Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 edition. Excerpt: ... LI. TRENTON In that long campaign of the summer and autumn of 1776 the patriots had been defeated at every point. They had been driven out of Canada, deprived of the naval supremacy of Lake Champlain, defeated at the battle of Long Island, New York taken, Fort Washington taken, Washington's army scattered, and the remnant of it under his personal command driven across New Jersey; and yet Howe stopped short, took no more active measures, followed up none of his advantages. His successes, as he afterwards put it in his Narrative, "had very nearly induced a general submission." He seemed to be waiting for the "general submission" to be voluntarily offered by the patriots. He apparently expected from them some compromise plan which would show that the colonies could be retained without subjugation as the Whigs under Burke and Chatham supposed was possible. But, as loyalists like Galloway pointed out, this stopping just short of complete subjugation and waiting for a voluntary submission merely brought into the British lines the timid patriots to get certificates of protection for the time being, while it gave the determined and courageous nucleus of the patriot party time to recuperate, collect a new army and make another stand for independence. When the Congress departed so hurriedly from Philadelphia on the 12th of December, they left Robert Morris in charge of their affairs and General Putnam as military commander to keep down the loyalists and make as good a defence as possible. The town was a scene of distress and confusion, the streets filled with beds, furniture and baggage and scarcely ROBERT MORRIS anybody willing to remain but the Quakers and the sick soldiers in the hospital.1 Morris's willingness to become the solitary...
