XXXVIII. rounded, defeated, and driven back with heavy loss; and CHAPTER several who were taken prisoners were put to death by the Indians with horrible torments. Those who escaped 1778. fled to Fort Wyoming, which was speedily invested. The surviving Continentals, to avoid being taken prisoners, embarked, and escaped down the river; after which the fort surrendered upon promise of security to life and property. Desirous to fulfill these terms, Butler presently marched away with his Tories; but he could not induce the Indians to follow. They remained behind, burned the houses, ravaged the fields, killed such as resisted, and drove the miserable women and children through the woods and mountains to seek refuge where they might. Oct. These barbarities, greatly exaggerated by reports embodied since in poetry and history, excited every where a lively indignation. Wyoming was presently reoccupied by a body of Continental troops. A Continental regiment of the Pennsylvania line, stationed at Schoharie, penetrated to the neighboring branches of the Upper Susquehanna, and destroyed the settlement of Unadilla, occupied by a mixed population of Indians and refugees. The Indians and Loyalists soon took their revenge by surprising Cherry Valley. The fort, which had a Con- Nov. 10. tinental garrison, held out; but Colonel Alden, who lodged in the town, was killed, the lieutenant colonel was made prisoner, and the settlement suffered almost the fate of Wyoming. Resolved to crush these dangerous internal enemies, Congress ordered a large force on that service; but the approach of winter made it necessary to wait. The people of Georgia had been a good deal annoyed by predatory parties from East Florida, led by refugees who had found shelter there, and who exercised a predominating influence over the Creek Indians. The better XXXVIIL CHAPTER to undertake an expedition against St. Augustine, General Howe, the commanding American officer in the south1778. ern department, removed his head-quarters from Charleston to Savannah. John Houston, elected governor of Georgia the January preceding, joined in the expedition, and some militia also from South Carolina. The troops crossed the Altamaha, and penetrated with difficulty as far as the St. Mary's; but the expedition was retarded and interrupted by disputes about command, by sickness among the men, and the loss of draught horses, and was presently abandoned. The refugees of Florida retorted by an invasion in their turn. One party penetrated to the Ogeechee. Another, approaching by water, laid siege to Sunbury, but soon retired without accomplishing any thing. In The bills of credit still continued the main financial resource of Congress; and, as they went on depreciating, the issue of necessity became greater and greater. addition to the twenty-three millions and a half issued during the first six months of the year, five millions were authorized in July, fifteen millions in September, and ten millions each in November and December, making an issue of sixty-three millions and a half during the year, and raising the whole amount outstanding to near a hundred millions. Several millions of these bills had been exchanged for certificates of loan bearing interest; but the bills thus borrowed had been immediately paid out again, and the certificates of loan, serving themselves to a certain extent as a currency, helped also to increase the depreciation, which, before the end of the year, amounted in the North to six, in the South to eight for one. The Loyalists at New York having made it a business to counterfeit the paper, Congress was obliged to withdraw from circulation two entire emissions, amounting XXXVIII. to ten millions of dollars. A rumor that the bills would CHAPTER never be redeemed, but would be suffered to sink in the hands of the holders, was denounced as "false and de- 1778. rogatory to the honor of Congress." In addition to fif. Dec. 27. teen millions of paper dollars which the states had just been called upon to raise by taxes, a further call was Dec. 31. made for six millions annually for eighteen years, to com ́mence with 1780, to be appropriated to pay the interest of all loans made to the United States previous to that year, the balance, as well as the fifteen millions previ ously called for, to be canceled. But measures so feeble were totally insufficient to support the failing credit of the Continental paper. During the current year, the total expenditure of Congress amounted to sixty-seven millions of paper dollars, worth in specie about twenty-four millions, being nearly the same amount expended the year preceding. The great expenditure and complicated accounts of Congress had made it necessary to create additional treasury officers. Besides the auditor and treasurer, officers already existing, a controller and two chambers of accounts were constituted, to act under the committee which had the Sept. general superintendence of the treasury. When John Adams arrived at Paris, he found a very violent quarrel going on there between Deane and Franklin on the one part, and Arthur Lee on the other; nor did the recall of Deane bring that quarrel to an end, though Adams avoided as much as possible being mixed up with it. To get rid of this dispute, and the inconveniences thence arising, Congress appointed Franklin Sept. 14. sole commissioner to the court of France, Arthur Lee still retaining his commissionership to Spain, though not allowed, as we have seen, to enter that country. In this new arrangement no notice was taken of Adams, not even CHAPTER SO far as to send him letters of recall; and, not a little XXXVIII. piqued at this neglect, he hastened home, intending, as 1778. he wrote to his wife, to return to the practice of the law at Boston, "to make writs, draw deeds, and be happy!" The commissioners at Paris had obtained from the French court a small loan of three millions of livres, about $500,000; but this proved a very insufficient fund out of which to meet their various engagements for the purchase of arms and stores, and the equipment of cruisers, and to pay the bills for interest drawn upon them by Congress. The Articles of Confederation, referred to the states, had come back with divers proposed amendments, all of which, however, were disagreed to in Congress; and in the course of the current year the articles were ratified, under special powers for that purpose, by the delegates of all the states except Delaware and Maryland; but, as unanimity was necessary, the holding back of these states prevented the articles from going into effect. The presidency of Congress, resigned by Laurens, was Dec. 10. conferred on Jay, who had reappeared in that body after a two years' absence, during which he had been busily employed in the local affairs of New York. CHAPTER XXXIX. DIPLOMATIC TROUBLES. TREASURY AND ARMY. GEORGIA XXXIX. ALMOST the whole business of the commissioners to CHAPTER France, so far as related to the receipt and expenditure. of money, had passed through the hands of Deane, of 1778. whose capacity and honesty Franklin entertained a high opinion, and of whom John Adams afterward said "that he had been a diligent servant of the public, and had rendered useful services." Arthur Lee, an unquiet, envious, irritable, and suspicious man, very anxious to obtain for himself the sole management of the mission, had quarreled, soon after his arrival at Paris, with Franklin and Deane, and had written home letters full of insinuations against both his colleagues. Isnard, dissatisfied, it would seem, at not having been consulted about the French treaty, had written home similar letters. Carmichael, who had been employed at Paris as an agent or secretary of the commissioners, but who was now in America, and was presently chosen a delegate to Congress from Maryland, insinuated that Deane had appropriated the public money to his own use. He and Deane were examined at the bar of Congress; and Deane final |