When the second Congress assembled, in 1775, it presented an array of “fierce faces threatening war.” Blood had already been shed; at Lexington had commenced that contest which, with few intermissions, lasted for eight years. The English crown was, at a perilous crisis, found without competent advisers; Wisdom cried aloud in public places, without being regarded; and American senators openly and boisterously invoked the God of battles. Civil strife, fierce and bloody, was inevitable; and in this emergency Washington was chosen Commander-in-chief of the forces raised to carry on the momentous struggle. Yet it can not be supposed that this great man contemplated a separation from the mother-country without a pang. Even Jefferson, at this date, declared that in the whole empire there was no individual who more cordially loved the union with Great Britain than himself; and hardly any one competent to form an opinion on such a subject can conceive that Washington, who had given such tokens of patriotism, was less loyal in his sentiments. His forefathers had fought on famous fields, and in walled cities, for the crown of England; he himself had won his laurels under her lion-flag against her hereditary enemies; and he was, moreover, a man of faith, breeding, and refinement. With such a person, considerations of such a nature are not readily banished or suppressed, and there can be little doubt that his patriot soul was often tossed with contending emotions; like the Saxon nobles whom the Conqueror, with fire and sword, drove into the Scottish territory, who felt no respect for the Norman line of kings, but whose hearts lingered about the scenes where their progenitors had held sway and created civilization. The tastes and associations of Washington might well have led him, had an option been granted, to side with the imperial cause. But the course pursued by Lord North, who, as a statesman, ever displayed more wit than wisdom, and whom neither the sagacious warnings of Burke nor the vehement declamation of Chatham could awaken from a sleepy stupidity, left him no choice. He believed that his native plains must either be drenched in blood or inhabited by slaves; he regarded it as a sad alternative: but he did not falter or hesitate in his course. With engaging diffidence in his own powers he accepted the responsible position offered; and repairing to Cambridge, where the insurgent army lay, he proceeded to remodel and improve it to the best of his ability. In the interval Bunker’s Hill had been fought. The victory remained with the Loyalists; but the engagement had convinced them that the foe was not to be despised. Subsequent events fully confirmed this opinion; and General Howe being under the necessity of abandoning Boston, Washington was received by the inhabitants with significant enthusiasm.