wer will
be pleased to verify the predictions I have pronounced of, and the
confidence the army have reposed in, the justice of their country.

"And here I humbly conceive it is altogether unnecessary (while I am
pleading the cause of an army which have done and suffered more than
any other army ever did in the defence of the rights and liberties of
human nature) to expatiate on their claims to the most ample
compensation for their meritorious services, because they are
perfectly known to the whole world, and because (although the topics
are inexhaustible) enough has already been said on the subject. To
prove these assertions, to evince that my sentiments have ever been
uniform, and to show what my ideas of the rewards in question have
always been, I appeal to the archives of congress, and call on those
sacred deposites to witness for me. And in order that my observations
and arguments in favour of a future adequate provision for the
officers of the army may be brought to remembrance again, and
considered in a single point of view, without giving congress the
trouble of having recourse to their files, I will beg leave to
transmit herewith an extract from a representation made by me to a
committee of congress, so long ago as the 20th of January, 1778, and
also the transcript of a letter to the president of congress, dated
near Passaic falls, October the 11th, 1780.

"That in the critical and perilous moment when the last mentioned
communication was made, there was the utmost danger a dissolution of
the army would have taken place unless measures similar to those
recommended had been adopted, will not admit a doubt. That the
adoption of the resolution granting half pay for life has been
attended with all the happy consequences I foretold, so far as
respected the good of the service, let the astonishing contrast
between the state of the army at this instant and at the former
period, determine. And that the establishment of funds, and security
of the payment of all the just demands of the army, will be the most
certain means of preserving the national faith, and future
tranquillity of this extensive continent, is my decided opinion.

"By the preceding remarks, it will readily be imagined that, instead
of retracting and reprehending (from farther experience and
reflection) the mode of compensation so strenuously urged in the
enclosures, I am more and more confirmed in the sentiment; and if in
the wrong, suffer me to plea