It was the only means to prevent a total dereliction of the service .-- It was a part of their hire .-- I may be allowed to say it was the price of their blood, and of your independence.

It is therefore more than a common debt; it is a debt of honour.

It can never be considered as a pension, or gratuity; nor be cancelled until it is fairly discharged.
"With regard to a distinction between officers and soldiers, it is sufficient that the uniform experience of every nation of the world, combined with your own, proves the utility and propriety of the discrimination.

Rewards in proportion to the aids the public derives from them, are unquestionably due to all its servants.

In some lines, the soldiers have perhaps generally had as ample a compensation for their services, by the large bounties which have been paid to them, as their officers will receive in the proposed commutation; in others, if besides the donation of lands, the payment of arrearages, of clothing and wages, (in which articles all the component parts of the army must be put upon the same footing,) we take into the estimate the bounties many of the soldiers have received, and the gratuity of one year's full pay which is promised to all, possibly their situation (every circumstance duly considered) will not be deemed less eligible than that of the officers.