sent to an antagonist. would, indeed, have been a 'rascally virtue' on such an occasion. Hemmed in on one side by ice and water, with a fortified Post bristling with artillery in front, with one hundred and seventy soldiers-part Americans, part Creoles, without food, worn out, and armed only with rifles; it was, as Clark knew, only by acting the victor instead of the vanquished, (as was the real state of the case, if Hamilton had only known the fact) that he could hope to succeed. He acted wisely and he acted bravely; any other course, and he would have been a prisoner, instead of a conqueror. The very reply of Hamilton to this singular epistle shows he was already quailing:

Prudence, as Clark well knew

"Gov. Hamilton begs leave to acquaint Col. Clark, that he and his garrison are not disposed to be awed into any action unworthy British subjects."

The battle was renewed; the skill of our western riflemen, celebrated even in our days, wounded several of the men in the Fort through the port-holes, the only place where a shot could be made effective. Clark with the skill of a practised commander, must have seen and felt from the answer returned to his communication, that another message would soon be delivered to him from the same quarter; and he was not long in receiving it. The flag of truce brought him as follows:

"Gov. Hamilton proposes to Col. Clark truce for three days, during which time he promises, that there shall be no defensive work carried on in the garrison, on condition, that Col. Clark will observe on his part a like cessation of offensive work; that is, he wishes to confer with Col. Clark, as soon as can be, and promises that whatever may pass between them two, and another person, mutually agreed

on to be present, shall remain secret till matters be finish. ed; as he wishes, that whatever the result of the conference may be, it may tend to the honor and credit of each party. If Col. Clark makes a difficulty of coming into the Fort, Lieut. Gov. Hamilton will speak with him by the gate. HENRY HAMILTON."

24th Feb'y, '79.

If Gov. Hamilton had known the man he was dealing with, he would have found ere this, that he would have made light of any difficulties "in getting into the Fort;" and if not already convinced of the daring of the foe, he was contending with, one would have supposed Clark's answer would have set him right:

"Col. Clark's compliments to Gov. Hamilton, and begs leave to say, that he will not agree to any terms, other than Mr. Hamilton surrendering himself and garrison prisoners at discretion.

"If Mr. Hamilton wants to talk with Col. Clark, he will meet him at the church with Capt. Helm."

Laconic enough surely, and easily understood; and so it was. For in less than one hour afterwards, Clark dictated himself the following terms, which were accepted, a meeting having taken place at the church:

"1st. Lieut. Gov. Hamilton agrees to deliver up to Col. Clark Fort Sackville," as it is at present, with all its

stores, &c."

2nd. The garrison are to deliver themselves as prisoners. of war, and march out with their arms and accoutrements. 3rd. The garrison to be delivered up to-morrow at ten o'clock.

4th. Three days time to be allowed the garrison to settle their accounts with the inhabitants and traders.

5th. The officers of the garrison to be allowed their necessary baggage, &c.

Signed at Post St. Vincents, this 24th of February, 1779: agreed for the following reasons:

1st. The remoteness from succor. 2nd. The state and quantity of provisions. 3rd. The unanimity of the officers and men in its expediency. 4th. The honorable terms allowed-and lastly, the confidence in a generous enemy. HENRY HAMILTON,

Lieut. Gov. and Superintendant."

It was on the twenty-fifth day of February, 1779, about ten o'clock in the forenoon, that the British troops marched out, and the Americans entered that Fort, acquired with the tact, skill, judgment, bravery, peril, and suffering, which I have so briefly attempted to describe. The British ensign was hauled down, and the American flag waved above its ramparts; that flag,

"With whose folds

Are wrapped, the treasures of our hearts,
Where e'er its waving sheet is fanned,

By breezes of the sea, or land."

Time would not permit me, my friends, to dwell on the important results growing out of this conquest to our common country. A volume would be required to delineate fully, all the advantages which have been derived from it to that Union, a portion of which we now constitute. Calculate, if you can, the revenue which the Government already has, and will continue to derive from its public domain within the territory thus acquired. Bounded by the Lakes and the Miami on one side, and the Ohio and the Mississippi on the other, embracing three large states, with a population now of upwards of two millions, with a representation of six Senators in one branch of our National

Councils, and eleven Representatives in the other; and which, within the last half century, was represented by a single Delegate, but, in the next half century to come, will have fifty Representatives ;-mild in its climate, rich in its soil, yielding in the abundance, variety, and excellence of its products, perhaps, a greater quantity than the same space of territory in the civilized world; inhabited, and to be inhabited by a race of industrious, hard working, intelligent, high-minded, and patriotic people, attached to the institutions of their country; lovers of order, liberty and law; republicans in precepts and in practice; trained from their earliest infancy to revere and to venerate, to love and to idolize the Constitution adopted by their fathers, for the government of themselves and their posterity;-calculate if you can, the increase within this territory, of just such a population as I have described, within sixty years to come-its wealth, its influence, its power, its improvements, morally and socially-and when your minds are wearied in the immensity of the speculation, ask yourselves to whom all these blessings are to be attributed; and whether national gratitude, in the fulness of national wealth and prosperity, can find treasures enough to repay those gallant men, and those who aided them in their glorious struggle, which I have thus attempted to describe.

NOTE.

Our author adds a note here which we copy, in part, as follows: I am indebted, and much indebted, to my friend Prof. Bliss of Louisville, Kentucky, for the letters of Gen. Clark and the extract from Major Bowman's journal of the capture of Vincennes, now for the first time published. I cannot but again repeat, what I have in the address so pointedly remarked, how little is known of the campaign of 1778, 1779, and the capture of Kaskaskia and Vincennes by Clark and his gallant followWith the exception of a short notice of this in "Marshall's Life of Washington." and the more extended one of Butler's in his "History of Kentucky," a modern work, the incidents of

ers.

that campaign are hardly noticed. Yet it was, as it regards its ultimate effects to the Union, decidedly the most brilliant, and useful of any undertaking during the revolutionary war. Clark by that campaign added a territory embracing now three of the finest States in the Union, to the Confederacy, to wit, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan; a territory, which, but for this very conquest, must now have been subject to British dominion, unless like Louisiana it had since been acquired by purchase. For the only pretence of title which our commissioners, in the negotiations which resulted in the Treaty of peace in 1783, set up to this immense territory, was "the capture of it by Clark and the possession of it by the Americans at the date of the conference." The argument of "uti possidetis" prevailed; and the mind would be lost in the calculation of dollars and cents, to say nothing of the other matters" which constitute a State,”men "who know their rights" inhabiting it, and which the gov ernment has gained from the contest, as to what will be the wealth and population of this same North Western Territory a half century hence?

SMYTH'S TRAVELS IN VIRGINIA, IN 1773.

CHAPTER IV.

Richmond. Falls of James River, &c.

[We continue here our Extracts from Smyth's Travels in Virginia in 1773, &c., begun in our last number. See page 11.]

At this place the whole appearance of the country undergoes a total change. From the sea to the falls, about one hundred and fifty-five miles, there is not a hill to be seen; scarcely an eminence, being one continued flat level, without even a single stone to be found; nothing but sand and shells on the shores, and the land consists of loam, sand, and clay, but universally covered with woods.

Here a ledge of rocks interrupts the whole stream of the river, for the length of seven miles ;. during the course