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The foregoing was copied verbatim, from the original, in the hand-writing of the author, Col. George Mason, of Virginia, left in the possession of his son, Gen. John Mason, of Georgetown. In order to facilitate the comparison of it, with that which was adopted by the Convention, and is still in force, it has been thought proper to number the articles as in the adopted Declaration, omitting the tenth and fourteenth, which were inserted entire by the Convention, and to place those words in italics which were either expunged or altered, and put an asterisk where others were added.

CHAPTER XXXV.

Arnold's Defeat before Ticonderoga and Crown Point-Gage's Proclamation exempting from pardon John Hancock and Adams—Battle of Bunker Hill.

Previous to the battle of Lexington, the expediency of seizing Ticonderoga and Crown Point had been suggested to the Massachusetts Committee of Safety. Their attention was now re-called to the subject by Benedict Arnold, a New Haven trader and shipmaster, who commanded a company of volunteers in the camp before Boston. Arnold received a commission as colonel, with authority to raise men in Vermont to attempt the surprise of these fortresses. The attention of Connecticut had been called to the same subject, and, about the time of Arnold's departure, some persons deputed for that purpose had induced Ethan Allen and Seth Warner, the two most active leaders among the Green Mountain Boys, to raise a force for the same enterprise. Arnold, as yet without men, joined Allen's party and claimed the command, but, being refused, agreed to serve as a volunteer. Allen approached Ticonderoga with eighty men, penetrated undiscovered into the center of the fort, surprised the commanding officer in his bed, and summoned him to surrender "in the name of the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress!" Crown Point was taken by Warner with equal ease. The total garrisons of both points were only sixty men. Upward of two hundred pieces of artillery, and a large and precious supply of powder, of which there was a great scarcity in the camp before Boston, fell into the hands of the captors. Arnold was presently joined by some fifty recruits, who had seized a schooner, and

taken several prisoners and some pieces of cannon, at Skenesborough, a new settlement, (now Whitehall, at the head of Lake Champlain,) founded by Colonel Skene, a British officer, who had gone to England to solicit an appointment as Governor of Ticonderoga. In this captured vessel Arnold proceeded down the lake, entered the Sorel, surprised the post of St. John's, where the navigation terminates, captured an armed vessel there, and carried off some valuable stores. Allen proposed to hold St. John's, but was obliged to retire by a superior force from Montreal. Arnold, with his vessels, returned to Crown Point.

The Continental Congress proceeded, meanwhile, to the delicate task of appointing a commander-in-chief. Unanimity on this important occasion was much promoted by John Adams, very anxious to conciliate the good-will and support of the southern colonies. George Washington, present as a member of Congress from Virginia, was nominated by Johnson, of Maryland, and unanimously chosen. It has been freely insinuated that "Sam" im-personally had a hand in this nomination, which took every body by surprise, as the accomplished soldier of fortune Lee, or the English renegade Gates, had been more generally looked to as the nominee. See our plate on next page for explanation. He accepted the appointment in a modest speech, in which he declined any compensation beyond payment of expenses. Artemas Ward, Charles Lee, Phillip Schuyler, and Israel Putnam, were chosen major generals; Horatio Gates, adjutant general, with the rank of brigadier. Ward and Putnam were already in the camp before Boston, the one as captain general, under a Massachusetts commission, the other as a Connecticut brigadier. Schuyler had been recommended as a major general by the New York Provincial Congress. Gates, an Englishman by birth, formerly a captain in the British service, had recently sold out his commission and settled in Virginia. Lee was a person of very eccentric habits, a mere soldier of fortune, but possessing a high reputation for military experience and science, having served with distinction both in Europe and America. He held, at the time of his election, a lieutenant colonel's commission in the British service. During the last eighteen months he had been traveling through America, and had recently been induced by Gates to

purchase lands in Virginia. For some unknown private cause, he was bitterly hostile to the British ministry. Congress undertook to indemnify him for any pecuniary loss he might sustain by entering into their service, and subsequently advanced him $30,000 for that purpose. Before accepting this American appointment, he resigned his British commission in a formal letter to the Secretary of War. A strenuous opposition was made in Congress to the appointment of both Lee and Gates. Washington urged it on account of their military knowledge and experience, but they both occasioned him afterward a great deal of trouble.

Pomeroy, Heath, and Thomas, of Massachusetts; Wooster and Spencer, of Connecticut; and Greene, of Rhode Island, already holding colony commissions as general officers, were commissioned as brigadiers. To these were added Sullivan, a member of Congress from New Hampshire, and Montgomery, of New York, a native of the north of Ireland. Though bred a lawyer, and without military experience, Sullivan soon proved himself an able officer. Montgomery had served with credit in a subaltern rank at the siege of Louisburg, and under Wolfe at Quebec. Within two or three years past he had disposed of his commission, had married into the Livingston family, and settled in New York, and, along with Schuyler, had been recommended for military rank by the New York Provincial Congress, of which he was a member. The colonels and other inferior officers in the camp before Boston were confirmed in their commands, and presently received continental commissions. The selection of general officers by Congress occasioned a good deal of heart-burning, particularly the Connecticut appointments. Wooster and Spencer, who had led regiments in the last French war, complained loudly at being superseded by Putnam, who had not risen in that service beyond the rank of a lieutenant colonel. A representation on this subject was made to Congress by the Connecticut officers and the Connecticut Assembly. Pomeroy, from some disgust, had already retired, nor did he accept his continental commission.

Before these new arrangements were completed, an important battle had been already fought. Largely reinforced by the arrival of additional troops, under Generals Howe, Burgoyne, and Clinton, distinguished and accomplished officers,

the British Army in Boston had been increased to twenty regular regiments, amounting to upward of ten thousand men. Thus strengthened, Gage had issued a proclamation of martial law, offering pardon, however, to all who would forthwith return to their allegiance, John Hancock and Samuel Adams excepted, whose guilt was too flagitious to be overlooked.

We here insert a copy of this famous Proclamation of the English Gates, who was no renegade:

The minds of men having been gradually prepared for the worst extremities, a number of armed persons, to the amount of many thousands, assembled on the 19th of April last, and from behind walls and lurking holes, attacked a detachment of the king's troops, who, not expecting so consummate an act of frenzy, unprepared for vengeance, and willing to decline, made use of their arms only in their own defense. Since that period the rebels, deriving confidence from impunity, have added insult to outrage; have repeatedly fired upon the king's ships and subjects, with cannon and small arms; have possessed the roads and other communications by which the town of Boston was supplied with provisions; and, with a preposterous parade of military arrangement they affect to hold the army besieged; while part of their body make daily and indiscriminate invasions upon private property, and with a wantonness of cruelty ever incident to lawless tumult, carry depredation and distress wherever they turn their steps. The actions of the 19th of April are of such notoriety, as must baffle all attempts to contradict them, and the flames of buildings and other property, from the islands, and adjacent country, for some weeks past, spread a melancholy comfirmation of the subsequent assertions.

In this exigency of complicated calamities, I avail myself of the last effort within the bounds of my duty to spare the effusion of blood; to offer, and I do hereby in his Majesty's name, offer and promise his most gracious pardon, to all persons who shall forthwith lay down their arms, and return to the duties of peaceable subjects, excepting only from the benefits of such pardon, SAMUEL ADAMS and JOHN HANCOCK, whose offenses are of too flagitious a nature to admit of any other consideration than that of condign punishment.

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