United States, and the constitutions of the several States, have only given to those chartered rights a new name. The People now speak in their collective majesty, where a Monarch, in his individual majesty, formerly spoke; and the lips of both utter precisely the same sentiments-so false was the opinion prevalent in the day of our revolution, that our ancestors were rebels.
In the prosecution of the present work, it is deemed proper to state, that the facts have been drawn from what is honestly believed to be the most unquestionable sources: from a painful and accurate examination and comparison of the various histories of that important event; from the correspondence of those who were the immediate parties in a struggle so glorious to our country; from official documents, from the archives of our Continental Congress, and those of the different Legislatures; and from the orderly books, that may properly be denominated the journals of the army. Much, perhaps, remains to be known, that may yet be preserved to posterity, if the private correspondence of those who were the immediate actors in this important drama, has yet survived the dilapidations of time and of accident; but much is irrevocably covered by the ashes of the grave.
It may be proper here to mention, that the author, in recording the events of our Revolution, is largely indebted to the voluntary services of two of his literary friends, without whose kind assistance it is probable that he should have never been able to have complied with his obligations to the publick: an assistance, so