A history of the American people . rdon for utter submission, and, for all their honor-able persistency, could find no one in authority amongthe Americans who would make the too exacting ex-change. Their offers of pardon alternated with themovements of their troops and their steady successesin arms. Lord Howe issued his first overture of peace,in the form of a public proclamation offering pardon,immediately upon his arrival with his fleet at SandyHook, and followed it up at once with messages to theCongress at Philadelphia. Sir William Howe put histroops ashore on the 22d of August, and made r
A history of the American people . rdon for utter submission, and, for all their honor-able persistency, could find no one in authority amongthe Americans who would make the too exacting ex-change. Their offers of pardon alternated with themovements of their troops and their steady successesin arms. Lord Howe issued his first overture of peace,in the form of a public proclamation offering pardon,immediately upon his arrival with his fleet at SandyHook, and followed it up at once with messages to theCongress at Philadelphia. Sir William Howe put histroops ashore on the 22d of August, and made readyto dislodge Washington from the heights of Brooklyn;but on the 23d he too, in his turn, made yet anotheroffer of general pardon, by proclamation. On the 27th he drove the American forces on LongIsland in on their defences, and rendered the heightsat once practically untenable. Washington had but252 THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE eighteen thousand half - disciplined militiamen withwhich to hold the town and all the long shores of the. open bay and river, and had put ten thousand of them across the river to hold Long Island and the defences on the heights. Sir William had put twenty 253 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE thousand men ashore for the attack on the heights;and when Washington knew that his advanced guardwas driven in, and saw Sir William, mindful of Hun-ker Hill, bestow his troops, not for an assault, but foran investment of the heights, he perceived at once howeasily he might be cut off and trapped there, armedships lying at hand which might at any moment com-pletely command the river. Immediately, and as se-cretly as quickly, while a single night held, he with-drew every man and every gun, as suddenly and assuccessfully as he had seized the heights at Dorchester. Again Sir William sent a message of conciliationto the Congress, b}^ the hands of General Sullivan,his prisoner. On the nth of September, before the nextmovement of arms, Dr. Franklin, Air. John Adams,and Mr.
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