The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, vol. 2 - Online Library of ...
The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, vol. 2 - Online Library of ...
The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, vol. 2 - Online Library of ...
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<strong>Online</strong> <strong>Library</strong> <strong>of</strong> Liberty: <strong>The</strong> <strong>Diary</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Letters</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Gouverneur</strong> <strong>Morris</strong>, <strong>vol</strong>. 2<br />
those bad roads are at the best), was one continued rain for two months; so that at<br />
length they were nearly stuck fast, <strong>and</strong> had as much as they could do to drag back<br />
their cannon through the mud. Lastly, that France brought into the field, <strong>and</strong> has kept<br />
up until very lately, the immense number <strong>of</strong> 600,000 troops. This has been done at an<br />
average expense <strong>of</strong> about five millions sterling per month beyond their resources, <strong>and</strong><br />
yet they have ordered a like army for the next campaign, <strong>and</strong> talk boldly <strong>of</strong> meeting<br />
Great Britain also upon her element. What say you to that, Monsieur le Financier? But<br />
I will tell you in your ear that, in spite <strong>of</strong> that blustering, they will do much to avoid a<br />
war with Britain, if the people will let them. But truth is, that the populace <strong>of</strong> Paris<br />
influence, in a great degree, the public counsels. I think they will have quite as many<br />
men as they can maintain; but what that may amount to is hard to determine. <strong>The</strong><br />
ministers here are a most extraordinary people; they make nothing <strong>of</strong> difficulties, as<br />
you shall judge by a simple trait <strong>of</strong> M. Pache,? the Minister at War. He had sent<br />
Beuernonville to occupy the Moselle River down to Coblentz, taking Trèves <strong>and</strong> other<br />
places in his way. Now this way lies through a very difficult, mountainous country, in<br />
which the snow is already very deep; therefore Beuernonville, having got a little neck<br />
<strong>of</strong> l<strong>and</strong> between the Saar <strong>and</strong> the Moselle, puts his troops into winter-quarters,<br />
pleading their nakedness as an excuse. <strong>The</strong> minister has sent him a brace <strong>of</strong><br />
commissioners, who have power to impress in the neighborhood whatever may be<br />
needful for the troops <strong>and</strong> then (their wants supplied) summon him to obey his orders.<br />
If I may venture to judge from appearances, there is now in the wind a storm not<br />
unlike that <strong>of</strong> September. Whether it will burst or blow over it is impossible to<br />
determine. It has occurred to me that I never yet assigned a reason why the<br />
completion <strong>of</strong> the payment <strong>of</strong> 6,000,000f., which at Mr. Short’s request I had<br />
stipulated for with the government lately abolished, appeared to me desirable. In<br />
effect, I left this, as I do many other things, to the sense <strong>of</strong> the gentle reader; but as<br />
readers are sometimes ungentle, it is not amiss to communicate that reason to a friend.<br />
I saw that the new government would be hungry, <strong>and</strong> would urge us for money, in the<br />
double view <strong>of</strong> obtaining an acknowledgment <strong>of</strong> them as well as <strong>of</strong> supplying their<br />
wants. It was therefore, I thought, right to take a position where we might say there is<br />
nothing due. This would leave open a question which it would be very delicate to<br />
answer either way as things appeared then, <strong>and</strong> as they are, now that appearances<br />
have changed. You will have seen the manœuvres to force me in that intrenchment,<br />
but at last, like your friend General Lee, I was quit, at the worst, for a retrograde<br />
manœuvre. But I concluded that supplies <strong>of</strong> money to support the Colony <strong>of</strong> Santo<br />
Domingo would, in all events, have been considered as a good <strong>and</strong> effectual payment<br />
on our part, <strong>and</strong>, had my <strong>of</strong>fer <strong>of</strong> recommending such supplies been accepted, I could,<br />
on that ground, have proposed the measure which, anticipating the next instalment,<br />
would have still kept open the main point as long as you should think proper. And<br />
thus my apparent retreat was, in effect, a mode <strong>of</strong> more permanent defence; <strong>and</strong> this<br />
is more, I believe, than poor Lee could say for himself.”<br />
Writing to Robert <strong>Morris</strong>, on December 24th, <strong>Morris</strong> spoke more fully than usual <strong>of</strong><br />
the horrors he had seen enacted about him. “You will long ere this have learnt,” he<br />
says, “that the scenes which have passed in this country, <strong>and</strong> particularly in this city,<br />
have been horrible. <strong>The</strong>y were more so than you can imagine. Some days ago a man<br />
applied to the Convention for damages done to his quarry. <strong>The</strong> quarries are deep pits,<br />
dug through several feet <strong>of</strong> earth into the bed <strong>of</strong> stone, <strong>and</strong> then extended along the<br />
PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011) 11 http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/1170