That a man whose soul is absorbed in the low traffic of vulgar vice,
is incapable of moving in any superior region, is clearly shown in you
by the event of every campaign. Your military exploits have been
without plan, object or decision. Can it be possible that you or
your employers suppose that the possession of Philadelphia will be any
ways equal to the expense or expectation of the nation which
supports you? What advantages does England derive from any
achievements of yours? To her it is perfectly indifferent what place
you are in, so long as the business of conquest is unperformed and the
charge of maintaining you remains the same.
If the principal events of the three campaigns be attended to, the
balance will appear against you at the close of each; but the last, in
point of importance to us, has exceeded the former two. It is pleasant
to look back on dangers past, and equally as pleasant to meditate on
present ones when the way out begins to appear. That period is now
arrived, and the long doubtful winter of war is changing to the
sweeter prospects of victory and joy. At the close of the campaign, in
1775, you were obliged to retreat from Boston. In the summer of
1776, you appeared with a numerous fleet and army in the harbor of New
York. By what miracle the continent was preserved in that season of
danger is a subject of admiration! If instead of wasting your time
against Long Island you had run up the North River, and landed any
where above New York, the consequence must have been, that either
you would have compelled General Washington to fight you with very
unequal numbers, or he must have suddenly evacuated the city with
the loss of nearly all the stores of his army, or have surrendered for
want of provisions; the situation of the place naturally producing one
or the other of these events.
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