- 208 SKETCHES OF THE
has been already stated. This estimate, instead ol' hav- ing been lowered, had been confirmed and raised by subsequent events. Mr. Henry was too cool and judi- cious an observer of events, to have imputed to the commander in chief, the disasters of the autumn of 1776. His masterly retreat through the Jersies, the brilliant strokes of generalship exhibited at Trenton and Princeton, and above all, that singular constancy of soul with which he braved adversity, had excited his grateful admiration, and estabhshed Washington in his heart as one of the first of human beings. He not only admired him as a general, but revered him as a patriot, and loved him as a friend. Feeling for general Wash- ington sentiments like these, the reader may judge of the indignation and horror with which he read the fol- lowing anonymous letter, addressed to him by one of the conspirators against that father of his countiy.
Yorktown, January 12th, 177S.
^' Dear sir,
" The common danger of our country first brought you and me together. I recollect with pleasure the influence of your conversation and eloquence upon the opinions of this country, in the beginning of the present controversy. You first taught us to shake off our idolatrous attachment to royalty, and to oppose its en- croachments upon our liberties, with our very lives. By these means you saved us from ruin. The inde- pendence of America is the offspring of that hberal spirit of thinking and acting, which followed the de- sti'uction of the spectres of kings, and the mighty power of Great Britain.
" But, sir, we have only passed the Red Sea. A dreary wilderness is still before us, and unless a Moses
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