Page:Harris Dickson--The unpopular history of the United States.djvu/38

 of the New England man beats high for liberty. His engagement in the service he thinks purely voluntary, therefore, when the time for enlistment is out, he thinks himself not holden without further engagement.”

Of course, that is the law, a perfectly legal construction to put upon their contract of employment. Nearly one hundred years later we find a similar instance at the first battle of Bull Run.

School boys do not regard George Washington as a chronic complainer. Yet his letters are full of paragraphs like this: “Nothing can surpass the impatience of the troops to get to their firesides. Nearly three hundred of them arrived a few days ago unable to do any duty. But as soon as I administered that grand specific, a discharge, they instantly acquired health, and rather than be detained a few days to cross Lake George, undertook a march of 200 miles with the greatest alacrity.”

Doesn’t this jar upon your reverential ideals, to picture 300 heroes of the