taken.-Arrival of Reinforcements from England.- CHAPTER VII. A Continental Army-Mr. Washington appointed to CHAPTER VIII. Diffenfions in the British Parliament.-Petition of CHAPTER IX. Declaration of Independence.-Lord Howe's Arrival CHAPTER X. Defultory Circumftances.-Skirmishes and Events.-- 229 272 305 at the River Elk--Followed by Washington.-The APPENDIX. 364 409 THE RISE, PROGRESS, &c. OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. CHAPTER I. Introductory Obfervations. HISTORY, the depofite of crimes, and the record of every thing difgraceful or honorary to mankind, requires a just knowledge of character, to investigate the fources of action; a clear comprehenfion, to review the combination of causes; and precision of language, to detail the events that have produced the most remarkable revolutions. To analyze the fecret fprings that have ef fected the progreffive changes in fociety; to trace the origin of the various modes of government, the confequent improvements in fcience, in morality, or the national tincture that CHAP. I. CHAP. I. marks the manners of the people under defpotic or more liberal forms, is a bold and adventurous work. The study of the human character opens at once a beautiful and a deformed picture of the foul. We there find a noble principle implanted in the nature of man, that pants for diftinction. This principle operates in every bofom, and when kept under the control of reason, and the influence of humanity, it produces the moft benevolent effects. But when the checks of confcience are thrown afide, or the moral fenfe weakened by the fudden acquisition of wealth or power, humanity is obfcured, and if a favorable coincidence of circumftances permits, this love of diftinction often exhibits the most mortifying inftances of profligacy, tyranny, and the wanton exercise of arbitrary fway. Thus when we look over the theatre of human action, scrutinize the windings of the heart, and furvey the tranfactions of man from the earlieft to the fent period, it must be acknowledged that ambition and avarice are the leading fprings which generally actuate the reftlefs mind. From these primary fources of corruption have arifen all the rapine and confusion, the depredation and ruin, that have spread diftrefs over the face of the earth from the days of Nimrod to Cefar, and from Cefar to an arbitrary prince of the houfe of Brunswick. pre The indulgence of these turbulent paffions has depopulated cities, laid waste the finest territories, and turned the beauty and harmony of the lower creation into an aceldama. Yet candor must bear honorable teftimony to many fignal inftances of difinterested merit among the children of men; thus it is not poffible to pronounce decidedly on the character of the politician or the statesman till the winding up of the drama. To evince the truth of this remark, it is needless to adduce innumerable inftances of deception both in ancient and modern ftory. It is enough to obferve, that the fpecious Auguftus eftablished himself in empire by the appearance of juftice, clemency, and moderation, while the favage Nero fhamelessly weltered in the blood of the citizens; but the fole object of each was to become the fovereign of life and property, and to govern the Roman world with a defpotic hand. Time may unlock the cabinets of princes, unfold the fecret negociations of statesmen, and hand down the immortal characters of dignified worth, or the blackened traits of finished villany in exaggerated colours. But truth is most likely to be exhibited by the general fenfe of contemporaries, when the feelings of the heart can be expreffed without fuffering itself to be disguised by the prejudices of the man. Yet it is not easy to convey to pofterity a juft idea of the embarraffed fituation of the western world, CHAP. I. |