acuation of Boston the
rebellious colonies proclaimed their independence in the most memorable
declaration of a people's right ever made by men. This was in 1776.
The disastrous war had still five years to run.

The fortunes of the war varied. The early victories of the Americans
were followed by a series of defeats which left Philadelphia in the
hands of the British, and which would have broken the heart of any man
of less heroic mould than Washington. Hope revived with a series of
Continental victories. Aid came to America from abroad. France,
Germany, Poland sent stout soldiers to fight for freedom--Lafayette,
Von Steuben, Kosciusko. The English general Burgoyne surrendered with
all his army at Saratoga. After the winter of 1777, when Washington
and his army suffered all the rigors of Valley Forge, France
acknowledged the independence of America, the British evacuated
Philadelphia, and Paul Jones made himself forever famous by the way in
which he and his ship "Le Bonhomme Richard," carried the American war
to the coast of England. Again came colonial reverses. A {184} steady
succession of English successes scarcely struck so hard a blow at the
Continental cause as the treason of Benedict Arnold, who entered into
negotiations with the British to betray his command. Washington had
trusted and loved Arnold like a brother. "Whom can I trust now?" he
asked in momentary despair when the capture of an English officer.
Major Andre, and the flight of Benedict Arnold to the British lines
revealed to him an undreamed-of treason which had threatened to
undermine the colonial cause. But Benedict Arnold's crime had for its
only result the death of a better man than himself, of Major Andre, who
had by the laws of war to suffer death as a spy. There were other
traitors and semi-traitors in the American army: Lee was certainly the
first; Gates was almost, if not quite, the second. But Lee and Gates
failed to do the mischief to which their base jealousy of Washington
prompted them. The right cause triumphed. In 1781 another British
army surrendered, the army of Cornwallis, at Yorktown. Even North was
forced to recognize that this crushing disaster to the royal hopes and
the royal arms practically ended the war. It was suspended in the
following year, and in 1783, after much negotiation, which at times
threatened to come to nothing, a treaty of peace was signed in France,
and the American Republic took its place among