Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/555

 part of a letter from Conway to Gates, which was communicated to Washington by Lord Stirling. A correspondence ensued, which is well worth reading, especially as it sets forth, in a very transparent manner, the dignity and uprightness of the father of his country. The result showed, how deep a hold he possessed upon not only the confidence, but also the love and veneration of his country.

One of these anonymous epistles just spoken of, was sent to Mr. Laurens, president of Congress, and was intended to operate upon that body. Another was dispatched to Patrick Henry, governor of Virginia. Both these gentlemen forwarded the letters directly to Washington. We quote the letter received by Henry, as illustrating the mode in which it was intended to ruin the reputation of the commander-in-chief.

",—The common danger of our country first brought you and me together. I recollect with pleasure the influence of your conversation and eloquence upon the opinions of this country in the beginning of the present controversy. You first taught us to shake off our idolatrous attachment to royalty, and to oppose its encroachments upon our liberties with our very lives, By these means you saved us from ruin. The independence of America is the offspring of that liberal spirit of thinking, and acting, which followed the destruction of the sceptres of kings and the mighty power of Great Britain.

"But, sir, we have only passed the Red Sea. A dreary wilderness is still before us, and unless a Moses or a Joshua are raised up in our behalf, we must perish before we reach the promised land. We have nothing to fear from our enemies on the way. General Howe, it is true, has taken Philadelphia; but he has only changed his prison. His dominions are bounded on all sides by his out-sentries. America can only be undone by herself. She looks up to her councils and arms for protection; but alas! what are they? her representation in Congress dwindled to only twenty-one members—her Adams, her Wilson, her Henry, are no more among them. Her councils weak, and partial remedies applied constantly for universal diseases. Her army—what is it? a major-general belonging to it, called it a few days ago in my hearing, a mob. Discipline unknown, or wholly neglected. The quarter-master and commissary's departments filled with idleness, ignorance and peculation; our hospitals crowded with six thousand sick, but half provided with necessaries or accommodations, and more dying in them in one month, than perished in the field during the whole of the last campaign.

"The money depreciating without any effectual measures being taken to raise it—the country distracted with the Don Quixote attempts to regulate the prices of provisions, an artificial famine created by it, and a real one dreaded from it. The spirit of the people failing through a more intimate acquaintance with the causes of our misfortunes; many submitting daily to General Howe, and more wishing to do it, only to avoid the calamities which threaten our