All that was required was for the Americans to prove themselves worthy of this assistance by respectably matching it with forces of their own; whereas they appeared almost unequal to the task of maintaining any army at all! Moreover, the situation at the South was weekly becoming more desperate. In December Clinton sent Arnold to Virginia with a large expedition, and in the spring Oornwallis also began aggressions in that quarter. The Southern emergencies were so extreme that Washington's individual command, wretchedly weak ami neglected though it was, could not be strengthened or receive any fostering attention without prejudicing interests at the seat of war. And finally he was continually importuned to abandon the North altogether, let befall what might there, and fly to the rescue of his native State -- importunities which Rochambeau, the French general, seconded by favoring an immediate Southern campaign. In such circumstances it is wonderful that Washington was nevertheless able to have a decent force ;it the North to unite with the French Avhen the hour of action struck. lint most of all it demands admiration -- admiration without limits or bounds -- that from the very outset of the year 17S1 up to his masterly movement to Virginia in August, he never faltered in his plan of an exclusive Northern demonstration with his French allies as the one vital policy of strategy. It was to this plan and its steadfast pursuance with every manifestation of soberest earnestness that the conquest of American liberties at Yorktown was undividedly due. And it is the proud boast of our County of Westchester that here, on our soil -- entirely on our soil -- the grand programme was inaugurated, developed, prosecuted, and brought to the threshold of assured success. At the opening of the spring (March 6) Washington left his headquarters at New Windsor on the west side of the Hudson and went to visit the French general at Newport.