The Story of American History Part 13

The British wavered, but then rallied and rushed forward to the breastworks with fixed bayonets.

"Make every shot tell!" shouted Prescott to his men.

As the British began to climb over our earthworks, our soldiers spent their last shots upon those who mounted first. Among those who fell dead at the redoubt was Major Pitcairn, who at Lexington had cried out, "Disperse, ye rebels!"

=168. The Patriots forced to retreat from Lack of Ammunition.=--Their powder all gone, what could the patriots do but retreat? This they did in good order for raw soldiers, many staying to smite the enemy with the b.u.t.ts of their muskets, then with the barrels after the b.u.t.ts were broken off, and some even with stones. The British were now closing in upon them on all sides, and at last Prescott, to avoid being completely shut in, gave the word to retreat. He was one of the last to leave, defending himself with his sword from the bayonets of the enemy.

Alas! one shot of the last volley from the British killed our beloved Warren! When General Howe heard of this he said, "Warren's death is equal to the loss of five hundred men to the Americans."

Stark and Knowlton held the gra.s.s fence till the troops had left the top of the hill, and then retreated with them in good order to Charlestown Neck. On their way back they met at Bunker Hill General Putnam, who had collected fresh soldiers and wanted to occupy the trenches he had formed there, and make a fresh stand against the enemy. But the British ships on both sides could rake this position, and it was decided to move back to Prospect Hill, which our forces fortified. It was about six o'clock when the retreat began.

=169. Bunker Hill and the Lesson it taught.=--In less than three hours, and with only one hour of actual fighting, all these fearful scenes were enacted. The Americans, with about fifteen hundred men, lost four hundred and fifty killed and wounded. But the British, with over three thousand, had lost one thousand and fifty-four, of whom one hundred and fifty-seven were officers!

Although in form the result of the battle was a defeat, as our army lost their ground, yet its effect upon the Americans was that of a victory.

It taught them that they were a match for the British troops in a fair fight. This knowledge nerved them to further resistance against royal oppression. Thus this battle, the first clear bugle-call of the Revolution, proving beyond all doubt that the British troops were not invincible, was worth just at this time many decided victories to the Americans. To the patriots of every colony it gave strength and heart, and the belief that their cause would succeed. In the march of events and of ideas Bunker Hill was of momentous importance. It gave the shock that made the patriots conscious of their might; it cleared their vision and roused them to action.

When Washington first heard of the battle he was riding on horseback to take command of the army at Cambridge. "Did our men stand fire?" he asked of the messenger. Being told that they did, and that they waited till the enemy was only eight rods off, he said, "The liberties of the country are safe!"

But if the Americans learned that they could fight, the British learned it too! General Gage wrote home: "The trials we have had prove the rebels are not the despicable rabble too many have supposed them to be."

"If they call that a victory," said a French general, "two or three more such would extinguish the British army."

"I wish," said General Greene, "that we could sell the British another hill at the same price."

After Gage had made his formal report of the battle to his superior officers in England, he was called back in disgrace, and was never entrusted with another military service. Generals Howe and Clinton learned a costly lesson, and never again through the war that followed did they lead their men in an open field against entrenched American soldiers.

Such, briefly told, is the story of Bunker Hill. The truth is, the whole movement was on the part of the Americans an audacious act. There was more heroism in it than military prudence. General Ward had at Cambridge only a few barrels of powder for his entire army; and to send a thousand men to entrench before a well prepared enemy, in front of batteries and warships, though it needed to be done, was yet, from a military point of view, a very rash act. On the other hand, General Gage made a very unwise military movement. No wonder he was censured for the reckless sacrifice of his soldiers at Bunker Hill.

=170. Bunker Hill Monument.=--On the crown of the hill and in the center of the old redoubt stands the splendid monument that tells of this famous struggle. The square shaft is of Quincy granite, thirty-one feet on each side at the base, fifteen feet at the top, two hundred and twenty-one feet in height. Inside, a stairway of two hundred and ninety-four stone steps leads to a room at the top, whose four windows command a view of wonderful extent and beauty. Just by the base of the monument we can see to-day a little gra.s.sy ridge, the slight remains of the breastworks of 1775.

The corner-stone was laid by Lafayette in 1825, exactly fifty years after the battle, and on that occasion Daniel Webster delivered one of his greatest orations. In front of him sat forty venerable survivors of the conflict. The finished structure was dedicated in 1842. On this occasion Webster again delivered a magnificent oration.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

=171. The Colonists still regard themselves as English Subjects.=--It seems to us now very remarkable that all through the year 1775, notwithstanding the conflicts at Lexington and Concord, and even after the battle of Bunker Hill, our forefathers still considered themselves loyal British subjects. Although they were violently opposing the despotism of the king of England, they never for a moment hesitated to acknowledge him as their rightful ruler. They regarded all the unjust acts of the king and the Parliament as so many encroachments upon their rights as Englishmen, just as much as if they were living in their old home in England instead of in a British colony. They insisted that, although they were three thousand miles away, distance did not diminish their just claims as free subjects of King George. They had fought as Englishmen, not against England.

Therefore, even for months after Bunker Hill, the colonists had no intention of separating from the mother country. Very few had much faith in such a scheme, and still fewer had seriously urged it. A large number of the people, probably a majority, thought the quarrel might even at that time be settled, and the colonies might resume their former friendly relations with England. All they had asked and all they had fought for was simply their rights as Britons.

Washington, when he took command of the army soon after the battle of Bunker Hill, said that he abhorred the idea of our separating from the mother country, and becoming an independent nation. Franklin declared that he had traveled all over the country and talked with all cla.s.ses of people, but had never heard independence mentioned.

=172. Slow Growth of the Idea of Independence.=--We must not fail to remember that the idea of independence took form very slowly. The first "Stamp Act," so offensive to the colonists, became a law in 1764, more than ten years before actual hostilities broke out. During all those years our ancestors were gradually losing their friendly feeling for England. They were slowly drifting towards an open conflict, in fact, the Revolution.

This hostility to England grew to be a serious matter after the battle of Bunker Hill. It was deepened and embittered early in 1776 by a number of events that still more sharply estranged America from her unkind mother. After the battle the British continued to occupy Boston with many hostile demonstrations, just as if it were an enemy's country, until at the end of a long siege they were driven out by Washington.

This weary investment caused a great deal of bitterness. Everything took on the sombre shadow of war, and this of course meant permanent hostility to England.

Another step that greatly angered the Americans, and very justly too, was a British proclamation, the design and effect of which was to destroy all the commerce of the colonies by forfeiting their ships. This was itself equal to a declaration of war by England.

Then three pet.i.tions to the king, George III, by three different congresses, were treated with indifference or even with insolent contempt. The only obvious effect of the pet.i.tions was to goad England to greater severities. To a proposal at one time to exchange prisoners, it was answered that England "received no applications from rebels, unless they came to implore the king's mercy." This stinging and insolent reply necessarily implied that all American patriots were rebels; that they were guilty of treason; that, but for the king's mercy, they must expect the penalty of treason, which is death!

=173. Active Measures taken by the British.=--Meanwhile obstinate King George, humored by his prime minister, Lord North, was busily making enormous preparations for pushing the war upon a large scale. Already twenty-five thousand British soldiers had been sent to America, or had been enlisted for immediate service. But so large a party in England was opposed to the war against their own countrymen in the colonies, that the king could not raise at home all the troops he needed. So he made a bargain with a German state, Hesse, hiring twenty thousand foreign soldiers to cross the ocean and fight his rebellious subjects.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "INDEPENDENCE HALL," PHILADELPHIA, AS IT APPEARED IN 1776.]

When our forefathers heard of this, it angered them more than anything else that had been done. But even worse still, it was learned that the British government was taking steps, by means of secret agents, to employ the Indians to fight on the British side, and use their tomahawks against British colonists!

Finally, to all pet.i.tions and appeals the English government replied that it would not abate any of its demands, and that it would accept from us nothing short of entire submission and obedience.

=174. Independence slowly but surely becomes a Stern Necessity.=--Now, if we recall all the wrongs as to taxation that we have read of in a previous chapter, and add to them this list of subsequent outrages, the preparations for a long war, the hiring of Hessians, and the incitement of Indians to fight us, we must see that our forefathers were compelled to regard England as their determined enemy. Such were the successive steps by which the old feeling of loyalty to the mother country gradually vanished, and bitter hostility took its place.

What should the colonies do to protect themselves? This was the all-important question. The people had been tending toward the conviction that the only remedy was to break off all connection with England and to be independent.

But it was a long while before this feeling became general. It was a steady and natural but slow growth. The public indignation, constantly strengthened by repeated British outrages, at last culminated in mature conviction--a conviction that the only course left us was to be wholly free, and to stand by ourselves among the nations of the earth.

As this conviction became stronger and stronger among the good people all along the narrow coast line from Boston to Charleston, it soon found expression in many ways. The few newspapers spoke out; public meetings were called to discuss it, and conventions dared to announce it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THOMAS JEFFERSON.]

People learned at last that their chief enemy was the king. They saw that the controversy which began merely as a colonial struggle for their rights as British subjects had grown broader and deeper, till it became a contest for our rights as MEN and for the freedom of our entire country from British control. A pamphlet ent.i.tled "Common Sense,"

written by Thomas Paine, an Englishman who had recently arrived in America, had an enormous sale and exerted a powerful influence. It abounded in ready wit, sharp reasoning, and rough eloquence. It stimulated the longing for independence and the determination to be free or die. In May, 1775, the people of Mecklenburg County in North Carolina were the first to pa.s.s resolutions advocating independence.

They sent them to their delegates in Congress; but these at that early day did not dare present them.

In May, 1776, Congress, then in Philadelphia, following the trend of public opinion, advised the colonies to consider themselves as no longer holding any powers under the authority of Great Britain. That was about the same as a declaration of independence. Many colonies accordingly set up state governments of their own without asking the king's consent.

=175. Steps taken for a Formal Declaration of Independence.=--The second Continental Congress met at Philadelphia, May 10, 1775. Early in June, 1776, one of the delegates, Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, offered a resolution that "these United Colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states." John Adams, of Ma.s.sachusetts, seconded it in a powerful speech. Three weeks of delay, to enable some of the colonies to send in their approval, occurred before its adoption. Then a committee of five, consisting of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston, who had been appointed to draw up a formal statement, presented the Declaration of Independence.

=176. The Declaration of Independence; what it said to the World.=--The simple and yet luminous words of this Declaration were written by Jefferson. His draft was prepared in his lodgings, on a little writing desk which still exists. Jefferson, in after years, delighted to tell how the final vote was hastened by the extremely hot weather and by the fact that there was a stable near by, and swarms of flies came in through the open windows and added much to the discomfort of the patriots already worn out with the debate and the heat.

[Ill.u.s.tration: JEFFERSON READING THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE TO FRANKLIN.]

Jefferson read his "fair copy" of the Declaration to his friend Benjamin Franklin. The old philosopher was delighted with the terse style and the vigorous sentences.

"That's good; that's right to the point," said he; "that will make King George wince. I wish I had written it myself."

One of Franklin's biographers declares that it is fortunate that Franklin did not compose the Declaration, for he would surely have put a joke into the immortal doc.u.ment!

Every line and sentence of the Declaration of Independence stirred the hearts of the people then, and it does even now, after the lapse of more than one hundred and twenty-four years. It embodies in a n.o.ble and enduring form the hopes, feelings, convictions, and aspirations of every true American. When first proclaimed, it said in thunder tones to all the world that here was a people in far-away America willing to give their fortunes and their lives for what they believed to be right.

=177. Independence declared.=--On the second of July, 1776, the sub-committee of five patriots submitted to Congress the important doc.u.ment. There was deep silence as the solemn and earnest words were slowly read. Hearts beat faster and eyes flashed at the recital of the tyranny of the king and the sufferings of the people.

A three days' discussion followed. Jefferson remained silent under the sharp criticism, but the genial old philosopher, Franklin, sat next to him and soothed his feelings by telling him stories that fitted the case.

At last the great Declaration of Independence, in its final form, was adopted, July 4, 1776.