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court of Moscow, and the Russian ministers never CHAP. spoke of the strife but as likely to end in American independence. Yet this coolness was not perceived 1775. by the British minister. One day Panin inquired of him the news; remembering his instructions, Gunning seized the moment to answer, that the measures in progress would shortly end the rebellion in America; then, as if hurried by excess of zeal to utter an idle, unauthorized speculation of his own, he asked leave to acquaint his king, that "in case the circumstances of affairs should render any foreign forces necessary, he might reckon upon a body of her imperial majesty's infantry." On the morning of the eighth of August, Panin reported the answer of the empress. Nothing was said specifically about troops; still less of placing Russian battalions under the command of a British general, or despatching them across the Atlantic; but she gave the strongest assurance of her entire readiness, from gratitude for favors received from England during her last war, upon this and upon every other occasion, to give the British king assistance, in whatever manner he thought proper. She charged Panin to repeat her very words, that "she found in herself an innate affection for the British nation which she should always cherish." The unobserving envoy drank in the words with delight; and interpreted a woman's lavish sentimentality as a promise of twenty thousand men to be forwarded from Asia and Eastern Europe to America. He flattered himself that he had conducted the negotiation with delicacy and success, and that the proposal, which was flying on the winds to other courts, was a secret to everybody but Panin and the empress.

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The reply to Bunker Hill from England reached Washington before the end of September; and the 1775. manifest determination of the ministers to push the Sept. war by sea and land with the utmost vigor, removed

from his mind every doubt of the necessity of independence. Such, also, was the conclusion of Greene; and the army was impatient when any of the chaplains prayed for the king. The general congress had less sagacity. It should have assembled on the fifth of September; but for eight days more there were too few delegates for the transaction of business.

The whole province of Georgia was now represented, and henceforward the confederacy never embraced less than thirteen members. The war developed the germ of a state that was to include both slopes of the Green Mountains, whose people fought with the army of the continent under officers of their own election; but the pretensions of New York to jurisdiction over their territory forbade as yet their recognition as a separate political body.

From the new commonwealth which was rising on the west of Virginia, an agent soon presented himself. The adventurers in that region spread the fame of the healthfulness of its climate, the wonderful goodness of its ranges for all kinds of game, and the seemingly miraculous fertility of the soil where it was underlaid by limestone; and they already foretold the great city that was to rise at the falls of the Ohio. Their representative discussed in private the foundation on which the swiftly growing settlements of Kentucky should rest; and received advice from their northern well-wishers to reserve that "most agreeable country" exclusively for the free. The ter

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ritorial claim of Virginia barred against him the doors CHAP. of congress, but the affection of the West flowed in a full current towards the Union.

The "inexpressibly distressing" situation of Washington demanded instant and earnest attention; but the bias of the continental congress was to inactivity. The intercepted letters of John Adams, in which he had freely unbosomed his complaints of its tardiness, and had justly thrown blame on "the piddling genius," as he phrased it, of Dickinson, were approved by many; but Dickinson himself was unfor giving; wounded in his self-love and vexed by the ridicule thrown on his system, from this time he resisted independence with a morbid fixedness. He brushed past John Adams in the street without returning his salutation; and the New England statesman encountered also the hostility of the proprietary party and of social opinion in Philadelphia, and the distrust even of some of the delegates from the South. At times, an "unhappy jealousy of New England" broke forth; but when a member insinuated distrust of its people, "as artful and designing men, altogether pursuing selfish purposes," Gadsden, of South Carolina, said in their defence: "I only wish we would imitate, instead of abusing, them. I thank God we have such a systematic body of men, as an asylum that honest men may resort to in the time of their last distress, if driven out of their own states; so far from being under any apprehensions, I bless God there is such a people in America."

Harmony was maintained only by acquiescence in the policy of Dickinson. From Pittsburg, Lewis Morris of New York and James Wilson of Penn

1775

Sept.

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CHAP. Sylvania, the commissioners, recommended an expedition to take Detroit: the proposal, after a full dis1775. cussion, was rejected; but the invasion of Canada, by Sept. way of the Chaudière and of Isle aux Noix, was approved; and delegates from a convention of the several parishes of Canada would have been a welcome accession. Much time was spent in wrangling about small expenditures. The prohibition by parliament of the fisheries of New England and the restriction on the trade of the southern colonies, went into effect on the twentieth of July: as a measure of counteraction, the ports of America should have been thrown open; but though secret directions were given for importing powder and arms from "the foreign West Indies," the committee on trade was not appointed till the twenty second of September; and then they continued day after day, hesitating to act. The prospect of financial ruin led De Hart, of New Jersey, to propose to do away with issuing paper money by the provincial conventions and assemblies; but no one seconded him. The boundary line between Virginia and Pennsylvania was debated; as well as the right of Connecticut to hold possession of Wyoming. The roll of the army at Cambridge had, from its first formation, borne the names of men of color; but as yet without the distinct sanction of legislative approval. On the twenty sixth, Edward Rutledge, of South Carolina, moved the discharge of all the negroes in the army, and he was strongly supported by many of the southern delegates; but the opposition was so powerful and so determined that "he lost his point."

At length, came a letter from Washington, imply

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1775.

ing his sense that the neglect of congress had brought CHAP. matters in his army to a crisis. Not powder and artillery only were wanting, but fuel, shelter, clothing, pro- Sept. visions, and the soldiers' pay; and, while a great part of the troops were not free from mutiny, by the terms of their enlistment all of them, except the riflemen, were to be disbanded in December. For this state of things, congress could provide no adequate remedy. On the thirtieth of September, they therefore appointed Franklin, Lynch, and Harrison, a committee to repair to the camp, and, with the New England colonies and Washington, to devise a method for renovating the army.

While the committee were on the way, Gage, Oct. on the tenth of October, embarked for England, bearing with him the large requirements of Howe, his successor, which he warmly seconded. The king, the ministers, public opinion in England had made very free with his reputation; but, on his arrival, he was allowed to wear a bolder front than he had shown in Massachusetts, and was dismissed into retirement with the rank and emoluments of his profession. To Howe, the new commander-in-chief, the ministers had sent instructions, which permitted and advised the transfer of the war to New York; but, from the advanced state of the season, and the want of sufficient transports, he decided to winter at Boston, which place he did not doubt his ability to hold.

On the fifteenth of October, the committee from congress arrived at the camp. Franklin, who was its soul, brought with him the conviction that the American people, though they might be made to suffer, could