house to make stockings for all the people in +America." Yet the production of cotton did not advance with that +rapidity to which we are now accustomed.</p> + +<p>The cotton industry being of secondary importance prior to 1790, +information and statistics relative to the amount produced are not +available, but within one hundred years, from 1790 to 1890, the +production of cotton in the United States increased from five thousand +bales to over ten million bales.</p> + +<p>The first cotton-mill erected in the United States was built at Beverly, +Massachusetts, in 1787-1788. This was soon followed by others in various +towns along the east border of the country, especially Pawtucket and +Providence, Rhode Island; Boston, Massachusetts; New Haven and Norwich, +Connecticut; New York City; Paterson, New Jersey; Philadelphia, +Pennsylvania; and Statesburg, South Carolina. In them carding and +spinning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> were done by machinery, but the weaving was on hand-looms +until 1815, at which date a power-loom mill was started at Waltham, +Massachusetts. The use of hand-looms and spinning-wheels for cotton +manufacture was common in all parts of the country before the +Revolution, especially in the Southern colonies, and these continued to +be used by the women in their houses many years after the erection of +cotton factories.</p> + + +<h4>DENISON OLMSTED</h4> + +<p>Mr. Whitney had scarcely set his foot in Georgia when he was met by a +disappointment which was an earnest of that long series of adverse +events which, with scarcely an exception, attended all his future +negotiations in the same State. On his arrival he was informed that Mr. +B. had employed another teacher, leaving Whitney entirely without +resources or friends, except those whom he had made in the family of +General Greene. In these benevolent people, however, his case excited +much interest, and Mrs. Greene kindly said to him: "My young friend, you +propose studying the law; make my house your home, your room your +castle, and there pursue what studies you please." He accordingly began +the study of law under that hospitable roof.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Greene was engaged in a piece of embroidery in which she employed a +peculiar kind of frame called a tambour. She complained that it was +badly constructed, and that it tore the delicate threads of her work. +Mr. Whitney, eager for an opportunity to oblige his hostess, set himself +at work and speedily produced a tambour-frame made on a plan entirely +new, which he presented to her. Mrs. Greene and her family were greatly +delighted with it, and thought it a wonderful proof of ingenuity.</p> + +<p>Not long afterward, a large party of gentlemen came from Augusta and the +upper country to visit the family of General Greene, consisting +principally of officers who had served under the General in the +Revolutionary Army. Among the number were Major Bremen, Forsyth, and +Pendleton. They fell into conversation upon the state of agriculture +among them, and expressed great regret that there was no means of +cleaning the green-seed cotton, or separating it from its seed, since +all the lands which were unsuitable for the cultivation of rice would +yield<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> large crops of cotton. But until ingenuity could devise some +machine which would greatly facilitate the process of cleaning, it was +in vain to think of raising cotton for market. Separating one pound of +the clean staple from the seed was a day's work for a woman; but the +time usually devoted to picking cotton was the evening, after the labor +of the field was over. Then the slaves, men, women, and children, were +collected in circles with one whose duty it was to rouse the dozing and +quicken the indolent. While the company were engaged in this +conversation, "Gentlemen," said Mrs. Greene, "apply to my young friend, +Mr. Whitney—he can make anything." Upon which she conducted them into a +neighboring room, and showed them her tambour-frame, and a number of +toys which Mr. Whitney had made or repaired for the children. She then +introduced the gentlemen to Whitney himself, extolling his genius and +commending him to their notice and friendship. He modestly disclaimed +all pretensions to mechanical genius; and when they named their object, +he replied that he had never seen either cotton or cotton-seed in his +life. Mrs. Greene said to one of the gentlemen: "I have accomplished my +aim. Mr. Whitney is a very deserving young man, and to bring him into +notice was my object. The interest which our friends now feel for him +will, I hope, lead to his getting some employment to enable him to +prosecute the study of the law."</p> + +<p>But a new turn that no one of the company dreamed of had been given to +Mr. Whitney's views. It being out of season for cotton in the seed, he +went to Savannah and searched among the warehouses and boats until he +found a small parcel of it. This he carried home, and communicated his +intentions to Mr. Miller, who warmly encouraged him, and assigned him a +room in the basement of the house, where he set himself at work with +such rude materials and instruments as a Georgia plantation afforded. +With these resources, however, he made tools better suited to his +purpose, and drew his own wire—of which the teeth of the earliest gins +were made—an article which was not at that time to be found in the +market of Savannah. Mrs. Greene and Mr. Miller were the only persons +ever admitted to his workshop, and the only persons who knew in what way +he was employing himself. The many hours he spent in his mysterious +pursuits afforded matter of great curiosity and often of raillery to the +younger members<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> of the family. Near the close of the winter, the +machine was so nearly completed as to leave no doubt of its success.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Greene was eager to communicate to her numerous friends the +knowledge of this important invention, peculiarly important at that +time, because then the market was glutted with all those articles which +were suited to the climate and soil of Georgia, and nothing could be +found to give occupation to the negroes, and support to the white +inhabitants. This opened suddenly to the planters boundless resources of +wealth, and rendered the occupations of the slaves less unhealthy and +laborious than they had been before.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Greene, therefore, invited to her house gentlemen from different +parts of the State, and on the first day after they had assembled she +conducted them to a temporary building, which had been erected for the +machine, and they saw with astonishment and delight that more cotton +could be separated from the seed in one day, by the labor of a single +hand, than could be done in the usual manner in the space of many +months.</p> + +<p>Mr. Whitney might now have indulged in bright reveries of fortune and of +fame; but we shall have various opportunities of seeing that he tempered +his inventive genius with an unusual share of the calm, considerate +qualities of the financier. Although urged by his friends to secure a +patent and devote himself to the manufacture and introduction of his +machines, he coolly replied that on account of the great expense and +trouble which always attend the introduction of a new invention, and the +difficulty of enforcing a law in favor of patentees, in opposition to +the individual interests of so large a number of persons as would be +concerned in the culture of this article, it was with great reluctance +that he should consent to relinquish the hopes of a lucrative +profession, for which he had been destined, with an expectation of +indemnity either from the justice or the gratitude of his countrymen, +even should the invention answer the most sanguine anticipations of his +friends.</p> + +<p>The individual who contributed most to incite him to persevere in the +undertaking was Phineas Miller, Esq. Mr. Miller was a native of +Connecticut and graduate of Yale College. Like Mr. Whitney, soon after +he had completed his education at college, he came to Georgia as a +private teacher in the family of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> General Greene, and after the decease +of the general he became the husband of Mrs. Greene. He had qualified +himself for the profession of law, and was a gentleman of cultivated +mind and superior talents; but he was of an ardent temperament, and +therefore well fitted to enter with zeal into the views which the genius +of his friend had laid open to him. He had also considerable funds at +command, and proposed to Mr. Whitney to become his joint adventurer, and +to be at the whole expense of maturing the invention until it should be +patented. If the machine should succeed in its intended operation, the +parties agreed, under legal formalities, "that the profits and +advantages arising therefrom, as well as all privileges and emoluments +to be derived from patenting, making, vending, and working the same, +should be mutually and equally shared between them." This instrument +bears date May 27, 1793, and immediately afterward they began business, +under the firm of Miller & Whitney.</p> + +<p>An invention so important to the agricultural interest, and, as has +proved, to every department of human industry, could not long remain a +secret. The knowledge of it soon spread through the State, and so great +was the excitement on the subject that multitudes of persons came from +all quarters of the State to see the machine; but it was not deemed safe +to gratify their curiosity until the patent-right had been secured. But +so determined were some of the populace to possess this treasure that +neither law nor justice could restrain them—they broke open the +building by night and carried off the machine. In this way the public +became possessed of the invention; and before Mr. Whitney could complete +his model and secure his patent, a number of machines were in successful +operation, constructed with some slight deviation from the original, +with the hope of evading the penalty for violating the patent-right.</p> + +<p>As soon as the copartnership of Miller & Whitney was formed, Mr. Whitney +repaired to Connecticut, where, as far as possible, he was to perfect +the machine, obtain a patent, and manufacture and ship for Georgia such +a number of machines as would supply the demand.</p> + +<p>Within three days after the conclusion of the copartnership, Mr. Whitney +having set out for the North, Mr. Miller commenced his long +correspondence relative to the cotton-gin. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> first letter announces +that encroachments upon their rights had already commenced. "It will be +necessary," says Mr. Miller, "to have a considerable number of gins +made, to be in readiness to send out as soon as the patent is obtained, +in order to satisfy the absolute demand, and make people's heads easy on +the subject; <i>for I am informed of two other claimants for the honor of +the invention of cotton-gins, in addition to those we knew before</i>."</p> + +<p>On June 20, 1793, Mr. Whitney presented his petition for a patent to Mr. +Jefferson, then Secretary of State; but the prevalence of the yellow +fever in Philadelphia—which was then the seat of government—prevented +his concluding the business relative to the patent until several months +afterward. To prevent being anticipated, he took, however, the +precaution to make oath to the invention before the notary public of the +city of New Haven, which he did October 28th of the same year.</p> + +<p>Mr. Jefferson, who had much curiosity in regard to mechanical +inventions, took a peculiar interest in this machine, and addressed to +the inventor an obliging letter, desiring further particulars respecting +it, and expressing a wish to procure one for his own use. Mr. Whitney +accordingly sketched the history of the invention, and of the +construction and performances of the machine. "It is about a year," says +he, "since I first turned my attention to constructing this machine, at +which time I was in the State of Georgia. Within about ten days after my +first conception of the plan I made a small though imperfect model. +Experiments with this encouraged me to make one on a larger scale; but +the extreme difficulty of procuring workmen and proper materials in +Georgia prevented my completing the larger one until some time in April +last. This, though much larger than my first attempt, is not above +one-third as large as the machines may be made with convenience. The +cylinder is only two feet two inches in length and six inches diameter. +It is turned <i>by hand</i>, and requires the strength of one man to keep it +in constant motion. It is the stated task of one negro to clean fifty +weight—I mean fifty pounds after it is separated from the seed—of the +green-seed cotton per day." In the same letter Mr. Jefferson assured Mr. +Whitney that a patent would be granted as soon as the model was lodged +in the Patent Office. In mentioning the favorable notice of Mr. +Jefferson to his friend Stebbins, he adds,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> with characteristic +moderation, "<i>I hope, by perseverance, I shall make something of it +yet.</i>"</p> + +<p>At the close of this year (1793) Mr. Whitney was to return to Georgia +with his cotton-gins, and Mr. Miller had made arrangements for +commencing business immediately after his arrival. The plan was to erect +machines in every part of the cotton district and engross the entire +business themselves. This was evidently an unfortunate scheme. It +rendered the business very extensive and complicated, and, as it did not +at once supply the demands of the cotton-growers, it multiplied the +inducements to make the machines in violation of the patent. Had the +proprietors confined their views to the manufacture of the machines and +to the sale of patent-rights, it is probable they would have avoided +some of the difficulties with which they afterward had to contend. The +prospect of making suddenly an immense fortune by the business of +ginning, where every third pound of cotton (worth at that time from +twenty-five to thirty-three cents) was their own, presented great and +peculiar attractions. Mr. Whitney's return to Georgia was delayed until +the following April. The importunity of Mr. Miller's letters, written +during the preceding period, urging him to come on, evinces how eager +the Georgia planters were to enter the new field of enterprise which the +genius of Whitney had laid open to them. Nor did they at first, <i>in +general</i>, contemplate availing themselves of the invention unlawfully. +But the minds of the more honorable class of planters were afterward +deluded by various artifices, set on foot by designing men, with the +view of robbing Mr. Whitney of his just right.</p> + +<p>One of the greatest difficulties experienced by men of enterprise, at +the period under review, was the extreme scarcity of money. In order to +carry on the manufacture of cotton-gins, and to make advances in the +purchase of cotton and establishments for ginning, to an extent in any +degree proportioned to their wishes, Miller & Whitney required a much +greater capital than they could command; and the sanguine temperament of +Mr. Miller was constantly prompting him to advance in hazards much +further than the more cautious spirit of Mr. Whitney would follow. But +even the latter found it necessary sometimes to borrow money at an +enormous interest. The first loan (for $2000) was made on terms which +were deemed at that time peculiarly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> favorable; yet the company were to +pay 5 per cent. premium in addition to the lawful interest. This was in +1794. In consequence of the numerous speculations in new lands into +which so many of our countrymen were deluded, and the want of confidence +created by the very application for a loan, the pressure for money was +continually increasing. In 1796 Mr. Whitney applied to a friend in +Boston to raise money for him on a loan, and received the following +reply: "I applied to one of those vultures called brokers, who are +preying on the purse-strings of the industrious, and was informed that +he can procure the sum you wish at a premium of 20 per cent. on the +following conditions, viz.: You must make over and deposit with him +public securities, such as funded stock, bank stock, or any kind of +State notes, or Connecticut reservation land certificates, sufficient, +at the going prices, fully to secure the debt and premium." In a more +embarrassed state of Mr. Miller's private affairs, several years +afterward, he paid the enormous interest of 5, 6, and even 7 per cent. +<i>per month</i>.</p> + +<p>We have said that the loan contracted by Mr. Whitney, in 1794, at a +premium of 5 per cent. in addition to the lawful interest, was regarded +as peculiarly favorable; this is evident from the fact that, during the +same year, Mr. Miller urges him to contract a new loan, if possible, for +$3000, at 12 or 14 per cent. provided it could be extended over a year.</p> + +<p>In July, 1794, Mr. Whitney was confined by a severe illness, from which +he recovered slowly; but his business received a still further +interruption from a very fatal sickness, the scarlet fever, which +prevailed in New Haven during this year, and which attacked a number of +his workmen.</p> + +<p>Under all these discouragements Mr. Miller was constantly writing the +most urgent letters from Georgia, to press forward the manufacture of +machines. "Do not let a deficiency of money, do not let anything," says +Mr. Miller, "hinder the speedy construction of the gins. The people of +the country are almost running mad for them, and much can be said to +justify their importunity. When the present crop is harvested, there +will be a real property of at least $50,000, yes, of $100,000, lying +useless, unless we can enable the holders to bring it to market. Pray +remember that we must have from fifty to one hundred gins between this +and another fall, if there are any workmen in New England or in the +Middle<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> States to make them. In two years we will begin to take long +steps up-hill, in the business of patent ginning, fortune favoring."</p> + +<p>The general resort of the planters to the cultivation of cotton, and its +consequent production in vast quantities, the value of which depended +entirely upon the chance of getting it cleaned by the gin, created great +uneasiness, which first displayed itself in this pressure upon Miller & +Whitney, and afterward afforded great encouragement to the marauders +upon the patent-right, who were now becoming numerous and audacious.</p> + +<p>The <i>roller-gin</i> was at first the most formidable competitor with +Whitney's machine. It extricated the seeds by means of rollers, crushing +them between revolving cylinders, instead of disengaging them by means +of teeth. The fragments of seeds which remained in the cotton rendered +its execution much inferior in this respect to Whitney's gin, and it was +also much slower in its operation. Great efforts were made, however, to +create an impression in favor of its superiority in other respects.</p> + +<p>But a still more formidable rival appeared early in the year 1795, under +the name of the <i>saw-gin</i>. It was Whitney's gin, except that the teeth +were cut in circular rims of iron, instead of being made of wires, as +was the case in the earlier forms of the patent gin. The idea of such +teeth had early occurred to Mr. Whitney, as he afterward established by +legal proof. But they would have been of no use except in connection +with the other parts of his machine, and, therefore, this was a palpable +attempt to evade the patent-right, and it was principally in reference +to this that the lawsuits were afterward held.</p> + +<p>It would be difficult to estimate the full value of Mr. Whitney's +labors, without going into a minuteness of detail inconsistent with our +limits. Every cotton garment bears the impress of his genius, and the +ships that transported it across the waters were the heralds of his +fame, and the cities that have risen to opulence by the cotton trade +must attribute no small share of their prosperity to the inventor of the +cotton-gin. We have before us the declaration of the late Mr. Fulton, +that Arkwright, Watt, and Whitney—we would add Fulton to the +number—were the three men who did most for mankind, of any of their +contemporaries; and in the sense in which he intended it, the remark is +probably true.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span></p> +<h2>EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVI</h2> + +<h3>MURDER OF MARAT: CIVIL WAR IN FRANCE</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1793</h4> + +<h3>THOMAS CARLYLE</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>In the early days of the French Revolution many moderates +who favored reform of the monarchy, but not its abolition, +were wholly alienated by the condemnation and execution of +Louis XVI, after what has been regarded as a mock trial by +the National Convention. It was a still graver effect of +this tragedy that it impelled the leading European powers to +join in the great coalition against France contemplated in +the Convention of Pillnitz (August, 1791).</p> + +<p>Scarcely less was the influence upon the internal affairs of +France from the murder of Marat by Charlotte Corday.</p> + +<p>Jean Paul Marat, sometimes called, from the name of a paper +which he published, the "Friend of the People," was one of +the most ultra-revolutionary of the Jacobin leaders in the +National Convention. By his murder the "Red +Republicans"—the extreme radical party in the Convention, +called the "Mountain" because they occupied the higher seats +in the hall—were confirmed in their determination to +destroy their opponents, the moderate republicans, called +Girondists or Girondins. Many of the Girondist leaders, +among them some of the most distinguished men in France, +were soon sent to the guillotine, and the Reign of Terror +was fully inaugurated. Carlyle calls Marat "atrocious," and +so most writers regard him, but there are not wanting some +to vindicate his character and purposes.</p> + +<p>These tragic scenes, and the opening of the civil war which +followed, known as the War of La Vendée, are depicted by +Carlyle in that manner, all his own, which invests his +history of the French Revolution at once with the element of +realism and an air of romance.</p> + +<p>Louis XVI was first deposed by the National Convention, and +then brought to trial for conspiring with foreign enemies of +France, for aiming to subvert French liberties, and for +being the cause of the massacre of the Swiss Guards who +defended the Tuileries (August 10, 1792) against a mob +seeking the King's life. Louis was found "guilty," and, +after a long wrangle in the Convention over the question of +punishment, a small majority was given (January 20, 1793) +for the decree of death. It was voted that there should be +no delay of the execution.</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span></p> + + +<p>To this conclusion, then, hast thou come, O hapless Louis! The Son of +Sixty Kings is to die on the Scaffold by form of Law. Under Sixty Kings +this same form of Law, form of Society, has been fashioning itself +together these thousand years; and has become, one way and other, a most +strange Machine. Surely, if needful, it is also frightful, this Machine; +dead, blind; not what it should be; which, with swift stroke, or by cold +slow torture, has wasted the lives and souls of innumerable men. And +behold now a King himself, or say rather Kinghood in his person, is to +expire here in cruel tortures; like a Phalaris shut in the belly of his +own red-heated Brazen Bull! It is ever so; and thou shouldst know it, O +haughty tyrannous man: injustice breeds injustice; curses and falsehoods +do verily return "always home," wide as they may wander. Innocent Louis +bears the sins of many generations: he too experiences that man's +tribunal is not in this Earth; that if he had no Higher one, it were not +well with him.</p> + +<p>A King dying by such violence appeals impressively to the imagination; +as the like must do, and ought to do. And yet at bottom it is not the +King dying, but the man! Kingship is a coat: the grand loss is of the +skin. The man from whom you take his Life, to him can the whole combined +world do more? Lally went on his hurdle; his mouth filled with a gag. +Miserablest mortals, doomed for picking pockets, have a whole five-act +Tragedy in them, in that dumb pain, as they go to the gallows, +unregarded; they consume the cup of trembling down to the lees. For +Kings and for Beggars, for the justly doomed and the unjustly, it is a +hard thing to die. Pity them all: thy utmost pity, with all aids and +appliances and throne-and-scaffold contrasts, how far short is it of the +thing pitied!</p> + +<p>A Confessor has come; Abbé Edgeworth, of Irish extraction, whom the King +knew by good report, has come promptly on this solemn mission. Leave the +Earth alone, then, thou hapless King; it with its malice will go its +way, thou also canst go thine. A hard scene yet remains: the parting +with our loved ones. Kind hearts environed in the same grim peril with +us; to be left <i>here</i>! Let the Reader look with the eyes of Valet Cléry +through these glass doors, where also the Municipality watches, and see +the cruelest of scenes:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span></p> + +<p>"At half-past eight, the door of the anteroom opened: the Queen appeared +first, leading her Son by the hand; then Madame Royale and Madame +Elizabeth: they all flung themselves into the arms of the King. Silence +reigned for some minutes; interrupted only by sobs. The Queen made a +movement to lead his Majesty towards the inner room where M. Edgeworth +was waiting unknown to them: 'No,' said the King, 'let us go into the +dining-room; it is there only that I can see you.' They entered there; I +shut the door of it, which was of glass. The King sat down, the Queen on +his left hand, Madame Elizabeth on his right, Madame Royale almost in +front; the young Prince remained standing between his Father's legs. +They all leaned toward him, and often held him embraced. This scene of +woe lasted an hour and three-quarters; during which we could hear +nothing; we could see only that always when the King spoke, the sobbings +of the Princesses redoubled, continued for some minutes; and that then +the King began again to speak."</p> + +<p>And so our meetings and our partings do now end! The sorrows we gave +each other; the poor joys we faithfully shared, and all our lovings and +our sufferings, and confused toilings under the earthly Sun, are over. +Thou good soul, I shall never, never through all ages of Time, see thee +any more!</p> + +<p>Never! O Reader, knowest thou that hard word?</p> + +<p>For nearly two hours this agony lasts; then they tear themselves +asunder. "Promise that you will see us on the morrow." He promises: Ah +yes, yes; yet once; and go now, ye loved ones; cry to God for yourselves +and me! It was a hard scene, but it is over. He will not see them on the +morrow. The Queen, in passing through the anteroom, glanced at the +Cerberus Municipals; and, with woman's vehemence, said through her +tears, "<i>Vous êtes tous des scélérats!</i>" ("You are all scoundrels!")</p> + +<p>King Louis slept sound, till five in the morning, when Cléry, as he had +been ordered, awoke him. Cléry dressed his hair. While this went +forward, Louis took a ring from his watch, and kept trying it on his +finger: it was his wedding-ring, which he is now to return to the Queen +as a mute farewell. At half-past six, he took the Sacrament; and +continued in devotion, and conference with Abbé Edgeworth. He will not +see his Family: it were too hard to bear.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span></p> + +<p>At eight, the Municipals enter: the King gives them his Will, and +messages and effects; which they, at first, brutally refuse to take +charge of: he gives them a roll of gold pieces, a hundred and +twenty-five louis; these are to be returned to Malesherbes, who had lent +them. At nine, Santerre says the hour is come. The King begs yet to +retire for three minutes. At the end of three minutes, Santerre again +says the hour is come. "Stamping on the ground with his right foot, +Louis answers: '<i>Partons</i>' ('Let us go')." How the rolling of those +drums comes in through the Temple bastions and bulwarks, on the heart of +a queenly wife; soon to be a widow! He is gone then, and has not seen +us? A Queen weeps bitterly; a King's Sister and Children. Over all these +Four does Death also hover: all shall perish miserably save one; she, as +Duchesse d'Angoulême, will live—not happily.</p> + +<p>At the Temple Gate were some faint cries, perhaps from voices of pitiful +women: "<i>Grâce! Grâce!</i>" Through the rest of the streets there is +silence as of the grave. No man not armed is allowed to be there: the +armed, did any even pity, dare not express it, each man overawed by all +his neighbors. All windows are down, none seen looking through them. All +shops are shut. No wheel-carriage rolls, this morning, in these streets +but one only. Eighty thousand armed men stand ranked, like armed statues +of men; cannons bristle, cannoneers with match burning, but no word or +movement: it is as a city enchanted into silence and stone: one carriage +with its escort, slowly rumbling, is the only sound. Louis reads, in his +Book of Devotion, the Prayers of the Dying: clatter of this death-march +falls sharp on the ear, in the great silence; but the thought would fain +struggle heavenward, and forget the Earth.</p> + +<p>As the clocks strike ten, behold the Place de la Révolution, once Place +de Louis Quinze: the Guillotine, mounted near the old Pedestal where +once stood the Statue of that Louis! Far round, all bristles with +cannons and armed men: spectators crowding in the rear; D'Orléans +Égalité there in cabriolet. Swift messengers, <i>hoquetons</i>, speed to the +Town-hall every three minutes: near by is the Convention +sitting—vengeful for Lepelletier. Heedless of all, Louis reads his +Prayers of the Dying; not till five minutes yet has he finished; then +the Carriage opens. What temper he is in? Ten different witnesses will +give ten different<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> accounts of it. He is in the collision of all +tempers; arrived now at the black Maelstrom and descent of Death: in +sorrow, in indignation, in resignation struggling to be resigned. "Take +care of M. Edgeworth," he straitly charges the Lieutenant who is sitting +with them: then they two descend.</p> + +<p>The drums are beating: "<i>Taisez-vous!</i>" ("Silence!") he cries "in a +terrible voice" (<i>d'une voix terrible</i>). He mounts the scaffold, not +without delay; he is in <i>puce</i> coat, breeches of gray, white stockings. +He strips off the coat; stands disclosed in a sleeve-waistcoat of white +flannel. The Executioners approach to bind him: he spurns, resists; Abbé +Edgeworth has to remind him how the Saviour, in whom men trust, +submitted to be bound. His hands are tied, his head bare; the fatal +moment is come. He advances to the edge of the Scaffold, "his face very +red," and says: "Frenchmen, I die innocent: it is from the Scaffold and +near appearing before God that I tell you so. I pardon my enemies; I +desire that France——" A General on horseback, Santerre or another, +prances out, with uplifted hand: "<i>Tambours!</i>" The drums drown the +voice. "Executioners, do your duty!" The Executioners, desperate lest +themselves be murdered (for Santerre and his Armed Ranks will strike, if +they do not), seize the hapless Louis: six of them desperate, him singly +desperate, struggling there; and bind him to their plank. Abbé +Edgeworth, stooping, bespeaks him: "Son of Saint Louis, ascend to +Heaven." The Axe clanks down; a King's Life is shorn away. It is Monday, +January 21, 1793. He was aged thirty-eight years four months and +twenty-eight days.</p> + +<p>Executioner Samson shows the Head: fierce shout of "<i>Vive la +République</i>" rises, and swells; caps raised on bayonets, hats waving: +students of the College of Four Nations take it up, on the far Quais; +fling it over Paris. D'Orléans drives off in his cabriolet: the +Town-hall Councillors rub their hands, saying, "It is done, It is done." +There is dipping of handkerchiefs, of pike-points in the blood. Headsman +Samson, though he afterward denied it, sells locks of the hair: +fractions of the puce coat are long after worn in rings.—And so, in +some half-hour it is done and the multitude has all departed. +Pastry-cooks, coffee-sellers, milkmen sing out their trivial quotidian +cries: the world wags on, as if this were a common day. In the +coffee-houses that evening,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> says Prudhomme, Patriot shook hands with +Patriot in a more cordial manner than usual. Not till some days after, +according to Mercier, did public men see what a grave thing it was.</p> + +<p>In the leafy months of June and July, several French Departments +germinate a set of rebellious <i>paper</i>-leaves, named Proclamations, +Resolutions, Journals, or Diurnals, "of the Union for Resistance to +Oppression." In particular, the Town of Caen, in Calvados, sees its +paper-leaf of <i>Bulletin de Caen</i> suddenly bud, suddenly establish itself +as Newspaper there; under the Editorship of Girondin National +Representatives!</p> + +<p>For among the proscribed Girondins are certain of a more desperate +humor. Some, as Vergniaud, Valazé, Gensonné, "arrested in their own +houses," will await with stoical resignation what the issue may be. +Some, as Brissot, Rabaut, will take to flight, to concealment; which, as +the Paris Barriers are opened again in a day or two, is not yet +difficult. But others there are who will rush, with Buzot, to Calvados; +or far over France, to Lyons, Toulon, Nantes and elsewhither, and then +rendezvous at Caen: to awaken as with war-trumpet the respectable +Departments; and strike down an anarchic "Mountain" Faction; at least +not yield without a stroke at it. Of this latter temper we count some +score or more, of the Arrested, and of the Not-yet-arrested: a Buzot, a +Barbaroux, Louvet, Guadet, Pétion, who have escaped from Arrestment in +their own homes; a Salles, a Pythagorean Valady, a Duchâtel, the +Duchâtel that came in blanket and nightcap to vote for the life of +Louis, who have escaped from danger and likelihood of Arrestment. These, +to the number at one time of Twenty-seven, do accordingly lodge here, at +the "<i>Intendance</i>, or Departmental Mansion," of the town of Caen in +Calvados; welcomed by Persons in Authority; welcomed and defrayed, +having no money of their own. And the <i>Bulletin de Caen</i> comes forth, +with the most animating paragraphs: How the Bordeaux Department, the +Lyons Department, this Department after the other is declaring itself; +sixty, or say sixty-nine, or seventy-two respectable Departments either +declaring, or ready to declare. Nay Marseilles, it seems, will march on +Paris by itself, if need be. So has Marseilles Town said, That she will +march. But on the other hand, that Montélimart Town has said, No +thoroughfare; and means even to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> "bury herself" under her own stone and +mortar first—of this be no mention in <i>Bulletin de Caen</i>.</p> + +<p>Such animating paragraphs we read in this new Newspaper; and fervors and +eloquent sarcasm: tirades against the "Mountain," from the pen of Deputy +Salles; which resemble, say friends, Pascal's <i>Provincials</i>. What is +more to the purpose, these Girondins have got a General-in-chief, one +Wimpfen, formerly under Dumouriez; also a secondary questionable General +Puisaye, and others; and are doing their best to raise a force for war. +National Volunteers, whosoever is of right heart: gather in, ye national +Volunteers, friends of Liberty; from our Calvados Townships, from the +Eure, from Brittany, from far and near: forward to Paris, and extinguish +Anarchy! Thus at Caen, in the early July days, there is a drumming and +parading, a perorating and consulting: Staff and Army; Council; Club of +<i>Carabots</i>, Anti-Jacobin friends of Freedom, to denounce atrocious +Marat. With all which, and the editing of <i>Bulletins</i>, a National +Representative has his hands full.</p> + +<p>At Caen it is most animated; and, as one hopes, more or less animated in +the "Seventy-two Departments that adhere to us." And in a France begirt +with Cimmerian invading Coalitions, and torn with an internal La Vendée, +<i>this</i> is the conclusion we have arrived at: to put down Anarchy by +Civil War! <i>Durum et durum</i>, the Proverb says, <i>non faciunt murum</i>. La +Vendée burns: Santerre can do nothing there; he may return home and brew +beer. Cimmerian bombshells fly all along the North. That Siege of Mainz +is become famed; lovers of the Picturesque (as Goethe will testify), +washed country-people of both sexes, stroll thither on Sundays, to see +the artillery work and counterwork; "you only duck a little while the +shot whizzes past." Condé is capitulating to the Austrians; Royal +Highness of York, these several weeks, fiercely batters Valenciennes. +For, alas, our fortified Camp of Famars was stormed; General Dampierre +was killed; General Custine was blamed—and indeed is now come to Paris +to give "explanations."</p> + +<p>Against all which the Mountain and atrocious Marat must even make head +as they can. They, anarchic Convention as they are, publish Decrees, +expostulatory, explanatory, yet not without severity; they ray forth +Commissioners, singly or in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> pairs, the olive-branch in one hand, yet +the sword in the other. Commissioners come even to Caen; but without +effect. Mathematical Romme, and Prieur named of the <i>Côte d'Or</i>, +venturing thither, with their olive and sword, are packed into prison: +there may Romme lie, under lock and key, "for fifty days"; and meditate +his New Calendar, if he please. Cimmeria, La Vendée, and Civil War! +Never was Republic One and Indivisible at a lower ebb.</p> + +<p>Amid which dim ferment of Caen and the World, History specially notices +one thing: in the lobby of the Mansion de l'Intendance, where busy +Deputies are coming and going, a young Lady with an aged valet, taking +grave, graceful leave of Deputy Barbaroux. She is of stately Norman +figure; in her twenty-fifth year; of beautiful still countenance: her +name is Charlotte Corday, heretofore styled D'Armans, while Nobility +still was. Barbaroux has given her a Note to Deputy Duperret—he who +once drew his sword in the effervescence. Apparently she will to Paris +on some errand? "She was a Republican before the Revolution, and never +wanted energy."</p> + +<p>A completeness, a decision is in this fair female Figure: "by energy she +means the spirit that will prompt one to sacrifice himself for his +country." What if she, this fair young Charlotte, had emerged from her +secluded stillness, suddenly like a Star; cruel-lovely, with +half-angelic, half-dæmonic splendor; to gleam for a moment, and in a +moment be extinguished: to be held in memory, so bright complete was +she, through long centuries! Quitting Cimmerian Coalitions without, and +the dim-simmering Twenty-five Millions within, History will look fixedly +at this one fair Apparition of a Charlotte Corday; will note whither +Charlotte moves, how the little Life burns forth so radiant, then +vanishes swallowed of the Night.</p> + +<p>With Barbaroux's Note of Introduction, and slight stock of luggage, we +see Charlotte on Tuesday, July 9th, seated in the Caen Diligence, with a +place for Paris. None takes farewell of her, wishes her Good-journey: +her Father will find a line left, signifying that she has gone to +England, that he must pardon her, and forget her. The drowsy Diligence +lumbers along; amid drowsy talk of Politics, and praise of the Mountain; +in which she mingles not: all night, all day, and again all night. On +Thursday,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> not long before noon, we are at the bridge of Neuilly; here +is Paris with her thousand black domes, the goal and purpose of thy +journey! Arrived at the Inn de la Providence in the Rue des Vieux +Augustins, Charlotte demands a room; hastens to bed; sleeps all +afternoon and night, till the morrow morning.</p> + +<p>On the morrow morning, she delivers her Note to Duperret. It relates to +certain Family Papers which are in the Minister of the Interior's hand; +which a Nun at Caen, an old Convent-friend of Charlotte's, has need of; +which Duperret shall assist her in getting: this then was Charlotte's +errand to Paris? She has finished this, in the course of Friday—yet +says nothing of returning. She has seen and silently investigated +several things. The Convention, in bodily reality, she has seen; what +the Mountain is like. The living physiognomy of Marat she could not see; +he is sick at present, and confined to home.</p> + +<p>About eight on the Saturday morning, she purchases a large sheath-knife +in the Palais Royal; then straightway, in the Place des Victoires, takes +a hackney-coach. "To the Rue de l'École de Médecine, Number 44." It is +the residence of the Citoyen Marat! The Citoyen Marat is ill, and cannot +be seen; which seems to disappoint her much. Her business is with Marat, +then? Hapless beautiful Charlotte; hapless squalid Marat! From Caen in +the utmost West, from Neuchâtel in the utmost East, they two are drawing +nigh each other; they two have, very strangely, business together. +Charlotte, returning to her Inn, despatches a short Note to Marat; +signifying that she is from Caen, the seat of rebellion; that she +desires earnestly to see him, and "will put it in his power to do France +a great service." No answer. Charlotte writes another Note, still more +pressing; sets out with it by coach, about seven in the evening, +herself. Tired day-laborers have again finished their Week; huge Paris +is circling and simmering, manifold, according to its vague wont: this +one fair Figure has decision in it; drives straight—toward a purpose.</p> + +<p>It is a yellow July evening, we say, the thirteenth of the month; eve of +the Bastille day, when "M. Marat," four years ago, in the crowd of the +Pont Neuf, shrewdly required of that Besenval Hussar-party, which had +such friendly dispositions, "to dismount, and give up their arms, then"; +and became notable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> among Patriot men. Four years: what a road he has +travelled; and sits now, about half-past seven o'clock, stewing in +slipper-bath; sore-afflicted; ill of Revolution Fever—of what other +malady this History had rather not name. Excessively sick and worn, poor +man; with precisely eleven-pence-halfpenny of ready-money, in paper; +with slipper-bath; strong three-footed stool for writing on, the while; +and a squalid—Washerwoman, one may call her: that is his civic +establishment in Medical-School Street; thither and not elsewhither has +his road led him. Not to the reign of Brotherhood and Perfect Felicity; +yet surely on the way toward that?</p> + +<p>Hark, a rap again! A musical woman's voice, refusing to be rejected: it +is the Citoyenne who would do France a service. Marat, recognizing from +within, cries, "Admit her!" Charlotte Corday is admitted: "Citoyen +Marat, I am from Caen the seat of rebellion, and wished to speak with +you." "Be seated, <i>mon enfant</i>. Now what are the Traitors doing at Caen? +What Deputies are at Caen?"</p> + +<p>Charlotte names some Deputies.</p> + +<p>"Their heads shall fall within a fortnight," croaks the eager "People's +Friend" clutching his tablets to write.</p> + +<p>"<i>Barbaroux, Pétion</i>" writes he with bare shrunk arm, turning aside in +the bath: <i>Pétion</i>, and <i>Louvet</i>, and—Charlotte has drawn her knife +from the sheath; plunges it, with one sure stroke, into the writer's +heart.</p> + +<p>"<i>À moi, chère amie!</i>" ("Help, dear!") No more could the Death-choked +say or shriek. The helpful Washerwoman running in, there is no Friend of +the People, or Friend of the Washerwoman left; but his life with a groan +gushes out, indignant, to the shades below.</p> + +<p>And so Marat, "People's Friend" is ended: the lone Stylites has been +hurled down suddenly from his Pillar—whitherward? He that made him +knows. Patriot Paris may sound triple and tenfold, in dole and wail; +reëchoed by Patriot France; and the Convention, "Chabot pale with +terror, declaring that they are to be all assassinated," may decree him +Pantheon Honors, Public Funeral, Mirabeau's dust making way for him; and +Jacobin Societies, in lamentable oratory, summing up his character, +parallel him to One, whom they think it honor to call "the good<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> +Sansculotte"—whom we name not here; also a Chapel may be made, for the +urn that holds his Heart, in the Place du Carrousel; and new-born +children be named Marat; and Lago-di-Como Hawkers bake mountains of +stucco into unbeautiful Busts; and David paint his Picture, or +Death-Scene; and such other Apotheosis take place as the human genius, +in these circumstances, can devise: but Marat returns no more to the +light of this Sun. One sole circumstance we have read with clear +sympathy, in the old <i>Moniteur</i> Newspaper: how Marat's Brother comes +from Neuchâtel to ask of the Convention, "that the deceased Jean Paul +Marat's musket be given him." For Marat, too, had a brother and natural +affections; and was wrapt once in swaddling clothes, and slept safe in a +cradle like the rest of us. Ye children of men! A sister of his, they +say, lives still to this day in Paris.<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a></p> + +<p>As for Charlotte Corday, her work is accomplished; the recompense of it +is near and sure. The <i>chère amie</i>, and neighbors of the house, flying +at her, she "overturns some movables," entrenches herself till the +gendarmes arrive; then quietly surrenders; goes quietly to the Abbaye +Prison: she alone quiet, all Paris sounding, in wonder, in rage or +admiration, round her. Duperret is put in arrest, on account of her; his +Papers sealed—which may lead to consequences. Fauchet, in like manner; +though Fauchet had not so much as heard of her. Charlotte, confronted +with these two Deputies, praises the grave firmness of Duperret, +censures the dejection of Fauchet.</p> + +<p>On Wednesday morning, the thronged Palais de Justice and Revolutionary +Tribunal can see her face; beautiful and calm: she dates it "Fourth day +of the Preparation of Peace." A strange murmur ran through the Hall, at +sight of her, you could not say of what character. Tinville has his +indictments and tape papers; the cutler of the Palais Royal will testify +that he sold her the sheath-knife; "All these details are needless," +interrupted Charlotte; "it is I that killed Marat."</p> + +<p>"By whose instigation?"</p> + +<p>"By no one's."</p> + +<p>"What tempted you, then?"</p> + +<p>"His crimes!"</p> + +<p>"I killed one man," added she, raising her voice extremely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> +(<i>extrêmement</i>), as they went on with their questions, "I killed one man +to save a hundred thousand; a villain to save innocents; a savage wild +beast to give repose to my country. I was a Republican before the +Revolution; I never wanted energy."</p> + +<p>There is therefore nothing to be said. The public gazes astonished: the +hasty limners sketch her features, Charlotte not disapproving: the men +of law proceed with their formalities. The doom is Death as a murderess. +To her Advocate she gives thanks; in gentle phrase, in high-flown +classical spirit. To the Priest they send her she gives thanks; but +needs not any shriving, any ghostly or other aid from him.</p> + +<p>On this same evening, therefore, about half past seven o'clock, from the +gate of the Conciergerie, to a City all on tip-toe, the fatal Cart +issues; seated on it a fair young creature, sheeted in red smock of +Murderess; so beautiful, serene, so full of life; journeying toward +death—alone amid the World. Many take off their hats, saluting +reverently; for what heart but must be touched? Others growl and howl. +Adam Lux, of Mainz, declares that she is greater than Brutus; that it +were beautiful to die with her: the head of this young man seems turned. +At the Place de la Révolution, the countenance of Charlotte wears the +same still smile. The executioners proceed to bind her feet; she +resists, thinking it meant as an insult; on a word of explanation, she +submits with cheerful apology. As the last act, all being now ready, +they take the neckerchief from her neck; a blush of maidenly shame +overspreads that fair face and neck; the cheeks were still tinged with +it when the executioner lifted the severed head, to show it to the +people. "It is most true," says Forster, "that he struck the cheek +insultingly; for I saw it with my eyes: the Police imprisoned him for +it."</p> + +<p>But during these same hours, another guillotine is at work on another; +Charlotte, for the Girondins, dies at Paris to-day; Chalier, by the +Girondins, dies at Lyons to-morrow.</p> + +<p>From rumbling of cannon along the streets of that City, it has come to +firing of them, to rabid fighting: Nièvre Chol and the Girondins +triumph; behind whom there is, as everywhere, a Royalist Faction waiting +to strike in. Trouble enough at Lyons; and the dominant party carrying +it with a high hand! For, indeed, the whole South is astir; +incarcerating Jacobins; arming for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> Girondins: wherefore we have got a +"Congress of Lyons"; also a "Revolutionary Tribunal of Lyons," and +Anarchists shall tremble. So Chalier was soon found guilty, of +Jacobinism, of murderous Plot, "address with drawn dagger on the sixth +of February last"; and, on the morrow, he also travels his final road, +along the streets of Lyons, "by the side of an ecclesiastic, with whom +he seems to speak earnestly"—the axe now glittering nigh. He could +weep, in old years, this man, and "fall on his knees on the pavement," +blessing Heaven at sight of Federation Programmes or the like; then he +pilgrimed to Paris to worship Marat and the Mountain: now Marat and he +are both gone—we said he could not end well. Jacobinism groans +inwardly, at Lyons, but dare not outwardly. Chalier, when the Tribunal +sentenced him, made answer: "My death will cost this City dear."</p> + +<p>Montélimart Town is not buried under its ruins; yet Marseilles is +actually marching, under order of a "Lyons Congress"; is incarcerating +Patriots; the very Royalists now showing face. Against which a General +Cartaux fights, though in small force, and with him an Artillery Major, +of the name of—Napoleon Bonaparte. This Napoleon, to prove that the +Marseillese have no chance ultimately, not only fights but writes; +publishes his <i>Supper of Beaucaire</i>, a Dialogue which has become +curious. Unfortunate Cities, with their actions and their reactions! +Violence to be paid with violence in geometrical ratio; Royalism and +Anarchism both striking in—the final net-amount of which geometrical +series, what man shall sum?</p> + +<p>Is not La Vendée still blazing—alas too literally—rogue Rossignol +burning the very corn-mills? General Santerre could do nothing there. +General Rossignol in blind fury, often in liquor, can do less than +nothing. Rebellion spreads, grows ever madder. Happily those lean +Quixote figures, whom we saw retreating out of Mainz, "bound not to +serve against the Coalition for a year," have got to Paris. National +Convention packs them into post-vehicles and conveyances; sends them +swiftly, by post, into La Vendée. There valiantly struggling in obscure +battle and skirmish, under rogue Rossignol, let them, unlaurelled, save +the Republic and "be cut down gradually to the last man."</p> + +<p>Does not the Coalition, like a fire-tide, pour in; Prussia through the +opened Northeast; Austria, England through the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> Northwest? General +Houchard prospers no better there than General Custine did. Let him look +to it! Through the Eastern and the Western Pyrenees Spain has deployed +itself; spreads, rustling with Bourbon banners, over the face of the +South. Ashes and embers of confused Girondin civil war covered that +region already. Marseilles is damped down, not quenched—to be quenched +in blood. Toulon, terror-struck, too far gone for turning, has flung +itself, ye righteous Powers, into the hands of the English! On Toulon +Arsenal there flies a flag—nay not even the Fleur-de-lis of a Louis +Pretender; there flies that accursed St. George's Cross of the English +and Admiral Hood! What remnant of sea-craft, arsenals, roperies, war +navy France had, has given itself to these enemies of human nature, +"<i>ennemis du genre humain</i>." Beleaguer it, bombard it, ye Commissioners +Barras, Fréron, Robespierre Junior; thou General Cartaux, General +Dugommier; above all, thou remarkable Artillery-Major, Napoleon +Bonaparte! Hood is fortifying himself, victualling himself; means, +apparently, to make a new Gibraltar of it.</p> + +<p>But lo, in the Autumn night, late night, among the last of August, what +sudden red sun-blaze is this that has risen over Lyons City; with a +noise to deafen the world? It is the Powder-tower of Lyons, nay the +Arsenal with Four Powder-towers, which has caught fire in the +Bombardment; and sprung into the air, carrying "a hundred and seventeen +houses" after it. With a light, one fancies, as of the noon sun; with a +roar second only to the Last Trumpet! All living sleepers far and wide +it has awakened. What a sight was that, which the eye of History saw, in +the sudden nocturnal sun-blaze!</p> + +<p>The roofs of hapless Lyons, and all its domes and steeples made +momentarily clear; Rhone and Saône streams flashing suddenly visible; +and height and hollow, hamlet and smooth stubble-field, and all the +region round; heights, alas, all scarped and counterscarped, into +trenches, curtains, redoubts; blue Artillery-men, little Powder +devilkins, plying their hell-trade there through the <i>not</i> ambrosial +night! Let the darkness cover it again; for it pains the eye. Of a +truth, Chalier's death is costing the City dear. Convention +Commissioners, Lyons Congresses have come and gone; and action there was +and reaction; bad ever growing worse; till it has come to this; +Commissioner Dubois-Crancé,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> "with seventy thousand men, and all the +Artillery of several Provinces," bombarding Lyons day and night.</p> + +<p>Worse things still are in store. Famine is in Lyons, and ruin and fire. +Desperate are the sallies of the besieged; brave Précy, their National +Colonel and Commandant, doing what is in man: desperate but ineffectual. +Provisions cut off; nothing entering our city but shot and shell! The +Arsenal has roared aloft; the very Hospital will be battered down, and +the sick buried alive. A black Flag hung on this latter noble Edifice, +appealing to the pity of the besiegers; for though maddened, were they +not still our brethren? In their blind wrath, they took it for a flag of +defiance, and aimed thitherward the more. Bad is growing ever worse +here; and how will the worse stop, till it have grown worst of all? +Commissioner Dubois will listen to no pleading, to no speech, save this +only: "We surrender at discretion."</p> + +<p>Lyons contains in it subdued Jacobins; dominant Girondins; secret +Royalists. And now, mere deaf madness and cannon-shot enveloping them, +will not the desperate Municipality fly, at last, into the arms of +Royalism itself? Majesty of Sardinia was to bring help, but it failed. +Emigrant D'Autichamp, in name of the Two Pretender-Royal-Highnesses, is +coming through Switzerland with help; coming, not yet come: Précy hoists +the Fleur-de-lis!</p> + +<p>At sight of which all true Girondins sorrowfully fling down their arms. +Let our Tricolor brethren storm us then and slay us in their wrath; with +<i>you</i> we conquer not. The famishing women and children are sent forth: +deaf Dubois sends them back—rains in more fire and madness. Our +"redoubts of cotton-bags" are taken, retaken; Précy under his +Fleur-de-lis is valiant as Despair. What will become of Lyons? It is a +siege of seventy days.</p> + +<p>Or see, in these same weeks, far in the Western waters: breasting +through the Bay of Biscay, a greasy dingy little Merchant ship, with +Scotch skipper; under hatches whereof sit, disconsolate, the last +forlorn nucleus of Girondism, the Deputies from Quimper! Several have +dissipated themselves, whithersoever they could. Poor Riouffe fell into +the talons of Revolutionary Committee and Paris Prison. The rest sit +here under hatches; reverend Pétion with his gray hair, angry Buzot, +suspicious Louvet, brave young<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> Barbaroux, and others. They have escaped +from Quimper, in this sad craft; are now tacking and struggling; in +danger from the waves, in danger from the English, in still worse danger +from the French—banished by Heaven and Earth to the greasy belly of +this Scotch skipper's Merchant vessel, unfruitful Atlantic raving round. +They are for Bordeaux, if peradventure hope yet linger there. Enter not +Bordeaux, O Friends! Bloody Convention Representatives, Tallien and such +like, with their Edicts, with their Guillotine, have arrived there; +Respectability is driven under ground; Jacobinism lords it on high. From +that Réole landing-place, or "Beak of Ambès," as it were, pale Death, +waving his Revolutionary Sword of Sharpness, waves you elsewhither!</p> + +<p>On one side or the other of that Bec d'Ambès, the Scotch Skipper with +difficulty moors, a dexterous greasy man; with difficulty lands his +Girondins; who, after reconnoitring, must rapidly burrow in the Earth; +and so, in subterranean ways, in friends' back-closets, in cellars, +barn-lofts, in caves of Saint-Emilion and Libourne, stave off cruel +Death. Unhappiest of all Senators!</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> Written in 1836-1837.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span></p> +<h2>THE REIGN OF TERROR</h2> + +<h4><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1794</h4> + +<h3>FRANÇOIS P. G. GUIZOT</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>By the Reign of Terror, or the "Terror," is meant that +period of the first revolution in France during which the +ruling faction caused thousands of obnoxious persons to be +sent to the guillotine. The Terror is usually considered as +beginning in March, 1793, when the Revolutionary Tribunal +was established by the National Convention. This tribunal +was an extraordinary court empowered to deal with all acts +or persons hostile to the Revolution.</p> + +<p>In July, 1793, Robespierre became a member of the Committee +of Public Safety, and, with Saint-Just, was most prominently +connected with the Terror. He secured a decree, known as the +decree of the 22d Prairial, "to accelerate the movements of +the Committee, and open for them a shorter route to the +guillotine," whereby persons marked for death might be +executed as soon as recognized. Against this bloody decree +it is said that even the "Mountain"—the Red Republican +party in the Convention—recoiled. It was nevertheless +remorselessly carried out, and "caused torrents of blood to +flow."</p> + +<p>The climax of the Terror was reached in 1794, and its end +came in July of that year, when Robespierre and his +associates were overthrown. It was followed by a reaction +against the excesses of the revolutionists, the closing of +the radical clubs of the Jacobins and others, and the +release of those whom the Revolutionary Tribunal had +imprisoned on suspicion. The tribunal itself, together with +the Committee of Public Safety, who had executed the fierce +will of the Convention, was speedily swept away.</p></div> + + +<p>It is a hideous spectacle to contemplate the enthusiasm of crime, and +see men madly intoxicating themselves with their own atrocities. The +Revolutionary Tribunal was in operation from March, 1793; the registry +of condemnations had reached the number of five hundred seventy-seven. +From 22 Prairial to 9 Thermidor (June 10, to July 27, 1794), two +thousand two hundred eighty-five unfortunates perished on the scaffold. +Fouquier-Tinville<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> comprehended the thought of Robespierre. For the +dock he had substituted benches, upon which he huddled together<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span> at one +time the crowd of the accused. One day he erected the guillotine in the +very hall of the tribunal.</p> + +<p>The Committee of Public Safety had a moment of fright. "Thou art wishing +then to demoralize punishment!" cried Collot d'Herbois. A hundred sixty +accused persons had been brought from the Luxembourg under pretence of a +conspiracy in prison. The lower class of prisoners were encouraged to +act as spies, thus furnishing pretexts for punishment. The judges sat +with pistols ready to hand; the President cast his eyes over the lists +for the day and called upon the accused. "Dorival, do you know anything +of the conspiracy?" "No!"</p> + +<p>"I expected that you would make that reply; but it won't succeed. Bring +another."</p> + +<p>"Champigny, are you not an ex-noble?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Bring another."</p> + +<p>"Guidreville, are you a priest?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but I have taken the oath."</p> + +<p>"You have no right to say any more. Another."</p> + +<p>"Ménil, were you not a domestic of the ex-constitutional Menou?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Another."</p> + +<p>"Vély, were you not architect for Madame?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but I was disgraced in 1789."</p> + +<p>"Another."</p> + +<p>"Gondrecourt, is not your father-in-law at the Luxembourg?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Another."</p> + +<p>"Durfort, were you not in the bodyguard?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but I was dismissed in 1789."</p> + +<p>"Another."</p> + +<p>So the examination went on. The questions, the answers, the judgment, +the condemnation, were all simultaneous. The juries did not leave the +hall; they gave their opinions with a word or a look. Sometimes errors +were evident in the lists. "I am not accused," exclaimed a prisoner one +day.</p> + +<p>"No matter; what is thy name? See, it is written now. Another."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span></p> + +<p>M. de Loizerolles perished under the name of his father. Jokes were +mingled with the sentences. The Maréchale de Mouchy was old, and did not +reply to the questions of President Dumas. "The <i>citoyenne</i> is deaf" +(<i>sourde</i>), said the registrar; "Put down that she has conspired +secretly" (<i>sourdement</i>), replied Dumas.</p> + +<p>It became necessary to forbid Fouquier-Tinville to send more than sixty +victims a day to the scaffold. "Things go well, and see the heads fall +like slates with my file-firing; the next decade we shall do better +still; I shall want at least four hundred fifty." The lists were +prepared in the prison itself, by the class of informers known as +<i>moutons</i>.<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> The public accuser, like the judges and the jailers, was +often ignorant of the names of the human flock crowded in the dungeons. +Death recalled them to recollection. In the evening, under the windows +of each prison, the list of the victims of the day was shouted out. +"These are they who have gained prizes in the lottery of Saint +Guillotine." The unfortunates who crowded to the windows thus learned +the tidings of the execution of those they loved. The horrors of the +unforeseen and unknown were added to the agonies of death and +separation. Under the windows of the Conciergerie the names of the +Maréchale de Noailles, the Duchesse d'Ayen and the Vicomtesse de +Noailles, who died together on the scaffold, were proclaimed. Among the +prisoners was Madame la Fayette, herself awaiting death; happily she did +not recognize in the coarse accents of the criers the cherished names of +her grandmother, mother, and sister. The peasants of the Vendée<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> came +to die at Paris, like the Carmelites of Compiègne or the magistrates of +Toulouse. It was astonishing that there still remained in the dungeons +great lords and noble ladies, bearing the most illustrious names in the +history of France; on the 8th and 9th Thermidor the poets Roucher and +André Chénier; Baron Trenck, famous for his numerous escapes; the +Maréchale d'Armentières, the Princesse de Chimay, the Comtesse de +Narbonne, the Duc de Clermont-Tonnerre, the Marquis de Crussol, and the +Messieurs de Trudaine, counsellors of the Parliament of Paris, perished +upon the scaffold.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span></p><p>Insulters always surrounded the scaffold, but their number had +decreased; the Committee of Public Safety no longer had recourse to the +popular manœuvres of its early days. Terror was now sufficient to +insure the silence and submission of the victims. Paris grew weary of +the horrors of which it was witness; the odor of blood had driven away +the residents from the houses adjacent to the Place de la Révolution; a +new guillotine had been erected upon the Place du Trône. Upon the route +along which ran the fatal carts shops were closed, and passers-by +endeavored to avoid meeting the procession. A few rare loungers of the +lowest class alone walked in the gardens of the Tuileries and the +Champs-Élysées. All was silent, but pity was growing in the minds of +men. The distant sound of the horrors that were general throughout +France redoubled the terror of Paris.</p> + +<p>The provincial sufferings were not uniform, and the fury of the +representative commissioners was unequally distributed. Either by a +happy chance, or it might be by an instinctive knowledge of the +character of the population, the revolutionary scaffold was never set up +in Lower Normandy; the Vendée, on the contrary, expiated its long +resistance in its blood, and Carrier filled with terror the city of +Nantes, always favorable to revolution. He had tried guillotine and +grape-shot, but both were too tardy in their action to suit his zeal. He +conceived the idea of crowding the condemned into ships with valves, +launched upon the Loire: the beautiful river saw these unfortunates +struggling in its waters. Henceforth the executioners tied the prisoners +together by one hand and one foot; these "Republican Marriages," as they +were called, insured the speedy death of the victims. The waters of the +Loire became infected; its shores were covered with corpses; the fishes +themselves could no longer serve as nourishment for human beings; fever +decimated the inhabitants of Nantes. The fury of Carrier bordered on +madness: he caused the little Vendean infants, collected by Breton +charity, to be cast into the water. "It is necessary," said he, "to slay +the wolves' cubs."</p> + +<p>The same terror also, and the same atrocities which desolated the West, +reigned in the North and the South. In the Department of Vaucluse, +Maignet, in the Pas-de-Calais, Joseph Lebon, had obtained the erection +of local revolutionary tribunals. "The arrests which I have ordered in +the Departments of Vaucluse and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> the Bouches-du-Rhône amount to twelve +or fifteen thousand," wrote Maignet to his friend Couthon. "It would +require an army to conduct them to Paris; besides, it is necessary to +appal, and the blow is only terrifying when struck in the sight of those +who have lived with the guilty." They had felled the tree of liberty in +the little town of Bédouin; sixty-three of the inhabitants were +executed; the rest fled. "I have wished to give the national vengeance a +grand character," wrote Maignet to the Committee of Public Safety, "and +I have ordered that the town should be given to the flames. If you think +this new measure too rigorous, let me know your wishes, and do not read +my letter to the Convention." To the complaints of Rovère, +representative of Vaucluse, Robespierre replied, "We are content with +Maignet; he knows well how to guillotine." Joseph Lebon established an +orchestra close by the guillotine; he caused the <i>Ça ira</i><a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> to be sung +during the executions, which he witnessed from his balcony. Formerly a +priest and well esteemed, he was moderate at the outburst of the +Revolution, but his reason had yielded to the dizziness of despotic +power; it was of a veritable madman that Barère said: "Lebon has +completely beaten the aristocrats, and he has protected Cambrai against +the approaches of the enemy; besides, what is there that is not +permitted to the hatred of a republican against the aristocracy? The +Revolution and revolutionary measures must only be spoken of with +respect. Liberty is a virgin whose veil it is culpable to raise."</p> + +<p>For some time Robespierre had appeared but rarely at the Committee of +Public Safety; he reserved himself for the department of general police, +that is to say, the direction of the "Terror" throughout France. +Underhand dissensions and jealousies began to creep in among these +criminals, secretly disquieted by projects of which they were +reciprocally suspicious. Billaud-Varennes and Collot d'Herbois dreaded +Robespierre and began to conspire against him. Robespierre established +himself with the Jacobins, as in an impregnable fortress. The President +and Vice-President of the Revolutionary Tribunal, and the commandant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> of +the armed forces, Henriot, awaited his orders. They pressed him to take +action against the enemies whom he had himself denounced to the +Jacobins. "Formerly," said he, "on the 13th Messidor [July 1st], the +underhand faction that has sprung from the remnant of the followers of +Danton and Camille Desmoulins attacked the committees <i>en masse</i>; now +they prefer to attack a few members in particular; in order to succeed +in breaking the bundle, they attribute to a single individual that which +appertains to the whole Government. They dare not say that the +Revolutionary Tribunal has been instituted in order to swallow up the +National Convention; they have spoken of a dictator, and named him; it +is I who have been thus designated, and you would tremble if I told you +in what place."</p> + +<p>A dictatorship had, in fact, been spoken of, but it was Saint-Just, on +returning from the army, who had uttered this terrible word, in a +conference of the Committees of Public Safety and General Security +expressly convoked by Robespierre. The latter had proposed the +institution of four great revolutionary tribunals, in order to forge new +weapons for himself; but the conference refused. Robespierre went out +irritated and gloomy. "Misfortune has reached a climax," cried +Saint-Just. "You are in a state of anarchy. The Convention is inundating +France with laws inoperative and often impracticable. The +representatives accompanying the armies dispose at their will of the +public fortune and our military destinies; the representatives sent as +Commissioners to the Provinces usurp all power and amass gold for which +they substitute assignats. How can such political and legislative +disorder be regulated? I declare upon my honor and my conscience, I see +only one means of safety; and that is the concentration of power in the +hands of one man who has enough genius, force, patriotism, and +generosity to become the embodiment of public authority. It is +necessary, above all, to have a man endowed with long practical +knowledge of the Revolution, its principles, its phases, its modes of +action, and its agents. Finally, he must be a man who has the general +good-will and confidence of the people in his favor, and who is at once +a virtuous and inflexible as well as an incorruptible citizen. That man +is Robespierre; it is he only who can save the State. I ask that he be +invested with the dictatorship, and that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span> committees make a +proposition to this effect at the Convention to-morrow."</p> + +<p>The imprudence of the speech equalled the audacity of the act. The +members of the two councils looked at each other, hesitating to accept +the declaration of war. A few of them contended for their lives against +the vengeance of Robespierre and his friends. "This Robespierre is +insatiable," said Barère, with anger. "Let him ask for Tallien, Bourdon +de l'Oise, Thuriot, Guffroy, Rovère, Lecointre, Panis, Barras, Fréron, +Legendre, Monestier, Dubois Crancé, Fouché, Cambon, and all the +Dantonist remnant, well and good; but to Duval, Audouin, Léonard +Bourdon, Vadier, Vauland, it is impossible to consent."</p> + +<p>The two parties waited face to face, shrinking from the blows they were +about to exchange, counting on the impatience or temerity of their +adversaries. The boldest among the opposition ventured on a circuitous +attack by denouncing the sect of mystic dreamers led by a demented +woman, Catherine Théot, styled by her followers, Mother of God. Her +principal disciple was Gerle, formerly prior of the Chartreuse, and a +member of the Constituent Assembly. When the papers of this handful of +maniacs were seized, the copy of a letter to Robespierre was found; he +was to have been the Messiah of the sect. Vadier denounced at the +Convention this elementary school of fanaticism, discovered on a third +floor in the Rue Contrescarpe, and who were connected, he said, with the +machinations of Pitt; but he dared not speak of the letter to +Robespierre. The latter undoubtedly took some interest in Catherine +Théot, for he did not allow the affair to be followed up; the prophetess +died in prison soon after.</p> + +<p>Robespierre had said to a deputation from Aisne: "In the situation in +which it now is, gangrened by corruption, and without power to remedy +it, the Convention can no longer save the Republic: both will perish +together. The proscription of patriots is the order of the day. For +myself, I have already one foot in the tomb, in a few days I shall place +the other there; the rest is in the hands of Providence."</p> + +<p>Nevertheless he began the attack, urged forward by men who had attached +their fortunes to his own, and by the disquietudes which agitated his +sour and dissatisfied spirit. He could no longer put up with advice even +from his most faithful friends, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> the inflexible Saint-Just told him +to calm himself; "Empire is for the phlegmatic." A menacing petition +from the Jacobins preceded by a few hours a grand discourse from the +dictator. He always reckoned on the effect of his discourses, and all +the committees, one after another, had suffered from the asperity of his +attacks. "The accusations are all concentrated upon me," said he; "if +anyone casts patriots into prison in place of shutting up the +aristocrats there, it is said that Robespierre wills it. If the numerous +agents of the Committee of General Security extend their vexations and +rapine in all directions, it is said that Robespierre has sent them; if +a new law irritates the property-holders, it is Robespierre who is +ruining them; and meanwhile, in what hands are your finances? In the +hands of feuillants, of known cheats, of the Cambons, Mallarmés and +Ramels. Survey the field of victory, look at Belgium; dissensions have +been sown among our generals, the military aristocracy is protected, +faithful generals are persecuted, the military administration is +enveloped with a suspicious authority; they talk to you of war with +academic lightness, as if it cost neither blood nor labor. The truths +that I bring you are surely equal to epigrams.</p> + +<p>"There exists a conspiracy against public liberty; it owes its force to +a criminal coalition which intrigues in the very bosom of the +Convention. That coalition has its accomplices in the Committee of +General Security, and in the <i>bureaux</i>, which they control. Some members +of the Committee of Public Safety are implicated in this plot; the +coalition thus formed seeks to ruin patriots and the country. What is +the remedy for this evil? To punish the traitors, to purify the +Committee of General Security, and subordinate it to the Committee of +Public Safety; to purify this committee itself, and constitute it the +Government under the authority of the National Convention, which is the +centre of authority and the chief judicial power. Thus would all the +factions be crushed by raising on their ruins the power of justice and +liberty. If it is impossible to advocate these principles without being +set down as ambitious, I shall conclude that tyranny reigns among us, +but not that I ought to hold my tongue; for what can be objected to a +man who is right, and who knows how to die for his country? I am put +here in order to combat crime, not to govern<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> it. The time has not yet +come when good men can serve their country with impunity."</p> + +<p>They listened in silence; no applause, no complaint had interrupted the +orator. For a long time the Convention had been unaccustomed to see the +masters of their fortunes and their lives making appeal to their supreme +authority. Their <i>rôle</i> had long been limited to taking part in +oratorical tournaments and voting decrees. They did not yield, however, +to the seduction, and their faces remained grave and sombre. No one rose +to speak, but they began to exchange a few remarks, and a murmur ran +from bench to bench. The glove was thrown down, but as yet no champion +advanced to take it up. At length, and as if the courage of all was +reanimated at once by the same resolution, Vadier, Cambon, and +Billaud-Varennes rose together to mount the tribune. Cambon had been +wounded in his just pride as a financier and an honest man; he could +scarcely wait his turn.</p> + +<p>"It is time," cried he, "to speak the entire truth. Is it I who need to +be accused of making myself master in any respect? The man who has made +himself master of everything, the man who paralyzes our will, is he who +has just spoken—Robespierre." At the same moment and from all lips came +the same cries. "It is Robespierre," said Billaud-Varennes. "It is +Robespierre," repeated Panis and Vadier. "Let him give an account of the +crimes of the deputies whose death he demanded from the Jacobins." And +as he hesitated, troubled by the vehemence of the attacks, "You who +pretend to have the courage of virtue, have the courage of truth," cried +Charlier to him; "name, name the individuals." In the midst of a growing +confusion the Assembly revoked the order to print the discourse of +Robespierre. It was to the two committees, filled with his enemies, that +the denunciation of the dictator was referred.</p> + +<p>Robespierre took refuge with the Jacobins; he was troubled by the +opposition he had encountered, without being able to draw from it new +forces for the struggle. He redelivered his discourse, this time +welcomed with loud applause. "My friends," said he, "that which you have +just heard is my dying testament. I have seen to-day that the league of +the wicked is too strong for me to hope to escape it. I am ready to +drink the hemlock."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I will drink it with thee," cried David. The men of action were less +resigned. Henriot spoke of marching on the Convention, but Robespierre +still wished to speak; it was the course of May 31st that he wanted to +follow. The hall was crowded; people entered without tickets.</p> + +<p>"Name thy enemies," they shouted to Robespierre; "name them; we will +deliver them to thee." Collot d'Herbois arrived, attempting a few +protestations of devotion; he was hooted and constrained to retire. +Hesitation and doubt still troubled every spirit and paralyzed every +hand. Collot and Billaud-Varennes returned to the Committee of Public +Safety. There they found Saint-Just, who had to read a report, but he +had not brought it with him. The two new-comers apostrophized him with +violence. "Thou art the accomplice of Robespierre; the project of your +infamous triumvirate is to assassinate us all, but if we succumb you +will not long enjoy the fruit of your crimes—the people will tear you +in pieces; thy pockets are full of denunciations against us; produce thy +lists." They advanced menacingly; Saint-Just shrank back, very pale. As +he went out he promised to read his report next day. Neither of the two +parties had as yet taken any effectual measure; they had contracted the +habit of being very prodigal of words. Tallien had endeavored to gain +over all that remained of the Left; three times he was repulsed by +Boissy d'Anglas and his friends. As he returned once more to the charge, +"Yes," they at length replied, with an ingenuousness almost cynical, +"yes, if you are the strongest." Tallien was intrusted to direct the +attack in the Convention.</p> + +<p>Saint-Just had just entered; he had not appeared at the Committee of +Public Safety. "You have blighted my heart," he wrote to his colleagues, +"I am about to open it at the National Assembly." He presented himself, +however, as reporter of the Committee. In seeing him pass, Tallien, +occupied in assembling his forces, said loudly, "It is the moment; let +us enter." Saint-Just commenced: "I am not of any faction; I fight +against all. The course of events has brought it about that this tribune +should be perhaps the Tarpeian rock to him who shall come to tell you +that the members of the Government—" Tallien did not leave him time to +finish; he demanded leave to speak upon a motion of order. "Nor I +either; I am not of any faction; I only belong to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span> myself and to +liberty. It is I who will make you hear the truth: no good citizen can +restrain his tears over the unfortunate condition of public affairs. +Yesterday a member of the Government was here alone and denounced his +colleagues: to-day another comes to do as much by him; these dissensions +aggravate the evils of our country. I demand that the veil be torn +away." Applause echoed from all parts of the hall.</p> + +<p>Saint-Just wished to continue his speech. "Thou art not reporter," +shouted the members. He remained motionless in the tribune, while +Billaud-Varennes came and stood beside him. He cast his eyes over the +hall. "I see here," said he, "one of the men who yesterday, at the +Jacobins, promised the massacre of the National Convention; let him be +arrested." The officers obeyed. "The Assembly is at the present time in +danger of massacre on every hand," continued Billaud; "it will perish if +it is feeble." The contagion of courage spread from man to man; all the +deputies stood up waving their hats. "Be tranquil," they cried to the +orator; "we will not give way." "You will tremble when you see in what +hands you are," continued Billaud; "the armed force is confided to +parricidal hands. The chief of the National Guard is an infamous +conspirator, the accomplice of Hébert; Lavalette was a noble, driven out +of the Army of the North and saved by Robespierre, whom he obeys. The +Revolutionary Tribunal is in his hands; everywhere he has made his will +supreme, and has sought to render himself absolute master; he has +dismissed the best Revolutionary Committee of Paris, he has ceased to +frequent the Committee of Public Safety since the day after the decree +of the 22d Prairial, which has been so disastrous to patriots. He +excites the Jacobins against the Assembly." A few feeble protestations +were now heard. "There is some murmuring, I think," said the speaker, +insolently.</p> + +<p>He was about to continue the course of his accusations; but beside him +in the tribune Robespierre had replaced Saint-Just. His natural pallor +had become livid, rage sparkled in his glance. "I demand liberty to +speak," he cried. A single shout echoed through the hall. "Down with the +tyrant! Down with the tyrant!" "I demand liberty to speak," Robespierre +violently repeated. Tallien dashed into the tribune. "I demand that the +veil be torn away immediately," he cried; "the work is accomplished,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span> +the conspirators are unmasked. Yesterday, at the Jacobins, I saw the +army of the new Cromwell formed, and I have come here armed with a +poignard to pierce his heart if the Assembly has not the courage to +decree his accusation. I demand the arrest of Henriot and his staff. +There will be no May 31st, no proscription; national justice alone will +strike the miscreants."</p> + +<p>"I demand that Dumas be arrested," added Billaud-Varennes, "as well as +Boulanger [formerly lieutenant of Ronsin in the Vendée]; he was the most +ardent yesterday night at the Jacobins."</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Robespierre was still in the tribune. Several times he strove +to begin speaking, but the same cry drowned his voice, "Down with the +tyrant!" The little group of those who were faithful to him, close +pressed together, followed him with their eyes without speaking, without +seconding his efforts; the mass of the Assembly, so docile a few days +before, was agitated with a violence that became more and more hostile. +Barère hesitated no longer. It is said that he had prepared two +statements; one favorable to and the other hostile to Robespierre. He +proposed to abolish the grade of commandant-general, and to call to the +bar the mayor Fleuriot and the National agent Payan, to answer there for +public tranquillity. The decree was voted; on all sides arose +accusations against Robespierre, everyone hastening to denounce him. "I +demand liberty to speak, to bring back this discussion to its true end +and aim," said Tallien. Robespierre raised his head; "I shall know well +how to bring it there," said he, in those imperious accents which +formerly cowed the Assembly. Tallien continued without noticing the +interruption. "The conspiracy is quite complete in the discourse read +and reread yesterday. It is there that I find arms to strike down this +man, whose virtue and patriotism have been so much vaunted; this man, +who appeared three days only after August 10th; this man, who has +abandoned his post at the Committee of Public Safety, in order to come +and calumniate his colleagues. It is not necessary to discuss in any +particular detail of the tyrant's career; his whole life condemns him."</p> + +<p>Robespierre clutched at the tribune with both hands. He no longer sought +aid from the "Mountain," henceforth roused<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span> against him; he turned his +face toward the "Plain." "It is to you pure and virtuous men that I +address myself; I don't talk with scoundrels." "Down with the tyrant!" +responded the "Plain." Thuriot, who presided, rang his bell. "President +of assassins," cried Robespierre, "yet once more I demand liberty to +speak." His voice grew feebler. "The blood of Danton is choking him," +cried Gamier de l'Aude. "Will this man long remain master of the +Convention?" asked Charles Duval. "Let us make an end! A decree, a +decree!" shouted Lasseau, at length. "A tyrant is hard to strike down," +said Fréron, in a loud voice. Robespierre remained in the tribune, +turning in his hands an open knife, alone, exposed to the vengeful anger +of them all. "Send me to death!" he cried to his enemies. And the voices +replied: "Thou hast merited it a thousand times. Down with the tyrant!"</p> + +<p>The decree was voted in the midst of tumult. "I ask to share the lot of +my brother," cried the younger Robespierre. "It is understood," said +Lanchet, "that we have voted the arrest of the two Robespierres, of +Couthon, and Saint-Just." "I ask to be comprised in the decree," +protested Lebas, faithfully devoted to Saint-Just. "The triumvirate of +Robespierre, Couthon, and Saint-Just," said Fréron, "recalls the +proscriptions of Sylla. Couthon is a tiger thirsting for the blood of +the National representatives; he has dared to speak at the Jacobins of +five or six heads of the Convention; our corpses were to be the steps +for him to mount the throne!" The paralytic made a gesture of bitter +disdain. "I <i>mount</i> the throne!" said he.</p> + +<p>Thuriot proclaimed the decree; the acclamations that re-echoed were +furious, intoxicated with the joy of triumph. "Long live liberty! Long +live the Republic! Down with the tyrants; to the bar with the accused." +The officers, still bewildered with such an abrupt and sudden change, +had not dared to lay a hand upon the fallen dictator; rage broke forth +in the ranks of the Assembly. Robespierre and his brother, Saint-Just, +Lebas, descended slowly to the place lately reserved for their enemies. +Couthon had just placed himself there. The decree of arrest dispersed +them in different prisons; they had set out when the Assembly suspended +its sitting for an instant. "Let us go out together," said Robespierre. +The crowd, like the Assembly,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> gazed on them without acclamations and +without manifesting any sympathy for them; their army was re-forming +elsewhere.</p> + +<p>The Commune of Paris and the club of the Jacobins had not laid down +their arms. An officer was sent to the Hôtel de Ville to announce the +decree, which dismissed Henriot and summoned the Mayor to appear at the +bar. He naively demanded a receipt for his message. "On a day like this +we don't give receipts," replied the Mayor. "Tell Robespierre to have no +fear, for we are here."</p> + +<p>The Commune, in fact, was active, while the Committees of the +Convention, stupefied at their own victories, were letting precious time +slip past. Already Henriot, half drunk, galloping along the streets, +stirred up the people, crying out that their faithful representatives +were being massacred, delivering over to insults Merlin de Thionville, +and sending to death the convoy of victims for the day. These the +inhabitants of the Faubourg St. Antoine set about delivering, from +compassion and from a vague instinct that the arrest of Robespierre +necessarily brought about a cessation of executions. The General Council +had sent to the jailers of the prisons an order to refuse to aid in the +incarceration of the accused. Robespierre and his friends were +successively brought to the Mairie. They found themselves again free at +the head of an insurrection precipitately got up, but directed by +desperate men, who felt their lives in danger if power escaped from +them. Henriot, arrested for a moment, and conducted to the Committee of +General Security, had been delivered by Coffinhal at the head of a +handful of men. He was again on horseback, and was menacing in the hall +of their sittings the Assembly, which had again come together.</p> + +<p>The tocsin rang forth a full peal; the gates of Paris were closed. The +rising tumult of the insurrection reached the ears of the deputies; each +minute some inauspicious news arrived. It was said that the gunners of +the National Guard, seduced by Henriot, were coming to direct their +artillery against the palace. Collot d'Herbois mounted slowly to the +chair and seated himself there. "Representatives," said he, with a firm +voice, "the moment has come for us to die at our posts; miscreants have +invaded the National palace." All had taken their places; while the +spectators fled from the galleries with uproar and confusion. "I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span> +propose," said Élie Lacoste with a loud voice, "that Henriot be +outlawed." At the same moment the dismissed commandant ordered his men +to fire.</p> + +<p>Fearful and troubled, the gunners still hesitated. A group of +representatives went forth from the hall and cried, "What are you doing, +soldiers? That man is a rebel, who has just been outlawed." The gunners +had already lowered their matches, while Henriot fled at full gallop. +Barras had just been named commandant of the forces in his place; seven +representatives accompanied him. "Outlaw all those who shall take arms +against the Convention or who shall oppose its decrees," said Barère; +"as well as those who are eluding a decree of accusation or arrest." The +decree was voted; an officer of the Convention boldly accepted the duty +of bearing it to the Commune. The National agent, Payan, seized it from +him, and for bravado read it with a loud voice before the crowd that was +thronging in the hall of the Hôtel de Ville. He added these words which +were not in the decree, "and all those found at this moment in the +galleries." The spectators disappeared as if struck with terror at the +name of the law. Times were changed. The mobile waves of public opinion +no longer upheld the tyrants overthrown by the accomplices who had now +become their enemies.</p> + +<p>It was, without saying it, and possibly without knowing it, the feeling +of this public abandonment and reprobation which paralyzed the energy of +the five accused. Robespierre had arrived pale and trembling in all his +limbs; he had been tranquillized with difficulty. When Couthon, who +alone was retained for a time in the prison of La Bourbe, was at last +brought to the Hôtel de Ville, he found the Council solely occupied with +the attack on the Convention, without making any efforts for rousing the +populace or for the vigorous resumption of power. "Have the armies been +written to?" he asked. "In the name of whom?" said Robespierre, +disheartened but calm. "Of the Convention which exists wherever we are; +the rest are but a handful of factious men, who are about to be +dispersed by armed force." Robespierre reflected; he shook his head. "We +must write in the name of the French people," said he. The words "<i>Au +nom du peuple</i>" were found in his handwriting on a sheet of paper.</p> + +<p>It was also in the name of the people that Barras and his companions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span> +reunited the battalions of the sections which slowly assembled; some had +recalled their men from the Hôtel de Ville. The new military school, the +École de Mars, had not appeared well disposed toward Lebas, who had +written to the Commandant Labretèche to hinder his pupils from ranging +themselves under the banners of the Convention; the young men marched +willingly at the request of Barras. The gunners collected on the Place +de Grève permitted Léonard Bourdon to approach. "Go!" said Tallien to +him, "and let the sun when it rises find no more traitors living." The +crowd dispersed on hearing the proclamation which outlawed the Commune +of Paris. The gunners abandoned their pieces; a few hours later they +came to seek them to protect the Convention. "Is it possible," cried +Henriot, as he came forth from the Hôtel de Ville, "that these +scoundrels of gunners have abandoned me? Presently they will be +delivering me to the Tuileries!" He ran to announce the desertion to the +assembled Council-General. Coffinhal, indignant at his cowardice, seized +him by the shoulder and pushed him out by the window. The agents of the +police arrested him in a sewer.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the section of the Gravilliers had put itself in marching +order, commanded by Léonard Bourdon and by a gendarme named Méda, +intelligent and devoted, and who had acquired an ascendency over those +around him. He advanced toward the Hôtel de Ville without encountering +any obstacle. Méda cried, in mounting the flight of steps, "Long live +Robespierre!" He penetrated into the hall, obstructed by the crowd; the +club of the Jacobins was deserted, Legendre had had the door closed; all +the leaders of the Revolution were assembled round the proscribed +representatives. They were discussing and vociferating, without ardor, +however, and without any true hope. Robespierre was seated at a table, +his head on his left hand, his elbow supported by his knee.</p> + +<p>Méda advanced toward him, pistols in hand. "Surrender, traitor!" he +cried. Robespierre raised his head. "It is thou who art a traitor," he +said, "and I will have thee shot." At the same instant the gendarme +fired, fracturing the lower jaw of Robespierre. As he fell, his brother +opened the window, and, passing along the cornice, leaped out upon the +Place. He was dying when they came to pick him up.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span></p> + +<p>Saint-Just, leaning over toward Lebas, said, "Kill me." Lebas, looking +him in the face, replied: "I have something better to do," pressing the +trigger of his pistol. He was dead when a fresh report resounded from +the staircase; Méda, who pursued Henriot, had just drawn on Couthon; his +bearer fell grievously wounded. The prisoners, formerly all-powerful, +now dying or condemned, were collected in the same room; thither +Robespierre and Couthon had been brought; the corpse of Lebas lay on the +floor; the crowd who besieged the gates wanted to throw the wounded into +the river. Couthon had great difficulty in making it understood that he +was not dead; Robespierre could not speak, and was carried on a chair to +the door of the Convention. A feeling of horror manifested itself in the +Assembly, "No, not here! not here!" was the cry. A surgeon came to +attend to the wounded man in the hall of the Committee of Public Safety; +he recovered from his swoon, and walked alone toward his chair; until +then he had been extended upon a table, a little deal box supporting his +wounded head. The blood flowed slowly from his mouth, and at times he +made a movement to wipe it away; his clothes and his face were smeared +with it. Robespierre appeared insensible to the injuries of those who +surrounded him; he made no complaint, inaccessible and alone in death as +in life. They carried him to the Conciergerie, where Saint-Just and +Couthon had just arrived. All had been outlawed; no procedure, no delay, +retarded their execution. Saint-Just, looking at a table of the <i>Rights +of Man</i> hanging in the hall, said, "It is I, however, who have done +that."</p> + +<p>The Conciergerie slowly filled; with Dumas, Fleuriot, Payan, Lavalette, +a large proportion of the members of the Council-General had been +arrested. The prisoners already retained here were pressing to the bars +of their windows, curious as to the noise that reached their ears, and +the vague rumors which had already excited mortal fears among the +informers. Before the room where were imprisoned Madame de Beauharnais +and Madame de Fontenay (afterward Madame Tallien), a woman appeared, +who, in a marked manner, held up a stone (<i>pierre</i>), enveloped it in her +dress (<i>robe</i>), and then made a gesture of beheading. The prisoners +comprehended, a thrill of joy pervaded their gloomy abode; all the +oppressed believed themselves already delivered.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span></p> + +<p>It was five o'clock, and the carts had just drawn up as usual at the +gate of the prison, but this time they waited for the executioners. The +procession defiled before a dense crowd; all the windows were full of +spectators, all the shops were open, and joy sparkled in every +countenance. Robespierre and his friends had wearied with executions the +people of Paris; the sanguinary emotions to which they had been so long +accustomed regained their first relish; it was Robespierre that they +were about to see die. He was half stretched out in the cart, livid, and +with a blood-stained cloth round his face. When the executioner snatched +it from him on the scaffold, a terrible cry was heard, the first sign of +suffering the condemned had given. To this shriek cries of joy responded +from all around, which were repeated at each stroke from the fatal axe. +In two days a hundred three executions violently sealed the vengeance of +the Convocation. The justice of God and that of history bide their time.</p> + +<p>Robespierre had successively vanquished all his enemies; clever and +bold, protected and served by his reputation for virtue, seconded by the +growing terror which his name inspired, he had usurped the entire power, +and confiscated the Revolution for the profit of despotism. He succumbed +under the blows of those who had constantly pushed him to the front; +wearied or frightened by the tyranny whose vengeance they themselves +dreaded. The hands which overthrew the terrible dictator were not pure +hands, and revolutionary passions continued to animate many minds, but +the public instincts did not err for an instant. The conquerors of the +9th Thermidor could in their turn seize upon power, and the greater +number of them had had no other intention; but they might no longer +spill blood at their pleasure without hindrance and without control. The +culminating point of sufferings and crimes had been attained. Without +wishing it and without knowing it, from envy or from fear, the +"<i>Thermidoriens</i>," as they began to be called, in striking down the +triumvirate had changed the course of the Revolution. The nation, always +prompt to concentrate upon the name of one man its affections or its +hatreds, panting and lacerated as it was, began to breathe; the +prisoners ceased to expect death daily; their friends already hoped for +their liberty; timid people ventured forth from their hiding-places; the +bold loudly manifested their joy. People<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span> dared to wear mourning for +those who had died on the scaffold; widows came forth from houses in +which they had kept themselves shut up; absent ones reappeared in the +bosom of their families. Robespierre was no more.</p> + +<p>The Convention had revolted almost unanimously against the tyrant; +scarcely was he struck down, when it found itself again a prey to +divisions. Public demonstrations of joy and relief were manifested +everywhere, and this disquieted some of the leaders of the conspiracy +formerly directed against Robespierre; they had thought to overthrow him +in order themselves to occupy his place, and already they perceived that +two tendencies were manifesting themselves in the country. The one, +feeble as yet in the Convention, and with no other point of support than +the remnant of the Right, disposed to retrace the course of events, and +even to visit upon their authors the iniquities committed; the other, +disquieted and gloomy, determined to defend the Revolution at any +hazard, even though it might be at the price of new sacrifices. The +small party of the Thermidorians, Tallien at their head, began to form +themselves between these two irreconcilable parties. The reaction as yet +bore no definite name, it did not and could not exercise any power; +desired or dreaded, it was at the bottom of every thought, it influenced +all decisions, often rendering them apparently contrary. The terrible +glory of Robespierre, and the crushing weight that rests upon his +memory, are due to the sudden transformation effected by his death. In +outward semblance, and for some time longer, the customary terms were +employed, but the character of the situation was radically changed.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> Public accuser before the Revolutionary Tribunal.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> Decoys; literally, sheep.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> The royalist War of La Vendée against the Republic was now +raging.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> "It will go." One of the most popular songs at the +beginning of the Revolution (1789), said to have been suggested by +Benjamin Franklin, who, in speaking of the progress of the American +Revolution, said: "Ça ira" meaning, "It will succeed."—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span></p> +<h2>THE DOWNFALL OF POLAND</h2> + +<h4><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1794</h4> + +<h3>SIR ARCHIBALD ALISON</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>That the French Revolution was not more actively interfered +with by the powers of Eastern Europe was largely due to the +fact that they were all busy with a spoliation of their own. +When Kosciuszko, the great Polish patriot and hero, failed +in his endeavor to rescue his country from foreign thraldom, +the doom of the ancient kingdom was sealed. In the following +year (1795) the third and final partition of Poland—between +Russia, Austria, and Prussia—was made. This destruction of +a heroic nationality was bewailed by the friends of liberty +throughout the world, and it was told in passionate regret +how "Freedom shrieked, as Kosciuszko fell."</p> + +<p>Although brave and liberty-loving, the people of Poland had +not kept pace with political progress among the more +advanced nations. In the fourteenth century Poland had risen +to her greatest power. Her political character, from ancient +days, was peculiar, being at once monarchical and +republican. But she had a feudalism of her own, which +survived long after the European feudal system was outgrown +by other nations. Her political system was cumbrous and +lacking in unity. The first partition, by the powers above +named (1772), left her in still worse disorder. A new +constitution proved unsatisfactory, one party favoring it, +another seeking to overthrow it. Russian interference was +invoked, the Polish patriots resisted, but in 1792 they were +defeated, and Russia, with Prussia, made the second +partition of Poland in 1793.</p> + +<p>In 1794 Kosciuszko was made commander-in-chief and dictator +of Poland. The insurrection began with the murder of the +Russians in Warsaw. But the Poles suffered from their own +dissensions as before, and met with the disaster that led to +their national extinction.</p></div> + + +<p>There is a certain degree of calamity which overwhelms the courage; but +there is another, which, by reducing men to desperation, sometimes leads +to the greatest and most glorious enterprises. To this latter state the +Poles were now reduced. Abandoned by all the world, distracted with +internal divisions, destitute alike of fortresses and resources, crushed +in the grasp<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span> of gigantic enemies, the patriots of that unhappy country, +consulting only their own courage, resolved to make a last effort to +deliver it from its enemies. In the midst of their internal convulsions, +and through all the prostration of their national strength, the Poles +had never lost their individual courage, or the ennobling feelings of +civil independence. They were still the redoubtable hussars who broke +the Mussulman ranks under the walls of Vienna, and carried the Polish +eagles in triumph to the towers of the Kremlin; whose national cry had +so often made the Osmanlis tremble, and who had boasted in their hours +of triumph that if the heaven itself were to fall they would support it +on the points of their lances. A band of patriots at Warsaw resolved at +all hazards to attempt the restoration of their independence, and they +made choice of Kosciuszko, who was then at Leipsic, to direct their +efforts.<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a></p> + +<p>This illustrious hero, who had received the rudiments of military +education in France, had afterward served, not without glory, in the War +of Independence in America. Uniting to Polish enthusiasm French ability, +the ardent friend of liberty and the enlightened advocate for order, +brave, loyal, and generous, he was in every way qualified to head the +last struggle of the oldest republic in existence for its national +independence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span> But a nearer approach to the scene of danger convinced +him that the hour for action had not yet arrived. The passions, indeed, +were awakened; the national enthusiasm was full; but the means of +resistance were inconsiderable, and the old divisions of the Republic +were not so healed as to afford the prospect of the whole national +strength being exerted in its defence. But the public indignation could +brook no delay; several regiments stationed at Pultusk revolted, and +moved toward Galicia; and Kosciuszko, albeit despairing of success, +determined not to be absent in the hour of danger, hastened to Cracow, +where on March 3d he closed the gates and proclaimed the insurrection.</p> + +<p>Having, by means of the regiments which had revolted, and the junction +of some bodies of armed peasants—imperfectly armed, indeed, but full of +enthusiasm—collected a force of five thousand men, Kosciuszko left +Cracow, and boldly advanced into the open country. He encountered a body +of three thousand Russians at Raslowice, and, after an obstinate +engagement, succeeded in routing it with great slaughter. This action, +inconsiderable in itself, had important consequences; the Polish +peasants exchanged their scythes for the arms found on the field of +battle, and the insurrection, encouraged by this first gleam of success, +soon communicated itself to the adjoining provinces. In vain Stanislaus +disavowed the acts of his subjects; the flame of independence spread +with the rapidity of lightning, and soon all the freemen in Poland were +in arms. Warsaw was the first great point where the flame broke out. The +intelligence of the success at Raslowice was received there on April +12th and occasioned the most violent agitation. For some days afterward +it was evident that an explosion was at hand; and at length, at daybreak +on the morning of the 17th, the brigade of Polish guards, under the +direction of their officers, attacked the governor's house and the +arsenal, and was speedily joined by the populace. The Russian and +Prussian troops in the neighborhood of the capital were about seven +thousand men; and after a prolonged and obstinate contest in the streets +for thirty-six hours, they were driven across the Vistula with the loss +of above three thousand men in killed and prisoners, and the flag of +independence was hoisted on the towers of Warsaw.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span></p> + +<p>One of the most embarrassing circumstances in the situation of the +Russians was the presence of above sixteen thousand Poles in their +ranks, who were known to sympathize strongly with these heroic efforts +of their fellow-citizens. Orders were immediately despatched to Suvaroff +to assemble a corps and disarm the Polish troops scattered in Podolia +before they could unite in any common measures for their defence. By the +energy and activity of this great commander, the Poles were disarmed +brigade after brigade, and above twelve thousand men reduced to a state +of inaction without much difficulty—a most important operation, not +only by destroying the nucleus of a powerful army, but by stifling the +commencement of the insurrection in Volhynia and Podolia. How different +might have been the fate of Poland and Europe had they been enabled to +join the ranks of their countrymen!</p> + +<p>Kosciuszko and his countrymen did everything that courage or energy +could suggest to put on foot a formidable force to resist their +adversaries; a provisional government was established and in a short +time a force of forty thousand men was raised. But this force, though +highly honorable to the patriotism of the Poles, was inconsiderable when +compared with the vast armies which Russia and Prussia could bring up +for their subjugation. Small as the army was, its maintenance was too +great an effort for the resources of the kingdom, which, torn by +intestine factions, without commerce, harbors, or manufactures; having +no national credit, and no industrious class of citizens but the Jews, +now felt the fatal effects of its long career of democratic anarchy. The +population of the country, composed entirely of unruly gentlemen and +ignorant serfs, was totally unable at that time to furnish those +numerous supplies of intelligent officers which are requisite for the +formation of an efficient military force; while the nobility, however +formidable on horseback in the Hungarian or Turkish wars, were less to +be relied on in a contest with regular troops, where infantry and +artillery constituted the great strength of the army, and courage was +unavailing without the aid of science and military discipline.</p> + +<p>The central position of Poland, in the midst of its enemies, would have +afforded great military advantages, had its inhabitants possessed a +force capable of turning it to account; that is,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span> if they had had, like +Frederick the Great in the Seven Years' War, a hundred fifty thousand +regular troops—which the population of the country could easily have +maintained—and a few well-fortified towns, to arrest the enemy in one +quarter, while the bulk of the national force was precipitated upon them +in another. The glorious stand made by the nation in 1831, with only +thirty thousand regular soldiers at the commencement of the +insurrection, and no fortifications but those of Warsaw and Modlin, +proves what immense advantages this central position affords, and what +opportunities it offers to military genius like that of Skrynecki to +inflict the most severe wounds even on a superior and well-conducted +antagonist. But all these advantages were wanting to Kosciuszko; and it +augments our admiration of his talents, and of the heroism of his +countrymen, that with such inconsiderable means they made so honorable a +stand for their national independence.</p> + +<p>No sooner was the King of Prussia informed of the revolution at Warsaw +than he moved forward at the head of thirty thousand men to besiege that +city; while Suvaroff, with forty thousand veterans, was preparing to +enter the southeastern parts of the kingdom. Aware of the necessity of +striking a blow before the enemy's forces were united, Kosciuszko +advanced with twelve thousand men to attack the Russian General, +Denisoff; but, upon approaching his corps, he discovered that it had +united to the army commanded by the King in person. Unable to face such +superior forces, he immediately retired, but was attacked next morning +at daybreak near Sekoczyre by the allies, and after a gallant resistance +his army was routed, and Cracow fell into the hands of the conquerors. +This check was the more severely felt, as about the same time General +Zayonscheck was defeated at Chelne and obliged to recross the Vistula, +leaving the whole country on the right bank of that river in the hands +of the Russians.</p> + +<p>These disasters produced a great impression at Warsaw; the people as +usual ascribed them to treachery, and insisted that the leaders should +be brought to punishment; and although the chiefs escaped, several +persons in an inferior situation were arrested and thrown into prison. +Apprehensive of some subterfuge if the accused were regularly brought to +trial, the burghers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span> assembled in tumultuous bodies, forced the prisons, +erected scaffolds in the streets, and after the manner of the assassins +of September 2d, put above twelve persons to death with their own hands. +These excesses affected with the most profound grief the pure heart of +Kosciuszko; he flew to the capital, restored order, and delivered over +to punishment the leaders of the revolt. But the resources of the +country were evidently unequal to the struggle; the paper money, which +had been issued in their extremity, was at a frightful discount; and the +sacrifices required of the nation were, on that account, the more +severely felt, so that hardly a hope of ultimate success remained.</p> + +<p>The combined Russian and Prussian armies, about thirty-five thousand +strong, now advanced against the capital, where Kosciuszko occupied an +intrenched camp with twenty-five thousand men. During the whole of July +and August the besiegers were engaged in fruitless attempts to drive the +Poles into the city; and at length a great convoy, with artillery and +stores for a regular siege, which was ascending the Vistula, having been +captured by a gentleman named Minewsky at the head of a body of +peasants, the King of Prussia raised the siege, leaving a portion of his +sick and stores in the hands of the patriots. After this success the +insurrection spread immensely and the Poles mustered nearly eighty +thousand men under arms. But they were scattered over too extensive a +line of country in order to make head against their numerous enemies—a +policy tempting by the prospect it holds forth of exciting an extensive +insurrection, but ruinous in the end, by exposing the patriotic forces +to the risk of being beaten in detail. Scarcely had the Poles recovered +from their intoxication at the raising of the siege of Warsaw when +intelligence was received of the defeat of Sizakowsky, who commanded a +corps of ten thousand men beyond the Bug, by the Russian grand army +under Suvaroff. This celebrated General, to whom the principal conduct +of the war was now committed, followed up his successes with the utmost +vigor. The retreating column was again assailed on the 19th by the +victorious Russians, and after a glorious resistance driven into the +woods between Janoff and Biala, with the loss of four thousand men and +twenty-eight pieces of cannon. Scarcely three thousand Poles, with +Sizakowsky at their head, escaped into Siedlice.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span></p> + +<p>Upon receiving the accounts of this disaster, Kosciuszko resolved, by +drawing together all his detachments, to fall upon Fersen before he +joined Suvaroff and the other corps which were advancing against the +capital. With this view he ordered General Poninsky to join him, and +marched with all his disposable forces to attack the Russian General, +who was stationed at Maccowice; but fortune on this occasion cruelly +deceived the Poles. Arrived in the neighborhood of Fersen's position he +found that Poninsky had not yet come up; and the Russian commander, +overjoyed at this circumstance, resolved immediately to attack him. In +vain Kosciuszko despatched courier after courier to Poninsky to advance +to his relief. The first was intercepted by the Cossacks, and the second +did not reach that leader in time to enable him to take a decisive part +in the approaching combat. Nevertheless the Polish commander, aware of +the danger of retreating with inexperienced troops in presence of a +disciplined and superior enemy, determined to give battle on the +following day, and drew up his little army with as much skill as the +circumstances would admit.</p> + +<p>The forces on the opposite sides in this action, which decided the fate +of Poland, were nearly equal in point of numbers; but the advantages of +discipline and equipment were decisively on the side of the Russians. +Kosciuszko commanded about ten thousand men, a part of whom were +recently raised and imperfectly disciplined; while Fersen was at the +head of twelve thousand veterans, including a most formidable body of +cavalry. Nevertheless, the Poles in the centre and right wing made a +glorious defence; but the left, which Poninsky should have supported, +having been overwhelmed by the cavalry under Denisoff, the whole army +was, after a severe struggle, thrown into confusion. Kosciuszko, +Sizakowsky, and other gallant chiefs in vain made the most heroic +efforts to rally the broken troops. They were wounded, struck down, and +made prisoners by the Cossacks who swarmed over the field of battle; +while the remains of the army, now reduced to seven thousand men, fell +back in confusion toward Warsaw.</p> + +<p>After the fall of Kosciuszko, who sustained in his single person the +fortunes of the Republic, nothing but a series of disasters overtook the +Poles. The Austrians, taking advantage of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span> general confusion, +entered Galicia, and occupied the palatinates of Lublin and Sandomir; +while Suvaroff, pressing forward toward the capital, defeated +Mokronowsky, who, at the head of twelve thousand men, strove to retard +the advance of that redoubtable commander. In vain the Poles made the +utmost efforts; they were routed with the loss of four thousand men; and +the patriots, though now despairing of success, resolved to sell their +lives dearly, and shut themselves up in Warsaw to await the approach of +the conqueror. Suvaroff was soon at the gates of Praga, the eastern +suburb of that capital, where twenty-six thousand men and one hundred +pieces of cannon defended the bridge of the Vistula and the approach to +the capital. To assault such a position with forces hardly superior was +evidently a hazardous enterprise; but the approach of winter, rendering +it indispensable that if anything was done at all it should be +immediately attempted, Suvaroff, who was habituated to successful +assaults in the Turkish wars, resolved to storm the city. On November 2d +the Russians made their appearance before the glacis of Praga, and +Suvaroff, having in great haste completed three powerful batteries and +breached the defences with imposing celerity, made his dispositions for +a general assault on the following day.</p> + +<p>The conquerors of Ismail advanced to the attack in the same order which +they had adopted on that memorable occasion. Seven columns at daybreak +approached the ramparts, rapidly filled up the ditches with their +fascines, broke down the defences, and pouring into the intrenched camp +carried destruction into the ranks of the Poles. In vain the defenders +did their utmost to resist the torrent. The wooden houses of Praga +speedily took fire, and amid the shouts of the victors and the cries of +the inhabitants the Polish battalions were borne backward to the edge of +the Vistula. The multitude of fugitives speedily broke down the bridges; +and the citizens of Warsaw beheld with unavailing anguish their +defenders on the other side perishing in the flames, or by the sword of +the conquerors. Ten thousand soldiers fell on the spot, nine thousand +were made prisoners, and above twelve thousand citizens, of every age +and sex, were put to the sword—a dreadful instance of carnage which has +left a lasting stain on the name of Suvaroff and which Russia<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span> expiated +in the conflagration of Moscow. The tragedy was at an end. Warsaw +capitulated two days afterward; the detached parties of the patriots +melted away, and Poland was no more. On November 6th Suvaroff made his +triumphant entry into the blood-stained capital. King Stanislaus was +sent into Russia, where he ended his days in captivity, and the final +partition of the monarchy was effected.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> Thaddeus Kosciuszko was born in 1755, of a poor but noble +family, and received the first elements of his education in the corps of +cadets at Warsaw. There he was early distinguished by his diligence, +ability, and progress in mathematical science, insomuch that he was +selected as one of the four students annually chosen at that institution +to travel at the expense of the State. He went abroad, accordingly, and +spent several years in France, chiefly engaged in military studies; from +whence he returned in 1778, with ideas of freedom and independence +unhappily far in advance of his country at that period. As war did not +seem likely at that period in the north of Europe, he set sail for +America, then beginning the War of Independence, and was employed by +Washington as his adjutant, and distinguished himself greatly in that +contest beside Lafayette, Lameth, Dumas, and so many of the other ardent +and enthusiastic spirits from the Old World. He returned to Europe on +the termination of the war, decorated with the order of Cincinnatus, and +lived in retirement till 1789, when, as King Stanislaus was adopting +some steps with a view to the assertion of national independence, he was +appointed major-general by the Polish Diet. In 1791 he joined with +enthusiasm in the formation of the Constitution which was proclaimed on +May 5th of that year.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span></p> +<h2>THE RISE OF NAPOLEON</h2> + +<h3>THE FRENCH CONQUEST OF ITALY</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1796</h4> + +<h3>SIR WALTER SCOTT</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Napoleon, regarded by many as the most remarkable man of +modern times, took control of the forces of the French +Revolution and directed them toward purposes little dreamed +of by the earlier leaders of the uprising. The excesses of +the Reign of Terror had caused such a reaction that even in +Paris men began to talk of restoring the monarchy, and in +1795 a new tumult began, due in part to the efforts of the +Royalists. Once more a mob marched against the hall of the +National Convention; and the general of the national troops +in the city, uncertain what to do, gladly left affairs in +the hands of a subordinate, one of the few remaining French +officers who had received a regular military training under +the old <i>régime</i>. This lesser general, a young man of +twenty-six, was Napoleon Bonaparte, who had already won +repute as a military engineer. Bonaparte met the mob as no +Paris mob had yet been met. He had a row of cannon loaded +with grape-shot, and these were fired to kill. Many of the +rabble fell, the rest fled in dismay. "That whiff of +grape-shot," says Carlyle, "ended the Revolution."</p> + +<p>Bonaparte, made much of by the Convention he had defended, +was appointed commander of the army fighting on the Italian +frontier. Ever since Valmy, Revolutionary France had been +compelled to defend herself against civil war within and the +attacks of the foreign monarchs, friends and relatives of +Louis XVI, from without. The tremendous energy of her +aroused people had made her equal to the task. She had +conquered Holland and the German lands west of the Rhine, +she had forced both Prussia and Spain to sue for peace. But +England from her island throne, and Austria, the most +powerful of France's continental foes, the most closely +related to the murdered Queen Marie Antoinette, were still +threatening the French borders. The Austrians held most of +Italy and it was against them that Napoleon was despatched. +He was the first to carry the war away from the French +border line and into the heart of the countries of her foes.</p> + +<p>France was starving; and Napoleon from the treasuries of +Italy sent her unlimited supplies; sent her splendid works +of art. No wonder the impoverished people hailed him with +delight as their preserver. No wonder the purer aspirations +after liberty perished in the passion for conquest, spoils, +and that Frenchest of French vanities, "<i>la gloire</i>."</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span></p> + + +<p>Napoleon has himself observed that no country in the world is more +distinctly marked out by its natural boundaries than Italy. The Alps +seem a barrier erected by nature herself, on which she has inscribed in +gigantic characters "Here let ambition be staid." Yet this tremendous +circumvallation of mountains, as it could not prevent the ancient Romans +from breaking out to desolate the world, so it has been in like manner +found, ever since the days of Hannibal, unequal to protect Italy herself +from invasion. The French nation, in the times of which we treat, spoke +indeed of the Alps as a natural boundary, so far as to authorize them to +claim all which lay on the western side of these mountains, as naturally +pertaining to their dominions; but they never deigned to respect them as +such when the question respected their invading, on their own part, the +territories of other states which lay on or beyond the formidable +frontier. They assumed the law of natural limits as an unchallengeable +rule when it made in favor of France, but never allowed it to be quoted +against her interest.</p> + +<p>During the Revolutionary War, the general fortune of battle had varied +from time to time in the neighborhood of these mighty boundaries. The +King of Sardinia possessed almost all the fortresses which command the +passes on these mountains, and had therefore been said to wear the keys +of the Alps at his girdle. He had indeed lost his dukedom of Savoy, and +the county of Nice, in the last campaign; but he still maintained in +opposition to the French a very considerable army, and was supported by +his powerful ally the Emperor of Austria, always vigilant regarding that +rich and beautiful portion of his dominions which lies in the North of +Italy. The frontiers of Piedmont were therefore covered by a strong +Austro-Sardinian army, opposed to the French armies to which Napoleon +had been just named commander-in-chief. A strong Neapolitan force was +also to be added, so that in general numbers their opponents were much +superior to the French; but a great part of this force was cooped up in +garrisons which could not be abandoned.</p> + +<p>It may be imagined with what delight the General, scarce aged +twenty-six, advanced to an independent field of glory and conquest, +confident in his own powers, and in the perfect knowledge of the country +which he had acquired, when, by his scientific<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span> plans of the campaign, +he had enabled General Dumorbion to drive the Austrians back, and obtain +possession of the Col di Tenda, Saorgio, and the gorges of the higher +Alps. Bonaparte's achievements had hitherto been under the auspices of +others. He made the dispositions before Toulon, but it was Dugommier who +had the credit of taking the place. Dumorbion, as we have just said, +obtained the merit of the advantages in Piedmont. Even in the civil +turmoil of 13th Vendémiaire, his actual services had been overshaded by +the official dignity of Barras, as commander-in-chief. But if he reaped +honor in Italy the success would be exclusively his own; and that proud +heart must have throbbed to meet danger upon such terms; that keen +spirit have toiled to discover the means of success.</p> + +<p>For victory, he relied chiefly upon a system of tactics hitherto +unpractised in war, or at least upon any considerable or uniform scale. +As war becomes a profession, and a subject of deep study, it is +gradually discovered that the principles of tactics depend upon +mathematical and arithmetical science; and that the commander will be +victorious who can assemble the greatest number of forces upon the same +point at the same moment, notwithstanding an inferiority of numbers to +the enemy when the general force is computed on both sides.</p> + +<p>No man ever possessed in a greater degree than Bonaparte the power of +calculation and combination necessary for directing such decisive +manœuvres. It constituted indeed his secret—as it was for some time +called—and that secret consisted in an imagination fertile in +expedients which would never have occurred to others; clearness and +precision in forming his plans; a mode of directing with certainty the +separate moving columns which were to execute them, by arranging so that +each division should arrive on the destined position at the exact time +when their service was necessary; and above all, in the knowledge which +enabled such a master-spirit to choose the most fitting subordinate +implements, to attach them to his person, and by explaining to them so +much of his plan as it was necessary each should execute, to secure the +exertion of their utmost ability in carrying it into effect.</p> + +<p>Thus, not only were his manœuvres, however daring, executed with a +precision which warlike operations had not attained before his time; but +they were also performed with a celerity<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span> which gave them almost the +effect of surprise. Napoleon was like lightning in the eyes of his +enemies; and when repeated experience had taught them to expect this +portentous rapidity of movement, it sometimes induced his opponents to +wait in a dubious and hesitating posture for attacks, which, with less +apprehension of their antagonist, they would have thought it more +prudent to frustrate and to anticipate.</p> + +<p>The forces which Bonaparte had under his command were between fifty and +sixty thousand good troops, having, many of them, been brought from the +Spanish campaign in consequence of the peace with that country; but very +indifferently provided with clothing, and suffering from the hardships +they had endured in those mountains, barren and cold regions. The +cavalry, in particular, were in very poor order; but the nature of their +new field of action not admitting of their being much employed, rendered +this of less consequence. The misery of the French army, until these +Alpine campaigns were victoriously closed by the armistice of Cherasco, +could, according to Bonaparte's authority, scarce bear description. The +officers for several years had received no more than eight livres a +month (twenty-pence sterling a week) in name of pay, and staff-officers +had not among them a single horse. Berthier preserved, as a curiosity, +an order dated on the day of the victory of Albenga, which munificently +conferred a gratuity of three louis d'ors upon every general of +division. Among the generals to whom this donation was rendered +acceptable by their wants were, or might have been, many whose names +became afterward the praise and dread of war. Augereau, Masséna, +Serrurier, Joubert, Lannes, and Murat, all generals of the first +consideration, served under Bonaparte in the Italian campaign.</p> + +<p>The plan of crossing the Alps and marching into Italy suited in every +respect the ambitious and self-confident character of the General to +whom it was now intrusted. It gave him a separate and independent +authority, and the power of acting on his own judgment and +responsibility; for his countryman Salicetti, the deputy who accompanied +him as commissioner of the Government, was not probably much disposed to +intrude his opinions. He had been Bonaparte's patron, and was still his +friend. The young General's mind was made up to the alternative of +conquest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span> or ruin, as may be judged from his words to a friend at taking +leave of him. "In three months," he said, "I will be either at Milan or +at Paris;" intimating at once his desperate resolution to succeed, and +his sense that the disappointment of all his prospects must be the +consequence of a failure.</p> + +<p>With the same view of animating his followers to ambitious hopes, he +addressed the Army of Italy to the following purpose: "Soldiers, you are +hungry and naked; the Republic owes you much, but she has not the means +to acquit herself of her debts. The patience with which you support your +hardships among these barren rocks is admirable, but it cannot procure +you glory. I am come to lead you into the most fertile plains that the +sun beholds: rich provinces, opulent towns; all shall be at your +disposal. Soldiers, with such a prospect before you, can you fail in +courage and constancy?" This was showing the deer to the hound when the +leash is about to be slipped.</p> + +<p>The Austro-Sardinian army, to which Bonaparte was opposed, was commanded +by Beaulieu, an Austrian general of great experience and some talent, +but no less than seventy-five years old; accustomed all his life to the +ancient rules of tactics, and unlikely to suspect, anticipate, or +frustrate those plans formed by a genius so fertile as that of Napoleon.</p> + +<p>Bonaparte's plan for entering Italy differed from that of former +conquerors and invaders, who had approached that fine country by +penetrating or surmounting at some point or other her Alpine barriers. +This inventive warrior resolved to attain the same object by turning +round the southern extremity of the Alpine range, keeping as close as +possible to the shores of the Mediterranean, and passing through the +Genoese territory by the narrow pass called the Boccheta, leading around +the extremity of the mountains, and betwixt these and the sea. Thus he +proposed to penetrate into Italy by the lowest level which the surface +of the country presented, which must be of course where the range of the +Alps unites with that of the Apennines. The point of junction where +these two immense ranges of mountains touch upon each other is at the +heights of Mount St. Jacques, above Genoa, where the Alps, running +northwestward, ascend to Mont Blanc, their highest peak, and the +Appenines, running to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span> southeast, gradually elevate themselves to +Monte Velino, the tallest mountain of the range.</p> + +<p>To attain this object of turning the Alps in the manner proposed, it was +necessary that Bonaparte should totally change the situation of his +army; those occupying a defensive line, running north and south, being +to assume an offensive position, extending east and west. Speaking of an +army as of a battalion, he was to form into column upon the right of the +line which he had hitherto occupied. This was an extremely delicate +operation to be undertaken in presence of an active enemy, his superior +in numbers; nor was he permitted to execute it uninterrupted.</p> + +<p>No sooner did Beaulieu learn that the French General was concentrating +his forces, and about to change his position, than he hastened to +preserve Genoa, without possession of which, or at least of the adjacent +territory, Bonaparte's scheme of advance could scarce have been +accomplished. The Austrian divided his army into three bodies. Colli, at +the head of a Sardinian division, he stationed on the extreme right at +Ceva; his centre division, under D'Argenteau, having its head at +Sasiello, had directions to march on a mountain called Monte Notte, with +two villages of the same name, near to which was a strong position at a +place called Montelegino, which the French had occupied in order to +cover their flank during their march toward the east.</p> + +<p>At the head of his left wing, Beaulieu himself moved from Novi upon +Voltri, a small town nine miles west of Genoa, for the protection of +that ancient city, whose independence and neutrality were like to be +held in little reverence. Thus it appears, that while the French were +endeavoring to penetrate into Italy by an advance from Sardinia by the +way of Genoa, their line of march was threatened by three armies of +Austro-Sardinians, descending from the skirts of the Alps, and menacing +to attack their flank. But, though a skilful disposition, Beaulieu's +had, from the very mountainous character of the country, the great +disadvantage of wanting connection between the three separate divisions; +neither, if needful, could they be easily united on any point desired, +while the lower line, on which the French moved, permitted constant +communication and coöperation.</p> + +<p>On April 10, 1796, D'Argenteau, with the central division of the +Austro-Sardinian army, descended upon Monte Notte, while<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span> Beaulieu on +the left attacked the van of the French army, which had come as far as +Voltri. General Cervoni, commanding the French division which sustained +the attack of Beaulieu, was compelled to fall back on the main body of +his countrymen; and had the assault of D'Argenteau been equally +animated, or equally successful, the fame of Bonaparte might have been +stifled in its birth. But Colonel Rampon, a French officer, who +commanded the redoubts near Montelegino, stopped the progress of +D'Argenteau by the most determined resistance. At the head of not more +than fifteen hundred men, whom he inspired with his own courage, and +caused to swear to maintain their post or die there, he continued to +defend the redoubts, during the whole of the 11th, until D'Argenteau, +whose conduct was afterward greatly blamed for not making more +determined efforts to carry them, drew off his forces for the evening, +intending to renew the attack next morning.</p> + +<p>But on the morning of the 12th, the Austrian General found himself +surrounded with enemies. Cervoni, who retreated before Beaulieu, had +united himself with La Harpe, and both advancing northward during the +night of the 11th, established themselves in the rear of the redoubts of +Montelegino, which Rampon had so gallantly defended. This was not all. +The divisions of Augereau and Masséna had marched, by different routes, +on the flank and on the rear of D'Argenteau's column; so that next +morning, instead of renewing his attack on the redoubts, the Austrian +General was obliged to extricate himself by a disastrous retreat, +leaving behind him colors and cannon, a thousand slain, and two thousand +prisoners.</p> + +<p>Such was the Battle of Monte Notte, the first of Bonaparte's victories; +eminently displaying the truth and mathematical certainty of +combination, which enabled him on many more memorable occasions, even +when his forces were inferior in numbers, and apparently disunited in +position, suddenly to concentrate them and defeat his enemy, by +overpowering him on the very point where he thought himself strongest. +He had accumulated a superior force on the Austrian centre, and +destroyed it, while Colli, on the right, and Beaulieu himself, on the +left, each at the head of numerous forces, did not even hear of the +action till it was fought and won. In consequence of the success at +Monte Notte,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span> and the close pursuit of the defeated Austrians, the +French obtained possession of Cairo, which placed them on that side of +the Alps which slopes toward Lombardy, and where the streams from these +mountains run to join the Po.</p> + +<p>Beaulieu had advanced to Voltri, while the French withdrew to unite +themselves in the attack upon D'Argenteau. He had now to retreat +northward with all haste to Dego, in the valley of the river Bormida, in +order to resume communication with the right wing of his army, +consisting chiefly of Sardinians, from which he was now nearly separated +by the defeat of the centre. General Colli, by a corresponding movement +on the left, occupied Millesimo, a small town about nine miles from +Dego, with which he resumed and maintained communication by a brigade +stationed on the heights of Biastro. From the strength of this position, +though his forces were scarce sufficiently concentrated, Beaulieu hoped +to maintain his ground till he should receive supplies from Lombardy, +and recover the consequences of the defeat at Monte Notte. But the +antagonist whom he had in front had no purpose of permitting him such +respite.</p> + +<p>Determined upon a general attack on all points of the Austrian position, +the French army advanced in three bodies upon a space of four leagues in +extent. Augereau, at the head of the division which had not fought at +Monte Notte, advanced on the left against Millesimo; the centre, under +Masséna, directed themselves upon Dego, by the vale of the Bormida; the +right wing, commanded by La Harpe, manœuvred on the right of all, for +the purpose of turning Beaulieu's left flank. Augereau was the first who +came in contact with the enemy. He attacked General Colli, April 13th. +His troops, emulous of the honor acquired by their companions, behaved +with great bravery, rushed upon the outposts of the Sardinian army at +Millesimo, forced and retained possession of the gorge by which it was +defended, and thus separated from the Sardinian army a body of about two +thousand men, under the Austrian General Provera, who occupied a +detached eminence called Cossaria, which covered the extreme left of +General Colli's position. But the Austrian showed the most obstinate +courage. Although surrounded by the enemy, he threw himself into the +ruinous castle of Cossaria, which crowned the eminence, and showed a +disposition to maintain the place to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span> last; the rather that, as he +could see from the turrets of his stronghold the Sardinian troops, from +whom he had been separated, preparing to fight on the ensuing day, he +might reasonably hope to be disengaged.</p> + +<p>Bonaparte in person came up; and seeing the necessity of dislodging the +enemy from his strong post, ordered three successive attacks to be made +on the castle. Joubert, at the head of one of the attacking columns, had +actually, with six or seven others, made his way into the outworks, when +he was struck down by a wound in the head. General Banal and +Adjutant-General Quenin fell, each at the head of the column which he +commanded; and Bonaparte was compelled to leave the obstinate Provera in +possession of the castle for the night. The morning of the 14th brought +a different scene. Contenting himself with blockading the castle of +Cossaria, Bonaparte now gave battle to General Colli, who made every +effort to relieve it. These attempts were all in vain. He was defeated +and cut off from Beaulieu; he retired as well as he could upon Ceva, +leaving to his fate the brave General Provera, who was compelled to +surrender at discretion.</p> + +<p>On the same day, Masséna, with the centre, attacked the heights of +Biastro, being the point of communication betwixt Beaulieu and Colli, +while La Harpe, having crossed the Bormida, where the stream came up to +the soldiers' middle, attacked in front and in flank the village of +Dego, where the Austrian Commander-in-Chief was stationed. The first +attack was completely successful—the heights of Biastro were carried, +and the Piedmontese routed. The assault of Dego was not less so, +although after a harder struggle. Beaulieu was compelled to retreat, and +was entirely separated from the Sardinians, who had hitherto acted in +combination with him. The defenders of Italy now retreated in different +directions, Colli moving westward toward Ceva, while Beaulieu, closely +pursued through a difficult country, retired upon D'Aqui.</p> + +<p>Even the morning after the victory, it was nearly wrested out of the +hands of the conquerors. A fresh division of Austrians, who had +evacuated Voltri later than the others, and were approaching to form a +junction with their General, found the enemy in possession of Beaulieu's +position. They arrived at Dego like men who had been led astray, and +were no doubt surprised at finding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span> it in the hands of the French. Yet +they did not hesitate to assume the offensive, and by a brisk attack +drove out the enemy, and replaced the Austrian eagles in the village. +Great alarm was occasioned by this sudden apparition; for no one among +the French could conceive the meaning of an alarm beginning on the +opposite quarter to that on which the enemy had retreated, and without +its being announced from the outposts toward D'Aqui.</p> + +<p>Bonaparte hastily marched on the village. The Austrians repelled two +attacks; at the third, General Lanusse, afterward killed in Egypt, put +his hat upon the point of his sword, and advancing to the charge +penetrated into the place. Lannes also, afterward Duke of Montebello, +distinguished himself on the same occasion by courage and military +skill, and was recommended by Bonaparte to the Directory for promotion. +In this Battle of Dego, more commonly called of Millesimo, the +Austro-Sardinian army lost five or six thousand men, thirty pieces of +cannon, with a great quantity of baggage. Besides, the Austrians were +divided from the Sardinians; and the two generals began to show not only +that their forces were disunited, but that they themselves were acting +upon separate motives; the Sardinians desiring to protect Turin, whereas +the movements of Beaulieu seemed still directed to prevent the French +from entering the Milanese territory.</p> + +<p>Leaving a sufficient force on the Bormida to keep in check Beaulieu, +Bonaparte now turned his strength against Colli, who, overpowered, and +without hopes of succor, abandoned his line of defence near Ceva, and +retreated to the line of the Tanaro.</p> + +<p>Napoleon in the mean time fixed his head-quarters at Ceva, and enjoyed +from the heights of Montezemoto the splendid view of the fertile fields +of Piedmont, stretching in boundless perspective beneath his feet, +watered by the Po, the Tanaro, and a thousand other streams which +descended from the Alps. Before the eyes of the delighted army of +victors lay this rich expanse like a promised land; behind them was the +wilderness they had passed—not indeed a desert of barren sand, similar +to that in which the Israelites wandered, but a huge tract of rocks and +inaccessible mountains, crested with ice and snow, seeming by nature +designed as the barrier and rampart of the blessed regions, which +stretched<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span> eastward beneath them. We can sympathize with the +self-congratulation of the General who had surmounted such tremendous +obstacles in a way so unusual. He said to the officers around him, as +they gazed upon this magnificent scene, "Hannibal took the Alps by +storm. We have succeeded as well by turning their flank."</p> + +<p>The dispirited army of Colli was attacked at Mondovi during his retreat +by two corps of Bonaparte's army from two different points, commanded by +Masséna and Serrurier. The last General the Sardinian repulsed with +loss; but when he found Masséna, in the mean time, was turning the left +of his line, and that he was thus pressed on both flanks, his situation +became almost desperate. The cavalry of the Piedmontese made an effort +to renew the combat. For a time they overpowered and drove back those of +the French; and General Stengel, who commanded the latter, was slain in +attempting to get them into order. But the desperate valor of Murat, +unrivalled perhaps in the heady charge of cavalry combat, renewed the +fortune of the field; and the horse, as well as the infantry of Colli's +army, were compelled to a disastrous retreat. The defeat was decisive; +and the Sardinians, after the loss of the best of their troops, their +cannon, baggage, and appointments, and being now totally divided from +their Austrian allies, and liable to be overpowered by the united forces +of the French army, had no longer hopes of effectually covering Turin. +Bonaparte, pursuing his victory, took possession of Cherasco, within ten +leagues of the Piedmontese capital.</p> + +<p>Thus Fortune, in the course of a campaign of scarce a month, placed her +favorite in full possession of the desired road to Italy, by command of +the mountain-passes, which had been invaded and conquered with so much +military skill. He had gained three battles over forces far superior to +his own; inflicted on the enemy a loss of twenty-five thousand men in +killed, wounded, and prisoners; taken eighty pieces of cannon, and +twenty-one stands of colors; reduced to inaction the Austrian army; +almost annihilated that of Sardinia; and stood in full communication +with France upon the eastern side of the Alps, with Italy lying open +before him, as if to invite his invasion. But it was not even with such +laurels, and with facilities which now presented themselves for the +accomplishment of new and more important victories<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span> upon a larger scale, +and with more magnificent results, that the career of Bonaparte's +earliest campaign was to be closed. The head of the royal house of +Savoy, if not one of the most powerful, still one of the most +distinguished in Europe, was to have the melancholy experience, that he +had encountered with the "Man of Destiny," as he was afterward proudly +called, who, for a time, had power, in the emphatic phrase of Scripture, +"to bind kings with chains, and nobles with fetters of iron."</p> + +<p>The shattered relics of the Sardinian army had fallen back, or rather +fled, to within two leagues of Turin, without hope of being again able +to make an effectual stand. The sovereign of Sardinia, Savoy, and +Piedmont had no means of preserving his capital, nay, his existence on +the Continent, excepting by an almost total submission to the will of +the victor. Let it be remembered, that Victor Amadeus III was the +descendant of a race of heroes, who, from the peculiar situation of +their territories, as constituting a neutral ground of great strength +betwixt France and the Italian possessions of Austria, had often been +called on to play a part in the general affairs of Europe, of importance +far superior to that which their condition as a second-rate power could +otherwise have demanded. In general, they had compensated their +inferiority of force by an ability and gallantry which did them the +highest credit, both as generals and as politicians; and now Piedmont +was at the feet, in her turn, of an enemy weaker in numbers than her +own. Besides the reflections on the past fame of his country, the +present humiliating situation of the King was rendered more mortifying +by the state of his family connections.</p> + +<p>Victor Amadeus was the father-in-law of "Monsieur" (by right Louis +XVIII), and of the Comte d'Artois, the reigning King of France. He had +received his sons-in-law at his court at Turin, had afforded them an +opportunity of assembling around them their forces, consisting of the +emigrant <i>noblesse</i>, and had strained all the power he possessed, and in +many instances successfully, to withstand both the artifices and the +arms of the French Republicans. And now, so born, so connected, and with +such principles, he was condemned to sue for peace on any terms which +might be dictated, from a general of France aged twenty-six years, who, +a few months before, was desirous of an appointment in the artillery +service of the Grand Seignior!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span></p> + +<p>An armistice was requested by the King of Sardinia under these +afflicting circumstances, but could only be purchased by placing two of +his strongest fortresses—those keys of the Alps, of which his ancestors +had long been the keepers—Coni and Tortona, in the hands of the French, +and thus acknowledging that he surrendered at discretion. The armistice +was agreed on at Cherasco, but commissioners were sent by the King to +Paris, to arrange with the Directory the final terms of peace. These +were such as victors give to the vanquished.</p> + +<p>Besides the fortresses already surrendered, the King of Sardinia was to +place in the hands of the French five others of the first importance. +The road from France to Italy was to be at all times open to the French +armies; and indeed the King, by surrender of the places mentioned, had +lost the power of interrupting their progress. He was to break off every +species of alliance and connection with the combined powers at war with +France, and become bound not to entertain at his court, or in his +service, any French emigrants whatsoever, or any of their connections; +nor was an exception even made in favor of his own two daughters. In +short, the surrender was absolute. Victor Amadeus exhibited the utmost +reluctance to subscribe this treaty, and did not long survive it. His +son succeeded in name to the kingdom of Piedmont; but the fortresses and +passes which had rendered him a prince of some importance were, +excepting Turin and one or two of minor consequence, all surrendered +into the hands of the French.</p> + +<p>Viewing this treaty with Sardinia as the close of the Piedmontese +campaign, we pause to consider the character which Bonaparte displayed +at that period. The talents as a general which he had exhibited were of +the very first order. There was no disconnection in his objects, they +were all attained by the very means he proposed, and the success was +improved to the utmost. A different conduct usually characterizes those +who stumble unexpectedly on victory, either by good-fortune or by the +valor of their troops. When the favorable opportunity occurs to such +leaders, they are nearly as much embarrassed by it as by a defeat. But +Bonaparte, who had foreseen the result of each operation by his +sagacity, stood also prepared to make the most of the advantages which +might be derived from it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span></p> + +<p>His style in addressing the Convention was, at this period, more modest +and simple, and therefore more impressive, than the figurative and +bombastic style which he afterward used in his bulletins. His +self-opinion, perhaps, was not risen so high as to permit him to use the +sesquipedalian words and violent metaphors, to which he afterward seems +to have given a preference. We may remark also, that the young victor +was honorably anxious to secure for such officers as distinguished +themselves the preferment which their services entitled them to. He +urges the promotion of his brethren-in-arms in almost every one of his +despatches—a conduct not only just and generous, but also highly +politic. Were his recommendations successful, their General had the +gratitude due for the benefit; were they overlooked, thanks equally +belonged to him for his good wishes, and the resentment for the slight +attached itself to the Government who did not give effect to them.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span></p> +<h2>OVERTHROW OF THE MAMELUKES</h2> + +<h3>THE BATTLE OF THE NILE</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1798</h4> + +<h3>CHARLES KNIGHT</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Napoleon's Italian victories forced even Austria to seek +peace and acquiesce in the extension of the French Republic +to the Rhine and over a considerable part of Italy. The +Continent was for a moment at peace, only England remaining +in open hostility to France. A great invasion was planned to +subdue the island kingdom, but Britain felt secure in the +power of her ships which had repeatedly defeated those of +France, Spain, and Holland.</p> + +<p>The French Government, which had gradually gathered a strong +fleet on the Mediterranean, now at Bonaparte's urgency +undertook what has often been regarded as the rather +visionary attempt of conquering Egypt, perhaps expecting to +extend French power over all Asia and so destroy British +trade, the source of Britain's wealth. Egypt was nominally +subject to Turkey, but was really ruled by the Mamelukes, an +aristocracy of soldiers who had held the land for centuries.</p> + +<p>Nelson, the English admiral, despatched to discover and +defeat the French fleet, is England's greatest naval hero. +He had already won renown as second in command in an +important victory over the Spaniards off Cape St. Vincent. +The Battle of the Nile was the first of his three most +celebrated achievements, the others being the defeat of the +Danes at Copenhagen<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> and then the final destruction of +the French and Spanish fleets at Trafalgar.</p></div> + + +<p>Bonaparte with great difficulty persuaded the Directory to postpone +their scheme for the invasion of the British Islands, and to permit him +to embark an army for Egypt, the possession of which country, he +maintained, would open to France the commerce of the East, and prepare +the way for the conquest of India. Having subdued Egypt, he would return +before another winter to plant the tricolor on the Tower of London. In +April, Bonaparte was appointed general-in-chief of the Army of the East. +The secret had been well kept.</p> + +<p>The French fleet under Admiral Brueys was in the harbor of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span> Toulon, +ready to sail upon its secret destination. Something different from the +invasion of England was in contemplation; for on board the admiral's +ship, L'Orient, were a hundred literary men and artists, mathematicians +and naturalists, who were certainly not required to enlighten the French +upon the native productions or the antiquities of the British Isles. +Bonaparte arrived at Toulon on May 9th, and issued one of his +grandiloquent proclamations to his troops. The armament consisted of +thirteen ships of the line, many frigates and corvettes, and four +hundred transports. The army, which it was to carry to some unknown +shore, consisted of forty thousand men. On May 19th this formidable +expedition left the great French harbor of the Mediterranean.</p> + +<p>On the day when Bonaparte arrived at Toulon, Nelson had sailed from +Gibraltar, with three seventy-fours, four frigates, and a sloop, to +watch the movements of the enemy. Since the most daring of British naval +commanders had fought in the Battle of St. Vincent, he had lost an arm +in an unsuccessful attack upon the island of Teneriffe. For some time +his spirit was depressed, and he thought that a left-handed admiral +could never again be useful. He had lost also his right eye, and was +severely wounded in his body. But he had not lost that indomitable +spirit which rose superior to wounds and weakness of constitution. He +rested some time at home; and then, early in 1798, sailed in the +Vanguard to join the fleet under Lord St. Vincent. The Admiralty had +suggested, and Lord St. Vincent had previously determined, that a +detachment of the squadron blockading the Spanish fleet should sail to +the Mediterranean, under the command of Nelson. The seniors of the fleet +were offended at this preference of a junior officer; and men of routine +at home shrugged their shoulders, and feared, with the cold Lord +Grenville, that Nelson "will do something <i>too</i> desperate." He was not +stinted in his means, being finally reënforced with ten of the best +ships of St. Vincent's fleet.</p> + +<p>The first operation of Bonaparte was the seizure of Malta. His fleet was +in sight of the island on June 9th. He had other weapons than his cannon +for the reduction of a place deemed impregnable. The Order of St. John +of Jerusalem had held the real sovereignty of the island since 1530. +These Knights of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span> Malta, powerful at sea, had formed one of the bulwarks +of Christendom against the Ottomans. They had gradually lost their +warlike prowess as well at their religious austerity; and Malta, +protected by its fortifications, became the seat of luxury for this last +of the monastic military orders whose occupation was gone. Bonaparte had +confiscated their property in Italy; and he had sent a skilful agent to +the island to sow dissensions among the Knights, and thus to prepare the +way for the fall of the community. There were many French knights among +them, to whom the principal military commands had been intrusted by the +grand master, a weak German.</p> + +<p>Bonaparte, on June 9th, sent a demand to the grand master, that his +whole fleet should be permitted to enter the great harbor for the +purpose of taking in water. The reply was that, according to the rules +of the Order, only two ships, or at most four, could be allowed to enter +the port at one time. The answer was interpreted as equivalent to a +declaration of hostility; and Bonaparte issued orders that the army +should disembark the next morning on the coasts of the island wherever a +landing could be effected. The island was taken almost without +opposition; the French Knights declaring that they would not fight +against their countrymen. On June 13th, the French were put in +possession of La Valletta and the surrounding forts. Bonaparte made all +sorts of promises of compensation to the recreant Knights, which the +Directory were not very careful to keep. He landed to examine his prize, +when General Caffarelli, who accompanied him, said, "We are very lucky +that there was somebody in the place to open the doors for us."</p> + +<p>Leaving a garrison to occupy the new possession, the French sailed away +on the 20th, with all the gold and silver of the treasury, and all the +plate of the churches and religious houses. "The essential point now," +says Thiers, "was not to encounter the English fleet"; nevertheless, he +adds, "nobody was afraid of the encounter." Nelson was at Naples on the +day when Bonaparte quitted Malta. He immediately sailed. On the 22d, at +night, the two fleets crossed each other's track unperceived, between +Cape Mesurado and the mouth of the Adriatic. The frigates of the British +fleet had been separated from the main body, and thus Nelson had no +certain intelligence. His sagacity<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span> made him conjecture that the +destination of the armament was Egypt. He made the most direct course to +Alexandria, which he reached on the 28th. No enemy was there, and no +tidings could be obtained of them. On the morning of July 1st, Admiral +Brueys was off the same port, and learned that Nelson had sailed away in +search of him. Bonaparte demanded that he should be landed at some +distance from Alexandria, for preparations appeared for the defence of +the ancient city. As he and several thousand troops who followed him +reached the shore in boats, a vessel appeared in sight, and the cry went +forth that it was an English sail. "Fortune," he exclaimed, "dost thou +abandon me? Give me only five days!" A French frigate was the cause of +the momentary alarm. Nelson had returned to Sicily.</p> + +<p>The Sultan was at peace with France; a French minister was at +Constantinople. Such trifling formalities in the laws of nations were +little respected by the man who told his soldiers that "the genius of +Liberty having rendered the Republic the arbiter of Europe, had assigned +to her the same power over the seas and over the most distant nations." +Four thousand of the French army were landed, and marched in three +columns to the attack of Alexandria. It was quickly taken by assault. +Bonaparte announced that he came neither to ravage the country nor to +question the authority of the Grand Seignior, but to put down the +domination of the Mamelukes, who tyrannized over the people by the +authority of the beys. He proclaimed to the population of Egypt, in +magnificent language that he caused to be translated into Arabic, that +he came not to destroy their religion. We Frenchmen are true Mussulmans. +Have not we destroyed the pope, who called upon Europe to make war upon +Mussulmans? Have not we destroyed the Knights of Malta, because these +madmen believed that God had called them to make war upon Mussulmans?</p> + +<p>Leaving a garrison of three thousand men in Alexandria, the main army +commenced its march to Cairo. Bonaparte was anxious to arrive there +before the periodical inundation of the Nile. The fleet of Brueys +remained at anchor in the road of Abukir. Bonaparte chose the shorter +route to Cairo through the desert of Damanhour, leading thirty thousand +men—to each of whom he had promised to grant seven acres of fertile<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span> +land in the conquered territories—through plains of sand without a drop +of water. They murmured, and almost mutinied, but they endured, and at +length reached the banks of the Nile, at Rahmaniyeh, where a flotilla, +laden with provisions, baggage, and artillery, awaited them. The +Mamelukes, with Amurath Bey at their head, were around the French. The +invaders had to fight with enemies who came upon them in detachments, +gave a fierce assault, and then fled. As they approached the great +Pyramids of Gizeh, they found an enemy more formidable than these +scattered bands. Amurath Bey was encamped with twelve thousand Mamelukes +and eight thousand mounted Bedouins, on the west bank of the Nile, and +opposite Cairo.</p> + +<p>The French looked upon the great entrepôt, where the soldiers expected +to find the gorgeous palaces and the rich bazaars of which some had read +in Galland's <i>Arabian Nights</i>, whose tales they had recounted to their +comrades on their dreary march under a burning sun. They had to sustain +the attack of Amurath and his Mamelukes, who came upon them with the +fury of a tempest. In the East, Bonaparte was ever in his altitudes; and +he now pointed to the Pyramids, and exclaimed to his soldiers, "Forty +centuries look down upon you." The chief attack of the Mamelukes was +upon a square which Desaix commanded. In spite of the desperate courage +of this formidable cavalry, the steadiness of the disciplined soldiery +of the army of Italy repelled every assault; and after a tremendous loss +Amurath Bey retreated toward Upper Egypt. His intrenched camp was +forced, amid a fearful carnage. The conquerors had no difficulty in +obtaining possession of Cairo.</p> + +<p>Ibrahim Bey evacuated the city, which on July 25th Bonaparte entered. +His policy now was to conciliate the people instead of oppressing them. +He addressed himself to the principal sheiks, and obtained from them a +declaration in favor of the French. It went forth with the same +authority among the Mussulmans as a brief of the pope addressed to Roman +Catholics. In the grand mosque a litany was sung to the glory of "the +Favorite of Victory, who at the head of the valiant of the West has +destroyed the infantry and the horse of the Mamelukes." A few weeks +later "the Favorite of Victory" was seated in the grand mosque at the +"Feast of the Prophets," sitting cross-legged<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span> as he repeated the words +of the <i>Koran</i>, and edifying the sacred college by his piety.</p> + +<p>From the beginning to the end of July, Mr. Pitt was waiting with anxious +expectation for news from the Mediterranean. During this suspense he +wrote to the Speaker that he "could not be quite sure of keeping any +engagement he might make." It was not till September 26th that the +English Government knew the actual result of the toils and +disappointments to which Nelson had been subjected. When it was known in +England that he had been to Egypt and had returned to Sicily, the +journalists talked of naval mismanagement; and worn out captains who +were hanging about the Admiralty asking for employment marvelled at the +rashness of Lord St. Vincent in sending so young a commander upon so +great an enterprise.</p> + +<p>The Neapolitan Ministry, dreading to offend the French Directory, +refused Nelson the supplies of provision and water which he required +before he again started in pursuit of the fleet which "Cæsar and his +fortune bare at once." Sir William Hamilton was our minister at Naples; +his wife was the favorite of the Queen of Naples, and one of the most +attractive of the ladies of that luxurious court. Nelson had a slight +acquaintance with Lady Hamilton; and upon his representations of the +urgent necessity for victualling his fleet, secret instructions were +given that he should be supplied with all he required. In 1805 Nelson +requested Mr. Rose to urge upon Mr. Pitt the claims of Lady Hamilton +upon the national gratitude, because "it was through her interposition, +exclusively, he obtained provisions and water for the English ships at +Syracuse, in the summer of 1798; by which he was enabled to return to +Egypt in quest of the enemy's fleet; to which, therefore, the success of +his brilliant action of the Nile was owing, as he must otherwise have +gone down to Gibraltar to refit, and the enemy would have escaped."</p> + +<p>On July 25th Nelson sailed from Syracuse. It was three days before he +gained any intelligence of the French fleet, and he then learned that +they had been seen about four weeks before, steering to the southeast +from Candia. He was again convinced that their destination was Egypt; +and he made all sail for Alexandria. On August 1st he beheld the +tricolored flag flying upon its walls. His anxiety was at an end. For a +week he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span> had scarcely taken food or slept. The signal was made for the +enemy's fleet; and he now ordered dinner to be served, and when his +officers rose to prepare for battle he exclaimed that before the morrow +his fate would be a peerage or Westminster Abbey.</p> + +<p>The fleet of Admiral Brueys was at anchor in the bay Abukir. The +transports and other small vessels were within the harbor. Bonaparte +told O'Meara that he had sent an officer from Cairo with peremptory +orders that Brueys should enter the harbor, but that the officer was +killed by the Arabs on the way. Brueys had taken measures to ascertain +the practicability of entering the harbor with his larger ships, and had +found that the depth of water was insufficient. He was unwilling to sail +away to Corfu—as Bonaparte affirmed that he had ordered him to do if to +enter the harbor were impracticable—until he knew that the army was +securely established at Cairo. The French Admiral moored his fleet in +what he judged the best position; a position described by Nelson himself +as "a strong line of battle for defending the entrance of the bay (of +shoals), flanked by numerous gunboats, four frigates, and a battery of +guns and mortars."</p> + +<p>The French ships were placed "at a distance from each other of about a +hundred sixty yards, with the van-ship close to a shoal in the +northwest, and the whole of the line just outside a four-fathom +sand-bank; so that an enemy, it was considered, could not turn either +flank." Nelson, with the rapidity of genius, at once grasped this plan +of attack. Where there was room for a French ship to swing, there was +room for an English ship to anchor. He would place half his ships on the +inner side of the French line, and half on the outer side. The number of +ships in the two fleets was nearly equal, but four of the French were of +larger size. At 3 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> the British squadron was approaching the bay, +with a manifest intention of giving battle. Admiral Brueys had thought +that the attack would be deferred to the next morning. Nelson had no +intention of permitting the enemy to weigh anchor and get to sea in the +darkness.</p> + +<p>By six o'clock Nelson's line was formed, without any precise regard to +the succession of the vessels according to established forms. The shoal +at the western extremity of the bay was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span> rounded by eleven of the +British squadron. The Goliath led the way, and when her commander, +Foley, reached the enemy's van, he steered between the outermost ship +and the shoal. The Zealous—Captain Hood—instantly followed. At twenty +minutes past six the two van-ships of the French opened their fire upon +these vessels, but they were soon disabled. Four other British ships +also took their stations inside the French line. Nelson, in the +Vanguard, followed by five of his seventy-fours, anchored on the outer +side of the enemy. Nine of the French fleet were thus placed between the +two fires of eleven of the British ships. The Leander had not been +engaged, having been occupied in the endeavor to assist the Culloden, +which, coming up after dark, ran aground.</p> + +<p>Before the sun went down the shore was crowded with the people of the +country gazing upon this terrible conflict. When darkness fell, the +flashes of the guns faintly indicated the positions of the contending +fleets. Each British ship was ordered to carry four lanterns at her +mizzen-peak, and these were lighted at seven o'clock. Each ship also +went into action with the white ensign of St. George, of which the red +cross in the centre rendered it easily distinguishable in the darkest +night at sea. But there was another illumination, more awful than the +flashes of two thousand cannon, which was that night to strike unwonted +dismay into the bravest of the combatants of either nation. Five of the +French ships had surrendered. The Vanguard had been engaged with the +Spartiate and the Aquilon. Her loss was severe.</p> + +<p>A splinter had struck Nelson on the head, cutting a large piece of the +flesh and skin from the forehead, which fell over his remaining eye. He +was carried down to the cockpit, and the effusion of blood being very +great, his wound was held to be dangerous, if not mortal, by the anxious +shipmates around him. He was carried where his men were also carried, +without regard to rank, to be tended by the busy surgeons. These left +their wounded to bestow their care on the first man of the fleet. "No," +said Nelson, "I will take my turn with my brave fellows." Sidney, in the +field of Zuetphen, taking the cup of water from his lips to give to the +dying soldier, with the memorable words, "This man's necessity is more +than mine," was a parallel example<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span> of heroism. The Admiral did wait his +turn; and meanwhile, in the belief that his career was ended, called to +his chaplain to deliver a last token of affection to his wife. The wound +was found to be superficial. He was carried to his cabin, and left +alone, amid the din of the battle.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the cry was heard that L'Orient, the French flagship of one +hundred twenty guns, was on fire. Nelson groped his way to the deck, to +the astonishment of the crew, who heard their beloved commander giving +his orders that the boats should be lowered to proceed to the help of +the burning vessel. The Bellerophon had been overpowered by the weight +of metal of L'Orient, and had lost her masts. The Swiftsure had also +been engaged with this formidable vessel. Both had maintained an +unremitting fire upon the French flagship. Admiral Brueys had fallen, +and had died the death of a brave man on his deck. The ship was in +flames; at ten o'clock she blew up, the conflagration having lasted for +nearly an hour. When the explosion came, there was an awful silence. For +ten minutes not a gun was fired on either side. The instinct of +self-preservation, as well as the sudden awe on this sublime event, +produced this pause in the battle.</p> + +<p>Some of the French, endeavoring to get out of the vicinity of the +burning wreck, had slipped their cables. The nearest of the English took +every precaution to prevent the combustible materials doing them injury. +The shock of the explosion shook the Alexander, Swiftsure, and Orion to +their kelsons and materially injured them. None of the British ships, +however, took fire. About seventy only of the crew of L'Orient were +saved by the English boats. The battle was resumed by the French ship, +the Franklin; and it went on, at intervals, till daybreak. The contest +was sustained by four French line-of-battle ships, and four of the +English. Finally, two of the French line-of-battle ships and two +frigates escaped. Of thirteen sail of the line, nine were taken, two +were burned. Of the British, about nine hundred men were killed and +wounded. No accurate account was obtained of the French loss. The +estimate which represented that loss at five thousand was evidently +exaggerated. About three thousand French prisoners were sent on shore. +Kléber, the French general, wrote to Napoleon, "The English have had the +disinterestedness to restore everything to their prisoners."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span></p> + +<p>After the victory of the Nile, Nelson returned to Naples. He required +rest; and in the ease and luxury, the flattery and the honors which +there awaited him, he forgot his quiet home, and after a time was +involved in public acts which reflect discredit upon his previously +spotless name. At Palermo, Lord Cochrane had opportunities of +conversation with him. He says, "To one of his frequent injunctions, +'Never mind manœuvres, always go at them,' I subsequently had reason +to consider myself indebted for successful attacks under apparently +difficult circumstances." Cochrane considered Nelson "an embodiment of +dashing courage, which would not take much trouble to circumvent an +enemy, but being confronted with one would regard victory so much a +matter of course as hardly to deem the chance of defeat worth +consideration." This opinion is borne out by a letter which Nelson wrote +to his old friend, Admiral Locker, from Palermo: "It is you who always +said, 'Lay a Frenchman close and you will beat him'; and my only merit +in my profession is being a good scholar." Nelson was himself a master +who made many good scholars.</p> + +<p>M. Thiers, having described the great naval battle of Abukir with +tolerable fairness, admits that it was the most disastrous that the +French navy had yet experienced—one from which the most fatal military +consequences might be apprehended. The news of the disaster caused a +momentary despair in the French army. Bonaparte received the +intelligence with calmness. "Well," he exclaimed, "we must die here; or +go forth, great, as were the ancients." He wrote to Kléber, "We must do +great things"; and Kléber replied, "Yes, we must do great things: I +prepare my faculties." It would have been fortunate for the fame of +Bonaparte, if he had abstained from doing some of "the great things" +which he accomplished while he remained in the East.</p> + +<p>The victory of Nelson formed the great subject of congratulation in the +royal speech, when the session was opened on November 20th. "By this +great and brilliant victory, an enterprise of which the injustice, +perfidy, and extravagance had fixed the attention of the world, and was +peculiarly directed against some of the most valuable interests of the +British Empire, has, in the first instance, been turned to the confusion +of its authors."</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> The "Battle of the Baltic," April 2, 1801.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span></p> +<h2>JENNER INTRODUCES VACCINATION</h2> + +<h4><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1798</h4> + +<h3>SIR THOMAS J. PETTIGREW</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>In the advance of medical science no more famous discovery +has been made than that of vaccination, that is, inoculation +with the modified virus of a disease, thereby causing a mild +form of it, in order to prevent a virulent attack. This +treatment has in recent years been applied by the use of +various serums and antitoxins against different diseases; +but, originally and specifically, vaccination, as now +understood, is inoculation with cowpox for the prevention of +smallpox.</p> + +<p>Jenner's work in connection with the modern introduction of +this practice is fully described in the following pages. In +a more primitive manner inoculation against smallpox was +practised many centuries ago in India, China, and other +lands. The first modern accounts of it are said to have been +given by a Turkish physician in 1714. In England it was +first actually employed through the efforts of Lady Mary +Wortley Montagu, who (1716-1718) had observed it in +Constantinople, and there seen her son inoculated. The +practice soon spread through Western Europe and to North +America.</p> + +<p>Jenner's discoveries and demonstrations as to the specific +value of the vaccine virus of cowpox, which led to the +modern methods of vaccination for prevention of smallpox, +proved of such efficacy and importance that the whole credit +for this service to medical science has been popularly given +to him. But among the intelligent it detracts nothing from +his just fame to make due acknowledgment of previous work +along similar lines.</p> + +<p>There have always been some, since Jenner's time, and are +still considerable numbers of people in different countries, +strongly opposed to vaccination for smallpox, on the ground +of what they deem its unscientific and dangerous nature. But +the vast majority of medical practitioners, and of the world +at large, are convinced of its vital benefits, and in +several countries vaccination is made compulsory by the +State.</p></div> + + +<p>Edward Jenner was born on May 17, 1749. He was a native of Berkeley in +Gloucestershire, England. His father was the vicar of this place, and +his mother was descended from an ancient family in Berkshire. In early +life Jenner was deprived of his father, and the direction of his +education devolved upon an elder brother, the Rev. Stephen Jenner. He +attained<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span> a respectable proficiency in the classics, and his taste for +natural history manifested an early development; for, at the age of +nine, he had made a collection of the nests of the dormouse, and he +employed the hours usually devoted by boys to play, in searching for +fossils in the neighborhood. "No childish play to him was pleasing."</p> + +<p>Intended for the medical profession, Jenner was apprenticed to Daniel +Ludlow, of Sodbury, near Bristol, to acquire a knowledge of surgery and +pharmacy; and, after the period of his apprenticeship had expired in +1770, he went to London to complete his professional studies, and was a +student at St. George's Hospital, and a resident, for two years, in the +family of the celebrated John Hunter. The similarity of their tastes and +spirit of research will render it a matter of no surprise that he should +become a most favorite pupil. That this was the case in an eminent +degree the correspondence which was maintained between the two great +physiologists sufficiently proves. "There was in both a directness and +plainness of conduct, an unquestionable desire of knowledge, and a +congenial love of truth."</p> + +<p>Jenner was remarkable for the neatness and precision with which he made +preparations of anatomy and natural history. His dissection of tender +and delicate organs, his success in minute injections, and the taste he +displayed in their arrangement are said to have been almost unrivalled. +Hunter recommended him to Sir Joseph Banks, to prepare and arrange the +various specimens brought home by the celebrated circumnavigator, +Captain Cook, in his first voyage of discovery in 1771, and he was +solicited to become the naturalist of the succeeding expedition in the +year following; but Jenner's partiality to his native soil, and his +desire of settling in the place of his birth, were too strong to admit +of his being allured into such an appointment. He preferred the +seclusion of a country village; and to this selection do we owe one of +the greatest blessings ever bestowed upon mankind. It is not +unreasonable to suppose that the subject by which he should afterward be +known to the whole world, dwelt upon his mind with considerable force +even at this early period, for the prophylactic powers of the cowpox +were known, or rather rumored of, in a few districts, and the subject +had been mentioned by Jenner to Hunter and others, though he had not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span> +been successful in directing their attention sufficiently to the +importance of it. Indeed, he pressed this subject so much upon his +professional brethren, that, at a medical club at Redborough to which he +belonged, he was threatened to be expelled if he persisted in harassing +them with a proposition which they then conceived had no foundation but +in popular and idle rumor, and which had become so entirely distasteful +to them. It remained, therefore, to Jenner to pursue the inquiry and to +place the whole matter upon a proper physiological basis, by which it +might be rendered permanently beneficial. This inquiry was perfected +amid the labors and anxious toils attendant on the life of "a country +surgeon," with few books to consult, and little leisure to devote to +their perusal. Observation necessarily supplied the place of literary +research; the book of nature was open to his view, and it was one he was +well calculated to comprehend; it surpassed all others, and its +contemplation amply repaid the student.</p> + +<p>Of all classes of men with whom it has been the fortune of the writer of +this sketch to associate, there is none, in his opinion, so generally +and so truly amiable as the naturalists. The contemplation of nature +seldom fails to produce an elevation of character; it also begets a +sweetness of disposition flowing from a sense of what is beautiful in +creation; and the evidences of beneficence, everywhere so abundant, +soften the feelings and impart to the individual a sincere benevolence +of heart. This disposition was strikingly manifested in Jenner, to whose +affection, kindness, meekness, good-will, and benevolence so many have +borne the most ample testimony. It was no uncommon thing for Jenner to +be accompanied in his daily professional tour of many miles by friends, +who have eagerly listened to the outpourings of his mind called forth by +the beauties which in the vale of Gloucester surrounded him.</p> + +<p>His observations on the structure and economy of the various objects of +natural history were delivered with the most captivating simplicity and +ingenuity. Full of information himself, he delighted to impart it, and +was equally solicitous of obtaining a return from others. He was an +enthusiast in his devotion to nature, and he anxiously desired that all +should participate in the gratification which such a study never failed +to afford. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span> united in an especial manner a talent for the most +profound observations to a disposition most lively and ardent +distinguished by mirth, playfulness, and wit. With these powers, it is +not surprising that his society should have been much courted; and, +fully engaged as he was by the duties of an extensive practice, he yet +found time to cultivate an acquaintance with polite literature. Many +little productions of his muse have appeared in print; they were +addressed to some of his more favored correspondents, or occasionally +read at convivial meetings, and display the turn of his mind, the +benevolence of his disposition, and the liveliness of his imagination. +His best poetical productions find their subjects in natural history. +<i>The Signs of Rain</i> unites the accuracy of the naturalist with the fancy +of the poet.</p> + +<p>Jenner had nearly passed half a century before he made known to the +world his experiments and investigations relative to the vaccine +disease. His first successful vaccination was made May 14, 1769. His +ardor from an early period had been noticed, and it took its rise from +the following accidental circumstance. While a pupil with Mr. Ludlow, a +young countrywoman applied for advice. The subject of smallpox was +mentioned, upon which she observed, "I cannot take that disease, for I +have had the cowpox." This was sufficient to excite the attention of +Jenner, and the incident never escaped his recollection. It is easier to +conceive than to express the emotions which would naturally spring from +reflection on such a subject; his benevolent feelings were at once +aroused to full activity; he pictured to himself all the horrors of that +pestilential and most loathsome disease, disfiguring Nature's greatest +work, slaying thousands upon thousands, and he was yet sufficiently +young to recollect the severity of discipline to which he had himself +submitted in the process preparatory to the practice of inoculation, +which, to use his own words, in that day was no less than that of +"bleeding till the blood was thin; purging till the body was wasted to a +skeleton; and starving on vegetable diet to keep it so."</p> + +<p>The patience manifested by Jenner in the prosecution of his inquiry into +the cowpox, the scrutiny to which he subjected every appearance that +presented itself, and the fortitude with which he withstood every +untoward circumstance entitle him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span> to all praise and show forth his +great capabilities for conducting a philosophical investigation. He +divested the subject of all its difficulties and obscurities, and gave +to "vague, inapplicable and useless rumor the certainty and precision of +scientific knowledge." The extent of his anticipations upon this truly +momentous subject do not appear to have been fully stated until 1780, +ten years subsequent to his mention of it to John Hunter. He then +confidentially disclosed to his intimate friend, Edward Gardner—who +gave evidence upon the subject before the committee of the House of +Commons—the opinions he entertained upon the natural history of the +cowpox; dated its origin from the diseased heel of a horse; alluded to +the different diseases with which the hands of the milkers became +affected from handling the infected cows; distinguished that which was +calculated to afford security against the smallpox; and divulged the +hope he entertained of being able finally to eradicate that disease from +the face of the globe. Doctor Baron has recorded the remarkable words +with which this important communication was made:</p> + +<p>"I have intrusted a most important matter to you, which I firmly believe +will prove of essential benefit to the human race. I know you, and +should not wish what I have stated to be brought into conversation; for +should anything untoward turn up in my experiments I should be made, +particularly by my medical brethren, the subject of ridicule—for I am +the mark they all shoot at."</p> + +<p>Jenner's reasons for concealment did not arise from any selfish or +unworthy motive. The publicity he had always given to the subject and +the efforts he had made among his professional associates to pursue the +inquiry exclude the possibility of entertaining such a suspicion. It +arose from a dread of disappointment and the fear of failure should the +matter be brought forward in a state other than that of a maturity +sufficient to carry conviction immediately upon its promulgation. In the +course of his researches he was led to conclude that swinepox, as well +as cowpox, was only a variety of smallpox. He inoculated his eldest son +with the matter of swinepox and produced a disease similar to a very +mild smallpox. After this, the inoculation of variolous matter would +produce no effect.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span></p> + +<p>He ascertained that cowpox, as it was commonly termed by the milkers, +would frequently fail in effecting a security against the smallpox. This +led him to inquire more particularly into the variety of spontaneous +eruptions to which the teats of the cow were liable, and to discriminate +the different kinds of sores produced by them on the hands of the +milkers, and to establish the character of those which possessed a +specific power over the constitution, and those which had no such +efficacy. He found that instances occurred in which the true cowpox +failed in preventing smallpox; but nothing daunted by this apparently +fatal discovery he set about ascertaining the causes of this deviation. +He found the specific virtues of the virus to have been lost or +deteriorated so that it was rendered capable only of producing a local +affection and had no influence whatever upon the constitution; and by +the greatest ingenuity and patience of observation of the analogies +drawn from the virus of smallpox, aided by his knowledge of the laws of +the animal economy, he discovered that it was only in a certain state of +the vesicle that the virus was capable of affording its protecting +agency, and that when taken under other conditions, or at other periods, +it could produce a local disease, yet that it was not able to manifest +any constitutional effect, or afford immunity from the invasions of the +smallpox.</p> + +<p>On May 14, 1796, Jenner inserted lymph taken from the hand of Sarah +Nelmes who was infected with cowpox, into the arm of James Phipps, a +healthy boy about eight years of age. This is the first instance of +regular inoculation of the vaccine disease by Jenner. The boy went +through the disorder, and on July 1st following he had the matter of +smallpox introduced into his arm, but no effect followed. Jenner had not +before seen the cowpox but as presented on the hands of the milkers, nor +had it been transmitted from one human being to another. He was struck +with its great resemblance to the smallpox pustule. The success of this +case must necessarily have operated powerfully upon him, and have urged +him to continue the research with increased energy.</p> + +<p>His anticipations thus realized, his intentions accomplished, what must +have been the feelings of such a man as Jenner? They were suited to the +magnitude of the occasion, and mark<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span> the character of the philosopher, +distinguished as it ever was by great simplicity, benevolence, and +humility. "While," says he, "the vaccine discovery was progressive, the +joy I felt at the prospect before me of being the instrument destined to +take away from the world one of its greatest calamities, blended with +the fond hope of enjoying independence and domestic peace and happiness, +was often so excessive, that in pursuing my favorite subject among the +meadows I have sometimes found myself in a kind of reverie. It is +pleasant to me to recollect that these reflections always ended in +devout acknowledgments to that Being from whom this and all other +mercies flow." Lord Bacon said that "it is Heaven upon earth to have a +man's mind move in charity, rest in Providence, and turn upon the poles +of truth." Jenner was a striking illustration of the truth of that +remark.</p> + +<p>The modesty of Jenner was evidenced in his original intention of +submitting his observations on the cowpox in a paper addressed to the +Royal Society. Doctor Baron tells us that "when the subject was laid +before the president (the late Sir Joseph Banks), Jenner was given to +understand that he should be cautious and prudent; that he had already +gained some credit by his communications to the Royal Society and ought +not to risk his reputation by presenting to the learned body anything +which appeared so much at variance with established knowledge, and +withal so incredible." It came forth most unostentatiously, about the +end of June, 1798, dedicated to his friend Doctor Parry of Bath. Doctor +Jenner visited London in the month of April of that year, and remained +until July 14th. His object in this visit was to demonstrate the disease +to his professional friends, but such was the distrust, or apathy, felt +on the occasion, that Jenner returned to the country, without having +been able to prevail on a single individual to submit to the inoculation +of the virus.</p> + +<p>The virus Jenner brought to London was consigned to the care of the late +Mr. Cline, of St. Thomas's Hospital. This celebrated surgeon inserted +some of it, by two punctures, into the hip of a young patient with a +disease of that part of the body. This calescent mode of proceeding was +adopted with the idea of exciting a counter-irritation in the diseased +part. The intention was to convert the vesicles into an issue, after the +progress of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span> the cowpox had been observed. This idea was, however, +abandoned. Smallpox matter was afterward inserted into this child in +three places. It produced a slight inflammation on the third day, and +then subsided. The child was effectually protected against the disease. +Mr. Cline now became very sanguine as to the result and inoculated three +other children with lymph taken from the vesicles of the child, but no +evil effect ensued. The subject began to excite the attention of the +profession, and all were eager to put the matter to the test of +experiment. Mr. Cline urged Doctor Jenner to settle in London. He +promised him ten thousand pounds a year as the result of his practice. +What was his reply?</p> + +<p>"Shall I, who even in the morning of my days, sought the lowly and +sequestered paths of life, the valley, and not the mountain; shall I, +now my evening is fast approaching, hold myself up as an object for +fortune and for fame? Admitting it as a certainty that I obtain both, +what stock should I add to my little fund of happiness? My fortune, with +what flows in from my profession, is sufficient to gratify my wishes; +indeed, so limited is my ambition, and that of my nearest connections, +that even were I precluded from future practice I should be enabled to +satisfy all my wants. As for fame, what is it? A gilded butt, forever +pierced with the arrows of malignancy."</p> + +<p>That a discovery of such importance to mankind, once divulged, should +bring forth many claimants, and that its author should be subjected to +virulent attacks, is easy to be conceived. Jenner, however, never +thought it necessary to reply to unfounded and harsh aspersions, +satisfied in the strength of his own case, and feeling the justice and +truth of his own claims and position. The practice being now +established, it is unnecessary even to refer to the names of the +opponents of vaccination. Many mistakes, and some of a serious nature, +occurred to interrupt the progress of the discovery; these had been for +the most part foreseen by Jenner, and were satisfactorily explained. In +a letter to a friend, Jenner says, "I will just drop a hint. The vaccine +disease, in my opinion, is not a preventive of the smallpox, but the +smallpox itself; that is to say, the horrible form under which the +disease appears in its contagious state is, as I conceive, a malignant +variety." Again: "What I have said on this vaccine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span> subject is true. If +properly conducted, it secures the constitution as much as variolous +inoculation possibly can. It is the smallpox in a purer form than that +which has been current among us for twelve centuries past." And, in a +letter to Mr. Pruen, "I have ever considered the variola and the vaccine +radically and essentially the same. As the inoculation of the former has +been known to fail, in instances so numerous, it would be very +extraordinary if the latter should always be exempt from failure. It +would tend to invalidate my early doctrine on this point."</p> + +<p>It is not necessary here to dwell upon the fatality of the smallpox when +taken in the natural way, or to show that the mortality has been +increased by the practice of inoculation, which creates an atmosphere +for the constant propagation of the disease; these have been +satisfactorily demonstrated in evidence before the House of Commons, and +anyone may readily obtain this information. It is, however, interesting +to record the names of those who, abandoning all prejudice and +solicitous to promote a general good, submitted to the practice at its +earliest period. Mr. Henry Hicks was the first to submit his own +children to the vaccination. Lady Frances Morton (Lady Ducie) was the +first personage of rank who had her child, and her only child, +vaccinated. The Countess of Berkeley was instrumental in forwarding it; +and the children of King William IV were vaccinated by Mr. Knight.</p> + +<p>Jenner's discovery entailed upon him a most extensive correspondence, +and obliged him frequently to travel in London. His professional +engagements were not only interrupted, but almost annihilated, and his +private fortune encroached upon by such circumstances. His friends urged +an application to Parliament. A petition to Parliament was presented on +March 17, 1802, and Mr. Addington—later, Lord Sidmouth—informed the +House that he had taken the King's pleasure on the contents of the +petition and that His Majesty recommended it strongly to the +consideration of Parliament. A committee was appointed, of which Admiral +Berkeley was the chairman. A great mass of evidence was brought forward, +and many professional and other persons examined. The Duke of Clarence +gave his testimony, and manifested strongly his conviction of the +prophylactic powers of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span> vaccine disease. Much opposition was offered +to the claims of Jenner. He felt this deeply, and in a letter to his +friend Mr. Hicks, dated April 28, 1802, he writes: "I sometimes wish +this business had never been brought forward. It makes me feel indignant +to reflect that one who has, through a most painful and laborious +investigation, brought to light a subject that will add to the happiness +of every human being in the world, should appear among his countrymen as +a supplicant for the means of obtaining a few comforts for himself and +family."</p> + +<p>The committee reported, and the House voted ten thousand pounds to +Doctor Jenner. An amendment, proposing twenty thousand pounds, was lost +by a majority of three! Sir Gilbert Blane, Doctor Lettsom, and others, +feeling the utter inadequacy of this reward to the merits of the case, +proposed to raise a fund by public subscription; but it was not carried +into effect.</p> + +<p>The Royal Jennerian Society was established in 1803, and had the King +for the patron, the Queen for the patroness, and various members of the +royal family and nobility for its supporters. The design of the +institution was to vaccinate the poor gratuitously, and supply virus to +all parts of the world. It effected great good, and reduced the number +of deaths by smallpox in a very remarkable degree. But dissensions +sprang up, chiefly through the conduct of the resident inoculator +recommending practices contrary to the printed regulations of the +society, and it was virtually dissolved in 1806.</p> + +<p>Lord Henry Petty—later, Marquis of Lansdowne—was the chancellor of the +exchequer in 1806, and on July 2d brought the subject of vaccination +again before the House of Parliament. Upon this, the College of +Physicians was directed to make inquiry into its state and condition, +and a report was made on April 19, 1807. The report was highly +satisfactory as to the advantages of the practice. On July 29th the +Right Honorable Spencer Perceval,<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> being then chancellor of +exchequer, called the attention of the House to it, and moved an +additional grant of ten thousand pounds, when an amendment to double the +sum was proposed by Mr. Edward Morris, M.P. for Newport, in Cornwall,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span> +and carried by a majority of thirteen. In 1808 the "National Vaccine +Establishment" was formed, where the practice of vaccination and the +supply of lymph has ever since been continued.</p> + +<p>Foreign academies and societies enrolled Doctor Jenner in the lists of +their associates, and the medical societies of his own country were not +less anxious to adorn their roster with his name. In 1808 he was elected +a corresponding member of the National Institute, and in 1811 was chosen +an associate, in place of Doctor Mackelyne, deceased. The Empress +Dowager of Russia sent him a diamond ring, accompanied by a letter in +testimony of her admiration of vaccination. She had the first child +vaccinated in Russia named "Vaccinoff," and fixed a pension upon it for +life. The Medical Society of London presented him with a gold medal; the +Physical Society of Guy's Hospital instituted a new order of members, +under the title of "Honorary Associates," and named Jenner for the +first; the nobility and gentry of Gloucestershire presented him with a +handsome gold cup; and various other marks of consideration were +bestowed upon him as testimonies to the benefits he had conferred upon +mankind. He was chosen mayor of his native town; received the freedom of +the corporation of Dublin; the freedom of the city of Edinburgh; and +elected an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of that +city. In 1813 the University of Oxford granted him a degree of Doctor in +Physic, by a decree of the convocation. The diploma was presented him by +Sir C. Pegge and Doctor Kidd, the professors of anatomy and chemistry. +On this occasion—and a similar honor had not been conferred by the +university on any man for nearly seventy years before—Doctor Jenner +observed, "It is remarkable that I should have been the only one of a +long line of ancestors and relations who was not educated at Oxford. +They were determined to turn me into the meadows, instead of allowing me +to flourish in the groves of Academus. It is better, perhaps, as it is, +especially as I have arrived at your highest honors without complying +with your ordinary rules of discipline." The conduct of the London +College of Physicians, it is painful to remark, was not characterized by +such liberality. The majority of the fellows refused to admit him +without the usual examination.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span> Many of the fellows were anxious upon +the subject, but their wishes did not prevail.</p> + +<p>The commander-in-chief of the army, upon the recommendation of the Army +Medical Board and the Lords of the Admiralty, recommended the adoption +of vaccination in the army and navy, and the naval physicians and +surgeons presented a gold medal to Jenner for his discovery. The +practice extended itself through France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Russia, +and the United States. In the East, it overcame even the scruples of the +Hindu and the Chinese. The writer of this memoir, by the kindness of Sir +George Staunton, is in possession of a treatise on vaccination drawn up +by Mr. Pearson and translated by Sir George into the Chinese language. +It was of great use in encouraging the natives to the adoption of the +salutary practice. The King of Prussia submitted his own children to +vaccination. He was the first monarch to do so.</p> + +<p>On September 13, 1815, Doctor Jenner lost his wife. He retired to +Berkeley, and thereafter lived in retirement. He died January 26, 1823, +in the seventy-fourth year of his age, and was buried on February 3d in +the chancel of the parish church of Berkeley.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> Two years later Perceval was premier (1809-1812) and he +was assassinated in the lobby of the House of Commons, May 11, +1812.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHRONOLOGY OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY</h2> + +<h3>EMBRACING THE PERIOD COVERED IN THIS VOLUME</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1775-1799</h4> + +<h3>JOHN RUDD, LL.D.</h3> + + +<p>Events treated at length are here indicated in large type; the numerals +following give volume and page.</p> + +<p>Separate chronologies of the various nations, and of the careers of +famous persons, will be found in the <span class="smcap">Index Volume</span>, with volume and page +references showing where the several events are fully treated.</p> + + +<p>A.D.</p> + +<p>1775. Burke speaks for conciliation with America; Lord Effingham resigns +his military command rather than fight against the colonists of America.</p> + +<p>Beginning of the American Revolution: "<span class="smcap">Battle of Lexington.</span>" See xiv, <a href='#Page_1'>1</a>.</p> + +<p>Fort Ticonderoga and Crown Point surprised by Ethan Allen.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Battle of Bunker Hill.</span>" See xiv, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>.</p> + +<p>Washington appointed Commander-in-Chief by the Continental Congress.</p> + +<p>Montgomery slain in an attack on Quebec. See "<span class="smcap">Canada Remains Loyal to +England</span>," xiv, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>.</p> + +<p>All intercourse between the American colonists and Denmark interdicted +by its King, Christian VII.</p> + + +<p>1776. General Howe evacuates Boston, March 17th. British repulse at +Charleston by Colonel Moultrie.</p> + +<p>Declaration of Independence adopted by the Continental Congress, July +4th. See "<span class="smcap">Signing of American Declaration of Independence</span>," xiv, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>.</p> + +<p>Battle of Long Island; defeat of the Americans. New York occupied by the +British. Howe defeats the Americans at White Plains. Fort Washington +taken by the British November 16th. Washington successfully surprises +the Hessians at Trenton, December 26th.</p> + +<p>Riots in England to destroy machinery.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span></p> + +<p>Publication in England of the first volume of Gibbon's <i>Decline and Fall +of the Roman Empire</i>.</p> + + +<p>1777. Washington defeats Cornwallis at Princeton, January 3d. The +British burn Danbury. Ticonderoga captured by Burgoyne. Battles of +Brandywine and Germantown; defeat of the Americans. Lafayette and +Steuben arrive in America.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Defeat of Burgoyne at Saratoga.</span>" See xiv, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>.</p> + +<p>Division of the Crim Tartars into two distinct parties, the Russian and +Turkish.</p> + +<p>Execution in England of Dr. Dodd for forgery.</p> + +<p>Austria annexes Bukowina.</p> + + +<p>1778. France recognizes the independence of the United States and forms +an alliance with them. Evacuation of Philadelphia by the British. A +French fleet and army arrive in America to aid the United States. +Savannah captured by the British. Massacre of Wyoming. Congress refuses +to treat with the British commissioners.</p> + +<p>Beginning of the War of the Bavarian Succession.</p> + +<p>Cook discovers the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands.</p> + +<p>France declares war against England.</p> + + +<p>1779. Battle of Brier Creek; defeat of the Americans. Stony Point +stormed by the Americans under Wayne.</p> + +<p>Paul Jones gains a naval victory off the English coast; see "<span class="smcap">First +Victory of the American Navy</span>," xiv, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>.</p> + +<p>Repulse by the British of the Americans and French at Savannah.</p> + +<p>Spain declares war against England; Gibraltar invested by the French and +Spanish fleets.</p> + + +<p>1780. Siege and capture of Charleston by the British. First Battle of +Camden; defeat of the Americans. Treachery of Arnold, who agrees to +deliver West Point to the British. Execution of Major André. Victory of +the Americans at King's Mountain.</p> + +<p>Gordon "No Popery" riots in England.</p> + +<p>England declares war against Holland for allowing Paul Jones to take his +prizes into her harbors.</p> + +<p>Revolt of Tupac Amaru in Peru.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Joseph II Attempts Reforms in Hungary.</span>" See xiv, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a>.</p> + + +<p>1781. Battles of the Cowpens and Guilford Court House; defeat of the +British. British victory at Hobkirk's Hill. Eutaw Springs the scene of a +drawn battle. Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown. See "<span class="smcap">Siege And +Surrender of Yorktown</span>," xiv, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>.</p> + +<p>Arnold burns New London and captures Fort Griswold.</p> + +<p>Completion of the ratification of the Articles of Confederation by the +States of the Union.</p> + +<p>Continuation of the siege of Gibraltar by the French and Spanish.</p> + +<p>Institution of the first Sunday-school at Gloucester, England, by Robert +Raikes.</p> + + +<p>1782. Evacuation by the British of Savannah and Charleston.</p> + +<p>A preliminary treaty of peace between the United States and Great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span> +Britain signed by John Adams, Franklin, Jay, and Laurens. See "<span class="smcap">Close of +the American Revolution</span>," xiv, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>.</p> + +<p>Great naval victory of the British admiral, Rodney, over the French, in +the West Indies.</p> + +<p>Tippoo Sahib, in Mysore, succeeds his father, Hyder Ali.</p> + +<p>Grattan secures the independence of the Irish Parliament.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">British Defence of Gibraltar.</span>" See xiv, <a href='#Page_116'>116</a>.</p> + + +<p>1783. Peace of Paris between the United States and Great Britain.</p> + +<p>New York evacuated by the British.</p> + +<p>Peace of Versailles between Britain, France, and Spain.</p> + +<p>Catharine II seizes the Crimea for Russia.</p> + +<p>Many colonists of America settle in Canada on conclusion of the war. See +"<span class="smcap">Settlement of American Loyalists in Canada</span>," xiv, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>.</p> + +<p>Perfidious massacre of Tartars by Potemkin, Russian general and first +favorite of Catharine II.</p> + +<p>A patent granted to Henry Johnson and John Walter of the <i>Times</i> for +stereotype or logographic printing.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">First Balloon Ascension.</span>" See xiv, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>.</p> + + +<p>1784. Treaty of peace between England and Holland.</p> + +<p>Founding of the first daily newspaper in America, at Philadelphia.</p> + +<p>The scandal of the Diamond Necklace in France.</p> + +<p>In Ireland the Peep-o'-Day Boys make their appearance.</p> + +<p>Iceland for nearly twelve months desolated by an irruption of Hecla.</p> + + +<p>1785. Negotiations between the United States and Spain for free +navigation of the Mississippi.</p> + +<p>John Adams, first minister of the United States to England, received by +the King.</p> + +<p>Establishment of the Philippine Company in Spain.</p> + +<p>John Howard, English philanthropist, sets out on his travels to visit +the plague hospitals.</p> + +<p>La Pérouse, French Admiral, proceeds to explore the Northern Pacific.</p> + + +<p>1786. A negro colony sent from London to found the settlement of Sierra +Leone.</p> + +<p>Outbreak of Shay's revolt in Massachusetts.</p> + +<p>Impeachment of Warren Hastings, England, for peculation in India.</p> + +<p>Galvani makes electrical discoveries.</p> + + +<p>1787. "<span class="smcap">Framing of the Constitution of the United States.</span>" See xiv, <a href='#Page_173'>173</a>.</p> + +<p>Civil liberty taught in France by Lafayette and his companions in +America, leads to the French Revolution.</p> + +<p>Shay's rebellion repressed. Congress undertakes the government of the +Northwest Territory.</p> + +<p>Wedgwood manufactures his imitations of Etruscan ware.</p> + +<p>Swedenborg's New Jerusalem Church founded.</p> + + +<p>1788. Revolution in the Austrian Netherlands provinces.</p> + +<p>Ratification in eleven of the states of the Constitution of the United<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span> +States. Founding of Cincinnati. The members of the Society of Friends in +Philadelphia emancipate their slaves.</p> + +<p>Mental derangement of George III of England. A penal settlement formed +by the English in Australia.</p> + +<p>Louis XVI of France appoints Necker chief minister. New Assembly of +Notables; the Third Estate admitted, numbering one-half.</p> + +<p>War against Russia declared by Sweden.</p> + + +<p>1789. Washington elected President of the United States. The first +Congress under the Constitution supersedes the Continental Congress. +Inauguration of Washington at New York, April 30. See "<span class="smcap">Inauguration of +Washington: His Farewell Address</span>," xiv, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>.</p> + +<p>War in India between the English and Tippoo Sahib.</p> + +<p>A Roman Catholic episcopal see erected at Baltimore, the first in the +United States.</p> + +<p>Battle of Fokshani; defeat of the Turks by the Austrians and Russians.</p> + +<p>Meeting of the States-General of France; power is seized by the Third +Estate. See "<span class="smcap">French Revolution: Storming of the Bastille</span>," xiv, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>.</p> + +<p>Mutiny of the Bounty, English ship.</p> + + +<p>1790. Philadelphia becomes the seat of government of the United States. +Harmar makes an unsuccessful expedition against the Indians of the +Northwest Territory.</p> + +<p>First issue of French Assignats.</p> + +<p>Declaration of independence by the Belgian provinces; Congress of +Brussels convened.</p> + + +<p>1791. "<span class="smcap">Establishment of the United States Bank.</span>" See xiv, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>.</p> + +<p>Vermont admitted into the Union. Defeat of St. Clair by the Miamis.</p> + +<p>Passage of the constitutional act of Canada dividing it into Upper and +Lower Canada.</p> + +<p>Buckle-makers of England petition Parliament against the use of +shoe-strings.</p> + +<p>Guillotin introduces the machine for decapitation, bearing his name.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Negro Revolution in Haiti.</span>" See xiv, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a>.</p> + +<p>Flight of the French royal family; they are stopped at Varennes and +taken back to Paris. Insurrections in La Vendée and Brittany; massacres +at Avignon, Marseilles, and Aix.</p> + +<p>A new constitution adopted by the King and Diet of Poland, which gives +offence to Catharine of Russia.</p> + +<p>Hungary secures constitutional liberties from Leopold II; the rights of +Protestants sanctioned.</p> + + +<p>1792. Washington reëlected President of the United States. The national +mint established at Philadelphia. Admission of Kentucky into the Union.</p> + +<p>Confiscation of the property of the French <i>Émigrés</i>; a Girondist +ministry formed by Louis XVI; he is compelled to declare war against +Austria<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span> and Prussia. See "<span class="smcap">Republican France Defies Europe: Battle of +Valmy</span>," xiv, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a>.</p> + + +<p>1793. Congress passes the first fugitive-slave law of the United States. +Washington begins his second administration.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Invention of the Cotton-gin.</span>" See xiv, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Execution of Louis XVI: Murder of Marat: Civil War in France.</span>" See xiv, +295.</p> + +<p>Toulon retaken by the French from the English; Napoleon Bonaparte +commands the French artillery.</p> + +<p>Further partition of Poland; the western portion annexed by Prussia; she +also seizes Dantzic, a free city; Russia takes the more eastern +provinces.</p> + +<p>Volta makes known his galvanic battery.</p> + + +<p>1794. Battle of Maumee Rapids; the power of the Miamis broken by General +Wayne. The great Whiskey Insurrection in Pennsylvania. Jay arranges a +treaty with Great Britain.</p> + +<p>Climax of the Reign of Terror in France; fall and death of Danton; +Robespierre and the Jacobin Club both fall. See "<span class="smcap">The Reign of Terror</span>," +xiv, <a href='#Page_311'>311</a>.</p> + +<p>Victory of the English, under Lord Howe, over the French fleet.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Downfall of Poland.</span>" See xiv, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a>.</p> + +<p>Trial in England of Hardy, Horne Tooke, and others for constructive high +treason.</p> + + +<p>1795. Sale of the Western Reserve (in Ohio) of Connecticut.</p> + +<p>Holland completely conquered by the French; insurrection in Paris by the +bourgeois against the Convention; the Constitution of the year 111 +adopted; Bonaparte crushes the insurrection of Vendémiaire; government +of the Directory.</p> + +<p>Formation of the Orange Society in Ireland.</p> + +<p>Third partition of Poland.</p> + + +<p>1796. Tennessee admitted into the Union. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson +elected President and Vice-President of the United States. Publication +of Washington's Farewell Address.</p> + +<p>Bonaparte given command of the French in Italy; Sardinia submits; the +Austrians driven from Lombardy; the Cispadane Republic formed. +Unsuccessful attempt of the French on Ireland.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Rise of Napoleon: French Conquest of Italy.</span>" See xiv, <a href='#Page_339'>339</a>.</p> + +<p>Ceylon taken from the Dutch by the English.</p> + +<p>Alliance of France with Tippoo Sahib and Spain against England.</p> + + +<p>1797. Difficulties between the United States and France nearly lead to +war.</p> + +<p>Suspension of specie payments in England; naval victories of the +British, Cape Vincent, over the Spaniards, and of Camperdown, over the +Dutch.</p> + + +<p>1798. Passage in the United States of the Alien and Sedition laws.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Overthrow of the Mamelukes: The Battle of the Nile.</span>" See xiv, <a href='#Page_353'>353</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span></p> + +<p>Imprisonment of the pope and formation of the Roman republic by the +French; the Helvetian republic founded by them.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Jenner Introduces Vaccination.</span>" See xiv, <a href='#Page_363'>363</a>.</p> + +<p>Gas-lights introduced by Watt and Boulton.</p> + + +<p>1798. English expedition against Holland; capture of the Dutch fleet.</p> + +<p>Mysore taken by the English; death of Tippoo Sahib.</p> + +<p>Sugar first extracted from the beet-root by Achard.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">The Great Irish Rebellion.</span>" See xv, 1.</p> + +<p>Count Rumford discovers that heat is a mode of motion.</p> + +<p>Greathead, England, invents the lifeboat.</p> + +<p>Gradual emancipation of negroes in New York.</p> + + +<p>1799. Advance into Syria by Napoleon; repulsed from Acre; victorious +over the Turks at Abukir; he reëmbarks for France; Kléber left in +command in Egypt.</p> + +<p>Napoleon, Sieyès, and Fouché effect a change of government in France; +military force used; Napoleon first consul.</p> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Great Events by Famous Historians, +Volume 14, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREAT EVENTS, VOLUME 14 *** + +***** This file should be named 32690-h.htm or 32690-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/6/9/32690/ + +Produced by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 14 + +Author: Various + +Editor: Rossiter Johnson + Charles Horne + John Rudd + +Release Date: June 4, 2010 [EBook #32690] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREAT EVENTS, VOLUME 14 *** + + + + +Produced by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + +[Illustration: Charlotte Corday, after the assassination of Marat, +apprehended by the Jacobin mob + +Painting by J. Weerts.] + + + + +THE GREAT EVENTS + +BY + +FAMOUS HISTORIANS + +A COMPREHENSIVE AND READABLE ACCOUNT OF THE WORLD'S HISTORY, EMPHASIZING +THE MORE IMPORTANT EVENTS, AND PRESENTING THESE AS COMPLETE NARRATIVES +IN THE MASTER-WORDS OF THE MOST EMINENT HISTORIANS + +NON-SECTARIAN NON-PARTISAN NON-SECTIONAL + +ON THE PLAN EVOLVED FROM A CONSENSUS OF OPINIONS GATHERED FROM THE MOST +DISTINGUISHED SCHOLARS OF AMERICA AND EUROPE, INCLUDING BRIEF +INTRODUCTIONS BY SPECIALISTS TO CONNECT AND EXPLAIN THE CELEBRATED +NARRATIVES, ARRANGED CHRONOLOGICALLY, WITH THOROUGH INDICES, +BIBLIOGRAPHIES, CHRONOLOGIES, AND COURSES OF READING + +EDITOR-IN-CHIEF + +ROSSITER JOHNSON, LL.D. + +ASSOCIATE EDITORS + +CHARLES F. HORNE, Ph.D. + +JOHN RUDD, LL.D. + +_With a staff of specialists_ + +_VOLUME XIV_ + + +[Illustration] + +The National Alumni + +COPYRIGHT, 1905, + +BY THE NATIONAL ALUMNI + + + + +CONTENTS + +VOLUME XIV + + + PAGE + +_An Outline Narrative of the Great Events_, xiii +CHARLES F. HORNE + +_The Battle of Lexington (A.D. 1775)_, 1 +RICHARD FROTHINGHAM + +_The Battle of Bunker Hill (A.D. 1775)_, 19 +JOHN BURGOYNE +JOHN HENEAGE JESSE +JAMES GRAHAME + +_Canada Remains Loyal to England_ +_Montgomery's Invasion (A.D. 1775)_, 30 +JOHN M'MULLEN + +_Signing of the American Declaration of Independence (A.D. 1776)_, 39 +THOMAS JEFFERSON +JOHN A. DOYLE + +_The Defeat of Burgoyne at Saratoga (A.D. 1777)_, 51 +SIR EDWARD SHEPHERD CREASY + +_The First Victory of the American Navy (A.D. 1779)_, 68 +ALEXANDER SLIDELL MACKENZIE + +_Joseph II Attempts Reform in Hungary (A.D. 1780)_, 85 +ARMINIUS VAMBERY + +_Siege and Surrender of Yorktown (A.D. 1781)_, 97 +HENRY B. DAWSON +LORD CORNWALLIS + +_British Defence of Gibraltar (A.D. 1782)_, 116 +FREDERICK SAYER + +_Close of the American Revolution (A.D. 1782)_, 137 +JOHN ADAMS +JOHN JAY +BENJAMIN FRANKLIN +HENRY LAURENS +JOHN M. LUDLOW + +_Settlement of American Loyalists in Canada (A.D. 1783)_, 156 +SIR JOHN G. BOURINOT + +_The First Balloon Ascension (A.D. 1783)_, 163 +HATTON TURNOR + +_Framing of the Constitution of the United States (A.D. 1787)_, 173 +ANDREW W. YOUNG +JOSEPH STORY + +_Inauguration of Washington_ +_His Farewell Address (A.D. 1789-1797)_, 197 +JAMES K. PAULDING AND GEORGE WASHINGTON + +_French Revolution: Storming of the Bastille (A.D. 1789)_, 212 +WILLIAM HAZLITT + +Hamilton Establishes the United States Bank (A.D. 1791), 230 +ALEXANDER HAMILTON AND LAWRENCE LEWIS, JR. + +_The Negro Revolution in Haiti (A.D. 1791)_ +_Toussaint Louverture Establishes the Dominion of his Race_, 236 +CHARLES WYLLYS ELLIOTT + +_Republican France Defies Europe_ +_The Battle of Valmy (A.D. 1792)_, 252 +ALPHONSE M. L. LAMARTINE + +_The Invention of the Cotton-gin (A.D. 1793)_ +_Enormous Growth of the Cotton Industry in America_, 271 +CHARLES W. DABNEY +R. B. HANDY +DENISON OLMSTED + +_The Execution of Louis XVI (A.D. 1793)_ +_Murder of Marat: Civil War in France_, 295 +THOMAS CARLYLE + +_The Reign of Terror (A.D. 1794)_, 311 +FRANCOIS P. G. GUIZOT + +_The Downfall of Poland (A.D. 1794)_, 330 +SIR ARCHIBALD ALISON + +_The Rise of Napoleon_ +_The French Conquest of Italy (A.D. 1796)_, 339 +SIR WALTER SCOTT + +_Overthrow of the Mamelukes (A.D. 1798)_ +_The Battle of the Nile_, 353 +CHARLES KNIGHT + +_Jenner Introduces Vaccination (A.D. 1798)_, 363 +SIR THOMAS J. PETTIGREW + +_Universal Chronology (A.D. 1775-1799)_, 377 +JOHN RUDD + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +VOLUME XIV + + + PAGE +_Charlotte Corday, after the assassination of Marat, +apprehended by the Jacobin mob (page 305)_, +Painting by J. Weerts. Frontispiece + +_The Siege of Yorktown_, 108 +Painting by L. C. A. Couder. + + + + +AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE + +TRACING BRIEFLY THE CAUSES, CONNECTIONS, AND CONSEQUENCES OF + +THE GREAT EVENTS + +(THE EPOCH OF REVOLUTION) + +CHARLES F. HORNE + + +"After us, the deluge!" said Louis XV of France. He died in 1774, and +the remaining quarter of the eighteenth century witnessed social changes +the most radical, the most widespread which had convulsed civilization +since the fall of Rome. "As soon as our peasants seek education," said +Catharine II of Russia to one of her ministers, "neither you nor I will +retain our places." Catharine, one of the shrewdest women of her day, +judged her own people by the more advanced civilization of Western +Europe. She saw that it was the growth of ideas, the intellectual +advance, which had made Revolution, world-wide Revolution, inevitable. + +If we look back to the beginnings of Teutonic Europe, we see that the +social system existing among the wild tribes that overthrew Rome, was +purely republican. Each man was equal to every other; and they merely +conferred upon their sturdiest warrior a temporary authority to lead +them in battle. When these Franks (the word itself means freemen) found +themselves masters of the imperial, slave-holding world of Rome, the two +opposing systems coalesced in vague confusing whirl, from which emerged +naturally enough the "feudal system," the rule of a warrior aristocracy. +Gradually a few members of this nobility rose above the rest, became +centres of authority, kings, ruling over the States of modern Europe. +The lesser nobles lost their importance. The kings became absolute in +power and began to regard themselves as special beings, divinely +appointed to rule over their own country, and to snatch as much of their +neighbors' as they could. + +Secure in their undisputed rank, the monarchs tolerated or even +encouraged the intellectual advance of their subjects, until those +subjects saw the selfishness of their masters, saw the folly of +submission and the ease of revolt, saw the world-old truth of man's +equality, to which tyranny and misery had so long blinded them. + +Of course these ideas still hung nebulous in the air in the year 1775, +and Europe at first scarce noted that Britain was having trouble with +her distant colonies. Yet to America belongs the honor of having first +maintained against force the new or rather the old and now re-arisen +principles. England, it is true, had repudiated her Stuart kings still +earlier; but she had replaced their rule by that of a narrow +aristocracy, and now George III, the German king of the third generation +whom she had placed as a figure-head upon her throne, was beginning, +apparently with much success, to reassert the royal power. George III +was quite as much a tyrant to England as he was to America, and Britons +have long since recognized that America was fighting their battle for +independence as well as her own. + +The English Parliament was not in those days a truly representative +body. The appointment of a large proportion of its members rested with a +few great lords; other members were elected by boards of aldermen and +similar small bodies. The large majority of Englishmen had no votes at +all, though the plea was advanced that they were "virtually +represented," that is, they were able to argue with and influence their +more fortunate brethren, and all would probably be actuated by similar +sentiments. This plea of "virtual representation" was now extended to +America, where its absurdity as applied to a people three thousand miles +away and engaged in constant protest against the course of the English +Government, became at once manifest, and the cry against "Taxation +without representation" became the motto of the Revolution. + + +THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION + +Parliament, finding the Americans most unexpectedly resolute against +submitting to taxation, would have drawn back from the dispute; but King +George insisted on its continuance. He could not realize the difference +between free-born Americans long trained in habits of self-government, +and the unfortunate peasantry of Continental Europe, bowed by centuries +of suffering and submission. He thought it only necessary to bully the +feeble colonists, as Louis XIV had bullied the Huguenots by dragonnades. +Soldiers were sent to America to live on the inhabitants; and in Boston, +General Gage to complete the terror sent out a force to seize the +patriot leaders and destroy their supplies. + +Then came "the shot heard round the world." Instead of cringing humbly, +the Americans resisted. Several were shot down at Lexington, and in +return the remainder attacked the soldiers with a resolution and skill +which the peasantry of an open country had never before displayed +against trained troops. These farmers had learned fighting from the +Indians, they had learned self-reliance, and each man acting for +himself, seeking what shelter he could find from tree or fence, fired +upon the Britons, until the most famous soldiery of Europe fled back to +Boston "their tongues hanging out of their mouths like dogs."[1] + +The astonished Britons clamored that their opponents did not "fight +fair," meaning that the peasants did not stand still like sheep to be +slaughtered, or rush in bodies to be massacred by the superior weapons +and trained manoeuvres of the professional troops. Therein the +objection touched the very point of the world's advance: the common +people, the country folk of one land at least, had ceased to be mere +unthinking cattle; they acted from intellect, not from sheer brute +despair. + +Within a week of Lexington an army of the Americans were gathered round +Boston to defend their homes from further invasions by these foreigners. +The English tried the issue again, and attacked the Americans at Bunker +Hill.[2] The steady valor of the regular troops, engaged on a regular +battle-ground, enabled them to drive the poorly armed peasants from +their intrenchments. But the victory was won at such frightful expense +of life to the British that it was not until forty years had brought +forgetfulness, that they tried a similar assault in military form +against the Americans at New Orleans. The farmers could shoot as well as +think. After Bunker Hill the Revolution was recognized as a serious war, +not a mere mad uprising of hopelessness. Washington took control of the +destinies of America. Congress proclaimed its Independence.[3] + +At this period Northern America became unfortunately and apparently +permanently divided against itself. Canada, largely from its French +origin and language, had always stood apart from the more southern +English-speaking colonies. There had been repeated wars between them. +But now when England had seized possession of Canada and within fifteen +years of that event the southern colonists were fighting England, it did +seem probable or at least hopeful that all America might unite against +the common foe. + +So thought the American Congress, and despatched a force, not against +the inhabitants of Canada, but against the British troops there, to +enable the Canadians to join in the revolt. The Canadians refused; the +British forces were brilliantly handled, and the tiny American army, +totally unequal to coping single-handed against the enemy and against +the gigantic natural difficulties of the expedition, failed--failed +gloriously but totally--and only roused anew against the southland the +antagonism of the Canadians, mingled now with contempt and a growing +admiration and even loyalty toward the Britons.[4] + +Canada became a depot into which British troops were poured, and when +Lord Howe and his army had captured New York, the English Government +planned a powerful expedition to descend the Hudson valley, unite with +Howe and so isolate New England from the less violently rebellious +colonies farther south. On the success or failure of this undertaking +hung the fate not only of the new continent, but one seeing the +consequences now is almost tempted to say, the fate of the world. + +The command was intrusted to Burgoyne, an experienced and capable +general. Troops were given to him, it was thought, amply sufficient to +overbear all opposition. There was no regular army to resist him. But +the American farmers of the region rallied in their own defence, they +hung like a cloud around Burgoyne's advance, they cut off his supplies, +they became ever more numerous in his front, until at last he fought +desperate battles against them, could not advance, and was compelled to +surrender his entire army.[5] + +Instantly the war assumed a new aspect. Europe awoke to the fact that +England was engaged against a worthy foe. France, humbled in India, +driven from America, defeated on her own borders, saw her opportunity +for revenge, revenge against her hated rival. Moreover, the spirit of +freedom which had been proclaimed by Voltaire, by Rousseau, by a +thousand other voices, was awake in France; it saw its own cause, +hopeless at home, being triumphantly defended in America; and it cried +enthusiastically that the heroes should have aid. Spain, too, had sore +causes of complaint against England. So France first and then Spain made +alliance with the Americans. George III by his obstinacy had plunged his +realm into sore difficulties, had given the final blow to any possible +reestablishment of kingly power in England. + +The most immediate shock caused the Britons by the changed aspect of the +world, was given them by Paul Jones, an American naval officer. He took +advantage of the French alliance to secure a little fleet, part American +but mostly French; and with it he cruised boldly around Great Britain, +bidding defiance to her navy and plundering her shores, in some faint +imitation of the depredations her troops had committed in America. The +fight of Jones in his flagship against the English frigate Serapis has +become world-famous, and the grim resolution with which the American won +his way to victory in face of apparent impossibilities, taught the +Britons that on sea as well as on land they had met their match.[6] + +For a time the island kingdom bore up against all her foes. The most +famous of the many sieges of Gibraltar occurred; and for three years the +French and Spanish fleets sought unavailingly to batter the stubborn +rock into surrender.[7] But at last a second British army was trapped +and captured at Yorktown by the French and Americans.[8] Then England +yielded. It was impossible for her longer to undertake the enormous task +of transporting troops across three thousand miles of ocean. She needed +them at home; and many of the English people had always protested +against the fratricidal war with their brethren in America. American +independence was acknowledged, and England was left free to demand a +peace of her European foes.[9] + +The antagonisms roused by this bitter war, in which British troops had +repeatedly and cruelly ravaged the American lands and homes, were long +in fading. Canada had stood loyally by Great Britain, and the break +between the northern land and the other colonies was sharp and final. +Even throughout the States which had become independent, a portion of +the people had loyally upheld British rule; and on these unfortunates +the liberated Americans threatened to wreak vengeance for all that had +been endured. Thus came about a vast emigration of the "Tories" or +Loyalists from the new States to Canada. They brought with them the +bitterness of the expatriated, and Canada became yet more firmly +British, more "anti-American" than before.[10] + + +THE FRENCH REVOLUTION + +Of even greater influence were the consequences of the American +Revolution as affecting Continental Europe. Estimates have differed +widely as to just how much the French Revolution was caused by that +across the ocean. Certain it is that Frenchmen had been enthusiastic in +America's cause, that many of their officers fought under Washington, +and returned home deeply infused with devotion to liberty. It has long +been a popular error, encouraged by historians of a former generation, +that the French Revolution arose from a starving peasantry driven to +madness by intolerable oppression. We know better now. It was in Paris, +not in the provinces, that the revolt began. Judged by modern standards, +of course, the French peasantry were oppressed; but if we measure their +condition by that of surrounding nations at the time, by the Austrians +under kind-hearted Maria Theresa, or even by the Prussians under +Frederick the Great, most advanced of the upholders of "benevolent +despotism," in whose lands serfs were still "sold with the soil" +compared with these, Frenchmen were free, prosperous, and happy. It is +even true that the lower classes were unready for change. In Hungary, +Joseph II, son of Maria Theresa, attempted a complete and radical reform +of all abuses, and the mob rose in fury against his innovations, +compelled him to restore their "ancient customs." They had grown +familiar with their chains.[11] + +The French Revolution was an uprising of the middle classes. Its great +leaders in the earlier stages were Mirabeau, son of a baron, and +America's own friend the Marquis Lafayette. Even the King, Louis XVI, at +least partly approved the movement. The States-General was summoned in +1789 after an interval of nearly two centuries, to decide on the best +way of relieving the country from its financial embarrassments. This +gathering was soon resolved into a National Assembly which insisted on +giving France a constitution, making it a limited instead of an absolute +monarchy.[12] + +On the 14th of July the mob of Paris rose in sudden fury and stormed the +ancient state prison, the Bastille. The King sent no troops to resist +them; and from that time his power was but a shadow. His overthrow, +however, was not yet contemplated. The Revolution was still to be one of +dignity and intellect. An entire year after the fall of the Bastille, +the president of the National Assembly could still say in addressing a +deputation of Americans headed by Paul Jones: "It was by helping you to +conquer liberty that the French learned to understand and love it. The +hands which went to burst your fetters were not made to wear them +themselves; but, more fortunate than you, it is our King himself, it is +a patriot and citizen king, who has called us to the happiness which we +are enjoying that happiness which has cost us merely sacrifices, but +which you paid for with torrents of blood Courage broke your chains; +reason has made ours fall off." + +But alas! reason was soon to lose control. The lower classes had wakened +to a sense of their power, they began to use it savagely. Hatred of the +haughty aristocracy, long smoldering, burst everywhere into flame. Mobs +of country peasants plundered isolated chateaux and slew their inmates. +Meanwhile the National Assembly had been abolishing all titles of +nobility; the vast estates of the clergy were confiscated. The +aristocrats began fleeing from France, and the possessions of all who +fled were declared forfeited to the new government. + +Imagine the tumult that this upheaval caused to the rest of Europe. News +travelled slowly in those days; but these "_emigres_," these banished +nobles, were palpable evidences of what had occurred. The common folk +everywhere, especially along the French borders in Germany, Switzerland, +and Italy, celebrated the French triumph as their own. Liberty was at +hand! For them, too, it would come presently! Murmurings of revolt grew +loud. The monarchs of Europe, terrified, took up the cause of the +_Emigres_ as their own. France was threatened with invasion. King Louis +threw in his lot with his royal friends and attempted flight from Paris. +He was caught and brought back a prisoner. A foreign army marched +against France. + +This invasion was met and repelled in the Battle of Valmy (1792), not an +extensive or bloody contest in itself, but one of incalculable +importance in human history, because like Bunker Hill it showed that a +new force had arisen to upset all the military calculations of the past. +Raw troops could now be found to meet on equal terms with veterans. +Liberty, hitherto an impalpable idea, a mere phantom in the brains of a +few philosophers, proved able to call up armies at a word, able +physically to hold its own against embattled despotism. Even the German +Goethe wrote of Valmy, "In this place and on this day a new era of the +world begins."[13] + +France however had already gone mad with its success. Even before Valmy +wholesale murder had begun in Paris. The prisons were broken open and a +thousand "aristocrats" hideously butchered without trial. The day after +Valmy, the land was proclaimed a republic. King Louis was put on trial +for his life, and in January, 1793, was executed.[14] Frenchmen began +fighting among themselves. The reign of "terror" began as that of kings +was abolished. Chiefs of each faction accused all others as traitors, +and executions by the guillotine rose to fifty a day. "We must have a +hundred!" cried Robespierre, the lunatic leader of the moment. + +The excesses in Paris roused civil war, and through all France men slew +one another in the name of liberty. In Brittany the peasants even rose +in support of royalty, and refused allegiance to the republic. Never has +the most hideous brutality of man been more openly displayed than in +those days of vengeance. The intellectual classes of Europe everywhere +shrank back, terrified at the spectre they had evoked. + +The Reign of Terror ended in 1794 with the downfall and execution of its +leader, Robespierre.[15] The civil war was trampled out in blood. And +with Titanic energy the French Republic defended itself against its +foreign foes. + +All Europe had joined in a coalition against France--all the kings, that +is. Their subjects still doubted, still hoped, still looked anxiously to +France to see if freedom were in truth a possibility. Then from the +ranks of the liberated French arose great generals, aristocrats no +longer, but men of the people, fitted to lead the new-born armies of the +people. Greatest of these and grimmest of them was Napoleon Bonaparte. +He taught the timorous legislative authorities of Paris how to reassert +their dominion over "King Mob," who had ruled them and the country for +four hideous years. He checked a new uprising by a discharge of +well-stationed cannon, aimed to kill. + +Order being thus established at home, the French began to pour over the +border in attack upon those kings who had threatened them. In many +places they were still received as the apostles of liberty. Holland, +Switzerland, the Rhine lands, became allies or dependents of France. +Kings were helpless against them. To the spirit of Republicanism, to the +impassioned courage of Frenchmen, was added the genius of Bonaparte. He +conquered Italy. He plundered her and sent home priceless treasures to +delight his countrymen and fill their exhausted treasury. He became the +man of the hour.[16] + +Far beyond France spread the influence of her example. In Eastern +Europe, Poland was roused against the despoilers who had already seized +a portion of her territory. She began a rebellion under Kosciuszko, who, +like Lafayette, had imbibed the love of freedom in America. But Poland +was crushed by the overpowering forces of Russia, Prussia, and Austria. +Her remaining provinces were divided among the plunderers and the last +fragment of her independence was extinguished.[17] + +In Haiti also there was a rebellion. The negroes of the island rose +against their Spanish masters and drove them into exile. Toussaint +Louverture, often regarded as the greatest hero of his race, led the +insurgents victoriously against both Spanish and English forces, and +finally with French help established the independence of Haiti as a +negro republic. He became administrator as well as warrior. After a few +successful years he was treacherously seized and held prisoner by +Napoleon; but the monument he had erected for himself, the "Black +Republic," continued and still continues to exist.[18] + +In a period so tumultuous as was this quarter-century, one could scarce +expect that the world would make much progress in science. Men were too +intent on sterner things. There was, however, just before the beginning +of the French Revolution, one event which to a future generation may +seem more important even than to us. Aerial navigation began. The first +successful balloon ascension was made by the Montgolfier brothers, and +the sport became for a while a Parisian fad.[19] Still more noteworthy +was the employment of vaccination as a preventive against smallpox. The +system was introduced in England by Jenner in 1798, and its use spread +rapidly over Europe. More recently it has been employed against other +diseases as well, and the resultant increase in the general health of +mankind is beyond computation.[20] + + +FORMATION OF THE UNITED STATES + +Meanwhile America, the source or at least the partial source of all this +republican tumult, was having difficulties of her own. The peace after +Yorktown left her exhausted. The Articles of Confederation which had +sufficed to hold the colonies together under the stress of their great +necessity, had proven insufficient to give any real unity. Each little +colony was jealous of its own power as an independent State: and for a +time it seemed as if they must disband, that America must become like +Europe, divided into a collection of separate ever-jarring States, +devastated by constant wars. + +That this was not our own country's fate, we owe to Washington. Our +saviour in war, he became also our saviour in peace. After watching +through some years of this disorganization, he emerged from the peaceful +retirement of his country home, to urge that some means be taken to form +a more perfect union. It was largely through his instrumentality that +the convention of 1787 was called; and he presided over its labors. +Again and again it seemed as if the convention would disband in anarchy. +The antagonisms between the various delegates appeared irreconcilable. +But always there was Washington to control the flaming passions, to +insist upon moderation, upon union. And in the end that convention drew +up the Constitution of the United States.[21] + +Even then there remained the task of persuading each State to accept the +Constitution; and this also would have been impossible had not all men +looked to Washington to act as president of the new republic, to do +justice between its differing sections. Relying equally on his wisdom, +his caution, and his incorruptibility, the States intrusted to him a +power they would have conferred upon no other. + +Two years were occupied in arranging matters, and then, in 1789, the +date so memorable to France as well, the new government was organized, +Washington was inaugurated as President, and the United States began its +stupendous career as a single nation.[22] + +There were difficulties, of course. American finances seemed as +hopelessly involved as had been those of monarchical France. But this +rock upon which the French projects of reform all split, our government +escaped by the financial genius of Alexander Hamilton.[23] The natural +summons of the French that the Americans should become their allies, +should help them to win freedom in their turn, proved another source of +danger. A thousand others were not lacking. But Washington's +conservatism preserved his government through all. He proclaimed +America's well-known policy toward the European States: "Friendship with +all, entangling alliances with none." The material prosperity of the +country increased rapidly. Eli Whitney invented the cotton-gin, which +made cotton cultivation so remunerative that the South grew rich, and +also, alas, became wedded to the system of slavery under which it was +supposed cotton could best be produced.[24] + +For eight years Washington guided the destinies of the infant nation, +and then resigned his authority to one of his lieutenants. So that +really the great leader's influence continued predominant until he died +in December, 1799. Already however the more radical of Americans were +grown restive under his restraining hand. Federalism, conservatism, was +losing its control upon the national counsels, a change toward wider and +more radical democracy was at hand. + + +OVERTHROW OF DEMOCRACY IN FRANCE + +The year of 1799 saw also a great change in France, but in the opposite +direction, away from democracy and back toward absolutism. The French +government, grown rash with its marvellous victories, had dared to +despatch Bonaparte, its ablest general, on an ill-considered and +somewhat fanciful expedition to distant Egypt. There his fleet was +destroyed by the English admiral, Nelson, in the celebrated Battle of +the Nile, and he and his army were left practically prisoners in +Egypt.[25] + +Deprived of his genius at home, French military affairs went badly. +Monarchy rallied from its momentary depression. Russian troops drove the +French from Switzerland; Germans defeated them along the Rhine. The +Constitutional government in Paris was proving impracticable, its +members incompetent. Bonaparte saw his opportunity. Leaving his army in +Egypt, he escaped the British and returned alone to France. In Paris he +summoned the soldiers around him, entered the hall of the assembly, +and, much as Cromwell had once done in England, bade the wrangling +members disperse. Then he constructed a new government, which he still +called a republic. But as he himself was to be First Consul, with almost +all power in his own hands, the Government proved in reality as complete +an absolutism as that of Richelieu or Louis XIV. The first European +attempt at democracy had perished. The new century was to learn what +this suddenly risen dictator would establish in its stead. + +[FOR THE NEXT SECTION OF THIS GENERAL SURVEY SEE VOLUME XV] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] See _Battle of Lexington_, page 1. + +[2] See _Battle of Bunker Hill_, page 19. + +[3] See _Signing of American Declaration of Independence_, page 39. + +[4] See _Canada Remains Loyal to England_, page 30. + +[5] See _Defeat of Burgoyne at Saratoga_, page 51. + +[6] See _First Victory of the American Navy_, page 68. + +[7] See _British Defence of Gibraltar_, page 116. + +[8] See _Siege and Surrender of Yorktown_, page 97. + +[9] See _Close of the American Revolution_, page 137. + +[10] See _Settlement of American Loyalists in Canada_, page 156. + +[11] See _Joseph II Attempts Reform in Hungary_, page 85. + +[12] See _French Revolution: Storming of the Bastille_, page 212. + +[13] See _Republican France Defies Europe: Battle of Valmy_, page 252. + +[14] See _Execution of Louis XVI: Murder of Marat: Civil War in France_, +page 295. + +[15] See _The Reign of Terror_, page 311. + +[16] See _The Rise of Napoleon: The French Conquest of Italy_, page 339. + +[17] See _The Downfall of Poland_, page 330. + +[18] See _Negro Revolution in Haiti_, page 236. + +[19] See _First Balloon Ascension_, page 63. + +[20] See _Jenner Introduces Vaccination_, page 363. + +[21] See _Framing of the Constitution of the United States_, page 173. + +[22] See _Inauguration of Washington: His Farewell Address_, page 197. + +[23] See _Hamilton Establishes the United States Bank_, page 230. + +[24] See _Invention of the Cotton-gin_, page 271. + +[25] See _Overthrow of the Mamelukes: The Battle of the Nile_, page 353. + + + + +BATTLE OF LEXINGTON + +A.D. 1775 + +RICHARD FROTHINGHAM + + April 19, 1775, is memorable in American history as the day + on which occurred the first bloodshed of the Revolution. The + two combats of the day--that at Lexington and that at + Concord--really constituted one action, which ended in a + long running fight. As a single action, it is usually called + the Battle of Lexington. The engagement at Concord, + separately considered, is called the Battle of Concord, or + the Concord Fight. + + At both places, on that fateful day, "the embattled farmers" + faced the troops of their own sovereign, to resist what was + felt to be an unwarranted and menacing invasion of American + liberties. While the soldiers of King George were doing + their own loyal duty, the New England yeomen who "fired the + shot heard round the world" obeyed a conviction still more + compelling. Hence came the first physical struggle in what + was already an "irrepressible conflict" of principle between + Englishmen and their kinsmen on the American continent. + + The Revolutionary War was begun on the part of the Americans + for the redress of grievances for which they had exhausted + all peaceable endeavors to secure a remedy. It was afterward + successfully waged for independence. Repressive measures of + Great Britain in the colonies began with the issuance by + colonial courts of "writs of assistance." These writs + authorized officers to summon assistance in searching + certain premises under certain laws. In the first attempt to + enforce such a writ--in Massachusetts, 1761--the policy was + defeated through popular opposition, brilliantly led by + James Otis, who by a single speech produced such an effect + that John Adams said of the occasion: "Then and there was + the first scene of the first act of opposition to the + arbitrary claims of Great Britain. Then and there the child + Independence was born." + + Later grievances were those of the Stamp Act (1765), taxes + on paints, glass, etc. (1767), and the Boston Port Bill + (1774), ordering the closing of the port on account of the + rebellious acts of the citizens, especially in the + "tea-party" of December 16, 1773, when they threw into the + waters of the harbor from English ships tea valued at + eighteen thousand pounds. As early as 1770 had occurred the + "Boston Massacre," a collision between citizens and British + soldiers, which added to earlier discontents and increased + the sensitiveness to later irritations. + + The first Continental Congress, in 1774, though strongly + pacific, favored resistance to aggressions of the Crown. + During this year and the next two Provincial Congresses met + in Massachusetts, the collection of military stores was + authorized, a committee of safety was created, and the + "minute-men" were organized. + + General Gage, the British commander in Boston, denounced + these proceedings as treasonable. Parliament vainly sought + to adjust the difficulties and enforce its authority. + Conciliatory efforts on both sides failing, it soon became + evident that a conflict of arms was at hand. By April 4, + 1775, it was known in Boston that reenforcements were on + their way to General Gage. Soon after their arrival he was + ready for the movement with which the narrative of + Frothingham, a high authority on these events, begins. + + +General Gage had, in the middle of April, 1775, about four thousand men +in Boston. He resolved, by a secret expedition, to destroy the magazines +collected at Concord. This measure was neither advised by his council +nor by his officers. It was said that he was worried into it by the +importunities of the Tories; but it was undoubtedly caused by the +energetic measures of the Whigs. His own subsequent justification was +that when he saw an assembly of men, unknown to the Constitution, +wresting from him the public moneys and collecting warlike stores, it +was alike his duty and the dictate of humanity to prevent the calamity +of civil war by destroying these magazines. His previous belief was that +should the Government show a respectable force in the field, seize the +most obnoxious patriot leaders, and proclaim a pardon for others, it +would come off victorious. + +On April 15th the grenadiers and light infantry, on the pretence of +learning a new military exercise, were relieved from duty; and at night +the boats of the transport ships which had been hauled up to be repaired +were launched and moored under the sterns of the men-of-war. These +movements looked suspicious to the vigilant patriots, and Dr. Joseph +Warren sent intelligence of them to Hancock and Adams, who were in +Lexington. It was this timely notice that induced the committee of +safety to take additional measures for the security of the stores in +Concord, and to order (on the 17th) cannon to be secreted, and a part of +the stores to be removed to Sudbury and Groton. + +On Tuesday, April 18th, General Gage directed several officers to +station themselves on the roads leading out of Boston, and prevent any +intelligence of his intended expedition that night from reaching the +country. A party of them, on that day, dined at Cambridge. The +committees of safety and supplies, which usually held their sessions +together, also met that day, at Wetherby's Tavern, in Menotomy, now West +Cambridge. Elbridge Gerry and Colonels Orne and Lee, of the members, +remained to pass the night. Richard Devens and Abraham Watson rode in a +chaise toward Charlestown, but, soon meeting a number of British +officers on horseback, they returned to inform their friends at the +tavern, waited there until the officers rode by, and then rode to +Charlestown. Gerry immediately sent an express to Hancock and Adams, +that "eight or nine officers were out, suspected of some evil design," +which caused precautionary measures to be adopted at Lexington. + +Richard Devens, an efficient member of the committee of safety, soon +received intelligence that the British troops were in motion in Boston, +and were certainly preparing to go into the country. Shortly after, the +signal agreed upon in this event was given, namely, a lantern hung out +from the North Church steeple in Boston, when Devens immediately +despatched an express with this intelligence to Menotomy and Lexington. +All this while General Gage supposed his movements were a profound +secret, and as such in the evening communicated them in confidence to +Lord Percy. But as this nobleman was crossing the Common on his way to +his quarters he joined a group of men engaged in conversation, when one +said, "The British troops have marched, but will miss their aim!" + +"What aim?" inquired Lord Percy. + +"Why, the cannon at Concord." He hastened back to General Gage with this +information, when orders were immediately issued that no person should +leave town. Dr. Warren, however, a few minutes previous, had sent Paul +Revere and William Dawes into the country. Revere, about eleven o'clock, +rowed across the river to Charlestown, was supplied by Richard Devens +with a horse, and started to alarm the country. Just outside of +Charlestown Neck he barely escaped capture by British officers; but +leaving one of them in a clay-pit, he got to Medford, awoke the captain +of the minute-men, gave the alarm on the road, and reached the Rev. +Jonas Clark's house in safety, where the evening before a guard of +eight men had been stationed to protect Hancock and Adams. + +It was midnight as Revere rode up and requested admittance. William +Monroe, the sergeant, told him that the family, before retiring to rest, +had requested that they might not be disturbed by noise about the house. +"Noise!" replied Revere; "you'll have noise enough before long--the +regulars are coming out!" He was then admitted. Dawes, who went out +through Roxbury, soon joined him. Their intelligence was "that a large +body of the King's troops, supposed to be a brigade of twelve or fifteen +hundred, had embarked in boats from Boston, and gone over to Lechmere's +Point, in Cambridge, and it was suspected they were ordered to seize and +destroy the stores belonging to the colony, then deposited at Concord." + +The town of Lexington, Major Phinney writes, is "about twelve miles +northwest of Boston and six miles southeast of Concord. It was +originally a part of Cambridge, and previous to its separation from that +town was called the Cambridge Farms." The act of incorporation bears +date March 20, 1712. The inhabitants consist principally of hardy and +independent yeomanry. In 1775 the list of enrolled militia bore the +names of over one hundred citizens. The road leading from Boston divides +near the centre of the village in Lexington. The part leading to Concord +passes to the left, and that leading to Bedford to the right, of the +meeting-house, and form two sides of a triangular green or common, on +the south corner of which stands the meeting-house, facing directly down +the road leading to Boston. At the right of the meeting-house, on the +opposite side of Bedford road, was Buckman's Tavern. + +About one o'clock the Lexington alarm-men and militia were summoned to +meet at their usual place of parade, on the Common; and messengers were +sent toward Cambridge for additional information. When the militia +assembled, about two o'clock in the morning, Captain John Parker, its +commander, ordered the roll to be called, and the men to load with +powder and ball. About one hundred thirty were now assembled with arms. +One of the messengers soon returned with the report that there was no +appearance of troops on the roads; and the weather being chilly, the +men, after being on parade some time, were dismissed with orders to +appear again at the beat of the drum. They dispersed into houses near +the place of parade--the greater part going into Buckman's Tavern. It +was generally supposed that the movements in Boston were only a feint to +alarm the people. + +Revere and Dawes started to give the alarm in Concord, and soon met Dr. +Samuel Prescott, a warm patriot, who agreed to assist in arousing the +people. While they were thus engaged they were suddenly met by a party +of officers, well armed and mounted, when a scuffle ensued, during which +Revere was captured; but Prescott, by leaping a stone-wall, made his +escape. The same officers had already detained three citizens of +Lexington, who had been sent out the preceding evening to watch their +movements. All the prisoners, after being questioned closely, were +released near Lexington, when Revere rejoined Hancock and Adams, and +went with them toward Woburn, two miles from Clark's house. + +While these things were occurring, the British regulars were marching +toward Concord. Lieutenant-Colonel Smith, at the head of about eight +hundred troops--grenadiers, light infantry, and marines--embarked about +ten o'clock at the foot of Boston Common, in the boats of the ships of +war. They landed, just as the moon arose, at Phipps' Farm, now Lechmere +Point, took an unfrequented path over the marshes, where in some places +they had to wade through water, and entered the old Charlestown and West +Cambridge road. No martial sounds enlivened their midnight march; it was +silent, stealthy, inglorious. The members of the "Rebel Congress" arose +from their beds at the tavern in Menotomy, to view them. They saw the +front pass on with the regularity of veteran discipline. But when the +centre was opposite the window, an officer and file of men were detached +toward the house. Gerry, Orne, and Lee, half-dressed as they were, then +took the hint and escaped to an adjoining field, while the British in +vain searched the house. + +Colonel Smith had marched but few miles when the sounds of guns and +bells gave the evidence that, notwithstanding the caution of General +Gage, the country was alarmed. He detached six companies of light +infantry, under the command of Major Pitcairn, with orders to press +forward and secure the two bridges at Concord, while he sent a messenger +to Boston for a reenforcement. The party of officers who had been out +joined the detachment, with the exaggerated report that five hundred men +were in arms to oppose the King's forces. Major Pitcairn, as he +advanced, succeeded in capturing everyone on the road until he arrived +within a mile and a half of Lexington Meeting-house, when Thaddeus +Bowman succeeded in eluding the advancing troops, and, galloping to the +Common, gave the first certain intelligence to Captain Parker of their +approach. + +It was now about half-past four in the morning. Captain Parker ordered +the drum to beat, alarm-guns to be fired, and Sergeant William Monroe to +form his company in two ranks a few rods north of the meeting-house. It +was a part of "the constitutional army," which was authorized to make a +regular and forcible resistance to any open hostility by the British +troops; and it was for this purpose that this gallant and devoted band +on this memorable morning appeared on the field. Whether it ought to +maintain its ground or whether it ought to retreat would depend upon the +bearing and numbers of the regulars. It was not long in suspense. At a +short distance from the parade-ground the British officers, regarding +the American drum as a challenge, ordered their troops to halt, to prime +and load, and then to march forward in double-quick time. + +Meantime sixty or seventy of the militia had collected, and about forty +spectators, a few of whom had arms. Captain Parker ordered his men not +to fire unless they were fired upon. A part of his company had time to +form in a military position facing the regulars; but while some were +joining the ranks and others were dispersing, the British troops rushed +on, shouting and firing, and their officers--among whom was Major +Pitcairn--exclaiming, "Ye villains! ye rebels! disperse!" "Lay down your +arms!" "Why don't you lay down your arms?" The militia did not instantly +disperse nor did they proceed to lay down their arms. + +The first guns, few in number, did no execution. A general discharge +followed, with fatal results. A few of the militia who had been wounded, +or who saw others killed or wounded by their side, no longer hesitated, +but returned the fire of the regulars. Jonas Parker, John Monroe, and +Ebenezer Monroe, Jr., and others, fired before leaving the line; Solomon +Brown and James Brown fired from behind a stone wall; one other person +fired from the back door of Buckman's house; Nathan Monroe, Lieutenant +Benjamin Tidd and others retreated a short distance and fired. Meantime +the regulars continued their fire as long as the militia remained in +sight, killing eight and wounding ten. Jonas Parker, who repeatedly said +he never would run from the British, was wounded at the second fire, but +he still discharged his gun, and was killed by a bayonet. "A truer heart +did not bleed at Thermopylae." + +Isaac Muzzy, Jonathan Harrington, and Robert Monroe were also killed on +or near the place where the line was formed. "Harrington's was a cruel +fate. He fell in front of his own house, on the north of the Common. His +wife at the window saw him fall and then start up, the blood gushing +from his breast. He stretched out his hands toward her as if for +assistance, and fell again. Rising once more on his hands and knees, he +crawled across the road toward his dwelling. She ran to meet him at the +door, but it was to see him expire at her feet." + +Monroe was the standard-bearer of his company at the capture of +Louisburg. Caleb Harrington was killed as he was running from the +meeting-house after replenishing his stock of powder; Samuel Hadley and +John Brown, after they had left the Common; Asahel Porter, of Woburn, +who had been taken prisoner by the British as he was endeavoring to +effect his escape. + +The British suffered but little; a private of the Tenth regiment and +probably one other were wounded, and Major Pitcairn's horse was struck. +Some of the Provincials retreated up the road leading to Bedford, but +most of them across a swamp to a rising ground north of the Common. The +British troops formed on the Common, fired a volley, and gave three +huzzas in token of victory. Colonel Smith, with the remainder of the +troops, soon joined Major Pitcairn, and the whole detachment marched +toward Concord, about six miles distant, which it reached without +further interruption. After it left Lexington six of the regulars were +taken prisoners. + +Concord was described in 1775, by Ensign Berniere, as follows: "It lies +between two hills, that command it entirely. There is a river runs +through it, with two bridges over it. In summer it is pretty dry. The +town is large, and contains a church, jail, and court-house; but the +houses are not close together, but in little groups." The road from +Lexington entered Concord from the southeast along the side of a hill, +which commences on the right of it about a mile below the village, rises +abruptly from thirty to fifty feet above the road, and terminates at the +northeasterly part of the square. The top forms a plain, which commands +a view of the town. Here was the liberty-pole. The court-house stood +near the present county-house. The main branch of the Concord River +flows sluggishly, in a serpentine direction, on the westerly and +northerly side of the village, about half a mile from its centre. This +river was crossed by two bridges--one called the Old South bridge--the +other, by the Rev. William Emerson's, called the Old North bridge. The +road beyond the North bridge led to Colonel James Barrett's, about two +miles from the centre of the town. + +Dr. Samuel Prescott, whose escape has been related, gave the alarm in +Lincoln and Concord. It was between one and two o'clock in the morning +when the quiet community of Concord were aroused from their slumbers by +the sounds of the church-bell. The committee of safety, the military +officers, and prominent citizens assembled for consultation. Messengers +were despatched toward Lexington for information; the militia and +minute-men were formed on the customary parade-ground near the +meeting-house; and the inhabitants, with a portion of the militia, under +the able superintendence of Colonel Barrett, zealously labored in +removing the military stores into the woods and by-places for safety. +These scenes were novel and distressing; and among others, Rev. William +Emerson, the patriotic clergyman, mingled with the people, and gave +counsel and comfort to the terrified women and children. + +Reuben Brown, one of the messengers sent to obtain information, returned +with the startling intelligence that the British regulars had fired upon +his countrymen at Lexington, and were on their march for Concord. It was +determined to go out to meet them. A part of the military of +Lincoln--the minute-men, under Captain William Smith, and the militia, +under Captain Samuel Farrar--had joined the Concord people; and after +parading on the Common, some of the companies marched down the +Lexington road until they saw the British two miles from the centre of +the town. Captain Minot, with the alarm company, remained in town, and +took possession of the hill near the liberty-pole. He had no sooner +gained it, however, than the companies that had gone down the road +returned with the information that the number of the British was treble +that of the Americans. The whole then fell back to an eminence about +eighty rods distance, back of the town, where they formed in two +battalions. Colonel Barrett, the commander, joined them here, having +previously been engaged in removing the stores. They had scarcely formed +when the British troops appeared in sight at the distance of a quarter +of a mile, and advancing with great celerity--their arms glittering in +the splendor of early sunshine. But little time remained for +deliberation. Some were in favor of resisting the further approach of +the troops; while others, more prudent, advised a retreat and a delay +until further reenforcements should arrive. Colonel Barrett ordered the +militia to retire over the North bridge to a commanding eminence about a +mile from the centre of the town. + +The British troops then marched into Concord in two divisions--one by +the main road, and the other on the hill north of it, from which the +Americans had just retired. They were posted in the following manner: + +The grenadiers and light infantry, under the immediate command of +Colonel Smith, remained in the centre of the town. Captain Parsons, with +six light companies, about two hundred men, was detached to secure the +North bridge and to destroy stores, who stationed three companies, under +Captain Laurie, at the bridge, and proceeded with the other three +companies to the residence of Colonel Barrett, about two miles distant, +to destroy the magazines deposited there. Captain Pole, with a party, +was sent, for a similar purpose, to the South bridge. The British met +with but partial success in the work of destruction, in consequence of +the diligent concealment of the stores. In the centre of the town they +broke open about sixty barrels of flour, nearly half of which was +subsequently saved; knocked off the trunnions of three iron +twenty-four-pound cannon, and burned sixteen new carriage-wheels and a +few barrels of wooden trenchers and spoons. They cut down the +liberty-pole, and set the court-house on fire, which was put out, +however, by the exertions of Mrs. Moulton. The parties at the South +bridge and at Colonel Barrett's met with poor success. While engaged in +this manner the report of guns at the North bridge put a stop to their +proceedings. + +The British troops had been in Concord about two hours. During this time +the minute-men from the neighboring towns had been constantly arriving +on the high grounds, a short distance from the North bridge, until they +numbered about four hundred fifty. They were formed in line by Joseph +Hosmer, who acted as adjutant. It is difficult, if not impossible, to +ascertain certainly what companies were present thus early in the day. +They came from Carlisle, from Chelmsford, from Westford, from Littleton, +and from Acton. The minute-men of Acton were commanded by Captain Isaac +Davis, a brave and energetic man. Most of the operations of the British +troops were visible from this place of rendezvous, and several fires +were seen in the middle of the town. Anxious apprehensions were then +felt for its fate. A consultation of officers and of prominent citizens +was held. It was probably during this conference that Captain William +Smith, of Lincoln, volunteered, with his company, to dislodge the +British guard at the North bridge. Captain Isaac Davis, as he returned +from it to his ranks, also remarked, "I haven't a man that's afraid to +go." The result of this council was that it was expedient to dislodge +the guard at the North bridge. Colonel Barrett accordingly ordered the +militia to march to it, and to pass it, but not to fire on the King's +troops unless they were fired upon. He designated Major John Buttrick to +lead the companies to effect this object. Lieutenant-Colonel Robinson +volunteered to accompany him. On the march Major Buttrick requested +Colonel Robinson to act as his superior, but he generously declined. + +It was nearly ten o'clock in the morning when the Provincials, about +three hundred in number, arrived near the river. The company from Acton +was in front, and Major Buttrick, Colonel Robinson, and Captain Davis +were at their head. Captains David Brown, Charles Miles, Nathan Barrett, +and William Smith, with their companies, and also other companies, fell +into the line. Their positions, however, are not precisely known. They +marched in double file, and with trailed arms. The British guard, under +Captain Laurie, about one hundred in number, were then on the west side +of the river, but on seeing the Provincials approach they retired over +the bridge to the east side of the river, formed as if for a fight, and +began to take up the planks of the bridge. Major Buttrick remonstrated +against this and ordered his men to hasten their march. + +When they had arrived within a few rods of the bridge the British began +to fire upon them. The first guns, few in number, did no execution; +others followed with deadly effect. Luther Blanchard, a fifer in the +Acton company, was first wounded; and afterward Captain Isaac Davis and +Abner Hosmer, of the same company, were killed. On seeing the fire take +effect Major Buttrick exclaimed, "Fire, fellow-soldiers! for God's sake, +fire!" The Provincials then fired, and killed one and wounded several of +the enemy. The fire lasted but a few minutes. The British immediately +retreated in great confusion toward the main body--a detachment from +which was soon on its way to meet them. The Provincials pursued them +over the bridge, when one of the wounded of the British was cruelly +killed by a hatchet. + +Part of the Provincials soon turned to the left, and ascended the hill +on the east of the main road, while another portion returned to the high +grounds, carrying with them the remains of the gallant Davis and Hosmer. +Military order was broken, and many who had been on duty all the morning +and were hungry and fatigued improved the time to take refreshment. +Meantime the party under Captain Parsons--who was piloted by Ensign +Berniere--returned from Captain Barrett's house, repassed the bridge +where the skirmish took place, and saw the bodies of their companions, +one of which was mangled. It would have been easy for the Provincials to +have cut them off. But war had not been declared; and it is evident that +it had not been fully resolved to attack the British troops. Hence this +party of about one hundred were allowed, unmolested, to join the main +body. Colonel Smith concentrated his force, obtained conveyances for the +wounded, and occupied about two hours in making preparations to return +to Boston--a delay that nearly proved fatal to the whole detachment. + +While these great events were occurring at Lexington and Concord, the +intelligence of the hostile march of the British troops was spreading +rapidly through the country; and hundreds of local communities, animated +by the same determined and patriotic spirit, were sending out their +representatives to the battle-field. The minute-men, organized and ready +for action, promptly obeyed the summons to parade. They might wait in +some instances to receive a parting blessing from their minister, or to +take leave of weeping friends; but in all the roads leading to Concord, +they were hurrying to the scene of action. They carried the firelock +that had fought the Indian, and the drum that beat at Louisburg; and +they were led by men who had served under Wolfe at Quebec. As they drew +near the places of bloodshed and massacre they learned that in both +cases the regulars had been the aggressors--"had fired the first"--and +they were deeply touched by the slaughter of their brethren. Now the +British had fairly passed the Rubicon. If any still counselled +forbearance, moderation, peace, the words were thrown away. The +assembling bands felt that the hour had come in which to hurl back the +insulting charges on their courage that had been repeated for years, and +to make good the solemn words of their public bodies. And they +determined to attack on their return the invaders of their native soil. + +Colonel Smith, about twelve o'clock, commenced his march for Boston. His +left was covered by a strong flank-guard that kept the height of land +that borders the Lexington road, leading to Merriam's Corner; his right +was protected by a brook; the main body marched in the road. The British +soon saw how thoroughly the country had been alarmed. It seemed, one of +them writes, that "men had dropped from the clouds," so full were the +hills and roads of the minute-men. The Provincials left the high grounds +near the North bridge and went across the pastures known as "the Great +Fields," to Bedford road. Here the Reading minute-men, under Major +Brooks, afterward Governor Brooks, joined them; and a few minutes after, +Colonel William Thompson, with a body of militia from Billerica and +vicinity, came up. It is certain, from the diaries and petitions of this +period, that minute-men from other towns also came up in season to fire +upon the British while leaving Concord. + +The Reverend Foster, who was with the Reading company, relates the +beginning of the afternoon contest in the following manner: "A little +before we came to Merriam's hill we discovered the enemy's flank-guard, +of about eighty or one hundred men, who, on their retreat from Concord, +kept that height of land, the main body in the road. The British troops +and the Americans at that time were equally distant from Merriam's +Corner. About twenty rods short of that place the Americans made a halt. +The British marched down the hill, with very slow but steady step, +without music, or a word being spoken that could be heard. Silence +reigned on both sides. As soon as the British had gained the main road, +and passed a small bridge near that corner, they faced about suddenly +and fired a volley of musketry upon us. They overshot; and no one, to my +knowledge, was injured by the fire. The fire was immediately returned by +the Americans, and two British soldiers fell dead, at a little distance +from each other, in the road, near the brook." + +The battle now began in earnest, and as the British troops retreated a +severe fire was poured in upon them from every favorable position. Near +Hardy's hill, the Sudbury company, led by Captain Nathaniel Cudworth, +attacked them, and there was a severe skirmish below Brooks' Tavern on +the old road north of the school-house. The woods lined both sides of +the road which the British had to pass, and it was filled with the +minute-men. "The enemy," says Mr. Foster, "was now completely between +two fires, renewed and briskly kept up. They ordered out a flank-guard +on the left to dislodge the Americans from their posts behind large +trees, but they only became a better mark to be shot at." A short and +sharp battle ensued. And for three or four miles along these woody +defiles the British suffered terribly. Woburn had "turned out +extraordinary"; it sent out a force one hundred eighty strong, "well +armed and resolved in defence of the common cause." Major Loammi +Baldwin, afterward Colonel Baldwin, was with this body. At Tanner brook, +at Lincoln bridge, they concluded to scatter, make use of the trees and +walls as defences, and thus attack the British. And in this way they +kept on pursuing and flanking them. In Lincoln, also, Captain Parker's +brave Lexington company again appeared in the field, and did efficient +service. "The enemy," says Colonel Baldwin, "marched very fast, and left +many dead and wounded and a few tired." Eight were buried in Lincoln +graveyard. It was at this time that Captain Jonathan Wilson, of Bedford, +Nathaniel Wyman, of Billerica, and Daniel Thompson, of Woburn, were +killed. + +In Lexington, at Fiske's hill, an officer on a fine horse, with a drawn +sword in his hand, was actively engaged in directing the troops, when a +number of the pursuers, from behind a pile of rails, fired at him with +effect. The officer fell, and the horse, in affright, leaped the wall, +and ran toward those who had fired. It was here that Lieutenant-Colonel +Smith was severely wounded in the leg. At the foot of this hill a +personal contest between James Hayward, of Acton, and a British soldier +took place. The Briton drew up his gun, remarking, "You are a dead man!" +"And so are you!" answered Hayward. The former was killed. Hayward was +mortally wounded and died the next day. + +The British troops, when they arrived within a short distance of +Lexington Meeting-house, again suffered severely from the close pursuit +and the sharp fire of the Provincials. Their ammunition began to fail, +while their light companies were so fatigued as to be almost unfitted +for service. The large number of wounded created confusion, and many of +the troops rather ran than marched in order. For some time the officers +in vain tried to restore discipline. They saw the confusion increase +under their efforts, until, at last, they placed themselves in front, +and threatened the men with death if they advanced. This desperate +exertion, made under a heavy fire, partially restored order. The +detachment, however, must have soon surrendered had it not in its +extreme peril found shelter in the hollow square of a reenforcement sent +to their relief. + +General Gage received, early in the morning, a request from Colonel +Smith for a reenforcement. About nine o'clock he detached three +regiments of infantry and two divisions of marines, with two +field-pieces, under Lord Percy, to support the grenadiers and light +infantry. Lord Percy marched through Roxbury, to the tune of _Yankee +Doodle_ to the great alarm of the country. To prevent or to impede his +march, the select-men of Cambridge had the planks of the Old bridge, +over which he was obliged to pass, taken up; but instead of being +removed, they were piled on the causeway on the Cambridge side of the +river. Hence Lord Percy found no difficulty in replacing them so as to +admit his troops to cross. But a convoy of provisions was detained until +it was out of the protection of the main body. This was captured at West +Cambridge. According to Gordon, Rev. Dr. Payson led this party. David +Lamson, a half-Indian, distinguished himself in the affair. Percy's +brigade met the harassed and retreating troops about two o'clock, within +half a mile of Lexington Meeting-house. "They were so much exhausted +with fatigue," the British historian Stedman writes, "that they were +obliged to lie down for rest on the ground, their tongues hanging out of +their mouths like those of dogs after a chase." The field-pieces from +the high ground below Monroe's Tavern played on the Provincials, and for +a short period there was, save the discharge of cannon, a cessation of +battle. From this time, however, the troops committed the most wanton +destruction. Three houses, two shops, and a barn were laid in ashes in +Lexington; buildings on the route were defaced and plundered, and +individuals were grossly abused. + +At this time, Dr. Warren and General Heath were active in the field, +directing and encouraging the militia. General Heath was one of the +generals who were authorized to take the command when the minute-men +should be called out. On his way to the scene of action he ordered the +militia of Cambridge to make a barricade of the planks of the bridge, +take post there, and oppose the retreat of the British in that direction +from Boston. At Lexington, when the minute-men were somewhat checked and +scattered by Percy's field-pieces, he labored to form them into military +order. Dr. Warren, about ten o'clock, rode on horseback through +Charlestown. He had received by express intelligence of the events of +the morning, and told the citizens of Charlestown that the news of the +firing was true. Among others he met Dr. Welsh, who said, "Well, they +are gone out." "Yes," replied the doctor, "and we'll be up with them +before night." + +Lord Percy had now under his command about eighteen hundred troops of +undoubted bravery and of veteran discipline. He evinced no disposition, +however, to turn upon his assailants and make good the insulting boasts +of his associates. After a short interval of rest and refreshment the +British recommenced their retreat. Then the Provincials renewed their +attack. In West Cambridge the skirmishing again became sharp and bloody +and the troops increased their atrocities. Jason Russell, an invalid and +a noncombatant, was barbarously butchered in his own house. In this town +a mother was killed while nursing her child. Others were driven from +their dwellings, and their dwellings were pillaged. Here the Danvers +company, which marched in advance of the Essex regiment, met the enemy. +Some took post in a walled enclosure, and made a breastwork of bundles +of shingles; others planted themselves behind trees on the side of the +hill west of the meeting-house. The British came along in solid column +on their right, while a large flank guard came up on their left. The +Danvers men were surrounded, and many were killed and wounded. Here +Samuel Whittemore was shot and bayoneted, and left for dead. Here Dr. +Eliphalet Downer, in single combat with a soldier, killed him with a +bayonet. Here a musket-ball struck a pin out of the hair of Dr. Warren's +earlock. + +The wanton destruction of life and property that marked the course of +the invaders added revenge to the natural bravery of the minute-men. +"Indignation and outraged humanity struggled on the one hand; veteran +discipline and desperation on the other." The British had many struck in +West Cambridge, and left an officer wounded in the house still standing +at the rail-road depot. The British troops took the road that winds +round Prospect hill. When they entered this part of Charlestown their +situation was critical. The large numbers of the wounded proved a +distressing obstruction to their progress, while they had but few rounds +of ammunition left. Their field-pieces had lost their terror. The main +body of the Provincials hung closely on their rear; a strong force was +advancing upon them from Roxbury, Dorchester, and Milton; while Colonel +Pickering, with the Essex militia, seven hundred strong, threatened to +cut off their retreat to Charlestown. + +Near Prospect hill the fire again became sharp and the British again had +recourse to their field-pieces. James Miller, of Charlestown, was killed +here. Along its base, Lord Percy, it is stated, received the hottest +fire he had during his retreat. General Gage, about sunset, might have +beheld his harassed troops, almost on the run, coming down the old +Cambridge road to Charlestown Neck, anxious to get under the protection +of the guns of the ships-of-war. The minute-men closely followed, but, +when they reached the Charlestown Common, General Heath ordered them to +stop the pursuit. + +Charlestown, throughout the day, presented a scene of intense excitement +and great confusion. It was known early in the morning that the regulars +were out. Rumors soon arrived of the events that had occurred at +Lexington. The schools were dismissed, and citizens gathered in groups +in the streets. After Dr. Warren rode through the town, and gave the +certain intelligence of the slaughter at Lexington, a large number went +out to the field, and the greater part who remained were women and +children. Hon. James Russell received, in the afternoon, a note from +General Gage to the effect that he had been informed that citizens had +gone out armed to oppose his majesty's troops, and that if a single man +more went out armed the most disagreeable consequences might be +expected. It was next reported, and correctly, that Cambridge bridge had +been taken up, and that hence the regulars would be obliged to return to +Boston through the town. Many then prepared to leave, and every vehicle +was employed to carry away their most valuable effects. Others, however, +still believing the troops would return the way they went out, +determined to remain, and in either event to abide the worst. Just +before sunset the noise of distant firing was heard, and soon the +British troops were seen in the Cambridge road. + +The inhabitants then rushed toward the neck. Some crossed Mystic River, +at Penny Ferry. Some ran along the marsh, toward Medford. The troops, +however, soon approached the town, firing as they came along. A lad, +Edward Barber, was killed on the neck. The inhabitants then turned back +into the town panic-stricken. + +Word ran through the crowd that "the British were massacring the women +and children!" Some remained in the streets, speechless with terror; +some ran to the clay-pits, back of Breed's Hill, where they passed the +night. The troops, however, offered no injury to the inhabitants. Their +officers directed the women and children, half-distracted with fright, +to go into their houses, and they would be safe, but requested them to +hand out drink to the troops. The main body occupied Bunker Hill, and +formed a line opposite the neck. Additional troops also were sent over +from Boston. The officers flocked to the tavern in the square, where the +cry was for drink. Guards were stationed in various parts of the town. +One was placed at the neck, with orders to permit no one to go out. +Everything, during the night, was quiet. Some of the wounded were +carried over immediately, in the boats of the Somerset, to Boston. +General Pigot had the command in Charlestown the next day, when the +troops all returned to their quarters. + +The Americans lost forty-nine killed, thirty-nine wounded, and five +missing. A committee of the Provincial Congress estimated the value of +the property destroyed by the ravages of the troops to be: In Lexington, +L1761 15s. 5d.; in Concord, L274 16s. 7d.; in Cambridge, L1202 8s. 7d. +Many petitions of persons who engaged the enemy on this day are on file. +They lost guns or horses or suffered other damage. The General Court +indemnified such losses. + +The British lost seventy-three killed, one hundred seventy-four wounded, +and twenty-six missing--the most of whom were taken prisoners. Of these, +eighteen were officers, ten sergeants, two drummers, and two hundred +forty were rank and file. Lieutenant Hall, wounded at the North bridge, +was taken prisoner on the retreat, and died the next day. His remains +were delivered to General Gage. Lieutenant Gould was wounded at the +bridge, and taken prisoner, and was exchanged, May 28th, for Josiah +Breed, of Lynn. He had a fortune of one thousand nine hundred pounds a +year, and is said to have offered two thousand pounds for his ransom. +The prisoners were treated with great humanity, and General Gage was +notified that his own surgeons, if he desired it, might dress the +wounded. + + + + +BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL + +A.D. 1775 + +JOHN BURGOYNE JOHN H. JESSE JAMES GRAHAME + + This action, which took place about two months after the + Battle of Lexington, though resulting in the physical defeat + of the Americans, proved for them a moral victory. As at + Lexington and Concord, the colonial soldiers showed that + they were prepared to stand their ground in defence of the + cause which called them to arms, and Bunker Hill became a + watchword of the Revolution. This event also made it clear + that the contest must be fought out. Thenceforth the two + sides in the war were sharply defined. + + The immediate occasion of this battle was the necessity, as + seen by the British general, Gage, of driving the Americans + from an eminence commanding Boston. This elevation was one + of several hills on a peninsula just north of the town and + running out into the harbor. It was the intention of the + Americans to seize and fortify Bunker Hill, but for some + unexplained reason they took Breed's Hill, much nearer + Boston, and there the battle was mainly fought. Breed's Hill + is now usually called Bunker Hill, and upon it stands the + Bunker Hill monument. + + The following accounts of the battle are all from British + writers; one is that of the English officer General + Burgoyne, who was afterward defeated at Saratoga; another is + by the English historical author Jesse, whose best work + covers the reign of George III. The third is from James + Grahame, a native of Glasgow, Scotland, who died in 1842, of + whose _History of America_ a high authority says: "The + thoroughly American spirit in which it is written prevented + the success of the book in England." The historian Prescott + gave it high praise for accuracy and fairness. + + +JOHN BURGOYNE + +Now ensued one of the greatest scenes of war that can be conceived. If +we look to the height, Howe's corps, ascending the hill in face of +intrenchments, and in a very disadvantageous ground, was much engaged; +to the left the enemy, pouring in fresh troops by thousands over the +land; and in the arm of the sea our ships and floating batteries, +cannonading them. Straight before us a large and noble town[26] in one +great blaze; and the church-steeples, being timber, were great pyramids +of fire above the rest. Behind us the church-steeples and heights of our +own camp covered with spectators of the rest of our army which was +engaged; the hills round the country also covered with spectators; the +enemy all in anxious suspense; the roar of cannon, mortars, and +musketry; the crash of churches, ships upon the stocks, and whole +streets falling together, to fill the ear; the storm of the redoubts, +with the objects above described, to fill the eye; and the reflection +that perhaps a defeat was a final loss to the British empire of America, +to fill the mind, made the whole a picture and a complication of horror +and importance beyond anything that ever came to my lot to witness. + + +JOHN HENEAGE JESSE + +About 11 P.M. on June 16th a detachment of about a thousand men, who had +previously joined solemnly together in prayer, ascended silently and +stealthily a part of the heights known as Bunker Hill, situated within +cannon range of Boston and commanding a view of every part of the town. +This brigade was composed chiefly of husbandmen, who wore no uniform, +and who were armed with fowling-pieces only, unequipped with bayonets. +The person selected to command them on this daring service was one of +the lords of the soil of Massachusetts, William Prescott, of Pepperell, +the colonel of a Middlesex regiment of militia. "For myself," he said to +his men, "I am resolved never to be taken alive." Preceded by two +sergeants bearing dark-lanterns, and accompanied by his friends, Colonel +Gridley and Judge Winthrop, the gallant Prescott, distinguished by his +tall and commanding figure, though simply attired in his ordinary calico +smock-frock, calmly and resolutely led the way to the heights. Those who +followed him were not unworthy of their leader. + +It was half-past eleven before the engineers commenced drawing the lines +of the redoubt. As the first sod was being upturned, the clocks of +Boston struck twelve. More than once during the night--which happened to +be a beautifully calm and starry one--Colonel Prescott descended to the +shore, where the sound of the British sentinels walking their rounds, +and their exclamations of "All's well!" as they relieved guard, +continued to satisfy him that they entertained no suspicion of what was +passing above their heads. Before daybreak the Americans had thrown up +an intrenchment, which extended from the Mystic to a redoubt on their +left. The astonishment of Gage, when on the following morning he found +this important site in the hands of the enemy, may be readily conceived. +Obviously not a moment was to be lost in attempting to dislodge them; +and accordingly a detachment, under General Howe, was at once ordered on +this critical service. + +In the mean time a heavy cannonade, first of all from the Lively +(sloop-of-war), and afterward from a battery of heavy guns from Copp's +hill, in Boston, was opened upon the Americans. Exposed, however, as +they were to a storm of shot and shell, unaccustomed, as they also were, +to face an enemy's fire, they nevertheless pursued their operations with +the calm courage of veteran soldiers. + +Late in the day, indeed, when the scorching sun rose high in the +cloudless heavens, when the continuous labors of so many hours +threatened to prostrate them, and when they waited, but waited in vain, +for provisions and refreshments, the hearts of a few began to fail them, +and the word retreat was suffered to escape from their lips. There was +among them, however, a master spirit, whose cheering words and +chivalrous example never failed to restore confidence. On the +spot--where now a lofty column, overlooking the fair landscape and calm +waters, commemorates the events of that momentous day--was then seen, +conspicuous above the rest, the form of Prescott of Pepperell, in his +calico frock, as he paced the parapet to and fro, instilling resolution +into his followers by the contempt which he manifested for danger, and +amid the hottest of the British fire delivering his orders with the same +serenity as if he had been on parade. "Who is that person?" inquired +Governor Gage of a Massachusetts gentleman, as they stood reconnoitring +the American works from the opposite side of the river Charles. "My +brother-in-law, Colonel Prescott," was the reply. "Will he fight?" asked +Gage. "Ay," said the other, "to the last drop of his blood." + +It was after 3 P.M. when General Howe's detachment, consisting of about +two thousand men, landed at Charlestown and formed for the attack. +Prescott's instructions to his men, as the British approached, were +sufficiently brief. "The red-coats," he said, "will never reach the +redoubt if you will but withhold your fire till I give the order, and be +careful not to shoot over their heads." In the mean time, ascending the +hill under the protection of a heavy cannonade, the British infantry had +advanced unmolested to within a few yards of the enemy's works, when +Prescott gave the word "Fire!" So promptly and effectually were his +orders obeyed that nearly the whole front rank of the British fell. +Volley after volley was now opened upon them from behind the +intrenchments, till at length even the bravest began to waver and fall +back; some of them, in spite of the threats and passionate entreaties of +their officers, even retreating to the boats. + +Minutes, many minutes apparently, elapsed before the British troops were +rallied and returned to the attack, exposed to the burning rays of the +sun, encumbered with heavy knapsacks containing provisions for three +days, compelled to toil up very disadvantageous ground with grass +reaching to their knees, clambering over rails and hedges, and led +against men who were fighting from behind intrenchments and constantly +receiving reenforcements by hundreds--few soldiers, perhaps, but British +infantry would have been prevailed upon to renew the conflict. Again, +however, they advanced to the charge; again, when within five or six +rods of the redoubt, the same tremendous discharge of musketry was +opened upon them; and again, in spite of many heroic examples of +gallantry set them by their officers, they retreated in the same +disorder as before. + +By this time the grenadiers and light infantry had lost three-fourths of +their men; some companies had only eight or nine men left, one or two +had even fewer. When the Americans looked forth from their intrenchments +the ground was literally covered with the wounded and dead. According to +an American who was present, "the dead lay as thick as sheep in a fold." +For a few seconds General Howe was left almost alone. Nearly every +officer of his staff had been either killed or wounded. The Americans, +who have done honorable justice to his gallantry, remarked that, +conspicuous as he stood in his general officer's uniform, it was a +marvel that he escaped unhurt. He retired, but it was with the stern +resolve of a hero to rally his men--to return and vanquish. + +The third and last attack made by General Howe upon the enemy's +intrenchments appears to have taken place after a considerably longer +interval than the previous one. This interval was employed by Prescott +in addressing words of confidence and exhortation to his followers, to +which their cheers returned an enthusiastic response. "If we drive them +back once more," he said, "they cannot rally again." General Howe, in +the mean time, by disencumbering his men of their knapsacks, and by +bringing the British artillery to play so as to rake the interior of the +American breastwork, had greatly enhanced his chances of success. Once +more, at the word of command, in steady unbroken line, the British +infantry mounted to the deadly struggle; once more the cheerful voice of +Prescott exhorted his men to reserve their fire till their enemies were +close upon them; once more the same deadly fire was poured down upon the +advancing royalists. Again on their part there was a struggle, a pause, +an indication of wavering; but on this occasion it was only momentary. +Onward and headlong against breastwork and against vastly superior +numbers dashed the British infantry, with a heroic devotion never +surpassed in the annals of chivalry. Almost in a moment of time, in +spite of a second volley as destructive as the first, the ditch was +leaped and the parapet mounted. + +In that final charge fell many of the bravest of the brave. Of the +Fifty-second regiment alone, three captains, the moment they stood on +the parapet, were shot down. Still the English infantry continued to +pour forward, flinging themselves among the American militiamen, who met +them with a gallantry equal to their own. The powder of the latter +having by this time become nearly exhausted, they endeavored to force +back their assailants with the butt-ends of their muskets. But the +British bayonets carried all before them. Then it was, when further +resistance was evidently fruitless, and not till then, that the heroic +Prescott gave the order to retire. From the nature of the ground it was +necessarily more a flight than a retreat. Many of the Americans, +leaping over the walls of the parapet, attempted to fight their way +through the British troops; while the majority endeavored to escape by +the narrow entrance to the redoubt. In consequence of the fugitives +being thus huddled together, the slaughter became terrific. + +"Nothing," writes a young British officer, who was engaged in the +_melee_, "could be more shocking than the carnage that followed the +storming of this work. We tumbled over the dead to get at the living, +who were crowding out of the gap of the redoubt, in order to form under +the defences which they had prepared to cover their retreat." Prescott +was one of the last to quit the scene of slaughter. Although more than +one British bayonet had pierced his clothes, he escaped without a wound. + +That night the British intrenched themselves on the heights, lying down +in front of the recent scene of contest. The loss in killed and wounded +was ten hundred fifty-four. According to the American account their loss +was one hundred forty-five killed and three hundred four wounded; of +their six pieces of artillery, they only succeeded in carrying off one. + +Such was the result of the famous Battle of Bunker Hill, a contest from +which Great Britain derived little advantage beyond the credit of having +achieved a brilliant passage of arms, but which, on the other hand, +produced the significant effect of manifesting, not only to the +Americans themselves, but to Europe, that the colonists could fight with +a steadiness and courage which ere long might render them capable of +coping with the disciplined troops of the mother-country. + + +JAMES GRAHAME + +About the latter part of May, a great part of the reenforcements ordered +from Great Britain arrived at Boston. Three British generals, Howe, +Burgoyne, and Clinton, whose behavior in the preceding war had gained +them great reputation, arrived about the same time. General Gage, thus +reenforced, prepared for acting with more decision; but before he +proceeded to extremities, he conceived it due to ancient forms to issue +a proclamation, holding forth to the inhabitants the alternative of +peace or war. He therefore offered pardon, in the King's name, to all +who should forthwith lay down their arms and return to their respective +occupations and peaceable duties: excepting only from the benefit of +that pardon "Samuel Adams and John Hancock, whose offences were said to +be of too flagitious a nature to admit of any other consideration than +that of condign punishment." He also proclaimed that not only the +persons above named and excepted, but also all their adherents, +associates, and correspondents, should be deemed guilty of treason and +rebellion, and treated accordingly. By this proclamation it was also +declared "that as the courts of judicature were shut, martial law should +take place till a due course of justice should be reestablished." + +It was supposed that this proclamation was a prelude to hostilities; and +preparations were accordingly made by the Americans. A considerable +height, by the name of Bunker Hill, just at the entrance of the +peninsula of Charlestown, was so situated as to make the possession of +it a matter of great consequence to either of the contending parties. +Orders were therefore issued, by the provincial commanders, that a +detachment of a thousand men should intrench upon this height. By some +mistake, Breed's Hill, high and large like the other, but situated +nearer Boston, was marked out for the intrenchments, instead of Bunker +Hill. The provincials proceeded to Breed's Hill and worked with so much +diligence that between midnight and the dawn of the morning they had +thrown up a small redoubt about eight rods square. They kept such a +profound silence that they were not heard by the British, on board their +vessels, though very near. These having derived their first information +of what was going on from the sight of the works, early completed, began +an incessant firing upon them. + +The provincials bore this with firmness, and, though they were only +young soldiers, continued to labor till they had thrown up a small +breastwork extending from the east side of the redoubt to the bottom of +the hill. As this eminence overlooked Boston, General Gage thought it +necessary to drive the provincials from it. About noon, therefore, he +detached Major-General Howe and Brigadier-General Pigot, with the flower +of his army, consisting of four battalions, ten companies of the +grenadiers and ten of light infantry, with a proportion of field +artillery, to effect this business. These troops landed at Moreton's +Point, and formed after landing, but remained in that position till +they were reenforced by a second detachment of light infantry and +grenadier companies, a battalion of land forces, and a battalion of +marines, making in the whole nearly three thousand men. While the troops +who first landed were waiting for this reenforcement, the provincials, +for their further security, pulled up some adjoining post and rail +fences, and set them down in two parallel lines at a small distance from +each other, and filled the space between with hay, which, having been +lately mowed, was found lying on the adjacent ground. + +The King's troops formed in two lines, and advanced slowly to give their +artillery time to demolish the American works. While the British were +advancing to the attack they received orders to burn Charlestown. These +were not given because they were fired upon from the houses in that +town, but from the military policy of depriving enemies of a cover in +their approaches. In a short time this ancient town, consisting of about +five hundred buildings, chiefly of wood, was in one great blaze. The +lofty steeple of the meeting-house formed a pyramid of fire above the +rest, and struck the astonished eyes of numerous beholders with a +magnificent but awful spectacle. In Boston the heights of every kind +were covered with citizens, and such of the King's troops as were not on +duty. The hills around the adjacent country, which afforded a safe and +distinct view, were occupied by the inhabitants of the country. + +Thousands, both within and without Boston, were anxious spectators of +the bloody scene. Regard for the honor of the British army caused hearts +to beat high in the breasts of many; while others, with keener +sensibilities, sorrowed for the liberties of a great and growing +country. The British moved on slowly, which gave the provincials a +better opportunity for taking aim. The latter, in general, reserved +their fire until their adversaries were within ten or twelve rods, and +then began a furious discharge of small arms. The stream of the American +fire was so incessant, and did so great execution, that the King's +troops retreated with precipitation and disorder. Their officers rallied +them and pushed them forward with their swords; but they returned to the +attack with great reluctance. The Americans again reserved their fire +till their adversaries were near, and then put them a second time to +flight. General Howe and the officers redoubled their exertions, and +were again successful, though the soldiers displayed a great aversion to +going on. By this time the powder of the Americans began so far to fail +that they were not able to keep up the same brisk fire. The British then +brought some cannon to bear, which raked the inside of the breastwork +from end to end. The fire from the ships, batteries, and field artillery +was redoubled; the soldiers in the rear were goaded on by their +officers. The redoubt was attacked on three sides at once. Under these +circumstances a retreat from it was ordered, but the provincials delayed +so long, and made resistance with their discharged muskets as if they +had been clubs, that the King's troops, who had easily mounted the +works, half filled the redoubt before it was given up to them. + +While these operations were going on at the breastwork and redoubt, the +British light infantry were attempting to force the left point of the +former, that they might take the American line in flank. Though they +exhibited the most undaunted courage, they met with an opposition which +called for its greatest exertions. The provincials reserved their fire +till their adversaries were near, and then discharged it upon the light +infantry in such an incessant stream, and with so true an aim, as that +it quickly thinned their ranks. The engagement was kept up on both sides +with great resolution. The persevering exertions of the King's troops +could not compel the Americans to retreat till they observed that their +main body had left the hill. This, when begun, exposed them to new +dangers; for it could not be effected but by marching over Charlestown +Neck, every part of which was raked by the shot of the Glasgow +(man-of-war) and of two floating batteries. The incessant fire kept up +across the Neck prevented any considerable reenforcement from joining +their countrymen who were engaged; but the few who fell on their retreat +over the same ground proved that the apprehensions of those provincial +officers, who declined passing over to succor their companies, were +without any solid foundation. + +The number of Americans engaged amounted only to fifteen hundred. It was +apprehended that the conquerors would push the advantage they had +gained, and march immediately to American head-quarters at Cambridge; +but they advanced no farther than Bunker Hill. There they threw up +works for their own security. The provincials did the same, on Prospect +Hill, in front of them. Both were guarding against an attack; and both +were in a bad condition to receive one. The loss of the peninsula +depressed the spirits of the Americans; and the great loss of men +produced the same effect on the British. There have been few battles in +modern wars in which, all circumstances considered, there was a greater +destruction of men than in this short engagement. + +The loss of the British, as acknowledged by General Gage, amounted to +one thousand fifty-four. Nineteen commissioned officers were killed and +seventy more were wounded. The Battle of Quebec, in 1759, which gave +Great Britain the colony of Canada, was not so destructive to British +officers as this affair of a slight intrenchment, the work only of a few +hours. That the officers suffered so much must be imputed to their being +aimed at. None of the provincials in this engagement were riflemen, but +they were all good marksmen. The whole of their previous military +knowledge had been derived from hunting and the ordinary amusements of +sportsmen. The dexterity which by long habit they had acquired in +hitting beast, birds, and marks, was fatally applied to the destruction +of British officers. From their fall, much confusion was expected. They +were therefore particularly singled out. Most of those who were near the +person of General Howe were either killed or wounded; but the General, +though he greatly exposed himself, was unhurt. The light infantry and +grenadiers lost three-fourths of their men. Of one company not more than +five, and of another not more than fourteen, escaped. + +The unexpected resistance of the Americans was such as wiped away the +reproach of cowardice, which had been cast upon them by their enemies in +Britain. The spirited conduct of the British officers merited and +obtained great applause; but the provincials were justly entitled to a +large share of the glory for having made the utmost exertions of their +adversaries necessary to dislodge them from lines which were the work of +only a single night. + +The Americans lost five pieces of cannon. Their killed amounted to one +hundred thirty-nine; their wounded and missing, to three hundred +fourteen. Thirty of the former fell into the hands of the conquerors. +They particularly regretted the death of General Warren. To the purest +patriotism and most undaunted bravery he added the virtues of domestic +life, the eloquence of an accomplished orator, and the wisdom of an able +statesman. Only a regard for the liberty of his country induced him to +oppose the measures of Government. He aimed not at a separation from, +but a coalition with, the mother-country. + +The burning of Charlestown, though a place of great trade, did not +discourage the provincials. It excited resentment and execration, but +not any disposition to submit. Such was the high-strung state of the +public mind, and so great the indifference of property when put in +competition with liberty, that military conflagrations, though they +distressed and impoverished, had no tendency to subdue, the colonists. +Such means might suffice in the Old World, but were not effectual in the +New, where the war was undertaken, not for a change of masters, but for +securing essential rights. + +The action at Breed's Hill, or Bunker Hill, as it has since been +commonly called, produced many and very important consequences. It +taught the British so much respect for the Americans, intrenched behind +works, that their subsequent operations were retarded with a caution +that wasted away a whole campaign to very little purpose. It added to +the confidence the Americans began to have in their own abilities. It +inspired some of the leading members of Congress with such high ideas of +what might be done by militia, or men engaged for a short term of +enlistment, that it was long before they assented to the establishment +of a permanent army. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[26] Charlestown. A body of American riflemen, posted in the houses, +galled the left line as it marched; therefore, by Howe's orders, the +town was set on fire. + + + + +CANADA REMAINS LOYAL TO ENGLAND + +MONTGOMERY'S INVASION + +A.D. 1775 + +JOHN McMULLEN + + At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War there was a belief, + or at least a hope, among the thirteen rebellious colonies + that Canada would join them and thus enable the entire + continent to present a united front against England. Had she + done so the course of Canadian and perhaps of American + destiny would have been widely changed. + + The condition of Canada was different from that of the more + southern colonies, in that it was a conquered country, + guarded by British soldiers. The great majority of the + inhabitants were of French descent; until 1760 they had been + under French rule; and it was hoped that, especially in the + Quebec Province and along the St. Lawrence Valley, the + French _habitants_ would seize eagerly on an opportunity for + revolt. An expedition was therefore planned under Generals + Montgomery and Arnold; and though it failed, so great was + the heroism of the men who attempted it that we may leave + their story to their foes to tell. The following account is + by the standard Canadian historian McMullen. + + That Canada was saved to England from this, the first and + most serious of the invasions of her independent neighbors + to the south, was due chiefly to Sir Guy Carleton, the able + general then governing the Province and commanding the + British forces there. It was due also to the French clergy, + who favored British rule and bade their parishioners stand + neutral or even urged them to fight against the invaders. + + +The American Congress, in 1775, believed the Canadian people to be +favorable to their cause, and resolved to anticipate the British by +striking a decided blow in the North. They accordingly despatched a +force of nearly two thousand men, under Schuyler and Montgomery, to +penetrate into Canada by the Richelieu. After taking the forts along +that river, they were next to possess themselves of Montreal, and then +descend to Quebec, and form a junction there with Colonel Arnold, who +was to proceed up the Kennebec with eleven hundred men and surprise the +capital of Canada if possible. + +On September 5th the American army arrived at the Ileaux-Noix, whence +Schuyler and Montgomery scattered a proclamation among the Canadians +stating that they came only against the British, and had no design +whatever on the lives, the properties, or religion of the inhabitants. +General Schuyler being unwell now returned to Albany, and the chief +command devolved on Montgomery, who, having received a reenforcement, +invested Fort St. John on the 17th, and at the same time sent some +troops to attack the fort at Chambly, while Ethan Allan was despatched +with a reconnoitring party toward Montreal. Allan accordingly proceeded +to the St. Lawrence, and being informed that the town was weakly +defended, and believing the inhabitants were favorable to the Americans, +he resolved to capture it by surprise, although his force was under two +hundred men. General Carleton had already arrived at Montreal to make +disposition for the protection of the frontier. Learning on the night of +the 24th that a party of Americans had crossed the river and were +marching on the town, he promptly drew together two hundred fifty of the +local militia, chiefly English and Irish, and with thirty men of the +Twenty-sixth regiment, in addition, prepared for its defence. Allan, +however, instead of proceeding to attack Montreal, becoming intimidated, +took possession of some houses and barns in the neighborhood, where he +was surrounded next day and compelled to surrender after a loss of five +killed and ten wounded. The British lost their commanding officer, Major +Carsden, Alexander Paterson, a merchant of Montreal, and two privates. +Allan and his men were sent prisoners to England, where they were +confined in Pendennis castle. + +While these occurrences were transpiring at Montreal, Montgomery was +vigorously pressing forward the siege of Fort St. John, which post was +gallantly defended by Major Preston of the Twenty-sixth regiment. His +conduct was not imitated by Major Stopford, of the Seventh, who +commanded at Chambly, and who surrendered, in a cowardly manner, on two +hundred Americans appearing before the works with two six-pounders. This +was a fortunate event for Montgomery, whose powder was nearly exhausted, +and who now procured a most seasonable supply from the captured fort. +His fire was again renewed, but was bravely replied to by the garrison, +who hoped that General Carleton would advance and raise the siege. This +the latter was earnestly desirous to do, and drew together all the +militia he could collect and the few troops at his disposal for that +purpose, and pushed across the river toward Longueil on one of the last +days of October. General Montgomery had foreseen this movement, and +detached a force, with two field-pieces, to prevent it. This force took +post near the river, and allowed the British to approach within +pistol-shot of the shore, when they opened such a hot fire of musketry +and cannon that General Carleton was compelled to order a retreat on +Montreal. Montgomery duly apprized Major Preston of these occurrences, +and the garrison being now short of provisions and ammunition, and +without any hope of succor, surrendered on October 31st, and marched out +with all the honors of war. + +With Fort St. John and Chambly a large portion of the regular troops in +Canada was captured, and the Governor was in no condition to resist the +American army, the main body of which now advanced upon Montreal, while +a strong detachment proceeded to Sorel, to cut off the retreat of the +British toward Quebec. General Carleton, with Brigadier Prescott and one +hundred twenty soldiers, left Montreal, after destroying all the public +stores possible, just as the American army was entering it. At Sorel, +however, their flight was effectually intercepted by an armed vessel and +some floating batteries, and Prescott, finding it impossible to force a +passage, was compelled to surrender. The night before, General Carleton +fortunately eluded the vigilance of the Americans, and passed down the +river in a boat with muffled oars. Montgomery treated the people of +Montreal with great consideration, and gained their good-will by the +affability of his manners and the nobleness and generosity of his +disposition. + +While the main body of the American invading force had been completely +successful thus far, Arnold sailed up the Kennebec, and proceeded +through the vast forests lying between it and the St. Lawrence, in the +hope of surprising Quebec. The sufferings of his troops from hunger and +fatigue were of the most severe description. So great were their +necessities that they were obliged to eat dog's flesh, and even the +leather of their cartouch-boxes; still, they pressed on with unflagging +zeal and wonderful endurance, and arrived at Point Levi on November 9th. +But their approach was already known at Quebec. Arnold had enclosed a +letter for Schuyler to a friend in that city, and imprudently intrusted +its delivery to an Indian, who carried it to the Lieutenant-Governor. +The latter immediately began to make defensive preparations, and when +the Americans arrived on the opposite side of the river they found all +the shipping and boats removed, and a surprise out of the question. + +On the 12th Colonel M'Clean, who had retreated from Sorel, arrived at +Quebec, with a body of Fraser's Highlanders, who had settled in the +country, were now reembodied, and amounted to one hundred fifty men. In +addition to these there were four hundred eighty Canadian militia, five +hundred British, and some regular troops and seamen for the defence of +the town. The Hunter (sloop-of-war) gave the garrison the command of the +river, yet, despite the vigilance exercised by her commander, Arnold +crossed over during the night of the 13th, landed at Wolfe's Cove, and +next morning appeared on the Plains of Abraham, where he gave his men +three cheers, which were promptly responded to by the besieged, who in +addition complimented them with a few discharges of grape-shot, which +compelled them to retire. Finding he could effect nothing against the +city, Arnold retired up the river to Point-aux-Trembles, to await the +arrival of Montgomery. + +On the 19th, to the great joy of the garrison, General Carleton arrived +from Montreal, bringing down with him two armed schooners which had been +lying at Three Rivers. One of his first measures was to strengthen the +hands of the loyalists, by ordering those liable to serve in the +militia, and who refused to be enrolled, to quit the city within four +days. By this means several disaffected persons were got rid of, and the +garrison was speedily raised to eighteen hundred men, who had plenty of +provisions for eight months. + +On December 1st Montgomery joined Arnold at Point-aux-Trembles, when +their united forces, amounting to about two thousand men, proceeded to +attack Quebec, in the neighborhood of which they arrived on the 4th, and +soon after quartered their men in the houses of the suburbs. Montgomery +now sent a flag to summon the besieged to surrender, but this was fired +upon by order of General Carleton, who refused to hold any intercourse +with the American officers. Highly indignant at this treatment, the +besiegers proceeded to construct their batteries, although the weather +was intensely cold. But their artillery was too light to make any +impression on the fortifications, the fire from which cut their fascines +to pieces and dismounted their guns; so Montgomery determined to carry +the works by escalade. He accordingly assembled his men on December 30th +and made them a very imprudent speech, in which he avowed his resolution +of attacking the city by storm. A deserter carried intelligence of his +intention that very day to General Carleton, who made the necessary +preparations for defence. On the night of the 31st the garrison pickets +were on the alert. Nothing, however, of importance occurred till next +morning, when Captain Fraser, the field officer on duty, on going his +rounds, perceived some suspicious signals at St. John's Gate, and +immediately turned out the guard, when a brisk fire was opened by a body +of the enemy, concealed by a snow-bank. This was a mere feint to draw +off attention from the true points of attack, at the southern and +northern extremities of the Lower Town. It had, however, the effect of +putting the garrison more completely on their guard, and thus was fatal +to the plans of the assailants. + +Montgomery led a column of five hundred men toward the southern side of +the town, and halted to reconnoitre at a short distance from the first +battery, near the Pres de Ville, defended chiefly by Canadian militia, +with nine seamen to work the guns, the whole under the command of +Captain Barnsfair. The guard were on the alert, and the sailors with +lighted matches waited the order to fire, while the strictest silence +was preserved. Presently the officer who had made the reconnoissance +returned and reported everything still. The Americans now rushed forward +to the attack, when Barnsfair gave the command to fire, and the head of +the assailing column went instantly down under the unexpected and fatal +discharge of guns and musketry. The survivors made a rapid retreat, +leaving thirteen of their dead behind to be shrouded in the falling +snow, among whom was the gallant Montgomery. Of a good family in the +north of Ireland, he had served under Wolfe with credit, married an +American lady, Miss Livingston, after the peace, and had joined the +cause of the United States with great enthusiasm. + +At the other end of the Lower Town Arnold at the head of six hundred men +had assaulted the first barrier with great impetuosity, meeting with +little resistance. He was wounded in the first onset and borne to the +rear. But his place was ably supplied by Captain Morgan, who forced the +guard and drove them back to a second barrier, two hundred yards nearer +the centre of the town. Owing to the prompt arrangements, however, of +General Carleton, who soon arrived on the ground, the Americans were +speedily surrounded, driven out of a strong building by the bayonet, and +compelled to surrender to the number of four hundred twenty-six, +including twenty-eight officers. In this action the garrison had ten men +killed and thirteen wounded; the American loss in killed and wounded was +about one hundred. + +The besieging force was now reduced to a few hundred men, and they were +at a loss whether to retreat toward home or continue the siege. As they +were in expectation of soon receiving aid they at length determined to +remain in the neighborhood, and elected Arnold as their general, who +contented himself with a simple blockade of the besieged, at a +considerable distance from the works. Carleton would have now gladly +proceeded to attack him, but several of the Canadians outside the city +were disaffected, as well as many persons within the defences, and he +considered, with his motley force, his wisest course was to run no risk, +and wait patiently for the succor which the opening of navigation must +give him. + +During the month of February a small reenforcement from Massachusetts +and some troops from Montreal raised Arnold's force to over one thousand +men, and he now resumed the siege, but could make no impression on the +works. His men had already caught the smallpox, and the country people +becoming more and more unwilling to supply provisions, his difficulties +increased rather than diminished. When the Americans first came into the +country the habitants were disposed to sell them what they required at a +fair price, and a few hundred of the latter even joined their army. But +they soon provoked the hostility of the bulk of the people by a want of +respect for their clergy, by compelling them to furnish articles below +the current prices, and by giving them illegal certificates of payment, +which were rejected by the American quartermaster-general. In this way +the Canadians began gradually to take a deeper interest in the struggle +in progress, and to regard the British as their true friends and +protectors, while they came to look upon the Americans as a band of +armed plunderers, who made promises they had no intention of performing, +and refused to pay their just debts. + +All the Canadians now required was a proper leader and a system of +organization to cause them to act vigorously against Arnold. Even in the +absence of these requisites they determined to raise the siege, and, led +by a gentleman of the name of Beajeau, a force advanced toward Quebec, +on March 25th, but was defeated by the Americans, and compelled to +retreat. This check, however, did not discourage the Canadians, who now +resolved to surprise a detachment of the enemy at Point Levi. By some +means their design became known, and they were very roughly handled. + +The month of April passed without producing any events of importance. +The Americans had meanwhile been reenforced to over two thousand men, +and Major-General Thomas had arrived to take the command. The smallpox +still continued to rage among them; besides they could make no +impression on the fortifications, and the hostile attitude of the +Canadians disheartened them, so nothing was effected. On May 5th Thomas +called a council of war, at which an immediate retreat was determined +on. + +On the following morning, to the great joy of the besieged, the Surprise +frigate and a sloop arrived in the harbor, with one hundred seventy men +of the Twenty-ninth regiment and some marines, who were speedily landed. +Now General Carleton at once resolved on offensive operations, and +marched out at noon with one thousand men and a few field-pieces to +attack the Americans. But the latter did not await his approach, and +fled with the utmost precipitation, leaving all their cannon, stores, +ammunition, and even their sick behind. These were treated with the +utmost attention by General Carleton, whose humanity won the esteem of +all his prisoners, who were loud in his praise on returning home. For +his services during the siege the Governor was knighted by his +sovereign. + +The Americans retreated as rapidly as possible for a distance of +forty-five miles up the river, but finding they were not pursued they +halted for a few days to rest themselves. They then proceeded in a +distressed condition to Sorel, where they were joined by some +reenforcements, and where, also, their general, Thomas, died of the +smallpox, which still continued to afflict them. He was succeeded in the +chief command by General Sullivan. + +Meantime some companies of the Eighth regiment, which were scattered +through the frontier posts on the Lakes, had descended to Ogdensburg. +From thence Captain Forster was detached, on May 11th, with one hundred +twenty-six soldiers and an equal number of Indians, to capture a +stockade at the Cedars, garrisoned by three hundred ninety Americans, +under the command of Colonel Bedell. The latter surrendered on the 19th, +after sustaining only a few hours' fire of musketry, and the following +day one hundred men advancing to his assistance were attacked by the +Indians and a few Canadians. A smart action ensued which lasted for ten +minutes, when the Americans laid down their arms and were marched +prisoners to the fort, where they were with difficulty saved from +massacre. + +After providing for the safety of his numerous prisoners, Forster pushed +down the river toward Lachine, but, learning that Arnold was advancing +to attack him with a force treble his own number, he halted and prepared +for action. Placing his men in an advantageous position on the edge of +the river, and spreading the Indians out on his flanks, he made such a +stout defence that the Americans were compelled to retire to St. Anne's. +Forster, encumbered with his prisoners, now proposed a cartel, which +Arnold at once assented to, and an exchange was effected, on May 27th, +for two majors, nine captains, twenty subalterns, and four hundred +forty-three privates. This cartel was broken by Congress, on the ground +that the prisoners had been cruelly used, which was not the case. They +had been treated with all the humanity possible, when the difficulty of +guarding so large a number, with less than three hundred men, is taken +into consideration. + +While these events were in progress above Montreal, a large body of +troops had arrived from England, under the command of Major-General +Burgoyne. Brigadier Fraser was at once sent on by the Governor with the +first division to Three Rivers. While the troops still remained on board +their transports off this place, General Thompson advanced with eighteen +hundred men to surprise the town, and would have effected his object had +not one of his Canadian guides escaped and warned the British of his +approach. General Fraser immediately landed his troops, with several +field-pieces, and posted them so advantageously that the Americans were +speedily defeated, their general, his second in command, and five +hundred men made prisoners, while, the retreat of their main body being +cut off, they were compelled to take shelter in a wood full of swamps. +Here they remained in great distress till the following day, when +General Carleton, who had meanwhile come up, humanely drew the guard +from the bridge over the Riviere du Loup, and allowed them to escape +toward Sorel. Finding themselves unable to oppose the force advancing +against them, the American army, under Sullivan, retreated to Crown +Point, whither Arnold also retired from Montreal on June 15th. Thus +terminated the invasion of Canada, which produced no advantage to the +American cause, but on the contrary aroused the hostility of the +inhabitants and drew them closer to Great Britain. + + + + +SIGNING OF AMERICAN DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE + +A.D. 1776 + +THOMAS JEFFERSON JOHN A. DOYLE + + Among historic acts and political deliverances there is none + more weighty in significance and results, none more famous + in the annals of the world, than the American Declaration of + Independence. The document which preserves it to all ages is + "a witness to the world that freedom, resting not on + institutions, but on the necessities of human nature, is no + mere abstract idea, but a vital principle of national life." + + At the beginning of 1776 the tide of public opinion in the + colonies was setting strongly toward national independence. + Lexington and Bunker Hill had spoken their message to + America and to the British Government. All the other + colonies had come into line with New England. The earliest + declaration of independence, that of the people of + Mecklenburg County, North Carolina (May, 1775), had preluded + the general proclamation. The second Continental Congress + was at work with growing legislative powers; the New England + forces had been adopted as the Continental Army, with + Washington as commander-in-chief; that army was besieging + the British in Boston; and a movement was in progress + against Canada. In March, 1776, Boston was evacuated. On + June 28th a British attack on Sullivan's Island, off + Charleston, South Carolina, was repulsed by Moultrie. Before + the end of 1775 the Continental Congress had ordered the + building of several ships--the nucleus of the American + navy--and its sea-power was rapidly increased by privateers. + Meanwhile King George III and his minister, Lord North, had + continued their coercive policy and strengthened their war + measures. + + Thomas Paine's _Common Sense_, published early in 1776, one + of the most effective popular appeals that ever "went to the + bosoms of a nation," completed the preparation of the public + mind for the great step about to be taken by the Congress. + + Jefferson's account of the proceedings day by day, given in + his own _Memoirs_, is the best contemporary record of the + momentous deliberations and decision of this body, assembled + in Independence Hall, Philadelphia. A quarter of a century + before, upon the fillet of the "Liberty Bell," which hung in + the steeple of that Old State House, had been cast the words + of ancient Hebrew Scripture: "Proclaim liberty throughout + all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof." + + Doyle's reflections, as representing an enlightened English + view of the Declaration and the great struggle which it + lifted to its climax, is placed as a suggestive commentary + after the uncolored narrative of the chief author of the + great instrument itself. + + +THOMAS JEFFERSON + +In Congress, Friday, June 7, 1776, the delegates from Virginia moved, in +obedience to instructions from their constituents, that the Congress +should declare that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, +free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance +to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and +the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; that +measures should be immediately taken for procuring the assistance of +foreign powers, and a confederation be formed to bind the colonies more +closely together. + +The House being obliged to attend at that time to some other business, +the proposition was referred to the next day, when the members were +ordered to attend punctually at ten o'clock. + +Saturday, June 8th. They proceeded to take it into consideration, and +referred it to a committee of the whole, into which they immediately +resolved themselves, and passed that day and Monday, the 10th, in +debating on the subject. + +It was argued by Wilson, Robert R. Livingston, E. Rutledge, Dickinson, +and others--that, though they were friends to the measures themselves, +and saw the impossibility that we should ever again be united with Great +Britain, yet they were against adopting them at this time: + +That the conduct we had formerly observed was wise, and proper now, of +deferring to take any capital step till the voice of the people drove us +into it: + +That they were our power, and without them our declarations could not be +carried into effect: + +That the people of the middle colonies (Maryland, Delaware, +Pennsylvania, the Jerseys, and New York) were not yet ripe for bidding +adieu to British connection, but that they were fast ripening, and, in a +short time, would join in the general voice of America: + +That the resolution, entered into by this House on May 15th, for +suppressing the exercise of all powers derived from the Crown, had +shown, by the ferment into which it had thrown these middle colonies, +that they had not yet accommodated their minds to a separation from the +mother-country: + +That some of them had expressly forbidden their delegates to consent to +such a declaration, and others had given no instructions, and +consequently no powers to give such consent: + +That if the delegates of any particular colony had no power to declare +such colony independent, certain they were the others could not declare +it for them, the colonies being as yet perfectly independent of each +other: + +That the Assembly of Pennsylvania was now sitting above stairs, their +convention would sit within a few days, the convention of New York was +now sitting, and those of the Jerseys and Delaware counties would meet +on the Monday following, and it was probable these bodies would take up +the question of Independence, and would declare to their delegates the +voice of their State: + +That if such a declaration should now be agreed to, these delegates must +retire, and possibly their colonies might secede from the Union: + +That such a secession would weaken us more than could be compensated by +any foreign alliance: + +That in the event of such a division, foreign powers would either refuse +to join themselves to our fortunes, or, having us so much in their power +as that desperate declaration would place us, they would insist on terms +proportionately more hard and prejudicial: + +That we had little reason to expect an alliance with those to whom alone +as yet we had cast our eyes: + +That France and Spain had reason to be jealous of that rising power, +which would one day certainly strip them of all their American +possessions: + +That it was more likely they should form a connection with the British +court, who, if they should find themselves unable otherwise to extricate +themselves from their difficulties, would agree to a partition of our +territories, restoring Canada to France, and the Floridas to Spain, to +accomplish for themselves a recovery of these colonies: + +That it would not be long before we should receive certain information +of the disposition of the French court, from the agent whom we had sent +to Paris for that purpose: + +That if this disposition should be favorable by waiting the event of the +present campaign, which we all hoped would be successful, we should have +reason to expect an alliance on better terms: + +That this would in fact work no delay of any effectual aid from such +ally, as, from the advance of the season and distance of our situation, +it was impossible we could receive any assistance during this campaign: + +That it was prudent to fix among ourselves the terms on which we should +form alliance, before we declared we would form one at all events: + +And that if these were agreed on, and our Declaration of Independence +ready by the time our ambassador should be prepared to sail, it would be +as well as to go into the Declaration at this day. + +On the other side, it was urged by J. Adams, Lee, Wythe, and others that +no gentleman had argued against the policy or the right of separation +from Britain, nor had supposed it possible we should ever renew our +connection; that they had only opposed its being now declared: + +That the question was not whether, by a Declaration of Independence, we +should make ourselves what we are not; but whether we should declare a +fact which already exists: + +That, as to the people or Parliament of England, we had always been +independent of them, their restraints on our trade deriving efficacy +from our acquiescence only, and not from any rights they possessed of +imposing them, and that so far, our connection had been federal only, +and was now dissolved by the commencement of hostilities: + +That, as to the King, we had been bound to him by allegiance, but that +this bond was now dissolved by his assent to the last act of Parliament, +by which he declares us out of his protection, and by his levying war on +us, a fact which had long ago proved us out of his protection; it being +a certain position in law, that allegiance and protection are +reciprocal, the one ceasing when the other is withdrawn: + +That James the II never declared the people of England out of his +protection, yet his actions proved it, and the Parliament declared it: + +No delegates then can be denied, or ever want, a power of declaring an +existing truth: + +That the delegates from the Delaware counties having declared their +constituents ready to join, there are only two colonies, Pennsylvania +and Maryland, whose delegates are absolutely tied up, and that these +had, by their instructions, only reserved a right of confirming or +rejecting the measure: + +That the instructions from Pennsylvania might be accounted for from the +times in which they were drawn, near a twelvemonth ago, since which the +face of affairs has totally changed: + +That within that time it had become apparent that Britain was determined +to accept nothing less than a _carte-blanche_, and that the King's +answer to the lord mayor, aldermen and common-council of London, which +had come to hand four days ago, must have satisfied everyone of this +point: + +That the people wait for us to lead the way: + +That _they_ are in favor of the measure, though the instructions given +by some of their _representatives_ are not: + +That the voice of the representatives is not always consonant with the +voice of the people, and that this is remarkably the case in these +middle colonies: + +That the effect of the resolution of May 15th has proved this, which, +raising the murmurs of some in the colonies of Pennsylvania and +Maryland, called forth the opposing voice of the freer part of the +people, and proved them to be the majority even in these colonies: + +That the backwardness of these two colonies might be ascribed, partly to +the influence of proprietary power and connections, and partly to their +having not yet been attacked by the enemy: + +That these causes were not likely to be soon removed, as there seemed no +probability that the enemy would make either of these the seat of this +summer's war: + +That it would be vain to wait either weeks or months for perfect +unanimity, since it was impossible that all men should ever become of +one sentiment on any question: + +That the conduct of some colonies, from the beginning of this contest, +had given reason to suspect it was their settled policy to keep in the +rear of the confederacy, that their particular prospect might be better, +even in the worst event: + +That, therefore, it was necessary for those colonies who had thrown +themselves forward and hazarded all from the beginning, to come forward +now also, and put all again to their own hazard: + +That the history of the Dutch Revolution, of whom three states only +confederated at first, proved that a secession of some colonies would +not be so dangerous as some apprehended: + +That a declaration of independence alone could render it consistent with +European delicacy, for European powers to treat with us, or even to +receive an ambassador from us: + +That till this they would not receive our vessels into their ports, nor +acknowledge the adjudications of our courts of admirality to be +legitimate in cases of capture of British vessels: + +That though France and Spain may be jealous of our rising power, they +must think it will be much more formidable with the addition of Great +Britain; and will therefore see it their interest to prevent a +coalition; but should they refuse, we shall never know whether they will +aid us or not: + +That the present campaign may be unsuccessful, and therefore we had +better propose an alliance while our affairs wear a hopeful aspect: + +That to wait the event of this campaign will certainly work delay, +because, during the summer, France may assist us effectually, by cutting +off those supplies of provisions from England and Ireland on which the +enemy's armies here are to depend; or by setting in motion the great +power they have collected in the West Indies, and calling our enemy to +the defence of the possessions they have there: + +That it would be idle to lose time in settling the terms of alliance, +till we had first determined we would enter into alliance: + +That it is necessary to lose no time in opening a trade for our people, +who will want clothes, and will want money too for the payment of taxes: + +And that the only misfortune is that we did not enter into alliance with +France six months sooner, as, besides opening her ports for the vent of +our last year's produce, she might have marched an army into Germany, +and prevented the petty princes there from selling their unhappy +subjects to subdue us. + +It appearing in the course of these debates that the colonies of New +York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and South Carolina +were not yet matured for falling from the parental stem, but that they +were fast advancing to that state, it was thought most prudent to wait a +while for them, and to postpone the final decision to July 1st; but, +that this might occasion as little delay as possible, a committee was +appointed to prepare a Declaration of Independence. The committee were +John Adams, Dr. Franklin, Roger Sherman, Robert R. Livingston, and +myself. Committees were also appointed, at the same time, to prepare a +plan of confederation for the colonies, and to state the terms proper to +be proposed for foreign alliance. + +The committee for drawing the Declaration of Independence desired me to +do it. It was accordingly done, and, being approved by them, I reported +it to the House on Friday, June 28th, when it was read, and ordered to +lie on the table. On Monday, July 1st, the House resolved itself into a +committee of the whole, and resumed the consideration of the original +motion made by the delegates of Virginia, which, being again debated +through the day, was carried in the affirmative by the votes of New +Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, +Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia. South Carolina and +Pennsylvania voted against it. Delaware had but two members present, and +they were divided. The delegates of New York declared they were for it +themselves, and were assured their constituents were for it; but that +their instructions having been drawn near a twelvemonth before, when +reconciliation was still the general object, they were enjoined by them +to do nothing which should impede that object. They, therefore, thought +themselves not justifiable in voting on either side, and asked leave to +withdraw from the question; which was given them. + +The committee rose and reported their resolution to the House. Mr. +Edward Rutledge, of South Carolina, then requested the determination +might be put off to the next day, as he believed his colleagues, though +they disapproved of the resolution, would then join in it for the sake +of unanimity. The ultimate question, whether the House would agree to +the resolution of the committee, was accordingly postponed to the next +day, when it was again moved, and South Carolina concurred in voting for +it. + +In the mean time a third member had come post from the Delaware +counties, and turned the vote of that colony in favor of the resolution. +Members of a different sentiment attending that morning from +Pennsylvania also, her vote was changed, so that the whole twelve +colonies who were authorized to vote at all, gave their voices for it; +and, within a few days, the convention of New York approved of it; and +thus supplied the void occasioned by the withdrawing of her delegates +from the vote. + +Congress proceeded the same day to consider the Declaration of +Independence, which had been reported and laid on the table the Friday +preceding, and on Monday referred to a committee of the whole. The +pusillanimous idea that we had friends in England worth keeping terms +with still haunted the minds of many. For this reason, those passages +which conveyed censures on the people of England were struck out, lest +they should give them offence. The clause, too, reprobating the +enslaving the inhabitants of Africa, was struck out in complaisance to +South Carolina and Georgia, who had never attempted to restrain the +importation of slaves, and who, on the contrary, still wished to +continue it. + +Our northern brethren also, I believe, felt a little tender under those +censures; for though their people had very few slaves themselves, yet +they had been pretty considerable carriers of them to others. The +debates, having taken up the greater parts of July 2d, 3d, and 4th, +were, on the evening of the last, closed; the Declaration was reported +by the committee, agreed to by the House, and signed by every member +present except Mr. Dickinson. + + +JOHN ANDREW DOYLE + +Before this it had become evident that to defer any longer the formation +of an independent government was to keep up an unnecessary source of +weakness. Already the voice of the nation had protested unmistakably +against the longer continuance of anarchy. The first definite step +toward such a change had been taken in 1775 by New Hampshire. On October +11th their delegates had petitioned Congress to allow them to establish +a government, but Congress, having still hopes of the success of the +petition, had deferred answering their appeal. The majority of Congress +saw at last that independence was only a question of time. An answer was +sent to the Convention of New Hampshire, recommending it to form a +government. Similar advice was sent the next day to South Carolina, and +a little later to Virginia. Yet New Hampshire shrank from so decisive a +step, and coupled the formation of their new government with a studious +expression of their allegiance. Virginia showed a nobler spirit. + +In January the convention passed a motion, instructing their delegates +to recommend Congress to throw their ports open to all nations, and thus +to cast off the commercial supremacy of England. But the mere +establishment of independent State governments was not enough. An +imperial government, also independent of England, was essential. To +establish independence without confederation would be only doing half +the work. In the words of Franklin, "We must all hang together, unless +we would all hang separately." About this time Franklin's scheme for a +confederation was laid before Congress. The scheme did not include, but +it evidently implied, independence. Franklin had been throughout a +strenuous advocate of reconciliation, as long as reconciliation was +possible, and his opinion ought to have convinced all that the time for +separation had come. But the timid counsels of his colleague, Dickinson, +overruled the motion, and the scheme of a confederation was not even +formally considered. On February 16th the question of opening the ports +was formally laid before Congress. In the next month measures were taken +which clearly showed that independence was at hand. A private agent was +sent to France by the authority of the committee of secret +correspondence, and the instructions of the commissioners sent to Canada +contained a clause inviting the people of Canada to "set up such a form +of government as will be most likely in their judgment to produce their +happiness." The clause was objected to as implying independence, and +gave rise to a debate, but was ultimately carried. At last, after seven +weeks' deliberation, the Congress resolved to emancipate the colonies +from all commercial restrictions, and on April 6th the ports of America +were thrown open to the world. + +On March 27th South Carolina proceeded to construct a government. They +asserted as their principle of action that the good of the people is the +origin and end of all government, and they set forth the misconduct of +the King, the Parliament, and the officers of the English Government. At +the same time they introduced no change into the system of +representation or the qualification of voters. On May 4th the Assembly +of Rhode Island passed an act discharging the inhabitants of the colony +from allegiance to the King, and at the same time authorized its +delegates in Congress to conclude a treaty with any independent power +for the security of the colonies. On May 6th the Assembly of Virginia +met at Williamsburg. After a declaration that all pacific measures were +useless, and that "they had no alternative left but an abject submission +to the will of those overbearing tyrants, or a total separation from the +Crown and Government of Great Britain," they passed two resolutions; the +first empowering their delegates at the convention to propose a +declaration of independence and a confederation of the colonies; the +second appointing a committee to draw up a declaration of rights and a +scheme of government for the colony. On June 12th the Declaration of +Rights was laid before the Assembly, and on the 29th a constitution was +produced. + +The Assembly then proceeded to elect a governor. The choice fell on +Patrick Henry. Rightly was he, who had first foreseen independence and +bidden his countrymen look the danger of it in the face, deemed worthy +to be the first to govern the State which he had called into being. All +the colonies except Pennsylvania and Maryland followed the example of +Virginia, and when, on July 1st, the motion for independence was laid +before the Congress, the delegates of nine colonies were pledged to vote +in its favor. The delegates of Pennsylvania and Maryland were divided, +those of South Carolina unanimously opposed independence. The New York +delegates were all in favor of independence, and represented the opinion +of the colony, but could not vote, as their convention had not yet been +duly elected. When the question came forward for decision next day, +Dickinson, who had opposed it on the first day with great earnestness, +stayed away, as did one of his colleagues, and the vote of Pennsylvania +was altered. Another delegate arrived from Delaware, whose vote turned +the scale, and South Carolina, rather than stand alone, withdrew its +opposition. New York alone was unable to vote, and on July 2d, by the +decision of twelve colonies, without one adverse vote, it was resolved +"that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and +independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the +British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the +state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." Seldom +was the irony of history more strikingly illustrated than when Hancock, +a rebel specially selected for proscription by the English government, +put the question to the vote, and declared the American colonies forever +independent. + +Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, was selected to draw up the Declaration +which had been resolved upon. His pen had already served his country. In +1774 he had published _A Summary View of the Rights of British America_, +setting forth the dangers which menaced the country, and encouraging the +people in defence of their liberties. He had signalized himself in his +own colony by his opposition to slavery. "Wherever he was, there was +found a soul devoted to the cause of liberty, power to defend and +maintain it, and willingness to incur all its hazards." + +On July 4th the Declaration was produced. It declared the abstract +principles on which their secession was justified; it then drew up an +indictment against the King, in eighteen heads, setting forth the +various ways in which he had proved himself "a tyrant unfit to be the +ruler of a free people." Finally it declared that the united colonies +were free and independent states; that the connection with Great Britain +was and ought to be totally dissolved, and that as free and independent +states, they had full power to "levy war, conclude peace, contract +alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which +independent states may of right do." + +Seldom in human events do the facts of history carry their own +explanation so clearly with them. A people who had grown up gradually, +almost unconsciously, under democratic institutions, at last saw those +institutions subverted. To preserve the spirit of them, they changed +their form. We must not be misled into the error of underrating the +importance of the American struggle by any idea of the insignificance of +the issue at stake. We must not suppose that it was, as an earnest and +eloquent writer has called it, "a war for the vindication of the +principle of representative taxation." Its immediate origin, it is true, +involved no vital interest, such as often has been at stake when nations +have risen against their rulers. But "rebellions may fall out on small +occasions; they do not spring from small causes," was said by the first +and wisest of political philosophers. Taxation was, as Burke says, that +by which the colonists felt the pulse of liberty, "and as they found +that beat, they thought themselves sick or sound." + +The whole key to the American Revolution lies in two facts; it was a +democratic and a conservative revolution. It was the work of the people, +and its end was to preserve, not to destroy or to construct afresh. The +policy of an early father of New England, "In a revolution burn all, and +build afresh," was far from being that of his descendants. Throughout +the whole War of Independence the colonists had a fixed known end in +view. More than that, they had already within themselves the means for +effecting that end, and making it enduring, as far as what is human can +endure. The future that they proposed to themselves was not independent +of their past: it was a fuller development of it. There was no need for +beginning with the year one, or for throwing aside as worn out anything +that their ancestors had left them. And it was essentially a democratic +revolution. Throughout, the movement came from the people. The very +blunders made by the hesitation and timidity of Congress were the +mistakes of an assembly of delegates, not of representative statesmen. +When the final step was taken, the Congress was not the originator of +it, but was little more than a mouthpiece giving expression to the +declared wishes of the nation. + + + + +DEFEAT OF BURGOYNE AT SARATOGA + +A.D. 1777 + +SIR EDWARD SHEPHERD CREASY + + Viewed by itself, the victory over Burgoyne might have + little appearance of being one of the decisive battles of + the world, among which Creasy reckons it. That it acquired + such importance was due, as Creasy himself shows, to its + direct consequences, especially its influence upon the + French. It led them to espouse the American cause, and by + their aid the Revolution was brought to a successful ending. + + Since the Declaration of Independence the American forces + had met with varying fortunes. They had been defeated in the + Battle of Long Island, August 27, 1776, and at White Plains, + October 28th. Forts Washington and Lee, defences of the + Hudson, were both lost, and the Americans retreated through + New Jersey. By a masterly return movement Washington + retrieved the situation, winning the Battle of Trenton, + December 26, 1776, and that of Princeton, January 3, 1777. + On August 16, 1777, Stark gained the Battle of Bennington, + but within a month (September 11th) Washington was beaten by + Howe on the Brandywine, and the Americans suffered defeat at + Germantown October 4th. In this state of affairs the + movements of Burgoyne, who had invaded New York from Canada, + were watched with deep concern on both sides. + + The final operations between the Americans and Burgoyne's + forces included two engagements, which are often spoken of + as the Battles of Saratoga, also as the Battles of + Stillwater or of Bemis' Heights, from the local names. + + The first of these actions, that of September 19, 1777, in + which Gates, with Morgan and Arnold under him, commanded the + Americans, was indecisive. Under the same commanders the + Americans (October 7th) won the decisive victory which + Creasy describes. His opening statement shows the modern + English sentiment concerning the American Revolution, and + this feeling finds its correlative in the gradual change of + tone on the part of American writers. + + +The war which rent away the North American colonies from England is, of +all subjects in history, the most painful for an Englishman to dwell on. +It was commenced and carried on by the British ministry in iniquity and +folly, and it was concluded in disaster and shame. But the contemplation +of it cannot be evaded by the historian, however much it may be +abhorred. Nor can any military event be said to have exercised more +important influence on the future fortunes of mankind than the complete +defeat of Burgoyne's expedition in 1777; a defeat which rescued the +revolted colonists from certain subjection, and which, by inducing the +courts of France and Spain to attack England in their behalf, insured +the independence of the United States, and the formation of that +transatlantic power which not only America, but both Europe and Asia, +now see and feel. + +Still, in proceeding to describe this "decisive battle of the world," a +very brief recapitulation of the earlier events of the war may be +sufficient; nor shall I linger unnecessarily on a painful theme. + +The five Northern colonies of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, +New Hampshire, and Vermont, usually classed together as the New England +colonies, were the strongholds of the insurrection against the +mother-country. The feeling of resistance was less vehement and general +in the central settlement of New York, and still less so in +Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the other colonies of the South, although +everywhere it was formidably strong. + +But it was among the descendants of the stern Puritans that the spirit +of Cromwell and Vane breathed in all its fervor; it was from the New +Englanders that the first armed opposition to the British crown had been +offered; and it was by them that the most stubborn determination to +fight to the last, rather than waive a single right or privilege, had +been displayed. In 1775 they had succeeded in forcing the British troops +to evacuate Boston; and the events of 1776 had made New York--which the +royalists captured in that year--the principal basis of operations for +the armies of the mother-country. + +A glance at the map will show that the Hudson River, which falls into +the Atlantic at New York, runs down from the north at the back of the +New England States, forming an angle of about forty-five degrees with +the line of the coast of the Atlantic, along which the New England +States are situate. Northward of the Hudson we see a small chain of +lakes communicating with the Canadian frontier. It is necessary to +attend closely to these geographical points in order to understand the +plan of the operations which the English attempted in 1777, and which +the battle of Saratoga defeated. + +The English had a considerable force in Canada, and in 1776 had +completely repulsed an attack which the Americans had made upon that +province. The British ministry resolved to avail themselves, in the next +year, of the advantage which the occupation of Canada gave them, not +merely for the purpose of defence, but for the purpose of striking a +vigorous and crushing blow against the revolted colonies. With this view +the army in Canada was largely reenforced. Seven thousand veteran troops +were sent out from England, with a corps of artillery, abundantly +supplied and led by select and experienced officers. Large quantities of +military stores were also furnished for the equipment of the Canadian +volunteers, who were expected to join the expedition. + +It was intended that the force thus collected should march southward by +the line of the Lakes, and thence along the banks of the Hudson River. +The British army from New York--or a large detachment of it--was to make +a simultaneous movement northward, up the line of the Hudson, and the +two expeditions were to unite at Albany, a town on that river. By these +operations, all communication between the Northern colonies and those of +the Centre and South would be cut off. An irresistible force would be +concentrated, so as to crush all further opposition in New England; and +when this was done, it was believed that the other colonies would +speedily submit. The Americans had no troops in the field that seemed +able to baffle these movements. + +Their principal army, under Washington, was occupied in watching over +Pennsylvania and the South. At any rate, it was believed that, in order +to oppose the plan intended for the new campaign, the insurgents must +risk a pitched battle, in which the superiority of the royalists in +numbers, in discipline, and in equipment seemed to promise to the latter +a crowning victory. Without question, the plan was ably formed; and had +the success of the execution been equal to the ingenuity of the design, +the reconquest or submission of the thirteen United States must in all +human probability have followed, and the independence which they +proclaimed in 1776 would have been extinguished before it existed a +second year. + +No European power had as yet come forward to aid America. It is true +that England was generally regarded with jealousy and ill-will, and was +thought to have acquired, at the Treaty of Paris, a preponderance of +dominion which was perilous to the balance of power; but, though many +were willing to wound, none had yet ventured to strike; and America, if +defeated in 1777, would have been suffered to fall unaided. + +Burgoyne had gained celebrity by some bold and dashing exploits in +Portugal during the last war; he was personally as brave an officer as +ever headed British troops, he had considerable skill as a tactician; +and his general intellectual abilities and acquirements were of a high +order. He had several very able and experienced officers under him, +among whom were Major-General Philips and Brigadier-General Frazer. His +regular troops amounted, exclusively of the corps of artillery, to about +seven thousand two hundred men, rank and file. Nearly half of these were +Germans. + +He had also an auxiliary force of from two to three thousand Canadians. +He summoned the warriors of several tribes of the red Indians near the +Western Lakes to join his army. Much eloquence was poured forth both in +America and in England in denouncing the use of these savage +auxiliaries. Yet Burgoyne seems to have done no more than Montcalm, +Wolfe, and other French, American, and English generals had done before +him. But, in truth, the lawless ferocity of the Indians, their +unskilfulness in regular action, and the utter impossibility of bringing +them under any discipline made their services of little or no value in +times of difficulty; while the indignation which their outrages inspired +went far to rouse the whole population of the invaded districts into +active hostilities against Burgoyne's force. + +Burgoyne assembled his troops and confederates near the River Bouquet, +on the west side of Lake Champlain. He then, on June 21, 1777, gave his +red allies a war-feast, and harangued them on the necessity of +abstaining from their usual cruel practices against unarmed people and +prisoners. At the same time he published a pompous manifesto to the +Americans, in which he threatened the refractory with all the horrors of +war, Indian as well as European. + +The army proceeded by water to Crown Point, a fortification which the +Americans held at the northern extremity of the inlet, by which the +water from Lake George is conveyed to Lake Champlain. He landed here +without opposition, but the reduction of Ticonderoga--a fortification +about twelve miles to the south of Crown Point--was a more serious +matter, and was supposed to be the critical part of the expedition. +Ticonderoga commanded the passage along the lakes, and was considered to +be the key to the route which Burgoyne wished to follow. The English had +been repulsed in an attack on it in the war with the French in 1758, +with severe loss. But Burgoyne now invested it with great skill; and the +American general, St. Clair, who had only an ill-equipped army of about +three thousand men, evacuated it on July 5th. + +It seems evident that a different course would have caused the +destruction or capture of his whole army, which, weak as it was, was the +chief force then in the field for the protection of the New England +States. When censured by some of his countrymen for abandoning +Ticonderoga, St. Clair truly replied "that he had lost a post, but saved +a province." Burgoyne's troops pursued the retiring Americans, gained +several advantages over them, and took a large part of their artillery +and military stores. + +The loss of the British in these engagements was trifling. The army +moved southward along Lake George to Skenesborough, and thence, slowly +and with great difficulty, across a broken country, full of creeks and +marshes, and clogged by the enemy with felled trees and other obstacles, +to Fort Edward, on the Hudson River, the American troops continuing to +retire before them. + +Burgoyne reached the left bank of the Hudson River on July 30th. +Hitherto he had overcome every difficulty which the enemy and the nature +of the country had placed in his way. His army was in excellent order +and in the highest spirits, and the peril of the expedition seemed over +when they were once on the bank of the river which was to be the channel +of communication between them and the British army in the South. But +their feelings, and those of the English nation in general, when their +successes were announced, may best be learned from a contemporary +writer. Burke, in the _Annual Register_ for 1777, describes them thus: + +"Such was the rapid torrent of success, which swept everything away +before the Northern army in its onset. It is not to be wondered at if +both officers and private men were highly elated with their +good-fortune, and deemed that and their prowess to be irresistible; if +they regarded their enemy with the greatest contempt; considered their +own toils to be nearly at an end; Albany to be already in their hands; +and the reduction of the Northern provinces to be rather a matter of +some time than an arduous task full of difficulty and danger. + +"At home the joy and exultation were extreme; not only at court, but +with all those who hoped or wished the unqualified subjugation and +unconditional submission of the colonies. The loss in reputation was +greater to the Americans, and capable of more fatal consequences, than +even that of ground, of posts, of artillery, or of men. All the +contemptuous and most degrading charges which had been made by their +enemies, of their wanting the resolution and abilities of men, even in +their defence of whatever was dear to them, were now repeated and +believed. + +"Those who still regarded them as men, and who had not yet lost all +affection for them as brethren; who also retained hopes that a happy +reconciliation upon constitutional principles, without sacrificing the +dignity of the just authority of government on the one side or a +dereliction of the rights of freedmen on the other, was not even now +impossible, notwithstanding their favorable dispositions in general, +could not help feeling upon this occasion that the Americans sunk not a +little in their estimation. It was not difficult to diffuse an opinion +that the war in effect was over, and that any further resistance could +serve only to render the terms of their submission the worse. Such were +some of the immediate effects of the loss of those grand keys of North +America--Ticonderoga and the Lakes." + +The astonishment and alarm which these events produced among the +Americans were naturally great; but in the midst of their disasters, +none of the colonists showed any disposition to submit. The local +governments of the New England States, as well as the Congress, acted +with vigor and firmness in their efforts to repel the enemy. General +Gates was sent to take the command of the army at Saratoga; and Arnold, +a favorite leader of the Americans, was despatched by Washington to act +under him, with reenforcements of troops and guns from the main +American army. + +Burgoyne's employment of the Indians now produced the worst possible +effects. Though he labored hard to check the atrocities which they were +accustomed to commit, he could not prevent the occurrence of many +barbarous outrages, repugnant both to the feelings of humanity and to +the laws of civilized warfare. The American commanders took care that +the reports of these excesses should be circulated far and wide, well +knowing that they would make the stern New Englanders, not droop, but +rage. Such was their effect; and though, when each man looked upon his +wife, his children, his sisters, or his aged parents, and thought of the +merciless Indian "thirsting for the blood of man, woman, and child," of +"the cannibal savage torturing, murdering, roasting, and eating the +mangled victims of his barbarous battles," might raise terror in the +bravest breasts; this very terror produced a directly contrary effect to +causing submission to the royal army. + +It was seen that the few friends of the royal cause, as well as its +enemies, were liable to be the victims of the indiscriminate rage of the +savages; and thus "the inhabitants of the open and frontier countries +had no choice of acting: they had no means of security left but by +abandoning their habitations and taking up arms. Every man saw the +necessity of becoming a temporary soldier, not only for his own +security, but for the protection and defence of those connections which +are dearer than life itself. Thus an army was poured forth by the woods, +mountains, and marches, which in this part were thickly sown with +plantations and villages. The Americans recalled their courage, and, +when their regular army seemed to be entirely wasted, the spirit of the +country produced a much greater and more formidable force." + +While resolute recruits, accustomed to the use of fire-arms, and all +partially trained by service in the provincial militias, were thus +flocking to the standard of Gates and Arnold at Saratoga, and while +Burgoyne was engaged at Fort Edward in providing the means of the +further advance of the army through the intricate and hostile country +that still lay before him, two events occurred, in each of which the +British sustained loss and the Americans obtained advantage, the moral +effects of which were even more important than the immediate result of +the encounters. When Burgoyne left Canada, General St. Leger was +detached from that province with a mixed force of about one thousand men +and some light field-pieces across Lake Ontario against Fort Stanwix, +which the Americans held. After capturing this, he was to march along +the Mohawk River to its confluence with the Hudson, between Saratoga and +Albany, where his force and that of Burgoyne's were to unite. But, after +some successes, St. Leger was obliged to retreat, and to abandon his +tents and large quantities of stores to the garrison. + +At the very time that General Burgoyne heard of this disaster he +experienced one still more severe in the defeat of Colonel Baum, with a +large detachment of German troops, at Bennington, whither Burgoyne had +sent them for the purpose of capturing some magazines of provisions, of +which the British army stood greatly in need. The Americans, augmented +by continual accessions of strength, succeeded, after many attacks, in +breaking this corps, which fled into the woods, and left its commander +mortally wounded on the field: they then marched against a force of five +hundred grenadiers and light infantry, which was advancing to Colonel +Baum's assistance under Lieutenant-Colonel Breyman, who, after a gallant +resistance, was obliged to retreat on the main army. The British loss in +these two actions exceeded six hundred men; and a party of American +loyalists, on their way to join the army, having attached themselves to +Colonel Baum's corps, were destroyed with it. + +Notwithstanding these reverses, which added greatly to the spirit and +numbers of the American forces, Burgoyne determined to advance. It was +impossible any longer to keep up his communications with Canada by way +of the Lakes, so as to supply his army on his southward march; but +having, by unremitting exertions, collected provisions for thirty days, +he crossed the Hudson by means of a bridge of rafts, and, marching a +short distance along its western bank, he encamped on September 14th on +the heights of Saratoga, about sixteen miles from Albany. The Americans +had fallen back from Saratoga, and were now strongly posted near +Stillwater, about half way between Saratoga and Albany, and showed a +determination to recede no farther. + +Meanwhile Lord Howe, with the bulk of the British army that had lain at +New York, had sailed away to the Delaware, and there commenced a +campaign against Washington, in which the English general took +Philadelphia, and gained other showy but unprofitable successes. But Sir +Henry Clinton, a brave and skilful officer, was left with a considerable +force at New York, and he undertook the task of moving up the Hudson to +cooperate with Burgoyne. Clinton was obliged for this purpose to wait +for reenforcements which had been promised from England, and these did +not arrive till September. As soon as he received them, Clinton embarked +about three thousand of his men on a flotilla, convoyed by some +ships-of-war under Commander Hotham, and proceeded to force his way up +the river. + +The country between Burgoyne's position at Saratoga and that of the +Americans at Stillwater was rugged, and seamed with creeks and +water-courses; but, after great labor in making bridges and temporary +causeways, the British army moved forward. About four miles from +Saratoga, on the afternoon of September 19th, a sharp encounter took +place between part of the English right wing, under Burgoyne himself, +and a strong body of the enemy, under Gates and Arnold. The conflict +lasted till sunset. The British remained masters of the field; but the +loss on each side was nearly equal--from five to six hundred men--and +the spirits of the Americans were greatly raised by having withstood the +best regular troops of the English army. + +Burgoyne now halted again, and strengthened his position by field-works +and redoubts; and the Americans also improved their defences. The two +armies remained nearly within cannon-shot of each other for a +considerable time, during which Burgoyne was anxiously looking for +intelligence of the promised expedition from New York, which, according +to the original plan, ought by this time to have been approaching Albany +from the south. At last a messenger from Clinton made his way, with +great difficulty, to Burgoyne's camp, and brought the information that +Clinton was on his way up the Hudson to attack the American forts which +barred the passage up that river to Albany. Burgoyne, in reply, stated +his hopes that the promised cooperation would be speedy and decisive, +and added that, unless he received assistance before October 10th, he +would be obliged to retreat to the Lakes through want of provisions. + +The Indians and Canadians now began to desert Burgoyne, while, on the +other hand, Gates' army was continually reenforced by fresh bodies of +the militia. An expeditionary force was detached by the Americans, which +made a bold though unsuccessful attempt to retake Ticonderoga. And +finding the number and spirit of the enemy to increase daily, and his +own stores of provisions to diminish, Burgoyne determined on attacking +the Americans in front of him, and, by dislodging them from their +position, to gain the means of moving upon Albany, or, at least, of +relieving his troops from the straitened position in which they were +cooped up. + +Burgoyne's force was now reduced to less than six thousand men. The +right of his camp was on high ground a little to the west of the river; +thence his intrenchments extended along the lower ground to the bank of +the Hudson, their line being nearly at a right angle with the course of +the stream. The lines were fortified in the centre and on the left with +redoubts and field-works. The numerical force of the Americans was now +greater than the British, even in regular troops, and the numbers of the +militia and volunteers which had joined Gates and Arnold were greater +still. The right of the American position--that is to say, the part of +it nearest to the river--was too strong to be assailed with any prospect +of success, and Burgoyne therefore determined to endeavor to force their +left. For this purpose he formed a column of fifteen hundred regular +troops, with two twelve-pounders, two howitzers, and six six-pounders. +He headed this in person, having Generals Philips, Reidesel, and Frazer +under him. The enemy's force immediately in front of his lines was so +strong that he dared not weaken the troops who guarded them by detaching +any more to strengthen his column of attack. The right of the camp was +commanded by Generals Hamilton and Spaight; the left part of it was +committed to the charge of Brigadier Goll. + +It was on October 7th that Burgoyne led his column on to the attack; and +on the preceding day, the 6th, Clinton had successfully executed a +brilliant enterprise against the two American forts which barred his +progress up the Hudson. He had captured them both, with severe loss to +the American forces opposed to him; he had destroyed the fleet which the +Americans had been forming on the Hudson, under the protection of their +forts; and the upward river was laid open to his squadron. He was now +only a hundred fifty-six miles distant from Burgoyne, and a detachment +of one thousand seven hundred men actually advanced within forty miles +of Albany. Unfortunately, Burgoyne and Clinton were each ignorant of the +other's movements; but if Burgoyne had won his battle on the 7th, he +must, on advancing, have soon learned the tidings of Clinton's success, +and Clinton would have heard of his. + +A junction would soon have been made of the two victorious armies, and +the great objects of the campaign might yet have been accomplished. All +depended on the fortune of the column with which Burgoyne, on the +eventful October 7, 1777, advanced against the American position. There +were brave men, both English and German, in its ranks; and, in +particular, it comprised one of the best bodies of grenadiers in the +British service. + +Burgoyne pushed forward some bodies of irregular troops to distract the +enemy's attention, and led his column to within three-quarters of a mile +from the left of Gates' camp, and then deployed his men into line. The +grenadiers under Major Ackland were drawn up on the left, a corps of +Germans in the centre, and the English light infantry and the +Twenty-fourth regiment on the right. But Gates did not wait to be +attacked; and directly the British line was formed and began to advance, +the American general, with admirable skill, caused a strong force to +make a sudden and vehement rush against its left. The grenadiers under +Ackland sustained the charge of superior numbers nobly. But Gates sent +more Americans forward, and in a few minutes the action became general +along the centre, so as to prevent the Germans from sending any help to +the grenadiers. + +Burgoyne's right was not yet engaged; but a mass of the enemy were +observed advancing from their extreme left, with the evident intention +of turning the British right and cutting off its retreat. The light +infantry and the Twenty-fourth now fell back, and formed an oblique +second line which enabled them to baffle this manoeuvre, and also to +succor their comrades in the left wing, the gallant grenadiers, who were +overpowered by superior numbers, and, but for this aid, must have been +cut to pieces. Arnold now came up with three American regiments and +attacked the right flanks of the English double line. + +Burgoyne's whole force was soon compelled to retreat toward their camp; +the left and centre were in complete disorder; but the light infantry +and the Twenty-fourth checked the fury of the assailants, and the +remains of Burgoyne's column with great difficulty effected their return +to their camp, leaving six of their guns in the possession of the enemy, +and great numbers of killed and wounded on the field; and especially a +large proportion of the artillerymen, who had stood to their guns until +shot down or bayoneted beside them by the advancing Americans. + +Burgoyne's column had been defeated, but the action was not yet over. +The English had scarcely entered the camp, when the Americans, pursuing +their success, assaulted it in several places with uncommon fierceness, +rushing to the lines through a severe fire of grape-shot and musketry +with the utmost fury. Arnold especially, who on this day appeared +maddened with the thirst of combat and carnage, urged on the attack +against a part of the intrenchments which was occupied by the light +infantry under Lord Balcarras. But the English received him with vigor +and spirit. The struggle here was obstinate and sanguinary. At length, +as it grew toward evening, Arnold having forced all obstacles, entered +the works with some of the most fearless of his followers. But in this +critical moment of glory and danger, he received a painful wound in the +same leg which had already been injured at the assault on Quebec. To his +bitter regret, he was obliged to be carried back. His party still +continued the attack; but the English also continued their obstinate +resistance and at last night fell, and the assailants withdrew from this +quarter of the British intrenchments. + +But in another part the attack had been more successful. A body of the +Americans, under Colonel Brooke, forced their way in through a part of +the intrenchments on the extreme right, which was defended by the German +reserve under Colonel Breyman. The Germans resisted well, and Breyman +died in defence of his post, but the Americans made good the ground +which they had won, and captured baggage, tents, artillery, and a store +of ammunition, which they were greatly in need of. They had, by +establishing themselves on this point, acquired the means of completely +turning the right flank of the British and gaining their rear. + +To prevent this calamity, Burgoyne effected during the night a complete +change of position. With great skill he removed his whole army to some +heights near the river, a little northward of the former camp, and he +there drew up his men, expecting to be attacked on the following day. +But Gates was resolved not to risk the certain triumph which his success +had already secured for him. He harassed the English with skirmishes, +but attempted no regular attack. Meanwhile he detached bodies of troops +on both sides of the Hudson to prevent the British from recrossing that +river and to bar their retreat. When night fell it became absolutely +necessary for Burgoyne to retire again, and, accordingly, the troops +were marched through a stormy and rainy night toward Saratoga, +abandoning their sick and wounded, and the greater part of their baggage +to the enemy. + +Before the rear-guard quitted the camp, the last sad honors were paid to +the brave General Frazer, who had been mortally wounded on the 7th, and +expired on the following day. The funeral of this gallant soldier is +thus described by the Italian historian Botta: + +"Toward midnight the body of General Frazer was buried in the British +camp. His brother-officers assembled sadly round while the funeral +service was read over the remains of their brave comrade, and his body +was committed to the hostile earth. The ceremony, always mournful and +solemn of itself, was rendered even terrible by the sense of recent +losses, of present and future dangers, and of regret for the deceased. +Meanwhile the blaze and roar of the American artillery amid the natural +darkness and stillness of the night came on the senses with startling +awe. The grave had been dug within range of the enemy's batteries, and, +while the service was proceeding, a cannon-ball struck the ground close +to the coffin, and spattered earth over the face of the officiating +chaplain." + +Burgoyne now took up his last position on the heights near Saratoga; and +hemmed in by the enemy, who refused any encounter, and baffled in all +his attempts at finding a path of escape, he there lingered until famine +compelled him to capitulate. The fortitude of the British army during +this melancholy period has been justly eulogized by many native +historians, but I prefer quoting the testimony of a foreign writer, as +free from all possibility of partiality. Botta says: + +"It exceeds the power of words to describe the pitiable condition to +which the British army was now reduced. The troops were worn down by a +series of toil, privation, sickness, and desperate fighting. They were +abandoned by the Indians and Canadians, and the effective force of the +whole army was now diminished by repeated and heavy losses, which had +principally fallen on the best soldiers and the most distinguished +officers, from ten thousand combatants to less than one-half that +number. Of this remnant little more than three thousand were English. + +"In these circumstances, and thus weakened, they were invested by an +army of four times their own numbers whose position extended three parts +of a circle round them, who refused to fight them, as knowing their +weakness, and who, from the nature of the ground, could not be attacked +in any part. In this helpless condition, obliged to be constantly under +arms, while the enemy's cannon played on every part of their camp, and +even the American rifle-balls whistled in many parts of the lines, the +troops of Burgoyne retained their customary firmness, and, while sinking +under a hard necessity, they showed themselves worthy of a better fate. +They could not be reproached with an action or a word which betrayed a +want of temper or of fortitude." + +At length October 13th arrived, and as no prospect of assistance +appeared, and the provisions were nearly exhausted, Burgoyne, by the +unanimous advice of a council of war, sent a messenger to the American +camp to treat of a convention. + +General Gates in the first instance demanded that the royal army should +surrender prisoners of war. He also proposed that the British should +ground their arms. Burgoyne replied: + +"This article is inadmissible in every extremity; sooner than this army +will consent to ground their arms in their encampment they will rush on +the enemy, determined to take no quarter." + +After various messages, a convention for the surrender of the army was +settled, which provided that "the troops under General Burgoyne were to +march out of their camp with the honors of war, and the artillery of the +intrenchments, to the verge of the river, where the arms and artillery +were to be left. The arms to be piled by word of command from their own +officers. A free passage was to be granted to the army under +Lieutenant-General Burgoyne to Great Britain, under condition of not +serving again in North America during the present contest." + +The articles of capitulation were settled on October 15th, and on that +very evening a messenger arrived from Clinton with an account of his +successes, and with the tidings that part of his force had penetrated as +far as Esopus, within fifty miles of Burgoyne's camp. But it was too +late. The public faith was pledged; and the army was indeed too +debilitated by fatigue and hunger to resist an attack, if made; and +Gates certainly would have made it if the convention had been broken +off. Accordingly, on the 17th, the Convention of Saratoga was carried +into effect. By this convention five thousand seven hundred ninety men +surrendered themselves as prisoners. The sick and wounded left in the +camp when the British retreated to Saratoga, together with the numbers +of the British, German, and Canadian troops who were killed, wounded, or +taken, and who had deserted in the preceding part of the expedition, +were reckoned to be four thousand six hundred eighty-nine. + +The British sick and wounded who had fallen into the hands of the +Americans after the battle of the 7th were treated with exemplary +humanity: and when the convention was executed, General Gates showed a +notable delicacy of feeling, which deserves the highest degree of honor. +Every circumstance was avoided which could give the appearance of +triumph. The American troops remained within their lines until the +British had piled their arms; and when this was done, the vanquished +officers and soldiers were received with friendly kindness by their +victors, and their immediate wants were promptly and liberally supplied. +Discussions and disputes afterward arose as to some of the terms of the +convention, and the American Congress refused for a long time to carry +into effect the article which provided for the return of Burgoyne's men +to Europe; but no blame was imputable to General Gates or his army, who +showed themselves to be generous as they had proved themselves to be +brave. + +Gates, after the victory, immediately despatched Colonel Wilkinson to +carry the happy tidings to Congress. On being introduced into the hall +he said: "The whole British army has laid down its arms at Saratoga; +our own, full of vigor and courage, expect your orders. It is for your +wisdom to decide where the country may still have need for their +service." + +Honors and rewards were liberally voted by the Congress to their +conquering general and his men; and it would be difficult, says the +Italian historian, to describe the transports of joy which the news of +this event excited among the Americans. They began to flatter themselves +with a still more happy future. No one any longer felt any doubt about +their achieving their independence. All hoped, and with good reason, +that a success of this importance would at length determine France, and +the other European powers that waited for her example, to declare +themselves in favor of America. "There could no longer be any question +respecting the future, since there was no longer the risk of espousing +the cause of a people too feeble to defend themselves." + +The truth of this was soon displayed in the conduct of France. When the +news arrived at Paris of the capture of Ticonderoga, and of the +victorious march of Burgoyne toward Albany, events which seemed decisive +in favor of the English, instructions had been immediately despatched to +Nantes and the other ports of the kingdom that no American privateers +should be suffered to enter them, except from indispensable necessity; +as to repair their vessels, to obtain provisions, or to escape the +perils of the sea. + +The American commissioners at Paris, in their disgust and despair, had +almost broken off all negotiations with the French Government; and they +even endeavored to open communications with the British Ministry. But +the British Government, elated with the first successes of Burgoyne, +refused to listen to any overtures for accommodation. But when the news +of Saratoga reached Paris the whole scene was changed. Franklin and his +brother-commissioners found all their difficulties with the French +Government vanish. The time seemed to have arrived for the house of +Bourbon to take a full revenge for all its humiliations and losses in +previous wars. In December a treaty was arranged, and formally signed in +the February following, by which France acknowledged _the Independent +United States of America_. This was, of course, tantamount to a +declaration of war with England. + +Spain soon followed France; and, before long, Holland took the same +course. Largely aided by French fleets and troops, the Americans +vigorously maintained the war against the armies which England, in spite +of her European foes, continued to send across the Atlantic. But the +struggle was too unequal to be maintained by Great Britain for many +years; and when the treaties of 1783 restored peace to the world, the +independence of the United States was reluctantly recognized by their +ancient parent and recent enemy. + + + + +FIRST VICTORY OF THE AMERICAN NAVY + +A.D. 1779 + +ALEXANDER SLIDELL MACKENZIE + + American naval officers look back with intensest pride to + Paul Jones, their earliest hero, the founder of those high + traditions which have done so much to raise the navy to its + present standard of efficiency. Decatur, Perry, Farragut, + Dewey, these and a thousand others of their kind, have but + followed the lead of Paul Jones, have learned their deepest + lesson in the thrill that came to each of them in boyhood on + hearing that proud defiance hurled at the ancient mistress + of the seas, "I have not yet begun to fight." + + Although much greater sea-battles, in point of numbers of + both ships and men engaged, are recorded in history, yet + this, the first naval engagement by an American vessel, is + counted among the most famous of all on account of its + stubbornness. The child was matched against the parent; an + American vessel against a British, the latter far the + stronger. The combat was mainly between the Bonhomme + Richard, Jones' ship, with forty guns, many of them + unserviceable, and the British ship, Serapis, of superior + armament, as shown below. + + John Paul Jones, commonly known as Paul Jones, was born in + Scotland in 1747, the son of John Paul, a gardener. He + emigrated to Virginia, and, assuming the name of Jones, + became first lieutenant (1775) in the American navy. When in + 1778 France joined the colonies against England, Jones, who + had already performed several noteworthy exploits, was in + that country. Through the influence of Franklin an old + merchant vessel, the Duc de Duras, was converted into a + ship-of-war and, with four others, placed under the command + of Jones. In honor of Franklin he named the Duras "Poor + Richard," and, in compliment to the French language and + people, she was called the Bonhomme Richard, the French + colloquial equivalent. + + With a squadron of five ships, each except his own under a + French commander and three of them with French crews as + well, Jones sailed from L'Orient, France, August 14, 1779. + He passed around the west coast of Ireland and around + Scotland. There was much discontent among the French + officers, and, though four of his ships were still with him + when he sighted the Baltic fleet, Jones could not count on + loyal service, especially from the Alliance, whose captain + had already shown much insubordination. + + The memorable fight has never been better described than in + the following plain and direct account of Mackenzie, + himself an officer of the United States navy. + + +The battle between the Bonhomme and the Serapis is invested with a +heroic interest of the highest stamp. Jones had been cruising off the +mouth of the Humber and along the Yorkshire coast, intercepting the +colliers bound to London, many of which he destroyed (1779). On the +morning of September 23d he fell in with the Alliance.[27] This +rencounter was a real misfortune; as, in the battle which ensued, the +former disobedience and mad vagaries of Landais, her commander, were +about to be converted into absolute treason. The squadron now consisted +of the Richard, the Alliance, the Pallas, and the Vengeance. + +About noon Jones despatched his second lieutenant, Henry Lunt, with +fifteen of his best men, to take possession of a brigantine which he had +chased ashore. Soon after, as the squadron was standing to the northward +toward Flamborough Head, with a light breeze from south-southwest, +chasing a ship, which was seen doubling the cape, in opening the view +beyond, they gradually came in sight of a fleet of forty-one sail +running down the coast from the northward, very close in with the land. +On questioning the pilot, the Commodore discovered that this was the +Baltic fleet, with which he had been so anxious to fall in, and that it +was under convoy of the Serapis, a new ship, of an improved +construction, mounting forty-four guns, and the Countess of Scarborough, +of twenty guns. + +Signal was immediately made to form the line of battle, which the +Alliance, as usual, disregarded. The Richard crossed her royal yards, +and immediately gave chase to the northward, under all sail, to get +between the enemy and the land. At the same time signal of recall was +made to the pilot of the boat; but she did not return until after the +action. On discovering the American squadron, the headmost ships of the +convoy were seen to haul their wind suddenly and go about so as to +stretch back under the land toward Scarborough and place themselves +under cover of the cruisers; at the same time they fired signal-guns, +let fly their topgallant sheets, and showed every symptom of confusion +and alarm. Soon afterward the Serapis was seen reaching to windward to +get between the convoy and the American ships, which she soon effected. +At four o'clock the English cruisers were in sight from deck. The +Countess of Scarborough was standing out to join the Serapis, which was +lying-to for her, while the convoy continued to run for the fort, in +obedience to the signals displayed from the Serapis, which was also seen +to fire guns. At half-past five the two ships had joined company, when +the Serapis made sail by the wind; at six both vessels tacked, heading +up to the westward, across the bows of the Richard, so as to keep their +position between her and the convoy. + +The opposing ships thus continued to approach each other slowly under +the light southwesterly air. The weather was beautifully serene, and the +breeze, being off the land, which was now close on board, produced no +ripple on the water, which lay still and peaceful, offering a fair field +to the combatants about to grapple in such deadly strife. The decks of +the opposing vessels were long since cleared for action, and ample +leisure remained for reflection, as the ships glided toward each other +at a rate but little in accordance with the impatience of the opponents. +From the projecting promontory of Flamborough Head, which was less than +a league distant, thousands of the inhabitants, whom the recent attempt +upon Leith had made aware of the character of the American ships, and +the reckless daring of their leader, looked down upon the scene, +awaiting the result with intense anxiety. The ships also were in sight +from Scarborough, the inhabitants of which thronged the piers. The sun +had already sunk behind the land before the ships were within gun-shot +of each other; but a full harvest-moon rising above the opposite +horizon, lighted the combatants in their search for each other, and +served to reveal the approaching scene to the spectators on the land +with a vague distinctness which rendered it only the more terrible. + +We have seen that the Alliance had utterly disregarded the signal to +form the line of battle when the Baltic fleet was first discovered, and +our squadron bore down upon them. She stood for the enemy without +reference to her station, and, greatly out-sailing the other vessels, +was much sooner in a condition to engage. Captain Landais seemed for +once to be actuated by a chivalrous motive and likely to do something to +redeem the guilt of his disobedience. The officers of the Richard were +watching this new instance of eccentricity, for which Landais' past +conduct had not prepared them, with no little surprise; when after +getting near to where the Serapis lay, with her courses hauled up, and +St. George's ensign--the white cross of England--proudly displayed, he +suddenly hauled his wind, leaving the path of honor open to his +commander. While the Pallas stood for the Countess of Scarborough, the +Alliance sought a position in which she could contemplate the double +engagement without risk, as though her commander had been chosen umpire, +instead of being a party interested in the approaching battle. Soon +afterward the Serapis was seen to hoist the red ensign instead of St. +George's, and it was subsequently known that her captain had nailed it +to the flag-staff with his own hand. + +About half-past seven the Bonhomme Richard hauled up her courses and +rounded-to on the weather or larboard quarter of the Serapis, and within +pistol-shot, and steered a nearly parallel course, though gradually +edging down upon her. The Serapis now triced up her lower-deck ports, +showing two complete batteries, besides her spar deck, lighted up for +action, and making a most formidable appearance. At this moment Captain +Pearson, her commander, hailed the Bonhomme Richard and demanded, "What +ship is that?" Answer was made, "I can't hear what you say." The hail +was repeated: "What ship is that? Answer immediately, or I shall be +under the necessity of firing into you!" A shot was fired in reply by +the Bonhomme Richard, which was instantly followed by a broadside from +each vessel. Two of the three old eighteen-pounders in the Richard's +gunroom burst at the first fire, spreading around an awful scene of +carnage. Jones immediately gave orders to close the lower-deck ports and +abandon that battery during the rest of the action. + +The Richard, having kept her headway and becalmed the sails of the +Serapis, passed across her forefoot, when the Serapis, luffing across +the stern of the Richard, came up in turn on the weather or larboard +quarter; and, after an exchange of several broadsides from the fresh +batteries, which did great damage to the rotten sides of the Richard and +caused her to leak badly, the Serapis likewise becalmed the sails of the +Richard, passed ahead, and soon after bore up and attempted to cross her +forefoot so as to rake her from stem to stern. + +Finding, however, that he had not room for the evolution, and that the +Richard would be on board of him, Captain Pearson put his helm a-lee, +which brought the two ships in a line ahead, and, the Serapis having +lost her headway by the attempted evolution, the Richard ran into her +weather or larboard quarter. While in this position, neither ship being +able to use her great guns, Jones attempted to board the Serapis, but +was repulsed, when Captain Pearson hailed him and asked, "Has your ship +struck?" to which he at once returned the immortal answer: + +"_I have not yet begun to fight!_" + +Jones now backed his topsails, and the sails of the Serapis remaining +full, the two ships separated. Immediately after, Pearson also laid his +topsails back, as he says in his official report, to get square with the +Richard again; Jones at the same instant filled away, which brought the +two ships once more broadside and broadside. As he had already suffered +greatly from the superior force of the Serapis, and from her being more +manageable and a faster sailer than the Richard, which had several times +given her the advantage in position, Jones now determined to lay his +ship athwart the enemy's hawse; he accordingly put his helm up, but, +some of his braces being shot away, his sails had not their full power, +and, the Serapis having sternway, the Richard fell on board of her +farther aft than Jones had intended. The Serapis' jib-boom hung her for +a few minutes, when, carrying away, the two ships swung broadside and +broadside, the muzzles of the guns touching each other. Jones sent Mr. +Stacy, the acting master, to pass up the end of a hawser to lash the two +ships together, and, while he was gone on this service, assisted with +his own hand in making fast the jib-stay of the Serapis to the Richard's +mizzen-mast. + +Accident, however, unknown for the moment to either party, more +effectually secured the two vessels together; for, the anchor of the +Serapis having hooked the quarter of the Richard, the two ships lay +closely grappled. In order to escape from this close embrace, and +recover the advantage of his superior sailing and force, Captain Pearson +now let go an anchor, when the two ships tended round to the tide, which +was setting toward Scarborough. The Richard being held by the anchor of +the Serapis, and the yards being entangled fore and aft, they remained +firmly grappled. This happened about half-past eight, the engagement +having already continued an hour. + +Meantime the firing had recommenced with fresh fury from the starboard +sides of both vessels. The guns of either ship actually touched the +sides of the other, and, some of them being opposite the ports, the +rammers entered those of the opposite ship when in the act of loading, +and the guns were discharged into the side or into the open decks. The +effect of this cannonade was terrible to both ships, and wherever it +could be kept up in one ship it was silenced in the other. Occasional +skirmishing with pikes and pistols took place through the ports, but +there does not appear to have been any concerted effort to board from +the lower decks of the Serapis, which had the advantage below. + +The Richard had already received several eighteen-pound shot between +wind and water, causing her to leak badly; the main battery of +twelve-pounders was silenced; as for the gunroom battery of six +eighteen-pounders, we have seen that two out of the three starboard ones +burst at the first fire, killing most of their crews. During the whole +action but eight shots were fired from this heavy battery, the use of +which was so much favored by the smoothness of the water. The bursting +of these guns, and the destruction of the crew, with the partial blowing +up of the deck above, so early in the action, were discouraging +circumstances, which, with a less resolutely determined commander, might +well have been decisive of the fate of the battle. + +Colonel Chamillard, who was stationed on the poop, with a party of +twenty marines, had already been driven from his post, with the loss of +a number of his men. The Alliance kept studiously aloof, and, hovering +about the Pallas and the Countess of Scarborough, until the latter +struck, after half an hour's action, Landais endeavored to get +information as to the force of the Serapis. He now ran down, under easy +sail, to where the Richard and Serapis grappled. At about half-past nine +he ranged up on the larboard quarter of the Richard, of course having +the Richard between him and the Serapis, though the brightness of the +moonlight, the greater height of the Richard, especially about the poop, +and the fact of her being painted entirely black, while the Serapis had +a yellow streak, could have left no doubt as to her identity; moreover, +the Richard displayed three lights at the larboard bow, gangway, and +stern, which was an appointed signal of recognition. + +Landais now deliberately fired into the Richard's quarter, killing many +of her men. Standing on, he ranged past her larboard bow, where he +renewed his raking fire, with like fatal effect. To remove the chance of +misconception, many voices cried out that the Alliance was firing into +the wrong ship; still the raking fire continued from her. Captain +Pearson also suffered from this fire, as he states in his report to the +Admiralty, but necessarily in a much less degree than the Richard, which +lay between them. There is ample evidence of Landais having returned +there several times to fire on the Richard, and always on the larboard +side, or opposite one to that on which the Richard was grappled with the +Serapis. + +While the fire of the Serapis was continued without intermission from +the whole of her lower-deck battery, the only guns that were still fired +from the Richard were two nine-pounders on the quarter-deck, commanded +by Mr. Mease, the purser. This officer having received a dangerous wound +in the head, Jones took his place, and, having collected a few men, +succeeded in shifting over one of the larboard guns; so that three guns +were now kept playing on the enemy, and these were all that were fired +from the Richard during the remainder of the action. One of these guns +was served with double-headed shot and directed at the main-mast, by +Jones' command, while the other two were loaded with grape and canister, +to clear the enemy's deck. + +In this service great aid was rendered by the men stationed in the tops +of the Richard, who, having cleared the tops of the Serapis, committed +great havoc among the officers and crew upon her upper deck. Thus, the +action was carried on with decided advantage to the Serapis' men on the +lower decks, from which they might have boarded the Richard with a good +prospect of success, as nearly the whole crew of the latter had been +driven from below by the fire of the Serapis and had collected on the +upper deck. In addition to the destructive fire from the tops of the +Richard, great damage was done by the hand-grenades thrown from her tops +and yard-arms. The Serapis was set on fire as often as ten or twelve +times in various parts, and the conflagration was only with the greatest +exertions kept from becoming general. + +About a quarter before ten a hand-grenade, thrown by one of the +Richard's men from the main-top of the Serapis, struck the combing of +the main-hatch, and, glancing inward upon the main deck, set fire to a +cartridge of powder. Owing to mismanagement and defective training, the +powder-boys on this deck had bought up the cartridges from the magazine +faster than they were used, and, instead of waiting for the loaders to +receive and charge them, had laid them on the deck, where some of them +were broken. The cartridge fired by the grenade now communicated to +these, and the explosion spread from the main-mast aft on the starboard +side, killing twenty men and disabling every man there stationed at the +guns, those who were not killed outright being left stripped of their +clothes and scorched frightfully. + +At this conjuncture, being about ten o'clock, the gunner and the +carpenter of the Richard, who had been slightly wounded, became alarmed +at the quantity of water which entered the ship through the shot-holes +which she had received between wind and water, and which, by her +settling, had got below the surface. The carpenter expressed an +apprehension that she would speedily sink, which the gunner, mistaking +for an assertion that she was actually sinking, ran aft on the poop to +haul down the colors. Finding that the ensign was already down in +consequence of the staff having been shot away, the gunner set up the +cry, "Quarter! for God's sake, quarter! Our ship is sinking!" which he +continued until silenced by Jones, who threw at the recreant a pistol he +had just discharged at the enemy, which fractured his skull, and sent +him headlong down the hatchway. Captain Pearson, hearing the gunner's +cry, asked Jones if he called for quarter, to which, according to his +own words, he replied "in the most determined negative." + +Captain Pearson now called away his boarders and sent them on board the +Richard, but, when they had reached her rail, they were met by Jones +himself, at the head of a party of pikemen, and driven back. They +immediately returned to their ship, followed by some of the Richard's +men, all of whom were cut off. + +About the same time that the gunner set up his cry for quarter, the +master-at-arms, who had been in consultation with the gunner and the +carpenter in regard to the sinking condition of the ship, hearing the +cry for quarter, proceeded, without orders from Jones, and either from +treachery or the prompting of humane feelings, to release all the +prisoners, amounting to more than a hundred. One of these, being the +commander of the letter-of-marque Union, taken on August 31st, passed, +with generous self-devotion, through the lower ports of the Richard and +the Serapis, and, having reached the quarter-deck of the latter, +informed Captain Pearson that if he would hold out a little longer the +Richard must either strike or sink; he moreover informed him of the +large number of prisoners who had been released with himself, in order +to save their lives. Thus encouraged, the battle was renewed from the +Serapis with fresh ardor. + +The situation of Jones at this moment was indeed hopeless beyond +anything that is recorded in the annals of naval warfare. In a sinking +ship, with a battery silenced everywhere, except where he himself +fought, more than a hundred prisoners at large in his ship, his consort, +the Alliance, sailing round and raking him deliberately, his superior +officers counselling surrender, while the inferior ones were setting up +disheartening cries of fire and sinking and calling loudly for +quarter--the chieftain still stood undismayed. He immediately ordered +the prisoners to the pumps, and took advantage of the panic they were +in, with regard to the reported sinking of the ship, to keep them from +conspiring to overcome the few efficient hands that remained of his +crew. + +Meanwhile the action was continued with the three light quarter-deck +guns, under Jones' immediate inspection. In the moonlight, blended with +the flames that ascended the rigging of the Serapis, the yellow +main-mast presented a palpable mark, against which the guns were +directed with double-headed shot. Soon after ten o'clock the fire of the +Serapis began to slacken, and at half-past ten she struck. + +Mr. Dale, the first lieutenant of the Richard, was now ordered on board +the Serapis to take charge of her. He was accompanied by Midshipman +Mayrant and a party of boarders. Mr. Mayrant was run through the thigh +with a boarding-pike as he touched the deck of the Serapis, and three of +the Richard's crew were killed, after the Serapis had struck, by some of +the crew of the latter who were ignorant of the surrender of their ship. + +Lieutenant Dale found Captain Pearson on the quarter-deck, and told him +he was ordered to send him on board the Richard. It is a remarkable +evidence of the strange character of this engagement, and the doubt +which attended its result, that the first lieutenant of the Serapis, who +came upon deck at this moment, should have asked his commander whether +the ship alongside had struck. Lieutenant Dale immediately answered: +"No, sir; on the contrary, he has struck to us!" + +The British lieutenant, like a true officer, then questioned his +commander, "Have you struck, sir?" Captain Pearson replied, "Yes, I +have!" The lieutenant replied, "I have nothing more to say," and was +about to return below, when Mr. Dale informed him that he must accompany +Captain Pearson on board the Richard. The lieutenant rejoined, "If you +will permit me to go below, I will silence the firing of the lower-deck +guns." This offer Mr. Dale very properly declined, and the two officers +went on board the Richard and surrendered themselves to Jones. + +Pearson, who had risen, like Jones, from a humble station by his own +bravery, but who was as inferior officer to Jones in courtesy as he had +proved himself in obstinacy of resistance, evinced from the first a +characteristic surliness, which he maintained throughout the whole of +his intercourse with his victor. In surrendering he said that it was +painful for him to deliver up his sword to a man who had fought with a +halter around his neck. Jones did not forget himself, but replied with a +compliment, which, though addressed to Pearson, necessarily reverted to +himself, "Sir! you have fought like a hero, and I make no doubt but your +sovereign will reward you in a most ample manner." + +As another evidence of the strange _melee_ which attended this +engagement, and of the discouraging circumstances under which the +Richard fought, it may be mentioned that eight or ten of her crew, who +were, of course, Englishmen, got into a boat, which was towing astern of +the Serapis, and escaped to Scarborough during the height of the +engagement. This defection, together with the absence of the second +lieutenant with fifteen of the best men, the loss of twenty-four men on +the coast of Ireland, added to the number who had been sent away in +prizes, reduced Jones' crew to a very small number, and greatly +diminished his chance of success, which was due at length solely to his +own indomitable courage. + +Meantime the fire, which was still kept up from the lower-deck guns of +the Serapis, where the seamen were ignorant of the scene of surrender +which had taken place above, was arrested by an order from Lieutenant +Dale. The action had continued without cessation for three hours and a +half. When it at length ceased, Jones got his ship clear of the Serapis +and made sail. As the two separated, after being so long locked in +deadly struggle, the main-mast of the Serapis, which had been for some +time tottering, and which had only been sustained by the interlocking of +her yards with those of the Richard, went over the side with a +tremendous crash, carrying the mizzen-topmast with it. Soon after, the +Serapis cut her cable and followed the Richard. + +The exertions of captors and captives were now necessary to extinguish +the flames which were raging furiously in both vessels. Its violence was +greatest in the Richard, where it had been communicated below from the +lower-deck guns of the Serapis. Every effort to subdue the flames seemed +for a time to be unavailing. In one place they were raging very near the +magazine, and Jones at length had all the powder taken out and brought +on deck, in readiness to be thrown overboard. In this work the officers +of the Serapis voluntarily assisted. + +While the fire was raging in so terrifying a manner, the water was +entering the ship in many places. The rudder had been cut entirely +through, the transoms were driven in, and the rotten timbers of the old +ship, from the main-mast aft, were shattered and almost entirely +separated, as if the ship had been sawn through by ice; so much so that +Jones says that toward the close of the action the shot of the Serapis +passed completely through the Richard; and the stern-post and a few +timbers alone prevented the stern from falling down on the gunroom deck. +The water rushed in through all these apertures, so that at the close +of the action there were already five feet of water in the hold. The +spectacle which the old ship presented the following morning was +dreadful beyond description. Jones says in his official report: "A +person must have been eye-witness to form a just idea of the tremendous +scene of carnage, wreck, and ruin that everywhere appeared. Humanity +cannot but recoil from the prospect of such finished horror, and lament +that war should produce such fatal consequences." + +Captain Pearson also notices, in his official letter to the Admiralty, +the dreadful spectacle the Richard presented. He says: "On my going on +board the Bonhomme Richard I found her to be in the greatest distress; +her counters and quarters on the lower deck entirely drove in, and the +whole of her lower-deck guns dismounted; she was also on fire in two +places, and six or seven feet of water in her hold, which kept +increasing all night and the next day till they were obliged to quit +her, and she sunk with a great number of her wounded people on board +her." The regret which he must, at any rate, have felt in surrendering, +must have been much augmented by these observations, and by what he must +have seen of the motley composition of the Richard's crew. + +On the morning after the action a survey was held upon the "Poor +Richard," which was now, more than ever, entitled to her name. After a +deliberate examination, the carpenters and other surveying officers were +unanimously of opinion that the ship could not be kept afloat so as to +reach port, if the wind should increase. The task of removing the +wounded was now commenced, and completed in the course of the night and +following morning. The prisoners who had been taken in merchant-ships +were left until the wounded were all removed. Taking advantage of the +confusion, and of their superiority in numbers, they took possession of +the ship, and got her head in for the land, toward which the wind was +now blowing. A contest ensued, and, as the Englishmen had few arms, they +were speedily overcome. Two of them were shot dead, several wounded and +driven overboard, and thirteen of them got possession of a boat and +escaped to the shore. + +Jones was very anxious to keep the Richard afloat, and, if possible, to +bring her into port, doubtless from the very justifiable vanity of +showing how desperately he had fought her. In order to effect this +object he kept the first lieutenant of the Pallas on board of her with a +party of men to work the pumps, having boats in waiting to remove them +in the event of her sinking. During the night of the 24th the wind had +freshened, and still continued to freshen on the morning of the 25th, +when all further efforts to save her were found unavailing. The water +was running in and out of her ports and swashing up her hatchways. About +nine o'clock it became necessary to abandon her, the water then being up +to the lower deck; an hour later, she rolled as if losing her balance, +and, settling forward, went down bows first, her stern and mizzen-mast +being last seen. + +"A little after ten," says Jones in his report, "I saw, with +inexpressible grief, the last glimpse of the Bonhomme Richard." The +grief was a natural one, but, far from being destitute of consolation, +the closing scene of the "Poor Richard," like the death of Nelson on +board the Victory in the moment of winning a new title to the name, was +indeed a glorious one. Her shattered shell afforded an honorable +receptacle for the remains of the Americans who had fallen during the +action. + +The Richard was called by Captain Pearson a forty-gun ship, while the +Serapis was stated by the pilot, who described her to Jones when she was +first made, to have been a forty-four. Jones and Dale also gave her the +same rate. The Richard, as we have seen, mounted six eighteen-pounders +in her gunroom on her berth deck, where port-holes had been opened near +the water; fourteen twelve, and fourteen nine-pounders on her main deck, +and eight six-pounders on her quarter-deck, gangways, and forecastle. +The weight of shot thrown by her at a single broadside would thus be two +hundred and twenty-five pounds. With regard to her crew, she started +from L'Orient with three hundred eighty men. She had manned several +prizes, which, with the desertion of the barge's crew on the coast of +Ireland, and the absence of those who went in pursuit under the master +and never returned, together with the fifteen men sent away in the +pilot-boat, under the second lieutenant, just before the action, and who +did not return until after it was over, reduced the crew, according to +Jones' statement, to three hundred forty men at its commencement. + +This calculation seems a very fair one; for, by taking the statement of +those who had landed on the coast of Ireland, as given in a contemporary +English paper, at twenty-four, those who were absent in the pilot-boat +being sixteen in number, and allowing five of the nine prizes taken by +the Richard to have been manned from her, with average crews of five men +each, the total reduction from her original crew may be computed to be +seventy men. Eight or ten more escaped, during the action, in a boat +towing astern of the Serapis. To have had three hundred forty men at the +commencement of the action, as Jones states he had, he must have +obtained recruits from the crews of his prizes. + +In the muster-roll of the Richard's crew in the battle, as given by Mr. +Sherburne from an official source, we find only two hundred twenty-seven +names. This can hardly have been complete; still the document is +interesting, inasmuch as it enumerates the killed and wounded by name, +there being forty-two killed and forty wounded. It also states the +country of most of the crew; by which it appears that there were +seventy-one Americans, fifty-seven acknowledged Englishmen, twenty-one +Portuguese, and the rest of the motley collection was made up of Swedes, +Norwegians, Irish, and East Indians. Many of those not named in this +imperfect muster-roll were probably Americans. + +With regard to the Serapis, her battery consisted of twenty eighteens on +the lower gun-deck, twenty nines on the upper gun-deck, and ten sixes on +the quarter-deck and forecastle. She had two complete batteries, and her +construction was, in all respects, that of a line-of-battle ship. The +weight of shot thrown by her single broadside was three hundred pounds, +being seventy-five pounds more than that of the Richard. Her crew +consisted of three hundred twenty; all Englishmen except fifteen +Lascars; and as such, superior to the motley and partially disaffected +assemblage of the Richard. The superiority of the Serapis, in size and +weight, as well as efficiency of battery, was, moreover, greatly +increased by the strength of her construction. She was a new ship, built +expressly for a man-of-war, and equipped in the most complete manner by +the first of naval powers. The Richard was originally a merchantman, +worn out by long use and rotten from age. She was fitted, in a makeshift +manner, with whatever refuse guns and materials could be hastily +procured, at a small expense, from the limited means appropriated to her +armament. + +The overwhelming superiority thus possessed by the Serapis was evident +in the action. Two of the three lower-deck guns of the Richard burst at +the first fire, scattering death on every side, while the guns of the +Serapis remained serviceable during the whole action, and their effect +on the decayed sides of the Richard was literally to tear her to pieces. +On the contrary, the few light guns which continued to be used in the +Richard, under the immediate direction of her commander, produced little +impression on the hull of the Serapis. They were usefully directed to +destroy her masts and clear her upper deck, which, with the aid of the +destructive and well-sustained fire from the tops, was eventually +effected. The achievement of the victory was, however, wholly and solely +due to the immovable courage of Paul Jones. The Richard was beaten more +than once; but the spirit of Jones could not be overcome. Captain +Pearson was a brave man, and well deserved the honor of knighthood which +awaited him on his arrival in England; but Paul Jones had a nature which +never could have yielded. Had Pearson been equally indomitable, the +Richard, if not boarded from below, would, at last, have gone down with +her colors still flying in proud defiance. + +The wounded of the Serapis appear, by the surgeon's report accompanying +Captain Pearson's letter to the Admiralty, to have amounted to +seventy-five men, eight of whom died of their wounds. Of the wounded, +thirty-three are stated to have been "miserably scorched," doubtless by +the explosion of the cartridges on the main deck. Captain Pearson states +that there were many more, both killed and wounded, than appeared on the +list, but that he had been unable to ascertain their names. Jones gave +the number of wounded on board the Serapis as more than a hundred, and +the killed probably as numerous. The surviving prisoners, taken from the +Serapis and the Countess of Scarborough, amounted to three hundred +fifty; the whole number of prisoners, including those previously taken +from captured merchant-vessels, amounted to near five hundred. + +During the engagement between the Richard and the Serapis, the Pallas, +commanded by Captain Cottineau, seems to have done her duty. She +engaged the Countess of Scarborough, and captured her after an hour's +close action. The Pallas was a frigate of thirty-two guns, and the +Countess of Scarborough a single-decked ship, mounting twenty +six-pounders. The Alliance, in the course of the night, also fired into +the Pallas and the Countess of Scarborough, while engaged, and killed +several of the Pallas' men. Subsequent to the engagement it was attested +by the mass of officers in the squadron that, about eight o'clock, the +Alliance raked the Bonhomme Richard with grape and cross-bar, killing a +number of men and dismounting several guns. He afterward made sail for +where the Pallas and the Scarborough were engaged, and after hovering +about until the latter struck, communicated by hailing with both +vessels, and then stood back to the Richard, and coming up on her +larboard quarter, about half-past nine, fired again into her; passing +along her larboard beam, he then luffed up on her lee bow, and renewed +his raking fire. It was proved that the Alliance never passed on the +larboard side of the Serapis, but always kept the Richard between her +and the enemy. The officers of the Richard were of opinion that Landais' +intention was to kill Jones and disable his ship, so as afterward to +have himself an easy victory over the Serapis. As it was, he +subsequently claimed the credit of the victory, on the plea of having +raked the Serapis. There can be little doubt that he was actuated by +jealous and treacherous feelings toward Jones, and by base cowardice. +The Vengeance also behaved badly; neither she nor the Alliance made any +prizes from among the fleet of merchantmen, and the whole escaped under +cover of Flamborough Head and the adjacent harbors. Lieutenant Henry +Lunt, who was absent in the pilot-boat with fifteen of the Richard's +best men, lay in sight of the Richard during the action, but "thought it +not prudent to go alongside in time of action." His conduct at least +involved a great error of judgment, which no doubt he lived to repent. + +The conduct of Jones throughout this battle displayed great skill and +the noblest heroism. He carried his ship into action in the most gallant +style, and, while he commanded with ability, excited his followers by +his personal example. We find him, in the course of the action, himself +assisting to lash the ships together, aiding in the service of the only +battery from which a fire was still kept up, and, when the Serapis +attempted to board, rushing, pike in hand, to meet and repel the +assailants. No difficulties or perplexities seemed to appal him or +disturb his judgment, and his courage and skill were equalled by his +immovable self-composure. The achievement of this victory was solely due +to his brilliant display of all the qualities essential to the formation +of a great naval commander. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[27] The Alliance had deliberately separated from the squadron. As to +the other vessels, the Pallas was a French frigate weaker than the +Richard, but much stronger than the second English ship, which she +captured. The Vengeance was only a sloop of twelve guns, and took no +part in the contest.--ED. + + + + +JOSEPH II ATTEMPTS REFORM IN HUNGARY[28] + +A.D. 1780 + +ARMINIUS VAMBERY + + As King of Hungary and Bohemia, and as Germanic Emperor, + Joseph II, a man of ideals, found himself hampered by + hereditary institutions and traditions. The attempted + reforms of this ruler, though too advanced for their times, + are justly deemed worthy of commemoration by historians. + Like the work of all leaders who aim at improvement before + the world is ready, they were prophetic of a better day. + + Joseph II, son of Francis I, Emperor of the Holy Roman + Empire, and Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Austria and Queen + of Hungary and Bohemia, was born at Vienna in 1741. He + succeeded to the possessions of the house of Austria on the + death of his mother in 1780. The troubles of his reign, + especially in Hungary, were due to his own progressive and + technically illegal acts on the one hand, and to the narrow + conservatism of the people, and the illiberality of the + nobles, on the other. + + By most of the historians of Hungary and Bohemia the reign + of Joseph II is described as disastrous for both countries. + But a more philosophical view than those historians often + furnish is presented by Vambery, the great Hungarian writer, + who gives to the endeavors of Joseph the credit of enduring + significance. + + +The royal crown of Hungary has ever been, from the time it encircled the +brow of St. Stephen, an object of jealous solicitude and almost +superstitious veneration with the nation. It continued to loom up as a +brilliant and rallying point in the midst of the vicissitudes and +stirring events of the history of the country during all the centuries +that followed the coronation of the first king. The people looked upon +it as a hallowed relic, the glorious bequest of a long line of +generations past and gone, and as the symbol and embodiment of the unity +of the state. The different countries composing Hungary were known under +the collective name of the "Lands of the Sacred Crown," and, at the +period when the privileged nobility was still enjoying exceptional +immunities, each noble styled himself _membrum sacrae coronae_ ("a member +of the sacred crown"). In the estimation of the people it had ceased to +be a religious symbol, and had become a cherished national and political +memorial, to which the followers of every creed and all the classes +without distinction might equally do homage. Nor was the crown an +every-day ornament to be displayed by royalty on solemn occasions of +pageant. The King wore it only once in his life, on the day of his +coronation, when he was bound solemnly to swear fidelity to the +constitution, before the high dignitaries of the state, first in church, +and to repeat afterward in the open air his vow to govern the country +within the limits of the law. Thus in Hungary it has ever been the +ancient custom, prevailing to this day, that, on the king's accession to +the throne, it is he who, on his coronation, takes the oath of fidelity +to his people, instead of the latter swearing fealty to the king. The +right of succession to the throne is hereditary, but the lawful rule of +the king begins with the ceremony of coronation only. It requires this +ceremonial, which to this day is characterized by the attributes of +mediaeval pomp and splendor, to render the acts of the ruler valid and +binding upon the people; without it every public act of such ruler is a +usurpation. + +During eight centuries all the kings and queens, without exception, had +been eager to place the crown on their heads, in order to come into the +full possession of their regal privileges. Joseph II was the first king +who refused to be crowned. He felt a reluctance to swear fidelity to the +constitution, and to promise, by a solemn oath, to govern the country in +accordance with its ancient usages and laws. The people, therefore, +never called him their crowned king; he was either styled "Emperor" by +them, or nicknamed the _kalapos_ ("hatted") king. His reign was but a +series of illegal and unconstitutional acts, and a succession of bitter +and envenomed struggles between the nation and her ruler. The contest +finally ended with Joseph's defeat. He retracted on his death-bed all +his arbitrary measures, and conceded to the people the tardy restoration +of their ancient constitution. The conflict, however, had left deep +traces in the minds of his Hungarian subjects. It roused them from the +dormant state into which they had been lulled by the gentle and maternal +absolutism of Maria Theresa. Thus Joseph's schemes not only failed, but, +in their effects, they were destined to bring about the triumph of +ideas, fraught with important consequences, such as he had hardly +anticipated. The nation, waking from her lethargy, gave more prominence +than ever to the idea of nationality, an idea which, as time advanced, +increased in potency and intensity. + +Yet this ruler, who on ascending the throne disregarded all +constitutional obligations and waged a relentless war against the +Hungarian nationality, must be, nevertheless, ranked among the noblest +characters of his century. Thoroughly imbued with the enlightened views +of the eighteenth century, and those new ideas which had triumphed in +the War of Independence across the ocean, he was ever in pursuit of +generous and exalted aims. He sincerely desired the welfare of the +people, and in engaging in this fruitless conflict he was by no means +actuated by sinister intentions or by a despotic disposition. To +introduce reforms, called for by the spirit of the age, into the Church, +the schools, and every department of his Government, was the lofty task +he had imposed upon himself. A champion of the oppressed, he freed the +human conscience from its mediaeval fetters, granted equal rights to the +persecuted creeds, protected the enslaved peasantry against their +arbitrary masters, and enlarged the liberty of the press. He endeavored +to establish order and honesty in every branch of the public service, +being mindful at the same time of all the agencies affecting the +prosperity of the people. In a word, his remarkable genius embraced +every province of human action where progress, reforms, and +ameliorations were desirable. + +Unhappily for his own peace of mind and for the destinies of the nation +he was called upon to rule, he committed a fatal error in the selection +of the methods for accomplishing his humane and philanthropic objects. +He desired to render Hungary happy, yet he excluded the nation from the +direction of her own affairs. He wished to enact salutary laws, yet he +reigned as an absolute monarch, unwilling to call the Diet to his aid in +the great work of reformation, ignoring and disdaining the constitution +and laws of the country. He was impolitic enough to attack a +constitution which, thanks to the devotion of the people, had withstood +the shock of seven centuries. He was unwise enough to suppose that the +people, in whose hearts the love of their ancient constitution had taken +deep root, for the defence of which rivers of blood had been shed, +could be prevailed upon to relinquish it to satisfy a theory of royalty. + +The old political organization was eminently an outgrowth of the +Hungarian nationality, and all classes of the people, including the very +peasantry to whom the ancient constitution meant only oppression, clung +to it with devoted fervor. The people were as anxious for reforms as +Joseph himself, but they wanted them by lawful methods, and with the +cooperation of the nation and their Diet. Joseph might have become the +regenerator and benefactor of Hungary if he had availed himself, for the +realization of his grand objects, of the national and lawful channels +which lay ready to his hand. But he unfortunately preferred attempting +to achieve his purpose out of the plenitude of his own power, by +imperial edicts and arbitrary measures, thus conjuring up a storm +against himself which wellnigh shook his throne, and plunging the nation +into a wild ferment of passion bordering on revolution. + +The people presented a solid phalanx against Joseph's attack upon their +nationality and language, which to them were objects dearer than +everything else. They little cared for the Emperor's well-intentioned +endeavors to make them prosperous and happy as long as he asked, in +exchange, for the relinquishment of their nationality. And this, above +all, was his most ardent wish. He wanted Hungary to be Hungarian no +more, and wished its people to cast off the distinctive marks of their +individuality, and to adopt the German language, instead of their own, +in the schools, the public administration, and in judicial proceedings. +In a word, he made German the official language of the country, and was +bent on forcing it upon the people. + +Henceforth every reform coming from Joseph became hateful to the people. +The oppressed classes themselves spurned relief which involved the +sacrifice of their sweet mother-tongue. By proclaiming equal rights and +equal subjection to the burdens of the state, he arrayed the privileged +classes against his person. The Protestants and the peasantry, who had +hailed him in the beginning as their new messiah, and fondly saw in his +innovations the dawn of brighter days, also turned from him as soon as +he attacked them in what they prized even more than liberty and justice. +It was not long before the whole country, without distinction of class, +social standing, or creed, combined to set at naught the Germanizing +efforts of Joseph. The hard-fought struggle roused the people, hitherto +divided by antagonisms of class and creed, to a sense of national +solidarity. It was during the critical days of these constitutional +conflicts that the foundations of the modern homogeneousness of the +Hungarian nation and society were laid down. + +The privileged classes looked upon Joseph, on his advent to the throne, +with distrust. They foresaw that he would not allow himself to be +crowned, in order to avoid taking the oath of fidelity to the +Constitution of Hungary. The first measures of his reign concerned the +organization of the various churches of the country. He extended the +religious freedom of the Protestant Church. By virtue of the apostolic +rights of the Hungarian kings, he introduced signal reforms into the +Catholic Church, especially regarding the education of the clergy, which +proved, in part, exceedingly salutary. + +He abolished numerous religious orders, especially those which were not +engaged either in teaching or in nursing the sick. One hundred forty +monasteries and nunneries were closed by him in Hungary. The ample +property of these convents he employed for ecclesiastical and public +purposes and for the advancement of instruction. He exerted himself +strenuously and successfully in the establishment of public schools and +in the interest of popular education. He removed the only university of +which the country could then boast from Buda to Pesth, a city which was +rapidly increasing, and added a theological department to that seat of +learning. All these innovations met with the approval of the enlightened +elements of the nation, while the privileged classes and the clergy +opposed them with sullen discontent. The opposition was all the more +successful, as the Emperor had contrived to insult the moral +susceptibilities of the common people by some of his measures. + +Thus, with a view to economizing the boards required for coffins, he +ordered the dead to be sewed up in sacks and to be buried in this +apparel. This uncalled-for meddling with the prejudices of the lower +classes had the effect of creating a great indignation among them and of +driving them into the camp of the opposition. Trifling and thoughtless +measures of a similar nature impaired the credit of the most salutary +innovations. The people looked with suspicion at every change, and, +heedless of the lofty endeavors of the Emperor, everybody, including the +officials themselves, rejected the entire governmental system of Joseph. + +The Emperor also wounded the national feeling of piety by his action +concerning the crown he had spurned. According to ancient custom and law +the sacred crown was kept in safety in Presburg, in a building provided +for that purpose. In 1784 the Emperor ordered the crown to be removed to +Vienna, in order to be placed there in the royal treasury side by side +with the crowns of his other lands. The nation revolted at this +profanation of their hallowed relic, and the highest official +authorities throughout the land protested against a measure which, while +it created such widespread ill-feeling, was not justified by any +necessity. A dreadful storm, accompanied by thunder and lightning, was +raging when the crown was removed to Vienna, and the people saw in this +a sign that Nature herself rebelled against the sacrilege committed by +the Emperor. The counties continued to urge the return of the crown, in +addresses which were sometimes humbly suppliant in their tone and +sometimes threatening, but Joseph did not yield either to supplications +or menaces. + +When the edict which made German the official language of the country +was published, the minds of men all over the country were greatly +disturbed. It is true that hitherto the Latin, and not the Hungarian, +language had been the medium of communication employed by the state. But +the national spirit and the native tongue, which during the first +seventy years of the eighteenth century had sadly degenerated, were +awakening to new life during Joseph's reign. The literature of the +country began to be assiduously cultivated in different spheres. Royal +body-guards belonging to distinguished families, gentlemen of +refinement, clergymen of modest position, and other sons of the native +soil labored with equal zeal and enthusiasm to foster their cherished +mother-tongue. + +It would, therefore, have been an easy matter for Joseph to replace the +Latin language, which had become an anachronism, by the Hungarian, and +thus to restore the latter to its natural and legal position in the +state. He was perfectly right in ridding the country of the mastery of +a dead tongue, but he committed a most fatal error in trying to +substitute for it the German, an error which avenged itself most +bitterly. Joseph entertained a special antipathy to the Hungarian +tongue, a dislike which betrayed him into omitting the teaching of the +native language from the course of public instruction, and refusing to +allow an academy of sciences to be established which had its cultivation +for its object. + +The Emperor's attack upon the language of the nation irremediably broke +the last tie between him and the country, and henceforth the relations +between them could be only hostile. The counties assumed a threatening +attitude, some of them refusing obedience altogether. Thus most of them +declined to give their official cooperation to the army officers who had +been delegated by the Emperor to take the census. The count, +nevertheless, proceeded, but in many places the inhabitants escaped to +the woods, and in some there were serious riots in consequence of the +opposition to the commissioners of the census. + +A rising of a different character took place among the Wallachs. The +Wallachs, smarting under abuses of long standing, buoyed up by +exaggerated expectations consequent upon the Emperor's innovations, and +stirred up by evil-minded agitators, took to arms and perpetrated the +most outrageous atrocities against their Hungarian landlords. The +ignorant common people were assured by their leaders, Hora and Kloska, +that the Emperor himself sided with them. The Wallach insurgents +assassinated the Government's commissioners sent to them, destroyed +sixty villages and one hundred eighty-two gentlemen's mansions, and +killed four thousand Hungarians before they could be checked in their +bloody work. Although they were finally crushed and punished, a strong +belief prevailed in the country that the court of Vienna had been privy +to the Wallach rising. + +Joseph subsequently laid down most humane rules regulating the relations +between the bondmen and their landlords. But the country could not be +appeased by any boon, especially as the high protective tariff, just +then established for the benefit of the Austrian provinces, was +seriously damaging the prosperity of the people. Joseph's foreign policy +tended to increase the domestic disaffection. In 1788 he declared war +against Turkey, but the campaign turned out unsuccessful, and nearly +terminated with the Emperor's capture. The nation, emboldened by his +defeat, urged now more emphatically her demands, and requested the +Emperor to annul his illegal edicts, to submit to be crowned, and to +restore the ancient constitution. Joseph continuing to resist her +demands, most of the counties refused to contribute in aid of the war +either money or produce. In addition to their recalcitrant attitude, +they most energetically pressed the Emperor to convoke the Diet at Buda, +a few counties going even so far as to insist upon the chief justice's +convoking it, if the Emperor failed to do so before May, 1790. + +The courage of the nation rose still higher when the news of the +Revolution in France and the revolt in Belgium reached the country. The +people refused to furnish recruits and military aid, and the Emperor was +compelled to use violence in order to obtain either. The counties +remained firm and continued to remonstrate in addresses characterized by +sharp and energetic language. Joseph yielded at last. He was prostrated +by a grave illness, and, feeling his end approaching, he wished to die +in peace with the exasperated nation he had so deeply wounded. On +January 28, 1790, he retracted all his illegal edicts, excepting those +that had reference to religious toleration, the peasantry, and the +clergy, and reestablished the ancient constitution of the country. Soon +after he sent back the crown to Buda, where its return was celebrated +with great pomp, amid the enthusiastic shouts of the people. Before he +could yet convoke the Diet death terminated the Emperor's career on +February 20th. + +The world lost in him a great and noble-minded man, a friend to +humanity, who, however, had been unable to realize all his lofty +intentions. The effect of his reign was to rouse Hungary from the apathy +into which it had sunk, and at the time of Joseph's death the minds of +the people were a prey to an excitement no less feverish than that which +had seized revolutionary France at the same period. But while in Paris +democracy was victorious over royalty, the latter had to yield in +Hungary to the privileged nobility. The restored constitution was a +charter of political privileges for the nobles only, and as such was +most jealously guarded by them. This class kept a strict watch over the +liberal tendencies of the age, preventing the importation of democratic +ideas from France from fear of harm to their exclusive immunities. + +Joseph was succeeded by his brother, Leopold II, who until now had been +Grand Duke of Tuscany. The new ruler was as enlightened as his +predecessor, and had as much the welfare of the people at heart; but he +respected, at the same time, the laws and the constitution. He +immediately convoked the Diet in order to be crowned, and by this act he +solemnly sealed the peace with the nation. The people hailed with joy +this first step of their new King, and there was nothing in the way of +their now obtaining lawfully from the good-will of the King the salutary +legislation which Joseph had attempted to force arbitrarily upon them. +But the fond hopes in this direction were doomed to disappointment. The +national movement had not helped to power those who were in favor of +progress, equality of rights, and democracy. + +No doubt there were people in the country who differed from the men in +authority, who were sincerely attached to the doctrines of the French +Revolution and eager to supplant the privileges of the nobles by the +broader rights belonging to all humanity. The national literature was in +the hands of men of this class. They combated the reactionary spirit of +the nobility, and contended for the recognition of the civil and +political rights of by far the largest portion of the people, the +non-nobles. They boldly and with generous enthusiasm wielded the pen in +defence of those noble ideas, and indoctrinated the people with them as +much as the restraints placed upon the press allowed it at that period. +They succeeded in obtaining recruits for their ideas from the very ranks +of the privileged classes, and many an enlightened magnate admitted that +the time had arrived for modernizing the Constitution of Hungary by an +extension of political rights. + +Their number was swelled also by the more intelligent portion of the +inhabitants of the cities, and those educated patriotic people who, +although no gentle blood flowed in their veins, had either obtained +office under Joseph's reign or had imbibed the political views of that +monarch. But all of these men combined formed but an insignificant +fraction of the people compared to the numerous nobility, who, after +their enforced submission during ten years, were eager to turn to the +advantage of their own class the victory they had achieved over Joseph. +During the initial preparations for the elections to the Diet, and in +the course of the elections, sentiments were publicly uttered and +obtained a majority in the county assemblies, which caused a feverish +commotion among the common people and the peasantry. + +The latter especially now eagerly clung to innovations introduced by the +Emperor Joseph, so beneficial as regarded their own class, and were +reluctant to submit to the restoration of the former arbitrary landlord +system. Their remonstrances were answered by the counties to the effect +that Providence had willed it so that some men should be kings, others +nobles, and others again bondmen. Such cruel reasoning failed to satisfy +the aggrieved peasantry. Symptoms of a dangerous revolutionary spirit +showed themselves throughout a large portion of the country, and an +outbreak could be prevented only by the timely assurance, on the part of +the counties, that the matter would be submitted to the Diet about to +assemble. + +The Diet, which had not been convened for twenty-five years, opened in +Buda in the beginning of June, 1790. The coronation soon took place. +Fifty years had elapsed since the last similar pageant had been enacted +in Hungary. After a lengthy and vehement contest extending over ten +months, in the course of which the Diet was removed from Buda to +Presburg, the laws of 1790-1791, which form part of the fundamental +articles of the Hungarian Constitution, were finally passed. By them the +independence of Hungary as a state obtained the fullest recognition. The +laws, which were the result of the cooperation of the crown and the +Estates, declared that Hungary was an independent country, subject to no +other country, possessing her own constitution, by which alone she was +to be governed. + +Important concessions were also made to the rights of the citizens of +the country. The privileges of the nobility were left intact, but the +extreme wing of the reactionary nobles had to rest satisfied with this +acquiescence in the former state of things, and were not allowed to push +the narrow-minded measures advocated by them. The majority of the Diet +was influenced in their wise moderation, partly by the exalted views of +the King and to a greater extent yet by the disaffected spirit rife +among the people, and especially threatening among the Serb population +of the country. The laws secured the liberties of the Protestant and the +Greek united churches, remedied the most urgent griefs of the peasantry, +and declared those who were not noble capable of holding minor offices. +Although the most important measures of reform were put off to a future +time by the Diet of 1790-1791, several preparatory royal commissions +having been appointed for their consideration, yet the work it +accomplished was the salutary beginning of a liberal legislation which +culminated, not quite sixty years later, in the declaration of the equal +rights of the people as the basis of the Hungarian commonwealth. + +After the meeting of this Diet, however, very little was done in the +direction of reforms. The good work was interrupted, partly by the +premature death of Leopold II (March 1, 1792), and partly by the warlike +period, extending over twenty-five years, which, in Hungary as +throughout all Europe, claimed public attention, and diverted the minds +of the leaders of the nation from domestic topics. Francis I, the son +and successor of Leopold II, caused himself to be crowned in due form, +and much was at first hoped from his reign. But the Jacobin rule of +terror in Paris, and the dread of seeing the revolutionary scenes +repeated in his own realm, wrought a complete change in his character +and policy. + +He soon stubbornly rejected every innovation, and gradually became a +pillar of strength for the European reaction, that extravagant +conservatism which expected to efface the effects of the French +Revolution by an unquestioning adherence to the old and traditional +order of things. This illiberal spirit of the monarch rendered +impossible for the time any further reform movement in Hungary. Every +question of desirable change met with the most obstinate opposition on +the part of the King, and the reforms submitted by the royal commissions +were considered by every successive Diet without ever becoming law. + +The period which now followed was gloomy in the extreme, as well for +Hungary as for the Austrian provinces of Francis I. The inhabitants of +these countries were constantly called upon by the King in the course of +the wars to make sacrifices in treasure and blood, by furnishing +recruits and by paying high taxes. At the same time the Government +resorted to the most absolute and arbitrary measures to prevent the +people from being contaminated with French ideas. The press was crushed +by severe penalties. Every enlightened idea was banished from the +schools and expunged from the school-books. Only men for whose extreme +reactionary spirit the police could vouch were appointed to the +professorships or to other offices. A system of universal spying and +secret information caused everybody to be suspected and to suffer from +private vindictiveness, while those who dared to avow liberal views were +the objects of cruel persecution. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[28] From Vambery's _Hungary_, in Story of the Nations Series (New York: +G. P. Putnam's Sons), by permission. + + + + +SIEGE AND SURRENDER OF YORKTOWN + +A.D. 1781 + +HENRY B. DAWSON LORD CORNWALLIS + + After almost seven years of struggle, the American colonies, + with the aid of France, won by the success of their arms + that independence which they declared in 1776. The close of + the Yorktown campaign with the surrender of Cornwallis + virtually ended the Revolutionary War. + + While the victory of the Americans over Burgoyne at Saratoga + (1777) produced a most encouraging effect upon the colonies, + their scattered forces still had much arduous work before + them. The defeat of Washington at Brandywine and at + Germantown (September and October, 1777) left the British, + under Howe, in possession of Philadelphia. Being in no + condition to keep the field, Washington went into winter + quarters at Valley Forge, twenty miles northwest of that + city. There, in the most inhospitable surroundings, the army + remained from the middle of December, 1777, suffering untold + privations, while the British passed a winter of gayety in + Philadelphia. The American camp consisted of log huts with + windows of oiled paper. The soldiers built the huts in + bitter weather, their only food being cakes of flour and + water which they baked at the open fires. To the hardships + of exposure were added the sufferings of disease; to + scarcity of provisions, lack of clothing. The men, said + Lafayette, "were in want of everything; they had neither + coats, hats, shirts, nor shoes; their feet and their legs + froze till they became black, and it was often necessary to + amputate them." + + After such a winter it seems remarkable that Washington + could have so strengthened his army as to win the Battle of + Monmouth in the following June. The next considerable events + of the war were the taking of Stony Point by the British in + 1779, and its recapture by Anthony Wayne in the same year. + The war went on during the next two years with varying + results, but none decisive. The defection of Benedict Arnold + deprived the Americans of a capable soldier and gave him to + the enemy. The American victory at the Battle of the + Cowpens, January 17, 1781, was offset by the triumph of + Cornwallis at Guilford Court House, March 15th, but this was + that general's last success on American soil. His own + account of the surrender of Yorktown, in a letter addressed + to Sir Henry Clinton, here follows the complete narrative of + Dawson, which covers the final year of the actual War of the + American Revolution. + + +HENRY B. DAWSON + +The seventh year of the War of the Revolution was productive of great +events. Opening with the mutiny of the Pennsylvania line of troops, its +progress soon developed the disaffection of the New Jersey line also, +and all the skill of General Washington was necessary to maintain that +discipline in the army on which the salvation of the country depended. +The resources of the country, from the long-continued struggle through +which it had passed during six years, had become exhausted; its currency +had become depreciated beyond precedent; and the people, weary of the +contest, were lukewarm as well as enervated. + +At that time, also, the Federal Congress appeared to lack that nerve and +decision which had marked the proceedings of the same body earlier in +the war; and contenting itself with "recommendations," without +attempting to enforce its requisitions or even to advise the adoption of +compulsory measures by the States, it left the troops who were in the +field without clothing, provisions, or pay, and indirectly forced upon +them those acts of apparent insurrection which, resolved to their first +elements, might not improperly have been called "acts of necessity," and +been justified, in charity, as essential to their self-preservation. + +So gloomy, indeed, were the prospects of American independence at that +time that the interposition of some foreign government was, by general +consent, considered absolutely essential; and never were the good +qualities of the Commander-in-Chief more nobly displayed than at this +period, when, amid the most pressing discouragements, referred to, he +urged the States to strengthen the bonds of the confederacy and to renew +their efforts for the great final struggle with their haughty and +determined enemy. + +The enemy, still anxiously seeking to establish his power in the +Southern States, had sent General Arnold to Virginia, with a strong +detachment of troops, to cooperate with Lord Cornwallis, who was busily +engaged, in a series of movements, in measuring his strength and his +skill with General Greene; and, soon afterward, a second detachment, +under General Phillips, was sent to the same State. + +Early in May the Count de Barras arrived from Europe with the welcome +intelligence of the approach of reenforcements from France; and that a +strong fleet from the West Indies, under Count de Grasse, might be +expected in the American waters within a few weeks. In view of these +facts a conference between General Washington and the Count de +Rochambeau was held at Weathersfield soon afterward, and the plans of +the campaign were discussed and determined on. + +Among the principal operations proposed was an attack on the city of New +York; and in accordance with these plans the allied forces of America +and France moved against that city. Every necessary preparation had been +made for the commencement of active operations, when, on August 14th, a +letter reached General Washington in which the Count de Grasse informed +him that the entire French West Indian fleet, with more than three +thousand land forces, would shortly sail from Santo Domingo for the +Chesapeake, intimating, however, that he could not remain longer than +the middle of October, at which time it would be necessary for him to be +on his station again. As the limited period which the Count could spend +in the service of the allies was not sufficient to warrant the +supposition that he could be useful before New York, the entire plan of +the campaign was changed; and it was resolved to proceed to Virginia, +with the whole of the French troops and as many of the Americans as +could be spared from the defence of the posts on the Hudson; and instead +of besieging Sir Henry Clinton, in his head-quarters in New York, a +movement against Lord Cornwallis and the powerful detachment under his +command was resolved on. + +At the period in question Lord Cornwallis had moved out of the +Carolinas, formed a junction with the force under General Phillips, and +had overrun the lower counties of Virginia, until General Lafayette, who +had been sent to the State some weeks after, by superior skill and the +most active exertions had succeeded in checking his progress. The +purpose of the allies was to prevent the escape of Lord Cornwallis from +his position near Yorktown; and General Lafayette was ordered to make +such a disposition of his army as should be best calculated to effect +that purpose. In case this purpose should be defeated, and Lord +Cornwallis succeed in effecting a retreat into North Carolina, it was +designed to pursue him with sufficient force to overawe him: while the +remainder of the armies, at the same time, should proceed, with the +French fleet, to Charleston, which was, at the same time, the enemy's +head-quarters in the South. + +The marine force of the allies was composed of two fleets--that of +Admiral Count de Grasse, then on its way from the West Indies, composed +of twenty-six sail of the line and several frigates; and that of Admiral +Count de Barras, then at anchor in Newport, composed of eight sail of +the line, besides transports and victuallers: their military force +embraced the main bodies of the American and French armies, under +Generals Washington and Rochambeau, then near New York; the detachment +of American troops, under General Lafayette, then in Virginia; and more +than three thousand French troops, under General Saint-Simon, who were +then on their way from the West Indies with the Count de Grasse. + +The main body of the enemy's force, under Sir Henry Clinton, was in the +city of New York and its immediate vicinity; Lord Cornwallis, with his +own command and that which, under Generals Phillips and Arnold, had +overrun some portions of Virginia, numbering in the aggregate about +seven thousand three hundred fifty men, exclusive of seamen and Tories, +was occupying the neck of land between the James and York rivers, where +General Lafayette was holding him in check; while the Southern army, +under Lieutenant-Colonel Balfour, through the successful movements of +General Greene, was mostly confined to Charleston and its immediate +vicinity. Admiral Rodney, with a large naval force, was leisurely +spending his time in securing his portion of the spoils in the West +Indies; Sir Samuel Hood, with fifteen sail of the line and six smaller +vessels, had been detached by Admiral Rodney to intercept Admiral de +Grasse, and to maintain an equality of power in the American waters; and +Admiral Graves, with part of his fleet in New York and a part before +Newport, caused the enemy to feel perfectly secure in the positions he +occupied. + +As has been stated, the intelligence from Admiral de Grasse changed the +plans of the allies; and, instead of General Clinton and the main body +of the enemy in the city of New York, Lord Cornwallis and the combined +forces under his command, then at Yorktown, were made the objects of +General Washington's attention. In executing this plan, however, it was +necessary to exercise great caution, not only to prevent Sir Henry +Clinton from moving to the assistance of Lord Cornwallis, but also to +prevent Admiral Graves from joining Sir Samuel Hood, and, by occupying +the Chesapeake, keeping open the communication by sea between Yorktown +and New York. + +For this purpose, on August 19th the New Jersey line and Colonel Hazen's +regiment were sent to New Jersey, by way of Dobbs Ferry, to protect a +large number of "ovens" which were ordered to be erected near +Springfield and Chatham in that State; and forage and boats, with some +efforts to display the same, were also collected on the west side of the +Hudson, by which the enemy was led to suppose that an attack was +intended from that quarter. Fictitious letters were also written and put +in the way of the enemy, by which the deception was confirmed; and Sir +Henry Clinton appears to have supposed that Staten Island, or a position +near Sandy Hook, to cover the entrance of the French fleet into the +harbor, was the real object of the movements, until the allied +forces--which had crossed the Hudson, leaving General Heath, with a +respectable force, on its eastern bank--had passed the Delaware, and +rendered the true object of the movement a matter of obvious certainty. + +The body of troops with which General Washington moved to the South +embraced all the French auxiliaries, led by Count Rochambeau; the light +infantry of the Continental army, led by Colonel Alexander Scammel; +detachments of light troops from the Connecticut and New York State +troops; the Rhode Island regiment; the regiment known as "Congress' +Own," under Colonel Hazen; two New York regiments; a detachment of New +Jersey troops; and the artillery, under Colonel John Lamb, numbering in +the aggregate about two thousand Americans and a strong body of French. +It is said that the American troops, who were mostly from New England +and the Middle States, marched with reluctance to the southward, showing +"strong symptoms of discontent when they passed through Philadelphia," +and becoming reconciled only when an advance of a month's pay, in +specie--which was borrowed from Count Rochambeau for that purpose--was +paid to them. + +The allies, having thus successfully eluded the watchfulness of the +enemy in New York, pressed forward toward Annapolis and the Head of +Elk, whither transports had been despatched from the French fleet to +convey them to Virginia; and, on September 25th, the last division +reached Williamsburg, where, with General Lafayette and his command, and +the auxiliary troops, the entire army had rendezvoused. + +In the mean time the enemy, as well as the French auxiliaries, had not +been inactive. Lord Cornwallis, vainly expecting reenforcements from New +York, had concentrated his army at Yorktown and Gloucester, on opposite +sides of the York River, and had been busily employed in throwing up +strong works of defence, and preparing to sustain a siege. + +Admiral Graves, after a bootless cruise to the eastward for the purpose +of intercepting some French storeships, had returned to New York on +August 16th or 17th, and since that time had been employed in refitting, +taking in stores, etc., in blissful ignorance of the approach of Admiral +de Grasse. Admiral Rodney, advised of the movements of the French fleet, +had sent "early notice" to the Admiral commanding in America; but his +despatches, which were sent by the Swallow, Captain Wells, never reached +Admiral Graves. Sir Samuel Hood's squadron also had been sent to the +northward to check the movements of the French fleet or to strengthen +the fleet of Admiral Graves, after touching at the Chesapeake, before +the French fleet arrived there, had sailed for New York, and on the +afternoon of August 28th had reached that port, and communicated to the +Admiral the first intelligence of the movements of the French fleet +which he had received. On August 31st the Admiral, with five ships +belonging to his own command, and the squadron under Sir Samuel Hood, +sailed for the Chesapeake, where he found the French fleet, and on +September 5th accepted the invitation to fight which the Admiral de +Grasse extended to him; but considered it prudent to return to New York +immediately afterward. + +The Admiral Count de Grasse, with a naval force of twenty-six sail of +the line and some smaller vessels, had sailed from Santo Domingo on +August 5th; on the 30th of the same month he entered the Chesapeake and +anchored at Lynn Haven; on the following day he had blockaded the mouths +of the James and York rivers, and prevented the retreat of the enemy by +water; and, as has been before stated--notwithstanding the absence of +about nineteen hundred of his men, besides three ships of the line and +two fifties with their crews--had gone out and fought with Admiral +Graves and nineteen sail of the line. General the Marquis Saint-Simon, +at the head of thirty-three hundred French troops, had been landed from +the fleet on September 2d; joined General Lafayette on the 3d; and on +the 5th, with the latter officer and his command, had moved down to +Williamsburg, fifteen miles from York, and cut off the retreat of the +enemy by land. Admiral de Barras, with his squadron and ten transports, +having on board the siege-artillery and a large body of French troops +under M. de Choisy, sailed from Newport on August 25th, and entered Lynn +Haven Bay in safety on September 10th, while Admiral de Grasse was +absent in engagement with Admiral Graves. + +As before mentioned, the different divisions of the allied forces +rendezvoused at Williamsburg, in the vicinity of Yorktown, in the latter +part of September. At the same time the enemy's fleet, overawed by the +superior force of the combined fleets under Admirals de Grasse and de +Barras, had returned to New York, leaving General Cornwallis and his +army to the fortunes of war; and enabling the naval force of the allies +to cooperate with their military in all the operations of the siege. +General Heath, with two New Hampshire, ten Massachusetts, and five +Connecticut regiments, the corps of invalids, Sheldon's Legion of +Dragoons, the Third regiment of artillery, and "all such State troops +and militia as were retained in service," remained in the vicinity of +New York to protect the passes in the Highlands, and to check any +movement which Sir Henry Clinton might make for the relief of Lord +Cornwallis. + +At daybreak on September 28th the entire body of the army moved from +Williamsburg, and occupied a position within two miles of the enemy's +line; the American troops occupied the right of the line; the French +auxiliaries the left. York, the scene of operations referred to, is a +small village, the seat of justice of York County, Virginia, and is +situated on the southern bank of the York River, eleven miles from its +mouth. On the opposite side of the river is Gloucester Point, on which +the enemy had also taken a position; and the communication between the +two posts was commanded by his land-batteries and by some vessels-of-war +which lay at anchor under his guns. + +On September 29th the besiegers were principally employed in +reconnoitring the situation of the enemy and in arranging their plans of +attack. The main body of the enemy was found intrenched in the open +ground about Yorktown, with the intention of checking the progress of +the allies, while an inner line of works, near the village, had been +provided for his ultimate defence; Lieutenant-Colonel Simcoe, with his +legion, the Eightieth regiment of the line, and the Hereditary Prince's +regiment of Hessians, the whole under Lieutenant-Colonel Dundas, being +in possession of Gloucester Point. The only movement was an extension of +the right wing of the allied armies, and the consequent occupation of +the ground east of the Beaver-dam Creek, by the American forces. + +On the evening of that day Lord Cornwallis received despatches from New +York in which Sir Henry Clinton advised his lordship that "at a meeting +of the general and flag officers, held this day (September 24, 1781) it +is determined that above five thousand men, rank and file, shall be +embarked on board the King's ships, and the joint exertions of the navy +and army made in a few days to relieve you, and afterward to operate +with you. The fleet consists of twenty-three sail of the line, three of +which are three-deckers. There is every reason to hope that we start +from hence October 5th." Gratified with this promise of assistance, and +probably confident of his ability to hold his inner position until he +could be relieved, Lord Cornwallis imprudently retired from the outer +line of works which he had occupied, and on the same night (September +29th) occupied the town, leaving the outer lines to be occupied by the +allies, without resistance, on the next day. + +On September 30th the allies occupied the deserted positions, and were +thereby "enabled to shut up the enemy in a much narrower circle, giving +them the greatest advantages." Before the allies moved to the positions +which had been thus deserted, Colonel Alexander Scammell, the officer of +the day, approached them for the purpose of reconnoitring, when he was +attacked by a party of the enemy's horse, which was ambushed in the +neighborhood, and, after being mortally wounded, was taken prisoner. On +the same day the transports, having on board the battering-train, came +up to Trubell's, seven miles from York, whence they were transported to +the lines; and the lines were completely and effectively occupied. The +French extended from the river above the town, to a morass in the +centre, while the Americans continued the lines from the morass to the +river, below the town, the whole forming a semicircle, with the river +for a chord. + +On the same day the Duc de Lauzun, with his legion of cavalry, and +General Weedon, with a body of Virginian militia, the whole under Sieur +de Choisy, invested Gloucester, in the course of which a party of the +Queen's Rangers, which had been sent out to observe the movements of the +allies, was driven in with considerable loss. + +On the following day (October 1st) eight hundred marines were landed +from the fleet to strengthen the party which was investing Gloucester; +and from that time until the 6th both the allies and the enemy +vigorously prosecuted their several works of attack or defence, or +otherwise prepared for the great struggle which was then inevitable. + +On the night of October 6th, under the command of General Lincoln, the +besiegers opened their trenches within six hundred yards of the enemy's +lines, yet with so much silence was it conducted that it appears to have +been undiscovered until daylight on the 7th, when the works were so far +completed that they afforded ample shelter for the men, and but one +officer and sixteen privates were injured. In this attack the enemy +appears to have bent his energies chiefly against the French, on the +left of the trenches; and the regiments of Bourbonnois, Soissonnois, and +Touraine, commanded by the Baron de Viomenil, were most conspicuous in +the defence of the lines. + +The 7th, 8th, and 9th of October were employed in strengthening the +first parallel, and in constructing batteries somewhat in advance of it, +for the purpose of raking the enemy's works and of battering his +shipping. Communications were also made in the rear of the left of the +line, in order to secure the greater number of openings. On the night of +the 10th the trenches on the left were occupied by the regiments of +Agenois and Saintonge, under the Marquis de Chastellux; on that of the +8th by the regiments of Gatinois and Royal-Deux-Ponts, under the Marquis +de Saint-Simon. + +At 5 P.M. of the 9th the American battery on the right of the line +opened its fire--General Washington in person firing the first gun--and +six eighteen and twenty-four pounders, two mortars, and two howitzers +were steadily engaged during the entire night. At an early hour on the +morning of the 10th the French battery on the left, with four +twelve-pounders and six mortars and howitzers, also opened fire; and on +the same day this fire was increased by the fire from two other French +and two American batteries--the former mounting ten eighteen and +twenty-four pounders, and six mortars and howitzers, and four +eighteen-pounders respectively; the latter mounting four +eighteen-pounders and two mortars. "The fire now became so excessively +heavy that the enemy withdrew their cannon from their embrasures, placed +them behind the merlins, and scarcely fired a shot during the whole +day." In the evening of the 10th the Charon, a frigate of forty-four +guns, and three transports were set on fire by the shells of hot shot +and entirely consumed; and the enemy's shipping was warped over the +river, as far as possible, to protect it from similar disaster. + +On the night of the 11th the second parallel was opened within three +hundred yards of the enemy's lines; and, as in the former instance, it +was so far advanced before morning that the men employed in them were in +a great measure protected from injury when the enemy opened fire. The +three following days were spent in completing this parallel and the +redoubts and batteries belonging to it, during which time the enemy's +fire was well sustained and more than usually destructive. Two advanced +batteries, three hundred yards in front of the enemy's left, were +particularly annoying, inasmuch as they flanked the second parallel of +the besiegers; and as the engineers reported that they had been severely +injured by the fire of the allies it was resolved to attempt to carry +them by assault. + +Accordingly, in the evening of the 14th, these redoubts were +assaulted--that on the extreme right by a detachment embracing the light +infantry of the American army, under General Lafayette; the latter by a +detachment of grenadiers and chasseurs from the French army, commanded +by Baron Viomenil. The attacks were made at 8 P.M., and in that of the +Americans the advance was led by Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Hamilton, +with his own battalion and that of Colonel Gimat, the latter in the +van; while Lieutenant-Colonel John Laurens, at the head of eighty men, +took the garrison in reverse and cut off its retreat. Not a single +musket was loaded; and the troops rushed forward with the greatest +impetuosity--passing over the abatis and palisades--and carrying the +work with the bayonet, with the loss of nine killed, and six officers +and twenty-six rank and file wounded. The French performed their part of +the duty with equal gallantry, although from the greater strength of +their opponents it was not done so quickly as that of the Americans. The +German grenadier regiment of Deux-Ponts, led by Count William Forback de +Deux-Ponts, led the column; and Captain Henry de Kalb, of that regiment, +was the first officer who entered the work. The chasseur regiment of +Gatinois supported the attack; and, in like manner with that on the +right, the redoubt was carried at the point of the bayonet. + +During the night these redoubts were connected with the second parallel; +and during the next day (October 15th) several howitzers were placed on +them and a fire opened on the town. These works, important as they had +been to the enemy, were no less so to the allies, from the fact that, +with them, the entire line of the enemy's works could be enfiladed, and +the line of communication between York and Gloucester commanded. + +The situation of Lord Cornwallis had now become desperate. He "dared not +show a gun to the old batteries" of the allies, and their new ones, then +about to open fire, threatened to render his position untenable in a few +hours. "Experience has shown," he then wrote, "that our fresh earthen +works do not resist their powerful artillery, so that we shall soon be +exposed to an assault in ruined works, in a bad position, and with +weakened numbers." To retard as much as possible what now appeared to be +inevitable, at an early hour next morning (October 16th) the garrison +made a sortie; when three hundred fifty men, led by Lieutenant-Colonel +Abercrombie, attacked two batteries within the second parallel, carried +them with inconsiderable loss, and spiked the guns; but the guards and +pickets speedily assembled, and drove the assailants back into the town +before any other damage was done. + +About 4 P.M. of the 16th the fire of several batteries in the second +parallel were opened on the town, while the entire line was rapidly +approaching completion. At this time the situation of the enemy was +peculiarly distressing; his defences being in ruins, his guns +dismounted, and his ammunition nearly exhausted while an irresistible +force was rapidly concentrating its powers to overwhelm and destroy him. +At this time Lord Cornwallis entertained the bold and novel design of +abandoning his sick and baggage, and by crossing the river to Gloucester +and overpowering the force under General de Choisy, which was then +guarding that position, to fly for his life, through Virginia, +Pennsylvania, and the Jerseys, to New York. As no time could be lost, +the attempt was made during the same night, but a violent storm, coming +on while the first detachment was still on the river, preventing the +landing of part of it, the movement was abandoned; and those troops who +had crossed the river returned to York during the next day. + +[Illustration: The Siege of Yorktown + +Painting by L. C. A. Couder.] + +On the morning of the next day (October 17th) the several new batteries, +which supported the second parallel, opened fire; when Lord Cornwallis +considered it no longer incumbent on him to attempt to hold his position +at the cost of his troops, and at 10 A.M. he beat a parley and asked a +cessation of hostilities, that commissioners might meet to settle the +terms for the surrender of the posts of York and Gloucester. + +A correspondence ensued between the commanders-in-chief; and on the 18th +the Viscount de Noailles and Lieutenant-Colonel John Laurens met Colonel +Dundas and Major Ross to arrange the terms of surrender. Without being +able to agree on all points, the commissioners separated; when General +Washington sent a rough copy of the articles, which had been prepared, +to Lord Cornwallis, with a note expressing his expectation that they +would be signed by 11 A.M. on the 19th, and that the garrison would be +ready to march out of the town within three hours afterward. Finding all +attempts to obtain more advantageous terms unavailing, Lord Cornwallis +yielded to the necessities of the case and surrendered, with his entire +force, military and naval, to the arms of the allies. + +The army, with all its artillery, stores, military-chest, etc., was +surrendered to General Washington; the navy, with its appointments, to +Admiral de Grasse. + +The terms were precisely similar to those which the enemy had granted +to the garrison of Charleston in the preceding year; and General +Lincoln, the commander of that garrison, on whom the illiberality of the +enemy then fell, was designated as the officer to whom the surrender +should be made. + +"At about 12, noon," says an eye-witness, "the combined army was +arranged and drawn up in two lines extending more than a mile in length. +The Americans were drawn up in a line on the right side of the road, and +the French occupied the left. At the head of the former the great +American commander, mounted on his noble courser, took his station, +attended by his aides. At the head of the latter was posted the +excellent Count Rochambeau and his suite. The French troops, in complete +uniform, displayed a martial and noble appearance; their band of music, +of which the timbrel formed a part, was a delightful novelty, and +produced while marching to the ground a most enchanting effect. The +Americans, though not all in uniform nor their dress so neat, yet +exhibited an erect, soldierly air, and every countenance beamed with +satisfaction and joy. The concourse of spectators from the country was +prodigious, in point of numbers probably equal to the military, but +universal silence and order prevailed. It was about two o'clock when the +captive army advanced through the line formed for their reception. Every +eye was prepared to gaze on Cornwallis, the object of peculiar interest +and solicitation; but he disappointed our anxious expectations; +pretending indisposition, he made General O'Hara his substitute as the +leader of his army. This officer was followed by the conquered troops in +a slow and solemn step, with shouldered arms, colors cased, and drums +beating a British march." + +"Having arrived at the head of the line, General O'Hara, elegantly +mounted, advanced to His Excellency the Commander-in-Chief, taking off +his hat, and apologizing for the non-appearance of Earl Cornwallis. With +his usual dignity and politeness, His Excellency pointed to +Major-General Lincoln for directions, by whom the British army was +conducted into a spacious field, where it was intended they should +ground their arms. The royal troops, while marching through the line +formed by the allied army, exhibited a decent and neat appearance as +respects arms and clothing, for their commander opened his stores and +directed every soldier to be furnished with a new suit complete prior +to the capitulation. But in their line of march we remarked a +disorderly and unsoldierly conduct, their step was irregular and their +ranks frequently broken. But it was in the field, when they came to the +last act of the drama, that the spirit and pride of the British soldier +was put to the severest test; here their mortification could not be +concealed. Some of the platoon officers appeared to be exceedingly +chagrined when given the order 'ground arms'; and I am a witness that +they performed this duty in a very unofficer-like manner, and that many +of the soldiers manifested a sullen temper, throwing their arms on the +pile with violence, as if determined to render them useless. This +irregularity, however, was checked by the authority of General Lincoln. +After having grounded their arms and divested themselves of their +accoutrements, the captive troops were conducted back to Yorktown and +guarded by our troops till they could be removed to the place of their +destination. + +"The British troops that were stationed at Gloucester surrendered at the +same time, and in the same manner, to the command of the French general, +De Choisy. This must be a very interesting and gratifying transaction to +General Lincoln, who, having himself been obliged to surrender an army +to a haughty foe the last year, has now assigned him the pleasing duty +of giving laws to a conquered army in return, and of reflecting that the +terms which were imposed on him are adopted as a basis of the surrender +in the present instance." + +The General-in-Chief on October 20th issued a "general order" +congratulating the army "upon the glorious event of yesterday"; and +after thanking the officers and troops of his ally, several of his own +officers, and Governor Nelson of Virginia and the militia under his +command, he concludes with these words: "To spread the general joy in +all hearts, the General commands that those of the army who are now held +under arrest be pardoned, set at liberty, and that they join their +respective corps. + +"Divine service shall be performed in the different brigades and +divisions. The Commander-in-Chief recommends that all the troops that +are not upon duty, to assist at it with a serious deportment, and that +sensibility of heart which the recollection of the surprising and +particular interposition of Providence in our favor claims." + +The intelligence of the surrender, as it spread over the country, gave +general satisfaction and filled every American heart with joy. Congress +went in procession to the Dutch Lutheran Church to return thanks to +Almighty God for the victory, and a day was set apart for general +thanksgiving and prayer; the thanks of the same body were voted to the +forces, both of America and France; and in the plenitude of its +good-feeling it "resolved" to do that which it has not yet commenced to +perform--to erect a marble column at York, in commemoration of the +event.[29] + +But a greater and more enduring monument than any which the Congress has +ever "resolved" to erect, commemorates the capture of Cornwallis: the +fall of British dominion in the thirteen colonies on the Atlantic +seaboard, the disinterested self-sacrifices of General Washington and +the very few who enjoyed his confidence and regard, and the triumph of +"the true principles of government." A country which, from small things, +has become prosperous, powerful, and happy; a people, whose intelligence +and enterprise and independence have astonished the old nations and +their rulers; and the homage of admiring millions, freely and +voluntarily offered, in every quarter of the globe--these form a +monument which will commemorate the fall of Cornwallis, and the +patriotism of Washington and Greene, of Wayne and Hamilton, of the +honest yeomanry and the devoted "regulars" of that day, long after the +resolutions of the Congress--if not the Congress itself--shall have sunk +into obscurity and been entirely forgotten. + + +LORD CORNWALLIS + +I have the mortification to inform your Excellency that I have been +forced to give up the posts of York and Gloucester, and to surrender the +troops under my command, by capitulation, on the 19th instant, as +prisoners of war to the combined forces of America and France. + +I never saw this post in a very favorable light, but when I found I was +to be attacked in it in so unprepared a state, by so powerful an army +and artillery, nothing but the hopes of relief would have induced me to +attempt its defence, for I would either have endeavored to escape to +New York by rapid marches from the Gloucester side, immediately on the +arrival of General Washington's troops at Williamsburg, or I would, +notwithstanding the disparity of numbers, have attacked them in the open +field, where it might have been just possible that fortune would have +favored the gallantry of the handful of troops under my command; but +being assured by your Excellency's letters that every possible means +would be tried by the navy and army to relieve us, I could not think +myself at liberty to venture upon either of these desperate attempts; +therefore, after remaining for two days in a strong position in front of +this place in hopes of being attacked, upon observing that the enemy +were taking measures which could not fail of turning my left flank in a +short time, and receiving on the second evening your letter of September +24th informing me that the relief would sail about October 5th, I +withdrew within the works on the night of September 29th, hoping by the +labor and firmness of the soldiers to protract the defence until you +could arrive. Everything was to be expected from the spirit of the +troops, but every disadvantage attended their labor, as the works were +to be continued under the enemy's fire, and our stock of intrenching +tools, which did not much exceed four hundred when we began to work in +the latter end of August, was now much diminished. + +The enemy broke ground on the night of the 30th, and constructed on that +night, and the two following days and nights, two redoubts, which, with +some works that had belonged to our outward position, occupied a gorge +between two creeks or ravines which come from the river on each side of +the town. On the night of October 6th they made their first parallel, +extending from its right on the river to a deep ravine on the left, +nearly opposite to the centre of this place, and embracing our whole +left at a distance of six hundred yards. Having perfected this parallel, +their batteries opened on the evening of the 9th against our left, and +other batteries fired at the same time against a redoubt advanced over +the creek upon our right, and defended by about a hundred twenty men of +the Twenty-third regiment and marines, who maintained that post with +uncommon gallantry. The fire continued incessant from heavy cannon, and +from mortars and howitzers throwing shells from 8 to 16 inches, until +all our guns on the left were silenced, our work much damaged, and our +loss of men considerable. On the night of the 11th they began their +second parallel, about three hundred yards nearer to us. The troops +being much weakened by sickness, as well as by the fire of the +besiegers, and observing that the enemy had not only secured their +flanks, but proceeded in every respect with the utmost regularity and +caution, I could not venture so large sorties as to hope from them any +considerable effect, but otherwise I did everything in my power to +interrupt this work by opening new embrasures for guns and keeping up a +constant fire from all the howitzers and small mortars that we could +man. + +On the evening of the 14th they assaulted and carried two redoubts that +had been advanced about three hundred yards for the purpose of delaying +their approaches, and covering our left flank, and during the night +included them in their second parallel, on which they continued to work +with the utmost exertion. Being perfectly sensible that our works could +not stand many hours after the opening of the batteries of that +parallel, we not only continued a constant fire with all our mortars, +and every gun that could be brought to bear upon it, but a little before +daybreak on the morning of the 16th I ordered a sortie of about three +hundred fifty men, under the direction of Lieutenant-Colonel +Abercrombie, to attack two batteries which appeared to be in the +greatest forwardness, and to spike the guns. A detachment of guards with +the Eightieth company of grenadiers, under the command of +Lieutenant-Colonel Lake, attacked the one, and one of light infantry, +under the command of Major Armstrong, attacked the other, and both +succeeded in forcing the redoubts that covered them, spiking eleven +guns, and killing or wounding about one hundred of the French troops, +who had the guard of that part of the trenches, and with little loss on +our side. This action, though extremely honorable to the officers and +soldiers who executed it, proved of little public advantage, for the +cannon, having been spiked in a hurry, were soon rendered fit for +service again, and before dark the whole parallel and batteries appeared +to be nearly complete. At this time we knew that there was no part of +the whole front attacked on which we could show a single gun, and our +shells were nearly expended. I therefore had only to choose between +preparing to surrender next day or endeavoring to get off with the +greatest part of the troops, and I determined to attempt the latter. + +In this situation, with my little force divided, the enemy's batteries +opened at daybreak. The passage between this place and Gloucester was +much exposed, but the boats, having now returned, they were ordered to +bring back the troops that had passed during the night, and they joined +us in the forenoon without much loss. Our works, in the mean time, were +going to ruin, and not having been able to strengthen them by an abatis, +nor in any other manner but by a slight fraising, which the enemy's +artillery were demolishing wherever they fired, my opinion entirely +coincided with that of the engineer and principal officers of the army, +that they were in many places assailable in the forenoon, and that by +the continuance of the same fire for a few hours longer they would be in +such a state as to render it desperate, with our numbers, to attempt to +maintain them. We at that time could not fire a single gun; only one +8-inch and little more than one hundred Cohorn shells remained. A +diversion by the French ships-of-war that lay at the mouth of York River +was to be expected. + +Our numbers had been diminished by the enemy's fire, but particularly by +sickness, and the strength and spirits of those in the works were much +exhausted by the fatigue of constant watching and unremitting duty. +Under all these circumstances I thought it would have been wanton and +inhuman to the last degree to sacrifice the lives of this small body of +gallant soldiers, who had ever behaved with so much fidelity and +courage, by exposing them to an assault which, from the numbers and +precautions of the enemy, could not fail to succeed. I therefore +proposed to capitulate; and I have the honor to enclose to your +excellency the copy of the correspondence between General Washington and +me on that subject, and the terms of capitulation agreed upon. I +sincerely lament that better could not be obtained, but I have neglected +nothing in my power to alleviate the misfortune and distress of both +officers and soldiers. The men are well clothed and provided with +necessaries, and I trust will be regularly supplied by the means of the +officers that are permitted to remain with them. The treatment, in +general, that we have received from the enemy since our surrender has +been perfectly good and proper, but the kindness and attention that +have been shown to us by the French officers in particular--their +delicate sensibility of our situation--their generous and pressing offer +of money, both public and private, to any amount--has really gone beyond +what I can possibly describe, and will, I hope, make an impression in +the breast of every British officer, whenever the fortune of war should +put any of them into our power. + +YORKTOWN, Virginia, October 20, 1781. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[29] A commemorative column, surmounted by a statue of General +Rochambeau, heroic size, was unveiled at Washington May 24, 1902.--ED. + + + + +BRITISH DEFENCE OF GIBRALTAR + +A.D. 1782 + +FREDERICK SAYER + + To Great Britain it was of the utmost importance that, once + having secured possession of Gibraltar, she should keep that + famous stronghold. By successfully defending it during the + long siege of 1779-1783, she retained it in what has proved + a lasting tenure. + + The fortified promontory and town of Gibraltar, now a + British crown colony, have long been objects of historical + interest. The Rock of Gibraltar, anciently called Calpe, one + of the Pillars of Hercules, is on the southern coast of + Spain. Its name has been for centuries a synonyme of + strength. Near it in the eighth century landed Tarik, the + first Saracen invader of Spain. The Moors mainly held it + till 1462, when it was finally taken by the Spaniards. + Charles V fortified it; in 1704 it was captured by an + English and Dutch force under Sir George Rooke. The + Spaniards and French unsuccessfully besieged it in + 1704-1705, and the Spaniards again in 1727. + + No further attempt was made to capture this seemingly + impregnable fastness until the great siege here described by + Sayer, when once more the Spaniards and French combined + against it. England was now somewhat weakened by the war + with the American colonies and France. All Europe was + unfriendly to her, and Spain, as well as France, was + actively hostile. Gibraltar was closely invested in 1779, + and so remained for three years, when the final assault was + made. In 1782 Alvarez, the Spanish commander, was superseded + by the Duc de Crillon, who had just taken Minorca from the + British. + + George Augustus Eliot, afterward Lord Heathfield, Baron of + Gibraltar, who made the memorable defence, was appointed + governor of Gibraltar in 1775. Lord Howe, who went to his + assistance, had conducted the English naval operations in + America. He returned to England in 1778, in 1782 was made a + viscount of Great Britain, and was sent to relieve + Gibraltar, where he arrived too late to assist against the + grand attack, but landed welcome troops and supplies. + + +Piqued at the successful defence which for three years had baffled every +effort, and burning with the desire to wipe out the stain on the +national honor, the Spaniards were urged on in this last struggle by all +the impulses of pride, ambition, and revenge. The slow and regular +operations of a siege having proved but labor lost against this +stubborn rock, rewards were offered to the most skilful engineers in +Europe for plans to subdue the fortress. + +Stimulated by these liberal offers, a thousand schemes had reached +Madrid, some bold to extravagance, others too ludicrous to deserve +attention. Among them, however, was one, the invention of the Chevalier +d'Arcon, of such superior merit that it instantly arrested the attention +even of the King himself. His plan consisted of a combined attack by sea +and land upon a scale so tremendously formidable, and assisted by such +ingenious inventions of art, that it held out a prospect of certain +success. + +After a brief consideration the Court of Madrid announced its +unqualified approval of the scheme, and orders were at once issued for +its adoption. Not only was the reduction of the fort now considered +certain, but so vast were the powers to be employed, and so prodigious +the armament to be brought against the walls, that the annihilation of +every stone upon the rock was not unexpected. The plan embraced two +leading features: first, a bombardment from the isthmus, upon a scale +hitherto unknown; secondly, an attack by sea along the whole length of +the line-wall. For this purpose floating batteries of such construction +that they were to be "at once incombustible and insubmergible," were to +be employed. + +Each battery was clad on its fighting side with three successive layers +of squared timber, three feet in thickness; within this wall ran a body +of wet sand, and within that again was a line of cork soaked in water +and calculated to prevent the effects of splinters, the whole being +bound together by strong wooden bolts. To protect the crews from shells +or dropping shot, a hanging roof was contrived, composed of strong +rope-work netting, covered with wet hides, and shelving sufficiently to +prevent the shot from lodging. + +Not the least remarkable part of these vessels was a plan for the +prevention of combustion from red-hot shot. A reservoir was placed +beneath the roof from which numerous pipes, like the veins of the human +body, circulated through the sides of the ship, giving a constant supply +of water to every part, and keeping the wood continually saturated. + +To form these powerful batteries, ten ships, from six hundred to +fourteen hundred tons burden, were cut down to the proper proportions, +and upward of two hundred thousand cubic feet of timber were used in +their construction. Each battery was armed with from eight to twenty +heavy brass cannon of new manufacture, with a reserve of spare pieces. +The crews varied in number from seven hundred sixty to two hundred fifty +men. One large sail propelled each ship. + +Besides this tremendous armament which was to annihilate the line of +defence from the sea, preparations of no less magnitude were being made +for the attack on the northern front. Not fewer than twelve hundred +pieces of heavy ordnance were ready for use in the artillery park, +enormous quantities of ammunition and warlike stores were in the +magazines, and the reserve of gunpowder alone was reported at +eighty-three thousand barrels. Immense works were being hurried forward +on the isthmus of a grandeur which eclipsed anything that had been +previously constructed. + +In twenty-four hours a flying sap was thrown out with a rapidity of +execution unequalled. The parallel extended to a length of two hundred +thirty _toises_, with a _boyau_ of six hundred thirty toises from the +place where it joined the principal barrier of the lines. The +construction of this boyau required one million six hundred thousand +bags of sand, and thousands of casks were used in forming the parallel. +In a single night this enormous work was raised to the height of twelve +feet with eighteen feet of thickness, and it was supposed that during +the seven hours in which it was erected ten thousand men were at labor. + +To assist in the assault by sea, the combined fleets of France and +Spain, amounting to fifty sail of the line, with forty gunboats, +numerous frigates, and fifty mortar-vessels, were to act in support. +Three hundred boats, fitted with hinged platforms at their prows, were +to accompany the expedition, and at the proper moment to land the +troops. + +The outline of the attack having been arranged, the plan was drawn out +by the Duc de Crillon, and submitted for approval, first to the Court of +Madrid, and afterward to the King of France. Subsequently the details +were very materially altered, but the principle remained the same. The +method originally proposed was as follows: + +"The plan for taking Gibraltar, presented by Crillon, with the opinion +of the minister, was imparted, by order of his majesty, to France, by +the hand of Aranda, and, it being approved of, that Court offered +twenty-seven auxiliary ships. According to this plan the assault will be +conducted in the following manner: Brigadier Don Ventura Moreno will +command the fire of the fleet. The vanguard of the combined squadron +will be commanded by Senor Cordova, and among the divisions that compose +it will be included the third of twelve fireproof ships, which will +anchor in Algeciras until Senor Alvarez completes the sixty paces of +intrenchment opposite the fortress. Our ships will then attack; four by +the Europa Point, two by the New Mole, their fire being supported by +that of the gun- and mortar-boats and bomb-ketches, which will hold +themselves in readiness to support where it may be required. + +"At a given signal the fire from our whole line will open with that of +the intrenchment, which will not cease until a breach shall have been +made at the Europa Point. The battering-ships will not be allowed to +quit their respective posts till they require relief, and they will then +retire to Algeciras, whence others will proceed to supply their places, +taking up the same points. The officer who shall act counter to his +orders will be removed from his post without its being referred to the +King. The breach having been made, the commander-in-chief, the Duc de +Crillon, will notify to the governor the surrender of the fortress; and +should he consent to the capitulation, the preliminaries will be +arranged, conceding to him military honors; if he persist in the +defence, the operations will continue in the following manner: + +"The fire by sea and land will protect the disembarkation of our troops +on the flanks of the advance. The boats conveying them will be covered +by large planks on hinges, which on unfolding will fall on the moles on +the right, while on the left others will rest on the transports that +follow, in order to link them to each other and adjust them to the +breach, binding them firmly together, the first boat being attached to +the ground by means of grappling-irons, which it will carry for the +purpose. The troops will advance along these in the following order: Two +companies of grenadiers of about seventy men each, and as many more of +chasseurs, with three companies of dragoons, the whole under the +command of Senor Cagigal, general of the second column, and his +subaltern officers, the brigadier Don Francesco Pacheco, Colonel of +Seville, and Senor Aviles, Colonel of Villaviciosa. Two battalions of +volunteers of Catalonia will form the flying troops to effect a support +where it may be necessary, and to strengthen either flank, or profiting +by any opportunity the enemy may offer of attacking him. This corps will +be commanded by Brigadier Don Benito Panogo. + +"The army will be formed into three divisions; its right commanded by +Lieutenant-General Buch, its left by the Count of Cifuentes, and its +centre by Marshal Burghesi. The best company of grenadiers from each +regiment will be detached to cover its respective corps, and when the +disembarkation of the troops, or part of them, shall have been executed, +the boats carrying the fascines, powder-saucisses, gabions, panniers, +pickaxes, etc., will be sent forward in order that they may cover +themselves as the disembarkation proceeds, keeping up at the same time a +lively fire along with the rest of the army. Detached parties will scour +with promptitude the Campo Huevo in order to intercept the advanced +guard and to cut off the retreat of the enemy to the mountain; which +dispositions being well concerted, the enemy will be reduced to the +extremity of either surrendering or being destroyed. + +"The squadron of Senor Cordova will cover the mouth of the Straits, and +the French will place itself as much within as circumstances may +require; two hundred _muheletes_ and two hundred artillerymen more have +been asked for from the camp, those that are present being required for +the intrenchment. These have been sent for from their respective corps." + +The fame of the siege of Gibraltar had ere this spread to the remotest +corners of Europe. The Count d'Artois, brother to the King of France, +and the Duc de Bourbon arrived in the camp in August, impatient to +witness the fall of the invincible fortress, and they were followed by +crowds of the nobility of Spain, eager to join in an enterprise which it +was anticipated would result in a victory most glorious to their arms. + +General Eliot regarded the progress of the tremendous armaments without +despondency. He prepared for the coming storm, and made every effort to +meet it manfully and with success. An experiment which had lately been +tried with red-hot shot produced such effects that he founded his hopes +of destroying the enemy's battering-ships almost solely upon that +expedient, and great numbers of furnaces for heating the shot were +immediately prepared and placed in convenient positions within the +principal batteries. The defences too were thoroughly repaired, the Land +Port was more carefully protected, and unserviceable guns were laid +across the tops of the embrasures in many of the works, as a protection +to the artillerymen when under fire. + +The arrival of the Count d'Artois in the camp gave rise to an +interchange of courtesies between the governor and the Duc de Crillon, +and though the two chiefs were on the eve of a great struggle for the +mastery, letters couched in the most affable and peaceful terms passed +between them. The Count having brought with him a packet of letters for +some officers of the garrison, the Duc de Crillon took advantage of the +opportunity, and, when the parcel was sent into the fortress, +accompanied it by a letter from himself to General Eliot, in which he +expressed the highest esteem for the governor's person and character, +and assured him how anxiously he looked forward to becoming his friend; +at the same time he offered a present of a few luxuries for the +General's table. In reply to this courteous note the governor returned +his sincerest thanks for the gift, but begged that in future no such +favor might be heaped upon him, as by accepting the present he had +broken through a rule to which he had faithfully adhered since the +beginning of the war, never to receive anything for his own private use, +but to partake both of plenty and scarcity in common with the lowest of +his brave fellow-soldiers. + +Toward the end of August, 1782, a grand inspection of the floating +batteries took place at Algeciras, at which the French princes were +present. To exhibit the ease and simplicity with which they could be +manoeuvred, the vessels were put through various movements, to the +admiration and surprise of the spectators. So satisfactory was this +trial considered that it became the popular opinion that twenty-four +hours would suffice for the demolition of the fortress, and the Duc de +Crillon was made the subject of the greatest ridicule when he cautiously +hinted that fourteen days might elapse ere the place fell. Crillon, in +fact had no affection for the schemes of the Chevalier d'Arcon, and, as +we shall presently see, he attributed his subsequent failure almost +entirely to the blind confidence that was placed in the floating +batteries. + +As the time approached, the greatest impatience was manifested not only +by the troops, but throughout all Spain, for the commencement of the +attack, and so loud was the clamor for immediate action that D'Arcon was +ordered to hurry on the completion of the floating batteries with every +despatch. + +Late in August a council of war was held in the camp, at which the +French princes were present, and it was then proposed that the command +and direction of the floating batteries should be confided to the +officer of the navy, Crillon taking upon himself the responsibility of +the attack by land. Disputes had already arisen as to the proper +dispositions for the bombardment, Crillon claiming an undivided +authority over the whole proceeding, while the Minister of Marine was +anxious that the Admiral should direct the movements of the batteries +and their mode of equipment. + +When the before-mentioned proposal was conveyed to Crillon he +peremptorily refused to accede to it. Nor could any decision be arrived +at regarding the most proper point of attack; the Old Mole, which at +first appeared the weakest part of the fortress, was found to be covered +by the guns of the principal batteries on the Rock, while the New Mole +presented even greater difficulties. There was another matter too which +became the subject of discussion up to the very moment of the attack, +and this was whether it would not be expedient to supply each floating +battery with warp-anchors and the double cables, that they might +withdraw in case of accident. + +These unfortunate disputes, which arose at a time when perfect unanimity +was most essential, hampered the progress of operations, and destroyed +that harmony which should have existed between Crillon and his +subordinates. D'Arcon especially was offended and annoyed; he claimed +for himself the merit of having invented the machines which were to +annihilate the place, and insisted upon his right to have the sole +direction of their movements. Crillon, on the other hand, perceived that +if the command were divided, and the attack should prove successful, +the glory of the triumph would be appropriated by the French engineer. +In the many councils of war that preceded the bombardment the Duke did +not care to conceal his jealousy of the Chevalier d'Arcon. On one +occasion, deriding the propositions of the engineer, he exclaimed: "You +have a fatherly love for your batteries, and are only anxious for their +preservation. Should the enemy attempt to take possession of them, I +will burn them before his face." On another occasion, when in the +presence of the French princes, he said: "You were summoned into Spain +to execute _my_ plan for the attack of Gibraltar by floating batteries. +_Your_ commission is performed: the rest belongs to me." + +While these discussions and misunderstandings were distracting the +councils of the besiegers, a master hand was guiding the preparations +for the defence within the fortress. Every emergency that might occur +was provided for, every danger that could be foreseen averted, and the +garrison itself reenforced by a marine brigade of six hundred men under +command of Brigadier Curtis. In the first week of September the land +works of the enemy had progressed with gigantic strides, immense +batteries, some containing as many as sixty-four guns, only waited to be +unmasked, and long strings of mules streamed hourly into the trenches, +laden with shot, shell, and ammunition. + +The advanced works were not, except in some instances, yet armed, and +large masses of material which had accumulated in their vicinity +cumbered the embrasures and rendered their parapets liable to +destruction by fire. Seizing upon the opportunity thus afforded by the +negligence of the Spaniards, General Boyd wrote to the governor +recommending the use of red-hot shot against these works. Though the +distance was great, and the effect of heated shot had not then been +thoroughly ascertained, Eliot acquiesced in the proposition, and Major +Lewis, commanding the artillery, was ordered to execute the attack. + +On September 8th the preparations were completed, and at 7 A.M. the +guards having been relieved, a tremendous fire was opened from all the +northern batteries. Throughout the day this fiery cannonade was kept up +with unabated fury. By 10 A.M. the Mahon battery and another work of two +guns were in flames and by five in the evening were entirely consumed, +with all their gun-carriages, platforms, and magazines. The effect of +the red-hot shot exceeded the most sanguine expectations; the damage +done was extensive and for a time irreparable; the greater part of the +communication to the eastern parallel was destroyed, and the batteries +of St. Carlos and St. Martin so much injured that they were no longer +serviceable. At one moment the works were on fire in fifty places, and +the flames, lifted by the wind, spread with terrible rapidity; but by +the prodigious exertions of the enemy's troops, who, notwithstanding the +galling fire from the garrison to which they were exposed, displayed a +reckless intrepidity, the work of destruction was arrested and many of +the batteries saved from ruin. Irritated at this unexpected attack upon +works which had cost him so much labor and anxiety, Crillon was +precipitated into a premature bombardment, which, while it exposed to +view the hitherto masked batteries, and thus gave General Eliot an +opportunity of preparing counter-works upon the Rock, at the same time +did considerable damage to the unfinished lines. + +On the morning of September 9th a battery of sixty-four guns opened at +daybreak and a tremendous discharge from one hundred seventy pieces of +cannon announced the commencement of the final bombardment. At the same +time a squadron of seven Spanish and two French line-of-battle ships got +under way at Orange Grove, and, dropping slowly past the sea-line wall, +delivered several broadsides against the south bastion and Ragged Staff, +until they arrived off Europa. Then, having first formed line to +eastward of the Rock, they attacked the batteries from the Point as far +as the New Mole, with some energy. On the following day this manoeuvre +was repeated, and the cannonade from the lines was renewed with all its +fierceness, six thousand five hundred shot and two thousand eighty shell +being thrown into the fortress every twenty-four hours. Notwithstanding +this overwhelming fire the loss in the garrison was exceedingly small. + +On the 12th the combined fleets of Spain and France, numbering +thirty-nine ships of the line, entered the Bay of Algeciras, and having +formed a junction with the squadron already at anchor, raised the naval +force to fifty ships of the line and two second-rates; nine vessels bore +an admiral's flag. + +General Eliot was conscious that the hour of trial approached, and so +ably had he conducted his preparations that during the twenty-four hours +preceding the attack not a single alteration had to be made, even in the +most minute directions that had been given to the troops. Every man knew +his place, each gun was told off for one particular duty, simple and +efficient arrangements had been made for a constant supply of +ammunition, and every bastion was furnished with its fuel and furnace +for the dreaded red-hot shot. + +It was during the morning of the 12th that the governor received +information that the combined attack would commence on the following +day. Calmly as this courageous man awaited the hour of trial, he could +not but be influenced by the gravest anxiety for the result. He had +witnessed the gigantic armaments that were preparing for the assault; +and though ignorant of the exact force which was to be brought against +him, he was aware that neither France nor Spain had spared labor or +expense to accumulate a strength hitherto unknown in the history of +sieges. On the land he was threatened by two hundred forty-six pieces of +cannon, mortars, and howitzers, and an army of near forty thousand men; +while by sea fifty sail of the line, ten floating batteries, of a +construction supposed to be indestructible, with countless gun- and +mortar-boats, and three hundred smaller craft were waiting only the +signal for the attack. To this enormous armament, but seven thousand men +and ninety-six guns could be opposed. At a council of war held in the +Spanish camp on September 4th the final details for the arrangement of +the grand attack had been settled, and it was decided to open the +bombardment on the 13th of the month. + +At this council M. d'Arcon vehemently protested against the precipitate +haste with which the preparations of the floating batteries had been +hurried on, and vainly pleaded for a few days' further delay, in order +that some experiments might be made upon the vessels, and especially +that the effectiveness of the water apparatus might be tested. His +arguments were met by others equally cogent. Lord Howe with a powerful +fleet was known to be on his way to relieve the fortress, and it was of +vital importance that his arrival should be anticipated. The season was +already far advanced, and the works on the land side, which had only +just been repaired, were at any moment exposed to a second partial +destruction by red-hot shot. All objections, therefore, were overruled, +and the day was named. + +At about seven o'clock on the morning of September 13th the enemy's +fleet was observed to be in motion off the Orange Grove, and shortly +afterward the ten floating batteries were under way, and with a crowd of +boats standing for the southward with a light northwest breeze. + +Shortly after ten o'clock they had reached their respective stations off +the line-wall, and Admiral Don Buenoventura Moreno, in the Pastora, +having taken up a position opposite the capital of the King's Bastion, +the others anchored in admirable order on his right and left flanks, at +about one thousand yards distance from the walls of the fortress. + +At this time the enemy's camp and the surrounding hills were covered +with countless thousands of spectators, who had hurried from all parts +of Spain to witness the fall of Gibraltar. The batteries had no sooner +let go their anchors than a tremendous cannonade of hot and cold shot +was opened upon them all along the line; at the same instant the +ponderous vessels replied from all their guns, supported by the fire of +one hundred eighty-six pieces of ordnance from the works on the isthmus. + +Never before in the annals of war had a spectacle so magnificently grand +been witnessed--four hundred cannon belched forth their volleys of fire +at the same moment, the whole heaven was obscured by the curling clouds +of smoke which clung around the rugged peaks of the rocks, while the +misty gloom was fitfully illumined by the flashes of a thousand +saucisses and shells. The whole peninsula was overwhelmed with a torrent +of shot. + +For two hours this terrible cannonade continued without intermission, +and no impression had been made upon the floating batteries; so well +calculated was their construction to withstand the effects of artillery +that the heaviest shells rebounded from their roofs and the shot struck +harmless on their sides. Upward of two thousand red-hot balls had been +thrown against them, and no symptoms of combustion appeared, except here +and there a feeble flame, which ere it could spread was quenched. + +At noon the enemy slackened their fire from the sea for a moment, but +seemingly only for the purpose of amending the direction of their guns, +which had previously been uncertain and too high; the pause was but for +an instant, and the artillery again burst forth with a more powerful and +better-directed fire. Showers of every missile swept over the walls, and +already the British troops, disappointed with the effects of the red-hot +shot, and fatigued with the mid-day sun, began to look gloomily upon the +issue of the fight. But about two o'clock slight wreaths of flame were +observed issuing from the Admiral's ship, and at the same time a strange +confusion was remarked among the men on board the Talla Piedra. On board +this battery was the Chevalier d'Arcon, who was present in the action as +a volunteer to watch the success of his own inventions. Several red-hot +shot had struck this ship, but one alone gave any uneasiness to those on +board; to reach the smouldering woodwork the guns were silenced, and the +smoke clearing away left the vessel exposed to such a concentrated fire +that all efforts to arrest the progress of the flames were in vain. The +blaze rapidly spread, the crew were seized with a panic, and, fearful of +an explosion, turned the water into the powder-magazines. Thus one +battery was rendered useless during the remainder of the action. + +In the Admiral's ship the flames were for some hours subdued, and her +guns continued to play upon the walls until nightfall; but the disorder +which was immediately visible in the Talla Piedra and the Pastora soon +affected the whole line of attack, and by 7 P.M. the fire from the +fortress had gained a commanding superiority. + +At midnight signals of distress were made from all parts of the bay. The +Admiral's ship was in flames from stem to stern, and others had been set +on fire. The enemy now determined to abandon all the ships, and those +which had hitherto resisted the effects of the red-hot shots were, by +order of the Admiral, set in flames. + +As the gray morning dawned, the scene on the waters of the bay was +sublimely terrible; masses of shattered wreck, to which were clinging +the drowning crews, floated over the troubled waves; groans and cries +for help reached even to the walls, or were drowned in the thunders of +the exploding magazines, while the glaring flames of the burning vessels +cast a lurid light over the awful spectacle. + +At two o'clock in the morning Brigadier Curtis, who with his squadron of +gunboats lay at the New Mole ready to take advantage of any opportunity +to harass the enemy, pushed out to the westward and with great +expedition formed line upon the flank of the battering-ships. This +sudden movement completely disconcerted the Spaniards, who were engaged +in removing the crews from the vessels, and they fled precipitately, +abandoning the wounded and leaving them to perish in the flames. As +daylight appeared two feluccas, which had not been able before to +escape, were discovered endeavoring to get away, but, a shot from one of +the gunboats killing five of their men, they both surrendered. + +Hearing from the prisoners that hundreds of officers and men, some +wounded, still remained on board the batteries and must certainly +perish, Captain Curtis, at the utmost risk of his own life, made the +most heroic efforts to effect their rescue. Careless of danger from the +explosions which every instant scattered showers of _debris_ around him, +he passed from ship to ship and literally dragged from the burning decks +the miserable men who yet remained on board. With the coolest +intrepidity he pushed his pinnace close alongside one of the largest +batteries at the very moment she blew up, covering the sea with +fragments of her wreck. For a time the boat was engulfed amid the +falling ruin, and her escape was miraculous. A huge balk of timber fell +through her flooring, killing the coxswain, wounding others of the crew, +and starting a large hole in her bottom. Through this leak the water +rushed so rapidly that little hope was left of reaching the shore, but, +the sailors' jackets being stuffed into the aperture, the hole was +plugged, and the gallant men got safe to land. By the heroic and humane +exertions of Captain Curtis and his boat's crew three hundred +fifty-seven persons were saved from a horrible death. + +While these disasters were occurring in the bay, the land batteries on +the isthmus never for an instant slackened the tremendous fire that had +been commenced on the previous morning; until at daybreak on the 14th +the Spaniards, having become aware of the fate of their comrades on +board the vessels, ordered the cannonade to cease. + +Captain Curtis had scarcely completed his service of humanity before +eight of the remaining ships blew up and one only remained unconsumed. +At first it was hoped that she might be saved as a trophy of the +glorious action, but this was afterward found impossible, and she was +set fire to like the rest. The flag of Admiral Moreno remained flying +until his battery was totally destroyed. + +Desperate had been the struggle and great was the victory. During the +hottest of the fire General Eliot took his station on the King's +Bastion, exposed to the guns of the two most powerful battering-ships. +Nothing could exceed the coolness and courage of the troops during this +trying day; the steady and incessant fire was never allowed to slacken, +the guns were served, says the governor, "with the deliberate coolness +and precision of school practice, but the exertions of the men were +infinitely superior." + +The furnaces for heating the shot were found to be too few, and huge +fires were kindled in convenient corners of the streets. An immense +amount of ammunition was expended on both sides; three hundred twenty of +the enemy's cannon were in play throughout the day, and to these were +opposed only ninety-six guns from the garrison. Upward of eight thousand +shot and seven hundred sixteen barrels of gunpowder were fired away by +the garrison. + +When the unparalleled force of the bombardment is considered, the +casualties among the troops were remarkably few: one officer, two +sergeants, and thirteen men only were killed, and five officers and +sixty-three men wounded. The enemy's losses, on the contrary, were very +great; on the floating batteries alone one thousand four hundred +seventy-three men were either killed, wounded, or missing. + +By the evening of the 14th the bay was cleared of the shattered wrecks, +and not a vestige of the formidable armament, which the day before had +been the hope and pride of Spain, remained. + +The contest was at an end, and the united strength of two ambitious and +powerful nations had been humbled by a straitened garrison of six +thousand effective men. With the destruction of the floating batteries +the siege was virtually concluded. + +In Spain the news was received with consternation and despair. The +thousands who on the preceding day crowded upon the neighboring hills, +and with eager anxiety awaited the anticipated victory, returned to +their homes disappointed and chagrined. They had been taught to believe +that the attack would be crushing and invincible; that the batteries +were indestructible; that the fortress must be annihilated by their +overwhelming fire; but instead of these disasters they had seen every +ship destroyed or sunk, with all their guns, and two thousand men of +their crews either killed, wounded, or taken prisoner. In the first +moment of consternation the inventor of those vast machines, upon the +success of which the whole attack depended, could not restrain his +poignant grief and was led into confessions which he afterward +regretted. Writing to the French ambassador, Montmorin, he said: "I have +burned the Temple of Ephesus; everything is lost, and through my fault. +What comforts me under my misfortune is that the honor of the two kings +remains untarnished." + +At Madrid the news of the disaster was received with dismay; and the +King, who was at the palace of Ildefonso, listened to the intelligence +in mute despair. The recovery of Gibraltar had been his unswerving aim, +and with this repulse almost his last hope was extinguished. In Paris +the intelligence was no less unexpected and unwelcome; so certain indeed +had the fall of the fortress been considered that a drama illustrative +of the destruction of Gibraltar by the floating batteries was acted +nightly to applauding thousands. + +It has been before remarked that the Duc de Crillon never held that +blindly confident opinion of the inventions of D'Arcon which had turned +the heads of the two Bourbon courts. He had always urged the necessity +of a complete attack by sea, in which the whole fleet should engage, and +of which the floating batteries would form an integral part. The French +engineer ridiculed this idea, and affirmed that the ships would be +destroyed before they could inflict any damage upon the walls. + +The result of the attack showed how completely D'Arcon was mistaken. +During the day the assistance of the combined fleet was urgently +required; but when its cooperation might have turned the tide of +victory, an adverse wind arose, and the vessels could not beat up within +range of the Rock. + +The distinguished part which Captain Curtis had taken in the defence of +the fortress ever since he had joined the command drew from General +Eliot commendations no less merited than sincere. Writing to Lord Howe +on October 15th he says: + +"Unknown to Brigadier Curtis, I must entreat your lordship to reflect +upon the unspeakable assistance he has been in the defence of this place +by his advice, and the lead he has taken in every hazardous enterprise. +You know him well, my lord, therefore such conduct on his part is no +more than you expect; but let me beg of you not to leave him unrewarded +for such signal services. You alone can influence his majesty to +consider such an officer for what he has, and what he will in future +deserve wherever employed. If Gibraltar is of the value intimated to me +from office, and to be presumed by the steps adventured to relieve it, +Brigadier Curtis is the man to whom the King will be chiefly indebted +for its security. Believe me, there is nothing affected in this +declaration on my part." + +Again, when on his return to England he was created Lord Heathfield, he +expressed his indignation that Curtis only received the honor of +knighthood and a pension of five hundred pounds per annum. "It is a +shame," he said, "that I should be overloaded, and so scanty a pittance +be the lot of him who bore the greatest share of the burthen." Such was +the unaffected modesty of this great man! + +When the confusion arising from their disastrous defeat had subsided in +the enemy's camp, a heavy cannonade was again opened from their lines +and advanced works. The firing generally commenced about five or six +o'clock in the morning and continued till noon, then for two hours the +batteries were silent, but again opened till seven o'clock in the +evening, when the mortars took up the fire till daybreak. During the +twenty-four hours six hundred shells and about one thousand shots were +thrown into the garrison. + +Notwithstanding the ill-success which had attended the combined attack, +and the signal proof the enemy had received of the impregnable strength +of the fortress, the Spaniards did not entirely despair of eventually +reducing the place by famine, could the arrival of Lord Howe's fleet +with the convoy be prevented. + +In August the English Government, being aware of the vast preparations +which had been making in Spain for the siege of Gibraltar, had collected +a fleet of thirty-four sail of the line, six frigates, and three +fire-ships, under command of Admiral Lord Howe, which was to convoy a +flotilla of merchantmen with relief for the garrison. + +By September 11th the preparations were completed, and on that day Howe +set sail from Spithead with one hundred eighty-three sail, including the +convoy, under the command of Vice-Admirals Barrington and Milbank, Rear +Admirals Hood and Hughes, and Commodore Hotham. + +Hampered by the difficulty of keeping the merchantmen together, and +baffled by contrary winds and violent weather, Howe's passage was +unusually slow and tedious. + +The Spanish Government having gained intelligence of the approach of +this powerful force, instantly took measures to attack the expedition +before it could arrive at its destination. For this purpose the combined +fleets of Spain and France which lay in the harbor of Algeciras were +reenforced, and dispositions were made for intercepting the British +ships on their passage through the Straits. + +These arrangements had scarcely been completed when, on the evening of +October 10th, a fresh westerly wind sprang up in the bay, and toward +night gradually increased in violence till it blew a hurricane. Soon the +enemy's vessels were in distress, many were dragging their anchors, and +signal-guns were fired for help in rapid succession. Throughout the +night the fury of the storm did not abate, and daybreak disclosed the +havoc among the squadrons at Algeciras; a ship of the line and a frigate +were ashore at Orange Grove, a French liner had suffered great damage to +her masts and rigging, and the St. Michael, of seventy-two guns, was +discovered close in shore off the Orange Bastion in distress. She was +immediately fired at and after having lost four men she was run ashore +on the line-wall, and taken possession of by Captain Curtis. Her +commander, Admiral Don Juan Moreno, and her crew of six hundred fifty +men were landed as prisoners. These misfortunes materially affected the +ulterior movements of the combined fleets. In the mean time Lord Howe +had on the 8th of the month arrived off Cape St. Vincent, and a frigate +was sent on from there to gain information from the consul at Faro of +the enemy's dispositions. Two days afterward she returned with the +intelligence that the combined fleets, consisting of nearly fifty sail, +lay at anchor at Algeciras. + +Upon the receipt of this news a council of war was held, and clear and +stringent orders were afterward issued for the guidance of the masters +in charge of the merchantmen, that the convoy might be conducted safely +into the harbor of Gibraltar. On the 11th, the fleet passed through the +Straits in three divisions, the third and centre squadrons in line of +battle ahead, the second squadron in reserve; the Victory led ahead of +the third squadron. + +By sunset the van had arrived off Europa Point, and before nightfall +four of the transports had anchored under the guns of the fortress. By +an unpardonable inattention to the orders they had received, the masters +of the other vessels failed to make the bay and were driven away to the +eastward of the Rock. To the astonishment of Howe, who had looked upon +an engagement as inevitable, the Spaniards did not attempt to intercept +the convoy. + +During the two following days the British Admiral was engaged in +collecting the transports to the eastward, and preparing for action in +case the Spaniards should attack. + +On the 13th the combined fleets, consisting of forty-four ships of the +line, five frigates, and twenty-nine xebec-cutters and brigs, got under +way and stood to the southward, with the apparent intention of bearing +down upon Lord Howe's force. But though the Spanish Admiral had the +weather-gauge, and notwithstanding his fleet was greatly superior in +numbers to the English, he contented himself with the execution of some +harmless manoeuvres, and permitted the whole of the transports to be +conducted safely into Gibraltar under the very muzzles of his guns. The +stores and provisions were immediately landed, and two regiments of +infantry--Twenty-fifth and Twenty-ninth--were disembarked under the +superintendence of Lord Mulgrave. + +Having accomplished his mission and relieved the fortress, Lord Howe +prepared to return to England. + +On October 19th, taking advantage of an easterly wind, he formed his +fleet in order of battle and sailed through the Straits. At this time +the combined fleets were cruising a few miles north-east of Ceuta, and +in view of Howe's squadron, of which they had the weather-gauge. + +The two fleets remained near each other during the night, and on the +following morning, the wind having come round to the northward, the +Spaniards still held the advantage and could have closed for action at +any moment. It was Lord Howe's desire, if possible, to avoid an +engagement in the narrow and dangerous waters of the Straits, and to +entice the enemy to accept battle in the open sea; with this object he +continued on his course to the westward. + +At sunset on the 20th the combined fleets, greatly superior to the +English in force and numbers, came up with the rear division, under +Admiral Barrington, and a partial action commenced, but the enemy +remained at such a respectful distance, keeping as near as they could +haul to the wind, that the firing was comparatively harmless on both +sides. The two admirals De Guichen and Cordova led the enemy's van, and +it was apparently their intention to cut off and destroy the rear +division of the British fleet; but though they had the superiority in +force and the advantage of the wind, they could not be induced to close, +and soon after midnight the firing ceased. The next morning the two +fleets were still in sight, but as the Spaniards evinced no disposition +to renew the engagement, Howe, whose orders did not permit him to +provoke the enemy, continued on his homeward voyage. + +The successful passage of the British fleet through the Straits, in the +face of the combined forces, was regarded in Madrid as a glorious +victory for the Spanish arms. The despatches of Don Louis de Cordova +described the partial engagement as a complete rout, and Howe was made +to flee with all press of sail from his brave pursuers. + +Seizing upon this exaggerated intelligence as a counterpoise to the +recent disastrous news from Gibraltar, the Government extolled the valor +of the navy, and spread ludicrously bombastic accounts of the "glorious +victory" throughout the country. Pamphlets descriptive of the engagement +were published and disseminated, in which the casualties of the English +were put down in numbers imposingly enormous. + +Gibraltar having thus been again successfully relieved, the Spanish +government relinquished all hope of securing its possession by force of +arms; but the King still fondly retained some expectation of succeeding +by negotiation. In order to conceal the actual hopelessness of the +enterprise, and "to give a reasonable color to the formal prosecution of +the siege," private instructions were sent to Crillon to continue the +offensive. But the Spanish commander was in truth no less disheartened +than the ministers of his government, and with the exception of daily +attacks by gun- and mortar-boats, seconded by a warm fire from the +isthmus, active operations completely ceased. + +On February 2, 1783, the news of the signature of the preliminaries of a +general peace reached the garrison by a flag of truce, and on March 12th +the gates of the fortress, which had been closed for nearly four years, +were once more thrown open. + +The announcement of the peace was received with general joy throughout +the garrison, and this feeling was most fully reciprocated by the +disheartened and weary enemy. The two chiefs, who, since they had been +opposed to each other as antagonists in a struggle which riveted the +attention of all Europe, had learned to regret that they were foes, now +met with the cordial embrace of friendship, and no opportunity was lost +which could tend to obliterate the remembrances of former rivalry. +Friendly meetings were interchanged between them, and all memory of +previous antagonism was buried in oblivion. + +Being introduced to the officers of the Royal Artillery, through whose +courage and ability his brightest hopes of victory had been destroyed, +Crillon met them with praises of their noble conduct, and remarked that +"he would rather see them there as friends than on their batteries as +enemies, where," he added, "they never spared me." + +One day when inspecting the immense lines of fortification on the +northern face of the Rock, all of which had been constructed during the +progress of the siege, lost in astonishment at the magnitude of the +works, he exclaimed, "This is indeed worthy of the Romans!" + +Early in April, the Spanish camp having commenced to break up, and the +lines on the isthmus having been dismantled, the Duc de Crillon handed +over his command to the Marquis de Saya, and returned to Madrid. + +Thus after a duration of three years seven months and twelve days ended +this memorable siege; a siege which, in the words of Lord North, "was +one of those astonishing instances of British valor, discipline, +military skill, and humanity that no other age or country could produce +an example of." At length the devoted garrison was relieved from a +situation of suffering, peril, and privation almost unparalleled in the +annals of war. + + + + +END OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION + +A.D. 1782 + +JOHN ADAMS BENJAMIN FRANKLIN JOHN JAY + HENRY LAURENS JOHN M. LUDLOW + + Concerning the momentous consequences of the American + Revolution, not only for America herself but for the whole + world, history has raised no question of doubt. Regarding + its causes and its justification there has been substantial + agreement of both learned and popular opinion in all + progressive countries. But various and often contradictory + are the judgments pronounced upon the course and conduct of + the war itself, even among American writers. + + Until recently it has been impossible that either in the + United States or Great Britain a wholly dispassionate view + of the War of Independence should be shared by both critical + students and general readers. In America it has been the + fashion to glorify indiscriminately the actors on the + colonial side and all their achievements. The provincial + note of national heroics has been transmitted from one + generation to another, and the breath of the school children + has been carefully laden with it from tenderest years. On + the English side, the quite natural early resentment against + the lost colonies--mainly confined to official circles and + hereditary interests--may be said to have been later + softened into "a certain condescension," such as Lowell + pointed out in foreigners generally toward America. + + But that condescension, like the earlier acrimony, is a + thing of the past. Here, as elsewhere, history is being + rewritten. American self-glorification, as well as wounded + English pride, gives way to better teachings, and the larger + lessons of humanity, which is more than nationality, are + giving to all nations clearer visions of a federated world. + + The growth of this new historic sense, informed with clearer + knowledge and a more discriminating love of justice, is well + illustrated in the following critical examination, wherein + Ludlow, a living English historian, carefully considers the + various factors at work in the Revolution, and the personal + forces through which its results were produced. Prefixed to + this is the official statement of the American peace + commissioners--John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and + Henry Laurens--to Robert R. Livingston, then superintendent + of foreign affairs, of the conditions of the preliminary + treaty, which ended the war in 1782. This was followed by + the definitive Treaty of Paris, September 3, 1783. + + +THE AMERICAN PEACE COMMISSIONERS + + PARIS, 14 December, 1782. + +We have the honor to congratulate Congress on the signature of the +preliminaries of a peace between the Crown of Great Britain and the +United States of America, to be inserted in a definitive treaty so soon +as the terms between the crowns of France and Great Britain shall be +agreed on. A copy of the articles is here enclosed, and we cannot but +flatter ourselves that they will appear to Congress, as they do to all +of us, to be consistent with the honor and interest of the United +States, and we are persuaded Congress would be more fully of that +opinion if they were apprised of all the circumstances and reasons which +have influenced the negotiation. Although it is impossible for us to go +into that detail, we think it necessary, nevertheless, to make a few +remarks on such of the articles as appear most to require elucidation. + + +_Remarks on Article 2d, relative to Boundaries_ + +The Court of Great Britain insisted on retaining all the territories +comprehended within the Province of Quebec, by the act of Parliament +respecting it. They contended that Nova Scotia should extend to the +river Kennebec; and they claimed not only all the lands in the Western +country and on the Mississippi, which were not expressly included in our +charters and governments, but also such lands within them as remained +ungranted by the King of Great Britain. It would be endless to enumerate +all the discussions and arguments on the subject. + +We knew this Court and Spain to be against our claims to the Western +country, and, having no reason to think that lines more favorable could +ever have been obtained, we finally agreed to those described in this +article; indeed, they appear to leave us little to complain of and not +much to desire. Congress will observe that, although our northern line +is in a certain part below the latitude of 45 deg., yet in others it +extends above it, divides the Lake Superior, and gives us access to its +western and southern waters, from which a line in that latitude would +have excluded us. + + +_Remarks on Article 4th, respecting Creditors_ + +We had been informed that some of the States had confiscated British +debts; but although each State has a right to bind its own citizens, +yet, in our opinion, it appertains solely to Congress, in whom +exclusively are vested the rights of making war and peace, to pass acts +against the subjects of a power with which the Confederacy may be at +war. It therefore only remained for us to consider whether this article +is founded in justice and good policy. + +In our opinion no acts of government could dissolve the obligations of +good faith resulting from lawful contracts between individuals of the +two countries prior to the war. We knew that some of the British +creditors were making common cause with the refugees and other +adversaries of our independence; besides, sacrificing private justice to +reasons of state and political convenience is always an odious measure; +and the purity of our reputation in this respect, in all foreign +commercial countries, is of infinitely more importance to us than all +the sums in question. It may also be remarked that American and British +creditors are placed on an equal footing. + + +_Remarks on Articles 5th and 6th, respecting Refugees_ + +These articles were among the first discussed and the last agreed to. +And had not the conclusion of this business at the time of its date been +particularly important to the British administration, the respect, which +both in London and Versailles is supposed to be due to the honor, +dignity, and interest of royalty, would probably have forever prevented +our bringing this article so near to the views of Congress and the +sovereign rights of the States as it now stands. When it is considered +that it was utterly impossible to render this article perfectly +consistent, both with American and British ideas of honor, we presume +that the middle line adopted by this article is as little unfavorable to +the former as any that could in reason be expected. + +As to the separate article, we beg leave to observe that it was our +policy to render the navigation of the river Mississippi so important to +Britain as that their views might correspond with ours on that subject. +Their possessing the country on the river north of the line from the +Lake of the Woods affords a foundation for their claiming such +navigation. And as the importance of West Florida to Britain was for the +same reason rather to be strengthened than otherwise, we thought it +advisable to allow them the extent contained in the separate article, +especially as before the war it had been annexed by Britain to West +Florida, and would operate as an additional inducement to their joining +with us in agreeing that the navigation of the river should forever +remain open to both. The map used in the course of our negotiations was +Mitchell's. + +As we had reason to imagine that the articles respecting the boundaries, +the refugees, and fisheries did not correspond with the policy of this +court, we did not communicate the preliminaries to the minister until +after they were signed (and not even then the _separate article_). We +hope that these considerations will excuse our having so far deviated +from the spirit of our instructions. The Count de Vergennes, on perusing +the articles, appeared surprised (but not displeased) at their being so +favorable to us. + +We beg leave to add our advice that copies be sent us of the accounts +directed to be taken by the different States, of the unnecessary +devastations and sufferings sustained by them from the enemy in the +course of the war. Should they arrive before the signature of the +definitive treaty, they might possibly answer very good purposes. + + +JOHN M. LUDLOW + +Paradoxical as it may seem, two things must equally surprise the reader +on studying the history of the war of American Independence--the first, +that England should ever have considered it possible to succeed in +subduing her revolted colonies; the second, that she should not have +succeeded in doing so. At a time when steam had not yet baffled the +winds, to dream of conquering by force of arms on the other side of the +Atlantic a people of English race numbering between three millions and +four millions with something like twelve hundred miles of seaboard, was +surely an act of enormous folly. Horace Walpole had wittily said, at the +very commencement of the so-called rebellion, that "if computed by the +tract of the country it occupies, we, as so diminutive in comparison, +ought rather be called in rebellion to that." + +We have seen in our own days the difficulties experienced by the far +more powerful and populous Northern States in quelling the secession of +the Southern, when between the two there was no other frontier than at +most a river, very often a mere ideal line, and when armies could be +raised by a hundred thousand men at a time. England attempted a far more +difficult task with forces which, till 1781, never reached 35,000 men, +and never exceeded 42,075, including "provincials," _i.e._, American +loyalists. + +Yet it is impossible to doubt that, not once only, but repeatedly during +the course of the struggle, England was on the verge of triumph. The +American armies were perpetually melting away before the enemy directly +through the practice of short enlistments, and indirectly through +desertions. These desertions, if they might be often palliated by the +straits to which the men were reduced through arrears in pay and want of +supplies, arose in other cases, as after the retreat from New York, from +sheer loss of heart in the cause. The main army under Washington was +seldom even equal in number to that opposed to him. In the winter of +1776-1777, when his troops were only about four thousand strong, it is +difficult to understand how it was that Sir William Howe, with more than +double the number, should have failed to annihilate the American army. + +In the winter of 1777-1778 the "dreadful situation of the army for want +of provisions" made Washington "admire" that they should not have been +excited to a general mutiny and desertion. In May, 1779, he hardly knew +any resource for the American cause except in reenforcements from +France, and did not know what might be the consequence if the enemy had +it in his power to press the troops hard in the ensuing campaign. In +December of that year his forces were "mouldering away daily," and he +considered that Sir Henry Clinton, with more than twice his numbers, +could "not justify remaining inactive with a force so superior." A year +later he was compelled for want of clothing to discharge levies which he +had so much trouble in obtaining, and "want of flour would have +disbanded the whole army" if he had not adopted this expedient. In +March, 1781, again, the crisis was "perilous," and, though he did not +doubt the happy issue of the contest, he considered that the period for +its accomplishment might be too far distant for a person of his years. + +In April he wrote: "We cannot transport the provisions from the States +in which they are assessed to the army, because we cannot pay the +teamsters, who will no longer work for certificates. It is equally +certain that our troops are approaching fast to nakedness, and that we +have nothing to clothe them with; that our hospitals are without +medicines, and our sick without nutriment except such as well men eat; +and that our public works are at a stand and the artificers disbanding. +It may be declared in a word that we are at the end of our tether, and +that now or never our deliverance must come." Six months later, when +Yorktown capitulated, the British forces still remaining in North +America after the surrender of that garrison were more considerable than +they had been as late as February, 1779; and Sir Henry Clinton even then +declared that with a reenforcement of ten thousand men he would be +responsible for the conquest of America. + +How shall we explain either puzzle--that England should have so nearly +missed success, to fail at last? or that America should have succeeded, +after having been almost constantly on the brink of failure? + +The main hope of success on the English side lay in the idea that the +spirit and acts of resistance to the authority of the mother-country +were in reality only on the part of a turbulent minority; that the bulk +of the people desired to be loyal. It is certain indeed that the +struggle was, in America itself, much more of a civil war than the +Americans are now generally disposed to admit. In December, 1780, there +were eight thousand nine hundred fifty-four provincials among the +British forces in America, and on March 7, 1781, a letter from Lord +George Germain to Sir H. Clinton, intercepted by the Americans, says, +"The American levies in the King's service are more in number than the +whole of the enlisted troops in the service of Congress." + +As late as September 1, 1781, there were seven thousand two hundred +forty-one. We hear of "loyal associates" in Massachusetts, Maryland, and +Pennsylvania, of "associated loyalists" in New York, of a fort built and +maintained by "associated refugees," and everywhere of "Tories," whose +arrest Washington is found suggesting to Governor Trumbull, of +Connecticut, as early as November 12, 1775. New England may indeed be +considered to have been cleared of active opposition to the American +cause when more than one thousand refugees left Boston in March, 1776, +with the British troops. But New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania +remained long full of Tories. By June 28, 1776, the disaffected on Long +Island had taken up arms, and after the evacuation of New York by +Washington a brigade of loyalists was raised on the island, and +companies were formed in two neighboring counties to join the King's +troops. + +During Washington's retreat through New Jersey "the inhabitants, either +from fear or disaffection, almost to a man refused to turn out." In +Pennsylvania the militia, instead of giving any assistance in repelling +the British, exulted at their approach, and over the misfortunes of +their countrymen. On the 20th of that month the British were "daily +gathering strength from the disaffected." In 1777 the Tories who joined +Burgoyne in his invasion from the north are said to have doubled his +force. In 1778 Tories joined the Indians in the devastation of Wyoming +and Cherry Valley; and although the indiscriminate ravages of the +British, or of the Germans in their pay, seem to have roused the three +States above mentioned to self-defence, yet, as late as May, 1780, +Washington still speaks of sending a small party of cavalry to escort +Lafayette "safely through the Tory settlements" of New York. Virginia, +as late as the spring of 1776, was "alarmed at the idea of +independence." + +Washington admitted that his countrymen--of that State--"from their form +of government, and steady attachment heretofore to royalty," would "come +reluctantly" to that idea, but trusted to "time and persecution." In +1781 the ground for transferring the seat of war to the Chesapeake was +the number of loyalists in that quarter. In the Southern States the +division of feeling was still greater. In the Carolinas, a Loyalist +regiment was raised in a few days in 1776, and again in 1779. In +Georgia, in South Carolina, the bitterest partisan warfare was carried +on between the Whig and Tory bands; and a body of New York Tories +contributed powerfully to the fall of Savannah in 1778 by taking the +American forces in the rear. + +On the other hand it is unquestionable that in the extent and quality of +the support which they met with, the British generals were cruelly +disappointed. Up to May, 1778, General Howe had declared that in +thirteen corps raised, with a nominal strength of six thousand five +hundred men, the whole number amounted only to three thousand six +hundred nine, of whom only a small proportion were Americans, and that +"all the force that could be collected in Pennsylvania, after the most +indefatigable exertions during eight months," was only nine hundred +seventy-four men. Of the far more numerous loyalist levies in the South, +Lord Cornwallis speaks in the most disparaging terms. A whole regiment +in South Carolina marched off on one occasion in a body. Speaking of the +friends to the British cause in North Carolina he wrote, "If they are as +dastardly and pusillanimous as our friends to the southward, we must +leave them to their fate." At the time of the battle of Guilford Court +House (1781) the idea of such friends "rising in any number and to any +purpose had totally failed." No "provincial" general ever rose to +eminence on the British side, although more than one was appointed, and +it is clear that if the struggle was so long protracted it was not +through the valor or constancy of the loyalists. + +The real causes of its protraction--though it may be hard to an American +to admit the fact--lay in the incapacity of American politicians, and, +it must be added, in the supineness and want of patriotism of the +American people. If, indeed, importing into the struggle views of a +later date, we look upon it as one between two nations, the +mismanagement of the war by the Americans, on all points save one--the +retention of Washington in the chief command--is seen to have been so +pitiable from first to last as to be in fact almost unintelligible. We +only understand the case when we see that there was no such thing as an +American nation in existence, but only a number of revolted colonies, +jealous of one another, and with no tie but that of a common danger. + +Even in the army, divisions broke out. Washington, in a general order of +August 1, 1776, says: "It is with great concern that the general +understands that jealousies have arisen among the troops from the +different provinces, and reflections are frequently thrown out which can +only tend to irritate each other and injure the noble cause in which we +are engaged." It was seldom that much help could be obtained in troops +from any State, unless that State were immediately threatened by the +enemy; and even then these troops would be raised by that State for its +own defence, irrespectively of the general or "Continental Army." + +"Those at a distance from the seat of War," wrote Washington in April, +1778, "live in such perfect tranquillity that they conceive the dispute +to be in a manner at an end; and those near it are so disaffected that +they serve only as embarrassments." In January, 1779, we find him +remonstrating with the Governor of Rhode Island because that State had +"ordered several battalions to be raised for the defence of the State +only, and this before proper measures were taken to fill the Continental +regiments." The different bounties and rates of pay allowed by the +various States were a constant source of annoyance to him. After the +first year, the best men were not returned to Congress, or did not +return to it. Whole States remained frequently unrepresented. In the +winter of 1777-1778 Congress was reduced to twenty-one members. But even +with a full representation it could do little. "One State will comply +with a requisition of Congress," writes Washington in 1780, "another +neglects to do it, a third executes it by halves, and all differ either +in the manner, the matter, or so much in point of time that we are +always working up-hill." At first Congress was really nothing more than +a voluntary committee. When the Confederation was completed--which was +only, be it remembered, on March 1, 1781--it was still, as Washington +wrote in 1785, "little more than a shadow without the substance, and the +Congress a nugatory body"; or, as it was described by a later writer, +"powerless for government, and a rope of sand for union." + +Like politicians, like people. There was no doubt a brilliant display of +patriotic ardor at the first flying to arms of the colonists. Lexington +and Bunker Hill were actions decidedly creditable to their raw troops. +The expedition to Canada, foolhardy though it proved, was pursued up to +a certain point with real heroism. But with it the heroic period of the +war--individual instances excepted--may be said to have closed. There +seems little reason to doubt that the Revolution would never have been +commenced if it had been expected to cost so tough a struggle. "A false +estimate of the power and perseverance of our enemies," wrote James +Duane to Washington, "was friendly to the present revolution, and +inspired that confidence of success in all ranks of people which was +necessary to unite them in so arduous a cause." + +As early as November, 1775, Washington wrote, speaking of military +arrangements, "Such a dearth of public spirit, and such want of virtue, +such stock-jobbing and fertility in all the low arts to obtain +advantages of one kind or another, I never saw before, and pray God's +mercy that I may never be witness to again." Such "a mercenary spirit" +pervaded the whole of the troops, that he should not have been "at all +surprised at any disaster." + +At the same date, besides desertions of thirty or forty soldiers at a +time, he speaks of the practice of plundering as so rife that "no man is +secure in his effects, and scarcely in his person." People "were +frightened out of their houses under pretence of those houses being +ordered to be burnt, with a view of seizing the goods"; and to conceal +the villainy more effectually some houses were actually burnt down. On +February 28, 1777, "the scandalous loss, waste, and private +appropriation of public arms during the last campaign" had been "beyond +all conception." Officers drew "large sums under pretence of paying +their men," and appropriated them. In one case an officer led his men to +robbery, offered resistance to a brigade-major who ordered him to return +the goods, and was only with difficulty cashiered. + +"Can we carry on the war much longer?" Washington asks in 1778--after +the treaty with France and the appearance of a French fleet off the +coast. "Certainly not, unless some measures can be devised and speedily +executed to restore the credit of our currency, restrain extortion, and +punish forestallers." A few days later, "To make and extort money in +every shape that can be devised, and at the same time to decry its +value, seem to have become a mere business and an epidemical disease." +On December 30, 1778, "speculation, peculation, and an insatiable thirst +for riches seem to have got the better of every other consideration, and +almost of every order of men; party disputes and personal quarrels are +the great business of the day; whilst the momentous concerns of an +empire, a great and accumulating debt, ruined finances, depreciated +money, and want of credit, which in its consequences is the want of +everything, are but secondary considerations." + +After a first loan had been obtained from France and spent, a further +one was granted in 1782. So utterly unpatriotic and selfish was known to +be the temper of the people that the loan had to be kept secret, in +order not to diminish such efforts as might be made by the Americans +themselves. On July 10th, of that year, with New York and Charlestown +still in British hands, Washington writes: "That spirit of freedom +which at the commencement of this contest would have gladly sacrificed +everything to the attainment of its object, has long since subsided, and +every selfish passion has taken its place." But indeed the mere fact +that from the date of the battle of Monmouth (July 28, 1778), Washington +was never supplied with sufficient means, even with the assistance of +the French fleets and troops, to strike one blow at the English in New +York--though these were but sparingly reenforced during the +period--shows an absence of public spirit, one might almost say of +national shame, scarcely conceivable, and in singular contrast with the +terrible earnestness exhibited on both sides some eighty years later in +the Secession War. + +Why, then, must we ask on the other side, did England fail at last? The +English were prone to attribute their ill-success to the incompetency of +their generals. Lord North, with his quaint humor, would say, "I do not +know whether our generals will frighten the enemy, but I know they +frighten me whenever I think of them." When in 1778, Lord Carlisle came +out as commissioner, in a letter speaking of the great scale of all +things in America, he says: "We have nothing on a great scale with us +but our blunders, our misconduct, our ruin, our losses, our disgraces +and misfortunes." Pitt, in a speech of 1781, aptly described the war as +having been, on the part of England, "a series of ineffective victories +or severe defeats." No doubt it is difficult to account for Gage's early +blunders; for Howe's repeated failure to follow up his own success or +profit by his enemy's weakness; and Cornwallis' movement, justly +censured by Sir Henry Clinton, in transferring the bulk of his army from +the far south to Virginia, within marching distance of Washington, +opened the way to that crowning disaster at Yorktown, without which it +is by no means impossible that Georgia and the Carolinas might have +remained British. + +But no allowance for bad generalship can account for the failure of the +British. Washington and Greene appear to have been the only two American +generals of marked ability, though they unquestionably derived great +advantage from the talents of their foreign allies, Lafayette, Pulaski, +Steuben, Rochambeau--and Washington was more than once out-manoeuvred. +Gates evidently owed his one signal triumph to enormous superiority of +numbers on his own ground, and was as signally defeated, under +circumstances infinitely less creditable to him than those of Burgoyne's +surrender. Lee's vaunted abilities came to nothing. + +Political incapacity was of course charged upon ministers as another +cause of disaster; and no doubt their miscalculation of the severity of +the struggle was almost childish. When Parliament met in the autumn of +1776--_i.e._, after the Declaration of Independence had gone forth to +the world--it was held out in the King's speech that another campaign +would be sufficient to end the war, while in spite of all the warnings +of the Opposition, they persisted in blinding themselves to the force of +the temptations which must inevitably bring down France, if not Spain, +into the lists against them, until the treaties of these powers with +America were actually concluded. The forces sent out were miserably +inadequate for a war on so large a scale--"too many to make peace, too +few to make war," as Lord Chatham told the Ministry. When for once a +really considerable force was sent out under Burgoyne, it failed for +want of timely cooperation by Howe, and this failure is stated, by Lord +Shelburne, to have arisen from Lord George Germain's not having had +patience to wait after signing the despatch to Burgoyne, till that to +Howe had been fair-copied; so that instead of going out together, the +second, owing to further mischances, did not leave till some time later. +The English generals complained almost as bitterly as the American of +the want of adequate reenforcements, and the best of them, Sir Henry +Clinton, is found writing (1779) in a strain which might be mistaken for +Washington's of his spirits being "worn out" by the difficulties of his +position. + +But no mistakes in the management of the war by British statesmen can +account for their ultimate failure. However great British mismanagement +may have been, it was far surpassed by American. Until Robert Morris +took the finances in hand, the administration of them was beneath not +only contempt but conception. There was nothing on the British side +equal to that caricature of a recruiting system, in which different +bounties were offered by Congress, by the States, by the separate towns, +as to make it the interest of the intending soldier to delay enlistment +as long as possible in order to sell himself to the highest bidder; to +that caricature of a war establishment the main bulk of which broke up +every twelvemonth in front of the enemy, which was only paid, if at all, +in worthless paper, and left almost habitually without supplies. + +To mention one fact only, commissions in British regiments on American +soil continued to be sold for large sums, while Washington's officers +were daily throwing up theirs, many from sheer starvation. On the whole, +no better idea can be had of the nature of the struggle on the American +side, after the first heat of it had cooled down, than from the words of +Count de Rochambeau, writing to Count de Vergennes, July 10, 1780: "They +have neither money nor credit; their means of resistance are only +momentary, and called forth when they are attacked in their own homes. +They then assemble for the moment of immediate danger and defend +themselves." + +A far more important cause in determining the ultimate failure of the +British was the aid afforded by France to America, followed by that of +Spain and Holland. It was impossible for England to reconquer a +continent, and carry on war at the same time with the three most +powerful states of Europe. The instincts of race have tended on both the +English and the American sides to depreciate the value of the aid given +by France to the colonists. It may be true that Rochambeau's troops +which disembarked in Rhode Island in July, 1780, did not march till +July, 1781,--that they were blockaded soon after their arrival, +threatened with attack from New York, and only disengaged by a feint of +Washington's on that city. But more than two years before their arrival, +Washington wrote to a member of Congress, "France, by her supplies, has +saved us from the yoke thus far." The treaty with France alone was +considered to afford a "certain prospect of success"--to "secure" +American independence. + +The arrival of D'Estaing's fleet, although no troops joined the American +army, and nothing eventually was done, determined the evacuation of +Philadelphia. The discipline of the French troops when they landed in +1780 set an example to the Americans; chickens and pigs walked between +the lines without being disturbed. The recruits of 1780 could not have +been armed without fifty tons of ammunition supplied by the French. In +September of that year, Washington, writing to the French envoy, speaks +of the "inability" of the Americans to expel the British from the South +"unassisted, or perhaps even to stop their career," and he writes in +similar terms to Congress a few days later. To depend "upon the +resources of the country, unassisted by foreign loans," he writes to a +member of Congress two months later, "will, I am confident, be to lean +upon a broken reed." + +In January, 1781, writing to Colonel Laurens, the American envoy in +Paris, he presses for "an immediate, ample, and efficacious succor in +money" from France, for the maintenance of the American coasts of "a +constant naval superiority," and for "an additional succor in troops." +And since the assistance so requested was in fact granted in every +shape, and the surrender of Yorktown was obtained by the cooperation +both of the French army and fleet, we must hold that Washington's words +were justified by the event. + +The real cause, however, why England yielded in 1782-1783 to her +revolted colonies was probably this: The English nation at large had +never realized the nature of the struggle; when it did, it refused to +carry it on. Enormous ignorance no doubt prevailed at the beginning of +the struggle as to the North American colonies. They had been till then +entirely overshadowed by the West Indies, which were perhaps at that +time the greatest source of English commercial wealth; and the time was +not far past when, it is said, they were supposed, like the latter, to +be chiefly inhabited by negroes. The prominence of the slave colonies +seems to have associated the idea of colonies with that of absolute +government. Englishmen did not generally realize the existence in North +America of vast countries inhabited by communities of their own race, +which enjoyed in general a larger measure of self-government than the +mother-country herself. That a colony should resist the mother-country +seemed in a manner preposterous. It appears certain, therefore, that +when the war at first broke out it was popular, and that the King and +Lord North, as has been already stated, were themselves amazed at the +loyal addresses which it called forth. + +But the early resort to the aid of German mercenaries showed that this +popularity was only skin-deep--that the heart of the masses was not +engaged in the war. The very employment of these mercenaries, as well as +of the Indian auxiliaries of the royal forces, tended to lower the +character of the war in English eyes. When Chatham, in his scathing +invectives, would speak of the Ministers' "traffic and barter with every +little pitiful German prince that sells and sends his subjects to the +shambles," or of their sending "the infidel savage--against whom? +against your Protestant brethren, to lay waste their country, to +desolate their dwellings, and extirpate their race and name," he might +not carry with him the votes of the House of Lords, but his words would +burn their way into English hearts. + +That the war with the American colonies themselves was repugnant to the +deepest feelings of the nation is proved by contrast through the sudden +burst of warlike spirit which followed (1778-1779) on the outbreak of +war with France and Spain. A few days before the French treaty with +America was known, Horace Walpole had written to Mason that the new +levies "don't come, consequently they will not go." By July of the same +year he writes to Sir Horace Mann, "The country is covered with camps." +In 1776 the King had reviewed the Guards on Wimbledon Common, and pulled +off his hat to them before their departure for America. He had now +(1779) to review volunteers. The passionate interest which is henceforth +taken in so much of the struggle as is carried on with foreign foes, +Keppel's scarcely deserved popularity, the riotous popular joy on his +acquittal, the outburst of universal rejoicing over Rodney's victories, +show a totally different temper to that brought out by either victory or +defeat in what was now felt to be a dread civil war with our American +kinsmen. + +Hence it was, no doubt, that after the surrender of Yorktown, +hostilities were practically at an end with America, while the naval +warfare with France and Spain was carried on for another twelvemonth, +and that the signing of provisional articles of peace with the United +States preceded by two months that of similar articles with France and +Spain, the armistice with Holland being of still later date. It may even +be conjectured that the outbreak of war with France and Spain, instead +of incensing the mind of the English people against the Americans, +rather gave different objects to their angry passions, and tended to +diminish their bitterness toward the colonists. It must have been a kind +of relief to Englishmen to find themselves fighting once more against +those whom they considered hereditary enemies, against men who did not +speak their own mother-tongue; and the wholly unprovoked character of +these foreign hostilities would soften men's feelings toward the +stubbornness of those colonists of their own blood, who after all asked +only to be left alone. It is moreover observable that when peace came, +though it upset the Shelburne ministry, yet that of the coalition which +succeeded it was most unpopular, and addresses came pouring in from +counties and towns to thank the King for making the peace. + +Substantially indeed--although colonial independence would no doubt have +been achieved sooner or later--the more we look into the events of the +war of 1775-1783, the more, perhaps, shall we be convinced that it +resolves itself into a duel between two men who never saw each other in +the flesh, Washington and George III. + +Take Washington out of the history on the American side, and it is +impossible to conceive of American success. It is barely possible that +under Greene--the one general after Washington's own heart, who wrote to +him from his command in the South, "We fight, get beaten, and fight +again"--the army itself might have been commanded with an ability which +would enable it to withstand its British opponents. But neither Greene +nor any other general possessed that weight of personal character which +fixed the trust of Congress and people on Washington, maintained him in +authority through all reverses, and enabled him to criticise with such +unflinching frankness the measures of Congress. + +Take, on the other hand, George III out of the history on the British +side, and it is beyond question that if the war had ever broken out, it +would have been put a stop to long before its ultimate failure. In him +alone is to be found the real centre of resistance to American +independence. It is now well known that at least from the beginning of +1778, if not from the end of 1775, Lord North was anxious to resign, and +desirous of conciliation, and that it was only through the King's +constant appeals to his sense of honor, not to "desert" him, that the +minister was prevailed upon to remain in office. "Till I see things +change to a more favorable position," the King wrote to Lord North as +late as May 19, 1780, "I shall not feel at liberty to grant your +resignation"; and it was only on March 20, 1781, that Lord North at +last compelled his master to accept it. Three ideas were fixed in the +King's mind, the first of which was a delusion, the second a mistake, +and the third contrary to all principles of constitutional government. + +First, he had persuaded himself that the country was radically opposed +to American independence. In January, 1778, he opposes conciliatory +measures, "lest they should dissatisfy this country, which so cheerfully +and handsomely carries on the contest." In the autumn of that year he is +certain that "if ministers show that they never will consent to the +independence of America, the cry will be strong in their favor." Two +years later he "can never suppose this country so far lost to all ideas +of self-importance as to be willing to grant American independence." + +Secondly, he was convinced--and this conviction, it must be admitted, +was shared by some of the strongest opponents of the war--that if the +independence of the North American colonies were acknowledged, all the +others, as well as Ireland, would be lost. If any one branch of the +empire is allowed to throw off its dependency, the others will +inevitably follow the example. "Should America succeed, the West Indies +must follow, not in independence, but dependence on America. Ireland +would soon follow, and this island reduce itself to a poor island +indeed." + +Thirdly, he would not allow the Opposition to rule. "He would run any +personal risk rather than submit to the Opposition; rather than be +shackled by these desperate men he would lose his crown." If he +authorizes the attempt at a coalition (1779), it is "provided it be +understood that every means are to be employed to keep the empire +entire, to prosecute the present just and unprovoked war in all its +branches with the utmost vigor, and that his majesty's past measures be +treated with proper respect," _i.e._, provided the Opposition are ready +to stultify themselves, and do all that the King thinks right, and admit +that all for which they have contended is wrong. Before the spectacle of +such narrow obstinacy it is difficult not to sympathize with an +expression of Fox in one of his letters--"it is intolerable to think +that it should be in the power of one blockhead to do so much mischief." + +Between these two men--it may be conceded, equally sincere, equally +resolute--but the one reasoning, like the madman that he was to be, from +false premises, self-deluded as to the feelings of his people, +anticipating consequences which a century sees yet unrealized and the +other with eyes at all times almost morbidly open to all the gloomier +features of this cause, void of all self-delusion--the one conceiving +himself justified in imposing dictates of his own self-will on every +minister whom he might employ, entitled alike to chain an unwilling +friend to office, and to shut the door of office to opponents except on +terms of surrendering all their principles; the other always ready to +accept the inevitable, to make the most use of the least means, to curb +himself for the sake of his cause in all things except fearless +plain-speaking--the one, finally resolved only to hinder the making of a +nation; the other resolved to make one, if anyhow possible--the issue of +the contest could not be doubtful, if both lives were prolonged. From +that contest the one emerged as the mad king who threw away half a +continent from England; the other as the father of the American nation. + +The common consent of mankind has ranked Washington among its great men; +and although the title may have been fully justified by the course of +his civil life, whether in or out of office, after the termination of +the War of Independence, it is hardly to be doubted that it would freely +have been accorded to him had his career been cut short immediately +after the resignation of his military command. Yet of those who have +enjoyed the title, few, if any, have ever earned it by actions of less +brilliancy. The fame of no conspicuous victory is bound up with +Washington's name. His one dashing exploit was the surprise of Trenton. +His one victory, that of Monmouth, had no results; his most considerable +battle, that of Brandywine, was a severe defeat. His greatness as a +general consisted in doing much with little means, never missing an +opportunity, rising superior to every disaster. When he had recovered +Boston he could say, "I have been here months together with not thirty +rounds of musket cartridges to a man, and have been obliged to submit to +all insults of the enemy's cannon for want of powder, keeping what +little we had for pistol-distance. We have maintained our ground against +the enemy under this want of powder, and we have disbanded one army and +recruited another, within musket-shot of two-and-twenty regiments, the +flower of the British Army, while our force has been but little if any +superior to theirs, and at last have beaten them into a shameful and +precipitate retreat out of a place the strongest by nature on this +continent, and strengthened and fortified at an enormous expense." + +The character of Washington as a commander recalls in various respects +that of Wellington. In both we see the same dogged perseverance under +all the various phases of fortune; the same strict discipline, hardening +readily into sternness, coupled with the same careful consideration for +the wants and welfare of the soldier; the same patient, constant +attention to every detail of military organization; the same ability in +maintaining a defensive warfare against an enemy superior in force, with +the same quickness to strike a blow in any unguarded quarter; the same +unflinching frankness in exposing the evils of the military +administration of the day. Many of Wellington's despatches from the +Peninsula might almost have been written by Washington. The difference +between them, while the war lasts, is mainly this: that in Wellington +the soldier is all, while in Washington the statesman and the patriot +are never merged in the soldier. Hence, while in after-life Wellington +had to serve his apprenticeship as a statesman after ceasing to be a +soldier, and often bungled over his new craft, Washington's after-life +was simply that of a statesman who had been called to take up arms and +had laid them down again. + +In short, though England had never a more successful foe than +Washington, it is impossible not to feel, in studying his character, +that no more typical Englishman ever lived. + +Let us now cast a final glance at the state of the world at the close of +the war. Except that an independent state had grown up for the first +time since the downfall of Aztec and Inca empires on the American +continent, and that England had been politically lessened, the balance +of power had been little affected by the war. France had one West Indian +island more, Holland one Indian settlement less. Spain had recovered +Minorca and the Floridas. But she was irrevocably shut out from one +great object of her ambition, the eastern half of the Mississippi +Basin. + + + + +SETTLEMENT OF AMERICAN LOYALISTS IN CANADA[30] + +A.D. 1783 + +SIR JOHN G. BOURINOT + + In the American Revolutionary War there were many in the + then new-born Republic who either refrained from + participating or took the loyalist side in the conflict. + These were called "United Empire Loyalists," for they clung + to the unity of the empire and refused to ally themselves + with their fellow-colonists in revolt. When the war was + over, those who took up arms on the loyal side found + themselves in a hopeless minority, loaded with obloquy, and + subjected to indignity at the hands of the victorious + republicans. Rather than live under these humiliating + conditions, some of the Loyalists returned to England; but + most of them, preferring voluntary expatriation in Western + wilds to living in a country that had become independent + through rebellion, sought new homes for themselves in Acadia + and Canada. + + Their act was not lost upon the home Government, for the + latter sent instructions to Canada to make provision for + their reception and settlement, and for the mitigation, in + some measure, of their trials and privations. This provision + consisted of seed, farm implements, tools for building + purposes, and food and clothing for a year or two after + settling in the country. To make good in part their losses + the British Government also voted about three millions + sterling to be divided among the incoming settlers, and gave + them munificent grants of land, chiefly in the western + portion of the country, the then virgin Province of Upper + Canada. There, as well as in desirable locations in Nova + Scotia and New Brunswick, streamed in the Loyalists and + their families, to begin their sad experience of exile in + the wilderness. By their coming, Western Canada--chiefly on + the banks of the St. Lawrence, on the Bay of Quinte, in the + Niagara district, and round the shores of Lake + Ontario--received that contribution of brawn and muscle so + essential to the carving out of a new province and the + founding of a strong and enduring community. + + +It was during Governor Haldimand's administration that one of the most +important events in the history of Canada occurred as a result of the +American War of Independence. This event was the coming to the Provinces +of many thousand people, known as United Empire Loyalists, who, during +the progress of the war, but chiefly at its close, left their old homes +in the thirteen colonies. When the Treaty of 1783 was under +consideration, the British representatives made an effort to obtain some +practical consideration from the new nation for the claims of this +unfortunate people who had been subject to so much loss and obloquy +during the war. All that the English envoys could obtain was the +insertion of a clause in the treaty to the effect that Congress would +recommend to the legislatures of the several States measures of +restitution--a provision which turned out, as Franklin intimated at the +time, a perfect nullity. The English Government subsequently indemnified +these people in a measure for their self-sacrifice, and among other +things gave a large number of them valuable tracts of land in the +Provinces of British North America. Many of them settled in Nova Scotia, +others founded New Brunswick and Upper Canada, now Ontario. Their +influence on the political fortunes of Canada has been necessarily very +considerable. For years they and their children were animated by a +feeling of bitter animosity against the United States, the effects of +which could be traced in later times when questions of difference arose +between England and her former colonies. They have proved with the +French Canadians a barrier to the growth of any annexation party, and as +powerful an influence in national and social life as the Puritan element +itself in the Eastern and Western States. + +Among the sad stories of the past the one which tells of the exile of +the Loyalists from their homes, of their trials and struggles in the +valley of the St. Lawrence, then a wilderness, demands our deepest +sympathy. In the history of this continent it can be only compared with +the melancholy chapter which relates the removal of the French +population from their beloved Acadia. During the Revolution they +comprised a very large, intelligent, and important body of people, in +all the old colonies, especially in New York and at the South, where +they were in the majority until the peace. They were generally known as +Tories, while their opponents, who supported independence, were called +Whigs. Neighbor was arrayed against neighbor, families were divided, the +greatest cruelties were inflicted, as the war went on, upon men and +women who believed it was their duty to be faithful to king and +country. + +As soon as the contest was ended, their property was confiscated in +several States. Many persons were banished and prohibited from returning +to their homes. An American writer, Sabine, tells us that previous to +the evacuation of New York, in September, 1783, "upward of twelve +thousand men, women, and children embarked at the city, at Long and +Staten islands, for Nova Scotia and the Bahamas." Very wrong impressions +were held in those days of the climate and resources of the Provinces to +which these people fled. Time was to prove that the lot of many of the +Loyalists had actually fallen in pleasant places, in Nova Scotia, New +Brunswick, and Upper Canada; that the country where most of them settled +was superior in many respects to the New England States, and equal to +the State of New York, from which so many of them came. + +It is estimated that between forty and fifty thousand people reached +British North America by 1786. They commenced to leave their old homes +soon after the breaking out of the war, but the great migration took +place in 1783-1784. Many sought the shores of Nova Scotia, and founded +the town of Shelburne, which at one time held a population of ten or +twelve thousand souls, the majority of whom were entirely unsuited to +the conditions of the rough country around them and soon sought homes +elsewhere. Not a few settled in more favorable parts of Nova Scotia, and +even in Cape Breton. Considerable numbers found rest in the beautiful +valley of the St. John River, and founded the Province of New Brunswick. +As many more laid the beginnings of Upper Canada, in the present county +of Glengarry, in the neighborhood of Kingston and the Bay of Quinte, on +the Niagara River, and near the French settlements on the Detroit. A few +also settled in the country now known as the Eastern Townships of French +Canada. A great proportion of the men were officers and soldiers of the +regiments which were formed in several colonies out of the large loyal +population. + +Among them were also men who had occupied positions of influence and +responsibility in their respective communities, divines, judges, +officials, and landed proprietors, whose names were among the best in +the old colonies, as they are certainly in Canada. Many among them gave +up valuable estates which had been acquired by the energy of their +ancestors. Unlike the Puritans who founded New England, they did not +take away with them their valuable property in the shape of money and +securities or household goods. A rude log hut by the side of a river or +lake, where poverty and wretchedness were their lot for months, and even +years in some cases, was the refuge of thousands, all of whom had +enjoyed every comfort in well-built houses, and not a few even luxury in +stately mansions, some of which have withstood the ravages of time and +can still be pointed out in New England. Many of the Loyalists were +quite unfitted for the rude experiences of a pioneer life, and years +passed before they and their children conquered the wilderness and made +a livelihood. The British Government was extremely liberal in its grants +of lands to this class of persons in all the Provinces. + +The Government supplied these pioneers in the majority of cases with +food, clothing, and necessary farming implements. For some years they +suffered many privations; one was called "the year of famine," when +hundreds in Upper Canada had to live on roots and even the buds of trees +or anything that might sustain life. Fortunately some lived in favored +localities, where pigeons and other birds, and fish of all kinds, were +plentiful. In the summer and fall there were quantities of wild fruit +and nuts. Maple sugar was a great luxury, when the people once learned +to make it from the noble tree, whose symmetrical leaf may well be made +the Canadian national emblem. It took the people a long while to +accustom themselves to the conditions of their primitive pioneer life, +but now the results of the labors of these early settlers and their +descendants can be seen far and wide in smiling fields, richly laden +orchards, and gardens of old-fashioned flowers throughout the country +which they first made to blossom like the rose. The rivers and lakes +were the only means of communication in those early times, roads were +unknown, and the wayfarer could find his way through the illimitable +forests only by the help of the "blazed" trees and the course of +streams. Social intercourse was infrequent except in autumn and winter, +when the young managed to assemble as they always will. Love and +courtship went on even in this wilderness, though marriage was +uncertain, as the visits of clergymen were very rare in many places, and +magistrates could alone tie the nuptial knot--a very unsatisfactory +performance to the cooler lovers who loved their church, its ceremonies +and traditions, as dearly as they loved their sovereign. + +The story of those days of trial has not yet been adequately written; +perhaps it never will be, for few of those pioneers have left records +behind them. As we wander among the old burying-grounds of those +founders of Western Canada and New Brunswick, and stand by the gray, +moss-covered tablets, with names effaced by the ravages of years, the +thought will come to us, what interesting stories could be told by those +who are laid beneath the sod, of sorrows and struggles, of hearts sick +with hope deferred, of expectations never realized, of memories of +misfortune and disaster in another land where they bore so much for a +stubborn and unwise king. Yet these grass-covered mounds are not simply +memorials of suffering and privation; each could tell a story of +fidelity to principle, of forgetfulness of self-interest, of devotion +and self-sacrifice--the grandest story that human annals can tell--a +story that should be ever held up to the admiration and emulation of the +young men and women of the present times, who enjoy the fruits of the +labors of those loyal pioneers. + +Although no noble monument has yet been raised to the memory of these +founders of new provinces--of English-speaking Canada; although the +majority lie forgotten in old grave-yards where the grass has grown +rank, and common flowers alone nod over their resting-places, yet the +names of all are written in imperishable letters in Provincial annals. +Those Loyalists, including the children of both sexes, who joined the +cause of Great Britain before the Treaty of Peace in 1783, were allowed +the distinction of having after their name the letters U. E. to preserve +the memory of their fidelity to a United Empire. A Canadian of these +modern days, who traces his descent from such a source, is as proud of +his lineage as if he were a Derby or a Talbot of Malahide, or inheritor +of other noble names famous in the annals of the English peerage. + +The records of all the provinces show the great influence exercised on +their material, political, and intellectual development by this devoted +body of immigrants. For more than a century they and their descendants +have been distinguished for the useful and important part they have +taken in every matter deeply associated with the best interests of the +country. In New Brunswick we find among those who did good service in +their day and generation the names of Wilmot, Allen, Robinson, Jarvis, +Hazen, Burpee, Chandler, Tilley, Fisher, Bliss, Odell, Botsford; in Nova +Scotia, Inglis (the first Anglican bishop in the colonies), Wentworth, +Brenton, Blowers (Chief Justice), Cunard, Cutler, Howe, Creighton, +Chipman, Marshall, Halliburton, Wilkins, Huntingdon, Jones; in Ontario, +Cartwright, Robinson, Hagerman, Stuart (the first Anglican clergyman), +Gamble, Van Alstine, Fisher, Grass, Butler, Macaulay, Wallbridge, +Chrysler, Bethune, Merritt, McNab, Crawford, Kirby, Tisdale, and +Ryerson. Among these names stand out prominently those of Wilmot, Howe, +and Huntingdon, who were among the fathers of responsible government; +those of Tilley, Tupper, Chandler, and Fisher, who were among the +fathers of confederation; of Ryerson, who exercised a most important +influence on the system of free education which Ontario now enjoys. +Among the eminent descendants of U. E. Loyalists are Sir Charles Tupper, +long a prominent figure in politics; Christopher Robinson, a +distinguished lawyer, who was counsel for Canada at the Bering Sea +arbitration; Sir Richard Cartwright, a liberal leader remarkable for his +keen, incisive style of debate, and his knowledge of financial +questions; Honorable George E. Foster, a former finance minister of +Canada. We might extend the list indefinitely did space permit. In all +walks of life we see the descendants of the Loyalists, exercising a +decided influence over the fortunes of the Dominion. + +Conspicuous among the people who remained faithful to England during the +American Revolution was the famous Iroquois chief Joseph Brant, best +known by his Mohawk name of Thayendanegea, who took part in the war, and +was for many years wrongly accused of having participated in the +massacre and destruction of Wyoming, that beauteous vale of the +Susquehanna. It was he whom the poet Campbell would have consigned to +eternal infamy in the verse + + "The mammoth comes--the foe, the monster, Brandt-- + With all his howling, desolating band; + These eyes have seen their blade and burning pine + Awake at once, and silence half your land. + Red is the cup they drink, but not with wine-- + Awake and watch to-night, or see no morning shine." + +Posterity has, however, recognized the fact that Joseph Brant was not +present at this sad episode of the American War, and the poet in a note +to a later edition admitted that the Indian chief in his poem was "a +pure and declared character of fiction." He was a sincere friend of +English interests, a man of large and statesmanlike views, who might +have taken an important part in colonial affairs had he been educated in +these later times. When the war was ended, he and his tribe moved into +the valley of the St. Lawrence, and received from the Government fine +reserves of land on the Bay of Quinte, and on the Grand River in the +western part of the Province of Upper Canada, where the prosperous city +and county of Brantford and the township of Tyendinaga--a corruption of +Thayendanegea--illustrate the fame he has won in Canadian annals. The +descendants of his nation live in comfortable homes, till fine farms in +a beautiful section of Western Canada, and enjoy all the franchises of +white men. It is an interesting fact that the first church built in +Ontario was that of the Mohawks, who still preserve the communion +service presented to the tribe in 1710 by Queen Anne of England. + +General Haldimand's administration will always be noted in Canadian +history for the coming of the Loyalists, and for the sympathetic +interest he took in settling these people on the lands of Canada, and in +alleviating their difficulties by all the means in the power of his +government. In these and other matters of Canadian interest he proved +conclusively that he was not the mere military martinet that some +Canadian writers with inadequate information would make him. When he +left Canada he was succeeded by Sir Guy Carleton, then elevated to the +peerage as Lord Dorchester. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[30] From _The Story of Canada_ (New York, 1896: G. P. Putnam's Sons), +by permission. + + + + +FIRST BALLOON ASCENSION + +A.D. 1783 + +HATTON TURNOR + + Few problems of invention have ever engaged more students + and experimenters than those which bear upon aerial + navigation. The history of early experiments in this + direction has a peculiar interest at present, in view of the + numerous recent trials by aeronauts in different countries. + + At the time of the first balloon ascension, described by + Turnor, interest in the possibilities of aerostatics was + very active and widespread, especially among the scientific + mechanicians of Europe. Many experiments with "aerostatical + globes" and the like had been made in Great Britain and on + the Continent. Leonhard Euler, to whom Turnor refers, was a + famous Swiss mathematician who had given much study to these + things. He was in Russia, and about to die, when in France + the first aerostat, or balloon, was sent up by the + inventors, the brothers Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier, + French mechanicians, who were made corresponding members of + the Academy. This form of air-balloon--the first successful + one--is known as the "Montgolfier." + + +A shout of joy rang through Europe, and reached the ear of the aged +Euler, on the banks of the Neva, who, between attacks of vertigo, which +were soon to carry him from this scene to a better, dictated to his sons +the calculations he had made on aerostatical globes. It is said he +ceased to calculate and live at the same instant. + +The cause of so great enthusiasm had better be given in the accurate +description that immediately circulated among the peoples: + +"On Thursday, June 5, 1783, the States of Vivarais being assembled at +Annonay (37 miles from Lyons), Messrs. Montgolfier invited them to see +their new aerostatic experiment. + +"Imagine the surprise of the Deputies and spectators on seeing in the +public square a ball, 110 feet in circumference, attached at its base to +a wooden frame of 16 feet surface. This enormous bag, with frame, +weighed 300 lbs., and could contain 22,000 feet of vapor. + +"Imagine the general astonishment when the inventors announced that, as +soon as it should be filled with gas--which they had a simple means of +making--it would rise of itself to the clouds. One must here remark +that, notwithstanding the general confidence in the knowledge and wisdom +of Messrs. Montgolfier, such an experiment appeared so incredible to +those who were present, that all doubted of its success. + +"But Messrs. Montgolfier, taking it in hand, proceed to make the vapors, +which gradually swell it out till it assumes a beautiful form. + +"Strong arms are now required to retain it; at a given signal it is +loosed, rises with rapidity, and in ten minutes attains a height of 6000 +feet; it proceeds 7668 feet in a horizontal direction, and gently falls +to the ground. + + "Just as the Omnipotent, who turns + The system of a world's concerns, + From mere minutiae can educe + Events of the most important use; + But who can tell how vast the plan, + Which this day's incident began?" + +The effect of this letter in England was to cause a display of jealousy +at which we might now blush, if we do not remember that the sagacious +and convincing views of Adam Smith on political economy had only just +been published and had not yet had time to circulate; for, though we +were obliged to admit a discovery had been made in France, yet the +periodicals argued that all the experiments that had led to it were made +in England. Many were the caricatures which appeared. + +In a discourse at the Academy of Lyons, Jacques Montgolfier says that a +French copy of Priestley's _Experiments relating to the Different Kinds +of Air_ came in his way, and was to him like light in darkness; as from +that moment he conceived the possibility of navigating the air, but, +after some experiments in gas, he again tried smoke and hot air. + +In Paris this intelligence caused a meeting of savants, who, by the +advice of M. Faujas de Saint-Fond, started a public subscription for +defraying the expense of making inflammable gas (hydrogen), the +materials of which were expensive: one thousand pounds of iron filings +and four hundred ninety-eight pounds of sulphuric acid were consumed to +fill a globular bag of varnished silk, which, for the first time, was +designated a ballon, or balloon, as we call it, meaning a great ball. + +The filling commenced on August 23d, in the Place des Victoires. +Bulletins were published daily of its progress, but, as the crowd was +found to be immense, it was moved on the night of the 26th to the +Champ-de-Mars, a distance of two miles. It was done secretly and in the +dark, to avoid a mob. + +A description by an eye-witness is as follows: "No more wonderful scene +could be imagined than the balloon being thus conveyed, preceded by +lighted torches, surrounded by a _cortege_, and escorted by a +detachment of foot and horse-guards; the nocturnal march, the form and +capacity of the body carried with so much precaution; the silence that +reigned, the unseasonable hour, all tended to give a singularity and +mystery truly imposing to all those who were unacquainted with the +cause. The cab-drivers on the road were so astonished that they were +impelled to stop their carriages, and to kneel humbly, hat in hand, +while the procession was passing." + +In the morning the Champ-de-Mars was lined with troops, every house to +its very top, and every avenue, was crowded with anxious spectators. The +discharge of a cannon at 5 P.M. was the signal for ascent, and the globe +rose, to the great surprise of the spectators, to a height of three +thousand one hundred twenty-three feet in two minutes, where it entered +the clouds. The heavy rain which descended as it rose did not impede, +and tended to increase, surprise. The idea that a body leaving the earth +was travelling in space was so sublime, and appeared to differ so +greatly from ordinary laws, that all the spectators were overwhelmed +with enthusiasm. The satisfaction was so great that ladies in the +greatest fashions allowed themselves to be drenched with rain, to avoid +losing sight of the globe for an instant. + +The balloon, after remaining in the atmosphere three-quarters of an +hour, fell in a field near Gonesse, a village fifteen miles from the +Champ-de-Mars. The descent was imputed to a tear in the silk. + +The effect on the inhabitants of this village well illustrates that the +human character with an unawakened intellect is the same in all +countries and ages: + +"For on first sight it is supposed by many to have come from another +world; many fly; others, more sensible, think it a monstrous bird. After +it has alighted, there is yet motion in it from the gas it still +contains. A small crowd gains courage from numbers, and for an hour +approaches by gradual steps, hoping meanwhile the monster will take +flight. At length one bolder than the rest takes his gun, stalks +carefully to within shot, fires, witnesses the monster shrink, gives a +shout of triumph, and the crowd rushes in with flails and pitchforks. +One tears what he thinks to be the skin, and causes a poisonous stench; +again all retire. Shame, no doubt, now urges them on, and they tie the +cause of alarm to a horse's tail, who gallops across the country, +tearing it to shreds." + +A similar tale has lately been told me as having occurred in Persia, +where a fire-balloon was let off by some French visitors to the Shah's +palace at Teheran, when it alighted. No less than three shots were fired +at it when on the ground, before anyone would venture nearer. + +It is no wonder, then, that the paternal government of France deemed it +necessary to publish the following "_avertissement_" to the public: + + +"INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE ON THE ASCENT OF BALLOONS, OR GLOBES, IN THE +AIR + + + "PARIS, August 27, 1783. + + "The one in question has been raised in Paris this said day, + August 27, 1783, at 5 P.M., in the Champ-de-Mars. + + "A discovery has been made, which the Government deems it + right to make known, so that alarm be not occasioned to the + people. + + "On calculating the different weights of inflammable and + common air, it has been found that a balloon filled with + inflammable air will rise toward heaven till it is in + equilibrium with the surrounding air; which may not happen + till it has attained a great height. + + "The first experiment was made at Annonay, in Vivarais, by + Messrs. Montgolfier, the inventors. A globe formed of canvas + and paper, 105 feet in circumference, filled with + inflammable air, reached an incalculated height. + + "The same experiment has just been renewed at Paris (August + 27th, 5 P.M.), in presence of a great crowd. A globe of + taffeta, covered with elastic gum, thirty-six feet in + circumference, has risen from the Champ-de-Mars, and been + lost to view in the clouds, being borne in a northeasterly + direction; one cannot foresee where it will descend. + + "It is proposed to repeat these experiments on a larger + scale. Any one who shall see in the sky such a globe (which + resembles the moon in shadow) should be aware that, far from + being an alarming phenomenon, it is only a machine, made of + taffeta or light canvas, covered with paper, that cannot + possibly cause any harm, and which will some day prove + serviceable to the wants of society. + + "Read and approved, September 3, 1783. + "DE SAUVIGNY. + "Permission for printing. LENOIR." + + + +Balloons made of paper and goldbeater's-skin were now sent up by +amateurs from all places which this intelligence reached; and in +September another important step was made, an account of which, and of +the ascents which followed during the next two years, I take from the +quaint but graphic _History of Aerostation_, by Tiberius Cavallo. + +Tiberius Cavallo was an electrician and natural philosopher, born at +Naples, 1749. He came to England in 1771, where he devoted his time to +science and literature till his death, in 1809. + +On September 19, 1783, the King, Queen,[31] the court, and innumerable +people of every rank and age assembled at Versailles, Jacques +Montgolfier being present to explain every particular. About one o'clock +the fire was lighted, in consequence of which the machine began to +swell, acquired a convex form, soon stretched itself on every side, and +in eleven minutes' time, the cords being cut, it ascended, together with +a wicker cage, which was fastened to it by a rope. In this cage they had +put a sheep, a cock, and a duck, which were the first animals that ever +ascended into the atmosphere with an aerostatic machine. When the +machine went up, its power of ascension or levity was six hundred +ninety-six pounds, allowing for the cage and animals. + +The machine raised itself to the height of about one thousand four +hundred forty feet; and being carried by the wind, it fell gradually in +the wood of Vaucresson, at the distance of ten thousand two hundred feet +from Versailles, after remaining in the atmosphere only eight minutes. +Two game-keepers, who were accidentally in the wood, saw the machine +fall very gently, so that it just bent the branches of the trees upon +which it alighted. The long rope to which the cage was fastened, +striking against the wood, was broken, and the cage came to the ground +without hurting in the least the animals that were in it, so that the +sheep was even found feeding. The cock, indeed, had its right wing +somewhat hurt; but this was the consequence of a kick it had received +from the sheep, at least half an hour before, in presence of at least +ten witnesses. + +It has been sufficiently demonstrated by experiments that little or no +danger is to be apprehended by a man who ascends with such an aerostatic +machine. The steadiness of the aerostat while in the air, its gradual +and gentle descent, the safety of the animals that were sent up with it +in the last-mentioned experiment, and every other observation that could +be deduced from all the experiments hitherto made in this new field of +inquiry seem more than sufficient to expel any fear for such an +enterprise; but as no man had yet ventured in it, and as most of the +attempts at flying, or of ascending into the atmosphere, on the most +plausible schemes, had from time immemorial destroyed the reputation or +the lives of the adventurers, we may easily imagine and forgive the +hesitation that men might express, of going up with one of those +machines: and history will probably record, to the remotest posterity, +the name of M. Pilatre de Rozier, who had the courage of first venturing +to ascend with a machine, which in a few years hence the most timid +woman will perhaps not hesitate to trust herself to. + +The King, aware of the difficulties, ordered that two men under sentence +of death should be sent up; but Pilatre de Rozier was indignant, saying, +"_Eh quoi! de vils criminels auraient les premiers la gloire de s'elever +dans les airs! Non, non cela ne sera point!_" ("What! Vile criminals to +have the glory of the first aerial ascension! No, not on any account!") +He stirs up the city in his behalf, and the King at length yields to the +earnest entreaties of the Marquis d'Arlandes, who said that he would +accompany him. + +Scarce ten months had elapsed since M. Montgolfier made his first +aerostatic experiment, when M. Pilatre de Rozier publicly offered +himself to be the first adventurer in the newly invented aerial machine. +His offer was accepted; his courage remained undaunted; and on October +15, 1783, he actually ascended, to the astonishment of a gazing +multitude. The following are the particulars of this experiment: + +"The accident which happened to the aerostatic machine at Versailles, +and its imperfect construction, induced M. Montgolfier to construct +another machine, of a larger size and more solid. With this intent, +sufficient time was allowed for the work to be properly done; and by +October 10th the aerostat was completed, in a garden in the Faubourg +St.-Antoine. It had an oval shape; its diameter being about forty-eight +feet, and its height about seventy-four. The outside was elegantly +painted and decorated with the signs of the zodiac, with the cipher of +the King's name in _fleurs-de-lis_, etc. The aperture or lower part of +the machine had a wicker gallery about three feet broad, with a +balustrade both within and without about three feet high. The inner +diameter of this gallery, and of the aperture of the machine, the neck +of which passed through it, was near sixteen feet. In the middle of this +aperture an iron grate or brazier was supported by chains which came +down from the sides of the machine. + +"In this construction, when the machine was in the air, with a fire +lighted in the grate, it was easy for a person who stood in the gallery, +and had fuel with him, to keep up the fire in the mouth of the machine, +by throwing the fuel on the grate through port-holes made in the neck of +the machine. By this means it was expected, as indeed it was found by +experience, that the machine might have been kept up as long as the +person in its gallery thought proper, or while he had fuel to supply the +fire with. The weight of this aerostat was upward of 16,000 pounds. + +"On Wednesday, October 15th, this memorable experiment was performed. +The fire being lighted, and the machine inflated, M. Pilatre de Rozier +placed himself in the gallery, and, after a few trials close to the +ground, he desired to ascend to a great height; the machine was +accordingly permitted to rise, and it ascended as high as the ropes, +which were purposely placed to detain it, would allow, which was about +eighty-four feet from the ground. There M. de Rozier kept the machine +afloat during four minutes twenty-five seconds, by throwing straw and +wool into the grate to keep up the fire; then the machine descended very +gently; but such was its tendency to ascend, that after touching the +ground, the moment M. de Rozier came out of the gallery, it rebounded +again to a considerable height. The intrepid adventurer, returning from +the sky, assured his friends, and the multitude that gazed on him with +admiration, with wonder, and with fear, that he had not experienced the +least inconvenience, either in going up, in remaining there, or in +descending; no giddiness, no incommoding motion, no shock whatever. He +received the compliments due to his courage and audacity, having shown +the world the accomplishment of that which had been for ages desired, +but attempted in vain. + +"On October 17th, M. Pilatre de Rozier repeated the experiment with +nearly the same success as he had two days before. The machine was +elevated to about the same height, being still detained by ropes; but +the wind being strong, it did not sustain itself so well, and +consequently did not afford so fine a spectacle to the concourse of +people, which at this time was much greater than at the preceding +experiment. + +"On the Sunday following, which was the 19th, the weather proving +favorable, M. Montgolfier employed his machine to make the following +experiments. At half past four o'clock the machine was filled, in five +minutes' time; then M. Pilatre de Rozier placed himself in the gallery, +a counterpoise of 100 pounds being put in the opposite side of it, to +preserve the balance. The size of the gallery had now been diminished. +The machine was permitted to ascend to the height of about 210 feet, +where it remained during six minutes, not having any fire in the grate; +and then it descended very gently. + +"Soon after, everything remaining as before, except that now a fire was +put into the grate, the machine was permitted to ascend to about 262 +feet, where it remained stationary during eight minutes and a half. On +pulling it down, a gust of wind carried it over some large trees in an +adjoining garden, where it would have been in great danger had not M. de +Rozier, with great presence of mind and address, increased the fire by +throwing some straw upon it; by which means the machine was extricated +from so dangerous a situation, and rose majestically to its former +situation, among the acclamations of the spectators. On descending, M. +de Rozier threw some straw upon the fire, which made the machine ascend +once more, remaining up for about the same length of time. + +"This experiment showed that the aerostat may be made to ascend and +descend at the pleasure of those who are in it; to effect which, they +have nothing more to do than to increase or diminish the fire in the +grate; which was an important point in the subject of aerostation. + +"After this, the machine was raised again with two persons in its +gallery, M. Pilatre de Rozier and M. Girond de Villette, the latter of +whom was therefore the second aerostatic adventurer. The machine +ascended to the height of about 300 feet, where it remained perfectly +steady for at least nine minutes, hovering over Paris, in sight of its +numerous inhabitants, many of whom could plainly distinguish, through +telescopes, the aerostatic adventurers, and especially M. de Rozier, who +was busy in managing the fire. When the machine came down, the Marquis +d'Arlandes, a major of infantry, took the place of M. Villette, and the +balloon was sent up once more. This last experiment was attended with +the same success as the preceding; which proved that the persons who +ascended with the machine did not suffer the least inconvenience, owing +to the gradual and gentle ascent and descent of the machine, and to its +steadiness or equilibrium while it remained in the air. + +"If we consider for a moment the sensation which these first aerial +adventurers must have felt in their exalted situation, we can almost +feel the contagion of their thrilling experience ourselves. Imagine a +man elevated to such a height, into immense space, by means altogether +new, viewing under his feet, like a map, a vast tract of country, with +one of the greatest existing cities--the streets and environs of which +were crowded with spectators--attentive to him alone, and all expressing +in every possible manner their amazement and anxiety. Reflect on the +prospect, the encomiums, and the consequences; then see if your mind +remains in a state of quiet indifference. + +"An instructive observation may be derived from these experiments; which +is, that when an aerostatic machine is attached to the earth by +ropes--especially when it is at a considerable height--the wind, blowing +on it, will drive it in its own horizontal direction; so that the cords +which hold the machine must make an angle with the horizon (which is +greater when the wind is stronger, and contrariwise); in consequence of +which the machine must be severely strained, it being acted on by three +forces in three different directions; namely, its power of ascension, +the tension of the ropes, which is opposite to the first, and the action +of the wind, which is across the other two. It is therefore infinitely +more judicious to abandon the machine entirely to the air, because it +will then stand perfectly balanced, and, therefore, under no strain +whatever." + +In consequence of the report of the foregoing experiments, signed by the +commissaries of the Academy of Sciences, that learned and respectable +body ordered: (1) That the said report should be printed and published; +and (2) that the annual prize of six hundred livres, from the fund +provided by an anonymous citizen, be given to Messrs. Montgolfier, for +the year 1783. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[31] Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. + + + + +FRAMING OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES + +A.D. 1787 + +ANDREW W. YOUNG JOSEPH STORY + + It was a "critical period of American history" in which the + fundamental or organic law of the United States, the Federal + Constitution, was formulated. That instrument has not only + commanded the reverence of American patriots--statesmen and + people--during a century and more; it has engaged the + attentive study and aroused the respect and admiration of + foreign students and critics of political institutions. + "After all deductions," says Bryce, it "ranks above every + other written constitution, for the intrinsic excellence of + its scheme, its adaptation to the circumstances of the + people, the simplicity, brevity, and precision of its + language, its judicious mixture of definiteness in principle + with elasticity in details." + + The story of this Constitution is as plain and simple as any + in American annals; yet its real features have sometimes + been missed even by friendly commentators. It is a mistake + to say, with Gladstone, that "it is the greatest work ever + struck off at any one time by the mind and purpose of man," + for the true record of its making shows how deliberate and + difficult the process was. Equally misleading is the + judgment of so profound a master in legal history as Sir + Henry Sumner Maine, when he says that the "Constitution of + the United States is a modified version of the British + Constitution which was in existence between 1760 and 1787." + + A juster view is held by the critical scholars of America, a + view which indeed should be deducible, without need of + special scholarship, from the recorded history of the + Constitutional period. "The real source of the + Constitution," says a living American historian, "is the + experience of Americans. They had established and developed + admirable little commonwealths in the colonies; since the + beginning of the Revolution they had had experience of State + governments organized on a different basis from the + colonial; and, finally, they had carried on two successive + national governments, with which they had been profoundly + discontented. The general outline of the new Constitution + seems to be English; it was really colonial." + + From the year 1775 there was a federal union in which each + colony regulated its internal affairs by its own + constitution, while the general affairs of the union were + controlled by the Continental Congress. This mode was + substantially continued after the colonies (1776-1779) + became States, with new State constitutions. It was not + finally superseded until the Articles of Confederation, + adopted by the Continental Congress in 1777, had been + ratified by all the separate colonies or States. Under the + articles a new government went into effect March 1, 1781. + + The Articles of Confederation proving inadequate to the + requirements of the Federal Government, it came to be seen + that a general revision of them was needed, and a convention + for that purpose was called. This convention went beyond its + original purpose, which proved impracticable, and took upon + itself the task of framing wholly anew the present + Constitution of the United States. The following accounts + furnish the reader with the circumstances which directly led + to the calling of the convention, and with a clear and + concise report of its proceedings and the subsequent action + thereon taken by the States. + + +ANDREW W. YOUNG + +The day appointed for the assembling of the Convention[32] to revise the +Articles of Confederation was May 14, 1787. Delegations from a majority +of the States did not attend until the 25th, on which day the business +of the convention commenced. The delegates from New Hampshire did not +arrive until July 23d. Rhode Island did not appoint delegates. + +A political body combining greater talents, wisdom, and patriotism, or +whose labors have produced results more beneficial to the cause of civil +and religious liberty, has probably never assembled. The two most +distinguished members were Washington and Franklin, to whom the eyes of +the convention were directed for a presiding officer. Washington, having +been nominated by Lewis Morris, of Pennsylvania, was elected president +of the convention. William Jackson was appointed secretary. The rules of +proceeding adopted by the convention were chiefly the same as those of +Congress. A quorum was to consist of the deputies of at least seven +States, and all questions were to be decided by the greater number of +those which were fully represented--at least two delegates being +necessary to constitute a full representation. Another rule was the +injunction of secrecy upon all their proceedings. + +The first important question determined by the convention was, whether +the confederation should be amended or a new government formed? The +delegates of some States had been instructed only to amend. And the +resolution of Congress sanctioning a call for a convention recommended +it "for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of +Confederation." A majority, however, considering the plan of +confederation radically defective, resolved to form "a national +government, consisting of a supreme judicial, legislative, and +executive." The objection to the new system on the ground of previous +instructions was deemed of little weight, as any plan that might be +agreed on would necessarily be submitted to the people of the States for +ratification. + +In conformity with this decision Edmund Randolph, of Virginia, on May +29th, offered fifteen resolutions, containing the outlines of a plan of +government for the consideration of the convention. These resolutions +proposed: That the voice of each State in the National Legislature +should be in proportion to its taxes or to its free population; that the +Legislature should consist of two branches, the members of the first to +be elected by the people of the States, those of the second to be chosen +by the members of the first, out of a proper number of persons nominated +by the State legislatures; and the National Legislature to be vested +with all the powers of "Congress under the Confederation," with the +additional power to legislate in all cases to which the separate States +were incompetent; to negative all State laws which should, in the +opinion of the National Legislature, be repugnant to the Articles of +Union or to any treaty subsisting under them; to call out the force of +the Union against any State refusing to fulfil its duty: + +That there should be a national executive, to be chosen by the National +Legislature, and to be ineligible a second time. The executive, with a +convenient number of the national judiciary, was to constitute a council +of revision, with a qualified negative upon all laws, State and +national: + +A national judiciary, the judges to hold their offices during good +behavior. + +In discussing this plan, called the "Virginia plan," the lines of party +were distinctly drawn. We have already had occasion to allude to the +jealousy, on the part of States, of the power of the General Government. +A majority of the peculiar friends of State rights in the convention +were from the small States. These States, apprehending danger from the +overwhelming power of a strong national government, as well as from the +combined power of the large States, represented in proportion to their +wealth and population, were unwilling to be deprived of their equal vote +in Congress. Not less strenuously did the friends of the national plan +insist on a proportional representation. This opposition of sentiment, +which divided the convention into parties, did not terminate with the +proceedings of that body, but has at times marked the politics of the +nation down to the present day. It is worthy of remark, however, that +the most jealous regard for State rights now prevails in States in which +the plan of a national government then found its ablest and most zealous +advocates. + +The plan suggested by Randolph's resolutions was the subject of +deliberation for about two weeks, when, having been in several respects +modified in committee, and reduced to form, it was reported to the +House. It contained the following provisions: + +A national legislature to consist of two branches, the first to be +elected by the people for three years; the second to be chosen by the +State legislatures for seven years, the members of both branches to be +apportioned on the basis finally adopted; the Legislature to possess +powers nearly the same as those originally proposed by Edmund Randolph. +The executive was to consist of a single person to be chosen by the +National Legislature for seven years, and limited to a single term, and +to have a qualified veto; all bills not approved by him to be passed by +a vote of three-fourths of both Houses in order to become laws. A +national judiciary to consist of a supreme court, the judges to be +appointed by the second branch of the Legislature for the term of good +behavior, and of such inferior courts as Congress might think proper to +establish. + +This plan being highly objectionable to the State rights party, a scheme +agreeable to their views was submitted by William Paterson, of New +Jersey. This scheme, called the "New Jersey plan," proposed no +alteration in the constitution of the Legislature, but simply to give it +the additional power to raise a revenue by duties on foreign goods +imported, and by stamp and postage taxes; to regulate trade with foreign +nations and among the States; and, when requisitions made upon the +States were not complied with, to collect them by its own authority. +The plan proposed a federal executive, to consist of a number of persons +selected by Congress; and a federal judiciary, the judges to be +appointed by the executive, and to hold their offices during good +behavior. + +The Virginia and New Jersey plans were now (June 19th) referred to a new +committee of the whole. Another debate arose, in which the powers of the +convention was the principal subject of discussion. It was again urged +that their power had been, by express instruction, limited to an +amendment of the existing confederation, and that the new system would +not be adopted by the States. The vote was taken on the 19th, and the +propositions of William Paterson were rejected; only New York, New +Jersey, and Delaware voting in the affirmative; seven States in the +negative, and the members from Maryland equally divided. + +Randolph's propositions, as modified and reported by the committee of +the whole, were now taken up and considered separately. The division of +the Legislature into two branches, a House of Representatives and a +Senate, was agreed to almost unanimously, one State only, Pennsylvania, +dissenting; but the proposition to apportion the members to the States +according to population was violently opposed. The small States insisted +strenuously on retaining an equal vote in the Legislature, but at length +consented to a proportional representation in the House on condition +that they should have an equal vote in the Senate. + +Accordingly, on June 29th, Oliver Ellsworth, of Connecticut, offered a +motion, "that in the second branch, each State shall have an equal +vote." This motion gave rise to a protracted and vehement debate. It was +supported by Messrs. Ellsworth; Baldwin, of Georgia; Bradford, of +Delaware, and others. It was urged on the ground of the necessity of a +compromise between the friends of the confederation and those of a +national government, and as a measure which would secure tranquillity +and meet the objections of the larger States. Equal representation in +one branch would make the government partly federal, and a proportional +representation in the other would make it partly national. Equality in +the second branch would enable the small States to protect themselves +against the combined power of the large States. Fears were expressed +that without this advantage to the small States, it would be in the +power of a few large States to control the rest. The small States, it +was said, must possess this power of self-defence, or be ruined. + +The motion was opposed by Messrs. Madison, Wilson, of Pennsylvania; +King, of Massachusetts, and Dr. Franklin. Mr. Madison thought there was +no danger from the quarter from which it was apprehended. The great +source of danger to the General Government was the opposing interests of +the North and the South, as would appear from the votes of Congress, +which had been divided by geographical lines, not according to the size +of the States. James Wilson objected to State equality; that it would +enable one-fourth of the Union to control three-fourths. Respecting the +danger of the three larger States combining together to give rise to a +monarchy or an aristocracy, he thought it more probable that a rivalship +would exist between them than that they would unite in a confederacy. +Rufus King said the rights of Scotland were secure from all danger, +though in the Parliament she had a small representation. Dr. Franklin, +now in his eighty-second year, said, as it was not easy to see what the +greater States could gain by swallowing up the smaller, he did not +apprehend they would attempt it. In voting by States--the mode then +existing--it was equally in the power of the smaller States to swallow +up the greater. He thought the number of representatives ought to bear +some proportion to the number of the represented. + +On July 2d the question was taken on Mr. Ellsworth's motion, and lost: +Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland voting in the +affirmative; Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, and +South Carolina in the negative; Georgia divided. It will be remembered +that the delegates from New Hampshire were not yet present, and that +Rhode Island had appointed none. This has been regarded by some as a +fortunate circumstance, as the votes of these two small States would +probably have given an equal vote to the States in both Houses, if not +have defeated the plan of national government. + +The excitement now became intense, and the convention seemed to be on +the point of dissolution. Luther Martin, of Maryland, who had taken a +leading part in advocating the views of the State rights party, said +each State must have an equal vote, or the business of the convention +was at an end. It having become apparent that this unhappy result could +be avoided only by a compromise, Roger Sherman, of Connecticut, moved +the appointment of a committee of conference, to consist of one member +from each State, and the motion prevailed. The convention then adjourned +for three days, thus giving time for consultation, and an opportunity to +celebrate the anniversary of independence. + +The report of this committee, which was made on July 5th, proposed: (1) +That in the first branch of the Legislature each State should have one +representative for every forty thousand inhabitants (three-fifths of the +slaves being counted); that each State not containing that number should +be allowed one representative; and that money bills should originate in +this branch; (2) that in the second branch each State should have one +vote. These propositions were reported, it is said, at the suggestion of +Dr. Franklin, one of the committee of conference. + +The report, of course, met with greater favor from the State rights +party than from their opponents. The equal vote in the Senate continued +to receive the most determined opposition from the National party. In +relation to the rule of representation in the first branch of the +Legislature, also, a great diversity of opinion prevailed. The +conflicting interests to be reconciled in the settlement of this +question, however, were those of the Northern and Southern, commercial +and planting, rather than the imaginary interests of small and large +States. + +In settling a rule of apportionment, several questions were to be +considered: What should be the number of representatives in the first +branch of the Legislature? Ought the number from each State to be fixed, +or to increase with the increase of population? Ought population alone +to be the basis of apportionment, or should property be taken into +account? Whatever rule might be adopted, no apportionment founded upon +population could be made until an enumeration of the inhabitants should +have been taken. The number of representatives was, therefore, for the +time being, fixed at sixty-five, and apportioned as directed by the +Constitution. + +In establishing a rule of future apportionment, great diversity of +opinion was expressed. Although slavery then existed in all the States +except Massachusetts, the great mass of the slave population was in the +Southern States. These States claimed a representation according to +numbers, bond and free, while the Northern States were in favor of a +representation according to the number of free persons only. This rule +was forcibly urged by several of the Northern delegates. Mr. Paterson +regarded slaves only as property. They were not represented in the +States; why should they be in the General Government? They were not +allowed to vote; why should they be represented? It was an encouragement +of the slave trade. Said Mr. Wilson: "Are they admitted as citizens? +Then why not on an equality with citizens? Are they admitted as +property? Then why is not other property admitted into the computation?" +A large portion of the members of the convention, from both sections of +the Union, aware that neither extreme could be carried, favored the +proposition to count the whole number of free citizens and three-fifths +of all others. + +Prior to this discussion, a select committee, to whom this subject had +been referred, had reported in favor of a distribution of the members on +the basis of wealth and numbers, to be regulated by the Legislature. +Before the question was taken on this report, a proviso was moved and +agreed to that direct taxes should be in proportion to representation. +Subsequently a proposition was moved for reckoning three-fifths of the +slaves in estimating taxes, and making taxation the basis of +representation, which was adopted, New Jersey and Delaware against it, +Massachusetts and South Carolina divided; New York not represented, her +three delegates being all absent. Yates and Lansing, both of the State +rights party, considering their powers explicitly confined to a revision +of the confederation, and being chagrined at the defeat of their +attempts to secure an equal vote in the first branch of the Legislature, +had left the convention, not to return. From that time (July 11th) New +York had no vote in the convention. Alexander Hamilton had left before +the others, to be absent six weeks; and though he returned and took part +in the deliberations, the State, not having two delegates present, was +not entitled to a vote. On the 23d Gilman and Langdon, the delegates +from New Hampshire, arrived, when eleven States were again represented. + +The term of service of members of the first branch was reduced to two +years, and of those of the second branch to six years; one-third of the +members of the latter to go out of office every two years; the +representation in this body to consist of two members from each State, +voting individually, as in the other branch, and not by States, as under +the confederation. Sundry other modifications were made in the +provisions relating to this department. + +The reported plan of the executive department was next considered. After +much discussion, and several attempts to strike out the ineligibility of +the executive a second time, and to change the term of office and the +mode of election, these provisions were retained. + +The report of the committee of the whole, as amended, was accepted by +the convention, and, together with the New Jersey plan, and a third +drawn by Charles Pinckney, of South Carolina, was referred to a +committee of detail, consisting of Messrs. Rutledge, Randolph, Gorham, +Ellsworth, and Wilson, who, on August 6th, after an adjournment of ten +days, reported the Constitution in proper form, having inserted some new +provisions and altered certain others. Our prescribed limits forbid a +particular account of the subsequent alterations which the Constitution +received before it was finally adopted by the convention. There is one +provision, however, which, as it forms one of the great "Compromises of +the Constitution," deserves notice. + +To render the Constitution acceptable to the Southern States, which were +the principal exporting States, the committee of detail had inserted a +clause providing that no duties should be laid on exports, or on slaves +imported; and another, that no navigation act might be passed except by +a two-thirds vote. By depriving Congress of the power of giving any +preference to American over foreign shipping, it was designed to secure +cheap transportation to Southern exports. As the shipping was +principally owned in the Eastern States, their delegates were equally +anxious to prevent any restriction of the power of Congress to pass +navigation laws. All the States, except North Carolina, South Carolina, +and Georgia, had prohibited the importation of slaves; and North +Carolina had proceeded so far as to discourage the importation by heavy +duties. The prohibition of duties on the importation of slaves was +demanded by the delegates from South Carolina and Georgia, who declared +that, without a provision of this kind, the Constitution would not +receive the assent of these States. The support which the proposed +restriction received from other States was given to it from a +disposition to compromise, rather than from an approval of the measure +itself. The proposition not only gave rise to a discussion of its own +merits, but revived the opposition to the apportionment of +representatives according to the three-fifths ratio, and called forth +some severe denunciations of slavery. + +Rufus King, in reference to the admission of slaves as a part of the +representative population, remarked: "He had not made a strenuous +opposition to it heretofore because he had hoped that this concession +would have produced a readiness, which had not been manifested, to +strengthen the General Government. The report of the committee put an +end to all these hopes. The importation of slaves could not be +prohibited; exports could not be taxed. If slaves are to be imported, +shall not the exports produced by their labor supply a revenue to help +the government defend their masters? There was so much inequality and +unreasonableness in all this that the people of the Northern States +could never be reconciled to it. He had hoped that some accommodation +would have taken place on the subject; that at least a time would have +been limited for the importation of slaves. He could never agree to let +them be imported without limitation, and then be represented in the +National Legislature. Either slaves should not be represented, or +exports should be taxable." + +Gouverneur Morris pronounced slavery "a nefarious institution. It was +the curse of Heaven on the States where it prevailed. Compare the free +regions of the Middle States, where a rich and noble cultivation marks +the prosperity and happiness of the people, with the misery and poverty +which overspread the barren wastes of Virginia, Maryland, and the other +States having slaves. Travel through the whole continent, and you behold +the prospect continually varying with the appearance and disappearance +of slavery. The admission of slaves into the representation, when fairly +explained, comes to this, that the inhabitant of Georgia and South +Carolina, who goes to the coast of Africa in defiance of the most sacred +laws of humanity, tears away his fellow-creatures from their dearest +connections, and damns them to the most cruel bondage, shall have more +votes in a government instituted for the protection of the rights of +mankind, than the citizen of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, who views with +a laudable horror so nefarious a practice. + +"And what is the proposed compensation to the Northern States for a +sacrifice of every principle of right, every impulse of humanity? They +are to bind themselves to march their militia for the defence of the +Southern States, against those very slaves of whom they complain. The +Legislature will have indefinite power to tax them by excises and duties +on imports, both of which will fall heavier on them than on the Southern +inhabitants; for the Bohea tea used by a Northern freeman will pay more +tax than the whole consumption of the miserable slave, which consists of +nothing more than his physical subsistence and the rag which covers his +nakedness. On the other side, the Southern States are not to be +restrained from importing fresh supplies of wretched Africans, at once +to increase the danger of attack and the difficulty of defence; nay, +they are to be encouraged to it by an assurance of having their votes in +the National Government increased in proportion, and, at the same time, +are to have their slaves and their exports exempt from all contributions +to the public service." Gouverneur Morris moved to make the free +population alone the basis of representation. + +Roger Sherman, who had on other occasions manifested a disposition to +compromise, again favored the Southern side. He "did not regard the +admission of the negroes as liable to such insuperable objections. It +was the freemen of the Southern States who were to be represented +according to the taxes paid by them, and the negroes are only included +in the estimate of the taxes." + +After some further discussion the question was taken upon Morris' +motion, and lost, New Jersey only voting for it. + +With respect to prohibiting any restriction upon the importation of +slaves, Luther Martin, of Maryland, who moved to allow a tax upon slaves +imported, remarked: "As five slaves in the apportionment of +representatives were reckoned as equal to three freemen, such a +permission amounted to an encouragement of the slave trade. Slaves +weakened the Union which the other parts were bound to protect; the +privilege of importing them was therefore unreasonable. Such a feature +in the Constitution was inconsistent with the principles of the +Revolution, and dishonorable to the American character." + +John Rutledge "did not see how this section would encourage the +importation of slaves. He was not apprehensive of insurrections, and +would readily exempt the other States from every obligation to protect +the South. Religion and humanity had nothing to do with this question. +Interest alone is the governing principle with nations. The true +question at present is, whether the Southern States shall or shall not +be parties to the Union? If the Northern States consult their interest, +they will not oppose the increase of slaves, which will increase the +commodities of which they will become the carriers." + +Oliver Ellsworth said: "Let every State import what it pleases. The +morality or wisdom of slavery is a consideration belonging to the +States. What enriches a part enriches the whole, and the States are the +best judges of their particular interests." + +Charles Pinckney said: "South Carolina can never receive the plan if it +prohibits the slave trade. If the States be left at liberty on this +subject, South Carolina may, perhaps, by degrees, do of herself what is +wished, as Maryland and Virginia already have done." + +Roger Sherman concurred with his colleague Mr. Ellsworth. "He +disapproved of the slave trade; but as the States now possessed the +right, and the public good did not require it to be taken away, and as +it was expedient to have as few objections as possible to the proposed +scheme of government, he would leave the matter as he found it. The +abolition of slavery seemed to be going on, and the good sense of the +several States would probably, by degrees, soon complete it." + +George Mason said: "Slavery discourages arts and manufactures. The poor +despise labor when performed by slaves. They prevent the immigration of +whites, who really enrich and strengthen a country. They produce a +pernicious effect on manners. Every master of slaves is born a petty +tyrant. They bring the judgment of Heaven on a country. He lamented +that some of our Eastern brethren, from a lust of gain, had embarked in +this nefarious traffic. As to the States being in possession of the +right to import, that was the case of many other rights now to be given +up. He held it essential, in every point of view, that the General +Government should have power to prevent the increase of slavery." + +Ellsworth, not well pleased with this thrust at his slave-trading +friends at the North by a slaveholder, tartly replied: "As I have never +owned a slave, I cannot judge of the effects of slavery on character; +but if slavery is to be considered in a moral light, the convention +ought to go further, and free those already in the country." The +opposition of Virginia and Maryland to the importation of slaves he +attributed to the fact that, on account of their rapid increase in those +States, "it was cheaper to raise them there than to import them, while +in the sickly rice-swamps foreign supplies were necessary. If we stop +short with prohibiting their importation, we shall be unjust to South +Carolina and Georgia. Let us not intermeddle. As population increases, +poor laborers will be so plenty as to render slaves useless. Slavery, in +time, will not be a speck in our country." + +Delegates from South Carolina and Georgia repeated the declaration that +"if the slave trade were prohibited, these States would not adopt the +Constitution." "Virginia," it was said, "would gain by stopping the +importation, she having slaves to sell; but it would be unjust to South +Carolina and Georgia to be deprived of the right of importing. Besides, +the importation of slaves would be a benefit to the whole Union: The +more slaves, the more produce, the greater carrying trade, the more +consumption, the more revenue." + +The injustice of exempting slaves from duty, while every other import +was subject to it, having been urged by several members in the course of +the debate, Charles Pinckney expressed his consent to a tax not +exceeding the same on other imports, and moved to refer the subject to a +committee. The motion was seconded by John Rutledge, and, at the +suggestion of Gouverneur Morris, was so modified as to include the +clauses relating to navigation laws and taxes on exports. The commitment +was opposed by Messrs. Sherman and Ellsworth; the former on the ground +that taxes on slaves imported implied that they were property; the +latter from the fear of losing two States. Edmund Randolph was in favor +of the motion, hoping to find some middle ground upon which they could +unite. The motion prevailed, and the subject was referred to a committee +of one from each State. The committee retained the prohibition of duties +on exports; struck out the restriction on the enactment of navigation +laws; and left the importation of slaves unrestricted until the year +1800; permitting Congress, however, to impose a duty upon the +importation. + +The debate upon this report of the "grand committee" is condensed, by +Hildreth, into the two following paragraphs: + +"Williamson declared himself, both in opinion and practice, against +slavery; but he thought it more in favor of humanity, from a view of all +circumstances, to let in South Carolina and Georgia on these terms, than +to exclude them from the Union. Sherman again objected to the tax, as +acknowledging men to be property. Gorham replied that the duty ought to +be considered, not as implying that men are property, but as a +discouragement to their importation. Sherman said the duty was too small +to bear that character. Madison thought it 'wrong to admit, in the +Constitution, the idea that there could be property in man'; and the +phraseology of one clause was subsequently altered to avoid any such +implication. Gouverneur Morris objected that the clause gave Congress +power to tax freemen imported; to which George Mason replied that such a +power was necessary to prevent the importation of convicts. A motion to +extend the time from 1800 to 1808, made by Pinckney, and seconded by +Gorham, was carried against New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and +Virginia; Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire voting this time +with Georgia and South Carolina. That part of the report which struck +out the restriction on the enactment of navigation acts was opposed by +Charles Pinckney in a set speech, in which he enumerated five distinct +commercial interests: the fisheries and West India trade, belonging to +New England; the interest of New York in a free trade; wheat and flour, +the staples of New Jersey and Pennsylvania; tobacco, the staple of +Maryland and Virginia and partly of North Carolina; rice and indigo, the +staples of South Carolina and Georgia. The same ground was taken by +Williamson and Mason, and very warmly by Randolph, who declared that an +unlimited power in Congress to enact navigation laws would complete the +deformity of a system having already so many odious features that he +hardly knew if he could agree to it. Any restriction of the power of +Congress over commerce was warmly opposed by Gouverneur Morris, Wilson, +and Gorham. Madison also took the same side. Charles C. Pinckney did not +deny that it was the true interest of the South to have no regulation of +commerce; but considering the commercial losses of the Eastern States +during the Revolution, their liberal conduct toward the views of South +Carolina--in the vote just taken, giving eight years' further extension +to the slave trade--and the interest of the weak Southern States in +being united with the strong Eastern ones, he should go against any +restriction on the power of commercial regulation. 'He had himself +prejudices against the Eastern States before he came here, but would +acknowledge that he found them as liberal and candid as any men +whatever.' Butler and Rutledge took the same ground, and the same report +was adopted, against the votes of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, +and Georgia. + +"Thus, by an understanding, or, as Gouverneur Morris called it, 'a +bargain,' between the commercial representatives of the Northern States +and the delegates of South Carolina and Georgia, and in spite of the +opposition of Maryland and Virginia, the unrestricted power of Congress +to pass navigation laws was conceded to the Northern merchants; and to +the Carolina rice-planters, as an equivalent, twenty years' continuance +of the African slave trade. This was the third 'Great Compromise' of the +Constitution. The other two were the concessions to the smaller States +of an equal representation in the Senate, and, to the slaveholders, the +counting of three-fifths of the slaves in determining the ratio of +representation. If this third compromise differed from the other two by +involving not only a political but a moral sacrifice, there was this +partial compensation about it, that it was not permanent, like the +others, but expired at the end of twenty years by its own limitation." + +Of the important subjects remaining to be disposed of, that of the +executive department was, perhaps, the most difficult. The modified plan +of Edmund Randolph left the executive to be elected by the Legislature +for a single term of seven years. The election was subsequently given to +a college of electors, to be chosen in the States in such manner as the +legislatures of the States should direct. The term of service was +reduced from seven years to four years, and the restriction of the +office to a single term was removed. Numerous other amendments and +additions were made in going through with the draft. This amended draft +was referred, for final revision, to a committee consisting of Messrs. +Hamilton, Johnson, G. Morris, Madison, and King. Several amendments were +made even after this revision; one of which was the substitution of a +two-thirds for the three-fourths majority required to pass bills against +the veto of the President. Another was a proposition of Mr. Gorham, to +reduce the minimum ratio of representation from forty thousand, as it +stood, to thirty thousand, intended to conciliate certain members who +thought the House too small. This was offered the day on which the +Constitution was signed. General Washington having briefly addressed the +convention in favor of the proposed amendment, it was carried almost +unanimously. + +The whole number of delegates who attended the convention was +fifty-five, of whom thirty-nine signed the Constitution. Of the +remaining sixteen, some had left the convention before its close; others +refused to give it their sanction. Several of the absentees were known +to be in favor of the Constitution. + +Some, as has been observed, were opposed to the plan of a national +government, contending for the preservation of the confederation, with a +mere enlargement of its powers; others, though in favor of the plan +adopted, believed too much power had been given to the General +Government. Some thought that not only the powers of Congress, but those +of the executive, were too extensive; others that the executive was +"weak and contemptible," and without sufficient power to defend himself +against encroachments by the Legislature; others, still, that the +executive power of the nation ought not to be intrusted in a single +person. Although some deprecated the extensive powers of the Federal +Government as dangerous to the rights of the States, "ultra democracy" +seems to have had no representatives in the convention; while, on the +other hand, there were not a few who thought it unsafe to trust the +people with a direct exercise of power in the General Government. + +Sherman and Gerry were opposed to the election of the first branch of +the Legislature by the people; as were some of the Southern delegates. +Others, among whom were Madison, Mason, and Wilson, thought no +republican government could be permanent in which the people were denied +a direct voice in the election of their representatives. Hamilton, +though in favor of making the first branch elective, proposed that the +Senate should be chosen by the people, and the executive by electors, +_chosen by electors_, who were to be chosen by the people in districts; +Senators and the President both to hold their offices during good +behavior. He was also, as were a few others, in favor of an absolute +executive veto on acts of the Legislature. He, however, signed the +Constitution, and urged others to do the same, as the only means of +preventing anarchy and confusion. While the proposed Constitution was in +every particular satisfactory to none, very few were disposed to +jeopardize the Union by the continuance of a system which _all_ admitted +to be inadequate to the objects of the Union. To the hope, therefore, of +finding the new plan an improvement on the old, and of amending its +defects if any should appear, is to be attributed the general sanction +which it received. + +It is indeed remarkable that a plan of government, containing so many +provisions to which the most strenuous opposition was maintained to the +end, should have received the signatures of so large a majority of the +convention. Perhaps there never was another political body in which +views and interests more varied and opposite have been represented or a +greater diversity of opinion has prevailed. Nor is it less remarkable +that a system deemed so imperfect, not only by the mass of its framers, +but by a large portion of the eminent men who composed the State +conventions that ratified it, should have been found to answer so fully +the purpose of its formation as to require, during an experiment of more +than sixty years, no essential alteration; and that it should be +esteemed as a model form of republican government by the enlightened +friends of freedom in all countries. + +Not a single provision of the Constitution, as it came from the hands of +the framers, except that which prescribed the mode of electing a +President and Vice-President, has received the slightest amendment. Of +the twelve articles styled "amendments," the first eleven are merely +additions; some of which were intended to satisfy the scruples of those +who objected to the Constitution as incomplete without a bill of rights, +supposing their common-law rights would be rendered more secure by an +express guarantee; others are explanatory of certain provisions of the +Constitution which were considered liable to misconstruction. The +twelfth article is the amendment changing the mode of electing the +President and Vice-President. + +In the differences of opinion between the friends and opponents of the +Constitution originated the two great political parties into which the +people were divided during a period of about thirty years. It is +generally supposed that the term "Federalist" was first applied to those +who advocated the plan of the present Constitution. This opinion, +however, is not correct. Those members of the convention who were in +favor of the old plan of union, which was a simple confederation or +federal alliance of equal independent States, were called "Federalists," +and their opponents "Anti-Federalists." After the new Constitution had +been submitted to the people for ratification, its friends, regarding +its adoption as indispensable to union, took the name of "Federalists," +and bestowed upon the other party that of "Anti-Federalists," intimating +that to oppose the adoption of the Constitution was to oppose any union +of the States. + +The new Constitution bears the date September 17, 1787. It was +immediately transmitted to Congress, with a recommendation to that body +to submit it to State conventions for ratification, which was +accordingly done. It was adopted by Delaware, December 7th; by +Pennsylvania, December 12th; by New Jersey, December 18th; by Georgia, +January 2d, 1788; by Connecticut, January 9th; by Massachusetts, +February 7th; by Maryland, April 28th; by South Carolina, May 23d; by +New Hampshire, June 21st, which, being the _ninth_ ratifying State, gave +effect to the Constitution. Virginia ratified June 27th; New York, July +26th; and North Carolina, conditionally, August 7th. Rhode Island did +not call a convention. + +In Massachusetts, Virginia, and New York the new Constitution +encountered a most formidable opposition, which rendered its adoption +by these States for a time extremely doubtful. In their conventions were +men on both sides who had been members of the national convention, +associated with others of distinguished abilities. In Massachusetts +there were several adverse influences which would probably have defeated +the ratification in that State had it not been accompanied by certain +proposed amendments to be submitted by Congress to the several States +for ratification. The adoption of these by the convention gained for the +Constitution the support of Hancock and Samuel Adams; and the question +on ratification was carried by one hundred eighty-seven against one +hundred sixty-eight. + +In the Virginia convention the Constitution was opposed by Patrick +Henry, James Monroe, and George Mason, the last of whom had been one of +the delegates to the constitutional convention. On the other side were +John Marshall, Edmund Pendleton, James Madison, George Wythe, and Edmund +Randolph, the three last also having been members of the national +convention. Randolph had refused to sign the Constitution, but had since +become one of its warmest advocates. In the convention of this State, +also, the ratification was aided by the adoption of a bill of rights and +certain proposed amendments, and was carried, eighty-eight yeas against +eighty nays. + +In the convention of New York the opposition embraced a majority of its +members, among whom were Yates and Lansing, members of the general +convention, and George Clinton. The principal advocates of the +Constitution were John Jay, Robert R. Livingston, and Alexander +Hamilton. Strong efforts were made for a conditional ratification, which +were successfully opposed, though not without the previous adoption of a +bill of rights and numerous amendments. With these, the absolute +ratification was carried, thirty-one to twenty-nine. + +The ratification of North Carolina was not received by Congress until +January, 1790; and that of Rhode Island not until June of the same year. + +After the ratification of New Hampshire had been received by Congress, +the ratifications of the nine States were referred to a committee, who, +on July 14, 1788, reported a resolution for carrying the new government +into operation. The passage of the resolution, owing to the difficulty +of agreeing upon the place for the meeting of the first Congress, was +delayed until September 13th. The first Wednesday in January, 1789, was +appointed for choosing electors of President, and the first Wednesday in +February for the electors to meet in their respective States to vote for +President and Vice-President; and the first Wednesday, March 4th, as the +time, and New York as the place, to commence proceedings under the new +Constitution. + + +JOSEPH STORY + +Commissioners were appointed by the Legislatures of Virginia and +Maryland, early in 1785, to form a compact relative to the navigation of +the Potomac and Pocomoke rivers and Chesapeake Bay. The commissioners, +having met in March in that year, felt the want of more enlarged powers, +and particularly of powers to provide for a local naval force, and a +tariff of duties upon imports. Upon receiving their recommendation, the +Legislature of Virginia passed a resolution for laying the subject of a +tariff before all the States composing the Union. Soon afterward, in +January, 1786, the Legislature adopted another resolution, appointing +commissioners, "who were to meet such as might be appointed by the other +States in the Union, at a time and place to be agreed on, to take into +consideration the trade of the United States; to examine the relative +situation and trade of the States; to consider how far a uniform system +in their commercial relations may be necessary to their common interest +and their permanent harmony; and to report to the several States such an +act, relative to this great object, as, when unanimously ratified by +them, will enable the United States in Congress assembled to provide for +the same." + +These resolutions were communicated to the States, and a convention of +commissioners from five States only, viz., New York, New Jersey, +Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Virginia, met at Annapolis in September, +1786. After discussing the subject, they deemed more ample powers +necessary, and, as well from this consideration as because a small +number only of the States was represented, they agreed to come to no +decision, but to frame a report to be laid before the several States, as +well as before Congress. In this report they recommended the appointment +of commissioners from all the States, "to meet at Philadelphia, on the +second Monday of May next, to take into consideration the situation of +the United States; to devise such further provisions as shall appear to +them necessary to render the Constitution of the Federal Government +adequate to the exigencies of the Union; and to report such an act for +that purpose to the United States in Congress assembled as, when agreed +to by them, and afterward confirmed by the legislature of every State, +will effectually provide for the same." + +On receiving this report the Legislature of Virginia passed an act for +the appointment of delegates to meet such as might be appointed by other +States, at Philadelphia. The report was also received in Congress, but +no step was taken until the Legislature of New York instructed its +delegation in Congress to move a resolution recommending to the several +States to appoint deputies to meet in convention for the purpose of +revising and proposing amendments to the Federal Constitution. On +February 21, 1787, a resolution was accordingly moved and carried in +Congress recommending a convention to meet in Philadelphia, on the +second Monday of May ensuing, "For the purpose of revising the Articles +of Confederation, and reporting to Congress and the several +legislatures, such alterations and provisions therein as shall, when +agreed to in Congress and confirmed by the States, render the Federal +Constitution adequate to the exigencies of government and the +preservation of the Union." The alarming insurrection then existing in +Massachusetts, without doubt, had no small share in producing this +result. The report of Congress on that subject at once demonstrates +their fears and their political weakness. + +At the time and place appointed the representatives of twelve States +assembled. Rhode Island alone declined to appoint any on this momentous +occasion. After very protracted deliberations, the convention finally +adopted the plan of the present Constitution on September 17, 1787; and +by a contemporaneous resolution, directed it to be "laid before the +United States in Congress assembled," and declared their opinion "that +it should afterward be submitted to a convention of delegates chosen in +each State by the people thereof, under a recommendation of its +legislature for their assent and ratification"; and that each convention +assenting to and ratifying the same should give notice thereof to +Congress. The convention, by a further resolution, declared their +opinion that as soon as nine States had ratified the Constitution, +Congress should fix a day on which electors should be appointed by the +States which should have ratified the same, and a day on which the +electors should assemble and vote for the President, and the time and +place of commencing proceedings under the Constitution; and that after +such publication the electors should be appointed, and the Senators and +Representatives elected. The same resolution contained further +recommendations for the purpose of carrying the Constitution into +effect. + +The convention, at the same time, addressed a letter to Congress, +expounding their reasons for their acts, from which the following +extract cannot but be interesting: "It is obviously impracticable [says +the address] in the federal government of these States, to secure all +rights of independent sovereignty to each, and yet provide for the +interest and safety of all. Individuals entering into society must give +up a share of liberty to preserve the rest. The magnitude of the +sacrifice must depend as well on situation and circumstance as on the +object to be obtained. It is at all times difficult to draw with +precision the line between those rights which must be surrendered and +those which may be reserved; and on the present occasion this difficulty +was increased by a difference among the several States as to their +situation, extent, habits, and particular interests. In all our +deliberations on this subject we kept steadily in our view that, which +appears to us the greatest interest of every true American, the +consolidation of our Union, in which is involved our prosperity, +felicity, safety, perhaps our national existence. This important +consideration, seriously and deeply impressed on our minds, led each +State in the convention to be less rigid on points of inferior magnitude +than might have been otherwise expected. And thus the Constitution which +we now present is the result of the spirit of amity, and of that mutual +deference and concession, which the peculiarity of our political +situation rendered indispensable." + +Congress, having received the report of the convention on September 28, +1787, unanimously resolved "that the said report, with the resolutions +and letter accompanying the same, be transmitted to the several +legislatures in order to be submitted to a convention of delegates +chosen in each State by the people thereof in conformity to the +resolves of the convention, made and provided in that case." + +Conventions in the various States which had been represented in the +general convention were accordingly called by their respective +legislatures; and the Constitution having been ratified by eleven out of +the twelve States, Congress, on September 13, 1788, passed a resolution +appointing the first Wednesday in January following for the choice of +electors of President; the first Wednesday of February following for the +assembling of the electors to vote for a President; and the first +Wednesday of March following, at the then seat of Congress (New York) +the time and place for commencing proceedings under the Constitution. +Electors were accordingly appointed in the several States, who met and +gave their votes for a President; and the other elections for Senators +and Representatives having been duly made, on Wednesday, March 4, 1789, +Congress assembled under the new Constitution and commenced proceedings +under it. + +A quorum of both Houses, however, did not assemble until April 6th, +when, the votes for President being counted, it was found that George +Washington was unanimously elected President, and John Adams was elected +Vice-President. + +On April 30th President Washington was sworn into office, and the +government then went into full operation in all its departments. + +North Carolina had not, as yet, ratified the Constitution. The first +convention called in that State, in August, 1788, refused to ratify it +without some previous amendments and a declaration of rights. In a +second convention, however, called in November, 1789, this State adopted +the Constitution. The State of Rhode Island had declined to call a +convention; but finally, by a convention held in May, 1790, its assent +was obtained; and thus all the thirteen original States became parties +to the new government. + +Thus was achieved another and still more glorious triumph in the cause +of national liberty than even that which separated us from the +mother-country. By it we fondly trust that our republican institutions +will grow up, and be nurtured into more mature strength and vigor; our +independence be secured against foreign usurpation and aggression; our +domestic blessings be widely diffused, and generally felt; and our +nation, as a people, be perpetuated, as our own truest glory and +support, and as a proud example of a wise and beneficent government, +entitled to the respect, if not to the admiration, of mankind. + +Let it not, however, be supposed that a Constitution, which is now +looked upon with such general favor and affection by the people, had no +difficulties to encounter at its birth. The history of those times is +full of melancholy instruction on this subject, at once to admonish us +of past dangers, and to awaken us to a lively sense of the necessity of +future vigilance. The Constitution was adopted unanimously by Georgia, +New Jersey, and Delaware. It was supported by large majorities in +Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maryland, and South Carolina. It was carried +in the other States by small majorities; and especially in +Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia by little more than a +preponderating vote. Indeed, it is believed that in each of these +States, at the first assembling of the conventions, there was a decided +majority opposed to the Constitution. The ability of the debates, the +impending evils, and the absolute necessity of the case seem to have +reconciled some persons to the adoption of it, whose opinions had been +strenuously the other way. + +"In our endeavors," said Washington, "to establish a new general +government, the contest, nationally considered, seems not to have been +so much for glory as for existence. It was for a long time doubtful +whether we were to survive, as an independent republic, or decline from +our federal dignity into insignificant and withered fragments of +empire." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[32] Called the "Constitutional Convention."--ED. + + + + +INAUGURATION OF WASHINGTON + +HIS FAREWELL ADDRESS + +A.D. 1789-1797 + +JAMES K. PAULDING and GEORGE WASHINGTON + + In times when "logical candidates" for the Presidency of the + United States are periodically exploited by rival parties, + it is a salutary thing, which can never too often be + repeated, to look back to the first filling of the chief + magistracy of the country. + + No parallel is seen in history to the unanimity of + Washington's election, a call which his modest reluctance + could not refuse, for there was no other who could serve his + country's need. The tribute of a nation was again paid in + his unanimous reelection to a second term, which nothing + except his own will determined for the last. + + Familiar as is the fame of Washington and of his services to + his country and mankind, there is no name in the records of + the world which still commands a more universal veneration. + Nor is this sentiment diminished, among intelligent people, + now that his character and work have been divested of those + elements of myth or tradition which formerly enveloped them; + rather by the critical process of humanizing is his + reputation more endeared to his countrymen and more firmly + established in the eyes of the world. + + To enter here upon the innumerable details of Washington's + presidential labors is impossible; they belong to general + history. But among the great events of history the civil and + political acts of the man who was first in peace as well as + in war stand conspicuous, and in Paulding's narrative and + appreciation they are fittingly commemorated. + + +The convention which framed the United States Constitution met at +Philadelphia, and unanimously chose Washington its president. This +situation in some measure precluded him from speaking, if he had been so +inclined; but his influence was not the less in producing the results +which followed. It is highly probable that but for the exertions he made +in private, and the vast authority of his character and services, the +objects of the convention might not have been obtained. The great +talents of Madison, Hamilton, and Jay, exerted in that celebrated work +called _The Federalist_, and the influence of many of the leading men +of the different States, aided by the name of Washington, alone, +perhaps, secured to the country the great charter of its liberties. + +Under the new Constitution a chief magistrate became necessary to +administer the government. The eyes of the whole people of the United +States were at once directed to Washington, and their united voices +called upon him who had led their armies in war, to direct their affairs +in peace. His old companions came forth and besought him to leave his +retirement once more to serve his country. The leading men of all +parties wrote letters to the same purport, and on all hands he was +assailed by the warmest, most earnest applications. + +His replies are extant, and those who have ever seen them cannot for a +moment question the deep reluctance with which he undertook this new and +trying service. Both in its external and internal relations, the country +was at this time in a most critical state; and the man who accepted the +hard task of administering its government might rationally anticipate +little of the sweets and all the bitterness of power. He who already +possessed the hearts of the people; he who had already gained the most +lofty eminence, the noblest of all rewards, the hallowed title of his +country's father, and the gratitude of a nation, would risk everything +and gain nothing by embarking again on the troubled ocean of political +strife, in a vessel whose qualities for the voyage had never been tried. +But Washington thought he might be of service to his country, and once +more sacrificed his rural happiness and cherished tastes at that shrine +where he had often offered up his life and all its enjoyments. + +He was unanimously elected President of the United States on March 4, +1789, but owing to some formal or accidental delays this event was not +notified to him officially until April 14th following. Referring to this +delay he thus expresses himself in a letter to General Knox, who +possessed and deserved his friendship to the last moment of his life: + +"As to myself, the delay may be compared to a reprieve; for in +confidence I tell you (with the world it would obtain little credit) +that my movements toward the chair of government will be accompanied by +feelings not unlike those of a culprit going to the place of execution; +so unwilling am I, in the evening of a life consumed in public cares, +to quit my peaceful abode for an ocean of difficulties, without the +competency of political skill, abilities, and inclination which is +necessary to manage the helm. I am sensible that I am embarking with the +voice of the people, and a good name of my own, on this voyage, and what +returns will be made for them, Heaven alone can foretell. Integrity and +firmness are all I can promise. These, be the voyage long or short, +shall never forsake me, though I may be deserted by all men; for of the +consolations to be derived from these, the world cannot deprive me." + +Such was the foundation of his modest confidence--firmness and +integrity, the true pillars of honest greatness. And these never +deserted him. He kept his promise to himself in all times, +circumstances, and temptations; and though, on a few rare occasions +during the course of a stormy season, in which the hopes, fears, and +antipathies of his fellow-citizens were strongly excited, his conduct +may have been assailed, his motives were never questioned. None ever +doubted his firmness, and the general conviction of his integrity was +founded on a rock that could neither be undermined nor overthrown. + +His progress from Mount Vernon to New York, where Congress was then +sitting, was a succession of the most affecting scenes which the +sentiment of a grateful people ever presented to the contemplation of +the world. His appearance awakened in the bosoms of all an enthusiasm so +much the more glorious because so little characteristic of our +countrymen. Men, women, and children poured forth and lined the roads in +throngs to see him pass and hail his coming. The windows shone with +glistening eyes, watching his passing footsteps; the women wept for joy; +the children shouted, "God save Washington!" and the iron hearts of the +stout husbandmen yearned with inexpressible affection toward him who had +caused them to repose in safety under their own vine and fig-tree. His +old companions-in-arms came forth to renovate their honest pride, as +well as undying affection, by a sight of their general, and a shake of +his hand. The pulse of the nation beat high with exultation, for now, +when they saw their ancient pilot once more at the helm, they hoped for +a prosperous voyage and a quiet haven in the bosom of prosperity. + +His reception at Trenton was peculiarly touching. It was planned by +those females and their daughters whose patriotism and sufferings in the +cause of liberty were equal to those of their fathers, husbands, sons, +and brothers. It was here, when the hopes of the people lay prostrate on +the earth, and the eagle of freedom seemed to flap his wings, as if +preparing to forsake the world, that Washington performed those prompt +and daring acts which, while they revived the drooping spirits of his +country, freed, for a time, the matrons of Trenton from the insults and +wrongs of an arrogant soldiery. The female heart is no sanctuary for +ingratitude; and when Washington arrived at the bridge over the +Assumpink, which here flows close to the borders of the city, he met the +sweetest reward that, perhaps, ever crowned his virtues. + +Over the bridge was thrown an arch of evergreens and flowers bearing +this affecting inscription in large letters: + + "December 26, 1776. + + "The hero who defended the mothers will protect the daughters." + +At the other extremity of the bridge were assembled many hundreds of +young girls of various ages, arrayed in white, the emblem of truth and +innocence, their brows circled with garlands, and baskets of flowers in +their hands. Beyond these were disposed the grown-up daughters of the +land, clothed and equipped like the others, and behind them the matrons, +all of whom remembered the never-to-be-forgotten twenty-sixth of +December, 1776. As the good Washington left the bridge, they joined in a +chorus, touchingly expressive of his services and their gratitude, +strewing, at the same time, flowers as he passed along. That mouth whose +muscles of gigantic strength indicated the firmness of his character and +the force of his mind, was now observed to quiver with emotion; that eye +which looked storms and tempests, enemies and friends, undauntedly in +the face, and never quailed in the sight of man, now glistened with +tears; and that hand which had not trembled when often life, fame, and +the liberty of his country hung on the point of a single moment, now +refused its office. His hat dropped from his hand as he drew it across +his brow. + +His reception everywhere was worthy of his services and of a grateful +people. At New York the vessels were adorned with flags, and the river +alive with boats gayly decked out in like manner, with bands of music on +board; the place of his landing was thronged with crowds of citizens, +gathered together to welcome his arrival. The roar of cannon and the +shouts of the multitude announced his landing, and he was conducted to +his lodging by thousands of grateful hearts, who remembered what he had +done for them in the days of their trial. + +It had been arranged that a military escort should attend him; but when +the officer in command announced his commission, Washington replied, "I +require no guard but the affections of the people," and declined their +attendance. + +At this moment, so calculated to inflate the human heart with vanity, +Washington, though grateful for these spontaneous proofs of affectionate +veneration, was not elated. In describing the scene in one of his +familiar letters, he says: "The display of boats on this occasion with +vocal and instrumental music on board, the decorations of the ships, the +roar of cannon, and the loud acclamations of the people, as I passed +along the wharves, gave me as much pain as pleasure, contemplating the +probable reversal of this scene, after all my endeavors to do good." +Happily, his anticipations were never realized. Although his policy in +relation to the French Revolution, which was as wise as it was happy in +its consequences, did not give universal satisfaction, still he remained +master of the affections and confidence of the people. The laurels he +had won in defence of the liberties of his country continued to flourish +on his brow while living, and will grow green on his grave to the end of +time. + +On April 30, 1789, he took the oath and entered on the office of +President of the United States, one of the highest as well as most +thankless that could be undertaken by man. The head of this free +Government is no idle, empty pageant set up to challenge the admiration +and coerce the absolute submission of the people; his duties are arduous +and his responsibilities great; he is the first servant, not the master, +of the state, and is amenable for his conduct, like the humblest +citizen. As the executor of the laws, he is bound to see them obeyed; as +the first of our citizens, he is equally bound to set an example of +obedience. The oath, "to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution +of the United States," was administered in the balcony of the old +Federal Hall in New York, by the chancellor of the State, and the Bible +on which it was sworn is still preserved as a sacred relic. + +At the time Washington assumed the high functions of President of the +United States, there was ample room for the exertion of all his +firmness, integrity, and talents. A new constitution to be administered, +without the aid of experience or precedent, by an authority to which the +people were strangers; serious and alarming difficulties to be adjusted +with England; the Indian nations all along our frontier brandishing +their tomahawks and whetting their scalping-knives; war with +Mediterranean pirates; the Spaniards denying our right to navigate the +Mississippi, and the people of Kentucky threatening a separation from +the Union unless that right was successfully asserted by the Government. +Other difficulties stared the new President full in the face. Some of +the States still declined to accept the new Constitution, and become +members of the Confederation; others nearly equally divided on the +subject; and a debt of eighty million dollars; to meet all which there +was an army of less than a thousand men and an empty treasury. + +Here was enough, and more than enough, to call forth all the energies, +if not to produce despair in the mind, of an ordinary man. But +Washington was not such a man. Conscious of the purity of his purposes, +he relied on the protection of that Power which is all purity. His first +care was to provide for the civil and judicial administration of the +government, by the appointment of men in whose virtue and capacity a +long experience had given him confidence. Having done this he took the +reins with a firm, steady hand, and commenced the ascent of the rugged +steep before him. + +The next object that called his attention was the situation of the +inland frontier, now exposed to the inroads of the savages, who had not +been included in the general pacification, although a proposition to +that effect had been made by the British commissioners. Although our +Government has always treated with the Indians as independent tribes, it +has never placed them on the footing of civilized nations, or admitted +any mediation on the part of foreign powers. The United States do not +recognize them as parties in civilized warfare; they neither avail +themselves of their alliance nor acknowledge them as the auxiliaries of +other nations. + +A system was devised for the conduct of those singular relations which +alone can subsist between people so different in all respects, moral and +political. The wisdom of that system has been exemplified in having +uniformly been acted upon to this time, and though it may perhaps be +questioned as to its abstract principles, it would be perhaps difficult +if not impossible to devise a better. Our ancestors came to this country +under the sanction of a principle at that time universally acknowledged +among civilized nations, and when once here, the first law of nature, +self-defence, furnishes their only justification. While weak, they were +obliged to defend themselves, and when they became strong they were +probably too apt to remember their former sufferings. + +The policy of Washington, with regard to these unfortunate people, was +successful in quieting, if not conciliating many of the Indian tribes; +but others remained refractory and continued their atrocities. After +defeating two American armies with great slaughter, they were at length +brought to terms by the gallant Wayne, who gave them so severe a beating +in a great general action that they sued for peace. This was concluded +at Greenville; and the cession of a vast territory not only relieved the +frontier from savage inroads, but paved the way for the progress of +civilization into a new world of wilderness. + +He was equally successful at a subsequent period in his negotiations +with Spain. His high character for veracity and honor gave him singular +advantages in his foreign intercourse. He proceeded in a +straightforward, open manner, stated what was wanted, and what would be +given in return; relied on justice, and enforced its claims with the +arguments of truth. He disdained to purchase advantages by corruption, +or to deceive by insincerity. As in private, so in public life, he +proceeded inflexibly upon the noble maxim, whose truth is every day +verified, that "Honesty is the best policy." The conviction of a man's +integrity gives him far greater advantages in his intercourse with the +world than he can ever gain by hypocrisy and falsehood. The right of +navigating the Mississippi was finally conceded by Spain. + +The settlement of the controversies growing out of the treaty with +England proved even more difficult than those with Spain. The wounds +inflicted on both nations by a war of so many years were healed, but the +scars remained, to remind the one of what it had suffered, the other of +what it had lost. Time and mutual good offices were necessary to allay +that spirit which had been excited on one hand by injuries, on the other +by successful resistance; and time indeed had passed away, but it had +left behind it neither forgiveness nor oblivion. It was accompanied on +one hand by new provocations, on the other by additional remonstrances +and renewed indignation. Negotiations continued for a long while, +without any result but mortification and impatience on the part of the +people of the United States; and it was not until the French Revolution +threatened the existence of all the established governments of Europe, +and England among the rest, that a treaty was concluded, which brought +with it an adjustment of the principal points that had so long embroiled +the two nations and fostered a spirit of increasing hostility. The most +vexing question of all however--that of the right of entering our ships +and impressing seamen--was left unsettled, and it became obvious that it +would never be adjusted except on the principle of the right of the +strongest. About the same time peace was concluded between the United +States and the Emperor of Morocco, and thus, for a while, our commerce +remained unmolested on that famous sea where, some years afterward, our +gallant navy laid the foundation of its present and future glories. + +It is not my design to enter minutely into the principles or conduct of +the two great parties, which, from the period of the adoption of the +Constitution down to the present time, have been struggling for +ascendency in the Government of the United States. My limits will not +permit me, if I wished; but if they did, I should decline the task. My +youthful readers will know and feel their excitement soon enough, +perhaps too soon; and I wish not to become instrumental in implanting in +their tender minds the seeds of social and political antipathies. I am +attempting to picture a great and virtuous man; to exhibit a noble moral +example for the imitation of the children of my country. My business is +with the actions of Washington, not with the imputations of his enemies +or the struggles of ambitious politicians. Posterity has placed him far +above such puny trifles and triflers, and I will not assist, however +humbly, in reviving imputations which have long since sunk into +oblivion or insignificance under the weight of his mighty name. + +The French Revolution, which set the Old World in a blaze, but for the +wisdom and firmness of Washington would have involved the United States +in the labyrinth of European policy. He it was that prevented their +becoming parties in that series of tremendous wars which desolated some +of the fairest portions of the earth; caused the rivers to run red with +blood; overturned and erected thrones; converted kings into the +playthings of fortune; and ended in the creation of a mighty phantom, +which, after being the scourge and terror of the world, vanished from +our sight on a desolate rock of the ocean. + +The people of the United States had continued to cherish a strong +feeling of gratitude for the good offices of France during their +struggle for independence; and in addition to this, their sympathies +were deeply engaged in behalf of a contest so similar in many respects +to their own. The institution of the French Republic was hailed with an +enthusiasm equal to that they felt on the establishment of their own +liberties; and, but for the firm and steady hand of Washington, they +would have taken the bridle between their teeth and run headlong into +the vortex of European revolution. + +Washington issued his famous Proclamation of Neutrality, from which Mr. +Genet, the minister of the French Republic, threatened to appeal to the +people, a measure understood to mean nothing less than revolution. From +that moment the people began to rally around their beloved chief, like +children who will not allow their father to be insulted, although they +themselves may think him wrong. They sanctioned the proclamation, and +time has ratified their decision. It is believed there is not a rational +American who does not now feel that the course of Washington was founded +in consummate wisdom, deep feeling, and eternal justice. + +Having been twice unanimously elected to the highest office in the gift +of men; having served his country faithfully eight years in war and +eight in peace, having settled the government on a permanent basis, +established a series of precedents for the imitation of his successors, +and seeing the United States now resting happily in the lap of repose +and prosperity; having fulfilled all and more than they had a right to +ask of him, and consummated all his public duties, Washington now +signified his intention of declining a reelection. During the arduous +services of the preceding term, he had been obliged to retire for a +while to the repose of Mount Vernon for the reestablishment of his +health, and he now resolved to relieve himself finally from all the +duties and cares of public life. He had earned this privilege by a whole +life of arduous patriotism, and without doubt wished to close his public +career by one more act of moderation, as a guide to those who might come +after him. He believed eight years to be a sufficient term of service in +the office of President for any one single man, and determined to +establish the precedent by setting the example himself. + +Feeling on this occasion like a father about to take a final leave of +his children, and give them his parting blessing, Washington, at the +moment of announcing his intention of retiring from the world, addressed +to the people of the United States his last memorable words. These were +conveyed in a letter to his "friends and fellow-citizens," fraught with +lessons of virtue and patriotism, adorned by the most touching +simplicity, the most mature wisdom, the most affectionate and endearing +earnestness of paternal solicitude. He was now about to withdraw his +long and salutary guardianship from his young and vigorous country, his +only offspring, and he left her the noblest legacy in his power, the +priceless riches of his precepts and example. + +"In looking forward," he says, "to the moment which is intended to +terminate the career of my public life, my feelings do not permit me to +suspend the deep acknowledgment of that debt of gratitude which I owe to +my beloved country for the many honors it has conferred upon me, or +still more for the steadfast confidence with which it has supported me, +and for the opportunities thence enjoyed of manifesting my inviolable +attachment by services, useful and persevering, though in usefulness +unequal to my zeal. + +"Profoundly penetrated with this idea, I shall carry it with me to my +grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing vows, that Heaven may +continue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence; that your union +and brotherly affection may be perpetual; that the free constitution +which is the work of your hands may be sacredly maintained; that its +administration in every department may be stamped with wisdom and +virtue; that in fine, the happiness of these States, under the auspices +of liberty, may be made complete by so careful a preservation and so +prudent a use of this blessing as will acquire to them the glory of +recommending it to the applause, the affection, and the adoption of +every nation which is yet a stranger to it. + +"Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But solicitude for your welfare, which +cannot end but with my life, and the apprehension of danger natural to +such solicitude, urge me, on an occasion like the present, to offer to +your solemn contemplation, and to recommend to your frequent review, +some sentiments which are the result of much reflection, of no +inconsiderable observation, and which appear to me all-important to your +felicity as a people. These will be offered to you with the more +freedom, as you can only see in them the disinterested warnings of a +parting friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to bias his +counsel. + +"Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your +hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify the +attachment. + +"The unity of government, which constitutes you one people, is also now +dear to you. It is justly so; for it is the main pillar in the edifice +of your real independence, the support of your tranquillity at home and +your peace abroad; of your prosperity, of that liberty which you so +highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that from different causes +and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices +employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth--as this +is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of +internal and external enemies will be constantly and actively, though +often covertly and insidiously directed--it is of infinite moment that +you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to +your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a +cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it, accustoming +yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your +political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with +jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion +that it may be in any event abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon +every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or +to enfeeble the sacred ties that now link together the various parts." + +He then proceeds to caution his fellow-citizens against those +geographical distinctions of "North," "South," "East," and "West," +which, by fostering ideas of separate interests and character, are +calculated to weaken the bonds of our union, and to create prejudices, +if not antipathies, dangerous to its existence. He shows, by a simple +reference to the great paramount interests of each of the different +sections, that they are inseparably intertwined in one common bond; that +they are mutually dependent on each other; and that they cannot be rent +asunder without deeply wounding our prosperity at home, our character +and influence abroad, laying the foundation for perpetual broils among +ourselves, and creating a necessity for great standing armies, +themselves the most fatal enemies to the liberties of mankind. + +He earnestly recommends implicit obedience to the laws of the land, as +one of the great duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of liberty. +"The basis of our political system," he says, "is the right of the +people to make and alter their constitutions of government; but the +constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and +authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The +very idea of the power and right of the people to establish government +presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established +government." + +He denounces "all combinations and associations under whatever plausible +character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe +the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities," as +destructive to this fundamental principle and of fatal tendency. He +cautions his countrymen against the extreme excitements of party spirit; +the factious opposition and pernicious excesses to which they inevitably +tend, until by degrees they gradually incline the minds of men to seek +security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner +or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more +fortunate than his competitors, turns his disposition to the purposes of +his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty. + +He warns those who are to administer the government after him, "to +confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, +refraining, in the exercise of the powers of one department, to +encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate +the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever +the form of government, real despotism." + +He inculcates, with the most earnest eloquence, a regard to religion and +morality. + +"Of all the dispositions and habits," he says, "which lead to political +prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain +would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to +subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of +men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought +to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their +connections with private and public felicity. Let it be simply added, +where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the +sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments +of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge +the supposition that morality can be attained without religion. Whatever +may be conceded to a refined education, or minds of peculiar cast, +reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality +can prevail in the exclusion of religious principles." + +He recommends the general diffusion of knowledge among all classes of +the people. "Promote, then," he says, "as an object of primary +importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In +proportion as the structure of government gives force to public opinion, +it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened." + +He recommends the practice of justice and good faith, and the +cultivation of the relations of peace with all mankind, as not only +enforced by the obligations of religion and morality, but by all the +maxims of sound policy. For the purpose of a successful pursuit of this +great object, he cautions his fellow-citizens against the indulgence of +undue partiality or prejudice in favor or against any nation whatever, +as leading to weak sacrifices on one hand, senseless hostility on the +other. + +Most emphatically does he warn them against the wiles of foreign +influence, the fatal enemy of all the ancient republics. He enjoins a +watchful jealousy of all equally impartial, otherwise it may only lead +to the suspicion of visionary dangers on one hand and wilful blindness +on the other. + +Then, after recommending a total abstinence from all political alliances +with the nations of Europe; a due regard to the national faith toward +public creditors; suitable establishments for the defence of the +country, that we may not be tempted to rely on foreign aid, and which +will never be afforded, in all probability without the price of great +sacrifices on the part of the nation depending on the hollow friendship +of jealous rivals, he concludes this admirable address, which ought to +be one of the early lessons of every youth of our country, in the +following affecting words: + +"Though in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am +unconscious of international error, I am nevertheless too sensible of my +defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors. +Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or +mitigate the evils of which they may tend. I shall always carry with me +the hope that my country will never cease to view them with indulgence, +and that after forty-five years of a life dedicated to its service, with +an upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned +to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest. + +"Relying on its kindness in this as in all things, and actuated by that +fervent love toward it which is so natural to a man who views it as the +native soil of himself and his progenitors for several generations, I +anticipate with pleasing expectations that retreat in which I promise +myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking in +the midst of my fellow-citizens the benign influence of good laws under +a free government, the ever-favorite object of my heart, and the happy +reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers." + +On March 4, 1797, he bade a last farewell to public life. Those who have +read in history the struggles of ambitious men for power, and have seen +them in every age and country involving whole nations in the horrors of +civil strife, only for the worthless privilege of choosing a master, +will do well to mark the conduct of Washington on this occasion. He +waited only in Philadelphia to congratulate his successor and pay +respect to the choice of the people in the person of Mr. Adams. He +entered the Senate chamber as a private citizen, and, while every eye +glistened at thus seeing him, perhaps for the last time, grasped the +hand of the new President, wished that his administration might prove as +happy for himself as for his country, and, bowing to the assemblage, +retired unattended as he came. + +As he was hailed with blessings on entering, so was he greeted with +blessings when he quitted forever, the Presidential chair. He came from +his retirement at Mount Vernon accompanied by joyful acclamations of +welcome, and he was followed thither by the love and veneration of +millions of grateful people. Blessed, and thrice blessed, is he who +closes a life of honest fame in such a dignified and happy repose; +fortunate the nation that can boast of such an example, and still more +fortunate the children who can call him "Father of their Country." + + + + +FRENCH REVOLUTION: STORMING OF THE BASTILLE + +A.D. 1789 + +WILLIAM HAZLITT + + In the scenes of blood and terror which accompanied it, and + in the dramatic episodes and strange actors appearing upon + its stage--in these respects, if not in the calculable + effects of the uprising on France and the world, the French + Revolution was the most extraordinary outbreak of modern + times. + + Matters in France at this time, or during the next few + years, might have taken a very different course had not the + Eastern powers of Europe been absorbed in their own + quarrels, which culminated in the final "scramble for Polish + territory." As it was, France was left through the early + years of the Revolution to struggle with her own affairs. + + Under Louis XV, loved at the beginning of his reign, + execrated by his people at its close, France had fallen into + bankruptcy and disgrace. The monarchy was weakened through + its head. Louis determined that it should live as long as he + survived; he cared nothing for its future. The peasantry of + France at this time had become keenly alive to the wrongs + under which they had long suffered in comparative silence. + The disfranchised bourgeois, or middle class, had lately + grown in wealth and now thought more about their political + rights. The "common" people were staggering under the burden + of taxation, from which the privileged nobility and clergy + were largely exempt. + + The intellectual life of France during the second half of + the eighteenth century was profoundly affected by the + literature of the period, especially by the radical and + revolutionary writings of Voltaire, Rousseau, and their + followers, and in many things the extreme views of these men + seemed to find confirmation in the calmer reasonings of + Montesquieu on the powers and limitations of governments. + Democratic ideas were in the air, and all except the + privileged classes were ready for general revolt. Frenchmen + returning from America reported the successful working of + the new order of things inaugurated by the Revolution there, + and this gave stronger impulse to the revolutionary tendency + in France. + + When the well-meaning but weak-willed Louis XVI came to the + throne he found himself confronted with conditions before + which a far abler monarch might well have quailed. How the + storm broke upon him, and began its sweep over the kingdom + which he was set to rule, is told by Hazlitt without the + rhetorical flourishes indulged by many writers on this + subject, but with clear narration and philosophic judgment + of the facts recounted. + + +Louis XVI succeeded to the throne of France in 1774, and soon after +married Marie Antoinette, a daughter of the house of Austria. She was +young, beautiful, and thoughtless. In her the pride of birth was +strengthened and rendered impatient of the least restraint by the pride +of sex and beauty; and all three together were instrumental in hastening +the downfall of the monarchy. Devoted to the licentious pleasures of a +court, she looked both from education and habit on the homely comforts +of the people with disgust or indifference, and regarded the distress +and poverty which stood in the way of her dissipation with incredulity +or loathing.[33] Louis XVI himself, though a man of good intentions, and +free, in a remarkable degree, from the common vices of his situation, +had not firmness of mind to resist the passions and importunity of +others, and, in addition to the extravagance, petulance, and extreme +counsels of the Queen, fell a victim to the intrigues and officious +interference of those about him, who had neither the wisdom nor spirit +to avert those dangers and calamities which they had provoked by their +rashness, presumption, and obstinacy. + +The want of economy in the court, or a maladministration of the +finances, first occasioned pecuniary difficulties to the Government, for +which a remedy was in vain sought by a succession of ministers, Necker, +Calonne, Maupeou, and by the Parliament. Considerable embarrassment and +uneasiness began to be felt throughout the kingdom when in 1787 the +King undertook to convoke the States-General, as alone competent to meet +the emergency, and to confer on other topics of the highest consequence, +which were at this time agitated with general anxiety and interest. The +necessity of raising the supplies to defray the expenses of government +was indeed only made the handle to introduce and enforce other more +important and widely extended plans of reform. + +For some time past the public mind had been growing critical and +fastidious with the progress of civilization and letters; the monarchy, +as it existed at the period "with all its imperfections on its head," +had been weighed in the balance of reason and opinion, and found +wanting; and a favorable opportunity was only required, and the first +that presented itself was eagerly seized to put in practice what had +been already resolved upon in theory by the wits, philosophers, and +philanthropists of the eighteenth century. From the first calling +together the general council of the nation to deliberate and determine +for the public good, in the then prevailing ferment of the popular +feeling and with the predisposing causes, not a measure of finance was +to be looked to, but a revolution became inevitable. All the _cahiers_, +or instructions given to the deputies by the great mass of their +constituents, show that the kingdom at large was ripe for a material +change in its civil and political institutions, and for the most part +point out the individual grievances which were afterward done away with. + +The States-General met at Versailles on May 5, 1789. They consisted of +the representatives of the nobility, of the clergy, and of the _Tiers +Etat_ or people in general, the number of the last having been doubled +in order to equal that of the other two. They heard mass the evening +before at the Church of St. Louis, in the same dresses, and with the +same forms and order of precedence as in 1614, the last time they had +ever been assembled. The King opened the sitting with a speech which +gave little satisfaction, as it dwelt chiefly on the liquidation of the +debt and the unsettled state of the public mind, and did not go into +those general measures on which the views of the assembly were bent and +from which alone relief was expected. The first question which divided +opinion and led to a conflict was that regarding the vote by head or by +order. By the first mode, that of counting voices, the commons would be +numerically on a par with the privileged classes; by the latter, their +opponents would always have the advantage of two to one. In order to +keep this advantage, and prevent that reform of abuses which the Third +Estate was supposed to have principally at heart, the Court did all it +could to separate the different orders, first by adhering to etiquette, +afterward by means of intrigue, and in the end by force. + +On the day following the meeting, the deputies of the three estates were +called upon to verify their powers, which the nobles and clergy wished +to do apart; but the commons refused to take any steps toward this +object, except conjointly, or as a general legislative body. This led to +various overtures and discussions, which lasted for several weeks. The +Court offered its mediation; but the nobles giving a peremptory refusal +to come to any compromise, at the motion of the Abbe Sieyes, the Third +Estate, after in vain inviting the two others to join them, constituted +themselves into a national assembly. + +This was the first act of the Revolution, or the first occasion on which +a part of a given body of individuals took upon them to decide for the +rest, from the urgency and magnitude of the case, without the consent of +their coadjutors, and contrary to established rules. It was a stroke of +state necessity, to be defended not by the forms but by the essence of +justice, and by the great ends of human society. The usurpation of a +discretionary and illegal power was clear, but nothing could be done +without it, everything with it. Yet so strong and natural is the +prejudice against every appearance of what is violent and arbitrary, +that serious attempts were made to reconcile the letter with the spirit +of justice in this instance, and to prove that the Tiers Etat, being the +representatives of the nation, and the nation being everything, the +nobility and clergy were included in it and had nothing to complain of. +It is not worth while to answer this sophistry. The truth is that the +Third Estate erected themselves from parties concerned into framers of +the law and judges of the reason of the case, and must themselves be +judged, not by precedent and tradition, but by posterity, to whom, from +the scale on which they acted, the benefit or the injury of their +departure from common and worn-out forms will reach. Acts that supersede +old established rules and create a new era in human affairs are to be +approved or condemned by what comes after, not by what has gone before, +them. + +This first independent and spirited step on the part of the commons +produced a reaction on the part of the Court. They shut up the place of +sitting. The King had been prevailed on to consent to hostile measures +against the popular side during an excursion to Marly with the Queen and +princes of the blood. Bailly, afterward mayor of Paris, had been chosen +president of the new National Assembly, and, arriving with other +members, and finding the doors of the hall shut against them, they +repaired to the _Jeu de Paumes_ ("Tennis-court") at Versailles, followed +by the people and soldiers in crowds, and there, enclosed by bare walls, +with heads uncovered, and a strong and spontaneous burst of enthusiasm, +made a solemn vow, with the exception of only one person present, never +to separate till they had given France a constitution. + +This memorable and decisive event took place on June 20th. On the 23d +the King came to the Church of St. Louis, whither they had been +compelled to remove, and where they were joined by a considerable number +of the clergy; addressed them in a tone of authority and reprimand, +treated them as simply the Tiers Etat, pointed out certain partial +reforms which he approved, and which he enjoined them to effect in +conjunction with the other orders, or threatened to dissolve them and +take the whole management of the government upon himself, and ended with +a command that they should separate. The nobles and the clergy obeyed; +the deputies of the people remained firm, immovable, silent. + +Mirabeau then started from his seat and appealed to the Assembly in that +mixed style of the academician and the demagogue which characterized his +eloquence. The words are worth repeating here, both as a sample of the +unqualified tone of the period and on account of the fierce and personal +attack on the King, whom he stigmatizes by a sort of nickname. +"Gentlemen, I acknowledge that what you have just heard might be a +pledge of the welfare of the country, if the offers of despotism were +not always dangerous. What is the meaning of this insolent dictation, +the array of arms, the violation of the national temple, merely to +command you to be happy? Who gives you this command? your _Mandatory_ +['deputy']. Who imposes his imperious laws? your Mandatory, he who ought +to receive them from you; from us, gentlemen, who are invested with an +inviolable political priesthood; from us, in short, to whom, and to whom +alone, twenty-five millions of men look up for a happiness insured by +its being agreed upon, given, and received by all. But the freedom of +your deliberations is suspended: a military force surrounds the +Assembly! Where are the enemies of the nation, that this outrage should +be attempted? Is Catiline at our gates? I demand that in asserting the +claims of your insulted dignity, of your legislative power, you arm +yourselves with the sanctity of your oath: it does not permit us to +separate till we have achieved the constitution." + +From this unbridled effusion of bombast, affectation, and real passion +two things are evident: first, that the designs of the Court were +already looked upon as altogether hostile and alien to the patriotic +side; secondly, that the Assembly, from the beginning, felt in +themselves the strong and undoubted conviction of their being called to +the task of removing the abuses of power and regenerating the hopes of a +mighty people. The die was cast, the lists were marked out in the +opinions and sentiments of the two parties toward each other. The grand +master of the ceremonies of this occasion, seeing that the Assembly did +not break up, reminded them of the command of the King. "Go tell your +master," cried Mirabeau, "that we are here by order of the people; and +that we shall not retire but at the point of the bayonet." This was at +once an invitation to violence and a defiance of authority. Sieyes +added, with his customary coolness: "You are to-day in the same +situation that you were yesterday; let us deliberate!" The Assembly +immediately confirmed its former resolutions, and, at the instance of +Mirabeau, decreed the inviolability of its members. + +Such was at one time the brilliant, daring, and forward zeal of a man +who not long after sold himself to the Court: so little has flashy +eloquence or bold pretension to do with steadiness of principle! Indeed, +the Revolution, of which he was one of the most prominent leaders, +presented too many characters of this kind--dazzling, ardent, wavering, +corrupt--a succession of momentary fires, made of light and worthless +materials, soon kindled and soon exhausted, and requiring some new fuel +to repair them: nothing deep, internal, relying on its own +resources--"outliving fortunes outward with a mind that doth renew +swifter than blood decays"--but a flame rash and violent, fanned by +circumstances, kept alive by vanity, smothered by sordid interest, and +wandering from object to object in search of the most contemptible and +contradictory excitement! We may also remark, in the debates and +proceedings of this early period, the fevered and anxious state of the +public mind; while galling and intolerable abuses, called in question +for the first time and defended with blind confidence, were exposed in +the most naked and flagrant point of view; and the drapery of forms and +circumstances was torn from rank and power with sarcastic petulance or a +ruthless logic. + +The resistance of the Assembly alarmed the Court, who did not, however, +as yet dare to proceed against it. Necker, who had disapproved of the +royal interference, and whose dismission had been determined on in the +morning, was the same night entreated both by the King and Queen to +stay. On the next meeting of the Assembly a large portion of the clergy +again repaired to their place of sitting; and four days after, forty +members of the _noblesse_ joined them, with the Duke of Orleans at their +head. The conduct of this nobleman, all through the Revolution, was in +my opinion uncalled for, indecent, and profligate, and his fate not +unmerited. Persons situated as he was cannot take a decided part one way +or the other, without doing violence either to the dictates of reason +and justice or to all their natural sentiments, unless they are +characters of that heroic stamp as to be raised above suspicion or +temptation: the only way for all others is to stand aloof from a +struggle in which they have no alternative but to commit a parricide on +their country or their friends, and to await the issue in silence and at +a distance. + +The people should not ask the aid of their lordly taskmasters to shake +off their chains; nor can they ever expect to have it cordial and +entire. No confidence can be placed in those excesses of public +principle which are founded on the sacrifice of every private affection +and of habitual self-esteem! The Court, soon after this reenforcement to +the popular party, came forward of its own accord to request the +attendance of the dissentient orders, which took place on June 27th; and +after some petty ebullitions of jealousy and contests for precedence, +the Assembly became general, and all distinctions were lost. + +The King's secret advisers were, however, by no means reconciled to this +new triumph over ancient privilege and existing authority, and meditated +a reprisal by removing the Assembly farther from Paris, and there +dissolving, if it could not overawe them. For this purpose the troops +were collected from all parts; Versailles, where the Assembly sat, was +like a camp; Paris looked as if it were in a state of siege. These +extensive military preparations, the trains of artillery arriving every +hour from the frontier, with the presence of the foreign regiments, +occasioned great suspicion and alarm; and on the motion of Mirabeau, the +Assembly sent an address to the King, respectfully urging him to remove +the troops from the neighborhood of the capital; but this he declined +doing, hinting at the same time that they might retire, if they chose, +to Noyon or Soissons, thus placing themselves at the disposal of the +Crown, and depriving themselves of the aid of the people. + +Paris was in a state of extreme agitation. This immense city was +unanimous in its devotedness to the Assembly. A capital is at all times, +and Paris was then more particularly, the natural focus of a revolution. +To this many causes contribute. The actual presence of the monarch +dissipates the illusions of royalty; and he is no longer, as in the +distant province or petty village, an abstraction of power and majesty, +another name for all that is great and exalted, but a common mortal, one +man among a million of men, perhaps one of the meanest of his race. +Pageants and spectacles may impose on the crowd; but a weak or haughty +look undoes the effect, and leads to disadvantageous reflections on the +title to or the good resulting from all this display of pomp and +magnificence. From being the seat of the court, its vices are better +known, its meannesses are more talked of.[34] In the number and +distraction of passing objects and interests, the present occupies the +mind alone--the chain of antiquity is broken, and custom loses its +force. Men become "flies of a summer." Opinion has here many ears, many +tongues, and many hands to work with. The slightest whisper is rumored +abroad, and the roar of the multitude breaks down the prison or the +palace gates. They are seldom brought to act together but in extreme +cases; nor is it extraordinary that, in such cases, the conduct of the +people is violent, from the consciousness of transient power, its +impatience of opposition, its unwieldy bulk and loose texture, which +cannot be kept within nice bounds or stop at half-measure. + +Nothing could be more critical or striking than the situation of Paris +at this moment. Everything betokened some great and decisive change. +Foreign bayonets threatened the inhabitants from without, famine within. +The capitalists dreaded a bankruptcy; the enlightened and patriotic the +return of absolute power; the common people threw all the blame on the +privileged classes. The press inflamed the public mind with innumerable +pamphlets and invectives against the government, and the journals +regularly reported the proceedings and debates of the Assembly. +Everywhere in the open air, particularly in the Palais-Royal, groups +were formed, where they read and harangued by turns. It was in +consequence of a proposal made by one of the speakers in the +Palais-Royal that the prison of the Abbaye was forced open and some +grenadiers of the French Guards, who had been confined for refusing to +fire upon the people, were set at liberty and led out in triumph. + +Paris was in this state of excitement and apprehension when the Court, +having first stationed a number of troops at Versailles, at Sevres, at +the Champ-de-Mars, and at St. Denis, commenced offensive measures by the +complete change of all the ministers and by the banishment of Necker. +The latter, on Saturday, July 11th, while he was at dinner, received a +note from the King, enjoining him to quit the kingdom without a moment's +delay. He calmly finished his dinner, without saying a word of the order +he had received, and immediately after got into his carriage with his +wife and took the road to Brussels. The next morning the news of his +disgrace reached Paris. The whole city was in a tumult: above ten +thousand persons were, in a short time, collected in the garden of the +Palais-Royal. A young man of the name of Camille Desmoulins, one of the +habitual and most enthusiastic haranguers of the crowd, mounted on a +table and cried out that "there was not a moment to lose; that the +dismission of Necker was the signal for the St. Bartholomew of liberty; +that the Swiss and German regiments would presently issue from the +Champ-de-Mars to massacre the citizens; and that they had but one +resource left, which was to resort to arms." And the crowd, tearing each +a green leaf, the color of hope, from the chestnut-trees in the garden, +which were nearly laid bare, and wearing it as a badge, traversed the +streets of Paris, with the busts of Necker and of the Duke of Orleans, +who was also said to be arrested, covered with crape and borne in solemn +pomp. + +They had proceeded in this manner as far as the Place Vendome, when they +were met by a party of the Royal Allemand, whom they put to flight by +pelting them with stones; but at the Place Louis XV they were assailed +by the dragoons of the Prince of Lambesc; the bearer of one of the busts +and a private of the French Guards were killed; the mob fled into the +Garden of the Tuileries, whither the Prince followed them at the head of +his dragoons, and attacked a number of persons who knew nothing of what +was passing, and were walking quietly in the gardens. In the scuffle, an +old man was wounded; the confusion as well as the resentment of the +people became general; and there was but one cry, "To arms!" to be heard +throughout the Tuileries, the Palais-Royal, in the city, and the +suburbs. + +The French Guards had been ordered to their quarters in the +Chaussee-d'Antin, where sixty of Lambesc's dragoons were posted opposite +to watch them. A dispute arose, and it was with much difficulty they +were prevented from coming to blows. But when the former learned that +one of their comrades had been slain, their indignation could no longer +be restrained; they rushed out, killed two of the foreign soldiers, +wounded three others, and the rest were forced to fly. They then +proceeded to the Place Louis XV, where they stationed themselves between +the people and the troops, and guarded this position the whole of the +night. The soldiers in the Champ-de-Mars were then ordered to attack +them, but refused to fire, and were remanded back to their quarters. + +The defection of the French Guards, with the repugnance of the other +troops to march against the capital, put a stop for the present to the +projects of the Court. In the mean time the populace had assembled at +the Hotel de Ville, and loudly demanded the sounding of the tocsin and +the arming of the citizens. Several highly respectable individuals also +met here, and did much good in repressing a spirit of violence and +mischief. They could not, however, effect everything. A number of +disorderly people and of workmen out of employ, without food or place of +abode, set fire to the barriers, infested the streets, and pillaged +several houses in the night between the 12th and 13th. + +The departure of Necker, which had excited such a sensation in the +capital, produced as deep an impression at Versailles and on the +Assembly, who manifested surprise and indignation, but not dejection. +Lally Tollendal pronounced a formal eulogium on the exiled minister. +After one or two displays of theatrical vehemence, which is inseparable +from French enthusiasm and eloquence, they despatched a deputation to +the King, informing him of the situation and troubles of Paris, and +praying him to dismiss the troops and intrust the defence of the capital +to the city militia. The deputation received an answer which amounted to +a repulse. The Assembly now perceived that the designs of the Court +party were irrevocably fixed, and that it had only itself to rely upon. +It instantly voted the responsibility of the ministers and of all the +advisers of the Crown, "of whatsoever rank or degree." + +This last clause was pointed at the Queen, whose influence was greatly +dreaded. They then, from an apprehension that the doors might be closed +during the night in order to dissolve the Assembly, declared their +sittings permanent. A vice-president was chosen, to lessen the fatigue +of the Archbishop of Vienne. The choice fell upon Lafayette. In this +manner a part of the Assembly sat up all night. It passed without +deliberation, the deputies remaining on their seats, silent, but calm +and serene. What thoughts must have revolved through the minds of those +present on this occasion! Patriotism and philosophy had here taken up +their sanctuary. If we consider their situation; the hopes that filled +their breasts; the trials they had to encounter; the future destiny of +their country, of the world, which hung on their decision as in a +balance; the bitter wrongs they were about to sweep away; the good they +had it in their power to accomplish--the countenances of the Assembly +must have been majestic, and radiant with the light that through them +was about to dawn on ages yet unborn. They might foresee a struggle, the +last convulsive efforts of pride and power to keep the world in its +wonted subjection--but that was nothing--their final triumph over all +opposition was assured in the eternal principles of justice and in their +own unshaken devotedness to the great cause of mankind! If the result +did not altogether correspond to the intentions of those firm and +enlightened patriots who so nobly planned it, the fault was not in them, +but in others. + +At Paris the insurrection had taken a more decided turn. Early in the +morning the people assembled in large bodies at the Hotel de Ville; the +tocsin sounded from all the churches; the drums beat to summon the +citizens together, who formed themselves into different bands of +volunteers. All that they wanted was arms. These, except a few at the +gunsmiths' shops, were not to be had. They then applied to M. de +Flesselles, a provost of the city, who amused them with fair words. "My +children," he said, "I am your father!" This paternal style seems to +have been the order of the day. A committee sat at the Hotel de Ville to +take measures for the public safety. Meanwhile a granary had been broken +open: the Garde-Meuble had been ransacked for old arms; the armorers' +shops were plundered; all was a scene of confusion, and the utmost +dismay everywhere prevailed. But no private mischief was done. It was a +moment of popular frenzy, but one in which the public danger and the +public good overruled every other consideration. The grain which had +been seized, the carts loaded with provisions, with plate or furniture, +and stopped at the barriers, were all taken to the Greve as a public +depot. + +The crowd incessantly repeated the cry for arms, and were pacified by an +assurance that thirty thousand muskets would speedily arrive from +Charleville. The Duc d'Aumont was invited to take the command of the +popular troops; and on hesitating, the Marquis of Salle was nominated in +his stead. The green cockade was exchanged for one of red and blue, the +colors of the city. A quantity of powder was discovered, as it was +about to be conveyed beyond the barriers; and the cases of fire-arms +promised from Charleville turned out, on inspection, to be filled with +old rags and logs of wood. The rage and impatience of the multitude now +became extreme. Such perverse, trifling, and barefaced duplicity would +be unaccountable anywhere else; but in France they pay with promises; +and the provost, availing himself of the credulity of his audience, +promised them still more arms at the Chartreux. To prevent a repetition +of the excesses of the mob, Paris was illuminated at night and a patrol +paraded the streets. + +The following day, the people being deceived as to the convoy of arms +that was to arrive from Charleville, and having been equally +disappointed in those at the Chartreux, broke into the Hospital of +Invalids, in spite of the troops stationed in the neighborhood, and +carried off a prodigious number of stands of arms concealed in the +cellars. An alarm had been spread in the night that the regiment +quartered at St. Denis was on its way to Paris, and that the cannon of +the Bastille had been pointed in the direction of the street of St. +Antoine. This information, the dread which this fortress inspired, the +recollection of the horrors which had been perpetrated there, its very +name, which appalled all hearts and made the blood run cold, the +necessity of wresting it from the hands of its old and feeble +possessors, drew the attention of the multitude to this hated spot. From +nine in the morning of the memorable July 14th, till two, Paris from one +end to the other rang with the same watchword: "To the Bastille! To the +Bastille!" The inhabitants poured there in throngs from all quarters, +armed with different weapons; the crowd that already surrounded it was +considerable; the sentinels were at their posts, and the drawbridges +raised as in war-time. + +A deputy from the district of St. Louis de la Culture, Thuriot de la +Rosiere, then asked to speak with the governor, M. Delaunay. Being +admitted into his presence, he required that the direction of the cannon +should be changed. Three guns were pointed against the entrance, though +the governor pretended that everything remained in the state in which it +had always been. About forty Swiss and eighty Invalids garrisoned the +place, from whom he obtained a promise not to fire on the people unless +they were themselves attacked. His companions began to be uneasy and +called loudly for him. To satisfy them, he showed himself on the +ramparts, from whence he could see an immense multitude flocking from +all parts, and the Faubourg St. Antoine advancing as it were in a mass. +He then returned to his friends and gave them what tidings he had +collected. + +But the crowd, not satisfied, demanded the surrender of the fortress. +From time to time the angry cry was repeated: "Down with the Bastille!" +Two men, more determined than the rest, pressed forward, attacked a +guard-house, and attempted to break down the chains of the bridge with +the blows of an axe. The soldiers called out to them to fall back, +threatening to fire if they did not. But they repeated their blows, +shattered the chains, and lowered the drawbridge, over which they rushed +with the crowd. They threw themselves upon the second bridge, in the +hopes of making themselves masters of it in the same manner, when the +garrison fired and dispersed them for a few minutes. They soon, however, +returned to the charge; and for several hours, during a murderous +discharge of musketry, and amid heaps of the wounded and dying, renewed +the attack with unabated courage and obstinacy, led on by two brave men, +Elie and Hulia, their rage and desperation being inflamed to a pitch of +madness by the scene of havoc around them. Several deputations arrived +from the Hotel de Ville to offer terms of accommodation; but in the +noise and fury of the moment they could not make themselves heard, and +the storming continued as before. + +The assault had been carried on in this manner with inextinguishable +rage and great loss of blood to the besiegers, though with little +progress made, for above four hours, when the arrival of the French +Guards with cannon altered the face of things. The garrison urged the +governor to surrender. The wretched Delaunay, dreading the fate which +awaited him, wanted to blow up the place and bury himself under the +ruins, and was advancing for this purpose with a lighted match in his +hand toward the powder-magazine, but was prevented by the soldiers, who +planted the white flag on the platform, and reversed their arms in token +of submission. This was not enough for those without. They demanded with +loud and reiterated cries to have the drawbridges let down; and on an +assurance being given that no harm was intended, the bridges were +lowered and the assailants tumultuously rushed in. The endeavors of +their leaders could not save the governor or a number of the soldiers, +who were seized on by the infuriated multitude, and put to death for +having fired on their fellow-citizens. + +Thus fell the Bastille; and the shout that accompanied its downfall was +echoed through Europe, and men rejoiced that "the grass grew where the +Bastille stood!" Earth was lightened of a load that oppressed it, nor +did this ghastly object any longer startle the sight, like an ugly +spider lying in wait for its accustomed prey, and brooding in sullen +silence over the wrongs which it had the will, though not the power, to +inflict. + + [The Bastille was taken about a quarter before six o'clock + in the evening (Tuesday, July 14th), after a four-hours' + attack. Only one cannon was fired from the fortress, and + only one person was killed among the besieged. The garrison + consisted of 82 Invalids, 2 cannoneers, and 32 Swiss. Of the + assailants, 83 were killed on the spot, 60 were wounded, of + whom 15 died of their wounds, and 13 were disabled. A great + many barrels of gunpowder had been conveyed here from the + arsenal, in the night between the 12th and 13th. Delaunay, + the governor, was killed on the steps of the Hotel de Ville, + as also Delosme, the mayor. Only seven prisoners were found + in the Bastille; four of these, Pujade, Bechade, La Roche, + and La Caurege, were for forgery. M. de Solages was put in + in 1782, at the desire of his father, since which time every + communication from without was carefully withheld from him. + He did not know the smallest event that had taken place in + all that time, and was told by the turnkey, when he heard + the firing of the cannon, that it was owing to a riot about + the price of bread. M. Tavernier, a bastard son of Paris + Duverney, had been confined ever since August 4, 1759. The + last prisoner was a Mr. White, who went mad, and it could + never be discovered who or what he was: by the name he must + have been English. + + When Lord Albemarle was ambassador at Paris, in the year + 1753, he by mere accident caught a sight of the list of + persons confined in the Bastille, lying on the table of the + French minister, with the name of Gordon at their head. + Being struck with the circumstance, he inquired into the + meaning of it; but the French minister could give no account + of it; and on the prisoner himself being released and sent + for, he could only state that he had been confined there + thirty years, but had not the slightest knowledge or + suspicion of the cause for which he had been arrested. Nor + is this wonderful, when we consider that _lettres de cachet_ + were sold, with blanks left for the names to be filled up at + the pleasure or malice of the purchasers. + + If it was only to prevent the recurrence of one such + instance (with the feeling in society at once shrinking from + and tamely acquiescing in it), the Revolution was well + purchased. When the crowd gained possession of this + loathsome spot, they eagerly poured into every corner and + turning of it, went down into the lowest dungeons with a + breathless curiosity and horror, knocking with + sledge-hammers at their triple portals, and breaking down + and destroying everything in their way. The stones and + devices on the battlements were torn off and thrown into the + ditch, and the papers and documents were at the same time + unfortunately destroyed. + + A low range of dungeons was discovered underground, close to + the moat; and so contrived that, if those within had forced + a passage through, they would have let in the water of the + ditch and been suffocated. In one of these a skeleton was + found hanging to an iron cramp in the wall. In reading the + accounts of the demolition of this building, one feels that + indignation should have melted the stone walls like flax, + and that the dungeons should have given up their dead to + assist the living! + + The Bastille was begun in 1370, in Charles V's time, by one + Hugh Abriot, provost of the city, who was afterward shut up + in it in 1381. It at first consisted only of two towers: two + more were added by Charles VI, and four more in 1383. Two + days after it was taken, it was ordered by the National + Assembly to be razed to the ground, and in May, 1790, not a + trace of it was left.--ED.] + +The stormers of the Bastille arrived at the Place de la Greve, rending +the air with shouts of victory. They marched on to the great hall of the +Hotel de Ville, in all the terrific and unusual pomp of a popular +triumph. Such of them as had displayed most courage and ardor were borne +on the shoulders of the rest, crowned with laurel. They were escorted up +the hall by near two thousand of the populace, their eyes flaming, their +hair in wild disorder, variously accoutred, pressing tumultuously on +each other, and making the heavy floors almost crack beneath their +footsteps. One bore the keys and flag of the Bastille, another the +regulations of the prison brandished on the point of a bayonet; a +third--a thing horrible to relate!--held in his bloody fingers the +buckle of the governor's stock. In this order it was that they entered +the Hotel de Ville to announce their victory to the Committee, and to +decide on the fate of their remaining prisoners, who, in spite of the +impatient cries to give no quarter, were rescued by the exertions of the +commandant La Salle, Moreau de St. Mery, and the intrepid Elie. + +Then came the turn of the despicable Flesselles, that caricature of +vapid, frothy impertinence, who thought he could baffle the roaring +tiger with grimace and shallow excuses. "To the Palais-Royal with him!" +was the word; and he answered with callous indifference, "Well, to the +Palais-Royal if you will." He was hemmed in by the crowd and borne along +without any violence being offered him to the place of destination; but +at the corner of the Quai le Pelletier an unknown hand approached him +and stretched him lifeless on the spot with a pistol-shot. During the +night succeeding this eventful day Paris was in the greatest agitation, +hourly expecting, in consequence of the statements of intercepted +letters, an attack from the troops. Every preparation was made to defend +the city. Barricades were formed, the streets unpaved, pikes forged, the +women piled stones on the tops of houses to hurl them down on the heads +of the soldiers, and the National Guard occupied the outposts. + +While all this was passing, and before it became known at Versailles, +the Court was preparing to carry into effect its designs against the +Assembly and the capital. The night between the 14th and 15th was fixed +upon for their execution. The new minister, Breteuil, had promised to +reestablish the royal authority within three days. Marshal Broglie, who +commanded the army round Paris, was invested with unlimited powers. The +Assembly, it was agreed upon, were to be dissolved, and forty thousand +copies of a proclamation to this effect were ready to be circulated +throughout the kingdom. The rising of the populace was supposed to be a +temporary evil, and it was thought to the last moment an impossibility +that a mob of citizens should resist an army. The Assembly was duly +apprised of all these projects. It sat for two days in a state of +constant inquietude and alarm. The news from Paris was doubtful. A +firing of cannon was supposed to be heard, and persons anxiously placed +their ears to the ground to listen. The escape of the King was also +expected, as a carriage had been kept in readiness, and the bodyguard +had not pulled off their boots for several days. + +In the orangery belonging to the palace, meat and wine had been +distributed among the foreign troops to encourage and spirit them up. +The Viscount of Noailles and another deputy, Wimpfen, brought word of +the latest events in the capital, and of the increasing violence of the +people. Couriers were despatched every half-hour to gather intelligence. +Deputations waited on the King to lay before him the progress of the +insurrection, but he still gave evasive and unsatisfactory answers. In +the night of the 14th the Duke of Liancourt had informed Louis XVI of +the taking of the Bastille and the massacre of the garrison on the +preceding day. "It is a revolt!" exclaimed the monarch, taken by +surprise. "No, sire, it is a revolution," was the answer. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[33] Edmund Burke passed a splendid and well-known eulogium on the +beauty and accomplishments of the Queen, and it was in part the +impression which her youthful charms had left in his mind that threw the +casting-weight of his talents and eloquence into the scale of opposition +to the French Revolution. I have heard another very competent judge, Mr. +Northcote, describe her entering a small anteroom, where he stood, with +her large hoop sideways, and gliding by him from one end to the other +with a grace and lightness as if borne on a cloud. It was possibly to +"this air with which she trod or rather disdained the earth," as if +descended from some higher sphere, that she owed the indignity of being +conducted to a scaffold. Personal grace and beauty cannot save their +possessors from the fury of the multitude, more than from the raging +elements, though they may inspire that pride and self-opinion which +expose them to it. + +[34] It was observed that almost all the greatest cruelties of the Reign +of Terror were resolved on by committees of persons who had been in the +immediate employment of the great, and had suffered by their caprice and +insolence. + + + + +ESTABLISHMENT OF THE UNITED STATES BANK + +A.D. 1791 + +ALEXANDER HAMILTON AND LAWRENCE LEWIS, JR. + + Through the founding of the first Bank of the United States, + which existed from 1791 to 1811, and was succeeded by + another national bank in 1817, the monetary affairs of the + Republic, under Hamilton's able administration, were placed + upon a sounder basis, and the transaction of public business + was greatly facilitated. + + During the seventeenth century Indian money (wampum) was + much used by the colonists, especially in their trade with + the Indians. For a long time it was a legal tender in common + with other currencies. The earliest American coinage is said + to date from 1612. In Massachusetts, the "pine-tree" + money--silver coins bearing the emblem of a pine-tree--was + used from 1652 to 1686. Soon began the issue of various + paper moneys in the colonies, and the establishment of banks + under the colonial governments. The "Continental currency" + of the Revolution, first issued in 1775 by authority of the + Continental Congress, began to depreciate almost as soon as + it appeared, and in 1780 ceased to circulate. + + In 1780 the Pennsylvania Bank, in Philadelphia, began to + assist the Government, and rendered useful service until + 1784. But the need of a national bank had already become + evident. Robert Morris, Superintendent of Finance for the + United States, secured the organization, at Philadelphia, of + the Bank of North America, with a capital of four hundred + thousand dollars. It was incorporated by Congress in + December, 1781, and soon after by the State of Pennsylvania. + Its success led to the founding of the Bank of New York in + 1784. + + On the organization of the Government under the Federal + Constitution, the genius of Alexander Hamilton was called + into service for the work of constructive statesmanship. + From 1789 to 1795 he was Secretary of the Treasury; and one + of his first acts, as shown by Lewis, was the unfolding of a + plan which led to the establishment of the first Bank of the + United States. + + +In March, 1789, a great and fortunate change took place in the +management of American public affairs. The Constitution of the United +States went into operation. A vigorous, responsible executive was +conferred upon the country, and an incredible impulse given to all +schemes of national importance. Among those now called upon to take part +in the administration of public affairs was Alexander Hamilton. Placed +in charge of the Department of the Treasury, he found before him the +prodigious task of settling the financial affairs of the United States +upon a sure and satisfactory basis. Toward the attainment of this end no +measure seemed more important to him than his old and favorite one for +the establishment of a national bank. Without loss of time he devised a +plan for such an institution which seemed to him practicable, and in +1790 spread before Congress the result of his labors. + +"The establishment of banks in this country," says Hamilton in the +course of his report, "seems to be recommended by reasons of a peculiar +nature. Previously to the Revolution, circulation was in a great measure +carried on by paper emitted by the several local governments. This +auxiliary may be said to be now at an end. And it is generally supposed +that there has been for some time past a deficiency of circulating +medium. + +"If the supposition of such a deficiency be in any degree founded, and +some aid to circulation be desirable, it remains to inquire what ought +to be the nature of that aid. + +"The emitting of paper money by the authority of government is wisely +prohibited to the individual States by the national Constitution; and +the spirit of that prohibition ought not be disregarded by the +Government of the United States. + +"Among other material differences between a paper currency issued by the +mere authority of Government, and one issued by a bank, payable in coin, +is this: that in the first case there is no standard to which an appeal +can be made, as to the quantity which will only satisfy or which will +surcharge the circulation; in the last, that standard results from the +demand. If more should be issued than is necessary, it will return upon +the bank. Its emissions must always be in a compound ratio to the fund +and the demand. Whence it is evident that there is a limitation in the +nature of the thing; while the discretion of the Government is the only +measure of the extent of the emissions by its own authority. + +"The payment of the interest of the public debt at thirteen different +places is a weighty reason, peculiar to our immediate situation, for +desiring a bank circulation. Without a paper, in general currency, +equivalent to gold and silver, a considerable proportion of the specie +of the country must always be suspended from circulation, and left to +accumulate preparatorily to each day of payment; and as often as one +approaches, there must in several cases be an actual transportation of +the metals at both expense and risk, from their natural and proper +reservoirs, to distant places." + +The report then goes on to explain the practical details of the plan +proposed. + +The measure met generally with popular applause, but there were some who +doubted its wisdom. Among other difficulties that were thrown in its +path was a suggestion that a new bank was quite unnecessary, since an +institution was in existence which owed its origin to national bounty, +and which had already, upon more than one occasion, manifested both its +readiness and ability to extend a helping hand to the Government. With +this objection Hamilton dealt most courteously. + +"The aid afforded to the United States," said he, "by the Bank of North +America during the remaining period of the war was of essential +consequence, and its conduct toward them since the peace has not +weakened its title to their patronage and favor. So far its pretensions +to the character of a national bank are respectable, but there are +circumstances which militate against them and considerations which +indicate the propriety of an establishment on different principles. + +"The directors of this bank, on behalf of their constituents, have since +acted under a new charter from the State of Pennsylvania, materially +variant from their original one, and which so narrows the foundation of +the institution as to render it an incompetent basis for the extensive +purposes of a national bank. + +"There is nothing in the acts of Congress which implies an exclusive +right in the institution to which they relate, except during the time of +the war. There is, therefore, nothing, if the public good require it, +which prevents the establishment of another. It may, however, be +incidentally remarked that in the general opinion of the citizens of the +United States, the Bank of North America has taken the station of a bank +of Pennsylvania only. This is a strong argument for a new institution, +or for a renovation of the old, to restore it to the situation in which +it originally stood in the view of the United States. But--there may be +room to allege that the Government of the United States ought not, in +point of candor or equity, to establish any rival or interfering +institution in prejudice of the one already established, especially as +this has, from services rendered, well-founded claims to protection and +regard. + +"The justice of this observation ought, within proper bounds, to be +admitted. A new establishment of the sort ought not to be made without +cogent and sincere reasons of public good. And in the manner of doing it +every facility should be given to a consolidation of the old with the +new, upon terms not injurious to the parties concerned. But there is no +ground to maintain that in a case in which the Government has made no +condition restricting its authority, it ought voluntarily to restrict +it, through regard to the interests of a particular institution, when +those of the State dictate a different course; especially, too, after +such circumstances have intervened as characterize the actual situation +of the Bank of North America. + +"If the objections, which have been stated, to the constitution of the +Bank of North America are admitted to be well founded, they, +nevertheless, will not derogate from the merit of the main design, or of +the services which that bank has rendered, or of the benefits which it +has produced. The creation of such an institution, at the time it took +place, was a measure dictated by wisdom. Its utility has been amply +evinced by its fruits. American independence owes much to it. + +"The Secretary begs leave to conclude with this general observation, +that if the Bank of North America shall come forward with any +propositions which have for their object the ingrafting upon that +institution the characteristics which shall appear to the Legislature +necessary to the due extent and safety of a national bank, there are, in +his judgment, weighty inducements to giving every reasonable facility to +the measure. Not only the pretensions of that institution, from its +original relation to the Government of the United States, and from the +services it has rendered, are such as to claim a disposition favorable +to it, if those who are interested in it are willing, on their part, to +place it on a footing satisfactory to the Government and equal to the +purposes of a bank of the United States; but its cooperation would +naturally accelerate the accomplishment of the great object, and the +collision, which might otherwise arise, might, in a variety of ways, +prove equally disagreeable and injurious. The incorporation and union +here contemplated may be effected in different modes, under the auspices +of an act of the United States, if it shall be desired, by the Bank of +North America, upon terms which shall appear expedient to the +Government." + +As far as can be ascertained, however, the management of the bank took +no steps in accordance with the suggestions of the report. The quiet and +prosperous business in which they were engaged, under State auspices, +was to them preferable to the anxieties and hazards which would probably +attend the new national undertaking; the scheme of a separate +institution was, therefore, rapidly pushed forward, and on February 19, +1791, the first Bank of the United States began its corporate existence. + +The Bank of North America now sustained a serious loss in the +resignation of its president, Mr. Willing, on January 9, 1792, after a +term of service extending over a little more than ten years. He had been +chosen to preside over the affairs of the Bank of the United States, a +station for which it was justly supposed that his talents and experience +eminently qualified him. He was succeeded in office by John Nixon, an +almost equally well-known and respected citizen. Born in 1733 of Irish +parentage, Mr. Nixon for a number of years did a prosperous business in +the city of Philadelphia. He was one of the many signers of the +Non-importation Resolutions, and upon the breaking out of the Revolution +made himself prominent by his strenuous efforts and warm interest in the +national cause. He was a member of the Committee of Safety, and had the +honor of first proclaiming to the citizens of Philadelphia the +Declaration of Independence. During some portion of the war he did +active service, with the rank of colonel, in the Continental Army. He +was one of the original subscribers to the bank, and had been a director +since 1784. He retained the office of president for seventeen years +until his death, which occurred on December 24, 1808. + +Meantime the business of the bank was rapidly increasing as the commerce +of the country grew. The profits were so great that annual dividends of +12 per cent. were paid to the various stockholders. Nor did the +institution cease to accommodate the public from time to time with loans +of considerable extent. During the year 1791 the bank advanced to the +Commonwealth, at different times, in all one hundred sixty thousand +dollars, and in the following year something over fifty-three thousand +dollars. + + + + +NEGRO REVOLUTION IN HAITI + +TOUSSAINT LOUVERTURE ESTABLISHES THE DOMINION OF HIS RACE + +A.D. 1791 + +CHARLES WYLLYS ELLIOTT + + Haiti, the Spanish Santo Domingo, earlier called Espanola, + is the largest of the West Indian islands except Cuba. The + bloody revolutionary and slave revolts which began in 1791 + and ended in the supremacy of the negroes, form the most + memorable passages in its history. From 1797 their great + leader, Toussaint Louverture, whose achievements are here + recounted, was Governor of the whole island, whose + independence he proclaimed in 1801. Having afterward opposed + Napoleon's attempt to reestablish slavery, Toussaint was + treacherously arrested and sent to France, where, in a + dungeon, he died in 1803. But white supremacy was never + restored in Haiti. + + In 1697 France, by treaty, acquired the western part of the + island, the eastern portion remaining in the possession of + Spain, which had held it ever since its discovery by + Columbus. The French found their Haitian lands very + profitable in cotton and sugar, and the western region + prospered, while the Spanish community was stagnant. At the + outbreak of the French Revolution (1789) the whole island + was thrown into a ferment, out of which came the changes + that Elliott relates. + + At that time the French portion of Haiti had about half a + million inhabitants, of whom some forty thousand were of + European blood, thirty thousand free negroes, the rest negro + slaves. The free colored people, mostly mulattoes, had no + voice in the Government, but in 1790 the French National + Assembly decreed to those born of free parents full + citizenship. Opposition on the part of the whites caused + delay in carrying out the decree. Taking advantage of the + ensuing commotion, the slaves rose in revolt (August, 1791), + and the conditions which Toussaint at length was called upon + to meet were inevitably brought about. + + This black hero, of whose origin and personality information + is given below, has been made the subject of a noble sonnet + by Wordsworth, of an equally fine eulogy by Wendell + Phillips, of a tragedy by Lamartine, and of a romance, _The + Hour and the Man_, by Harriet Martineau. Auguste Comte, the + founder of positivism, placed Toussaint in his new calendar + among the great modern liberators--Hampden, Cromwell, + Algernon Sidney, Washington, and Bolivar. + + +On August 25, 1791, was the feast of St. Louis. For the week preceding, +the planters gathered at Cap Francois[35] to concert measures against +the mulattoes; against the National Assembly; and--to dine. The great +men, and the rich, and the brave, were there. It was not a time to drive +the slaves; and during that week they "danced" more than before. On the +evening of August 23d, the best dishes of the cook Henri, a born prince, +whose future no one could suspect, tempted the palates of the born +whites. In brave counsels, in denunciations of the mulattoes, in songs +for Governor Blanchelande and "Liberty," the time passed, the wine +flowed, and hearts swelled. So the shadows of the night stole on. Light! +More light! was called for; they threw open the jalousies; curious black +faces swarmed about the piazzas--but what meant that dull glare which +reached the sultry sky? The party was broken up: they rushed to the +windows; they could smell the heavy smoke, they could hear the distant +tramp of feet. The band, unbidden, struck up the _Marsellaise_; it was +caught up in the streets; and from mouth to mouth, toward the rich Plain +du Nord, passed along the song: + + "_Le jour de gloire est arrive!_ + _Aux armes! aux armes! pour Liberte!_" + +Consternation followed the feast. Each man grasped his arms: into the +midst of the company rushed a negro covered with dust; panting with +heat. He sought his master. Pale with fear and excited with wine, he +received him on the point of his sword. As the life and blood flowed he +gasped, "O master! O master!" Murmurs of disapprobation filled the room, +but it was too late: the hour had come! The slaves had risen. This poor +creature had wished to save the man that owned him. + +The rebellion broke out on the plantation of Noe, nine miles from Cap +Francois. At midnight the slaves sought the refiner and his apprentice +and hewed them in pieces. The overseer they shot. They then proceeded to +the house of Mr. Clement: he was killed by his postilion. They proceeded +from plantation to plantation murdering the whites; their ranks swelled +by crowds of scarred and desperate men who had nothing to lose but +life; and life with slavery was not so sweet as revenge. Everywhere +they applied the torch to the sugar-mills--those bastilles, consecrated +to the rites of the lash and to forced labor, dumb with fear--and to the +cane fields, watered with sweat and blood. + +Toward morning crowds of whites came pouring into Cap Francois, pale, +terror-stricken, blood-stained. Men, women, and children found the day +of judgment was come: none knew what to do; all was confusion. The +signal-gun boomed through the darkness warning of danger, and every man +stood to his arms. The inhabitants of the city were paralyzed with fear. +They barred their doors and locked up their house-slaves. The only +living objects in the streets were a few soldiers marching to their +posts. Panic ruled the hour. The Assembly sat through the night. Touzard +was sent out to attack the negroes, but was driven back. Guns were +mounted, and the streets barricaded. + +The morning dawned, and with the rising sun came rising courage. "It is +nothing," said some; "burn and hang a few negroes and all will go on as +before." The exasperation against the mulattoes, who were charged with +having fomented the rising, resulted in hatred, insult, bloodshed and +murder in and around Cap Francois; and a butchery was only stayed by the +vigorous opposition of the Governor. Whatever negroes were seized were +tortured and massacred. "Frequently," says Lacroix, "did the faithful +slave perish by the hands of an irritated master whose confidence he +sought." + +The maddened negroes had tasted blood. They seized Mr. Blen, an officer +of police, nailed him alive to one of the gates of his plantation, and +chopped off his limbs with an axe. + +M. Cardineau had two sons by a black woman. He had freed them and shown +them much kindness; but they belonged to the hated race, and they joined +the revolt. The father remonstrated, and offered them money. They took +his money and stabbed him to the heart. If they were bastards, who had +made them so? "One's pleasant vices often come home to roost." Horrors +were piled on horrors: white women were ravished and murdered; black +were broken on the wheel: whites were crucified; blacks were burned +alive: long pent-up hatreds were having their riot and revenge. M. +Odeluc was wrong, then! The slaves did _not_ seem to love their +masters. What could it mean? + +Pork and bananas: slavery and ignorance; with some, dancing and the free +use of the whip seemed to be producing surprising results. The whites +could not understand it. Much sugar was raised, and yet the negroes were +not satisfied, and now seemed to have gone mad. Destruction hung over +the whites, and they concluded to try hanging and burning in their +extremity--having no faith in justice and honesty for the blacks. +Hundreds, perhaps thousands, owed their safety to the kindness of their +house-slaves. + +Monsieur and Madame Baillou with their daughter, her husband, and two +white servants lived about thirty miles from Cap Francois, among the +mountains. A slave gave them notice of the rising: he hid them in the +forest and joined the revolt. At night he brought them food and led them +to another place of safety. He did this again and again: led them +through every danger and difficulty till they escaped to the sea. For +nineteen nights they were in the woods, and the negro risked his life to +save theirs. Why repeat instances? This was one of hundreds. + +M. Odeluc was the superintendent of the Gallifet estate, the largest on +the Plain. "As happy as one of Gallifet's negroes," was a saying in the +district. He was sure of _his_ hands, and regretted the exaggerated +terror of the whites. With a friend and three or four soldiers he rode +out to the estate and found his negroes in arms with the body of a white +child for a standard. Alas! poor Odeluc! He believed the negroes were +dogs and would lick the hand that struck the blow. It was too late: he +and his attendants were cut down without mercy. Two only escaped to tell +the tale. Four thousand negroes were in arms and they were everywhere +successful. The Plain was in their possession; the quarters of Morin and +Limonade were in flames, and their ravages extended from the shore to +the mountains. Their recklessness was succeeded by regular organization +and systematic war. In the first moments of their headlong fury all +whites were murdered indiscriminately. This did not last: they soon +distinguished their enemies; and women and children were saved. The +blacks were headed by Jean Francois and Biassou--generals not to be +despised. Brave, rapid, unscrupulous; vain of grandeur, greedy of +plunder, they were not far from the marshals of France. + +This, then, was not a revolt, but a revolution! Success would decide. +Never could the whites believe that the blacks were men. Oge had +revealed a widespread conspiracy, headed by well-known slaves. The +whites concealed this. They did not believe him; they believed only that +the blacks were their born slaves, fit for the whip, incapable of +courage or honor or martyrdom. Experience only was to teach them. + +At first the whites acted upon the defensive. The Assembly was rancorous +against France in the midst of this destruction, and effaced from behind +the Speaker's chair the motto "_Vive la Nation, la Loi, et le Roi!_" +Even when destruction was over them they heeded not: their bickerings +continued. The negro generals declared that they were fighting for their +King, and against slavery--for a rumor had reached them that Louis +favored emancipation. They had the strongest party and the strongest +side. At length the whites determined upon a war of extermination. The +blacks responded. Heads of whites were stuck on poles around the negro +camps. Bodies of negroes swung on gibbets in the white encampments and +on trees by the roadside. Within two months two thousand whites and ten +thousand blacks perished. _Te Deum_ was sung in both camps and daily +thanksgivings were said for what was done. Pale ghosts hovered over them +and sighed in the tropical groves; but they could not speak for pity or +for justice. The insurrection spread to the southwest, and two thousand +mulattoes, headed by Rigaud, rose to revenge the death of some of their +comrades; many negroes joined them and they threatened Port au Prince. +The colonists were now thoroughly alarmed, and proceeded to try +reconciliation. The inhabitants of Port au Prince and Rigaud agreed upon +a truce, and the whites admitted that the slaughter of certain mulattoes +had been "infamous," and agreed that the civil rights of the mulattoes +should be allowed them. At last! Was it not too late? + +Governor Blanchelande issued a proclamation earnestly entreating the +revolted negroes to lay down their arms and return to their duty. It was +too late. They laughed in derision at his small request. What! to +slavery and work and degradation and cruelty, even! They had burst +their fetters and stood with arms in their hands. "Will you," they +replied to the Governor, "will you, brave General, that we should, like +sheep, throw ourselves into the jaws of the wolf? It is too late. It is +for us to conquer or die!" + +On September 11, 1791, the whites at Port au Prince had consented to the +civil rights of the mulattoes. On October 23d the _Concordat_ had been +signed; the whites and mulattoes had walked arm in arm through the city +and peace seemed possible, when word came that on September 24th the +National Assembly at Paris had reversed the decree of May 15th. The +mulattoes at once flew to arms, and the struggle between them and the +whites went on with increased carnage and cruelty. This continued with +varied results through 1792. "You kill mine and I'll kill yours," was +the cry. As it had been from the outset, so it continued among the +whites: open war between the colonists and the governors; between the +people of the North and the South; contention and bitterness, intrigue, +treachery. They made head nowhere against the mulattoes; nowhere against +the negroes. In December, 1791, three commissioners arrived from France +to distract the confusion. They accomplished nothing, and were succeeded +in September, 1792, by Santhonax, Polverel, and Ailhaud, ordinary men; +not sufficient for so extraordinary a state of things as this. + +The hour had come, but not the man. The world waited for him, but none +knew where to look; for none believed him to be among the degraded +negroes. The old custom of master and slave was broken in pieces, and a +nation of men, with no cultivation, with no education in +self-government, with none of the conservative strength which hangs +about privilege and possession and long-honored habit, were now up, +inspired only with a hatred of slavery and vague aspirations for that +which they knew not how to name. In this chaotic hour the man who could +express this longing for freedom, this need of growth, this aspiration +for infinite good--not only in words, but in deeds and in life--was +needed: without him all would come to nothing, and the struggle of the +blacks would be but a spasm, to end in exhaustion and discouragement; +for successful revolutions have been secured by developing, from among +the unknown, the known man, around whom the elements of the new state +could gather for new order. + +Among the half-million blacks there must be one, and more than one, who +could redeem his race; to whom the outcast and despairing might look and +take courage and say, "Such as he is, I may try to be." This man was +longed for; consciously or not, the blacks yearned for their king, could +they but see him. The presentiment existed, for had not the Abbe Raynal +long before predicted a vindicator for the race? No man can save +another, and no nation. Each race must look for its salvation and its +leaders in its own comprehensive soul. The Moses who will lead the +blacks out of bondage must be a _black_, and he will come! + +Let us go back for a moment. On the arrival of the first commissioners, +Mirbeck, Roume, and St. Leger, the mulattoes in the West were in arms +under Rigaud; the blacks in the North, under Jean Francois and Biassou. +They were a ragged crowd: pikes, muskets, cane-knives, axes, whatever +the hand could find, were their arms, and they fought without order or +discipline, inspired by revenge and hatred to slavery. Jean Francois, if +vain and ostentatious, was sagacious and full of resource. Biassou was +bold, fiery, and vindictive. The blacks had slaughtered and been +slaughtered, hanged and been hanged, plundered and been plundered. There +seemed no end to it and no object. They heard that the commissioners +were placable, so they wished to make terms. But who would dare to +venture among the whites? Were not all outcasts, hunted beasts, fugitive +slaves? Raynal and Duplessis (mulattoes) at last took the hazard. The +Governor sent them to the commissioners, they to the Colonial Assembly. +The Assembly that day was in an exalted state: it emulated the gods. It +replied loftily: "Emissaries of the revolted negroes, the Assembly, +established on the law and by the law, cannot correspond with people +armed against the law. The Assembly might extend grace to guilty men, +if, being repentant, etc.," and Raynal and Duplessis were ordered +sharply to "withdraw." + +They did withdraw, amid the hooting of the mob. They returned to Grande +Riviere. The army and the people came out to meet them, wishing peace: +they told their story, and peace was turned to war, love to hatred. +Biassou, in a rage, ordered all the white prisoners in the camp to be +put to death. "Death to the whites!" went along the lines and among the +people. The insane pride of the whites worked its own punishment, and +now a hundred more were to be slaughtered. No white was there to save +them, and no God to wrest them away. Then a man, black, indifferent in +person, unpleasing of visage, meanly dressed, makes his way among the +crowd to Biassou swelling with rage. He speaks to him a few words, +quietly, calmly; they are to the purpose. The General's face is +composed; he listens; he countermands his orders, and the whites are +saved. + +The negro who saves them is Toussaint Breda, afterward called +Louverture. The son of an African chief, Gaou-Guinon, with no drop of +white blood in his veins. He had been the born slave of the Count de +Breda, and had been well treated by his manager, Bayou de Libertas. He +was the husband of one wife and the father of children. With religious +aspirations, an inflexible integrity, and an inquiring mind, he had been +a valuable slave and had been raised from a field-hand to be M. Bayou's +coachman. + +Toussaint was never hungry while a slave; he was not whipped. His hut +was comfortable; vines twined around his door. Bananas and potatoes grew +in his garden. Toussaint, it seems, was not a beast of burden. To make +sugar he was worth no more than a Bozal just stolen; but with these rare +virtues--patience, courage, intelligence, fidelity--he might have sold +for five hundred dollars and might be trusted to drive horses. When the +rebellion broke out he did not join it, but assisted M. Bayou with his +family to escape, and shipped a rich cargo to the United States for his +maintenance. + +Toussaint was then fifty years old. None knew the day of his birth; the +records of stock then and there were not carefully kept. For fifty years +this negro had lived the life of a slave; his only occupation the hoeing +of cane and the grooming of horses. What thoughts, what struggles, what +hopes had taken shape in that uncultivated brain no man knows--for +Toussaint was a man of few words, and he left no writings. It was late +in life to begin a new trade; late to begin to find out his own powers +and strength; late to trust himself to freedom, he who had always had a +master; late to speculate upon the destinies of the black race; late to +attempt to shape them. But in revolutionary times men learn fast; great +men need only the opportunity; they rise to the emergency. Cromwell was +not a born or trained general or ruler, nor was Washington, nor was +William Tell. Toussaint had bided his time. This slave was ignorant, +knew nothing. He learned to read when approaching his declining years; +then he studied: Raynal, Epictetus, Caesar, Saxe, Herodotus, Plutarch, +Nepos--these were the books and lives he knew. + +He decided to join his race, and having some knowledge of simples was +made physician of the forces commanded by Jean Francois. Here he served +well, as he always did, and learned the trade of war. Shocked at the +cruelties of whites and blacks he took the side of mercy and saved lives +from the sword as well as from disease. He saw the vanity of Francois, +the rashness of Biassou, the cruelty of Jeannot; but he retired +disgusted to no stupid monastery; he returned not to the ease and +degradation of slavery, but was equal to the facts of life, however +hard, and grappled with them and mastered them as a man should. He was +then loyal to the King, and he was loyal to the Church, a devout +Catholic. + +In 1792, the three commissioners, sent out from France to "settle" the +affairs of the colony, had been thwarted and finally driven away by the +whites. In September (1792), Santhonax, Polverel, and Ailhaud had +arrived with troops, money, and instructions and a new governor, +Desparbes, in place of Blanchelande. He soon became disgusted, alarmed, +and he fled. The commissioners bestirred themselves to settle the +commotion. The rich planters were for the King; the _Petits Blancs_ were +for the Directory; the mulattoes, under Rigaud, ravaged the West: the +revolted negroes, under Jean Francois, Biassou and others, threatened on +the North. France herself, that ancient kingdom, was now fermenting; +struggling--yet with hope--to realize in the state her unformed faith in +democracy, and with the energy of despair striving to beat back the +waves of bayonets which beat and bristled on her borders. Thus matters +stood in France, thus in Santo Domingo. The slaves in both countries had +risen, and rushed to arms. Their remedy was desperate; so was their +disease. + +General Galbaud, a new governor, arrived from France in May (1793). The +commissioners were engaged in the west in fighting Rigaud. They returned +to Cap Francois to fight the Governor whose authority they disputed. +Galbaud held the ships and the arsenals and determined to assert his +authority. His soldiers and sailors entered the town and abandoned +themselves to drunkenness, pillage and brutality. The commissioners +armed the slaves in the town, promised them freedom, and sent for aid to +the negro generals. Jean Francois and Biassou refused; but a chief, +Macayo, at the head of three thousand blacks, entered the town, and the +conflict raged. The whites were driven into the sea and slaughtered. +Madness ruled, and none fiercer than the mulattoes. Galbaud fled, and +half the city was destroyed by fire. At last--for a while--the whites +gave up the hope of recovering their slaves. Thousands fled--some +suppose nine-tenths--and found refuge along the American coasts. + +Famine had more than once increased the misery during these three years, +yet the island was fruitful, and cultivation, here and there, went on. +The sagacious Jean Francois had initiated cultivation along the +mountain-sides, and in the valleys; and thus secured an unfailing +magazine of supply. + +Toussaint, meanwhile, continues his duties with the negro troops. +Steadily and surely, if not rapidly, he gains strength and influence and +knowledge of war. He has measured himself with Jean and Biassou, and is +not wanting. His prudence, patience, silent will, and courage make him +useful to them, and his justice and determination and mercy make him the +idol of the men. The Marquis Hermona, Governor of the Spanish part of +the island, made advances to the negro chiefs. Santhonax, in his +extremity after the destruction of Cap Francois, sent Macayo to propose +an alliance, but they distrusted him. + +Meanwhile Louis XVI was beheaded. They said, "We have lost the King of +France, but the King of Spain esteems us and gives us succor." They +declined the proposals of the commissioners, and ranged themselves on +the side of Spain. Toussaint was loyal to the memory of the King, and +followed Francois and Biassou. Hermona saw that Toussaint was a _man_; +and while Jean Francois was advanced to the first rank, Toussaint was +raised to that of colonel in the Spanish army. He at once applied +himself to his duties, and what he did was always well done. His troops +became, as if by a word, the best disciplined in the army. The reason +was plain: he knew what men ought to do and what they can do; and the +men knew that he was upright and wise. So these ragged, ignorant, roving +hordes became efficient troops. Confidence begat confidence: the +commander trusted his men, and they relied on him; together they were +strong. Idleness was not Toussaint's policy. The insurgents under Jean +Francois, Biassou, and Toussaint held strong positions in the mountains +south of Cap Francois. Brandicourt, the general of the French troops, +was at once trapped and compelled to order his troops to lay down their +arms. Grande Riviere, Dondon, Plaisance, Marmalade, and Ennery, the most +important places in the north, quickly fell into Toussaint's hands. + +The French commissioners were getting into straits. The Spanish troops +were against them; the blacks were against them. The remaining whites +were divided; some wore the black cockade, others the white; the troops, +and friends of the commissioners, the tricolor; the mulattoes, the red. +War was everywhere, and no man was safe but with arms in his hands and +in the strongest party. But this was not enough: some of the planters +mounted the English hat and sent to the English for succor. Even +"_perfide Albion_" was welcome, if they might but reestablish slavery +and get again their estates. In this extremity, Santhonax decided to +make friends with the blacks, and proclaimed at Cap Francois universal +freedom (August 20, 1793). Polverel repeated the proclamation at Port au +Prince. The enthusiasm among the negroes was great, but not universal. +Their leaders were not moved; they distrusted the commissioners and they +doubted the stability of the French Republic--so the war went on. + +In September, the English landed at Jeremie, in the extreme southwest. +They took possession of St. Nicholas, in the extreme northwest, and +during the year 1794 the whole western coast was in their +possession--St. Nicholas, St. Marc, St. Jacmel, Tiburon, Jeremie; and at +last, on June 4th, Port au Prince, the capital, yielded. "Twenty-two +topsail vessels," with their cargoes, worth four hundred thousand pounds +sterling, were a part of the spoil. The mulatto chief, Rigaud, had taken +the side of France. Educated in Bordeaux, he had followed, in Santo +Domingo, his trade of a goldsmith, which the whites thought too good for +a "nigger." He was a brave man, mild in peace, and terrible in war, and, +aided by Petion, he kept up a harassing fight against the English. +Shortly after the fall of Port au Prince, a ship arrived with a +requisition for the commissioners to return to France; they must answer +for their doings there, and General Laveaux was left as provisional +governor. + +His case, and that of the French, was desperate. Shut up in Port de +Paix, the last stronghold of the French, he wrote (May 24, 1794): "For +more than six months we have been reduced to six ounces of bread a day, +officers as well as men, but from the 13th we have none whatever, the +sick only excepted. If we had powder we should have been consoled. We +have in our magazines neither shoes, nor shirts, nor clothes, nor soap, +nor tobacco. The most of the soldiers mount guard barefoot; we have no +flints for the men; but be assured that we will never surrender; be +assured too, that after us, the enemy will not find the slightest trace +of Port de Paix." Dark was the outlook, but brave was the heart of +General Laveaux. + +The hour was nigh: the hands advanced on the dial of time. Events, which +no man could have foreseen or controlled, had gathered for judgment, and +at last a great nation had decreed freedom to a poor, debauched, and +servile race. But who should lead them, who should now defend them +against themselves; give shape and system to their undisciplined wishes, +carry them safely through the anarchy of unbounded liberty and +crystallize them into a state whose only sure basis is the Rights and +Duties of Labor, Thought, Speech, and Worship, the Rights and Duties of +Man. The hour has come and the man--Toussaint Breda! from his eyrie near +Dondon, sweeps the horizon. In the east he sees the decadent power of +Spain: it has spoken no word of freedom for the blacks. In the west he +sees the white sails of England: she is hand and glove with the planters +to reestablish slavery. In the north France and Laveaux are nigh death. +France only has proclaimed liberty to the blacks. Toussaint sees the +"opening" for his race and for himself, and from this day he is +Toussaint Louverture--the first of the blacks. Bone of their bone and +skin of their skin, he alone knows their needs, their capacities, and +their hearts. With the clear glance of inspiration he sees the moment, +with the firm grasp of talent he seizes it. + +General Laveaux saw this, and through the priest, La Haye, made advances +to him. Toussaint is wise and he is wary; he keeps his own counsel; he +consults not Jean Francois, who had once cast him into prison; nor +Biassou, nor the Marquis Hermona. As usual, he performs his duties; as +usual, he partakes of the communion; as usual, his troops look to him, +and Hermona said: "There exists on earth no purer soul." He has placed +his wife and children in safety; he has ordered his affairs; his horse +stands saddled and bridled; then, tearing off his epaulettes he casts +them at the feet of the Spanish officers, flings himself on his horse, +and rides like the wind out of the camp. The Spaniards are for a moment +paralyzed: they pursue him, but neither hoof nor pistol can reach him. +Toussaint is not to be caught. + +On May 4, 1794, he pulls down the Spanish and hoists the French colors. +Marmalade, Plaisance, Ennery, Dondon, Acul, and Limbe submit to him. +Confusion and fear prevail among the Spaniards; joy exalts the negroes. +Laveaux is saved, and the colony not yet lost to France. Toussaint is a +power in the state: the negroes everywhere respond to the sound of his +voice; they look to him as their hero, defender, guide, and guard. +Toussaint sets himself to his work. The whole province of the north soon +falls into his hands, and he drives the Spanish ally, Jean Francois, +westward along La Montaigne Noire. Then he hastens into the rich valley +of the Artibonite, attacks and beats back the English and besieges the +strong fortress of St. Marc; but neither forces nor ammunition is +sufficient and he retires to the mountain fastnesses of Marmalade to +recruit his troops. On October 9, 1794, he carries the fortress of San +Miguel by storm. + +Toussaint determines to drive away the English, and he falls with fury +upon General Brisbane in the Artibonite and compels him to retreat. But +Jean Francois hung over him in the heights of La Grande Riviere. Again +he retires to Dondon and organizes his forces to repel the Spaniards. In +four days he takes and destroys twenty-eight positions, but Jean +Francois with a superior force threatens his rear while the English are +in front; again he is baffled and he returns to Dondon. Toussaint is no +longer the leader of marauding bands but the head of an army. His troops +are mostly raw and ignorant, badly clothed, armed, and fed, but they +trust in him and have courage. He seeks for efficient officers, and +finds Dessalines, Desroulaux, Maurepas, Clervaux, Christophe and +Lamartiniere. These he must command with discretion; his troops he must +provide with arms, ammunition, and food. He must watch the forces of the +Spaniards, the movements of the English. Intrigues abroad and +treacheries at home; henceforth he must organize campaigns. + +The treaty of Basel had secured the cession of the whole Spanish part of +the island to France. Jean Francois was, therefore, at liberty to retire +to Spain, to enjoy his honors. There remained now but the English to +distract the plans of Toussaint and the French. One more disturbing +element yet existed. The mulattoes felt themselves superior to the +blacks, and the rightful successors to the whites in the honors and +government of the island. Jealous of Toussaint and the favors shown the +blacks, headed by Nillate (Villate), they rose against Laveaux, the +Governor of the Cape, and threw him into prison; his danger was extreme. +Toussaint descended on the town with ten thousand blacks and saved him. +Laveaux appointed him his lieutenant, second in command in the island, +and declared that he was the "Spartacus," foretold by Raynal, who should +avenge the sufferings of his race. Confidence grew now between the +blacks and the whites, and Lacroix--who is in no way friendly to the +blacks--admits that "if Santo Domingo still carried the colors of +France, it was solely owing to an old negro who seemed to bear +a commission from Heaven." The French continued to send +commissioners--Santhonax among them--but Toussaint was the moving mind; +and when Laveaux, having been elected Delegate to the Assembly, sailed +for France, Santhonax finally appointed him commander-in-chief. + +Toussaint, now "Louverture"; a strong hand and a clear head, though +black, now directs the affairs of the island. Daily he gains strength +and the confidence of the negroes. They flock to his army; they listen +and obey his words. Christophe, in the north, had encouraged +cultivation. Toussaint throws his powerful influence into the work. His +maxim, "that the liberty of the blacks can never endure without +agriculture," passes from mouth to mouth among the negroes, and rouses +in them the desire for lands and wealth--for the first time now +possible. He wishes that Cape and the towns along the north should be +rebuilt. It is done; they rise from their ashes. All hopes are centred +in the General-in-Chief: _he_ can restore peace and prosperity; he +alone. + +The English now were sore bestead. The French pressed them in the west; +Desfourneaux in the north; Rigaud in the south; Christophe had carried +the heights of Valliere--the Vendee of Santo Domingo. Toussaint +Louverture again attempts to take St. Marc; thrice he storms it, thrice +he deserves success, but again he fails to clutch this strong fortress. +He turns now to Mirebelois, an interior Thermopylae, strongly fortified +by the English. His lieutenant, Mornay, intercepted Montalembert, who +was advancing with seven hundred men and two pieces of artillery. The +next day he drives in all the English troops, invests the village of St. +Louis, carries the forts by assault, and in fourteen days totally +defeats the English, taking two hundred prisoners, eleven pieces of +cannon, and military stores. The efforts of the English are nearly at an +end; weak and weary, their strength is spent. Whitlocke, Williamson, +Whyte, Horneck, Brisbane, and Markham, have tried to subdue these rebels +and to wrest the colony from France: they have bitten a file. Millions +of pounds have been wasted; Brisbane and Markham are killed; thousands +of soldiers slain; the yellow fever, too, has done its work. + +General Maitland at last decided to leave the island, and between him +and Toussaint there went on a struggle of diplomacy; but Louverture was +more than his equal: he accepted his honors, but refused his bribes. +They made terms, and Maitland evacuated Port au Prince and St. Nicholas. +One incident illustrates Maitland's confidence in Toussaint. Before the +disembarkation of his troops, he determined to return Louverture's +visit. He proceeded to his camp, through a country full of negroes, with +but three attendants. On his way he heard that Roume, the French +commissioner, had advised Toussaint to seize him; but he proceeded, and +when he reached the camp, after waiting a short time, Toussaint entered, +and, handing him two letters--Roume's and his reply--said: "Read; I +could not see you until I had written, so that you could see that I am +incapable of baseness." + +General Lacroix has written that he saw, in the archives at Port au +Prince, the offers made to Toussaint, securing him in the power and +kingship of the island, and liberty to his race, with a sufficient naval +force on the part of England, provided he would renounce France and form +a commercial treaty with England. The event leads one to regret that +Toussaint's ambition was not superior to his loyalty to France. + +During these proceedings with the English, Santhonax had departed for +France, partly at his own request, partly because he was in the way of +Toussaint's plans for the restoration of the island. With him, Toussaint +sent his two sons to receive some education in France, and to show, as +his letter stated, "his confidence in the Directory--at a time when +complaints were busy against him." He said, "there exist no longer any +internal agitations; and I hold myself responsible for the submission to +order and duty of the blacks, my brethren." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[35] Now, in English, Cape Haitien. The place is a seaport of northern +Haiti.--ED. + + + + +REPUBLICAN FRANCE DEFIES EUROPE + +BATTLE OF VALMY + +A.D. 1792 + +ALPHONSE M. L. LAMARTINE + + In the battle of Valmy the French, under Dumouriez and + Kellermann, repulsed the Prussians and their allies, + commanded by the Duke of Brunswick. Though not in itself a + great victory, its results have led some historians to call + that action one of the decisive battles of the world. The + final withdrawal of the Prussians, owing to Russian + intrigues in Poland, left an open way for the French army + into the Austrian Netherlands, which at Jemapes (November 6, + 1792) were won for France. Other victories for the + Revolution quickly followed, greatly advancing its cause. + + After the fall of the Bastille (July 14, 1789), the National + Assembly abolished special privileges, slavery, and serfdom + in France and all her territories, and decreed equal + taxation. A new constitution was made. These acts heightened + popular enthusiasm for the revolt. Political clubs, chief of + which was that of the Jacobins, were formed in Paris. They + were fiercely uncompromising in their demand for the + overthrow of the monarchy. Many of the nobles hastened to + quit the country. The King was virtually made prisoner in + Paris, whence he attempted to escape, but was captured by + insurgents and closely guarded in the city. + + The National Assembly came to an end and was succeeded + (October 1, 1791) by the Legislative Assembly, a still more + radical body, which for a year practically ruled France over + the head of the King. + + Such was the state of affairs in France when, + notwithstanding the complications in the East, the Emperor + Leopold II and King Frederick William II of Prussia issued + the Convention of Pillnitz (August, 1791). This was the + basis of an alliance for the rescue of Louis XVI from his + enemies, and for his full restoration to power. It led a + little later to a formidable coalition of sovereigns against + the Revolution. Brunswick advanced toward Paris, but while + he hesitated in his progress the French army, under + Dumouriez, was increased in numbers and discipline. + Dumouriez was on the Belgian border, preparing for his + "Argonne campaign," the first events of which no one has + better described than Lamartine. + + +While the interregnum of royalty and republicanism delivered Paris over +to the revolutionists, France, with all its frontiers open, had for +security nothing but the small forest of Argonnes and the genius of +Dumouriez. On September 2, 1792, this general was shut up with sixteen +thousand men in the camp of Grandpre, occupying with weak detachments +the intermediate defiles between Sedan and Sainte-Menehould, by which +the Duke of Brunswick might attempt to break his line and turn his +position. He caused the tocsin to be rung in the villages, hoping to +excite the enthusiasm of the inhabitants; but the captures of Longwi and +Verdun, the understanding between the gentlemen of the country and the +_emigres_,[36] the hatred of the Revolution, and the disproportionate +amounts of the coalesced army, discouraged resistance. Dumouriez, left +to himself by the inhabitants, could only rely on his own troops. His +sole hope was in forming a junction with Kellermann. If that could be +effected behind the forest of Argonne before the troops of the Duke of +Brunswick could force the natural rampart, Kellermann and Dumouriez, +uniting their troops, would have a body of forty-five thousand soldiers +to ninety thousand Prussians, and might then with some hope hazard the +fate of France on a battle. + +Kellermann, who was worthy to understand and second this grand idea, +served without jealousy Dumouriez's design, satisfied with his share of +the glory if his country should be saved. He marched to Metz, at the +extremity of the Argonne, informing Dumouriez of every step he took. But +their superior intelligence was a mystery for the majority of officers +and soldiery. Provisions were scarce and bad, the general himself eating +black bread. Ministers, deputies, Luckner himself--influenced by his +correspondents in the camp--wrote perpetually to Dumouriez to abandon +his position and retire to Chalons. + +Slight skirmishes with the advanced guard of the Prussians, in which the +French were always victorious, gave the troops patience. Miaczinski, +Stengel, and Miranda drove back the Prussians at all points. Dumouriez, +in his position, deadened the shock of the one hundred thousand men whom +the King of Prussia and the Duke of Brunswick collected at the foot of +Argonne. Chance nearly lost all. + +Overcome by fatigue of body and mind, he had forgotten to reconnoitre +with his own eyes, and quite close to him, the defile of Croix-au-Bois, +which had been described to him as impracticable for troops, +particularly cavalry and artillery. He had placed there, however, a +dragoon regiment, two battalions of volunteers, and two pieces of +cannon, commanded by a colonel; but in consequence of the recall of the +dragoons and the two battalions before the troops ordered to replace +them had come up, the defile was for a moment open to the enemy. A great +many volunteer spies, whom the emigres had in the villages of Argonne, +hastened to point out this weakness to Clerfayt, the Austrian general, +who instantly despatched eight thousand men, under the command of the +young Prince de Ligne, who seized on the position. + +A few hours afterward, Dumouriez, informed of this reverse, placed +General Chazot at the head of two brigades, six squadrons of his best +troops, four pieces of cannon, besides the artillery belonging to the +battalions, and ordered him to attack the place at the bayonet's point, +and recover the position at any sacrifice. Every hour the impatient +commander despatched aides-de-camp to Chazot to expedite his march and +bring him back information. Twenty-four hours passed away thus in doubt. +On the 14th Dumouriez heard the sound of firing on his left, and judged +by the noise, which receded, that the Imperialists were in retreat and +Chazot had gained the forest. In the evening a note from Chazot informed +him that he had forced the intrenchments of the Austrians, in spite of +their desperate defence; that eight hundred dead lay in the defile, +among whom was the Prince de Ligne. + +Scarcely, however, had this note reached Dumouriez, whose mind had been +thereby set at ease, than Clerfayt, burning to avenge the death of the +Prince de Ligne and make a decisive attack on this rampart of the French +army, advanced all his columns into this defile, gained the heights, +rushed headlong down on Chazot's column in front and on both flanks, +took his cannon, and compelled Chazot himself to leave the forest for +the plain, cutting off his communication with the camp of Grandpre, and +driving him in full flight on the road to Vouziers. At the same moment +the corps of the emigres attacked General Dubouquet, in the defile of +the Chene-Populeux. Frenchman against Frenchman, their valor was equal: +the one side fighting to save, the other to reconquer, their country. +Dubouquet gave way and retreated upon Chalons. These two disasters came +upon Dumouriez at the same moment. Chazot and Dubouquet seemed to trace +out to him the road. The clamor of his whole army pointed out to him +Chalons as a refuge. Clerfayt, with twenty-five thousand men, was about +to cut off his communication with Chalons. The Duke of Brunswick, with +eighty thousand Prussians, enclosed him on the three other sides in the +camp of Grandpre. His detachments cut off reduced his army to fifteen +thousand men. + +A retreat before an enemy, conquering in two partial encounters, was to +prostrate the fortune of France before the foreigner. The "audacity" of +Danton passed into the mind and tactics of Dumouriez. He conceived a +plan even more bold than that of Argonne, and closed his ear to the +timid counsels of art. He dictated to his aides-de-camp orders to the +following effect: + +Kellermann was to continue his advance to Sainte-Menehould; Beurnonville +was to march instantly for Rhetel, advancing by the river Aisne, taking +care not to go too near to Argonne, to save its flanks from Clerfayt's +attacks. Dillon was to defend and check the two defiles of Argonne, and +to send out troops beyond the forest in order to perplex the Duke of +Brunswick's motions, and come as soon as possible into communication +with Kellermann's advanced guard. Chazot was to return to Autry. General +Sparre, the commandant at Chalons, was desired to form the advanced camp +at Chalons. + +These orders despatched, he prepared his own troops for the manoeuvre +which he himself intended to execute during the night. He sent to the +heights which cover the left of Grandpre on the side of the +Croix-au-Bois, where Clerfayt made him most uneasy, six battalions, six +squadrons, six pieces of cannon, as a lookout, in case of any sudden +attack on the part of the Austrians. At nightfall he caused the park of +artillery to defile in silence by the two bridges which traverse the +Aisne, and halt on the heights of Autry. + +The Prince of Hohenlohe requested an interview with Dumouriez that +evening, his motive being to judge of the state of the army. Dumouriez +granted this, and substituted for himself in this conference General +Duval, whose advanced years, white hair, and commanding stature imposed +on the Austrian general. Duval affected an appearance of security, +telling the Prince that Beurnonville was expected next day with eighteen +thousand men, and Kellermann at the head of thirty thousand troops. +Discouraged in his offers of arrangement by Duval, the Austrian chief +withdrew, firmly convinced that Dumouriez meant to await the battle in +his camp. + +At midnight Dumouriez left the Chateau of Grandpre, on horseback, and +went to the camp in the pitchy darkness of the night. All was hushed in +repose: he forbade drums to beat or trumpets to sound, but sent round in +a low voice the order to strike the tents and get under arms. The +darkness and confusion were unfavorable to these orders, but before the +first dawn of day the army was in full march. The troops passed in +double file over the bridges of Senuc and Grand Champ, and ranged +themselves in battle array on the eminences of Autry. Thus covered by +the Aisne, Dumouriez gazed upon the foe to see if they followed; but the +mystery of his movements had disconcerted the Duke of Brunswick and +Clerfayt. The army cut down the bridges behind them, and then, advancing +four leagues from Grandpre to Dumartin, encamped there; and in the +morning General Duval dispersed a host of Prussian hussars. Dumouriez +resumed his march next day, and on the 17th entered his camp of +Sainte-Menehould. + +The camp of Sainte-Menehould seemed to have been designed by nature to +serve as a citadel for a handful of patriot soldiers, against a vast and +victorious army. Protected in the front by a deep valley, on one side by +the Aisne, and on the other by marshes, the back of the camp was +defended by the shallow branches of the river Auve. Beyond these muddy +streamlets and quagmires arose a solid and narrow piece of ground, +admirably adapted for the station of a second camp; and here the general +intended that Kellermann's division should be placed, then commanding +the two routes of Rheims and Chalons. Dumouriez had studied this +position during his leisure hours at Grandpre, and took up his quarters +with the confidence of a man who knows his ground and seizes on success +with certain hand. + +All his arrangements being made and head-quarters established at +Sainte-Menehould, in the centre of the army, Dumouriez, annoyed at the +reports, spread by fugitives, of his having been routed, wrote to the +assembly: "I have been obliged," he wrote to the President, "to abandon +the camp of Grandpre; our retreat was complete, when a panic spread +through the army--ten thousand men fled before one thousand five hundred +Prussian hussars. All is repaired, and I answer for everything." + +At the news of the retreat of Grandpre, Kellermann, believing Dumouriez +defeated, and fearful of falling himself among the Prussian forces, whom +he supposed to be at the extremity of the defile of Argonne, had +retreated as far as Vitry. Couriers from Dumouriez reassuring him, he +again advanced, but with the slowness of a man who fears an ambush at +every step. He hesitated while he obeyed. On the other side, +Beurnonville, the friend and confidant of Dumouriez, had met the +fugitives of Chazot's corps. Wholly disconcerted by their statements of +the complete rout of his general, Beurnonville, with some dragoons, had +ascended a hill, whence he perceived Argonne, and the bare heaths which +extend from Grandpre to Sainte-Menehould. + +It was on the morning of the 17th, at the moment when Dumouriez's army +was moving from Dammartin to Sainte-Menehould. At the sight of this body +of troops, whose uniforms and flags he could not distinguish in the +heavy mist, Beurnonville had no doubt but that it was the Prussian army +advancing in pursuit of the French. He immediately faced about, and +advanced to Chalons by forced marches, in order to join his general. +Hearing his mistake at Chalons, Beurnonville gave only twelve hours' +rest to his harassed men, and arrived on the 19th with the ten thousand +warlike soldiers whom he had led so far to the field of battle. +Dumouriez passed them all in review, recognizing all the officers by +their names, and the soldiers by their countenances, while they all +saluted their leader with the loudest acclamations. The battalions and +squadrons which he had carefully formed, disciplined, and accustomed to +fire during the dilatory proceedings of Luckner with the army of the +North, defiled before him, covered with the dust of their long march, +their horses jaded, uniforms torn, shoes in holes, but their arms as +perfect and as bright as if they were on parade. + +Dumouriez had scarcely dismounted when Westermann and Thouvenot, his two +confidential staff officers, came to inform him that the Prussian army, +_en masse_, had passed the peak of Argonne, and were deploying on the +hills of La Lune, on the other side of the Tourbe, opposite to him. At +the same instant young Macdonald, his aide-de-camp, who had been sent, +on the previous evening, on the road to Vitry, came galloping up, and +brought him intelligence of the approach of the long-expected +Kellermann, who at the head of twenty thousand men of the army of Metz, +and some thousands of volunteers of Lorraine, was only at two hours' +distance. Thus the fortune of the Revolution and the genius of +Dumouriez, seconding each other, brought at the appointed hour and to +the fixed spot, from the two extremities of France and from the depths +of Germany, the forces which were to assail and those which were to +defend the empire. + +At the same moment Dumouriez, recalling his isolated detachments, +prepared for a struggle, by concentrating all his scattered forces. +General Dubouquet had retired to Chalons with three thousand men, where +he also expected to find Dumouriez, but had only found in the city ten +battalions of _federes_ and volunteers, who had arrived from Paris, and, +hearing of the retreat of the army, mutinied against their chiefs, cut +off the head of one of their officers, taking others with them, +plundered the army stores, murdered the colonel of the regiment of +Vexin, and then, in confused masses, took the road to Paris, proclaiming +everywhere Dumouriez's treason and demanding his head. Dumouriez was +alarmed lest these ruffians should come in contact with his army, for +such bands sowed sedition wherever they went. + +General Stengel, after having ravaged the country between Argonne and +Sainte-Menehould, in order to cut off all supplies from the Prussians, +fell back beyond the Tourbe, and posted himself with the vanguard on the +hills of Lyron, opposite the heights of La Lune, where the Duke of +Brunswick was posted. + +Dampierre's camp, separated from that of Dumouriez by the trenches and +shallows of the Auve, was assigned to Kellermann, but he passed beyond +this spot, and posted his entire army and baggage on the heights of +Valmy, in advance of Dampierre, on the left of that of Sainte-Menehould. +The line of Kellermann's encampment, nearer to the enemy, on its left, +touched on its right the line of Dumouriez, and thus formed with the +principal army an angle, against which the enemy could not send forth +its attacking columns without being at once overwhelmed by the French +artillery in both flanks. Dumouriez, perceiving in a moment that +Kellermann, who was too much involved and too much isolated on the +plateau of Valmy, might be turned by the Prussian masses, sent General +Chazot, at the head of eight battalions and eight squadrons, to post +them behind the heights of Gizaucourt, and be under Kellermann's orders. +He next desired General Stengel and Beurnonville to advance to the right +of Valmy with twenty-six battalions--his rapid _coup d'oeil_ assuring +him that this would be the Duke of Brunswick's point of attack. + +This plan displayed at a glance the intelligence of the warrior and the +politician. Defiance was thus cast by forty-five thousand men to one +hundred ten thousand soldiers of the coalition. + +The French army had its right flank and retreat covered by the Argonne, +which was impassable by the enemy, and defended by its ravines and +forests. The centre, bristling with batteries and natural obstacles, was +impregnable. The army faced the country toward Champagne, leaving behind +it the road clear to Chalons and Lorraine. + +"The Prussians," argued Dumouriez, "will either fight or advance on +Paris. If the former, they will find the French army in an intrenched +camp as a field of battle. Obliged, in order to attack the centre, to +pass the Auve, the Tourbe, and the Bionne, under the fire of my +redoubts, they will take Kellermann in flank, who will crush their +attacking columns between his battalions, charging down from Valmy and +the batteries of my _corps d'armee_. If they leave the French army, and +cut off its retreat to Paris by marching on Chalons, the army, facing +about, will follow them to Paris, increasing in number at every step. +The reenforcements of the army of the Rhine and army of the North, which +are on the march; the battalions of scattered volunteers, which I shall +assemble as I cross the revolted provinces, will swell the amount of my +armed troops to sixty thousand or seventy thousand men. The Prussians +will march across a hostile country, and make every step with +hesitation, while each advance will give me fresh troops. I shall await +them under the walls of Paris. An invading army, placed between a +capital of six hundred thousand souls, who close their gates, and a +national army, which cuts off their retreat, is a destroyed army. France +will be saved in the heart of France, instead of on the frontiers; but +still she will be saved." + +Thus reasoned Dumouriez, when the first sounds of the Prussian cannon, +resounding from the heights of Valmy, came to announce to him that the +Duke of Brunswick, having perceived the danger of advancing, and thus +leaving the French army behind him, had attacked Kellermann. It was not +the Duke of Brunswick, however, but the young King of Prussia, who had +commanded the attack. The Prussian army, which the generalissimo wished +to extend gradually from Rheims to Argonne, parallel to the French army, +received orders to advance in a body on Kellermann's position. On the +19th it marched to Somme-Tourbe, and remained all night under arms. The +report was spread in the head-quarters of the King of Prussia that the +French were meditating a retreat on Chalons, and that the movements +perceptible in their line were only intended to mask this retrograde +march. The King was vexed at a plan of a campaign which always allowed +them to escape. He thought he should surprise Dumouriez in the false +position of an army which had raised his camp. The Duke of Brunswick, +whose military authority began to suffer with the failure of his +preceding manoeuvres, in vain sought the intervention of General +Koeler to moderate the ardor of the King. The attack was resolved upon. + +On the 20th, at 6 A.M., the Duke marched at the head of the Prussian +advanced guard upon Somme-Bionne, with the intention of attacking +Kellermann, and cutting off his retreat by the high road of Chalons. A +thick autumnal fog floated over the plain into the marshy grounds where +the three rivers flow, in the hollow ravines which separated the two +armies, leaving only the points of the precipices and the crests of the +hills shining in the light above this ocean of fog. An unexpected shock +of the cavalry of the two advanced guards alone revealed, in this +darkness, the march of the Prussians to the French. After a rapid +_melee_ and some firing, the advanced guard of the French fell back +upon Valmy, and warned Kellermann of the enemy's approach. The Duke of +Brunswick continued to advance, reached the high road to Chalons, +crossed it, and then deployed his whole army. At ten o'clock, the mist +having suddenly disappeared, showed to the two generals their mutual +situation. + +Kellermann's army was en masse in the plain and behind the mill of +Valmy. This bold position projected like a cape into the midst of the +lines of the Prussian bayonets. General Chazot had not, as yet, come up +with his twenty-six battalions to flank Kellermann's left. General +Leveneur, who was to have flanked his right and to unite it with +Dumouriez's army, advanced with hesitation and slowly, fearing to draw +on his feeble force all the weight of the Prussian body, which he saw in +battle array before him. General Valence, who commanded Kellermann's +cavalry, deployed into high line with a regiment of carbineers, some +squadrons of dragoons, and four battalions of grenadiers, between +Gizaucourt and Valmy, thus covering the whole space which Kellermann +could fill up, and where that general was expected. Kellermann's lines +formed in the centre of the heights. His powerful artillery bristled by +the side of the mill of Valmy, the centre and key to the position. +Almost surrounded by semicircular lines of the enemy, which were +perpetually increasing in numbers, and embarrassed on this very narrow +elevation by his twenty-two thousand men, horses, guns, and baggage, +Kellermann was unable to extend the wings of his army. + +From this height Kellermann saw come in succession, from the white mist +of the morning, and glitter in the sunshine, the countless Prussian +cavalry, which must envelop him, as in a net, if he were driven from his +position. About noon the Duke of Brunswick, having formed his whole army +into two lines, and decided on his plan of the day, was seen to detach +himself from the centre, and advance toward the declivities of +Gizaucourt and La Lune, at the head of a body of infantry, cavalry, and +three batteries. Fresh troops filled up the space these left. + +Such was the horizon of tents, bayonets, horses, cannon, and staff which +displayed itself on September 20th, in the hollows and ravines of +Champagne. At the same hour the convention[37] began its sittings and +deliberations as to a monarchy or a republic. Within and without, France +and liberty sported with destiny. + +The exterior aspect of the two armies seemed to declare beforehand the +issue of the campaign. On the side of the Prussians, one hundred ten +thousand combatants; a system of tactics the inheritance of the Great +Frederick; discipline, which converted battalions into machines of war, +and which, destroying all personal will in the soldier, made him bend +submissively to the thought and voice of his officers; an infantry solid +and impenetrable as walls of iron; cavalry mounted on the splendid +horses of Mecklenburg, whose docility, well-controlled ardor, and high +courage were not alarmed either at the fire of artillery nor the glitter +of cold steel; officers trained from their infancy to fighting as a +trade, born, as it were, in uniforms, knowing their troops and known to +them, exercising over their soldiers the twofold ascendency of nobility +and command; as auxiliaries, the picked regiments of the Austrian Army, +recently from the banks of the Danube, where they had been fighting +against the Turks; the emigrant French nobility, bearing with them all +the great names of the monarchy, every soldier of whom fought for his +own cause and had his individual injuries to avenge--his King to save, +his country to recover at the end of his bayonet or the point of his +sabre; Prussian generals, all pupils of a military king, having to +maintain the superiority of their renown in Europe; a generalissimo +which Germany proclaimed its Agamemnon, and which the genius of +Frederick covered with a prestige of invincibility; and, also, a young +King, brave, adored by his people, dear to his troops, avenger of the +cause of all kings, accompanied by representatives of every court on the +field of battle, and supplying the inexperience of war by a personal +bravery which forgot its rank in the sole consideration of its +honor--such was the Prussian army. + +In the French camp a numerical inferiority of one against three; +regiments reduced to three or four hundred men by the effect of the laws +of 1790, which only admitted volunteers; these regiments, deprived of +their best officers by emigration, which had induced more than half to +go to the enemy's soil, and by the sudden creation of one hundred +battalions of volunteers, at the head of which they had placed the +officers remaining in France as instructors; these battalions and +regiments, without any _esprit de corps_, regarding each other with +jealousy or contempt; two feelings in the same army--the spirit of +discipline in the old ranks, the spirit of insubordination in the new +corps; old officers suspecting their men, soldiers doubtful of their +officers; a cavalry ill equipped and badly mounted; an infantry +competent and firm in regiments, raw and weak in battalions; pay in +arrear and paid in assignats greatly depreciated; insufficiently armed; +uniforms various, threadbare, torn, often in tatters; many soldiers +without shoes, or substituting handfuls of hay tied round the legs with +cord; the troops arriving from different armies and provinces, unknown +to each other, and scarcely knowing the name of the generals under whom +they had been enlisted--these generals themselves young and rash, +passing suddenly from obeying to command, or, old and methodical, unable +to make their formal modes comply with the dash required in desperate +warfare; and, finally, at the head of this incongruous army, a +general-in-chief fifty-three years of age, new to war, whom everybody +had a right to doubt, mistrustful of his troops, at variance with his +second in command, at issue with his government, whose daring yet +dilatory plan was not understood by any, and who had neither services in +the past nor the spell of victory on his sword to give authority or +confidence to his command--such were the French at Valmy. But the +enthusiasm of the country and the Revolution struggled in the heart of +this army, and the genius of war inspired the soul of Dumouriez. + +Uneasy as to Kellermann's position, Dumouriez, on horseback from the +dawn of day, visited his line, extended his troops between +Sainte-Menehould and Gizaucourt, and galloped toward Valmy in order that +he might the better judge himself of the intentions of the Duke of +Brunswick and the point on which the Prussians were to concentrate their +efforts. He there found Kellermann giving his final orders to the +generals, who, on his left and right, were to have the responsibility of +the day. One of these was General Valence, and the other the Duc de +Chartres. + +The Duc de Chartres[38] had been welcomed by the old soldiers as a +prince, by the new ones as a patriot, by all as a comrade. His +intrepidity did not carry him away; he controlled it, and it left him +that quickness of perception and that coolness so essential to a +general; amid the hottest fire he neither quickened nor slackened his +pace, for his ardor was as much the effect of reflection as of +calculation, and as grave as duty. His familiarity--martial with the +officers, soldierly with the soldiers, patriotic with the +citizens--caused them to forgive him for being a prince. But beneath the +exterior of a soldier of the people lurked the _arriere pensee_ of a +prince of the blood; and he plunged into all the events of the +Revolution with the entire yet skilful _abandon_ of a mastermind. Men +feared, in spite of his bravery and his exalted enthusiasm for his +country, to catch a glimpse of a throne raised upon its own ruins and by +the hands of a republic. This presentiment, which invariably precedes +great names and destinies, seemed to reveal to the army that, of all the +leaders of the Revolution, he might one day be the most useful or the +most fatal to liberty. + +Dumouriez, who had seen the young Duc de Chartres with the army at +Luckner, was struck with his intrepidity and coolness during the action, +and, perceiving a spark of no ordinary fire in this young man, resolved +to attach him to himself. + +The Prussians held the heights of La Lune, and had commenced descending +them in battle array. The veteran troops of Frederick the Great, slow +and measured in all their movements, displayed no rash impetuosity and +left naught to chance. + +On their side the French did not behold without a feeling of dread this +immense and hitherto invincible army silently advance its first line in +columns of attack, and extend its wings to pierce their centre and cut +off all retreat, either on Chalons or Dumouriez. The soldiers remained +motionless in their position, fearing to expose by a false movement the +narrow battle-field on which they could defend themselves, but did not +dare manoeuvre. The Prussians descended half-way down the heights of +La Lune, and then opened their fire both in front and flank. + +On this attack Kellermann's artillery moved forward and took up its +position in front of the infantry. More than twenty thousand balls were +exchanged during two hours from one hundred twenty guns, which thundered +from the sides of the opposite hills, as though they strove to batter a +breach in the mountains. The Prussians, more exposed than the French, +suffered more severely, and their fire began to slacken. Kellermann, who +narrowly watched the enemy's movements, fancied he saw some confusion in +their ranks, and charged at the head of a column to carry the guns. A +Prussian battery, masked by an inequality in the ground, suddenly opened +its fire on them, and Kellermann's horse, struck by a ball in the chest, +fell on its rider. His aide-de-camp, Lieutenant-Colonel Lormier, was +killed, and the head of the column, exposed on three sides to a +withering fire, fell back in disorder, while Kellermann, disengaged and +carried off by his troops, sought for a fresh charger. The Prussians, +witnessing his fall and the retreat of his column, redoubled their fire, +and a well-directed volley of shells silenced the French artillery. + +The Duc de Chartres, who for three hours had supported the fire of the +Prussians at the decisive post of Valmy, without drawing a trigger, saw +the danger of his general. He hastened to the second line, put himself +at the head of the reserve of artillery, advanced to the plateau by the +mill, covered the disorder of the centre, rallied the flying caissons, +supported the fire, and checked the enemy's onset. + +The Duke of Brunswick would not give the French time to strengthen their +position, but formed three formidable columns of attack, supported by +two wings of cavalry. These columns advanced in spite of the fire of the +French batteries, and were about to crush beneath their masses the +division of the Duc de Chartres, who at the mill of Valmy awaited the +onset. Kellermann, who had renewed the line, formed his army into +columns by battalions, sprang from his horse, and casting the bridle to +his orderly, bade him lead it behind the ranks, showing the soldiers +that he was resolved to conquer or die. "Comrades," cried Kellermann, in +a voice of thunder, "the moment of victory is at hand. Let us suffer the +enemy to advance, and then charge with the bayonet." Then waving his hat +on the top of his sword, "_Vive la nation!_" cried he more +enthusiastically than before; "let us conquer for her." + +This cry of the general, repeated by the nearest battalions, and taken +up successively by the rest, created an immense clamor like the country +herself encouraging her defenders. This shout of the whole army, +resounding from one hill to another, and heard above the cannon's roar, +reassured the troops, and made the Duke of Brunswick pause, for such +hearts promised equally terrible hands. Kellermann still advanced at the +head of his column. The Duc de Chartres, his sword in one hand and a +tricolored flag in the other, followed the horse artillery with the +cavalry. The Duke of Brunswick, with the quick eye of a veteran soldier, +and that economy of human life that characterizes an able general, saw +that this attack would fail when opposed to such enthusiasm; and he +re-formed the head of his columns, sounded the retreat, and slowly +retired to his positions unpursued. + +The fire ceased on both sides and the battle was as it were suspended +until four in the evening, when the King of Prussia, indignant at the +hesitation of his army, formed in person, and with the flower of his +infantry and cavalry, three formidable columns of attack; then riding +down the line, he bitterly reproached them with suffering the standard +of the monarch to be thus humiliated. At the voice of their sovereign +the troops marched to the conflict, and the King, surrounded by the Duke +of Brunswick and his principal officers, marched in the first rank, +exposed to the fire of the French, which mowed down his staff around +him. Intrepid as the blood of Frederick, he commanded as a king jealous +of the honor of his nation, and exposed himself like a soldier who holds +his life but lightly compared to victory. All was in vain; the Prussian +columns, assailed by the fire of twenty-four pieces of cannon, in +position on the heights of Valmy, retreated at nightfall, leaving behind +them eight hundred dead. Not to have been defeated was to the French +army a victory. Kellermann felt this so fully that he assumed the name +of Valmy in after-years,[39] and in his will bequeathed his heart to the +village of that name, in order that it might repose on the theatre of +his greatest renown, and sleep amid the companions of his first field. + +While the French army fought and triumphed at Valmy, the Convention +decreed the Republic at Paris. + +Dumouriez returned to his camp amid the roar of Kellermann's cannon; but +while he congratulated himself on the success of a day that strengthened +the patriotic feelings of the army, and that rendered the first attack +on the country fatal to her enemies, he was too clear-sighted not to +perceive the faults of Kellermann and the temerity of his position. The +Duke of Brunswick was on the morrow the same as he was the previous +evening, and had, moreover, extended his right wing beyond Gizaucourt +and cut off the route to Chalons. + +Early on the morning of the 21st Dumouriez went to the camp of his +colleague, and ordered him to pass the river Auve, and fall back on the +camp of Dampierre, in the position previously assigned him. This +position, less brilliant, yet more secure, strengthened and united the +French army. Kellermann felt this and obeyed without a murmur. + +The Prussians had lost so much time that they had no longer any to +spare. The rainy season had already affected them, and the winter would +be sufficient in itself to force them to retreat. The Duke of Brunswick +lost ten days in observing the French army; and the rain and fever +season surprised him, while yet undecided. The rains cut up the roads +from Argonne, by which his convoys arrived from Verdun, while his +soldiers, destitute of shelter and provisions, wandered about in the +fields, the orchards and vineyards, plucking the unripe grapes which +these inhabitants of the North tasted for the first time. Their +stomachs, already weakened by bad living, were soon disordered, and they +were attacked by that dysentery which is so fatal to the soldier; the +contagion spread rapidly through the camp, and thinned the corps. + +The situation of Dumouriez did not appear, however, less perilous to +those who were not in the secret of his intentions. Hemmed in on the one +side of Les Eveches by the Prince de Hohenlohe; on the Paris side by the +King of Prussia, the Prussians were within six leagues of Chalons, the +emigres still nearer. The Uhlans, the light cavalry of the Prussians, +pillaged at the gates of Rheims, and between Chalons and the capital +there was not a position or an army. Paris dreaded to find itself thus +exposed. Kellermann, a brave, but susceptible general, shaken by the +opinion in Paris, threatened to quit the camp and abandon his colleague +to his fate. Dumouriez, employing alternately the ascendency of his rank +and the seduction of his genius, passed, in order to detain him, from +menace to entreaty, and thus gained day by day his victory of patience. +Sometimes he threatened to deprive of their uniform and arms those who +complained of the want of provisions, and drive them from the camp as +cowards who were unworthy to suffer privations for their country. Eight +battalions of federes, recently arrived from the camp at Chalons, and +intoxicated with massacre and sedition, were those who most threatened +the subordination of the camp, saying openly that the ancient officers +were traitors, and that it was necessary to purge the army, as they had +Paris, of its aristocrats. Dumouriez posted these battalions apart from +the others, placed a strong force of cavalry behind them, and two pieces +of cannon on their flank. Then, affecting to review them, he halted at +the head of the line, surrounded by all his staff and an escort of one +hundred hussars. "Fellows," said he--"for I will not call you either +citizens or soldiers--you see before you this artillery, behind you this +cavalry; you are stained with crimes, and I do not tolerate here +assassins or executioners. I know that there are scoundrels among you +charged to excite you to crime. Drive them from among you, or denounce +them to me, for I shall hold you responsible for their conduct." The +battalions trembled and at once assumed the same spirit that pervaded +the army. + +The ancient feelings of honor were associated in the camps with +patriotism, and Dumouriez encouraged it among his troops. Every day he +received from Paris threats of dismissal, to which he replied in terms +of defiance. "I will conceal my dismissal," he wrote, "until the day +when I behold the flight of the enemy: I will then show it to my +soldiers, and return to Paris, to suffer the punishment my country +inflicts on me for having saved her in spite of herself." + +Three commissioners of the Convention, Sillery, Carra, and Prieur, +arrived at the camp on the 24th, to proclaim the Republic, and Dumouriez +did not hesitate. Although a royalist, he yet felt that at present it +was not a question of government, but of the safety of the country; and +besides, his ambition was vast as his genius, vague as the future. A +republic agitated at home, threatened from abroad, could not but be +favorable to an ambitious soldier at the head of an army who adored him; +for when royalty was abolished, there was no one of higher rank in the +nation than its generalissimo. The commissioners had also instructions +to order the retreat of the army behind the Marne. Dumouriez asked and +obtained from them six days' delay; on the seventh, at sunrise, the +French videttes beheld the heights of La Lune deserted, and the columns +of the Duke of Brunswick slowly defiling between the hills of Champagne, +and taking the direction of Grandpre. Fortune had justified +perseverance, and genius had baffled numbers. Dumouriez was triumphant, +and France was saved. + +At this intelligence, one general shout of "Vive la nation!" burst from +the French army. The commissioners, the generals Beurnonville, Miranda, +even Kellermann, threw themselves into the arms of Dumouriez, and +acknowledged the superiority of his judgment and the accuracy of his +perception--while the soldiers proclaimed him the Fabius of his country. +But this name, which he accepted for a day, but ill responded to the +ardor of his soul; and he already meditated playing the part of +Hannibal, which was more consonant with the activity of his character +and the determination of his genius. At home, that of Caesar might one +day tempt him. This ambition of Dumouriez explains the unmolested +retreat of the Prussians through an enemy's country, and through defiles +which might easily have been converted into Caudine Forks, and under the +cannon of seventy thousand French, before which the weakened and +enervated army of the Duke of Brunswick had to make a flank movement. + +While the military genius of Dumouriez triumphed over the Prussian army, +his political genius was not asleep; for his camp, during the last days +of the campaign, was at once the head-quarters of an army and the centre +of diplomatic negotiations. Dumouriez had created a connection, half +apparent, half secret, with the Duke of Brunswick and those officers and +ministers who had most influence over the King of Prussia. Danton, the +only minister who possessed any authority over Dumouriez, was in the +secret of these negotiations. + +The Duke of Brunswick was no less desirous than Dumouriez to negotiate, +while fighting at the head-quarters of the King of Prussia were two +parties, one of whom wished to retain the King with the army, and the +other to remove him from it. The Count de Schulemberg, the King's +confidential agent, was the leader of the first, the Duke of Brunswick +of the second; Haugwitz, Lucchesini, Lombard, the King's secretary, +Kalkreuth, and the Prince de Hohenlohe were of the party of the latter. +The King resisted with the firmness of a man who has engaged his honor +in a great cause in the eyes of the world, and who wished to come off +with credit, or at least without loss of reputation. He remained with +the army, and sent the Count de Schulemberg to direct the operations in +Poland. From this day the Prince was exposed in his camp to an influence +whose interest it was to slacken his march and enervate his resolutions; +and from this day everything tended to a retreat. + +The Duke of Brunswick only sought a pretext for opening negotiations +with the French at head-quarters. So long as he was behind the Argonne, +within ten leagues of Grandpre, this pretext did not offer itself, for +the King of Prussia would look on these advances as a proof of treason +or cowardice. The combat of Valmy, in the idea of the Duke of Brunswick, +was but a negotiation carried on by the mouth of the cannon. Dumouriez +held the fate of the French Revolution in his hands, and he could not +believe that this general would become the mere tool of anarchical +democracy. "He will cast the weight of his sword," said he, "to weigh +down the scale in favor of a constitutional monarchy; he will turn upon +the jailers of the King and the murderers of September. Guardian of the +frontiers, he has only to threaten to open them to the coalition, to +insure obedience from the National Assembly. An arrangement between +monarchical France and Prussia, under the auspices of Dumouriez, is a +thousand times preferable to a war in which Prussia stakes her army +against the despair of a nation." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[36] The royalists who left Paris or France in 1789 and after, on +account of the Revolution.--ED. + +[37] The National Convention, which succeeded the Legislative Assembly, +actually opened September 21st.--ED. + +[38] This was Louis Philippe, afterward known as "the Citizen-King." He +was the son of Philippe Egalite, Duc d'Orleans, and was at this time +about twenty years old.--ED. + +[39] Kellermann was created Duc de Valmy by Napoleon.--ED. + + + + +INVENTION OF THE COTTON-GIN + +GROWTH OF THE COTTON INDUSTRY IN AMERICA + +A.D. 1793 + +CHARLES W. DABNEY R. B. HANDY DENISON OLMSTED + + Lord Macaulay declared that "what Peter the Great did to + make Russia dominant, Eli Whitney's invention of the + cotton-gin has more than equalled in its relation to the + power and progress of the United States." When Macaulay + delivered this opinion, "King Cotton" was more absolute in + the United States than to-day, for the cultivation of cotton + has since been supplemented in this country by other + industries of equal importance. Yet, what cotton had done + for the United States in Macaulay's day has been far + surpassed by its record since, as one of the great + industrial and commercial interests of the land; and judged + by export values, as estimated by the specialist Dabney, at + one time Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, cotton is still + king of the American market. + + The growth of the cotton industry in the United States, + traced so minutely by Handy, witnesses from one decade to + another to the supreme achievement of the American inventor + so highly estimated by Macaulay. Eli Whitney was born at + Westboro, Massachusetts, in 1765, and died in 1825. In 1792 + he was graduated at Yale College, and that year became a + teacher in Georgia, where he invented the cotton-gin. Before + he could secure a patent his machine was stolen from his + workshop, and others reaped the profits of his ingenuity. It + is pleasing to know that he afterward made a fortune by + other uses of his inventive skill. His service to the cotton + industry in all its departments has not only been vastly + influential in the development of his own country, but has + also greatly affected the relations of the United States + with other industrial nations, especially with Great + Britain, the leading cotton-manufacturing country of the + world. + + +CHARLES W. DABNEY + +Cotton is the principal product of eight great States of the American +Union, and the most valuable "money crop" of the entire country. +Climatic conditions practically restrict its cultivation to a group of +States constituting less than one-fourth of the total area of the +country, and yet the value of the annual crop is exceeded among +cultivated products only by corn, which is grown in every State of the +Union, and occasionally by wheat. Cotton furnishes the raw material for +one of our most important manufacturing industries and from one-fourth +to one-third of our total exports. + +Considered without reference to any particular country, its economic +importance is far beyond numerical expression; for while the total crop +of the world is approximately ascertainable, the effect of cotton upon +the commercial and social relations of mankind is too far-reaching for +estimation. Of the four great staples that provide man with +clothing--cotton, silk, wool, and flax--cotton, by reason of its +cheapness and its many excellencies, is rapidly superseding its several +rivals. Sixty years ago only about two million five hundred thousand +bales of cotton, or less than the present production of Texas, were +annually converted into clothing; the spindles of the world now use over +thirteen million bales per annum. Yet less than half the people of the +world are supplied with cotton goods made by modern machinery, and it +has been estimated that it would require annually a crop of forty-two +million bales of five hundred pounds each to raise the world's standard +of consumption to that of the principal nations. + +Cotton stands preeminent among farm crops in the ease and cheapness of +its production, as compared with the variety and value of its products. +No crop makes so slight a drain upon the fertility of the soil, and for +none has modern enterprise found so many uses for its several parts. The +cotton plant yields, in fact, a double crop--a most beautiful fibre and +a seed yielding both oil and feed, which, although neglected for a long +time, is now esteemed worth one-sixth as much as the fibre. In addition +to this, the stems can be made to yield a fibre which waits only for a +machine to work it, and the roots yield a drug. It is entirely possible, +therefore, that cotton may ultimately be grown as much for these parts +as for the lint. + +The history of cotton production in the United States differs from that +of almost every other agricultural product in several important +particulars. For nearly three-quarters of a century slave labor was +almost exclusively employed in this branch of agricultural industry, and +an immense majority of the colored people of to-day look to it for their +chief support. Cotton was also the great pioneer crop in the new +Southwestern States. Not only has the westward movement of the industry +been more rapid than that of any other crop, but the centre of +production has always been farther in advance of the centre of +population. As long ago as 1839 Mississippi was producing almost +one-fourth of the entire crop of the country. Recent years have +witnessed an enormous development in the regions to the west, which +would have carried the centre of production across the Mississippi River +if the cultivation of cotton, unlike that of wheat and corn and other +products, had not taken a new lease of life in the older States along +the Atlantic seaboard, where the use of manures has both extended the +area and increased the production. + +Probably no equally great industry was ever more completely paralyzed or +had its future placed in greater jeopardy than cotton growing in the +United States during the war of 1861-1865. So great was the decrease in +production which followed the effectual closing of the ports that only +one bale of cotton was grown in 1864-1865 for every fifteen bales raised +in 1861-1862. The chief menace to the future of cotton production lay in +the efforts that were put forth by other cotton-growing countries at +this time to produce those particular varieties which had for so long +given the United States the monopoly of the European markets; and +nothing could more completely demonstrate the remarkable adaptation of +our Southern States to the growing of varieties which the experience of +generations has proved to be the best for manufacturing purposes than +the fact that it took them only thirteen years from the end of the war +to regain the primacy of position which they held at its commencement. + + +ROBERT B. HANDY + +When cotton manufacture was introduced into England is not definitely +settled. There is no mention of the manufacture or use of cotton in the +celebrated poor-law of Elizabeth (1601), though hemp, flax, and wool are +expressly named. The first authentic record is in Roberts' _Treasure of +Traffic_, published in 1641; but it is possible, and even probable, that +the art was imported from Flanders by the artisans who fled from that +country to England in the latter part of the sixteenth century, as it is +probable that the manufacture had established itself more or less +firmly before it attracted the attention of the author of the +above-named pamphlet. We may presume, then, that it was well established +in England by 1641, but after that date the spread was not rapid. The +crudeness of the machinery for spinning was such that fine yarn could +not be made. Both spinning and weaving were done by individuals and +families in their own houses on clumsy and heavy machines. These +implements were but little better than those in use two thousand years +before. The distaff, the earliest of spinning-machines, was still in +use, and the best to be had was the one-thread spinning-wheel. The loom +used was scarcely an improvement on that which the East Indian had used +centuries before, though it was constructed with greater firmness and +compactness. Owing to imperfections in their machines, it was impossible +for the Europeans to make cotton yarn combining strength and firmness. +The yarn when spun was loose and flimsy; to make it strong it had to be +heavy. + +The finished web had often to be carried a long distance to market. It +was only in 1760 that Manchester merchants began to furnish the weavers +in the neighboring villages with linen yarn and raw cotton and to pay a +fixed price for the perfected web, thus relieving the weavers of the +necessity of providing themselves with material and seeking a market for +their cloth, and enabling them to prosecute their employment with +greater regularity. + +It was also about that time that England began to export her cotton +goods, for until then her weavers had not been able to do more than +supply the home demand. This foreign trade at once increased the demand +for cotton goods, and the increased demand presented a problem which the +manufacturers at first found difficult of solution. The procuring of +supplies of linen yarn needed for the warp of these textiles was not +difficult, but where was the cotton yarn to come from? The spinners were +producing already as much as their rude machines would permit, and +additional spinners were not to be had. The demand for cotton thread +exceeded the supply; the price of yarn rose with the demands of trade +and the extension of the manufacture and operated as a check to the +further increase of the exports. The trade had reached the point where +hand carders, single-thread spinning-wheels, and the hand-loom, +requiring a man to each machine, were clearly inadequate to the +service, and the cotton trade of Great Britain in the middle of the +eighteenth century seemed to have reached its limit. About this time +Hargreaves, Arkwright, Crompton, Cartwright, and Watt, men either +directly or indirectly engaged in and familiar with the needs of the +cotton manufacture, invented machines which raised the trade from an +experimental or at least a struggling industry into the most important +manufacture of the world. The carding-engine, the spinning-jenny, the +spinning-frame, the stocking-frame, the power-loom, and the adaptation +of the steam-engine to the propulsion of these machines, at once +supplied the means of producing an immense amount of yarn and cloth. +These inventions, it is true, were not in themselves perfect, but the +principles on which they were built are those on which the most +complicated textile machines of this day are based. + +The supply of raw material to meet the demands of the trade was limited. +The West Indies, the Levant, and India were the countries from which +this supply was drawn, but they were unable to furnish enough raw cotton +to keep the new machines in operation, and it was necessary to look +elsewhere. + +America was the only hope of the cotton manufacturer; but as at that +time the United States produced little or no cotton, for a few years all +the increased supply came from Brazil. + +As Great Britain was the last of the European countries to take up +cotton manufacture, and has carried it to its fullest development, so +the United States was the last to enter the list of cotton-producing +countries, and has been for nearly a hundred years the foremost of them +all. The powerful influence that the production of cotton has had upon +the commerce, industrial development, and civil institutions of the +United States can scarcely be realized by one unfamiliar with the +subject. + +It is doubtful whether cotton is indigenous to any part of this country, +as we have no authentic record of the precise time of its introduction. +Cotton seed was brought in from all quarters of the globe, and the +American plant, the result of innumerable crossings, remains, as to its +origin, a puzzle to botanists. + +The beginning of the culture of cotton in the United States occurred +about one hundred seventy-five years before the industry became at all +important. The first effort to produce cotton on the North American +continent was probably made at Jamestown the year of the arrival of the +colonists. In a pamphlet entitled _Nova Britannica; Offering Most +Excellent Fruits of Planting in Virginia_, published in London in 1609, +it is stated that cotton would grow as well in that province as in +Italy. In another pamphlet, called _A Declaration of the State of +Virginia_, published in London in 1620, the author mentions cotton, +wool, and sugar-cane among the "naturall commodities dispersed up and +downe the divers parts of the world; all of which may also be had in +abundance in Virginia." + +According to Bancroft, the first experiment in cotton culture in the +colonies was made in Virginia during Wyatt's administration of the +government. Writing of that period he says: "The first culture of cotton +in the United States deserves commemoration. In this year (1621) the +seeds were planted as an experiment, and their 'plentiful coming up' was +at that early day a subject of interest in America and England." + +Cotton-wool was listed in that year at eightpence a pound, which shows +that it may have been grown earlier, for it is scarcely possible that it +could have been grown, cleaned, and received in market in the same year. +Seabrook states that the "green-seed," or upland, variety was certainly +grown in Virginia to a limited extent at least one hundred thirty years +before the Revolution. Some of the early governors of that colony were +especially energetic in their efforts to encourage its cultivation. +Among these were Sir William Berkeley; Francis Morrison, his deputy, and +Sir Edmund Andros. The latter, says one authority, "gave particular +marks of his favor toward the propagation of cotton, which since his +time has been much neglected." + +The exports of the Virginia colony during the first thirty years of its +existence were confined almost exclusively to tobacco, but there is +evidence that in the latter half of the seventeenth century cotton was +cultivated and manufactured among the planters for domestic consumption. +Burk states that "after the Restoration (1660) their attention was +strongly attracted to home manufactures as well by the necessities of +their position as by the encouragement of the assembly and the bounty +offered by the King. But the zeal displayed in the outset for these +products gradually cooled, and if we except the manufacture of coarse +cloths and unpainted cotton, nothing remained of the sounding list +prepared with so much labor by the King and recommended by legislation, +premium, and royal bounty." + +Among the earliest historical references to cotton in this country is +that contained in _A Brief Description of the Province of Carolina, on +the Coasts of Florida, and More Particularly of a New Plantation Begun +by the English at Cape Feare, on that River, now by them called Georges +River_, published in London in 1666. The author of this tract, whose +name is not given, says: "In the midst of this fertile province, in the +latitude of 34 deg., there is a colony of English seated, who landed there +May 29, 1664." After giving an account of the fertility of the soil and +its natural products, he adds: "But they have brought with them most +sorts of seeds and roots of the Barbados, which thrive in this most +temperate clime. They have indigo, very good tobacco, and cotton-wool." +Robert Home mentions cotton among the products of South Carolina in +1666. In Samuel Wilson's _Account of the Province of Carolina in +America_, addressed to the Earl of Craven, and published in London in +1682, it is stated that "cotton of the Cyprus and Smyrna sort grows +well, and good plenty of the seed is sent thither," and among the +instructions given by the proprietors of South Carolina to Mr. West, the +first governor, is the following: "You are then to furnish yourself with +cotton-seed, indigo, and ginger-roots." He was also instructed to +receive the products of the country in payment of rents at certain fixed +valuations, among which cotton was priced at three and one-half pence +per pound. + +In 1697, in a memoir addressed to Count de Pontchartrain on the +importance of establishing a colony in Louisiana, the author, after +describing the natural productions of the country, says: "Such are some +of the advantages which may be reasonably expected, without counting +those resulting from every day's experience. We might, for example, try +the experiment of cultivating long-staple cotton." The presumption is +that the short-staple variety had already been tried. In the very +beginning of the eighteenth century cotton culture in North Carolina had +reached the extent of furnishing one-fifth of the people with their +clothing. Lawson, speaking of the prosperity of the country and +commending the industry of the women, says: "We have not only provision +plentiful, but clothes of our own manufacture, which are made and daily +increase; cotton, wool, and flax being of our own growth; and the women +are to be highly commended for industry in spinning and ordering their +housewifery to so great an advantage as they do." + +About this time cotton became widely distributed and cotton-patches were +common in Carolina. In fact, it is said to have been one of the +principal commodities of Carolina as early as 1708, but its culture was +only for domestic uses, and the same authority speaks of its being spun +by the women. + +Charlevoix, in 1722, while on his voyage down the Mississippi, saw "very +fine cotton on the tree" growing in the garden of Sieur le Noir; and +Captain Roman, of the British Army, saw in East Mississippi black-seeded +cotton growing on the farm of Mr. Krebs, and also a machine invented by +Mr. Krebs for the separation of the seed and lint. This was a +roller-gin, and possibly the first ever in operation in this country. + +Pickett says that in 1728 the colony of Louisiana, which at that date +occupied nearly all the southwest part of the United States, including +Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, was in a flourishing condition, its +fields being cultivated, by more than two thousand slaves, in cotton, +indigo, tobacco, and grain. + +Peter Purry, the founder of Purryville, in South Carolina, in his +description of the Province of South Carolina, drawn up in Charleston in +1731, says, "Flax and cotton thrive admirably." + +In 1734 cotton-seed was planted in Georgia, being sent there by Philip +Nutter, of Chelsea, England. Francis Moore, who visited Savannah in +1735, in his description of that place, says: "At the bottom of the +hill, well sheltered from the north wind and in the warmest part of the +garden, there was a collection of West Indian plants and trees, some +coffee, some cocoa-nuts, cotton, etc." + +About the same time the settlers on the Savannah River, about twenty-one +miles north of Savannah, are said to have experimented with cotton, the +date being fixed by McCall as 1738. One of the striking features +connected with the early culture of cotton in the American colonies is +that it was grown as far north as the 39 deg. of latitude. Trench Coxe, of +Philadelphia, who contributed so greatly to the early success of the +culture and manufacture of cotton in the United States, says: "It is a +fact well authenticated to the writer that the cultivation of cotton on +the garden scale, though not at all as a planter's crop, was intimately +known and thoroughly practised in the vicinity of Easton, in the county +of Talbot, on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, as +early as 1736." + +Its cultivation was so well understood in this part of the country that, +according to the same authority, the necessities of the Revolutionary +War occasioned it to be raised for army use in the counties of Cape May, +New Jersey, and Sussex, Delaware, and it continued to be raised, though +only in small quantities, for family use. At the time of the Revolution, +the home-grown cotton was sufficiently abundant in Pennsylvania to +supply the domestic needs of that State. Cotton was also cultivated in +Charles, St. Mary's, and Dorchester counties, Maryland, as late as 1826. +And at a later date (1861-1864) upland cotton was cultivated, and at the +prices current at that date was a most profitable crop on the eastern +shore of Maryland. Cotton was grown with very good results in +Northampton County, on the eastern shore of Virginia, in those years. + +The culture and improvement of cotton had received considerable +attention by the planters of South Carolina and Georgia as early as +1742. In 1739 Samuel Auspourguer attested under oath that the "climate +and soil of Georgia are very fit for raising cotton." William Spicer +also certified to the adaptability of the country for cotton production, +and that he had "brought over with him (to London) several pods of +cotton which grew in Georgia." + +A tract entitled _A State of the Province of Georgia, Attested Under +Oath in the Court of Savannah_, published in 1740, says of cotton that +"large quantities had been raised, and it is much planted; but the +cotton, which in some parts is perennial, dies here in the winter; +nevertheless the annual is not inferior to it in goodness, but requires +more trouble in cleansing from the seed." In the same tract it was +"proposed that a bounty be settled on every product of the land, viz., +corn, peas, potatoes, wine, silk, cotton," etc. In _A Description of +Georgia, by a Gentleman who has Resided there Upward of Seven Years and +was One of the First Settlers_, published in London in 1741, the author +states that "the annual cotton grows well there, and has been by some +industrious people made into clothes." + +Samuel Seabrook, in _An Important Inquiry into the State and Utility of +Georgia_, published in 1741, says, "Among other beneficial articles of +trade which it is found can be raised there, cotton, of which some has +also been brought over as a sample, is mentioned." In his description of +St. Simon's Island the same author says: "The country is well +cultivated, several parcels of land not far distant from the camp of +General Oglethorpe's regiment having been granted in small lots to the +soldiers, many of whom are married. The soldiers raise cotton, and their +wives spin it and knit it into stockings." + +A publication in London in 1762 says: "What cotton and silk both the +Carolinas send us is excellent and calls aloud for encouragement of its +cultivation in a place well adapted to raise both." + +Captain Robinson, an Englishman who visited the coast of Florida in +1754, says the "cotton-tree was growing in that country." The Florida +territory then extended from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River. That +it was cultivated in East Florida about ten years after this is +evidenced by William Stork, who says, "I am informed of a gentleman +living upon the St. John's that the lands on that river below Piccolata +are in general good, and that there is growing there now (1765) good +wheat, Indian corn, indigo, and cotton." + +Cotton early attracted the attention of the French colonists in +Louisiana. In the year 1752, Michel, in a report to the French minister +on the condition of the country, gave interesting details of the +cultivation of cotton and the difficulty found in separating the wool +from the seed. + +In 1758 white Siam seed was introduced into Louisiana. Du Prate says, +"This East India annual plant has been found to be much better and +whiter than what is cultivated in our colonies, which is of the Turkey +kind." + +Letters from Paris to Governor Roman state that there is among the +French archives at Paris, Department of Marine and Colonies, a most +curious and instructive report on cotton in 1760. It was found to be a +very profitable crop in Louisiana, for in the year 1768 the French +planters, in a memoir to their Government, complained that the parent +Government had turned them over to the Spaniards just "at the time when +a new mine had been discovered; when the culture of cotton, improved by +experience, promises the planter a recompense of his toils, and +furnishes persons engaged in fitting out vessels with the cargoes to +load them." + +In 1762 Captain Bossu, of the French marines, said: "Cotton of this +country (Louisiana) is of the species called the 'white cotton of Siam.' +It is neither so fine nor so long as the silk cotton, but it is, +however, very white and very fine." + +In 1775 the Provincial Congress of South Carolina recommended the +cultivation of cotton, and in the same year a similar enactment was +passed by the Virginia Assembly, which declared that "all persons having +proper land ought to cultivate and raise a quantity of hemp, flax, and +cotton, not only for the use of their own families, but to spare to +others on moderate terms." This legislation no doubt was suggested on +account of the changed relations of the colonies with Great Britain. + +In 1786 Thomas Jefferson, in a letter, says: "The four southernmost +States make a great deal of cotton. Their poor are almost entirely +clothed with it in winter and summer. In winter they wear shirts of it +and outer clothing of cotton and wool mixed. In summer their shirts are +linen, but the outer clothing cotton. The dress of the women is almost +entirely of cotton, manufactured by themselves, except the richer class, +and even many of these wear a great deal of homespun cotton. It is as +well manufactured as the calicoes of Europe." + +At the convention at Annapolis in 1786 James Madison expressed the +conviction that from the experience already had "from the garden +practice in Talbot County, Maryland, and the circumstances of the same +kind abounding in Virginia, there was no reason to doubt that the United +States would one day become a great cotton-producing country." This year +Sea Island cotton-seed was introduced into Georgia, the seed being sent +from the Bahama Islands to Governor Tatnall, William Spaulding, Richard +Leake, and Alexander Pisset, of that State. The cotton adapted itself to +the climate, and every successive year from 1787 saw long-staple cotton +extending itself along the shores of South Carolina and Georgia. + +According to Thomas Spaulding, the first planter who attempted cotton +culture on a large scale was Richard Leake, of Savannah, but the editor +of _Niles Register_ (1824) says that Nichol Turnbull, a native of +Smyrna, was the first planter who cultivated cotton upon a scale for +exportation. His residence was at Deptford Hall, three miles from +Savannah, where he died in 1824. + +In a letter dated Savannah, December 11, 1788, to Colonel Thomas +Proctor, of Philadelphia, Leake says: "I have been this year an +adventurer--and the first that has attempted it on a large scale--in +introducing a new staple for the planting interests--the article of +cotton--samples of which I beg leave now to send you and request you +will lay them before the Philadelphia Society for Encouraging +Manufactures, that the quality may be inspected. Several here, as well +as in North Carolina, have followed me and tried the experiment, and it +is likely to answer our most sanguine expectations. I shall raise about +five thousand pounds in the seed from eight acres of land, and next year +I intend to plant about fifty to one hundred acres if suitable +encouragement is given. The principal difficulty that arises to us is +the cleansing it from the seed, which I am told they do with great +dexterity and ease in Philadelphia with gins or machines made for the +purpose. I am told they make those that will clean thirty to forty +pounds clean cotton in a day and upon very simple construction." + +The first attempt in South Carolina to produce Sea Island cotton was +made in 1788 by Mrs. Kinsey Burden at Burden's Island. As early as 1779 +the short staple was produced by her husband, whose negroes were clothed +in homespun cotton cloth. Mrs. Burden's efforts failed. The plants did +not mature, and this was attributed to the seed, which was of the +Bourbon variety. The first successful variety appears to have been grown +by William Elliot on Hilton Head, near Beaufort, in 1790, with five and +one-half bushels of seed, which he bought in Charleston and for which he +paid fourteen shillings a bushel. He sold his crop for ten and one-half +pence a pound. + +In 1791 John Scriven, of St. Luke's Parish, planted thirty to forty +acres on St. Mary's River. He sold it for from one shilling twopence to +one shilling sixpence per pound. It is certain that at this period many +planters on the Sea Islands and contiguous mainland experimented with +long-staple cotton, and probably it was produced by them for market. + +One of the earliest reports of export of cotton from the colonies is a +bill of lading which certifies that on July 20, 1751, Henry Hansen +shipped, "in good order and well conditioned, in and upon the good snow +called the Mary, whereof is master under God, for this present voyage, +Barnaby Badgers, and now riding in the harbor of New York, and by God's +grace bound for London--to say--eighteen bales of cotton-wool, being +marked and numbered as in the margin, and are to be delivered in like +good order and conditioned, at the aforesaid port of London--the danger +of the sea only excepted--unto Messrs. Horke and Champior or their +assigns, he or they paying freight for the said goods, three farthings +per pound, primage and average accustomed." + +The feeling regarding the culture and manufacture of cotton in the +colonies at this period may be gathered from the following extract from +a letter of July 7, 1749, addressed by the Georgia office of London to +the Governor of Georgia: "You say, sir, likewise in your letter, that +the people of Vernonburgh and Acton are giving visible appearance of +revising their industry; that they are propagating large quantities of +flax and cotton, and that they are provided with weavers, who have +already wove several large pieces of cloth of a useful sort, whereof +they sold divers, and some they made use of in their own families. The +account of their industry is highly satisfactory to the trustees; but as +to manufacturing the produces they raise, they must expect no +encouragement from the trustees, for setting up manufactures which may +interfere with those of England might occasion complaints here, for +which reason you must, as they will, discountenance them; and it is +necessary for you to direct the industry of these people into a way +which might be more beneficial to themselves and would prove +satisfactory to the trustees and the public; that is, to show them what +advantages they will reap from the produce of silk, which they will +receive immediate pay for, and that this will not interfere with or +prevent their raising flax or cotton, or any other produces for +exportation, unmanufactured." + +A pamphlet entitled _A Description of South Carolina_ states that cotton +was imported to Carolina from the West Indies, and it is probable that +the early shipments from this country were of this West Indian cotton, +although English writers mentioned it as an import of Carolina cotton. + +Donnell says: "The first regular exportation of cotton from Charleston +was in 1785, when one bag arrived at Liverpool, per ship Diana, to John +and Isaac Teasdale & Co. The exportation of cotton from the United +States could not have been much earlier, for we find in 1784 eight bags +shipped to England were seized on the ground of fraudulent importation, +as it was not believed that so much cotton could be produced in the +United States." + +The exportation during the next six years was successively 6, 14, 109, +389, 842, and 81 bags. + +Dana gives the following _data_ concerning the export movement from 1739 +to 1793: + + "1739. Samuel Auspourguer, a Swiss living in Georgia, took + over to London, at the time of the controversy about the + introduction of slaves, a sample of cotton raised by him in + Georgia. This we may call, in the absence of a better + starting-point, the first export. + + "1747. During this year several bags of cotton, valued at L3 + 11s. 5d. per bag, were exported from Charleston. Doubts as + to this being of American growth have been expressed, but as + cotton had been cultivated in South Carolina for many years + there does not seem to be any reason for such doubts. + Besides, English writers mention it as an import of Carolina + cotton. + + "1753. 'Some cotton' is mentioned among the exports of + Carolina in 1753, and of Charleston in 1757. + + "1764. Eight (8) bags of cotton imported into Liverpool from + the United States. + + "1770. Three (3) bales shipped to Liverpool from New York; + ten (10) bales from Charleston; four (4) from Virginia and + Maryland; and three (3) barrels from North Carolina. + + "1784. About fourteen (14) bales shipped to great Britain, + of which eight (8) were seized as improperly entered. [See + above.] + + "1785. Five (5) bags imported at Liverpool. + + "1786. Nine hundred (900) pounds imported into Liverpool. + + "1787. Sixteen thousand three hundred fifty (16,350) pounds + imported into Liverpool. + + "1788. Fifty-eight thousand five hundred (58,500) pounds + imported into Liverpool. + + "1789. One hundred twenty-seven thousand five hundred + (127,500) pounds imported into Liverpool. + + "1790. Fourteen thousand (14,000) pounds imported into + Liverpool. We can find no reason for this marked decline in + the exports except it may be that the crop was a failure + that year. Our first supposition was that the cause was one + of price, but on examining the quotations in Took's work on + 'high and low prices' we do not see any marked decline in + the values of other descriptions of cotton, and the American + staple is not given in his list until 1793. + + "1791. One hundred eighty-nine thousand five hundred + (189,500) pounds imported into Liverpool, the price + averaging here 26 cents. + + "1792. One hundred thirty-eight thousand three hundred + twenty-eight (138,328) pounds imported into Liverpool." + +Great difficulty was experienced in separating the seed from the lint of +upland cotton. The work was done by hand, the task being four pounds of +lint cotton per week from each head of a family, in addition to the +usual field-work. This would amount to one bale in two years. A French +planter of Louisiana (Dubreuil) is said to have invented a machine for +separating lint and seed as early as 1742. The demand for such a machine +not being very great at that date, no record as to its character has +been preserved. The roller-gin, in very much the same form as Nearchus, +the admiral of Alexander the Great, found it in India, was still in use. +In 1790 Dr. Joseph Eve, originally from the Bahamas, but then a resident +of Augusta, Georgia, made great improvements on this ancient machine, +and adapted it to be run by horse- or water-power. A correspondent of +the American Museum, writing from Charleston, South Carolina, in July of +that year, states "that a gentleman well acquainted with the cotton +manufacture had already completed and in operation, on the high hills of +Santee, near Statesburg, ginning, carding, and other machines driven by +water, and also spinning-machines with eighty-five spindles each, with +every article necessary for manufacturing cotton." A machine dating +anterior to this year, and having a strong resemblance to the above, +possessing in fact all the essentials of a modern cotton-gin, was +exhibited at the Atlanta Exposition in 1882. It came from the +neighborhood of Statesburg, but its history could not be ascertained. + +In 1793 Eli Whitney petitioned for a patent for the invention of the saw +cotton-gin. His claims were disputed, and he defended them in the State +and Federal courts for nearly a generation, obtaining at last a verdict +in his favor. Meanwhile the saw-gin had become an established fact, and +the planter at last had a machine which enabled him to produce cotton at +a cost that would leave him a good profit. The first saw-gin to be run +by water-power was erected in 1795 by James Kincaid near Monticello, in +Fairfield County, South Carolina. Others were put up near Columbia by +Wade Hampton, Sr., in 1797, and in the year following he gathered and +ginned from six hundred acres six hundred bales of cotton. + +The cotton exportation from the United States increased from four +hundred eighty-seven thousand six hundred pounds in 1793 to one million +six hundred thousand pounds in 1794, the year in which Whitney's gin was +patented. In 1796, a year after he had improved his machine, the +production had risen to ten million pounds. In fact, the increased +production was so great that the planters began to fear they would +overstock the market, and one of them, upon looking at his newly +gathered crop, exclaimed: "Well, I have done with cultivation of cotton; +there's enough in that gin-house to make stockings for all the people in +America." Yet the production of cotton did not advance with that +rapidity to which we are now accustomed. + +The cotton industry being of secondary importance prior to 1790, +information and statistics relative to the amount produced are not +available, but within one hundred years, from 1790 to 1890, the +production of cotton in the United States increased from five thousand +bales to over ten million bales. + +The first cotton-mill erected in the United States was built at Beverly, +Massachusetts, in 1787-1788. This was soon followed by others in various +towns along the east border of the country, especially Pawtucket and +Providence, Rhode Island; Boston, Massachusetts; New Haven and Norwich, +Connecticut; New York City; Paterson, New Jersey; Philadelphia, +Pennsylvania; and Statesburg, South Carolina. In them carding and +spinning were done by machinery, but the weaving was on hand-looms +until 1815, at which date a power-loom mill was started at Waltham, +Massachusetts. The use of hand-looms and spinning-wheels for cotton +manufacture was common in all parts of the country before the +Revolution, especially in the Southern colonies, and these continued to +be used by the women in their houses many years after the erection of +cotton factories. + + +DENISON OLMSTED + +Mr. Whitney had scarcely set his foot in Georgia when he was met by a +disappointment which was an earnest of that long series of adverse +events which, with scarcely an exception, attended all his future +negotiations in the same State. On his arrival he was informed that Mr. +B. had employed another teacher, leaving Whitney entirely without +resources or friends, except those whom he had made in the family of +General Greene. In these benevolent people, however, his case excited +much interest, and Mrs. Greene kindly said to him: "My young friend, you +propose studying the law; make my house your home, your room your +castle, and there pursue what studies you please." He accordingly began +the study of law under that hospitable roof. + +Mrs. Greene was engaged in a piece of embroidery in which she employed a +peculiar kind of frame called a tambour. She complained that it was +badly constructed, and that it tore the delicate threads of her work. +Mr. Whitney, eager for an opportunity to oblige his hostess, set himself +at work and speedily produced a tambour-frame made on a plan entirely +new, which he presented to her. Mrs. Greene and her family were greatly +delighted with it, and thought it a wonderful proof of ingenuity. + +Not long afterward, a large party of gentlemen came from Augusta and the +upper country to visit the family of General Greene, consisting +principally of officers who had served under the General in the +Revolutionary Army. Among the number were Major Bremen, Forsyth, and +Pendleton. They fell into conversation upon the state of agriculture +among them, and expressed great regret that there was no means of +cleaning the green-seed cotton, or separating it from its seed, since +all the lands which were unsuitable for the cultivation of rice would +yield large crops of cotton. But until ingenuity could devise some +machine which would greatly facilitate the process of cleaning, it was +in vain to think of raising cotton for market. Separating one pound of +the clean staple from the seed was a day's work for a woman; but the +time usually devoted to picking cotton was the evening, after the labor +of the field was over. Then the slaves, men, women, and children, were +collected in circles with one whose duty it was to rouse the dozing and +quicken the indolent. While the company were engaged in this +conversation, "Gentlemen," said Mrs. Greene, "apply to my young friend, +Mr. Whitney--he can make anything." Upon which she conducted them into a +neighboring room, and showed them her tambour-frame, and a number of +toys which Mr. Whitney had made or repaired for the children. She then +introduced the gentlemen to Whitney himself, extolling his genius and +commending him to their notice and friendship. He modestly disclaimed +all pretensions to mechanical genius; and when they named their object, +he replied that he had never seen either cotton or cotton-seed in his +life. Mrs. Greene said to one of the gentlemen: "I have accomplished my +aim. Mr. Whitney is a very deserving young man, and to bring him into +notice was my object. The interest which our friends now feel for him +will, I hope, lead to his getting some employment to enable him to +prosecute the study of the law." + +But a new turn that no one of the company dreamed of had been given to +Mr. Whitney's views. It being out of season for cotton in the seed, he +went to Savannah and searched among the warehouses and boats until he +found a small parcel of it. This he carried home, and communicated his +intentions to Mr. Miller, who warmly encouraged him, and assigned him a +room in the basement of the house, where he set himself at work with +such rude materials and instruments as a Georgia plantation afforded. +With these resources, however, he made tools better suited to his +purpose, and drew his own wire--of which the teeth of the earliest gins +were made--an article which was not at that time to be found in the +market of Savannah. Mrs. Greene and Mr. Miller were the only persons +ever admitted to his workshop, and the only persons who knew in what way +he was employing himself. The many hours he spent in his mysterious +pursuits afforded matter of great curiosity and often of raillery to the +younger members of the family. Near the close of the winter, the +machine was so nearly completed as to leave no doubt of its success. + +Mrs. Greene was eager to communicate to her numerous friends the +knowledge of this important invention, peculiarly important at that +time, because then the market was glutted with all those articles which +were suited to the climate and soil of Georgia, and nothing could be +found to give occupation to the negroes, and support to the white +inhabitants. This opened suddenly to the planters boundless resources of +wealth, and rendered the occupations of the slaves less unhealthy and +laborious than they had been before. + +Mrs. Greene, therefore, invited to her house gentlemen from different +parts of the State, and on the first day after they had assembled she +conducted them to a temporary building, which had been erected for the +machine, and they saw with astonishment and delight that more cotton +could be separated from the seed in one day, by the labor of a single +hand, than could be done in the usual manner in the space of many +months. + +Mr. Whitney might now have indulged in bright reveries of fortune and of +fame; but we shall have various opportunities of seeing that he tempered +his inventive genius with an unusual share of the calm, considerate +qualities of the financier. Although urged by his friends to secure a +patent and devote himself to the manufacture and introduction of his +machines, he coolly replied that on account of the great expense and +trouble which always attend the introduction of a new invention, and the +difficulty of enforcing a law in favor of patentees, in opposition to +the individual interests of so large a number of persons as would be +concerned in the culture of this article, it was with great reluctance +that he should consent to relinquish the hopes of a lucrative +profession, for which he had been destined, with an expectation of +indemnity either from the justice or the gratitude of his countrymen, +even should the invention answer the most sanguine anticipations of his +friends. + +The individual who contributed most to incite him to persevere in the +undertaking was Phineas Miller, Esq. Mr. Miller was a native of +Connecticut and graduate of Yale College. Like Mr. Whitney, soon after +he had completed his education at college, he came to Georgia as a +private teacher in the family of General Greene, and after the decease +of the general he became the husband of Mrs. Greene. He had qualified +himself for the profession of law, and was a gentleman of cultivated +mind and superior talents; but he was of an ardent temperament, and +therefore well fitted to enter with zeal into the views which the genius +of his friend had laid open to him. He had also considerable funds at +command, and proposed to Mr. Whitney to become his joint adventurer, and +to be at the whole expense of maturing the invention until it should be +patented. If the machine should succeed in its intended operation, the +parties agreed, under legal formalities, "that the profits and +advantages arising therefrom, as well as all privileges and emoluments +to be derived from patenting, making, vending, and working the same, +should be mutually and equally shared between them." This instrument +bears date May 27, 1793, and immediately afterward they began business, +under the firm of Miller & Whitney. + +An invention so important to the agricultural interest, and, as has +proved, to every department of human industry, could not long remain a +secret. The knowledge of it soon spread through the State, and so great +was the excitement on the subject that multitudes of persons came from +all quarters of the State to see the machine; but it was not deemed safe +to gratify their curiosity until the patent-right had been secured. But +so determined were some of the populace to possess this treasure that +neither law nor justice could restrain them--they broke open the +building by night and carried off the machine. In this way the public +became possessed of the invention; and before Mr. Whitney could complete +his model and secure his patent, a number of machines were in successful +operation, constructed with some slight deviation from the original, +with the hope of evading the penalty for violating the patent-right. + +As soon as the copartnership of Miller & Whitney was formed, Mr. Whitney +repaired to Connecticut, where, as far as possible, he was to perfect +the machine, obtain a patent, and manufacture and ship for Georgia such +a number of machines as would supply the demand. + +Within three days after the conclusion of the copartnership, Mr. Whitney +having set out for the North, Mr. Miller commenced his long +correspondence relative to the cotton-gin. The first letter announces +that encroachments upon their rights had already commenced. "It will be +necessary," says Mr. Miller, "to have a considerable number of gins +made, to be in readiness to send out as soon as the patent is obtained, +in order to satisfy the absolute demand, and make people's heads easy on +the subject; _for I am informed of two other claimants for the honor of +the invention of cotton-gins, in addition to those we knew before_." + +On June 20, 1793, Mr. Whitney presented his petition for a patent to Mr. +Jefferson, then Secretary of State; but the prevalence of the yellow +fever in Philadelphia--which was then the seat of government--prevented +his concluding the business relative to the patent until several months +afterward. To prevent being anticipated, he took, however, the +precaution to make oath to the invention before the notary public of the +city of New Haven, which he did October 28th of the same year. + +Mr. Jefferson, who had much curiosity in regard to mechanical +inventions, took a peculiar interest in this machine, and addressed to +the inventor an obliging letter, desiring further particulars respecting +it, and expressing a wish to procure one for his own use. Mr. Whitney +accordingly sketched the history of the invention, and of the +construction and performances of the machine. "It is about a year," says +he, "since I first turned my attention to constructing this machine, at +which time I was in the State of Georgia. Within about ten days after my +first conception of the plan I made a small though imperfect model. +Experiments with this encouraged me to make one on a larger scale; but +the extreme difficulty of procuring workmen and proper materials in +Georgia prevented my completing the larger one until some time in April +last. This, though much larger than my first attempt, is not above +one-third as large as the machines may be made with convenience. The +cylinder is only two feet two inches in length and six inches diameter. +It is turned _by hand_, and requires the strength of one man to keep it +in constant motion. It is the stated task of one negro to clean fifty +weight--I mean fifty pounds after it is separated from the seed--of the +green-seed cotton per day." In the same letter Mr. Jefferson assured Mr. +Whitney that a patent would be granted as soon as the model was lodged +in the Patent Office. In mentioning the favorable notice of Mr. +Jefferson to his friend Stebbins, he adds, with characteristic +moderation, "_I hope, by perseverance, I shall make something of it +yet._" + +At the close of this year (1793) Mr. Whitney was to return to Georgia +with his cotton-gins, and Mr. Miller had made arrangements for +commencing business immediately after his arrival. The plan was to erect +machines in every part of the cotton district and engross the entire +business themselves. This was evidently an unfortunate scheme. It +rendered the business very extensive and complicated, and, as it did not +at once supply the demands of the cotton-growers, it multiplied the +inducements to make the machines in violation of the patent. Had the +proprietors confined their views to the manufacture of the machines and +to the sale of patent-rights, it is probable they would have avoided +some of the difficulties with which they afterward had to contend. The +prospect of making suddenly an immense fortune by the business of +ginning, where every third pound of cotton (worth at that time from +twenty-five to thirty-three cents) was their own, presented great and +peculiar attractions. Mr. Whitney's return to Georgia was delayed until +the following April. The importunity of Mr. Miller's letters, written +during the preceding period, urging him to come on, evinces how eager +the Georgia planters were to enter the new field of enterprise which the +genius of Whitney had laid open to them. Nor did they at first, _in +general_, contemplate availing themselves of the invention unlawfully. +But the minds of the more honorable class of planters were afterward +deluded by various artifices, set on foot by designing men, with the +view of robbing Mr. Whitney of his just right. + +One of the greatest difficulties experienced by men of enterprise, at +the period under review, was the extreme scarcity of money. In order to +carry on the manufacture of cotton-gins, and to make advances in the +purchase of cotton and establishments for ginning, to an extent in any +degree proportioned to their wishes, Miller & Whitney required a much +greater capital than they could command; and the sanguine temperament of +Mr. Miller was constantly prompting him to advance in hazards much +further than the more cautious spirit of Mr. Whitney would follow. But +even the latter found it necessary sometimes to borrow money at an +enormous interest. The first loan (for $2000) was made on terms which +were deemed at that time peculiarly favorable; yet the company were to +pay 5 per cent. premium in addition to the lawful interest. This was in +1794. In consequence of the numerous speculations in new lands into +which so many of our countrymen were deluded, and the want of confidence +created by the very application for a loan, the pressure for money was +continually increasing. In 1796 Mr. Whitney applied to a friend in +Boston to raise money for him on a loan, and received the following +reply: "I applied to one of those vultures called brokers, who are +preying on the purse-strings of the industrious, and was informed that +he can procure the sum you wish at a premium of 20 per cent. on the +following conditions, viz.: You must make over and deposit with him +public securities, such as funded stock, bank stock, or any kind of +State notes, or Connecticut reservation land certificates, sufficient, +at the going prices, fully to secure the debt and premium." In a more +embarrassed state of Mr. Miller's private affairs, several years +afterward, he paid the enormous interest of 5, 6, and even 7 per cent. +_per month_. + +We have said that the loan contracted by Mr. Whitney, in 1794, at a +premium of 5 per cent. in addition to the lawful interest, was regarded +as peculiarly favorable; this is evident from the fact that, during the +same year, Mr. Miller urges him to contract a new loan, if possible, for +$3000, at 12 or 14 per cent. provided it could be extended over a year. + +In July, 1794, Mr. Whitney was confined by a severe illness, from which +he recovered slowly; but his business received a still further +interruption from a very fatal sickness, the scarlet fever, which +prevailed in New Haven during this year, and which attacked a number of +his workmen. + +Under all these discouragements Mr. Miller was constantly writing the +most urgent letters from Georgia, to press forward the manufacture of +machines. "Do not let a deficiency of money, do not let anything," says +Mr. Miller, "hinder the speedy construction of the gins. The people of +the country are almost running mad for them, and much can be said to +justify their importunity. When the present crop is harvested, there +will be a real property of at least $50,000, yes, of $100,000, lying +useless, unless we can enable the holders to bring it to market. Pray +remember that we must have from fifty to one hundred gins between this +and another fall, if there are any workmen in New England or in the +Middle States to make them. In two years we will begin to take long +steps up-hill, in the business of patent ginning, fortune favoring." + +The general resort of the planters to the cultivation of cotton, and its +consequent production in vast quantities, the value of which depended +entirely upon the chance of getting it cleaned by the gin, created great +uneasiness, which first displayed itself in this pressure upon Miller & +Whitney, and afterward afforded great encouragement to the marauders +upon the patent-right, who were now becoming numerous and audacious. + +The _roller-gin_ was at first the most formidable competitor with +Whitney's machine. It extricated the seeds by means of rollers, crushing +them between revolving cylinders, instead of disengaging them by means +of teeth. The fragments of seeds which remained in the cotton rendered +its execution much inferior in this respect to Whitney's gin, and it was +also much slower in its operation. Great efforts were made, however, to +create an impression in favor of its superiority in other respects. + +But a still more formidable rival appeared early in the year 1795, under +the name of the _saw-gin_. It was Whitney's gin, except that the teeth +were cut in circular rims of iron, instead of being made of wires, as +was the case in the earlier forms of the patent gin. The idea of such +teeth had early occurred to Mr. Whitney, as he afterward established by +legal proof. But they would have been of no use except in connection +with the other parts of his machine, and, therefore, this was a palpable +attempt to evade the patent-right, and it was principally in reference +to this that the lawsuits were afterward held. + +It would be difficult to estimate the full value of Mr. Whitney's +labors, without going into a minuteness of detail inconsistent with our +limits. Every cotton garment bears the impress of his genius, and the +ships that transported it across the waters were the heralds of his +fame, and the cities that have risen to opulence by the cotton trade +must attribute no small share of their prosperity to the inventor of the +cotton-gin. We have before us the declaration of the late Mr. Fulton, +that Arkwright, Watt, and Whitney--we would add Fulton to the +number--were the three men who did most for mankind, of any of their +contemporaries; and in the sense in which he intended it, the remark is +probably true. + + + + +EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVI + +MURDER OF MARAT: CIVIL WAR IN FRANCE + +A.D. 1793 + +THOMAS CARLYLE + + In the early days of the French Revolution many moderates + who favored reform of the monarchy, but not its abolition, + were wholly alienated by the condemnation and execution of + Louis XVI, after what has been regarded as a mock trial by + the National Convention. It was a still graver effect of + this tragedy that it impelled the leading European powers to + join in the great coalition against France contemplated in + the Convention of Pillnitz (August, 1791). + + Scarcely less was the influence upon the internal affairs of + France from the murder of Marat by Charlotte Corday. + + Jean Paul Marat, sometimes called, from the name of a paper + which he published, the "Friend of the People," was one of + the most ultra-revolutionary of the Jacobin leaders in the + National Convention. By his murder the "Red + Republicans"--the extreme radical party in the Convention, + called the "Mountain" because they occupied the higher seats + in the hall--were confirmed in their determination to + destroy their opponents, the moderate republicans, called + Girondists or Girondins. Many of the Girondist leaders, + among them some of the most distinguished men in France, + were soon sent to the guillotine, and the Reign of Terror + was fully inaugurated. Carlyle calls Marat "atrocious," and + so most writers regard him, but there are not wanting some + to vindicate his character and purposes. + + These tragic scenes, and the opening of the civil war which + followed, known as the War of La Vendee, are depicted by + Carlyle in that manner, all his own, which invests his + history of the French Revolution at once with the element of + realism and an air of romance. + + Louis XVI was first deposed by the National Convention, and + then brought to trial for conspiring with foreign enemies of + France, for aiming to subvert French liberties, and for + being the cause of the massacre of the Swiss Guards who + defended the Tuileries (August 10, 1792) against a mob + seeking the King's life. Louis was found "guilty," and, + after a long wrangle in the Convention over the question of + punishment, a small majority was given (January 20, 1793) + for the decree of death. It was voted that there should be + no delay of the execution. + + +To this conclusion, then, hast thou come, O hapless Louis! The Son of +Sixty Kings is to die on the Scaffold by form of Law. Under Sixty Kings +this same form of Law, form of Society, has been fashioning itself +together these thousand years; and has become, one way and other, a most +strange Machine. Surely, if needful, it is also frightful, this Machine; +dead, blind; not what it should be; which, with swift stroke, or by cold +slow torture, has wasted the lives and souls of innumerable men. And +behold now a King himself, or say rather Kinghood in his person, is to +expire here in cruel tortures; like a Phalaris shut in the belly of his +own red-heated Brazen Bull! It is ever so; and thou shouldst know it, O +haughty tyrannous man: injustice breeds injustice; curses and falsehoods +do verily return "always home," wide as they may wander. Innocent Louis +bears the sins of many generations: he too experiences that man's +tribunal is not in this Earth; that if he had no Higher one, it were not +well with him. + +A King dying by such violence appeals impressively to the imagination; +as the like must do, and ought to do. And yet at bottom it is not the +King dying, but the man! Kingship is a coat: the grand loss is of the +skin. The man from whom you take his Life, to him can the whole combined +world do more? Lally went on his hurdle; his mouth filled with a gag. +Miserablest mortals, doomed for picking pockets, have a whole five-act +Tragedy in them, in that dumb pain, as they go to the gallows, +unregarded; they consume the cup of trembling down to the lees. For +Kings and for Beggars, for the justly doomed and the unjustly, it is a +hard thing to die. Pity them all: thy utmost pity, with all aids and +appliances and throne-and-scaffold contrasts, how far short is it of the +thing pitied! + +A Confessor has come; Abbe Edgeworth, of Irish extraction, whom the King +knew by good report, has come promptly on this solemn mission. Leave the +Earth alone, then, thou hapless King; it with its malice will go its +way, thou also canst go thine. A hard scene yet remains: the parting +with our loved ones. Kind hearts environed in the same grim peril with +us; to be left _here_! Let the Reader look with the eyes of Valet Clery +through these glass doors, where also the Municipality watches, and see +the cruelest of scenes: + +"At half-past eight, the door of the anteroom opened: the Queen appeared +first, leading her Son by the hand; then Madame Royale and Madame +Elizabeth: they all flung themselves into the arms of the King. Silence +reigned for some minutes; interrupted only by sobs. The Queen made a +movement to lead his Majesty towards the inner room where M. Edgeworth +was waiting unknown to them: 'No,' said the King, 'let us go into the +dining-room; it is there only that I can see you.' They entered there; I +shut the door of it, which was of glass. The King sat down, the Queen on +his left hand, Madame Elizabeth on his right, Madame Royale almost in +front; the young Prince remained standing between his Father's legs. +They all leaned toward him, and often held him embraced. This scene of +woe lasted an hour and three-quarters; during which we could hear +nothing; we could see only that always when the King spoke, the sobbings +of the Princesses redoubled, continued for some minutes; and that then +the King began again to speak." + +And so our meetings and our partings do now end! The sorrows we gave +each other; the poor joys we faithfully shared, and all our lovings and +our sufferings, and confused toilings under the earthly Sun, are over. +Thou good soul, I shall never, never through all ages of Time, see thee +any more! + +Never! O Reader, knowest thou that hard word? + +For nearly two hours this agony lasts; then they tear themselves +asunder. "Promise that you will see us on the morrow." He promises: Ah +yes, yes; yet once; and go now, ye loved ones; cry to God for yourselves +and me! It was a hard scene, but it is over. He will not see them on the +morrow. The Queen, in passing through the anteroom, glanced at the +Cerberus Municipals; and, with woman's vehemence, said through her +tears, "_Vous etes tous des scelerats!_" ("You are all scoundrels!") + +King Louis slept sound, till five in the morning, when Clery, as he had +been ordered, awoke him. Clery dressed his hair. While this went +forward, Louis took a ring from his watch, and kept trying it on his +finger: it was his wedding-ring, which he is now to return to the Queen +as a mute farewell. At half-past six, he took the Sacrament; and +continued in devotion, and conference with Abbe Edgeworth. He will not +see his Family: it were too hard to bear. + +At eight, the Municipals enter: the King gives them his Will, and +messages and effects; which they, at first, brutally refuse to take +charge of: he gives them a roll of gold pieces, a hundred and +twenty-five louis; these are to be returned to Malesherbes, who had lent +them. At nine, Santerre says the hour is come. The King begs yet to +retire for three minutes. At the end of three minutes, Santerre again +says the hour is come. "Stamping on the ground with his right foot, +Louis answers: '_Partons_' ('Let us go')." How the rolling of those +drums comes in through the Temple bastions and bulwarks, on the heart of +a queenly wife; soon to be a widow! He is gone then, and has not seen +us? A Queen weeps bitterly; a King's Sister and Children. Over all these +Four does Death also hover: all shall perish miserably save one; she, as +Duchesse d'Angouleme, will live--not happily. + +At the Temple Gate were some faint cries, perhaps from voices of pitiful +women: "_Grace! Grace!_" Through the rest of the streets there is +silence as of the grave. No man not armed is allowed to be there: the +armed, did any even pity, dare not express it, each man overawed by all +his neighbors. All windows are down, none seen looking through them. All +shops are shut. No wheel-carriage rolls, this morning, in these streets +but one only. Eighty thousand armed men stand ranked, like armed statues +of men; cannons bristle, cannoneers with match burning, but no word or +movement: it is as a city enchanted into silence and stone: one carriage +with its escort, slowly rumbling, is the only sound. Louis reads, in his +Book of Devotion, the Prayers of the Dying: clatter of this death-march +falls sharp on the ear, in the great silence; but the thought would fain +struggle heavenward, and forget the Earth. + +As the clocks strike ten, behold the Place de la Revolution, once Place +de Louis Quinze: the Guillotine, mounted near the old Pedestal where +once stood the Statue of that Louis! Far round, all bristles with +cannons and armed men: spectators crowding in the rear; D'Orleans +Egalite there in cabriolet. Swift messengers, _hoquetons_, speed to the +Town-hall every three minutes: near by is the Convention +sitting--vengeful for Lepelletier. Heedless of all, Louis reads his +Prayers of the Dying; not till five minutes yet has he finished; then +the Carriage opens. What temper he is in? Ten different witnesses will +give ten different accounts of it. He is in the collision of all +tempers; arrived now at the black Maelstrom and descent of Death: in +sorrow, in indignation, in resignation struggling to be resigned. "Take +care of M. Edgeworth," he straitly charges the Lieutenant who is sitting +with them: then they two descend. + +The drums are beating: "_Taisez-vous!_" ("Silence!") he cries "in a +terrible voice" (_d'une voix terrible_). He mounts the scaffold, not +without delay; he is in _puce_ coat, breeches of gray, white stockings. +He strips off the coat; stands disclosed in a sleeve-waistcoat of white +flannel. The Executioners approach to bind him: he spurns, resists; Abbe +Edgeworth has to remind him how the Saviour, in whom men trust, +submitted to be bound. His hands are tied, his head bare; the fatal +moment is come. He advances to the edge of the Scaffold, "his face very +red," and says: "Frenchmen, I die innocent: it is from the Scaffold and +near appearing before God that I tell you so. I pardon my enemies; I +desire that France----" A General on horseback, Santerre or another, +prances out, with uplifted hand: "_Tambours!_" The drums drown the +voice. "Executioners, do your duty!" The Executioners, desperate lest +themselves be murdered (for Santerre and his Armed Ranks will strike, if +they do not), seize the hapless Louis: six of them desperate, him singly +desperate, struggling there; and bind him to their plank. Abbe +Edgeworth, stooping, bespeaks him: "Son of Saint Louis, ascend to +Heaven." The Axe clanks down; a King's Life is shorn away. It is Monday, +January 21, 1793. He was aged thirty-eight years four months and +twenty-eight days. + +Executioner Samson shows the Head: fierce shout of "_Vive la +Republique_" rises, and swells; caps raised on bayonets, hats waving: +students of the College of Four Nations take it up, on the far Quais; +fling it over Paris. D'Orleans drives off in his cabriolet: the +Town-hall Councillors rub their hands, saying, "It is done, It is done." +There is dipping of handkerchiefs, of pike-points in the blood. Headsman +Samson, though he afterward denied it, sells locks of the hair: +fractions of the puce coat are long after worn in rings.--And so, in +some half-hour it is done and the multitude has all departed. +Pastry-cooks, coffee-sellers, milkmen sing out their trivial quotidian +cries: the world wags on, as if this were a common day. In the +coffee-houses that evening, says Prudhomme, Patriot shook hands with +Patriot in a more cordial manner than usual. Not till some days after, +according to Mercier, did public men see what a grave thing it was. + +In the leafy months of June and July, several French Departments +germinate a set of rebellious _paper_-leaves, named Proclamations, +Resolutions, Journals, or Diurnals, "of the Union for Resistance to +Oppression." In particular, the Town of Caen, in Calvados, sees its +paper-leaf of _Bulletin de Caen_ suddenly bud, suddenly establish itself +as Newspaper there; under the Editorship of Girondin National +Representatives! + +For among the proscribed Girondins are certain of a more desperate +humor. Some, as Vergniaud, Valaze, Gensonne, "arrested in their own +houses," will await with stoical resignation what the issue may be. +Some, as Brissot, Rabaut, will take to flight, to concealment; which, as +the Paris Barriers are opened again in a day or two, is not yet +difficult. But others there are who will rush, with Buzot, to Calvados; +or far over France, to Lyons, Toulon, Nantes and elsewhither, and then +rendezvous at Caen: to awaken as with war-trumpet the respectable +Departments; and strike down an anarchic "Mountain" Faction; at least +not yield without a stroke at it. Of this latter temper we count some +score or more, of the Arrested, and of the Not-yet-arrested: a Buzot, a +Barbaroux, Louvet, Guadet, Petion, who have escaped from Arrestment in +their own homes; a Salles, a Pythagorean Valady, a Duchatel, the +Duchatel that came in blanket and nightcap to vote for the life of +Louis, who have escaped from danger and likelihood of Arrestment. These, +to the number at one time of Twenty-seven, do accordingly lodge here, at +the "_Intendance_, or Departmental Mansion," of the town of Caen in +Calvados; welcomed by Persons in Authority; welcomed and defrayed, +having no money of their own. And the _Bulletin de Caen_ comes forth, +with the most animating paragraphs: How the Bordeaux Department, the +Lyons Department, this Department after the other is declaring itself; +sixty, or say sixty-nine, or seventy-two respectable Departments either +declaring, or ready to declare. Nay Marseilles, it seems, will march on +Paris by itself, if need be. So has Marseilles Town said, That she will +march. But on the other hand, that Montelimart Town has said, No +thoroughfare; and means even to "bury herself" under her own stone and +mortar first--of this be no mention in _Bulletin de Caen_. + +Such animating paragraphs we read in this new Newspaper; and fervors and +eloquent sarcasm: tirades against the "Mountain," from the pen of Deputy +Salles; which resemble, say friends, Pascal's _Provincials_. What is +more to the purpose, these Girondins have got a General-in-chief, one +Wimpfen, formerly under Dumouriez; also a secondary questionable General +Puisaye, and others; and are doing their best to raise a force for war. +National Volunteers, whosoever is of right heart: gather in, ye national +Volunteers, friends of Liberty; from our Calvados Townships, from the +Eure, from Brittany, from far and near: forward to Paris, and extinguish +Anarchy! Thus at Caen, in the early July days, there is a drumming and +parading, a perorating and consulting: Staff and Army; Council; Club of +_Carabots_, Anti-Jacobin friends of Freedom, to denounce atrocious +Marat. With all which, and the editing of _Bulletins_, a National +Representative has his hands full. + +At Caen it is most animated; and, as one hopes, more or less animated in +the "Seventy-two Departments that adhere to us." And in a France begirt +with Cimmerian invading Coalitions, and torn with an internal La Vendee, +_this_ is the conclusion we have arrived at: to put down Anarchy by +Civil War! _Durum et durum_, the Proverb says, _non faciunt murum_. La +Vendee burns: Santerre can do nothing there; he may return home and brew +beer. Cimmerian bombshells fly all along the North. That Siege of Mainz +is become famed; lovers of the Picturesque (as Goethe will testify), +washed country-people of both sexes, stroll thither on Sundays, to see +the artillery work and counterwork; "you only duck a little while the +shot whizzes past." Conde is capitulating to the Austrians; Royal +Highness of York, these several weeks, fiercely batters Valenciennes. +For, alas, our fortified Camp of Famars was stormed; General Dampierre +was killed; General Custine was blamed--and indeed is now come to Paris +to give "explanations." + +Against all which the Mountain and atrocious Marat must even make head +as they can. They, anarchic Convention as they are, publish Decrees, +expostulatory, explanatory, yet not without severity; they ray forth +Commissioners, singly or in pairs, the olive-branch in one hand, yet +the sword in the other. Commissioners come even to Caen; but without +effect. Mathematical Romme, and Prieur named of the _Cote d'Or_, +venturing thither, with their olive and sword, are packed into prison: +there may Romme lie, under lock and key, "for fifty days"; and meditate +his New Calendar, if he please. Cimmeria, La Vendee, and Civil War! +Never was Republic One and Indivisible at a lower ebb. + +Amid which dim ferment of Caen and the World, History specially notices +one thing: in the lobby of the Mansion de l'Intendance, where busy +Deputies are coming and going, a young Lady with an aged valet, taking +grave, graceful leave of Deputy Barbaroux. She is of stately Norman +figure; in her twenty-fifth year; of beautiful still countenance: her +name is Charlotte Corday, heretofore styled D'Armans, while Nobility +still was. Barbaroux has given her a Note to Deputy Duperret--he who +once drew his sword in the effervescence. Apparently she will to Paris +on some errand? "She was a Republican before the Revolution, and never +wanted energy." + +A completeness, a decision is in this fair female Figure: "by energy she +means the spirit that will prompt one to sacrifice himself for his +country." What if she, this fair young Charlotte, had emerged from her +secluded stillness, suddenly like a Star; cruel-lovely, with +half-angelic, half-daemonic splendor; to gleam for a moment, and in a +moment be extinguished: to be held in memory, so bright complete was +she, through long centuries! Quitting Cimmerian Coalitions without, and +the dim-simmering Twenty-five Millions within, History will look fixedly +at this one fair Apparition of a Charlotte Corday; will note whither +Charlotte moves, how the little Life burns forth so radiant, then +vanishes swallowed of the Night. + +With Barbaroux's Note of Introduction, and slight stock of luggage, we +see Charlotte on Tuesday, July 9th, seated in the Caen Diligence, with a +place for Paris. None takes farewell of her, wishes her Good-journey: +her Father will find a line left, signifying that she has gone to +England, that he must pardon her, and forget her. The drowsy Diligence +lumbers along; amid drowsy talk of Politics, and praise of the Mountain; +in which she mingles not: all night, all day, and again all night. On +Thursday, not long before noon, we are at the bridge of Neuilly; here +is Paris with her thousand black domes, the goal and purpose of thy +journey! Arrived at the Inn de la Providence in the Rue des Vieux +Augustins, Charlotte demands a room; hastens to bed; sleeps all +afternoon and night, till the morrow morning. + +On the morrow morning, she delivers her Note to Duperret. It relates to +certain Family Papers which are in the Minister of the Interior's hand; +which a Nun at Caen, an old Convent-friend of Charlotte's, has need of; +which Duperret shall assist her in getting: this then was Charlotte's +errand to Paris? She has finished this, in the course of Friday--yet +says nothing of returning. She has seen and silently investigated +several things. The Convention, in bodily reality, she has seen; what +the Mountain is like. The living physiognomy of Marat she could not see; +he is sick at present, and confined to home. + +About eight on the Saturday morning, she purchases a large sheath-knife +in the Palais Royal; then straightway, in the Place des Victoires, takes +a hackney-coach. "To the Rue de l'Ecole de Medecine, Number 44." It is +the residence of the Citoyen Marat! The Citoyen Marat is ill, and cannot +be seen; which seems to disappoint her much. Her business is with Marat, +then? Hapless beautiful Charlotte; hapless squalid Marat! From Caen in +the utmost West, from Neuchatel in the utmost East, they two are drawing +nigh each other; they two have, very strangely, business together. +Charlotte, returning to her Inn, despatches a short Note to Marat; +signifying that she is from Caen, the seat of rebellion; that she +desires earnestly to see him, and "will put it in his power to do France +a great service." No answer. Charlotte writes another Note, still more +pressing; sets out with it by coach, about seven in the evening, +herself. Tired day-laborers have again finished their Week; huge Paris +is circling and simmering, manifold, according to its vague wont: this +one fair Figure has decision in it; drives straight--toward a purpose. + +It is a yellow July evening, we say, the thirteenth of the month; eve of +the Bastille day, when "M. Marat," four years ago, in the crowd of the +Pont Neuf, shrewdly required of that Besenval Hussar-party, which had +such friendly dispositions, "to dismount, and give up their arms, then"; +and became notable among Patriot men. Four years: what a road he has +travelled; and sits now, about half-past seven o'clock, stewing in +slipper-bath; sore-afflicted; ill of Revolution Fever--of what other +malady this History had rather not name. Excessively sick and worn, poor +man; with precisely eleven-pence-halfpenny of ready-money, in paper; +with slipper-bath; strong three-footed stool for writing on, the while; +and a squalid--Washerwoman, one may call her: that is his civic +establishment in Medical-School Street; thither and not elsewhither has +his road led him. Not to the reign of Brotherhood and Perfect Felicity; +yet surely on the way toward that? + +Hark, a rap again! A musical woman's voice, refusing to be rejected: it +is the Citoyenne who would do France a service. Marat, recognizing from +within, cries, "Admit her!" Charlotte Corday is admitted: "Citoyen +Marat, I am from Caen the seat of rebellion, and wished to speak with +you." "Be seated, _mon enfant_. Now what are the Traitors doing at Caen? +What Deputies are at Caen?" + +Charlotte names some Deputies. + +"Their heads shall fall within a fortnight," croaks the eager "People's +Friend" clutching his tablets to write. + +"_Barbaroux, Petion_" writes he with bare shrunk arm, turning aside in +the bath: _Petion_, and _Louvet_, and--Charlotte has drawn her knife +from the sheath; plunges it, with one sure stroke, into the writer's +heart. + +"_A moi, chere amie!_" ("Help, dear!") No more could the Death-choked +say or shriek. The helpful Washerwoman running in, there is no Friend of +the People, or Friend of the Washerwoman left; but his life with a groan +gushes out, indignant, to the shades below. + +And so Marat, "People's Friend" is ended: the lone Stylites has been +hurled down suddenly from his Pillar--whitherward? He that made him +knows. Patriot Paris may sound triple and tenfold, in dole and wail; +reechoed by Patriot France; and the Convention, "Chabot pale with +terror, declaring that they are to be all assassinated," may decree him +Pantheon Honors, Public Funeral, Mirabeau's dust making way for him; and +Jacobin Societies, in lamentable oratory, summing up his character, +parallel him to One, whom they think it honor to call "the good +Sansculotte"--whom we name not here; also a Chapel may be made, for the +urn that holds his Heart, in the Place du Carrousel; and new-born +children be named Marat; and Lago-di-Como Hawkers bake mountains of +stucco into unbeautiful Busts; and David paint his Picture, or +Death-Scene; and such other Apotheosis take place as the human genius, +in these circumstances, can devise: but Marat returns no more to the +light of this Sun. One sole circumstance we have read with clear +sympathy, in the old _Moniteur_ Newspaper: how Marat's Brother comes +from Neuchatel to ask of the Convention, "that the deceased Jean Paul +Marat's musket be given him." For Marat, too, had a brother and natural +affections; and was wrapt once in swaddling clothes, and slept safe in a +cradle like the rest of us. Ye children of men! A sister of his, they +say, lives still to this day in Paris.[40] + +As for Charlotte Corday, her work is accomplished; the recompense of it +is near and sure. The _chere amie_, and neighbors of the house, flying +at her, she "overturns some movables," entrenches herself till the +gendarmes arrive; then quietly surrenders; goes quietly to the Abbaye +Prison: she alone quiet, all Paris sounding, in wonder, in rage or +admiration, round her. Duperret is put in arrest, on account of her; his +Papers sealed--which may lead to consequences. Fauchet, in like manner; +though Fauchet had not so much as heard of her. Charlotte, confronted +with these two Deputies, praises the grave firmness of Duperret, +censures the dejection of Fauchet. + +On Wednesday morning, the thronged Palais de Justice and Revolutionary +Tribunal can see her face; beautiful and calm: she dates it "Fourth day +of the Preparation of Peace." A strange murmur ran through the Hall, at +sight of her, you could not say of what character. Tinville has his +indictments and tape papers; the cutler of the Palais Royal will testify +that he sold her the sheath-knife; "All these details are needless," +interrupted Charlotte; "it is I that killed Marat." + +"By whose instigation?" + +"By no one's." + +"What tempted you, then?" + +"His crimes!" + +"I killed one man," added she, raising her voice extremely +(_extremement_), as they went on with their questions, "I killed one man +to save a hundred thousand; a villain to save innocents; a savage wild +beast to give repose to my country. I was a Republican before the +Revolution; I never wanted energy." + +There is therefore nothing to be said. The public gazes astonished: the +hasty limners sketch her features, Charlotte not disapproving: the men +of law proceed with their formalities. The doom is Death as a murderess. +To her Advocate she gives thanks; in gentle phrase, in high-flown +classical spirit. To the Priest they send her she gives thanks; but +needs not any shriving, any ghostly or other aid from him. + +On this same evening, therefore, about half past seven o'clock, from the +gate of the Conciergerie, to a City all on tip-toe, the fatal Cart +issues; seated on it a fair young creature, sheeted in red smock of +Murderess; so beautiful, serene, so full of life; journeying toward +death--alone amid the World. Many take off their hats, saluting +reverently; for what heart but must be touched? Others growl and howl. +Adam Lux, of Mainz, declares that she is greater than Brutus; that it +were beautiful to die with her: the head of this young man seems turned. +At the Place de la Revolution, the countenance of Charlotte wears the +same still smile. The executioners proceed to bind her feet; she +resists, thinking it meant as an insult; on a word of explanation, she +submits with cheerful apology. As the last act, all being now ready, +they take the neckerchief from her neck; a blush of maidenly shame +overspreads that fair face and neck; the cheeks were still tinged with +it when the executioner lifted the severed head, to show it to the +people. "It is most true," says Forster, "that he struck the cheek +insultingly; for I saw it with my eyes: the Police imprisoned him for +it." + +But during these same hours, another guillotine is at work on another; +Charlotte, for the Girondins, dies at Paris to-day; Chalier, by the +Girondins, dies at Lyons to-morrow. + +From rumbling of cannon along the streets of that City, it has come to +firing of them, to rabid fighting: Nievre Chol and the Girondins +triumph; behind whom there is, as everywhere, a Royalist Faction waiting +to strike in. Trouble enough at Lyons; and the dominant party carrying +it with a high hand! For, indeed, the whole South is astir; +incarcerating Jacobins; arming for Girondins: wherefore we have got a +"Congress of Lyons"; also a "Revolutionary Tribunal of Lyons," and +Anarchists shall tremble. So Chalier was soon found guilty, of +Jacobinism, of murderous Plot, "address with drawn dagger on the sixth +of February last"; and, on the morrow, he also travels his final road, +along the streets of Lyons, "by the side of an ecclesiastic, with whom +he seems to speak earnestly"--the axe now glittering nigh. He could +weep, in old years, this man, and "fall on his knees on the pavement," +blessing Heaven at sight of Federation Programmes or the like; then he +pilgrimed to Paris to worship Marat and the Mountain: now Marat and he +are both gone--we said he could not end well. Jacobinism groans +inwardly, at Lyons, but dare not outwardly. Chalier, when the Tribunal +sentenced him, made answer: "My death will cost this City dear." + +Montelimart Town is not buried under its ruins; yet Marseilles is +actually marching, under order of a "Lyons Congress"; is incarcerating +Patriots; the very Royalists now showing face. Against which a General +Cartaux fights, though in small force, and with him an Artillery Major, +of the name of--Napoleon Bonaparte. This Napoleon, to prove that the +Marseillese have no chance ultimately, not only fights but writes; +publishes his _Supper of Beaucaire_, a Dialogue which has become +curious. Unfortunate Cities, with their actions and their reactions! +Violence to be paid with violence in geometrical ratio; Royalism and +Anarchism both striking in--the final net-amount of which geometrical +series, what man shall sum? + +Is not La Vendee still blazing--alas too literally--rogue Rossignol +burning the very corn-mills? General Santerre could do nothing there. +General Rossignol in blind fury, often in liquor, can do less than +nothing. Rebellion spreads, grows ever madder. Happily those lean +Quixote figures, whom we saw retreating out of Mainz, "bound not to +serve against the Coalition for a year," have got to Paris. National +Convention packs them into post-vehicles and conveyances; sends them +swiftly, by post, into La Vendee. There valiantly struggling in obscure +battle and skirmish, under rogue Rossignol, let them, unlaurelled, save +the Republic and "be cut down gradually to the last man." + +Does not the Coalition, like a fire-tide, pour in; Prussia through the +opened Northeast; Austria, England through the Northwest? General +Houchard prospers no better there than General Custine did. Let him look +to it! Through the Eastern and the Western Pyrenees Spain has deployed +itself; spreads, rustling with Bourbon banners, over the face of the +South. Ashes and embers of confused Girondin civil war covered that +region already. Marseilles is damped down, not quenched--to be quenched +in blood. Toulon, terror-struck, too far gone for turning, has flung +itself, ye righteous Powers, into the hands of the English! On Toulon +Arsenal there flies a flag--nay not even the Fleur-de-lis of a Louis +Pretender; there flies that accursed St. George's Cross of the English +and Admiral Hood! What remnant of sea-craft, arsenals, roperies, war +navy France had, has given itself to these enemies of human nature, +"_ennemis du genre humain_." Beleaguer it, bombard it, ye Commissioners +Barras, Freron, Robespierre Junior; thou General Cartaux, General +Dugommier; above all, thou remarkable Artillery-Major, Napoleon +Bonaparte! Hood is fortifying himself, victualling himself; means, +apparently, to make a new Gibraltar of it. + +But lo, in the Autumn night, late night, among the last of August, what +sudden red sun-blaze is this that has risen over Lyons City; with a +noise to deafen the world? It is the Powder-tower of Lyons, nay the +Arsenal with Four Powder-towers, which has caught fire in the +Bombardment; and sprung into the air, carrying "a hundred and seventeen +houses" after it. With a light, one fancies, as of the noon sun; with a +roar second only to the Last Trumpet! All living sleepers far and wide +it has awakened. What a sight was that, which the eye of History saw, in +the sudden nocturnal sun-blaze! + +The roofs of hapless Lyons, and all its domes and steeples made +momentarily clear; Rhone and Saone streams flashing suddenly visible; +and height and hollow, hamlet and smooth stubble-field, and all the +region round; heights, alas, all scarped and counterscarped, into +trenches, curtains, redoubts; blue Artillery-men, little Powder +devilkins, plying their hell-trade there through the _not_ ambrosial +night! Let the darkness cover it again; for it pains the eye. Of a +truth, Chalier's death is costing the City dear. Convention +Commissioners, Lyons Congresses have come and gone; and action there was +and reaction; bad ever growing worse; till it has come to this; +Commissioner Dubois-Crance, "with seventy thousand men, and all the +Artillery of several Provinces," bombarding Lyons day and night. + +Worse things still are in store. Famine is in Lyons, and ruin and fire. +Desperate are the sallies of the besieged; brave Precy, their National +Colonel and Commandant, doing what is in man: desperate but ineffectual. +Provisions cut off; nothing entering our city but shot and shell! The +Arsenal has roared aloft; the very Hospital will be battered down, and +the sick buried alive. A black Flag hung on this latter noble Edifice, +appealing to the pity of the besiegers; for though maddened, were they +not still our brethren? In their blind wrath, they took it for a flag of +defiance, and aimed thitherward the more. Bad is growing ever worse +here; and how will the worse stop, till it have grown worst of all? +Commissioner Dubois will listen to no pleading, to no speech, save this +only: "We surrender at discretion." + +Lyons contains in it subdued Jacobins; dominant Girondins; secret +Royalists. And now, mere deaf madness and cannon-shot enveloping them, +will not the desperate Municipality fly, at last, into the arms of +Royalism itself? Majesty of Sardinia was to bring help, but it failed. +Emigrant D'Autichamp, in name of the Two Pretender-Royal-Highnesses, is +coming through Switzerland with help; coming, not yet come: Precy hoists +the Fleur-de-lis! + +At sight of which all true Girondins sorrowfully fling down their arms. +Let our Tricolor brethren storm us then and slay us in their wrath; with +_you_ we conquer not. The famishing women and children are sent forth: +deaf Dubois sends them back--rains in more fire and madness. Our +"redoubts of cotton-bags" are taken, retaken; Precy under his +Fleur-de-lis is valiant as Despair. What will become of Lyons? It is a +siege of seventy days. + +Or see, in these same weeks, far in the Western waters: breasting +through the Bay of Biscay, a greasy dingy little Merchant ship, with +Scotch skipper; under hatches whereof sit, disconsolate, the last +forlorn nucleus of Girondism, the Deputies from Quimper! Several have +dissipated themselves, whithersoever they could. Poor Riouffe fell into +the talons of Revolutionary Committee and Paris Prison. The rest sit +here under hatches; reverend Petion with his gray hair, angry Buzot, +suspicious Louvet, brave young Barbaroux, and others. They have escaped +from Quimper, in this sad craft; are now tacking and struggling; in +danger from the waves, in danger from the English, in still worse danger +from the French--banished by Heaven and Earth to the greasy belly of +this Scotch skipper's Merchant vessel, unfruitful Atlantic raving round. +They are for Bordeaux, if peradventure hope yet linger there. Enter not +Bordeaux, O Friends! Bloody Convention Representatives, Tallien and such +like, with their Edicts, with their Guillotine, have arrived there; +Respectability is driven under ground; Jacobinism lords it on high. From +that Reole landing-place, or "Beak of Ambes," as it were, pale Death, +waving his Revolutionary Sword of Sharpness, waves you elsewhither! + +On one side or the other of that Bec d'Ambes, the Scotch Skipper with +difficulty moors, a dexterous greasy man; with difficulty lands his +Girondins; who, after reconnoitring, must rapidly burrow in the Earth; +and so, in subterranean ways, in friends' back-closets, in cellars, +barn-lofts, in caves of Saint-Emilion and Libourne, stave off cruel +Death. Unhappiest of all Senators! + +FOOTNOTES: + +[40] Written in 1836-1837.--ED. + + + + +THE REIGN OF TERROR + +A.D. 1794 + +FRANCOIS P. G. GUIZOT + + By the Reign of Terror, or the "Terror," is meant that + period of the first revolution in France during which the + ruling faction caused thousands of obnoxious persons to be + sent to the guillotine. The Terror is usually considered as + beginning in March, 1793, when the Revolutionary Tribunal + was established by the National Convention. This tribunal + was an extraordinary court empowered to deal with all acts + or persons hostile to the Revolution. + + In July, 1793, Robespierre became a member of the Committee + of Public Safety, and, with Saint-Just, was most prominently + connected with the Terror. He secured a decree, known as the + decree of the 22d Prairial, "to accelerate the movements of + the Committee, and open for them a shorter route to the + guillotine," whereby persons marked for death might be + executed as soon as recognized. Against this bloody decree + it is said that even the "Mountain"--the Red Republican + party in the Convention--recoiled. It was nevertheless + remorselessly carried out, and "caused torrents of blood to + flow." + + The climax of the Terror was reached in 1794, and its end + came in July of that year, when Robespierre and his + associates were overthrown. It was followed by a reaction + against the excesses of the revolutionists, the closing of + the radical clubs of the Jacobins and others, and the + release of those whom the Revolutionary Tribunal had + imprisoned on suspicion. The tribunal itself, together with + the Committee of Public Safety, who had executed the fierce + will of the Convention, was speedily swept away. + + +It is a hideous spectacle to contemplate the enthusiasm of crime, and +see men madly intoxicating themselves with their own atrocities. The +Revolutionary Tribunal was in operation from March, 1793; the registry +of condemnations had reached the number of five hundred seventy-seven. +From 22 Prairial to 9 Thermidor (June 10, to July 27, 1794), two +thousand two hundred eighty-five unfortunates perished on the scaffold. +Fouquier-Tinville[41] comprehended the thought of Robespierre. For the +dock he had substituted benches, upon which he huddled together at one +time the crowd of the accused. One day he erected the guillotine in the +very hall of the tribunal. + +The Committee of Public Safety had a moment of fright. "Thou art wishing +then to demoralize punishment!" cried Collot d'Herbois. A hundred sixty +accused persons had been brought from the Luxembourg under pretence of a +conspiracy in prison. The lower class of prisoners were encouraged to +act as spies, thus furnishing pretexts for punishment. The judges sat +with pistols ready to hand; the President cast his eyes over the lists +for the day and called upon the accused. "Dorival, do you know anything +of the conspiracy?" "No!" + +"I expected that you would make that reply; but it won't succeed. Bring +another." + +"Champigny, are you not an ex-noble?" + +"Yes." + +"Bring another." + +"Guidreville, are you a priest?" + +"Yes, but I have taken the oath." + +"You have no right to say any more. Another." + +"Menil, were you not a domestic of the ex-constitutional Menou?" + +"Yes." + +"Another." + +"Vely, were you not architect for Madame?" + +"Yes, but I was disgraced in 1789." + +"Another." + +"Gondrecourt, is not your father-in-law at the Luxembourg?" + +"Yes." + +"Another." + +"Durfort, were you not in the bodyguard?" + +"Yes, but I was dismissed in 1789." + +"Another." + +So the examination went on. The questions, the answers, the judgment, +the condemnation, were all simultaneous. The juries did not leave the +hall; they gave their opinions with a word or a look. Sometimes errors +were evident in the lists. "I am not accused," exclaimed a prisoner one +day. + +"No matter; what is thy name? See, it is written now. Another." + +M. de Loizerolles perished under the name of his father. Jokes were +mingled with the sentences. The Marechale de Mouchy was old, and did not +reply to the questions of President Dumas. "The _citoyenne_ is deaf" +(_sourde_), said the registrar; "Put down that she has conspired +secretly" (_sourdement_), replied Dumas. + +It became necessary to forbid Fouquier-Tinville to send more than sixty +victims a day to the scaffold. "Things go well, and see the heads fall +like slates with my file-firing; the next decade we shall do better +still; I shall want at least four hundred fifty." The lists were +prepared in the prison itself, by the class of informers known as +_moutons_.[42] The public accuser, like the judges and the jailers, was +often ignorant of the names of the human flock crowded in the dungeons. +Death recalled them to recollection. In the evening, under the windows +of each prison, the list of the victims of the day was shouted out. +"These are they who have gained prizes in the lottery of Saint +Guillotine." The unfortunates who crowded to the windows thus learned +the tidings of the execution of those they loved. The horrors of the +unforeseen and unknown were added to the agonies of death and +separation. Under the windows of the Conciergerie the names of the +Marechale de Noailles, the Duchesse d'Ayen and the Vicomtesse de +Noailles, who died together on the scaffold, were proclaimed. Among the +prisoners was Madame la Fayette, herself awaiting death; happily she did +not recognize in the coarse accents of the criers the cherished names of +her grandmother, mother, and sister. The peasants of the Vendee[43] came +to die at Paris, like the Carmelites of Compiegne or the magistrates of +Toulouse. It was astonishing that there still remained in the dungeons +great lords and noble ladies, bearing the most illustrious names in the +history of France; on the 8th and 9th Thermidor the poets Roucher and +Andre Chenier; Baron Trenck, famous for his numerous escapes; the +Marechale d'Armentieres, the Princesse de Chimay, the Comtesse de +Narbonne, the Duc de Clermont-Tonnerre, the Marquis de Crussol, and the +Messieurs de Trudaine, counsellors of the Parliament of Paris, perished +upon the scaffold. + +Insulters always surrounded the scaffold, but their number had +decreased; the Committee of Public Safety no longer had recourse to the +popular manoeuvres of its early days. Terror was now sufficient to +insure the silence and submission of the victims. Paris grew weary of +the horrors of which it was witness; the odor of blood had driven away +the residents from the houses adjacent to the Place de la Revolution; a +new guillotine had been erected upon the Place du Trone. Upon the route +along which ran the fatal carts shops were closed, and passers-by +endeavored to avoid meeting the procession. A few rare loungers of the +lowest class alone walked in the gardens of the Tuileries and the +Champs-Elysees. All was silent, but pity was growing in the minds of +men. The distant sound of the horrors that were general throughout +France redoubled the terror of Paris. + +The provincial sufferings were not uniform, and the fury of the +representative commissioners was unequally distributed. Either by a +happy chance, or it might be by an instinctive knowledge of the +character of the population, the revolutionary scaffold was never set up +in Lower Normandy; the Vendee, on the contrary, expiated its long +resistance in its blood, and Carrier filled with terror the city of +Nantes, always favorable to revolution. He had tried guillotine and +grape-shot, but both were too tardy in their action to suit his zeal. He +conceived the idea of crowding the condemned into ships with valves, +launched upon the Loire: the beautiful river saw these unfortunates +struggling in its waters. Henceforth the executioners tied the prisoners +together by one hand and one foot; these "Republican Marriages," as they +were called, insured the speedy death of the victims. The waters of the +Loire became infected; its shores were covered with corpses; the fishes +themselves could no longer serve as nourishment for human beings; fever +decimated the inhabitants of Nantes. The fury of Carrier bordered on +madness: he caused the little Vendean infants, collected by Breton +charity, to be cast into the water. "It is necessary," said he, "to slay +the wolves' cubs." + +The same terror also, and the same atrocities which desolated the West, +reigned in the North and the South. In the Department of Vaucluse, +Maignet, in the Pas-de-Calais, Joseph Lebon, had obtained the erection +of local revolutionary tribunals. "The arrests which I have ordered in +the Departments of Vaucluse and the Bouches-du-Rhone amount to twelve +or fifteen thousand," wrote Maignet to his friend Couthon. "It would +require an army to conduct them to Paris; besides, it is necessary to +appal, and the blow is only terrifying when struck in the sight of those +who have lived with the guilty." They had felled the tree of liberty in +the little town of Bedouin; sixty-three of the inhabitants were +executed; the rest fled. "I have wished to give the national vengeance a +grand character," wrote Maignet to the Committee of Public Safety, "and +I have ordered that the town should be given to the flames. If you think +this new measure too rigorous, let me know your wishes, and do not read +my letter to the Convention." To the complaints of Rovere, +representative of Vaucluse, Robespierre replied, "We are content with +Maignet; he knows well how to guillotine." Joseph Lebon established an +orchestra close by the guillotine; he caused the _Ca ira_[44] to be sung +during the executions, which he witnessed from his balcony. Formerly a +priest and well esteemed, he was moderate at the outburst of the +Revolution, but his reason had yielded to the dizziness of despotic +power; it was of a veritable madman that Barere said: "Lebon has +completely beaten the aristocrats, and he has protected Cambrai against +the approaches of the enemy; besides, what is there that is not +permitted to the hatred of a republican against the aristocracy? The +Revolution and revolutionary measures must only be spoken of with +respect. Liberty is a virgin whose veil it is culpable to raise." + +For some time Robespierre had appeared but rarely at the Committee of +Public Safety; he reserved himself for the department of general police, +that is to say, the direction of the "Terror" throughout France. +Underhand dissensions and jealousies began to creep in among these +criminals, secretly disquieted by projects of which they were +reciprocally suspicious. Billaud-Varennes and Collot d'Herbois dreaded +Robespierre and began to conspire against him. Robespierre established +himself with the Jacobins, as in an impregnable fortress. The President +and Vice-President of the Revolutionary Tribunal, and the commandant of +the armed forces, Henriot, awaited his orders. They pressed him to take +action against the enemies whom he had himself denounced to the +Jacobins. "Formerly," said he, "on the 13th Messidor [July 1st], the +underhand faction that has sprung from the remnant of the followers of +Danton and Camille Desmoulins attacked the committees _en masse_; now +they prefer to attack a few members in particular; in order to succeed +in breaking the bundle, they attribute to a single individual that which +appertains to the whole Government. They dare not say that the +Revolutionary Tribunal has been instituted in order to swallow up the +National Convention; they have spoken of a dictator, and named him; it +is I who have been thus designated, and you would tremble if I told you +in what place." + +A dictatorship had, in fact, been spoken of, but it was Saint-Just, on +returning from the army, who had uttered this terrible word, in a +conference of the Committees of Public Safety and General Security +expressly convoked by Robespierre. The latter had proposed the +institution of four great revolutionary tribunals, in order to forge new +weapons for himself; but the conference refused. Robespierre went out +irritated and gloomy. "Misfortune has reached a climax," cried +Saint-Just. "You are in a state of anarchy. The Convention is inundating +France with laws inoperative and often impracticable. The +representatives accompanying the armies dispose at their will of the +public fortune and our military destinies; the representatives sent as +Commissioners to the Provinces usurp all power and amass gold for which +they substitute assignats. How can such political and legislative +disorder be regulated? I declare upon my honor and my conscience, I see +only one means of safety; and that is the concentration of power in the +hands of one man who has enough genius, force, patriotism, and +generosity to become the embodiment of public authority. It is +necessary, above all, to have a man endowed with long practical +knowledge of the Revolution, its principles, its phases, its modes of +action, and its agents. Finally, he must be a man who has the general +good-will and confidence of the people in his favor, and who is at once +a virtuous and inflexible as well as an incorruptible citizen. That man +is Robespierre; it is he only who can save the State. I ask that he be +invested with the dictatorship, and that the committees make a +proposition to this effect at the Convention to-morrow." + +The imprudence of the speech equalled the audacity of the act. The +members of the two councils looked at each other, hesitating to accept +the declaration of war. A few of them contended for their lives against +the vengeance of Robespierre and his friends. "This Robespierre is +insatiable," said Barere, with anger. "Let him ask for Tallien, Bourdon +de l'Oise, Thuriot, Guffroy, Rovere, Lecointre, Panis, Barras, Freron, +Legendre, Monestier, Dubois Crance, Fouche, Cambon, and all the +Dantonist remnant, well and good; but to Duval, Audouin, Leonard +Bourdon, Vadier, Vauland, it is impossible to consent." + +The two parties waited face to face, shrinking from the blows they were +about to exchange, counting on the impatience or temerity of their +adversaries. The boldest among the opposition ventured on a circuitous +attack by denouncing the sect of mystic dreamers led by a demented +woman, Catherine Theot, styled by her followers, Mother of God. Her +principal disciple was Gerle, formerly prior of the Chartreuse, and a +member of the Constituent Assembly. When the papers of this handful of +maniacs were seized, the copy of a letter to Robespierre was found; he +was to have been the Messiah of the sect. Vadier denounced at the +Convention this elementary school of fanaticism, discovered on a third +floor in the Rue Contrescarpe, and who were connected, he said, with the +machinations of Pitt; but he dared not speak of the letter to +Robespierre. The latter undoubtedly took some interest in Catherine +Theot, for he did not allow the affair to be followed up; the prophetess +died in prison soon after. + +Robespierre had said to a deputation from Aisne: "In the situation in +which it now is, gangrened by corruption, and without power to remedy +it, the Convention can no longer save the Republic: both will perish +together. The proscription of patriots is the order of the day. For +myself, I have already one foot in the tomb, in a few days I shall place +the other there; the rest is in the hands of Providence." + +Nevertheless he began the attack, urged forward by men who had attached +their fortunes to his own, and by the disquietudes which agitated his +sour and dissatisfied spirit. He could no longer put up with advice even +from his most faithful friends, and the inflexible Saint-Just told him +to calm himself; "Empire is for the phlegmatic." A menacing petition +from the Jacobins preceded by a few hours a grand discourse from the +dictator. He always reckoned on the effect of his discourses, and all +the committees, one after another, had suffered from the asperity of his +attacks. "The accusations are all concentrated upon me," said he; "if +anyone casts patriots into prison in place of shutting up the +aristocrats there, it is said that Robespierre wills it. If the numerous +agents of the Committee of General Security extend their vexations and +rapine in all directions, it is said that Robespierre has sent them; if +a new law irritates the property-holders, it is Robespierre who is +ruining them; and meanwhile, in what hands are your finances? In the +hands of feuillants, of known cheats, of the Cambons, Mallarmes and +Ramels. Survey the field of victory, look at Belgium; dissensions have +been sown among our generals, the military aristocracy is protected, +faithful generals are persecuted, the military administration is +enveloped with a suspicious authority; they talk to you of war with +academic lightness, as if it cost neither blood nor labor. The truths +that I bring you are surely equal to epigrams. + +"There exists a conspiracy against public liberty; it owes its force to +a criminal coalition which intrigues in the very bosom of the +Convention. That coalition has its accomplices in the Committee of +General Security, and in the _bureaux_, which they control. Some members +of the Committee of Public Safety are implicated in this plot; the +coalition thus formed seeks to ruin patriots and the country. What is +the remedy for this evil? To punish the traitors, to purify the +Committee of General Security, and subordinate it to the Committee of +Public Safety; to purify this committee itself, and constitute it the +Government under the authority of the National Convention, which is the +centre of authority and the chief judicial power. Thus would all the +factions be crushed by raising on their ruins the power of justice and +liberty. If it is impossible to advocate these principles without being +set down as ambitious, I shall conclude that tyranny reigns among us, +but not that I ought to hold my tongue; for what can be objected to a +man who is right, and who knows how to die for his country? I am put +here in order to combat crime, not to govern it. The time has not yet +come when good men can serve their country with impunity." + +They listened in silence; no applause, no complaint had interrupted the +orator. For a long time the Convention had been unaccustomed to see the +masters of their fortunes and their lives making appeal to their supreme +authority. Their _role_ had long been limited to taking part in +oratorical tournaments and voting decrees. They did not yield, however, +to the seduction, and their faces remained grave and sombre. No one rose +to speak, but they began to exchange a few remarks, and a murmur ran +from bench to bench. The glove was thrown down, but as yet no champion +advanced to take it up. At length, and as if the courage of all was +reanimated at once by the same resolution, Vadier, Cambon, and +Billaud-Varennes rose together to mount the tribune. Cambon had been +wounded in his just pride as a financier and an honest man; he could +scarcely wait his turn. + +"It is time," cried he, "to speak the entire truth. Is it I who need to +be accused of making myself master in any respect? The man who has made +himself master of everything, the man who paralyzes our will, is he who +has just spoken--Robespierre." At the same moment and from all lips came +the same cries. "It is Robespierre," said Billaud-Varennes. "It is +Robespierre," repeated Panis and Vadier. "Let him give an account of the +crimes of the deputies whose death he demanded from the Jacobins." And +as he hesitated, troubled by the vehemence of the attacks, "You who +pretend to have the courage of virtue, have the courage of truth," cried +Charlier to him; "name, name the individuals." In the midst of a growing +confusion the Assembly revoked the order to print the discourse of +Robespierre. It was to the two committees, filled with his enemies, that +the denunciation of the dictator was referred. + +Robespierre took refuge with the Jacobins; he was troubled by the +opposition he had encountered, without being able to draw from it new +forces for the struggle. He redelivered his discourse, this time +welcomed with loud applause. "My friends," said he, "that which you have +just heard is my dying testament. I have seen to-day that the league of +the wicked is too strong for me to hope to escape it. I am ready to +drink the hemlock." + +"I will drink it with thee," cried David. The men of action were less +resigned. Henriot spoke of marching on the Convention, but Robespierre +still wished to speak; it was the course of May 31st that he wanted to +follow. The hall was crowded; people entered without tickets. + +"Name thy enemies," they shouted to Robespierre; "name them; we will +deliver them to thee." Collot d'Herbois arrived, attempting a few +protestations of devotion; he was hooted and constrained to retire. +Hesitation and doubt still troubled every spirit and paralyzed every +hand. Collot and Billaud-Varennes returned to the Committee of Public +Safety. There they found Saint-Just, who had to read a report, but he +had not brought it with him. The two new-comers apostrophized him with +violence. "Thou art the accomplice of Robespierre; the project of your +infamous triumvirate is to assassinate us all, but if we succumb you +will not long enjoy the fruit of your crimes--the people will tear you +in pieces; thy pockets are full of denunciations against us; produce thy +lists." They advanced menacingly; Saint-Just shrank back, very pale. As +he went out he promised to read his report next day. Neither of the two +parties had as yet taken any effectual measure; they had contracted the +habit of being very prodigal of words. Tallien had endeavored to gain +over all that remained of the Left; three times he was repulsed by +Boissy d'Anglas and his friends. As he returned once more to the charge, +"Yes," they at length replied, with an ingenuousness almost cynical, +"yes, if you are the strongest." Tallien was intrusted to direct the +attack in the Convention. + +Saint-Just had just entered; he had not appeared at the Committee of +Public Safety. "You have blighted my heart," he wrote to his colleagues, +"I am about to open it at the National Assembly." He presented himself, +however, as reporter of the Committee. In seeing him pass, Tallien, +occupied in assembling his forces, said loudly, "It is the moment; let +us enter." Saint-Just commenced: "I am not of any faction; I fight +against all. The course of events has brought it about that this tribune +should be perhaps the Tarpeian rock to him who shall come to tell you +that the members of the Government--" Tallien did not leave him time to +finish; he demanded leave to speak upon a motion of order. "Nor I +either; I am not of any faction; I only belong to myself and to +liberty. It is I who will make you hear the truth: no good citizen can +restrain his tears over the unfortunate condition of public affairs. +Yesterday a member of the Government was here alone and denounced his +colleagues: to-day another comes to do as much by him; these dissensions +aggravate the evils of our country. I demand that the veil be torn +away." Applause echoed from all parts of the hall. + +Saint-Just wished to continue his speech. "Thou art not reporter," +shouted the members. He remained motionless in the tribune, while +Billaud-Varennes came and stood beside him. He cast his eyes over the +hall. "I see here," said he, "one of the men who yesterday, at the +Jacobins, promised the massacre of the National Convention; let him be +arrested." The officers obeyed. "The Assembly is at the present time in +danger of massacre on every hand," continued Billaud; "it will perish if +it is feeble." The contagion of courage spread from man to man; all the +deputies stood up waving their hats. "Be tranquil," they cried to the +orator; "we will not give way." "You will tremble when you see in what +hands you are," continued Billaud; "the armed force is confided to +parricidal hands. The chief of the National Guard is an infamous +conspirator, the accomplice of Hebert; Lavalette was a noble, driven out +of the Army of the North and saved by Robespierre, whom he obeys. The +Revolutionary Tribunal is in his hands; everywhere he has made his will +supreme, and has sought to render himself absolute master; he has +dismissed the best Revolutionary Committee of Paris, he has ceased to +frequent the Committee of Public Safety since the day after the decree +of the 22d Prairial, which has been so disastrous to patriots. He +excites the Jacobins against the Assembly." A few feeble protestations +were now heard. "There is some murmuring, I think," said the speaker, +insolently. + +He was about to continue the course of his accusations; but beside him +in the tribune Robespierre had replaced Saint-Just. His natural pallor +had become livid, rage sparkled in his glance. "I demand liberty to +speak," he cried. A single shout echoed through the hall. "Down with the +tyrant! Down with the tyrant!" "I demand liberty to speak," Robespierre +violently repeated. Tallien dashed into the tribune. "I demand that the +veil be torn away immediately," he cried; "the work is accomplished, +the conspirators are unmasked. Yesterday, at the Jacobins, I saw the +army of the new Cromwell formed, and I have come here armed with a +poignard to pierce his heart if the Assembly has not the courage to +decree his accusation. I demand the arrest of Henriot and his staff. +There will be no May 31st, no proscription; national justice alone will +strike the miscreants." + +"I demand that Dumas be arrested," added Billaud-Varennes, "as well as +Boulanger [formerly lieutenant of Ronsin in the Vendee]; he was the most +ardent yesterday night at the Jacobins." + +Meanwhile Robespierre was still in the tribune. Several times he strove +to begin speaking, but the same cry drowned his voice, "Down with the +tyrant!" The little group of those who were faithful to him, close +pressed together, followed him with their eyes without speaking, without +seconding his efforts; the mass of the Assembly, so docile a few days +before, was agitated with a violence that became more and more hostile. +Barere hesitated no longer. It is said that he had prepared two +statements; one favorable to and the other hostile to Robespierre. He +proposed to abolish the grade of commandant-general, and to call to the +bar the mayor Fleuriot and the National agent Payan, to answer there for +public tranquillity. The decree was voted; on all sides arose +accusations against Robespierre, everyone hastening to denounce him. "I +demand liberty to speak, to bring back this discussion to its true end +and aim," said Tallien. Robespierre raised his head; "I shall know well +how to bring it there," said he, in those imperious accents which +formerly cowed the Assembly. Tallien continued without noticing the +interruption. "The conspiracy is quite complete in the discourse read +and reread yesterday. It is there that I find arms to strike down this +man, whose virtue and patriotism have been so much vaunted; this man, +who appeared three days only after August 10th; this man, who has +abandoned his post at the Committee of Public Safety, in order to come +and calumniate his colleagues. It is not necessary to discuss in any +particular detail of the tyrant's career; his whole life condemns him." + +Robespierre clutched at the tribune with both hands. He no longer sought +aid from the "Mountain," henceforth roused against him; he turned his +face toward the "Plain." "It is to you pure and virtuous men that I +address myself; I don't talk with scoundrels." "Down with the tyrant!" +responded the "Plain." Thuriot, who presided, rang his bell. "President +of assassins," cried Robespierre, "yet once more I demand liberty to +speak." His voice grew feebler. "The blood of Danton is choking him," +cried Gamier de l'Aude. "Will this man long remain master of the +Convention?" asked Charles Duval. "Let us make an end! A decree, a +decree!" shouted Lasseau, at length. "A tyrant is hard to strike down," +said Freron, in a loud voice. Robespierre remained in the tribune, +turning in his hands an open knife, alone, exposed to the vengeful anger +of them all. "Send me to death!" he cried to his enemies. And the voices +replied: "Thou hast merited it a thousand times. Down with the tyrant!" + +The decree was voted in the midst of tumult. "I ask to share the lot of +my brother," cried the younger Robespierre. "It is understood," said +Lanchet, "that we have voted the arrest of the two Robespierres, of +Couthon, and Saint-Just." "I ask to be comprised in the decree," +protested Lebas, faithfully devoted to Saint-Just. "The triumvirate of +Robespierre, Couthon, and Saint-Just," said Freron, "recalls the +proscriptions of Sylla. Couthon is a tiger thirsting for the blood of +the National representatives; he has dared to speak at the Jacobins of +five or six heads of the Convention; our corpses were to be the steps +for him to mount the throne!" The paralytic made a gesture of bitter +disdain. "I _mount_ the throne!" said he. + +Thuriot proclaimed the decree; the acclamations that re-echoed were +furious, intoxicated with the joy of triumph. "Long live liberty! Long +live the Republic! Down with the tyrants; to the bar with the accused." +The officers, still bewildered with such an abrupt and sudden change, +had not dared to lay a hand upon the fallen dictator; rage broke forth +in the ranks of the Assembly. Robespierre and his brother, Saint-Just, +Lebas, descended slowly to the place lately reserved for their enemies. +Couthon had just placed himself there. The decree of arrest dispersed +them in different prisons; they had set out when the Assembly suspended +its sitting for an instant. "Let us go out together," said Robespierre. +The crowd, like the Assembly, gazed on them without acclamations and +without manifesting any sympathy for them; their army was re-forming +elsewhere. + +The Commune of Paris and the club of the Jacobins had not laid down +their arms. An officer was sent to the Hotel de Ville to announce the +decree, which dismissed Henriot and summoned the Mayor to appear at the +bar. He naively demanded a receipt for his message. "On a day like this +we don't give receipts," replied the Mayor. "Tell Robespierre to have no +fear, for we are here." + +The Commune, in fact, was active, while the Committees of the +Convention, stupefied at their own victories, were letting precious time +slip past. Already Henriot, half drunk, galloping along the streets, +stirred up the people, crying out that their faithful representatives +were being massacred, delivering over to insults Merlin de Thionville, +and sending to death the convoy of victims for the day. These the +inhabitants of the Faubourg St. Antoine set about delivering, from +compassion and from a vague instinct that the arrest of Robespierre +necessarily brought about a cessation of executions. The General Council +had sent to the jailers of the prisons an order to refuse to aid in the +incarceration of the accused. Robespierre and his friends were +successively brought to the Mairie. They found themselves again free at +the head of an insurrection precipitately got up, but directed by +desperate men, who felt their lives in danger if power escaped from +them. Henriot, arrested for a moment, and conducted to the Committee of +General Security, had been delivered by Coffinhal at the head of a +handful of men. He was again on horseback, and was menacing in the hall +of their sittings the Assembly, which had again come together. + +The tocsin rang forth a full peal; the gates of Paris were closed. The +rising tumult of the insurrection reached the ears of the deputies; each +minute some inauspicious news arrived. It was said that the gunners of +the National Guard, seduced by Henriot, were coming to direct their +artillery against the palace. Collot d'Herbois mounted slowly to the +chair and seated himself there. "Representatives," said he, with a firm +voice, "the moment has come for us to die at our posts; miscreants have +invaded the National palace." All had taken their places; while the +spectators fled from the galleries with uproar and confusion. "I +propose," said Elie Lacoste with a loud voice, "that Henriot be +outlawed." At the same moment the dismissed commandant ordered his men +to fire. + +Fearful and troubled, the gunners still hesitated. A group of +representatives went forth from the hall and cried, "What are you doing, +soldiers? That man is a rebel, who has just been outlawed." The gunners +had already lowered their matches, while Henriot fled at full gallop. +Barras had just been named commandant of the forces in his place; seven +representatives accompanied him. "Outlaw all those who shall take arms +against the Convention or who shall oppose its decrees," said Barere; +"as well as those who are eluding a decree of accusation or arrest." The +decree was voted; an officer of the Convention boldly accepted the duty +of bearing it to the Commune. The National agent, Payan, seized it from +him, and for bravado read it with a loud voice before the crowd that was +thronging in the hall of the Hotel de Ville. He added these words which +were not in the decree, "and all those found at this moment in the +galleries." The spectators disappeared as if struck with terror at the +name of the law. Times were changed. The mobile waves of public opinion +no longer upheld the tyrants overthrown by the accomplices who had now +become their enemies. + +It was, without saying it, and possibly without knowing it, the feeling +of this public abandonment and reprobation which paralyzed the energy of +the five accused. Robespierre had arrived pale and trembling in all his +limbs; he had been tranquillized with difficulty. When Couthon, who +alone was retained for a time in the prison of La Bourbe, was at last +brought to the Hotel de Ville, he found the Council solely occupied with +the attack on the Convention, without making any efforts for rousing the +populace or for the vigorous resumption of power. "Have the armies been +written to?" he asked. "In the name of whom?" said Robespierre, +disheartened but calm. "Of the Convention which exists wherever we are; +the rest are but a handful of factious men, who are about to be +dispersed by armed force." Robespierre reflected; he shook his head. "We +must write in the name of the French people," said he. The words "_Au +nom du peuple_" were found in his handwriting on a sheet of paper. + +It was also in the name of the people that Barras and his companions +reunited the battalions of the sections which slowly assembled; some had +recalled their men from the Hotel de Ville. The new military school, the +Ecole de Mars, had not appeared well disposed toward Lebas, who had +written to the Commandant Labreteche to hinder his pupils from ranging +themselves under the banners of the Convention; the young men marched +willingly at the request of Barras. The gunners collected on the Place +de Greve permitted Leonard Bourdon to approach. "Go!" said Tallien to +him, "and let the sun when it rises find no more traitors living." The +crowd dispersed on hearing the proclamation which outlawed the Commune +of Paris. The gunners abandoned their pieces; a few hours later they +came to seek them to protect the Convention. "Is it possible," cried +Henriot, as he came forth from the Hotel de Ville, "that these +scoundrels of gunners have abandoned me? Presently they will be +delivering me to the Tuileries!" He ran to announce the desertion to the +assembled Council-General. Coffinhal, indignant at his cowardice, seized +him by the shoulder and pushed him out by the window. The agents of the +police arrested him in a sewer. + +Meanwhile the section of the Gravilliers had put itself in marching +order, commanded by Leonard Bourdon and by a gendarme named Meda, +intelligent and devoted, and who had acquired an ascendency over those +around him. He advanced toward the Hotel de Ville without encountering +any obstacle. Meda cried, in mounting the flight of steps, "Long live +Robespierre!" He penetrated into the hall, obstructed by the crowd; the +club of the Jacobins was deserted, Legendre had had the door closed; all +the leaders of the Revolution were assembled round the proscribed +representatives. They were discussing and vociferating, without ardor, +however, and without any true hope. Robespierre was seated at a table, +his head on his left hand, his elbow supported by his knee. + +Meda advanced toward him, pistols in hand. "Surrender, traitor!" he +cried. Robespierre raised his head. "It is thou who art a traitor," he +said, "and I will have thee shot." At the same instant the gendarme +fired, fracturing the lower jaw of Robespierre. As he fell, his brother +opened the window, and, passing along the cornice, leaped out upon the +Place. He was dying when they came to pick him up. + +Saint-Just, leaning over toward Lebas, said, "Kill me." Lebas, looking +him in the face, replied: "I have something better to do," pressing the +trigger of his pistol. He was dead when a fresh report resounded from +the staircase; Meda, who pursued Henriot, had just drawn on Couthon; his +bearer fell grievously wounded. The prisoners, formerly all-powerful, +now dying or condemned, were collected in the same room; thither +Robespierre and Couthon had been brought; the corpse of Lebas lay on the +floor; the crowd who besieged the gates wanted to throw the wounded into +the river. Couthon had great difficulty in making it understood that he +was not dead; Robespierre could not speak, and was carried on a chair to +the door of the Convention. A feeling of horror manifested itself in the +Assembly, "No, not here! not here!" was the cry. A surgeon came to +attend to the wounded man in the hall of the Committee of Public Safety; +he recovered from his swoon, and walked alone toward his chair; until +then he had been extended upon a table, a little deal box supporting his +wounded head. The blood flowed slowly from his mouth, and at times he +made a movement to wipe it away; his clothes and his face were smeared +with it. Robespierre appeared insensible to the injuries of those who +surrounded him; he made no complaint, inaccessible and alone in death as +in life. They carried him to the Conciergerie, where Saint-Just and +Couthon had just arrived. All had been outlawed; no procedure, no delay, +retarded their execution. Saint-Just, looking at a table of the _Rights +of Man_ hanging in the hall, said, "It is I, however, who have done +that." + +The Conciergerie slowly filled; with Dumas, Fleuriot, Payan, Lavalette, +a large proportion of the members of the Council-General had been +arrested. The prisoners already retained here were pressing to the bars +of their windows, curious as to the noise that reached their ears, and +the vague rumors which had already excited mortal fears among the +informers. Before the room where were imprisoned Madame de Beauharnais +and Madame de Fontenay (afterward Madame Tallien), a woman appeared, +who, in a marked manner, held up a stone (_pierre_), enveloped it in her +dress (_robe_), and then made a gesture of beheading. The prisoners +comprehended, a thrill of joy pervaded their gloomy abode; all the +oppressed believed themselves already delivered. + +It was five o'clock, and the carts had just drawn up as usual at the +gate of the prison, but this time they waited for the executioners. The +procession defiled before a dense crowd; all the windows were full of +spectators, all the shops were open, and joy sparkled in every +countenance. Robespierre and his friends had wearied with executions the +people of Paris; the sanguinary emotions to which they had been so long +accustomed regained their first relish; it was Robespierre that they +were about to see die. He was half stretched out in the cart, livid, and +with a blood-stained cloth round his face. When the executioner snatched +it from him on the scaffold, a terrible cry was heard, the first sign of +suffering the condemned had given. To this shriek cries of joy responded +from all around, which were repeated at each stroke from the fatal axe. +In two days a hundred three executions violently sealed the vengeance of +the Convocation. The justice of God and that of history bide their time. + +Robespierre had successively vanquished all his enemies; clever and +bold, protected and served by his reputation for virtue, seconded by the +growing terror which his name inspired, he had usurped the entire power, +and confiscated the Revolution for the profit of despotism. He succumbed +under the blows of those who had constantly pushed him to the front; +wearied or frightened by the tyranny whose vengeance they themselves +dreaded. The hands which overthrew the terrible dictator were not pure +hands, and revolutionary passions continued to animate many minds, but +the public instincts did not err for an instant. The conquerors of the +9th Thermidor could in their turn seize upon power, and the greater +number of them had had no other intention; but they might no longer +spill blood at their pleasure without hindrance and without control. The +culminating point of sufferings and crimes had been attained. Without +wishing it and without knowing it, from envy or from fear, the +"_Thermidoriens_," as they began to be called, in striking down the +triumvirate had changed the course of the Revolution. The nation, always +prompt to concentrate upon the name of one man its affections or its +hatreds, panting and lacerated as it was, began to breathe; the +prisoners ceased to expect death daily; their friends already hoped for +their liberty; timid people ventured forth from their hiding-places; the +bold loudly manifested their joy. People dared to wear mourning for +those who had died on the scaffold; widows came forth from houses in +which they had kept themselves shut up; absent ones reappeared in the +bosom of their families. Robespierre was no more. + +The Convention had revolted almost unanimously against the tyrant; +scarcely was he struck down, when it found itself again a prey to +divisions. Public demonstrations of joy and relief were manifested +everywhere, and this disquieted some of the leaders of the conspiracy +formerly directed against Robespierre; they had thought to overthrow him +in order themselves to occupy his place, and already they perceived that +two tendencies were manifesting themselves in the country. The one, +feeble as yet in the Convention, and with no other point of support than +the remnant of the Right, disposed to retrace the course of events, and +even to visit upon their authors the iniquities committed; the other, +disquieted and gloomy, determined to defend the Revolution at any +hazard, even though it might be at the price of new sacrifices. The +small party of the Thermidorians, Tallien at their head, began to form +themselves between these two irreconcilable parties. The reaction as yet +bore no definite name, it did not and could not exercise any power; +desired or dreaded, it was at the bottom of every thought, it influenced +all decisions, often rendering them apparently contrary. The terrible +glory of Robespierre, and the crushing weight that rests upon his +memory, are due to the sudden transformation effected by his death. In +outward semblance, and for some time longer, the customary terms were +employed, but the character of the situation was radically changed. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[41] Public accuser before the Revolutionary Tribunal.--ED. + +[42] Decoys; literally, sheep.--ED. + +[43] The royalist War of La Vendee against the Republic was now +raging.--ED. + +[44] "It will go." One of the most popular songs at the beginning of the +Revolution (1789), said to have been suggested by Benjamin Franklin, +who, in speaking of the progress of the American Revolution, said: "Ca +ira" meaning, "It will succeed."--ED. + + + + +THE DOWNFALL OF POLAND + +A.D. 1794 + +SIR ARCHIBALD ALISON + + That the French Revolution was not more actively interfered + with by the powers of Eastern Europe was largely due to the + fact that they were all busy with a spoliation of their own. + When Kosciuszko, the great Polish patriot and hero, failed + in his endeavor to rescue his country from foreign thraldom, + the doom of the ancient kingdom was sealed. In the following + year (1795) the third and final partition of Poland--between + Russia, Austria, and Prussia--was made. This destruction of + a heroic nationality was bewailed by the friends of liberty + throughout the world, and it was told in passionate regret + how "Freedom shrieked, as Kosciuszko fell." + + Although brave and liberty-loving, the people of Poland had + not kept pace with political progress among the more + advanced nations. In the fourteenth century Poland had risen + to her greatest power. Her political character, from ancient + days, was peculiar, being at once monarchical and + republican. But she had a feudalism of her own, which + survived long after the European feudal system was outgrown + by other nations. Her political system was cumbrous and + lacking in unity. The first partition, by the powers above + named (1772), left her in still worse disorder. A new + constitution proved unsatisfactory, one party favoring it, + another seeking to overthrow it. Russian interference was + invoked, the Polish patriots resisted, but in 1792 they were + defeated, and Russia, with Prussia, made the second + partition of Poland in 1793. + + In 1794 Kosciuszko was made commander-in-chief and dictator + of Poland. The insurrection began with the murder of the + Russians in Warsaw. But the Poles suffered from their own + dissensions as before, and met with the disaster that led to + their national extinction. + + +There is a certain degree of calamity which overwhelms the courage; but +there is another, which, by reducing men to desperation, sometimes leads +to the greatest and most glorious enterprises. To this latter state the +Poles were now reduced. Abandoned by all the world, distracted with +internal divisions, destitute alike of fortresses and resources, crushed +in the grasp of gigantic enemies, the patriots of that unhappy country, +consulting only their own courage, resolved to make a last effort to +deliver it from its enemies. In the midst of their internal convulsions, +and through all the prostration of their national strength, the Poles +had never lost their individual courage, or the ennobling feelings of +civil independence. They were still the redoubtable hussars who broke +the Mussulman ranks under the walls of Vienna, and carried the Polish +eagles in triumph to the towers of the Kremlin; whose national cry had +so often made the Osmanlis tremble, and who had boasted in their hours +of triumph that if the heaven itself were to fall they would support it +on the points of their lances. A band of patriots at Warsaw resolved at +all hazards to attempt the restoration of their independence, and they +made choice of Kosciuszko, who was then at Leipsic, to direct their +efforts.[45] + +This illustrious hero, who had received the rudiments of military +education in France, had afterward served, not without glory, in the War +of Independence in America. Uniting to Polish enthusiasm French ability, +the ardent friend of liberty and the enlightened advocate for order, +brave, loyal, and generous, he was in every way qualified to head the +last struggle of the oldest republic in existence for its national +independence. But a nearer approach to the scene of danger convinced +him that the hour for action had not yet arrived. The passions, indeed, +were awakened; the national enthusiasm was full; but the means of +resistance were inconsiderable, and the old divisions of the Republic +were not so healed as to afford the prospect of the whole national +strength being exerted in its defence. But the public indignation could +brook no delay; several regiments stationed at Pultusk revolted, and +moved toward Galicia; and Kosciuszko, albeit despairing of success, +determined not to be absent in the hour of danger, hastened to Cracow, +where on March 3d he closed the gates and proclaimed the insurrection. + +Having, by means of the regiments which had revolted, and the junction +of some bodies of armed peasants--imperfectly armed, indeed, but full of +enthusiasm--collected a force of five thousand men, Kosciuszko left +Cracow, and boldly advanced into the open country. He encountered a body +of three thousand Russians at Raslowice, and, after an obstinate +engagement, succeeded in routing it with great slaughter. This action, +inconsiderable in itself, had important consequences; the Polish +peasants exchanged their scythes for the arms found on the field of +battle, and the insurrection, encouraged by this first gleam of success, +soon communicated itself to the adjoining provinces. In vain Stanislaus +disavowed the acts of his subjects; the flame of independence spread +with the rapidity of lightning, and soon all the freemen in Poland were +in arms. Warsaw was the first great point where the flame broke out. The +intelligence of the success at Raslowice was received there on April +12th and occasioned the most violent agitation. For some days afterward +it was evident that an explosion was at hand; and at length, at daybreak +on the morning of the 17th, the brigade of Polish guards, under the +direction of their officers, attacked the governor's house and the +arsenal, and was speedily joined by the populace. The Russian and +Prussian troops in the neighborhood of the capital were about seven +thousand men; and after a prolonged and obstinate contest in the streets +for thirty-six hours, they were driven across the Vistula with the loss +of above three thousand men in killed and prisoners, and the flag of +independence was hoisted on the towers of Warsaw. + +One of the most embarrassing circumstances in the situation of the +Russians was the presence of above sixteen thousand Poles in their +ranks, who were known to sympathize strongly with these heroic efforts +of their fellow-citizens. Orders were immediately despatched to Suvaroff +to assemble a corps and disarm the Polish troops scattered in Podolia +before they could unite in any common measures for their defence. By the +energy and activity of this great commander, the Poles were disarmed +brigade after brigade, and above twelve thousand men reduced to a state +of inaction without much difficulty--a most important operation, not +only by destroying the nucleus of a powerful army, but by stifling the +commencement of the insurrection in Volhynia and Podolia. How different +might have been the fate of Poland and Europe had they been enabled to +join the ranks of their countrymen! + +Kosciuszko and his countrymen did everything that courage or energy +could suggest to put on foot a formidable force to resist their +adversaries; a provisional government was established and in a short +time a force of forty thousand men was raised. But this force, though +highly honorable to the patriotism of the Poles, was inconsiderable when +compared with the vast armies which Russia and Prussia could bring up +for their subjugation. Small as the army was, its maintenance was too +great an effort for the resources of the kingdom, which, torn by +intestine factions, without commerce, harbors, or manufactures; having +no national credit, and no industrious class of citizens but the Jews, +now felt the fatal effects of its long career of democratic anarchy. The +population of the country, composed entirely of unruly gentlemen and +ignorant serfs, was totally unable at that time to furnish those +numerous supplies of intelligent officers which are requisite for the +formation of an efficient military force; while the nobility, however +formidable on horseback in the Hungarian or Turkish wars, were less to +be relied on in a contest with regular troops, where infantry and +artillery constituted the great strength of the army, and courage was +unavailing without the aid of science and military discipline. + +The central position of Poland, in the midst of its enemies, would have +afforded great military advantages, had its inhabitants possessed a +force capable of turning it to account; that is, if they had had, like +Frederick the Great in the Seven Years' War, a hundred fifty thousand +regular troops--which the population of the country could easily have +maintained--and a few well-fortified towns, to arrest the enemy in one +quarter, while the bulk of the national force was precipitated upon them +in another. The glorious stand made by the nation in 1831, with only +thirty thousand regular soldiers at the commencement of the +insurrection, and no fortifications but those of Warsaw and Modlin, +proves what immense advantages this central position affords, and what +opportunities it offers to military genius like that of Skrynecki to +inflict the most severe wounds even on a superior and well-conducted +antagonist. But all these advantages were wanting to Kosciuszko; and it +augments our admiration of his talents, and of the heroism of his +countrymen, that with such inconsiderable means they made so honorable a +stand for their national independence. + +No sooner was the King of Prussia informed of the revolution at Warsaw +than he moved forward at the head of thirty thousand men to besiege that +city; while Suvaroff, with forty thousand veterans, was preparing to +enter the southeastern parts of the kingdom. Aware of the necessity of +striking a blow before the enemy's forces were united, Kosciuszko +advanced with twelve thousand men to attack the Russian General, +Denisoff; but, upon approaching his corps, he discovered that it had +united to the army commanded by the King in person. Unable to face such +superior forces, he immediately retired, but was attacked next morning +at daybreak near Sekoczyre by the allies, and after a gallant resistance +his army was routed, and Cracow fell into the hands of the conquerors. +This check was the more severely felt, as about the same time General +Zayonscheck was defeated at Chelne and obliged to recross the Vistula, +leaving the whole country on the right bank of that river in the hands +of the Russians. + +These disasters produced a great impression at Warsaw; the people as +usual ascribed them to treachery, and insisted that the leaders should +be brought to punishment; and although the chiefs escaped, several +persons in an inferior situation were arrested and thrown into prison. +Apprehensive of some subterfuge if the accused were regularly brought to +trial, the burghers assembled in tumultuous bodies, forced the prisons, +erected scaffolds in the streets, and after the manner of the assassins +of September 2d, put above twelve persons to death with their own hands. +These excesses affected with the most profound grief the pure heart of +Kosciuszko; he flew to the capital, restored order, and delivered over +to punishment the leaders of the revolt. But the resources of the +country were evidently unequal to the struggle; the paper money, which +had been issued in their extremity, was at a frightful discount; and the +sacrifices required of the nation were, on that account, the more +severely felt, so that hardly a hope of ultimate success remained. + +The combined Russian and Prussian armies, about thirty-five thousand +strong, now advanced against the capital, where Kosciuszko occupied an +intrenched camp with twenty-five thousand men. During the whole of July +and August the besiegers were engaged in fruitless attempts to drive the +Poles into the city; and at length a great convoy, with artillery and +stores for a regular siege, which was ascending the Vistula, having been +captured by a gentleman named Minewsky at the head of a body of +peasants, the King of Prussia raised the siege, leaving a portion of his +sick and stores in the hands of the patriots. After this success the +insurrection spread immensely and the Poles mustered nearly eighty +thousand men under arms. But they were scattered over too extensive a +line of country in order to make head against their numerous enemies--a +policy tempting by the prospect it holds forth of exciting an extensive +insurrection, but ruinous in the end, by exposing the patriotic forces +to the risk of being beaten in detail. Scarcely had the Poles recovered +from their intoxication at the raising of the siege of Warsaw when +intelligence was received of the defeat of Sizakowsky, who commanded a +corps of ten thousand men beyond the Bug, by the Russian grand army +under Suvaroff. This celebrated General, to whom the principal conduct +of the war was now committed, followed up his successes with the utmost +vigor. The retreating column was again assailed on the 19th by the +victorious Russians, and after a glorious resistance driven into the +woods between Janoff and Biala, with the loss of four thousand men and +twenty-eight pieces of cannon. Scarcely three thousand Poles, with +Sizakowsky at their head, escaped into Siedlice. + +Upon receiving the accounts of this disaster, Kosciuszko resolved, by +drawing together all his detachments, to fall upon Fersen before he +joined Suvaroff and the other corps which were advancing against the +capital. With this view he ordered General Poninsky to join him, and +marched with all his disposable forces to attack the Russian General, +who was stationed at Maccowice; but fortune on this occasion cruelly +deceived the Poles. Arrived in the neighborhood of Fersen's position he +found that Poninsky had not yet come up; and the Russian commander, +overjoyed at this circumstance, resolved immediately to attack him. In +vain Kosciuszko despatched courier after courier to Poninsky to advance +to his relief. The first was intercepted by the Cossacks, and the second +did not reach that leader in time to enable him to take a decisive part +in the approaching combat. Nevertheless the Polish commander, aware of +the danger of retreating with inexperienced troops in presence of a +disciplined and superior enemy, determined to give battle on the +following day, and drew up his little army with as much skill as the +circumstances would admit. + +The forces on the opposite sides in this action, which decided the fate +of Poland, were nearly equal in point of numbers; but the advantages of +discipline and equipment were decisively on the side of the Russians. +Kosciuszko commanded about ten thousand men, a part of whom were +recently raised and imperfectly disciplined; while Fersen was at the +head of twelve thousand veterans, including a most formidable body of +cavalry. Nevertheless, the Poles in the centre and right wing made a +glorious defence; but the left, which Poninsky should have supported, +having been overwhelmed by the cavalry under Denisoff, the whole army +was, after a severe struggle, thrown into confusion. Kosciuszko, +Sizakowsky, and other gallant chiefs in vain made the most heroic +efforts to rally the broken troops. They were wounded, struck down, and +made prisoners by the Cossacks who swarmed over the field of battle; +while the remains of the army, now reduced to seven thousand men, fell +back in confusion toward Warsaw. + +After the fall of Kosciuszko, who sustained in his single person the +fortunes of the Republic, nothing but a series of disasters overtook the +Poles. The Austrians, taking advantage of the general confusion, +entered Galicia, and occupied the palatinates of Lublin and Sandomir; +while Suvaroff, pressing forward toward the capital, defeated +Mokronowsky, who, at the head of twelve thousand men, strove to retard +the advance of that redoubtable commander. In vain the Poles made the +utmost efforts; they were routed with the loss of four thousand men; and +the patriots, though now despairing of success, resolved to sell their +lives dearly, and shut themselves up in Warsaw to await the approach of +the conqueror. Suvaroff was soon at the gates of Praga, the eastern +suburb of that capital, where twenty-six thousand men and one hundred +pieces of cannon defended the bridge of the Vistula and the approach to +the capital. To assault such a position with forces hardly superior was +evidently a hazardous enterprise; but the approach of winter, rendering +it indispensable that if anything was done at all it should be +immediately attempted, Suvaroff, who was habituated to successful +assaults in the Turkish wars, resolved to storm the city. On November 2d +the Russians made their appearance before the glacis of Praga, and +Suvaroff, having in great haste completed three powerful batteries and +breached the defences with imposing celerity, made his dispositions for +a general assault on the following day. + +The conquerors of Ismail advanced to the attack in the same order which +they had adopted on that memorable occasion. Seven columns at daybreak +approached the ramparts, rapidly filled up the ditches with their +fascines, broke down the defences, and pouring into the intrenched camp +carried destruction into the ranks of the Poles. In vain the defenders +did their utmost to resist the torrent. The wooden houses of Praga +speedily took fire, and amid the shouts of the victors and the cries of +the inhabitants the Polish battalions were borne backward to the edge of +the Vistula. The multitude of fugitives speedily broke down the bridges; +and the citizens of Warsaw beheld with unavailing anguish their +defenders on the other side perishing in the flames, or by the sword of +the conquerors. Ten thousand soldiers fell on the spot, nine thousand +were made prisoners, and above twelve thousand citizens, of every age +and sex, were put to the sword--a dreadful instance of carnage which has +left a lasting stain on the name of Suvaroff and which Russia expiated +in the conflagration of Moscow. The tragedy was at an end. Warsaw +capitulated two days afterward; the detached parties of the patriots +melted away, and Poland was no more. On November 6th Suvaroff made his +triumphant entry into the blood-stained capital. King Stanislaus was +sent into Russia, where he ended his days in captivity, and the final +partition of the monarchy was effected. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[45] Thaddeus Kosciuszko was born in 1755, of a poor but noble family, +and received the first elements of his education in the corps of cadets +at Warsaw. There he was early distinguished by his diligence, ability, +and progress in mathematical science, insomuch that he was selected as +one of the four students annually chosen at that institution to travel +at the expense of the State. He went abroad, accordingly, and spent +several years in France, chiefly engaged in military studies; from +whence he returned in 1778, with ideas of freedom and independence +unhappily far in advance of his country at that period. As war did not +seem likely at that period in the north of Europe, he set sail for +America, then beginning the War of Independence, and was employed by +Washington as his adjutant, and distinguished himself greatly in that +contest beside Lafayette, Lameth, Dumas, and so many of the other ardent +and enthusiastic spirits from the Old World. He returned to Europe on +the termination of the war, decorated with the order of Cincinnatus, and +lived in retirement till 1789, when, as King Stanislaus was adopting +some steps with a view to the assertion of national independence, he was +appointed major-general by the Polish Diet. In 1791 he joined with +enthusiasm in the formation of the Constitution which was proclaimed on +May 5th of that year.--ED. + + + + +THE RISE OF NAPOLEON + +THE FRENCH CONQUEST OF ITALY + +A.D. 1796 + +SIR WALTER SCOTT + + Napoleon, regarded by many as the most remarkable man of + modern times, took control of the forces of the French + Revolution and directed them toward purposes little dreamed + of by the earlier leaders of the uprising. The excesses of + the Reign of Terror had caused such a reaction that even in + Paris men began to talk of restoring the monarchy, and in + 1795 a new tumult began, due in part to the efforts of the + Royalists. Once more a mob marched against the hall of the + National Convention; and the general of the national troops + in the city, uncertain what to do, gladly left affairs in + the hands of a subordinate, one of the few remaining French + officers who had received a regular military training under + the old _regime_. This lesser general, a young man of + twenty-six, was Napoleon Bonaparte, who had already won + repute as a military engineer. Bonaparte met the mob as no + Paris mob had yet been met. He had a row of cannon loaded + with grape-shot, and these were fired to kill. Many of the + rabble fell, the rest fled in dismay. "That whiff of + grape-shot," says Carlyle, "ended the Revolution." + + Bonaparte, made much of by the Convention he had defended, + was appointed commander of the army fighting on the Italian + frontier. Ever since Valmy, Revolutionary France had been + compelled to defend herself against civil war within and the + attacks of the foreign monarchs, friends and relatives of + Louis XVI, from without. The tremendous energy of her + aroused people had made her equal to the task. She had + conquered Holland and the German lands west of the Rhine, + she had forced both Prussia and Spain to sue for peace. But + England from her island throne, and Austria, the most + powerful of France's continental foes, the most closely + related to the murdered Queen Marie Antoinette, were still + threatening the French borders. The Austrians held most of + Italy and it was against them that Napoleon was despatched. + He was the first to carry the war away from the French + border line and into the heart of the countries of her foes. + + France was starving; and Napoleon from the treasuries of + Italy sent her unlimited supplies; sent her splendid works + of art. No wonder the impoverished people hailed him with + delight as their preserver. No wonder the purer aspirations + after liberty perished in the passion for conquest, spoils, + and that Frenchest of French vanities, "_la gloire_." + + +Napoleon has himself observed that no country in the world is more +distinctly marked out by its natural boundaries than Italy. The Alps +seem a barrier erected by nature herself, on which she has inscribed in +gigantic characters "Here let ambition be staid." Yet this tremendous +circumvallation of mountains, as it could not prevent the ancient Romans +from breaking out to desolate the world, so it has been in like manner +found, ever since the days of Hannibal, unequal to protect Italy herself +from invasion. The French nation, in the times of which we treat, spoke +indeed of the Alps as a natural boundary, so far as to authorize them to +claim all which lay on the western side of these mountains, as naturally +pertaining to their dominions; but they never deigned to respect them as +such when the question respected their invading, on their own part, the +territories of other states which lay on or beyond the formidable +frontier. They assumed the law of natural limits as an unchallengeable +rule when it made in favor of France, but never allowed it to be quoted +against her interest. + +During the Revolutionary War, the general fortune of battle had varied +from time to time in the neighborhood of these mighty boundaries. The +King of Sardinia possessed almost all the fortresses which command the +passes on these mountains, and had therefore been said to wear the keys +of the Alps at his girdle. He had indeed lost his dukedom of Savoy, and +the county of Nice, in the last campaign; but he still maintained in +opposition to the French a very considerable army, and was supported by +his powerful ally the Emperor of Austria, always vigilant regarding that +rich and beautiful portion of his dominions which lies in the North of +Italy. The frontiers of Piedmont were therefore covered by a strong +Austro-Sardinian army, opposed to the French armies to which Napoleon +had been just named commander-in-chief. A strong Neapolitan force was +also to be added, so that in general numbers their opponents were much +superior to the French; but a great part of this force was cooped up in +garrisons which could not be abandoned. + +It may be imagined with what delight the General, scarce aged +twenty-six, advanced to an independent field of glory and conquest, +confident in his own powers, and in the perfect knowledge of the country +which he had acquired, when, by his scientific plans of the campaign, +he had enabled General Dumorbion to drive the Austrians back, and obtain +possession of the Col di Tenda, Saorgio, and the gorges of the higher +Alps. Bonaparte's achievements had hitherto been under the auspices of +others. He made the dispositions before Toulon, but it was Dugommier who +had the credit of taking the place. Dumorbion, as we have just said, +obtained the merit of the advantages in Piedmont. Even in the civil +turmoil of 13th Vendemiaire, his actual services had been overshaded by +the official dignity of Barras, as commander-in-chief. But if he reaped +honor in Italy the success would be exclusively his own; and that proud +heart must have throbbed to meet danger upon such terms; that keen +spirit have toiled to discover the means of success. + +For victory, he relied chiefly upon a system of tactics hitherto +unpractised in war, or at least upon any considerable or uniform scale. +As war becomes a profession, and a subject of deep study, it is +gradually discovered that the principles of tactics depend upon +mathematical and arithmetical science; and that the commander will be +victorious who can assemble the greatest number of forces upon the same +point at the same moment, notwithstanding an inferiority of numbers to +the enemy when the general force is computed on both sides. + +No man ever possessed in a greater degree than Bonaparte the power of +calculation and combination necessary for directing such decisive +manoeuvres. It constituted indeed his secret--as it was for some time +called--and that secret consisted in an imagination fertile in +expedients which would never have occurred to others; clearness and +precision in forming his plans; a mode of directing with certainty the +separate moving columns which were to execute them, by arranging so that +each division should arrive on the destined position at the exact time +when their service was necessary; and above all, in the knowledge which +enabled such a master-spirit to choose the most fitting subordinate +implements, to attach them to his person, and by explaining to them so +much of his plan as it was necessary each should execute, to secure the +exertion of their utmost ability in carrying it into effect. + +Thus, not only were his manoeuvres, however daring, executed with a +precision which warlike operations had not attained before his time; but +they were also performed with a celerity which gave them almost the +effect of surprise. Napoleon was like lightning in the eyes of his +enemies; and when repeated experience had taught them to expect this +portentous rapidity of movement, it sometimes induced his opponents to +wait in a dubious and hesitating posture for attacks, which, with less +apprehension of their antagonist, they would have thought it more +prudent to frustrate and to anticipate. + +The forces which Bonaparte had under his command were between fifty and +sixty thousand good troops, having, many of them, been brought from the +Spanish campaign in consequence of the peace with that country; but very +indifferently provided with clothing, and suffering from the hardships +they had endured in those mountains, barren and cold regions. The +cavalry, in particular, were in very poor order; but the nature of their +new field of action not admitting of their being much employed, rendered +this of less consequence. The misery of the French army, until these +Alpine campaigns were victoriously closed by the armistice of Cherasco, +could, according to Bonaparte's authority, scarce bear description. The +officers for several years had received no more than eight livres a +month (twenty-pence sterling a week) in name of pay, and staff-officers +had not among them a single horse. Berthier preserved, as a curiosity, +an order dated on the day of the victory of Albenga, which munificently +conferred a gratuity of three louis d'ors upon every general of +division. Among the generals to whom this donation was rendered +acceptable by their wants were, or might have been, many whose names +became afterward the praise and dread of war. Augereau, Massena, +Serrurier, Joubert, Lannes, and Murat, all generals of the first +consideration, served under Bonaparte in the Italian campaign. + +The plan of crossing the Alps and marching into Italy suited in every +respect the ambitious and self-confident character of the General to +whom it was now intrusted. It gave him a separate and independent +authority, and the power of acting on his own judgment and +responsibility; for his countryman Salicetti, the deputy who accompanied +him as commissioner of the Government, was not probably much disposed to +intrude his opinions. He had been Bonaparte's patron, and was still his +friend. The young General's mind was made up to the alternative of +conquest or ruin, as may be judged from his words to a friend at taking +leave of him. "In three months," he said, "I will be either at Milan or +at Paris;" intimating at once his desperate resolution to succeed, and +his sense that the disappointment of all his prospects must be the +consequence of a failure. + +With the same view of animating his followers to ambitious hopes, he +addressed the Army of Italy to the following purpose: "Soldiers, you are +hungry and naked; the Republic owes you much, but she has not the means +to acquit herself of her debts. The patience with which you support your +hardships among these barren rocks is admirable, but it cannot procure +you glory. I am come to lead you into the most fertile plains that the +sun beholds: rich provinces, opulent towns; all shall be at your +disposal. Soldiers, with such a prospect before you, can you fail in +courage and constancy?" This was showing the deer to the hound when the +leash is about to be slipped. + +The Austro-Sardinian army, to which Bonaparte was opposed, was commanded +by Beaulieu, an Austrian general of great experience and some talent, +but no less than seventy-five years old; accustomed all his life to the +ancient rules of tactics, and unlikely to suspect, anticipate, or +frustrate those plans formed by a genius so fertile as that of Napoleon. + +Bonaparte's plan for entering Italy differed from that of former +conquerors and invaders, who had approached that fine country by +penetrating or surmounting at some point or other her Alpine barriers. +This inventive warrior resolved to attain the same object by turning +round the southern extremity of the Alpine range, keeping as close as +possible to the shores of the Mediterranean, and passing through the +Genoese territory by the narrow pass called the Boccheta, leading around +the extremity of the mountains, and betwixt these and the sea. Thus he +proposed to penetrate into Italy by the lowest level which the surface +of the country presented, which must be of course where the range of the +Alps unites with that of the Apennines. The point of junction where +these two immense ranges of mountains touch upon each other is at the +heights of Mount St. Jacques, above Genoa, where the Alps, running +northwestward, ascend to Mont Blanc, their highest peak, and the +Appenines, running to the southeast, gradually elevate themselves to +Monte Velino, the tallest mountain of the range. + +To attain this object of turning the Alps in the manner proposed, it was +necessary that Bonaparte should totally change the situation of his +army; those occupying a defensive line, running north and south, being +to assume an offensive position, extending east and west. Speaking of an +army as of a battalion, he was to form into column upon the right of the +line which he had hitherto occupied. This was an extremely delicate +operation to be undertaken in presence of an active enemy, his superior +in numbers; nor was he permitted to execute it uninterrupted. + +No sooner did Beaulieu learn that the French General was concentrating +his forces, and about to change his position, than he hastened to +preserve Genoa, without possession of which, or at least of the adjacent +territory, Bonaparte's scheme of advance could scarce have been +accomplished. The Austrian divided his army into three bodies. Colli, at +the head of a Sardinian division, he stationed on the extreme right at +Ceva; his centre division, under D'Argenteau, having its head at +Sasiello, had directions to march on a mountain called Monte Notte, with +two villages of the same name, near to which was a strong position at a +place called Montelegino, which the French had occupied in order to +cover their flank during their march toward the east. + +At the head of his left wing, Beaulieu himself moved from Novi upon +Voltri, a small town nine miles west of Genoa, for the protection of +that ancient city, whose independence and neutrality were like to be +held in little reverence. Thus it appears, that while the French were +endeavoring to penetrate into Italy by an advance from Sardinia by the +way of Genoa, their line of march was threatened by three armies of +Austro-Sardinians, descending from the skirts of the Alps, and menacing +to attack their flank. But, though a skilful disposition, Beaulieu's +had, from the very mountainous character of the country, the great +disadvantage of wanting connection between the three separate divisions; +neither, if needful, could they be easily united on any point desired, +while the lower line, on which the French moved, permitted constant +communication and cooperation. + +On April 10, 1796, D'Argenteau, with the central division of the +Austro-Sardinian army, descended upon Monte Notte, while Beaulieu on +the left attacked the van of the French army, which had come as far as +Voltri. General Cervoni, commanding the French division which sustained +the attack of Beaulieu, was compelled to fall back on the main body of +his countrymen; and had the assault of D'Argenteau been equally +animated, or equally successful, the fame of Bonaparte might have been +stifled in its birth. But Colonel Rampon, a French officer, who +commanded the redoubts near Montelegino, stopped the progress of +D'Argenteau by the most determined resistance. At the head of not more +than fifteen hundred men, whom he inspired with his own courage, and +caused to swear to maintain their post or die there, he continued to +defend the redoubts, during the whole of the 11th, until D'Argenteau, +whose conduct was afterward greatly blamed for not making more +determined efforts to carry them, drew off his forces for the evening, +intending to renew the attack next morning. + +But on the morning of the 12th, the Austrian General found himself +surrounded with enemies. Cervoni, who retreated before Beaulieu, had +united himself with La Harpe, and both advancing northward during the +night of the 11th, established themselves in the rear of the redoubts of +Montelegino, which Rampon had so gallantly defended. This was not all. +The divisions of Augereau and Massena had marched, by different routes, +on the flank and on the rear of D'Argenteau's column; so that next +morning, instead of renewing his attack on the redoubts, the Austrian +General was obliged to extricate himself by a disastrous retreat, +leaving behind him colors and cannon, a thousand slain, and two thousand +prisoners. + +Such was the Battle of Monte Notte, the first of Bonaparte's victories; +eminently displaying the truth and mathematical certainty of +combination, which enabled him on many more memorable occasions, even +when his forces were inferior in numbers, and apparently disunited in +position, suddenly to concentrate them and defeat his enemy, by +overpowering him on the very point where he thought himself strongest. +He had accumulated a superior force on the Austrian centre, and +destroyed it, while Colli, on the right, and Beaulieu himself, on the +left, each at the head of numerous forces, did not even hear of the +action till it was fought and won. In consequence of the success at +Monte Notte, and the close pursuit of the defeated Austrians, the +French obtained possession of Cairo, which placed them on that side of +the Alps which slopes toward Lombardy, and where the streams from these +mountains run to join the Po. + +Beaulieu had advanced to Voltri, while the French withdrew to unite +themselves in the attack upon D'Argenteau. He had now to retreat +northward with all haste to Dego, in the valley of the river Bormida, in +order to resume communication with the right wing of his army, +consisting chiefly of Sardinians, from which he was now nearly separated +by the defeat of the centre. General Colli, by a corresponding movement +on the left, occupied Millesimo, a small town about nine miles from +Dego, with which he resumed and maintained communication by a brigade +stationed on the heights of Biastro. From the strength of this position, +though his forces were scarce sufficiently concentrated, Beaulieu hoped +to maintain his ground till he should receive supplies from Lombardy, +and recover the consequences of the defeat at Monte Notte. But the +antagonist whom he had in front had no purpose of permitting him such +respite. + +Determined upon a general attack on all points of the Austrian position, +the French army advanced in three bodies upon a space of four leagues in +extent. Augereau, at the head of the division which had not fought at +Monte Notte, advanced on the left against Millesimo; the centre, under +Massena, directed themselves upon Dego, by the vale of the Bormida; the +right wing, commanded by La Harpe, manoeuvred on the right of all, for +the purpose of turning Beaulieu's left flank. Augereau was the first who +came in contact with the enemy. He attacked General Colli, April 13th. +His troops, emulous of the honor acquired by their companions, behaved +with great bravery, rushed upon the outposts of the Sardinian army at +Millesimo, forced and retained possession of the gorge by which it was +defended, and thus separated from the Sardinian army a body of about two +thousand men, under the Austrian General Provera, who occupied a +detached eminence called Cossaria, which covered the extreme left of +General Colli's position. But the Austrian showed the most obstinate +courage. Although surrounded by the enemy, he threw himself into the +ruinous castle of Cossaria, which crowned the eminence, and showed a +disposition to maintain the place to the last; the rather that, as he +could see from the turrets of his stronghold the Sardinian troops, from +whom he had been separated, preparing to fight on the ensuing day, he +might reasonably hope to be disengaged. + +Bonaparte in person came up; and seeing the necessity of dislodging the +enemy from his strong post, ordered three successive attacks to be made +on the castle. Joubert, at the head of one of the attacking columns, had +actually, with six or seven others, made his way into the outworks, when +he was struck down by a wound in the head. General Banal and +Adjutant-General Quenin fell, each at the head of the column which he +commanded; and Bonaparte was compelled to leave the obstinate Provera in +possession of the castle for the night. The morning of the 14th brought +a different scene. Contenting himself with blockading the castle of +Cossaria, Bonaparte now gave battle to General Colli, who made every +effort to relieve it. These attempts were all in vain. He was defeated +and cut off from Beaulieu; he retired as well as he could upon Ceva, +leaving to his fate the brave General Provera, who was compelled to +surrender at discretion. + +On the same day, Massena, with the centre, attacked the heights of +Biastro, being the point of communication betwixt Beaulieu and Colli, +while La Harpe, having crossed the Bormida, where the stream came up to +the soldiers' middle, attacked in front and in flank the village of +Dego, where the Austrian Commander-in-Chief was stationed. The first +attack was completely successful--the heights of Biastro were carried, +and the Piedmontese routed. The assault of Dego was not less so, +although after a harder struggle. Beaulieu was compelled to retreat, and +was entirely separated from the Sardinians, who had hitherto acted in +combination with him. The defenders of Italy now retreated in different +directions, Colli moving westward toward Ceva, while Beaulieu, closely +pursued through a difficult country, retired upon D'Aqui. + +Even the morning after the victory, it was nearly wrested out of the +hands of the conquerors. A fresh division of Austrians, who had +evacuated Voltri later than the others, and were approaching to form a +junction with their General, found the enemy in possession of Beaulieu's +position. They arrived at Dego like men who had been led astray, and +were no doubt surprised at finding it in the hands of the French. Yet +they did not hesitate to assume the offensive, and by a brisk attack +drove out the enemy, and replaced the Austrian eagles in the village. +Great alarm was occasioned by this sudden apparition; for no one among +the French could conceive the meaning of an alarm beginning on the +opposite quarter to that on which the enemy had retreated, and without +its being announced from the outposts toward D'Aqui. + +Bonaparte hastily marched on the village. The Austrians repelled two +attacks; at the third, General Lanusse, afterward killed in Egypt, put +his hat upon the point of his sword, and advancing to the charge +penetrated into the place. Lannes also, afterward Duke of Montebello, +distinguished himself on the same occasion by courage and military +skill, and was recommended by Bonaparte to the Directory for promotion. +In this Battle of Dego, more commonly called of Millesimo, the +Austro-Sardinian army lost five or six thousand men, thirty pieces of +cannon, with a great quantity of baggage. Besides, the Austrians were +divided from the Sardinians; and the two generals began to show not only +that their forces were disunited, but that they themselves were acting +upon separate motives; the Sardinians desiring to protect Turin, whereas +the movements of Beaulieu seemed still directed to prevent the French +from entering the Milanese territory. + +Leaving a sufficient force on the Bormida to keep in check Beaulieu, +Bonaparte now turned his strength against Colli, who, overpowered, and +without hopes of succor, abandoned his line of defence near Ceva, and +retreated to the line of the Tanaro. + +Napoleon in the mean time fixed his head-quarters at Ceva, and enjoyed +from the heights of Montezemoto the splendid view of the fertile fields +of Piedmont, stretching in boundless perspective beneath his feet, +watered by the Po, the Tanaro, and a thousand other streams which +descended from the Alps. Before the eyes of the delighted army of +victors lay this rich expanse like a promised land; behind them was the +wilderness they had passed--not indeed a desert of barren sand, similar +to that in which the Israelites wandered, but a huge tract of rocks and +inaccessible mountains, crested with ice and snow, seeming by nature +designed as the barrier and rampart of the blessed regions, which +stretched eastward beneath them. We can sympathize with the +self-congratulation of the General who had surmounted such tremendous +obstacles in a way so unusual. He said to the officers around him, as +they gazed upon this magnificent scene, "Hannibal took the Alps by +storm. We have succeeded as well by turning their flank." + +The dispirited army of Colli was attacked at Mondovi during his retreat +by two corps of Bonaparte's army from two different points, commanded by +Massena and Serrurier. The last General the Sardinian repulsed with +loss; but when he found Massena, in the mean time, was turning the left +of his line, and that he was thus pressed on both flanks, his situation +became almost desperate. The cavalry of the Piedmontese made an effort +to renew the combat. For a time they overpowered and drove back those of +the French; and General Stengel, who commanded the latter, was slain in +attempting to get them into order. But the desperate valor of Murat, +unrivalled perhaps in the heady charge of cavalry combat, renewed the +fortune of the field; and the horse, as well as the infantry of Colli's +army, were compelled to a disastrous retreat. The defeat was decisive; +and the Sardinians, after the loss of the best of their troops, their +cannon, baggage, and appointments, and being now totally divided from +their Austrian allies, and liable to be overpowered by the united forces +of the French army, had no longer hopes of effectually covering Turin. +Bonaparte, pursuing his victory, took possession of Cherasco, within ten +leagues of the Piedmontese capital. + +Thus Fortune, in the course of a campaign of scarce a month, placed her +favorite in full possession of the desired road to Italy, by command of +the mountain-passes, which had been invaded and conquered with so much +military skill. He had gained three battles over forces far superior to +his own; inflicted on the enemy a loss of twenty-five thousand men in +killed, wounded, and prisoners; taken eighty pieces of cannon, and +twenty-one stands of colors; reduced to inaction the Austrian army; +almost annihilated that of Sardinia; and stood in full communication +with France upon the eastern side of the Alps, with Italy lying open +before him, as if to invite his invasion. But it was not even with such +laurels, and with facilities which now presented themselves for the +accomplishment of new and more important victories upon a larger scale, +and with more magnificent results, that the career of Bonaparte's +earliest campaign was to be closed. The head of the royal house of +Savoy, if not one of the most powerful, still one of the most +distinguished in Europe, was to have the melancholy experience, that he +had encountered with the "Man of Destiny," as he was afterward proudly +called, who, for a time, had power, in the emphatic phrase of Scripture, +"to bind kings with chains, and nobles with fetters of iron." + +The shattered relics of the Sardinian army had fallen back, or rather +fled, to within two leagues of Turin, without hope of being again able +to make an effectual stand. The sovereign of Sardinia, Savoy, and +Piedmont had no means of preserving his capital, nay, his existence on +the Continent, excepting by an almost total submission to the will of +the victor. Let it be remembered, that Victor Amadeus III was the +descendant of a race of heroes, who, from the peculiar situation of +their territories, as constituting a neutral ground of great strength +betwixt France and the Italian possessions of Austria, had often been +called on to play a part in the general affairs of Europe, of importance +far superior to that which their condition as a second-rate power could +otherwise have demanded. In general, they had compensated their +inferiority of force by an ability and gallantry which did them the +highest credit, both as generals and as politicians; and now Piedmont +was at the feet, in her turn, of an enemy weaker in numbers than her +own. Besides the reflections on the past fame of his country, the +present humiliating situation of the King was rendered more mortifying +by the state of his family connections. + +Victor Amadeus was the father-in-law of "Monsieur" (by right Louis +XVIII), and of the Comte d'Artois, the reigning King of France. He had +received his sons-in-law at his court at Turin, had afforded them an +opportunity of assembling around them their forces, consisting of the +emigrant _noblesse_, and had strained all the power he possessed, and in +many instances successfully, to withstand both the artifices and the +arms of the French Republicans. And now, so born, so connected, and with +such principles, he was condemned to sue for peace on any terms which +might be dictated, from a general of France aged twenty-six years, who, +a few months before, was desirous of an appointment in the artillery +service of the Grand Seignior! + +An armistice was requested by the King of Sardinia under these +afflicting circumstances, but could only be purchased by placing two of +his strongest fortresses--those keys of the Alps, of which his ancestors +had long been the keepers--Coni and Tortona, in the hands of the French, +and thus acknowledging that he surrendered at discretion. The armistice +was agreed on at Cherasco, but commissioners were sent by the King to +Paris, to arrange with the Directory the final terms of peace. These +were such as victors give to the vanquished. + +Besides the fortresses already surrendered, the King of Sardinia was to +place in the hands of the French five others of the first importance. +The road from France to Italy was to be at all times open to the French +armies; and indeed the King, by surrender of the places mentioned, had +lost the power of interrupting their progress. He was to break off every +species of alliance and connection with the combined powers at war with +France, and become bound not to entertain at his court, or in his +service, any French emigrants whatsoever, or any of their connections; +nor was an exception even made in favor of his own two daughters. In +short, the surrender was absolute. Victor Amadeus exhibited the utmost +reluctance to subscribe this treaty, and did not long survive it. His +son succeeded in name to the kingdom of Piedmont; but the fortresses and +passes which had rendered him a prince of some importance were, +excepting Turin and one or two of minor consequence, all surrendered +into the hands of the French. + +Viewing this treaty with Sardinia as the close of the Piedmontese +campaign, we pause to consider the character which Bonaparte displayed +at that period. The talents as a general which he had exhibited were of +the very first order. There was no disconnection in his objects, they +were all attained by the very means he proposed, and the success was +improved to the utmost. A different conduct usually characterizes those +who stumble unexpectedly on victory, either by good-fortune or by the +valor of their troops. When the favorable opportunity occurs to such +leaders, they are nearly as much embarrassed by it as by a defeat. But +Bonaparte, who had foreseen the result of each operation by his +sagacity, stood also prepared to make the most of the advantages which +might be derived from it. + +His style in addressing the Convention was, at this period, more modest +and simple, and therefore more impressive, than the figurative and +bombastic style which he afterward used in his bulletins. His +self-opinion, perhaps, was not risen so high as to permit him to use the +sesquipedalian words and violent metaphors, to which he afterward seems +to have given a preference. We may remark also, that the young victor +was honorably anxious to secure for such officers as distinguished +themselves the preferment which their services entitled them to. He +urges the promotion of his brethren-in-arms in almost every one of his +despatches--a conduct not only just and generous, but also highly +politic. Were his recommendations successful, their General had the +gratitude due for the benefit; were they overlooked, thanks equally +belonged to him for his good wishes, and the resentment for the slight +attached itself to the Government who did not give effect to them. + + + + +OVERTHROW OF THE MAMELUKES + +THE BATTLE OF THE NILE + +A.D. 1798 + +CHARLES KNIGHT + + Napoleon's Italian victories forced even Austria to seek + peace and acquiesce in the extension of the French Republic + to the Rhine and over a considerable part of Italy. The + Continent was for a moment at peace, only England remaining + in open hostility to France. A great invasion was planned to + subdue the island kingdom, but Britain felt secure in the + power of her ships which had repeatedly defeated those of + France, Spain, and Holland. + + The French Government, which had gradually gathered a strong + fleet on the Mediterranean, now at Bonaparte's urgency + undertook what has often been regarded as the rather + visionary attempt of conquering Egypt, perhaps expecting to + extend French power over all Asia and so destroy British + trade, the source of Britain's wealth. Egypt was nominally + subject to Turkey, but was really ruled by the Mamelukes, an + aristocracy of soldiers who had held the land for centuries. + + Nelson, the English admiral, despatched to discover and + defeat the French fleet, is England's greatest naval hero. + He had already won renown as second in command in an + important victory over the Spaniards off Cape St. Vincent. + The Battle of the Nile was the first of his three most + celebrated achievements, the others being the defeat of the + Danes at Copenhagen[46] and then the final destruction of + the French and Spanish fleets at Trafalgar. + + +Bonaparte with great difficulty persuaded the Directory to postpone +their scheme for the invasion of the British Islands, and to permit him +to embark an army for Egypt, the possession of which country, he +maintained, would open to France the commerce of the East, and prepare +the way for the conquest of India. Having subdued Egypt, he would return +before another winter to plant the tricolor on the Tower of London. In +April, Bonaparte was appointed general-in-chief of the Army of the East. +The secret had been well kept. + +The French fleet under Admiral Brueys was in the harbor of Toulon, +ready to sail upon its secret destination. Something different from the +invasion of England was in contemplation; for on board the admiral's +ship, L'Orient, were a hundred literary men and artists, mathematicians +and naturalists, who were certainly not required to enlighten the French +upon the native productions or the antiquities of the British Isles. +Bonaparte arrived at Toulon on May 9th, and issued one of his +grandiloquent proclamations to his troops. The armament consisted of +thirteen ships of the line, many frigates and corvettes, and four +hundred transports. The army, which it was to carry to some unknown +shore, consisted of forty thousand men. On May 19th this formidable +expedition left the great French harbor of the Mediterranean. + +On the day when Bonaparte arrived at Toulon, Nelson had sailed from +Gibraltar, with three seventy-fours, four frigates, and a sloop, to +watch the movements of the enemy. Since the most daring of British naval +commanders had fought in the Battle of St. Vincent, he had lost an arm +in an unsuccessful attack upon the island of Teneriffe. For some time +his spirit was depressed, and he thought that a left-handed admiral +could never again be useful. He had lost also his right eye, and was +severely wounded in his body. But he had not lost that indomitable +spirit which rose superior to wounds and weakness of constitution. He +rested some time at home; and then, early in 1798, sailed in the +Vanguard to join the fleet under Lord St. Vincent. The Admiralty had +suggested, and Lord St. Vincent had previously determined, that a +detachment of the squadron blockading the Spanish fleet should sail to +the Mediterranean, under the command of Nelson. The seniors of the fleet +were offended at this preference of a junior officer; and men of routine +at home shrugged their shoulders, and feared, with the cold Lord +Grenville, that Nelson "will do something _too_ desperate." He was not +stinted in his means, being finally reenforced with ten of the best +ships of St. Vincent's fleet. + +The first operation of Bonaparte was the seizure of Malta. His fleet was +in sight of the island on June 9th. He had other weapons than his cannon +for the reduction of a place deemed impregnable. The Order of St. John +of Jerusalem had held the real sovereignty of the island since 1530. +These Knights of Malta, powerful at sea, had formed one of the bulwarks +of Christendom against the Ottomans. They had gradually lost their +warlike prowess as well at their religious austerity; and Malta, +protected by its fortifications, became the seat of luxury for this last +of the monastic military orders whose occupation was gone. Bonaparte had +confiscated their property in Italy; and he had sent a skilful agent to +the island to sow dissensions among the Knights, and thus to prepare the +way for the fall of the community. There were many French knights among +them, to whom the principal military commands had been intrusted by the +grand master, a weak German. + +Bonaparte, on June 9th, sent a demand to the grand master, that his +whole fleet should be permitted to enter the great harbor for the +purpose of taking in water. The reply was that, according to the rules +of the Order, only two ships, or at most four, could be allowed to enter +the port at one time. The answer was interpreted as equivalent to a +declaration of hostility; and Bonaparte issued orders that the army +should disembark the next morning on the coasts of the island wherever a +landing could be effected. The island was taken almost without +opposition; the French Knights declaring that they would not fight +against their countrymen. On June 13th, the French were put in +possession of La Valletta and the surrounding forts. Bonaparte made all +sorts of promises of compensation to the recreant Knights, which the +Directory were not very careful to keep. He landed to examine his prize, +when General Caffarelli, who accompanied him, said, "We are very lucky +that there was somebody in the place to open the doors for us." + +Leaving a garrison to occupy the new possession, the French sailed away +on the 20th, with all the gold and silver of the treasury, and all the +plate of the churches and religious houses. "The essential point now," +says Thiers, "was not to encounter the English fleet"; nevertheless, he +adds, "nobody was afraid of the encounter." Nelson was at Naples on the +day when Bonaparte quitted Malta. He immediately sailed. On the 22d, at +night, the two fleets crossed each other's track unperceived, between +Cape Mesurado and the mouth of the Adriatic. The frigates of the British +fleet had been separated from the main body, and thus Nelson had no +certain intelligence. His sagacity made him conjecture that the +destination of the armament was Egypt. He made the most direct course to +Alexandria, which he reached on the 28th. No enemy was there, and no +tidings could be obtained of them. On the morning of July 1st, Admiral +Brueys was off the same port, and learned that Nelson had sailed away in +search of him. Bonaparte demanded that he should be landed at some +distance from Alexandria, for preparations appeared for the defence of +the ancient city. As he and several thousand troops who followed him +reached the shore in boats, a vessel appeared in sight, and the cry went +forth that it was an English sail. "Fortune," he exclaimed, "dost thou +abandon me? Give me only five days!" A French frigate was the cause of +the momentary alarm. Nelson had returned to Sicily. + +The Sultan was at peace with France; a French minister was at +Constantinople. Such trifling formalities in the laws of nations were +little respected by the man who told his soldiers that "the genius of +Liberty having rendered the Republic the arbiter of Europe, had assigned +to her the same power over the seas and over the most distant nations." +Four thousand of the French army were landed, and marched in three +columns to the attack of Alexandria. It was quickly taken by assault. +Bonaparte announced that he came neither to ravage the country nor to +question the authority of the Grand Seignior, but to put down the +domination of the Mamelukes, who tyrannized over the people by the +authority of the beys. He proclaimed to the population of Egypt, in +magnificent language that he caused to be translated into Arabic, that +he came not to destroy their religion. We Frenchmen are true Mussulmans. +Have not we destroyed the pope, who called upon Europe to make war upon +Mussulmans? Have not we destroyed the Knights of Malta, because these +madmen believed that God had called them to make war upon Mussulmans? + +Leaving a garrison of three thousand men in Alexandria, the main army +commenced its march to Cairo. Bonaparte was anxious to arrive there +before the periodical inundation of the Nile. The fleet of Brueys +remained at anchor in the road of Abukir. Bonaparte chose the shorter +route to Cairo through the desert of Damanhour, leading thirty thousand +men--to each of whom he had promised to grant seven acres of fertile +land in the conquered territories--through plains of sand without a drop +of water. They murmured, and almost mutinied, but they endured, and at +length reached the banks of the Nile, at Rahmaniyeh, where a flotilla, +laden with provisions, baggage, and artillery, awaited them. The +Mamelukes, with Amurath Bey at their head, were around the French. The +invaders had to fight with enemies who came upon them in detachments, +gave a fierce assault, and then fled. As they approached the great +Pyramids of Gizeh, they found an enemy more formidable than these +scattered bands. Amurath Bey was encamped with twelve thousand Mamelukes +and eight thousand mounted Bedouins, on the west bank of the Nile, and +opposite Cairo. + +The French looked upon the great entrepot, where the soldiers expected +to find the gorgeous palaces and the rich bazaars of which some had read +in Galland's _Arabian Nights_, whose tales they had recounted to their +comrades on their dreary march under a burning sun. They had to sustain +the attack of Amurath and his Mamelukes, who came upon them with the +fury of a tempest. In the East, Bonaparte was ever in his altitudes; and +he now pointed to the Pyramids, and exclaimed to his soldiers, "Forty +centuries look down upon you." The chief attack of the Mamelukes was +upon a square which Desaix commanded. In spite of the desperate courage +of this formidable cavalry, the steadiness of the disciplined soldiery +of the army of Italy repelled every assault; and after a tremendous loss +Amurath Bey retreated toward Upper Egypt. His intrenched camp was +forced, amid a fearful carnage. The conquerors had no difficulty in +obtaining possession of Cairo. + +Ibrahim Bey evacuated the city, which on July 25th Bonaparte entered. +His policy now was to conciliate the people instead of oppressing them. +He addressed himself to the principal sheiks, and obtained from them a +declaration in favor of the French. It went forth with the same +authority among the Mussulmans as a brief of the pope addressed to Roman +Catholics. In the grand mosque a litany was sung to the glory of "the +Favorite of Victory, who at the head of the valiant of the West has +destroyed the infantry and the horse of the Mamelukes." A few weeks +later "the Favorite of Victory" was seated in the grand mosque at the +"Feast of the Prophets," sitting cross-legged as he repeated the words +of the _Koran_, and edifying the sacred college by his piety. + +From the beginning to the end of July, Mr. Pitt was waiting with anxious +expectation for news from the Mediterranean. During this suspense he +wrote to the Speaker that he "could not be quite sure of keeping any +engagement he might make." It was not till September 26th that the +English Government knew the actual result of the toils and +disappointments to which Nelson had been subjected. When it was known in +England that he had been to Egypt and had returned to Sicily, the +journalists talked of naval mismanagement; and worn out captains who +were hanging about the Admiralty asking for employment marvelled at the +rashness of Lord St. Vincent in sending so young a commander upon so +great an enterprise. + +The Neapolitan Ministry, dreading to offend the French Directory, +refused Nelson the supplies of provision and water which he required +before he again started in pursuit of the fleet which "Caesar and his +fortune bare at once." Sir William Hamilton was our minister at Naples; +his wife was the favorite of the Queen of Naples, and one of the most +attractive of the ladies of that luxurious court. Nelson had a slight +acquaintance with Lady Hamilton; and upon his representations of the +urgent necessity for victualling his fleet, secret instructions were +given that he should be supplied with all he required. In 1805 Nelson +requested Mr. Rose to urge upon Mr. Pitt the claims of Lady Hamilton +upon the national gratitude, because "it was through her interposition, +exclusively, he obtained provisions and water for the English ships at +Syracuse, in the summer of 1798; by which he was enabled to return to +Egypt in quest of the enemy's fleet; to which, therefore, the success of +his brilliant action of the Nile was owing, as he must otherwise have +gone down to Gibraltar to refit, and the enemy would have escaped." + +On July 25th Nelson sailed from Syracuse. It was three days before he +gained any intelligence of the French fleet, and he then learned that +they had been seen about four weeks before, steering to the southeast +from Candia. He was again convinced that their destination was Egypt; +and he made all sail for Alexandria. On August 1st he beheld the +tricolored flag flying upon its walls. His anxiety was at an end. For a +week he had scarcely taken food or slept. The signal was made for the +enemy's fleet; and he now ordered dinner to be served, and when his +officers rose to prepare for battle he exclaimed that before the morrow +his fate would be a peerage or Westminster Abbey. + +The fleet of Admiral Brueys was at anchor in the bay Abukir. The +transports and other small vessels were within the harbor. Bonaparte +told O'Meara that he had sent an officer from Cairo with peremptory +orders that Brueys should enter the harbor, but that the officer was +killed by the Arabs on the way. Brueys had taken measures to ascertain +the practicability of entering the harbor with his larger ships, and had +found that the depth of water was insufficient. He was unwilling to sail +away to Corfu--as Bonaparte affirmed that he had ordered him to do if to +enter the harbor were impracticable--until he knew that the army was +securely established at Cairo. The French Admiral moored his fleet in +what he judged the best position; a position described by Nelson himself +as "a strong line of battle for defending the entrance of the bay (of +shoals), flanked by numerous gunboats, four frigates, and a battery of +guns and mortars." + +The French ships were placed "at a distance from each other of about a +hundred sixty yards, with the van-ship close to a shoal in the +northwest, and the whole of the line just outside a four-fathom +sand-bank; so that an enemy, it was considered, could not turn either +flank." Nelson, with the rapidity of genius, at once grasped this plan +of attack. Where there was room for a French ship to swing, there was +room for an English ship to anchor. He would place half his ships on the +inner side of the French line, and half on the outer side. The number of +ships in the two fleets was nearly equal, but four of the French were of +larger size. At 3 P.M. the British squadron was approaching the bay, +with a manifest intention of giving battle. Admiral Brueys had thought +that the attack would be deferred to the next morning. Nelson had no +intention of permitting the enemy to weigh anchor and get to sea in the +darkness. + +By six o'clock Nelson's line was formed, without any precise regard to +the succession of the vessels according to established forms. The shoal +at the western extremity of the bay was rounded by eleven of the +British squadron. The Goliath led the way, and when her commander, +Foley, reached the enemy's van, he steered between the outermost ship +and the shoal. The Zealous--Captain Hood--instantly followed. At twenty +minutes past six the two van-ships of the French opened their fire upon +these vessels, but they were soon disabled. Four other British ships +also took their stations inside the French line. Nelson, in the +Vanguard, followed by five of his seventy-fours, anchored on the outer +side of the enemy. Nine of the French fleet were thus placed between the +two fires of eleven of the British ships. The Leander had not been +engaged, having been occupied in the endeavor to assist the Culloden, +which, coming up after dark, ran aground. + +Before the sun went down the shore was crowded with the people of the +country gazing upon this terrible conflict. When darkness fell, the +flashes of the guns faintly indicated the positions of the contending +fleets. Each British ship was ordered to carry four lanterns at her +mizzen-peak, and these were lighted at seven o'clock. Each ship also +went into action with the white ensign of St. George, of which the red +cross in the centre rendered it easily distinguishable in the darkest +night at sea. But there was another illumination, more awful than the +flashes of two thousand cannon, which was that night to strike unwonted +dismay into the bravest of the combatants of either nation. Five of the +French ships had surrendered. The Vanguard had been engaged with the +Spartiate and the Aquilon. Her loss was severe. + +A splinter had struck Nelson on the head, cutting a large piece of the +flesh and skin from the forehead, which fell over his remaining eye. He +was carried down to the cockpit, and the effusion of blood being very +great, his wound was held to be dangerous, if not mortal, by the anxious +shipmates around him. He was carried where his men were also carried, +without regard to rank, to be tended by the busy surgeons. These left +their wounded to bestow their care on the first man of the fleet. "No," +said Nelson, "I will take my turn with my brave fellows." Sidney, in the +field of Zuetphen, taking the cup of water from his lips to give to the +dying soldier, with the memorable words, "This man's necessity is more +than mine," was a parallel example of heroism. The Admiral did wait his +turn; and meanwhile, in the belief that his career was ended, called to +his chaplain to deliver a last token of affection to his wife. The wound +was found to be superficial. He was carried to his cabin, and left +alone, amid the din of the battle. + +Suddenly the cry was heard that L'Orient, the French flagship of one +hundred twenty guns, was on fire. Nelson groped his way to the deck, to +the astonishment of the crew, who heard their beloved commander giving +his orders that the boats should be lowered to proceed to the help of +the burning vessel. The Bellerophon had been overpowered by the weight +of metal of L'Orient, and had lost her masts. The Swiftsure had also +been engaged with this formidable vessel. Both had maintained an +unremitting fire upon the French flagship. Admiral Brueys had fallen, +and had died the death of a brave man on his deck. The ship was in +flames; at ten o'clock she blew up, the conflagration having lasted for +nearly an hour. When the explosion came, there was an awful silence. For +ten minutes not a gun was fired on either side. The instinct of +self-preservation, as well as the sudden awe on this sublime event, +produced this pause in the battle. + +Some of the French, endeavoring to get out of the vicinity of the +burning wreck, had slipped their cables. The nearest of the English took +every precaution to prevent the combustible materials doing them injury. +The shock of the explosion shook the Alexander, Swiftsure, and Orion to +their kelsons and materially injured them. None of the British ships, +however, took fire. About seventy only of the crew of L'Orient were +saved by the English boats. The battle was resumed by the French ship, +the Franklin; and it went on, at intervals, till daybreak. The contest +was sustained by four French line-of-battle ships, and four of the +English. Finally, two of the French line-of-battle ships and two +frigates escaped. Of thirteen sail of the line, nine were taken, two +were burned. Of the British, about nine hundred men were killed and +wounded. No accurate account was obtained of the French loss. The +estimate which represented that loss at five thousand was evidently +exaggerated. About three thousand French prisoners were sent on shore. +Kleber, the French general, wrote to Napoleon, "The English have had the +disinterestedness to restore everything to their prisoners." + +After the victory of the Nile, Nelson returned to Naples. He required +rest; and in the ease and luxury, the flattery and the honors which +there awaited him, he forgot his quiet home, and after a time was +involved in public acts which reflect discredit upon his previously +spotless name. At Palermo, Lord Cochrane had opportunities of +conversation with him. He says, "To one of his frequent injunctions, +'Never mind manoeuvres, always go at them,' I subsequently had reason +to consider myself indebted for successful attacks under apparently +difficult circumstances." Cochrane considered Nelson "an embodiment of +dashing courage, which would not take much trouble to circumvent an +enemy, but being confronted with one would regard victory so much a +matter of course as hardly to deem the chance of defeat worth +consideration." This opinion is borne out by a letter which Nelson wrote +to his old friend, Admiral Locker, from Palermo: "It is you who always +said, 'Lay a Frenchman close and you will beat him'; and my only merit +in my profession is being a good scholar." Nelson was himself a master +who made many good scholars. + +M. Thiers, having described the great naval battle of Abukir with +tolerable fairness, admits that it was the most disastrous that the +French navy had yet experienced--one from which the most fatal military +consequences might be apprehended. The news of the disaster caused a +momentary despair in the French army. Bonaparte received the +intelligence with calmness. "Well," he exclaimed, "we must die here; or +go forth, great, as were the ancients." He wrote to Kleber, "We must do +great things"; and Kleber replied, "Yes, we must do great things: I +prepare my faculties." It would have been fortunate for the fame of +Bonaparte, if he had abstained from doing some of "the great things" +which he accomplished while he remained in the East. + +The victory of Nelson formed the great subject of congratulation in the +royal speech, when the session was opened on November 20th. "By this +great and brilliant victory, an enterprise of which the injustice, +perfidy, and extravagance had fixed the attention of the world, and was +peculiarly directed against some of the most valuable interests of the +British Empire, has, in the first instance, been turned to the confusion +of its authors." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[46] The "Battle of the Baltic," April 2, 1801.--ED. + + + + +JENNER INTRODUCES VACCINATION + +A.D. 1798 + +SIR THOMAS J. PETTIGREW + + In the advance of medical science no more famous discovery + has been made than that of vaccination, that is, inoculation + with the modified virus of a disease, thereby causing a mild + form of it, in order to prevent a virulent attack. This + treatment has in recent years been applied by the use of + various serums and antitoxins against different diseases; + but, originally and specifically, vaccination, as now + understood, is inoculation with cowpox for the prevention of + smallpox. + + Jenner's work in connection with the modern introduction of + this practice is fully described in the following pages. In + a more primitive manner inoculation against smallpox was + practised many centuries ago in India, China, and other + lands. The first modern accounts of it are said to have been + given by a Turkish physician in 1714. In England it was + first actually employed through the efforts of Lady Mary + Wortley Montagu, who (1716-1718) had observed it in + Constantinople, and there seen her son inoculated. The + practice soon spread through Western Europe and to North + America. + + Jenner's discoveries and demonstrations as to the specific + value of the vaccine virus of cowpox, which led to the + modern methods of vaccination for prevention of smallpox, + proved of such efficacy and importance that the whole credit + for this service to medical science has been popularly given + to him. But among the intelligent it detracts nothing from + his just fame to make due acknowledgment of previous work + along similar lines. + + There have always been some, since Jenner's time, and are + still considerable numbers of people in different countries, + strongly opposed to vaccination for smallpox, on the ground + of what they deem its unscientific and dangerous nature. But + the vast majority of medical practitioners, and of the world + at large, are convinced of its vital benefits, and in + several countries vaccination is made compulsory by the + State. + + +Edward Jenner was born on May 17, 1749. He was a native of Berkeley in +Gloucestershire, England. His father was the vicar of this place, and +his mother was descended from an ancient family in Berkshire. In early +life Jenner was deprived of his father, and the direction of his +education devolved upon an elder brother, the Rev. Stephen Jenner. He +attained a respectable proficiency in the classics, and his taste for +natural history manifested an early development; for, at the age of +nine, he had made a collection of the nests of the dormouse, and he +employed the hours usually devoted by boys to play, in searching for +fossils in the neighborhood. "No childish play to him was pleasing." + +Intended for the medical profession, Jenner was apprenticed to Daniel +Ludlow, of Sodbury, near Bristol, to acquire a knowledge of surgery and +pharmacy; and, after the period of his apprenticeship had expired in +1770, he went to London to complete his professional studies, and was a +student at St. George's Hospital, and a resident, for two years, in the +family of the celebrated John Hunter. The similarity of their tastes and +spirit of research will render it a matter of no surprise that he should +become a most favorite pupil. That this was the case in an eminent +degree the correspondence which was maintained between the two great +physiologists sufficiently proves. "There was in both a directness and +plainness of conduct, an unquestionable desire of knowledge, and a +congenial love of truth." + +Jenner was remarkable for the neatness and precision with which he made +preparations of anatomy and natural history. His dissection of tender +and delicate organs, his success in minute injections, and the taste he +displayed in their arrangement are said to have been almost unrivalled. +Hunter recommended him to Sir Joseph Banks, to prepare and arrange the +various specimens brought home by the celebrated circumnavigator, +Captain Cook, in his first voyage of discovery in 1771, and he was +solicited to become the naturalist of the succeeding expedition in the +year following; but Jenner's partiality to his native soil, and his +desire of settling in the place of his birth, were too strong to admit +of his being allured into such an appointment. He preferred the +seclusion of a country village; and to this selection do we owe one of +the greatest blessings ever bestowed upon mankind. It is not +unreasonable to suppose that the subject by which he should afterward be +known to the whole world, dwelt upon his mind with considerable force +even at this early period, for the prophylactic powers of the cowpox +were known, or rather rumored of, in a few districts, and the subject +had been mentioned by Jenner to Hunter and others, though he had not +been successful in directing their attention sufficiently to the +importance of it. Indeed, he pressed this subject so much upon his +professional brethren, that, at a medical club at Redborough to which he +belonged, he was threatened to be expelled if he persisted in harassing +them with a proposition which they then conceived had no foundation but +in popular and idle rumor, and which had become so entirely distasteful +to them. It remained, therefore, to Jenner to pursue the inquiry and to +place the whole matter upon a proper physiological basis, by which it +might be rendered permanently beneficial. This inquiry was perfected +amid the labors and anxious toils attendant on the life of "a country +surgeon," with few books to consult, and little leisure to devote to +their perusal. Observation necessarily supplied the place of literary +research; the book of nature was open to his view, and it was one he was +well calculated to comprehend; it surpassed all others, and its +contemplation amply repaid the student. + +Of all classes of men with whom it has been the fortune of the writer of +this sketch to associate, there is none, in his opinion, so generally +and so truly amiable as the naturalists. The contemplation of nature +seldom fails to produce an elevation of character; it also begets a +sweetness of disposition flowing from a sense of what is beautiful in +creation; and the evidences of beneficence, everywhere so abundant, +soften the feelings and impart to the individual a sincere benevolence +of heart. This disposition was strikingly manifested in Jenner, to whose +affection, kindness, meekness, good-will, and benevolence so many have +borne the most ample testimony. It was no uncommon thing for Jenner to +be accompanied in his daily professional tour of many miles by friends, +who have eagerly listened to the outpourings of his mind called forth by +the beauties which in the vale of Gloucester surrounded him. + +His observations on the structure and economy of the various objects of +natural history were delivered with the most captivating simplicity and +ingenuity. Full of information himself, he delighted to impart it, and +was equally solicitous of obtaining a return from others. He was an +enthusiast in his devotion to nature, and he anxiously desired that all +should participate in the gratification which such a study never failed +to afford. He united in an especial manner a talent for the most +profound observations to a disposition most lively and ardent +distinguished by mirth, playfulness, and wit. With these powers, it is +not surprising that his society should have been much courted; and, +fully engaged as he was by the duties of an extensive practice, he yet +found time to cultivate an acquaintance with polite literature. Many +little productions of his muse have appeared in print; they were +addressed to some of his more favored correspondents, or occasionally +read at convivial meetings, and display the turn of his mind, the +benevolence of his disposition, and the liveliness of his imagination. +His best poetical productions find their subjects in natural history. +_The Signs of Rain_ unites the accuracy of the naturalist with the fancy +of the poet. + +Jenner had nearly passed half a century before he made known to the +world his experiments and investigations relative to the vaccine +disease. His first successful vaccination was made May 14, 1769. His +ardor from an early period had been noticed, and it took its rise from +the following accidental circumstance. While a pupil with Mr. Ludlow, a +young countrywoman applied for advice. The subject of smallpox was +mentioned, upon which she observed, "I cannot take that disease, for I +have had the cowpox." This was sufficient to excite the attention of +Jenner, and the incident never escaped his recollection. It is easier to +conceive than to express the emotions which would naturally spring from +reflection on such a subject; his benevolent feelings were at once +aroused to full activity; he pictured to himself all the horrors of that +pestilential and most loathsome disease, disfiguring Nature's greatest +work, slaying thousands upon thousands, and he was yet sufficiently +young to recollect the severity of discipline to which he had himself +submitted in the process preparatory to the practice of inoculation, +which, to use his own words, in that day was no less than that of +"bleeding till the blood was thin; purging till the body was wasted to a +skeleton; and starving on vegetable diet to keep it so." + +The patience manifested by Jenner in the prosecution of his inquiry into +the cowpox, the scrutiny to which he subjected every appearance that +presented itself, and the fortitude with which he withstood every +untoward circumstance entitle him to all praise and show forth his +great capabilities for conducting a philosophical investigation. He +divested the subject of all its difficulties and obscurities, and gave +to "vague, inapplicable and useless rumor the certainty and precision of +scientific knowledge." The extent of his anticipations upon this truly +momentous subject do not appear to have been fully stated until 1780, +ten years subsequent to his mention of it to John Hunter. He then +confidentially disclosed to his intimate friend, Edward Gardner--who +gave evidence upon the subject before the committee of the House of +Commons--the opinions he entertained upon the natural history of the +cowpox; dated its origin from the diseased heel of a horse; alluded to +the different diseases with which the hands of the milkers became +affected from handling the infected cows; distinguished that which was +calculated to afford security against the smallpox; and divulged the +hope he entertained of being able finally to eradicate that disease from +the face of the globe. Doctor Baron has recorded the remarkable words +with which this important communication was made: + +"I have intrusted a most important matter to you, which I firmly believe +will prove of essential benefit to the human race. I know you, and +should not wish what I have stated to be brought into conversation; for +should anything untoward turn up in my experiments I should be made, +particularly by my medical brethren, the subject of ridicule--for I am +the mark they all shoot at." + +Jenner's reasons for concealment did not arise from any selfish or +unworthy motive. The publicity he had always given to the subject and +the efforts he had made among his professional associates to pursue the +inquiry exclude the possibility of entertaining such a suspicion. It +arose from a dread of disappointment and the fear of failure should the +matter be brought forward in a state other than that of a maturity +sufficient to carry conviction immediately upon its promulgation. In the +course of his researches he was led to conclude that swinepox, as well +as cowpox, was only a variety of smallpox. He inoculated his eldest son +with the matter of swinepox and produced a disease similar to a very +mild smallpox. After this, the inoculation of variolous matter would +produce no effect. + +He ascertained that cowpox, as it was commonly termed by the milkers, +would frequently fail in effecting a security against the smallpox. This +led him to inquire more particularly into the variety of spontaneous +eruptions to which the teats of the cow were liable, and to discriminate +the different kinds of sores produced by them on the hands of the +milkers, and to establish the character of those which possessed a +specific power over the constitution, and those which had no such +efficacy. He found that instances occurred in which the true cowpox +failed in preventing smallpox; but nothing daunted by this apparently +fatal discovery he set about ascertaining the causes of this deviation. +He found the specific virtues of the virus to have been lost or +deteriorated so that it was rendered capable only of producing a local +affection and had no influence whatever upon the constitution; and by +the greatest ingenuity and patience of observation of the analogies +drawn from the virus of smallpox, aided by his knowledge of the laws of +the animal economy, he discovered that it was only in a certain state of +the vesicle that the virus was capable of affording its protecting +agency, and that when taken under other conditions, or at other periods, +it could produce a local disease, yet that it was not able to manifest +any constitutional effect, or afford immunity from the invasions of the +smallpox. + +On May 14, 1796, Jenner inserted lymph taken from the hand of Sarah +Nelmes who was infected with cowpox, into the arm of James Phipps, a +healthy boy about eight years of age. This is the first instance of +regular inoculation of the vaccine disease by Jenner. The boy went +through the disorder, and on July 1st following he had the matter of +smallpox introduced into his arm, but no effect followed. Jenner had not +before seen the cowpox but as presented on the hands of the milkers, nor +had it been transmitted from one human being to another. He was struck +with its great resemblance to the smallpox pustule. The success of this +case must necessarily have operated powerfully upon him, and have urged +him to continue the research with increased energy. + +His anticipations thus realized, his intentions accomplished, what must +have been the feelings of such a man as Jenner? They were suited to the +magnitude of the occasion, and mark the character of the philosopher, +distinguished as it ever was by great simplicity, benevolence, and +humility. "While," says he, "the vaccine discovery was progressive, the +joy I felt at the prospect before me of being the instrument destined to +take away from the world one of its greatest calamities, blended with +the fond hope of enjoying independence and domestic peace and happiness, +was often so excessive, that in pursuing my favorite subject among the +meadows I have sometimes found myself in a kind of reverie. It is +pleasant to me to recollect that these reflections always ended in +devout acknowledgments to that Being from whom this and all other +mercies flow." Lord Bacon said that "it is Heaven upon earth to have a +man's mind move in charity, rest in Providence, and turn upon the poles +of truth." Jenner was a striking illustration of the truth of that +remark. + +The modesty of Jenner was evidenced in his original intention of +submitting his observations on the cowpox in a paper addressed to the +Royal Society. Doctor Baron tells us that "when the subject was laid +before the president (the late Sir Joseph Banks), Jenner was given to +understand that he should be cautious and prudent; that he had already +gained some credit by his communications to the Royal Society and ought +not to risk his reputation by presenting to the learned body anything +which appeared so much at variance with established knowledge, and +withal so incredible." It came forth most unostentatiously, about the +end of June, 1798, dedicated to his friend Doctor Parry of Bath. Doctor +Jenner visited London in the month of April of that year, and remained +until July 14th. His object in this visit was to demonstrate the disease +to his professional friends, but such was the distrust, or apathy, felt +on the occasion, that Jenner returned to the country, without having +been able to prevail on a single individual to submit to the inoculation +of the virus. + +The virus Jenner brought to London was consigned to the care of the late +Mr. Cline, of St. Thomas's Hospital. This celebrated surgeon inserted +some of it, by two punctures, into the hip of a young patient with a +disease of that part of the body. This calescent mode of proceeding was +adopted with the idea of exciting a counter-irritation in the diseased +part. The intention was to convert the vesicles into an issue, after the +progress of the cowpox had been observed. This idea was, however, +abandoned. Smallpox matter was afterward inserted into this child in +three places. It produced a slight inflammation on the third day, and +then subsided. The child was effectually protected against the disease. +Mr. Cline now became very sanguine as to the result and inoculated three +other children with lymph taken from the vesicles of the child, but no +evil effect ensued. The subject began to excite the attention of the +profession, and all were eager to put the matter to the test of +experiment. Mr. Cline urged Doctor Jenner to settle in London. He +promised him ten thousand pounds a year as the result of his practice. +What was his reply? + +"Shall I, who even in the morning of my days, sought the lowly and +sequestered paths of life, the valley, and not the mountain; shall I, +now my evening is fast approaching, hold myself up as an object for +fortune and for fame? Admitting it as a certainty that I obtain both, +what stock should I add to my little fund of happiness? My fortune, with +what flows in from my profession, is sufficient to gratify my wishes; +indeed, so limited is my ambition, and that of my nearest connections, +that even were I precluded from future practice I should be enabled to +satisfy all my wants. As for fame, what is it? A gilded butt, forever +pierced with the arrows of malignancy." + +That a discovery of such importance to mankind, once divulged, should +bring forth many claimants, and that its author should be subjected to +virulent attacks, is easy to be conceived. Jenner, however, never +thought it necessary to reply to unfounded and harsh aspersions, +satisfied in the strength of his own case, and feeling the justice and +truth of his own claims and position. The practice being now +established, it is unnecessary even to refer to the names of the +opponents of vaccination. Many mistakes, and some of a serious nature, +occurred to interrupt the progress of the discovery; these had been for +the most part foreseen by Jenner, and were satisfactorily explained. In +a letter to a friend, Jenner says, "I will just drop a hint. The vaccine +disease, in my opinion, is not a preventive of the smallpox, but the +smallpox itself; that is to say, the horrible form under which the +disease appears in its contagious state is, as I conceive, a malignant +variety." Again: "What I have said on this vaccine subject is true. If +properly conducted, it secures the constitution as much as variolous +inoculation possibly can. It is the smallpox in a purer form than that +which has been current among us for twelve centuries past." And, in a +letter to Mr. Pruen, "I have ever considered the variola and the vaccine +radically and essentially the same. As the inoculation of the former has +been known to fail, in instances so numerous, it would be very +extraordinary if the latter should always be exempt from failure. It +would tend to invalidate my early doctrine on this point." + +It is not necessary here to dwell upon the fatality of the smallpox when +taken in the natural way, or to show that the mortality has been +increased by the practice of inoculation, which creates an atmosphere +for the constant propagation of the disease; these have been +satisfactorily demonstrated in evidence before the House of Commons, and +anyone may readily obtain this information. It is, however, interesting +to record the names of those who, abandoning all prejudice and +solicitous to promote a general good, submitted to the practice at its +earliest period. Mr. Henry Hicks was the first to submit his own +children to the vaccination. Lady Frances Morton (Lady Ducie) was the +first personage of rank who had her child, and her only child, +vaccinated. The Countess of Berkeley was instrumental in forwarding it; +and the children of King William IV were vaccinated by Mr. Knight. + +Jenner's discovery entailed upon him a most extensive correspondence, +and obliged him frequently to travel in London. His professional +engagements were not only interrupted, but almost annihilated, and his +private fortune encroached upon by such circumstances. His friends urged +an application to Parliament. A petition to Parliament was presented on +March 17, 1802, and Mr. Addington--later, Lord Sidmouth--informed the +House that he had taken the King's pleasure on the contents of the +petition and that His Majesty recommended it strongly to the +consideration of Parliament. A committee was appointed, of which Admiral +Berkeley was the chairman. A great mass of evidence was brought forward, +and many professional and other persons examined. The Duke of Clarence +gave his testimony, and manifested strongly his conviction of the +prophylactic powers of the vaccine disease. Much opposition was offered +to the claims of Jenner. He felt this deeply, and in a letter to his +friend Mr. Hicks, dated April 28, 1802, he writes: "I sometimes wish +this business had never been brought forward. It makes me feel indignant +to reflect that one who has, through a most painful and laborious +investigation, brought to light a subject that will add to the happiness +of every human being in the world, should appear among his countrymen as +a supplicant for the means of obtaining a few comforts for himself and +family." + +The committee reported, and the House voted ten thousand pounds to +Doctor Jenner. An amendment, proposing twenty thousand pounds, was lost +by a majority of three! Sir Gilbert Blane, Doctor Lettsom, and others, +feeling the utter inadequacy of this reward to the merits of the case, +proposed to raise a fund by public subscription; but it was not carried +into effect. + +The Royal Jennerian Society was established in 1803, and had the King +for the patron, the Queen for the patroness, and various members of the +royal family and nobility for its supporters. The design of the +institution was to vaccinate the poor gratuitously, and supply virus to +all parts of the world. It effected great good, and reduced the number +of deaths by smallpox in a very remarkable degree. But dissensions +sprang up, chiefly through the conduct of the resident inoculator +recommending practices contrary to the printed regulations of the +society, and it was virtually dissolved in 1806. + +Lord Henry Petty--later, Marquis of Lansdowne--was the chancellor of the +exchequer in 1806, and on July 2d brought the subject of vaccination +again before the House of Parliament. Upon this, the College of +Physicians was directed to make inquiry into its state and condition, +and a report was made on April 19, 1807. The report was highly +satisfactory as to the advantages of the practice. On July 29th the +Right Honorable Spencer Perceval,[47] being then chancellor of +exchequer, called the attention of the House to it, and moved an +additional grant of ten thousand pounds, when an amendment to double the +sum was proposed by Mr. Edward Morris, M.P. for Newport, in Cornwall, +and carried by a majority of thirteen. In 1808 the "National Vaccine +Establishment" was formed, where the practice of vaccination and the +supply of lymph has ever since been continued. + +Foreign academies and societies enrolled Doctor Jenner in the lists of +their associates, and the medical societies of his own country were not +less anxious to adorn their roster with his name. In 1808 he was elected +a corresponding member of the National Institute, and in 1811 was chosen +an associate, in place of Doctor Mackelyne, deceased. The Empress +Dowager of Russia sent him a diamond ring, accompanied by a letter in +testimony of her admiration of vaccination. She had the first child +vaccinated in Russia named "Vaccinoff," and fixed a pension upon it for +life. The Medical Society of London presented him with a gold medal; the +Physical Society of Guy's Hospital instituted a new order of members, +under the title of "Honorary Associates," and named Jenner for the +first; the nobility and gentry of Gloucestershire presented him with a +handsome gold cup; and various other marks of consideration were +bestowed upon him as testimonies to the benefits he had conferred upon +mankind. He was chosen mayor of his native town; received the freedom of +the corporation of Dublin; the freedom of the city of Edinburgh; and +elected an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of that +city. In 1813 the University of Oxford granted him a degree of Doctor in +Physic, by a decree of the convocation. The diploma was presented him by +Sir C. Pegge and Doctor Kidd, the professors of anatomy and chemistry. +On this occasion--and a similar honor had not been conferred by the +university on any man for nearly seventy years before--Doctor Jenner +observed, "It is remarkable that I should have been the only one of a +long line of ancestors and relations who was not educated at Oxford. +They were determined to turn me into the meadows, instead of allowing me +to flourish in the groves of Academus. It is better, perhaps, as it is, +especially as I have arrived at your highest honors without complying +with your ordinary rules of discipline." The conduct of the London +College of Physicians, it is painful to remark, was not characterized by +such liberality. The majority of the fellows refused to admit him +without the usual examination. Many of the fellows were anxious upon +the subject, but their wishes did not prevail. + +The commander-in-chief of the army, upon the recommendation of the Army +Medical Board and the Lords of the Admiralty, recommended the adoption +of vaccination in the army and navy, and the naval physicians and +surgeons presented a gold medal to Jenner for his discovery. The +practice extended itself through France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Russia, +and the United States. In the East, it overcame even the scruples of the +Hindu and the Chinese. The writer of this memoir, by the kindness of Sir +George Staunton, is in possession of a treatise on vaccination drawn up +by Mr. Pearson and translated by Sir George into the Chinese language. +It was of great use in encouraging the natives to the adoption of the +salutary practice. The King of Prussia submitted his own children to +vaccination. He was the first monarch to do so. + +On September 13, 1815, Doctor Jenner lost his wife. He retired to +Berkeley, and thereafter lived in retirement. He died January 26, 1823, +in the seventy-fourth year of his age, and was buried on February 3d in +the chancel of the parish church of Berkeley. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[47] Two years later Perceval was premier (1809-1812) and he was +assassinated in the lobby of the House of Commons, May 11, 1812.--ED. + + + + +CHRONOLOGY OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY + +EMBRACING THE PERIOD COVERED IN THIS VOLUME + +A.D. 1775-1799 + +JOHN RUDD, LL.D. + + +Events treated at length are here indicated in large type; the numerals +following give volume and page. + +Separate chronologies of the various nations, and of the careers of +famous persons, will be found in the INDEX VOLUME, with volume and page +references showing where the several events are fully treated. + + +A.D. + +1775. Burke speaks for conciliation with America; Lord Effingham resigns +his military command rather than fight against the colonists of America. + +Beginning of the American Revolution: "BATTLE OF LEXINGTON." See xiv, 1. + +Fort Ticonderoga and Crown Point surprised by Ethan Allen. + +"BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL." See xiv, 19. + +Washington appointed Commander-in-Chief by the Continental Congress. + +Montgomery slain in an attack on Quebec. See "CANADA REMAINS LOYAL TO +ENGLAND," xiv, 30. + +All intercourse between the American colonists and Denmark interdicted +by its King, Christian VII. + + +1776. General Howe evacuates Boston, March 17th. British repulse at +Charleston by Colonel Moultrie. + +Declaration of Independence adopted by the Continental Congress, July +4th. See "SIGNING OF AMERICAN DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE," xiv, 39. + +Battle of Long Island; defeat of the Americans. New York occupied by the +British. Howe defeats the Americans at White Plains. Fort Washington +taken by the British November 16th. Washington successfully surprises +the Hessians at Trenton, December 26th. + +Riots in England to destroy machinery. + +Publication in England of the first volume of Gibbon's _Decline and Fall +of the Roman Empire_. + + +1777. Washington defeats Cornwallis at Princeton, January 3d. The +British burn Danbury. Ticonderoga captured by Burgoyne. Battles of +Brandywine and Germantown; defeat of the Americans. Lafayette and +Steuben arrive in America. + +"DEFEAT OF BURGOYNE AT SARATOGA." See xiv, 51. + +Division of the Crim Tartars into two distinct parties, the Russian and +Turkish. + +Execution in England of Dr. Dodd for forgery. + +Austria annexes Bukowina. + + +1778. France recognizes the independence of the United States and forms +an alliance with them. Evacuation of Philadelphia by the British. A +French fleet and army arrive in America to aid the United States. +Savannah captured by the British. Massacre of Wyoming. Congress refuses +to treat with the British commissioners. + +Beginning of the War of the Bavarian Succession. + +Cook discovers the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands. + +France declares war against England. + + +1779. Battle of Brier Creek; defeat of the Americans. Stony Point +stormed by the Americans under Wayne. + +Paul Jones gains a naval victory off the English coast; see "FIRST +VICTORY OF THE AMERICAN NAVY," xiv, 68. + +Repulse by the British of the Americans and French at Savannah. + +Spain declares war against England; Gibraltar invested by the French and +Spanish fleets. + + +1780. Siege and capture of Charleston by the British. First Battle of +Camden; defeat of the Americans. Treachery of Arnold, who agrees to +deliver West Point to the British. Execution of Major Andre. Victory of +the Americans at King's Mountain. + +Gordon "No Popery" riots in England. + +England declares war against Holland for allowing Paul Jones to take his +prizes into her harbors. + +Revolt of Tupac Amaru in Peru. + +"JOSEPH II ATTEMPTS REFORMS IN HUNGARY." See xiv, 85. + + +1781. Battles of the Cowpens and Guilford Court House; defeat of the +British. British victory at Hobkirk's Hill. Eutaw Springs the scene of a +drawn battle. Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown. See "SIEGE AND +SURRENDER OF YORKTOWN," xiv, 97. + +Arnold burns New London and captures Fort Griswold. + +Completion of the ratification of the Articles of Confederation by the +States of the Union. + +Continuation of the siege of Gibraltar by the French and Spanish. + +Institution of the first Sunday-school at Gloucester, England, by Robert +Raikes. + + +1782. Evacuation by the British of Savannah and Charleston. + +A preliminary treaty of peace between the United States and Great +Britain signed by John Adams, Franklin, Jay, and Laurens. See "CLOSE OF +THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION," xiv, 137. + +Great naval victory of the British admiral, Rodney, over the French, in +the West Indies. + +Tippoo Sahib, in Mysore, succeeds his father, Hyder Ali. + +Grattan secures the independence of the Irish Parliament. + +"BRITISH DEFENCE OF GIBRALTAR." See xiv, 116. + + +1783. Peace of Paris between the United States and Great Britain. + +New York evacuated by the British. + +Peace of Versailles between Britain, France, and Spain. + +Catharine II seizes the Crimea for Russia. + +Many colonists of America settle in Canada on conclusion of the war. See +"SETTLEMENT OF AMERICAN LOYALISTS IN CANADA," xiv, 156. + +Perfidious massacre of Tartars by Potemkin, Russian general and first +favorite of Catharine II. + +A patent granted to Henry Johnson and John Walter of the _Times_ for +stereotype or logographic printing. + +"FIRST BALLOON ASCENSION." See xiv, 163. + + +1784. Treaty of peace between England and Holland. + +Founding of the first daily newspaper in America, at Philadelphia. + +The scandal of the Diamond Necklace in France. + +In Ireland the Peep-o'-Day Boys make their appearance. + +Iceland for nearly twelve months desolated by an irruption of Hecla. + + +1785. Negotiations between the United States and Spain for free +navigation of the Mississippi. + +John Adams, first minister of the United States to England, received by +the King. + +Establishment of the Philippine Company in Spain. + +John Howard, English philanthropist, sets out on his travels to visit +the plague hospitals. + +La Perouse, French Admiral, proceeds to explore the Northern Pacific. + + +1786. A negro colony sent from London to found the settlement of Sierra +Leone. + +Outbreak of Shay's revolt in Massachusetts. + +Impeachment of Warren Hastings, England, for peculation in India. + +Galvani makes electrical discoveries. + + +1787. "FRAMING OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES." See xiv, 173. + +Civil liberty taught in France by Lafayette and his companions in +America, leads to the French Revolution. + +Shay's rebellion repressed. Congress undertakes the government of the +Northwest Territory. + +Wedgwood manufactures his imitations of Etruscan ware. + +Swedenborg's New Jerusalem Church founded. + + +1788. Revolution in the Austrian Netherlands provinces. + +Ratification in eleven of the states of the Constitution of the United +States. Founding of Cincinnati. The members of the Society of Friends in +Philadelphia emancipate their slaves. + +Mental derangement of George III of England. A penal settlement formed +by the English in Australia. + +Louis XVI of France appoints Necker chief minister. New Assembly of +Notables; the Third Estate admitted, numbering one-half. + +War against Russia declared by Sweden. + + +1789. Washington elected President of the United States. The first +Congress under the Constitution supersedes the Continental Congress. +Inauguration of Washington at New York, April 30. See "INAUGURATION OF +WASHINGTON: HIS FAREWELL ADDRESS," xiv, 197. + +War in India between the English and Tippoo Sahib. + +A Roman Catholic episcopal see erected at Baltimore, the first in the +United States. + +Battle of Fokshani; defeat of the Turks by the Austrians and Russians. + +Meeting of the States-General of France; power is seized by the Third +Estate. See "FRENCH REVOLUTION: STORMING OF THE BASTILLE," xiv, 212. + +Mutiny of the Bounty, English ship. + + +1790. Philadelphia becomes the seat of government of the United States. +Harmar makes an unsuccessful expedition against the Indians of the +Northwest Territory. + +First issue of French Assignats. + +Declaration of independence by the Belgian provinces; Congress of +Brussels convened. + + +1791. "ESTABLISHMENT OF THE UNITED STATES BANK." See xiv, 230. + +Vermont admitted into the Union. Defeat of St. Clair by the Miamis. + +Passage of the constitutional act of Canada dividing it into Upper and +Lower Canada. + +Buckle-makers of England petition Parliament against the use of +shoe-strings. + +Guillotin introduces the machine for decapitation, bearing his name. + +"NEGRO REVOLUTION IN HAITI." See xiv, 236. + +Flight of the French royal family; they are stopped at Varennes and +taken back to Paris. Insurrections in La Vendee and Brittany; massacres +at Avignon, Marseilles, and Aix. + +A new constitution adopted by the King and Diet of Poland, which gives +offence to Catharine of Russia. + +Hungary secures constitutional liberties from Leopold II; the rights of +Protestants sanctioned. + + +1792. Washington reelected President of the United States. The national +mint established at Philadelphia. Admission of Kentucky into the Union. + +Confiscation of the property of the French _Emigres_; a Girondist +ministry formed by Louis XVI; he is compelled to declare war against +Austria and Prussia. See "REPUBLICAN FRANCE DEFIES EUROPE: BATTLE OF +VALMY," xiv, 252. + + +1793. Congress passes the first fugitive-slave law of the United States. +Washington begins his second administration. + +"INVENTION OF THE COTTON-GIN." See xiv, 271. + +"EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVI: MURDER OF MARAT: CIVIL WAR IN FRANCE." See xiv, +295. + +Toulon retaken by the French from the English; Napoleon Bonaparte +commands the French artillery. + +Further partition of Poland; the western portion annexed by Prussia; she +also seizes Dantzic, a free city; Russia takes the more eastern +provinces. + +Volta makes known his galvanic battery. + + +1794. Battle of Maumee Rapids; the power of the Miamis broken by General +Wayne. The great Whiskey Insurrection in Pennsylvania. Jay arranges a +treaty with Great Britain. + +Climax of the Reign of Terror in France; fall and death of Danton; +Robespierre and the Jacobin Club both fall. See "THE REIGN OF TERROR," +xiv, 311. + +Victory of the English, under Lord Howe, over the French fleet. + +"DOWNFALL OF POLAND." See xiv, 330. + +Trial in England of Hardy, Horne Tooke, and others for constructive high +treason. + + +1795. Sale of the Western Reserve (in Ohio) of Connecticut. + +Holland completely conquered by the French; insurrection in Paris by the +bourgeois against the Convention; the Constitution of the year 111 +adopted; Bonaparte crushes the insurrection of Vendemiaire; government +of the Directory. + +Formation of the Orange Society in Ireland. + +Third partition of Poland. + + +1796. Tennessee admitted into the Union. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson +elected President and Vice-President of the United States. Publication +of Washington's Farewell Address. + +Bonaparte given command of the French in Italy; Sardinia submits; the +Austrians driven from Lombardy; the Cispadane Republic formed. +Unsuccessful attempt of the French on Ireland. + +"RISE OF NAPOLEON: FRENCH CONQUEST OF ITALY." See xiv, 339. + +Ceylon taken from the Dutch by the English. + +Alliance of France with Tippoo Sahib and Spain against England. + + +1797. Difficulties between the United States and France nearly lead to +war. + +Suspension of specie payments in England; naval victories of the +British, Cape Vincent, over the Spaniards, and of Camperdown, over the +Dutch. + + +1798. Passage in the United States of the Alien and Sedition laws. + +"OVERTHROW OF THE MAMELUKES: THE BATTLE OF THE NILE." See xiv, 353. + +Imprisonment of the pope and formation of the Roman republic by the +French; the Helvetian republic founded by them. + +"JENNER INTRODUCES VACCINATION." See xiv, 363. + +Gas-lights introduced by Watt and Boulton. + + +1798. English expedition against Holland; capture of the Dutch fleet. + +Mysore taken by the English; death of Tippoo Sahib. + +Sugar first extracted from the beet-root by Achard. + +"THE GREAT IRISH REBELLION." See xv, 1. + +Count Rumford discovers that heat is a mode of motion. + +Greathead, England, invents the lifeboat. + +Gradual emancipation of negroes in New York. + + +1799. Advance into Syria by Napoleon; repulsed from Acre; victorious +over the Turks at Abukir; he reembarks for France; Kleber left in +command in Egypt. + +Napoleon, Sieyes, and Fouche effect a change of government in France; +military force used; Napoleon first consul. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Great Events by Famous Historians, +Volume 14, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREAT EVENTS, VOLUME 14 *** + +***** This file should be named 32690.txt or 32690.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/6/9/32690/ + +Produced by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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