ia. The doors were shut,
and it fell to Thomas Paine, the clerk, to read the letter.

"In this letter the naked truth of things was unfolded. Among
other informations, the general said that, notwithstanding his
confidence in the attachment of the army to the cause of the
country, the distresses of it, from the want of every necessary
which men could be destitute of, had arisen to such a pitch that
the appearances of mutiny and discontent were so strongly marked
on the countenances of the army, that he dreaded the event of
every hour."

After the letter was read, a despairing silence pervaded the hall.
Nobody spoke for a considerable time. At last a member of much fortitude
arose and said: "If the account in that letter is a true state of
things, and we are in the situation there represented, it appears to me
in vain to contend the matter any longer. We may as well give up the
matter first as last." Another man arose and said: "Well, well, don't
let the house despair; if things are not so well as we wish, we must
endeavor to make them better," and then moved an adjournment.

What shall now be done? Where is the god of battle, that he has deserted
America? When all others fail, both in council and in war, who shall be
able to cheer the heart and lift up the head of the nation? We shall
see. Thomas Paine draws his salary; he writes a stirring appeal for a
private subscription; heads it with five hundred dollars, "his mite, and
will increase it as far as the last ability will enable him to go." This
subscription is to be a _donation_ to carry on the war. In nine days the
subscription "amounts to four hundred pounds hard money, and one hundred
and one thousand three hundred and sixty pounds continental." The
subscribers now meet and form a bank, with a capital basis of three
hundred thousand pounds, real money, _for the purpose of supplying the
army_; and the country is once more saved by the man who has on his
hands "_the business of a world_."

It is now the university of Pennsylvania makes itself honorable and
famous by conferring on Thomas Paine the degree of Master of Arts. It is
in 1780 this is done, and on the FOURTH OF JULY.

But more money must be had. A continental dollar is worth about one
cent. "Hard money must be had," says Thomas Paine. But how shall it be
obtained? By an appeal to the king of France. Paine now sets about the
work. It is near the close of the year 1780. He takes up the pen