XLII. July. bers, discipline, and stores of the army, Washington CHAP made allowances for a devoted province like Massachusetts, which had so long suffered from anar- 1775. chy and oppression. "Their spirit," said he, "has exceeded their strength." In the "great number of able-bodied men, active, zealous in the cause, and of unquestionable courage," he saw the materials for a good army; but, accustomed to the watchfulness of the backwoodsmen in the vicinity of wily enemies, he strongly condemned the want of subordination, and the almost stupid confidence of inexperience, which pervaded not only the privates but many of the inferior officers. He set diligently about a reform, though it made "of his life one continued round of vexation and fatigue." The great inefficiency lay with the officers. "If they will but do their duty," said Hawley, "there is no fear of the soldiery." Towards the incompetent, who, in the suddenness of calling together so large a body of men, had crowded themselves upward with importunate selfishness, Washington resolved to show no lenity. By a prompt and frequent use of courts martial, he made many examples, and by lending no countenance to public abuses, and by insisting on the distinction between officers and soldiers, he soon introduced the aspect of discipline. Every day, Sundays not excepted, thousands were kept at work under strict government from four till eleven in the morning, strengthening the lines, and fortifying every point which could serve the enemy as a landing place. The strong and uniform will of Washington was steadily exerted, with a quiet, noiseless, and irresistible energy. "There are many things amiss in this camp," CHAP. said the chaplain Emerson; "yet, upon the whole, God is in the midst of us." XLII. 1775. July. Meantime, Lee had not been many days in the camp before the British generals in Boston, who knew him well, showed a disposition to tamper with him for their own purposes. From Philadelphia he had, in June, addressed to Burgoyne, his old comrade in Portugal, a public letter condemning American taxation by parliament, and tracing the malady of the state to the corrupt influence of the crown. In an able reply, Burgoyne insisted, for himself and for Howe, that their political principles were unchanged, and invited Lee to "an interview" within the British lines, for the purpose of "inducing such explanations as might tend in their consequences to peace, for," said he, as if with the highest authority, "I know Great Britain is ready to open her arms upon the first overture of accommodation." Clutching at the office of a negotiator, Lee avoided asking advice of a council of war, and of himself requested the Massachusetts congress to depute one of their body to be a witness of what should pass. That body wisely dissuaded from the meeting, and referred him to a council of war for further advice. Thwarted in his purpose, Lee publicly declined to meet Burgoyne, but he also sent him a secret communication, in which among other things he declared "upon his honor that the Americans had the certainty of being sustained by France and Spain." This clandestine correspondence proved that Lee had then no fidelity in his heart; though his treasons may as yet have been but caprices, implying momentary treachery rather than a well considered system. His secret was kept in America, but the statement found XLII. its way through the British ministry to Vergennes, CHAP. who pronounced it an absurdity worthy only of contempt. All the while skirmishes continued. A party of Americans on the eighth of July drove in the British advance guard nearest Roxbury, and took several muskets. On the evening of the tenth, three hundred volunteers swept Long Island, in Boston harbor, of more than seventy sheep and fifteen head of cattle, and carried off sixteen prisoners. Two days later, just after the arrival of six crowded transports, Greaton, with one hundred and thirty six men, went again to the same island, and burnt the hay which was stacked there for the British cavalry. After a few days more, companies at Weymouth and Hingham reaped and brought off the ripe grain from Nantasket. On the fifteenth of July, the army of Cambridge heard Langdon, the president of Harvard college, read the declaration by the continental congress for taking up arms, which they interpreted to mean that the Americans would never sheathe the sword till their grievances were redressed to their utmost wishes. On the eighteenth it was read on Prospect Hill amidst such shouts that the British on Bunker Hill put themselves in array for battle; but neither then, nor even after the arrival of their last transports, did they venture an attack or even a sally. "I despair seeing a battle fought this time coming down," wrote Emerson to his wife at Concord. In conformity to the direction of the continental congress, the people of Massachusetts, holding town meetings according to their usage and their charter, 1775. July. 1775. July. CHAP. chose a house of representatives. Boston took part XLII. in the elections; for the wanderers from that town were considered as bearing with them its living spirit, and the exiles, many of whom had not seen each other since they left their homes, came together at Concord. On the nineteenth the provincial congress dissolved itself forever, and the new house of representatives began the restoration of government by electing James Warren, of Plymouth, as its speaker. The following night, Vose, a major in Heath's regiment, set fire to the lighthouse in Boston harbor, bringing off a field piece, a swivel, and the lamps. The boats of a British man of war, which lay within a mile, pursued the adventurous party; but they were in whaleboats and escaped by rowing. The continental fast was rigidly kept on the twentieth; the next day the Massachusetts government was permanently constituted. An annually elected legislature themselves elected an annual council of twenty eight, and that multitudinous body, which also had concurrent legislative power, assumed all executive authority. In a few weeks the old civil and military offices were abolished, and the seal of the commonwealth was changed into an Anglo-American, holding a drawn sword, with the motto: Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem, "With the sword he seeks placid rest under liberty." Forty thousand pounds were assessed on polls and estates, and authority was given to issue one hundred thousand more in bills of public credit, varying in amount from forty shillings to one. "Congress and committees rule every province," said the British commander in chief. He looked XLII. July. about for colonial sympathy and contributions of CHAP. men; but none wished to share his confinement. He sent officers to New York to board emigrant ships 1775. from Scotland, in the hope to enlist a few Highlanders. Growing more and more uneasy, on the twenty fourth of July, he wrote home that Boston was "the most disadvantageous place for all operations," and he wished himself safely at New York. To repair the Boston lighthouse carpenters were sent with a guard of thirty marines. On the evening of the thirtieth, Major Tupper attacked them with a party from Squantum and Dorchester, killed the lieutenant and one man, and captured all the rest of the party, fifty three in number. The Americans had but one man killed and two or three wounded. next day in general orders, Washington praised their gallant and soldierlike conduct. The country regarded with amazement what Jefferson called "the adventurous genius and intrepidity of the New Englanders." The For all this, Washington, who was annoyed by shoals of selfish importuners, and had not yet become aware how bad men clamorously throng round the distributors of offices, misjudged the Massachusetts people; but the existence of the army was itself a miracle of their benevolence, and its sustenance during May, June, and July cannot be accounted for by ordinary rules. There was nothing regularly established, and yet many thousands of men were abundantly supplied. Touched by an all pervading influence, each householder esteemed himself a sort of commissary. There were no public magazines, no large dealers in provisions; but the wants of the army |