possibility of recovery.  If you were on the spot, my dear sir, if you could see what difficulties surround us on every side, how unable we are to administer to the most ordinary calls of the service, you would be convinced that these expressions are not too strong:  and that we have every thing to dread:  Indeed I have almost ceased to hope.  The country in general is in such a state of insensibility and indifference to its interests, that I dare not flatter myself with any change for the better.

“The committee of congress in their late address to the several states, have given a just picture of our situation.  I very much doubt its making the desired impression; and if it does not, I shall consider our lethargy as incurable.  The present juncture is so interesting, that if it does not produce correspondent exertions, it will be a proof, that motives of honour, public good, and even self-preservation, have lost their influence upon our minds.  This is a decisive moment, one of the most, I will go further and say, the most important America has seen.  The court of France has made a glorious effort for our deliverance, and if we disappoint its intentions by our supineness, we must become contemptible in the eyes of all mankind; nor can we, after that, venture to confide that our allies will persist in an attempt to establish what it will appear we want inclination or ability to assist them in.

“Every view of our own circumstances ought to determine us to the most vigorous efforts; but there are considerations of another kind, that should have equal weight.  The combined fleets of France and Spain last year were greatly superior to those of the enemy; the enemy nevertheless sustained no material damage, and at the close of the campaign gave a very important blow to our allies.  This campaign, the difference between the fleets, from every account I have been able to collect, will be inconsiderable:  indeed it is far from clear that there will be an equality.  What are we to expect will be the case if there should be another campaign?  In all probability the advantage would be on the side of the English, and then what would become of America?  We ought not to deceive ourselves.  The maritime resources of Great Britain are more substantial and real than those of France and Spain united.  Her commerce is more extensive than that of both her rivals; and it is an axiom, that the nation which has the most extensive commerce will always have the most powerful marine.  Were this argument less convincing, the fact speaks for itself:  her progress in the course of the last year is an incontestable proof.

“It is true France in a manner created a fleet in a very short space, and this may mislead us in the judgment we form of her naval abilities.  But if they bore any comparison with those of Great Britain, how comes it to pass, that with all the force of Spain added, she has lost so much ground in so short a time, as now to have scarcely a superiority.  We should consider what was done by France, as a violent and unnatural effort of the government, which, for want of sufficient foundation, can not continue to operate proportionable effects.