Nevertheless, plans of conciliation were proposed, for which purpose two bills were introduced into the house; the one renouncing all intention of levying taxes in America—conceding, in effect, the whole subject of dispute; the other authorising the appointment of three commissioners, who in conjunction with the naval and military commanders, should be empowered to treat for the re-establishment of the royal authority. “Great Britain,” in fact, as the American historian justly says, “had reason to be weary of a war which had cost her already more than 20,000 men and five millions sterling in expenditure. Five hundred and fifty British vessels, besides those which had been recaptured, had been taken by the American cruisers. These cruisers so infested even the British seas, that convoys had become necessary from one British port to another. To this must be added the loss of the American trade, a large mass of American debts held in suspense by the war, the exile of the American loyalists, and the confiscation of their property. The British West Indies suffered for want of their accustomed supplies of provisions and timber from the North American colonies; and the British merchant complained that the slave-trade was reduced by the war to one-fifth of its former amount. And to all these was now added the fear of French intervention and French war.”
An address also was moved to his majesty, which spoke freely the sentiments of this party, expressing “strong indignation at the conduct of his ministers, who had brought about the present unhappy state of his dominions, who had abused his confidence, and by their unfortunate counsels dismembered his empire, disgraced his arms, and weakened his naval power; whilst, by delaying to reconcile the difference which they had excited amongst his people, they had taken no means of counteracting a fatal alliance with the ancient rival of Great Britain.”
It was in the great debate which followed on this plain-speaking address that Earl Chatham, when protesting vehemently against any measures which might tend to the dismemberment of the empire, was seized with that fainting-fit in the midst of the Lords which was the prelude of his death eleven days afterwards.
In vain was the eloquence of the Duke of Richmond and other members of the opposition—the motion for the address was lost; nevertheless, so earnest was the feeling on the subject, that a noble protest, signed by twenty peers, was entered; “because,” said they, “we think that the rejection of the address at this time may appear to indicate in this house a desire of continuing that plan of ignorance, concealment, deceit and delusion, by which the sovereign and his people have already been brought into so many and so great calamities; and because we hold it absolutely necessary that both sovereign and people should be undeceived, and that they should distinctly and authentically be made acquainted with the state of their affairs, which is faithfully represented in this proposed address.”
The Americans had still greater reason even than the British to deplore the war, from which their sufferings were so great in every way. The Newfoundland fisheries and the trade to the West Indies, both so vitally important to the New England colonies, were at an end. Nine hundred vessels had fallen into the hands of the enemy. The coasting trade had been destroyed, and Boston and the other New England seaports, cut off from their usual supplies, experienced great scarcity of food, enhanced by internal embargoes which now began to be laid on by the different states. Add to which, great public debts rapidly accumulating, and a constantly depreciating currency. The war had been carried on at great expense; the frequent draughts of militia, besides the interruption to agriculture, had proved a most costly and wasteful expedient. Besides all this, there had been great want of system and accountability in every department; and peculation, a customary incident of all wars, had not failed to improve so convenient an opportunity. Already the liabilities contracted by congress amounted to upwards of eight millions sterling; nor indeed was this the whole amount; the private debt of Massachusetts alone amounted to about one million, besides her share of the general liabilities. The loss of life too, had been enormous; vast quantities had died of sickness, of suffering from insufficiency of food and needful comforts and clothing. A sadder or more disastrous war could hardly have been conceived.
Nevertheless, spite of all these unlooked-for calamities and this unimagined expenditure, the war-spirit at the commencement of 1778 was far more extensively spread than had ever before been the case. The very calamities of the war, which had now entered, as it were, into every individual home, had estranged the national heart from the mother-country. Any conciliation, any termination of the struggle, short of entire separation from England, would not be listened to. Besides, when the Americans looked at the position of affairs after a three years’ war, spite of all their losses and sufferings, they saw no cause for despair—as indeed, there was none. The British after all, retained possession but of Long Island and Staten Island, of the insular cities of Newport in Rhode Island and New York, and of Philadelphia on the mainland. As yet they had no interior hold on the country, and though a strong loyalist party existed in various states, and loyalist troops had been raised in Pennsylvania, New York and among the Catholics of Maryland, still the whole number did not amount to above 3,600 men, and their influence tended rather to increase the bitterness of hatred against Britain, who had thus caused civil war in the land, than in reality to weaken or endanger their cause.
While the British parliament was debating the subject of conciliation, the colonies were preparing to carry on the war with renewed vigour. The cabal against Washington had ended in the disgrace of its originators, and that great man now stood higher than he had hitherto done in the regard and confidence of the nation. Advantageous changes were made in all the war departments, in accordance with Washington’s wishes, and to the displacement of his enemies. Nathaniel Greene, a favourite officer of Washington’s, was appointed quarter-master-general; Colonel Jeremiah Wadsworth accepted the office of commissary-general, in the place of Mifflin, one of the cabal; while General Conway, its head, and a man of weak character, was displaced as army inspector by Baron Steuben, a Prussian officer, who had lately offered his services to congress, and who soon introduced a complete system of exercise and tactics into the American army. By the new organisation the colonial force would have amounted to 60,000 men, but not being fully carried out, to about only half that number; no troops were demanded from Georgia and South Carolina, in consequence of their great slave population. Two independent corps were also raised; the one under Pulaski, the Pole; the other under Armand, a French officer; a third entirely composed of cavalry, was raised by Henry Lee, of Virginia, already distinguished in the war. The fortifications of the Highlands were vigorously prosecuted under the direction of Kosciusko.
Again large issues of paper money were made, which, causing still further depreciation, led to the greatest perplexity and embarrassment. The reduced pay of the officers, insufficient for their simplest needs, must have compelled many able and long-tried officers to throw up their commissions, had not Washington induced congress to promise half-pay for seven years to all officers who served to the end of the war, and a gratuity to the common soldiers.
About the middle of April, at the very moment when all was in active operation to carry on the war with renewed vigour, the first tidings of the conciliatory bills reached New York, and ex-governor Tryon and the Tory party used their utmost endeavours to diffuse them throughout the colonies. To counteract the influence of these measures, congress ordered them to be immediately published in every newspaper of the States, accompanied by the printed resolutions of their body on the subject. “There was a time,” said Governor Turnbull, “when this step from our acknowledged parent would have been accepted with joy and gratitude, but that time is irrevocably past. No peace can be concluded now with Great Britain on any other terms than the most absolute, perfect independence. Nevertheless,” concluded he, “the union by a lasting and honourable peace is the ardent wish of every American. The British nation will then find us as affectionate and valuable friends as we now are determined and fatal enemies, and will derive from that friendship more solid and real advantage than the most sanguine can expect from conquest.”
On the 22nd of April, congress officially declared, that any man or body of men, who should presume to make any separate or partial agreement with the commission under the crown of Great Britain, should be considered as enemies of the United States; that the United States would enter into no treaty with Great Britain until her fleets and armies were withdrawn, or the independence of America acknowledged.