and with a design to elucidate such
characters, I shall take the liberty to propose to the public
the following queries:

1. Was not General R----d, in December, 1776, (then A----t
G----l of the Continental army,) sent by General Washington to
the commanding officer at Bristol, with orders relative to a
general attack intended to be made on the enemy's post at
Trenton, and those below, on the 25th, at night?

2. Two or three days before the intended attack, did not
General R----d say, in conversation with the said commanding
officer at his quarters, that our affairs looked very
desperate, and that we were only making a sacrifice of
ourselves?

3. Did he not also say, that the time of General Howe's
proclamation, offering pardon and protection to persons who
should come in before the 1st of January, 1777, was nearly
expired, and that Galloway, the Allens, and others, had gone
over, and availed themselves of the pardon and protection
offered by the said proclamation?

4. Did not he, General R----d, at the same time say, that he
had a family, and ought to take care of them; and that he did
not understand following the wretched remains of a broken
army?

5. Did he not likewise say to the said commanding officer,
that his brother, (then a colonel or lieutenant-colonel of
militia,) was at Burlington with his family, and that he had
advised him to remain there, and if the enemy took possession
of the town, to take a protection and swear allegiance?

It is well for America, that very few general officers have
reasoned in this manner; if they had, General Howe would have
made an easy conquest of the United States. And it is very
obvious, that officers of high rank, with such sentiments, can
have no just pretensions to patriotism or public virtue, and
can by no means be worthy of any post of honour or place of
trust, where the liberties and interest of the people are
immediately concerned.

BRUTUS.

_Philadelphia, September 3, 1782._

TO GENERAL JOSEPH REED.

In the first part of your late publication, which is no less an invective
against me, than it is a defence of yourself, you have, with sufficient
art, insisted on my remarkably contentious, factious,[D] and jealous
spirit, which suffers no man, und