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CHAP. VI. decisive and important improvement through 1778. all ranks of the army.

While in winter quarters, general Washington looked forward with extreme anxiety to the ensuing campaign. He counted on great advantages from being enabled to open it early, and in force; but this experience of the delays with which re-enforcements were drawn to camp from the different states, led him to apprehend that, notwithstanding every exertion he could make, his army would, as heretofore, be so feeble in the spring as to be exposed to the utmost danger, if early operations should be undertaken against it. In his letters to congress, and to the state authorities, this apprehension was pressed with great force, and they were urged to furnish their quotas with the utmost expedition. "Sir William Howe," he observed "could' scarcely be supposed ignorant of the strength of the American army, and, if he was acquainted with it, would certainly open the campaign so soon as the weather would permit, unless restrained by the expectation of powerful re-enforcements from Europe. In either event, it was of the utmost importance, immediately to place the army on a respectable footing and prepare it for effectual offensive, or de-. fensive war. If the enemy should commence his operations early, it was essential to be able to meet him with a force competent to the protection of the country; if he should remain

1778.

within his lines, in the expectation of large re- CHAP. VI. enforcements, it was not less essential to put the American army in a condition to act offen. sively, and with effect, before their arrival."

He urged likewise a timely provision of arms and accoutrements for the soldiers; and endeavoured, by calling the attention of the farmers generally to the article of provisions, to keep up a sufficient stock in the country, out of which supplies might be obtained.

He pressed too, with great earnestness, “a completion of the proposed arrangement of the army, which was rendered necessary by the broken state of the regiments. He represented the alarming and distressing consequences which would result from being plunged into the campaign before the arrangements should be made, and the army properly organized. Whatever wisdom congress or their committees might use in the choice of officers, many would be disgusted, and would resign, or refuse the commissions offered to them. To remedy the confusion and disorder which this state of things would introduce, was not the work of a day. To establish order, regularity, and discipline, required the vigilance of every officer, and must in all armies flow from the generals."

However desirous congress might be of carrying into execution every wish of their general, it was impossible to do so. Their own deliberations were unavoidably slow, and as the

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CHAP. VI. raising the requisite number of men could only 1778. be effected through the medium and agency of the state governments, no celerity in their own proceedings could have given dispatch to measures, which, however immediate their necessity, were to be adopted by so many different popular assemblies, before they could be carried into execution.

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The number of men expected were never raised, and the establishment of the army was not even agreed on in congress until about the last of May. The inactivity of the campaign. of 1778 was such as to enable the general to effect, in the course of the summer, those arrangements respecting the officers which had been suggested early in the winter, and ought to have been immediately entered on.

CHAPTER VII. ·

Congress forbid the embarkation of the British troops taken at Saratoga....Burgoyne permitted to depart.... Plan of reconciliation with America agreed to in parliament....Communicated to, and rejected by congress.... The resolutions of this body thereupon.... Information received of treaties of alliance and commerce being entered into between France and the United States....The difficulties which had existed in the cabinet of Versailles on this subject....Great Britain declares war against France....The treaties with France ratified by congress ....Complaints made by general Washington of the treatment of American prisoners in possession of the enemy.... Proceedings of congress on this subject....A partial exchange of prisoners agreed to.

By the convention of Saratoga, it had been 1777. expressly stipulated, that Boston should be the place from whence the British army should embark for Europe. It was a circumstance, then perhaps unknown to general Burgoyne, that, as some time must elapse before a sufficient number of vessels for the transportation of his army over the Atlantic could be collected, the season of the year would arrive, when it becomes extremely difficult to make the port of Boston; in consequence of which, his embarkation would probably be deferred until the ensuing spring.

On receiving this unwelcome intelligence, Nov. 25. he immediately applied to general Washington to change the port of embarkation, and to sub

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CHAP. VII. stitute Newport in Rhode Island, or some other 1777. place on the Sound, for Boston. If any considerations not foreseen should make this proposal objectionable, he then solicited that, both on account of his health and private business, that indulgence might be granted to himself

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and his suite.

This request being one on which the general did not think himself authorized to decide, it was immediately communicated to congress in terms not unfavourable to the success of the application, so far as it respected general Burgoyne and his suite; but the objections to any change in the convention which might expedite the transportation of the army, were too weighty to be passed over. The difficulty of embarking them at Boston was considered as an advantage not to be relinquished. If the troops should be permitted to sail from the Sound, they would, on any reasonable computation, reach England in the early part of the winter; when, in conformity with the strictest principles of good faith, they might be employed on garrison duty, and replaced in America by an equal number of other troops, who might reach the continent in time for the next campaign. The effect then of their surrender would only be to take them out of service, and to diminish so far the force of the enemy for the remnant of the campaign of 1777. But if the literal observance of this article of the con

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