. A larger history of the United States of America, to the close of President Jackson's administration . own heights; but there was also a growing dispositionto bring matters to a crisis on the first favorable (afterwards Lord) Harris wrote home to England (June12th): I wish the Americans may be brought to a sense oftheir duty. One good drubbing, which I long to give them byway of retaliation, might have a good effect towards it. , on the other hand, wrote (May i6th) that if GeneralGage would only make a sally from Boston, he would gratifythousands who impatiently
. A larger history of the United States of America, to the close of President Jackson's administration . own heights; but there was also a growing dispositionto bring matters to a crisis on the first favorable (afterwards Lord) Harris wrote home to England (June12th): I wish the Americans may be brought to a sense oftheir duty. One good drubbing, which I long to give them byway of retaliation, might have a good effect towards it. , on the other hand, wrote (May i6th) that if GeneralGage would only make a sally from Boston, he would gratifythousands who impatiently wait to avenge the blood of theirmurdered countrymen. With such dispositions on both sides,the collision could not be far off. Kinglake says that the rea-sons for a battle rarely seem conclusive except to a general who THE DAWNING OF INDEPENDENCE. 255 has some positive taste for fighting. Had not something ofthis impulse existed on both sides in 1775, the American rebelswould probably not have fortified Bunker Hill, or the Englishgeneral might have besieged and starved them out without firinga SAMUEL ADAMS. It is needless to add another to the innumerable descriptionsof the battle of Bunker Hill. Every Englishman who comes toAmerica feels renewed astonishment that a monument shouldhave been built on the scene of a defeat. Every Americanschool-boy understands that the monument celebrates a fact 256 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. more important than most victories, namely, that the raw pro-vincials faced the British army for two hours, they themselvesbeing under so little organization that it is impossible to telleven at this day who was their commander; that they did thiswith only the protection of an unfinished earthwork and a railfence, retreating only when their powder was out. Tried bythe standards of regular warfare even at that day, a breastworktwice that of Bunker Hill would have been accounted but amoderate obstacle. When in the previous century the fright-ened cit
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