The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1878-08-03
Charles Lees Treason.

A CAPITAL plan of the British minis
try for the campaign of 1777 was the
seizure and the occupation by military
posts of the Champlain and Hudson
valleys, from st. Johns, on the Sorel,
to the city of New York. The object
was to sever the close union between
New England and the other States,
paralyze the powers of each section,
and so weaken the whole that the SUBJ
jugation of the resisting States might
become an easy task. To accomplish
this end forces were prepared to move
southwark from the banks of the st.
Lawrence, while other forces should as
cend the Hudson River, and these col
umns, meeting near Albany, perfect the
execution of the scheme Lieut.. Gen.
Burgoyne commanded the northern in
vading army, and Sir VIM. Howe the
forces that were to penetrate New York
from the south.
At this point a treacherous officer of
high rank in the Continental army APP
pears conspicuous in the series of events
that caused the evacuation of Philadel-
phia. That officer was Charles Lee,
the senior Major-General under Wash
ington. He had been an officer under
Burgoyne in Portugal, and had risen to
the rank of Lieutenant-C Colonel. He
had served under Braddock in the dis
astrous conflict on the banks of the
Monongahela. and with Abercrombie
in the unsuccessful attack on Ticon-
deroga, about twenty years before the
time we are considering. Lee had
dwelt for time among the Mohawk
Indians, who made him chief, with
the appropriate name of boiling
Water"-for he was a hot and ever
restless man, vain, arrogant, jealous
and quarrelsome. Failing to obtain
higher promotion in the army, he left
the royal service, came to America in
1913, engaged in politics on the side of
the colonists, and, when the Continent
tai army was organized, he received
the commission of Major-General. He
resigned his commission in the British
army, but required Congress to indem-
nifty him against any loss which he
might sustain as consequence of that
act. Then he began to play the part of
an American patriot; and, to enable
him to continue to do so, Congress, in
the autumn of 1875, loaned him upon
his own bond $4,000. He was simply
an INSCRIPTIONS adventurer, whose in
tiuence in the army was always PERM
cious.
Proud, censorious and disobedient,
Lee had followed Washington at dis
lance with heavy force during the per-
ilous flight across New Jersey late in
1776, pursued by the victorious troops |
of CORVALLIS. Washington repeatedly |
called upon Lee to push forward and |
give him strength to strike the pursu-
ers, and he as often omitted to obey.
He evidently desired to have disaster |
befall his superior, hoping thereby to
promote his own ambitious scheme to
become COMMUNICATIVE chief. He was
not only disobedient. but several DAYS
after the chase had ended at the Della
ware, and CORVALLIS had relinquished
it, Lee, yet lingering in New Jersey,
suffered himself to be captured, at
some distance from his army, by
small British scout. Taken to New
York he was used harshly at first by
Gen. Howe as British dcserter, but
very soon that commander and his Off
GERS treated Lee with marked consd-
Grafton. And well they might; for Lee
revealed to Howe the political condi-
ton of Pennsylvania, Delaware, Mary
land and Virginia, and presented him
with written plan for the subiugation
of the colonies, which promised better
results than that of the ministry. He
made it appear so plainly that a land
and naval expedition up the Chesa-