isadvantages I have described ours to be, which are by no means
exaggerated, to confine a superior one, in all respects well appointed
and provided for a winter's campaign, within the city of Philadelphia,
and to cover from depredation and waste the states of Pennsylvania,
Jersey, &c. But what makes this matter still more extraordinary in my
eye is, that these very gentlemen, who were well apprised of the
nakedness of the troops from ocular demonstration, who thought their
own soldiers worse clad than others, and advised me, near a month ago,
to postpone the execution of a plan I was about to adopt, in
consequence of a resolve of Congress for seizing clothes, under strong
assurances that an ample supply would be collected in ten days,
agreeably to a decree of the state; (not one article of which by the
by is yet to come to hand,) should think a winter's campaign, and the
covering of their states from the invasion of an enemy, so easy and
practicable a business. I can assure those gentlemen, that it is a
much easier and less distressing thing to draw remonstrances in a
comfortable room, by a good fireside, than to occupy a cold bleak
hill, and sleep under frost and snow, without clothes or blankets.
However, although they seem to have little feeling for the naked and
distressed soldiers, I feel superabundantly for them, and from my soul
pity those miseries which it is not in my power either to relieve or
to prevent."

The representations made in this letter were not exaggerated. The
distresses of the army, however, so far as respected clothing, did not
arise from the inattention of congress. Measures for the importation
of clothes had been adopted early in the war, but had not produced the
effect expected from them. Vigorous but ineffectual means had also
been taken to obtain supplies from the interior. The unfortunate
non-importation agreements which preceded the commencement of
hostilities, had reduced the quantity of goods in the country below
the ordinary amount, and the war had almost annihilated foreign
commerce. The progress of manufactures did not equal the consumption;
and such was the real scarcity, that exactions from individuals
produced great distress, without relieving the wants of the army. A
warm blanket was a luxury in which not many participated, either in
the camp or in the country.

In the northern states, where the sea coast was too extensive, and the
ports too numerous to be completely guarded, an