latter is our choice. We have counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery. Our cause is just, our union is perfect, our internal resources are great, and, if necessary, foreign assistance is undoubtedly attainable. Before God and the world, we declare that the arms we have been compelled by our enemies to assume we will employ for the preservation of our liberties; being, with one mind, resolved to die free men rather than live slaves. We have not raised armies with designs of separating from Great Britain and establishing independent states. Necessity has not yet driven us into that desperate measure. We exhibit to mankind the spectacle of a people attacked by unprovoked enemies, without any imputation or even suspicion of offence. In our own native land, in defence of the freedom that is our birthright, for the protection of our property against violence actually offered, we have taken up arms. We shall lay them down when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, and all danger of their being renewed shall be removed, and not before."

Of this paper, the author from the first word to the last was Dickinson.* The second petition to the king, written likewise by him, thus proposed a negotiation to be preceded by a truce: “We beseech your majesty to direct some mode by which the united applications of your faithful colonists to the throne, in pursuance of their common councils, may be improved into a happy and permanent reconciliation; and that, in the mean time, measures may be taken for preventing the further destruction of the lives of your majesty's subjects, and that such statutes as more immediately distress any of your majesty's colonies may be repealed."

The United Colonies next set forth to the inhabitants of Great Britain, as countrymen and brothers, that the repeal of the laws of which they complained must go before the disbanding of their army, or the renewal of commerce. On the same day thanks were addressed to the lord mayor, aldermen, and livery of London, for their unsolicited sympathy.

Richard Penn, one of the proprietaries of Pennsylvania

Through the good offices of G. H. Moore, I have examined the original MS. It is from the first line to the last, with all the amendments, in the handwriting of Dickinson, and precludes the idea that the close was drawn by any hand but his own.

and recently its governor, a most loyal Englishman, bound by the strongest motives of interest to avert American independence, was selected to bear the second petition to the throne. He assumed the trust with alacrity, and on the twelfth of July embarked on his mission. The hope of success grew out of the readiness of the Americans, on the condition of exemption from parliamentary taxation, to bear the restraints on their trade; or, as an alternative, to purchase a freedom of trade like that of Scotland by taxing themselves toward the payment of the national debt.

On the third of July, Washington rode forth from his quarters at Cambridge, numerously attended, and took command of the continental army. A favorable opinion had gone before him; but his presence was greater than his fame. The provincial congress at Watertown welcomed him in a cordial address. Greene and the Rhode Island officers manifested affectionate confidence. Promises of mutual reliance, which were never broken, were exchanged with Trumbull, the governor of Connecticut.

The camp contained a people in arms, rather than an army. No one could tell precisely its numbers or the state of its stores. The soldiers had enlisted under different agreements, and for periods indefinite but short. Each colony had its own rules of military government and its own system of supplies; and the term of service of the men, who were for the most part freeholders and the sons of freeholders, was fixed by specific covenants. Gates, the adjutant-general, entered immediately on his duties and found abundant occupation in bringing the incoherent regiments of novices into order, for the mutation in the troops was incessant and made the renewal of instruction equally so. Happily his temperament and manners adapted him to the duty, and he contrived in a wonderfully short time to give to their parades a decent appearance.

*

While a return of the state of the army was preparing, Washington visited the American posts and reconnoitred those of the enemy. Of Charlestown nothing was to be seen but chimneys and rubbish. Above the ruins rose the tents of British forces, strongly posted on Bunker Hill, with a redoubt * MS. of Grayson, an early aide-de-camp of Washington.

on Breed's Hill, and sentries extending beyond Charlestown neck. The light-horse and a few troops were in Boston; the largest part of the British army was deeply intrenched on Roxbury neck.

Of the inhabitants of Boston, six thousand seven hundred and fifty-three remained in the town, deprived of wholesome food; confined to their houses after ten o'clock in the evening; liable to be robbed without redress; ever exposed to the malice of the soldiers and chidden for tears as proofs of disloyalty.

The British land force, weakened on the retreat from Concord, at Bunker Hill, in skirmishes, from sickness, and by desertion, had no more than sixty-five hundred effective rank and file. But these were the choicest troops; and had dominion of the water.

Washington found the American army dispersed in a semicircle from the west end of Dorchester to Malden, a distance of nine miles. At Roxbury where Thomas commanded, a strong work, planned by Knox and Waters, crowned the hill, and secured the pass. The centre of the army was with Ward at Cambridge, its lines reaching from the colleges almost to the river. Putnam, with four thousand men, lay intrenched on Prospect Hill. The sentinels and smaller posts stretched beyond Malden river. Apart, in a thick wood, near where the Charles enters the bay, stood the wigwams of about fifty domiciliated Indians of the Stockbridge tribe, who were on a visit to the camp. They were armed with bows and arrows, as well as guns, and accompanied by their squaws and little ones.

As to the employment of red men, congress, on the twelfth of July, declared "their intention to seek only a neutrality of the Indian nations unless the ministerial agents should engage them in hostilities or in an offensive alliance."

The American rolls promised seventeen thousand men, but there were never more than fourteen thousand five hundred fit for duty. In dress there was no uniformity. The companies from Rhode Island were furnished with tents, and had the appearance of regular troops; others filled the college halls, the Episcopal church, and private houses; the fields were strown with lodges, of which some were constructed of boards, or sail-cloth, or partly of both; others of stone and turf, or of

birch and other brush. Some were thrown up in a careless hurry; others were curiously wrought with doors and windows, woven out of withes and reeds. The mothers, wives, brothers or sisters of the soldiers were constantly coming to the camp with supplies of clothing and household gifts. Eloquent chaplains kept alive the custom of daily prayer and weekly sermons. The habit of inquisitiveness and self-direction, and the equality of life at home between the officers and privates, stood in the way of military discipline.

In the "great number of able-bodied men, active, zealous in the cause, and of unquestionable courage," Washington saw the materials for a good army. "If the officers will but do their duty," said Hawley, "there is no fear of the soldiery." Of incompetent officers, Washington, by a prompt use of courts-martial, made many examples. His strong and uniform will was exerted with a quiet energy. Every day, Sundays not excepted, thousands were kept at work from four till eleven in the morning strengthening the lines, and fortifying every point which could serve the enemy as a landing-place. "There are many things amiss in this camp," said the chaplain Emerson; "yet, upon the whole, God is in the midst of us."

Lee had not been many days in the camp before he showed a disposition to treat with the British generals in Boston. From Philadelphia he had, in June, addressed to Burgoyne, his old comrade in Portugal, a public letter on American taxation by parliament and the corrupt influence of the crown. Burgoyne in reply invited Lee to "an interview" within the British lines, for "such explanations as might tend to peace;" saying: "I know Great Britain is ready to open her arms upon the first overture of accommodation." Clutching at the office of a negotiator, Lee requested the Massachusetts congress to depute one of their body to be a witness of what should pass. They dissuaded from the meeting, and referred him to a council of war for further advice. Thwarted in his purpose, Lee publicly declined to meet Burgoyne, but clandestinely assured him "upon his honor that the Americans had the certainty of being sustained by France and Spain." This treacherous assurance was reported to the British secretary of state for the colonies.

On the fifteenth the army of Cambridge heard Langdon,

VOL. IV.-16

the president of Harvard college, read the declaration by the continental congress for taking up arms, and they interpreted it to mean that the Americans would never sheathe the sword till their grievances were redressed to their utmost wishes.

In conformity to the direction of the continental congress, the people of Massachusetts, holding town-meetings according to their usage and their charter, chose a house of representatives. The wanderers from Boston, many of whom had not seen each other since they left their homes, came together at Concord, where they held their Boston town-meeting and elected representatives. On the nineteenth the provincial congress dissolved itself forever; and the new house of representatives began the restoration of government by choosing James Warren of Plymouth as its speaker. Two days later the council of twenty-eight was elected, and, preserving its concurrent legislative power, assumed all executive authority. Bowdoin, whose name stood first on the list of councillors, was made their president. His health was infirm; but he accepted the post, manifesting his zeal by this conspicuous act of what Britain esteemed overt treason. The seal of the commonwealth was changed into an Anglo-American, holding a drawn sword, with the motto: "Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem," "With the sword he seeks placid rest under liberty." Forty thousand pounds were assessed on polls and estates; and authority was given to issue one hundred thousand more in bills of public credit, varying in amount from forty shillings to

one.

"Congress and committees rule every province," said Gage. On the twenty-fourth he wrote home that Boston was "the most disadvantageous place for all operations ;" and he wished himself at New York.

All the time parties of Americans kept up continual skirmishes, cut off all supplies to the beleaguered army by land, cleared the islands in Boston harbor of stores of sheep, hay, cattle, and ripe grain, and destroyed the light-house in Boston harbor. When a party of carpenters and guard of marines attempted to repair the light-house, volunteers from two New England villages killed or captured them all, and were praised by Washington in general orders for their gallant conduct.