To increase the general embarrassment, the quarter-master's department was altogether destitute of funds, and unable to transport provisions or other stores from place to place, but by means of impressment supported by a military force. This measure had been repeated, especially in the state of New York, till it excited so much disgust and irritation among the people, that the commander in chief was under serious apprehensions of actual resistance to his authority.

These perplexities had not been unforeseen by General Washington, nor had any possible exertion to obviate them been omitted. Every representation calculated to urge the states to an exact compliance with all the requisitions of Congress, by delineating to them the dangers to be apprehended from their inattention to the completion or to the wants of the army, had been again and again repeated. Congress had been pressed to exert their weight, and officers supposed to possess influence in the respective states had been deputed to enforce the remonstrances he made.

While in this state of deplorable imbecility, intelligence from every quarter announced the increasing danger with which America was threatened. Information was received that an expedition was preparing from Canada against fort Pitt, to be conducted by Sir John Johnstone and Colonel Connelly. The latter gentleman was to take with

him commissions for many persons in the country to be invaded, who, it was understood, had already engaged several hundred men to join the British standard; and his influence, it was apprehended, would operate perniciously and extensively.

Formidable combinations among the Indians also had been entered into, and the whole extent of the western frontier was threatened with a renewal of savage warfare.

In addition to these alarming circumstances, some vessels had arrived at Crown Point from Canada; and the most explicit information was given to General Schuyler, who, though out of the regular service, still performed an important part in the military transactions of his country, and to Ge neral Clinton the commandant in that district, that three thousand men had assembled on the lakes, for the purpose of once more attempting an invasion from that quarter. This information proved to be incorrect; but it was received in such a manner as to gain belief, and was confidently conveyed to the commander in chief. It was at that critical moment the more alarming, because a correspondence of a criminal nature, between some persons in Albany and Canada, had just been discovered. A letter which Generals Schuyler and Clinton had the address and vigilance to intercept, which appeared to be only a continuation of communications formerly made, gave an

account

account of the distresses of the Americans, the strength and disposition of their troops, the disaffection of particular settlements, the provision which those settlements had made for the subsistence of an invading army, their readiness to join such an army, the earnest wish of a great proportion of the people that the British would advance in force, and concluded with assurances of the happy consequences which must result to the king's arms from a rapid movement to Albany.

This intelligence from the northern frontier was rendered peculiarly serious by the ambiguous conduct observed by the inhabitants of that tract of country which now constitutes the state of Vermont. Under grants from the governor of New Hampshire, they had settled lands within the chartered limits of New York; and early in the war had declared themselves independent, and had framed a constitution which was carried into complete operation. The state of New York, however, still continued to assert her claim of sovereignty over them. The controversy on this delicate subject had become so violent, as to threaten a civil war; and the irritation incident to such contests had advanced to such a point, that indications were given of an opinion that the restoration of the British authority was an evil not of greater magnitude than the establishment of that of New York. It was openly declared that, if not admitted

into the Union as an independent state, they held themselves at liberty to make a separate peace; and some negotiations were carrying on with the enemy, which imposed both on the British and on the American government the opinion, that a disposition in Vermont to abandon the common cause of America was by no means improbable.

Accustomed to contemplate at a distance, and to prepare for, all possible events which might grow out of the situation of the United States, the American chief was not depressed by this state of American affairs. In the habit of struggling with dif ficulties, they never appeared too great to be surmounted; and his courage at all times grew with the dangers which surrounded him. With a mind happily tempered by nature, and improved by experience, those fortunate events which had occasionally brightened the prospects of his country, and had induced many to believe the revolution accomplished, never relaxed his exertions or his precautions; nor could the most disastrous state of things drive him to despair. Persuaded that only active offensive operations could bring the war to a happy conclusion, he had, in the course of every campaign, urged all the arguments which might be of any avail, and exerted all the influence he possessed, to induce the adoption of measures which would enable him to pursue a system alike recommended by the circumstances of America,

and

and by a temper not less enterprising than cautious. So far as depended on himself, such measures had uniformly been taken; but the means of carrying any great plan into execution had never yet been furnished, and while the hopes of each year were disappointed, the state of public affairs became more and more perplexed. Although entirely uncertain what operations he might be enabled to undertake during the approaching campaign, he had deemed it proper to adopt such preparatory steps as would put it in his power to turn to advantage any fortunate incident which might occur. To digest a system adapted to contingent events, conferences had been held with the Count de Rochambeau, in consequence of which orders were transmitted to that officer, directing him to be in readiness to march to the North river as large a portion of the French troops as could be spared from the protection of the fleet. Their place, when they should actually move, was to be supplied with militia. These orders were given in the beginning of April, not with the intention of putting the troops immediately in motion, but of having every thing in readiness when a movement should become proper; and, in the mean time, of preventing further detachments to the south, by impressing on Sir Henry Clinton some fears for New York.

Early in May, the Count de Barras, who had

been