Produced by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
https://www.pgdp.net.
[Illustration: Charlotte Corday, after the assassination of Marat,
apprehended by the Jacobin mob
Painting by J. Weerts.]
THE GREAT EVENTS
BY
FAMOUS HISTORIANS
A COMPREHENSIVE AND READABLE ACCOUNT OF THE WORLD'S HISTORY, EMPHASIZING
THE MORE IMPORTANT EVENTS, AND PRESENTING THESE AS COMPLETE NARRATIVES
IN THE MASTER-WORDS OF THE MOST EMINENT HISTORIANS
NON-SECTARIAN NON-PARTISAN NON-SECTIONAL
ON THE PLAN EVOLVED FROM A CONSENSUS OF OPINIONS GATHERED FROM THE MOST
DISTINGUISHED SCHOLARS OF AMERICA AND EUROPE, INCLUDING BRIEF
INTRODUCTIONS BY SPECIALISTS TO CONNECT AND EXPLAIN THE CELEBRATED
NARRATIVES, ARRANGED CHRONOLOGICALLY, WITH THOROUGH INDICES,
BIBLIOGRAPHIES, CHRONOLOGIES, AND COURSES OF READING
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
ROSSITER JOHNSON, LL.D.
ASSOCIATE EDITORS
CHARLES F. HORNE, Ph.D.
JOHN RUDD, LL.D.
_With a staff of specialists_
_VOLUME XIV_
[Illustration]
The National Alumni
COPYRIGHT, 1905,
BY THE NATIONAL ALUMNI
CONTENTS
VOLUME XIV
PAGE
_An Outline Narrative of the Great Events_, xiii
CHARLES F. HORNE
_The Battle of Lexington (A.D. 1775)_, 1
RICHARD FROTHINGHAM
_The Battle of Bunker Hill (A.D. 1775)_, 19
JOHN BURGOYNE
JOHN HENEAGE JESSE
JAMES GRAHAME
_Canada Remains Loyal to England_
_Montgomery's Invasion (A.D. 1775)_, 30
JOHN M'MULLEN
_Signing of the American Declaration of Independence (A.D. 1776)_, 39
THOMAS JEFFERSON
JOHN A. DOYLE
_The Defeat of Burgoyne at Saratoga (A.D. 1777)_, 51
SIR EDWARD SHEPHERD CREASY
_The First Victory of the American Navy (A.D. 1779)_, 68
ALEXANDER SLIDELL MACKENZIE
_Joseph II Attempts Reform in Hungary (A.D. 1780)_, 85
ARMINIUS VAMBERY
_Siege and Surrender of Yorktown (A.D. 1781)_, 97
HENRY B. DAWSON
LORD CORNWALLIS
_British Defence of Gibraltar (A.D. 1782)_, 116
FREDERICK SAYER
_Close of the American Revolution (A.D. 1782)_, 137
JOHN ADAMS
JOHN JAY
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
HENRY LAURENS
JOHN M. LUDLOW
_Settlement of American Loyalists in Canada (A.D. 1783)_, 156
SIR JOHN G. BOURINOT
_The First Balloon Ascension (A.D. 1783)_, 163
HATTON TURNOR
_Framing of the Constitution of the United States (A.D. 1787)_, 173
ANDREW W. YOUNG
JOSEPH STORY
_Inauguration of Washington_
_His Farewell Address (A.D. 1789-1797)_, 197
JAMES K. PAULDING AND GEORGE WASHINGTON
_French Revolution: Storming of the Bastille (A.D. 1789)_, 212
WILLIAM HAZLITT
Hamilton Establishes the United States Bank (A.D. 1791), 230
ALEXANDER HAMILTON AND LAWRENCE LEWIS, JR.
_The Negro Revolution in Haiti (A.D. 1791)_
_Toussaint Louverture Establishes the Dominion of his Race_, 236
CHARLES WYLLYS ELLIOTT
_Republican France Defies Europe_
_The Battle of Valmy (A.D. 1792)_, 252
ALPHONSE M. L. LAMARTINE
_The Invention of the Cotton-gin (A.D. 1793)_
_Enormous Growth of the Cotton Industry in America_, 271
CHARLES W. DABNEY
R. B. HANDY
DENISON OLMSTED
_The Execution of Louis XVI (A.D. 1793)_
_Murder of Marat: Civil War in France_, 295
THOMAS CARLYLE
_The Reign of Terror (A.D. 1794)_, 311
FRANCOIS P. G. GUIZOT
_The Downfall of Poland (A.D. 1794)_, 330
SIR ARCHIBALD ALISON
_The Rise of Napoleon_
_The French Conquest of Italy (A.D. 1796)_, 339
SIR WALTER SCOTT
_Overthrow of the Mamelukes (A.D. 1798)_
_The Battle of the Nile_, 353
CHARLES KNIGHT
_Jenner Introduces Vaccination (A.D. 1798)_, 363
SIR THOMAS J. PETTIGREW
_Universal Chronology (A.D. 1775-1799)_, 377
JOHN RUDD
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
VOLUME XIV
PAGE
_Charlotte Corday, after the assassination of Marat,
apprehended by the Jacobin mob (page 305)_,
Painting by J. Weerts. Frontispiece
_The Siege of Yorktown_, 108
Painting by L. C. A. Couder.
AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE
TRACING BRIEFLY THE CAUSES, CONNECTIONS, AND CONSEQUENCES OF
THE GREAT EVENTS
(THE EPOCH OF REVOLUTION)
CHARLES F. HORNE
"After us, the deluge!" said Louis XV of France. He died in 1774, and
the remaining quarter of the eighteenth century witnessed social changes
the most radical, the most widespread which had convulsed civilization
since the fall of Rome. "As soon as our peasants seek education," said
Catharine II of Russia to one of her ministers, "neither you nor I will
retain our places." Catharine, one of the shrewdest women of her day,
judged her own people by the more advanced civilization of Western
Europe. She saw that it was the growth of ideas, the intellectual
advance, which had made Revolution, world-wide Revolution, inevitable.
If we look back to the beginnings of Teutonic Europe, we see that the
social system existing among the wild tribes that overthrew Rome, was
purely republican. Each man was equal to every other; and they merely
conferred upon their sturdiest warrior a temporary authority to lead
them in battle. When these Franks (the word itself means freemen) found
themselves masters of the imperial, slave-holding world of Rome, the two
opposing systems coalesced in vague confusing whirl, from which emerged
naturally enough the "feudal system," the rule of a warrior aristocracy.
Gradually a few members of this nobility rose above the rest, became
centres of authority, kings, ruling over the States of modern Europe.
The lesser nobles lost their importance. The kings became absolute in
power and began to regard themselves as special beings, divinely
appointed to rule over their own country, and to snatch as much of their
neighbors' as they could.
Secure in their undisputed rank, the monarchs tolerated or even
encouraged the intellectual advance of their subjects, until those
subjects saw the selfishness of their masters, saw the folly of
submission and the ease of revolt, saw the world-old truth of man's
equality, to which tyranny and misery had so long blinded them.
Of course these ideas still hung nebulous in the air in the year 1775,
and Europe at first scarce noted that Britain was having trouble with
her distant colonies. Yet to America belongs the honor of having first
maintained against force the new or rather the old and now re-arisen
principles. England, it is true, had repudiated her Stuart kings still
earlier; but she had replaced their rule by that of a narrow
aristocracy, and now George III, the German king of the third generation
whom she had placed as a figure-head upon her throne, was beginning,
apparently with much success, to reassert the royal power. George III
was quite as much a tyrant to England as he was to America, and Britons
have long since recognized that America was fighting their battle for
independence as well as her own.
The English Parliament was not in those days a truly representative
body. The appointment of a large proportion of its members rested with a
few great lords; other members were elected by boards of aldermen and
similar small bodies. The large majority of Englishmen had no votes at
all, though the plea was advanced that they were "virtually
represented," that is, they were able to argue with and influence their
more fortunate brethren, and all would probably be actuated by similar
sentiments. This plea of "virtual representation" was now extended to
America, where its absurdity as applied to a people three thousand miles
away and engaged in constant protest against the course of the English
Government, became at once manifest, and the cry against "Taxation
without representation" became the motto of the Revolution.
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
Parliament, finding the Americans most unexpectedly resolute against
submitting to taxation, would have drawn back from the dispute; but King
George insisted on its continuance. He could not realize the difference
between free-born Americans long trained in habits of self-government,
and the unfortunate peasantry of Continental Europe, bowed by centuries
of suffering and submission. He thought it only necessary to bully the
feeble colonists, as Louis XIV had bullied the Huguenots by dragonnades.
Soldiers were sent to America to live on the inhabitants; and in Boston,
General Gage to complete the terror sent out a force to seize the
patriot leaders and destroy their supplies.
Then came "the shot heard round the world." Instead of cringing humbly,
the Americans resisted. Several were shot down at Lexington, and in
return the remainder attacked the soldiers with a resolution and skill
which the peasantry of an open country had never before displayed
against trained troops. These farmers had learned fighting from the
Indians, they had learned self-reliance, and each man acting for
himself, seeking what shelter he could find from tree or fence, fired
upon the Britons, until the most famous soldiery of Europe fled back to
Boston "their tongues hanging out of their mouths like dogs."[1]
The astonished Britons clamored that their opponents did not "fight
fair," meaning that the peasants did not stand still like sheep to be
slaughtered, or rush in bodies to be massacred by the superior weapons
and trained manoeuvres of the professional troops. Therein the
objection touched the very point of the world's advance: the common
people, the country folk of one land at least, had ceased to be mere
unthinking cattle; they acted from intellect, not from sheer brute
despair.
Within a week of Lexington an army of the Americans were gathered round
Boston to defend their homes from further invasions by these foreigners.
The English tried the issue again, and attacked the Americans at Bunker
Hill.[2] The steady valor of the regular troops, engaged on a regular
battle-ground, enabled them to drive the poorly armed peasants from
their intrenchments. But the victory was won at such frightful expense
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.[3]
At this period Northern America became unfortunately and apparently
permanently divided against itself. Canada, largely from its French
origin and language, had always stood apart from the more southern
English-speaking colonies. There had been repeated wars between them.
But now when England had seized possession of Canada and within fifteen
years of that event the southern colonists were fighting England, it did
seem probable or at least hopeful that all America might unite against
the common foe.
So thought the American Congress, and despatched a force, not against
the inhabitants of Canada, but against the British troops there, to
enable the Canadians to join in the revolt. The Canadians refused; the
British forces were brilliantly handled, and the tiny American army,
totally unequal to coping single-handed against the enemy and against
the gigantic natural difficulties of the expedition, failed--failed
gloriously but totally--and only roused anew against the southland the
antagonism of the Canadians, mingled now with contempt and a growing
admiration and even loyalty toward the Britons.[4]
Canada became a depot into which British troops were poured, and when
Lord Howe and his army had captured New York, the English Government
planned a powerful expedition to descend the Hudson valley, unite with
Howe and so isolate New England from the less violently rebellious
colonies farther south. On the success or failure of this undertaking
hung the fate not only of the new continent, but one seeing the
consequences now is almost tempted to say, the fate of the world.
The command was intrusted to Burgoyne, an experienced and capable
general. Troops were given to him, it was thought, amply sufficient to
overbear all opposition. There was no regular army to resist him. But
the American farmers of the region rallied in their own defence, they
hung like a cloud around Burgoyne's advance, they cut off his supplies,
they became ever more numerous in his front, until at last he fought
desperate battles against them, could not advance, and was compelled to
surrender his entire army.[5]
Instantly the war assumed a new aspect. Europe awoke to the fact that
England was engaged against a worthy foe. France, humbled in India,
driven from America, defeated on her own borders, saw her opportunity
for revenge, revenge against her hated rival. Moreover, the spirit of
freedom which had been proclaimed by Voltaire, by Rousseau, by a
thousand other voices, was awake in France; it saw its own cause,
hopeless at home, being triumphantly defended in America; and it cried
enthusiastically that the heroes should have aid. Spain, too, had sore
causes of complaint against England. So France first and then Spain made
alliance with the Americans. George III by his obstinacy had plunged his
realm into sore difficulties, had given the final blow to any possible
reestablishment of kingly power in England.
The most immediate shock caused the Britons by the changed aspect of the
world, was given them by Paul Jones, an American naval officer. He took
advantage of the French alliance to secure a little fleet, part American
but mostly French; and with it he cruised boldly around Great Britain,
bidding defiance to her navy and plundering her shores, in some faint
imitation of the depredations her troops had committed in America. The
fight of Jones in his flagship against the English frigate Serapis has
become world-famous, and the grim resolution with which the American won
his way to victory in face of apparent impossibilities, taught the
Britons that on sea as well as on land they had met their match.[6]
For a time the island kingdom bore up against all her foes. The most
famous of the many sieges of Gibraltar occurred; and for three years the
French and Spanish fleets sought unavailingly to batter the stubborn
rock into surrender.[7] But at last a second British army was trapped
and captured at Yorktown by the French and Americans.[8] Then England
yielded. It was impossible for her longer to undertake the enormous task
of transporting troops across three thousand miles of ocean. She needed
them at home; and many of the English people had always protested
against the fratricidal war with their brethren in America. American
independence was acknowledged, and England was left free to demand a
peace of her European foes.[9]
The antagonisms roused by this bitter war, in which British troops had
repeatedly and cruelly ravaged the American lands and homes, were long
in fading. Canada had stood loyally by Great Britain, and the break
between the northern land and the other colonies was sharp and final.
Even throughout the States which had become independent, a portion of
the people had loyally upheld British rule; and on these unfortunates
the liberated Americans threatened to wreak vengeance for all that had
been endured. Thus came about a vast emigration of the "Tories" or
Loyalists from the new States to Canada. They brought with them the
bitterness of the expatriated, and Canada became yet more firmly
British, more "anti-American" than before.[10]
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
Of even greater influence were the consequences of the American
Revolution as affecting Continental Europe. Estimates have differed
widely as to just how much the French Revolution was caused by that
across the ocean. Certain it is that Frenchmen had been enthusiastic in
America's cause, that many of their officers fought under Washington,
and returned home deeply infused with devotion to liberty. It has long
been a popular error, encouraged by historians of a former generation,
that the French Revolution arose from a starving peasantry driven to
madness by intolerable oppression. We know better now. It was in Paris,
not in the provinces, that the revolt began. Judged by modern standards,
of course, the French peasantry were oppressed; but if we measure their
condition by that of surrounding nations at the time, by the Austrians
under kind-hearted Maria Theresa, or even by the Prussians under
Frederick the Great, most advanced of the upholders of "benevolent
despotism," in whose lands serfs were still "sold with the soil"
compared with these, Frenchmen were free, prosperous, and happy. It is
even true that the lower classes were unready for change. In Hungary,
Joseph II, son of Maria Theresa, attempted a complete and radical reform
of all abuses, and the mob rose in fury against his innovations,
compelled him to restore their "ancient customs." They had grown
familiar with their chains.[11]
The French Revolution was an uprising of the middle classes. Its great
leaders in the earlier stages were Mirabeau, son of a baron, and
America's own friend the Marquis Lafayette. Even the King, Louis XVI, at
least partly approved the movement. The States-General was summoned in
1789 after an interval of nearly two centuries, to decide on the best
way of relieving the country from its financial embarrassments. This
gathering was soon resolved into a National Assembly which insisted on
giving France a constitution, making it a limited instead of an absolute
monarchy.[12]
On the 14th of July the mob of Paris rose in sudden fury and stormed the
ancient state prison, the Bastille. The King sent no troops to resist
them; and from that time his power was but a shadow. His overthrow,
however, was not yet contemplated. The Revolution was still to be one of
dignity and intellect. An entire year after the fall of the Bastille,
the president of the National Assembly could still say in addressing a
deputation of Americans headed by Paul Jones: "It was by helping you to
conquer liberty that the French learned to understand and love it. The
hands which went to burst your fetters were not made to wear them
themselves; but, more fortunate than you, it is our King himself, it is
a patriot and citizen king, who has called us to the happiness which we
are enjoying that happiness which has cost us merely sacrifices, but
which you paid for with torrents of blood Courage broke your chains;
reason has made ours fall off."
But alas! reason was soon to lose control. The lower classes had wakened
to a sense of their power, they began to use it savagely. Hatred of the
haughty aristocracy, long smoldering, burst everywhere into flame. Mobs
of country peasants plundered isolated chateaux and slew their inmates.
Meanwhile the National Assembly had been abolishing all titles of
nobility; the vast estates of the clergy were confiscated. The
aristocrats began fleeing from France, and the possessions of all who
fled were declared forfeited to the new government.
Imagine the tumult that this upheaval caused to the rest of Europe. News
travelled slowly in those days; but these "_emigres_," these banished
nobles, were palpable evidences of what had occurred. The common folk
everywhere, especially along the French borders in Germany, Switzerland,
and Italy, celebrated the French triumph as their own. Liberty was at
hand! For them, too, it would come presently! Murmurings of revolt grew
loud. The monarchs of Europe, terrified, took up the cause of the
_Emigres_ as their own. France was threatened with invasion. King Louis
threw in his lot with his royal friends and attempted flight from Paris.
He was caught and brought back a prisoner. A foreign army marched
against France.
This invasion was met and repelled in the Battle of Valmy (1792), not an
extensive or bloody contest in itself, but one of incalculable
importance in human history, because like Bunker Hill it showed that a
new force had arisen to upset all the military calculations of the past.
Raw troops could now be found to meet on equal terms with veterans.
Liberty, hitherto an impalpable idea, a mere phantom in the brains of a
few philosophers, proved able to call up armies at a word, able
physically to hold its own against embattled despotism. Even the German
Goethe wrote of Valmy, "In this place and on this day a new era of the
world begins."[13]
France however had already gone mad with its success. Even before Valmy
wholesale murder had begun in Paris. The prisons were broken open and a
thousand "aristocrats" hideously butchered without trial. The day after
Valmy, the land was proclaimed a republic. King Louis was put on trial
for his life, and in January, 1793, was executed.[14] Frenchmen began
fighting among themselves. The reign of "terror" began as that of kings
was abolished. Chiefs of each faction accused all others as traitors,
and executions by the guillotine rose to fifty a day. "We must have a
hundred!" cried Robespierre, the lunatic leader of the moment.
The excesses in Paris roused civil war, and through all France men slew
one another in the name of liberty. In Brittany the peasants even rose
in support of royalty, and refused allegiance to the republic. Never has
the most hideous brutality of man been more openly displayed than in
those days of vengeance. The intellectual classes of Europe everywhere
shrank back, terrified at the spectre they had evoked.
The Reign of Terror ended in 1794 with the downfall and execution of its
leader, Robespierre.[15] The civil war was trampled out in blood. And
with Titanic energy the French Republic defended itself against its
foreign foes.
All Europe had joined in a coalition against France--all the kings, that
is. Their subjects still doubted, still hoped, still looked anxiously to
France to see if freedom were in truth a possibility. Then from the
ranks of the liberated French arose great generals, aristocrats no
longer, but men of the people, fitted to lead the new-born armies of the
people. Greatest of these and grimmest of them was Napoleon Bonaparte.
He taught the timorous legislative authorities of Paris how to reassert
their dominion over "King Mob," who had ruled them and the country for
four hideous years. He checked a new uprising by a discharge of
well-stationed cannon, aimed to kill.
Order being thus established at home, the French began to pour over the
border in attack upon those kings who had threatened them. In many
places they were still received as the apostles of liberty. Holland,
Switzerland, the Rhine lands, became allies or dependents of France.
Kings were helpless against them. To the spirit of Republicanism, to the
impassioned courage of Frenchmen, was added the genius of Bonaparte. He
conquered Italy. He plundered her and sent home priceless treasures to
delight his countrymen and fill their exhausted treasury. He became the
man of the hour.[16]
Far beyond France spread the influence of her example. In Eastern
Europe, Poland was roused against the despoilers who had already seized
a portion of her territory. She began a rebellion under Kosciuszko, who,
like Lafayette, had imbibed the love of freedom in America. But Poland
was crushed by the overpowering forces of Russia, Prussia, and Austria.
Her remaining provinces were divided among the plunderers and the last
fragment of her independence was extinguished.[17]
In Haiti also there was a rebellion. The negroes of the island rose
against their Spanish masters and drove them into exile. Toussaint
Louverture, often regarded as the greatest hero of his race, led the
insurgents victoriously against both Spanish and English forces, and
finally with French help established the independence of Haiti as a
negro republic. He became administrator as well as warrior. After a few
successful years he was treacherously seized and held prisoner by
Napoleon; but the monument he had erected for himself, the "Black
Republic," continued and still continues to exist.[18]
In a period so tumultuous as was this quarter-century, one could scarce
expect that the world would make much progress in science. Men were too
intent on sterner things. There was, however, just before the beginning
of the French Revolution, one event which to a future generation may
seem more important even than to us. Aerial navigation began. The first
successful balloon ascension was made by the Montgolfier brothers, and
the sport became for a while a Parisian fad.[19] Still more noteworthy
was the employment of vaccination as a preventive against smallpox. The
system was introduced in England by Jenner in 1798, and its use spread
rapidly over Europe. More recently it has been employed against other
diseases as well, and the resultant increase in the general health of
mankind is beyond computation.[20]
FORMATION OF THE UNITED STATES
Meanwhile America, the source or at least the partial source of all this
republican tumult, was having difficulties of her own. The peace after
Yorktown left her exhausted. The Articles of Confederation which had
sufficed to hold the colonies together under the stress of their great
necessity, had proven insufficient to give any real unity. Each little
colony was jealous of its own power as an independent State: and for a
time it seemed as if they must disband, that America must become like
Europe, divided into a collection of separate ever-jarring States,
devastated by constant wars.
That this was not our own country's fate, we owe to Washington. Our
saviour in war, he became also our saviour in peace. After watching
through some years of this disorganization, he emerged from the peaceful
retirement of his country home, to urge that some means be taken to form
a more perfect union. It was largely through his instrumentality that
the convention of 1787 was called; and he presided over its labors.
Again and again it seemed as if the convention would disband in anarchy.
The antagonisms between the various delegates appeared irreconcilable.
But always there was Washington to control the flaming passions, to
insist upon moderation, upon union. And in the end that convention drew
up the Constitution of the United States.[21]
Even then there remained the task of persuading each State to accept the
Constitution; and this also would have been impossible had not all men
looked to Washington to act as president of the new republic, to do
justice between its differing sections. Relying equally on his wisdom,
his caution, and his incorruptibility, the States intrusted to him a
power they would have conferred upon no other.
Two years were occupied in arranging matters, and then, in 1789, the
date so memorable to France as well, the new government was organized,
Washington was inaugurated as President, and the United States began its
stupendous career as a single nation.[22]
There were difficulties, of course. American finances seemed as
hopelessly involved as had been those of monarchical France. But this
rock upon which the French projects of reform all split, our government
escaped by the financial genius of Alexander Hamilton.[23] The natural
summons of the French that the Americans should become their allies,
should help them to win freedom in their turn, proved another source of
danger. A thousand others were not lacking. But Washington's
conservatism preserved his government through all. He proclaimed
America's well-known policy toward the European States: "Friendship with
all, entangling alliances with none." The material prosperity of the
country increased rapidly. Eli Whitney invented the cotton-gin, which
made cotton cultivation so remunerative that the South grew rich, and
also, alas, became wedded to the system of slavery under which it was
supposed cotton could best be produced.[24]
For eight years Washington guided the destinies of the infant nation,
and then resigned his authority to one of his lieutenants. So that
really the great leader's influence continued predominant until he died
in December, 1799. Already however the more radical of Americans were
grown restive under his restraining hand. Federalism, conservatism, was
losing its control upon the national counsels, a change toward wider and
more radical democracy was at hand.
OVERTHROW OF DEMOCRACY IN FRANCE
The year of 1799 saw also a great change in France, but in the opposite
direction, away from democracy and back toward absolutism. The French
government, grown rash with its marvellous victories, had dared to
despatch Bonaparte, its ablest general, on an ill-considered and
somewhat fanciful expedition to distant Egypt. There his fleet was
destroyed by the English admiral, Nelson, in the celebrated Battle of
the Nile, and he and his army were left practically prisoners in
Egypt.[25]
Deprived of his genius at home, French military affairs went badly.
Monarchy rallied from its momentary depression. Russian troops drove the
French from Switzerland; Germans defeated them along the Rhine. The
Constitutional government in Paris was proving impracticable, its
members incompetent. Bonaparte saw his opportunity. Leaving his army in
Egypt, he escaped the British and returned alone to France. In Paris he
summoned the soldiers around him, entered the hall of the assembly,
and, much as Cromwell had once done in England, bade the wrangling
members disperse. Then he constructed a new government, which he still
called a republic. But as he himself was to be First Consul, with almost
all power in his own hands, the Government proved in reality as complete
an absolutism as that of Richelieu or Louis XIV. The first European
attempt at democracy had perished. The new century was to learn what
this suddenly risen dictator would establish in its stead.
[FOR THE NEXT SECTION OF THIS GENERAL SURVEY SEE VOLUME XV]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See _Battle of Lexington_, page 1.
[2] See _Battle of Bunker Hill_, page 19.
[3] See _Signing of American Declaration of Independence_, page 39.
[4] See _Canada Remains Loyal to England_, page 30.
[5] See _Defeat of Burgoyne at Saratoga_, page 51.
[6] See _First Victory of the American Navy_, page 68.
[7] See _British Defence of Gibraltar_, page 116.
[8] See _Siege and Surrender of Yorktown_, page 97.
[9] See _Close of the American Revolution_, page 137.
[10] See _Settlement of American Loyalists in Canada_, page 156.
[11] See _Joseph II Attempts Reform in Hungary_, page 85.
[12] See _French Revolution: Storming of the Bastille_, page 212.
[13] See _Republican France Defies Europe: Battle of Valmy_, page 252.
[14] See _Execution of Louis XVI: Murder of Marat: Civil War in France_,
page 295.
[15] See _The Reign of Terror_, page 311.
[16] See _The Rise of Napoleon: The French Conquest of Italy_, page 339.
[17] See _The Downfall of Poland_, page 330.
[18] See _Negro Revolution in Haiti_, page 236.
[19] See _First Balloon Ascension_, page 63.
[20] See _Jenner Introduces Vaccination_, page 363.
[21] See _Framing of the Constitution of the United States_, page 173.
[22] See _Inauguration of Washington: His Farewell Address_, page 197.
[23] See _Hamilton Establishes the United States Bank_, page 230.
[24] See _Invention of the Cotton-gin_, page 271.
[25] See _Overthrow of the Mamelukes: The Battle of the Nile_, page 353.
BATTLE OF LEXINGTON
A.D. 1775
RICHARD FROTHINGHAM
April 19, 1775, is memorable in American history as the day
on which occurred the first bloodshed of the Revolution. The
two combats of the day--that at Lexington and that at
Concord--really constituted one action, which ended in a
long running fight. As a single action, it is usually called
the Battle of Lexington. The engagement at Concord,
separately considered, is called the Battle of Concord, or
the Concord Fight.
At both places, on that fateful day, "the embattled farmers"
faced the troops of their own sovereign, to resist what was
felt to be an unwarranted and menacing invasion of American
liberties. While the soldiers of King George were doing
their own loyal duty, the New England yeomen who "fired the
shot heard round the world" obeyed a conviction still more
compelling. Hence came the first physical struggle in what
was already an "irrepressible conflict" of principle between
Englishmen and their kinsmen on the American continent.
The Revolutionary War was begun on the part of the Americans
for the redress of grievances for which they had exhausted
all peaceable endeavors to secure a remedy. It was afterward
successfully waged for independence. Repressive measures of
Great Britain in the colonies began with the issuance by
colonial courts of "writs of assistance." These writs
authorized officers to summon assistance in searching
certain premises under certain laws. In the first attempt to
enforce such a writ--in Massachusetts, 1761--the policy was
defeated through popular opposition, brilliantly led by
James Otis, who by a single speech produced such an effect
that John Adams said of the occasion: "Then and there was
the first scene of the first act of opposition to the
arbitrary claims of Great Britain. Then and there the child
Independence was born."
Later grievances were those of the Stamp Act (1765), taxes
on paints, glass, etc. (1767), and the Boston Port Bill
(1774), ordering the closing of the port on account of the
rebellious acts of the citizens, especially in the
"tea-party" of December 16, 1773, when they threw into the
waters of the harbor from English ships tea valued at
eighteen thousand pounds. As early as 1770 had occurred the
"Boston Massacre," a collision between citizens and British
soldiers, which added to earlier discontents and increased
the sensitiveness to later irritations.
The first Continental Congress, in 1774, though strongly
pacific, favored resistance to aggressions of the Crown.
During this year and the next two Provincial Congresses met
in Massachusetts, the collection of military stores was
authorized, a committee of safety was created, and the
"minute-men" were organized.
General Gage, the British commander in Boston, denounced
these proceedings as treasonable. Parliament vainly sought
to adjust the difficulties and enforce its authority.
Conciliatory efforts on both sides failing, it soon became
evident that a conflict of arms was at hand. By April 4,
1775, it was known in Boston that reenforcements were on
their way to General Gage. Soon after their arrival he was
ready for the movement with which the narrative of
Frothingham, a high authority on these events, begins.
General Gage had, in the middle of April, 1775, about four thousand men
in Boston. He resolved, by a secret expedition, to destroy the magazines
collected at Concord. This measure was neither advised by his council
nor by his officers. It was said that he was worried into it by the
importunities of the Tories; but it was undoubtedly caused by the
energetic measures of the Whigs. His own subsequent justification was
that when he saw an assembly of men, unknown to the Constitution,
wresting from him the public moneys and collecting warlike stores, it
was alike his duty and the dictate of humanity to prevent the calamity
of civil war by destroying these magazines. His previous belief was that
should the Government show a respectable force in the field, seize the
most obnoxious patriot leaders, and proclaim a pardon for others, it
would come off victorious.
On April 15th the grenadiers and light infantry, on the pretence of
learning a new military exercise, were relieved from duty; and at night
the boats of the transport ships which had been hauled up to be repaired
were launched and moored under the sterns of the men-of-war. These
movements looked suspicious to the vigilant patriots, and Dr. Joseph
Warren sent intelligence of them to Hancock and Adams, who were in
Lexington. It was this timely notice that induced the committee of
safety to take additional measures for the security of the stores in
Concord, and to order (on the 17th) cannon to be secreted, and a part of
the stores to be removed to Sudbury and Groton.
On Tuesday, April 18th, General Gage directed several officers to
station themselves on the roads leading out of Boston, and prevent any
intelligence of his intended expedition that night from reaching the
country. A party of them, on that day, dined at Cambridge. The
committees of safety and supplies, which usually held their sessions
together, also met that day, at Wetherby's Tavern, in Menotomy, now West
Cambridge. Elbridge Gerry and Colonels Orne and Lee, of the members,
remained to pass the night. Richard Devens and Abraham Watson rode in a
chaise toward Charlestown, but, soon meeting a number of British
officers on horseback, they returned to inform their friends at the
tavern, waited there until the officers rode by, and then rode to
Charlestown. Gerry immediately sent an express to Hancock and Adams,
that "eight or nine officers were out, suspected of some evil design,"
which caused precautionary measures to be adopted at Lexington.
Richard Devens, an efficient member of the committee of safety, soon
received intelligence that the British troops were in motion in Boston,
and were certainly preparing to go into the country. Shortly after, the
signal agreed upon in this event was given, namely, a lantern hung out
from the North Church steeple in Boston, when Devens immediately
despatched an express with this intelligence to Menotomy and Lexington.
All this while General Gage supposed his movements were a profound
secret, and as such in the evening communicated them in confidence to
Lord Percy. But as this nobleman was crossing the Common on his way to
his quarters he joined a group of men engaged in conversation, when one
said, "The British troops have marched, but will miss their aim!"
"What aim?" inquired Lord Percy.
"Why, the cannon at Concord." He hastened back to General Gage with this
information, when orders were immediately issued that no person should
leave town. Dr. Warren, however, a few minutes previous, had sent Paul
Revere and William Dawes into the country. Revere, about eleven o'clock,
rowed across the river to Charlestown, was supplied by Richard Devens
with a horse, and started to alarm the country. Just outside of
Charlestown Neck he barely escaped capture by British officers; but
leaving one of them in a clay-pit, he got to Medford, awoke the captain
of the minute-men, gave the alarm on the road, and reached the Rev.
Jonas Clark's house in safety, where the evening before a guard of
eight men had been stationed to protect Hancock and Adams.
It was midnight as Revere rode up and requested admittance. William
Monroe, the sergeant, told him that the family, before retiring to rest,
had requested that they might not be disturbed by noise about the house.
"Noise!" replied Revere; "you'll have noise enough before long--the
regulars are coming out!" He was then admitted. Dawes, who went out
through Roxbury, soon joined him. Their intelligence was "that a large
body of the King's troops, supposed to be a brigade of twelve or fifteen
hundred, had embarked in boats from Boston, and gone over to Lechmere's
Point, in Cambridge, and it was suspected they were ordered to seize and
destroy the stores belonging to the colony, then deposited at Concord."
The town of Lexington, Major Phinney writes, is "about twelve miles
northwest of Boston and six miles southeast of Concord. It was
originally a part of Cambridge, and previous to its separation from that
town was called the Cambridge Farms." The act of incorporation bears
date March 20, 1712. The inhabitants consist principally of hardy and
independent yeomanry. In 1775 the list of enrolled militia bore the
names of over one hundred citizens. The road leading from Boston divides
near the centre of the village in Lexington. The part leading to Concord
passes to the left, and that leading to Bedford to the right, of the
meeting-house, and form two sides of a triangular green or common, on
the south corner of which stands the meeting-house, facing directly down
the road leading to Boston. At the right of the meeting-house, on the
opposite side of Bedford road, was Buckman's Tavern.
About one o'clock the Lexington alarm-men and militia were summoned to
meet at their usual place of parade, on the Common; and messengers were
sent toward Cambridge for additional information. When the militia
assembled, about two o'clock in the morning, Captain John Parker, its
commander, ordered the roll to be called, and the men to load with
powder and ball. About one hundred thirty were now assembled with arms.
One of the messengers soon returned with the report that there was no
appearance of troops on the roads; and the weather being chilly, the
men, after being on parade some time, were dismissed with orders to
appear again at the beat of the drum. They dispersed into houses near
the place of parade--the greater part going into Buckman's Tavern. It
was generally supposed that the movements in Boston were only a feint to
alarm the people.
Revere and Dawes started to give the alarm in Concord, and soon met Dr.
Samuel Prescott, a warm patriot, who agreed to assist in arousing the
people. While they were thus engaged they were suddenly met by a party
of officers, well armed and mounted, when a scuffle ensued, during which
Revere was captured; but Prescott, by leaping a stone-wall, made his
escape. The same officers had already detained three citizens of
Lexington, who had been sent out the preceding evening to watch their
movements. All the prisoners, after being questioned closely, were
released near Lexington, when Revere rejoined Hancock and Adams, and
went with them toward Woburn, two miles from Clark's house.
While these things were occurring, the British regulars were marching
toward Concord. Lieutenant-Colonel Smith, at the head of about eight
hundred troops--grenadiers, light infantry, and marines--embarked about
ten o'clock at the foot of Boston Common, in the boats of the ships of
war. They landed, just as the moon arose, at Phipps' Farm, now Lechmere
Point, took an unfrequented path over the marshes, where in some places
they had to wade through water, and entered the old Charlestown and West
Cambridge road. No martial sounds enlivened their midnight march; it was
silent, stealthy, inglorious. The members of the "Rebel Congress" arose
from their beds at the tavern in Menotomy, to view them. They saw the
front pass on with the regularity of veteran discipline. But when the
centre was opposite the window, an officer and file of men were detached
toward the house. Gerry, Orne, and Lee, half-dressed as they were, then
took the hint and escaped to an adjoining field, while the British in
vain searched the house.
Colonel Smith had marched but few miles when the sounds of guns and
bells gave the evidence that, notwithstanding the caution of General
Gage, the country was alarmed. He detached six companies of light
infantry, under the command of Major Pitcairn, with orders to press
forward and secure the two bridges at Concord, while he sent a messenger
to Boston for a reenforcement. The party of officers who had been out
joined the detachment, with the exaggerated report that five hundred men
were in arms to oppose the King's forces. Major Pitcairn, as he
advanced, succeeded in capturing everyone on the road until he arrived
within a mile and a half of Lexington Meeting-house, when Thaddeus
Bowman succeeded in eluding the advancing troops, and, galloping to the
Common, gave the first certain intelligence to Captain Parker of their
approach.
It was now about half-past four in the morning. Captain Parker ordered
the drum to beat, alarm-guns to be fired, and Sergeant William Monroe to
form his company in two ranks a few rods north of the meeting-house. It
was a part of "the constitutional army," which was authorized to make a
regular and forcible resistance to any open hostility by the British
troops; and it was for this purpose that this gallant and devoted band
on this memorable morning appeared on the field. Whether it ought to
maintain its ground or whether it ought to retreat would depend upon the
bearing and numbers of the regulars. It was not long in suspense. At a
short distance from the parade-ground the British officers, regarding
the American drum as a challenge, ordered their troops to halt, to prime
and load, and then to march forward in double-quick time.
Meantime sixty or seventy of the militia had collected, and about forty
spectators, a few of whom had arms. Captain Parker ordered his men not
to fire unless they were fired upon. A part of his company had time to
form in a military position facing the regulars; but while some were
joining the ranks and others were dispersing, the British troops rushed
on, shouting and firing, and their officers--among whom was Major
Pitcairn--exclaiming, "Ye villains! ye rebels! disperse!" "Lay down your
arms!" "Why don't you lay down your arms?" The militia did not instantly
disperse nor did they proceed to lay down their arms.
The first guns, few in number, did no execution. A general discharge
followed, with fatal results. A few of the militia who had been wounded,
or who saw others killed or wounded by their side, no longer hesitated,
but returned the fire of the regulars. Jonas Parker, John Monroe, and
Ebenezer Monroe, Jr., and others, fired before leaving the line; Solomon
Brown and James Brown fired from behind a stone wall; one other person
fired from the back door of Buckman's house; Nathan Monroe, Lieutenant
Benjamin Tidd and others retreated a short distance and fired. Meantime
the regulars continued their fire as long as the militia remained in
sight, killing eight and wounding ten. Jonas Parker, who repeatedly said
he never would run from the British, was wounded at the second fire, but
he still discharged his gun, and was killed by a bayonet. "A truer heart
did not bleed at Thermopylae."
Isaac Muzzy, Jonathan Harrington, and Robert Monroe were also killed on
or near the place where the line was formed. "Harrington's was a cruel
fate. He fell in front of his own house, on the north of the Common. His
wife at the window saw him fall and then start up, the blood gushing
from his breast. He stretched out his hands toward her as if for
assistance, and fell again. Rising once more on his hands and knees, he
crawled across the road toward his dwelling. She ran to meet him at the
door, but it was to see him expire at her feet."
Monroe was the standard-bearer of his company at the capture of
Louisburg. Caleb Harrington was killed as he was running from the
meeting-house after replenishing his stock of powder; Samuel Hadley and
John Brown, after they had left the Common; Asahel Porter, of Woburn,
who had been taken prisoner by the British as he was endeavoring to
effect his escape.
The British suffered but little; a private of the Tenth regiment and
probably one other were wounded, and Major Pitcairn's horse was struck.
Some of the Provincials retreated up the road leading to Bedford, but
most of them across a swamp to a rising ground north of the Common. The
British troops formed on the Common, fired a volley, and gave three
huzzas in token of victory. Colonel Smith, with the remainder of the
troops, soon joined Major Pitcairn, and the whole detachment marched
toward Concord, about six miles distant, which it reached without
further interruption. After it left Lexington six of the regulars were
taken prisoners.