To prevent this error, I shall employ every means in my power, and, if unhappily we sink into this fatal mistake, no part of the blame shall be mine." On the 27th of November he reached Philadelphia, and congress passed a resolution granting him an audience on the succeeding day.

On his appearance the President addressed him in a short speech, informing him that a committee was appointed to state the requisitions to be made for the proper establishment of the army, and expressing the expectation that he would remain in Philadelphia, in order to aid the consultations on that important subject.
The secretary of war, the financier, and the secretary of foreign affairs, assisted at these deliberations; and the business was concluded with unusual celerity.
A revenue was scarcely less necessary than an army; and it was obvious that the means for carrying on the war must be obtained, either by impressment, or by a vigorous course of taxation.

But both these alternatives depended on the states; and the government of the union resorted to the influence of the Commander-in-chief in aid of its requisitions.
But no exertions on the part of America alone could expel the invading army.

A superiority at sea was indispensable to the success of offensive operations against the posts which the British still held within the United States.

To obtain this superiority, General Washington pressed its importance on the minister of France and commanding officers of the French troops, as well as on the Marquis de Lafayette, who was about to return to his native country.
[Sidenote: Proceedings in the British parliament.] The first intelligence from Europe was far from being calculated to diminish the anxieties still felt in America by the enlightened friends of the revolution.