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.

318 WASHINGTON'S WRITINGS. [ArT. 0.
would arrive from Europe, or some other event turn
up, which might disclose the intentions of the enemy,
and give a clue for the final determination of the operations of the campaign, I have delayed for a few days
giving you my answer. Notwithstanding I am at this
hour as much in the dark as ever, I can defer no longer
the pleasure I always experience from indulging myself in a free communication and interchange of sentiments with you. To participate and divide our feelings,
hopes, fears, and expectations with a friend, is almost
the only source of pleasure and consolation left us, in
the present languid and unpromising state of our affairs.
It gives me infinite satisfaction to find, that, by your
prudence and decision, you have put a period to the
progress of a dangerous mutiny, and, by your example
of patience and firmness, reclaimed the army amidst all
their aggravated sufferings to that good disposition,
which it has been your great merit to preserve in your
command through the worst of times. Their distresses are truly deplorable; and, while the almost insurmountable difficulty of transporting clothing and the
smaller supplies (which, General St. Clair reports, are
still detained on the road for want of the means of conveyance) gives me the most sensible pain and anxiety,
it but too clearly proves the impracticability of removing
by land, under our present prospects of finance, the
siege artillery and immense quantity of stores necessary for a serious operation against Charleston.
The disastrous event of the naval action in the West
Indies may, indeed, and probably will now give a total
alteration to the complexion of the campaign. This
will, in all human probability, operate more than any
other circumstance against the evacuation of the southern States; for what would have before been a very
hazardous line of conduct, and would have exposed