Although this expedition was by no means CHAP. VI. important for its magnitude, yet those em- 1780. ployed on it had manifested so much address and courage in its execution, that the general recommended them to the particular attention of congress, who passed a resolution expressing the high sense entertained of their merit.

retires into

winter

quarters.

No objects for enterprise presenting them- December. selves, the troops were early in December, The army withdrawn into winter quarters. The Pennsylvania line was stationed near Morristown; the Jersey line about Pompton, on the confines of New York and New Jersey; and the troops belonging to the New England states, in West Point, and in its vicinity on both sides the North river.

The line of the state of New York remained at Albany, to which place it had been detached for the purpose of opposing an invasion from Canada.

of major

New York.

Major Carlton, at the head of one thousand Irruption men, composed of Europeans, Indians, and Carlton into tories, had made a sudden irruption into the northern parts of New York, where he took forts Anne and George, and made their garrisons prisoners. At the same time, sir John Johnson, at the head of a body of men, also composed of Europeans, Indians and tories, appeared on the Mohawk. Several sharp skirmishes were fought in that quarter with the continental troops, and a regiment of new

CHAP. VI. levies, aided by the militia of the country. 1780. General Clinton's brigade was ordered to their

European transactions.

assistance; but before he could reach the scene of action, the invading armies had retired, after laying waste the whole country through which they passed.

While the disorder of the American finances, the exhausted state of the country, and the debility of the government, kept alive the hopes of conquest, and determined the British crown to persevere in offensive war against the United States; Europe assumed an aspect not less formidable to the permanent grandeur of that nation, than hostile to its present views. In the summer of 1780, Russia, Sweden, and Denmark, entered into the celebrated compact which has been generally denominated "THE ARMED NEUTRALITY;" the principal objects of which were to reduce the list of articles which should be deemed contraband, and to impart to goods the character of the bottom which conveyed them. Holland had also manifested unequivocally a determination to accede to the same confederacy: and it is not improbable that this measure contributed, in no inconsiderable degree, to the declaration of war which was made by Great Britain against that power towards the close of the present year.

The long and intimate friendship which had existed between these two nations, had been

visibly impaired from the commencement of CHAP. VI. the American war. Although not concurring 1780. with the house of Bourbon in the wish to weaken a rival, Holland yielded to neither France or Spain in the desire of participating in that commerce which the independence of America would open to the world. From the commencement of hostilities therefore, the merchants of Holland, and especially of the great commercial city of Amsterdam, watched with anxiety the progress of the war, and engaged in speculations which were profitable to themselves, and at the same time beneficial to the United States. The remonstrances made by the British minister at the Hague against this conduct were answered in the most amicable manner by the government; but the practice of individuals continued the same.

When the war broke out between France and England, a great number of Dutch vessels trading with France, laden with materials for ship building were seized and carried into the ports of Great Britain, although the existing treaties between the two nations were understood to exclude those articles from the list of contraband of war. Attributing these acts of violence to the necessity of her situation, Great Britain persisted in refusing to permit naval stores to be carried to her enemy in neutral bottoms. This refusal, however, was accompanied with friendly professions, with an offer

CHAP. VI. to pay for the vessels and cargoes, already 1780. seized, and with proposals to form new stipu. lations for the future regulation of that com.

merce.

The states general refused to enter into any negotiations for modifying the subsisting trea ties; and the merchants of all the great trading towns of Holland, and especially those of Amsterdam expressed the utmost indignation at the injuries they had sustained. In consequence of this conduct the British government required those succours which had been stipulated in ancient treaties, and insisted that the casus-fœderis had now occurred. Advantage was taken of the refusal of the states general to comply with this demand, to declare the treaties between the two nations at an end.

It may well be supposed that the temper produced by this state of things was favourable to the comprehending of Holland in the treaty for an armed neutrality, and that the Dutch government was well disposed to enter into it. They acceded to it in November; yet some unknown causes prevented the actual signature of the treaty on the part of the states general until a circumstance occurred which was used for the purpose of placing them in a situation, not to avail themselves of the aid they would otherwise have been intitled to as a member of that confederacy.

While Mr. Lee, one of the ministers of the United States, was on a mission to the courts

of Vienna and Berlin he fell in company with CHAP. VI. a Mr. John De Neufville, a merchant of Am- 1780. sterdam, with whom he held several conversations on the subject of a commercial intercourse between the two nations, the result of which was that the plan of an eventual commercial treaty was sketched out, as one which might thereafter be concluded between them. This paper had received the approbation of the pensionary Van Berkel, and the city of Amsterdam, but not of the states general.

Mr. Henry Laurens, late president of congress, was deputed to the states general with this plan of a treaty, for the double purpose of endeavouring to complete it, and of negotiating a loan for the use of his government. On his voyage, he was captured by a British frigate; and his papers, which he had previously thrown overboard, were rescued from the waves, by the skill and courage of a British sailor. Among these papers, which were preserved for the minister, was found the plan of a treaty which has been mentioned.

This was immediately transmitted to sir Joseph Yorke the British minister at the Hague to be laid before that government.

The explanations of this transaction not being deemed satisfactory by the court of London, sir Joseph Yorke received orders to withdraw from the Hague, soon after which war was proclaimed against Holland.