every possible expedient should be, without delay, adopted, towards obtaining these articles, in due season for the purposes of next campaign.

"Heavy cannon, for posts in the Highlands, for battering, and for vessels, if offensive measures are to be pursued, must be immediately forwarded, and in considerable quantity. Large mortars, with a sufficient apparatus, will also be wanted.

"The completing the arrangement of the army, without farther delay, is a matter of great importance, whatever may be our plan. The want of this is the source of infinite dissatisfaction to the officers in general, and continual perplexity to the commander-in-chief. The want of brigadiers is a material inconvenience, and hath been the cause of much relaxation of discipline, discontent, and loss, in several instances."

These remarks are followed by observations, indicating changes in the ordnance department, as suggested by General Knox; in the clothing, and in the hospital departments. The immediate establishment of an inspectorship, on a definite plan, is strongly urged; and an im. proved arrangement of the engineering department. The communication closes with a reference to the situation of the officers, which is stated "to be so singularly hard, that the bare mention of their case is sufficient to bring it home to the attention and feeling of every man of reflection, and will leave no doubt of the necessity of applying a remedy the most speedy and effectual."

The views taken in this paper, were the ground-work of the deliberations of the committee; and the plan of a defensive campaign, which was ultimately adopted, was enforced by various considerations.

The enemy's force at New York and Rhode Island, was at this time about twelve thousand men. From the

circular position of their posts, the strength of their fortifications, and their shipping, it was believed, that to a successful attempt, double that number of effectives would be necessary. These, both from the rate of wages and the high price of labor, it was impossible to get, beside the extreme difficulty of providing subsistence and forage for so large a number.

For an attack upon the frontier posts of the interior, a body of permanent troops with auxiliaries, to the amount of more than twenty thousand men, was deemed requisite; for whose transportation ships were to be built, boats provided, and greater expense iucurred, than would be necessary for an attack on New York.

From the objections to these plans an expedition against the Indians was free, and attended with much less expense, while the country would, in the interval, be left to repose, the disbursements of the year diminished-a general system of economy might be adopted, and enlistments made to continue during the year. "If this plan is determined upon, every measure of government ought to correspond. The most uniform principle of economy should pervade every department. We should not be frugal in one part, and prodigal in another. We should contract, but we should consolidate our system. army, though small, should be of a firm and permanent texture. Every thing possible should be done to make the situation of the officers and soldiers comfortable, and every inducement offered to engage men during the war. The most effectual plan that can be devised for enlisting those already in the army, and recruiting in the country, ought to be carried into immediate execution."

The

But as to this policy, indicated more by the national necessities than by any other considerations, there were grounds of serious hesitation. "The very inactivity, it

was naturally feared, might be attributed to the weakness of the United States, and thus affect their credit and importance abroad, and produce a most serious effect on their negotiations in Europe. It might also discourage the people, inspirit the disaffected, and give time for the discontented to combine and produce extensive divisions, while a succesful blow given to the enemy, in the reduced state of the army, might compel them to evacuate the United States, to which there would be little probability of their return." But to this the finances of the country were incompetent; and it was believed no adequate force could be assembled.

After deliberate consideration, the Niagara expedition was laid aside. Operations against the Indians were to be undertaken on a limited scale; and a defensive plan was agreed upon, only to be departed from in the contingency of such reinforcements from France, as would jus tify drawing upon the resources of the country to an extent that would ensure the accomplishing some capital object. These views are set forth in a letter of the fif teenth of January to the committee of Congress from Hamilton's pen. Five days later, a letter, also from his pen, was addressed to the same committee as to the situation of the officers of the army.

Stating that the new prospects arising from the treaties with France had diverted their minds from an attention to their distresses, it was urged "that to attach them heartily to the service, their expectations of futurity must be interested. With this view, a half-pay or pensionary establishment for life was recommended, and not for a term of years, on the ground, "that the officer looks beyond a limited period, and naturally flatters himself that he will outlive it." The unpleasant restrictions which attended the resolves for seven years were condemned; pensions for

the widows of the officers were recommended; and to the objection raised to pensions, that they were inconsistent with the maxims of government, it was answered, “that it equally applied to pensions for years as to those for lives." "It is alike a pension, in both cases; in one, for a fixed and determinate period; in the other, for a contingent period." Strongly as these views were taken, it was nevertheless cautiously suggested, "that the subject should not be brought forward unless certain of success; that it was a point on which the officers' feelings were much engaged, and should not be awakened unless gratified.”

It was also proposed that they should be provided with clothing by the public at prices proportioned to their pay; that the rations and subsistence they had received, rendered their situation indigent and miserable, and the expedient of a periodical valuation of them was suggested. A plan drafted by him was likewise submitted to this committee, "for paying arrearages of clothing to the troops."

Within a few days after, a plan for a clothing department was proposed, establishing a subordination of officers, and recommending a distinct color and uniform for each State corps, to diminish the expense of competition for the same color, to distinguish the corps from each other, to discriminate merit, and to prevent expense to the officers by frequent changes.

It has been previously observed, that on the appointment of Steuben, a brief plan of an inspectorship had been in part adopted by Congress in the spring of seventyeight. This plan was subsequently modified and completed in the ensuing month of September, when the number of the regiments was allotted to each State.

The system then introduced, proved imperfect; and having been agreed to in committee, on the twenty-eighth

*

of January of this year, a new plan for this department was reported by the committee of conference to Congress, and passed on the eighteenth of February following. The report exists among the archives of the government in a rough state; the preamble in another hand, but the body of it, with marks of alteration by him, in the autography of Hamilton; where may also be found a plan drawn up by him for completing the regiments, and changing their establishment, in which is a project for an annual draft. Inducements for re-enlistments, and the modes of supplying the deficiency, are set forth with great perspicuity, giving the general principles for such a procedure, which, in similar emergencies, might be adopted with advantage.

While these topics were engaging their attention, Congress was called, by a communication from Arthur Lee, and by a conference with the French minister, to a negotiation with Spain, involving points of great moment, the consideration of which is deferred to a subsequent part of this narrative.

In early spring, the enemy, waiting reinforcements, were content to harass and alarm the States adjacent to New York by sudden inroads, which did not advance in the least the great object of the contest, but only served to increase the horrors of war, by invading the unsuspicious security of the settlements near the coast. These incursions were aggravated by being chiefly undertaken by the American refugees; who, forgetting their duty to their country, discarded all regard to the obligations of humanity, and evincing the cruelty, without the courage of other freebooters, rendered doubly afflicting this border warfare.

The debatable ground of Westchester had long been *Hamilton's Works, i. 168.