advanced, and there were too many captured noblemen and officers in the United States, to allow of such a step, lest immediate retaliation should be made. He was confined in the Tower, forbidden the use of pen, ink and paper, and all social intercourse with any one; and was even interdicted converse with his young son, who had been several years in England for his education.

Immediately after the news of the capture and imprisonment of Mr. Laurens, the American congress directed John Adams, who had a second time been sent to Europe in a public character, to leave France and repair to Holland, there to transact the affairs with the States-General, which had before been entrusted to Mr. Laurens. Mr. Adams's commission was enlarged. From a confidence in his talents and integrity, he was vested with ample powers for negotiation, for the forming treaties of alliance and commerce, or the loan of monies, for the United States of America. Not fettered by precise instructions, he exercised his discretionary powers with judgment and ability. Thus, in strict amity with France and Spain; on the point of a treaty of alliance with the Batavian Republic, and in the meantime Sweden and Denmark balancing and nearly determined on a connexion with America, the foreign relations of the United States in general wore a very favorable aspect.

CHAPTER LXV.

Cessation of the continental currency.-Invasion of Virginia by Arnold.-Greene's campaign in the Carolinas.-Victory of the Americans at the Cowpens.-Battle of Guilford-Vicissitudes of the American army.-Battle of Eutaw Springs.Cornwallis marches towards Virginia.-Designs of Washington upon New York.-New plan of the campaign.-Washington marches towards the south.— Arrival of De Grasse in the Chesapeake.-Battie between De Grasse and Admiral Graves.-Siege of Yorktown.-Surrender of Cornwallis.-Arnold's expedition to Connecticut.-British treatment of American prisoners.-Conclusion of the campaign in the south.-Change of ministry in England.-American Independence acknowledged.-Troubles in the American army.-General peace.-American army disbanded.

THE year 1781 witnessed an important change in the financial system of the United States. The continental paper money, issued by congress, ceased to circulate. The sums emitted now amounted to upwards of three hundred and fifty millions of dollars, in addition to what had been counterfeited by the British and introduced into the country. The utter impossibility of providing any means of redeeming these bills had been so long apparent, that nothing could hinder their constant and rapid depreciation. At last, when they had sunk to the value of one hundred and twenty for one, they were, by common consent, thrown aside. The necessity for this measure was so obvious,

that it excited little murmuring and no disturbance. Trade had been opened with the French and Spanish West India islands, by which means a considerable supply of gold and silver was introduced into the country. A subsidy of six millions of livres was obtained from the king of France; and ten millions more were borrowed from the Dutch, for which the French king became security. The finances of the country soon assumed a more promising aspect.

The British were determined to push the war vigorously in the south. General Leslie, who had been sent to the Chesapeake, towards the close of 1780, with a force of two thousand men, had marched to Charleston, by order of Cornwallis. An additional force of sixteen hundred men was despatched from New York, under Arnold, now a brigadier general in the British service. In January, 1781, they made a descent on the coast of Virginia, burning, plundering and ravaging in every direction. Washington detached La Fayette, with twelve hundred American troops, against Arnold. A French ship of the line and two frigates accompanied them to the Chesapeake. They captured a British forty-four gun frigate and ten other vessels. An engagement ensued between the British fleet under Admiral Arbuthnot and the French under D'Estouches, off the Capes of Virginia. The action was not decisive, but the French ships were so much crippled that they were forced to put back to Rhode Island, without accomplishing the main object of the expedition. A British fleet, with two thousand additional troops under General Philips, arrived in the Chesapeake. They formed a junction with Arnold's force, captured Petersburg, Williamsburg and Yorktown, destroying tobacco and other merchandise to an immense amount.

The command of the American army in the south had been transferred from General Gates to General Greene. The army, in the beginning of the year 1781, amounted to no more than two thousand men, half of whom were militia. They had been for a long time without pay, and were very deficient in clothing. The army of Cornwallis was much superior in numbers and discipline; his troops were well clothed and regularly paid; and when Greene first arrived, they were flushed with recent successes, particularly the defeat of Gates at Camden. It is true the death of Major Ferguson, and the rout of his party, was a serious disappointment, but not of sufficient consequence to check the designs and expectations of a British army, commanded by officers of the first military experience. The inhabitants of the Carolinas were divided in opinion; bitter, rancorous and cruel in their animosities, and many of them without any fixed political principles. Fluctul

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ating and unstable, sometimes they were the partisans of Britain, and huzzaed for royalty; at other times, they were the militia of the state in continental service, and professed themselves zealots for American independence. But General Greene, with remarkable coolness and intrepidity, checked their licentious conduct, and punished desertion and treachery by necessary examples of severity; and thus in a short time he established a more regular discipline.

The British troops had yet met with no check, which in any degree damped their ardor, except the defeat of Ferguson. The most important movement which took place for some time after this affair, was an action between Morgan and Tarleton, in January, 1781. General Morgan was an early volunteer in the American warfare; he had marched from Virginia to Cambridge, at the head of a body of riflemen, to the aid of Washington, in 1775. General Greene, convinced that no officer could more effectually accomplish any bold undertaking, ordered Morgan, with a considerable force, to march to the western parts of South Carolina. Cornwallis, having gained intelligence of this movement, despatched Tarleton in pursuit of Morgan. In a few days, they met near the river Paulet. General Morgan had reason to expect, from the rapid advance of Tarleton, that a meeting would have taken place sooner; but by various manœuvres he kept his troops at a distance, until a moment of advantage might present. The Americans had kept up the appearance of retreat, until they reached a spot called the Cowpens. Tarleton came up, and a resolute engagement ensued on the 17th of January, when, after a short conflict, the British were totally defeated, with the loss of above eight hundred killed, wounded and prisoners. The loss of the Americans was only twelve killed, and sixty wounded.

Tarleton's defeat was a blow entirely unexpected by Cornwallis, and induced him to march from Wynesborough, to the Yadkin, in pursuit of Morgan, with the hope of overtaking him and recovering the prisoners. The British troops endured this long and fatiguing march, under every species of difficulty, crossing rivers, swamps, marshes and creeks, with uncommon resolution and patience. Greene, on hearing that Cornwallis was in pursuit of Morgan, left his post near the Pedee, under the command of General Huger, pushed rapidly forward with a small party, one hundred and fifty miles, and joined Morgan before Cornwallis arrived at the Catawba. In this pursuit Cornwallis cut off some of the small detachments, not in sufficient force for effectual opposition. General Davison made a successful stand on the banks of the Catawba, with three or four hundred men; but the British fording

the river unexpectedly, he was himself killed and his troops dispersed. The passage of the river by the British army was no farther impeded.

Greene had ordered Colonels Huger and Williams, whom he had left some days before, at the Pedee, to join him with their troops; however, it was but a short time after this junction, before Greene had the strongest reason to conclude that the safety of his troops lay only in retreat; nor was this accomplished without the utmost difficulty. His march was frequently interrupted by steep ascents and unfordable rivers. But he adroitly escaped a pursuing and powerful army, whose progress was, fortunately for the Americans, checked by the same impediments, and at much less favorable moments of arrival. The freshets swelled, and retarded the passage of the British army, while they seemed at times to suspend their rapidity in favor of the Americans. After a flight and pursuit of fifteen or twenty days, supported by the most determined spirit and perseverance on both sides, Greene reached Guilford, about the middle of February, where he ordered all the troops he had left near the Pedee, under officers on whom he could depend, to repair immediately to him.

Greene and Cornwallis lay at no great distance from each other; but Greene kept his position as much as possible concealed, as he was not yet in a situation to venture upon a decisive action; and though he was obliged to move earlier towards the British encampment, no engagement took place until the middle of March.