Our first care was to take counsel as to the future.

We detailed mutually to each other the respective circumstances which had shaped our movements so far, and with which it was our duty then to contend.

But one thing seemed quite clear; namely, that the country demanded a delay of at least a month.

Although the sincerity of the motive on which this demand was founded seemed questionable to many, there was no way of counteracting its effect or denying its universality.

The question then was, how was the demand to be complied with without compromising our liberty or the position we occupied?
It was argued that the necessity of our condition would justify any act which would reassure the minds of the people in reference to the apprehension of starvation, which was so sedulously inculcated, and that a proclamation should forthwith be published confiscating the landed property of the country, and offering it as the gage of battle and reward of victory, and another proclamation directing the people to live at the expense of the enemy.