even at present, in numbers. These circumstances, and the impressions they created, will be best exhibited by inserting an extract from a letter written at the time to Congress: it is in these words: "From the hours allotted to sleep, I will borrow a few moments, to convey my thoughts, on sundry important matters, to Congress. I shall give them with that sincerity which ought to characterise a man of candour, and with the freedom which may be used in giving useful information, without incurring the imputation of presumption. "We are now, as it were, upon the eve of another dissolution of our army. The remem brance of the difficulties which happened upon that occasion last year; the consequences which might have followed the change, if proper advantages had been taken by the enemy; added to a knowledge of the present temper and situation of the troops; reflect but a very gloomy prospect upon the appearance of things now; and satisfy me, beyond the possibility of a doubt, that, unless. some speedy and effectual measures are adopted by Congress, our cause will be lost. "It is in vain to expect that any, or more than a trifling part of this army, will engage again in the service, on the encouragement offered by Congress. When men find that their townsmen and companions are receiving twenty, thirty, and more more dollars, for a few months' service (which is truly the case,) this cannot be expected, without using compulsion; and to force them into the service would answer no valuable purpose. When men are irritated, and their passions inflamed, they fly hastily and cheerfully to arms; but, after the first emotions are over, to expect, among such people as compose the bulk of an army, that they are influenced by any other principles than those of interest, is to look for what never did, and, I fear, never will happen; the Congress will deceive themselves, therefore, if they expect it. "A soldier, reasoned with upon the goodness of the cause he is engaged in, aud the inestimable rights he is contending for, hears you with patience, and acknowledges the truth of your observations; but adds, that it is of no more consequence to him than to others. The officer makes you the same reply, with this further remark, that his pay will not support him, and he cannot ruin himself and family to serve his country, when every member of the community is equally benefitted and interested by his labours. The few, therefore, who act upon principles of disinterestedness, are, comparatively speaking, no more than a drop in the ocean. It becomes evidently clear, then, that, as this contest is not likely to be the work of a day; as the war must be carried on systematically, and to do it, you must have good officers; officers; there is, in my judgment, no other possible means to obtain them, but by establishing your army upon a permanent footing, and giving your officers good pay: this will induce gentlemen, and men of character, to engage; and until the bulk of your officers are composed of such persons as are actuated by principles of honour and a spirit of enterprise, you have little to expect from them. They ought to have such allowances as will enable them to live like, and support the characters of, gentlemen, and not to be driven, by a scanty pittance, to the low and dirty arts which many of them practise, to filch the public of more than the difference of pay would amount to, upon an ample allowance. Besides, something is due to the man who puts his life in your hands, hazards his health, and forsakes the sweets of domestic enjoyments. Why a captain, in the continental service, should receive no more than five shillings, currency, per day, for performing the same duties that an officer of the same rank in the British service receives ten shillings sterling for, I never could conceive, especially when the latter is provided with every necessary he requires, upon the best terms, and the former can scarcely procure them at any rate. There is nothing that gives a man consequence, and renders him fit for command, like a support that renders him independent of every body but the state he serves. "With respect to the men, nothing but a good bounty can obtain them upon a permanent establishment; and for no shorter time than the continuance of the war ought they to be engaged, as facts incontestibly prove, that the difficulty and cost of enlistments increase with time. When the army was first raised at Cambridge, I am persuaded the men might have been got without a bounty for the war: after that, they began to see that the contest was not likely to end so speedily as was imagined, and to feel their consequence, by remarking, that, to get their militia in, in the course of last year, many towns were induced to give them a bounty. Foreseeing the evils resulting from this, and the destructive consequences which would unavoidably follow short enlistments, I took the liberty, in a long letter, (date not now recollected, as my letter-book is not here,) to recommend the enlistments for, and during the war, assigning such reasons for it as experience has since convinced me were well founded. At that time, twenty dollars would, I am persuaded, have engaged the men for this term; but it will not do to look back, and, if the present opportunity is slipped, I am persuaded that twelve months more will increase our difficulties fourfold. I shall therefore take the liberty of giving it as my opinion, that a good bounty be immediately offered, aided by the proffer of, at least, a hundred or a hundred hundred and fifty acres of land, and a suit of clothes and a blanket, to each non-commissioned officer and soldier; as I have good authority for saying, that, however high the men's pay may appear, it is barely sufficient, in the present scarcity and dearness of all kinds of goods, to keep them. in clothes, much less to afford support to their families. If this encouragement, then, is given to the men, and such pay allowed to the officers as will induce gentlemen of liberal character and liberal sentiments to engage, and proper care and caution be used in the nomination, (having more regard to the character of persons, than the number of men they can enlist,) we should, in a little time, have an army able to cope with any that can be opposed to it, as there are excellent materials to form one out of. But whilst the only merit an officer possesses is his ability to raise men; while these men consider and treat him as an equal, and, in the character of an officer, regard him no more than a broom-stick, being mixed together as one common herd; no order nor discipline can prevail, nor will the officer ever meet with that respect which is essentially necessary to due subordination. "To place any dependence upon militia is assuredly resting upon a broken staff. Men, just dragged from the tender scenes of domestic life, unaccustomed to the din of arms, totally unacquainted with every kind of military skill, which, 2 being |