Prompt and Vigorous Aid: Quebec Mercury, July 12, 1814, page 221
Baltimore, June 24.
Prompt and Vigorous Aid.
On the first day of June the enemy entered the Paruxent; and from that day, until the 20th, continued, unmolested, to commit depredations along its shores, within 50 miles of the city of Washington. On the 19th they had quiet possession of Benedict, and sent parties of 50 men four or five miles into the country unarmed, some of them to within two miles of Nottingham; and destroyed or carried off two or three hundred thousand dollars worth of the property of the unprotected citizens.
The editors of the administration paper now tell us, "It is superfluous to comment on the prompt and vigorous aid which has been extended by the general government to those parts of the state, which are suffering from the ravages of the enemy" It is indeed superfluous to comment, to state the facts is sufficient—Those editors must mean that the aid afforded after a delay of three weeks is comparatively prompt, when other movements of our rulers are considered. The snail tho' slow in its movements, is more prompt and vigorous than the sloth.