George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 10

[377] knowing well that he had in Cornwallis a favored

Chap. XVIII.} 1780. Aug. 25.

rival eager to supplant him, reported officially from New York: ‘At this new epoch in the war, when a foreign force has already landed and an addition to it is expected, I owe to my country, and I must in justice to my own fame declare to your lordship, that I become every day more sensible of the utter impossibility of prosecuting the war in this country without re-enforcements. The revolutions fondly looked for by means of friends to the British government I must represent as visionary. These, I well know, are numerous, but they are fettered. An inroad is no countenance, and to possess territory demands garrisons. The accession of friends, without we occupy the country they inhabit, is but the addition of unhappy exiles to the list of pensioned refugees. A glance at the returns of the army divided into garrisons and reduced by casualties on the one part, with the consideration of the task yet before us on the other, would, I fear, renew the too just reflection, that we are by some thousands too weak to subdue this formidable rebellion.’ Yet for the moment the only regiments sent to the United States were three to re-enforce Lord Cornwallis.

Hopeless of success in honorable warfare, Clinton stooped to fraud and corruption. From the time when officers who stood below Arnold were promoted over his head, discontent rankled in his breast and found expression in threats of revenge. After the northern campaign, he complained more than ever that his services had not been sufficiently rewarded. While he held the command in Philadelphia, his extravagant mode of living tempted