y can not tell who is the writer of this letter, which not a
little perplexes me. The hand writing is altogether strange to me.

To give you the trouble of this, gives me pain. It would suit my
inclination better, to give you some assistance in the great business
of the war. But I will not conceal any thing from you, by which you
may be affected, for I really think your personal welfare and the
happiness of America are intimately connected. I beg you will be
assured of that high regard and esteem with which I ever am,

Dear sir,

Your affectionate friend and very humble servant,

P. HENRY.

His excellency General Washington.

(_Letter enclosed in the preceding._)

Yorktown, January 12, 1778.

DEAR SIR,--The common danger of our country first brought you and me
together. I recollect with pleasure the influence of your conversation
and eloquence upon the opinions of this country in the beginning of
the present controversy. You first taught us to shake off our
idolatrous attachment to royalty, and to oppose its encroachments upon
our liberties with our very lives. By these means you saved us from
ruin. The independence of America is the offspring of that liberal
spirit of thinking, and acting, which followed the destruction of the
sceptres of kings and the mighty power of Great Britain.

But, sir, we have only passed the Red Sea. A dreary wilderness is
still before us, and unless a Moses or a Joshua are raised up in our
behalf, we must perish before we reach the promised land. We have
nothing to fear from our enemies on the way. General Howe, it is true,
has taken Philadelphia; but he has only changed his prison. His
dominions are bounded on all sides by his outsentries. America can
only be undone by herself. She looks up to her councils and arms for
protection; but alas! what are they? her representation in congress
dwindled to only twenty-one members--her Adams--her Wilson--her Henry,
are no more among them. Her councils weak--and partial remedies
applied constantly for universal diseases. Her army--what is it? a
major general belonging to it called it a few days ago in my hearing a
_mob_. Discipline unknown or _wholly_ neglected. The quartermaster and
commissary's departments filled with idleness, ignorance and
peculation--our hospitals crowded with six thousand sick, but half
provided with necessaries or accommodations, and more dying in them in
one month, than perished in the field during the whole of the l