CHAP 1776. Unsuccessful 4th June. 18th June. The general next ordered a small party to the town of Brunswick, to try the loyalty of the southern provinces, and ascertain whether they would arm in favour of Great Britain; but the lateness of the arrival at Cape Fear did not afford time for the experiment. Another expedition was undertaken by General Clinton, in conjunction with Sir Peter Parker, against Sullivan's Island, which principally protected the trade of Charlestown, in South Carolina. After some delays, the fleet reached the place of destination, and the general took possession of Long Island, on the point of which batteries of cannon and mortars were raised, and which was represented as communicating with Sullivan's by a ford passable at low water, and with the main by creeks navigable in boats of draught. On investigating the situation of the ford, Clinton found, to his great mortification, the channel, which was reported to be only eighteen inches, upwards of seven feet in depth: his operations from Long Island consequently became confined; and although his situation occasioned alarm to the enemy, yet as he had not boats for above seven hundred men, he could not attempt any important operation. He informed the commodore that there was no practicable ford, and the consequent impossibility of co-operating; but offered, when the attack should be begun, to make a diversion in the admiral's favour, or to send two battalions to act on his side, in case he and the general officer appointed to command them should be of opinion they could be protected in landing, and employed to advantage; a proposal to which no answer was returned. The defence of Sullivan's Island was conducted by Colonels Moultrie and Thomson, under the direction of General Lee, who had travelled from the main army to a spot north of the Island, where he lay encamped, and maintained a communication by a bridge of boats. The streets near the water were strongly barricaded, the stores on the wharfs pulled down, and lines of defence continued to the water's edge. In a fews days, by the labour of the inhabitants, in conjunction with some negroes from the country, such obstructions were CHAP. XXIX. raised as would greatly have embarrassed the royal This failure in an attack on one of the weakest of the colonies was extremely detrimental to the British cause; it gave additional animation to the hopes of the Americans, and perhaps sanctioned the presumption of some of their measures. Congress expressed warm approbation of the conduct of its officers; and the fort so ably and prosperously defended received the name of Moultrie. From some obscurities and adventitious mistakes in Sir Peter Parker's letter and the extract of General Clinton's dispatch, which were inserted in This circumstance is also attributed to the length of the merlons, and the lowness of the fort, which diminished the effect expected from the weight of the shot. The palmetto is a tree peculiar to the Southern states of America; it grows from 20 to 40 feet in height, without branches, and terminates in a head resembling that of a cabbage. The wood is remarkably spongy; a bullet entering makes no extended fracture, but buries itself without injuring the parts adjacent. Ramsay's History of the Revolution in South Carolina, vol. i. p. 144. 1776. CHAP. 1776. Proceedings in Congress. Efforts to attain independence. the London Gazette, attempts were made to convey censure on the conduct of the army, and fix on the general the charge of negligence, in having omitted to apprize himself of the state of the fort at a sufficiently early period. General Clinton, however, had communicated that circumstance to the commodore ten days before the attack. If his offer of placing troops on board the ships, or of making a diversion on the side of Mount Pleasant, had been accepted, undoubtedly the fort might have been secured when evacuated by the enemy; an event supposed to have been occasioned by the want of powder, which was afterward brought to them from the main land. In fact, it appears that Sir Peter Parker, from an excessive confidence in the powers of the fleet, rather undervalued, and therefore declined the co-operation of the army*. However artfully the fact might be veiled, or however strenuously denied, it could not be reasonably doubted, that, from the beginning of the contest with America, a violent and active party had been unremittingly employed in effecting a total separation between the colonies and the mother-country. Every incident which could favour this aim was assiduously cherished, and every expression which could exasperate the colonists studiously amplified. Early in the summer of 1775, Congress passed a vote that the assemblies of the several colonies should instruct their deputies relative to the independence of America. The restraints and increasing difficulties under which the advocates for separation would find themselves in the event of a protracted contest on the present terms, undoubtedly gave impulse to this premature vote. The success which attended their efforts in that campaign, diminished the apparent presumption; the proceedings in the ensuing session of Parliament were descanted on in a manner calculated to forward the intended effect; and all the resources of faction were tried to render this daring measure acceptable. In this account, beside the histories, Gazette, and periodical publications, I have consulted the Memoirs of General Lee, Ramsay's History of the Revolution in South Carolina, and have been favoured with some unpublished do cuments. CHAP. XXIX. 1776. Common The press was necessarily a principal instrument, and teemed with numerous publications. Among the most conspicuous was a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine, called Common Sense. The author had lately Publications. emigrated from England; he had no claim to the ad- sense. vantages of education, but thought and reasoned with force, and with a subtlety which was the more dangerous, as it was disguised under the semblance of unpremeditated candour. His pamphlet was replete with rough sarcastic wit, and he took a correct aim at the feelings and prejudices of those whom he intended to influence. Writing to fanatics, he drew his arguments and illustrations from the holy scriptures; his readers having no predilections for hereditary titles, distinctions to them unknown, received with applause his invectives and sneers at hereditary monarchy; a notion of increasing opulence and false calculations on their population and means of prosperity had rendered them arrogant and self-sufficient, and consequently disposed them to relish the arguments he employed to prove the absurdity of subjugating a large continent to a small island on the other side of the globe. To inflame the resentment of the Americans, every act of the British government toward them was represented in the most ungracious light; and their confidence was augmented by arguments tending to prove the necessity, advantage, and practicability of independence. This well-timed and artful publication produced effects which a more laboured eloquence would have emulated or opposed in vain, and procured numerous partisans to the cause, even among those who, but a few months before, regarded the proposition with abhorrence. Minor arts were not neglected: the mob of Philadelphia, the seat of Congress, in particular, and the lower class in all parts of the continent, were taught to clamour for this favourite object, and to treat individuals as friends or enemies, in proportion as they favoured or opposed it. Mobs. used in Con Many of the superior order were restrained by Influence fear, interest, habit, and conscience, from acceding to a plan of final separation; but those whom such motives gress. CHAP. 1776. 15th May. Recommendation to the colonies to new model their governments. Proceedings: 28th May. Philadelphia. could restrain were reserved, mild and patiently expectant of events, while their opponents were sanguine, violent, and precipitate. Pursuing the line of conduct adopted in the preceding year, Congress passed a resolution, recommending the assemblies and conventions of the united colonies, where no sufficient government had been hitherto established, to adopt such as should best conduce to the happiness and safety of their constituents, and of America in general. The reasons assigned for this vote in its preamble, were the King's conduct, in having, jointly with the two Houses of Parliament, excluded the Americans from the protection of his Crown, refused to answer their petitions, and engaged mercenaries to destroy the good people of the colonies; and it was declared irreconcileable to reason and good conscience, to take the oaths and affirmations necessary for the support of any government, under the crown of Great Britain*. This resolution, in which the King's personal conduct and authority were first formally attacked, was In Maryland. received with various sensations. In the convention of Maryland, the proposition of independency was rejected by seven counties against four; and instructions sent to the delegates in Congress to vote against it; but the same convention passed a resolution for omitting the King's name in the public prayerst. The committee of inspection for the province of Philadelphia, in an address to the assembly, observed with the deepest concern that the ground of opposition to the measures of the British ministry was totally changed; instead of forwarding reconciliation, a system was adopted tending immediately to subvert the constitution. Appealing to the declaration of Congress, that they meant not to destroy but restore the union, the committee advised the assembly religiously to observe the instructions given to the delegates in Congress, and oppose the minutest alteration of that valuable constitution, under which the people had experienced every * See the vote, Almon's Remembrancer, vol. iii. p. 136. |