This plan, in execution, unites with many other advantages the power of retarding or accelerating the course of these supplies as your prudence may dictate, and according as the situation of the Americans becomes more or less pressing, with the result that these aids, wisely administered, will serve not so much to terminate the war between America and England, as to sustain and keep it alive to the detriment of the English, our natural and pronounced enemies.
Let us consider the details of the scheme. The unvarying impression of this affair to the majority of the Congress, should be the delusion that Your Majesty has nothing to do with it but that a company is about to entrust a certain sum to the prudence of a trusted agent to furnish continuous aid to the Americans, by the promptest and surest methods * * * in exchange for returns in the shape of tobacco. Secrecy is the essence of all the rest.
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Your Majesty will begin by placing one
