376

CHATHAM APPEARS AGAIN IN PARLIAMENT.

[1777.

the duke of Grafton on that occasion. After Chatham had spoken, the duke congratulated the House and the nation upon the evidence that the people retained a grateful sense of the high obligation they owed to the great man who had returned to his duty in parliament. The space before the bar, he said, was filled by gentlemen of all parties; the avenues of the house were so crowded as not to leave room for the peers to come to their seats. Swathed in flannel, and tottering on his crutch, Chatham had passed through this admiring crowd, and not a sound was heard as that inelodious voice, a little enfeebled, again charmed every listener. His speech is imperfectly reported; but a few passages show how the pristine vigour of his intellect survived his bodily infirmities: "America has carried you through four wars, and will now carry you to your death, if you don't take things in time. In the sportsman's phrase, when you have found yourselves at fault, you must try back. You have ransacked every corner of Lower Saxony; but forty thousand German boors never can conquer ten times the number of British freemen. You may ravage-you can not conquer; it is impossible: you can not conquer the Americans. You talk, my lords, of your numerous friends among them to annihilate the Congress, and of your powerful forces to disperse their army. I might as well talk of driving them before me with this crutch! . . . . You have been three years teaching them the art of war; they are apt scholars; and I will venture to tell your lordships that the American gentry will make officers enough, fit to command the troops of all the European powers. What you have sent there are too many to make peace-too few to make war. If you conquer them, what then? You cannot make them respect you; you cannot make them wear your cloth; you will plant an invincible hatred in their breasts against you. Coming from the stock they do, they can never respect you." The motion of Chatham was for an humble Address to the king, to advise his majesty to take the most speedy and effectual measures for putting a stop to such fatal hostilities. The motion was lost by a majority of 76 against 26. The king wrote this note the next day to lord North :-" Lord Chatham's motion can have no other use but to convey some fresh fuel to the rebels. Like most of the other productions of that most extraordinary brain, it contains nothing but specious words and malevolence."

Lord Chatham, in his declaration to his physician, conjectured rightly that France would abet the Americans indirectly only till they were able to make a stand; after which she would declare open war against England. In May, 1777, Von Steuben, who had been aide-de-camp to Frederick of Prussia, went to Paris; and had various interviews with the count de St. Germain, secretary-at-war, and with the count de Vergennes, the minister of foreign affairs. The German was sent for by St. Germain, who, spreading a map upon the the table, and pointing to America, said "Here is your field of battle; here is a republic which you must serve." Steuben was told that the Congress and the commander-in-chief wanted an officer of military experience, who would bring their army into a regular and permanent formation. He was referred to Beaumarchais, the author of Figaro, who made him acquainted with Silas Deane, and Deane introduced him to Franklin. The wary American would make no promises about money payments; but talked about presenting him with two thousand acres of land. Steuben did not relish

1777.]

STEUBEN-LA FAYETTE-KOSCIUSKO.

377

the prospect of these distant advantages, and went away to Germany. But he was persuaded to return to Paris, and finally determined to cross the Atlantic as a volunteer. Vergennes said to him, "You know very well it is impossible for us to make conditions with you. I can only say, Go, succeed, and you will never regret the step you have taken." The French ministers suggested to him that he should pretend to the Americans that he had been a major-general in the service of the margrave of Baden, which imposing title, says his biographer, "secured to Steuben the right place in the American army." With letters to Franklin, the self-created major-general sailed to America in September, in a ship freighted with materials of war by Beaumarchais, who lent the volunteer money to start with. Two remarkable men engaged the same year in the American cause -La Fayette, and Kosciusko. La Fayette, one of the noble subalterns of the French army, was secured before he became of age, by the promise given to him by Silas Deane that he should have the commission of a major-general in the army of the United States. Franklin gave Kosciusko a letter to Washington, describing him as "a man of experience in military affairs and of tried bravery; who had lost his family and estate in Poland by fighting there in the cause of liberty, and wishes, by engaging in the same cause, to find a new country and new friends in America."* But the old man of Passy was harassed out of his wonted equanimity by incessant applications to recommend officers for the American service. He says, in answer to an application of this nature, "I am afraid to accept an invitation to dine abroad, being almost sure of meeting with some officer, or officer's friend, who, as soon as I am put in good humour by a glass or two of champagne, begins his attack upon me."

378

BATTLE OF THE BRANDYWINE-PHILADELPHIA.

[1777.

Washington, were engaged till the middle of June in watching and checking the movements of each other. After several indecisive encounters, Howe, at the beginning of July, evacuated Jersey; and leaving a part of his force at New York, embarked with a large body of infantry, and two battalions of cavalry, with the intent to reach Philadelphia by sea. Washington was at first perplexed by this sudden change of plan; and thought Howe's conduct "puzzling and embarrassing beyond measure." His first notion was that Howe would endeavour to form a junction with Burgoyne, who was preparing to enter the States from Canada; but he was at last convinced that the British general's object was Philadelphia. To reach this city Howe had employed many weeks in sailing round a great extent of coast, before he entered the Chesapeak. When he had landed his troops at the head of the Elk river he was as far from Philadelphia as if he had remained in his position on the Delaware. Washington marched to oppose him. On the 11th of September lord Cornwallis, with a strong detachment, was sent forward; and on the 13th encountered the American army on the Brandywine, a stream which flows into the Delaware. The Americans were routed with considerable loss; and on the 27th Cornwallis was in the occupation of Philadelphia. There were several smaller actions, especially that of Germantown, before the winter set in; but Washington could not be brought to a general engagement. He went into winter quarters at Valley Forge, a strong position on the banks of the Schuylkill, with an army not exceeding four thousand men, who were

wretchedly lodged. In the comfortable quarters of Philadelphia the British indulged in excesses by which all discipline was relaxed, and the sober inhabit

1777.]

BURGOYNE INVADES THE STATES FROM CANADA.

379

ants so disgusted that the feelings of loyalty which many cherished were quickly destroyed. The success at the battle of Brandywine, and the possession of Philadelphia, were advantages that offered no compensation for a terrible blow to the royal cause in another quarter.

It had been determined to invade the United States from Canada, with an army of seven thousand troops, British and German, under general Burgoyne. Indians were engaged as auxiliaries; and a co-operation with general Clinton's forces from New York was expected. At the end of June Burgoyne marched. His first exploit was the re-capture of Ticonderoga. He next secured Fort Edward, which the Americans abandoned on his approach. Before he accomplished this last success, he had to encounter the most formidable interruptions to his march, from the nature of the country, and the artificial obstacles which the enemy had created. There were no adequate supplies to be obtained as they proceeded; and the army depended upon salt provisions brought by the lakes from Canada. The Indians who had joined .Burgoyne committed atrocities without rendering any effectual aid; and their employment by the British provoked a determined resistance in the New England States. To encounter invaders, whose cruelties were proclaimed with violent exaggerations throughout every town and hamlet, a large irregular army was speedily collected. The command

West Bank of the Hudson River, with the Encampment of General Burgoyne's Army. Sept. 20, 1777.

was given to general Gates and to general Arnold. Burgoyne too soon found the enormous difficulties of his enterprise. "In all parts," he wrote home,

380

THE CONVENTION OF SARATOGA.

The

[1777. "the industry and management in driving cattle, and removing corn, are indefatigable and certain." He could obtain no intelligence of general Howe. With stores for thirty days, which he had collected during a month, he crossed the Hudson to Saratoga. The army of Gates was encamped on a range of hills called Behmus's Heights. On the 19th of September a battle was fought, in which the victory of the British secured no real advantage, for the Americans retired to their lines. The two armies continued in front of each other till the 7th of October. The stores of Burgoyne were rapidly diminishing; and on that day he sent out a detachment of fifteen hundred men for the purpose of covering a foraging party. Arnold attacked them, and compelled a retreat, with a loss of six cannon. He then assaulted Burgoyne's lines; and was repulsed where the British occupied them, but succeeded in forcing the entrenchments defended by a German reserve. royal army quitted their encampment in the night, and sought a safer position on some higher ground. The next day Burgoyne saw the necessity of retreating to Saratoga, leaving his sick and wounded behind him. He was now encompassed with enemies on every side; and, worst of all, his provisions were nearly exhausted, though for some days the troops had been upon short rations. Three thousand five hundred men were all that remained. The general called a council of war; and it was determined to treat with the enemy. A message was sent to the American head-quarters with a flag of truce. The answer of general Gates was, that as the army of general Burgoyne was reduced in force, their provisions exhausted, their horses and baggage taken or destroyed, their retreat cut off, their camp invested, they could only be allowed to surrender as prisoners of war, and were required to ground their arms within their lines. The unanimous resolve in the British camp was to reject the terms. It was finally agreed that the army should march out of the camp with the honours of war, and pile their arms at the command of their own officers; that a free passage should be granted to Great Britain, upon the condition that the troops should not serve again in North America during the war. On the 17th of October the Convention was signed; and the small and disheartened army received a supply of fresh provisions, and commenced their march to Massachusetts. The conduct of the American army towards the vanquished was marked by the utmost delicacy and consideration. The conduct of the Congress was very different. They refused to permit the embarkation of Burgoyne and his men from Boston till the court of Great Britain had ratified the Convention; and under various pretences the British were detained for so long a period as to justify the indignation of contemporary statesmen and of future historians, against this signal instance of bad faith on the part of the American government.

The Session of Parliament was opened on the 18th of November. There was no change in the tone of the royal speech. The "obstinacy of the rebels -a deluded and unhappy multitude-called for a steady pursuit of measures for the re-establishment of constitutional subordination." It was known that Chatham, greatly restored in health, intended to move an amendment upon the Address. By general consent, the great orator, in all the fire of his youth and all the majesty of his maturity, never exceeded this almost last effort of his genius. The duke of Grafton says, "in this debate he exceeded all that I had ever admired in his speaking." This speech was admirably