Benson John Lossing

“ Southward was visible the dark line of Long Island Sound; on the west, half hidden by groves, rolled the Thames; northward and eastward lay a vast amphitheater of cultivated hills, and the valleys of the Yantic, Quinebaug, and the Shetucket, and at our feet was Norwich city, in crescent form, clasping a high, rocky promontory, like the rich setting of a huge emerald, for in the midst rose the towering Wawekus, yet green with the lingering foliage of summer. A more picturesque scene than this grand observatory affords need not be sought for by the student and lover of nature. ”

“ Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. ”

“ Can escape from death he possible? Fitzgerald (Washington's aid) , horror-struck at the death of his beloved commander, dropped the reins upon his horse's neck, and drew his hat over his face, that he might not see him die. A roar of musketry succeeds, and then a shout. It was the shout of victory. The aid-de-camp ventures to raise his eyes. Oh, glorious sight! the enemy are broken and flying; while dimly, amid the glimpses of the smoke, is seen the chief alive, unharmed, and without a wound, waving his hat, and cheering his comrades to the pursuit. ”

“ The hearts of a majority in Congress yearned with an irrepressible zeal for the consummation of an event which they knew to be inevitable, yet there seemed to be no one courageous enough in that assembly to step forth and take the momentous responsibility of lifting the knife that should sever the cord which bound the American colonies to the British throne. The royal government would mark that man as an arch rebel, and all its energies would be brought to bear to quench his spirit or to hang him on a gibbet. ”

“ Passenger, if thou art a soldier, go not away till thou hast dropped a tear over the dust of a Hero, who, ever tenderly attentive to the lives and happiness of his men, dared to lead where any one dared to follow. If thou art a patriot, remember with gratitude how much thou and thy country owe to the disinterested and gallant exertions of the patriot who sleeps beneath this marble. If thou art an honest, generous and worthy man, render a sincere and cheerful tribute of respect to a man whose generosity was singular ”

“ In the Annals of Modern Greatness He stands alone; And the noblest, names of antiquity Lose their Luster in his Presence. Born the Benefactor of Mankind, He united all the qualities necessary to an illustrious career. Nature made him great; He made himself virtuous. Called by his country to the defense of her Liberties, He triumphantly vindicated the rights of humanity, And on the Pillars of National Independence Laid the foundations of a great Republic. ”

“ Just at the forks of the road, on the side toward the springs, was a clump of trees and shrubbery, which marked the spot where stood a strong brick house, famous as the citadel of the British camp, and a retreat for some of the warriors in the conflict at Eutaw. Nothing of it now remains but the foundation, and a few broken bricks scattered among some plum-trees. Let us sit down here, in the shadow of a cypress, by the bubbling spring, and consider the event when human blood tinged the clear waters of the Eutaw, where patriots fought and died for a holy principle. ”

“ And let me conjure you, in the name of our common country, as you value your own sacred honor, as you respect the rights of humanity, and as you regard the military and national character of America, to express your utmost horror and detestation of the man who wishes, under any specious pretenses, to overturn the liberties of our country, and who wickedly attempts to open the flood-gates of civil discord, and deluge our rising empire in blood. ”

“ Where is the man that will dare to advise such a measure? My lords, his majesty succeeded to an empire as great in extent as its reputation was unsullied, Shall we tarnish the luster of this nation by an ignominious surrender of its rights and fairest possessions? Shall this great kingdom, that has survived, whole and entire, the Danish depredations, the Scottish inroads, and the Norman conquest—that has stood the threatened invasion of the Spanish Armada—now fall prostrate before the house of Bourbon? ”

“ Reflecting upon the events which consecrate it, that hall, to me, seemed the shrine wherein the purest spirit of patriotism should dwell, for there the victorious warrior for freedom laid his sword upon the altar of Peace—there the sages of a people just made free ratified a solemn covenant of peace, friendship, and political equality with the most powerful nation upon earth, wrung from its rulers by the virtues and prowess of men who scorned to be unrequited vassals. ”

“ Here, where once broad fields were smiling with culture-blessings, and this road, now almost a quagmire, but fifty years ago was one of the finest highways in Virginia, wild deers and turkeys abound, as if the land was a primeval wilderness. It was a sad commentary upon the past husbandry of Virginia, and a sadder picture of the inevitable result of the present bad husbandry which prevails in many regions of the South. Year after year the tillers make constant drafts upon the vitality of the soil without an ounce of compensating manure, until all fertility is exhausted. ”

“ The design represents American liberty as a strong man armed, bearing in one hand the Union flag, and in the other a naked sword. Beneath his feet are British flags, and a broken spear, shield, and chain. Hovering by his side is the eagle, our national emblem, from whose talons the lightning of destruction is flashing upon the British lion. Britannia, with the crown falling from her head, is hastening toward a boat to escape to a fleet, which denotes the departure of British power from our shores. Upon a cloud, on the right, is an angel blowing a trumpet, from which flutters a loose scroll. ”

“ Living in almost unrestrained freedom, far away from the sea-board and its varieties, the agitations wrought throughout the colonies by the Stamp Act and kindred measures, scarcely elicited a thought from the quiet people of this region; but when, month after month, intelligence arrived that chains were forging to fetter their free spirits, they were aroused, and all through the region between the Alatamaha and Savannah Rivers, and especially in the vicinity of Augusta, the Tree of Liberty budded and blossomed, green, vigorous, and beautiful as the native magnolia. ”

“ In this affair the disinterested patriotism of Washington shone with its brightest luster. At the head of a victorious army; beloved and venerated by it and by the people; with personal influence unbounded, and with power in possession for consummating almost any political scheme not apparently derogatory to good government, he receives from an officer whom he greatly esteems, and who speaks for himself and others, an offer of the scepter of supreme rule and the crown of royalty! ”

“ I am one of the lingering survivors of an almost extinguished race. Our graves will soon be our only habitations. I am one of the few stalks that still remain in the field where the tempest of the Revolution has passed. I fought against the British for your sake. The British have disappeared, and you are free; yet from me have the British took nothing; nor have I gained any thing by their defeat. ”

“ The Indians saw her, and watched her movements. When she eame out of the house, and, with the keg of powder in her arms, sped with the fleetness of a fawn toward the fort, they sent a full volley of bullets after her, but not a hall touched her person. The shield of God's providence was about her, and the noble girl entered the fort in safety with her valuable prize. A loud shout welcomed her, and every man, inspired by her heroism, resolved to repulse the foe or die in the trench. ”

“ I ask, gentlemen, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Has Great Britain any enemy in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of armies and navies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us; they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging. ”

“ The landing of the grenadiers and light infantry from the ships which transplanted the troops from Rhode Island; their proud march into the hostile neighborhood, to gather the produce of the farmer for the garrison; the sound of the musketry, which soon rolled back upon us; the return of the disabled veterans who could retrace their steps, and the heavy march of the discomfited troops, with their wagons of groaning wounded, in the evening, are all impressed on my mind as pictures of the evils and the soul-stirring scenes of war. ”

“ The green grass, the waving corn, and the golden wheat now cover the earth where streets and lanes were trodden by Smith and Gosnold, Newport, Gates and Berkeley, Powhatan and Pocahontas, and a host of Englishmen, whose spirits seem to have taken root in the soil, and multiplied a thousand-fold—whose scattered bones, like dragons teeth sown upon the land, seem to have germinated and sent up full-armed heroes. ”

“ There love of country, and devotion to exalted principles, achieved a wonderful triumph over the seductive power of self-love and individual interest, goaded into rebellion against higher motives by the lash of apparent injustice and personal suffering. It is, indeed, a hallowed spot; and if the old stone house at Newburgh is worthy of the fostering regard of the state because it was the head-quarters of the beloved Washington, surely the site of the Temple, where he achieved his most glorious victory, deserves some monument to perpetuate the memory of its place and associations. ”

“ If sensibility is shocked with this outward pollution, it is overwhelmed with indignant shame on entering the hall where that august assembly of men—the godfathers of our republic—convened to stand as sponsors at the baptism of infant American Liberty, to find it filled with every species of merchandise, and the walls which once echoed the eloquent words of Henry, Lee, and the Adamses, reverberating with the clatter of the auctioneer's voice and hammer. ”

“ Who can stand at the portals of this tomb, where sleeps all that is left of the mortality of the Father of his Country, and not feel the outgoings of a devotional spirit—an involuntary desire to kneel down with reverence, not with the false adulations of mere hero-worship, but with the sincere sympathies of a soul bending before the shrine of superior goodness and greatness? ”

“ We have seen the discontents of the colonies ripen into open rebellion in this hot-bed of patriotism; we have seen a Continental army organized, disciplined, and prepared for action, and those yeomanry and artisans, drawn from the fields and workshops, piling, with seeming Titan strength, huge fortifications around a well-disciplined British army, and expelling it from one of the most advantageous positions on the continent. ”

“ Sympathy toward a soldier will surely induce your excellency, and a military tribunal, to adapt the mode of my death to the feelings of a man of honor. Let me hope, sir, that if aught in my character impresses you with esteem toward me, if aught in my misfortunes marks me as the victim of policy and not of resentment, I shall experience the operation of these feelings in your breast by being informed that I am not to die on a gibbet. "I have the honor to be, your excellency's most obedient and most humble servant, "John André." ”

“ By the rapidity of their descent, they seemed omnipotent among the scattered villages, which they ravaged like a passing storm; and for a full year they kept all New England in a state of terror and excitement. The exploring party was waylaid and cut off, and the mangled carcasses and disjointed limbs of the dead were hung upon the trees to terrify pursuers. The laborer in the field, the reapers as they went forth to harvest, men as they went to mill, the shepherd's boy among the sheep, were shot down by skulking foes, whose approach was invisible. Who can tell the heavy hours of woman? ”

“ For three years after the repulse of the British from Charleston, South Carolina enjoyed comparative quiet while the war was raging at the North.
Yet her sons were not idle listeners to the roar of cannons in New England, New York, and Pennsylvania, but flocked thither in hundreds, under brave leaders, to do battle for their common country. The patriots of that war were not divided by sectional interests. There was no line of demarkation over which men hesitated to pass. ”