202 



Delaware, by the well-appointed army of the enemy, flushed by suc- 

 cess, and panting for a last decisive victory. For a moment, the 

 destruction of" Washington, either from the waters in front or from the 

 royal troops in rear, seemed certain. The heroic daring of the men 

 who, perhaps, saved him, and with him their country, is nowhere 

 related in history. But Henry Knox,* the chief of artillery, whose own 

 services on the occasion will ever be remembered and excite admira- 

 tion, has done them justice. After the peace, and while Gen. Knox 

 was a member of the legislature of Massachusetts, an application was 

 made by citizens of Marblehead for the charter of a bank. Their 

 petition was opposed. He rose and stated their claims. "I am sur- 

 prised," he said, "that Marblehead should ask so small a privilege as 

 that of banking, and that there should be opposition to it. Sir, I wish 

 the members of this body knew the people of Marblehead as well as I 

 do. I could wish that they had stood on the banks of the Delaware 

 river in 1777, in that bitter night when the commander-in-chief had 

 drawn up his little army to cross it, and had seen the powerful current 

 bearing onward the floating masses of ice which threatened destruction 

 to whosoever should venture upon its bosom. I wish, that when this 

 occurrence threatened to defeat the enterprise, they could have heard 

 that distinguished warrior demand, 'Who will lead us on?' and 

 seen the men of Marblehead^ and Marblehead alone, stand Jorward to lead 

 the army along the perilous path to unfading glories and honors in the 

 achievements of Trenton. There, sir, went tlie fishermen of Marblehead, 

 alike at home upon land or water, alike ardent, patriotic, and unjiinching, 

 whenever they iinfurled the flag of the cou?itryJ^f 



To remark now, that, in 1772, the tonnage of Marblehead was up- 

 wards of twelve thousand, and the number of polls was twelve bunded 

 and three; that in 1780 the polls were but five hundred and forty-four; 

 and that the tonnage at the peace was only fifteen hundred and nine; 

 to state that nearly every able-bodied citizen was abroad, engaged in 

 the public service, either "upon land or water;" to show from a docu- 

 ment presented to the general court of Massachusetts, that, at the close 

 of the contest, there were within the borders of this single town four 

 hundred and fifty-eight widows, and nine hundred and sixty-six father- 

 less children — is to sum up its sufferings in the cause of freedom, and to 

 prove that, as has been averred, "it was a mere wreck and ruin," 

 when we emerged from the war. No other town in the United States, 

 of the same population and property, lost so large a proportion of both, 

 probably, as Marblehead. 



It is related that Nelson, on his return to England after the attack on 

 Copenhagen, visited his wounded in the hospital, and that, as he 

 stopped opposite to a bed on which lay a sailor who had lost an arm, 



* General Henry Knox was a native of Boston. In the Eevolution he was chief of artillery. 

 He held the office of Secretary at War after the peace, under the Confederation, and the same 

 place under the administration of Washington. His wife was of a loyalist family, whose prop- 

 erty was confiscated. The " Waldo patent," in Maine, formed a part of her father's estate, 

 and the General, purchasing a large part of it, settled upon it, at Thomaston, where he built 

 an elegant mansion, and where he died in 1806, at the age of 56. 



t From a speech of Hon. John Davis, of Massachusetts, in the Senate of the United States, 

 January 24, 1839. 



