the army of 1776 no more than nine thousand six hundred and fifty men. An earnest recommendation of General Washington to congress to try the influence of a bounty was not acceded to until late in January; but during the winter the numbers of new recruits were considerably augmented. "The history of this winter campaign," says the biographer of Washington, "is a history of continuing and successive struggles on the part of the American general, under the vexations and difficulties imposed by the want of arms, ammunition, and permanent troops, on a person in an uncommon degree solicitous to prove himself, by some grand and useful achievement, worthy of the high station to which the voice of his country had called him."

Hitherto the general had found employment enough within the limits of his own encampment. "It is not in the pages of history, perhaps," he observes, in a letter to congress," to furnish a case like ours. To maintain a post within musket shot of the enemy for six months together, without ammunition, and at the same time to disband one army and recruit another, within that distance of twenty odd British regiments, is more, probably, than ever was attempted." Dissatisfied, however, with so inactive a service, he had some time been contemplating an attack on Boston, as soon as he could be justified in attempting the execution of so bold a design. About the middle of February, the severe cold setting in, and the ice becoming sufficiently firm to bear the troops, he was disposed to make that attempt; but a council of war, summoned on the occasion, being almost unanimous against the measure, he reluctantly abandoned it. The effective regular force of the Americans now amounted to upward of fourteen thousand men; in addition to which the commander in chief called out about six thousand of the militia of Massachusetts. With these troops he determined to take possession of the heights of Dorchester, whence it would be in his power greatly to annoy the ships in the harbour and the soldiers in the town. By taking this position, from which the enemy would inevitably attempt to drive him, he expected to bring on a general action, during which he intended to cross over from Cambridge side with four thousand chosen men, and attack the town of Boston. To conceal his design, and to divert the attention of the garrison, a heavy bombardment of the town and lines of the enemy was begun on the evening of the second of March, and repeated the two succeeding nights. On the night of the fourth, immediately after the firing began, a considerable detachment, under the command of General Thomas, passing from Roxbury, took silent possession of Dorchester Heights. The ground was almost impenetrably hard, but the night was mild, and by labouring with great diligence, their works were so far advanced by morning, as to cover them, in a great measure, from the shot of the enemy. When the British, after day break, discovered these works, which were magnified to the view by a hazy atmosphere, nothing could exceed their astonishment. Some of their officers afterward acknowledged, that the expedition with which they were thrown

up, with their sudden and unexpected appearance, recalled to their minds those wonderful stories of enchantment and invisible agency, which are so frequent in the Eastern_romances.* Nothing now remained, but to abandon the town, or to dislodge the provincials. General Howe, with his usual spirit, chose the latter part of the alternative, and took measures for the embarkation on that very evening of five regiments, with the light infantry and grenadiers, on the important but most hazardous service. The transports fell down in the evening toward the castle, with the troops, amounting to about two thousand men ; but a tremendous storm at night rendered the execution of the design absolutely impracticable. A council of war was called the next morning, and agreed to evacuate the town as soon as possible. A fortnight elapsed before that measure was effected. Meanwhile the Americans, strengthened and extended their works; and on the morning of the seventeenth of March the British discovered a breast-work, that had been thrown up in the night at Nook's Hill, on Dorchester peninsula, which perfectly commanded Boston neck, and the south part of the town. Delay was no longer safe. By four in the morning, the king's troops, with those Americans who were attached to the royal cause, began to embark ; and before ten all of them were under sail. As the rear embarked, General Washington marched triumphantly into Boston, where he was joyfully received, as a deliverer. The British fleet, after a detention of nine days in Nantasket Road, set sail for Halifax.

General Arnold, under all his discouragements, continued the blockade of Quebec; but at length, in a council of war, it was unanimously determined, that the troops were in no condition to risk an assault, and the army was removed to a more defensible position. The Canadians, at this juncture, receiving considerable reinforcements, the Americans were compelled to relinquish one post after another, and, by the eighteenth of June they had evacuated Canada.

Beside the relief of Quebec and the recovery of Canada, the British, in the projected campaign for this year, proposed two objects; one was, to make a strong impression on some of the southern colonies; the other, and the principal, was to take possession of NewYork. The execution of that part of the plan, which respected the southern colonies, was committed to General Clinton and Sir Peter Parker; who, having formed a junction at Cape Fear, concluded to attempt the reduction of Charleston. For that place they accordingly sailed, with two thousand eight hundred land forces; and, crossing Charleston bar on the fourth of June, anchored about three miles from Sullivan's Island. Every exertion had been previously made to put the colony, and especially its capital, in a posture of defence. Works had been erected on Sullivan's Island, which lies about six miles below Charleston toward the sea, and so near the

*Annual Register.

channel, as to be a convenient post for annoying ships when approaching the town. The militia of the country now repaired in great numbers to Charleston; and at this critical juncture Major General Lee, who had been appointed by congress to the immediate cammand of all the forces in the southern department, arrived with the regular troops of the northern colonies. On the twentyeighth of July, Sir Peter Parker attacked the fort on Sullivan's Island, with two fifty gun ships, four frigates of twenty-eight guns, the Sphynx of twenty guns, the Friendship armed vessel of twentytwo guns, and the Ranger sloop and Thunder bomb, each of eight guns. On the fort were mounted twenty-six cannon, with which the garrison, consisting of three hundred and seventy-five regulars and a few militia, under the command of Colonel Moultrie, made a most gallant defence. The attack commenced between ten and eleven in the morning, and was continued upward of ten hours.Three of the ships, advancing about twelve o'clock to attack the western wing of the fort, became entangled with a shoal; to which providential incident the preservation of the garrison is ascribed. At half past nine, the firing on both sides ceased; and soon after the ships slipped their cables. In this action, the deliberate and well directed fire of the garrison exceedingly shattered the ships; and the killed and wounded on board exceeded two hundred men. The loss of the garrison was only ten men killed and twenty-two wounded. Though many thousand shot were fired from the shipping, yet the works were but little damaged. The fort being built of palmetto, a tree indigenous to Carolina, of a remarkably spongy nature, the shot, which struck it, were merely buried in the wood, without shivering it. Hardly a hut or a tree on the island escaped. The thanks of congress were given to General Lee, and to Colonels Thomson and Moultrie, for their good conduct on this memorable day; and the fort, in compliment to the commanding officer, was from that time called Fort Moultrie.

The measures of the British government accelerated an event, which, if anticipated and wished by a few of the colonists, had not hitherto been generally desired. Independence was not the object of the controversy; but constitutional liberty. Oppression, by demanding more than is due, loses the benefit of legal claims. During the last session of parliament, the ultimate plan for reducing the colonies was fixed. The Americans were declared out of the royal protection; and sixteen thousand foreign mercenaries were to be employed to effect their subjugation. Intelligence of this act decided the question of the expediency of independence. "Protection and allegiance are reciprocal," said the colonists," and the refusal of the first is a legal ground of justification for withholding the last." To declare themselves independent, was no more than to unnounce to the world the real political state, in which Great Britain had placed them. While the legality of this measure was thus argued, its immediate necessity was proved. "If Great Britain calls in the

aid of strangers to crush us, we must seek similar aid for our own preservation." But foreign assistance must be sought in the character of independent states; else the colonists must still be considered as subjects, carrying on war against their king, and rely on their own resources. These and similar reasonings were enforced by powerful addresses to the passions. A pamphlet under the signature of Common Sense, written by Thomas Paine, produced great effect. While it demonstrated the necessity, the advantages, and the practicability of independence, it treated kingly government with opprobrium, and hereditary succession with ridicule. The change of the public mind, on this occasion, is without a parallel. "In the short space of two years, nearly three millions of people passed over from the love and duty of loyal subjects, to the hatred and resentment of

enemies."

On the seventh of June, a motion was made in congress, by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, for declaring the colonies free and independent. This motion caused very interesting and animated debates, and gave great scope to genius and eloquence. John Adams, Richard Henry Lee, and John Dickinson, who took opposite sides of the question, the first for independence, and the other against it, were pre-eminently distinguished. After a full discussion, the measure was approved by nearly a unanimous vote.' We here insert president Lee's speech on the occasion. "I do not know, most prudent men and virtuous citizens, whether among transactions handed down to us by historians, which originated in civil discord, and excited either a love of liberty in the people or ambitious desires in their rulers, any can be found more interesting and important than that which now engages our attention; whether we consider the future destiny of this free and virtuous people, or that of our enemies, who, notwithstanding this cruel war and unaccustomed tyranny, are our brethren, and descended from a common stock; or that of other nations, whose eyes are intent upon this great spectacle, and who anticipate from our success more freedom for themselves, or from our defeat apprehend heavier chains and a severer bondage. For the question is not whether we shall acquire an increase of territorial dominion, or wickedly wrest from others their just possessions; but whether we shall preserve or lose forever, that liberty which we have inherited from our ancestors, which we have sought to preserve by crossing a wide and tempestuous ocean, and which we have defended, in this land, against barbarous men, contending, at the same time, against the beasts of the wilderness and the diseases of an ungenial clime. And if so many and distinguished praises have always been lavished upon the generous defenders of Greek and Roman liberty, what will be said of us, who defend, not that freedom which rests upon the capricious will of an unstable multitude; but on immutable statutes and our tutelary

* Holmes' American Annals, vol. ii. p. 346-354.

laws; not that which was the exclusive privilege of a few patricians, but that which is the property of all: not that, finally, which is stained by unjust ostracisms or the decimation of armies; but that which is pure, temperate, and gentle, and conformed to the mild manners of the age in which we live. Why then, why do we procrastinate, and to what purpose are these delays? Let us finish the undertaking so well begun; and since we cannot hope to secure that liberty and peace, which are our delight, in a continuance of the union with England, let us break the ties which bind us together, and perfect that which we enjoy already, I mean, our entire and absolute independence. Nor must I here, in the beginning of my discourse, omit to say, that if we have reached that fatal extremity, where nothing else can exist between America and England, but such war or such peace as may exist between nations foreign to each other, this can only be imputed to the insatiable cupidity, the tyrannical proceedings, and reiterated outrages of the British ministry. On our part, nothing was omitted that might preserve the ancient state of peace and harmony. Who has not heard our prayers, and who is ignorant of our supplications? England alone was deaf to our complaints, and wanted that compassion which was generously bestowed upon us by other nations. And as at first our forbearance, and then our resistance have been equally insufficient; since our prayers were unavailing, as well as the blood lately shed; we must go further, and secure our independence. Nor let any one believe that this alternative can be avoided. The time will undoubtedly come, when the fatal separation will take place, whether you will or no; for such will be the inevitable consequence of the nature of things; of our always increasing population; of the fertility of our land; of the extent of our territory; of the industry of our countrymen; of the wide intervening ocean; of the distance of the two countries. And if this be true, as it is most true, who does not see that the sooner it takes place the better; and that it would be not only imprudent, but the height of folly not to seize the present occasion, when British injustice has filled all hearts with indignation, inspired all minds with courage, produced concord, convinced the understandings, and made us fly to arms to defend our lives? And how long shall we be compelled to traverse three thousand miles of a tempestuous sea to ask of haughty and insolent men for counsel or commands respecting our domestic concerns? Does it not become a great, rich, and powerful nation, as we are, to look at home, and not abroad, for the government of our affairs? How can a ministry of strangers judge correctly of our concerns, respecting which it has no knowledge, and in which it has no interest? The past justice of the British ministers should make us beware of the future, if they should again fix their iron fangs upon us. Since it has pleased the cruelty of our enemies to place before us the alternative of slavery or independence, where is the generous minded man, and the lover of his country, who can hesitate to choose? With these perfidious men no promise is secure,