your authority in America. You, sir, have the honor of adding a new
vice to the military catalogue; and the reason, perhaps, why the
invention was reserved for you, is, because no general before was
mean enough even to think of it.

That a man whose soul is absorbed in the low traffic of vulgar vice,
is incapable of moving in any superior region, is clearly shown in
you by the event of every campaign. Your military exploits have been
without plan, object or decision. Can it be possible that you or your
employers suppose that the possession of Philadelphia will be any
ways equal to the expense or expectation of the nation which supports
you? What advantages does England derive from any achievements of
yours? To her it is perfectly indifferent what place you are in, so
long as the business of conquest is unperformed and the charge of
maintaining you remains the same.

If the principal events of the three campaigns be attended to, the
balance will appear against you at the close of each; but the last,
in point of importance to us, has exceeded the former two. It is
pleasant to look back on dangers past, and equally as pleasant to
meditate on present ones when the way out begins to appear. That
period is now arrived, and the long doubtful winter of war is
changing to the sweeter prospects of victory and joy. At the close of
the campaign, in 1775, you were obliged to retreat from Boston. In
the summer of 1776, you appeared with a numerous fleet and army in
the harbor of New York. By what miracle the continent was preserved
in that season of danger is a subject of admiration! If instead of
wasting your time against Long Island you had run up the North River,
and landed any where above New York, the consequence must have been,
that either you would have compelled General Washington to fight you