Fourth. "Service: to be general, regardless of place of enlistment."

Fifth. "Money loans to be effected equal to the demands of the war."

Sixth. "A Declaration of INDEPENDENCE, with the pledge of all the
resources of each Colony to its support."

Such was the spirit with which the American army hastened its operations
before Boston. Every week of delay was increasing the probability that
Great Britain would occupy New York, in force. The struggle for that
city would be the practical beginning of the war anew, and upon a
scientific basis.

Lord Dartmouth alone had the military sagacity to give sound advice to
the British cabinet. He maintained that by the occupation of New York,
and the presence of a strong naval force at Newport, Rhode Island
(within striking distance of Boston), and the control of the Hudson
River, the New England Colonies would be so isolated, as neither to be
able to protect themselves, nor to furnish aid to the central Colonies
beyond the Hudson River.

For the same reason, an adequate garrison at New York might detach
troops to seize the region lying on the waters of the Delaware and
Chesapeake, and thereby separate the South from the centre. When General
Howe, in 1775, formally urged the evacuation of Boston and the
occupation of New York and Newport, he also advised the seizure of "some
respectable seaport at the southward, from which to attack seacoast
towns, in the winter."