History of the Origin, Formation, and Adoption of the Constitution of the United States Volume I Part 2

1775-1776.

THE SECOND CONTINENTAL CONGRESS.--FORMATION AND CHARACTER OF THE REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT.--APPOINTMENT OF A COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF.--FIRST ARMY OF THE REVOLUTION.

A new Continental Congress a.s.sembled at Philadelphia on the 10th of May, 1775; and in order to observe the growth of the Union, it is necessary to trace the organization of this body, and to describe briefly the kind of sovereignty which it exercised, from the time of its a.s.sembling until the adoption and promulgation of the Declaration of Independence.[24]

The delegates to this Congress were chosen partly by the popular branch of such of the colonial legislatures as were in session at the time, the choice being afterwards ratified by conventions of the people; but they were princ.i.p.ally appointed by conventions of the people held in the various colonies. All these appointments, except those made in New York, took place before the battle of Lexington, and most of them had been made in the course of the previous winter.[25] The credentials of the delegates, therefore, while they conferred authority to adopt measures to recover and establish American rights, still expressed, in many instances, a desire for the restoration of harmony between Great Britain and her colonies. In some cases, however, this desire was not expressed, but a naked authority was granted, to consent and agree to all such measures as the Congress should deem necessary and effectual to obtain a redress of American grievances.

When this Congress a.s.sembled, it seems to have been tacitly a.s.sumed that each colony should continue to have one vote through its delegation actually present. All the thirteen colonies were represented at the opening of the session, except Georgia and Rhode Island. Three days after the session commenced, a delegate appeared from the Parish of St.

Johns in Georgia, who was admitted to a seat, but did not claim the right of voting for the colony. On the 15th of May, a delegation from Rhode Island appeared and took their seats.

The credentials of the delegates contained no limitation of their powers with respect to time, with the exception of those from Ma.s.sachusetts and South Carolina, whose authority was not to extend beyond the end of the year. The Congress continued in session until the 1st of August, and then adjourned for a recess to the 5th of September. When they were again a.s.sembled, the delegations of several of the colonies were renewed, with different limitations as to their time of service. Georgia sent a full delegation, who took their seats on the 13th of September.

Still later, the delegations of several other colonies were renewed from time to time, and this practice was pursued both before and after the Declaration of Independence, thus rendering the Congress a permanent body.[26]

Notwithstanding the absence of any express authority in their instructions to enter upon revolutionary measures, the circ.u.mstances under which the Congress a.s.sembled placed it in the position and cast upon it the powers of a revolutionary government. Civil war had actually commenced, and blood had been shed. Whether this war was to be carried on for independence, or was only to be waged until the British ministry could be compelled to acknowledge the rights which the colonies had a.s.serted, the Congress necessarily became, at once, the organ of the common resistance of the colonies against the parent state. The first thing which evinces its new relation to the country was the application made to it by the Provincial Congress of Ma.s.sachusetts, immediately after the battle of Lexington, for direction and a.s.sistance. While they informed the Continental Congress that they had proceeded, at once, to raise a force of thirteen thousand six hundred men, and had made proposals to the other New England colonies to furnish men in the same proportions, stating that the sudden exigency of their affairs precluded the possibility of waiting for direction, they suggested that an American army ought forthwith to be raised for the common cause.[27] In the same manner, the city and county of New York applied for the advice of Congress, how to conduct themselves with regard to the British troops expected in that quarter. These applications caused the Congress at once to resolve itself into a committee of the whole, to take into consideration the state of America.[28]

These proceedings were soon followed by another application on the part of the Provincial Convention of Ma.s.sachusetts, setting forth the difficulties under which they were laboring for want of a regular form of government; requesting explicit advice respecting the formation of a new government; and offering to submit to such a general plan as the Congress might direct for the colonies, or to endeavor to form such a government for themselves as should not only promote their own advantage, but the union and interest of the whole country.[29]

Placed in this manner at the head of American affairs, the Continental Congress proceeded, at once, to put the country into a state of defence, and virtually a.s.sumed a control over the military operations of all the colonies. They appointed committees to prepare reports on military measures: first, to recommend what posts should be occupied in the city of New York; secondly, to devise ways and means for procuring ammunition and military stores; thirdly, to make an estimate of the moneys necessary to be raised; and fourthly, to prepare rules and regulations for the government of the army.

They then proceeded to create a continental, or national army. To the battle of Lexington had succeeded the investment of Boston, by an army composed of regiments raised by the New England provinces, under the command of General Ward of Ma.s.sachusetts. This army was adopted by the Congress; and, with other forces raised for the common defence, became known and designated as the American Continental Army.[30] Six companies of riflemen were ordered to be immediately raised in Pennsylvania, two in Maryland, and two in Virginia, and directed to join the army near Boston, and to be paid by the continent.[31]

On the 15th of June, 1775, Colonel George Was.h.i.+ngton, one of the delegates in Congress from Virginia, was unanimously chosen to be commander-in-chief of the continental forces.[32] Having accepted the appointment, he received from the Congress a commission, together with a resolution by which they pledged their lives and fortunes to maintain, a.s.sist, and adhere to him in his great office, and a letter of instructions, in which they charged him to make it his special care, "that the liberties of America receive no detriment."[33] In the commission given to the general, the style of "the United Colonies" was for the first time adopted, and the defence of American Liberty was a.s.sumed as the great object of their union.[34] On the 21st of June, Was.h.i.+ngton left Philadelphia to take command of the army, and arrived at Cambridge in Ma.s.sachusetts on the 2d of July. Four major-generals and eight brigadier-generals were also appointed by the Congress for the continental army; rules and regulations for its government were adopted and proclaimed, and the pay of the officers and privates was fixed.[35]

The Congress also proceeded, as the legislative authority of the United Colonies, to create a continental currency, in order to defray the expenses of the war. This was done by issuing two millions of dollars, in bills of credit, for the redemption of which the faith of the confederated colonies was pledged. A quota of this sum was apportioned to each colony, and each colony was made liable to discharge its proportion of the whole, but the United Colonies were obligated to pay any part which either of the colonies should fail to discharge.[36] The first of these quotas was made payable in four, the second in five, the third in six, and the fourth in seven years from the last day of November, 1775, and the provincial a.s.semblies or conventions were required, by the resolves of the Congress, to provide taxes in their respective provinces or colonies, to discharge their several quotas.[37]

The Congress also directed reprisals to be made, both by public and private armed vessels, against the s.h.i.+ps and goods of the inhabitants of Great Britain found on the high seas, or between high and low water-mark; this being a measure of retaliation against an act of Parliament, which had authorized the capture and condemnation of American vessels, and which was considered equivalent to a declaration of war. They also threw open the ports of the United Colonies to all the world, except the dominions and dependencies of Great Britain.

Further, they established a general Treasury Department, by the appointment of two joint Treasurers of the United Colonies, who were required to give bonds for the faithful performance of the duties of their office,[38] and they organized a general Post-Office, by the appointment of a Postmaster-General for the United Colonies, to hold his office at Philadelphia, to appoint deputies, and to establish a line of posts from Falmouth in Ma.s.sachusetts to Savannah in Georgia, with such cross posts as he should judge proper.[39]

The proceedings of the Congress on the subject of the Militia were, of course, in the nature of recommendations only. They advised the arming and training of the militia of New York, in May, 1775,[40] and in July they recommended to all the colonies to enroll all the able-bodied, effective men among their inhabitants, between sixteen and fifty years of age, and to form them into proper regiments.[41] The powers of the Congress to call into the field the militia thus embodied were considered to be subject to the consent of those exercising the executive powers of government in the colony, for the time being.[42]

The relations of the country with the Indian tribes and nations were deemed to be properly within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress.

Three departments of Indian Affairs, Northern, Southern, and Middle, with separate commissioners for each, were therefore established in July, having power to treat with the Indians in the name and on behalf of the United Colonies.[43] Negotiations and treaties were entered into by these departments, and all affairs with the Indians were conducted by them, under the direction and authority of the Congress.[44]

With regard to those inhabitants of the country who adhered to the royalist side of the controversy, the Congress of 1775-6 did not a.s.sume and exercise directly the powers of arrest or restraint, but left the exercise of such powers to the provincial a.s.semblies, or conventions, and committees of safety, in the respective colonies, with recommendations from time to time as to the mode in which such powers ought to be exercised.[45]

Besides all this, the different applications made to the Congress by the people of Ma.s.sachusetts,[46] of New Hamps.h.i.+re,[47] of Virginia,[48] and of South Carolina, concerning the proper exercise of the powers of government in those colonies, and the answers to those applications, furnish very important ill.u.s.trations of the position in which the Congress were placed. To the people of Ma.s.sachusetts, they declared that no obedience was due to the act of Parliament for altering their charter, and that, as the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor would not observe the directions of that instrument, but had endeavored to subvert it, their offices ought to be considered vacant; and, as the Council was actually vacant, in order to conform as near as might be to the spirit and substance of the charter, they recommended to the Provincial Convention to write letters to the inhabitants of the several towns ent.i.tled to representation in the a.s.sembly, requesting them to choose representatives, and requesting the a.s.sembly when chosen to elect councillors; adding their wish, that these bodies should exercise the powers of government until a Governor of the King's appointment would consent to govern the colony according to its charter.[49] The Provincial Conventions of New Hamps.h.i.+re, Virginia, and South Carolina were advised to call a full and free representation of the people, in order to establish such a form of government as, in their judgment, would best promote the happiness of the people and most effectually secure peace and good order in their Provinces, during the continuance of the dispute with Great Britain.[50] This advice manifestly contemplated the establishment of provisional governments only.

But between the date of these last proceedings and the following spring a marked change took place, both in the expectations and wishes of the people of most of the colonies, with regard to an accommodation of the great controversy. The last pet.i.tion of the Congress to the King was refused a hearing in Parliament, as emanating from an unlawful a.s.sembly, in arms against their sovereign. In November, the town of Falmouth in Ma.s.sachusetts was bombarded and destroyed by the King's cruisers. In the latter part of December, an act was pa.s.sed in Parliament, prohibiting all trade and commerce with the colonies; warranting the capture and condemnation of all American vessels, with their cargoes, and authorizing the commanders of the King's s.h.i.+ps to compel the masters, crews, and other persons found in such vessels, to enter the King's service. The act also empowered the King to appoint commissioners, with authority to grant pardon, on submission, to individuals and to colonies, and after such submission to exempt them from its operation.[51] Great preparations were made to reduce the colonies to the submission required by this act, and a part of the troops that were to be employed were foreign mercenaries.

The necessity of a complete separation from the mother country, and the establishment of independent governments, had, therefore, in the winter of 1775-6, become apparent to the people of America. Accordingly, the Congress, a.s.serting it to be irreconcilable to reason and good conscience for the people of the colonies any longer to take the oaths and affirmations necessary for the support of any government under the crown of Great Britain, and declaring that the exercise of every kind of authority under that crown ought to be suppressed, and a government of the people of the colonies subst.i.tuted in its place, recommended to the respective a.s.semblies and conventions of the colonies, where no government sufficient for the exigencies of their affairs had been already established, to adopt such a government as in the opinion of the representatives of the people would best conduce to the happiness and safety of their const.i.tuents and of America in general.[52]

It is apparent, therefore, that, previously to the Declaration of Independence, the people of the several colonies had established a national government of a revolutionary character, which undertook to act, and did act, in the name and with the general consent of the inhabitants of the country. This government was established by the union, in one body, of delegates representing the people of each colony; who, after they had thus united for national purposes, proceeded, in their respective jurisdictions, by means of conventions and other temporary arrangements, to provide for their domestic concerns by the establishment of local governments, which should be the successors of that authority of the British crown which they had "everywhere suppressed." The fact that these local or state governments were not formed until a union of the people of the different colonies for national purposes had already taken place, and until the national power had authorized and recommended their establishment, is of great importance in the const.i.tutional history of this country; for it shows that no colony, acting separately for itself, dissolved its own allegiance to the British crown, but that this allegiance was dissolved by the supreme authority of the people of all the colonies, acting through their general agent, the Congress, and not only declaring that the authority of Great Britain ought to be suppressed, but recommending that each colony should supplant that authority by a local government, to be framed by and for the people of the colony itself.

The powers exercised by the Congress, before the Declaration of Independence, show, therefore, that its functions were those of a revolutionary government. It is a maxim of political science, that, when such a government has been inst.i.tuted for the accomplishment of great purposes of public safety, its powers are limited only by the necessities of the case out of which they have arisen, and of the objects for which they were to be exercised. When the acts of such a government are acquiesced in by the people, they are presumed to have been ratified by the people. To the case of our Revolution, these principles are strictly applicable, throughout. The Congress a.s.sumed, at once, the exercise of all the powers demanded by the public exigency, and their exercise of those powers was fully acquiesced in and confirmed by the people. It does not at all detract from the authoritative character of their acts, nor diminish the real powers of the Revolutionary Congress, that it was obliged to rely on local bodies for the execution of most of its orders, or that it couched many of those orders in the form of recommendations. They were complied with and executed, in point of fact, by the provincial congresses, conventions, and local committees, to such an extent as fully to confirm the revolutionary powers of the Congress, as the guardians of the rights and liberties of the country. But we shall see, in the further progress of the history of the Congress, that while its powers remained entirely revolutionary, and were consequently coextensive with the great national objects to be accomplished, the want of the proper machinery of civil government and of independent agents of its own rendered it wholly incapable of wielding those powers successfully.

NOTE TO PAGE 33.

ON WAs.h.i.+NGTON'S APPOINTMENT AS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF.

The circ.u.mstances which attended the appointment of Was.h.i.+ngton to this great command are now quite well known. He had been a member of the Congress of 1774, and his military experience and accomplishments, and the great resources of his character, had caused his appointment on all the committees charged with making preparations for the defence of the colonies. Returned as a delegate from Virginia to the Congress of 1775, his personal qualifications pointed him out as the fittest person in the whole country to be invested with the command of any army which the United Colonies might see fit to raise; and it is quite certain that there would have been no hesitation about the appointment, if some political considerations had not been suggested as obstacles.

At the moment when the choice was to be made, the scene of actual operations was in Ma.s.sachusetts, where an army composed of troops wholly raised by the New England colonies, and under the command of General Ward, of that Province, was besieging the enemy in Boston. This army was to be adopted by the Congress into the service of the continent, and serious doubts were entertained by some of the members of the Congress as to the policy of appointing a Southern general to the command of it, and a good deal of delicacy was felt on account of General Ward, who, it was thought, might consider himself injured by such an appointment. On the other hand, there were strong reasons for selecting a general-in-chief from Virginia. That colony had taken the lead, among the Southern provinces, in the cause of the continent, and the appointment seemed to be due to her, if it was to be made upon political considerations. The motives for this policy were deemed sufficient to outweigh the objections arising from the character and situation of the army which the general would, in the first instance, have to command. But after all, it cannot be doubted, that the preeminent qualifications of Was.h.i.+ngton had far more weight with the majority of the Congress, than any dictates of mere policy, between one part of the Union and another, or any local jealousies or sectional ambition.

Mr. John Adams, whose recently published autobiography contains some statements on this subject, speaks of the existence of a Southern party against a Northern, and a jealousy against a New England army under the command of a New England general, which, he says, he discovered after the Congress had been some time in session, and after the necessity of having an army and a general had become a topic of conversation. (Works, II. 415.) In a letter, also, written by Mr. Adams in 1822 to Timothy Pickering, he states that, on the journey to Philadelphia, he and a party of his colleagues, the delegates from Ma.s.sachusetts to this Congress, were met at Frankfort by Dr. Rush, Mr. Mifflin, Mr.

Bayard, and others of the Philadelphia patriots, who desired a conference with them; that, in this conference, the Philadelphia gentlemen strongly advised the Ma.s.sachusetts delegates not to come forward with bold measures, or to endeavor to take the lead; and represented that Virginia was the most populous State in the Union, proud of its ancient dominions, and that "they [the Virginians] think they have a right to take the lead, and the Southern States, and the Middle States, too, are too much disposed to yield it to them."

"I must confess," says Mr. Adams, "that there appeared so much wisdom and good sense in this, that it made a deep impression on my mind, and it had an equal effect on all my colleagues." "This conversation," he continues, "and the principles, facts, and motives suggested in it, have given a color, complexion, and character to the whole policy of the United States from that day to this. _Without it, Mr.

Was.h.i.+ngton would never have commanded our armies_; nor Mr.

Jefferson have been the author of the Declaration of Independence; nor Mr. Richard Henry Lee the mover of it; nor Mr. Chase the mover of foreign connections. _If I have ever had cause to repent of any part of this policy, that repentance ever has been and ever will be unavailing._ I had forgot to say, nor had Mr. Johnson ever have been the nominator of Was.h.i.+ngton for general." (Works, II. 512, 513.)

Without impeaching the accuracy of Mr. Adams's recollection, on the score of his age when this letter was written, and without considering here how or why Mr. Jefferson came to be the author of the Declaration of Independence, it is believed that Mr. Adams states other facts, in his autobiography, sufficient to show that motives of policy towards Virginia were _not_ the sole or the princ.i.p.al reasons why Was.h.i.+ngton was elected general. Mr. Adams states in his autobiography, that at the time when he observed the professed jealousy of the South against a New England army under the command of a Northern general, it was very visible to him "that Colonel Was.h.i.+ngton was their object"; "and," he adds, "so many of our stanchest men were in the plan, that we could carry nothing without conceding it." (Works, II. 415.) When Mr. Adams came, as he afterwards did, to put himself at the head of this movement, and to propose in Congress that the army at Cambridge should be adopted, and that a general should be appointed, he referred directly to Was.h.i.+ngton as the person whom he had in his mind, and spoke of him as "a gentleman from Virginia who was among us and very well known to all of us, a gentleman whose skill and experience as an officer, whose independent fortune, great talents, and excellent universal character, would command the approbation of all America, and unite the cordial exertions of all the colonies better than any other person in the Union. Mr. Was.h.i.+ngton, who happened to sit near the door, as soon as he heard me allude to him, from his usual modesty, darted into the library-room." (Works, II. 417.) It is quite clear, therefore, that Mr. Adams put the appointment of Was.h.i.+ngton, in public, upon his qualifications and character, known all over the Union. He further states, that the subject came under debate, and that n.o.body opposed the appointment of Was.h.i.+ngton on account of any personal objection to him; and the only objection which he mentions as having been raised, was on the ground that the army near Boston was all from New England, and that they had a general of their own, with whom they were entirely satisfied. He mentions one of the Virginia delegates, Mr. Pendleton, as concurring in this objection; that Mr. Sherman of Connecticut and Mr. Cus.h.i.+ng of Ma.s.sachusetts also concurred in it, and that Mr. Paine of Ma.s.sachusetts expressed strong personal friends.h.i.+p for General Ward, but gave no opinion upon the question.

Afterwards, he says, the subject being postponed to a future day, "pains were taken out of doors to obtain a unanimity, and the voices were generally so clearly in favor of Was.h.i.+ngton, that the dissentient members were persuaded to withdraw their opposition, and Mr. Was.h.i.+ngton was nominated, I believe, by Mr. Thomas Johnson of Maryland, unanimously elected, and the army adopted." (Ibid.)

It is worth while to inquire, therefore, what were the controlling reasons, which so easily and so soon produced this striking unanimity. If it was brought about mainly by the exertions of a Southern against a Northern party, and by the yielding of Northern men to the Virginians from motives of policy, it would not have been accomplished with so much facility, although even a Was.h.i.+ngton were the candidate of Virginia. Sectional jealousies and sectional parties inflame each other; the struggles which they cause are protracted; and the real merits of men and things are lost sight of in the pa.s.sions which they arouse. If policy, as a leading or a princ.i.p.al motive, gave to General Was.h.i.+ngton the great body of the Northern votes, there would have been more dissentients from that policy than any of the accounts authorize us to suppose there were, at any moment, while the subject was under consideration. Nor does the previous conduct of Virginia warrant the belief, that her subsequent exertions in the cause of American liberty were mainly purchased by the honors bestowed upon her great men, or by so much of precedence as was yielded in the public councils to the unquestionable abilities of her statesmen. Some of them had undoubtedly been in favor of measures of conciliation to a late period; and some of them, as Was.h.i.+ngton, Patrick Henry, and Richard Henry Lee, had been, from an early period, convinced that the sword must decide the controversy. They were perhaps as much divided upon this point, until the army at Boston was adopted, as the leading men of other colonies.

But when the necessity of that measure became apparent, it was the peculiar happiness of Virginia to be able to present to the country, as a general, a man whose character and qualifications threw all local and political objects at once into the shade. In order to form a correct judgment, at the present day, of the motives which must have produced a unanimity so remarkable and so prompt, we have only to recollect the previous history of Was.h.i.+ngton, as it was known to the Congress, at the moment when he shrank from the mention of his name in that a.s.sembly.

He was forty-three years of age. From early youth, he had had a training that eminently fitted him for the great part which he was afterwards to play, and which unfolded the singular capacities of his character to meet the extraordinary emergencies of the post to which he was subsequently called.

That training had been both in military and in civil life.

His military career had been one of much activity and responsibility, and had embraced several brilliant achievements. In 1751, it became necessary to put the militia of Virginia in a condition to defend the frontiers against the French and the Indians. The province was divided into military districts, in each of which an adjutant-general, with the rank of major, was commissioned to drill and inspect the militia. Was.h.i.+ngton, at the age of nineteen, received the appointment to one of these districts; and in the following year, the province was again divided into four grand military divisions, of which the northern was a.s.signed to him as adjutant-general. In 1753, the French crossed the lakes, to establish posts on the Ohio, and were joined by the Indians.

Major Was.h.i.+ngton was sent by the Governor of Virginia to warn them to retire. This expedition was one of difficulty and of delicacy. He crossed the Alleghany Mountains, reached the Ohio, had interviews with the French commander and the Indians, and returned to Williamsburg to make report to the Governor. Of this journey, full of perilous adventures and narrow escapes, he kept a journal, which was published by the Governor; was copied into most of the newspapers of the other colonies; and was reprinted in London, as a doc.u.ment of much importance, exhibiting the views and designs of the French.

In 1754, he was appointed, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, second in command of the provincial troops raised by the Legislature to repel the French invasion. On the first encounter with a party of the enemy under Jumonville, on the 28th of May, 1754, the chief command devolved on Was.h.i.+ngton, in the absence of his superior. The French leader was killed, and most of his party were taken prisoners. Was.h.i.+ngton commanded also at the battle of the Great Meadows, and received a vote of thanks for his services from the House of Burgesses. This was in 1754, when he was at the age of twenty-two. During the next year, in consequence of the effect of some new arrangement of the provincial troops, he was reduced from the rank of colonel to that of captain, and thereupon retired from the army, with the consolation that he had received the thanks of his country for the services he had rendered. In 1755, he consented to serve as aide-de-camp to General Braddock, who had arrived from England with two regiments of regular troops. In this capacity he served in the battle of the Monongahela with much distinction. The two other aids were wounded and disabled early in the action, and the duty of distributing the General's orders devolved wholly upon Was.h.i.+ngton. It was in this battle that he acquired with the Indians the reputation of being under the special protection of the Great Spirit, because he escaped the aim of many of their rifles, although two horses were shot under him, and his dress was perforated by four bullets. His conduct on this occasion became known and celebrated throughout the country; and when he retired to Mount Vernon, as he did soon after, at the age of three-and-twenty, he not only carried with him a decisive reputation for personal bravery, but he was known to have given advice to Braddock, before the action, which all men saw, after it, would, if it had been duly heeded, have prevented his defeat. But he was not allowed to remain long in retirement. In August, 1755, he was appointed commander-in-chief of all the provincial forces of Virginia, and immediately entered upon the duties of reorganizing the old and raising new troops, in the course of which he visited all the outposts along the frontier. Soon afterwards, a dispute about rank having arisen with a person who claimed to take precedence of provincial officers because he had formerly held the King's commission, it became necessary for Colonel Was.h.i.+ngton to make a visit to Boston, in order to have the point decided by General s.h.i.+rley, the commander-in-chief of his Majesty's armies in America. He commenced his journey on the 4th of February, 1756, and pa.s.sed through Philadelphia, New York, New London, Newport, and Providence, and visited the Governors of Pennsylvania and New York. In all the princ.i.p.al cities his character, and his remarkable escape at Braddock's defeat, made him the object of a strong public interest. At Boston, he was received with marked distinction by General s.h.i.+rley and by the whole society of the town, and the question of rank was decided according to his wishes. General s.h.i.+rley explained to him the intended operations of the next campaign; and, after an absence from Virginia of seven weeks, he returned to resume his command. The next three years were spent in the duties of this laborious and responsible position, the difficulties and embarra.s.sments of which bore a strong resemblance to those which he afterwards had to encounter in the war of the Revolution. In 1758, he commanded the Virginia troops in the expedition against Fort Duquesne, under General Forbes. Great deference was paid by that officer to his opinions and judgment, in arranging the line of march and order of battle, on this important expedition; for the fate of Braddock was before him. The command of the advanced division, consisting of one thousand men, was a.s.signed to him, with the temporary rank of brigadier. When the army had approached within fifty miles of Fort Duquesne, the French deserted it; its surrender to the English closed the campaign; and in December Was.h.i.+ngton resigned his commission, and retired to Mount Vernon. What he had been, and what he then was, to the Colony of Virginia, is shown by the Address presented to him by the officers of the provincial troops, on his retirement. "In our earliest infancy," said they, "you took us under your tuition, trained us up in the practice of that discipline which alone can const.i.tute good troops, from the punctual observance of which you never suffered the least deviation.

Your steady adherence to impartial justice, your quick discernment, and invariable regard to merit, wisely intended to inculcate those genuine sentiments of true honor and pa.s.sion for glory, from which the greatest military achievements have been derived, first heightened our natural emulation and our desire to excel. How much we improved by those regulations and your own example, with what alacrity we have hitherto discharged our duty, with what cheerfulness we have encountered the severest toils, especially while under your particular directions, we submit to yourself, and flatter ourselves that we have in a great measure answered your expectations.... It gives us additional sorrow, when we reflect, to find our unhappy country will receive a loss no less irreparable than our own. Where will it meet a man so experienced in military affairs, one so renowned for patriotism, conduct, and courage? Who has so great a knowledge of the enemy we have to deal with? Who so well acquainted with their situation and strength? Who so much respected by the soldiery? Who, in short, so able to support the military character of Virginia? Your approved love to your King and country, and your uncommon perseverance in promoting the honor and true interest of the service, convince us that the most cogent reasons only could induce you to quit it; yet we, with the greatest deference, presume to entreat you to suspend those thoughts for another year, and to lead us on to a.s.sist in the glorious work of extirpating our enemies, towards which so considerable advances have already been made. In you we place the most implicit confidence. Your presence only will cause a steady firmness and vigor to actuate every breast, despising the greatest dangers, and thinking light of toils and hards.h.i.+ps, while led on by the man we know and love. But if we must be so unhappy as to part, if the exigencies of your affairs force you to abandon us, we beg it as our last request, that you will recommend some person most capable to command, whose military knowledge, whose honor, whose conduct, and whose disinterested principles we may depend on. Frankness, sincerity, and a certain openness of soul, are the true characteristics of an officer, and we flatter ourselves that you do not think us capable of saying any thing contrary to the purest dictates of our minds. Fully persuaded of this, we beg leave to a.s.sure you, that, as you have hitherto been the actuating soul of our whole corps, we shall at all times pay the most invariable regard to your will and pleasure, and shall be always happy to demonstrate by our actions with how much respect and esteem we are," &c.

Was.h.i.+ngton's marriage took place soon after his resignation (January 6th, 1759), and his civil life now commenced. He had been elected a member of the House of Burgesses, before the close of the campaign, and in the course of the winter he took his seat. Upon this occasion, his inability, from confusion and modesty, to reply to a highly eulogistic address made to him by the Speaker, Mr. Robinson, drew from that gentleman the celebrated compliment, "Sit down, Mr.

Was.h.i.+ngton, your modesty equals your valor, and that surpa.s.ses the power of any language that I possess." He continued a member of the House of Burgesses until the commencement of the Revolution, a period of fifteen years. He was not a frequent speaker; but his sound judgment, quick perception, and firmness and sincerity of character, gave him an influence which the habit of much speaking does not give, and which is often denied to eloquence. As the time drew near, when the controversies between the colonies and England began to a.s.sume a threatening aspect, he was naturally found with Henry, Randolph, Lee, Wythe, and Mason, and the other patriotic leaders of the colonies. His views concerning the policy of the non-importation agreements were early formed and made known. In 1769, he took charge of the Articles of a.s.sociation, drawn by Mr. Mason, which were intended to bring about a concert of action between all the colonies, for the purpose of presenting them to the a.s.sembly, of which Mr.

Mason was not a member. In 1774, he was chosen a member of the first Virginia Convention, and was by that body elected a delegate to the first Continental Congress, where he was undoubtedly the most conspicuous person present. The second Virginia Convention met in March, 1775, and reflected the former delegates to the second Continental Congress, from which Was.h.i.+ngton was removed by his appointment as Commander-in-chief.

There can be no doubt, therefore, that Was.h.i.+ngton was chosen Commander-in-chief for his unquestionable merits, and not as a compromise between sectional interests and local jealousies.

(The authorities for the statements in this note concerning Was.h.i.+ngton's history are the biographies by Marshall and Sparks, and the Writings of Was.h.i.+ngton, edited by the latter.)

FOOTNOTES:

[24] Peyton Randolph, President of the first and reelected President of the second Congress, died very suddenly at Philadelphia on the 22d of October, 1775, and was succeeded in that office by John Hanc.o.c.k. Mr.

Randolph was one of the most eminent of the Virginia patriots, and an intimate friend of Was.h.i.+ngton. Richard Henry Lee wrote to Was.h.i.+ngton, on the day after his death, that "in him American liberty lost a powerful advocate, and human nature a sincere friend." He was formerly Attorney-General of Virginia, and in 1753 went to England as agent of the House of Burgesses, to procure the abolition of a fee, known as the pistole fee, which it had been the custom of the Governors of Virginia to charge for signing land patents, as a perquisite of their office. He succeeded in getting the fee abolished in cases where the quant.i.ty of land exceeded one hundred acres. He was commander of a company of mounted volunteers called the Gentlemen a.s.sociators, who served in the French war. He was President of the Virginia Convention, as well as a Delegate in Congress, at the time of his death. Sparks's Was.h.i.+ngton, II.

58, 161; III. 139, 140; XII. 420.

[25] In Ma.s.sachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, they were made in December; in Connecticut, in November; in New Jersey, in January; in South Carolina, in February; in the Lower Counties on Delaware and in Virginia, in March; in North Carolina, on the 5th of April; and in New York, on the 22d of April.

[26] Virginia renewed her delegation for one year from the 11th of August, 1775, and Maryland hers with powers to act until the 25th of March, 1776. These new delegations, as well as that of Georgia, appeared on the 13th of September, 1775. On the 16th of September, a renewed delegation appeared from New Hamps.h.i.+re, without limitation of time; Connecticut sent a new delegation on the 16th of January, 1776, and Ma.s.sachusetts did the same on the 31st of January, for the year 1776.

The persons of the delegates were not often changed.

[27] Journals, I. 81, 82.

[28] May 15, 1775. Journals, I. 162.