ARMSTRONG’S management of the Northern campaign caused severe criticism; but his neglect of the city of Washington exhausted the public patience. For two years Washington stood unprotected; not a battery or a breastwork was to be found on the river bank except the old and untenable Fort Washington, or Warburton.[195] A thousand determined men might reach the town in thirty-six hours, and destroy it before any general alarm could be given.[196] Yet no city was more easily protected than Washington, at that day, from attack on its eastern side; any good engineer could have thrown up works in a week that would have made approach by a small force impossible. Armstrong neglected to fortify. After experience had proved his error, he still argued in writing to a committee of Congress[197] that fortifications would have exhausted the Treasury; “that bayonets are known to form the most efficient barriers; and that there was no reason in this case to doubt beforehand the willingness of the country to defend itself,”--as though he believed that militia were most efficient when most exposed! He did not even provide the bayonets. [Illustration: POSITIONS OF THE BRITISH AND AMERICAN FORCES NEAR WASHINGTON AND BALTIMORE, FROM AUGUST 20 TO SEPTEMBER 12 1814] In truth, Armstrong looking at the matter as a military critic decided that the British having no strategic object in capturing Washington, would not make the attempt. Being an indolent man, negligent of detail, he never took unnecessary trouble; and having no proper staff at Washington, he was without military advisers whose opinion he respected. The President and Monroe fretted at his indifference, the people of the District were impatient under it, and every one except Armstrong was in constant terror of attack; but according to their account the secretary only replied: “No, no! Baltimore is the place, sir; that is of so much more consequence.”[198] Probably he was right, and the British would have gone first to Baltimore had his negligence not invited them to Washington.