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029 - Chapter 28 · The American Revolution A Historical Overview Vol. 3

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  Speaker 1: Section twenty nine of History at the Rise, Progress and
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  Speaker 1: Termination of the American Revolution, Volume three by Mercy Otis Warren.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or the volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. History at the Rise, Progress, in
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  Speaker 1: Termination of the American Revolution, Volume three by Mercy Otis Warren.
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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty eight, Part one, Pace proclaimed in America. General
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  Speaker 1: Carlton delays the withdrawal of the troops from New York.
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  Speaker 1: Situation are the loyalists efforts in their favor by some
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  Speaker 1: gentlemen in Parliament their final destination, their dissatisfaction and subsequent conduct.
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  Speaker 1: The discordant sounds of war that had long glated the
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  Speaker 1: ears of the children of America were now suspended, and
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  Speaker 1: the benign and heavenly voice of armony soothed their wounded feelings,
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  Speaker 1: and they flattered themselves. The dread summons to slaughter in
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  Speaker 1: death would not again resound on their shores. The independence
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  Speaker 1: of an Arab amused by the first Bowers in Europe,
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  Speaker 1: and even Great Britain willing to rechieve the sword on
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  Speaker 1: the same honorable terms of the United States every prospect
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  Speaker 1: of tranquility appeared. These were eventsful which the statesmen had
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  Speaker 1: sighed in the arduous exertions of the cabinet, of which
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  Speaker 1: the hero had bared his breast, and the blood of
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  Speaker 1: the citizens had flowed in copious streams on the borders
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  Speaker 1: of the Atlantic, from the River Saint Mary's to the
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  Speaker 1: Saint Croix on the eastern extreme of the American territory.
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  Speaker 1: Peace was proclaimed in the American Army by order of
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  Speaker 1: the Commander in Chief on the nineteenth of April one thousand,
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  Speaker 1: seven hundred and eighty three. This was just eight years
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  Speaker 1: from the memorable day when the first blood was drawn
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  Speaker 1: in the contests between the American colonies and the parent
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  Speaker 1: State in the fields of conquered in Lexington. The operation
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  Speaker 1: and consequences of the restoration of peace were now the
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  Speaker 1: subject of contemplation. This open objects of magnitude and deed
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  Speaker 1: to a young republic which had rapidly passed through the
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  Speaker 1: grades of youth and property, and was fast arriving to
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  Speaker 1: the age of maturity. A republic consisting of a number
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  Speaker 1: of confederated states, which by this time had received many
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  Speaker 1: as an evidence who were not originally from the stock
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  Speaker 1: of England. Some of them, indeed were from more free governments,
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  Speaker 1: but others had fled from the slavery oft spotted courts.
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  Speaker 1: From their numbers and abilities, they had become respectable, and
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  Speaker 1: their opinions waiting in the political scale. From these and
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  Speaker 1: other circumstances, it might be expected that in time, the
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  Speaker 1: general enthusiasm for a republican system of government in America
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  Speaker 1: might languish, and new theories be adopted or old ones
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  Speaker 1: modified under different names and terms, until the darling system
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  Speaker 1: of the inhabitants of the United States might be lost
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  Speaker 1: or forgotten in a growing grabosity of monarchy. Symptoms of
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  Speaker 1: this nature already began to appear in the languages of
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  Speaker 1: interested and ambitious men, who endeavored to confound ideas and
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  Speaker 1: darken opinion by asserting the republicanism was an indefinite term
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  Speaker 1: in social circles. They frequently insinuated that no precise meaning
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  Speaker 1: could be a fixed to a word by which the
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  Speaker 1: people often deceived led to pursue a shadow instead of
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  Speaker 1: an object of any real stability. This was indeed more
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  Speaker 1: the language of art than principle, and seemed to augur
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  Speaker 1: the decline of public virtue in a free state. It
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  Speaker 1: required the utmost vigilance to guard against and counteract designs
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  Speaker 1: thus secretly covered. It was not unexpected by the judicious
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  Speaker 1: observers of human conduct that many contingencies might arise to
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  Speaker 1: defeat or to render fruitless the efforts that have been
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  Speaker 1: made on the practicability of erecting and maintaining a pure,
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  Speaker 1: unadulterated republican government. Time was unfold the futility of such
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  Speaker 1: an expectation, or established the system on a basis that
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  Speaker 1: will lead being kind to rejoice in the success of
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  Speaker 1: an experiment. It has been too often tried in vain.
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  Speaker 1: Those who have been nurtured in the dark regions of despotism,
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  Speaker 1: who have witnessed the sale of the peasantry with the
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  Speaker 1: belief they have cultivated from infancy, and who have seen
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  Speaker 1: the sire in the sun transferred with the stables and
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  Speaker 1: the cattle from master to master, cannot realize this success
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  Speaker 1: of a theory that is a tendency to exalt the
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  Speaker 1: species and elevate the lower grades of mankind to a
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  Speaker 1: condition nearer to an equality with adventitious superiority. It is
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  Speaker 1: not wonderful, and a people of this description in education,
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  Speaker 1: should be incredulous of the utility of more free modes
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  Speaker 1: of government. They are naturally tenacious of old customs, habits,
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  Speaker 1: and their own fatuitous advantages. They are unable to form
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  Speaker 1: an idea of general freedom among mankind without distinction of
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  Speaker 1: ranks that elevate one class of men to the summit
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  Speaker 1: of pride and insolence and sink another to the lowest
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  Speaker 1: grade of civility and debasement. But Americans born under no
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  Speaker 1: feudal tenure, nurtured in the bosom of mediocrity, educated in
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  Speaker 1: the schools of freedom, or have never been used to
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  Speaker 1: look up to any lord of the soil as having
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  Speaker 1: a right by prescription, habit, orreditary claim to the property
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  Speaker 1: of their flocks. They, their herds, and their pastures may
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  Speaker 1: easily have been supposed to have grown to maturity with
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  Speaker 1: very different ideas, and with the disposition to defend their
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  Speaker 1: lodeal inheritance to the last moment of their lives. The
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  Speaker 1: United States of America, however, and yet many matters of
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  Speaker 1: the highest importance to adjust. They had many descriptions of
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  Speaker 1: persons to quiet, and many circumstances connected with foreign nations
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  Speaker 1: that required diplomatic discussion, particularly with regard to the laws
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  Speaker 1: of trade and the regulation of commerce both at home
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  Speaker 1: and abroad. Before the statele form of government could either
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  Speaker 1: be adopted or organized, the army was not yet disbanded,
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  Speaker 1: and a powerful body of loyalists were retarding the completion
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  Speaker 1: of some of the articles in the Treaty of Peace,
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  Speaker 1: and embarrassing the Commander in Chief of the British Army
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  Speaker 1: by their murmurs and discontents. Sir Henry Clinton was recalled
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  Speaker 1: from the command of the King's forces in America. He
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  Speaker 1: was succeeded by Sir Guide Carleton, who was vested with
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  Speaker 1: the very extensive commission. He had the direction and government
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  Speaker 1: of all military affairs in Canada, New York, and wherever
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  Speaker 1: else the Crown of England claimed any stand in the
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  Speaker 1: United States. According to the articles of the definitive Treaty,
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  Speaker 1: all the posts held by the troops of His Britanic
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  Speaker 1: Majesty within the territories of the United States were to
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  Speaker 1: be immediately evacuated, and on the certitude of a general accommodation,
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  Speaker 1: every British and Hessian soldier was to be drawn off
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  Speaker 1: and retired from the continent. But a delay took place, which,
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  Speaker 1: in some instances we shall see was fatal to the
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  Speaker 1: peace of the United States. The British troops still occupied
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  Speaker 1: New York, though by treaty it was to have been
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  Speaker 1: relinquished on the declaration of peace. It is true, however,
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  Speaker 1: that General Carleton had usually conducted with great politeness both
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  Speaker 1: to its Congress and the commander in chief of the
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  Speaker 1: Armies of the United States. But he was himself embarrassed
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  Speaker 1: between his duty and his honor. The reasons were staying
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  Speaker 1: longer in New York than was stipulated by treaty were
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  Speaker 1: not grounded on mere plausible pretense. The principal argument offered
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  Speaker 1: by him for a non compliance with orders and delaying
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  Speaker 1: the expectation of the Americans was the obligation he thought
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  Speaker 1: Great Britain under to protect the loyalists. At the same time,
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  Speaker 1: his own mind was impressed with the necessity and justice
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  Speaker 1: of aid and support to a body of hapless men
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  Speaker 1: who ought not to be thrown by his useless garment.
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  Speaker 1: When administration no longer needed the assistance of disaffected Americans
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  Speaker 1: and refugees. End of Section twenty nine