s plan was well conceived; yet its success
depended so much upon all the parts working in harmony together, that to
have set it in motion, without consultation or clear understanding
between the generals who were to execute it, is inconceivable. At a
distance of three thousand miles from the scene of war, the British
cabinet undertook to direct complicated military operations, in which
widely separated armies were to take part. General Burgoyne received his
orders on the spot. General Howe did not receive his until the 16th of
August; his army was then entering Chesapeake Bay. Burgoyne was being
defeated at Bennington, at the time Howe was reading his despatch, and
learning from it what he had not known before; namely, that he was
expected to cooeperate with the army of Burgoyne. These facts will so
sufficiently illustrate the course that events were taking, as to
foreshadow their conclusion to the feeblest understanding.

In order to make the war more terrible to the Americans, the British
cabinet decided to use the Indians of Canada, and the Great Lakes,
against them. Not even the plea of military necessity could reconcile
some Englishmen to letting loose these barbarians upon the colonists.
Though enemies, they were men. Lord Chatham, the noblest Englishman of
them all, cried out against it in Parliament. "Who is the man," he
indignantly asked, "who has dared to associate to our arms the tomahawk
and scalping-knife of the savage?" All knew he meant the prime minister,
and, behind him, the king himself. Had not King George just said that
any means of distressing the Americans must meet with his approval?

FOOTNOTES:

[12] VICTORY AT TRENTON. After being driven from the Jerseys, Washington
suddenly turned on his pursuers, and by the two fine combats of Trenton
and Princeton, compelled much superior forces everywhere to retreat
before him, thus breaking up all the enemy's plans for the ensuing
campaign, saving Philadelphia, and putting new life into the American
cause.

[13] UNDERESTIMATING HIS ENEMY. Burgoyne candidly admits as much in his
letter to Lord G. Germaine. _State of the Expedition_, Appendix, xcii.

[14] NEW ENGLAND THE BATTLE-GROUND. Sir William Howe did propose, at
first, operating against Boston from Rhode Island, with ten thousand
men, while an equal force should effect a junction with the army of
Canada, by way of the Hudson. This purpose he subsequently deferred for
an advance into Pennsylvania, b