The Campaign of 1776 around New York and Brooklyn | Page 5

this instant arrived." The news reaching
Savannah, a party of citizens immediately took possession of the
government powder.
The wave of excitement which follows the signal of a coming struggle
was thus borne by its own force throughout the length of the colonies.
And from the coast the intelligence spread inland as far as settlers had
found their way. In distant Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, men
heard it, and began to organize and drill. At Charlotte, North Carolina,
they sounded the first note for independence. From many points brave
and sympathetic words were sent to the people of Massachusetts Bay,
and in all quarters people discussed the probable effect of the startling
turn matters had taken in that colony. The likelihood of a general
rupture with the mother country now came to be seriously entertained.
Meanwhile the situation to the eastward assumed more and more a
military aspect. On the 10th of May occurred the surprise and capture,
by Ethan Allen and his party, of the important post of Ticonderoga,
where during the summer the provincials organized a force to march
upon and, if possible, secure the Canadas. The Continental Congress at
Philadelphia, after resolving that the issue had been forced upon them
by Great Britain, voted to prepare for self-defence. They adopted the
New England troops, gathered around Boston, as a Continental force,
and appointed Washington to the chief command. Then on the 17th of
June Bunker Hill was fought, that first regular action of the war, with
its far-reaching moral effect; and following it came the siege of Boston,
or the hemming in of the British by the Americans, until the former
were finally compelled to evacuate the city.
* * * * *
It is here in these culminating events of the spring and summer of 1775

that we find the occasion for the preparations made by Great Britain for
the campaign of 1776. Little appreciating the genius of the colonists,
underrating their resources and capacity for resistance, mistaking also
their motives, King George and his party imagined that on the first
display of England's power all disturbance and attempts at rebellion
across the sea would instantly cease. But the sudden transition from
peace to war, and the complete mastery of the situation which the
colonists appeared to hold, convinced the home government that "the
American business" was no trifling trouble, to be readily settled by a
few British regiments. As the season advanced, they began to realize
the fact that General Gage, and then Howe succeeding him, with their
force of ten thousand choice troops, were helplessly pent up in Boston;
that Montreal and Quebec were threatened; that colonists in the
undisturbed sections were arming; and that Congress was supplanting
the authority of Parliament. A more rigorous treatment of the revolt had
become necessary; and as the time had passed to effect any thing on a
grand scale during the present year, measures were proposed to crush
all opposition in the next campaign. Follow, briefly, the course of the
British Government at this crisis.
Parliament convened on the 26th day of October. The king's speech,
with which it opened, was necessarily devoted to the American
question, and it declared his policy clearly and boldly. His rebellious
subjects must be brought to terms. "They have raised troops," he said,
"and are collecting a naval force; they have seized the public revenue,
and assumed to themselves legislative, executive, and judicial powers,
which they already exercise, in the most arbitrary manner, over the
persons and properties of their fellow subjects: and although many of
these unhappy people may still retain their loyalty, and may be too wise
not to see the fatal consequence of this usurpation and wish to resist it,
yet the torrent of violence has been strong enough to compel their
acquiescence, till a sufficient force shall appear to support them. The
authors and promoters of this desperate conspiracy have, in the conduct
of it, derived great advantage from the difference of our intentions and
theirs. They meant only to amuse by vague expressions of attachment
to the parent state, and the strongest protestations of loyalty to me,
whilst they were preparing for a general revolt. On our part, though it

was declared in your last session that a rebellion existed within the
province of the Massachusetts' Bay, yet even that province we wished
rather to reclaim than to subdue.... The rebellious war now levied is
become more general, and is manifestly carried on for the purpose of
establishing an independent empire. I need not dwell upon the fatal
effects of the success of such a plan.... It is now become the part of
wisdom, and (in its effects) of clemency, to put a speedy end to these
disorders, by the most decisive exertions. For this purpose, I have
increased