Josiah Bartlett, New Hampshire delegate to the Continental Congress, to General (Nathaniel) Folsom, former New Hampshire delegate to Congress (excerpt on the need for a standing army) September 2, 1776 "... I am fully sensible of the great difficulties we labour under by the soldiers being enlisted for such short periods, and that it would have been much better had they at first received a good bounty, and been enlisted to serve during the war. But you may recollect the many, and, to appearance, almost insuperable difficulties that then lay in our way. No money, no magazines of provisions, no military stores, no government; in short, when I look back, and consider our situation about fifteen months ago, instead of wondering that we are in no better situation than at present, I am surprised we are in so good ... As circumstances are now, I think we ought, by all means, to be provided with a well-disciplined army, to serve during way, and that they ought to be raised as soon as possible." American Archives, Fifth Series, Volume Two, column 118