Page:Harris Dickson--The unpopular history of the United States.djvu/39

 limping around camp until Washington told them to go home, when they suddenly became able to march the distance from New York to Washington?

In consequence of slow voluntary enlistments, and the promptitude with which the short time recruit hiked himself homeward, it was considered expedient to try the worst possible makeshift—a bounty. The unpalatable truth is that by the middle of 1775, before the glorious Declaration of Independence, it had become necessary to pay men so much money for volunteering, making mercenaries of the first soldiers of this republic. On the 6th day of December, 1775, the Continental Congress passed this resolution:

“That the charge of bounty in the accounts exhibited by the Colony of Rhode Island against the United Colonies be not allowed.”

Something had to be done. Washington recognized the failure of the volunteer system and suggested “coercive measures” to fill his regiments. But feeble Congress was afraid to take such a radical step; instead of