1783-baron Steuben, and general Knox, be a committee to wait on the commander in chief, with a copy of the inftitution, and request him to honor the fociety by placing his name at the head of it." They likewife defired general Heath to tranfmit copies of the inftitution, with the proceedings thereon, to the commanding officer of the fouthern army, the fenior officer in each state, from Pennfylvania to Georgia inclufive, and to the commanding officer of the Rhode Island line, requesting them to take fuch measures as may appear to them neceffary for expediting the establishment of their ftate focieties. Circular letters were accordingly written; and the plan of the Cincinnati carried into execution, without the leaft oppofition being given to it by any one ftate, or body of men in any. A pamphlet was at length published figned Caffius, dated Charlestown, October 10, 1783, entitled Confiderations on the Society or Order of Cincinnati; with this motto, « Blow ye the trumpet in Zion." It is thought to be written by Ædanus Burke efq; one of the chief justices of South Carolina; and is well executed. The author undertakes to prove," that the Cincinnati creates two distinct orders among the Americans-ist, A race of hereditary nobles, founded on the military, together with the powerful families, and first-rate, leading men in the ftate, whofe view it will ever be, to rule: and 2dly, The people or plebeians, whofe only view is not to be oppreffed; but whofe certain fate it will be to fuffer oppreffion under the inftitution." Remarking upon the reafon for the members being called the Cincinnati, he exclaims-" As they were taken from the citizens, why in the name of God not be contented "to return return to citizenship", without ufurping an hereditary 1783. order? or with what "propriety can they denominate“ themselves from Cincinnatus, with an ambition fo 1 rank as to aim at nothing lefs, than Otium cum Dignitate, "Retirement and a peerage"? Did that virtuous Roman, having fubdued the enemies of his country, and returned home to tend his vineyards and plant his cabbages; did he confer an hereditary order of peerage on himfelf and his fellow foldiers? I answer, No; it was more than he dared to do." When near the end he fays," With regard to myself, I will be candid to own, that although I am morally certain the inftitution will entail upon us the evils I have mentioned: yet I have not the moft diftant idea, that it will come to a diffolution. The first clafs, or leading gentry in the ftate [of South Carolina] and who will always hold the government, will find their intereft in fupporting a diftinction that will gratify their ambition, by removing them far above their fellow citizens. The middling order of our gentry, and substantial landholders, may. The alarm is become fo univerfal, that the general الله and 1784. militia, feamen and other inhabitants, is estimated at 210. New Haven is about a twenty-fourth part of Connecticut; reckoning therefore the fame proportion of lofs to the whole ftate, the number loft will amount to 5,040. Connecticut is efteemed about a twelfth part of the American ftates; reckoning the fame proportion of lofs therefore to the whole, the total amount will be 60,480; but New York, New Jersey, and the southern states, have, doubtless, fuffered a greater loss in tion to their numbers than Connecticut. probable that the whole lofs of lives is not lefs than proporIt is therefore 70,000 *.' Vaft numbers died on board the prifon ships at New York: not lefs, it is afferted, than 11,000 in one only, the Jerfey t. Many perished in confequence of their being fo crowded together, others through cruel ufage, and feveral for want of thofe exertions which would have prevented fatal ficknefs and have promoted health, The British forces are charged with having utterly destroyed more than fifteen places of public worship within the United States, during the courfe of the war. Most of these they burnt, and others they levelled with the ground, leaving in fome places not a veftige of their former fituation. A number of others they nearly deftroyed, by converting them into barracks, jails, hofpitals, and riding fchools. In New York, there were nineteen places of worship when the war began; and when the city was evacuated, there were but nine fit for * The Rev. Benjamin Trumbull's Thanksgiving Sermon at NorthHaven, Dec. 11, 1783. + Dr. Ezra Stiles's Election Sermon before the governor and general affembly of Connecticut, May 8, 1783, p. 45 ufe. Trinity church and the Old Lutheran were indeed 1784• destroyed by the fire. But whatever the Americans may object against the British, on account of the lofs of lives and property which they have fuftained, they have abundant cause for thankfulness to the God of armies for having conducted them through the conteft into a state of independence, with fufferings fo fhort and light comparatively confidered. It was not quite eight years that they were engaged in it, computing from the first commencement of hoftilities to the ratifying of the provifional treaty. This is a lefs time than that, in which the ftates of Holland (in their glorious ftruggle with Spain) dared fo much as to claim independence. There is fcarce, if an inftance in hiftory, of fo great a revolution being effected in fo fhort a time, and with fo little lofs of lives and property *. From what has been already related, you will collect for yourself the characters of the two late generals of the northern and fouthern armies, under whofe commands the American war terminated. You may wish however to receive fome additional information concerning them. A few ftrictures muft fuffice. His excellency George Washington is defcended from a family that emigrated to Virginia, when the royalifts in England were expofed to various diftreffes previous to the restoration. Virginia does not afford those advantages for a univerfal education, which are enjoyed in Europe-a quarter of the world his excellency never vifited. Strong powers and close application compenfated in feveral refpects for the deficiencies of his native country. His epiftolary and other compofitions, which * Dr. Rodgers's Sermon. 1784. appeared while he sustained a public character, will be a lafting credit to him. He was happy in having a fucceffion of able fecretaries, whom he undoubtedly employed in drawing up many of his official papers, after having dictated the matter of them: but his private correfpondences, and others which from time and circumstances must neceffarily have employed his own pen, show that he was equal to any of those publications, which had his name affixed to them by his authority. It would be abfurd to expect, that he should equal in military skill the firft European generals, when he has enjoyed neither their opportunities nor experience for perfecting himself: but it may be justly afferted concerning him, that he was the best general the Americans could have had to command them. The world has been mistaken in one opinion refpecting his excellency, whose natural temper poffeffes more of the Marcellus and lefs of the Fabius than has been generally imagined. The event juftified his difcernment in fixing upon the honorable Nathaniel Greene to command the fouthern army, when the refolve of congress produced a vacancy: but feveral of the firft officers in his own, thought at the time, that a wrong choice had been made, The parents of the honorable Nathaniel Greene were quakers, and defcended from fome of the first fettlers in the Rhode Island government; under which the general was born in or about 1741. The father was an anchor-fmith, had confiderable iron works, carried on a large stroke of business, and was concerned in shipping. The fon Nathaniel, being prompted by a laudable ambition and a thirst after knowledge while a boy, learned the Latin, chiefly by his own induftry, and with very |