UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 375 



ble quantity of artillery and some stores behind. The town was eva- 

 cuated on the 17th of March, 1776, and general Washington imme- 

 diately took possession of it. On the 4th of July following, the con- 

 gress published a solemn declaration, in which they assigned their 

 reasons for withdrawing their allegiance from the king of Great 

 Britain. In the name and by the authority of the inhabitants of the 

 united colonies, they declared that they then were, and of right 

 ought to be, " free and independent states ; that they were absolved 

 from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political con- 

 nection between them and the kingdom of Great Britain was totally 

 dissolved : and also that, as free and independent states, they had full 

 power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish com- 

 merce, and do all other acts and things which independent states 

 may of right do." They likewise published articles of confederation 

 and perpetual union between the united colonies, in which they as- 

 sumed the title of " The United States of America." 



In July, 1776, an attempt was made by commodore sir Peter Par- 

 ker, and lieutenant-general Clinton, upon Charleston in South-Caro- 

 lina. But this place was so ably defended by the Americans under 

 general Lee, that the British commodore and general were obliged 

 to retire, the king's ships having sustained considerable loss; and a 

 t- eight gun ship, which ran a-ground, was obliged to be burnt 



b officers and seamen. However, a much more important and 



ill attack against the Americans was soon after made under 

 the command ot" geneial Howe, then joined by a large body of Hes- 

 -;, and a considerable number of Highlanders, so that his whole 

 force was now cxtremel) formidable. The fleet was commanded by 

 his brother, vice-admiral lord Howe; and both the general and the 

 admiral were invested with a power, under the title of "Commis- 

 sioners for granting peace to the colonies," of granting pardon to 

 those who would lay down their arms. But their offers of this kind 

 were treated oy the Americans with contempt. An attack upon the 

 city of New-York seems to have been expected by the provincials, 

 and therefore they had fortified it in the best manner they were able. 

 Oh Long-Island, near New-York, the Americans had also a large 

 body of troops encamped, and several works thrown up. On the 

 22d of August fifteen thousand British troops landed on that island. 

 Various actions and skirmishes took place during several successive 

 days, and the Americans suffered exceedingly. Finding themselves 

 overpowered, the American troops withdrew from the island in the 

 night, and retired to New-York, which dty they likewise soon after 

 abandoned. The royal army also obtained some other considerable 

 advantages over the Americans, at the White Plains : they took fort 

 Washington, with a garrison of 2500 men, and fort Lee with a great 

 quantity of stores, which losses obliged the American general to re- 

 treat through Jersey to the river Delaware, a distance of ninety 

 miles. On the 8th of December, general Clinton and sir Peter 

 Parker obtained possession of Rhode-Island ; and the British troops 

 covered Jersey. This was the crisis of American danger. All their 

 forts were taken; the time of service of the greater part of their 

 army had expired, and the few troops that remained with their offi- 

 cers were in a destitute state, and pursued by a well clothed and 

 disciplined army. Had general Howe pushed on at that time to Phi- 

 ladelphia, after Washington, it has been maintained there would 



