The interest, the happiness of all
America, is centred in this half ruined spot. Come and help us. Here
are laurels, come and share them. Here are Tories, come and help us to
expel them. Here are Whigs that will make you welcome, and enemies
that dread your coming.
The worst of all policies is that of doing things by halves.
Penny-wise and pound-foolish, has been the ruin of thousands. The
present spring, if rightly improved, will free us from our troubles,
and save us the expense of millions. We have now only one army to cope
with. No opportunity can be fairer; no prospect more promising. I
shall conclude this paper with a few outlines of a plan, either for
filling up the battalions with expedition, or for raising an
additional force, for any limited time, on any sudden emergency.
That in which every man is interested, is every man's duty to
support. And any burden which falls equally on all men, and from which
every man is to receive an equal benefit, is consistent with the
most perfect ideas of liberty. I would wish to revive something of
that virtuous ambition which first called America into the field. Then
every man was eager to do his part, and perhaps the principal reason
why we have in any degree fallen therefrom, is because we did not
set a right value by it at first, but left it to blaze out of
itself, instead of regulating and preserving it by just proportions of
rest and service.
Suppose any State whose number of effective inhabitants was
80,000, should be required to furnish 3,200 men towards the defence of
the continent on any sudden emergency.
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