modest, and reserved, yet dignified, intrepid, inflexibly firm, and persevering; indefatigably industrious and methodical; just, yet merciful and humane; frugal and calculating, yet disinterested; circumspect, yet enterprising; serious, virtuous, consistent, temperate, and sincere,-his moral portraiture displays a blended variety of excellence, in which it is difficult to assign a predominant lustre to any particular grace, except perhaps a grave majestic composure. Ever superior to fortune, he enjoyed her smiles with moderation, endured her frowns with serenity, and showed himself alike in victory forbearing, and in defeat undaunted. No danger cr difficulty could disturb his equanimity, and no disaster paralyze his energy or dishearten his confidence. The same adverse vicissitude that would have drained an ordinary breast of all its spirit served but to call forth new streams of vigour from Washington's generous soul. His countenance and general aspect corresponded with the impression produced by his character. Fixed, firm, collected, and resolved, yet considerately kind, it seemed composed for dignity and high exploit. A sound believer in the divine doctrines of Christianity, he was punctual and devout in discharging every public and private office of Christian piety. Perhaps there never was another man who trod with more unsullied honour the highest ways of glory, or whose personal character and conduct exercised an influence so powerful and so beneficial on the destiny of a great nation. That he was childless was, considering his situation, a fortunate circumstance, as it obstructed the jealousies that might have impaired the public confidence, and facilitated the disinterested purpose of declining all emolument for his services,―a purpose declared in the modest yet firm and resolute speech in which he accepted the commission now conferred on him by his colleagues in Congress. This assembly assured him that they would support and adhere to him with their lives and fortunes; and, with a studied conformity to the language of the Roman Senate in seasons of public danger, instructed him, in the discharge of the great trust he had received, to make it his especial care that the liberties of America receive no detriment. Departing to assume the exercise of his function, [July 2,] Washington found, on his arrival in Massachusetts, that the British army, in two divisions, had intrenched itself on Bunker's Hill and Dorchester Neck, adjoining to Boston, where it was still blockaded by the American forces who occupied both sides of the river Charles. About two months afterwards, General Gage embarked for England, and the command of the British forces devolved on Sir William Howe.

L

SIEGE OF BOSTON.

ASHINGTON, on his arrival at the camp, had found (he acknowledged) the materials for a good army, but assembled, rather than combined, and in a state of the crudest composition. Never was a military commander beset by

a greater or more perplexing variety of counteractions. The troops having been separately raised by the various provincial governments, no uniformity existed among the regiments. Animated by the spirit of that liberty for which they were preparing to fight, and unaccustomed to discipline, they neither felt the inclination nor appreciated the importance of subjection to military rules. Every one was more forward to advise and to command than to obey,-forgetful that independence must be securely acquired before it can be safely enjoyed, and unaware that liberty, to be gained by battle, must be preceded by submission, nearly mechanical, to the sternest restraint of absolute authority. In many of the regiments the officers had been elected by their troops, whose suffrages too often were gained by a show of enthusiastic confidence which was mistaken for genius and valour, and of furious zeal for American liberty which not less erroneously was supposed the certain test of pure honour, generous virtue, and sound patriotism. In other cases, it proved, that when a regiment was in process of constitution, the men elected only those for officers who consented to throw their pay into a joint stock, from

which all the members of the regimental body, officers, drummers, and privates, drew equal shares. These defects were counterbalanced by the ardent zeal and stubborn resolution of the troops, and the strong persuasion they cherished of the justice and glory of their country's cause. When the last speech of the British monarch to his Parliament was circulated in the camp, it produced a violent burst of universal indignation, and was publicly burned by the soldiers with the strongest demonstrations of contempt and abhorrence. They expunged at the same time from their standards every emblem appropriate to the British crown, and adopted a flag variegated with thirteen coloured stripes, in allusion to the number of the confederated provinces. The difficulty of establishing a due subordination in the American camp was greatly enhanced by the shortness of the terms for which the regiments were enlisted, none of which were to endure for more than a few months. Nor was it long before Washington, in addition to his other embarrassments, made the alarming discovery, that his troops laboured under a deficiency of bayonets, and that all the powder in his possession was barely sufficient to furnish each man with nine cartridges. By the exertion of consummate address, and with a magnanimous sacrifice of his own reputation to his country's interest, he succeeded in concealing these dangerous deficiencies both from the enemy and from the general knowledge of the American people, some of whom, with audacious absurdity and injustice, imputed to him a wilful forbearance to destroy the British forces, for the sake of prolonging his own importance at the head of the American army. Destitute of tents, a great portion of this army was lodged in scattered dwellings, a circumstance unfavourable equally to discipline and to promptitude of operation. There was no commissarygeneral, and consequently no systematic arrangement for obtaining provisions. A supply of clothes was rendered peculiarly difficult by the effect of the non-importation agreements. There was besides a lack of engineers, and a deficiency of tools for the construction of works. The American States were unaccustomed to combined exertion, which was farther obstructed by the incompact and indefinite frame of the federal league into which their common rage and danger had driven them. Practically independent of the supreme authority of Congress, and little acquainted with each other's condition and resources, the provincial governments respectively indulged too often a narrow jealousy of imposing on their constituents a disproportioned share of the general burdens; and from inexperience, in addition to other causes, their operations were so defective in harmony, that stores of food, clothing, and implements of war, collected for the army, sometimes perished, and were often injuriously detained by neglect of the means of transporting them to their appointed destination.

Washington, happily qualified to endure and overcome difficulties, promptly adopted and patiently pursued the most judicious and effectual

means to organize the troops, to fit them for combined movements and active service, and to introduce and mature arrangements for securing a steady flow of the necessary supplies. Next to these measures, he judged the re-enlistment of the army the most interesting. To this essential object he had early solicited the attention of Congress, who appointed a committee of its members to repair to the military head-quarters at Cambridge, in order to consult with the commander-in-chief and the magistrates of the New England States on the most eligible mode of preserving, supporting, and regulating a continental army. Recruiting orders were issued; but the progress in collecting recruits was not proportioned to the public exigence. Many Americans, firmly attached to the cause of their country, indulged their reluctance to the toil and hardship of military life under the shelter of a fond credulity which still lingered in contemplation of an adjustment of the dispute with Britain without farther bloodshed. At the close of the last year, when all the original troops not engaged on the new establishment were disbanded, there had been enlisted for the army of 1776 little more than nine thousand men. An earnest recommendation of Washington to try the influence of a bounty was at length acceded to by the Congress, [January, 1776,] and during the winter the number of recruits was considerably augmented. Soon after his assumption of the supreme command, Washington engaged as his secretary and aid-de-camp, Joseph Reed, a distinguished lawyer in Pennsylvania, and latterly a determined advocate of American independence, who had resigned a lucrative forensic practice at Philadelphia, in order to serve as a volunteer in the continental army in Massachusetts. In his new functions Reed displayed so much valour and ability, that, on the promotion of Gates in the present year to a command directed against the British forces in Canada, he was appointed to succeed to the post thereby vacated of adjutant-general of the American army.

EFORE this army received its proper military organization, or discipline had strengthened the hands of the officers, they were obliged to supply their defective power by the influence of their own example and the authority of their personal character. Passion and zeal had collected the first levies of men. But passions spend themselves, and zeal declines, while habits of discipline abide, and though they render the character of an army much less romantic and interesting, they mightily increase its steadiness and vigour as an effective machine. After the first ardour of the American troops was somewhat spent, considerable vices and disorders broke out among them. The virtue, (and it was very great) that still manifested itself in their ranks was the more creditable from its superiority to the contagious influence of evil

example, and as arising purely from natural character and sentiment, a îd not from that professional sense of honour educated by the habits of civilized schools of war. Great disadvantage has accrued to the reputation of the American troops from the almost intolerable pressure of the distress and privations to which they were exposed; and in some of the works that record their campaigns, the virtue they long exerted in resisting temptations to mutiny and disorder is obscured by the acts of pillage and desertion to which the extremity of suffering did in the end occasionally impel them. Never before had there arisen in the world a war so universally interesting to mankind as the revolutionary warfare between Britain and America. Unlike prior wars, its incidents were instantly recorded by numerous pens and extensively circulated with the minutest detail. Harsh lines and features were thus preserved, which would have escaped or been softened in a more distant survey; and circumstances both melancholy and disgusting, the concomitants of every war, have by many writers and readers been regarded as almost, if not entirely, peculiar to the war of the American Revolution.

The conflicts of Lexington and Bunker's Hill, and other similar encounters that signalized the commencement of hostilities, tended to delude the Americans with very exaggerated notions of the efficacy of their militia, which had been exhibited in situations peculiarly favourable to a force of this description. They entertained a rooted prejudice against troops of the line, and, appreciating the example of Braddock as erroneously as that unfortunate commander had appreciated his own position, they cherished the chimerical hope of organizing every year a new militia force capable of withstanding the attack of a regular army. The prevalence and the dangerous consequences of this delusion were strikingly illustrated by the general panic and consternation that followed the first victories of the disIt was a ciplined troops of Britain in the close of the present year. more surprising and more honourable trait in the character of the American troops and people, that even in such trying circumstances they were never tempted to withdraw the generous confidence which they reposed in their commanders, but invariably displayed a noble superiority to those mean suspicions of treachery which rage and vanity so readily suggest to A nations irritated by reverses after having been intoxicated by success. numerous party in the Congress, however, continued long to resist the formation of a regular army; and even when this could no longer be avoided, they jealously opposed the measures that were necessary to the improvement of its military habits and discipline. "God forbid," they exclaimed, that "that the civic character should be so far lost in the soldiers of our army, they should cease to long for the enjoyments of domestic happiness. Let frequent furloughs be granted, rather than the endearments of wives and chil dren should cease to allure the individuals of our army from camps to farms.”