America. At that very moment, Washington was planning his brilliant achievement on the banks of the Delaware.'

SILAS DEANE.

In contrast with this apathy of the British Government, was the vigilance and activity of the Continental Congress. Their perpetual session was one of perpetual labor. Early in the year [March, 1776], the Secret Committee of that body had appointed Silas Deane,' a delegate from Connecticut, to proceed to France, as their agent, with general powers to solicit the co-operation of other governments. Even these remote colonists knew that the claims of the king of England to the friendship of the continental powers, was fallacious, and that France, Spain, and Holland, the Prince of Orange, and even Catharine of Russia, and Pope Clement the Fourteenth (Ganganelli), all of whom feared and hated England, instead of being friendly to her, were anxious for a pretense to strike her fiercely, and humble her pride, because of her potency in arms, her commerce, her diplomacy, and her strong Protestantism. All of these spoke kindly to the American agent, and Deane was successful in his embassy. He talked confidently, and by skillful management, during the summer of 1776, he obtained fifteen thousand muskets from the French arsenals, and abundant promises of men and money. And when the Declaration of Independence had been made [July 4], Congress appointed a regular embassy' [Sept. 22, 1776], to the court of France, and finally sent agents to other foreign courts. They also planned, and finally executed measures for strengthening the bond of union between the several colonies, already made powerfully cohesive by cominon dangers and common hopes. Articles of Confederation, which formed the organic laws of the nation until the adoption of

this to the true Christian mind and heart. War, except strictly defensive as a last extremity, is always a monstrous injustice; and for its success in soddening God's fair earth with human blood, men in epaulettes, their hands literally dripping with gore, will go into the temple dedicated to the Prince of Peace, and there sing a Te Deum!

1

Page 261. 2 Silas Deane was born at Groton, in Connecticut, and was educated at Yale College. He was elected to the first Congress [page 228] in 1774, and after being some time abroad, as agent for the Secret Committee, he was recalled, on account of alleged bad conduct. He published a defense of his character in 1778, but he failed to reinstate himself in the public opinion. He went to England toward the close of 1784, where he died in extreme poverty, in 1789.

The embassy consisted of Dr. Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee. Franklin and Lee joined Deane at Paris, at the middle of December, 1776. Lee had then been in Europe for some time, as a sort of private agent of the Secret Committee. He made an arrangement with the French king to send a large amount of arms, ammunition, and specie, to the colonists, but in such a way that it would appear as a commercial transaction. The agent on the part of the French was Beaumarchais, who assumed the commercial title of Roderique Hortales & Co., and Lee took the name of Mary Johnson. This arrangement with the false and avaricious Beaumarchais, was a source of great annoyance and actual loss to Congress in after years. What was a gratuity on the part of the French government, in the name of Hortales & Co., Beaumarchais afterward presented a claim for, and actually received from Congress four hundred thousand dollars. Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, in 1706. He was a printer; worked at his trade in London; became eminent in his business in Philadelphia; obtained a high position as a philosopher and statesman; was agent in England for several colonies; was chief embassador for the United States in Europe during the Revolution, and filled various official stations in the scientific and political world. He was one of the most remarkable men that ever lived; and, next to Washington, is the best known and most revered of all Americans. He died in 1790, at the age of more than eighty-four years. Arthur Lee was a brother of Richard Henry Lee [page 250], and was born in Virginia, in 1740. He was a fine scholar, and elegant writer. He died in 1782. Holland, Spain, and Prussia.

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the Federal Constitution, were, after more than two years' consideration, approved by Congress, and produced vastly beneficial results during the remainder of the struggle.'

Such, in brief, were the chief operations of the civil power of the revolted colonies. Let us now turn to the military operations at the opening of a new

In July, 1775, Dr. Franklin submitted a plan of union to Congress. On the 11th of June, 1776, a committee was appointed to draw up a plan. Their report was laid aside, and not called up until April, 1777. From that time until the 15th of November following, the subject was debated two or three times a week, when thirteen Articles of Confederation were adopted. The substance was that the thirteen confederated States should be known as the United States of America; that all engage in a reciprocal treaty of alliance and friendship, for mutual advantage, each to assist the other when help should be needed; that each State should have the right to regulate its own internal affairs; that no State should separately send or receive embassies, begin any negotiations, contract engagements or alliances, or conclude treaties with any foreign power, without the consent of the general Congress; that no public officer should be allowed to accept any presents, emoluments, office, or title, from any foreign power, and that neither Congress nor State governments should possess the power to confer any title of nobility; that none of the States should have the right to form alliances among themselves, without the consent of Congress; that they should not have the power to levy duties contrary to the enactments of Congress; that no State should keep up a standing army or ships of war, in time of peace, beyond the amount stipulated by Congress; that when any of the States should raise troops for the common defense, all the officers of the rank of colonel and under, should be appointed by the legislature of the State, and the superior officers by Congress; that all expenses of the war should be paid out of the public treasury; that Congress alone should have the power to coin money; and that Canada might at any time be admitted into the confederacy when she felt disposed. The last clauses were explanatory of the power of certain governmental operations, and contained details of the same. Such was the form of government which existed as the basis of our Republic, for almost twelve years. See Supplement.

year. Congress, we have observed,' delegated all military power to Washington, and he used it with energy and discretion. We left him at Trenton, prepared to act offensively or defensively, as circumstances should require. There he was joined by some troops under Generals Mifflin and Cadwalader, who came from Bordentown and Crosswicks, on the night of the 1st of January. Yet with these, his effective force did not exceed five thousand men. Toward the evening of the 2d of January, 1777, Cornwallis, with a strong force, approached from Princeton, and after some skirmishing, the two armies encamped on either side of a small stream which runs through the town, within pistolshot of each other. Washington commenced intrenching his camp, and Cornwallis, expecting reinforcements in the morning, felt sure of his prey, and deferred an attack for the night.

The situation of Washington and his little army was now perilous in the extreme. A conflict with such an overwhelming force as was gathering, appeared hopeless, and the Delaware becoming more obstructed by ice every hour, rendered a retreat across it, in the event of a surprise, almost impossible. A retreat down the stream was equally perilous. An escape under cover of the night, was the only chance of safety, but the ground was too soft to allow the patriots to drag their heavy cannons with them; and could they withdraw unobserved by the British sentinels, whose hourly cry could be heard from the camp? This was a question of deep moment, and there was no time for long deliberation. A higher will than man's determined the matter. The Protector of the righteous put forth his hand. While a council of war was in session. toward midnight, the wind changed, and the ground was soon so hard frozen. that there could be no difficulty in conveying away the cannons. Instantly all was in activity in the American camp, while Cornwallis and his army were soundly sleeping-perhaps dreaming of the expected sure victory in the morning. Leaving a few to keep watch and feed the camp-fires, to allay suspicion, Washington silently withdrew, with all his army, artillery, and baggage; and at dawn [January 3, 1777], he was in sight of Princeton, prepared to fall upon Cornwallis's reserve there The British general had scarcely recovered from his surprise and mortification, on seeing the deserted camp of the Americans, when the distant booming of cannons, borne upon the keen winter air, fell ominously upon his ears. Although it was mid-winter, he thought it was the rumbling of distant thunder. The quick ear of General Erskine decided otherwise, and he exclaimed, "To arms, general! Washington has out-generaled Let us fly to the rescue at Princeton!" Erskine was right, for, at that moment, Washington and the British reserve were combating.

us.

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Owing to the extreme roughness of the roads, Washington did not reach Princeton as early as he expected, and instead of surprising the British, and then pushing forward to capture or destroy the enemy's stores at New Brunswick, he found a portion of the troops already on their march to join Corn

1 Page 264.

A brigade, under Lieutenant-colonel Mawhood, consisting of three regiments and three troops of dragoons, were quartered there.

Robky Hill

PRINCETON,

Stocktons

Bridge

Old Road

Road to Trenton

To Kingston

Brook

NASSAU HALL

BRITISH

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R.R.Station

wallis at Trenton. A severe encounter occurred, when the American militia giving way, the British, with a victorious shout, rushed forward, expecting to produce a general rout. At that moment Washington advanced with a select corps, brought order out of confusion, and leading on his troops with waving sword and cheering voice, turned the tide of battle and achieved a victory. The brave General Mercer,' while fighting at the head of his men, was killed, and many other beloved officers were lost on that battle-field. Nor snowy was the conflict of that morning yet ended. When Cornwallis perceived the desertion of the American camp, and heard the firing at Princeton, he hastened with a greater portion of his troops, to the aid of his reserve, and to secure his stores at New Brunswick. The Americans, who had not slept, nor scarcely tasted food for thirty-six hours, were compelled, just as the heat of the first battle was over, to contest with fresh troops, or fly with the speed of strong men. Washington chose the latter alternative, and when Cornwallis entered Princeton, not a “rebel” was to be found. History has no parallel to offer to these events of a few days. Frederic the Great of Prussia, one of the most renowned commanders of modern times, declared that the achievements of Washington and his little band of compatriots, between the 25th of December and the 4th of January following, were the most brilliant of any recorded in the annals of military performances.

CORNWA

BATTLE AT PRINCETON.

The Americans were too weak to attempt the capture of the British stores at New Brunswick, so, with his fatigued troops Washington retreated rapidly toward the hill country of East Jersey. Allowing time only to refresh his little army at Pluckemin, he pressed forward to Morristown, and there established his winter quarters. But he did not sit down in idleness. After planting small cantonments" at different points from Princeton to the Hudson Highlands, he sent out detachments to harass the thoroughly perplexed British. These expeditions were conducted with so much skill and spirit, that on the first

'Mercer's horse had been shot under him, and he was on foot at the head of his men, when a British soldier felled him with a clubbed musket [note 4, page 236]. At first, the British believed it to be Washington, and, with a shout, they cried, "The rebel general is taken." Hugh Mercer was a native of Scotland. He was a surgeon on the field of Culloden, and was practicing medicine in Fredericksburg, Virginia, when the Revolution broke out. He was with Washington in the French and Indian War. He was made commander of the flying camp in 1776, and at the time of his death was about fifty-six years of age. The picture of a house in the corner of the map of the battle at Princeton, is a representation of the house in which General Mercer died. It is yet [1856] standing.

The chief of these were Colonels Haslett and Potter, Major Morris, and Captains Shippen, Fleming and Neal. The loss of the Americans in this engagement, was about thirty, including the officers above named.

We have mentioned, on page 210, the planetarium, at Princeton, constructed by David Rittenhouse. This excited the admiration of Cornwallis, and he intended to carry it away with him. It is also said that Silas Deane [page 264] proposed to present this work of art to the French government, as a bonus for its good will. Cornwallis was kept too busy in providing for his own safety, while in Princeton, to allow him to rob the college of so great a treasure. Page 160.

• Permanent stations for small bodies of troops.

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of March, 1777, not a British nor a Hessian soldier could be found in New Jersey, except at New Brunswick and Amboy,' Those dreaded battalions which, sixty days before, were all-powerful in New Jersey, and had frightened the Continental Congress from Philadelphia, were now hemmed in upon the Raritan, and able to act only on the defensive. Considering the attending circumstances, this was a great triumph for the Americans. It revived the martial spirit of the people, and the hopes of all good patriots; and hundreds in New Jersey, who had been deceived by Howe's proclamation, and had suffered Hessian brutality, openly espoused the Whig cause. Congress had returned to Philadelphia, and commenced its labors with renewed vigor.

2

It was almost the first of June before the main body of the two armies commenced the summer campaign. In the mean while, smaller detachments were in motion at various points. A strong armament was sent up the Hudson, in March, to destroy American stores at Peekskill, at the southern entrance to the Highlands. The Americans there, under the command of General McDougal, perceiving a defense of the property to be futile, set fire to the stores and retreated to the hills in the rear. The British returned to New York the same evening [March 23, 1777]. Almost a month afterward [April 13], Cornwallis went up the Raritan from New Brunswick, to surprise the Americans under General Lincoln, at Boundbrook. The latter escaped, with difficulty, after losing about sixty men and a part of his baggage. Toward the close of April [April 25], Governor Tryon,' at the head of two thousand British and Tories, went up Long Island Sound, landed at Compo [April 26], between Norwalk and Fairfield, marched to Danbury, destroyed a large quantity of stores belonging to the Americans, burned the town, and cruelly treated the inhabitants. Perceiving the militia to be gathering in great numbers, he retreated rapidly the next morning, by way of Ridgefield. Near that village, he had some severe skirmishing with the militia under Generals Wooster, Arnold, and Silliman. Wooster was killed,' Arnold narrowly escaped, but Silliman, keeping the field, harassed the British all the way to the coast. At Compo, and while embarking, they were terribly galled by artillery under Lamb. Tryon lost almost three hundred men during this expedition, and killed or wounded about half that number of Americans. His atrocities on that

The Americans went out in small companies, made sudden attacks upon pickets, out-posts, and foraging parties, and in this way frightened the detachments of the enemy and drove them in to the main body on the Raritan. At Springfield, a few miles from Elizabethtown, they attacked a party of Hessians who were penetrating the country from Elizabethport [January 7, 1777], killed between forty and fifty of them, and drove the remainder in great confusion back to Staten Island. A larger foraging party was defeated near Somerset court house [January 20] by about five hundred New Jersey militia under General Dickinson; and Newark, Elizabethtown and Woodbridge, were taken possession of by the patriots. Page 262. $ Page 223.

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Page 234. For his gallantry at Ridgefield, Congress ordered a horse, richly caparisoned, to be presented to him.

David Wooster was born in Stratford, Connecticut, in 1710. He was at Louisburg in 1745 [page 137], became a captain in the British army, and was in the French and Indian War. He was in Canada in the spring of 1776 [page 243], and gave promise of being one of the most efficient of the American officers in the war for Independence. His loss, at such a critical period of the conflict, was much deplored. The State of Connecticut erected a monument to his memory, in 1854. 0 Page 240.