EXPEDITION AGAINST RHODE ISLAND.
While Cornwallis had been advancing through the Jerseys, General Clinton had been sent, together with the squadron of Sir Peter Parker, to Rhode Island, where an American squadron had been collected under Commodore Hopkins. This island was taken without any difficulty, and Hopkins retired up Providence River, where he remained inactive and useless. The people of Rhode Island, however, were enthusiastic revolutionists, and it required a considerable force to keep them in awe; whence, during three years, a great body of men were left in perfect idleness.
SUCCESSES OF GENERAL CARLETON.
It has been seen that the American army which had been driven from Canada, took refuge on the Isle Aux Noix, and that General Carleton was preparing to follow up his successes. It required vessels to cope with the American flotilla, and to command the lakes St. George and Champlain, near which the Isle Aux Noix was situate, and of these the general was in want. The frame-work of vessels was, indeed, sent for from England, but it required time before they could arrive, and still further time to put them together. Still Carleton did not remain idle. In the emergency he sent detachments from the king’s ships stationed at Quebec, with volunteers from the transports, and a corps of artillery, to fell timber, and to occupy a favourable post on the Lake Champlain. The keel and floor-timbers, also, of the “Inflexible,” a ship of three hundred tons, which had been laid down at Quebec, were taken to pieces, carried over to St. John’s, and laid down again at a corner of the lake, where a little dock-yard was improvised. Moreover, thirty long-boats, many large batteaux, and a gondola of thirty tons were carried up to the spot, partly by land, and partly by being dragged up the shoals and rapids of the river Sorel. In a few weeks, indeed, General Carleton had a naval force—such as it was—to sweep the Lakes Champlain and St. George from end to end. But before these preparations were completed, the Americans had quitted the Isle Aux Noix, and had traversed the lake for Crown Point. Congress had voted that General Gates should take the command of these troops, and that Arnold, the hero of the Canada expedition, should command the squadron of fifteen vessels which were on the lake. When his preparations were completed, Carleton lost no time in seeking this squadron, and on the 11th of October he discovered it in a strong line across the passage between Isle Vallicour and the western shore of the lake. A warm but indecisive action ensued, which lasted till night-fall; but Arnold in the course of the night, though well watched, escaped from the passage, and attempted to make Fort Ticonderago. On the following morning his squadron was out of sight, but before noon the British flotilla got up with it again, and brought it to action a few leagues below Crown-Point. After a running fight of two hours, Arnold’s headmost vessels succeeded in reaching Crown-Point, and the narrow part of the lake beyond that fort; but the “Washington” and “Jersey” were taken, and all the rest were run on shore, and there burnt by their crews. Crown-Point was immediately abandoned by the provincials, who ran for their lives to Ticonderoga. This fort was deemed too strong to be successfully attacked, at so advanced a season of the year, and Carleton, having strengthened the British fleet so as to ensure the command of Lake Champlain, evacuated Crown-Point of which he had taken possession, and returned to Quebec, where he exerted himself during the winter in making preparation for the next campaign. At the same time General Burgoyne returned to England.
MEASURES OF CONGRESS.
Although the confidence of many members of congress, that the contest would soon be over, was shaken, yet as a body they remained firm and hopeful. At the same time, on the advance of Lord Cornwallis through the Jerseys, they fled for safety from Philadelphia to Baltimore, in Maryland. On reassembling here, however, they betrayed no despondency or any lack of spirit. The hope of obtaining their grand object,—independence and separation from Great Britain,—seemed to sustain them in the midst of all their reverses. They now materially enlarged the powers of Washington. They authorised him to raise sixteen additional regiments; furnished him with all the money they could, and promised him a great deal more; and finally conferred upon him, for six months, a sort of dictatorship. They further voted a loan of 8,000,000 of dollars; they made more paper-money; they threatened all who would not receive it in payment for goods or labour; and they adopted all possible means, by force, intimidation, and enticement, to get money into the treasury, and to inspire courage into the hearts of the people. As for their committee of correspondence, they laboured ardently to induce France and Spain openly to espouse their quarrel, and to threaten England with an invasion, while the flower of its troops were engaged in America. It was proposed in congress that their commissioners at Versailles should be authorised to transfer to France the same monopoly of their trade which had been possessed by Great Britain. This, however, was relinquished as a measure which would strike a mortal blow at some of their leading arguments in favour of independence. It was next proposed that France should be offered a limited monopoly, and, this failing, it was suggested that France might be gained over by the offer of an alliance offensive and defensive. The more prudent among them represented that if France would venture into the war at all, it would not be by any treaty, or compact, or promises of congress, but out of her old rivalry and hatred of England. All the assurances she would want, they said, was an expression of their determination never again to submit to the mother country, but to persist in their present course, though all the world should be merely lookers-on. Resolutions were printed to this effect, and sent all over the union, and then to the principal courts of Europe, with agents appointed to impress upon those courts the sincerity of this declaration, and to solicit their friendship for the United States. The agents chosen for this mission were Dr. Franklin, Silas Deane, and Mr. Arthur Lee, and what success attended their negotiations will soon be seen. Though appealing to the worst passions, and the most selfish feelings of foreign courts and cabinets, they were, nevertheless, not only listened to with complacency, but obtained present aid covertly, and had hopes held out to them of aid openly hereafter.