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1781

American lines, the guide and servant turned back, and André rode on alone towards New York. When near Tarrytown, he was stopped and questioned by three armed militiamen whom he met on the road. Not being satisfied, even when shown Arnold's pass, they insisted upon searching him, and discovered, concealed between his stockings and feet, the papers given him by Arnold. André now offered his captors tempting bribes to be allowed to pass on, but these were rejected with indignation, and he was escorted to the nearest American quarters, and delivered up. General Washington referred the case of André to the examination and decision of a board consisting of fourteen officers, who, without examining a single witness, founded their report on his own confession. They adjudged that he ought to be considered a spy, and that, agreeably to the laws and usages of nations, he should suffer death. He was accordingly hung on the 2d of October at Tappan, at the age of twenty-nine years. His youth, accomplishments, and manners endeared him to all, and his fate was deeply regretted on both sides of the Atlantic. His king caused a mural monument to be erected to his memory in Westminster Abbey, and in 1831 his remains were taken to London, where they have since rested among those of many heroes and poets of England. Arnold received intelligence of André's capture very soon after that occurrence, and he immediately abandoned everything, and fled on board the Vulture, which took him to New York. The traitor, although unsuccessful, received 10,000 guineas from the British treasury, and the commission of a brigadier from the king. He died in obscurity in London, in 1801.

Henry Laurens, late president of congress, while on his passage to Holland, to which country he had been appointed minister from the United States, was captured by a British frigate off Newfoundland. He was taken to England, where he was examined by the privy council, and committed close prisoner to the Tower, on an accusation of high-treason. He remained there a prisoner for more than fourteen months.

The first regular glass factory established in the United States was erected this year in the town of Temple, New Hampshire. The works were operated by Hessians and Waldeckers, deserters from the British army.

In August, the first buildings on the site of Cincinnati were erected. They were two block-houses, built by a detachment of American troops.

Virginia ceded to the United States all its right and title to the vast territory lying north of the Ohio.

Louisville, Ky., was founded and settled by about six hundred people, who emigrated there in the spring of this year. In May, the Legislature of Virginia passed an act incorporating the town.

The military movements of the year were confined principally to the Southern States. The British were defeated in two important and several minor engagements in South Carolina, which closed the war in that State. In Virginia a large British

army surrendered, which decided the result of the Revolutionary war.

The principal engagements in South Carolina were at the Cowpens and at Eutaw Springs. At the former place upwards of three hundred of the British were killed or wounded, and five hundred taken prisoners. A large amount of arms and other military property were taken by the Americans. In the battle at Eutaw Springs, the British lost, in killed, wounded, and prisoners, upwards of eleven hundred men.

Virginia was intended by the British commander-in-chief to be the principal seat of operations in his plan of the campaign for this year. To carry out that object, Lord Cornwallis marched northwardly from South Carolina, and arrived with his army at Petersburg on the 29th of May. Here he formed a junction with the British troops stationed in that neighborhood, and he found himself in command of an army numbering upwards of seven thousand men. The British fleet stationed on the coast was intended to be reinforced by their navy in the West Indies. That design was frustrated by the arrival in the Chesapeake of a French fleet of twenty-eight sail of the line, commanded by Count de Grasse, and soon afterwards of another squadron from Rhode Island under Count de Barras. In September Lord Cornwallis transferred his army to Yorktown, and Gloucester opposite, and strongly fortified those places. At this time the American forces under the command of Lafayette, Steuben, and Wayne were not sufficient to attack the British in their new position with any prospect of success. While the operations in Virginia were in that condition, French troops under Count de Rochambeau, which had arrived in Rhode Island from France in the preceding year, joined General Washington on the Hudson, and the allied armies, eluding the vigilance of Sir Henry Clinton at New York, marched to Virginia. They rendezvoused at Williamsburg, twelve miles above Yorktown, and on the morning of the 28th of September marched in two divisions by separate roads to invest the British. They were occupied in preparations for the siege until the 9th of October, when a general discharge of cannon commenced upon the British works. Perceiving his peril, Cornwallis attempted to escape to Gloucester, and thence flee northward to New York. With that purpose he embarked a large number of his troops on the vessels on York River, when a fierce tornado arose and made the passage of the river too perilous for the consummation of that plan. Despairing of either victory or escape, or of aid from the navy with French ships of war guarding the mouth of the York, Cornwallis made overtures for capitulation. The arrangements were concluded, and on the 19th of October the articles were signed, by which the British forces surrendered prisoners of war. The army, with the artillery, arms, accoutrements, military chest and all public stores, were surrendered to General Washington, the ships and seamen to the Count de Grasse. The prisoners, exclusive of seamen, amounted to 7073.

1782

1783

Early in the year, Benedict Arnold, now a British officer, with about fifteen hundred men, made a descent on the unprotected coasts of Virginia, and committed extensive ravages.

While the allied armies were advancing to the siege of Yorktown, Arnold conducted an expedition against New London, in Connecticut. He took Fort Trumbull, and Fort Griswold on the opposite shore of the Thames, and reduced to ashes the town of New London and the stores contained in it. On the 1st of March the State of New York ceded to the United States all its lands in the country north of the Ohio.

The first newspaper published in Vermont was issued in February, at Westminster under the name of The Vermont Gazette or Green Mountain Post Boy. In 1783 the paper was removed to Windsor.

The first bank established in the United States was incorporated by Congress, under the name of "The President, Directors, and Company of the Bank of North America." Its location was at Philadelphia.

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The capture of a second British army in America rendered the war unpopular in Great Britain. Commissioners for negotiating peace were appointed by both nations, and on the 30th of November they agreed on provisional articles, which were to be inserted in a future treaty of peace to be finally concluded between the parties when peace should take place between Great Britain and France.

The United Provinces of Holland acknowledged the independence of the United States on the 19th of April.

The first newspaper published in Brooklyn, L. I., was issued on the 8th of June, and called The Brooklyn Hall Super-Extra Gazette.

The first manufacture of fustians and jeans in this country was commenced at Philadelphia.

On the 20th of January an agreement was entered into between the Ministers Plenipotentiary of the United States and the Minister Plenipotentiary of Great Britain, relative to a cessation of hostilities. On the 11th of April, Congress issued a proclamation declaring the cessation of arms on land and sea, and enjoined its observance. The definite Treaty of Peace between Great Britain and the United States was signed at Paris on the 3d of September. At the same time a treaty was concluded between Great Britain and Spain, by which the former nation ceded to the latter East and West Florida.

The independence of the United States was acknowledged by Sweden on the 5th of February, by Denmark on the 25th of February, by Spain on the 24th of March, and by Russia in July.

A ship from Massachusetts arrived at Riga, in Russia, on the 1st of June, and was the first American vessel that ever visited any Russian port.

Before the dissolution of the army, the American officers instituted a society, denominated "The Society of the Cincinnati." Its objects were to perpetuate the remembrance of the Ameri

can revolution, as well as a cordial affection among the officers, and to extend acts of beneficence to those officers and their families whose situation might require assistance.

Congress issued a proclamation on the 18th of October, that the army should be disbanded on the 3d of November.

On the 25th of November the British army evacuated the city of New York, and the Americans took possession of the city the same day.

Charlestown, the capital of South Carolina, was incorporated by the legislature of that State by the name of "The City of Charleston."

"The American Spelling Book," by Noah Webster, was first published this year, and was the first book of the kind printed in America.

The lighting of the streets of Baltimore and a day police were established by the town authorities.

1784 The Legislature of Connecticut passed a law for the gradual abolition of slavery in that State. The towns of Hartford, New Haven, New London, Norwich, and Middletown were incorporated as cities.

1785

The second bank in the United States went into operation in Boston, and was called the Massachusetts Bank.

The New York Chamber of Commerce, instituted by the colonial government, was continued a corporation by the State legislature, with enlarged privileges.

The Empress of China, of Boston, sailed from New York for Canton in February, and returned in the next year. This was the first voyage from the United States to China.

The census taken in Massachusetts showed a population of 353,133 whites and 4377 negroes.

The territory north and west of the Ohio was provided with a temporary government by act of congress.

The first daily newspaper published in America was established at Philadelphia. It was until this time issued as a weekly under the title of The Pennsylvania Packet or the General Advertiser.

The Massachusetts Centinel and the Republican Journal issued its first number at Boston on the 24th of March. In the year 1840 it was merged in the Boston Daily Advertiser.

Pittsburg, in Pennsylvania, was laid out into town lots and its settlement commenced. The town of Hudson, in New York, was founded, and Burlington and New Brunswick, in New Jersey, incorporated as cities.

An organ was set up in the First Church in Boston. This was the first instance of the introduction of instrumental music into a Congregational church in New England.

Harrisburg, in Pennsylvania, was laid out into town lots.
The first daily newspaper published in New York, and the
second in this country, was issued this year under the name of
The New York Daily Advertiser.

The first newspaper published in Maine was issued on the first of January, and called The Falmouth Gazette.

1786

The introduction of the Lombardy poplar into America was made this year by Michaux, who was sent over by the King of France to collect trees and shrubs for his establishment at Ram. bouillet.

The regular exportation of cotton first commenced this year; one bag was sent from Charleston to Liverpool, twelve from Philadelphia, and one from New York.

The first Philadelphia Directory was issued, and was the first city directory published in the United States.

An insurrection broke out in Massachusetts, and Daniel Shays, a captain in the Revolution, was chosen leader of the insurgents. They complained that the governor's salary was too high, the senate aristocratic, the lawyers extortionate, and taxes too burdensome to bear, and they demanded an issue of paper money. Bodies of armed men interrupted the sessions of the courts in a number of counties, and in December, Shays, with a large force, prevented the holding of courts at Worcester and Springfield. In the following month he marched with about two thousand men to capture the arsenal at Springfield, but being fired upon by the militia the insurgents fled, the leaders making their way to New Hampshire. Shays remained in Vermont about a year and was afterwards pardoned.

Portland, in Maine, was incorporated. The place was heretofore known as Falmouth.

The State of New York contained at this time 220,000 white population and about 19,000 negroes.

The first Roman Catholic church erected in New York was built this year on Barclay Street, and called St. Peter's.

The first Sunday School in the United States was opened by Bishop Asbury, of Virginia.

The first newspaper published west of the Alleghanies was issued on the 29th of July at Pittsburg, and called The Pittsburg Gazette.

That part of the country known subsequently as Tennessee formed at this period a part of North Carolina. The inhabitants of that section being dissatisfied with the government, met in convention at Jonesborough, and voted to secede from North Carolina and form an independent State, to which they gave the name of Falkland. A violent contest soon arose between the conflicting authorities, which was prevented from growing into a civil war only by the interposition of the United States Government.

1787 In May, delegates from all the States excepting Rhode Island assembled at Philadelphia to adopt a more perfect and stronger Union. The form of confederation answered the purposes of the government during the war; but no sooner had that period elapsed than the total inefficiency of the federal government was perceived. An enormous debt had been contracted, and public credit was in the lowest state of depreciation. Congress had devised a system of revenue, with a provision for discharging the existing debts. This system was transmitted to the several State legislatures, with an address strongly recommending its

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