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exertions anew. Again; review this matter, as it may regard ap- pearances. A body of troops, after staying a twelvemonth at Boston, are ordered to take a march of seven hundred miles to Virginia, where, it is said, they may be plentifully subsisted. As soon as they are there, they are ordered on some other march, because, in Virginia, it is said, they can not be subsisted. Indif- ferent nations will charge this either to ignorance, or to whim and caprice ; the parties interested, to cruelty. ‘They now view the proposition in that light, and it is said, there is a general and firm persuasion among them, that they were marched from Boston with no other purpose than to harass and destroy them with eter- nal marches. Perseverance in object, though not by the most direct way, is often more laudable than perpetual changes, as often as the object shifts light. A character of steadiness in our councils, is worth more than the subsistence of four thousand people.
There could not have been a more unlucky concurrence of cir- cumstances than when these troops first came. ‘The barracks were unfinished for want of laborers, the spell of weather the worst ever known within the memory of man, no stores of bread laid in, the roads, by the weather and number of wagons, soon rendered im- passable: not only the troops themselves were greatly disappointed, but the people in the neighborhood were alarmed at the conse- quences which a total failure of provisions might produce. In this worst state of things, their situation was seen by many and disse- minated through the country, so as to occasion a general dissatis- faction, which even seized the minds of reasonable men, who, if not infected with the contagion, must have foreseen that the pro- spect must brighten, and that great advantages to the people must necessarily arise. It has, accordingly, so happened. ‘The planters, being more generally sellers than buyers, have felt the benefit of their presence in the most vital part about them, their purses, and are now sensible of its source. I have too good an opinion of their love of order, to believe that a removal of these troops would pro- duce any irregular proofs of their disapprobation, but [ am well assured it would be extremely odious to them.
To conclude. The separation of these troops would be a breach of public faith, therefore, I suppose it impossible ; if they are removed to another State, it is the fault of the commissaries ; if they are removed to any other part of the State, it is the fault of the commissaries ; and in both cases, the public interest and public security suffer, the comfortable and plentiful subsistence of our own army is lessened, the health of the troops neglected, their wishes crossed, and their comforts torn from them, the character
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