listments for the war; the defeat on Long Island had impaired the confidence of the troops in their officers and in one another; the militia, dismayed, intractable, and impatient, went off by half-companies, by companies, and almost by whole regiments at a time. The necessity for abandoning the city of New York was so imminent, that the question whether its houses should be left to stand as winter-quarters for the enemy would "admit of but little time for deliberation." Rufus Putnam, the able engineer, reported that the enemy, from their command of the water, could land at any point between the bay and Throg's Neck; Greene advised a general retreat, and that the city and its suburbs should be burnt.

When, on the second of September, Sullivan was introduced to the congress, John Adams broke out to the member. who sat next him: "Oh, the decoy-duck! would that the first bullet from the enemy in the defeat on Long Island had passed through his brain!" In delivering his message, Sullivan affirmed that Lord Howe said "he was ever against taxing us; that America could not be conquered; that he would set aside the acts of parliament for taxing the colonies and changing the charter of Massachusetts." Congress directed Sullivan to reduce his communication to writing. He did so, and presented it the next morning. Its purport was "that, though Lord Howe could not at present treat with congress as such, he was very desirous as a private gentleman to meet some of its members as private gentlemen; that he, in conjunction with General Howe, had full powers to compromise the dispute between Great Britain and America; that he wished a compact might be settled at this time; that in case, upon conference, they should find any probable ground of an accommodation, the authority of congress must be afterward acknowledged.”

Congress having received this paper, which proposed their own abdication and the abandonment of independence and of union, proceeded to the business of the day. In committee of the whole, they took into consideration the unreserved confession of Washington, that he had not a force adequate to the defence of New York, and they decided that "it should in no event be damaged, for they had no doubt of being able to recover it, even though the enemy should obtain possession of

it for a time." They ordered for its defence three more battalions from Virginia, two from North Carolina, and one from Rhode Island; and they invited the assemblies and conventions of every state north of Virginia to forward all possible aid; but this reliance on speculative reinforcements increased the public peril.

On the fourth and fifth, congress debated the message of Lord Howe. Witherspoon, with a very great majority of the members, looked upon it as an insult. "We have lost a battle and a small island," said Rush, "but we have not lost a state; why then should we be discouraged? Or why should we be discouraged, even if we had lost a state? If there were but one state left, still that one should peril all for independence." George Ross sustained his colleague. "The panic may seize whom it will," wrote John Adams; "it shall not seize me;" and, like Rush and Witherspoon, he spoke vehemently against the proposed conference. On the other hand, Edward Rutledge favored it, as a means of procrastination; and at last New Hampshire, Connecticut, and even Virginia gave way for the sake of quieting the people. Sullivan was directed to deliver to Lord Howe a written "resolve, that the congress, being the representatives of the free and independent states of America, could not send their members to confer with him in their private characters; but, ever desirous of peace on reasonable terms, they would send a committee of their body to learn what authority he had to treat with persons authorized by them, and to hear his propositions." On the sixth the committee was elected by ballot, and the choice fell on Franklin, John Adams, and Edward Rutledge. For the future, it was ordered that no proposals for peace between Great Britain and the United States should be received unless they should be made in writing, and should recognise the authority of the states in congress.

Washington, seeing that it was impossible to hold New York, on the seventh convened his general officers, in the hope of their concurrence. The case was plain; yet Mercer, who was detained at Amboy, wrote an untimely wish to maintain the post; others interpreted the vote of congress as an injunction that it was to be defended at all hazards; and, as one third

of the army had no tents, and one fourth were sick, many clung to the city for shelter. The majority, therefore, decided to hold it with five thousand men, and to distribute the rest of the army between King's Bridge and Harlem Heights. The power to overrule the majority of his general officers had not been explicitly conferred on Washington. While, therefore, he removed such stores as were not immediately needed, and began to transfer the sick to the inland towns of New Jersey, he thus reasoned with congress:

"To be prepared at each point of attack has occasioned an expense of labor which now seems useless, and is regretted by those who form a judgment from after-knowledge; but men of discernment will see that by such works and preparations we have delayed the operations of the campaign till it is too late to effect any capital incursion into the country. Every measure is to be formed with some apprehension that all our troops will not do their duty. On our side the war should be defensive; it has even been called a war of posts; we should on all occasions avoid a general action, and never be drawn into a necessity to put anything to risk. Persuaded that it would be presumptuous to draw out our young troops into open ground against their superiors both in number and discipline, I have never spared the spade and pickaxe. I have not found that readiness to defend even strong posts at all hazards which is necessary to derive the greatest benefit from them. We are now in a post acknowledged by every man of judgment to be untenable. A retreating army is encircled with difficulties; declining an engagement subjects a general to reproach, and may throw discouragement over the minds of many; but, when the fate of America may be at stake on the issue, we should protract the war, if possible. The enemy mean to winter in New York; that they can drive us out is equally clear; nothing seems to remain but to determine the time of their taking possession."

Congress received this remonstrance with coldness; but it was unanswerable, and they resolved, on the tenth, that it had not been "their sense that any part of the army should remain in New York a moment longer than he should think it proper for the public service."

On the eleventh Lord Howe sent a barge for Franklin, John Adams, and Rutledge. They were met by him at the water's edge, and partook of a collation. In the discussion of business, a difficulty presented itself at the outset. As they had been formally announced as a committee from congress, Lord Howe premised, with some embarrassment of manner, that he was bound to say he conversed with them as private individuals. At this John Adams came to his relief, saying: "Consider us in any light you please, except that of British subjects.” During a conversation which lasted for several hours Lord Howe was discursive in his remarks. To bring the discussion to a point, Edward Rutledge cited to him the declaration of Sullivan, "that he would set the acts of parliament wholly aside, because parliament had no right to tax America, or meddle with her internal polity."

Lord Howe answered, "that Sullivan had extended his words much beyond their import; that his commission in respect to acts of parliament was confined to powers of consultation with private persons." Franklin inquired if the commissioners would receive and report propositions from the Americans; as no objection was interposed, he represented "that it was the duty of good men on both sides of the water to promote peace by an acknowledgment of American independence, and a treaty of friendship and alliance between the two countries;" and he endeavored to prove that Great Britain would derive more durable advantages from such an alliance than from the connection which it was the object of the commission to restore. Lord Howe communicated to his government this overture, which he in his heart was beginning to approve. The committee of congress, on their return to Philadelphia, reported that he had made no proposition of peace, except that the colonies should return to their allegiance to the government of Great Britain; and that his commission did not appear to contain any other authority of importance than that of granting pardons and declaring America, or any part of it, to be in the king's peace, upon submission.

By this time the army of General Howe extended along the high ground that overlooks the East river and the sound, from Brooklyn to Flushing, and occupied the two islands which

we call Ward's and Randall's; a battery erected at Astoria replied to the American works on the point just north of Hellgate ferry. Night after night boats came in and anchored just above Bushwick. On the twelfth, Washington, supported by the written request of Greene and six brigadiers, reconvened his council of war at the quarters of Macdougall; and this time it was decided to abandon the lower part of the island, none dissenting but Spencer, Heath, and George Clinton. The council was hardly over when Washington was once more in the lines; and at evening the Americans under his eye doubled their posts along the East river. He was seen by the Hessians; and Krug, a captain of the Hessian artillery, twice in succession pointed cannon at him and his staff, and was aiming a third shot, as he rode on. The thirteenth, the anniversary of the victory on the Plains of Abraham in which Howe bore an honorable part, was selected for the landing of the British in New York; the watchword was "Quebec," the countersign "Wolfe;" but the ships-of-war that were to cover the landing caused delay. In the afternoon four of them, keeping up an incessant fire, and supported by the cannon on Governor's Island, sailed past the American batteries into the East river and anchored opposite the present Thirteenth street. One of their shot struck within six feet of Washington who was watching their movements. The next day six more British armed ships went up the East river. In one more day the city would have been evacuated.

On the fifteenth three ships-of-war ascended the Hudson as far as Bloomingdale. At eleven the ships-of-war which were anchored in the stream below Blackwell's Island began a heavy cannonade, to scour the grounds; at the same time eighty-four boats laden with troops, under the direction of Admiral Hotham, came out of Newtown creek, and with a southerly wind sailed up the East river in four columns, till, on a signal, they formed in line, and, aided by oars and the tide, landed between Turtle bay and the city. At the sound of the first cannon, Washington rode "with all possible despatch" toward Kip's bay, near Thirty-fourth street; he found the men who had been posted in the lines running away, and the brigades of Fellows of Massachusetts and Parsons of Connecticut, that were to have