New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-12-13
THE REVOLUTTON.
Il Panorama zrath None Of the
.Shado7cs Left Ont.

THE TRUE HISTORY OF THE American 2IeIsS
REyoLUTIoN BY sydney 1Is George Geo f1s9e Der
tavo. PIP. 457- philadelphia: ]. B Lippncott
Company
According to Mr.. Fisher our historians have
not told us the whole truth about our Revolu-
ton, they having suppressed much that was
not to the credit of the patriots He argues
that we want the facts, and he proceeds TO give
them to us from the writings and testimony Of
actors in the great events. making hook that
students Of our history cannot afford to slight.
as it is the result of careful research and Is
original in its conclusions. The matter pre-
scented includes an examination Of conditions
here previous to the Revolution; disclosure Of
the piracy, smuggling, riotng and revolt against
control by ancestors; the various vain at
tempts by Great Britain to levy taxes and all
the great military operations during the war,
with description Of the political situation then
existing in England
Mr. Fisher declares that the desire for indie
pendence in the minds of the Americans of
long and ardent growth and cautiously planned
Intention" rather than the result Of Sudden
and depIorable necessity" Instead Of Great
Britain tyrannizing her colonies here she
was very lenient with them, taxing them lightly
while she herself taxed heavily on account
of the war which she had waged TO keep the
colonies from the clutch of France. The people
to the Revolution, while the Americans paid
pence. The author analyses the commercial
situation here from 1863 to 1I75 when he says
our merchants were practically all 3mugglers
and perjurers, and when they made dead letters
of all the laws that did not suit them. Here is
his explanation of why the colonists liked the
old voluntary taxation system:
They took the greatest delight in It, for when
ever a governor announced that he had been
inst ed II Obtain certain IeglS
lature had a chance to worry him and strike a
bargain for his consent to some of their IA
vorite measures. When modern taxation
was suggested. they would blandly inquire what
could be better than the old voluntary system?
They would diate on their loyalty and affection
for the crown, and the ideal beauty of those
gifts to dear Mother England which they vol
unfairly and without even the suggestion of
force had always, out of the abundance Of their
overlooking devotion, supplied.
Not English severity. but English easy going
led our people to become more and more law
less and impatient of any sort of control.
Mr.. Fisher quotes a great deal of testimony to
show that the success of the Revolution not
due to the valor and force of the patriots so
much to General Howe's neglect to follow
UP his victories and exterrninate Washingtons
force. Howe, he informs us, deliberately
following policy that had been dictated TO him
by the Wings. 1t was expected by the British
Government that after such beatings they
received at the battles of Long Island and the
Brandywine, the RevoIutionsts would lay down
their AS to the number of Americans
who favored the Revolution, we have also been
misled by our historians, says Mr. Fisher and
he quotes many who declare that the loyalists.
who usually known Tories. in the
majority, but were unorganiZed and tinlid while
the patriots though numbering less than a
million. organized and very aggressive
Certain instructive chapters in the book deal
with the work of nobs that tarred and feath-
cred Tories in various parts Of the country. On
page 165 find this sketch of some of the
Revolutionists
movement was the rise of the ignorant classes
into power and the steady deterioration in the
character and manners of public men. Cobblers
and mechanics became captains and coonels
got important positions in State govern
ments- The Congress seemed to become narrow
minded, factious and contemplate. At all tav-
ernS could be seen ragged and drunken loungers
of three six months service in the patriot
army, conspicuously labelling another COL
onei or captain in a way that very aston
fishing and disgusting to respectable and con-
sentative people.
Howe's extraordinary movement to PhiIadel-
phia, when he expected to cooperate with
sons that have been advanced for his desertion
of his brother general given, including
Howe's explanation. The reader is left to
take his choice OF theories Mr.. Fisher leaves
Washington unaisturbed in his greatness, and
Arnold a dashing soldier, but he calls Gates
the hero OF Saratoga which he certainly was
not in the eyes of those who knew the facts