ce was the commencement of weakness in
the army of its authors, and of defeats in their fields of battle. The
Declaration has been announced as the birth of a nation, though it was
actually the dismemberment of a nation. It was hailed with every
demonstration of joy and triumph on the part of those who had been
prepared for the event, and no efforts were spared on the part of those
who had advocated independence in the army, in the Congress, and in the
provinces, to accompany the circulation of the Declaration with every
enthusiastic expression of delight and anticipated free government, in
which, of course, they themselves would occupy the chief places of
profit and power. But this enthusiasm, notwithstanding the glowing
descriptions of some American historians, was far from being general or
ardent. Lord Mahon says: "As sent forth by Congress, the Declaration of
Independence having reached the camp of Washington, was, by his orders
(as commanded by Congress), read aloud at the head of every regiment.
There, as in most other places, it excited much less notice than might
have been supposed." An American author of our own day (President Reed),
most careful in his statements, and most zealous in the cause of
independence, observes that "No one can read the private correspondence
of the times without being struck with the slight impression made on
either the army or the mass of the people by the Declaration."[404]

The Adjutant-General, in his familiar and almost daily letters to his
wife, does not even allude to it. But though there was little
enthusiasm, there were some excesses. At New York a party of soldiers,
with tumultuary violence, tore down and beheaded a statue of the King
which stood upon Broadway, having been erected only six years before.
Washington, greatly to his honour, did not shrink from the duty of
rebuking them next day, in his General Orders, for their misdirected
zeal.[405]

Within a few weeks after the Declaration of Independence, Washington's
army, composed of forces raised before that Declaration, consisted of
27,000 men--a larger army than he was ever after able to assemble, and
more than twice as large as he commanded within a few months afterwards.

It has been seen with what readiness, zeal, and enthusiasm thousands and
tens of thousands of volunteers offered their services during the year
1775, and the first part of the year 1776, in defence of British
liberty, in union with the friends of c