XVII. 1776. This DECLARATION was received in every воок part of the continent with the loudest acclamations of applause. Amongst the most enraptured in this glorious moment of enthusiasm, was the heroic and romantic Lee, who, at this period, writing to Patrick Henry, esq. governor of Virginia, thus exultingly expresses himself: "The reveries which I considered as mere golden castles built in the air, at length bid fair for being realized. We shall now most probably see a mighty empire established of freemen, whose honour, property, and military glories, are not to be at the disposal of a sceptred tyrant, nor the pen of a ministerial writer, under the undisguised sanction of government, which, with unabated pride and undiminished folly, speaking through this medium, says, " Ill would it become the DIGNITY of an insulted sovereign to descend to altercation with revolted subjects. Easy as it were to refute the calumnies contained in that audacious paper, it could not be expected that his majesty or ministers should CONDESCEND to give it any answer."-In reply to the dreadful charge of exciting the Indian savages to take up the hatchet against the colonists, an explicit and daring avowal is made, " that since force is become necessary, it matters not whether the instrument be a German or a Calmuck, a Russian or a Mohawk." Thus it appears from the courtly representation of this favored writer, " that the king of Great Britain, rather than recede an iota from his novel and unconstitutional claims, rather than revoke a single act of contumely or oppression, would without hesitation deliver up a whole continent to the unutterable horrors of Indian and Tartarian barbarity, converting in his ireful mood the most flourishing country 1 XVIL BOOK their consciences to be fettered by a proud do✓ mineering hierarchy. Every faculty of the soul 1776. will now be put in motion; every spark of ability which every individual possesses will now be brought forth, and form the common aggregate for the advantage and honour of the community." By advice of the new American minister, lord George Germaine, the chief command of the vast naval and military force now collected for the subjugation of America was entrusted to the HowEs, brothers of the gallant nobleman who so gloriously fell in the defence of the colo upon earth into one mighty waste, the eternal abode of solitude and desolation."-" Flattered from their cradles," says a noble writer (lord Chesterfield), "the hearts of kings are corrupt, and their heads are turned; so that they seem to be a species by themselves, No KING ever said to himself, Homo sum; humani nihil à me alienum puto." And Mr. Burke, who has since taken so much pains to unlearn his former notions, has told us, "that a king is ever surrounded with a crowd of infamous flatterers, who find their account in keeping him from the least light of reason, till all ideas of rectitude and justice are erased from his mind." And he scruples not to say, "that, judging upon sure and uncon tested principles, the greatest part of the governments on earth must be concluded tyrannies, impostures, violations of the natural rights of mankind, and worse than the most disorderly anarchy." By what species of unparalleled effrontery can this writer accuse and denounce another for pro claiming usurpers by circles of latitude and longitude over the whole globe!!! i XVIL. nies in the former war at Ticonderoga. "Ате-во0K XVII. 1776. Book fort, such as yet remained, for effecting an accommodation; though so limited were his powers, that it was in fact of very immaterial consequence whether his arrival proceeded or succeeded the declaration. On his arrival off the coast, his lordship had sent ashore by a flag to Amboy a circular letter addressed to the governors of the different colonies, acquainting them with his appointment as commissioner, in conjunction with the general, together with a declaration to the inhabitants. Copies of these papers were sent by general Washington to the congress, who immediately resolved, "that they be published in the several gazettes, in order that the good people of the United States might be apprised of what nature are the commissions, and what the terms with the expectation of which the insidious court of Great Britain has endeavoured to amuse and disarm them." Some days after this, adjutant-general Paterson was deputed by general Howe with a message to general Washington, stating, that the commissioners were invested with great powers, that they would derive the greatest pleasure from effecting an accommodation, and wished this visit to be considered as the first advance towards that desirable object. General Washington replied, "that, by what had transpired, their powers extended merely to the granting of par XVII. dons; that those who had been guilty of no BOOK fault wanted no pardon; and that they were only defending what they deemed their indis- 1776. putable rights." Both sides now prepared seriously for action; and the general, being joined by the far greater part of his expected reinforcements, found himself at the head of 30,000 veteran troops, supported by a formidable fleet, composing together a far superior force to any that had ever before been seen in the New World employed in the same service. On the 22d of August, 1776, the whole army being re-embarked, was safely landed, under protection of the shipping, on the south-western extremity of Long Island, an extensive and fertile tract; on the opposite side of which, in view of the island and city of New York, lay encamped, near the village of Brooklyn, a large body of Americans commanded by general Sullivan. His lines extended on the left to the East River, which separated him from New York; he was defended by a marsh and an inlet of the sea called Gowan's Cove on the right; and to the rear of the encampment was an open bay, bounded by a small island, known by the name of Governor's Island. Between the armies was a range of hills covered with wood, intersecting the country from east to west: through these hills are three passes, onc to the westward called |