On the 2d of July, he issued a general order, calling upon the troops to prepare for a momentous conflict which was to decide their liberties and fortunes. Those who should signalize themselves by acts of bravery, would be noticed and rewarded; those who proved craven would be exposed and punished. No favor would be shown to such as refused or neglected to do their duty at so important a crisis. CHAPTER XXV. FIRST APPEARANCE OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON—HIS EARLY DAYS—GENERAL HUGH MERCER IN COMMAND OF THE FLYING CAMP—DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE—ANNOUNCED TO THE ARMY—DOWNFALL OF THE KING’S STATUE. About this time, we have the first appearance in the military ranks of the Revolution, of one destined to take an active and distinguished part in public affairs; and to leave the impress of his genius on the institutions of the country. As General Greene one day, on his way to Washington’s head-quarters, was passing through a field,—then on the outskirts of the city, now in the heart of its busiest quarter, and known as “the Park,”—he paused to notice a provincial company of artillery, and was struck with its able performances, and with the tact and talent of its commander. He was a mere youth, apparently about twenty years of age; small in person and stature, but remarkable for his alert and manly bearing. It was Alexander Hamilton. Greene was an able tactician, and quick to appreciate any display of military science; a little conversation sufficed to convince him that the youth before him had a mind of no ordinary grasp and quickness. He invited him to his quarters, and from that time, cultivated his friendship. Hamilton was a native of the island of Nevis, in the West Indies, and at a very early age had been put in a counting-house at Santa Cruz. His nature, however, was aspiring. “I contemn the grovelling condition of a clerk to which my fortune condemns me,” writes he to a youthful friend, “and would willingly risk my life, though not my character, to exalt my station. * * * I mean to prepare the way for futurity. I am no philosopher, and may be justly said to build castles in the air; yet we have seen such schemes succeed, when the projector is constant. I shall conclude by saying, I wish there was a war.”