LIX. Mar. CHAP. to remove his troops: now he had a larger force and fewer transports. He pretended that he went from 1776. Boston for refreshment; but in point of quarters it could be no great refreshment, to go from one of the largest towns in America to one of the least, where the troops were in part kept on shipboard, stived up one upon another, in part encamped on ground deeply covered with snow; where the officers and refugees, many of whom were almost penniless, suffered every extortion, and paid sixfold price for the meanest shelter over their heads; and where he found less forage and provisions for the king's troops than he left behind him, at Boston, for Washington's army. He gave out that his object was the strengthening of Halifax; but on the third of the preceding December, 1775, he had written home, that "that place was in perfect security." He offered the excuse that he wanted an opportunity for the exercise of his troops in line; and was it for that end that troops, whose destination was New York, were carried six hundred miles out of their way, as though there had been no place for parade but in Nova Scotia? A chosen British army, with chosen officers, equipped with every thing essential to war, sent to correct revolted subjects, to chastise a resisting town, to assert the authority of the British parliament, after being imprisoned for many tedious months in the place they were to have punished, found no refuge but on board the fleet. In these very hours the confidence of the ministry was at its point of culmination; they had heard of the safety of Quebec; they had succeeded in engaging more than twenty thousand German mercenaries and LIX. Mar. recruits, and they would not hearken to a doubt of CHAP. speedily crushing the rebellion. On the morning of the fourteenth of March, the British secretary of state 1776. listened to a speech from Thayendanegea, otherwise named Joseph Brant, a full-blooded Mohawk, of the Wolf Tribe, the chosen chief of the confederacy of the Six Nations, who had crossed the great lake to see King George; to boast that the savages, "his brethren," had offered the last year to prevent the invasion of Canada; and to complain that the white people had given them no support. "Brother," so the Mohawk chief addressed Germain, "we hope to see these bad children, the New England people, chastised. The Indians have always been ready to assist the king." And Germain replied: "Continue to manifest attachment to the king; and be sure of his majesty's favor." George and his ministers promised themselves important aid from the Iroquois and Northwestern warriors. "Unconditional submission" was now the watchword of Germain; and when on the evening of the same day the Duke of Grafton attempted once more, in the house of lords, to plead for conciliation, the gentle Dartmouth approved sending over "a sufficient force to awe the colonies into submission;" Hillsborough would "listen to no accommodation, short of the acknowledgment of the right of taxation and the submission of Massachusetts to the law for altering its charter;" and Mansfield ridiculed the idea of suspending hostilities, and laughed moderating counsels away. The ministers pursued their rash policy with such violence and such a determination to brave all difficulties, that it was evident they followed a superior will, which demand LIX. Mar. CHAP. ed implicit obedience. In the laying waste which was proposed, New England was to be spared the least. 1776. The second night after this last effort in the British parliament to restrain the impetuous arrogance of the ministry had been defeated with contemptuous scorn, Washington gained possession of Nook Hill, and with it the power of opening the highway from Roxbury to Boston. At the appearance of this work, the British retreated precipitately; the army, about eight thousand in number, and more than eleven hundred refugees, began their embarkation at four in the morning; in less than six hours they were all put on board one hundred and twenty transports; Howe himself, among the last to leave the town, took passage with the admiral in the Chatham; before ten they were under way; and the citizens of Boston, from every height and every wharf, could see the fleet sail out of the harbor in a long line, extending from the castle to Nantasket Roads. But where were Thacher, and Mayhew, and Dana, and Molineux, and Quincy, and Gardner, and Warren? Would that they, and all the martyrs of Lexington and Bunker Hill, had lived to gaze on the receding sails! Troops from Roxbury at once moved into Boston, and others from Cambridge crossed over in boats. Everywhere appeared marks of hurry in the flight of the British; among other stores, they left behind them two hundred and fifty pieces of cannon, of which one half were serviceable; twenty five hundred chaldrons of sea coal; twenty five thousand bushels of wheat; three thousand bushels of barley and oats; one hundred and fifty horses; bedding and clothing for sol LIX. Mar. diers. Nor was this all; several British storeships CHAP. consigned to Boston, and ignorant of the retreat, successively entered the harbor without suspicion, and 1776. fell into the hands of the Americans; among them the ship Hope, which, in addition to carbines, bayonets, gun-carriages, and all sorts of tools necessary for artillery, had on board more than seven times as much powder as Washington's whole stock when his last movement was begun. On the next day, Washington ordered five of his best regiments to march under Heath to New York. On the twentieth, the main body of the army made its entry into Boston; alive with curiosity to behold the town which had been the first object of the war, the immediate cause of hostilities, the place of arms defended by Britain at the cost of more than a million pounds sterling, and which the continent had contended for so long. Except one meeting-house and a few wooden buildings which had been used for fuel, the houses had been left in a good condition. When, two days later, all restrictions on intercourse with the town were removed, and the exiles and their friends streamed in, all hearts were touched at "witnessing the tender interviews and fond embraces of those who had been long separated." For Washington, crowded welcomes and words of gratitude hung on the faltering tongues of the liberated inhabitants; the selectmen of Boston addressed him in their name: "Next to the divine power we ascribe to your wisdom, that this acquisition has been made with so little effusion of human blood;" and the chief in reply paid a just tribute to their unparalleled fortitude. When the quiet of a week had revived ancient Mar. CHAP. usages, Washington attended the Thursday lecture, LIX. which had been kept up from the days of Winthrop and 1776. Wilson, and all rejoiced with exceeding joy at seeing this New England Zion once more a quiet habitation ; they called it "a tabernacle that should never be taken down, of which not one of the stakes should ever be removed, nor one of the cords be broken;" and as the words were spoken, it seemed as if the old century was holding out its hand to the new, and the puritan ancestry of Massachusetts returning to bless the deliverer of their children. On the twenty ninth, the two branches of the legislature addressed him jointly, dwelling on the respect he had ever shown to their civil constitution, as well as on his regard for the lives and health of all under his command. "Go on," said they, "still go on, approved by heaven, revered by all good men, and dreaded by tyrants; may future generations, in the peaceful enjoyment of that freedom, which your sword shall have established, raise the most lasting monuments to the name of Washington." And the chief, in his answer, renewed his pledges of "a regard to every provincial institution." When the continental congress, on the motion of John Adams, voted him thanks, and a commemorative medal of gold, he modestly transferred their praises to the men of his command, saying: "They were, indeed, at first a band of undisciplined husbandmen; but it is, under God, to their bravery and attention to duty, that I am indebted for that success which has procured me the only reward I wish to receive—the affection and esteem of my countrymen." New England was always true to Washington; the |