Indeed all ranks were emulous to manifest their respect to the commander of the army. Multitudes [236] flocked from every quarter to the American standard, and within a few weeks the environs of Boston exhibited a brave and high spirited army, which formed to order, discipline, and subordination, more rapidly than could have been expected from their former habits. Fired with an enthusiasm arising from a sense of the justice of their cause; ardent, healthy, and vigorous; they were eager for action, and impatient to be led to an attack on the town of Boston, where the British army was encamped. But they were still ignorant that both private and political adventurers, had been so negligent of their own and the public safety, as to pay little attention to the importation of powder, arms, and other warlike stores, previous to the prohibition of Britain, restricting the shipment of those articles to America, but for the immediate use of the king’s troops.
Thus when hostilities commenced, and a war was denounced against the colonies, they had innumerable difficulties to surmount. Several of the most formidable powers of Europe had been invited by Britain to aid the cruel purposes of administration, either by the loan of auxiliaries, or by a refusal of supplies to the infant states, now struggling alone against a foe, whose power, pride and success, had often made the nations tremble. On a retrospect of the critical situation of America, it is astonishing she did not fall at the threshold; she had new [237] governments to erect in the several states, her legislatures to form, and her civil police to regulate on untrodden ground. She had her armies to establish, and funds to provide for their payment: she had her alliances to negociate, new sources of trade to strike out, and a navy to begin, while the thunder of Britain was alarming her coasts, the savages threatening her borders, and the troops of George the third, with the sword uplifted, pushing their execrable purpose to exterminate the last vestige of freedom.
But as Providence had led to the period of independence, the powers of industry and invention were called forth. Not discouraged by the magnititude of the work, or the numberless obstacles to the completion of their design, no difficulties damped the ardor and unanimity of their exertions, though for a time it appeared, as if their magazines must be furnished by the nitre from heaven, and the ore dug by their own hands from the bowels of the earth. The manufacture of salt-petre, at first considered as the ideal project of some enthusiast for freedom, was not only attempted, but became the easy occupation of women and children. Large quantities were furnished from many parts of America, and powder-mills were erected, which worked it with success. Sulphur, lead, and iron ore, are the natural productions of the country, and mountains of flint had recently [238] been discovered and wrought for use. As nature had thus furnished the materials, every hand that was not engaged in arms was employed in arts, with an alacrity and cheerfulness that discovered a determination to be free. Precipitated into a conflict that probably might light half Europe in flames, the demand was too great, and the process too slow, to rely entirely on the efforts of genius and industry.
When general Washington became fully apprized of the astonishing deficiency in the article of powder, having been led into a misapprehension of the stock on hand, by irregular returns, his embarrassment was great; he immediately applied for advice to the speaker of the house of representatives, who judged that the most prompt measures were indispensably necessary. They agreed that the speaker should communicate the circumstance to a few members who might be confidentially entrusted: the result was, that committees were immediately sent by the assembly to many towns in the province, in a cautious, guarded manner, to require the stocks of powder on hand in their several magazines. This was expeditiously effected, and with little difficulty; but the collection was very inadequate, yet sufficient to relieve the anxiety of the present moment. Happily they were not apprized within the walls of Boston, of the poverty of their antagonists without, particularly in this article, until they had time [239] to collect the small stocks from the neighbouring towns, and to receive some, though far from an ample supply, from the southern colonies. At this crisis, had general Gage ventured without his entrenchments, both the American army and the people, must have been involved in extreme distress.
Several vessels had been privately sent both to the Dutch and English islands to procure arms and ammunition; but so narrowly were they watched by the British cruisers, that they had returned with little success.
These circumstances accelerated a spirited measure, before contemplated only by a few; the arming and equipping of ships to cruize on British property, was a bold attempt, that startled the apprehensions of many, zealously opposed to the undue exercise of British power; but necessity impelled, and the enterprize was pursued. The general assembly of the Massachusetts soon resolved to build, equip and arm, a number of vessels suitable for the purpose, to cruize and capture any British ships that might be found on, or near their coasts. They granted letters of marque and reprisal to several adventurers, and appointed courts of admiralty for the trial and condemnation of any captures within those limits. By these means, the seasonable capture, in the beginning of this enterprise, of a British ship, laden with ordnance, and an assorted cargo of warlike stores, sufficiently [240] supplied the exigencies of the army, and dissipated the fears of those, who had suffered the most painful apprehensions for the safety of their country.
These naval preparations may perhaps be said, not to have been merely of a defensive nature, the line yet avowedly observed by the Americans; but they had advanced too far to recede; sophistical distinctions of words, or names, were laid aside. It is a fact, of which every one is sensible, that successful opposition to arbitrary sway, places a civic crown on the head of the hero that resists; when contingencies that defeat confer an hempen cord instead of a wreath of laurel. The success and catastrophe of the infant navy of America, will be shewn in the succeeding pages.
The naked state of the magazines had been kept as secret as possible, and every preparation for attack or defence, had been made, as if no deficiency was felt, while there were not three rounds of powder in the American camp. Lines of circumvallation had been formed from Mystick river to Roxbury and Dorchester. But, notwithstanding the appearance of strength, the collection of numbers, and the hostile disposition of both parties, nothing of consequence was attempted by either, after the action of the seventeenth of June, during the remainder of Gage’s [241] administration. This inactivity was heavily censured by the more ardent spirits both within and without the camp; it was thought disgraceful on the one side, nor would it have been less dishonorable on the other, had not their inability from the causes just mentioned prevented more vigorous movements. Yet, from the circumstances of the colonies, their petition to the king still pending, and their allegiance not formally renounced, it was judged by many, most prudent for the American army, to remain for the present only on the defensive.
Governor Gage obtained leave to repair to England in the autumn of one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five. It was indeed unfortunate for him, that he had been appointed to the command of an army and the government of a province, without the talents that qualified for the times. He was naturally a man of a humane disposition, nor had his courage ever been impeached; but he had not the intrigue of the statesman to balance the parties, nor the sagacity necessary to defeat their designs; nor was he possessed of that soldierly promptitude that leaves no interval between the determination and the execution of his projects. Glad to quit the thorny field, he bade adieu to a country he had not the ability, and perhaps not the inclination to subdue, and the command of the army devolved on Sir William Howe.
[242] General Oglethorpe, his senior in office, an experienced veteran, grown old in military fame without sullying his laurels, had the prior offer of this command. He agreed to accept the appointment on condition the ministry would authorize him to assure the colonies, that justice should be done them. His proposal at once appeared the result of humanity and equity; he declared, that “he knew the people of America well; that they never would be subdued by arms, but that their obedience would be ever secured by doing them justice.”* A man with these ideas was not a fit instrument for the designs of the British government: he was therefore, agreeable to his own request, permitted to remain at home, where he was a quiet spectator of the folly of his country through a seven years war with the colonies.† On his declining the appointment, the important and hazardous command was given to general Howe, a man of pleasure and a soldier;