[Extract]

This moment I am informed that the Assembly is prorogued till May² ー Confusion worse Confounded; I wish for the encouragement of the Soldiers, that you would meet in Provincial Congress, and order an emission of Bills of Credit for their payment. I am sorry that, Lord Dunmore may depend on it, the Militia will never obey his orders again.

If the country has a mind to secure useful men, it is absolutely necessary to contrive some method to pay the common men, if the Officers and Provisions should lie over; let us be firm, and the gates of hell cannot prevail against us. A handful of men in Canada, six broken Regiments from France, withstood, for five years, all the force of British Fleets and Armies from home, and fifteen or twenty thousand Americans every campaign. They gained several victories over us, and chance had a great hand in their reduction at last. What can we do, if united? We only want a Navy to give law to the world, and we have it in our power to get it.