Philadelphia, February, 1776.
Lee is at York, and we have requested a battalion of Philadelphia
associators, together with a regiment of Jersey minute-men, to march to
his assistance. Lord Stirling was there before with his regiment, so
that there will be about a thousand men with Lee from Connecticut, about
six hundred with Lord Stirling from the Jerseys, one battalion of about
seven hundred and twenty minute-men from Jersey, and one of the same
number from Philadelphia. We shall soon have four battalions more,
raised in Pennsylvania, to march to the same place, and one more in the
Jerseys. Mr. Dickinson, being the first Colonel and commander of the
first battalion too, claimed it as his right to march upon this
occasion. Mr. Reed, formerly General Washington's secretary, goes his
lieutenant-colonel. Mr. Dickinson's alacrity and spirit upon this
occasion, which certainly becomes his character and sets a fine example,
is much talked of and applauded. This afternoon, the four battalions of
the militia were together, and Mr. Dickinson mounted the rostrum to
harangue them, which he did with great vehemence and pathos, as it is
reported.
I suppose, if I could have made interest enough to have been chosen more
than a lieutenant, I should march too, upon some such emergency; and
possibly a contingency may happen when it will be proper for me to do
it still, in rank and file. I will not fail to march, if it should. In
the beginning of a war, in colonies like this and Virginia, where the
martial spirit is but just awakened and the people are unaccustomed to
arms, it may be proper and necessary for such popular orators as Henry
and Dickinson to assume a military character. But I really think them
both better statesmen than soldiers,[125] though I cannot say they are
not very good in the latter character. Henry's principles and systems
are much more conformable to mine than the other's, however.
I feel, upon some of these occasions, a flow of spirits and an effort of
imagination, very like an ambition to be engaged in the more active,
gay, and dangerous scenes; (dangerous, I say, but recall that word, for
there is no course more dangerous than that which I am in.) I have felt
such passions all my lifetime, particularly in the year 1757, when I
longed more ardently to be a soldier than I ever did to be a lawyer. But
I am too old, and too much worn with fatigues of study in my youth, and
there is too little need, in my province, of such assistance, for me to
assume a uniform.
"Non tali auxilio, nec defensoribus istis
Tempus eget."
I believe I must write you soon Lord Stirling's character, because I was
vastly pleased with him. For the future I shall draw no characters but
such as I like. Pimps destroy all freedom of correspondence.