A Packet offers for France and I seize the Opportunity to present you the Wishes usual on ^at^ the present Season with that true Sincerity which you who know me cannot doubt of however you may have found Reason in your Converse with Mankind to be on the sceptic Side as to all Professions. Gratulate for me your Lady your Brother and my Friend Carmichael. If I do not write to him by this opportunity which is far from decided he will excuse me 1st. because his own Negligence gives the proper Apology 2ly. because the Chance that my Letter may reach him at all is very precarious 3ly. because I have Nothing to write about which is worth mentioning ^&^ 4ly because the Packet is intended to sail very soon tho I did not earlier know it.

I have already said there is nothing new but a general View of our Affairs may be not disagreable or unuseful. Our Army is as was to have been expected very small and that is not a very disagreable Circumstance considering that there is very little to put in their Bellies or on their Backs. There is less to pay them for Many Exertions have been made for Food and Transportation by States & by Individuals particularly ^by^ the City of Philadelphia;2 many Semblances of Exertion have also been made for Cloathing. But to pour Money into that exhausted Receiver the Treasury of the Union seems to be on one Side far above or below every Body’s Notice. The Evils we suffer are Evils of Finance and among those Evils a general Sense of them is not the least. Prudence foresaw at the Commencement of this Contest that it must eventually like all other civilized Wars be decided by Resource. What Prudence foresaw Wisdom predicted but it was neither wise nor prudent perhaps not practicable to prevent the natural Current of Circumstances and Opinions. At length we have arived at the Point expected, and many a tired Caesar cries help me Cassius or I sink. The old Receipt to cure Vacuity of the Purse is to get more and spend less. That Government should do this requires Energy and Oeconomy. From the Nature of our Government neither the one nor the other can rationally be expected. By this Nature I mean rather the Form than the Materials. The former you know perhaps the latter. ^The Materials are nearly the same in all a little Reason much Passion more Prejudice [and a little chance?] [illegible].^ ^[in margin] The last Campaign after the many promising Appearances and blooming Hopes which introduced it has produced Nothing which is a common Case and a good Lesson to bridle Expectation. The Southern Part of the Continent finding it in Vain to call upon Hercules have applied their own Shoulders to the Wheel. This has had two very good Consequences it has lessened their Danger and demonstrated ^^to them^^ their ^^own^^ Strength. The Enemy will I presume bend their Efforts that Way and then they will learn that the Country is too extensive and too thinly inhabited to be conquered but that the People are sufficiently numerous to plague and the Climate sufficiently baleful to destroy them. We have the Name of an Army to the Southward that is all but that is sufficient and at least as much as we can maintain— Our Poverty is the general Cry but I make^ I make it an invariable Rule to contend in Conversation that our own internal Resources are adequate to the Business which remains. And I do this 1st because it is my real Opinion 2ly because it is a consolatory and encouraging Opinion 3ly because ^thereby^ what little Effect my Opinion may have is to stimulate Activity and Exertion 4ly because the best Way to obtain Assistance ^from others^ is to be convinced ourselves & to convince that we are able to assist ourselves. By our Ability I would understood our phisical Ability. In calling it forth and in Applying it we are & must be greatly defective. Thus strong and weak in the same Moment our Weakness is criminal and our Strength reproachful. In the Course of this War we have gained much and lost much but in the greatest Matters the Game is against us for our Rulers have lost Credit without gaining Experience. Causes my dear Friend must precede their Consequences. The confidence in the Ador Congress the Adoration of them led to Measures erroneous rash inconsiderate ^because they thought everything possible^. The adoration ceased the Confidence subsided. They ^then^ built on a Credit they did not possess. The Building fell and the Foundation vanished. Misfortune will at length produce Experience and Experience will beget Wisdom and Wisdom will establish Confidence. The revolving Wheel has then performed its Course thro the Vicissitudes of Life. In the Interim we stand in Need of Assistance and you must procure it.3 I am very sensible that Spain under her present Circumstances cannot advance Money at Madrid.4 She wants there the Power and every where the Will. The Difference between us appears to me absurd in every Point of View at least on our Part. A and B contend about what? Why ^together about^ the ^Property &^ Possession of C. This under any civil or municipal Law would be absurd surely it is as absurd under the Law of Nations unless there is a Clause in that Law which declares that ^red^ Men of are not entitled to the same Rights with white men. We ask a Territory and a Navigation. The Territory we cannot occupy the Navigation we cannot enjoy. We cannot occupy the Territory at present or in future at present because we have not Men in future because we cannot govern it. The most we can expect is that an Emigration from the whole World whereof one hundredth or perhaps not so much shall be our Descendants will claim title under us to a Part of the Soil then set up an Independence and like Vermont claim and hold the Rest under King Christ of Heaven. Tis impossible to monopolize Theorems and Corollaries the Principles which caused and which justify the present Revolution will cause and justify as many more as Time and Circumstances may furnish occasion for. The Question then resolves ^it^self into this shall we be bounded by a Wilderness or a rival Nation ^Reason says the former and bids us pursue the path which leads to it but^ The blind Avarice of Dominion may propel us but the Way leads to ruin. As into another Road, but it leads to Ruin.5 As to the Navigation of the Mississippi every Body knows that the Rapidity of the Current will forever prevent Ships from sailing up however easily they may float down. Now unless some new Dragon shall be found whose Teeth sown on the Banks of the Ohio will produce Seamen I know not where else they will be found ^obtained^ to navigate Ships abroad which can never return Home. But if this Navigation were as easy and advantageous as it is useless and impracticable its Effect would be only the sooner to dissever from us the Ultramontane Country and the sooner to dissolve all Commercial Connection between us and the sooner to produce every unhappy Consequence of it But 3ly. the foregoing Arguments are brought to operate in a very oblique Line for the Conclusion is admitted and then the Question asked is not Spain sensible of this and being sensible of it why will she refuse us a Right which it is demonstrated we can never exercise is not this to take Advantage of our Distress and to treat on Principles of InEquality? I may be mistaken but I find something very futile in this Question. I do not see the Right on which the whole Matter turns I do not discover it neither by my own Reasonings nor that ^by those^ of any good Writers, or nor in the History of human Affairs. [illegible] the part of Spain. You ask a Navigation which confessedly you cannot exercise. You are You are not Fools therefore you must have some Reason. You insist upon it therefore it must be a strong Reason. You will not declare it that Reason therefore it must be a bad ^wicked^ ^dishonest^ Reason I conclude therefore that you mean to open a Communication with my Territories either for the Purposes of Commerce or Dominion either of which must become fatal to my ^Revenue my^ Grandeur and even my Existence. The more strenuously therefore you insist the more strenuously will I deny It is an Axiom that Monarchies are governed by Kings but Republics by Principles. Wise Ministers therefore study the Character of the Prince ^they have to deal with^ and the Principles of the Republic among which gratitude is never numbered. Good Faith and Moderation are the Principles which it is our Duty and Interest to inculcate and establish in the Stead of Fraud and Ambition. Your own Probity and good Sense will say more on this Subject than I can do both to your Head and Heart your Judgment and your Feelings.6 We must lament that some Circumstances in our Finance and Policy have given colorable Ground to inculpate us ^greatly^ tho unjustly. What then must be the Effect of our Requisition on that Jealous Power who has more to Hope & to fear from us than all the World besides The ^faithful^ Guarantee of our Union would insure to Spain her American Dominions7 and our Ambition or Avarice would tear them away ^from her and ruin us by the Possession. We now are poor^ & Spain can serve us now we can serve her always our ^mutual^ Interests ^therefore^ are united. They are ^indeed^ same and Embarked in the same Cause we are Brethren and the Precept take heed that ye fall not out by the Way should be fel read understood and felt by both. The present Difference is Madness Great Caution on her Part and great Pride on ours which I conscientiously beleive to be mistaken Pride these impede our mutual Interests us ^both^ in the prosecution of a common Object. We Let me add on the whole that a near Neighborhood is never a good Neighborhood.

We must have specie from the Havanna up the Mississippi to in small Ves Boats properly guarded to Fort Pittand thence to Philaa. This is very practicable and of infinite Consequence to the Defence of America Not that I have the remotest Idea we can be subdued. No my Friend be perfectly easy on that Score. Our Weakness can only give the Enemy a larger Theatre to act on and the larger it is the more will they be exhausted by their fruitless Efforts. But if they are permitted to extend their Desolations and if our Governments are driven by Necessity to never again ^have Recourse^ to Expedients and Chicane their Rapine of our Foes will so destroy our Wealth and new Emissions and Depreciations so impair our Morals that the Country will not be worth fighting for nor its Inhabitants worth preserving. Adieu beleive me yours