1776. Dec. CHAP. his untold sorrows, his trust in Providence kept XIII. up in his heart an under-song of wonderful sweetness. The spirit of the Most High dwells among the afflicted, rather than the prosperous; and he who has never broken his bread in tears knows not the heavenly powers. The trials of Washington are the dark, solemn ground on which the beautiful work of his country's salvation was embroidered. On the fourteenth of December, believing that Howe was on his way to New York, he resolved "to attempt a stroke upon the forces of the enemy, who lay a good deal scattered, and to all appearance in a state of security," as soon as he could be joined by the troops under Lee.2 Meantime, he ob 14. 66 1" Wer nie sein Brod mit Thränen ass, Der kennt euch nicht," &c. 2 When anything in the campaign went ill, there were never wanting persons to cast the blame on Washington; and there was always some pretender to the merit of what he did well. Washington, on his retreat from Princeton, formed the fixed design to turn upon the British as soon as he should be joined by Lee's division. "I shall face about and govern myself by the movements of General Lee," wrote Washington, Dec. 5, to congress. Sparks's Washington, iv. 202. Dec. 12, to Trumbull, Force, iii. 1186: "to turn upon the enemy and recover most of the ground they had gained." He shadowed out his purpose more definitely as soon as it was known that Howe had left Trenton. Dec. 14, to Trumbull, Washington, iv. 220: "a stroke upon the forces of the enemy, who lie a good deal scattered." The like to Gates, Dec. 14, in Force, iii. 1216. On the 26th, Robert Morris wrote of the attack on Trenton: "This manœuvre of the general had How been determined on some days ago, XIII. 1776. Dec. tained exact accounts of New Jersey and its best CHAP. military positions, from opposite Philadelphia to the hills at Morristown. Every boat was secured far up the little streams that flow to the Delaware; and his forces, increased by fifteen hundred volunteers from Philadelphia, guarded the crossing-places from the falls at Trenton to below Bristol. He made every exertion to threaten the Hessians on both flanks by militia, at Morristown on the north, and on the south at Mount Holly. The days of waiting he employed in presenting congress with a plan for an additional number of battalions, to be raised and officered directly by the United States without the intervention of the several states; thus taking. the first great step towards a real unity of government. On the twelfth he had written: "Perhaps congress have some hope and prospect of reënforcements. I have no intelligence of the sort, and wish to be informed on the subject. Our little handful is daily decreasing by sickness and other causes; and without considerable exertions on the part of the people, what can we reasonably look for? The subject is disagreeable; but yet it is true." On the sixteenth nal, in reporting the information which was furnished by General Grant's spy, and of which the substance was found among Rall's papers, appears to me to have reported nothing but what happened before any letter of the twenty-second could have been considered. The elaborate letter of Reed to Washington, Dec. 22, 1776, proves at most that Reed was not in the secret. As adjutant-general, his place was at Washington's side, if he was eager for action. Lord Bacon says: "Let ters are good, when it may serve 16. CHAP. he continued: "I am more and more convinced of 1776. Dec. 16. 20. XIII. the necessity of raising more battalions for the new army than what have been voted. The enemy will leave nothing unessayed in the next campaign; and fatal experience has given its sanction to the truth, that the militia are not to be depended upon, but in cases of the most pressing emergency. Let us have an army competent to every exigency." On the twentieth he grew more urgent: "I have waited with much impatience to know the determination of congress on the propositions made in October last for augmenting our corps of artillery. The time is come when it cannot be delayed without the greatest injury to the safety of these states, and, therefore, under the resolution of congress bearing date the twelfth instant, by the pressing advice of all the general officers now here, I have ventured to order three battalions of artillery to be immediately recruited. This may appear to congress premature and unwarrantable; but the present exigency of our affairs will not admit of delay, either in the council or the field. Ten days more will put an end to the existence of this army. If, therefore, in the short interval in which we have to make these arduous preparations, every matter that in its nature is self-evident is to be referred to congress, at the distance of a hundred and thirty or forty miles, so much time must elapse as to defeat the end in view. "It may be said that this is an application for powers too dangerous to be intrusted; I can only say, that desperate diseases require desperate remedies. I have no lust after power; I wish with XIII. 1776. Dec. 20. as much fervency as any man upon this wide-ex- CHAP. tended continent for an opportunity of turning the sword into the ploughshare; but my feelings as an officer and as a man have been such as to force me to say, that no person ever had a greater choice of difficulties to contend with than I have. It is needless to add, that short enlistments, and a mistaken dependence upon militia, have been the origin of all our misfortunes, and of the great accumulation of our debt. The enemy are daily gathering strength from the disaffected. This strength will increase, unless means can be devised to check effectually the progress of his arms. Militia may possibly do it for a little while; but in a little while, also, the militia of those states which have been frequently called upon will not turn out at all; or if they do, it will be with so much reluctance and sloth as to amount to the same thing. Instance New Jersey! Witness Pennsylvania! The militia come in, you cannot tell how; go, you cannot tell when; and act, you cannot tell where; consume your provisions, exhaust your stores, and leave you at last at a critical moment. "These are the men I am to depend upon ten days hence; this is the basis on which your cause must forever depend, till you get a standing army, sufficient of itself to oppose the enemy. This is not a time to stand upon expense. If any good officers will offer to raise men upon continental pay and establishment in this quarter, I shall encourage them to do so, and regiment them, when they have done it. If congress disapprove of this proceeding, they will please to signify it, as I XIII. 1776. Dec. CHAP. mean it for the best. It may be thought I am going going a good deal out of the line of my duty, to adopt these measures, or to advise thus freely. A character to lose, an estate to forfeit, the inestimable blessings of liberty at stake, and a life devoted, must be my excuse." 20. 24. 66 On the twenty-fourth he resumed his warnings: Very few have enlisted again, not more from an aversion to the service, than from the non-appointment of officers in some instances, the turning out of good and appointing of bad in others; the last of this month I shall be left with from fourteen to fifteen hundred effective men in the whole. This handful, and such militia as may choose to join me, will then compose our army. When I reflect upon these things, they fill me with concern. To guard against General Howe's designs, and the execution of them, shall employ my every exertion; but how is this to be done? "The obstacles which have arisen to the raising of the new army from the mode of appointing officers, induce me to hope, that, if congress resolve on an additional number of battalions to those already voted, they will devise some other rule by which the officers, especially the field-officers, should be appointed. Many of the best have been neglected, and those of little worth and less experience put in their places or promoted over their heads.” On the same day, Greene wrote, in support of the new policy: "I am far from thinking the American cause desperate, yet I conceive it to be in a critical situation. To remedy evils, the general should have power to appoint officers to |