this way, the battle would be
fought in or about the town; but the building of the fort was honestly
intended for the defense and protection of the troops, not against
muskets, cannon, and bayonets, but against discontent and
despair,--enemies far more formidable to the suffering army of that day
than British troops and Hessians.

The result was a good one: Washington's army at Morristown stood by him
as long as he staid there; and when they marched away, they left upon
the top of that hill a monument to the wisdom, the kindness, and the
knowledge of human nature, displayed by their great commander in chief
in those hazardous days.

We do not know what this earthwork was first called; but in time it came
to be known as Fort Nonsense, simply because it appeared to the ordinary
man as a great piece of work undertaken without any good purpose. But
never was a name more inapplicable. If it had been called Fort Good
Sense, it would have been much more suitable.

The remains of this fort are still to be seen on the hill beyond
Morristown; and a monumental stone has been set up there to mark its
site, and explain its nature and purpose. Most of its ramparts and
redoubts have been washed away by the storms of more than a century, and
we can still perceive many of its outlines; but those skilled in the art
of military fortification know that it was a good fortress, while
students of human nature and of the influence of great minds upon the
welfare of their fellow-beings, know that it acted an important part in
the defense of our liberties and the establishment of our government.

It may be remarked that in this story we have said a good deal about
other things, and very little about Fort Nonsense. But there is very
little of Fort Nonsense, and not much to say about it; and what has been
told was the story of the camp life of Washington and his army in New
Jersey, the most permanent and suggestive point of which is the
earthwork called Fort Nonsense.

AN AMERICAN LORD.

Among the principal men of colonial days and of Revolutionary times,
there were many whose social positions were much the same as the station
of the ordinary European aristocrat. From their ancestors the colonists
had inherited the disposition to recognize differences in rank; and men
of wealth and high position in the colonial government were regarded to
a certain extent as members of the nobility are regarded in England.
Before the Declaration of