In South Carolina, the superior bravery of Colonel Moultrie and his handful of Carolinians, even when hampered by the superior authority but inferior practical knowledge of General Lee, had secured lasting honor to himself and to his gallant command and renewed safety to his own country ; and "though not " of much magnitude, in itself, it was, like many "other successes attending the American Arms, in " the commencement of the War, of great importance " in its consequences : by impressing on the Colonists " a conviction of their ability to maintain the con- " test, it increased the number of those. who resolved " to resist British authority and assisted in paving " the way to a declaration of Independence." The Continental Congress had yielded to the teachings of its experience, and directed enlistments to be made for three years, instead of for six months; but '-that " zeal for the service which was manifested in the " first moments of the War, had long begun to abate; " and though the determination to resist became more " general, that enthusiasm which prompts individuals, "voluntarily, to expose themselves to more than " equal shares of the danger and hardships to be encountered for the attainment of a common good "was sensibly declining "--in other words, there were more of those who were willing that somebody

"Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Snbbati, 10 ho., A.M., May •18-1776."

WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

else than themselves should do whatever fighting might become necessary; but, on the other hand, those who were expected to do the fatigue duty and to hazard their lives, had begun to see that the offices and the benefits to be derived from their expected labor and exposure were to be converted mainly to the benefit of others ; and their enthusiasm for " the "Eights of Man and of Englishmen," which was formerly proclaimed by multitudes of earnest men, with scarcely one holding back, was, also, " sensibly " declining," as Marshall has aptly said -- indeed, enlistments were made only among those who were desperately poor or among those whose moral characters were not unstained ; and even these had to be bribed by bounties, that certain indication that something else than simple, unadulterated patriotism in - spired the act.