George Warburton

“ If their army has not ammunition and spirit enough to fall again upon ours before Amherst comes up, all North America is ours! Poetic justice could not have been executed with more rigor than it has been on the perjury, treachery, and usurpations of the French.... It appears that the victory was owing to the impracticability, as the French thought, and to desperate resolution on our side. What a scene! an army in the night dragging itself up a precipice by stumps of trees to assault a town and attack an army strongly intrenched and double in numbers. ”

“ It is remarkable that a red Indian should have been able to accomplish that which no civilized societies have accomplished during thousands of years. He had already attained to manhood when he invented an alphabet of his own language, having no knowledge of any other. The idea of writing Cherokee struck him on hearing several whites boasting of their superiority over the Indians, and adding that they could do many things which the red man never dared attempt, particularly in committing to paper a conversation, so as to make it understood by all, even in the most distant parts. ”

“ The night came on still and cloudless, but very dark; the weather was intensely hot, and the British troops, wearied with the labors of the day, lay in profound repose, not dreaming that the French would venture a night attack. The sentries, indeed, paced their rounds, but, unconscious of the danger that lay under the dark shadows of the neighboring forest, they still shouted "All's well" as each hour passed away. ”

“ There is despotic rule without any hereditary or elected chief. There are chiefs with great power, who can not tell when, where, or how they became such. There is perfect unanimity on a question involving the existence of a tribe, when every member belonged to the wild and fierce democracy of nature, and could dissent without giving a reason. A case occurs where it is prescribed by custom that an individual should be punished with death. Escaped from the control of his tribe, and as free as the winds, this invisible tie is about him, and he returns and surrenders himself to justice. ”

“ With scarcely any loss, three considerable bodies of troops had accomplished journeys of uncommon difficulty, by routes of dangerous and almost unknown navigation, in the face of a vigilant and still formidable enemy, and all three had arrived at the place of meeting within forty-eight hours of each other.
While we dwell with pleasure upon the achievements of this British army and of their generals, we may not forget the merits of the gallant men against whom they fought. With a noble patriotism that no neglect could damp, Montcalm and his veterans strove for the honor of their country. ”

“ Opposition had been overpowered, forts taken, guns, trophies, and stores captured, but still, at the vital point, at the great Canadian stronghold, from the lofty headland of Quebec, the wise and gallant Montcalm, with an outnumbering host, looked down in unshaken confidence upon the invader's force. There the real battle was to be fought; there alone the die was to be cast which should decide the fate of France's noblest colony. Time rolled on, spring had warmed into summer; summer now deepened into autumn ”

“ The surprise was complete; the Indians had no time to arm or resist; they were slain without mercy; many never wakened, others were struck down at the doors of their huts as they endeavored to fly; some few escaped to the Great River, but were pursued by the English, and, with their frail canoes swamped in the waters. The conquerors then fired the village, saving only three houses where corn was stored; the wretched savages who had concealed themselves in the cellars and lofts perished in the flames. ”

“ While the sentinels were yet debating about giving the alarm, each of the dark objects sent forth a crashing salvo of artillery; grape-shot rattled among the rocks and trees upon the shore, and plowed up the surrounding waters. Shells and grenades leaped into the air, and exploded with loud reports, now here, now there, on every side of the astounded soldiers. At the same time bright red flames burst from these fire-ships, sprung up among the masts and spars, quivered through the distinctly visible tracery of the rigging, and spread out in broad sheets over the collapsing sails. ”

“ The English troops, it must be owned, were become so accustomed to defeat and disaster, that they went into action spiritless and distrustful. Now that a formidable force of the enemy had yielded to their prowess, confidence began to revive, and gradually strengthened into boldness. Had the French been successful in their attack, the results would have been most disastrous for the British colonies: nothing would have remained to arrest their progress into the heart of the country, or stem the tide of ruin that had followed on their track. ”

“ In an American campaign every thing is terrible—the face of the country, the climate, the enemy. There is no refreshment for the healthy nor relief for the sick. A vast inhospitable desert surrounds the troops where victories are not decisive, but defeats are ruinous, and simple death is the least misfortune that can happen to a soldier. This forms a service truly critical, in which all the firmness of the body and the mind is put to the severest trial, and all the exertions of courage and address are called out. ”

“ No voluntary influx of ambitious, truculent, but energetic men swelled the population or disturbed the fatal repose of the young nation; no free development was permitted to its infant form, but, clothed in the elaborate garments of maturer years, the limbs were cramped, and the goodly proportions of nature dwarfed into a feeble frame. No safety-valve offered itself to the quick spirit of the young Canadian ”

“ When morning light first chased away the darkness of the forest, the English Provincials burst upon the Indian camp. Armstrong, their leader, offered quarter, but the savages, conscious of their unpardonable cruelties, dared not submit. Then ensued a terrible slaughter; the Indians were beaten down in furious rage, or shot in attempting to fly, or shut up in their wooden huts and burned to death; some were seized and scalped, in horrible imitation of their own ferocity, and not a few were blown up and destroyed by the stores of ammunition they had collected during their late incursion. ”

“ The negro, on the contrary, has precisely what the Indian wants; he is a domestic animal.... The Indian avoids his conqueror; the negro bows at his feet. The Indian loves the independence and privations of his solitude better than all the flesh-pots of Egypt; the negro, if left to himself, is helpless and miserable: he must have society and sensual pleasures; if he be allowed to eat and drink well, to dance, to sing, and to make love, he seems to have no further or higher aspirations, and to care nothing for the degradation of his race. ”

“ The sole chance of escape lay in reaching, unobserved, a pass which led to the new position of Monckton's brigade, and by which the Indians might not expect them to retreat. The hapless children, however, by their screams, guided the savages in their pursuit through the tangled woods, and again the war-whoop sounded close behind the fugitives. An awful moment of irresolution was succeeded by an awful resolve; the British officer, with a mournful heart, gave the order that his young prisoners should be silenced forever. The Rangers reached the brigade in safety before evening. ”

“ Glory was the bright star that ever shone before his eyes, and ever guided him onward—his country's glory and his own. 'My lord!' he once exclaimed to the Duke of Devonshire, 'I am sure that I can save this country, and that no one else can.'"—Lord Mahon's Hist. of England, vol. iv., p. 77.
[109] At this period commenced the brilliant era justly called Mr. Pitt's Administration, in which he became the soul of the British councils, conciliated the good-will of the king, infused a new spirit into the British nation, and curbed the united efforts of the house of Bourbon. ”

“ There are times when a general's only resource is to die with honor; this is such a time. No stain shall rest on my memory. But in defeat and death there is consolation left. The loss of the colony will one day be of more value to my country than a victory. The conqueror shall here find a tomb; his aggrandizement shall prove his ultimate ruin."
Montcalm's utmost exertions failed to prevent desertion among the Canadians; he scourged some offenders, hanged others, threatened their villages with the vengeance of the savages, but still the unhappy peasantry were with difficulty held together. ”

“ All the compulsive force which what we call the law of honor had upon the conscience of a man of the world—I had almost said which religious sanctions have upon the man of principle—is scarcely to be paralleled with that kind of moral necessity which seems in some cases to actuate his proceedings. If religion be what its name implies, id quod relligat, that which binds the will, and enforces self-denial and self-devotion (be the object or motive held out what it may) , then no people taken in the mass is to be compared, in this respect, to the savages of America. ”

“ We are sent by the English king to conquer this province, but not to make war upon women and children, the ministers of religion, or industrious peasants. We lament the sufferings which our invasion may inflict upon you, but, if you remain neuter, we proffer you safety in person and property, and freedom in religion. We are masters of the river; no succor can reach you from France. General Amherst, with a large army, assails your southern frontier. Your cause is hopeless, your valor useless. Your nation have been guilty of great cruelties to our unprotected settlers ”

“ The toils were spread on every side: the stately fleet riding below the town cut off all supplies from France; the fall of Niagara and Fort of Frontenac broke off the chain of communication with the distant West; Amherst, with an overwhelming force, hung over the weakest point of the Canadian frontier; Montreal, with neither army nor fortification, lay exposed to the British advance. But, worst of all, distrust of his colleague, and contempt of the prowess of his militia, paralyzed Montcalm's vigor and destroyed his confidence. ”

“ The English chief—either informed of this ambuscade, or mistrusting the facility with which the dangerous navigation had been before accomplished—took the only precaution his difficult position permitted. To scour the neighborhood of the rapid stream with light troops would have been impossible, owing to the thick underwood every where arresting the human foot; and yet, from each dark clump of cedars, or from behind each projecting crag on the rugged banks, he might at any moment expect to see the deadly flash of the Canadian musket, and to hear the war-whoop of the savage. ”

“ Charlevoix says in his Journal, "On me régale ici d'eau d'erable—elle est délicieuse, d'un fraícheur admirable et fort saine. Pour qu'elle coule avec abondance, il faut qu'il y ait beaucoup de neiges sur la terre, qu'il ait gelé pendant la nuit, que le ciel soit serein, et que le vent ne soit pas trop froid. Nos érables auroient peut-être la même vertu, si nous avions en France autant de neiges qu'en Canada, et si elles y duroient aussi lontems. J'en ai donné à foudre à un refineur d'Orleans qui n'y a trouvé d'autre défaut que ce qu'il n'avoit pas été suffisamment égouté. ”

“ By uniting the veteran corps embarked in the fleet from England and Nova Scotia, with the formidable force destined against Niagara, to the main army, nearly 25,000 British troops could have been brought to bear against the feeble defenses of the lakes, and poured down with irresistible strength on the Valley of the St. Lawrence. Thence to Quebec the watery path lay free and unembarrassed, and no hostile power existed strong enough to dare a battle against such a host. ”

“ Each separate settlement possessed an independent vitality; the habit of self-government engendered a feeling of confidence in their own power, and they who had marched with steady step over the barriers of an almost impenetrable forest, and swept away the warlike hordes of its savage inhabitants, were no mean foes to match even against the brilliant chivalry of France. ”

“ Through the unvarying rule of promotion by seniority, no officer of artillery or engineers arrives at a sufficient rank to command, until a time of life when the experience of the veteran can hardly be aided by the energy of the man. Rare indeed must be the instances of those who have passed nearly half a century of service, in which the hope of reward was too faint to stimulate industry, the dread of censure too slight to alarm indolence, and who still retain sufficient zeal and vigor for their country's need. ”

“ Devoid of genius, either civil or military; always hurried and hurrying others, yet making little progress in the dispatch of business; hasty to project and threaten, but mutable, indecisive, and languid in pursuit and action; negligent of even the semblance of public virtue; impotent against the enemy whom he was sent to destroy, formidable only to the spirit and liberty of the people whom he was commissioned to defend, he excited alternately the disgust, the apprehension, and the contemptuous amazement of the colonists of America."—Graham's History of the United States, vol. ”