by his presence. Their conference was brief; their deliberations, short. They passed resolutions by unanimous vote thanking their chief for the course he had pursued; expressing their unabated attachment to his person and their country; declaring their unshaken confidence in the good faith of Congress, and their determination to bear with patience their grievances until, in due time, they should be redressed. These proceedings were signed by General Gates as president of the meeting; and three days afterward Washington, in general orders, expressed his entire satisfaction. All the papers relating to this affair were forwarded to the Congress and entered at length in their journals; and very soon that body took action that satisfied the army of the wisdom of Washington's proceedings at Newburg. The author of the anonymous addresses was Major John Armstrong, one of General Gates' aids, who afterward held civil offices of distinction in our national government. He was Secretary of War during a portion of the conflict between the United States and Great Britain in 1812-'15. In a letter to Armstrong many years after the events above related, Washington expressed his belief that the motives of the major were patriotic.

Another question now became a serious one. When the ratification of the preliminary treaty of peace was made known, a cessation of hostilities was proclaimed, on the 19th of April, 1783, just eight years to a day since they began at Lexington. Then the soldiers who had enlisted "for the war" claimed the right to go home. Congress decided that the time of their enlistment would not expire until a definitive treaty of peace should be concluded. Much dissatisfaction was felt; but Washington soothed the feelings of the soldiers by allowing a very large portion of them to go home on long furloughs, during the summer of 1783. As the definitive treaty was concluded at the beginning of September, these men never returned to the army; and so was gradually and quietly disbanded a greater portion of the Continental Army in the field.

In April, 1783, a treaty was concluded between the United States and the king of Sweden; and in the same month the British government gave to David Hartley full powers to negotiate a definitive treaty with the American commissioners. It was concluded and signed at Paris on the 3d of September, 1783, by David Hartley on the part of Great Britain, and by Dr. Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay on the part of the United States. Then Franklin put on his suit of clothes which he had laid aside after receiving personal abuse before the British Privy Council, with a vow never to wear them again until America was independent and England humbled. Definitive treaties between Great Britain and France and Spain were signed. on the same day; one between Great Britain and Holland was signed the

CHAP. XXXIX.

TREATY OF PEACE.

1099

day before. That between the United States and Great Britain was unqualifiedly acknowledged by the king of Great Britain; the Mississippi River was made the western boundary, and Canada and Nova Scotia the northern and eastern boundaries of the territory of the new Republic; the navigation of the River St. Lawrence was abandoned to the English; the navigation of the Mississippi was made free to both parties; mutual rights to the Newfoundland fisheries were adjusted; no impediments were allowed in the way of the recovery of debts by bona fide creditors; certain measures of restitution of confiscated property to Loyalists were to be recommended by the Congress to the several States; and there was to be a general cessation of hostilities, withdrawal of troops, and a restoration of public and private property.

While waiting for the arrival of the definitive treaty, Washington made a tour, with Governor George Clinton, to the theatre of military operations in Northern New York. On his return to Newburgh, he found a letter from the President of Congress, asking his attendance upon that body, at Princeton. Leaving the army in charge of General Knox, he complied with their request, and for many weeks he was in conference with committees of that body concerning a peace establishment, etc. Meanwhile the Congress had voted to honor him with an equestrian statue to be placed at the seat of the national government; but that, like similar honors voted to others of the Continental Army, has never been executed.

In October, 1783, the Congress proclaimed the discharge of the soldiers enlisted for the war, and only a few who had been re-enlisted until a peace establishment should be arranged, now formed the remnant of the Continental Army. Soon after this proclamation, Washington put forth a farewell address to the army, which, with one sent to the governors of the several States, from Newburgh, in June, constitute admirable state papers.

The great drama of the war for independence was now drawing to its close. Sir Guy Carleton was ordered to evacuate the city of New York, the only place in our republic then occupied by British troops. He was delayed by waiting for vessels to convey refugee Loyalists to Nova Scotia, who were compelled by a law of their State to leave their country and their confiscated property. Finally, the 25th of November was the day fixed for the evacuation by Carleton. Washington repaired to West Point, where Knox had stationed the remnant of the Continental Army-the remnant of two hundred and thirty thousand regulars and fifty-six thousand militia who bore arms during the war. Of all that glorious band of patriots, not one now remains. The two latest survivors were William Hutchings of Maine and Lemuel Cook of New York, who both died in the month of May, 1866,

the former at the age of one hundred and one years and seven months, and the latter, one hundred and two years. The British had sent to subdue the American "rebels" one hundred and thirteen thousand troops for the land service, and more than twenty-two thousand seamen. Of the former, one of them (John Battin), died in the city of New York at the age of a little more than one hundred years.

Accompanied by Governor George Clinton and other civil officers, and escorted by a detachment of troops from West Point under General Knox, Washington, with his staff, appeared near the city of New York (at the site of the Cooper Institute), on the morning appointed for the evacuation-the city from which he and his troops had been compelled to fly more than seven years before. At one o'clock in the afternoon, when the British had withdrawn to the water's edge for embarkation, the Americans marched into the city, the General and Governor at their head, the civil officers and a cavalcade of citizens following, with the regular troops. In compliment to the governor and the civil authority the procession was escorted by Westchester Light Horsemen, the continental jurisdiction having ceased or was suspended. Before three o'clock General Knox had taken possession of Fort George, at the foot of Broadway, amid the acclamations of thousands of citizens and the roar of artillery; when Clinton formally re-established civil government there, and closed the important transactions of the day by a public dinner.

Before the British left Fort George, they nailed their colors to the top of the flag-staff, knocked off the cleats, and “slushed " the pole from top to bottom to prevent its being climbed. When Knox took possession of the fort, John Van Arsdale, a lively sailor boy sixteen years of age, climbed the flag-staff by nailing on the cleats, tore down the British flag, and in its place unfurled the American banner of Stars and Stripes. The British hoped to leave the harbor with their flag still floating over the spot they had occupied so long, but they did not. The last sail of the British fleet that bore away the army and the Loyalists, did not disappear beyond the Narrows, before the evening twilight.

The late Dr. Alexander Anderson, the pioneer wood-engraver in America, related to me the following amusing incident of that evacuationday. He was then a boy between eight and nine years of age, having been born three days after the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord. He was living with his parents in Murray street, near the Hudson River, then sparsely settled. Opposite his father's dwelling was a boarding-house kept by a man named Day, whose wife was a large, stout woman and zealous Whig. On the morning of evacuation-day, she ran up the American flag

CHAP. XXXIX. LAST FIGHT OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE.

ΙΟΙ

upon a pole in front of her house. The British claimed possession of the city until twelve o'clock at noon, and this act was offensive to them. Early in the forenoon, when young Anderson was on his father's stoop, he saw a burly red-faced British officer, in full uniform, coming down Murray street in great haste. Mrs.

Day was sweeping in front of her door when the officer came up to her in a blustering manner, and in loud and angry tones ordered her to haul down the flag. She refused, when the officer seized the halyards to pull it down himself. Mrs. Day flew at him with her broomstick, and beat him so furiously over his head, that she made the powder fly from his wig. The officer stormed and swore, and tugged in vain at the halyards, which were entangled; and Mrs. Day applied her weapon so vigorously that he was soon compelled to retreat, and leave the flag of

the valiant woman floating triumphantly in the keen morning breeze. The British officer was the infamous provost marshal of the army, William Cunningham, who, for seven years, had cruelly treated American prisoners under his charge in New York, and terribly oppressed some of the few Whig families who remained in that city. This inglorious attempt to capture the colors of Day Castle and the result, was the last fight between the British and Americans in the Old War for Independence.

CHAPTER XL.

CLOSING OF THE DRAMA ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ATLANTIC-WASHINGTON PARTS WITH HIS OFFICERS AND RESIGNS HIS COMMISSION-HIS JOURNEY FROM NEW YORK TO MOUNT VERNON-SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI-WEAKNESS OF THE NEW GOVERNMENT-THE OPINIONS OF BRITISH STATESMEN-THE PUBLIC DEBT AND CREDIT-THE STATES REFUSE TO VEST SOVEREIGN POWERS IN THE CONGRESS-LORD SHEFFIELD'S FAMPHLET-JOHN ADAMS AS MINISTER IN ENGLAND-INSURRECTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES-DESIRE FOR A STRONGER GOVERNMENT MANIFESTED-HAMILTON'S EARLY EFFORTS TO THAT END-A NATIONAL CONVENTION-FRANKLIN'S MOTION FOR PRAYERS-FORMATION AND ADOPTION OF A NATIONAL CONSTITUTION-SIGNING IT AND ITS RATIFICATION-THE NORTHWESTERN TERRITORY-THE NEW GOVERNMENT PUT INTO OPERATION.

T

HE struggle of the English-American colonies for political independence ended in victory for the patriots. That independence was finally assured when, on the 5th of December, 1783, the king of England said in a speech from the throne: "I have sacrificed every consideration of my own to the wishes and opinions of my people. I make it my humble and earnest prayer to Almighty God that Great Britain may not feel the evils which might result from so great a dismemberment of the empire, and that America may be free from those calamities which have formerly proved, in the mother country, how essential monarchy is to the enjoyment of constitutional liberty. Religion, language, interests, affections may, and I hope will, yet prove a bond of permanent union between the two countries; to this end neither attention or disposition shall be wanting on my part."

With that speech the king closed, in Great Britain, the impressive drama which opened at Lexington in 1775, and exhibited its most glorious act in the Declaration of Independence in 1776. With another act, dissimilar but quite as interesting, it had closed in America the day before. The Continental Army had been disbanded and every hostile British soldier had left our shores, when Washington, on the 4th of December (1783), called around him his officers who were near and bade them farewell. That event occurred in the great public-room of the tavern of Samuel Fraunce, at the corner of Broadway and Pearl streets, in the city of New York. The scene is described as one of great tenderness. The officers were assembled in the