Scarcely were these resolutions published, than, as if to give them value with the public, Simon Deane arrived at Yorktown, where congress was then sitting, in a royal frigate from Paris bringing with him for ratification two treaties of alliance and commerce between France and the United States; the last of which was signed the 30th of January, and the former on the 6th of February. On the 4th of May, they were ratified by congress, and the utmost joy and exultation prevailed throughout the United States. There was an end now to the hatred of France in America; her independence was acknowledged by that nation, and congress extolled “the extraordinary equity, generosity and unparalleled honour of the French monarch.”
By the treaty of alliance it was stipulated that in case of war occurring between France and England, the two parties should aid each other with counsel and with arms, and that neither should conclude truce nor peace with Great Britain without consent of the other. This treaty being considered equivalent to a declaration of war between France and Great Britain, the English ambassador was recalled from Paris, and active preparations for war were made by both nations.
On May 8th, Sir William Howe having at his own request resigned the command of the American army, Sir Henry Clinton arrived at Philadelphia to take his place, and early in June the three commissioners appointed under Lord North’s Conciliatory Bill—the Earl of Carlisle, William Eden, brother of the late governor of Maryland, afterwards Lord Auckland, and Governor Johnson—arrived at the same city a few days before the British troops evacuated. The day after their arrival, a passport being refused by Washington to Dr. Ferguson, the secretary of the commission, a letter was despatched by them, together with the late acts of parliament and other papers, directed to congress. A suspension of hostilities was proposed, and as the basis of a final adjustment of the contest, an extension of the privileges of trade hitherto allowed to the colonies was promised; no military force was to be kept up in any colony without the consent of its assembly; the continental bills of credit were to be taken up and ultimately discharged; the colonies were to be represented in parliament, and the British government in the colonial assemblies;—almost everything was to be conceded excepting the acknowledgment of independence.
These concessions came too late. Two years before they would have been accepted with gratitude. They were now rejected; it could not have been otherwise. Congress gave a very summary reply in the words of the resolution already stated, and firmly refused to treat in any way with Great Britain, unless she withdrew her troops or acknowledged the independence of the States. The commissioners returned a long and argumentative reply, to which congress made no answer.
In the meantime a French fleet, under the command of Count D’Estaing, being despatched to America with the design of blockading the British fleet in the Delaware, and Philadelphia being no longer safe quarters for the British army, active preparations were made for its evacuation. On the 18th of June, accordingly, Sir Henry Clinton marched out of Philadelphia with about 12,000 men, while the baggage and a great amount of stores and a considerable number of non-combatants were sent to New York by water, whither also the army was bound by land. Washington, already aware of this intended evacuation, broke up his camp at Valley Forge, and while with his main army, the number of which considerably exceeded that of the British, he cautiously followed the enemy, he despatched General Maxwell with a brigade to co-operate with the New Jersey militia in harassing them, and throwing every possible impediment in their way, so that time might be given him to bring up his full force and to profit by any opportunity which offered. The wish of the commander-in-chief was to bring on a general engagement, but in this wish he was overruled by a council of officers.
The progress of the British was very slow, and many were the difficulties which they encountered; the weather was rainy and the heat intense, and they were encumbered with so enormous a quantity of baggage, that their line of march through the narrow roads of the country occupied twelve miles. The cause of this quantity of baggage, as far as provisions were concerned, was a matter of prudence with General Clinton, who knew that no subsistence was to be obtained for his troops in the hostile country through which they had to march. On the 25th of June the two armies were so near each other, that Washington despatched General Lee, now but recently exchanged, with two brigades to press upon Clinton’s left, and prevent him from occupying the strong position of the Nevisink Hills, near Middletown, which he was then approaching. On the 28th, Clinton encamped at Monmouth, now Freehold, twelve miles from Middletown, and Lee, who was six miles in advance of Washington, received orders from his commander to attack the enemy, himself promising to bring up the main army to support it. Washington, accordingly advancing for this purpose, was astonished to meet Lee retreating; according to his own account, having merely ordered his men to retreat for the purpose of gaining a more favourable position. Washington, however, incensed at perceiving what appeared to him flight rather than any other movement, severely reprimanded the general, and ordered the line of battle to be immediately formed. This was done; the battle was renewed till the darkness of night closed the combat. The Americans lay on their arms, fully determined to attack the British in the morning; but availing themselves of the cover of night, the British retired with profound silence to the high grounds of Nevisink, which it had been Washington’s object to prevent them gaining, and where they were now safe from attack. The number of killed and wounded on both sides has been very differently stated; but in both armies many died without a single wound, from fatigue and the excessive heat of the weather, which on that day was unusually extreme; fifty-nine English soldiers are said to have died from this cause. Several officers of great ability were killed also on both sides.
As regarded General Lee, the day after the battle he wrote a very angry letter to Washington, on the subject of the reprimand which he had received, and again, in answer to Washington’s reply, wrote a second of a similar character. The consequence was the arrest of Lee, and his trial by court-martial, on the charges of disobedience to orders, misbehaviour before the enemy, and disrespect to the commander-in-chief. Of a portion of these charges he was found guilty, and suspended from command for twelve months. He, however, never re-entered the American army, and died at Philadelphia shortly before the conclusion of the war.
Immediately after the battle of Freehold, Clinton proceeded from his position on Nevisink Hills to Sandy Hook, where, fortunately for him, the fleet of Lord Howe, which had been detained in the Delaware by contrary winds, had arrived only the evening before. By these means he was enabled to reach New York in safety, totally unconscious of a new danger from which he was so opportunely removed.
A new enemy was now approaching the scene of action. Two days after the British fleet had sailed, news arrived that Count D’Estaing was off the Delaware, with a French fleet of twelve ships of the line and four frigates, with 11,000 French troops on board. Had he been only eight-and-forty hours earlier he might have met the British transports, heavily laden as they were, totally unconscious of this new danger, and convoyed only by two ships of the line, and their destruction would have been inevitable; while the English army, unable to proceed to New York, would have been enclosed by the Americans on the one hand, and on the other, cut off from supplies by the French fleet, and a second surrender must have been the consequence. Two days made all the difference.
The arrival of the French fleet was, however, a cause of great exultation to the Americans. With it also came out M. Gerard, late secretary to the king’s council, as ambassador to the United States, and soon after Benjamin Franklin, still in France, was appointed to the same office in that country.