Congress have sent me here in Conjunction with some other Gentlemen to regulate their Army and in Truth not a little Regulation hath become necessary.1 Our Quarter Master and Commissary Departments are in the most lamentable Situation. Opportunities have been neglected last Campaign which were truly Golden ones but omnipotent Fatality had it seems determined that the american Capital should fall. Our Sentiments on this Occasion are so perfectly coincident that I will not enlarge. The mighty Senate of America is not what you have known it. The Continental C—& C—2 have both depreciated but in the Hands of the almighty Architect of Empires the Stone which the Builders have rejected may easily become Head of the Corner.3 The free open and undisturbed Communication with the City of P[hiladelphia] debauches the Minds of those in its Vicinage with astonishing Rapidity. O this State is sick even unto the Death and in Sir William they have certainly got a most damnable Phisician. Just before the Reduction of the Forts the Enemy balanced exactly upon the Point of quitting the City & a Straw would have turned in either Scale. Our Troops. Heu miseros!4 The Skeleton of an Army presents itself to our Eyes in a naked starving Condition out of Health out of Spirits. But I have seen Fort George in the Summer of 1777. Next Campaign I beleive we shall banish these troublesome Fellows. For Heaven’s Sake my dear Friend exert yourself strenuously in the great leading Business of Taxation. To that Great Wheel “a thousand Petty Spokes and small annexments are mortized and adjoined”5 I earnestly intreat you and my other Friend fortia opponere Pectora6 to that fatal System of Limitation which if carried into Execution would be downright ruin and in the ineffectual Attempt will carry us to the bring of it.7 York Town and its Neighbourhood altho near ninety Miles from Philadelphia already considers our Money almost as Waste Paper At Taverns take as a specimen the following Rates. Breakfast and Supper each 7 / 6 Dinner 10 / one Nights Hay for one Horse 7 / 6 Oats per Quart 1 / Tody per Bowl 10 / Rum per Gill 7 / 6 Wine per Bottle from 30 / to 40 / and the like You will observe this is Proclamation8 Hay they tell me hath been sold in some Places at £20 Proc per Ton. My Love to Livingston I shall write to him by this Opportunity if I can find Time to send a long Letter which indeed I owe him. Remember me to Mrs. Jay & beleive me yours