Liberty, property, life, and honor are all at stake. Upon your courage and conduct rest the hopes of our bleeding and insulted country. Our wives, children, and parents expect safety from us only; and they have every reason to believe that Heaven will crown with success so just a cause. The enemy will endeavor to intimidate by show and appearance; but remember they have been repulsed on various occasions by a few brave Americans. Their cause is bad,--their men are conscious of it; and, if opposed with firmness and coolness on their first onset, with our advantage of works and knowledge of the ground, the victory is most assuredly ours. Every good soldier will be silent and attentive, wait for orders, and reserve his fire until he is sure of doing execution. * * * * * FROM VARIOUS LETTERS, SPEECHES, AND ADDRESSES _To the Captains of Several Independent Companies in Virginia. Philadelphia, June, 1775_ "Gentlemen, "I am now about to bid adieu to the companies under your respective commands, at least for a time. I have launched into a wide and extensive field, too boundless for my abilities, and far, very far, beyond my experience. I am called by the unanimous voice of the Colonies to the command of the Continental army; an honor I did not aspire to, an honor I was solicitous to avoid, upon a full conviction of my inadequacy to the importance of the service. I have only to beg of you, therefore, before I go, by no means to relax in the discipline of your respective companies. "I cannot doubt but the asserters of freedom and the right of the Constitution are possessed of your most favorable regards and wishes for success. As descendants of freedom, and heirs with us of the same glorious inheritance, we flatter ourselves that, though divided by our situation, we are firmly united in sentiment. The cause of virtue and liberty is confined to no continent or climate. It comprehends within its capacious limits the wise and good, however dispersed and separated in space and distance." _To the Inhabitants of the Island of Bermuda_ "While we are contending for our own liberty, we should be very cautious not to violate the rights of conscience in others, ever considering that God alone is the judge of the hearts of men, and to Him only they are answerable." _To Colonel Benedict Arnold, 1775_ "The man who means to commit no wrong will never be guilty of enormities; consequently he can never be unwilling to learn what is ascribed to him as foibles. If they are really such, the knowledge of them in a well-disposed mind will go half way towards a reform. If they are not errors he can explain and justify the motives of his actions." _To Patrick Henry, Valley Forge, 27th March, 1778_