ing at the
earliest period adopted and invariably pursued the most decisive and
determined part, after having for more than four years devoted my
whole time and abilities to the service of my country, more than three
of which have been in the immediate service of Congress; after having,
under every disadvantage and embarrassment, successfully solicited and
procured most essential aid and supplies for these States; after
having been the principal actor in concluding an alliance every way
honorable and advantageous to these States, and then returning to my
native country with honorable testimonials of my character and conduct
from His Most Christian Majesty and his ministers, as well as from my
friend and colleague, and the French nation in general; and with an
armament, which promised, on its sailing, complete and decisive
victory over the enemies of these States, and which, notwithstanding
its misfortunes, relieved them (this capital in particular) from the
deepest distress and the most imminent danger; after this, to be
obliged to waste ten months in fruitless attendance and solicitation
for justice to my fortune and character, and at last worn out with
the most mortifying delays and contemptuous neglect, driven unrewarded
and unthanked to collect the little which remains of the scattered
wrecks of my fortune, and to retire loaded with the most outrageous
and unmerited reproaches into obscurity, poverty, and exile;--I ask
every member of that honorable body, even those the most unfavorably
disposed towards me, to put themselves for a few moments in my case,
which I have by no means colored beyond the real life, and then pass
sentence.

The loss of interest has little weight with me, nor loss of time,
infinitely more precious, if by either, the honor, safety, and
prosperity of these States is promoted. In the present case I am
deprived even of this consolation, having seen, to my inexpressible
grief, the essential interests of these States sacrificed by the very
measures, which have occasioned the delay of justice to me. I still
glory in the character of a free American citizen, and when I fear to
speak in the style of one, I shall deservedly forfeit the most
honorable of all titles. It was just and proper that my first
applications should be made to the representatives of my fellow
citizens; I have made them in the most decent and urgent manner, and
repeatedly. They have been treated with the most mortifying silent
n