d where the people were
more inclined to maritime enterprise, supplies both of arms and
clothes were attainable in a more considerable degree than in those
farther south; but the large sums of money expended in that part of
the union for the support of the army, had lessened the value of the
currency there more rapidly than elsewhere, and a consequent high
nominal price was demanded for imported articles. Congress deemed the
terms on which some large contracts had been made by the clothier
general in Massachusetts, so exorbitant, as to forbid their execution;
and at the same time, addressed a letter to the state government,
requesting that the goods should be seized for the use of the army, at
prices to be fixed by the legislature, in pursuance of a resolution of
the 22d of November.

These recommendations from congress, so far as they exhorted the
states to supply the wants of the soldiers, were strongly supported by
the General. In his letters to the several governors, he represented
the very existence of the army, and the continuance of the contest, as
depending on their exertions in this respect.

{1778}

[Sidenote: General Washington's exertions to increase his force, and
to place it on a respectable footing before the ensuing campaign.]

To recruit the army for the ensuing campaign became again an object of
vital importance; and the Commander-in-chief again pressed its
necessity on congress, and on the states. To obtain a respectable
number of men by voluntary enlistment had, obviously, become
impossible. Coercion could be employed only by the state governments;
and it required all the influence of General Washington to induce the
adoption of a measure so odious in itself, but so indispensable to the
acquirement of means to meet the crisis of the war, which, in his
judgment, had not yet passed away. He enclosed to each state a return
of its troops on continental establishment, thereby exhibiting to each
its own deficiency. To those who had not resorted to coercive means,
he stated the success with which they had been used by others; and he
urged all, by every motive which could operate on the human mind, to
employ those means early enough to enable him to anticipate the enemy
in taking the field.

To the causes which had long threatened the destruction of the army,
the depreciation of paper money was now to be added. It had become so
considerable that the pay of an officer would not procure even those
absol