XXXV. states; the rate of interest was raised from four to six CHAPTER per cent.; and the receipt was authorized, under certain limitations, not of Continental bills merely, but of state 1777. bills also. Loans, however, came in but slowly; the treasury ran low; the loan offices were overdrawn; and the issue of bills of credit was reluctantly recommenced. Ten additional millions were speedily authorized, and May 20. as the issue increased, the depreciation increased also. The commissioners in France had been instructed to borrow money there; but such instructions were much more easily given than executed. Feb. 27. Just before the close of the year, the North Carolina 1776. Convention had agreed upon a state Constitution, under Dec. 18. which Richard Caswell, the conqueror of M'Donald, was chosen governor. At an early session of the new Legis- 1777. lature, the territory lately ceded by the Cherokees was erected into the district of Washington. A land office system was also established, consisting of an entry taker and a surveyor in each county. Any person was at liberty to enter six hundred and fifty acres of land for himself, and one hundred more for his wife, and the same for each of his children-the lands thus entered to be paid for at the rate of £2 10s. per hundred acres, exclusive of the fees of entry and survey. If any greater quantity were entered, double price was to be paid. The pressure of danger from abroad had somewhat allayed the opposition to the new Constitution of Pennsylvania. The delinquent counties elected counselors, and the new government was finally organized by the March 4. choice of Thomas Wharton, Jr., as president, and George Bryan as vice-president. Wharton's father was a wealthy and influential Quaker, opposed to the Revolution; but the son had been from the beginning an active partisan of the popular cause. Though the Constitu XXXV. CHAPTER tion was submitted to, its opponents were by no means satisfied. M'Kean, appointed chief justice, Reed and 1777. Roberdeau, presently sent as delegates to Congress, Rush, and others, adhered, after some hesitation, to the constitutional party; but the opposition, who took the name of "Republicans," included most of the merchants, lawyers, and leading citizens of Philadelphia. As they generally had the votes and assistance of the disaffected, they made the administration of the government no easy task. This internal contest, added to the extent of disaffection, operated greatly to diminish the effective force of Pennsylvania. April 20. The state government of New Jersey having again reestablished itself, a militia law was passed-not, however, very satisfactory to Washington or to Governor Livingston, since it allowed pecuniary payments in lieu of personal service. Another act, passed on the recommendation of Livingston, confiscated the personal estate of all refugees within the British lines who did not return within a fixed period-a policy adopted also in New York. The governor and twelve of the representatives were constituted a Committee of Safety, with extensive powers, to act during the recess. The refugees assembled in New York endeavored to indemnify themselves for their confiscated property by the fitting out of privateers and by plundering expeditions. Livingston became a particular object of their hatred. Mutual injuries inflamed to a high pitch the fury of civil discord, and each side charged the other with disgraceful cruelties. The Convention of New York, authorized for that purpose, found time at length to complete their frame of government-the first American Constitution that gave the choice of governor to the people. George Clin XXXV. ton, the active and energetic commander of the New CHAPTER York militia, and lately commissioned as a Continental brigadier, was presently elected governor, an office which, 1777. by successive re-elections, he continued to hold for eight- July 3. een years. Jay was appointed chief justice, and Robert R. Livingston chancellor. Until the meeting of the first Sept. Legislature, affairs continued to be administered by a Committee of Safety. Georgia, also, having framed a Constitution, was now Feb. 5. first divided into eight counties-four along the seacoast, and four up the Savannah. The parish of St. John's, which had anticipated the rest of the state in sending a delegate to Congress, was constituted into the county of Liberty; the other were named from Chatham, Camden, Burke, and other distinguished English advocates of colonial rights. Bullock having suddenly died, Button Gwinnet, late a member of Congress, and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was chosen president of the council; but when the choice Feb. 22. presently came on of governor under the new Consti- May 8. tution, he was beaten by John Adam Trueitlen. General McIntosh had taken a warm part in the contest, and subsequently to the election had spoken disparagingly of Gwinnet, who presently challenged him. the duel that ensued Gwinnet was killed, a circumstance which infused new bitterness into the party quarrels of that little state. In CHAPTER CHAPTER XXX VI. DETERMINATION OF THE MOTHER COUNTRY TO SUBDUE THOUGH the Declaration of Independence had lost XXXVI. the Americans a portion of their English friends, a large and intelligent section of the British people still protested against the war as unjust and unnatural. On the whole, however, it was decidedly popular; and the proceedings of Parliament, during the session of 1776–77, evinced, on the part of the ministry and their adherents, a fixed intention to reduce the revolted colonists to unconditional submission. 1776. A motion in the House of Commons to revise those Nov. 6. acts of Parliament by which the Americans considered themselves aggrieved, was lost by a large majority. Lord Chatham, in spite of his growing infirmities, went to the House of Lords to make a similar proposition, which shared there the same fate. The moral force of the opposition was somewhat weakened by their own dissensions. The Rockingham section, disgusted by the obstinate determination of ministers, ceased to attend in their seats when American affairs were discussed. Lord Shelburne's friends, including the particular adherents of Pitt, refused to join in this secession, which they considered a dereliction of public duty. 1777. Feb. Letters of marque and reprisal were issued against the Americans, and authority was given to secure and XXXVI. detain in custody, without bail or trial, except at the CHAPTER discretion of the Privy Council, all persons accused or suspected of treasons committed in America, or of piracy 1777. on the high seas. Besides the main army to operate against Philadelphia, the ministry had formed a scheme for an invasion from Canada, apprehensions of which had led the Americans into their late unsuccessful attempt to conquer that province. Whatever supplies of men or money the ministers asked were readily voted. But in England, as well as in America, enlistments were a matter of difficulty. Lord George Germaine was possessed with an idea, of which Sir William Howe found it very difficult to disabuse him, that recruits might be largely obtained among the American Loyalists. In spite, however, of all the efforts of Tryon, Delancey, and Skinner, the troops of that description hardly amounted as yet to twelve hundred men; and Howe complained, not without reason, of the tardiness of the ministers in filling up his army. As the spring opened, the British began to show some signs of activity. A detachment sent up the Hudson March 23. destroyed a quantity of stores collected at Peekskill, the lowest point on the river held by the Americans. In consequence of this attack, new efforts were made to strengthen the defenses of the Highlands, and Heath having been transferred to Boston, Putnam was sent to take the command there. A considerable corps under Lincoln, detached to guard the upper valley of the Raritan, had been stationed at Bound brook, in the vicinity of the British post at Brunswick. Owing to the negligence of a militia guard, Lincoln was near being surprised by a detachment under April 13. Cornwallis, which marched out of Brunswick for that |