[94] On the 4th of December, he repeated his former recommendation to the President of Congress. (Writings of Washington, III. 184.) On the 26th of December, he wrote to Richard Henry Lee, in Congress, begging him to use his influence in having a court of admiralty or some power appointed to hear and determine all matters relative to captures; saying, "You cannot conceive how I am plagued on this head, and how impossible it is for me to hear and determine upon matters of this sort, when the facts, perhaps, are only to be ascertained at ports forty, fifty, or more miles distant, without bringing the parties here [Cambridge] at great trouble and expense. At any rate, my time will not allow me to be a competent judge of this business." Ibid., III. 217. [95] Letter to the President of Congress, February 9, 1776. Ibid., III. 282. Letter to Joseph Reed, February 10, 1776. Ibid., III. 284. [96] Ibid., III. 370. [97] This was the emission ordered on the 23d of June, 1775. There were _forty-nine thousand_ bills of each denomination from one dollar to eight dollars, inclusive, and _eleven thousand eight hundred_ bills of the denomination of twenty dollars. The form of the bills was as follows (Journals, I. 126):-- CONTINENTAL CURRENCY. No. ________________ Dollars. This Bill entitles the Bearer to receive ________________ Spanish milled Dollars, or the value thereof in Gold or Silver, according to the Resolutions of the Congress, held at Philadelphia on the 10th day of May, A. D. 1775. [98] Journals, I. 177. [99] Journals, I. 126, 177. The signers of the bills were allowed a commission of one dollar and one third of a dollar on each thousand of the bills signed by them. Ibid. [100] Ante, p. 35. [101] Writings of Washington, III. 104, 167, 173, 178, 283. [102] Writings of Washington, III. 278; IV. 115; V. 328. Mr. Sparks has preserved an anecdote, which shows the perpetuation of this feeling about standing armies, and evinces also that Washington possessed more humor than has been generally attributed to him. In the Convention for forming the Constitution of the United States, some member proposed to insert a clause in the Constitution, limiting the army of the United States to _five thousand men_. General Washington, who was in the chair, observed that he should not object to such a clause, if it were so amended as to provide that no enemy should ever presume to invade the United States with more than _three thousand_. CHAPTER IV. JULY, 1776--NOVEMBER, 1777. CONSEQUENCES OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.--REORGANIZATION OF THE CONTINENTAL ARMY.--FLIGHT OF THE CONGRESS FROM PHILADELPHIA.--PLAN OF THE CONFEDERATION PROPOSED.