July. CHAP. rung in the ears of the farmers, and from every cellar, XLII. and barn yard, and field throughout Worcester and 1775. Hampshire and even Berkshire, such articles of food as could be spared were devoted to the camp, and everybody's wagons were used to forward them. But for this the forces must have dispersed; how it was done, cannot exactly be told; popular enthusiasm keeps little record of its sacrifices; only it was done, and though great waste prevailed, the troops of Massachusetts, and for a long time also those of New Hampshire, were fed by the unselfish care of the people, without so much as a barrel of flour from the continental congress. It was time for "the confederated colonies" to interpose. CHAPTER XLIII. CONGRESS STILL HOPES TO AVERT WAB. JULY 19 TO AUGUST. XLIII. THE Continental congress, acting as a promiscu- CHAP. ous executive, neither formed a carefully considered system, nor felt the weight of personal responsibility. 1775 It never presented to itself a vivid picture of Wash- July. ington's situation, and never went in advance to miti gate his difficulties or supply his wants; but, from the first, waited inactively for his appeals. On the nineteenth day of July it read his first report from Cambridge, by which it appeared that the army was defective in discipline and in numbers; that officers for the regiments were in excess, while the files were not full; that the order in rank of the major generals and brigadiers had displeased the troops and the New England governments; that still another class of officers was needed, to bring method into the system of supplies; that there was the most urgent want of tents and clothing; of hospitals; of skilful engineers; of every kind of arms, especially CHAP. of artillery; and above all, of powder. Washington XLIII. also called to mind, that he had not as yet been fur1775. nished with any money whatever. July. The next day, though it was strictly kept as the national fast, congress came together to hear from Schuyler, that still greater confusion prevailed at Ticonderoga. The northern army consisted of about twenty eight hundred men, of whom seven parts in eight were from Connecticut, most of them under Wooster; exhibiting all the defects which had shown themselves around Boston. Sentinels sleeping on their posts, disorderly equality between officers and common soldiers, a universal want of discipline provoked Schuyler to anger; but while he found fault enough with all that he saw, he had little power to govern and reform a body of men whose education and manners were uncongenial to his own. Compelled to look at the condition of the army, congress still shrunk from every act that could endanger the acceptance of its petition to the king. Except the companies of riflemen, who were enlisted only for one year, it called into being no troops whose period of service extended beyond the time when an answer to that petition was expected. On the side of Canada, it did little more than sanction the employment of a body of five thousand men for the protec‐ tion of the border and the frontier, and confirm Schuyler in his command, subject to its own former orders and the future instructions of the commander in chief. Washington, who had represented the necessity of an army of twenty two thousand men in Massachusetts, was authorized to keep up that number; but no method for obtaining troops was pro XLIII. posed beyond recommendations to the several gov- CHAP. ernments of New England and New York; and no leave was given for permanent enlistments. Thus far Franklin, who was constant in his attendance, had left his associates to sound their own way and shape their own policy; but he could maintain silent reserve no longer, and on the twenty first of July, the statesman who, twenty one years before, had at Albany reported a plan of union of provinces, submitted an outline for confederating the colonies in one nation. Each colony was to retain and amend its own laws and constitution according to its separate discretion, while the powers of the general government were to include all questions of war, peace, and alliance; commerce, currency, and the establishment of posts; the army, the navy, and Indian affairs; the management of all lands not yet ceded by the natives. The common treasury was to be supplied and taxes to be laid and collected by the several colonies in proportion to their numbers. Congress was to consist of one body only, whose members were to be apportioned triennially according to population, and annually chosen. One of its committees was to wield the executive power. Every colony of Great Britain in North America, and even Ireland, which was still classed with the colonies, was invited to accede to the union. The imperfections in the new constitution which time and experience would surely reveal, were to be amended by congress with the approbation of a majority of the colonial assemblies. Unless Britain should consent to make acceptable retractions and indemnities, the confederation was to be perpetual. In the 1775. July. XLIII. July. CHAP. intention of Franklin, who well knew that the required concessions never would be made, the plan was 1775. a declaration of independence and an effective system of a self-perpetuating republic. His scheme aimed at a real, ever enduring union, and it contained the two great elements of American political life; the domestic power of the several states, and the limited sovereignty of the central government. The proposition of Franklin was, for the time, put aside; the future confederacy was not to number fewer members than thirteen; for news now came, that Georgia "was no more the defaulting link in the American chain." On the fourth of July, it had met in provincial congress; and on the sixth had adhered to all the measures of resistance. It had also resolved neither to purchase, nor to employ, any slave imported from Africa after that day. Lord North's proposal had already been declared inadequate; but as it was founded on joint resolves of parliament, officially recommended by Lord Dartmouth, and referred by Virginia, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, to the decision of congress, Franklin, Jefferson, John Adams, and Richard Henry Lee, were constituted a committee to report on its conditions as a basis for the desired accommodation. Meantime congress remembered the friendly interposition of Jamaica, whose peculiar situation as an island of planters forbade active assistance, but whose good wishes ministered consolation. America and Ireland also came nearer to each other. In July the merchants of Dublin applauded the earl of Effingham for "refusing to draw his sword against the lives |