Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

NOTES ON THE RESOURCES OF THE COLONIES. 185

In September of this year Congress appointed a secret committee to import powder and lead from the West Indies, and the NonImportation Agreement was suspended for ships bringing in war supplies.

A store of ammunition was obtained when Fort Chambly was taken. Woollens found in Montreal in November clothed the American troops.

1776. Esek Hopkins captured in the Bahamas cannon and military stores, except powder.

The king's leaden statue in New York City was melted into bullets. Powder mills were established near Philadelphia, and national foundries and laboratories for the manufacture of arms were set up at Carlisle, Pa., and at Springfield, Mass.

Paul Jones captured the Mellish, late in the year, loaded with supplies for Burgoyne's army. Among other things were ten thousand suits of uniform.

Two hundred pieces of artillery, small-arms, four thousand tents, clothing for thirty thousand men, were obtained by way of the West Indies, from France, through the agency of Beaumarchais. Spain, soon after, furnished, in the same indirect way, a like sum for the purchase of supplies.

Somewhere about three hundred and fifty English vessels, worth, with

their cargoes, $5,000,000, were captured in the first year of the war. Trade sprang up with France, Spain, and Holland, by way of the

West Indies, and some trade was surreptitiously carried on even with the British West Indies, by way of the Dutch port, St. Eustatius.

1777. American agents in France received a quarterly allowance and loan, which was applied to the purchase of arms. Two ships loaded with them were captured by the English; a third reached the colonies.

Arms and ammunition were obtained from New Orleans, with the countenance of the Spanish government.

One thousand stand of arms, one thousand swords, and four pieces of artillery were captured at Bennington, Vt.

St. Leger's stores and baggage were captured at Fort Stanwix, N.Y., and artillery, arms, ammunition, and camp equipage for five thousand prisoners were taken at Saratoga.

1778. Most of the provision ships intended for Clinton were brought into Boston, and D'Estaing sailed for the West Indies fitted out with such provisions.

By a new contract with Beaumarchais, made after the treaties with France were signed, a supply of clothing was received, and a loan from the French court of about $500,000 was obtained, and applied to the purchase of arms and stores, the equipment of cruisers, and the payment of interest. Other heavy loans were obtained

from France, and also from Spain and Holland at intervals.

1779-80. The French at Newport, R. I., bought with specie, and the gold thus put into circulation afforded great financial relief to the New England States. New York also obtained specie by means of trade with Canada, and from purchases made by the English during the last year of their occupation of New York City.

1781. Rochambeau loaned $20,000 to Morris to enable him to make a small specie payment to the New England troops, on their way south under Lincoln.

La Fayette used a considerable sum of money for the American cause during the war.

Captures of English supply ships and merchantmen continued to be

frequent; as, for instance, in 1779, Hopkins captured eight out of ten transports sent to Georgia by Clinton, and Whipple captured eight English merchantmen bound for England.

APPENDIX H.

Short Title.

Andrews' Manual of Const.

Full Title, Publisher, and Edition.

Andrews' Manual of the Constitution. Van
Antwerp, Bragg & Co. 1887.

Andrew Jackson, Statesmen Series. Hough-
ton, Mifflin & Co.

Benjamin Franklin, Men of Letter Series.
Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1887.
Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography of.

Blaine's Twenty Years of Cong. Blaine's Twenty Years of Congress.

Bryant's Popular Hist.

Bancroft's U. S.

The

Henry Bill Publishing Company. 1884. Bryant's Popular History of the United States. Charles Scribner's Sons. 1881.

Bancroft's History of the United States.

D. Appleton & Co. 1883.

Bolton's Famous Amer. States- Bolton's Famous American Statesmen. T. Y.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

Green's Shorter Hist. of Eng. Green's Shorter History of the English People,

[blocks in formation]

Isham's Fishery Question.

Johnston's U. S.

Harper & Bros. 1886.

Hinsdale's Old Northwest. T. MacCoun. 1888.
Isham's The Fishery Question.

Johnston's History of the United States.
Henry Holt & Co. 1888.

Johnston's U. S. Hist. and Johnston's The United States; its History

Const.

Johnston's Amer. Politics.

R. Johnson's War of 1812.

Lossing's Field-Book of Rev.

and Constitution. Charles Scribner's Sons.

Johnston's American Politics. Henry Holt & Co. 1885.

Rossiter Johnson's War of 1812. Dodd, Mead & Co. 1882.

Lossing's Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution, 2 vols. Harper & Bros. 1869.

Lossing's Field-Book of 1812. Lossing's Pictorial Field-Book of the War of

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

Railway Tariffs and the Interstate Commerce
Law. By E. R. A. Seligman.

Washington and His Country. Washington and His Country. Irving's Life

Winsor's Hist. of Amer.

of Washington by Fiske. Ginn & Co. 1887. Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of America. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1889.

« AnteriorContinuar »