This was fully proved last October at Forts
Washington and Lee, where one gun only, on each side of the river,
obliged two frigates to cut and be towed off in an hour's time.
Neither can he cut it off by his army; because the several posts
they must occupy would divide them almost to nothing, and expose
them to be picked up by ours like pebbles on a river's bank; but
admitting that he could, where is the injury? Because, while his whole
force is cantoned out, as sentries over the water, they will be very
innocently employed, and the moment they march into the country the
communication opens.
The most probable object is Philadelphia, and the reasons are
many. Howe's business is to conquer it, and in proportion as he
finds himself unable to the task, he will employ his strength to
distress women and weak minds, in order to accomplish through their
fears what he cannot accomplish by his own force. His coming or
attempting to come to Philadelphia is a circumstance that proves his
weakness: for no general that felt himself able to take the field
and attack his antagonist would think of bringing his army into a city
in the summer time; and this mere shifting the scene from place to
place, without effecting any thing, has feebleness and cowardice on
the face of it, and holds him up in a contemptible light to all who
can reason justly and firmly. By several informations from New York,
it appears that their army in general, both officers and men, have
given up the expectation of conquering America; their eye now is fixed
upon the spoil.
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