He insisted that officers must have better provision, for they had begun to resign.

"You must appeal to their interest as well as to their patriotism," he wrote, "and you must give them half-pay and full pay in proper measure." "You must follow the same policy with the men," he said; "you must have done with short enlistments.

In a word, gentlemen, you must give me an army, a lasting, enduring, continental army, for therein lies independence."[1] It all comes out now, through the dust of details and annoyances, through the misery and suffering of that wretched winter, through the shrill cries of ignorance and hostility,--the great, clear, strong policy which meant to substitute an army for militia, and thereby secure victory and independence.

It is the burden of all his letters to the governors of States, and to his officers everywhere.

"I will hold the army together," he said, "but you on all sides must help me build it up."[1] [Footnote 1: These two quotations are not literal, of course, but give the substance of many letters.] Thus with much strenuous labor and many fervent appeals he held his army together in some way, and slowly improved it.