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d By resolution of July 15, 1776, Georgia was authorized to raise, in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, two regiments of infantry and two companies of artillery, their terms of service ending in 1777.

e Part State troops.

The conjectural estimate of militia employed in addition to the

above troops in 1777 was:

New Hampshire and Vermont, for two months..

Massachusetts, for two months

Connecticut, for two months

New York, for six months..

New Jersey, for two months

Pennsylvania, for three months
Delaware, for two months..
Maryland, for two months.

Virginia, for two months..

South Carolina, for eight months
Georgia...

Rhode Island, for six months.

Total...

Grand total, 1777..

2, 200

2,000

2,000

2,500

1,500

2,000

1,000

4,000

4,000

350

750

1,500

23, 800

68, 720

The table shows that the number of men raised for the Continental Army was less than one-half of the quota, while the total number of troops fell short of the number furnished in 1776 by 20,931.

This decline in military strength must be attributed to the system of enlistments rather than to any want of determination to carry on the war. To stimulate recruiting, Congress on the 14th of April recommended that each State legislature enact laws exempting from actual service any two of the militia who should, within the time limited by such laws, furnish one able-bodied recruit to serve in any battalion of the Continental Army for three years or during the war; said exemption to continue during the term of enlistment, the recruit to have the Continental bounty and other allowances."

It is also recommended "that State legislatures enact laws compelling all such persons as are by laws exempted from bearing arms

or performing military duties, other than such as are specified in the foregoing resolution, to furnish such number of able-bodied soldiers as said legislatures shall deem a proper equivalent for such exemption; such soldiers to be entitled to the Continental bounty and other allowances over and above such gratuities as they may receive from those who procure them to enlist."

While the Government was not yet prepared to recommend a draft, the above resolution was a step toward it, inasmuch as it proposed that certain individuals (not States) should be compelled to furnish a certain number of soldiers, the expense of additional bounty falling upon the individuals.

TERRITORIAL RECRUITMENT.

Another step in recruiting was taken on the 31st of July, when Congress recommended "the executive authorities of the United States to divide their respective States into districts and to appoint a proper person in each district to fill up the regiments; the recruiting officer to give bonds and to be allowed in full for all trouble and expense eight dollars for each able-bodied recruit who shall enlist for three years or during the war, and also to be allowed in full for all expense five dollars for the arrest of every deserter." a

It also recommended that the legislative authorities should designate in their respective States convenient places of rendezvous for recruits and deserters, such places being reported to Washington so that he could send officers to receive the men.

This division of States into districts and establishment of rendezvous or depots, had some analogy to the territorial distribution and recruitment of troops now adopted by every European nation.

BOUNTY.

The evil of bounties increased during the campaign of 1777. Early in the year delegates from the New England States, which met for consultation in regard to their joint interests at Providence, recommended that the States represented should add a bounty of thirtythree and one-third dollars to the Continental bounty of $20, already authorized for the 88 battalions created in 1776. Massachusetts and New Hampshire doubled this extra bounty making a total of eightysix and two-thirds dollars for each recruit. Thus within a year the bounty had become more than twentyfold greater.

This increase at once put a stop to re-enlistments in the old regiments, as the men naturally went home to secure the State bounty, and would not take the smaller sum offered by Congress. Further than this, the large State bounties shook the allegiance of the soldier to his colors. Desertions became so numerous that Washington on the 6th of April issued a proclamation, in which he said:

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Whereas many soldiers, lately enlisted in the Continental Army, not content with the generous bounties and encouragements granted to them by Congress, but influenced by a base regard to their interests, have reenlisted with, and received bounties from, other officers and then deserted, * I have thought proper to issue this my proclamation offering a free pardon to all who shall voluntarily surrender themselves to any officer of the Continental Army or join their respective corps before the 15th day of May next.

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a Journal of Congress, vol. II, p. 211.

With the increase of bounties the impossibility of filling the army by voluntary enlistment became more and more apparent, and before the end of the year Massachusetts and Virginia set the example of drafting. Washington commended this measure to the President of Pennsylvania as the only sure method of raising Continental troops.

MILITARY ADVENTURERS.

During this year Washington was greatly annoyed and perplexed by the large number of foreigners who sought commissions in our service. On the 20th of February he addressed the President of Congress as follows:

I have often mentioned to you the distress I am every now and then laid under by the application of French officers for commissions in our service. This evil, if I may call it so, is a growing one, for, from what I learn, they are coming in swarms from old France and the islands. There will, therefore, be a necessity of providing for them or discountenancing them. To do the first is difficult, and the last disagreeable and perhaps impolitic if they are men of merit, and it is impossible to distinguish them from mere adventurers, of whom I am convinced there is the greater number. They seldom bring more than a commission and passport, which we know may belong to a bad as well as a good officer. Their ignorance of our language and their inability to recruit men are insurmountable obstacles to their being ingrafted into our Continental battalions, for our officers, who have raised their men and have served through the war upon pay that has hitherto not borne their expenses, would be disgusted if foreigners were put over their heads, and I assure you that few or none of these gentlemen look lower than field officers' commissions. To give them all brevets, by which they have rank and draw pay without doing any service, is saddling the continent with a vast expense, and to form them into corps would be only establishing corps of officers, for, as I said before, they can not possibly raise any men.

Some general mode of disposing of them must be adopted, for it is ungenerous to keep them in suspense and at great charge to themselves, but I am at a loss how to point out this mode. Suppose they were told in general that no man could obtain a commission except he could raise a number of men in proportion to his rank. This would effectually stop the mouths of common appliers and would leave us at liberty to make provision for gentlemen of undoubted military character and merit who would be very useful to us as soon as they acquired our language. If you approve of this or can think of any better method, be pleased to inform me as soon as you possibly can, for if I had a decisive answer to give them it would not only save me much trouble but much time which I am now obliged to bestow in hearing their different pretensions to merit and their expectations thereupon."

May 17, he wrote a similar letter to Richard Henry Lee, but qualified in respect to artillery and engineer officers as follows:

* * * My ideas, in this representation, do not extend to artillery officers and engineers. The first of these will be useful if they do not break in upon the arrangement of that corps already established by order of Congress; the second are absolutely necessary and not to be had here.

The objections urged by Washington did not apply to foreign officers as individuals, but to a class of military adventurers, who by a natural law flock in time of war to countries which, for want of military organization, find themselves in need of educated officers. This happened at the outbreak of the Revolution, and again in 1861. Although the services of Lafayette, De Kalb, Kosciusko, Pulaski, Steuben, Du Portail, and others, were of very great benefit during the former war, it is well known that Pulaski's appointment to command the cavalry gave rise to such murmurings among our officers that he was forced to give it up, though afterwards authorized to raise a special

corps.

@Sparks's Writings of Washington, vol. 4, p. 328.
Sparks's Writings of Washington, vol. 4, pp. 423–425.

DICTATORIAL POWERS AGAIN GRANTED TO WASHINGTON.

At the critical moment when the enemy was advancing upon Philadelphia, after the battle of the Brandy wine, Congress was a second time compelled to intrust Washington with dictatorial powers. The resolution, passed on the 17th of September, just before its adjournment to Lancaster and York, reads as follows:

Resolved, That General Washington be authorized and directed to suspend all officers who misbehave, and to fill up all vacancies in the American Army, under the rank of brigadiers, until the pleasure of Congress shall be communicated; to take, wherever he may be, all such provisions and other articles as may be necessary for the comfortable subsistence of the Army under his command, paying or giving certificates for the same; to remove and secure, for the benefit of the owners, all goods and effects, which may be serviceable to the enemy: Provided, That the powers hereby vested shall be exercised only in such parts of these States as may be within the circumference of seventy miles of the headquarters of the American Army; and shall continue in force for the space of sixty days, unless sooner revoked by Congress, a

ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION.

The war, which hitherto had been carried on under the authority assumed by the Second Continental Congress, was now to be prosecuted by a Confederacy of the States. The Articles of Confederation, which went into effect in July, 1778, and remained in force until the adoption of our present Constitution, necessitated certain changes of military policy, as will appear from the subjoined extracts:

ARTICLE 1. The style of this Confederacy shall be "The United States of America." ARTICLE 2. Each State retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this confederation expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled.

ARTICLE 3. The said States hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with each other for their common defense, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare, binding themselves to assist each other against all force offered to or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretense whatever.

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ARTICLE 5. For the more convenient management of the general interests of the United States, delegates shall be annually appointed, in such manner as the legislature of each State shall direct, to meet in Congress on the first Monday in November in every year, with a power reserved to each State to recall its delegates, or any of them, at any time within the year, and to send others in their stead for the remainder of the year.

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In determining questions in the United States, in Congress assembled, each State shall have one vote. * * * ARTICLE 6. * No vessels of war shall be kept up in time of peace by any State, except such number only as shall be deemed necessary by the United States, in Congress assembled, for the defense of such State or its trade; nor shall any body of forces be kept up by any State in time of peace, except such number only as in the judgment of the United States, in Congress assembled, shall be deemed requisite to garrison the forts necessary for the defense of such State; but every State shall always keep up a well-regulated and disciplined militia, sufficiently armed and accoutered, and shall provide and have constantly ready for use, in public stores, a due number of fieldpieces and tents, and a proper quantity of arms, ammunition, and camp equipage.

No State shall engage in any war without the consent of the United States in Congress assembled, unless such State be actually invaded by enemies or shall have received certain advice of a resolution being formed by some nation of Indians to invade such State and the danger is so imminent as not to admit of a delay till the United States, in Congress assembled, can be consulted; nor shall any State grant

@Sparks's Writings of Washington, vol. 5, p. 65.

commissions to any ships or vessels of war, nor letters of marque or reprisal, except it be after a declaration of war by the United States in Congress assembled, and then only against the kingdom or state, and the subjects thereof, against which war has been so declared, and under such regulations as shall be established by the United States in Congress assembled, unless such State be infested by pirates, in which case vessels of war may be fitted out for that occasion, and kept so long as the danger shall continue or until the United States in Congress assembled shall determine otherwise.

ARTICLE 7. When land forces are raised by any State for the common defense all officers of or under the rank of colonel shall be appointed by the legislature of each State, respectively, by whom such forces shall be raised, or in such manner as such State shall direct, and all vacancies shall be filled up by the State which first made the appointment.

ARTICLE 8. All charges of war and all other expenses that shall be incurred for the common defense or general welfare and allowed by the United States in Congress assembled shall be defrayed out of a common treasury, which shall be supplied by the several States in proportion to the value of all lands within each State, granted to or surveyed for any person, as such land and the buildings and improvements thereon shall be estimated according to such mode as the United States, in Congress assembled, shall from time to time direct and appoint.

The taxes for paying that proportion shall be laid and levied by the authority and direction of the legislature of the several States, within the time agreed upon by the United States, in Congress assembled.

ARTICLE 9. The United States, in Congress assembled, shall have the sole and exclusive right and power of determining on peace and war, except in the cases mentioned in the sixth article.

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The United States, in Congress assembled, shall also have the sole and exclusive right and power of appointing all officers of the land forces in the service of the United States, excepting regimental officers, appointing all the officers of the naval forces, and commissioning all officers whatever in the service of the United States, making rules for the government and regulation of the said land and naval forces, and directing their operations.

The United States, in Congress assembled, shall have authority to appoint a committee to sit in the recess of Congress, to be denominated a "Committee of the States," and to consist of one delegate from each State; and to appoint such other committees and civil officers as may be necessary for managing the general affairs of the United States under their direction, to appoint one of their members to preside, provided that no person be allowed to serve in the office of president more than one year in any term of three years, to ascertain the necessary sums of money to be raised for the service of the United States and to appropriate and apply the same for defraying the public expenses, to borrow money or emit bills on the credit of the United States, transmitting every half year to the respective States an account of the sums of money so borrowed or emitted, to build and equip a navy, to agree upon the number of land forces, and to make requisitions from each State for its quota, in proportion to the number of white inhabitants in such State; which requisition shall be binding, and thereupon the legislature of each State shall appoint the regimental officers, raise the men, and clothe, arm, and equip them in a soldier-like manner, at the expense of the United States; and the officers and men so clothed, armed, and equipped shall march to the place appointed, and within the time agreed on by the United States, in Congress assembled. * * *

The United States, in Congress assembled, shall never engage in war, nor grant letters of marque and reprisal in time of peace, nor enter into any treaties or alliances, nor coin money, nor regulate the value thereof, nor ascertain the sums and expenses necessary for the defense and welfare of the United States, nor appropriate money, nor agree upon the number of vessels of war to be built or purchased, or the number of land or sea forces to be raised, nor appoint a commander in chief of the Army or Navy, unless nine States assent to the same; nor shall a question on any other point except for adjourning from day to day be determined unless by the votes of a majority of the United States in Congress assembled.

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ARTICLE 10. The committee of the States, or any nine of them, shall be authorized to execute, in the recess of Congress, such of the powers of Congress as the United States, in Congress assembled, by the consent of nine States, shall from time to time think expedient to vest them with, provided that no power be delegated to the said committee for the exercise of which, by the articles of confederation, the voice of nine States in the Congress of the United States assembled is requisite.

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