and
which, after all, must be called forth if we continue the war, (and
upon that subject there can be no doubt, till the end for which we
took up arms is attained.) The only question is, whether each State
shall fairly and regularly contribute its quota, or whether that which
happens to be the seat of war shall (as has too often been the case)
bear the whole burden, and suffer more from the necessities of our own
troops, than the ravages of the enemy. Whether we shall drive the
enemy from their posts with a strong body of regular troops, or
whether we shall permit them to extend their devastations, while, with
our battalions and fluctuating corps of militia, we protract a weak
defensive war, till our allies are discouraged, and some unfavorable
change takes place in the system of Europe.

Your Excellency, I am persuaded, will pardon the freedom with which I
write. You see the necessity which dictates my letter, and were it in
my power to communicate all that our friends in Europe think of our
inactivity, I am persuaded you would urge your State to exertion in
much stronger terms than I dare venture to use.

When Congress call upon a State for supplies, they are usually
answered by pleas of disability, urged, too, by the State with good
faith, and a firm persuasion that they speak their real situation, a
recurrence to facts, that have passed under their own observation,
will convince them that they are deceived.

From the time that the depreciation of the Continental bills of credit
began, till they were no longer current, the States that received them
paid a tax equal to all the expenditures of the army, and a very
considerable one beyond it; for if we suppose ten millions of dollars,
in specie, a year, to be necessary for their support, then the
expense, till the close of the campaign of 1779, must have amounted to
upwards of fifty millions, exclusive of the supplies from Europe; and
yet, in March, 1780, the whole national debt contracted in America did
not, in fact, amount to five millions; so that forty five millions
were paid by the United States in those five years of the war, when
they had the least commerce and agriculture, and when they were most
distressed by the enemy; and this tax, too, was the most unjust and
partial that can be conceived, unless we except that, by which we have
since raised much more from the people, without giving so much to the
public; I mean the laws for impressing, &c., which placed