the inscription on the bell, placed there long before the days of
the trouble, was from Leviticus: "Proclaim liberty throughout all
the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." The bells of
Philadelphia rang and cannon boomed. As the news spread there
were bonfires and illuminations in all the colonies. On the day
after the Declaration the Virginia Convention struck out "O Lord,
save the King" from the church service. On the l0th of July
Washington, who by this time had moved to New York, paraded the
army and had the Declaration read at the head of each brigade.
That evening the statue of King George in New York was laid in
the dust. It is a comment on the changes in human fortune that
within little more than a year the British had taken
Philadelphia, that the clamorous bell had been hid away for
safety, and that colonial wiseacres were urging the rescinding of
the ill-timed Declaration and the reunion of the British Empire.



CHAPTER IV. THE LOSS OF NEW YORK

Washington's success at Boston had one good effect. It destroyed
Tory influence in that Puritan stronghold. New England was
henceforth of a temper wholly revolutionary; and New England
tradition holds that what its people think today other Americans
think tomorrow. But, in the summer of this year 1776, though no
serious foe was visible at any point in the revolted colonies, a
menace haunted every one of them. The British had gone away by
sea; by sea they would return. On land armies move slowly and
visibly; but on the sea a great force may pass out of sight and
then suddenly reappear at an unexpected point. This is the