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.

174 WASHINGTON'S WRITINGS. [AET.24.
lieve, the same; Pennsylvania is exorbitant in rewarding
her soldiers; as to the Jerseys and New York, I am not
informed; but the New England governments give more
than a shilling per day, our money, besides an allowance of rum, pease, tobacco, vinegar, ginger, and the like.
Our soldiers complain, that their pay is insufficient,
even to furnish shoes, shirts, and stockings, which their
officers, in order to keep them fit for duty, oblige them
to provide. This, they say, deprives them of the means
of purchasing any of the conveniences or necessaries of
life, and compels them to drag through a disagreeable
service, in the most disagreeable manner. That their
pay will not afford more than enough to keep them in
clothes, I should be convinced for these reasons, if experience had not taught me. The British soldiers are
allowed eight pence sterling per day, with many necessaries that ours are not, and can buy what is requisite
upon the cheapest terms; and they lie one half the year
in camp, or garrison, when they cannot consume the
fifth part of what ours do in continual marches over
mountains, rocks, and rivers. Then, Sir, is it possible
that our men, who receive a fourth less, have two pence
per day stopped for their regimental clothing, and all
other stoppages made that British soldiers have, and are
obliged, by being in continual action, to lay in triple the
quantity of ammunition and clothes, and at double the
price, should be able to clear themselves? It is not to
be done, and this is the reason why the men have
always been so bare of clothes.
And I dare say you will be candid' enough to allow,
that few men would choose to have their lives exposed
to the incessant insults of a merciless enemy, without
some view or hope of a reward. Another thing gives
them great uneasiness, and that is, seeing no regular
provision made for the maimed and wounded. They