what was greatest in
the character and genius of Washington; for he now was the mainstay of
hope. The first patriotic gush of enthusiasm had passed away. War, under
the most favorable circumstances, is no play; but under great
difficulties, has a dismal and rugged look before which delusions
rapidly disappear. England was preparing new and much larger forces. She
was vexed, but not discouraged, having unlimited resources for
war,--money, credit, and military experience. She proceeded to hire the
services of seventeen thousand Hessian and other German troops. All
Europe looked upon the contest as hopeless on the part of a scattered
population, without credit, or money, or military stores, or a settled
army, or experienced generals, or a central power. Washington saw on
every hand dissensions, jealousies, abortive attempts to raise men, a
Congress without power and without prestige, State legislatures
inefficient and timid, desertions without number and without redress,
men returning to their farms either disgusted or feeling that there was
no longer a pressing need of their services.

There were, moreover, jealousies among his generals, and suppressed
hostility to him, as an aristocrat, a slaveholder, and an Episcopalian.

As soon as Boston was evacuated General Howe sailed for Halifax, to meet
his brother, Admiral Howe, with reinforcements for New York. Washington
divined his purpose and made all haste. When he reached New York, on the
13th of April, he found even greater difficulties to contend with than
had annoyed him in Boston: raw troops, undisciplined and undrilled, a
hostile Tory population, conspiracies to take his life, sectional
jealousies,--and always a divided Congress, and the want of experienced
generals. There was nothing of that inspiring enthusiasm which animated
the New England farmers after the battle of Bunker Hill.

Washington held New York, and the British fleet were masters of the Bay.
He might have withdrawn his forces in safety, but so important a place
could not be abandoned without a struggle. Therefore, although he had
but eight thousand effective men, he fortified as well as he could the
heights on Manhattan Island, to the north, and on Long Island, to the
south and east, and held his place.

Meantime Washington was laboring to strengthen his army, to suppress the
mischievous powers of the Tories, to procure the establishment by
Congress of a War Office and some permanent army organizati