The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1898-02-25

twenty days Washington had been in Jersey
and the poor remains of our army number
ed less than 600 men, Then, says Washing
ton later, 1.-THE fate of America trembled,' -
1.-THE cause tottered.' but necessity, dire ne
cessity,' he writes just before the Trenton at
tack will, nay must, justify any attempt "
We know, our young children are taught,
how, in the line of Wordsworth, he
Turned his necessity to glorious gain"
The historians justly assume that the battle
of Trenton saved the Revolution" ct was
the turning point.) Thenceforward the war
was really continental. And for the Eng
! lish, Lord George Germaine confessed two
years later, "All our hopes were blasted
by that unhappy affair at Trenton" In
corresponding degree were the Americans
inspirited The value of the Trenton success
to the cause as a whole has received full recog-
milton. l am not so sure that it has received
due recognition in its effect on Washington
The strength he there gained stood him in
good stead in later trials. 1t is no uncommon
mistake to assume that the great characters of
history are the same in all stages of their
career; but events are not lost upon them.
Washington was better and greater in after
years for his experience in New Jersey. Is it not
possible to go further and question whether
the success at Trenton, confirmed by the mas
terly movement to Princeton and the victory
there was not the means of retainining Wash
ington at the head of the cause? Five days be-
fore the attack he assured Congress that he
had no lust after power and that he wished
with as much fervency as any man on this
wide extended continent for an opportunity of
turning the sword into the ploughshare.
Had he missed at Trenton the jealousy of
some officers and of many civilians, the spirit
that feared danger in his very virtues or that
panic struck. had recently given him unlimit-
ep war-powers, might have avaied to force,
or allow him. to step aside. Trenton had its
0io1x Ina in, Nos fnr fhn
cause.
Greater immediate results might have fol-
lowed the twin victories had it not been," in
Washington's words, for the unhappy failure
of Generals Ewing and Cadwallader to pass
the river. All was not won that Washington
had planned.
isnext visit to New Jersey, the third, if we
count as second the dash into Trenton. lasted
seven months to the end of July 1777. Circum-
stances forbade him to follow up at Bruins
wick his victory at Princeton, and in winter
quarters at Morristown, and later in the strong
post at Middlebrook. he must wait and watch
and work and plan The mere enumeration
of his trials in this half year is appalling, I'M
less emulating his patience and zeal we learn
how completely they fitted him and in
measure the country for the task yet to be
done At Morristown he creates new army,
and at what odds! in the face of assertions,
in spite of the irregular and conflicting efforts
and unequal bounties of the states and want
of money and of arms, of lack of method in
the various departments, of interference and
Indifference in Congress. He rebukes Massa-
chusetts, and in the same letter praises her,
and Connecticut and Rhode Island, and the
Virginians for 'illiberal sentiments toward
the Fasteners, whom he warmly defends.
He coaxes Sullivan; tells Heath that mea of
sense are laughing at him for his foolish at
tempt on New York; soothes Arnold; srebukes
l. .IN,
TALLY against the northern army; tells Robert
Morris that he cannot depict the situation to
Congress in brighter colors than the facts
warrant bestows praise and blame with such
perfect determination, that one would think
Justice herself were speaking. Complaints,
Earring interests, jealousies and resentments
and questions of rank of American officers.
the urgent pretences of foreign Adventures,
as we'll as the claims of men of merit he quiets,
adjusts, allays, with patience, energy and
marvellous skill. To member of his family
he writes, Il do not think that any officer
since the creation, ever had such variety of
difficulties and perplexities to encounter as l
have"
Yet from his quarters at Morristown he
makes every part of the continent" his equal
care The petty threads that one after another
would quickly enmesh the giant strength he
brushes aside or snaps. He knows well
enough what the enemy ought to do, but must
perpetualy guess his intentions. Over and
over again during this half-year he repeats the
phrase ''the wide extended continent" and
asserts that its welfare is his one aim, while
at the same time. with a forefeeling of the
true federalism that is to come, he expresses
the hope that the separate actions of the
States will produce in each "a laudable spirit
of emulation to excel
Washington has been represented as in all
history, for the cause at stake, the one indis-
pensable man, and of no period of his career
is the assertion truer than of this. If he is
such. it is because he is the embodiment of the
real spirit of the American people. But to ar
rive at this judgement one must go beneath
the surface; letters of men in place or out of
it, public documents even do not always re-
veal what is deep and stirring in the minds and
hearts of the people One may prove almost
anything from the Bible by choosing ones
texts. But to the real searcher Washington
appears in the best sense, and therefore the
only proper sense, representative. Lincoln
was made possible as a representative or if
you will in Lowells designation as ''Our First
American" only because Washington had
brought by the consent and the real will OF the
people the forming elements into action.
Shortly before quitting Morristown to follow
the uncertain and perpleXing movements of
Howe, on the 5th of July, TIT, Washington
writes o Governor Rutledge in far-otf South
Carolina-"We are doing the best we can"
1t is the key note of his life. Is it's pitch too
high for any one of us
After the Brandy-wine and Germantown de-
feats and the winter in Valley Forge. Washing
ton is again in New Jersey-from the 2lst of June
IT'S to the 18th of July. The length of his stay
by singular coincidence, is just four and
twenty days-the exact time of the retreat in
'76, But Washington is now the pursuer, and
on the 18th of June he comes upon the enemy
at Monmouth Court House, The account of
that meeting we read and read again with in
satiable interest and on the part of one Jer
seyman at least with a feeling of humble
gratitude that it was given to our State to be
the scene of one of the most dramatic Incl
dents in our, or all history: when the false and
craven in the person of Lee shrivelled at the
blast of the breath of Washington, and that in
our state with threat and command and per-
sonal daring and the highest military insight
and energy he saved the day. "A drawn bat
tie 81 Have it SO Clinton escaped; but in
the chain of events the affair at Monmouth
may have had and may still have greater in
huence than if it had ended the war Between
Lexington and Monmouth. the time was thir-
ty-eight months: between Monmouth and