The VI, 317-323; army on Bemis Heights, and Burgoyne threw up entrenchments where he was. On October 7 the Americans attacked him, one party under Arnold penetrating to the center of the British position. Unable to advance, and suffering for provisions, the British endeavored to make their way back to Canada. When they again reached the crossingplace of the Hudson, a strong force of Americans was found posted on the eastern bank. Further retreat was impossible; no aid could reach them from New York, and the British laid down their arms (October 17, 1777). The terms of their surrender were embodied in an agreement or convention, known as the Saratoga Convention. According to this, the British troops were to march to Boston and there embark on transports, to be furnished by the British government, on condition that they should not again serve in North America until exchanged. This agreement was most disadvantageous for the Americans, since the soldiers might be, and probably would be, used in Europe against allies, as the French, who might come. to the colonists' aid, or they could be stationed in garrisons in the British Isles, and the soldiers already in those garrisons transferred to America. This convention should never have been made, but once having been concluded, should have been carried out. Congress, however, seized the first opportunity to avoid giving up the captured soldiers, and the British on their side did not keep to the spirit of the agreement: public property, which rightfully belonged to the captors, was not given up, and Burgoyne uttered some rash words to the effect that the convention had been broken by the Americans. The Americans understood that the British government would not regard the convention as binding. After a winter passed in the vicinity of Boston, the "convention troops" were marched to the interior of Pennsylvania and Virginia and remained there during the war. 151. The Conway Cabal, 1777, 1778. One of the earliest results of the capture of Burgoyne's army was an attempt 1777] The Conway Cabal 189 to displace Washington, with a view to the appointment Conspiracy of Gates in his stead. At the present time, few Ameri- to displace Washington. cans doubt the pre-eminent qualities of Washington; to Fiske's foreigners as well, he stands foremost as the embodiment Revolution, II, 32-43. of patriotism, common sense, and honesty; and his cam- Sparks's paigns attest his military capacity. To many men of the Washington's Revolutionary epoch, he did not appear in so favorable Writings, V, app. vi; a light. Disaffected officers and suspicious members of Lodge's Congress united to disparage his actions. They naturally Washington, Steuben gathered to Gates as their chosen the knowledge of intrigue, known of the leading actors in it, is well worth studying by all those who desire to see under the surface of the Revolutionary period, to discover the sordid nature of many acts of so-called patriotism, and to view many of the Revolutionary heroes as they really were. I, 210-220. In point of fact, the winter following the victory on the The winter upper Hudson was the most critical period of the Revo- at Valley Forge, lution, excepting the last three months of the preceding 1777-78. year (1776). The sufferings of the army at Valley Forge Fiske's Revolution, are described in every history of that time; but it is only II, 25-32, from Washington's own words that an adequate idea of them can be gathered: "To see men without clothes to cover their nakedness, without blankets to lie on, without shoes (for the want of which their marches might be traced 51-56. The "Lost Winsor's VII, 26-34. by the blood from their feet) . . . is a proof of patience and obedience which, in my opinion, can scarce be paralleled." And again: "For some days there has been little less than a famine in camp. A part of the army has been a week without any kind of flesh. . . . Naked and starving as they are, we cannot enough admire the incomparable patience and fidelity of the soldiery." At one time, no fewer than two thousand eight hundred men were unfit for duty for want of shoes or clothing; the terrible sufferings of those months knit the soldiers together into one compact army. During that winter, also, Baron Steuben, a Prussian veteran, drilled them so admirably that when they again took the field, the troops of the Continental Line, as the more permanent organizations were called, were as good as any to be found in the world. 152. The French Alliance, 1778. Commissioners from the United States had been at Paris since 1776; they were Silas Deane, Arthur Lee, and Benjamin Franklin, to mention them in the order of their arrival. Deane found the French government willing to assist the Americans with arms and supplies, but it insisted that the transfer should be carried on through a fictitious Spanish firm, Hortalez et cie, whose sole partner turned out to be Caron de Beaumarchais, the writer of plays. To him the French government intrusted a large sum of money, which was to be used to evade the vigilance of the British ambassador, and to overcome the many obstacles which the authorities were obliged to place in the way of the traffic to aid in the deceit. With this exception, the business was carried on as an ordinary mercantile transaction, and Beaumarchais expected to be paid by Congress for the military materials he furnished to them. Arthur Lee, when he reached Paris, became most unreasonably jealous of Deane. He found out about the money advanced to Beaumarchais, and informed his friends in Congress that the munitions and accoutrements were the gift of the French government. Congress therefore refused to pay for them, drove Deane into bank 1778] Lord North's Conciliatory Proposals 191 ruptcy, and greatly injured Beaumarchais; the whole affair of "the lost million" was one of the most singular and least creditable episodes of the Revolution. Winsor's VII, 43-49; Fiske's II, 9. Burgoyne's surrender convinced the French that the Treaties with Americans were likely to maintain their position. They France, 1778. were now willing to intervene openly in the dispute. America, Under these circumstances, negotiations were easily brought to a conclusion, and treaties of commerce and alliance between the United States and France were signed early in 1778. By the first of these treaties France acknowledged the independence of the United States and entered into commercial arrangements with the new nation. The treaty of alliance stipulated that in case war should break out between France and Great Britain in consequence of the friendly attitude of France, that country and the United States should make common cause against Great Britain, and that neither party should make a truce or peace without first obtaining the consent of the other. The two governments mutually guaranteed their possessions in America forever against all other powers and made arrangements for the division of territory which might be conquered from Great Britain outside of the limits of the United States. Chatham's and North's proposals, America, VII, 49-52; Fiske's Revolution, 153. Lord North's Conciliatory Proposals, 1778. - The British government at once declared war against France, and the treaty of alliance came into operation. Chatham 1778. proposed to withdraw the British armies from the United Winsor's States, win back the good will of the Americans, and together wage war against France and Spain, in case the latter power should join in the contest. The king, however, would not intrust the government to Chatham, but suggested that he might take office under Lord North. That compliant minister, on his part, astonished his supporters by bringing in a new Declaratory Act, under which Parliament abandoned the right to "impose any duty, tax, or assessment whatsoever. . . only such duties as it may be expedient to impose for the regulation of commerce, II, 4-9, the net produce of such duties to be always paid and applied to and for the use of the colony in which the same shall be levied." Commissioners were appointed to negotiate with the Continental Congress on these terms. The day for halfway measures was past, and nothing came of the attempt. The war continued, but from this time on the British assumed the intended to confide to Lafayette, who, young as he was, had shown marked military ability. Unfortunately, Charles Lee, a renegade Englishman, who had been captured by the British in 1776, returned from captivity in time to claim the command of the advance by right of seniority. The Americans overtook the British army near Monmouth; Lee lost control of his men and withdrew them in disorder. At that moment Washington reached the front, saved the army, and assumed so threatening an attitude that Howe's successor, Sir Henry Clinton, without waiting for daylight, resumed his march "by the light of the moon," - to use his own |