For the siege of Yorktown the French provided thirty-seven ships of the line, and the Americans nine. The Americans furnished nine thousand land troops (of whom fifty-five hundred were regulars), and the French seven thousand. Among the prisoners were two battalions of Anspachers, amounting to ten hundred and twenty-seven men, and two regiments of Hessians, numbering eight hundred and seventy-five. The flag of the Anspachers was given to Washington by the Congress.
The news of the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown spread great joy throughout the colonies, especially at Philadelphia, the seat of the national government. Washington sent Lieutenant-Colonel Tilghman to Congress with the news. He rode express to Philadelphia to carry the despatches of the chief announcing the joyful event. He entered the city at midnight, October 23d, and knocked so violently at the door of Thomas McKean, the president of Congress, that a watchman was disposed to arrest him. Soon the glad tidings spread over the city. The watchman, proclaiming the hour and giving the usual cry, “All’s well,” added, “and Cornwallis is taken!” Thousands of citizens rushed from their beds, half dressed, and filled the streets. The old State-house bell, that had clearly proclaimed independence, now rang out tones of gladness. Lights were seen moving in every house. The first blush of morning was greeted with the booming of cannon, and at an early hour the Congress assembled and with quick-beating hearts heard Charles Thomson read the despatch from Washington. At its conclusion it was resolved to go in a body to the Lutheran church, at 2 P.M., and “return thanks to the Almighty God for crowning the allied armies of the United States and France with success.”[93]
II
THE RESULTS OF YORKTOWN
By Claude Halstead Van Tyne, Ph.D.
The surrender of Cornwallis came at the right time to produce a great political effect in England. The war had assumed such tremendous proportions that accumulated disaster seemed to threaten the ruin of Great Britain. From India came news of Hyder Ali’s temporary successes, and of the presence of a strong French armament which demanded that England yield every claim except to Bengal. That Warren Hastings and Sir Eyre Coote would yet save the British Empire there, the politicians could not foresee. Spain had already driven the British forces from Florida, and in the spring of 1782 Minorca fell before her repeated assaults and Gibraltar was fearfully beset. De Grasse’s successes during the winter in the West Indies left only Jamaica, Barbadoes, and Antigua in British hands. St. Eustatius, too, was recaptured, and it was not until the middle of April that Rodney regained England’s naval supremacy by a famous victory near Marie-Galante.[94] England had not a friend in Europe, and was beset at home by violent agitation in Ireland, to which she was obliged to yield an independent Irish Parliament.[95] Rodney’s victory and the successful repulsion of the Spaniards from Gibraltar, in the summer of 1782, came too late to save the North ministry.
The negotiations between the English and American peace envoys dragged on. Congress had instructed the commissioners not to make terms without the approval of the French court, but the commissioners became suspicious of Vergennes, broke their instructions, and dealt directly and solely with the British envoys. Boundaries, fishery questions, treatment of the American loyalists, and settlement of American debts to British subjects were settled one after another, and, November 30, 1782, a provisional treaty was signed. The definitive treaty was delayed until September 3, 1783, after France and England had agreed upon terms of peace.[96]
America awaited the outcome almost with lethargy. After Yorktown the country relapsed into indifference, and Washington was left helpless to do anything to assure victory. He could only wait and hope that the enemy was as exhausted as America. Disorganization was seen everywhere—in politics, in finance, and in the army. Peace came like a stroke of good-fortune rather than a prize that was won. Congress (January 14, 1784) could barely assemble a quorum to ratify the treaty.[97]
During the war many had feared that British victory would mean the overthrow in England of constitutional liberty. The defeat, therefore, of the king’s purpose in America seemed a victory for liberalism in England as well as in America. Personal government was overthrown, and no British king has gained such power since. The dangers to freedom of speech and of the press were ended. Corruption and daring disregard of public law received a great blow. The ancient course of English constitutional development was resumed. England never, it is true, yielded to her colonies what America had demanded in 1775, but she did learn to handle the affairs of her colonies with greater diplomacy, and she does not allow them now to get into such an unsympathetic state.
Great Britain herself was not so near ruin as she seemed; she was still to be the mother of nations, and the English race was not weakened, though the empire was broken. In political, social, and intellectual spirit England and America continued to be much the same. English notions of private and public law still persisted in independent America. The large influence which the Anglo-Saxon race had long had upon the world’s destiny was not left with either America or England alone, but with them both. America only continued England’s “manifest destiny” in America, pushing her language, modes of political and intellectual activity, and her social customs westward and southward—driving back Latin civilization in the same resistless way as before the Revolution.
For America much good came out of the Revolution. Americans had acted together in a great crisis, and Washington’s efforts in the army to banish provincial distinctions did much to create fellow-feeling which would make real union possible. With laws and governments alike, and the same predominant language, together with common political and economic interests, future unity seemed assured.