LVIII. Jan. tained that Clinton was about to embark from Bos- CHAP. ton, with troops, on a southern expedition, of which New York was believed to be the object; at the 1776. same time Lee, whose claim to "the character of a military genius and the officer of experience" had not as yet been even suspected to be "false," desired to be detached from the army, that he might collect volunteers in Connecticut to secure New York and expel the tories, or "crush those serpents before their rattles were grown ;" and he urged the measure upon Washington, whether it exceeded his authority or not. After consulting John Adams, who was then with the provincial convention at Watertown, and who pronounced the plan to be practicable, expedient, and clearly authorized, Washington, uninformed of the measures already adopted, gave his consent to the request of Lee, expressly charging him to "keep always in view the declared intention of congress," and to communicate with the New York committee of safety; to whom he also wrote, soliciting their cooperation. The proposed measure would have been warmly seconded, had its execution been entrusted to an officer who respected the civil authority; but Lee drove on under the sole guidance of his own judg ment and self-will. As soon as he arrived in Connecticut, he found that Waterbury, obeying the countermand of the general congress, had disbanded his regiment; railing at congress for indecision, and cursing the provincial congress of New York, he forwarded no communication to the committee of safety of that colony, while he persuaded the governor and council of Connecticut not only to reassemble the regiment LVIII. Jan. CHAP. of Waterbury, but to call out another under Ward. In this manner Lee, who had never commanded so 1776. much as one regiment before he entered the American army, found himself in the separate command of two. Following his constant maxim, he usurped authority which he perfectly well knew did not belong to him, and appointed Sears assistant adjutant general with the rank of lieutenant colonel. The tidings that Lee, with nearly fifteen hundred men of Connecticut, was advancing upon New York, without so much as intimating his design to its committee, or its inhabitants, offended the pride of the province, and increased a jealousy which afterwards proved unfavorable to federation. According to the American principle of the right of resistance, the wish to resort to force in New York must spring from within itself, and not be superimposed from abroad: Washington scrupulously respected the civil authority of each colony, as well as of the congress; Lee scoffed at the thought of being rigidly bound by either; and his movement seemed to have for its end to coerce New York, rather than to offer it his cooperation. The committee of safety, conscious of their readiness to devote their city as a sacrifice to the cause of America, despatched a messenger to Lee to request that the troops of Connecticut might not pass the border, till the purpose of their coming should be explained. Lee made a jest of the letter, as "wofully hysterical." He treated it as a sign of fear; and in his reply, he declared that "if the ships of war should make a pretext of his presence to fire on the town, the first house set in flames by their guns should be the funeral pile of some of their best friends;" and added, in his rant, that he would "chain one hundred CHAP. of them together by the neck." LVIII. Feb. Both parties appealed to the general congress; 1776. and on motion of Edward Rutledge and Duane, Harrison, Lynch, and Allen, were sent from that body with powers of direction. On the first day of February the three envoys met the committee of New York, when John Morin Scott said for himself and his colleagues: "Our duty to our constituents and their dignity forbid the introduction of troops without our consent; but we will always obey the orders of congress;" and they were satisfied with the assurance, that the troops would be under the control of the committee of the continental congress. On the fourth, Lee entered the city of New York, just two hours after Clinton anchored in its harbor. Troops from the Jerseys and from Connecticut at the same time marched into town, and a transport, with two companies of British infantry and some Highlanders, came up to the docks. In the general consternation, women and children were removed from the city which for seven years to come was to know no peace; all the wagons that could be found were employed in transporting valuable effects; the flight in winter was attended with peculiar danger and distress; the opulent knew not where to find shelter; the poor, thrown upon the cold hands of exhausted charity in the interior towns and the Jerseys, suffered from a series of complicated wants. Both parties wished to delay extreme measures; Clinton pledged his honor that for the present no more British troops were coming, and said openly that he himself was on his way to North Carolina. But the work of CHAP. defence was not given up by the Americans; under the LVIII. harmonizing influence of the continental committee, 1776. Lee and the New York committee held friendly con Feb. ferences; the whole people showed a wonderful alacrity; and men and boys of all ages toiled with the greatest zeal and pleasure. To control the commerce of the Sound, a fortification was raised at Hellgate; on a height west of Trinity church, a battery was erected fronting the North River; that part of the old fort which faced Broadway was torn down; Lee and Lord Stirling, crossing to Long Island, marked out the ground for an intrenched camp, extending from the Wallabout to Gowanus Bay, and spacious enough to hold four thousand men; the connection between Long Island and New York was secured by a battery of forty guns at the foot of Wall street, and another of twenty guns a little further to the south. It was fondly hoped that the proposed fortifications would prove impregnable; the ships of war, without firing a gun, removed to the bay; and this state of peace and of confidence confirmed the preconceived notion of Lee's superior ability. The charm of exercising a separate command wrought a change in his caprices; and he who two months before had scorned the Americans as unworthy to aspire after independence, was now loud in praise of the doctrines of "Common Sense," and repudiated the thought of reconciliation with Britain, unless "the whole ministry should be condignly punished, and the king beheaded or dethroned." แ His zeal and his seeming success concentred upon. him public confidence. 'Canada," said Washington, "will be a fine field for the exertion of your ad LVIII. Feb. mirable talents, but your presence will be as neces- CHAP. sary in New York." In like manner Franklin wrote: "I am glad you are come to New York; but I also 1776. wish you could be in Canada;" and on the nineteenth the congress destined him to "that most arduous service." John Adams, who had counselled his expedition to New York, wrote to him complacently, "that a luckier or a happier one had never been projected;" and added: "We want you at New York; we want you at Cambridge; we want you in Virginia; but Canada seems of more importance, and therefore you are sent there. I wish you the laurels of Wolfe and Montgomery, with a happier fate." Elated by such homage, Lee indulged his natural propensities, and made bold to ask money of the New York congress; "two thousand dollars at the least," said he; "if you could make it twenty five hundred it would be more convenient to me;" and they allowed him the gratuity. "When I leave this place," so he wrote to Washington on the last day of February, the "provincial congress and inhabitants will relapse into their hysterics; the men-of-war will return to their wharfs, and the first regiments from England will take quiet possession of the town." Those about him chimed in with his revilings. "Things will never go well," said Waterbury, “unless the city of New York is crushed down by the Connecticut people;" and Sears set no bounds to his contumelious abuse of the committee of New York and its convention. On the first of March, after a warm contest among Mar. the delegates of various colonies, each wishing to have him where they had most at stake, on the motion of |