this river against the current, and among rocks | were numerous falls and rapids, and that the and shoals, was tedious and most laborious work; river was not navigable up to the lake. Colonel the stream in a great part of its course had never Enos, his second in command, after getting embeen surveyed; and Arnold found that there barrassed in the windings of the Dead River, & FORT CHAMBLY, on the Richelieu or Sorel.-From a drawing on the spot, by B. J. Lossing. branch of the Kennebec, gave up the enterprise in despair, and returned with one-third of the detachment to head-quarters at Cambridge. Quitting the river, Arnold forced his way through swamps, forests, savannahs-across a dismal wilderness as yet untrodden by the foot of the white man, and where for two-and-thirty long days he neither saw habitation, wigwam, nor any other sign of human life. Owing to all these obstacles he did not reach the first Canadian settlements on the river Chaudière, which flows into the St. Lawrence six miles above Quebec, until the 3d of November. He then divided his half-famished troops into separate companies, each of which ran on as fast as it could to obtain food, shelter, and rest, in the thinly inhabited part of the country, near the mouth of the Chaudière. Arnold rested for two or three days at a little village, in order to circulate his manifestoes, promises, and friendly assurances among the Canadians, and to allow his rear and stragglers to come up; and it was not until the 9th of November that he reached Point Levi, on the right bank of the St. Lawrence, and immediately opposite to the town of Quebec. On the 14th, at the dead of night, a hurricane that had stopped his advance, having abated, Arnold embarked his men in canoes which had been collected, and ascending the stream, and eluding the vigilance of the English ships and boats, he crossed the St. Lawrence and landed, without being discovered, about a mile and a half above the spot where the gallant Wolfe had disembarked in circumstances equally desperate. It is quite clear that he must have been greatly indebted either to the negligence or to the stupidity of his opponents. Finding the rugged cliffs above his landing-place inaccessible, Arnold marched down the shore to Wolfe's Cove, and with his followers climbed the very same rugged heights which the English hero bad ascended.' Like Wolfe, too, Arnold formed his men on the Heights of Abraham. They were nearly all armed with rifles, but artillery they had none. When the Highlanders discovered them, they proposed to march out with some Canadians and English veterans, and attack them; but Colonel Maclean wisely kept his little force within the town. Arnold then sent two flags, to use bold language with the colonel in summoning him to surrender the place, and gentle language with the townspeople, in order to induce them to open the gates; but old Maclean refused to receive his flags, and fired on those who bore them. At the same time the veteran Scot armed a considerable number of the respectable townspeople, who seemed determined to fight for their houses and their property; and he brought up some sailors and placed them on the batteries. There were thus as many men under arms within Quebec as Arnold could count in his whole army. Siege and assault were therefore hopeless; and he retired to Point aux Trembles, twenty miles above Quebec, to await there the arrival of Montgomery. At Point aux Trembles, Arnold was very near taking prisoner General Carleton and his staff, who had only quitted that place a few hours before the arrival of the Americans. But Carleton, having escaped this danger, got into Quebec before Montgomery reached Point aux Trembles from Montreal, and set instantly about 1 The plan and views which illustrate Wolfe's operations at Quebec, vol. iii. pages 352, 353, illustrate also the transactions here recorded. 2 Some three months before this, General Carleton and his aide-de-camp, Lord Pitt, were within a quarter of an hour of falling into the hands of one Jeremiah Duggan, formerly s barber, but now a major in the provincials! making every possible preparation for a vigorous | force should assail the lower town on opposite defence. When the two American corps joined, their united numbers did not exceed 1100, or at the most 1200 men; but Montgomery had brought a few pieces of artillery with him from Montreal; and now he and Arnold marched together, to lay immediate siege to Quebec. On or about the 20th of December they opened a six-gun battery within 700 yards of the walls; but their artillery was too light to make a breach-their heaviest guns were only twelve-pounders; and all the six were soon dismounted by the town-guns, fired by the seamen under the direction of Colonel Maclean, who continued to behave with indefatigable diligence, ability, and intrepidity. The Americans removed their guns to a safer distance, and continued their ineffectual fire, with the hope of amusing the garrison and concealing their design of making an assault in another direction. Many of the New Englanders thought the scheme too dangerous, and were against taking any part in it, until their imaginations were captivated and heated by the prospect held out to them of sides, while the third should divert the attention of the besieged by feigned attacks from the Plains of Abraham upon the upper town. At the head of the first division Montgomery descended from the Plains to Wolfe's Cove, and directed his march towards the lower town by a road along the river's brink under Cape Diamond; while Arnold, with the second division, was to advance from the opposite quarter on the St. Charles; and both parties uniting at Mountain Street, were to force Prescott Gate. In his march through the darkness and snow-storm, Montgomery, at the narrowest part under Cape Diamond, called the Pres de Ville, was opposed by a block-house, garrisoned by Canadians, and a little further on by a small battery called the Pot Ash. His advance was discovered; but after a hasty irregular volley, the garrison of the block-house fled to the neighbouring protection of the battery, which was speedily reinforced, not only by the fugitives, but some Highlanders and English sailors. Calling on his men to follow, Montgomery rushed forward; but the way to the battery was blocked by snowdrifts and masses of ice, among which his soldiers floundered; and when only within forty paces of the enemy, who calmly waited to receive them, a terrible discharge of grape-shot swept their front ranks, killing not only several officers and privates, but also their leader, the gallant, chivalrous Montgomery. This single volley was enough; the rest fled back in confusion to Wolfe's Cove, where they made no attempt to rally. While this disaster was occurring, Arnold was conducting his part of the enterprise with equal but unavailing courage. With the second division he forced his way along the St. Charles, where the snow was worse drifted than on the St. Lawrence, and advanced by the Faubourg St. Roque towards the Sault au Matelot, where under a high jutting rock were strong barriers, and also a battery of two twelve-pounders and well manned. Fearless of danger he advanced in the front of his files; but while leading them on under a volley of musketry from the barrier, a bullet shattered the bone of his leg, so that he had to be carried to the rear, and there he heard of the death of Montgomery. Here, however, the assault did not terminate. Led by Colonel Morgan, on whom the QUEBEC, from the Citadel, looking across the St. Charles River. From Coke Smyth's Sketches in Canada. lundering Quebec, in which they knew a very rge amount of property was collected. The en then agreed to do what their officers wished; nd without their consent there would have been doing anything, for these early American mies paid little respect to the will of their comanders. On the last day of the year, between ur and five o'clock in the morning, and in the idst of a violent storm of wind and snow, they vided themselves into four small columns. The an of attack, which was a daring one, but not rhaps the less hopeful on that account, was that e first and second divisions of the American command devolved, the assailants, after a despe- | place; it was probing a wound that was incurarate struggle, won the first barrier, but on ad- ble, or which has not yet been healed. Later in vancing to the second, were met by such a storm the year, when the battle of Bunker's Hill had of grape-shot and musketry, that they were fain been fought, when our forts on Lake Champlain to retire under cover, to some stone houses in the had been taken from us, and when Montgomery suburb of St. Roque, where day dawned upon and Arnold were pressing on our possessions in them, and showed the smallness of their num- Canada, Lord Dunmore carried his threat into bers and the hopelessness of their enterprise. Be- execution. Having established his head-quarters tween sixty and seventy Americans fell in this at Norfolk, he proclaimed freedom to all the daring attempt; but the loss most generally de- slaves who would repair to his standard and bear plored was that of the handsome, gallant Mont- arms for the king. The summons was readily gomery. The day after the fatal attack his body obeyed by most of the negroes who had the means was found torn by three mortal wounds. By of escaping to him. He, at the same time, issueG the order of General Carleton, it was interred a proclamation, declaring martial law throughout with the honours due to an officer of rank. The the colony of Virginia; and he collected a numremainder of the American army retired three ber of armed vessels, which cut off the coastingor four miles from Quebec, and encamped in the trade, made many prizes, and greatly distressed best manner they could behind the Heights of an important part of that province. Abraham, with the intention of distressing the garrison, by cutting off supplies and ingratiating themselves with the Canadians. Carleton and Maclean were soon strong enough to have driven them beyond the St. Lawrence; but they preferred waiting until spring should open the navigation of that river, and bring such a force as would enable them to act continuously and extensively on the offensive. Arnold, though suffering severely from his wound, and though abandoned by many of his men, who deserted to their homes, retained his courage and activity, and must have exercised considerable genius or address to maintain himself in that isolated position, as he did for four long wintry months. In the great southern state of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, the governor, had made a determined but ineffectual struggle in support of the authority of the mother country. Patrick Henry, the orator, encouraged by the news of the first affair at Lexington, excited the young Virginians to flee to arms, and he put himself at the head of some volunteers. His lordship was compelled to deliver up all the arms and powder that had been left on shore, and to retreat in the middle of the night, with his family, to the Fowey man-of-war, then lying at Yorktown. The animosities of the Virginia planters had long been carried to the height of a frenzy against Dunmore on two special accounts: he had traduced them in his letters to the English parliament; and in conversation he had derided their attempts at independence by threatening to begin their era of liberty by the manumission of their negro slaves. This, to the Virginians, was like passing a rasp over a gangrened 1 Richard Montgomery was not by birth an American. He was of a good family in the north of Ireland, had borne the king's commission in the last war, and had served with some distinction against the French in Canada. After the peace he purchased an estate in the colony of New York, and married an American lady, the daughter of Livingston, who became one of the leaders of the revolution. The royalists, after being defeated in a sanguinary skirmish, burned the prosperous town of Norfolk to the ground. Lord Dunmore lingered in the Chesapeake River or on the coast till the following summer, when, unable any longer to obtain provisions, he set sail with his flotilla, and joined the main body of the English army. As long as his flag remained in sight, many of the Virginians, averse to the revolution, or to its leaders, indulged the hope that the cause of government might prevail; and, when he departed by water, many others prepared to follow him by land, conscious that there was no safety for men of their political principles. In the meanwhile Dr. Franklin had arrived at Philadelphia from England; and congress, thougl still delaying their proclamation of absolute ite dependence, had been pursuing a course which no longer left their intentions doubtful to any man. They had been in session from the 100 of May, with John Hancock, the owner of the Liberty sloop, for their president; they had forme the plan of a confederation and perpetual union the chief articles of which were:-1. Ths! the name of the confederacy should hencefort be the UNITED COLONIES OF NORTH AMERICA 2. That they bound themselves and their posterit for their common defence against their enemies the security of their liberties, their mutual ar general welfare, &c. 3. That each colony shon enjoy and retain as much as it might think f of its own present laws, customs, rights, priv leges, and peculiar jurisdiction, within its ow limits; and might amend its own constitution ↑ should seem best to its own assembly or conver tion. 4. That for the management of gener interests, delegates should be elected annually i each colony, to meet in general congress. 5. Thu the power of the congress should extend to th determining on war and peace, the entering int alliances, the reconciliation with Great Britan the settling all disputes between colony and co- great uneasiness continued to be felt with relony, and the planting of new colonies where spect to that colony, which was not only defencejudged proper, &c. 6. That all the charges of the less and open to the king's troops by sea, but war, &c., should be defrayed out of a common trea- was also inhabited by many very zealous royalists. sury, which should be supplied by each colony in A"Committee of Safety," consisting of some of the proportion to its population. 7. That the num- most determined of the revolutionists, was apber of delegates seut to the congress should be pointed to take especial charge of the province; one to every 5000 males. 8. That, at every meet- and other committees of safety (the pretypes of ing of the congress, one-half of the members, or Les Comités de Salut Public of the French rethe delegates returned, exclusive of proxies, should publicans) were appointed in many other parts be necessary to make a quorum. 9. That an exe- of the Continent, with powers that were not very cative council should be appointed by the con- nicely limited, or with members too ardent to gress out of their own body, consisting of twelve submit to any limitations in working out the persons, &c. 10. That no colony should engage great cause of independence. Congress also apin an offensive war with any nation, or tribe of pointed General Wooster, commanding some Indians, without the consent of congress. 11. That regiments of Connecticut men, to march into a perpetual alliance, offensive and defensive, should New York, with the double object of keeping be entered into, as soon as might be, with the six down the royalists and preventing, if possible, Indian nations, &c. 12. That as all new institu- the landing of any British troops. The Counections are liable to imperfections, which only time ticut men, however, did not enter the city; but and experience can discover, the general congress quartered themselves near Haerlem, five miles should, from time to time, propose such amend- off. Their presence did far more harm than ments as might be found necessary; and that good to the cause; it led to some severe quarrels these amendments, being approved by a majority between Connecticut men and New Yorkers; it of the colonial assemblies, should be equally provoked the naval force in the neighbouring binding upon the rest. 13. And that every waters; and it might have ended in causing New colony of Great Britain in America, not at pre- York to be reduced to a heap of ashes like Norsent engaged in the association, might, upon ap- folk. The provincial congress, which was said plication, be received into the confederacy, viz., to include not a few real Tories and many timid Quebec, St. John, Nova Scotia, Bermuda, and Whigs, continued to allow provisions to be carthe East and West Floridas, and should there- ried to the English ships of war. This conduct upon be entitled to all the advantages of the exasperated the general congress and all the union, with mutual assistance and commerce. friends of revolution; and it was in vain that After drawing up this plan of confederacy, the they represented the danger they were in of general congress created a paper currency, to have having their town burned about their ears, and course throughout the united colonies. They their property destroyed by the English ships. next attended to the army; and in a fortunate Many of the more ardent New Yorkers retreated moment for themselves, looking over the heads into Connecticut to join the partisans of freedom of those who were commanding in the lines round in that colony. At the same time the committee Boston, they fixed upon Colonel George Wash- of safety, by command of the general congress, ington to be their commander-in-chief. A com- had adopted, and were carrying into execution, mittee was then appointed to prepare a decla- the violent revolutionary measures of breaking ration of the causes that induced them to take open people's houses in search of arms. The up arms against the mother country. A few functionaries of the committee encountered, howweeks after, Jefferson was placed on a commit-ever, a stern, and in many instances a successful tee, with Dr. Franklin, Samuel Adams, and Richard Henry Lee, to consider and report on Lord North's pacificatory resolutions, which had already been rejected and scouted by the provincial conventions separately, and which were how to be denounced by the general congress representing them all. Jefferson, who had drawn up the answer of the Virginia assembly, was intrusted with the preparing this report, which was considered as the ultimatum of congress. Notwithstanding the zeal of the movement party in New York, who had sent delegates to congress, and who had been among the very first to attack the British settlements in Canada, resistance, though it appears that they were occasionally assisted by a whole battalion of troops. Though much more oppressed and kept down by their own countrymen of the revolutionary party than were those of the revolutionary party by the presence of a few English ships of war, many of the citizens of New York continued hearty in their aversion to congress and in their attachment to the mother country. The disposition of the colony be came so alarming to congress that a resolution was moved for seizing and carrying off the governor of New York. Tryon, however, had friends among that potent body, and he was defended so warmly by some of the delegates of New York that the proposition was dropped. But in the month of October, when it was universally reported that defection from the American cause was increasing in the colony, congress recurred to the subject and adopted a revolutionary measure even stronger than the previous order for seizing the arms; in the gentle form of a recommendation they intimated to the members of the revolutionary governments in the several provinces, that they were "to arrest and secure every person in the respective colonies whose going at large might, in their opinion, endanger the safety of the colony, or the liberties of America." Warned in time, Governor Tryon retired for security on board the Halifax packet. In the other colonies, where the royalists were fewer, and where there were no English ships of war to sustain their hopes, they were more cautious in declaring their sentiments. As there was scarcely a British soldier anywhere except at Boston and in Canada, the Americans found little difficulty in sweeping away the king's governors, of whom not one made so steady an attempt at resistance as Lord Dunmore had done. We turn to the American hero, who was now commanding the revolutionary army, and obliging the English generals to keep their force undivided. CHAPTER VIII.-CIVIL AND MILITARY HISTORY.-A. D. 1775-1776 GEORGE III. Washington's previous views on the subject of American independence-His character, and fitness for command — Condition in which he finds the army-Georgia won to the American confederacy-Agitations in London about the war in America-Addresses to the king-Keen parliamentary discussion on the royal speech-The result unfavourable to the revolted colonies-Changes in ministerial office-Burke's bill for the pacification of America rejected-Lord North's bill prohibiting all commercial intercourse with America-The colonists derive encouragement from the speeches of the opposition in parliament-Chatham's son and the war in Canada-Arnold resumes his campaign-His unsuccessful attempt to take Quebec-The siege raised-Hurried retreat of the American army-Canada recovered to Britain--Disasters of the British main army at BostonIt is closely besieged by Washington-Unsuccessful attempts of Howe to defend the town-Washington's skilful approaches-Boston evacuated by the British-Blunders of Howe at his retreat-He retires by sea to Nova Scotia-A British army under General Clinton arrives in North Carolina-It comes too late to aid the Carolina royalists-Clinton attempts the capture of Charlestown-It is ineffectually attacked by sea-The British fleet and army retire-Proposal of congress to form a constitution for America independent of the mother country-Contending claims for the honour of originating the proposal-It is generally attributed to Franklin-Effectual service rendered to the cause by Thomas Paine-Strength of the demand for disseverance and independence in New York and Virginia-The "Declaration of Rights" proposed by Virginia-The example followed by six other colonies-A general committee appointed to frame a declaration of independence -The declaration drawn out-It is accepted finally by the thirteen American colonies--Its preamble-The Americans look to France for aid-Negotiations between them and the French court-General Howe resumes active measures-He obliges the Americans to evacuate Staten Island-Fruitless negotiations of Admiral Lord Howe with the Americans-General Howe defeats the Americans at Long Island- The American troops successfully withdrawn by Washington-The royalist Americans declare themselves-Washington evacuates New York-The town set on fire at his departure-The Americans defeated at Kipp's Bay-Insubordination of their soldiers-Their frequent desertions-Remedies proposed by Washington to congress. EORGE WASHINGTON, when the quarrel with the mother country began, did not, for some time, seem to take any very decided part; and when it became serious, he was certainly neither among those who first foresaw, nor among those who first wished for a separation from the mother country and an absolute independence. As late as the 9th of October, 1774, he wrote to a friend serving in the king's army-" You are taught to believe that the people of Massachusetts are rebellious; setting up for independency, and what not give me leave, my good friend, to tell you that you are abused. . . . Give me leave to add, and I think I can announce it as a fact, that it is not the wish or interest of that government, or of any other upon this continent. separately or collectively, to set up for independence." When these assertions proceed from Jefferson, Jay, Hancock, Samuel Adams, or even Franklin, we have no faith in their sincerity, and can, in many instances, prove them insincere, by contrary declarations proceeding at the same time from the pens or lips of those very men: but we have that confidence in the honour, straightforwardness, and want of political eunning of Washington, which compels us to believe that he really spoke his sincere sentiments. We can also believe-what is asserted |