Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1906-07-26

village in Pennsylvania, not over thirty miles
from Philadelphia, and George Washington, the
Commander of the American army, is there with
few destitute soldiers. He writes letter from
this village to an officer in Philadelphia Is
confidential and closes with these words:
Christmas day, at night, one hour before the
day, is the time fixed for our attempt"
What is going to happen? <Few men know but
a column of Hessan soldiers sleeping over there
beyond the cold river will soon find out
The weather is raw-it sleets at times, at times
it snows-and then it turns bitter cold. 1t is com
Portable even in warm houses, with good food
and raiment; how is it out OF DOORS in huts or in
old worn-out tents, or sleeping at fence corners
under trees with only half enough to eat and
tattered rags for clothing, with shoes out
and leaking, and the blood of ones feet marking
the way in this weary tramp?
81 am cold nights and hungry every morning,
and tired all the time,'' wrote private soldier
to his wife in Jersey; land then have sue
cesses 1t is just retreat, and retreat all the time
Sometimes we hardly bury the dead, and our sick
are scattered along in farm houses clear across
the Jerseys"
The picture, true of this one private true
of all the Continental army.
But now something is about to happen! Christ
mas is coming and what Christmas What
American has not gazed with pride upon that
magnificent engraving of Washington crossing
the Delaware-the great patriot and general
standing in front of the boat looking like God
daring the elements about him! The picture is
the artists fancy. 1t is the true scene, with its
hardships and gloom we are about to look at now
the real Washington bravely getting over that
river with its running ice in the darkness of mid
night.
But let US first look about us and what has
been going on in this famous winter in the Jer-
seys. We have the time; it is three days yet to
the Christmas The eyes of the whole world are
upon those ragged and shoeless men, stopping at
farm houses for something to eat, sleeping in
barns and hedge rows, and all the time followed
by an army of British regulars. 1t is pathetic
as interesting, to know that in that hungry band
of footsore soldiers there are unknown men who
are about to write their names on the scrolls of
history. Ages hence men and women will with
pride trace their lineage from these ragged farm
er boys. There men marching along in the
column there who are yet to become generals,
cabinet officers, and even Presidents. They are
the heroes of the ReVolution-not heroes just
now in their rags perhaps, but history will hunt
them out when they are dead, and their names
will stand the first representatives of free
government. One shudders to think what free
government has cost the world-one is in utter
dismay at the Indifference of those who enjoy its
benefits. 1t is accepted matter of course
natural thing Do human beings forget that
their fathers once were slaves the whole of them?
That tyrants have owned mankind? That were it
not for the rags and the bare feet and daring of
the early Swiss, the Holanders, the colonists
now freezing in the Jerseys, they would own them
today, and that no man would work or play
marry or FEAST speak or think, die or live, ex-
: Dermtted nv some SceDtered tVrantp Lib
erty has cost oceans of human blood and oceans
of human tears.
1t has been bought and lost hundred times; it
is being bought again this winter of l776 in the
Jerseys
One glance at the perilous situation of our new
born country will help us enjoy the Christmas
morning that is dawning by the Delaware river.
The stamp act was only the immediate cause of
the Revolution against Great Britain. For a
hundred years the English Parliament had been
guilty of legislation intended to nure if not ruin
the colonies "rhe Colonists have no right to
as much as make nail for a horseshoe" said
the great William Pitt after the close of the
French and Indian war. That was English graft
tude for the thirty thousand American lives lost
in helping England defeat the French, for the
sixteen millions of treasure expended and for
untold sufferngs. England was run mad on pro-
lection; she needed money, and determined
that no land save England should make any
thing American steel factories were absolutely
closed up by English bayonets and declared nus-
ances. Manufacturing in America was simply
prevented or destroyed. Then, too, the constant
and petty tyranny of the royal governors APP
pointed for the colonies made the people long for
freedom. 1t is curious to note that one OF these
tyrannical governors was no other than a son OF
the liberty loving DR.. Franklin. This son was a
governor of New Jersey and conspired against
the success of the revolutionary movement until
at last he was thrown into prison.
But the revolution went on in spite OF hostile
governors and banded tories. Lexington had
been fought year and more before, and thai
''shot heard round the world put all liberty.
loving to arms. The great French and
Indian to be followed by greater still, and
the youth who shed the first blood in that war foi
conquest was now made ommander-in-chief In
the great war for liberty. Lieutenant Colonel
George Washington, who had fought at Grea
Meadows against the French in 1854, was il
this summer and winter of 1776 fighting the
English In this French war Washington anG
Arnold, Gates and Montgomery, Putnam ant
many other colonists, received military train
ing that proved invaluable in the battles they
were to fight now for their country. Some of the
Americans had been even hardened by the cruel
ties of that northern war. One bushes for sham,
~ a A. - IL A.