Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1876-07-14
CENTENNIAL PICTUREs-NO. s.
VALLEY OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
MONMOUTH.
BY DANIEL WISE, DID.

Notwithstanding the triumph of
our arms on the field of Saratoga,
our national freedom was. placed in
sore peril the succeeding winter.
Various causes eonspired to produce
this state of things. First, the army
was reduced to great extremity, and
seemed to be melting away. Wash
ington, after well-planned, but un-
successful, attack on the enemy's
lines at Germantown, had taken po-
sition un the hills at Whitemarsh,
twelve miles from Philadelphia.
HIVE had marched out to give him
battle, but, alarmed by the strength
of his lines and menacing aspect OF
his troops, had retired without fight
ing, and gone into winter quarters.
Washington, knowing that his wea-
ry, half-starved troops were in no
condition to be led through the per-
lis of winters campaign, then es-
tablished himself III deep valley
on the Schuylkill. There his skill
in woodcraft enabled hlm to teach
his men how to transform the forest
which crowned Valley Forge into
camp of log huts, rooted with boughs
of evergreen, and laid out with the
regularity of village streets.
These huts afforded them shelter.
but welded little comfort. Their
brave occupants were half naked,
and so shoeless that their marches
through the snow and ice could be
tracked by the red stains from their
bleeding feet. They were also half
starved. The sick were counted by
thousands; they were 81 destitute Of
straw that many died through lying
on the cold, wet, ba earth. Cn-
der these cruel circumstances many
deserted, and "there was danger
that the troops would perish through
famine, or die in the search Of food. ,
On the other hand, the BRITISH,
comfortably quartered IN Philadel-
phia. were living on the fat of the
land. They held high carnival there,
at the expense of inhabitants; their
time was spent in amusements, riot
ing, and in drunkenness. But even
their wickedness worked benefit 10
the national cause, in that it held
them back from making an attack
upon our poor, afflicted army in its
hour of weakness, and so contribu
ted to its ultimate triumph.
Another cause of peril to the in-
fant nation was the lack of power
in Congress. That body did not
then represent a union, but only a
confederacy, of sovereign States.
Hence its authority was exceedingly
circumscribed, and it's acts mostly
imperative until confirmed by a ma
ioritv of the States. Washington
iamented this weakness, and did his
utmost to persuade the leading pat
riots of the time that the country
could only achieve the dignity of a
great nation by such a nation as
would confer sovereign powers upon
a general government.
But his ideas were in advance of
the times. Public opinion was not
yet ripe for such q union, and could
only be educated up to it by the
costly lessons of experience. Hence
our patriot army had to struggle on
against its powerful foes with such
slender and uncertain means as Con-
gress could command, and the States
were seyerally disposed to furnish.
Worse than its essential weakness
was the disposition of Congress to
harshly criticise the military policy
of Washington, and to listen to the
selfish insinuations of some of his
generals. They censured his Fabian
tactics; they permitted Gates, his in
competent rival, to act independents
Iy of his authority; they listened to
the damaging suggestions of the in
triguing Conway, the rash but hero
ic Wayne, and the honest but impa-
tient Benjamin Rush. Some of
them actually feared that Washing
ton was secretly aiming to make
himself military dictator; they even
ventured to whisper that his resigna-
tion was desired.
Never did the patriotism of Wash
ington shine with purer lustre than
during this stormy period of the war.
Though his keenly sensitive nature
was stung to the quick by the taunts
and Vaccinations of his fellow pat
riots, he neither lost his temper, sac