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 out-sentries.
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's 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 last campaign.
The money depreciating, without any effectual measures being
taken to raise it; the country distracted with the Don
Quixote attempts to regulate the price of provisions; an
artificial famine created by it, and a real one dreaded from
it; the spirit of the people failing through a more intimate
acquaintance with the causes of our misfortunes; many
submitting daily to General Howe; and more wishing to do it,
only to avoid the calamities which threaten our country. But
is our case desperate? By no means. We have wisdom, virtue
and strength enough to save us, if they could be called into
action. The northern army has shown us what Americans are
capable of doing with a General at their head. The spirit of
the southern army is no way inferior to the spirit of the
northern. A Gates, a Lee,