one conclusion--they were
no better off than in July when Lord Howe had landed on Staten Island.
In nine days the tables had been completely turned. The attack upon an
outpost had developed into a campaign which quite retrieved the
situation. The ill-timed interference of Congress, which had begun the
series of disasters, was remedied; the treachery of Lee was checkmated;
and the cause of American Independence, which on Christmas Eve had
seemed hopeless, was now fairly set on its feet. Earlier successes had
been local; this was continental. Seldom has so much been done with such
slender means.

[Sidenote: Effects of the campaign, in Europe.]

The American war had begun to awaken interest in Europe, especially in
France, whither Franklin, with Silas Deane and Arthur Lee, had been
sent to seek for military aid. The French government was not yet ready
to make an alliance with the United States, but money and arms were
secretly sent over to Congress. Several young French nobles had asked
the king's permission to go to America, but it was refused, and for the
sake of keeping up appearances the refusal had something of the air of a
reprimand. The king did not wish to offend Great Britain prematurely.
One of these nobles was Lafayette, then eighteen years of age, who
fitted up a ship at his own expense, and sailed from Bordeaux in April,
1777, in spite of the royal prohibition, taking with him Kalb and other
officers. Lafayette and Kalb, with the Poles, Kosciuszko and Pulaski,
who had come some time before, and the German Steuben, who came in the
following December, were the five most eminent foreigners who received
commissions in the Continental army.

[Sidenote: Difficulty in raising an army.]

During the winter season at Morristown the efforts of Washington were
directed toward the establishment of a regular army to be kept together
for three years or so long as the war should last. Hitherto the military
preparations of Congress had been absurdly weak. Squads of militia had
been enlisted for terms of three or six months, as if there were any
likelihood of the war being ended within such a period. While the men
thus kept coming and going, it was difficult either to maintain
discipline or to carry out any series of military operations.
Accordingly Congress now proceeded to call upon the states for an army
of 80,000 men to serve during the war. The enlisting was to be done by
the states, but the money was to be fur