hide Sorting

You can sort these results in two ways:

By entity (current method)
Chronological order for dates, alphabetical order for places and people.
By position
As the entities appear in the document.

You are currently sorting in ascending order. Sort in descending order.

hide Most Frequent Entities

The entities that appear most frequently in this document are shown below.

Entity Max. Freq Min. Freq
1776 AD 226 226 Browse Search
1775 AD 208 208 Browse Search
Canada (Canada) 152 0 Browse Search
England (United Kingdom) 150 0 Browse Search
France (France) 126 0 Browse Search
New England (United States) 122 0 Browse Search
Quebec (Canada) 104 0 Browse Search
Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania, United States) 104 0 Browse Search
Richard Montgomery 100 0 Browse Search
John Adams 100 0 Browse Search
View all entities in this document...

Browsing named entities in a specific section of George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 8. Search the whole document.

Found 239 total hits in 71 results.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Elbridge Gerry (search for this): chapter 16
rted. On the other hand, Samuel Adams insisted that congress had already been explicit enough; and apprehensive that they might get themselves upon dangerous ground, he rallied the bolder members in the hope to defeat the proposal; but in the absence of John Adams even his colleagues, Cushing and Paine, sided with Wilson, who carried the vote of Massachusetts as a part of his majority. Chap. LVI.} 1776. Jan. When Cushing's constituents heard of his pusillanimous wavering, they elected Elbridge Gerry to his place; at the moment, Samuel Adams repaired for sympathy and consolation to Franklin. In a free conversation, these two great sons of Boston agreed that confederation must be speedily brought on, even though the concurrence of all the colonies could not be obtained. If none of the rest will join, said Samuel Adams to Franklin, I will endeavor to unite the New England colonies in confederating. I approve your proposal, said Franklin, and if you succeed, I will cast in my lot amo
Christopher Greene (search for this): chapter 16
s time. In June of the preceding year, when Lord North communicated his proposition as the ultimatum of British justice, he would have had it received as such and would have acted accordingly; on the echo from England of the battle of Bunker Hill, he saw that every hope of accommodation was delusive: the new year brought the king's speech to parliament in November, and Washington no longer held back his opinion that independence should be declared. Those around him shared his resolution; Greene wrote to his friend Ward, a delegate from Rhode Island to the general congress: The interests of mankind hang upon that body of which you are a member: you stand the representative not of America only, but of the friends of liberty and the supporters of the rights of human nature in the whole world; permit me from the sincerity of my heart, ready at all times to bleed in my country's cause, to recommend a declaration of independence, and call upon the world and the great God who governs it,
Habersham (search for this): chapter 16
reasure on special military preparations. In New Jersey the letters of the royal governor were intercepted; and their tenor was so malignant that Lord Stirling placed him under arrest. In Georgia the people were elated with their seeming security. Twelve months ago, said they, we were declared rebels, and yet we meet with no opposition; Britain may destroy our towns, but we can retire to the back country and tire her out. On the appearance of a small squadron in the Savannah, Joseph Habersham, on the eighteenth of January, raised a Chap. LVI.} 1776. Jan. party of volunteers, took Sir Joseph Wright prisoner, and confined him under a guard in his own house. The other crown officers either fled or were seized. After an imprisonment of more than three weeks, the governor escaped by night, went by land to Bonaventure, and was rowed through Tybee Creek to the Scarborough man-of-war. Georgia, said he, is now totally under the influence of the Carolina people; nothing but force can
Hancock (search for this): chapter 16
e had for six months together, without powder, maintained a post within musket-shot of more than twenty hostile British regiments; he had disbanded one army and recruited another; and was still without an adequate number of troops, or a supply of ammunition; and the arms of his soldiers were poor in quality and insufficient in number. At such a moment he received the special authority of congress to attack the troops in Boston, even though it should involve the destruction of the town; and Hancock, who individually might be the greatest sufferer, wrote to wish him success: yet the winter was so mild, that there was no ice to pass on; and for a bombardment he was in want of powder; so that he was compelled to disregard the recommendation, and to conceal the cause of his inactivity. Yet he never admitted the thought of retiring from his post, although the situation of his army gave him many a wakeful hour when all around him were wrapped in sleep; and he often considered how much happ
Harrison (search for this): chapter 16
the ranks by the side of white men. In the beginning of the war they had entered the provincial army: the first general order, which was issued by Ward, had required a return, among other things, of the complexion of the soldiers; and black men, like others, were retained in the service after the troops were adopted by the continent. We have seen Edward Rutledge defeated in Chap. LVI} 1776. Jan. his attempt to compel their discharge; in October, the conference at the camp, with Franklin, Harrison, and Lynch, thought it proper to exclude them from the new enlistment; but Washington, at the crisis of his distress, finding that they were very much dissatisfied at being discarded, took the responsibility of reversing the decision; and referred the subject to congress. That body appointed Wythe, Samuel Adams, and Wilson, to deliberate on the question; and on the report of their able committee they voted, that the free negroes who had served faithfully in the army at Cambridge, might be
Herbert (search for this): chapter 16
use it was renewed, but with less fury, and was kept up till two the next morning. The flames, which had made their way from street to street, raged for three days, till four fifths, or, as some computed, nine tenths, of the houses were reduced to ashes and heaps of ruins. In this manner the royal governor burned and laid waste the best town in the oldest and most loyal colony of England, to which Elizabeth had given a name, and Raleigh devoted his fortune, and Shakespeare and Bacon and Herbert foretokened greatness; a colony where the people of themselves had established the church of England, and where many were still proud that their ancestors, in the day of the British commonwealth, had been faithful to the line of kings. On second thought, Dunmore feared he had done too much, and he insinuated that the great number of boats from his fleet had set fire only to the buildings nearest the water: but a fire kindled in many places along the outer row of houses built chiefly of pin
William Hooper (search for this): chapter 16
to the consideration of congress. Besides, it was expected by many, that agents, selected from among the friends of America, would be sent from England with full powers to grant every reasonable measure of redress. It was time for Franklin to speak out, for he best Chap. LVI.} 1776. Jan. knew the folly of expecting peace from British commissioners. On the sixteenth his plan of a confederacy was called up, and he endeavored to get a day fixed for its consideration; but he was opposed by Hooper and by Dickinson, and they carried the question against him. Four days later, the Quakers of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, at a meeting of their representatives in Philadelphia, published their testimony that the setting up and putting down of kings and governments is God's peculiar prerogative. Yet the votes of congress showed a fixed determination to continue the struggle; twenty seven battalions were ordered to be raised in addition to those with Washington; it was intended to send ten th
Robert Howe (search for this): chapter 16
houses built chiefly of pine, could extend itself with irresistible fury. Who can affirm or who can deny, that mischievous persons on Chap. LVI.} 1776. Jan. shore may not have found amusement in feeding the flames? But the American commanders, Howe and Woodford, certainly made every effort to arrest them; and troops without tents would hardly in midwinter have burned down the houses that were their only shelter. When Washington learned the fate of the rich emporium of his own country, forthan his own tranquillity, he would have put every thing on the cast of a die, and forced a battle at every disadvantage. The world gave him Chap. LVI.} 1776. Jan. credit for an army of twenty thousand well armed men; and yet at the moment when Howe was receiving reenforcements, he had been left with less than half that number, including the sick, those on furlough, those on command, and those who were neither properly armed nor clothed. For more than two months past, said he, I have scarcel
Lynch (search for this): chapter 16
retained in the service after the troops were adopted by the continent. We have seen Edward Rutledge defeated in Chap. LVI} 1776. Jan. his attempt to compel their discharge; in October, the conference at the camp, with Franklin, Harrison, and Lynch, thought it proper to exclude them from the new enlistment; but Washington, at the crisis of his distress, finding that they were very much dissatisfied at being discarded, took the responsibility of reversing the decision; and referred the subje came to Philadelphia, and exhibited a paper which, as he pretended, had been approved by each of the ministers, and which promised freedom to America in point of taxation and internal police, and the restoration of the charter of Massachusetts. Lynch, a delegate of South Carolina, who had written to the north that John Adams should be watched because his intentions might be wicked, was duped by his arts, and thought even of recommending his proposals to the consideration of congress. Besides
Hugh Mercer (search for this): chapter 16
e up its shores to waste and solitude, promising indemnity to the sufferers. The commanding officer, by their order, after assisting the inhabitants in removing with their effects, demolished in Norfolk and its suburbs all remaining houses which might be useful to their enemies, and then abandoned the scene of devastation. For the defence of the rest of Virginia the two regiments already in service were increased; and it was ordained that seven more should be raised. Of one of these, Hugh Mercer was elected colonel; the command of another, to be composed of Germans from the glades of the Blue Ridge, was given to the Lutheran minister, Peter Muhlenburg, who left the pulpit for the army, and formed out of the men of his several congregations one of the most perfect battalions in the American army. Colonial dependence had ever been identified with restraints on trade in the minds of European Chap. LVI.} 1776. Jan. statesmen, who would have regarded an invitation from the coloni
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8