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.

186 WASHINGTON'S WRITINGS. [.ET. 24.
upon the inhabitants, which in many cases cannot- be
avoided.
I have, in several letters to your Honor, expressed
my opinion with candor and freedom, about the situation, works, and garrison at Fort Cumberland. I shall,
nevertheless, as you command me to lay before you
such things as require the Assembly's notice, repeat on
this occasion my fears once more for that place, that I
may avoid, if any accident should happen to it, the malicious reflections, which inseparably attend misfortunes
of this kind. I have upon all occasions said, that Fort
Cumberland is a place of no strength, and never can be
tenable from the badness of the ground. It is far remote
from any of our inhabitants, exposed to the insults of
the enemy, contains all our valuable stores (save what
I have removed to Winchester), and a garrison of one
hundred and seventy men, which is too large a number
to be spared from other places, merely to defend the
stores at this, and too small to afford detachments to
waylay and surprise the enemy. I shall, therefore, beg
leave to observe, in regard to Fort Cumberland, that if
it is continued, we must be confined to act defensively,
and keep our forces dispersed as they now are. The
place must be fortified with strong works, or else it will
inevitably fall, garrison and stores, into the enemy's
hands. I enclose Colonel Stephen's letter on this head,
in answer to one I wrote to him.
I did, from the beginning, express my sentiments
against having small garrisons in a chain of forts along
our frontiers. We have a frontier of such immense extent, that to build forts at convenient distances would
employ such numbers of men, and divide our troops
into such trifling parties, that no one part could defend itself, much less the inhabitants, were the country invaded.
The most effectual way that I can see, though none