The writings of George Washington; being his correspondence, addresses, messages, and other papers, official and private, selected and published from the original manuscripts; with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. By Jared Sparks.

284 LIFE OF WASHINGTON. [1778.
which they may wish it to avoid. It Is unjust, because
no order of men in the Thirteen States has paid a
more sacred regard to the proceedings of Congress
than the army; for without arrogance or the smallest
deviation from truth it may be said, that no history now
extant can furnish an instance of an army's suffering
such uncommon hardships as ours has done,.and
~bearing them with the same patience and fortitude.
To see men, without clothes to cover their nakedness,
without blankets to lie on, without shoes (for the want
of which their marches might be traced by the blood
from their feet), and almost as often without provisions
as with them, marching through the frost and snow,
and at Christmas taking up their winter-quarters within a day's march of the enemy, without a house or hut
to cover them till they could be built, and submitting
without a murmur, is a proof of patience and obedience,
which in my opinion can scarce be paralleled."
Bound by strong ties of attachment to the army, on
the good or ill fortunes of which his own reputation so
much depended, he spared no efforts to redress its
grievances, maintain its rights, and mitigate its sufferings; but he was prompt and inflexible in checking the
least disposition to encroach on the civil power, or to
claim privileges, however reasonable in themselves, which
the peculiar circumstances of the country rendered it
hazardous or inexpedient to grant. Considering the
materials of the army, composed of freemen brought
together and held together almost without the aid of law
or of authority in any supreme head, unaccustomed to
a soldier's life, impatient under discipline, and constantly
exposed to extraordinary privations and distresses, it
may truly be said, that no commander ever had a more
difficult task to perform in discharging the duties of his
station; and this in addition to the labor and responsi