but it
is the language of truth and friendship. It is the result of long
thinking, close application, and strict observation. I see one head
gradually changing into thirteen; I see one army branching into
thirteen; and, instead of looking up to congress as the supreme
controlling power of the United States, consider themselves as
dependent on their respective states. In a word, I see the power of
congress declining too fast for the respect which is due to them as
the great representative body of America, and am fearful of the
consequences."

But whatever might be his objections to the proposed system, General
Washington was unremitting in his endeavours to render the plan
perfect in detail, and to give to its execution all the aid which his
situation and influence enabled him to afford.

The distresses of the army for food, which had found temporary relief
in the particular exertions of the magistrates and people of New
Jersey, soon returned; and it became once more necessary, even after
the magazines had been in some degree replenished, to recur to the
same persons for assistance. The supplies of forage had failed, and a
great proportion of the horses had perished, or been rendered unfit
for use. Neither funds nor credit were possessed for the purchase of
others, and the quarter-master-general found himself unable to
transport provisions from remote magazines into camp. This
circumstance reduced the Commander-in-chief to the painful necessity
of calling on the patriotism of private citizens, under the penalty of
a military impressment, should a voluntary contribution be refused,
for those means of conveyance which the government could not supply.

The want of food was not the only difficulty to be surmounted. Others
of a serious nature presented themselves. The pay of an officer was
reduced by the depreciation of the currency, to such a miserable
pittance as to be unequal to the supply of the most moderate demands.
The pay of a major general would no longer hire an express rider, and
that of a captain would not purchase the shoes in which he marched.
The American officers were not rich; and many of them had expended
their _little all_ in the service. If they had exhausted their private
funds, or if they possessed none, they could rely only on the state to
which they belonged for such clothing as the state might be willing or
able to furnish. These supplies were so insufficient and unequal, as
to produce extreme dis