The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1913-06-13

factious, as uncertain in capacity and
purpose, as that which had awaited
his discipline and guidance before
Boston.
An Ever-changing Army.
It was an army always a-making
and to be made.
The sea was open, moreover. The
British could enter the great harbor
when they pleased.
The insurgents had no naval force
whatever with which to withstand
them on the water. There were a
score of points to be defended which
were yet without defence on the long
island where the town lay, and round
about the spreading arms Of the sea
that enclosed it; and there were but
eighteen thousand militia-men mus
tered for the formidable task, in the
midst of an active loyalist popula-
ton.
The thing must be attempted. never
theless.
Vital to Hold the Hudson.
The command of the Hudson would
very likely turn out to be the com
mand of the continent, and the strug-
gle was now to be to the death.
1t was too late to draw back,
The royal authority had in fact,
been everywhere openly thrown off,
even in the middle colonies, where al
legiance and opinion hung still at so
doubtful a balance
For Washington the whele situation
must have seemed to be summed up
in what had taken place in his own
colony at home.
Dunmore Raids and Destroys.
Dunmore, when he fed to the ilen-
of-war in the bay, had called upon all
who We're loyal to follow him; had
even offered freedom to all slaves
and servants who would enlist in the
force he should collect for the purpose
of reducing the colony to a proper
sense of its duty" Unable to do more,
he had ravaged the coasts on either
hand upon the bay, and had put men
ashore within the rivers to raid and
burn, making Norfolk, with its loyal
ist merchants, his headquarters and
rendezvous.
Driven thence by the provincial
militia, he had utterly destroyed the
town by fire, and was now refuged
upon Gwynns Island, striking when
he could, as before, at the unprotected
hamlets and plantations that looked
everywhere out upon the water.
Virginias only executive. these nine
months and more, had been her com
mittee of safety. of which Edmund
Pendleton was president
Carolina Declares independence.
Washington had hardly begun his
work of organization and defence at
New York before North Carolina
april y, 1870 authorized her dele
gates in the congress at Philadelphia
to join in a declaration of independ-
ence; and the next month May 15)
the congress advised the colonies to
give over all show and pretence of
waiting for or desiring peace or ac-
commodation; to form complete and
independent governments of their own,
and so put an end to the exercise of
every kind of authority under the
crown"
The next step was a joint Declara
ton of Independence, upon motion
made in congress by Richard Henry
Lee, in eager obedience to the express
bidding of a convention met in the
hall Of the Burgesses at williamsburg,
to frame a constitution for Virginia.
Many Still Unconvinced.
His motion was adopted by the
votes of every colony except New
York. 1t was bitter thing to many a
loyal man in the colonies to see such
things done, and peace rendered i'm
possible. Not even those who counted
themselves among the warmest friends
of the colonial cause were agreed that
it was wise thus to throw off one gov
eminent before another was put in it's
place-while there was as yet no bet
ter guidance in that districted time
than might be had from a body of
gentlemen in Philadelphia who pos
sessed no power but to advise
But the radicals were in the sad
die
Washington for No Compromise.
Washington himself came down from
New York to urge that the step be
taken. He deemed such radicalism
wise; for he wished to see compro-
mise abandoned, and all minds set as
sternly as his own in the resolve to
fight the fight out to the bitter end
Il have never entertained an idea of
Sn accommodation" he said, since
heard of the measures which were
adopted in consequence of the Bunk
er's Hill fight; and his will hardened
to the contest after the fashion that
had always been characteristic of him
when once the heat of action was up
On him
Tories Make Difficulties.
He grew stern, and spoke some
times with a touch of harshness, in
the presence of his difficulties at New