general than I have been. They are a set of low, dirty, griping, cowardly, lying rascals. There are some few exceptions and very few. They may do well enough at home, but every fresh man that comes here is so much loss to the army as they will get sick with the small-pox or some other lazy disorder, and those that are seasoned must take care of them and by that means weaken the army. You may inform all your acquaintance not to be afraid that they will ever Conquer the other Provinces (which you know was much talked of), 10,000 Pennsylvanians would I think be sufficient for ten times that number out of their own Country. All the Southern Troops live in great harmony. The others we have little or no connection with.'

"Here then is the secret of the antipathy. Evidently everywhere out of New England, and in Pennsylvania as well as in the South, there was a wide spread apprehension that in case of victory to the American arms the Yankees would substitute their own tyranny for that of the mother country over the other Provinces. This is distinctly expressed in a letter to be later quoted.

"In a letter from his wife, dated August 27, 1776, she says

'The people seem middling well reconciled to independency, but very much fear the heavy taxes that are to come upon us, but above all they fear the New Englanders should the Americans gain the day' . . In her husband's letter to her, Ticonderoga Sept. 21, 1776, . . . 'Two or three Yankee Colonels have died lately, more of them are sick. Indeed, the most of them look like spectres, miserable creatures they are, the more I am acquainted with them the worse I like them, I hoped it would be otherwise' .

This apprehension was seemingly not without some foundation. My thanks are due to Lord Lansdowne, who has had the courtesy to furnish me with a copy of the following letter to Lord Shelburne, preserved in his collections: "My Lord, Having read in the Public Prints, an assertion said to be made by your Lordship that the Independence of the revolted Colonies would be destructive of their Liberties as well as ruinous to this Country'-if upon any declaration of your Lord

ships it is allowable for so small a Being as I am to make use of the word support, I would say that I can support that assertion with the following matter. Mr. Sam. Adams and Mr. Gewry (Gerry?) Members of Congress for Massachusetts Having appointed me to dine with them at German Town near Philadelphia and as I then sought information to guide my conduct, least on the one side I should engage in a foul Rebellion against my King & Country, or on the other in imposing a Tyranny over a Free People, I gave the closest attention to the conversation that ensued, and Having found that the Colonies were to be declared Independent of the Crown & Parliament of Great Britain and the most close alliance sought with France as the Power in Europe the most Inimical to as well as most capable of injuring the Mother Country, the conversation assumed such a complexion that I thought the leading men of the Colonies did not mean to Halt Here, but to know where, I threw out-that a consolidation of the four New England Colonies into one making Boston the Capital & extending the Southern Limits to Hudsons River up the Mohawk to Oswego and striking a direct West Line through Canada embracing all to the N. & East including N. Scotia, Newfoundland &c. &c. such a consolidation calling the whole New England would make an Empire that in process of time & that not long would give laws to the World. I had not sooner done speaking than Adams starting from His chair took me by the Hand saying, my dear Friend extend the Boundery's to the South as far as the Delaware and if you had been in the very soul of me you could not Have expressed my sentiments more truely, and should we obtain Independence Old as I am I have not a doubt but I should see the rest compleated. Hence it is evident that even before the declaration of Independency was promulgated, the Conquest of Canada, N. Scotia &c. and the subdugation of the Provinces of N. York & the Jersey's were meditated. On this subject as on all others there seemed to be a perfect understanding between the Leaders of N. England & Virginia who stiled their Countries Elder & Younger Sisters to the exclusion of all intermediate Sisters saying that the other Provinces

were but Parts severed from them by the Policy of the Mother Country-and upond my saying the Policy of the Sisters should Bring them Back, they said, undoubtedly, and so it must be, then asked me where I would draw the line between N. England & Virginia. Answered, the Eastern Part of Maryland & the Susquehanna following its West Branch. they said this would be an Equitable Boundery, as it would prevent the large Province of Pensilvania from falling intire to either. during this conversation what seemed to me extraordinary was that the only Delegate then attending Congress from the Jersey's being present gave His intire approbation to this Partition.

The first part of the above plan is to be the Conquest of all the British Settlements on the Continent. Hence the rejection of the terms lately offered, and also the necessity of their joining Hands & Hearts with France, Spain & Holland to wrest from us our possessions every where, particularly the W. India islands to gratify the Houses of Bourbon, which they Have Covenanted to do. and I am extremely sorry to add as it seems greatly to influence their Conduct-that the absolute ruin of Great Britain would be the absolute agrandisment of America. because all the money'd & industrious part of the People would go there. to effect the latter purpose I fear I am too well grounded in asserting that the Colonists need not go such lengths, but rest satisfied with a Peaceable Simple Independance as that alone would draw off 200000 families, which in a great measure accounts for the Indiscriminate support they meet with in this Country. Here I shall beg leave to observe that from what I Have Heard and seen in that Country, and what I Have Heard & seen in this, it is to me a self evident proposition-that the absolute unconditional Independance of America, would be the absolute unconditional ruin of Great Britain. But that Both may yet be Happily averted and America Brought Back I Have not the smallest doubt.

My Lord, if you were not a Higher character from Abilities than even Station I should not have risked myself in this

of the Kings 38th regt. of foot and in the year 1776 a Vote of Congress was passed appointing Him Chief Engineer of the Continental Army with the Rank of Colonel, which He refused, as appears by the Printed resolutions of Congress. but Congress supposing the refusal to Have proceeded from an expectation of more exalted rank, offered Him by a Committee of three to make Him Adjutant General of their Army in the room of Gates, with the rank of Brigadier General also refused & soon after was offered the rank of Majr. General and finally a separate command to the Southward, Georgia proposed But the whole refused. rendered the King all the service in His Power got the knowledge of the particular Powers given to Doctor Franklin relative to a close Alliance with France which went to the final ruin of this Country, to avert which by an immediate Communication He came off the first opportunity, and Having landed at Nants, arrived at Paris two days after Franklin and Instantly laid the whole before Lord Stormont the Kings Ambassador who has been pleased to acknowledge the information to be strictly just and in consequence did Him the High Honor to mention Him to the King.

in the above services He expended five Hundred pounds of His private Property-for all which He Has now a pension of £100 pr. An.

A record of the above services is now in Mr. Rowe's office in the Treasury authenticated By the Lords Stormont & Sackville."

"It is well known that New England's influence in the Congress was greater than that of any other group of the Colonies. While sympathising with her the middle and southern colonies were not firmly persuaded that the critical point had been reached, when the domination of the New England contingent in Congress forced the hand of their colleagues and precipitated the war. It was doubtless due to this cause that the signatures of these colleagues to the Declaration of Independence were so slow in being affixed.

"But whatever be the reason it was unhappily true that the sections of this country in its infancy, like the sections of all other countries, regarded each other with a suspicion and almost hatred only less intense than the foreigner." *

"If we are to be slaves let us be so to the lion, and not to the lousy dirty vermin of New England." †

"We are going on within doors with tardiness enough a kind of fatality still prevents our proceeding a step in the important affairs of confederation. Yesterday and the day before was wholly spent in passing resolutions to gratify New York, or, as they say, to prevent a civil war between that State and the Green Mountain men," etc.‡

The Journals of Congress, Mr. Madison's correspondence, and other records show that a prominent factor in allowing the New Hampshire Grants to be erected as the independent State of Vermont was the apprehension that otherwise they would enter into alliance with the British.

"Who . . . could imagine, that the most violent local prejudices would cease so soon; and that men who came from the different parts of the continent, strongly disposed

to despise and quarrel with each other would instantly become but one patriot band of brothers?" 8

* Some Extracts from the "Papers of General Persifor Frazer," Pennsylvania Magazine, Vol. XXXI, pp. 133-137; 1907.

"Minutes of a Conspiracy against the Liberties of America"; Phila. (reprinted), 1865.

Samuel Adams to R. H. Lee, June 29, 1777. "Life of Samuel Adams," by Wm. V. Wells, Vol. II, p. 475; B., 1865.

§ Washington's Farewell Orders to the Armies of the United States, November 2, 1783.