A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION; COMPREHENDING ALL THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS BOTH IN THE FIELD AND IN THE CABINET. BY PAUL ALLEN, ESQ. TO WHICH ARE ADDED, THE MOST IMPORTANT RESOLUTIONS OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS, AND MANY OF THE MOST IMPORTANT LETTERS OF GENERAL WASHINGTON. IN TWO VOLUMES-VOL. I. BALTIMORE: PRINTED FOR FRANKLIN BETTS. Wm. Wooddy, Jr. printer. WHATEVER relates to the birth of a great, free, powerful, and independent nation, must, necessarily, form an important era in the history of the world that we inhabit. Abortive attempts by nations to relieve themselves from the chains of oppression, are always denominated treason against the rulers of the day, and the records of criminal jurisprudence constitute, perhaps, their only memorial: so true is the remark of Dr. Priestly, that every unsuccessful revolt is called a rebellion, and every successful struggle a Revolution. Wallace died upon the scaffold, while Washington was triumphant. Those who performed a conspicuous part in the early stages of our Revolution, not being recognized by their enemies as the agents of an independent power, were stigmatized as rebels, denounced as traitors, and interdicted from the common rights of humanity exercised by all belligerent nations, and which may now be said, even in times of hostility, to constitute a part of national law. The word rebel was, during our |