They will not be satisfied with a general declaration that it shall be made good.
"I have often said, and I beg leave to repeat it, the half pay provision is in my opinion the most politic and effectual that can be adopted.

On the whole, if something satisfactory be not done, the army (already so much reduced in officers by daily resignations as not to have a sufficiency to do the common duties of it) must either cease to exist at the end of the campaign, or will exhibit an example of more virtue, fortitude, self-denial, and perseverance, than has perhaps ever yet been paralleled in the history of human enthusiasm.
"The dissolution of the army is an event that can not be regarded with indifference.

It would bring accumulated distress upon us; it would throw the people of America into a general consternation; it would discredit our cause throughout the world; it would shock our allies.
To think of replacing the officers with others is visionary.

The loss of the veteran soldiers could not be replaced.

To attempt to carry on the war with militia against disciplined troops, will be to attempt what the common sense and common experience of mankind will pronounce to be impracticable.