dier, but slothful in temperament. His way was to
strike a blow, and then wait to see what would come of it, hoping no
doubt that political affairs might soon take such a turn as to make it
unnecessary to go on with this fratricidal war. This was fortunate for
the Americans, for when Washington took command of the army at Cambridge
on the 3d of July, he saw that little or nothing could be done with that
army until it should be far better organized, disciplined, and equipped,
and in such work he found enough to occupy him for several months.

[Sidenote: Last petition to the king; and its answer.]

[Illustration: Invasion of Canada by Montgomery and Arnold.]

Meanwhile Congress, at the instance of John Dickinson of Pennsylvania
and John Jay of New York, decided to try the effect of one more candid
statement of affairs, in the form of a petition to the king. This paper
reached London on the 14th of August, but the king refused to receive
it, although it was signed by the delegates as separate individuals and
not as members of an unauthorized or revolutionary body. His only answer
was a proclamation dated August 23, in which he called for volunteers
to aid in putting down the rebellion in America. At the same time he
opened negotiations with the landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, the duke of
Brunswick, and other petty German princes, and succeeded in hiring
20,000 troops to be sent to fight against his American subjects. When
the news of this reached America it produced a profound effect. Perhaps
nothing done in that year went so far toward destroying the lingering
sentiment of loyalty.

[Sidenote: Americans invade Canada, Aug., 1775--June, 1776.]

In the spring Congress had hesitated about encouraging offensive
operations. In the course of the summer it was ascertained that the
governor of Canada, Sir Guy Carleton, was planning an invasion of
northern New York and hoping to obtain the cooeperation of the Six
Nations and the Tories of the Mohawk valley. Congress accordingly
decided to forestall him by invading Canada. Two lines of invasion were
adopted. Montgomery descended Lake Champlain with 2000 men, and after a
campaign of two months captured Montreal on the 12th of November. At the
same time Benedict Arnold and Daniel Morgan set out from Cambridge with
1200 men, and made their way through the wilderness of Maine, up the
valley of the Kennebec and down that of the Chaudiere, coming out upon
the St. Lawrence opposite