Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/233

Rh 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 price 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 country. But is our case desperate? by no means. We have wisdom, virtue, and strength eno' to save us, if they could be called into action. The northern army has shown us what Americans are capable of doing, with a general at their head. The spirit of the southern