Another such a
brush, notwithstanding we lost the ground, would, by still reducing
the enemy, put them in a condition to be afterwards totally defeated.
Could our whole army have come up to the attack at one time, the
consequences had probably been otherwise; but our having different
parts of the Brandywine creek to guard, and the uncertainty which road
to Philadelphia the enemy would attempt to take, naturally afforded
them an opportunity of passing with their main body at a place where
only a part of ours could be posted; for it must strike every thinking
man with conviction, that it requires a much greater force to oppose
an enemy in several places, than is sufficient to defeat him in any
one place.
Men who are sincere in defending their freedom, will always feel
concern at every circumstance which seems to make against them; it
is the natural and honest consequence of all affectionate attachments,
and the want of it is a vice. But the dejection lasts only for a
moment; they soon rise out of it with additional vigor; the glow of
hope, courage and fortitude, will, in a little time, supply the
place of every inferior passion, and kindle the whole heart into
heroism.
There is a mystery in the countenance of some causes, which we
have not always present judgment enough to explain. It is
distressing to see an enemy advancing into a country, but it is the
only place in which we can beat them, and in which we have always
beaten them, whenever they made the attempt. The nearer any disease
approaches to a crisis, the nearer it is to a cure.
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