Congress was sitting then at Annapolis, and Washington hastened thither, to deposit in the hands of those from whom he had received it, in the year 1775, his commission of commander-in-chief of the American forces.
On his way, he deposited in the Controller’s office at Philadelphia, the account of his expenses during the war, secret-service money included, which amounted to £19,306 11s. 6d. A public audience was appointed by congress to receive him, and briefly addressing it, he offered his congratulations on the termination of the war, and concluded by saying: “Having finished the work assigned me, I now retire from the great theatre of action, and bidding an affectionate farewell to this august body, under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my commission and take my leave of all the employments of public life.”
From Annapolis Washington hastened to his home at Mount Vernon, which he had visited but once during the eight years of his arduous public service, and where he continued quietly living as “Farmer Washington” until summoned by the public voice to a convention, for the amendment of the government founded by the old confederacy of sovereign States, and of which we shall speak in its place.
We now return to the evacuation of America by the British. Four days after the British troops had left New York, Long Island and Staten Island were given up. The whole sea-coast was thus once more wholly American; but the western frontier-posts of Oswegatchie, Oswego, Niagara, Presque Isle (now Erie), Sandusky, Detroit, and Mackinaw, were still held by British garrisons.
WASHINGTON TAKING LEAVE OF THE ARMY.
Henry Laurens, it will be remembered, had caused the insertion of an article in the treaty of peace, to prohibit the carrying away of slaves under the protection of the British. This referred principally to Virginia and the Carolinas, where great numbers of slaves had joined the British, under promise of protection. Sir Henry Clinton, however, was not disposed to pay attention to this prohibition; and when Washington reminded him of it, he replied that it would be highly dishonourable to the British flag to surrender any who had taken refuge under it. Accordingly he sent off all such negroes in the first embarkation, in order that their safety might be secured. They were taken to Nova Scotia, and thence many of them emigrated to Sierra Leone, where their descendants, as merchants and traders, now constitute the wealthiest and most intelligent population of that African colony.[[57]]
There had also been an attempt, on the part of Britain, to provide for the safety and indemnification of the loyalists, in the treaty of peace. Little, however, could be done for them by this mere recommendation of justice and humanity. The difficulty of finding transports for the removal of the loyalists, who had crowded into New York with their families, delayed the evacuation of that city considerably. The penalty of the American laws compelled them to abandon their country, although at the sacrifice of wealth and property. Many of them, however, spite of the confiscations, possessed considerable wealth, which had been made during the war by privateering and as sutlers to the British army. Those from the Northern States settled principally in Nova Scotia or Canada; 450 sailed to Nova Scotia in the month of October, from New York, under a strong convoy. They were furnished by the British with provisions for a year; rations for a passage of twenty-one days; clothing; tools for husbandry, together with arms and ammunition. They were to receive also grants of land. The greater number of them, however, gradually returned to the United States, when a few years had worn away the inveteracy of the hatred felt against them. Those from the Southern States found refuge in the British West India Islands. The feeling against the loyalists was very strong in the South, where the sufferings of the people had been severe and more recent. In reestablishing the State government of South Carolina, none were allowed to vote who had taken British protection. Among the very earliest proceedings of the assembly, was the passage of a law banishing the most active British partisans, and confiscating their property. The services of General Greene were rewarded by a grant of 10,000 guineas, to purchase him an estate. The Georgia Assembly passed a similar law of banishment and confiscation, and Greene received also from this province the present of a confiscated estate; while North Carolina acknowledged his services by a grant of wild lands.[[58]]
The loyalists, finding that the mere recommendation of indemnity from Great Britain did not secure it to them from the State government, appointed a committee of their body to lay their grievances and their faithful services before the British parliament. A commission was accordingly appointed to inquire into and report upon their claims and losses; and in 1791, 4,123 claims were admitted, amounting to upwards of £8,000,000. All claims of £10,000 and under were paid in full, the remainder in a three-and-a-half per cent. stock. Claimants whose losses were the deprivation of lucrative offices received equivalent pensions. On the whole they were extremely well provided for and indemnified. The Penn and Calvert families received a considerable portion of this parliamentary allowance; besides which, we must not omit to mention that, in 1779, Pennsylvania, by act of assembly, granted to the heirs of William Penn, on the relinquishment of quit-rents and proprietary claims, the sum of £130,000, to be paid by instalments, commencing the first year after the peace. The State of Maryland was less liberal, as regarded her proprietary claims, on the plea of the illegitimacy of the infant representative of the Calverts.
Whilst the great struggle for independence had been going on, and every state in turn, New Hampshire excepted, had been the scene of a desolating war, the heart of the nation had still been so vigorously alive that the organisation of the local governments and the arrangement of terms for confederation and union had never for one moment been lost sight of. Liberty and enlightenment gradually advanced, although the revolution made no violent change in the political institutions of America, beyond casting off the superintending power of the mother-country, and that power in a great degree was replaced by the authority of congress.