Daniel Morgan Quote

[armaborealis]

In reading a biography of Daniel Morgan, I came across this quote which seems relevant which I wanted to share:

Great god what is the reason we cant Have more men in the field--so many men in the country Nearby idle for want of employment.  How distressing it must be to an anxious mind to see the country over Run and destroyed for want of assistance which I am realy afraid will be the case if proper exertions are not made...

This quote is from a letter from Morgan to Governor Jefferson of his home state of Virginia.  Morgan wrote it by candlelight on January 31, 1781.  Despite having just triumphed decisively at the battle of Cowpens, crushing "Bloody" Banastre Tarleton's legion, many of the Patriot militia enlistments were up and the rebel army in the South was melting away.  Gen Greene (commander in the South) and Morgan were fleeing north, forced to run away from Gen Cornwallis' larger pursuing army.

[V]

The same despair on waiting for fellow country men to awake and do their duty is found in Adam's letter to his wife containing the Posterity Quote.

Some instructors often conflate this with his description of riding Battle Road after April 19th... one can avoid telling a lie while doing this by clearly stating that "in a later letter to his wife he wrote Posterity..." without pointing out that is was two years later in the depths of despair and ill health lamenting the poor quality of his country men....

The French (who else) have a saying.... plus ca change plus c'est la meme chose... me I'm a man of few words (yeah right) I just keep repeating them....

Saturday Evening 26 April 1777

I have been lately more remiss, than usual in Writing to you. There has been a great Dearth of News. Nothing from England, nothing from France, Spain, or any other Part of Europe, nothing from the West Indies. Nothing from Howe, and his Banditti, nothing from General Washington.

There are various Conjectures that Lord How is dead, sick, or gone to England, as the Proclamations run in the Name of Will. Howe only, and nobody from New York can tell any Thing of his Lordship.

I am wearied out, with Expectations that the Massachusetts Troops would have arrived, e'er now, at Head Quarters. -- Do our People intend to leave the Continent in the Lurch? Do they mean to submit? or what Fatality attends them? With the noblest Prize in View, that ever Mortals contended for, and with the fairest Prospect of obtaining it upon easy Terms, The People of the Massachusetts Bay, are dead.

Does our State intend to send only half, or a third of their Quota? Do they wish to see another, crippled, disastrous and disgracefull Campaign for Want of an Army? -- I am more sick and more ashamed of my own Countrymen, than ever I was before. The Spleen, the Vapours, the Dismals, the Horrors, seem to have seized our whole State.

More Wrath than Terror, has seized me. I am very mad. The gloomy Cowardice of the Times, is intollerable in N. England.

Indeed I feel not a little out of Humour, from Indisposition of Body. You know, I cannot pass a Spring, or fall, without an ill Turn -- and I have had one these four or five Weeks -- a Cold, as usual. Warm Weather, and a little Exercise, with a little Medicine, I suppose will cure me as usual. I am not confined, but moap about and drudge as usual, like a Gally Slave. I am a Fool if ever there was one to be such a Slave. I wont be much longer. I will be more free, in some World or other.

Is it not intollerable, that the opening Spring, which I should enjoy with my Wife and Children upon my little Farm, should pass away, and laugh at me, for labouring, Day after Day, and Month after Month, in a Conclave, Where neither Taste, nor Fancy, nor Reason, nor Passion, nor Appetite can be gratified?

Posterity! You will never know, how much it cost the present Generation, to preserve your Freedom! I hope you will make a good Use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven, that I ever took half the Pains to preserve it.