BATTLE OF LEXINGTON--OFFICERS CHOSEN--A YEAR OF DISCUSSION--DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE--SPIRIT OF ENGLISH NOBILITY--DEFEAT OF AMERICAN FORCES--SUCCESS AT TRENTON AND PRINCETON--SUFFERINGS AT VALLEY FORGE--WASHINGTON'S PRAYER--BURGOYNE'S CAMPAIGN--ARRIVAL OF LA FAYETTE--ARNOLD'S TREASON--ANDRE'S DEATH--SIEGE OF YORKTOWN--CLOSE OF THE WAR--TREATY OF PEACE--ARMY DISBANDED--WASHINGTON RESIGNS HIS COMMISSION--CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION--WASHINGTON ELECTED PRESIDENT--HIS DEATH--HIS TOMB. With the battle of Lexington the war of the Revolution may be said to commence. Henceforth the colonies were united. Georgia no longer hesitated, but sent her delegates to the continental Congress. Resolutions were unanimously passed to provide for the defense of the country. But it was not till after the battle of Bunker Hill that the people favored independence. When the tidings of the battle arrived, Patrick Henry exclaimed: "This was needed to rouse the country to action." On the same day Congress appointed George Washington commander-in-chief of the colonial forces. On the day following it elected its four major-generals. {174} From deference to Massachusetts, for the noble part she had taken, the first of these was Artemas Ward. The second was Charles Lee, the son of an English officer, the third was Philip Schuyler, of New York; the fourth was Israel Putnam, of Connecticut. Thus the country took up arms with only one general officer, who drew to himself the trust and love of the country. Washington immediately accepted the position and wrote to his brother: "I bid adieu to every kind and domestic ease, and embark on a wide ocean, boundless in its prospect, and in which, perhaps, no safe harbor is to be found." [Image: George Washington.] Trumbull, the governor of Connecticut, wrote to him: "Now be strong and very courageous; may the God of the armies of Israel give you wisdom and fortitude and cover your head in the day of battle and danger." To this Washington replied: "The cause of our common country calls us both to an active and dangerous duty; divine Providence, which wisely orders the affairs of men, will enable us to discharge it with fidelity and success." Such were the sentiments which animated the colonists in June, 1775. A year of discussion and anxiety followed, during {175} which a remarkable pamphlet was published, entitled, "Common Sense." The writer, who embodied in words the vague longing of the people, mixed with crude notions of his own, was Thomas Paine, the son of an English Quaker, and, at that time, a little under forty years of age. In after years he became a profligate and a reviler of the scriptures, yet, at that time, his writings did much to prepare the American people for self-government.