Transmits news of enemy victories in Cherry Valley. The extensive frontiers of New York are indefensible against a mobile enemy, and an offensive must be mounted or all of the outlying settlements will be destroyed, and New York will be incapable of supplying troops with grain. Encloses copies of papers and letters which give accounts of the destruction of Cherry Valley and capture of Fort Alden by the British, for John Jay to lay before Congress immediately. The impracticality of defending the extensive American frontiers by county militia and a small number of regulars against the enemy is becoming more and more obvious. When the whole force is distributed for defense, it is too weak to resist the united strength of the enemy at any one point. Cherry Valley which contained some of the principal. New York granaries, is the seventh valuable settlement lost by the state this season. The frontier can be defended effectively only by moving the war into the enemy's country with a proper force. If the British continue to win, New York will no longer be able to supply the army, and will perish.
Subjects
United States--History--Revolution, 1775-1783; Jay, John, 1745-1829