when injuries
press hard upon you, is more than weakness; but to look up for
kinder usage, without one manly effort of your own, would fix your
character, and show the world how richly you deserved the chains
you broke." He then took a review of the past and present--their
wrongs and their complaints--their petitions and the denials of
redress--and then said: "If this, then, be your treatment while the
swords you wear are necessary for the defense of America, what have
you to expect from peace, when your voice shall sink, and your
strength dissipate by division; when these very swords, the
instruments and companions of your glory, shall be taken from your
sides, and no remaining mark of military distinction left but
wants, infirmities, and scars? Can you, then, consent to be the
only sufferers by the Revolution, and, retiring from the field,
grow old in poverty, wretchedness, and contempt? Can you consent to
wade through the vile mire of dependency, and owe the miserable
remnant of that life to charity, which has hitherto been spent in
honor? If you can, go, and carry the jest of tories and the scorn
of whigs; the ridicule, and, what is worse, the pity of the world!
Go, starve, and be forgotten."

The writer now changed from appeal to advice. "I would advise you,
therefore," he said, "to come to some final opinion upon what you can
bear and what you will suffer. If your determination be in proportion to
your wrongs, carry your appeal from the justice to the fears of
government. Change the milk-and-water style of your last memorial;
assume a bolder tone, decent, but lively, spirited, and determined; and
suspect the man who would advise to more moderation and longer
forbearance. Let two or three men who can feel as well as write, be
appointed to draw up _your last remonstrance_--for I would no longer
give it the suing, soft, unsuccessful epithet of _memorial_." He advised
them to talk boldly to Congress, and to warn that body that the
slightest mark of indignity from them now would operate like the grave,
to part them and the army for ever; "that in any political event, the
army has its alternative. If peace, that nothing shall separate you from
your arms but death; if war, that, courting the auspices, and inviting
the direction of your illustrious leader, you will retire to some
unsettled country, smile in your turn, and 'mock