It is not easy to penetrate the Designs of the Enemy. What Object they have in View, cannot certainly be determined. Philadelphia, most probably and Albany. They have near Ten thousand Men in the Jersies, at Brunswick, Amboy, Bonamtown, and Piscataqua: the two last Posts, are very near their main Body.

I think, but may be mistaken, that they will not hazard, an Attempt upon this City, or Albany, before they receive a Reinforcement. If they do, they must evacuate New Jersy, entirely, because they have not Men enough to leave sufficient Garrisons in Brunswick and Amboy, and march to Philadelphia, or to Albany with the Remainder.

It is the opinion of our General Officers, however, that they will march, within a very few days from South Amboy, through the Pines towards the Delaware. They are building Boats in N. York which may serve either for the Delaware, or Hudsons River, or indeed they may serve to draw their Army off, from Brunswick, by Rarriton River, Brunswick being about twelve Miles from the Sound between N. Jersey and Staten Island.

What Reinforcements, they will be able to obtain is uncertain. Is it not more probable that they will bring their Army round by Water, from Canada, and join General Howe, than that they will come over the Lakes? From England and Ireland, they can derive no great Reinforcement. It is not known how many, they can obtain from Germany. The Russian Auxiliaries are uncertain, but if they come they will certainly bring a French War with them. But in all Events I think We need not fear any considerable Reinforcement from Europe before Mid summer. The British Troops here, are not more sickly than usual: But the Hessians are sickly with Pleurisies and other Fevers.

It is certain, that if they should march to Philadelphia, and gain Possession of it, they have not Men enough to maintain a Line of Posts, by which a Communication can be kept open by Land, with New York. They must therefore evacuate New Jersy, which would leave their miserable Friends in that State in absolute Despair, and the Whiggs already exasperated to a great degree, would assume new Vigour. Troops in the mean Time will be coming into N. Jersey from the Eastern states and into Pensilvania from the southern: and the Militia of Philadelphia and 120Pensilvania will not be idle. So that they must expect to be cooped up in the City and there perhaps destroyed, before a Reinforcement Shall arrive. Besides this, they will be at such a Distance, from New York and Long Island, that they may be under Apprehensions for those Places. Another Thing. I think they will not choose to divide their Fleet So much. They will not attempt Philadelphia, without a Force by Water, as well as by Land. They must keep a large Number of their Ships at New York, to protect that and the neighbouring Islands, and many are at Newport: So that they cannot Spare so many ships as will be necessary to come up the River Delaware.

These Reasons perswade me to differ from the opinion of our General officers, and to believe that1 no Attempt will be made upon Philadelphia, before a Reinforcement comes. I wish I may not be deceived as this City, by her central situation, Wealth, Artificers and several other Qualities, is of much Importance to Us. But if they get it, they will not find so much Advantage from it, as they expect. It will cost them most or all of their Force to keep it, which will make it a Severity to other Plans. I am, my Friend Yours. &c.

Yours of the 16th. I got Yesterday. If Howe imagines that one fourth of Pensilvania are Quakers, he is mistaken one half: for upon the most exact Inquiry, I find there is not more than one in Eight of that Denomination. If he imagines that 99 in 100 of these are his Friends, he is mistaken again. For I believe in my Conscience that a Majority of them are Friends to Nobody but themselves—And Howe will find them full as great an Incumbrance And Embarrassment to him, as We have found them to Us.

The Acquisition of Philadelphia, would give Howe a temporary Ecclát, it is true, in Europe and America, but it would in the End prove his Destruction.

Beware of those, who make So free with the Epithets of “sordid” “Selfish,” “ungenerous” and “ungratefull.” Let them look at Howe.

The other Colonies, it is true, contributed, to Support the Poor of Boston. But for whose Good, did Boston resign her whole Trade?1 For the good of all the others, as well as her own. And did not all the others go on with their Trade to their vast Profit, while Boston lost its all? If Boston had not, with a Generosity and Magnanimity, hitherto without Example or Parrellel in America, resigned its Trade, and nobly Stood the shock, Boston would have been the undisputed Mistress among the Slaves of America, and have drawn the Wealth of America to herself, and So she would now, if the States Should Submit, because there is no other Place that the Crown Officers of all Denominations will resort to in Such Numbers. There would be the most numerous Army, there the most powerfull Fleet, and there the whole Board of Excise, Customs, and Duties.2

For whose Interest did Boston, continue without Trade, and without Government, and Submit to a trifling Force within herself? I remember a Petition to Congress from Boston, for Leave to cutt Gage and his Troops to Pieces, which was absolutely refused.3 To whom was it owing that all the rest of the Continent, besides Boston, continued, their Exports Nine Months after their Imports were stopped?4 Whereby Millions were lost to this Continent—whereto in all human Probability this whole War is owing?

I am not by this, however, justifying the Policy, of Massachusetts in regulating the Prices of Goods, which laid them under the Necessity of prohibiting Exportations. But other States ought not to complain of this; because the Continent is procuring Supplies from N. England, at one third of the Price, which they give for the Same Articles, in other States. But they found they could not regulate the Prices of Things without regulating Exportations. Because Persons belonging to other States, were about purchasing every Thing at the Stated Prices, and then exporting them at an immense Profit.5

As to the Mass. getting Money, it is all a Joke. They have lost their Staple by this Quarrell, which no other State has done—the Fishery I mean, which has destroyed their Trade. The Privateers fitted out, in that State, which have made such an Ecclat, belong to Congress, and to Citizens of other states, I suppose one half of them, and Besides, the Continent could not have carried on the War without them. Their Seamen have supplied the Army, with most Things. Where then is the Ingratitude?

Dont be anxious about the Union. I have been a Witness to 122such Peevishnesses a long time. They Spring from Envy at Bottom. They see the superiority of the Mass. to every one of them, in every Point of View, and they cant bear the sight—But the ill humour will frett away. The Indigo, Rice, Tobacco, Wheat, Iron, the Staples of other States, are not affected by this War like the Fishery, the Mast and Lumber Trade which made almost the whole Trade of the Mass.6

For whose good has the Mass. sacrificed their Trade, and Privateers too by their Embargo? A Restraint that other States have not chosen to Subject themselves to, altho it is more wanted, both for manning the Army and Navy in them, than it was in her.

I hate disputes of this sort, and I never begin them. But when Mass is attacked, I never have and never will fail to defend her, as far as Truth and Justice will warrant me and no further.7

There is a narrow Spirit, in many People, which Seems to consider this Contest as the Affair of Boston and the Mass, not the Affair of the Continent. All that they have to do, is to wear genteel Uniforms and Armour, to get the Character of Heroes by their Bravery, and to be thought to lay Boston and the Mass. under vast Obligations. For my own Part I think the Obligations mutual, but if there is a Ballance it is clearly in favour of Mass. I ever disclaimed, in the most decisive Terms, all Obligations to any State or Person, and ever shall. I will never Solicit Charity or Favour, as a Politician, much less acknowledge obligations to others, who are under the strongest of all.

Are there not Persons who insinuate themselves into your Army, with a Design to foment Prejudices, excite Jealousies, and raise Clamours?