1775.] GENERAL WOOSTER IN COMMAND. 449 was anxious to attach the provinces, and still believed it possible to do politically what had not yet been done by the sword. Additional proclamations were sent forward, and a commission consisting of Franklin, Chase, and Carroll, to which was added Carroll's brother, a Jesuit priest, afterward Archbishop of Baltimore, was appointed to visit Canada and organize if possible a political union. Scarcely had they reached Montreal when news was brought of the arrival of a British fleet at Quebec, and Franklin hastened back to Philadelphia, at the instance of his colleagues, to urge the imperative need of immediate reënforcements. In March Arnold was displaced by General Wooster, who arrived with fresh troops. He remained in command about two months, but could make, though he attempted it, no impression upon the fortifications of Quebec. Of his courage and high character there was no question, but he wanted military experience. He was, perhaps, too old to learn, and his conduct of affairs had aroused much dissatisfaction and criticism. He was accused of partiality to the troops from his own State Connecticut but so bitter were sectional jealousies, both in Congress and in the army, that such an accusation was always sure to be made wherever enmity existed, and was certain to be accepted, no matter how unfounded. The difficulties, moreover, with which Wooster had to contend, his successors found equally insurmountable till Canada was at length abandoned. When Major-general Thomas, who superseded Wooster, reached the army early in May, and found that he could hardly bring into the field a thousand men, he determined to retreat. Even this he was not permitted to do unmolested; the garrison of Quebec had been largely reënforced, and Carleton attacked the American position, routed Thomas's force, and captured a hundred prisoners and most of the stores and provisions. He retreated first to Descham Vault and then to the Sorel- a wretched march of a disorganized, disheartened, halfstarved, and rapidly decreasing force. Their miseries were aggravated by small-pox, brought into the camp by a girl who had been a hospital nurse, and at the mouth of the Sorel, on the 2d of June, General Thomas died of it. The British were equally successful at other points. Major Butterfield, with nearly four hundred men, held a fortified post at a place called the Cedars, on the St. Lawrence, about forty miles above Montreal. This was captured on the 18th of May by Captain Foster with a detachment of regulars and Canadians, and a large body of Indians. The next day Major Sherburne, on his way to relieve Butterfield, was attacked in the woods by a part of Foster's force, and was compelled to surrender. Arnold, who followed a few days later, was unsuccess ful in an attempt to dislodge the enemy from their strong position at Vaudreuil and Perrot Island. Brigadier-General John Sullivan succeeded Thomas and arrived at Sorel early in June. Ignorant of the condition of the army, he was over-confident, and wrote to Washington that he could "put a new face upon affairs here." In the interval of four days between Thomas's death and Sullivan's arrival General Thompson was in command, and had ordered a forward movement to Three Rivers. Sullivan approved it, and putting the expedition under the command of Thompson, ordered him with two thousand men, under Colonels Wayne, Maxwell, and Irvine, to join Colonel St. Clair, who was already at Nicholet. On the evening of the 7th the combined forces crossed the river at Point Du Lac, and found themselves in the morning on the beach, confronted by Frazer, with artillery and a force three times their own, exposed to the fire of the ships in the river, and their advance impossible. One hundred and fifty were taken prisoners, and the rest regained their boats. Sullivan resumed the retreat which Thomas had begun, falling back upon Ticonderoga and Crown Point. The Canada campaign was at an end in June, the British holding Isle aux Noïx as their advanced post. CHAPTER XVIII. OPENING OF THE CAMPAIGN OF 1776. PARLIAMENT SUPPORTS THE KING.-EFFORTS TO INCREASE THE BRITISH FORCES. EMPLOYMENT OF MERCENARIES. MILITARY IMPORTANCE OF NEW YORK CITY. THE PROVINCIAL CONGRESS OF NEW YORK AND THE COMMITTEE OF SAFETY.— THE SONS OF LIBERTY. EXPLOIT OF MARINUS WILLETT. - ZEAL OF ISAAC SEARS. LEE TAKES COMMAND. - FORTIFICATIONS OF BROOKLYN AND NEW YORK. -LORD STIRLING. THE SOUTHERN EXPEDITION. - BATTLE OF MOORE'S CREEK BRIDGE. ARRIVAL OF PARKER'S FLEET.- SOUTH CAROLINA ADOPTS A TEMPORARY CONSTITUTION. THE BRITISH ATTACK THE DEFENCES OF CHARLESTON, AND ARE REPULSED. - Parliament King. THE ministerial plan of operations in America had been gradually maturing since the reception of the news of the Battle of Bunker Hill, which had touched the pride of the nation at supports the the most sensitive point. Parliament, in the autumn of 1775, voted the King and Ministry all the men and material they called for. It mattered little that the friends of America in that body again raised their voices for concession and conciliation. The vigorous appeals and arguments of Burke, Fox, Barré, Wilkes, and Conway in favor of colonial rights, still found unwilling ears, or were listened to only as the vindictive tirades of the "opposition." The ministerial party blindly clung to the policy of coercion first and concession afterwards, and, in their address to the King, expressed the hope that they should be able, "by the blessing of God," to put such means into his Majesty's hands as would soon defeat and suppress the rebellion, and enable him to accomplish his "gracious wish of reestablishing order, tranquillity, and happiness" throughout his empire. The disorders in America, the King said in his speech, "must be put down by the most decisive exertions." Wisdom and clemency, he told the Commons, alike demanded this course.1 The army to be sent for the subjection of the colonies was to be increased to nearly forty thousand men, supported by a formidable fleet, manned by over twenty-two thousand seamen. If the parliamentary majority which sustained the ministerial policy 1 King's speech at the opening of Parliament, October 26, 1775. Recruiting in England. had reflected the feeling of the nation at large, there would have been no difficulty in obtaining the additional troops required. But the calls met with a feeble response. The necessary complement at home to fill the old and depleted regiments could not be secured; and the government, even before it resolved on extreme measures, found itself forced to draw upon its garrisons in the West Indies, Ireland, and Gibraltar. The King, as Elector of Hanover, could do as he pleased with Hanoverian troops, and by putting these in places garrisoned by English soldiers, he was able to add about twenty-three hundred men to the army in America. The opposition in the House of Commons seized upon the evident lack of popular sympathy with the King's measures. The Ministry, compelled to find an explanation, replied that the general prosperity among all classes, and the large numbers enrolled in the militia, who could not be called upon for foreign service, was a sufficient explanation of this apparent apathy. It was an excuse, however, rather than an explanation, and one in which, probably, they did not themselves believe; it certainly was not satisfactory to those statesmen who were opposed to the war.2 Holland re England. The King cared nothing for English sympathy, and was equally indifferent as to whether the war was carried on with Engfuses to aid lish or with foreign soldiers. It was a question of pounds and thalers, not of flesh and blood. Soldiers could be bought at a fixed price per head, and, while that was so, it was the English treasury, not the English people, that need be consulted. George, from his relations to Holland, had no doubt of her friendly aid. In an autograph letter to the States General, he asked for permission to employ their Scotch brigade. He was refused. "Our troops," said the Baron van der Capellen, " would be employed toward suppressing what some please to call a rebellion in the American Colonies; for which purpose I would rather see janissaries hired than soldiers of a free state. Such a measure must appear superlatively detestable to me, who think the Americans worthy of every man's esteem, and look on them as a brave people, defending, in a becoming, manly, and religious manner, those rights which as men they derive from God, not from the legislature of Great Britain." The ministers, with hardly less doubt of a favorable answer, turned to Russia. The Eastern question of that day had brought the Empire under obligations to Great Britain for aid against the Turks. In re 1 Speech in Parliament, November 3, 1775, by Lord Barrington, of the War Office. 2 In the early part of 1775, Lord Camden expressed the belief, founded on observation, that the merchants, tradesmen, and common people were generally opposed to a war, while the landed interest supported the government. At the opening of the campaign of 1776, the King probably had a stronger support than Camden allowed him the year before. But the war, nevertheless, was not popular. 1775.] ATTITUDE OF THE GREAT POWERS. 453 turn, Catherine would now, perhaps, have helped the English King with twenty thousand troops, but for the interference, both No help from open and secret, of the other powers. For more than a dozen Russia, years France had been anxiously watching the growing alien- Prussia. ation between Great Britain and her American colonies. De Font France, or leroy and De Kalb had been sent, after the French war, to travel in America, to observe her resources, and study the causes of dissension which even at that time had begun to show themselves; and now, when hostilities had actually broken out, so far as France had influence with other European powers, it was sure to be exercised, directly or indirectly, in favor of the revolting colonies. Nothing could be expected from Prussia. Said Frederick to a party of Englishmen : "If you intend conciliation, some of your measures are too rough; and if subjection, too gentle. In short, I do not understand these matters; I have no colonies. I hope you will extricate yourselves advantageously; but I own the affair seems rather perplexing." And as to European sentiment generally, John Moore, an English physician, |