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tain could ever take a flight beyond the reach of vengeance."

With these doctrines, he swayed for a time the councils of the Congress of seventeen hundred and seventyseven, which he characterized "as the smallest but truest Congress they ever had." He had succeeded in supplanting Schuyler by Gates, and meditated a similar doom to Washington.

Other views were entertained of this Congress. Gouverneur Morris, a member of it, writes to Jay: "The mighty senate of America is not what you have known it." Laurens, its President, says, "a most shameful deficiency in this branch is the greatest evil, and is, indeed, the source of almost all our evils. If there is not speedily a resurrection of able men, and of that virtue which I thought to be genuine in seventy-five, we are gone. We shall undo ourselves." "A horrid faction," Greene writes, "has been forming to ruin his Excellency, and others. Ambition, how boundless! Ingratitude, how prevalent! See upon what a monstrous principle, the general is persecuted."

A similar opinion was disclosed by Hamilton to Governor Clinton in these earnest terms:

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"There is a matter which often obtrudes itself upon my mind, and which requires the attention of every person of sense and influence among us; I mean a degeneracy of representation in the great council of America. It is a melancholy truth, sir, the effects of which we daily see, and feel, that there is not so much wisdom in a certain body as there ought to be, and as the success of our affairs absolutely demands. Many members of it are, no doubt, men in every respect fit for the trust; but this cannot be said of it as a body. Folly, + Feb. 7, 1778. Feb. 13, 1778.

* Jan. 27, 1778.

caprice, a want of foresight, comprehension and dignity, characterize the general tenor of their actions. Of this, I dare say, you are sensible, though you have not perhaps so many opportunities of knowing it as I have. Their conduct, with respect to the army especially, is fickle, indecisive, and improvident; insomuch that we are reduced to a more terrible situation than you can conceive. False and contracted views of economy have prevented them, though repeatedly urged to it, from making that provision for officers, which was requisite to interest them in the service. This has produced such carelessness and indifference to the service, as is subversive of every officer-like quality. They have disgusted the army by repeated instances of the most whimsical favoritism in their promotions; and by an absurd prodigality of rank to foreigners, and to the meanest staff of the army. They have not been able to summon resolution enough to withstand the impudent importunity and vain boasting of foreign pretenders; but have manifested such a ductility and inconstancy in their proceedings, as will warrant the charge of suffering themselves to be bullied by every petty adventurer who comes armed with ostentatious pretensions of military merit and experience. Would you believe it, sir? it is become almost proverbial in the mouths of the French officers and other foreigners, that they have nothing more to do, to obtain whatever they please, than to assume a high tone, and assert their own merit with confidence and perseverance. These things wound my feelings as a republican more than I can express, and in some degree make me contemptible in my own eyes.

"America once had a representation that would do honor to any age or nation. The present falling off is very alarming and dangerous. What is the cause, and

how is it to be remedied? are questions that the welfare of these States requires should be well attended to. The great men who composed our first council,-are they dead, have they deserted the cause, or what has become of them? Very few are dead, and still fewer have deserted the cause; they are all, except the few who still remain in Congress, either in the field or in the civil offices of their respective States; for the greater part are engaged in the latter. The only remedy then is, to take them out of these employments, and return them to the place where their presence is infinitely more important.

"Each State, in order to promote its own internal government and prosperity, has selected its best members to fill the offices within itself, and conduct its own affairs. Men have been fonder of the emoluments and conveniences of being employed at home; and local attachment falsely operating, has made them more provident for the particular interests of the States to which they belonged, than for the common interests of the confederacy. This is a most pernicious mistake, and must be corrected. However important it is to give form and efficiency to your interior constitutions and police, it is infinitely more important to have a wise general council; otherwise a failure of the measures of the Union will overturn all your labors for the advancement of your particular good, and ruin the common cause. You should not beggar the councils of the United States to enrich the administration of the several members. Realize to yourselves the consequences of having a Congress despised at home and abroad. How can the common force be exerted, if the power of collecting it be put in weak, foolish and unsteady hands? How can we hope for success in our European negotiations, if the nations of Europe have no confidence in the wisdom and vigor of the great conti

nental government? This is the object on which their eyes are fixed; hence it is, America will derive its importance or insignificance in their estimation.

"You and I had some conversation when I had the pleasure of seeing you last, with respect to the existence of a certain faction. Since I saw you, I have discovered such convincing traits of the monster, that I cannot doubt its reality in the most extensive sense. I dare say you have seen and heard enough to settle the matter in your own mind. I believe it unmasked its batteries too soon, and begins to hide its head; but as I imagine it will only change the storm to a sap, all the true and sensible friends to their country, and of course to a certain great man, ought to be upon the watch to counterplot the secret machinations of his enemies."

CHAPTER XV.

THE greater the lethargy of Congress, the more earnest were the solicitations of Washington. Yielding to these, and to the necessity, as indicated in the late campaign, of more efficient measures for the organization of the army, they at last entered effectively upon this duty.

Rarely, indeed, were a people less prepared for a contest of arms than the American colonists at the beginning of the Revolution. Without either soldiers, generals, or engineers, without munitions* or a knowledge of war, all were to be attained by exertion or experience, and every thing to be surmounted by energy or fortitude.

Of the few who had reaped military information in the war with France, Washington was the only American who had obtained an extensive reputation. Eminent as were the soldierly qualities he then displayed, his experience was too limited to entitle him to the chief command; and upon the large scale on which the war was to be conducted, he had almost all its science to learn.

Philip Schuyler, known as Colonel Schuyler, was the only other member of the Congress of seventy-five who character of a soldier. The

had any pretensions to the

May 11, 1776. The lead was torn from the roofs of the Exchange and City Hall for bullets, and every article of brass taken from the houses in N. Y.

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