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.

222 LIFE OF WASHINGTON. [1776.
resources of the confederacy, he was not disheartened
by temporary misfortunes, being persuaded that perseverance would at last overcome every obstacle. While
even the shadow of an army: could be kept in the field,
the war must be carried on at an enormous expense
by the British government, which the wealthiest nation
could not long sustain.
Deeply impressed with this conviction, and making
it both the groundwork of his policy and his rule of
action, he applied all his energies to a renovation of the
army, boldly exposing to Congress the errors of their
former systems, and earnestly exhorting them to a more
effectual exercise of their authority in giving support
and vigor to the military establishment. On the 20th
of December he wrote as follows to the President of
Congress.
"My feelings as an officer and a man have been
such as to force me to say, that no person ever had a
greater choice of difficulties to contend with than I
have. It is needless to add, that short enlistments, and
a mistaken dependence upon militia, have been the
origin of all our misfortunes, and the great accumulation
of our debt. We find, Sir, that the enemy are daily
gathering strength from the disaffected. This strength,
like a snow-ball, by rolling, will increase, unless some
means can be devised to check effectually the progress
of the enemy's arms. Militia may possibly do it for a
little while; but in a little while, also, and the militia of
those States, which have been frequently called upon,
will not turn out at all; or, if they do, it will be with
so much reluctance and sloth, as to amount to the same
tthing. Instance New Jersey! Witness Pennsylvania!
Could any thing but the River Delaware have saved
Philadelphia? Can any thing (the exigency of the
case indeed may justify it) be more destructive to the