Soon after these events, Washington, wishing to confine the enemy within as close quarters as possible, established his winter-quarters at Valley Forge, a high and strong position on the south side of the Schuylkill, and about twenty miles from Philadelphia. Contrary to the wishes of some of his more ardent officers, Washington refused to attack Philadelphia, nor would he be drawn out to battle by any of the repeated attempts which Howe made for that purpose. A season of sorrow and of hard trial was at hand for Washington. As we have said, the brilliant success of Gates in the north had eclipsed the reputation of the commander-in-chief, and a plot was formed at this time to supplant him by his more successful rival. But patience as well as achievement is the virtue of heroes; and Washington, calm in the midst of enemies, abated not one jot of patriotic endeavour, nor allowed himself to be turned either by friend or foe from the path which, though yet dark, he knew to be that of duty; and ere long events justified him before the world.
A gloomy winter was at hand. We will give Hildreth’s picture of the state of the camp at Valley Forge. “Such was the destitution of shoes, that all the late marches had been tracked in blood, an evil which Washington had endeavoured to mitigate by offering a premium for the best pattern of a shoe made of untanned hides. For want of blankets, many of the men were obliged to sit up all night before the camp fires. More than a quarter of the troops were reported unfit for duty, because they were ‘barefoot and otherwise naked.’ Even provisions failed; and on more than one occasion there was famine in the camp.[[21]] Diseases ensued as a matter of course; the temporary buildings used as hospitals were crowded and unfit for the purpose. Great numbers died from hospital fever alone. There was no change of linen; nor were even medicines to be obtained. The hospitals, it is said, resembled rather receptacles for the dying than places of refuge for the sick.”
Such was the American camp at Valley Forge.
Other national events besides those of war took place in the past year, to which we must now for a moment revert, and which we will give in the condensed form of Marcius Willson.
“After the colonies had thrown off their allegiance to the British crown, and had established separate governments in the states, there arose the further necessity for some common bond of union which should better enable them to act in concert as one nation. In the summer of 1775, Benjamin Franklin had proposed to the American congress articles of confederation and union among the colonies; but the majority in congress not being prepared for so decisive a step, the subject was for the time dropped, but was resumed again shortly before the declaration of independence in the following year.
“On the 11th of June, congress appointed a committee to prepare a plan of confederation. And the plan, reported by the committee in the following July, was, after various changes, finally adopted by congress on the 15th of November, 1777. Various causes, the principal of which was a difference of opinion respecting the disposition of the vacant western lands, prevented the immediate ratification of these articles by all the states; but at length those states which claimed the western lands having ceded them to the Union for the common benefit of the whole, the articles of confederation were ratified by Maryland, the last remaining state, on the 1st of March, 1781, at which time they became the constitution of the country.
“The confederation, however, amounted to little more than a mere league of friendship between the states; for although it invested congress with many of the powers of sovereignty, it was defective as a permanent government, owing to the want of means to enforce its decrees. While the states were bound together by a sense of common danger, the evils of the plan were little noticed; but after the close of the war they became so prominent as to make a revision of the system necessary.”
CHAPTER VII.
REVOLUTIONARY WAR (continued), 1778.
Let us now see the effect of the war so far, both in the mother-country and America. The surrender of Burgoyne’s army caused a great sensation in England, and efforts were immediately made in several of the large Scotch and English towns to send out troops to supply the loss; in London also, where the progress of the war had raised an anti-American spirit, £20,000 was raised by subscription for that purpose. On the other hand, subscriptions were also raised to relieve the American prisoners, who, from the cupidity and heartlessness of those in whose hands they were placed, were suffering from the want of the very necessaries of life.
When parliament met in January of this year, the American war was the first and most important topic of discussion, and Burke and the Duke of Richmond, Lord North, and the whole of the Rockingham party, entered more or less into the advocacy of the colonies. As to the war itself, the loss of life it had occasioned, the enormous expenses which it had entailed, and the hopelessness of its results, formed a strong argument in the mouths of all reasonable men. Still the war-party was strong, and Burgoyne could neither obtain an audience from the king nor get a hearing in parliament. To increase the inveteracy of feeling also, congress appeared ready to evade the terms of the convention of Saratoga. On some plea of suspicion regarding the intentions of the British officers who objected to the troops embarking at Boston, and had ordered the transports for their conveyance to Rhode Island instead, they were detained in the country as prisoners of war.