the
Commander-in-chief. With regret, he communicated to congress the
radical defects he perceived in their arrangements, with his
apprehensions that this untried scheme would fail in practice.

His judgment, and the judgment of all men engaged in high and
responsible situations, was decidedly in favour of conducting the war
on a national rather than on a state system. But, independent of this
radical objection, economy had been so much more consulted than the
probable necessities of the army, that, in almost every article, the
estimate had fallen far short of the demand to be reasonably expected.

The total omission to provide means for supplying occasional
deficiencies from the surplus resources of any particular state, was
an error of still greater magnitude. It was obvious that the demand in
any state which should become the theatre of war, would be much
greater than its quota; and experience had shown that the carriage of
specific articles from distant places was always difficult and
expensive, and sometimes impracticable. Yet no means were adopted to
supply such extraordinary demand, whatever might be the resources of
the country. A still more radical objection to the system was the
principle, enabling any state which should take means to comply with
the requisition, and should notify those means to the government of
the United States, to prohibit the continental agents from making any
purchases within its territory. Among the states which adopted the
proposition of congress was New Jersey, in which the largest division
of the army was stationed. Its legislature passed an act prohibiting
the purchase of provisions within its jurisdiction by the staff of the
continental line, under severe penalties; and refused to authorize its
own agents to provide for any emergency however pressing. It was an
additional objection to these requisitions, that they specified no
periods of the year within which certain portions of the articles
demanded should be raised, and consequently might be complied with,
although the army should be left destitute of every necessary for a
considerable part of the campaign.

These suggestions, however, with others less material to the military
operations, did not receive the attention which was due to their
importance. A disposition in the members of congress, growing
inevitably out of the organization of the government, to consult the
will of their respective states, and to prefer that will t