and the army was kept together.

[Sidenote: Surrender of Lord Cornwallis.]

The great event in the campaign of 1781 was the surrender of Lord
Cornwallis, at Yorktown, which decided the fate of the war. Lord
Cornwallis, who was an able commander, had been successful at the
south, although vigorously and skilfully opposed by General La
Fayette. But he had at last to contend with the main body of the
American army, and French forces in addition, so that the combined
armies amounted to over twelve thousand men. He was compelled to
surrender to superior forces; and seven thousand prisoners, with all
their baggage and stores, fell into the hands of the victors, 19th of
October, 1781. This great event diffused universal joy throughout
America, and a corresponding depression among the English people.

After this capitulation, the conviction was general that the war would
soon be terminated. General La Fayette obtained leave to return to
France, and the recruiting service languished. The war nevertheless,
was continued until 1783; without, however, being signalized by any
great events. On the 30th of November, 1782, preliminary articles of
peace were signed at Paris, by which Great Britain acknowledged the
independence of the United States, and by which the whole country
south of the lakes and east of the Mississippi was ceded to them, and
the right of fishing on the Banks of Newfoundland.

On the 25th of November, 1783, the British troops evacuated New York;
and, shortly after, the American army was disbanded. The 4th of
December, Washington made his farewell address to his officers; and,
on the 23d of December, he resigned his commission into the hands of
the body from which he received it, and retired to private life;
having discharged the great trust reposed in him in a manner which
secured the gratitude of his country and which will probably win the
plaudits of all future generations.

The results of the Revolutionary War can only be described by
enumerating the progressive steps of American aggrandizement from that
time to this, and by speculating on the future destinies of the
Anglo-Saxon race on the American continent. The success which attended
this long war is in part to be traced to the talents and matchless
wisdom and integrity of the commander-in-chief; to the intrepid
courage and virtues of the armies he directed; to the self-confidence
and inexperience of the English generals; to the difficulties
necessarily