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LVIII.

1778.

Not any, even the smallest opening, was afforded to these messengers of peace. They desired to despatch to the seat of Congress their secretary, Dr. Adam Ferguson, the well-known Professor of Edinburgh, and they applied to Washington for a passport, but Washington refused it until the pleasure of Congress should be known. The Congress, on the other part, had put forth a Resolution declining even to hold any conference with the Commissioners, unless, as a preliminary, they should either withdraw the fleets and armies, or else, in express terms, acknowledge the Independence of the United States. In vain did the Commissioners address the President of Congress, and entreat some consideration of their terms. Their powers were, indeed, most ample. They declared themselves ready to agree that no military forces should be maintained in North America without the consent of the General Congress or particular Assemblies; that measures should be taken to discharge the debts of America and to raise the credit and value of the paper circulation; that in order to cement the union with the mother-country, there should be a reciprocal deputation of an agent or agents from the different States, who should have a seat and voice in Parliament, or, if sent from Britain, a seat and voice in the several Assemblies; and that there should be established the power of the respective legislatures in each State to settle its revenue, and to exercise a perfect freedom of legislation and internal government. In short, in

the very words of the Commissioners, there was CHAP. offered the irrevocable enjoyment of every privi- LVIII. lege short of a total separation of interests. To 1778. none of these terms, so tempting heretofore, would the Congress hearken; and, after their first letter, they decided in a summary manner that no further reply should be returned.

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Not that such offers were altogether without effect upon the people. Several Members of the Congress found it necessary to write to their constituents to explain and vindicate their votes in this transaction. Only a few weeks previously, Washington himself had observed: "There are symptoms which may authorise an opinion that "the people of America are pretty generally weary "of the present war. So far as we can judge, it would seem, moreover, that dislike of the French nation, and distrust of the French alliance, were widely spread. But under all the circumstances of Great Britain this feeling was not so prevalent in any one State as of itself to overpower the common acquiescence in the measures of the central body.

The Commissioners throve no better with their private correspondence than with their public overtures. Governor Johnstone having exchanged some letters with Joseph Reed and Robert Morris,

* Letter to Mr. John Banister, April 21. 1778. On the 25th La Fayette writes to Washington, that he fears the three Commissioners more than ten thousand men.

LVIII.

1778.

CHAP. his former friends, let fall some hints as to the honours and rewards which might attend the promoters of a reconciliation. These hints, though incautiously made, were perhaps too jealously construed as attempts at corruption, as offers of a bribe. The letters were immediately laid before Congress, and by Congress were most angrily resented. Another incident which arose from these transactions was of the ludicrous kind; proceeding as it did from the boyish petulance of La Fayette. Some expressions in the public letter of the Commissioners to the President of Congress had reflected on the conduct of France; these moved his ire; and, in spite of Washington's advice, he challenged Lord Carlisle to meet him in single combat. To such a challenge, said Lord Carlisle, he found it difficult to return a serious

answer.

Finding it impossible to proceed with their negotiation, the Commissioners prepared to reembark for England. First, however, they issued a Manifesto, or Proclamation, to the American people, appealing to them against the decisions of the Congress, and offering to the colonies at large, or singly, a general or separate peace. This Proclamation was in most parts both ably and temperately argued. But there was one passage liable to just exception. The Commissioners observed, that hitherto the hopes of a re-union had checked the extremes of war. Henceforth the contest would be changed. If the British Colonies were

1778.

to become an accession to France, the laws of self- CHA P. preservation must direct Great Britain to render LVIII. the accession of as little avail as possible to her enemy. Mr. Fox, and others of the Opposition in the House of Commons, inveighed with great plausibility against this passage, as threatening a war of savage desolation. Others, again, as friends to Lord Carlisle and Mr. Eden, asserted that no such meaning was implied. The error, whatever it might be, lay with the Commissioners, and in no degree with the Government at home. For Lord North denied, in the most express terms, that Ministers had intended to give the least encouragement to the introduction of any new kind of war in North America.*

Meanwhile the British army had relinquished Philadelphia and retired to New York. Sir Henry's first intention was to go by water, but he found that the transports were not sufficient for the whole, and that he must have left on shore great part of his cavalry, all the provision-trains, and all the loyalists who dreaded the vengeance of their countrymen. Under these circumstances he determined to lead the troops by land; and his retreat through the Jerseys, encumbered as it was with baggage and camp-followers, has, been often admired as a masterpiece of strategy. On the 18th of June the last of the British marched out of Philadelphia, and the first of the Americans

* Debate in the House of Commons, Dec. 4. 1778.

CHAP. marched in. An eye-witness among the latter, LVIII. Joseph Reed, thus speaks of what he saw :-"The enemy evacuated this place on Thursday. I

1778.

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came in the same evening, and it exhibited a "new and curious scene; many gloomy countenances, but more joyful ones. Shops shut up, "and all in great anxiety and suspense." By Washington's directions, General Arnold was immediately put in command of the city, with strict orders to restrain as far as possible every kind of persecution, insult, or abuse. Nor was it long ere the Congress returned from the town of York to their former seat. Their presence in Philadelphia was of itself some security against acts of violence, although little or no regard had been shown to the wise and magnanimous advice of Washington for extending equal protection to men of opposite opinions.*

While marching through the Jerseys, the British troops were followed and harassed by Washington. Nearly all his officers, being consulted, gave advice against bringing them to an engagement; the

Previous to the retreat of the British, Washington had seriously warned the Congress, that "for want of this" (pardon and protection), "hundreds, nay, thousands of people, and

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among them many valuable artisans, with large quantities of 66 goods, will be forced from Philadelphia, who otherwise would "willingly remain. . . . . A proscribing system, or laws having "the same effect, when carried to a great extent, ever appeared "to me to be impolitic," &c. Mr. Sparks has deemed it expedient to omit the letter containing these passages, but it may be found in the collection of 1795 (vol. ii. p. 283.), the date being June 2. 1778.

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