ect of invective by Arthur Lee and others because at
the suggestion of Silas Deane, of Connecticut, he procured a clause in
the commercial treaty providing for the exportation of molasses to the
United States, free of duty, from the French colonies--the molasses being
used to manufacture New England rum. Owing to the objection of Lee this
clause was afterward abrogated, and the infant industry of making New
England rum had to survive without special protection.

Upon receiving formal notice of the treaties Lord North immediately
recalled the British ambassador from Paris, and George III. stated, in
bad English, to Lord North (the king spelled "Pennsylvania"
"Pensilvania," and "wharfs" "warfs") that a corps must be drawn from the
army in America sufficient to attack the French islands. There was a
state of partial war without a declaration of war. The naval forces of
England and France came into unauthorized collision, and actual war was
the result.

* * *

Pending the negotiations with France Washington and his heroic army spent
a winter of painful hardship at Valley Forge, about twenty miles from
Philadelphia. Half-naked and half-fed, they shivered in the rude huts
which they erected, while their commander, if better housed, showed by
actions more than words that he felt every pang of his soldiers.
Washington's anxiety at this critical period was greatly aggravated by
the conspiracy known as "Conway's Cabal," to depose him from the command,
and put in his place the pretentious but incapable Gates. This conspiracy
was narrowly defeated by the patriotic firmness of the supporters of
Washington in Congress, one of whom--William Duer, of New York, an
Englishman by birth--had himself carried in a litter to the floor of
Congress, at the risk of his life, to give his vote for Washington. Never
on the battlefield did he who is justly called the Father of Our Country
show such heroism, such fortitude, such devotion to duty as in face of
this combination of deluded men to effect his ruin.

* * *

The French alliance was hailed with delight in the United States. George
III., who personally controlled military operations, stated his
conclusion about a month after the French treaties, and on the day they
were formally announced, to act on the defensive, holding New York and
Rhode Island, but abandoning Pennsylvania. General William Howe was
sup