American War of Independence

“ When we consider the American Revolution, we are apt to think of it as a great war in which all the inhabitants of the Colonies rose up against Great Britain, determined, no matter what might be the hardships and privations, no matter what the cost in blood and money, to achieve their independence and the right to govern themselves. ”

“ We fear no nation, but let the time for shedding human blood be protracted, when consistent with our safety. If our claims upon the justice of England should be disregarded, there would be time enough for human butchery. He looked around him, and saw many who had witnessed the calamities and miseries of the American Revolution. But if war could not be avoided, accumulated horrors would not induce the American people to endanger their independence. They would say, like the immortal Washington, the former victorious leader of their armies, “I will conquer or die with my countrymen.” ”

“ The fact was that the English people were a power not only apart from but in opposition to the King, and that this power was at that very moment arising in one of its periodic struggles for the destruction of royal prerogative and arbitrary rule. And that the Englishmen leading this battle realized that our War of Independence was the very backbone of their movement—that the American cause was their cause and the cause of freedom of peoples of the whole world. ”

“ Let us summon to our sides the majestic forms of those civil heroes, whose firmness in council was equalled only by the firmness of Washington in war. Let us listen again to the eloquence of the elder Adams, animating his associates in Congress to independence: let us hang anew upon the sententious wisdom of Franklin; let us be enkindled, as were the men of other days, by the fervid devotion to Freedom, which flamed from the heart of Jefferson. Deriving instruction from our enemies, let us also be taught by the Slave Power. The two hundred thousand slaveholders are always united in purpose. ”

“ But the seeds of separation were sown, and the ball of empire rolled westward with such astonishing rapidity that the pious mind is naturally excited to acknowledge a superintending Providence, that led to the period of independence, even before America was conscious of her maturity. Precipitated into a war dreadful even in contemplation, humanity recoiled at the idea of civil feuds and their concomitant evils. ”

“ The aim of this society is to perpetuate the memory of the men who, in military, naval or civil service, by their acts or counsel, achieved American independence. The members promote and assist in the proper celebration of the anniversaries of Washington’s Birthday, the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill, the Fourth of July, the capitulation of Saratoga and Yorktown, and the formal evacuation of New York by the British army, December 3, 1783, as a relinquishment of territorial sovereignty, and other prominent events relating to or connected with the War of the Revolution. ”

“ In the early period of the war, many very worthy characters opposed to the British system, besides General Washington, wished for a reconciliation with great Britain, if it could be procured consistently with honor, and with sufficient pledges of security to the just claims to the colonies rather than an irrevocable separation. But time convinced all that nothing but independence and a total dismemberment could secure the liberties of the United States. ”

“ In the tense years which preceded the Literature Revolution the American people separated into two hostile parties: the Tories, or Loyalists, who supported the mother country; and the Whigs, or Patriots, who insisted on the right of the colonies to manage their own affairs, and who furnished the armies that followed Washington in the War of Independence. Then, when America had won a place among the free nations of the world, her people were again divided on the question of the Constitution. ”

“ They went on board their ships and sailed away, and Washington and his men marched joyfully into the town. That was a great day for America, and it was soon followed by the 4th of July and the glorious Declaration of Independence. Since that 4th of July no king has ever ruled over the United States.
We call this war the American Revolution. Do you know what a revolution is? It means the doing away with a bad government and replacing it with a better one. In this country it meant that our people were tired of the rule of England and [136] wished to govern themselves. ”

“ There is a measure of truth in speaking of the War of 1812 as a second war of independence. In throwing off the shackles of British commercial ascendency, American society experienced much the same sense of elation and liberation as the peoples of Europe who contemporaneously rose in their might against Napoleon and asserted their right to independent national existence. The war was followed in the United States by an expansion of the vital forces of the nation in all directions. ”

“ By the Declaration of Independence, dreaded by the foes an for a time doubtfully viewed by many of the friends of America, everything stood on a new and more respectable footing, both with regard to the operations of war or negotiations with foreign powers. ”

“ Under such a government the difficulty of insuring concerted action was so great that, but for the transcendent personal qualities of Washington, the bungling mismanagement of the British ministry, and the timely aid of the French fleet, the war of independence would most likely have ended in failure. After the independence of the colonies was acknowledged, the formation of a more perfect union was seen to be the only method of securing peace and making a nation which should be respected by foreign powers ”

“ But more recent military operations upon an extensive scale, especially those of the Franco-Prussian War, and the American Civil War of 1861–1865, have supplied material for better appreciation of the principles that were viiiinvolved in the campaigns of the War for American Independence, as compared with those of Napoleon, Wellington, Marlborough, Frederick, Hannibal, and Cæsar. ”

“ They have struggled with astonishing success for the rights of mankind and have emancipated themselves from the shackles of foreign power. America has indeed obtained incalculable advantages by the Revolution; but in the innumerable list of evils attendant on a state of war, she, as well as Great Britain, has lost her thousands of brave soldiers, veteran officers, hardy seamen, and meritorious citizens, that perished in the field or in captivity, in prison ships, and in the wilderness, since the beginning of the conflict. ”

“ But the attachment of many to their old allies, to whom they felt themselves obliged, of many others to the British nation, its modes of government and its commerce, occasioned such a stigma to mark them for a tie.
America should indeed forever have maintained a character of her own, that should have set her on high ground, whence she might have looked on from the pinnacle of independence and peace, and only have pitied the squabbles, the confusion, and the miseries of the European world. ”

“ I know that they can achieve any thing except impossibilities. But the conquest of America is an impossibility."
There was one nation in Europe who viewed the contest with different eyes. This nation was France, then on the eve of revolution itself, and burning with enthusiastic love of the principles on which American independence was declared. The French government may not have admired the American cause, but it hated England so intensely, that it was resolved to acknowledge the independence of America, and aid the country with its forces. ”

“ If we make them freemen, and their defense is the defense of the Nation, whose right and duty is it to bear arms, if not theirs? In this great struggle, now for universal freedom not less than for perpetual Union, who ought to take part, if not they? And how can we expect to succeed, if we fail to avail ourselves of the natural helps created for us by the very conditions of the war? When, therefore, the President, after much consideration, resolved to summon black soldiers to battle for the flag, I felt that it was a wise act, only too long delayed. ”

“ These asserted without hesitation that this self-created peerage of military origin would throw an undue weight into the scale of the army; while the sincere votaries to freedom and the natural equality of man apprehended that this institution would give a fatal wound to the liberties of America.
Many judicious observers of the story of mankind thought that the United States had now, at the conclusion of the war, an opportunity to make a fair experiment between the advantages of a republican form of government and more despotic modes. ”

“ Revolution is a tornado where prudence seldom enters to neutralize its baneful effects; but when such men as those who constituted the first American congress in Philadelphia combine, men who could command the whirlwind of passion, and conduct the lightning of revenge by the silken cords of reason, and the steel rods of unbending patriotism to a desired and useful destination, revolution is stripped of its bane and is crowned with unfading glory. Such were the signers of the declaration—such was the American revolution. ”

“ For can we ever expect more unanimity and a better preparation for defence; more infatuation of counsel among our enemies, and more valor and zeal among ourselves? The same force and resistance which are sufficient to procure us our liberties will secure us a glorious independence and support us in the dignity of free, imperial States. We cannot suppose that our opposition has made a corrupt and dissipated nation more friendly to America, or created in them a greater respect for the rights of mankind. ”

“ After the Battle of Lexington swift messengers rode in all directions over the land telling the tidings that the struggle for American independence was begun. The news set the people aflame with excitement. Men dropped whatever they had in hand to join the little army under George Washington, who was elected general of the American soldiers. The colonists now believed that nothing but liberty would save them. Men like Patrick Henry of Virginia said, “Give me liberty or give me [Pg 218] death!” ”

“ A sanguinary and expensive war, growing out of this strengthening of the slave power, had just terminated, adding to the Union still larger territories—now free soil indeed, but furnishing a field for renewed battles between slavery and liberty. New revolutions were about to break forth in Europe, to convulse the Eastern Hemisphere, and cause old thrones to totter and fall!
How momentous the era! How deeply fraught with the prosperity of the American Republic—with the progress of man—the freedom of nations—the happiness of succeeding generations! ”

“ In the sages of the American revolution, we recognise every variety of character that ennobles man and confers upon him dignity and merit. To rouse the people to a becoming sense of their inalienable and chartered rights, and to induce them to rise in the majesty of their might and vindicate them, was the first great business of the illustrious patriots who boldly planned and nobly achieved American independence. ”

“ After repeated captures of the best appointed armies, composed both of domestic and foreign troops, despair of subjugating the United States had lowered down the spirit of the nation, and of the King of England so far as to become willing to treat on terms for the restoration of amity, and to speak with some degree of temper of the total separation and independence of America. ”

“ It was not, as was alleged by certain European statesmen, a contest for power on the one hand, and independence on the other; the war was not waged merely to crush a gigantic insurrection, or merely to destroy the curse of human slavery—but the Union armies were also fighting for those great principles which lie at the foundation of all free governments. The result of that contest, encouraged and strengthened republican governments, and the grandest problem that was ever submitted to human society, was solved—whether mankind could be trusted with a purely popular government. ”

“ ON two tragic occasions, at a century’s distance, the fate of the United States has trembled in the balance: would they be a free nation? Would they continue to be one nation ? A leader was wanted on both occasions, a very different one in each case. This boon was granted to the American people, who had a Washington when a Washington was needed, and a Lincoln when a Lincoln could save them. ”

“ We are not fighting for Slavery, we are fighting for Independence; and that or extermination we will have'. ... Thus it was not only incontestably settled but proclaimed, through the volunteered agency of two citizens, that the War must go on until the Confederacy should be recognized as an independent power, or till it should be utterly, finally overthrown. ”

“ But the victory was won at such frightful expense [Pg xvi] of life to the British that it was not until forty years had brought forgetfulness, that they tried a similar assault in military form against the Americans at New Orleans. The farmers could shoot as well as think. After Bunker Hill the Revolution was recognized as a serious war, not a mere mad uprising of hopelessness. Washington took control of the destinies of America. Congress proclaimed its Independence. ”

“ Independence, no one will doubt, but that one section was more willing than the other to sacrifice slavery for freedom, I think is equally as plain. While the colonists were debating with much anxiety the subject of what to do with the negroes, the New England States were endeavoring to draw the Southern States or Colonies into the war by electing George Washington as Commander of the army at Cambridge, and accepting the mis-interpretations of the declarations of war. ”