The Life of George Washington, Vol. 2: Commander in Chief of the American Forces During the War; which Established the Independence of his Country and First; President of the United StatesMarshall, John
History
The Life of George Washington, Vol. 2: Commander in Chief of the American Forces During the War; which Established the Independence of his Country and First; President of the United States
Marshall, John
Generals -- United States -- Biography; Presidents -- United States -- Biography; Washington, George, 1732-1799
your hands, hazards his health, and forsakes the sweets of domestic
enjoyments. Why a captain in the continental service should receive no
more than five shillings currency per day, for performing the same
duties that an officer of the same rank in the British service
receives ten shillings sterling for, I never could conceive;
especially, when the latter is provided with every necessary he
requires, upon the best terms, and the former can scarcely procure
them at any rate. There is nothing that gives a man consequence, and
renders him fit for command, like a support that renders him
independent of every body but the state he serves.
"With respect to the men, nothing but a good bounty can obtain them
upon a permanent establishment, and for no shorter time than the
continuance of the war ought they to be engaged; as facts
incontestably prove that the difficulty and cost of enlistments
increase with time. When the army was first raised at Cambridge, I am
persuaded the men might have been got, without a bounty, for the war:
after that, they began to see that the contest was not likely to end
so speedily as was imagined, and to feel their consequence, by
remarking, that to get their militia, in the course of the last year,
many towns were induced to give them a bounty. Foreseeing the evils
resulting from this, and the destructive consequences which would
unavoidably follow short enlistments, I took the liberty, in a long
letter, (date not now recollected, as my letter book is not here,) to
recommend the enlistments for and during the war, assigning such
reasons for it, as experience has since convinced me, were well
founded. At that time, twenty dollars would, I am persuaded, have
engaged the men for this term: but it will not do to look back--and if
the present opportunity is slipped, I am persuaded that twelve months
more will increase our difficulties four fold. I shall therefore take
the liberty of giving it as my opinion, that a good bounty be
immediately offered, aided by the proffer of at least a hundred, or a
hundred and fifty acres of land, and a suit of clothes, and a blanket,
to each non-commissioned officer and soldier, as I have good authority
for saying, that however high the men's pay may appear, it is barely
sufficient, in the present scarcity and dearness of all kinds of
goods, to keep them in clothes, much less to afford support to their
families. If this encouragement, then, is given to the men, and such
pay allowed to the officers, as will induce gentlemen of liberal
character and liberal sentiments to engage; and proper care and
caution be used in the nomination, (having more regard to the
characters of persons than the number of men they can enlist,) we
should, in a little time, have an army able to cope with any that can
be opposed to it, as there are excellent materials to form one out of:
but whilst the only merit an officer possesses is his ability to raise
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