ALLIED ARMY MARCHES TO VIRGINIA. 291

promise the best result in a necessarily limited time. This opportune information, combined with the slowness of the Northern States in responding to the requisitions that had been made upon them for troops to aid in the contemplated operation against New York, and the large reinforcements recently received by the enemy there, determined the mind of the commander-in-chief at once to direct his efforts against the British post and army in Virginia.

The American and French forces already assembled around New York were put in motion without delay. On the 3d day of September a large portion of the allied army passed through Philadelphia, when Mr. Madison wrote to his friend Judge Pendleton in the following buoyant terms:

"This letter will be the most agreeable of any I have long had the pleasure of writing. I begin with informing you that the commander-inchief and the Count Rochambeau, the former with a part of the American army, and the latter with the whole of the French, are thus far on their way for the Southern department. The American troops passed through the town yesterday: the first division of the French, to-day. The second will pass to-morrow. Nothing can exceed the appearance of this specimen which our ally has sent us of his army, whether we regard the figure of the men, or the exactness of their discipline."

Count de Grasse arrived in the Chesapeake with his fleet of twenty-eight line-of-battle ships, and a proportionate number of frigates, on the 30th of August. With one portion of them he blocked up the mouth of York River; and with another he occupied the James, in order to cut off the retreat of Lord Cornwallis to the Carolinas, should he meditate such an attempt; while the land troops brought from the West Indies, under the Marquis de Saint Simon, were sent forward to join Lafayette at Williamsburg. De Grasse had been but a few days in the Chesapeake, when the whole British naval force from New York, under Admirals Graves and Hood, appeared off Cape Henry, and offered him battle. The gage was not declined by the French admiral, but the action which ensued was not decisive. The two hostile fleets remained in sight of each other, for several successive days, without renewing the engagement. In the mean

time, Count de Barras, with the French squadron from Rhode Island, consisting of eight lineof-battle ships, entered the Chesapeake in spite of the efforts of the British admirals to intercept him. The latter then returned to New York; ;; whence Sir Henry Clinton continued to hold out hopes of speedy relief to Cornwallis.

But events hastened to their consummation. Washington and Rochambeau, as soon as they arrived with the allied army at Williamsburg, went on board the Ville de Paris, the flag ship

SURRENDER OF CORNWALLIS.

293

of the French admiral, to concert with him the necessary measures for the immediate and active commencement of the siege. Thus was opened,in the presence of a magnificent fleet of our ally, covering the waters of the Chesapeake, and coming together, as if by magic, from remote and opposite points of the compass, that great scene of combined operation between the arms of France and the United States, fraternal yet emulous, which dashed and reversed all the boasts of a haughty invader, and sealed the independence of America with the humiliating surrender of an army that had threatened and denounced its conquest. History has rarely presented a scene more dramatic and imposing in its accessories, more august in its associations, or more transcendent and eventful in its consequences, than the siege and surrender of Yorktown.

NOTE. We have already referred to some proofs of the contemporary appreciation of the able generalship displayed by Lafayette in his operations for the defence of Virginia previous to the arrival of the allied army. To these, we are pleased to have it in our power to add the just estimate of his military character formed by Washington, before the campaign in Virginia had given evidence to the world of the correctness of that estimate. It is extracted from a manuscript letter, now before us, addressed by General Washington, on the 10th of July, 1781, to the

Hon. Joseph Jones, one of the delegates of Virginia in Congress.

"The complaints against the Baron de Steuben are not more distressing than unexpected; for I always viewed him in the light of a good officer. If he has formed a junction with the Marquis, he will be no longer master of his own conduct. Of course, the clamors against him will cease with his command. From General Greene's letters, I had little doubt but that he would have been in Virginia ere this. Powerful causes may have detained him: but I am persuaded he will be there as soon as

CHAPTER X.

Proceedings of Congress on receiving Intelligence of the Surrender of the British Army at Yorktown - Washington urges energetic Preparations for another Campaign Recommendation warmly seconded by Mr. Madison- Congress makes further Calls for Troops and Money on the States - Frequent Disregard of these Requisitions-Necessity of invigorating the Federal Authority enforced by Washington - Proposition to invest Congress with coercive Power-Views of Mr. Madison on the Subject — Colonel Hamilton brings forward a Project, in a Communication addressed by him to a Member of Congress Remarks on his SchemePolicy of completing the Ratification of the Articles of Confederation, rather than attempt, in the Midst of War, the Introduction of a new System-Congress applies to the States for Power to levy Duties on Foreign Imports - Mr. Madison zealously sustains the Application-His Letter on the Subject.

CONGRESS, on the 24th of October, 1781, received official intelligence of the capitulation of Yorktown, in a letter from the commander-inchief; and, at two o'clock of the same day, went in procession to the Dutch Lutheran Church, "to return thanks to Almighty God for crowning the allied arms of the United States and France with success by the surrender of the whole British army under Earl Cornwallis." A