CHAP. I. It was not in the capture of ammunition and arms only, that the enterprising naval spirit of the Americans rendered essential service to 1776. their country. The non-importation agreements which preceded the war, and excluded the usual supply of goods for ordinary consumption, had left the continent, in a great measure, destitute of articles necessary to clothe its inhabitants in the accustomed manner. Internal manufactures had supplied, but in a very small degree, the deficiency produced by non-importation; and when congress proceeded to raise an army, the continent scarcely afforded the clothes or blankets necessary for its use. The sufferings for these articles, though greatest in the army, were extended to citizens in private life. The want of them was felt uni. versally. This want was relieved, in some degree, by captures from the enemy at sea. The goods thus taken would, at any period, and in any state of things, have constituted an item well worth attention; but at this time, they were of inestimable value. The prizes made by the American cruisers in the year 1776, are said, by some English authors, to have been estimated at one million sterling; and their amount is believed, in America, to have been more considerable. It has been stated by persons conversant with that subject, that the captures made by the cruizers of Massachussetts alone, exceeded those made by France and Spain in any one year of the war CHAP. I. which terminated in 1763. Unfortunately, congress did not in time adopt the system of clothing their troops themselves; and though in the beginning of 1776 the secret committee was charged with taking measures to import a large quantity of clothing, yet they did not arrive to supply the demands of that year. For want of those timely exertions which probably would have been made, had the system of furnishing clothes from the continental stores been originally adopted, many prize clothes, which might have saved from disease and death, soldiers exposed to the hardships of a winter campaign, were suffered to pass into the hands of private individuals. In the eastern country, where these prizes were generally brought, the local governments were able to make some provision for the clothing of their quotas of troops; but the sufferings of the quotas of the middle and southern states, as far as Virginia inclusive, during the severe winter campaign of 1776...7, were extreme. It having been understood that a large quantity of ammunition was in the royal magazines in the island of New Providence, commodore Hopkins with the fleet consisting of five vessels, the largest of which carried twenty, nine pounders, on her lower deck, and six, ten pounders on her upper deck, was 1776. CHAP. I. detached to seize it, and bring it to the conti1776. nent. The delays after landing were such, that the governor obtained intelligence of his approach, long enough before he reached the town, to remove the powder: and thus the expedition failed of its principal object; but other military stores of considerable value were taken; and on its return, the fleet made several prizes. On the east end of Long island, commodore Hopkins fell in with the Glasgow, captain Howe, carrying twenty, nine pounders, and an engagement ensued, which lasted several hours. The Glasgow, after having damaged the vessels of the American flotilla very considerably, made all sail for Newport, and was not pursued. That she was able to maintain a close fight, a considerable time, with a force so very superior to her own, and then to extricate herself from it, excited some chagrin in America, and the conduct of the commodore was very much censured. When the seat of war was transferred to New York, and some of the British ships passed up the North river, an experiment was made of the efficacy of a defence by gallies, which had been, in some degree, relied on. A detachment of soldiers was put on board them, and the Phoenix, lying at anchor in the bay of Haverstraw was attacked by them. The experiment turned out unfavourably. The Phoenix sustained little, if any injury, and the gallies CHAP. I. were repulsed with the loss of several of them which were sunk in the action. The extraordinary spectacle has been exhibited of thirteen distinct colonies, possessing at first no legitimate government; and afterwards when they became states, possessing governments entirely independent of each other, carrying on, conjointly, by themselves and by their deputies, a burdensome war against one of the most powerful nations of the world; raising armies on the most expensive, as well as dangerous establishment; carrying on distant expeditions, and equipping an efficient, though a small navy; without commerce, and without revenue. Credit became a substitute for revenue; but it required all the zeal and enthusiasm which then animated the bosoms of individuals, and which silenced for a time every calculation of cold and interested prudence, to furnish this substitute. 1776. Congress emitted paper money, and pledged Paper money the faith of their constituents for its redemption. The opinion was almost universal, that this faith would be sacredly observed. In some of the colonies, as in Virginia, depreciation had never been known. Only small sums of paper had been issued, and those sums had been mostly called in by taxes, without having ever taken a real, inferior to their nominal value. Among persons thus circumstanced, CHAP. I. paper was received without suspicion, and its 1776. depreciation was not soon observed. To the eastward, and further to the southward, where the subject was better understood, the enthusiasm with which they engaged in the contest, and the hope that it would not be of long duration, furnished motives for giving a value to paper, which overbalanced the apprehensions their past experience might otherwise have excited. There were other causes which, in some degree, aided the first admission of paper bills into common circulation. The nature of the colonial commerce had not been favourable to the introduction of large quantities of specie. There were in America but few large cities. The people were spread over an extensive country, covered with woods, which they cleared with immense labour, and the soil of which they cultivated for subsistence. Having but little of that circuitous commerce, of which the precious metals will, necessarily, in part, constitute a medium; their produce was remitted directly to the country from whence their goods were received, and the surplus almost immediately assumed the form of labour, for the cultivation and improvement of their lands. This was more especially the situation of the middle and southern colonies, whose commerce was chiefly in the hands of British merchants, who received the crops of the plan |