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Chapter 8 - part 2 · History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution

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  Section twenty eight of History the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution,
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  Volume one. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot
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  org. History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution,
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  Volume one by Mercy Otis Warren. Chapter eight, Part two. Calling in
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  the aid of foreigners and introducing a large body of German mercenaries in British Bay
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  to settle a domestic quarrel with the colonies was mortified to the pride and valor
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  of every uncorrupted Englishman, but the torrent of secret influence was irresistible. The
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  expensive system was precipitated. Prerogative in conquest was the Ministery of creed power the
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  princely object, and on the appropriatory speech of the monarch. When all was
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  at hazard, the repeated coolness that bordered on apathy, silence, and submission
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  were enjoined on the friends of America in the House of Commons, and the
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  liberty of writing their names and witnessing their uneasiness by their own signature was all
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  the consolation of the protesting lords. While these important questions were in agitation.
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  Footnote on the Prohibitory, the Restraining Act, the Interdiction of Trade, and
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  all other co earths have built. The usual raid of voices in favor of
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  them was from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty. The number
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  of the minority of seldom more than thirty or forty. When they amounted to
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  forty, it was thought a considerable acquisition, and the footnote The debates in
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  Parliament relative to colonial measures, the King's Speech and the rejection of the late
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  petition of the Continental Congress arrived in America before the month of March one thousand,
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  seven hundred and seventy six. These were accompanied with the intelligence of the
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  Hessian Treaty, and that foreign auxiliaries when various other nations, were to be
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  employed in the compulsory system, and that the barbarous strangers were to assist in
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  the entire subjucation of the colonies, if not otherwise reduced to unworthy submission.
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  On this information, the indignation of all ranks could scarcely be described. The
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  King's speech was condemned in order to be print in the center of the camp
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  at Cambridge. The Wavering were resolved, the timid grew bold, The placid
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  and philosophic lovers of peace left the retired haunts of literary felicity, and beneath
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  the helmet and the buckler quoted the post of danger. Vigorous action was now
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  the only line of conduct to be observed through every department, previous to any
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  other movement. It was judged important that the British forces should be immediately removed
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  from their stronghold in the town of Boston, lest the work should be rendered
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  for difficult on the arrival of fresh troops from Great Britain now dearly expected.
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  General Washington, sensible of this necessity, and that no more time was to
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  be lost, opened a severe cannonade on the western side, not far distant
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  from the town on the evening of the fourth of March. This was designed
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  rather to divert attention within the walls than for any important consequences expected from this
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  maneuver. Without the Americans kept up a constant fire through the night, or
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  several smaller works were erected for the annoyance of the besieged, but the principal
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  effect was expected from the heights of Dorchester by the greatest industry and despatch.
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  A strong battery, very unexpectedly to the enemy, appeared there on the morning
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  of the fifth, from whence the Americans played their artillery with ease on the
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  town. The assailants, under the direction of General Thomas, erected and extended
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  their works in such a judicious manner as to command the peninsula leading to Boston,
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  Castle William, and at the same time a considerable part of the harbor.
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  General Howe, mortified that such an advantageous post should have been so long
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  neglected by himself, and astonished at the appearance of such strong and defensible works,
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  rising as were in a night without noise or alarm in that quarter,
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  did not long hesitate on the part necessary fail to act. In this critical
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  conjuncture. There remained no alternative between a bold and vigorous attempt to dislodge the
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  Americans or an immediate evacuation of the town. To fly on the first appearance
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  of danger was humiliating to the pride of the soldier, lessening his military honor,
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  and sinking the dignity of the commander in chief. A choice of difficulties
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  lay before him. He was short of provisions. The soldiers had become discontented
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  with the service and fatigued with continual watching. An immediate retreat might appear to
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  him less disgraceful than the consequences of resistance under many apparent disadvantages. On the
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  other hand, she grunted the idea drawing off seven or eight thousand of the
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  best troops the King his master had in service without striking a blow, and
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  relinquishing the only American town they then had in possession to the undisciplined peasantry of
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  the country was still a more humiliating thought. From these considerations, he made
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  all possible preparation to dislodge the American troops the evening after they were discovered on
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  the heights of Dorchester, but the intervention of the elements disconcerted his operations.
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  A tremendous storm of wind and rain prevented the dangerous enterprise and saved the expense
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  of much blood. General, Howe, finding his design impracticable, in consequence
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  of this disappointment, ordered an embarkation to begin as soon as the tempest should
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  subside, But, embarrassed by a crowd of refugees and other delinquents, who
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  conscious they could not rely on their country for safety had thrown themselves on his
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  protection, encumbered with women, children, furniture, soldiers, officers, and
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  camp equipage. The inconveniences and dangers of a voyage at the equinoxial season,
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  the sterility of the country, and the coldness of the clime to which he
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  must repair with a discontented army and a group of miserable, disappointed tories,
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  rendered the situation of the British commander in chief truly pitiable. Footnote General Howe
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  went from Boston to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and a footnote to add to
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  the confusion of the scene. The strict disarmed did not exist between the officers
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  of the army and navy. This increased the difficulty of accommodation on this unexpected
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  emergency, when so many useless persons claimed protection and subsistence. When the Americans
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  saw the British troops about to depart, they did not offer to impede their
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  design in the smallest degree. The cannonade was suspended, and they beheld with
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  an eye of compassion the extraordinary immigration of some hundreds of disaffected Americans, whom
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  they suffered to depart with this successless army without a wish to retard their flight.
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  These unhappy people took with them such of their effects as the hurry of
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  the occasion, and their military masters would permit General Washington with a few troops
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  enter Boston with the insigns of triumph displayed, and beheld the rear of the
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  panic struck army of Britain, precipitately flying from a town that had long been
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  the object of ministerial vengeance. This bloodless victory on the one side, and
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  the disgraceful flight on the other, was viewed with pleasure and surprise, or
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  with astonishment and grief, in proportion to the political hopes and fears that agitated
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  the various parties, who all considered the transactions of the day replete with important
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  consequences. Every mark of respect was externally shown to General Washington, even by
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  those who were not well affected to the cause in which he was engaged.
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  Many of this class, more culpable than some who went off with the British
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  Army, chose to stay and cast themselves on the mercy of their countrymen,
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  rather than to hazard the dangers of a voyage, the laws of property,
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  and a separation from their families. Some much less criminal than these, and
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  many really inoffensive persons suddenly, struck with imaginary fears, abandoned the habitations in
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  their country, which by a little address they might quietly have possessed. Several
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  very doubtful characters not only acted with decent cibility and condescension, but confidently assumed
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  merit to themselves as friends of the revolution. Some of these were afterwards promoted
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  to places and offices of high trust. Indeed, the loyalists in general,
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  who stayed in Boston and chose to run all hazards rather than quit their native
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  country, experienced much clemency from the opposite party. Yet perhaps not in the
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  full latitude that policy might have dictated. But the impressions of danger and insult
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  to which the victors had long been exposed operated more powerfully in the minds of
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  men than the laws of forgiveness or the distant view of political consequences. Thus
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  the kind of inquisitorial court was erected in Boston, and some persons more warm
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  than discreet, and more zealous than judicious, were appointed to decide on the
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  criminality of state delinquents, several of whom were judged to punishments rather ridiculous than
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  severe. This step tended only to strengthen the alienation of those who had,
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  either from interest, treachery, timidity, or passion for the splendor of monarchy,
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  enlisted under the banners of royalty without any fixed principles in religion or politics.
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  Had the new government at this period passed an Act of indemnity and Oblivion
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  and proclaimed pardon to all who had incurred the public resentment, excepting a few
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  who had notoriously deserved proscription, it is probable many would have returned to the
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  bosom of their country and become faithful subjects to the United States when they could
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  have done it without the imputation of being rebels to their sovereign. This consideration
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  before the Declaration of Independence had a conscientious influence on the minds of some who
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  disapproved of the ministerial encroachments yet scrupled the right of resistance or the legal subjects
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  of the British Crown. But the line of separation soon after drawn, the
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  doubts of many well disposed persons were entirely dissipated. After the evacuation of Boston,
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  the succession of important events was too rapid for the mind to dwell long
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  on single incidents. It remained for some time uncertain that the British Army and
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  Navy would next direct their operations. Though they sailed immediately for Halifax, it
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  was only to disembark their useless hands and secure rendezvous until fresh reinforcements should arrive
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  from England. The situation of the Southern colonies at this time commanded the attention
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  of every well wisher to the American cause. Some time before the British troops
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  left Boston, General Clinton had been sent southward to the assistance of Governor Martin
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  and Lord William Campbell. We have seen them. Before they left their governments.
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  They had instigated a number of the back settlers in the Carolinas to create
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  disturbances. These people, formerly agreed by their own government, had styled themselves
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  regulators, had embodied for opposition, had resisted authority, and had suffered severely.
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  They were now persuaded that the same persons who had some years before oppressed
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  them were at this time in rebellion against their sovereign. This opinion was strengthened
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  by Governor Martin, who kept up the correspondence with their leaders and invited them
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  to repair to the Royal standard at Brunswick, where they should be supported by
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  a large body of the King's troops. Though as absurd these people had been
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  compelled to submission and had remained quiet a number of years, yet their old
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  antipathies were not obliterated. Ignorant of the causes of the general uneasiness of the
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  colonies, and mistaken in character, they united under the very men who had
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  formerly exercised every severity against them and their leaders footnote, particularly a Colonel Fanning,
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  a violent partisan of the Crown, who had been in the former insurrection,
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  the executioner of most of their principal leaders without even the form of a
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  trial, and the footnote. These were joined by the Highlanders who had migrated
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  in Shoals after the rebellion in Scotland in one thousand, seven hundred and forty
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  five. They had suffered too much not to dread a second opposition to the
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  authority the King of England. These descriptions of men were for a time very
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  troublesome on the southern borders, more particularly of North Carolina. But by the
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  spirit and activity of some continental troops under the command of Brigader General Moore,
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  the whole party was defeated. Their commanding officer MacDonald and most of their other
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  officers imprisoned. The unhappy remnant, who escaped imprisonment or death, retreated to
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  the woods, and all whope were viewed from this quarter was extinguished before the
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  arrival of Sir Henry Clinton at Cape Fear. As soon as it was discovered
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  at Cambridge that General Clinton had left Boston, General Lee was ordered to set
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  forward to observe his manouvers and prepare to meet him with advantage in any part
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  of the continent he might think proper to visit. No man was better qualified
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  at this early stage of the war to penetrate the designs or to face in
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  the field and experienced British veteran than General Lee. He had been an officer
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  of character in rank of the late War between England and France. Footnote he
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  had served with reputation in Portugal under the command of the Count de l'alpe,
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  and the footnote fearless of danger and fond of glory. It was calculated for
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  the field without any of the graces that recommend the soldier to the circles of
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  the polite. He was plain in his person even to ugliness, and careless
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  in his manners to a degree of rudeness. He possessed a bold genius in
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  an unconquerable spirit. His voice was rough, his garb ordinary, his deportment
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  morose. A considerable traveler, and well acquainted with most of the European nations,
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  he was frequently agreeable in narration, and judicious and entertaining in observation.
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  Disgusted with the ministerial system, and more so with this sovereign who authorized it.
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  He cherished the American cause from motives of resentment and a predilection in favor
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  of freedom, more than from a just sense of the rights of mankind and
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  of Section twenty eight