Washington: "Unless Congress...act[s] with more energy...our case is lost."

On May 31, 1780, General Washington wrote Joseph Jones, Virginia congressional representative and James Monroe's uncle, about his fears of the weakness of the American government: 

“Certain I am, unless Congress speak in a more decisive tone, unless they are vested with powers by the several States competent to the great purposes of war, or assume them as matter of right, and they and the States respectively act with more energy than they have hitherto done, that our case is lost. We can no longer drudge on in the old way. By ill timing the adoption of measures, by delays in the execution of them, or by unwarrantable jealousies, we incur enormous expenses and derive no benefit from them. One State will comply with a requisition of Congress ; another neglects to do it; a third executes it by halves ; and all differ either in the manner, the matter, or so much in point of time, that we are always working up hill ; and, while such a system as the present one or rather want of one prevails, we shall ever be unable to apply our strength or resources to any advantage.

"This, my dear Sir, is plain language to a member of Congress; but it is the language of truth and friendship. It is the result of long thinking, close application, and strict observation. I see one head gradually changing into thirteen.”