Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/453

 HISTORY

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

1776.

had long been foreseen by Washington that the contest between England and the United States must be settled by an appeal to the sword. We may well believe, therefore, that the Declaration of Independence afforded him, as commander-in-chief of the army, the highest satisfaction; since now, the position of affairs was no longer of that anomalous and unsettled character, which had interfered with the vigorous carrying out the various plans with which he was entrusted for sustaining the rights and liberties of his country. On the 9th of July, he caused the Declaration to be