The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 (The Revolution Trilogy Book 1)

by Rick Atkinson

Benjamin West, the gifted American artist who had lived in London for more than a decade, happened to be painting the king’s portrait when a courier brought in a copy of the Declaration of Independence. By West’s account, George grew agitated, then silent before finally muttering, “Well, if they cannot be happy under my government, I hope they may not change it for a worse.”

The poem was set to music, and as January passed the king awaited a herald who would surely announce the capture of Philadelphia, if not the rebel surrender. Instead, in late February the Bristol brought what Lord Germain called the “extremely mortifying” news of Trenton and Princeton.

The Americans, the Scottish economist Adam Smith warned, “feel in themselves at this moment a degree of importance which, perhaps, the greatest subjects in Europe scarce feel.… [They] are employed in contriving a new form of government for an extensive empire, which, they flatter themselves will become, and which indeed seems very likely to become, one of the greatest and most formidable that ever was in the world.”

As a political general, he would have few equals and no superior in American history; he had adroitly won over both the Congress and his countrymen, including wary New Englanders.

The rising world shall sing of us a thousand years to come And tell our children’s children the wonders we have done.