is at Yorktown a banquet was given by
Washington and his staff to the British commander and his
staff. One likes to contemplate the sportsmanship of that
function. Amiabilities and good wishes were duly exchanged,
and finally Lord Cornwallis rose to present his compliments
to Washington. There had been much talk of past campaigning
experiences, and Cornwallis, turning to Washington,
expressed the judgment that when history's verdict was made
up 'the brightest garlands for your Excellency will be
gathered, not from the shores of the Chesapeake, but from
the banks of the Delaware.'"]

He also hinted the idea, extremely delicate in itself, of enlarging
his powers so as to enable him to act, without constant applications
to congress for their sanction of measures, the immediate adoption of
which was essential to the public interests. "This might," he said,
"be termed an application for powers too dangerous to be trusted." He
could only answer, "that desperate diseases required desperate
remedies. He could with truth declare that he felt no lust for power,
but wished with as much fervency as any man upon this wide extended
continent, for an opportunity of turning the sword into a ploughshare;
but his feelings as an officer and a man had been such as to force him
to say, that no person ever had a greater choice of difficulties to
contend with than himself."

After recapitulating the measures he had adopted, which were not
within his power, and urging many other necessary arrangements, he
added, "it may be thought I am going a good deal out of the line of my
duty to adopt these measures, or to advise thus freely. A character to
lose; an estate to forfeit; the inestimable blessing of liberty at
stake; and a life devoted, must be my excuse."

The present aspect of American affairs was gloomy in the extreme. The
existing army, except a few regiments, affording an effective force of
about fifteen hundred men, would dissolve in a few days. New Jersey
had, in a great measure, submitted; and the militia of Pennsylvania
had not displayed the alacrity expected from them. General Howe would,
most probably, avail himself of the ice which would soon form, and of
the dissolution of the American army, to pass the Delaware and seize
Philadelphia. This event was dreaded, not only on account of its
intrinsic importance, but of its peculiar effect at this time, when an
army was to be recruit