Life and Correspondence of Joseph Reed: Military Secretary of Washington, at Cambridge, Adjutant-general of the Continental Army, Member of the Congress of the United States, and President of the Executive Council of the State of Pennsylvania, Volume 1

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Lindsay and Blakiston, 1847 - United States

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Page 159 - I know the unhappy predicament I stand in ; I know that much is expected of me ; I know that, without men, without arms, without ammunition, without any thing fit for the accommodation of a soldier, little is to be done ; and, what is mortifying, I know that I cannot stand justified to the world without exposing my own weakness, and injuring the cause, by declaring my wants ; which I am determined not to do, further than unavoidable necessity brings every man acquainted with them.
Page 260 - I only wait myself for this business of Rogers and company being over. I shall then fly to you; for, to confess a truth, I really think our chief will do better with me than without me.
Page 146 - The reflection on my situation and that of this army, produces many an unhappy hour, when all around me are wrapped in sleep. Few people know the predicament we are in on a thousand accounts ; fewer still will believe, if any disaster happens to these lines, from what cause it flows. I have often thought how much happier I should have been, if, instead of accepting the command, under such circumstances, I had taken my musket on my shoulder and entered the ranks ; or, if I could have justified the...
Page 132 - Such a dearth of public spirit and such want of virtue, such stock-jobbing and fertility in all the low arts to obtain advantages of one kind or another in this great change of military arrangement I never saw before, and pray God's mercy that I may never be witness to again.
Page 215 - If we should be obliged to abandon the town, ought it to stand as winter quarters for the enemy ? They would derive great conveniences from it, on the one hand, and much property would be destroyed on the other.
Page 116 - I stoop to retort and invective ; but the intelligence you say you have received from our army requires a reply. I have taken time, sir, to make a strict inquiry, and find it has not the least foundation in truth. Not only your officers and soldiers have been treated with the tenderness due to fellowcitizens and brethren, but even those execrable parricides, whose counsels and aid have deluged their country with blood, have been protected from the fury of a justly enraged people.
Page 136 - I cannot charge myself with incivility, or, what in my opinion is tantamount, ceremonious civility, to the gentlemen of this colony; but if such my conduct appears, I will endeavor at a reformation, as I can assure you, my dear Reed, that I wish to walk in such a line as will give most general satisfaction. You know, that it was my wish at first to invite a certain number...
Page 144 - ... for, as I have but one capital object in view, I could wish to make my conduct coincide with the wishes of mankind, as far as I can consistently ; I mean, without departing from that great line of duty, which, though hid under a cloud for some time, from a peculiarity of circumstances, may nevertheless bear a scrutiny.
Page 390 - General is said to have answered, " that he was not worth purchasing, but, such as he was, the King of Great Britain was not rich enough to do it.
Page 142 - The speech I send you. A volume of them was sent out by the Boston gentry ; and, farcical enough, we gave great joy to them, without knowing or intending it ; for, on that day, the day which gave being to the new army, but before the proclamation came to hand, we had hoisted the Union flag in compliment to the United Colonies. But behold ! it was received in Boston as a token of the deep impression the speech had made upon...

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