The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1928-02-23
,a4,l. PROVIDENCE

served and been bountiful to me, not
doubling that | shall return safe to
you in the fall" So he wrote to Martha
Washington as he journeyed to Cam
bridge to take command of the CONT
mental armies.
When we read carefully the story
of those magnificent and tragic times,
it must be hard even for a skeptic to
be blind to the many evidences that an
unseen Power was directing the
course of events and shaping the des-
tiny of nation.
For one thing, it seems simply in
credible that the American forces
could ever have proved victorious over
the trained and disciplined European
, troops. sent against them. 1t has been
estimated that regiment of the raw
Colonial militia was scarcely a match
in open battle for a single company of
! British regulars. 1t wasn't ques-
ton Of relative courage; it was SIM
ply a question of knowing the game
of war. The British had an army;
Washington had a crowd-that was
the difference.
Desperately Washington labored to
discipline his crowd into an efficient
fighting machine. Just when he was
on the verge of success, their short
enlistment terms EXPIRED He had to
start all over again with another
crowd. And not a very big crowd
either! What we might call the Ga
bor-turnover" in the American forces
was simply appalling.
In war there is something even
more important than discipline, and
that is morale. The Continental troops
received their pay in Continental
money, which wasn't worth CONT
mental" That did not improve the
spirit of the men very much! They
were asked to fight without bayo-
nets, to march without food, to spend
the winter at Valley Forge without
shoes and almost without clothes.
That did not help the morale of the
patriotic army very much either.
i That Washington, with such half
hearted, half-trained, half-equipped
crowd of volunteers finally succeeded
in conquering the efficient military
machine of England is one of the mir
acles of history.
1t is all the more miraculous when
we remember that the Colonies were
not unanimous in that struggle. APP
proximately one-third of the Ameri-
can people were tories whose sympa-
thies were with England and who
never renowned their allegiance to
the British sovereign.
1t would take much too long even
to enumerate the tremendous disad-
vantages which weighed against the
American side, and seemed to fore
doom the cause of liberty to defeat.
But all through those long, dreary
years, again and again some Unseen
Hand seems to reach down at criti-
cal moments when disaster seems to
be inevitable.
1t is strange what little things may
sometimes change the course of his
tory. Lord Germaine, the British war
minister in London, drafted two i'm
portant military orders. One was to
General Burgoyne in Canada to pro-
coed south, along Lake Champlain, to-
ward Albany; the other to General
Howe to proceed northward from New
York along the Hudson River and
meet Burgoyne at Albany. The object
was to drive a wedge between the
northern and southern colonies. Had
the plan been carried out, it would
certainly have meant ultimate defeat
of the American cause. Lord Ger
maine signed and dispatched the or
der to Burgoyne; but just at that
moment he was called from his desk.
When he returned, he forgot to sign
the other order. 1t lay in pigeon hole
for three fatal weeks. Then it was
too late.
Burgoyne had Immediately moved
south, to Fort Ticonderoga, expecting
Howe to cooperate with him from
New York Burgoyne was surrounded
by superior American forces and his
retreat cut off. Day by day he anx-
iously waited for Howe to move to his
assistance. The days grew into weeks
while his own supplies dwindled and
the American forces surrounding him
grew stronger and more menacing.
Finally he was forced to surrender
and America was saved-all because
of little slip of memory on the part
of a man in London.
Thus the hand of Providence seemed
to be shaping the destiny of America.
The very stars in their courses were
fighting with Washington.
At least that was his firm belief.
And one thing he only believed, but
knew, that a Power greater than him
self supported him and gave him the
strength to carry on when every ounce
Of his own vitality had been exhaust
ed, when every ray of hope had been
darkened.
You remember that beautiful pic
ture of Washington, alone in the