FACSIMILE OF THE CONTINENTAL BILLS.-From Lossing's Field-Book of the American Revolution. the rest by the 1st of March, under the penalty of having the whole seized as straw. But the farmers for some time avoided compliance, and continued to conceal their corn and stock. In many cases they defended their property against the hungry foragers with musket and rifle, and in some cases they burned what they could not defend. Washington saw that this was not the way to make converts to the new republic, and he was disgusted with the rapine and licentiousness to which the practice directly led. He told congress that supplies of provisions and clothing must be procured in some other way, or the army must cease to exist. This squeamishness was not likely to please congress, in which, moreover, a very strong party had been formed directly and personally against the commander-in-chief. This section madly pretended that Washington ought to have captured the army of General Howe, as Gates had captured that of Burgoyne; and that the conduct of Gates proved that he, and not Washington, was the proper man to have the supreme command of the army of the United States. Gates entertained the same opinion, and wrote strongly against Washington to his friends sitting in congress. This correspondence came to the knowledge of Washington, and the hostility of the party in congress could hardly be concealed from him. He, however, retained in a wonderful degree the affection and the admiration of his own army, and he resolved not to abandon the cause he had embraced from pique or jealousy. In a letter addressed to Mr. Laurens, his own particular friend, and now president of congress, he pointedly explained his difficulties and justfied his conduct. He was a proud man, and he spoke contemptuously of "a malignant faction, which should not, he said, prevent him from doing his duty: he complained of an anonymous paper exhibiting many serious charges against him, but hoped that that paper might be regularly sul mitted to congress. Speaking of his generalship, he said, with commendable modesty, that he might very often have been mistaken in his judement, and have deserved the imputation of error: but no man had endeavoured more to do he best, and had more at heart the public good and the approbation of his countrymen. For the present the voice of his enemies was silenced, but congress did little to remove the hardships under which he was labouring. His men re mained with only such food as they could sei without clothes, without shoes, without blankets to warm them through the long nights of the inclement winter. His consequent ill-humour 1 "The paper on which these bills were printed was quite th and the enemy called it 'the pasteboard money of the rebels The vignettes were generally, both in device and motto, s ficant. The one most prominent in the engraving represents a beaver in the slow but sure process of cutting down a tree wit its teeth. The motto, 'PERSEVERANDO-by Perr to the colonists, 'Persist, and you will be successful.'"-Lowing Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution. against the comfortably-housed and well-provided gentlemen who were playing the part of suffering patriots vicariously, and who were realizing Lord Barrington's prediction by obtaining the palm of martyrdom without the pain of it, proke out occasionally in forcible or pungent lan-, quage. "I can assure those gentlemen," said he, "that it is a much easier and less distressing thing to draw remonstrances in a comfortable room, by a good fireside, than to occupy a cold bleak hill, and sleep under frost and snow, without clothes or blankets. However, although they seem to have little feeling for the naked and distressed soldiers, I feel superabundantly for them, and from my soul pity those miseries which it is not in my power either to relieve or prevent." lu consequence of the non-importation agreement and of the interruption of nearly all commerce y the war, the quantity of cloth and woollen vols in the whole country was very inconsiderble, and the home manufactures were altogether sufficient to make up the deficiency. The inteor of the country was scoured, broadcloth and lankets were impressed wherever they could be, and, but still the soldiers remained badly proled. In the New England provinces, where ie sea-coast was more extensive, and the art of nuggling and running goods better understood, othes, arms, and other commodities were abunint; but the New Englanders sought to derive commercial advantage from the scarcity and stress of the south, and put an enormous price on their goods, for the want of which Wash-dition, the congress at Yorktown, at the instigton's army were absolutely perishing. Coness interfered with a strong hand, broke a conact which had been concluded by the clothierneral of Massachusetts, and ordered the statevernment to seize, for the use of the army, at ices to be fixed by the legislature, all such ods as the army wanted! These orders were tended to the other states, and Washington ote letters to recommend or enforce obedience them, representing that the very existence of e army and the continuance of the struggle th Great Britain depended upon the supplies. ese were circumstances calculated to increase pular discontent; and they were followed by er still stronger measures. Washington saw ry clearly that there was little hope of recruitg his forces for the next year's campaign by antary enlistment, and he recommended the In the same letter Washington says:-"Soap, vinegar, and Er articles allowed by congress, we see none of; nor have we them, I believe, since the battle of Brandywine. The first immediate employment of coercion—that is to say, the defenders of this free and matchless democracy were to be pressed into the service, as we at the time impressed a part of our seamen, The proposition startled even congress; but after some debate it was agreed to. Of the recruits thus torn from their homes, many deserted and joined the British forces. Day after day some two or three half-naked, half-famished men stole away from Valley Forge, or from the out-posts, and went over to Howe with their arms. By means of these frequent desertions, the English general must of necessity have been fully informed of the wretched, helpless condition of that army; yet he never moved from his comfortable quarters to crush it, or dissipate it at a blow; and he allowed Washington to molest his convoys and frequently to intercept his supplies. By this time the paper-money of congress was refused by the officers serving under Washington: many of them who had no private fortune threw up their commissions in disgust, and most of those who remained were penniless and in rags. Thus there was at least one kind of equality, the officers being as ragged as the men. As the whole of the country had been actually exhausted, it was necessary to forage, levy, and impress at a great distance. Provisions were secured and brought in; but by this time a terrible putrid fever had broken out in the camp, and the disease carried off many men already attenuated by bad living. While the army at Valley Forge was in this con p), indeed, we have little occasion for; few men having more one shirt, many only the moiety of one, and some none We have, by a field-return this day made, bea number of men confined to hospitals for want of shoes, all. others in farmers' houses on the same account, no less than men, now in camp, unfit for duty, because they are bareal, and otherwise naked." gation of the board of war, composed of Gates, Conway, Starke, and other personal enemies of Washington, resolved to make another irruption into Canada. The plan was completed without a word of intimation to the commander-in-chief. La Fayette was to have the command of the expedition, and Generals Conway and Starke were to serve under him. It was calculated that a young Frenchman of high rank would have a surprising effect upon the French, or French-descended people in Canada; but it was somewhat singular that such umbrageous politicians as the members of congress should not, from the first moment, have suspected that La Fayette might make the Canadians rise in arms, not to join the thirteen United States, but to restore the ancient sovereignty of France, and that connection with their mother country which had been broken off by the chances of war not twenty years before this period. We believe, however, that the suspicion went close upon the heels of La Fayette's appointment, and was one of the weighty causes which induced congress to neglect this cherished scheme of conquest or enlargement. Washington heard, for the first time, of this expedition on the 24th of January, when he received a letter from his J FACSIMILE OF THE CONTI the rest by the 1st of March he was disguste a verr and Th would .da. But not make any cies of which he nth of March the telligence arrived that prepared to receive him. the enemy were in a good Carleton was preparing for Forced to take a decisive am letter to congress, and with ve up the enter rise. At the congress, becoming less confident, wavering counsels, which could seved to comet ham and say them is" Having nothing better to do, visit to some of the wild Indians on * River, and endeavoured to engage he service of congress. He confesses, .. that a few louis d'or, which he distriwith some stuffs from the state of New produced but little effect upon the savages, comparesi with the presents they had reed from England. He left a French officer g them to build a fort; and then, retarting Albany, he, as a general of the district, adstered to the population a new form of oath. chey next k every rational calcia Must have required some very extrac xertion of stupidity and misconduct to er Howe and his army as unpopular in Phi delphia, where they had been so welcomed their coming, as Washington and his army were in the harassed, plundered, and thoroughly of pressed country all round Valley Forge, and through several of the southern states. It is cer tain, however, that Howe and his people acco plished this undesired end. They seem to Lave reversed the standing maxim of Marshal Turenne and to have thought the more drinking, gaming, and licentiousness in a garrison the better. The whole winter was spent in idleness or in dissipe tion and revelry. Every regimental mess was scene of nightly orgies. The men, when opp tunity served, followed the example of the officers, and, on duty and off, got most loya drunk. All this made Franklin say that He had not taken Philadelphia but Philadel Howe. Both the general and his brother Lo Howe were dissatisfied with the appointmer: a the new commissioners to treat with the Amer cans, although their own names were included a the commission; but the sloth and seeming redlessness of the general began long before the could possibly have received intelligence of L North's last conciliatory plan, under which the new commissioners were appointed. It appear 1. It is singular," says La Fayette-and we must repest b words, and say it was singular indeed-"that the outh of which had been devisai by congres and wh custon of Great Britain and her king, which every one p winded a full acknowledgment of the in seventhe American service was compelled to take, should have been Ano, liberty, and severety of the Unite amastered in one-half of the United States by a Frecto Siates, an eternal renunciation of George 11. enis Twenty years of age" Seana Nershal, La Fayette, Washington's own letter act under Lord Carlisle, | those courtesies, and for their continual breaches of the new commis- of all rules or agreements whatsoever. It can * this shamefully scarcely be said that the members of congress nd jealousies; were more delicate then the soldiery, militia, and ly censur- backwoodsmen: they broke nearly every capitulation or convention, large or small. As the Americans had adopted, from the beginning, a 4, systematic retaliation, and as they frequently inflicted the revenge without ascertaining the truth the amount of the injury said to have been *ed upon their people, the British prisoners and their auxiliaries the Germans, were GEORGE III bly-housed and well-pro- immediate en ul, playing the part of stay, the defender, u and who were regr by obtaining w# pain of influ 397 he end of the month of April the ffer very severely. " American brigade commanded f the Pennsylvanian militia, alled the Crooked Billet, t seventeen miles from as employing himself in aging, and in stopping the from going to the Philadelphian en he was surprised, taken in the rear, most surrounded by a British detachment horse and foot, under the command of Lieua tenant colonel Abercrombie and Major Simcoe, over who had effected a combined movement with admirable ability and rapidity. Lacy lost all his baggage and stores and a considerable number of men, but the rest fled by a road still open to them, and far too rapidly to be overtaken by our tired men or worn-out horses. This excursion had the effect of intimidating the militia, who appeared no more near Philadelphia, except in small fleeing parties. On the 7th of May, an expedition was made, by sea and land, to destroy all the American shipping in the upper part of the Delaware between Philadelphia and Trenton. Forty-four American vessels were burned, some of them of value; a considerable quantity of stores and provisions was destroyed; and an inconsiderable number of men killed and wounded. 53. Some ater part were ommanding officer, .chman, was among the man killed on the side of hussar. Almost immediately her brush took place at Hancock's ere about thirty of the Americans were A third attempt was made to surprise ther body, but they had been alarmed the preding night at the approach of a cow, had fired it, and then fled. The whole American force | w retired behind another creek, sixteen miles leaving the country to be foraged at leisure the British detachment. Having procured at he wanted, and distributed some muskets d bayonets to the royalists, Mawhood returned he came to Philadelphia. Other excursions re made in different directions. They genery succeeded in their petty objects; they somenes engaged advanced posts and detachments Washington's army, but they never attempted make any impression at Valley Forge. The hting was chiefly for hay, corn, clothes, and nkets. The rancour between the contending rties was now extreme and universal: it was a rsonal feeling in every breast, and the oldest of soldiers, or those best acquainted with the es of war, and the common courtesies and tacit reements between belligerents, which rob war many of its horrors, and bring brave enemies respect one another, were most inflamed against e Americans for their constant insensibility to On the 19th of May, Washington detached La Fayette with nearly 3000 men to take post at Barren Hill, a position seven miles in advance of Valley Forge, but upon the opposite side of the Schuylkill. The movement had no apparent object, and the position was singularly ill-chosen, as the communications between it and Valley Forge were difficult, and easy to be interrupted by an active enemy. We can only suppose that Washington thought nothing was to be apprehended from so dilatory an enemy as Howe, whose intention, moreover, of abandoning Philadelphia was now generally known. But on the night of the 20th of May, Howe sent 5000 of his choicest troops to look after the young Frenchman. General Grant reached the position he was directed to occupy, about a mile in the rear of La Fayette, and between him and Valley Forge, and every King of England, together with a promise and vow to defend the said United States, &c. After these performances, La Fayette was permitted to return to the camp of Washington for whom he always professed the greatest affe tion and esteem. At this time the commander rival, Gates, as president of the board of war, inclosing another letter to the French marquis, requiring his immediate attendance on congress to receive his instructions. The marquis assures us that all his requests were granted, and that at Gates's own house he braved the whole antiWashington party, and threw them into confu-in-chief of the American army obtained a muti sion by making them drink Washington's health! He was told that 2500 men would be assembled at Albany; that he would find a great body of militia a little farther up the Hudson; and that he should have a little money in specie and 2,000,000 dollars in paper; that from the head of the Hudson he must proceed to Lake Champlain, cross that water on the ice, burn the English flotilla at the Isle aux Noix, and then, descending the Sorel and crossing the St. Lawrence, repair to Montreal, there to act as circumstances might require. The confident young Frenchman set out to execute the plan. On arriving at Albany he found that congress could mis-calculate: instead of 2500 men, there were not 1200 there; and as for the militia, it had either not received or not attended to the summons. Clothes, provisions, sledges were all wanting; and he must have found his 2,000,000 paper dollars scarcely worth the carriage. He was quite sure that if proper preparations had been made in time he would have driven the English out of Canada. But congress now could not or would not make any exertions to supply the deficiencies of which he complained; and in the month of March the lakes began to thaw, and intelligence arrived that the English were well prepared to receive him. In his own words-" the enemy were in a good position, and General Carleton was preparing for him another Saratoga. Forced to take a decisive step, he wrote a calm letter to congress, and with a heavy sigh gave up the enterprise. At the same moment congress, becoming less confident, sent him some wavering counsels, which could only have served to commit him and justify themselves afterwards." Having nothing better to do, he paid a visit to some of the wild Indians on the Mohawk River, and endeavoured to engage them in the service of congress. He confesses, however, that a few louis d'or, which he distributed, with some stuffs from the state of New York, produced but little effect upon the savages, when compared with the presents they had received from England. He left a French officer among them to build a fort; and then, returning to Albany, he, as a general of the district, administered to the population a new form of oath, which had been devised by congress, and which included a full acknowledgment of the independence, liberty, and sovereignty of the United States, an eternal renunciation of George III., more important coadjutor in Baron Steuber, a words, and say it was singular indeed-"that the oath of only twenty years of age." 2 Stedman; Marshall; La Fayette; Washington's own lette |