Chapter XV.
THE BRUNSWICKERS IN CAPTIVITY.
The 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
