Henry Knox

Were an energetic and judicious system to be proposed with your signature it would be a circumstance highly honorable to your fame . . . and doubly entitle you to the glorious republican epithet, The Father of your Country.

We want great men who, when fortune frowns, will not be discouraged.

The eyes of all America are upon us, as we play our part in posterity will bless or curse us.

We shall cut no small figure through the country with our cannon.

Trusting that...we shall have a fine fall of snow....I hope in sixteen or seventeen days to be able to present to your Excellency a noble train of artillery.

I most earnestly beg you to spare no trouble or necessary expense in getting these.

It is not easy to conceive the difficulties we have had.