t and amid the
denial of all necessary things, there have been found plenty of
sophists, even in America, to dispute these great truisms. But if the
American nation as a whole ever ceases to believe in them, it will not
merely decay, as all nations decay when they lose touch with eternal
truths; it will drop suddenly dead.

We must now turn back a little in time in order to make clear the
military situation as it stood when Jefferson's "Declaration" turned the
war into a war of doctrines.

The summer of 1775 saw the first engagement which could well be
dignified with the name of a battle. A small English force had been sent
to Boston with the object of coercing the recalcitrant colony of
Massachusetts. It was absolutely insufficient, as the event showed, even
for that purpose, and before it had landed it was apparent that its real
task would be nothing less than the conquest of America. The
Massachusetts rebels wisely determined to avoid a combat with the guns
of the British fleet; they abandoned the city and entrenched themselves
in a strong position in the neighbourhood known as Bunker's Hill. The
British troops marched out of Boston to dislodge them. This they
eventually succeeded in doing; and those who regard war as a game like
billiards to be settled by scoring points may claim Bunker's Hill as a
British victory. But it produced all the consequences of a defeat. The
rebel army was not destroyed; it was even less weakened than the force
opposed to it. It retired in good order to a position somewhat further
back, and the British force had no option but to return to Boston with
its essential work undone. For some time England continued to hold
Boston, but the State of Massachusetts remained in American hands. At
last, in the absence of any hope of any effective action, the small
English garrison withdrew, leaving the original prize of war to the
rebels.

On the eve of this indecisive contest the American Congress met to
consider the selection of a commander-in-chief for the revolutionary
armies. Their choice fell on General George Washington, a Virginian
soldier who, as has been remarked, had served with some distinction in
the French wars.

The choice was a most fortunate one. America and England have agreed to
praise Washington's character so highly that at the hands of the young
and irreverent he is in some danger of the fate of Aristides. For the
benefit of those who tend to weary of the Cherry Tree and the