Unless our Union
can be fixed upon such a basis as to accomplish these, certain
I am we have toiled, bled and spent our treasure to very little
purpose.
We have now a National character to establish, and it is of the
utmost importance to stamp favorable impressions upon it; let
justice be then one of its characteristics, and gratitude another.
Public creditors of every denomination will be comprehended in the
first; the Army in a particular manner will have a claim to the
latter; to say that no distinction can be made between the claims
of public creditors is to declare that there is no difference in
circumstances; or that the services of all men are equally alike.
This Army is of near eight years' standing, six of which they have
spent in the Field without any other shelter from the inclemency
of the seasons than Tents, or such Houses as they could build for
themselves without expense to the public. They have encountered
hunger, cold and nakedness. They have fought many Battles and bled
freely. They have lived without pay and in consequence of it,
officers as well as men have subsisted upon their Rations.
They have often, very often, been reduced to the necessity of
eating Salt Porke, or Beef not for a day, or a week only but
months together without Vegetables or money to buy them; or a
cloth to wipe on.
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