defend the same against hostile invasion: I do, therefore, in behalf of the United States, by virtue of powers committed to me by Congress, hereby strictly command and require every person, having subscribed such declaration, taken such oaths, and accepted such protection and certificate, to repair to headquarters, or to the quarters of the nearest general offices of the Continental army or militia (until further provision can be made by civil authority), and there deliver up such protection, certificate, and passports, and take the oath of allegiance to the United States of America; nevertheless, hereby granting full liberty to all such as prefer the interest and protection of Great Britain to the freedom and happiness of their country, forthwith to withdraw themselves and families within the enemies' lines. And I do hereby declare, that all and every person who may refuse to comply with this order, within thirty days from the date hereof, will be deemed adherents to the king of Great Britain and treated as common enemies of these American States." Broadside distributed in New Jersey, 1776-7.

A Sarcastic Reply to the Howes' Proclamation of Pardon

"Messrs. Howe: We have seen your proclamation and as it is a great curiosity think it deserves some notice, and lest no one else should deign to notice it, will make a few remarks upon what was designed for public benefit. In this rarity we see slaves offering liberty to free Americans; thieves and robbers offer to secure our rights and property; murderers offer us pardon; a perjured tyrant by the mouths of two of his hireling butchers, 'commands' all the civil and military powers, in these independent States to resign all pretensions to authority, and to acknowledge subjection to a foreign despot, even his mock majesty, now reeking with blood and murder. This is truly a curiosity, and is a compound of the most consummate arrogance and the folly of the cloven-footed spawn of despairing wretches, who are laboring to complete the works of tyranny and death. It

would be far less wicked and not quite so stupid for the Grand Turk to send two of his slaves into Britain to command all Britains to acknowledge themselves slaves of the Turks, offering to secure their rights and property, and to pardon such as had borne arms against his Sublime Highness, upon condition of their making peace within 'sixty days.'

"Messieurs Howe and W. Howe, pray read your proclamation once more, and consider how modest you appear; and reflect on the infinite contempt with which you are viewed by the Americans, and remember the meanest freeman scorns the highest slave."

Broadside scattered in New Jersey in the winter of 1776-7

Washington Had Taken Howe's Measure

Howe, with his army of 28,000, now quietly allowed Washington to reconquer New Jersey with 5000. After the battle of Princeton, Cornwallis abandoned Trenton, Bordentown, and Princeton, removed all the British troops from them, and quietly returned to New Brunswick. Washington found that there would be too much risk in attacking New Brunswick immediately after Princeton, so he passed on northward into the heart of New Jersey, and took up a strong position at Morristown Heights, west of New York, and half-way between New York and the Delaware. Putnam came from Philadelphia with a few troops and occupied Princeton, and Heath had a few more on the Hudson. In other words, Washington, with scarcely 10,000 men, made a line of cantonments through New Jersey and held it without opposition from Howe's 28,000 all that winter and the following spring until June, 1777.

He was constantly picking off stragglers from the British posts at New Brunswick and Amboy, and, as Gallaway remarked, killed more regulars in that way than Howe would have lost by surrounding and defeating or starving him out at Morristown. In March Washington's force had sunk

to less than 3000 effectives, and yet he remained undisturbed by the vast force in New York.

For the rest

Washington had taken Howe's measure. of the British general's year and a half in America, the patriot general, no matter how low his force dwindled, always remained encamped within a few miles of the vast hosts of his Whig antagonist undisturbed and unpursued. There was no need of retreating among the Indians and buffalo of the West.

The True History of the American Revolution, Sydney George Fisher, p. 328.

CHAPTER XVIII

BRANDYWINE AND GERMANTOWN

Waiting at Morristown

After the "two lucky strokes at Trenton and Princeton," as he himself called them, Washington took up a strong position at Morristown and waited. His plan was to hold the enemy in check, and to delay all operations until spring. It is easy enough now to state his purpose, and it looks very simple, but it was a grim task to carry it out through the bleak winter days of 1777. The Jersey farmers, spurred by the sufferings inflicted upon them by the British troops, had turned out at last in deference to Washington's appeals, after the victories of Trenton and Princeton, had harassed and cut off outlying parties, and had thus straitened the movements of the enemy. But the main army of the colonies, on which all depended, was in a pitiable state. It shifted its character almost from day to day. The curse of short enlistments, so denounced by Washington, made itself felt now with frightful effect. With the new year most of the continental troops departed, while others to replace them came in very slowly, and recruiting dragged most wearisomely. Washington was thus obliged, with temporary reinforcements of raw militia, to keep up appearances; and no commander ever struggled with a more trying task. At times it looked as if the whole army would actually disappear, and more than once Washington expected that the week's or the month's end would find him with not more than five hundred men. At the beginning of March he had about four thousand men, a few weeks later only three thousand raw troops, ill-fed, ill-clad, ill-shod, ill-armed, and almost unpaid. Over against him was Howe, with eleven

thousand men in the field, and still more in the city of New York, well disciplined and equipped, well-armed, well-fed, and furnished with every needful supply. The contrast is absolutely grotesque, and yet the force of one man's genius and will was such that this excellent British army was hemmed in and kept in harmless quiet by their ragged opponents.

Washington's plan, from the first, was to keep the field at all hazards, and literally at all hazards did he do so. Right and left his letters went, day after day, calling with pathetic but dignified earnestness for men and supplies. In one of these epistles, to Governor Cooke of Rhode Island, written in January, to remonstrate against raising troops for the State only, he set forth his intentions in a few words. "You must be sensible," he said, "that the season is fast approaching when a new campaign will open; nay, the former is not yet closed; nor do I intend it shall be, unless the enemy quits the Jerseys.

George Washington, Henry Cabot Lodge, Vol. I, p. 180.

Remained Standing throughout the Whole Service

An anecdote is told of Washington's conduct while commander-in-chief, illustrative of his benignant attention to others, and his freedom from all assumption. While the army was encamped at Morristown, he one day attended a religious meeting where divine service was to be celebrated in the open air. A chair had been set out for his use. Just before the service commenced a woman with a child in her arms approached. All the seats were occupied. Washington immediately rose, placed her in the chair which had been assigned to him, and remained standing throughout the whole service.

Entertaining Anecdotes of Washington (Boston, 1833), p. 39.

"Try Me!"

Among the foreign candidates for appointments was one Colonel Conway, a native of Ireland, but who, according

VOL. I-23