army, and
that of the ragged Americans who were flying before them, could not
fail to nourish the general opinion that the contest was approaching
its termination.

Among the many valuable traits in the character of Washington, was
that unyielding firmness of mind which resisted these accumulated
circumstances of depression, and supported him under them. Undismayed
by the dangers which surrounded him, he did not for an instant relax
his exertions, nor omit any thing which could obstruct the progress of
the enemy, or improve his own condition. He did not appear to despair
of the public safety, but struggled against adverse fortune with the
hope of yet vanquishing the difficulties which surrounded him; and
constantly showed himself to his harassed and enfeebled army, with a
serene, unembarrassed countenance, betraying no fears in himself, and
invigorating and inspiring with confidence the bosoms of others. To
this unconquerable firmness, to this perfect self-possession under the
most desperate circumstances, is America, in a great degree, indebted
for her independence.

{December 5.}

After removing his baggage and stores over the Delaware, and sending
his sick to Philadelphia, the American General, finding that Lord
Cornwallis still continued in Brunswick, detached twelve hundred men
to Princeton in the hope that this appearance of advancing on the
British might not only retard their progress, but cover a part of the
country, and reanimate the people of Jersey.

Some portion of this short respite from laborious service was devoted
to the predominant wish of his heart,--preparations for the next
campaign,--by impressing on congress a conviction of the real causes
of the present calamitous state of things. However the human mind may
resist the clearest theoretic reasoning, it is scarcely possible not
to discern obvious and radical errors, while smarting under their
destructive consequences. The abandonment of the army by whole
regiments of the flying camp, in the face of an advancing and superior
enemy; the impracticability of calling out the militia of Jersey and
Pennsylvania in sufficient force to prevent Lord Cornwallis from
overrunning the first state, or restrain him from entering the last,
had it not been saved by other causes, were practical lessons on the
subjects of enlistments for a short time, and a reliance on militia,
which no prejudice could disregard, and which could not fail to add
great weight to th