The Revolutionary History of Virginia
Edmund Randolph
[1809 / Part 3 of 5]
It may however at first sight be supposed, that when this answer
speaks of a free trade with all the world, it coincides with Doctor
Robertson's suspicion and prediction; but it is obvious from the
context that it is hinted at only as a condition for the concessions
required from the colonies.
It was a dexterous management of the affections of the British
subjects on both sides of the Atlantic, to refer to the bill of Lord
Chatham, as susceptible with a modification of being made the ground
of reconciliation. His name was engraven on the hearts of them all,
and in America he was greeted, as the chief of her friends. How he
would have extricated himself in fair argument from the
embarrassments of his distinction between an external regulation of
trade, and internal taxation, his eloquence alone could say, and it
is problematical, whether if the American controversy had been
accommodated upon that principle, his popularity or his consistency
would not have been wrecked in the vindication of it in practice.
While he dominated his bill, a bill of concession to America, he
claimed for it the name of a bill asserting the rights of the mother
country.
No. 43. But from an inquiry, instituted into the plunder of the
gunpowder, symptoms of exasperation were appearing, not absolutely
exempt from a pretext, that Dunmore and his family were in danger at
least of insult. He therefore retreated with them on board of a
frigate of war, lying at York town about twelve miles below
Williamsburg. He was frivolous enough to submit to the choice of the
assembly, either to forward to him on board, the business in which
he would have participated on shore, or to adjourn to York Town,
which on another occasion the commander of the frigate had
threatened, (with perfect power to execute the threat) to batter
down, if a body of marines, which he had landed as guards to the
governor in his palace, should be interrupted in their march
thither.
The result of this inquiry was a voluminous farrago of bitterness
against the governor. I shall not comment on it farther, because it
was much the child of licentiousness, as being without a rein upon
it from cross examination. But with it the assembly and all the
acts, which had been matured, up to the governor's exodus, died: and
with this abortive assembly, the regal government breathed its last,
except for the disturbance of the peace of Virginia. Dunmore not
only gathered troops from ships of war, and enlisted a few
malcontent white persons, but proclaimed emancipation to the slaves.
No. 44. In July 1775 the convention passed an ordinance
appointing a committee of safety for the more effectual carrying
into execution the several rules and regulations, established by
that body for the protection of the colony. They were a temporary
executive for one year, or until the then next convention. Thus did
the colony glide from monarchy into self-government, without a
convulsion or a single clogg to its wheels from its novelty or from
disaffection. Thus too were falsified all the predictions of Dean
Tucker the most inveterate of America's enemies, that to withdraw
from the western hemisphere the superintending sun of Great Britain
would involve it in darkness and misery.
No. 45. The intelligence of the bloodshed at Lexington and Bunkers
hill in the neighborhood of Boston, had in Virginia changed the
figure of Great Britain from an unrelenting parent into that of a
merciless enemy, whose malice was the more severe, as her affection
had been the more earnestly courted. George Washington had been
unanimously elected by congress as captain general and commander in
chief of the American Army. The convention had organized a large
corps of militia styled minute men, who were to be trained at
convenient seasons, and ready for service at all times. Two
regiments of regular infantry had been also raised, the command of
which was given to Patrick Henry, then a member of congress sitting
in Philadelphia. Officers with military experience were rare:
Virginia was compelled to rely principally on those elements of
character which were indispensable in a soldier. Henry was seconded
by men who had been active in the French and Indian war of 1755, and
their imperfect lessons promised to render him with his ambition and
attention an able defender of liberty in the field, as he had been
in the forum.
No. 46. The navy of Dunmore was supposed to consist of three
vessels of war of twenty, sixteen and fourteen guns; and his army of
two companies of a British regiment and about one hundred negroes.
He fed his vanity with menaces of destruction to every town and
building on the eastern waters, and fancied that he was evincing a
species of Roman heroism, when he warned the inhabitants of Hampton,
a little village near the mouth of James River, that he would burn
it in reprisal for two schooners, which the Virginians had captured.
No. 47. These inhabitants communicated their defenceless state to
the committee of safety, who are represented by Burke, a late
historian, to have canvassed the question, whether the lower country
should not be abandoned as untenable. From what disclosure this fact
is handed to us cannot be conjectured; as that body sat with closed
doors and under injunctions of secrecy, and it was not rumoured
abroad, until it appeared under the authority of his name. I do not
with the assurance of knowledge peremptorily contradict it. It
perhaps might have been very honestly discussed in the scantiness of
military skill, and while raw militia alone were to sustain the
charge of disciplined troops, and so long a line of coasts was
accessible to the cannon of vessels of war. But crude counsels never
confirmed by a majority of the acting rulers, quickly renounced, and
blotted out by contrary conduct detract from neither the patriotism
nor firmness of the committee. The names of the members attending at
this conjuncture are at present unknown: but of the eleven, who
constituted it, seven possessed large estates within the district
intended to be derelict, and it may be concluded, that if so baneful
and disgraceful an idea escaped the mind in which it was generated,
it must have been the hasty excrescence of a brain disturbed from
the perplexity of the moment, but recovering itself after more
mature reflection. Howsoever this may be, it is certain, that under
the orders of that very committee in seven hours after the request
of aid had arrived in Williamsburg, a company of regulars, of which
George Nicholas, the eldest son of Robert Carter Nicholas, and a
company of minutemen of whom George Lyne was the captain, and one
hundred riflemen commanded by Colo. William Woodford, were seen in
Hampton after a march of thirty six miles. The enemy's little fleet
enfiladed the town; but from the position, taken by the riflemen, no
man could stand at the helm, or shew himself in the management of
the sails, without being immediately devoted to slaughter. From the
shyness and inactivity, which fear had caused in the sailors a part
of the fleet was driven on shore, and the rest fled to Norfolk. Thus
was the enemy repulsed with loss and ignomy to them, and with glory
to the Virginians:---a glory probably not of excessive splendor in
military records, but of immense utility in this stage of the
revolution, which was fettered with a general sentiment, that the
British navy was in its humblest shape invincible, and militia but
sport for British regulars.
No. 48. Dunmore on his part made an excursion into Princess Anne
county, to destroy some cannon. The same spirit, which produced the
defeat at Hampton, stimulated Colo. John Hutchings, the commander of
Norfolk county to raise his militia, and to endeavor by an ambush to
intercept the motley corps of the governor. Dunmore fell into the
snare, but was extricated by a panic, which could not be accounted
for, and put the militia to flight after the first discharge of
their musquetry, leaving their colonel a prisoner.
No. 49. The crest of Dunmore was now as high as that of the
Virginians, after the affair at Hampton. Hearing that a large body
of them were in motion to attack him, he advanced some miles to the
Great Bridge to receive them. Woodford was detached to dislodge him;
but was impeded by accidents, which he could not control, and by
information, that Dunmore was hastening to Suffolk, a town on
Nansemond River about twenty miles from Norfolk, to receive
submissions and scatter his proclamations commanding the people to
repair to the royal standard. He therefore sent lieutenant Colonel
Charles Scott and Major Thomas Marshall, with 215 light troops, of
whom one hundred and three were expert riflemen, to intercept him.
At the same time he requested a reinforcement of at least 100 men,
with further supplies, necessary for the equipment of the
volunteers, who were joining him daily. Without delay his wishes
were complied with, and Colo. Thomas Bullitt, celebrated in the
Indian war was dispatched to aid Woodford with his experience. Scott
and Marshall did not overtake Dunmore in his predatory retreat: but
surprized a body of tories on their way to the great Bridge and
disarmed many, who had renewed their allegiance to the king.
To describe the position of small forts and redoubts and to
narrate all the humility of the warfare of that day, satisfies none
of the desiderata of history. The bulk of such an inert map cannot
be enlivened by one particle of interest to those, who read now the
tales of those ancient times. But let it not be forgotten, that at
the great Bridge, the Virginians faced like veterans the blaze of
danger, and drove the enemy into a post of security; the companies
of Nicholas and Walter Taliaferro were on the point of storming the
fort, when the enemy deserted in confusion. Bullitt was solicitous
for an assault of the strongest entrenchment, and strongest ground,
occupied by the enemy. He was transported into the most decided
confidence in the heroism of his inflamed countrymen. But the
prudence of Woodford held fast the fame which had been recently
acquired, knowing the importance of it as an incentive to future
exertion and a passport to future victory. With inferior numbers did
the detachment under Woodford kill or wound every officer and
private of Dunmore's forces, and the injury to his own corps was
confined to a single private wounded. I record however, with great
pleasure, the humanity of the Virginians: They had been branded with
opprobrious name of rebels, had been outraged as unworthy of the
rights of war, and had fought under a conviction that the gibbett
was already prepared for them in Dunmore's mind, should they be
conquered. And yet did they not hesitate between a manly oblivion of
resentment and the indulgence of ferocious passion. Their tenderness
to the unfortunate was acknowledged by the British themselves.
No. 50. The news of this disaster was a death blow to the most
aspiring hopes of Dunmore, whose compunctions were the more
tormenting as he had impressed or inveigled into his army a body of
highland Scotch, who under his auspices, had emigrated to America,
to establish themselves as tillers of the earth, many of whose
families were now bereft of bread, in a foreign land not friendly to
them, except from motives of compassion. Dunmore had considered it
as a stroke of profound and lucky policy to recruit the able bodied
men among this tribe of wretches; indifferent about the probable
consequence of their catching the feelings of citizens, whose aim
was to plant their wives and children in a soil more promising, than
that of their native land. Pure vengeance was the aliment of his
soul, and blunted his understanding. He himself took refuge on board
of his own ship, and the remains of his army in Norfolk: the
highlanders were neglected by him as outcasts doomed to perish by
nakedness or famine. Coals of fire must have been heaped on his
head, when he heard, that those, whom he classed with traitors,
administered to their necessities, and equipped them for a journey
to and settlement in North Carolina, for which province they were
destined, when they embarked from Scotland. Indeed in no state of
exasperation, was the conduct of any public body marked with a
severity or obduracy, disproportioned to the just suggestions of
self preservation. The convention had by a special resolution
protected the resident British merchants, factors and agents, who
did not manifest enmity to the common cause, in the enjoyment of
their civil rights and liberty, and discountenancing all national
reflections; and when this extreme courtesy and tolerance had been
grievously abused, they repealed it, but not without a licence to
those, who had taken up arms against the country, or been inimical
to leave it. It was reserved for the honor of an American nation to
observe Christian like forbearance during the rage of civil war.
No. 51. Upon the junction of Colo. Robert Howe, and his regiment
from North Carolina, he and Woodford advanced with their whole force
to Norfolk. As soon as they appeared, Dunmore to efface the defeat
at Great Bridge, and to intimidate the opposition to the supplies of
wood and water which had been refused to him, drew up his squadron
before the town; but this measure was so far from producing the
desired effect, that it taught the Virginians, that even the British
navy could not be secure in all situations. The riflemen were so
stationed, as to reach with their bullets the man, who ventured to
appear in their ships. The naval commander thereupon, commenced a
bombardment of the town, and landed parties, which set fire to
several houses near the river. The Virginian army rushed through the
smoke and fires and drove the British to their boats. Thus the
essence of Dunmore's prowess and talents served only to familiarize
our raw troops to danger, and to inspire them with contempt for the
terror of the British power. War was not longer unnerved by vain
expectations of peace. Such too was the temper of the convention,
which met in Richmond on the first day of December 1775, breathing
the spirit of a nation invaded and no longer halting between the
torpor of reconciliation and the exigencies of the crisis.
No. 52. Dunmore determined to try the last resort of his nominal
office of governor. He proclaimed martial law, beckened to his
standard, under the penalty of treason, every man capable of bearing
arms, and emancipated all slaves of a similar description. So little
were the convention alarmed, by this scheme of domestic murder, that
they contented themselves with a determination to repel force by
force, and promised pardon to such slaves as should return to their
duty in ten days. That kindness of providence which is displayed in
antidotes for the poison of almost every climate, is most peculiarly
exhibited in giving to the general mind of a nation roused by
oppression, an elasticity, by which it may rise from its depression
above almost every terror.
No. 53. Virginia committed but few errors in the selection of
men, to whom she committed her interests. But she was not equally
fortunate in the repudiation of a father and his three sons, of the
name of Goodrich. They were so original and happy in their genius of
shipbuilding that from the construction of vessels adapted to all
the waters of this colony, many cargoes escaped capture, and
relieved the most urgent wants of the navy, and of the people. But
upon a doubt, whether upon some occasion they had acted correctly,
they were suspected of being unfaithful to the country and forced
into the condition of enemies. Their hostility was not to be
appeased. Their faculties were so applied, as to enable them to
intercept every vessel, which they could discern in the shallowest
water and most intricate navigation. It was said, that the whole
British navy had scarcely made prizes of Virginia ownership to a
equal amount with theirs. Fertile as revolutions generally are in
character equal to every growing necessity, Virginia never repaired
the loss, which she sustained in these men. They had explored every
vulnerable point, and weakness in Virginia; and their hatred kept
pace with their knowledge. Whether they were guilty or not, of the
first imputations, was decided by the voice of the public, according
to the temperament of him who judged. But a cloud may suddenly
envelop well disposed and capable men, which they may not easily
pierce, or which if lessened is never wholly dissipated. They may be
forgiven, and the attainder of their reputation may be proclaimed to
be unjust, but the suspicion infects every struggle towards full and
delicate confidence. The cause of these men I pretend not perfectly
to understand, or to advocate. But it is a superfluous function of
history to warn a republic to avoid temerity in condemning without
the highest proof, her servants, who until the hour of darkness
shone with lustre in her service.
The convention closed their labours for supporting the war without
expressing in any act a leaning to independence; and yet they had
ascended an eminence from which independence was visible in all the
surrounding horizon. An army had been levied; the regal government
was laid aside; Virginia had exercised the rights of a nation, with
reference only to the power, granted by the conventions. Still, if
the most influential members of these bodies had in terms moved for
independence, the exceptions would have been few to an universal
clamor against it.
No. 56. However, Thomas Paine, an Englishman by birth, and
possessing an imagination, which happily combined political topics,
poured forth a style hitherto unknown on this side of the Atlantic,
for the case, with which it insinuated itself into the hearts of the
people, who were unlearned, or of the learned, who were not callous
to the feelings of man. From his pen issued the pamphlet of "Common
Sense," pregnant with the most captivating figures of
speech:---with the abuse of the British government not before seen
in America in so gross and palpable forms:---with proud republican
theories, which flattered human nature:---with contempts of British
power, which had appalled the most sanguine calculations---and with
compliments on the docility of patriots in all the arts of war by
land and sea. It was published under the reputed sanction of Doctor
Benjamin Franklin, and was a text book, from which many of the most
respectable officers in our army warmed the coldest among their
civil friends. Under all these advantages, the public sentiment
which a few weeks before had shuddered at the tremendous obstacles,
with which independence was environed, overleaped every barrier. The
election of delegates for convention, the stated meeting of which
was to be in May 1776, now depended in very many, if not in a
majority of the counties, upon their candidates pledging themselves
or being understood to be resolved, to sever, as far as their voices
could extend, the colonies from Great Britain. But in truth, this
pamphlet put the torch to combustibles which had been deposited by
the different gusts of fury, excited by successive acts of the
ministry and those who were their agents. The effect on this body of
inflamable materials was so rapid and instantaneous, that all
previous indications were either concealed from, or discredited by,
the most acute statesman. Franklin, it is true, was adored for
political wisdom, and Paine entranced our understandings; but
independence would have rested in the womb of time, had not its
birth been as it were, studiously quickened by the excesses of the
ministry, demonstrating that a peaceful reunion with embittered
enemies who treated Americans as vassals of the mother country, was
impossible. In fact therefore independence was imposed upon us by
the misdeeds of the British government.
1776. In the convention of May, the members who filled the most
space in the public eye, were Edmund Pendleton, who presided,
Patrick Henry, who had from disgust, resigned his command of the
first Virginia regiment, in time to be elected, George Mason, James
Mercer, Robert Carter Nicholas, James Madison of Orange, Richard
Bland, Thomas Ludwell Lee, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Nelson, George
Wythe and John Blair. These were associated with numbers whose
fortunes and unobtrusive good sense supported the ardor of the more
active in the theatre of business. Madison, even then, attracted
great notice. Until the meeting of the convention he was unknown at
the metropolis. He was educated at Princeton College in New Jersey,
and had been laborious in his studies, which ranged beyond strict
academick limits, but were of that elementary cast, subservient in
their general principle to any science, which he might choose to
cultivate in detail. As a classical scholar, he was mature; as a
student of belles lettres, his fancy animated his judgment; and his
judgment without damping his fancy, excluded by the soundness of
criticism, every propensity to tinsel and glitter. It still glowed,
but it glowed without glare. His diffidence went hand in hand with
his morals, which repelled vice, howsoever fashionable. In
convention debate his lips were never unsealed, except to some
member, who happened to sit near him; and he who had once partaken
of the rich banquet of his remarks, did not fail to wish daily to
sit within the reach of his conversation. It could not be otherwise;
for although his age and the deference, which in private circles had
been paid to him, were apt to tincture him with pedantry, he
delivered himself without affectation upon Grecian, Roman and
English history, from a well digested fund, a sure presage of
eminence. A very sensible foreigner observed of him, that he never
uttered anything, which was not appropriate, and not connected with
some general principle of importance. Even when he commented upon
the dignity, with which Pendleton filled the chair, it was in that
philosophic spirit, which looks for personal dignity in officers of
a republic as well as of a monarchy. While he thrilled with the
ecstasies of Henry's eloquence, and extolled his skill in commanding
the audience, he detected what might be faulty in his reasoning.
Madison was enviable in being among the few young men, who were not
inflated by early flattery, and could content themselves with
throwing out in social discourse jewels, which the artifice of a
barren mind, would have treasured up for gaudy occasions.
At this date commences the difficult alternative of either
discarding from this history, all connection with that of the United
States, or of torturing the latter into an alliance with the former.
The best course seems to be, to give each state its separate rights
of reputation, where separate rights have been acquired by
particular exertions, or even by the decisive merits of its
particular citizens. But as an extensive national operation combines
a number of minutiae, which contribute almost imperceptibly to its
final success, and even undistinguishably every measure and every
battle, which obviously lends to the consummation of the great
object may be appropriated by any state to its own history, as
members of the same grand union, care being taken to prevent the
abuse of repeating the whole revolutionary history of the United
States as if it were naturally capable of combining with that of the
particular state without any diminution. But this connection between
the United States and Virginia, shall be postponed until after the
end of the year 1781.
Continental Events etc. But more properly the Revolutionary
history of the United States, as interwoven with that of Virginia.
This portion of the revolutionary history of the United States is
engrossed by civil events and military transactions. The former
rather indicates the temper of the belligerent parties: the latter
their relative power or the approach of each to its proposed
object:---of the king of England to conquest or subjugation:---of
the United States to the Recognition of their Independence.
Prior, however to the first eminent consolidated act of power,
under the United Colonies, the appointment of George Washington to
the command of the American Army, a few circumstances seem more
peculiarly to belong to individual states.
Copiously to extract these instances, as well as others which
follow until the end of the war, from the only authentic history of
that period, the life of George Washington by Chief Justice
Marshall, might with difficulty escape the charge of plagiarizm, or
of piracy, as it is sometimes expressed. I risque too the less, in
merely giving, what I wish to call the philosophy of that period, as
I profess nothing didactic in the military art.
1. The posts of Ticonderoga and Crownpoint were captured by an
American force, principally from Connecticut under their own
authority, and principally on their own credit and expence.
The military stores, which fell into our hands there were a
seasonable supply for the prosecution of more enlarged views; and in
addition to these succours, the seisure of a sloop of war at St.
John's conferred on us the command of the lakes. These achievements
teemed with the most solemn presages to the enemy.
2. The king has banished all hope of reconciliation by announcing
to parliament a daring spirit of resistance in Massachusetts, and
his determination to maintain the supreme authority of the British
legislature over all his dominions. Both houses adopted the royal
infatuation and pride. These the eloquence and influence of even
Chatham, covered with the mantle of superstition, which his rapid
descent to the grave seemed already to spread over his virtues,
which his very feelings could not subdue or abate.
3. The battle of Concord and that of Lexington which formed the
first entrance as it were into arms, was most propitious to the
American cause.
4. On the eve of a revolution, trifles often weigh much in the
estimate of human actions.
The reprisals in Virginia for the gunpowder removed by the
British governor, became an universal pledge that to resist a
governor in such circumstances should not be dreaded as treason.
5. An American cannot believe that it was material, to our
success, whether the first onset of British hostility, came on the
east or any other geographical division of America. Still he cannot
refuse his assent to the probability that these were portions of the
colonies, in which the position and army of the British general Gage
might for a time, have produced a more unfavorable impression than
at Boston. In the preparation for resistance at Bunker's or Breed's
hill, farmers and labourers, accustomed to no other use of
gunpowder, than for amusement or explosions to remove obstacles,
were on a sudden to confront the highest order of discipline and
terror in the enemy. They not only planted themselves in support of
the breast-work, thrown up in haste and in the most unscientific
manner, during the preceding night; but numbers also were mowed down
by the cross fire of two ships of war, as the Americans were passing
the isthmus to the rampart. There the unusual resort to cannon was
soon so familiar to them, that with their skill and bravery in
managing it, they staggered the British veterans in their approach,
caused the general to halt and hold a council, and afterwards to
arrest his movements, until reinforcements should arrive from
Boston. The chief leader of these provincials was not recommended to
them by a confidence in his military experience, or reflection on
war. His profession and habits lay in the medical art. They asked
themselves only, whether he was patriotic and brave. Besides this
good fortune, they had from the long contemplation of dangers
inevitable from the British Army, made up their minds to face
extremities, when the other colonies perhaps had just begun to think
seriously and awfully upon the prospect. Be the cause what it may;
to the lustre of the day at Bunker's hill, we may trace much of our
future splendor and success. It gave character, and banished one of
the parents of fear in war, an idea of self humiliation in
comparison with an army.
1775.
6. The contagion of heroic example would of itself have aroused
Virginia to repel the British squadron in its invasion of Hampton,
and animated her to the distinguished defeat of Dunmore at the Great
Bridge.
7. Among the deferences paid to Virginia in the early congresses,
it was natural, that her pretensions to give a commander in chief of
the army, should be consulted. But independently of this motive, one
of her sons enjoyed as high a character for military experience and
acquirement as any inhabitant of another colony. This was George
Washington, whose fame was as fair for so hazardous an experiment,
as could be found in America. He was a native, with habits hardy,
bold and active. His fortune was suitable to any station, and
superior to every influence. He had been a disciple in the British
school of Indian warfare, and a witness of the fatality of rashness
in a general. In a word the title to public confidence was complete
in him alone. Colo. Charles Lee and Major Horatio Gates, were
Britons and British soldiers.
Upon the notification to him of his appointment he in his reply
of acceptance, manifested, that he was secure from arrogance and
presumption, and was neither hasty in overlooking difficulties, nor
would be too flexible in yielding to them. Discernment and
patriotism may be said to have concurred in the appointment as the
best in the power of congress.
8. The work was, however, begun only. Large bodies of troops
arrived from England; the governor of Massachusetts proclaimed
marshal law, and excepted from an act of indemnity and pardon, two
of the most distinguished citizens, Samuel Adams and John Hancock.
This lesson, that safety was to be sought only in arms, dictated the
immediate necessity of emitting paper money, collecting military
stores, and raising an army according to our best energies.
9. The constitution of the army existing under the states was so
far sound, that from its patriotism and bodily ability, a hope was
inspired of its capacity to be well organized. But it was impossible
from the manner and circumstances of assembling it, that it should
be other than a crude mass, compounded of corps, distracted by
various and independent authorities. The appointment of some of the
most indispensable officers was omitted: even a quarter master
general, a commissary general, engineers and many officers of the
staff were unknown. The terms of enlistment being unequal in
duration, forbade a coincidence of operation for any length of time.
The roads were crowded with some returning home after short tours of
duty, and others going to camp for a moment as it were, under the
charm of novelty of military display. The equality in the
intercourse of fellow citizens, necessary in the cultivation of a
revolution, unnerved the army which was to support it. The
unshrinking temper, maintained by the friends of the war in this
condition of things, proclaimed, that the cause was deeply seated in
the heart. It countenanced in some respects indeed the prediction of
our friends in England, that attempts to conquer us, were desperate;
but rendered the ministry callous.
10. To defend lines as extensive, as those, with which Boston was
necessarily invested, when numbers, materials, and ammunition were
so defective; to substitute enthusiasm and native courage for
military habits, and experience, and to efface by a preference of
military life a predilection for the comforts left at home:---to
meet under all these disadvantages, a large, well disciplined well
provided enemy, enjoying every facility of transportation by water,
could not escape the penetration, though they did not alarm the
breast of any officer. But it was unaccountable, that experienced
British generals, of whose character, activity was the expence,
should adopt a species of defensive warfare. For a considerable
time, understanding, as it was believed, our situation as well from
the disaffected as from facts of notoriety, our wide-stretched lines
were permitted to remain as if they had been works indeed, when the
only semblance of their impregnability arose perhaps from the
suspicion excited at Bunker's hill, that to flee before British
cannon was no American attribute. Of a great importance was this
early promise of prowess.
11. It seemed to be the fate of England to mistake her policy and
means of annoyance. The destruction of the town of Falmouth in
Massachusetts denoted a cruelty, regardless of the usages of
civilized war. It unintentionally, but decisively added fuel to the
American flame. Letters of marque and reprisal were now granted, and
under them vessels of great value, were captured, having on board
articles of the first necessity. Supplies of provisions to Bermudas
and the West Indies were intercepted, and the insidious popularity
of several of the British governors now ceased to deceive: their
persons were no longer held sacred, and the consequences of
arresting them had fallen into contempt.
12. In the face of an enemy, who upon ordinary calculation was
able to destroy with ease, was our army to be reenlisted, after the
contrast of a camp had given to domestic life a zest and regret.
This was undertaken with momentary expedients---with temporary
enlistments---in the spirit of the times---not in the wisdom of
congress---with men, wanting both fuel and clothing in the latitude
of Boston;---with the militia and soldiery around that town visited
by the smallpox.
13. But it was a noble trait in congress, to be ignorant of
depression from adversity; and even amidst real weakness, to adopt
measures of retaliation for infractions of the law of nations. It
was a noble concealment which patriotism stretched over some of our
most vulnerable parts. It was an illustrious effect that in March
1776 the enemy should be compelled to evacuate Boston. This step
uttered the most explicit language, inviting America to confide and
persevere. Our very disasters in Canada exhorted with the same
strength. To be partially defeated and even to retreat is not to be
subjugated. Light enough broke through this gloom in Canada, to
penetrate all but British blindness, and inspire America with fresh
vigor and alacrity. Various cheering rays were floating elsewhere.
The British naval armament had been repulsed at Fort Maultrie in
South Carolina, and a body of highland emigrants, who had risen on
the side of England, was dispersed.
14. As congress were not to be heart stricken by misfortune,
neither were they to be puffed into bravado. When they declared that
foreign aid was attainable the assertion was ridiculed on the
British side, and the British nation was duped by the arts or
ignorance of their own diplomatists.
4th July 1776.
The declaration of Independence, though calculated to bring the
temper of foreign nations to the test, for some time amounted only
to an additional evidence that America was resolved to evince the
sincerity of her purpose by a dependence on herself---alone, if
necessary.
December 13, 1776.
15. A stormy season succeeded. We evacuated Long Island and New
York. Fort Washington had been carried; the weakness of the American
army, and the impracticability of a general stimulus to the militia
compelled our general to retreat through Jersey until he was covered
by the river Delaware, and possessed an open passage to the interior
of the country. When he had thus far eluded the pursuit of his
overwhelming antagonist, we were relieved by a confused hope, that
all was not lost; although it was indistinctly murmured by the most
sanguine, what were the means reserved by providence for our
deliverance. General Charles Lee too had incautiously exposed
himself to a surprize, and with malignant injustice was charged with
being perfidious. But it was a war of the people's choice, to which
they were pledged by the highest sanctions.
Jan. 3rd.
16. The success thereof at Trenton and Princeton were not
insulated events, but formed an epoch, from which the reputation and
safety of America may take a new date. The intelligence shot through
America with electrical rapidity, and scattered wonder in its train,
how those brilliant acts could have been achieved. To hear that
Washington had emerged from behind the Delaware, when it was
supposed that he could seize, and clutch a portion of safety, as the
best fortune, which could then attend him; and had assumed the very
ground, on which he had declined open battle, seemed at first one of
those fictions, which those, who pant for news can forge so easily,
and circulate with so shameful a disregard to truth.
17. The defeat of Arnold on the lakes, produced no extraordinary
sensation at any great distance from the scene of action, although
had he not miscarried no ministry could have withstood the
impression, which he would have made in England. It was a refuge
from our disappointment to see, not to feel.
18. In the calamitous and prosperous events of our revolution, it
will be perceived, that many were so neutral in their operation, as
in America to excite no other sensation than that of surprize, or in
England to inflame opposition to the ministry. These are not within
our plan of incorporation with this history of Virginia. Hence we
pass over the reduction of the town of Newport in Rhode Island by
General Clinton and Admiral Parker, and other transactions of a
similar minor kind, when considered in relation to the war at large.
19. To our enemy however, admonition upon admonition was of
little avail. Otherwise a striking catalogue, with no very great
intervals if it did not disturb the repose, certainly deserved the
attention of the ministry. The final view of independence was never
to be relinquished. The bloody alliance of Great Britain with the
Indians of the Six Nations was severed by the management of General
Schuyler. Colo. Connelly had been intercepted in his traverse
through the Western Frontiers; and his machinations of Indian
hostility frustrated---The system of retaliation marked out by
congress, was not in the parade of threat, but in a spirit, which
while it might be appeased by equality and justice, was not to be
intimidated. The British power on sea, in the midst of terror, had
been shewn to be resistable on many occasions, and liable to be
eluded on many more---Prizes had been taken in the year 1776 equal
in amount to a million of dollars, and of the most precious
qualities for war, and our particular necessities under it.
20. In other parts of our revolutionary picture the darkness was
considerable, and nothing short of most fervid patriotism could
enlighten it.
21. Paper money had been emitted by congress without funds of
their own, without taxation, or even a pointed nominal pledge of
redemption. In the Anglo-American family, such an anomaly had been
hitherto a stranger. But legitimated by necessity, it was received
into use with some cordiality. The disaffected to our cause
inveighed against the spuriousness of its value, and caution and
avarice denied to it hospitality. But the child waxed strong, and
was protected in its existence, until its original constitution was
lost, and to be connected with it, was to hazard fortune.
Is there any principle of religion or morality which forbade a
weak infant nation, driven into war for the avoidance of slavery, to
arm itself by the best means in its power?
It was scarcely possible indeed, that depreciation should not be
foreseen. The degree of it and its havoc, probably were not. Yet to
stop would have been political suicide. Thus what in established
governments might have been fraud, in ours, which without final
success, must have been annihilated, was explained, nay justified by
its situation. A redemption dollar for dollar, if practicable, would
have overpaid almost every holder of paper currency. It might have
been heroically romantic. It would have gone beyond the most sublime
precedents of any revolution. The patchwork of congress did not
arraign their wisdom, so much as it proved the difficulty of
devising a remedy.
The sternness of American virtue was exemplified in the fewness
of the instances of defection among the people from the revolution.
Where the enemy appeared, they committed devastation. They were too
often cruel, and in the consternation of fire and sword obtained
professions of returning allegiance from small numbers of those,
whose families and property were unprotected from military
vengeance; but the furrow of the kell on the ocean was scarcely less
permanent.
22. Every day discovered some defect in the militia at such a
time and in such a service, considered as a resource of perfect
safety against invasion. It was rather a depository of pure purpose,
and partaker of the same feelings with the people at large.
23. Even the regular forces were in a manner for a time, in
serious danger in the hospitals, whither they had gone, to
extinguish by one effort, the prevailing alarms from the smallpox.
Hence the state of the army was low and perilous.
24. The recruiting service too proceeded heavily; almost every
state acting with a solicitude to retain its force, within its own
limits.
25. The dispersion of our army at Brandywine, must, in the mind
of the enemy, have been productive of such pernicious consequences,
had it been pursued with rigour, as to oblige America to summon up
against despair all her recollections of the recovery of her affairs
by the successes of Trenton and Princeton.
26. The eclat of possessing Philadelphia, the banishment of
congress to Lancaster, our failure in the battle of German Town, the
evacuation of Ticonderoga, and the loss of our stores, were hurrying
the public mind into a painful abyss, when it was revived by the
surrender of Burgoyne and his army. This opened the second seal in
the volume of independence, so as to be legible by Great Britain. In
truth it gave to America a strong foot-hold for her grand work. It
supported with joyful anticipation, our army, amidst the huts of
Valley Forge, the combinations for supplanting Washington, the
privation and nakedness of American soldiery.
27. No doubt, Great Britain fancied, that our appetite for
independence was reduced below arrogance, when she offered through
her second commissioners the reconciliation, which could be received
for consideration at best, only pro forma, and for final acceptance
had passed over the time many years---It was the fatality of all
British overtures, to ensure their rejection by this tardiness.
28. But if we could have wanted encouragement and refreshment,
they came most seasonably in our treaty of alliance with France; in
the evacuation of Philadelphia by the British army; in the
expedition of Clarke against Detroit, and in the great stroke,
meditated by Washington at Monmouth, which if executed as planned by
him, would, to use a phrase of his own, "have crippled the
enemy."
29. Here let us be permitted to remark, that in estimating the
vicissitudes of the war, our disasters, though they may be sometimes
detailed in frightful numbers, were, with a few exceptions, not
formidable in magnitude; never treated by congress or by Washington
beyond the reach of repair; while many of our successes spoke
directly, as fiats to American Independence.
30. In the former class we rank the division of party in
Congress; the reduction of Georgia, the insurrection of the tories
in South Carolina, the invasion of Virginia by Matthews, the British
general; and the discontents of the army.
31. In the latter the reduction of Stony Point rises above the
surface of ordinary events.
32. Powles Hook witnessed a grandeur of military enterprize and
merit.
33. The capture of St. Vincents and Granada, and the victory over
the six nations, detracted something from British hostility.
34. The war with Spain brought accessions, which the British
government well understood and felt. Tarlton was defeated by Colo.
Washington.
35. Then indeed we are stunned by the surrender of Fort Moultrie,
the capitulation of Lincoln, the settlement of the British
government by Clinton, in South Carolina and Georgia; the defeat of
Gates at Camden; the slothful proceedings of the states in the
discharge of their federal duties, and the height to which parties
were carried in congress.
36. The armed neutrality and the consequent war with Holland being
nearer to the British home, were nearer to the British bosom. The
American war and the American agency, were such strong ingredients
in it, that it was obviously an engine in our labours for
independence.
37. What remains of the capital events and circumstances of the
war, except the battles of the Cowpens, Guilford and Eutaw are
comprized in the body of history from the defeat of Ferguson. See
Marshall's life of Washington, 4th Vol., p. 342.
It may possible be thought, that this continental history has
been compressed or strained into membership with a general history
of Virginia. But surely, the latter must have appeared mutilated, if
those acts and counsels, in which she virtually always, and most
effectually often bore a part, had been pretermitted.
38. Were political speculations to combine the various events of
the war, which contributed to the confirmation of our independence,
they would probably terminate in some or other of these ideas.
1. Disguise the source as we may, Virginia in common with other
colonies, received from the parent country an original stamina,
perhaps I might add something phlegmatic in her temper, which
inclined her to regulated liberty, by saving her from those
ebullitions which teem with violence and insubordination.
2. From an elevation of character, she was incapable of being
seduced by the artifices of the British government.
3. Her associations in the more recent opposition to Great
Britain were cool and deliberate suggestions of the people
themselves, not impulses of ambition or of faction.
4. Her portion of merit, as a state, in accomplishing the
revolution, may be estimated from her character, her wealth, her
readiness to coalesce with other states upon principles of
fraternity in danger and object.
5. In her concessions of interest in territory, and of political
power in the confederation, her archives will shew, that she always
deserved the confidence and never the obloquy or suspicion of her
sister states.
We may justly question whether our American general ever was
deceived by indulging himself too warmly in the flattery of some
military prospect or by too great confidence in the appearance of a
devotion to the American cause, unsound at the bottom. After the
defeat of Gates at Camden, Cornwallis viewed the two Carolinas, not
as to be subdued, but as to be protected and preserved, as actual
British territory. For this purpose he sent Major Ferguson into the
Western part of North Carolina near the mountains. He was to be
supported in his communication with Cornwallis, by Tarleton's
legion; but his messengers, announcing the approach of danger from
several corps of America militia, were intercepted, and he was
compelled to choose his ground for defence, and wait an attack on
Kings Mountain. There Ferguson was slain, and with him expired the
courage of his corps. The second in command immediately demanded
quarter. Of British troops eight hundred and ten surrendered
themselves and fifteen hundred stand of arms were also taken.
Hence Cornwallis was disabled from an expedition into North
Carolina, and was obliged to wait for reinforcements from New York.
General Clinton, dispatched General Lesslie not so much with
succours as with augmented means to press Virginia. Portsmouth on
Elizabeth River was fortified but Cornwallis ordered him to repair
to Charleston: There for military objects, fresh troops were
constantly thrown in, until Cornwallis marched himself to Petersburg
and took the command, compelled thereto by the various miscarriages
and disappointments which had befallen the British arms, though at
first seduced by a supposed brilliancy of prosperity.