Sept. 10, 1779.
Dear Sir:
Accept my thanks for your favor of the 28th of August, and your
obliging assurances that you will comply with my request. Unless my
anxiety in the events of the campaign had been very great, I should
not have been so unreasonable as to impose this burthen on any of my
much respected friends at head quarters; well knowing that they, of all
others, have the least leisure. I find the British reinforcement is
arrived. To me it brings no terror, as I think we have the strongest
evidence that it was not originally intended to exceed four thousand
men, and these raw recruits. You say Wayne is still safe. Let him keep
a sharp look out; for I still hold the opinion, that Sir Henry Clinton
is bound in honor to chastise him, for one of the most daring and
insolent assaults that is to be found in the records of chivalry; an
achievement so brilliant in itself--so romantic in the scale of British
admiration--that none but a hero, inspired by the fortitude, instructed
by the wisdom, and guided by the planet of Washington, could, by the
exploit at Paulus Hook, have furnished materials in the page of history
to give it a parallel. * * You see from this how much I am at my ease.
To know the value of domestic enjoyment, next to head quarters, I
recommend the chair at the Board of Treasury, for ten months of a
session, in which both our friends and foes are waging a successful war
against the public credit.
Present my affectionate regard to His Excellency, and the family, and
believe me, with every friendly sentiment,
Your affectionate and devoted servant,
James Duane.