CHAPTER XV THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE 1776-1783 The Declaration of Independence was not hastily issued. For two years the colonies had been protesting and petitioning, and for over a year war had been raging, yet all this time the people were thoroughly loyal. Their thirteen governments were not oppressive. A stubborn, foolish king and an equally stubborn and short-sighted ministry persisted in a policy of taxation, which the colonies with equal stubbornness resisted. Had the English government quietly abandoned its policy and let the assemblies levy the tax, there would have been no war for independence at this time. It cannot be too well understood that the folly of England was the fundamental cause of the war. Her folly was industrial as well as political. Her trade laws were narrow in spirit and ruinous in their effects. The Continental Con gress seems to hesitate, and to be reluctant to go to war. No body of Americans plotted independence. There was no conspiracy to overthrow the old government and to set up a new one. Congress acted chiefly from outside pressure, and that was England and the English. It may be well to remember that time has justified the Americans in their revolt against the English government, as has been demonstrated by that government's later colonial policy. The American colonies were the last, and indeed the only ones England lost. She entirely revised her colonial policy after the American Revolution. By adherence to the liberal principles at that time forced upon her notice, she has extended her empire and benefited mankind. Canada is an example of her colonial wisdom. So it may be said that the American Revolution did as much for the British Empire as for the American Republic. As soon as hostilities broke out, and Americans were dead or dying for the support of their principles, the idea of independence rapidly took hold of the people. In hundreds of town-meetings along the seaboard, in gatherings on the frontier, resolutions for independence were passed, so that Jefferson had his work well done before he began. The Declaration of Independence contains the substance of dozens of little declarations adopted all over the country. When Richard Henry Lee's resolution was carried, July 2, 1776, the colonial period came to an end. The Declaration of the 4th of July was issued out of "a decent respect to the opinions of mankind," and gave the causes which impelled separation. On that day the people of the United Colonies became a new nation, "conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.' America then had no large cities. Philadelphia, the largest, did not have thirty thousand souls. It was a rural people whom King George proclaimed "rebels."' The conquest of such a people is always difficult, because there are no great centers at which to strike. Moreover, America was much of a wilderness. The English and German troops were accustomed to the smooth roads of Europe. America lacked roads. The English policy was, therefore, to get control of the seaport towns, and the great bays and rivers. By holding these, the British might raid the country at leisure. If the Hudson were held, New England would be cut off from the center and south. The Americans had no fleet; the English fleet was the most powerful in the world. By holding the Delaware, Chesapeake Bay, Charleston Bay, and the Savannah River, the British might conquer the country piecemeal. The Americans were familiar with the lay of the land. Their policy was to avoid open battle and sieges, but to strike quick blows, to cut off supplies, constantly to invest the enemy and to wear him out. They were on the defensive. Any true account of the equipment of the two forces brings out strange contrasts. The English were trained soldiers, equipped with the best weapons of the day, and were fully supplied with food, clothing, medicines, and ammunition. But England at this time had no first-class officers in her army. When the Declaration of Indepen 1776] THE CONTESTANTS 205 dence was read in England, doubtless Arthur Wellesley, a boy nine years old, heard of it; but England, in 1776, had then no great soldier like this "Iron Duke" of the next century. The English officers who were sent to America were of the Braddock type; and some had seen much of camp life, but most of them, like Burgoyne, had seen more of club life. They knew little of American geography, and less of the Americans, whom they despised as rebellious peasants and colonial politicians and conspirators. English troops were a fine military machine, which their officers did not know how to operate, at least in America. The The American soldiers, or continentals, as they are often familiarly called, were farmers, mechanics, counting-house clerks, frontiersmen, a few negroes, and a sprinkling of men from those whom John Adams, and many since his day, called the "well-born." Hardly two of them had the same equipment. They were unaccustomed to discipline; and the spirit of personal independence was strong, and made discipline difficult. Jealousy and petty rivalries between different colonial regiments, a host of independent companies, frequent desertions, occasional mutinies, short enlistments, and the temptations of home ties, made the American troops a motley company at best. But they were fighting for themselves and their homes; they were unusually good marksmen, and capable of enduring great fatigue. In every way they were a contrast to their oppo nents. Even greater was the contrast between the English and the American officers. Washington combined the statesman and the soldier. He was in the prime of life, being forty-three when he took command. His training had been on his plantation, which, managed by himself, was one of the best in the country. In the French war he had borne a conspicuous part; in the Virginia House of Burgesses he was known for his practical good sense, and in Congress, where he was amidst the most brilliant men in the country, he was admired for his sagacity. He was one of the wealthiest, and also one of the best informed, men in America. He was methodical, cautious, and full of reserve power. Within nine months of his appointment as com mander-in-chief, he had compelled Lord Howe to evacuate Boston, and had done this with raw militia and British cannon captured at Ticonderoga. No man of his type could be found in the British army. The other American officers varied from him in degree rather than in kind. They were not professional soldiers. A few, like Stark, Putnam, and Allen, had seen service in the last French war; a few had figured in the militia, but most of them were just what the English called them, "plowboys." As the war went on, the qualities of the "plowboys' were fully displayed, as we shall see. The English army was well drilled, but badly officered, was three thousand miles from its base of supplies, and was on the offensive. The continentals lacked discipline, but were well officered, were near their base of supplies, and were on the defensive. On the morning when the Declaration was read to the army at New York, Congress had no delegated authority to levy a tax, to buy a gun, to equip a regiment, to build a ship, or to carry on the war. No body had empowered it to make treaties, to borrow money, or to contract alliances. Yet it proceeded promptly to do these very things. If Washington was successful in beating back the British, Congress would have little difficulty in governing the country. But if reverses came; if the assemblies refused to co-operate, and the people to furnish men, money, and supplies; if factions broke out in the army, in Congress, and in the states, then the hope of the country was Washington. Events soon proved his influence with the people, and of what stuff he was made. While the Declaration was on its passage, British troops were landing near New York City, and by the end of August, Howe had thirty thousand men there. He pressed the American detachment at Brooklyn so closely as to threaten to crush it. Washington, taking advantage of a dark and foggy night, safely transported his army from Brooklyn Heights to New York. The advance of the British fleet up the Hudson River made Washington's position unsafe, and he retreated northward. Howe drove 1776] TRENTON 207 him up the Hudson Valley, attacked and defeated the Americans intrenched at White Plains, and carried Fort Washington by assault. Fort Lee, on the New Jersey shore of the river, was abandoned to the British. The continentals now began returning home in large numbers, as their time had expired. Washington seemed likely to be left without an army. The next center of British attack was obviously Philadelphia. Washington left his tents and his camp-fires burning and started for New Jersey. General Charles Lee, who insisted on having an independent command, was left in charge of the forces east of the Hudson, and was ordered to join Washington at Hackensack. would have brought together an army of fourteen thousand to confront Howe. Lee refused to obey. Washington could only retreat through New Jersey, with Cornwallis at his heels. He crossed the Delaware into Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, Cornwallis extended the British lines from Burlington to above Trenton. This Believing that Washington would soon be ruined, Lee marched to Morristown. Soon after his arrival he was captured, in gown and slippers, by some British dragoons at an inn outside his lines. He was taken to New York and confined, but it is now known that he turned traitor and gave Howe information that would help destroy Washington and his army. His capture left John Sullivan in command, who joined Washington. The On Christmas night, in a blinding snowstorm, with two thousand five hundred picked men, Washington surprised the British center at Trenton, broke the line, captured a thousand Hessians, and was back in Pennsylvania, ten miles away, before Cornwallis knew what had happened. news of the retreat through New Jersey and of the coming of the British had started a panic in the Delaware Valley. Congress fled to Baltimore. Scores of people protested that they had always been for the king. The capture of the Hessians turned the tide. Philadelphia insisted on seeing the Hessians, that it might believe the victory. So Washington had them marched, as prisoners of war, down High, now Market, Street. He encamped his troops at Trenton, December 30th. Men and supplies began to |