XXXVII CHAP, mit our injuries to the justice of the evenhanded Being who doth no wrong." 1775 June. "In my life," said Shelburne, as he read Jefferson's report, "I was never more pleased with a state paper, than with the assembly of Virginia's discussion of Lord North's proposition. It is masterly. But what I fear is, that the evil is irretrievable." At Versailles, Vergennes was equally attracted by the wisdom and dignity of the document; he particularly noticed the insinuation, that a compromise might be effected on the basis of the modification of the navigation acts; and saw so many ways opened of settling every difficulty, that it was long before he could persuade himself, that the infatuation of the British ministry was so blind as to neglect them all. From Williamsburg, Jefferson repaired to Philadel phia; but before he arrived there, decisive communications had been received from Massachusetts. That colony still languished in anarchy, from which they were ready to relieve themselves, if they could but wring the consent of the continental congress. "We hope," wrote they, in a letter which was read to that body on the second of June, "you will favor us with your most explicit advice respecting the taking up and exercising the powers of civil government, which we think absolutely necessary for the salvation of our country." The regulation of the army was a subject of equal necessity. Uncounted and ungoverned, it was already in danger of vanishing like dew, or being dissolved by discontents. The incompetency of Ward for his station was observed by Joseph Warren, now president of the congress, by James Warren of Plymouth, by Gerry and others; every hour made it more imperative, that he should CHAP. XXXVII be superseded; and yet his private virtues and the 1775. fear of exciting dissensions in the province, required June. the measure to be introduced with delicacy and circumspection. The war was to become a continental war; the New England army a continental army; and that change in its relations offered the opportunity of designating a new commander in chief. To this end, the congress of Massachusetts formally invited the general congress "to assume the regulation and direction of the army, then collecting from different colonies for the defence of the rights of America." At the same time Samuel Adams received a private letter from Joseph Warren, interpreting the words as a request that the continent should "take the command of the army by appointing a generalissiThe generalissimo whom Joseph Warren, Warren of Plymouth, Gerry and others desired, was Washington. The bearer of the letter who had been commissioned to explain more fully the wishes of Massachusetts, was then called in. His communication had hardly been finished, when an express arrived with further news from the camp; that Howe, and Clinton, and Burgoyne, had landed in Boston; that British reinforcements were arriving; that other parts of the continent were threatened with war. A letter was also received and read, from the congress of New Hampshire, remotely intimating that "the voice of God and nature" was summoning the colonies to independence. mo. It was evident that congress would hesitate to adopt an army of New England men under a Massachusetts commander in chief. Virginia was the XXXVII 1775. CHAP. largest and oldest colony, and one of her sons was acknowledged to surpass all his countrymen in miliJune. tary capacity and skill. The choice of Washington as the general, would at once be a concession to prejudice and in itself the wisest selection. On the earliest occasion John Adams explained the composition and character of the New England army; its merits and its wants; the necessity of its being adopted by the continent, and the consequent propriety that congress should name its general. Then speaking for his constituents, he pointed out Washington as the man, above all others, fitted for that station, and best able to promote union. Samuel Adams seconded his colleague. The delegates from the Ancient Dominion, especially Pendleton, Washington's personal friend, disclaimed any wish that the officer whom Massachusetts had advanced, should be superseded by a Virginian. Washington himself had never aspired to the honor; though for some time he had been "apprehensive that he could not avoid the appointment." The balloting for continental officers was delayed, that the members from New York might consult their provincial congress on the nominations from that colony. With an empire to found and to defend, congress had not, as yet, had the disposal of one penny of money. The army which beleaguered Boston had sent for gunpowder to every colony in New England, to individual counties and towns, to New York and still further south; but none was to be procured. In the urgency of extreme distress, congress undertook to borrow six thousand pounds, a little more XXXVII than twenty-five thousand dollars, "for the use of CHAP. America," to be applied to the purchase of gunpowder for what was now for the first time called June. THE CONTINENTAL ARMY. In the arrangement of its committees and the distribution of business, it still sought to maintain a position, adverse alike to a surrender of liberty and to a declaration of independence; its policy was an armed defence, while waiting for a further answer from the king. On Wednesday the seventh of June, one of its resolutions spoke of "the Twelve United Colonies," Georgia being not yet included; and the name implied an independent nation; but on the eighth, it tardily recommended to Massachusetts not to institute a new government, but to intrust the executive power to the elective council, "until a governor of the king's appointment would consent to govern the colony according to its charter." For a province in a state of insurrection and war, a worse system could hardly have been devised. It had no unity, no power of vigorous action; it was recommended because it offered the fewest obstacles to an early renewal of allegiance to the British crown. The twelfth of June is memorable for the contrast between the manifest dispositions of America and of the British representatives at Boston. On that day, Gage, under pretence of proclaiming a general pardon to the infatuated multitude, proscribed by name Samuel Adams and John Hancock, reserving them for condign punishment, as rebels and traitors, in terms which included as their abettors not only all who should remain in arms about Bos 1775. XXXVII June 12. CHAP. ton, but every member of the provincial government and of the continental congress. In the same breath 1775. he established martial law throughout Massachusetts, while vessels cruised off Sandy Hook to turn to Boston the transports which were bound with four regiments to New York. He also called upon the British secretary of state to concentrate at Boston fifteen thousand men, of whom a part might be hunters, Canadians, and Indians; to send ten thousand more to New York; and seven thousand more, composed of regular troops with a large corps of Canadians and Indians, to act on the side of Lake Champlain. "We need not be tender of calling upon the savages," were his words to Dartmouth; some of the Indians, domiciled in Massachusetts, having strolled to the American camp to gratify curiosity or extort presents, he pretended to excuse the proposal which he had long meditated, by falsely asserting that the Americans "had brought down as many Indians as they could collect." On that same day the congress of New York, which had already taken every possible step to induce the Indians not to engage in the quarrel, had even offered protection to Guy Johnson, the superintendent, if he would but leave the Six Nations to their neutrality, and had prohibited the invasion of Canada, addressed to the merchants of that province the assurance, "that the confederated colonies aimed not at independence," but only at freedom from taxaation by authority of parliament. On that same twelfth of June, the general congress made its first appeal to the people of the twelve united colonies. by an injunction to them to keep a fast on one and |