Above all they had money and adequate resources.
In a word they had the things which Washington lacked during almost the whole of the war.
Washington called his success in the attack at Trenton a lucky stroke.
It was luck which had far-reaching consequences.

Howe had the fixed idea that to follow the capture of New York by that of Philadelphia, the most populous city in America, and the seat of Congress, would mean great glory for himself and a crushing blow to the American cause.

If to this could be added, as he intended, the occupation of the whole valley of the Hudson, the year 1777 might well see the end of the war.

An acute sense of the value of time is vital in war.

Promptness, the quick surprise of the enemy, was perhaps the chief military virtue of Washington; dilatoriness was the destructive vice of Howe.