Page:The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries of Great Britain in the revolutionary war.djvu/200



terms on which Burgoyne's army had surrendered at Saratoga were never fulfilled. The soldiers were held substantially as prisoners of war. This led to violent complaints on their own part at the time, and on that of German and English writers down to our own day. It is reported by Bancroft that the convention had been broken by the British at the time of the surrender, by the concealment of the public chest and other public property, of which the United States were thus defrauded. In November, 1777, Burgoyne wrote a rash and groundless complaint of its violation by the Americans, and raised the implication that he might use the pretended breach to disengage himself and his government from all its obligations. Burgoyne also refused to give the necessary lists of all persons comprehended in the surrender. Congress thereupon refused to let his army be embarked until the capitulation should be expressly confirmed by the court of Great Britain.

It seems to me that in adopting this course Congress did not regard its own honor, nor that of the country. It was true that Gates had made a bad bargain. But the bargain had been made deliberately, and Burgoyne's soldiers had performed the most important of the conditions imposed upon them when they laid down their