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 SOME 
 
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 TROUBLES 
 
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 WASHINGTON 
 
 WHEN 
 
 COMMANDER- 
 IN-CHIEF. 
 
SOME OF THE 
 
 Secret Troubles of \yASHiNGTON 
 
 WHEN 
 
 COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. 
 
 READ BEFORE THE 
 
 MOUNT Vernon Society of Detroit, 
 
 DEC. 2, 1896. 
 BY 
 
 MRS. THOMAS CLAPP PITKIN, 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 The Washington Spurious Letters. 
 Published by the Society. 
 

 111 exciiaagQ 
 MAR 2 9 1^16 
 
fHE history of any war is not complete until the 
 difficulties, hindrances and embarrassments of 
 every kind that beset its leaders are made known, 
 and this can never be while they are living. We 
 read of a victory and it sounds well, but of a town evac- 
 uated, a retreat ordered, we are not always told the reason 
 unless it was a purely strategical one; it might not be wise 
 to say: ''I could not carry out this plan because 3,000 
 of my men had no shoes," or "that enterprise was given 
 up because there was no food of any kind for the troops, 
 nor money to buy any." 
 
 The fame of many a great General owes much to the 
 zeal and energy of his Commissary and Quartermaster. 
 
 Bonaparte had no hesitation in saying, in his strong 
 way, "An army crawls upon its belly,'' and Wellington 
 affirmed the same in more elegant language. The needs 
 of those great commanders, with vast resources behind 
 them, were just the same, in fact, as our first General met, 
 only he had difficulties they never imagined, and so critical 
 was the time, so stupendous the results that hung on all 
 his movements, that for years his weakness must be con- 
 cealed, sometimes, as he says, even from his oivn officers. 
 
 The secret journals of Congress, not published until 
 1818, made known to the world many things that only a 
 
small circle knew before, and read now, fill us with wonder 
 at the condition of afifairs which he had to meet and man- 
 age as best he could. 
 
 I thought it might be interesting, in this day of Immense 
 wealth, of steam transportation, of lightning telegraphs, 
 to renew our acquaintance with some of th^^ evils borne 
 by our first great Leader, and which he himself said, not 
 only prolonged our war most unnecessarily, but added 
 enormously to its expense — and which brought on him 
 trials he could only safely confide to the body that com- 
 missioned him. 
 
 *The Provincial Congress that met in 1775," says Judge 
 Marshall — but here allow me to stop a moment and say, 
 the word Congress is to some misleading, supposing the 
 body referred to was the same in constitution as the one 
 that now assembles in Washington every year. The Pro- 
 vincial Congress was, in fact, only a committee of leading 
 citizens, sent from thirteen independent, sovereign States, 
 to confer together on the startling situation in which they 
 found themselves as opposed to the great and powerful 
 kingdom of Great Britain, and to devise ways and means 
 out of it. They, in fact, had no power to carry out a single 
 one of their own resolutions and the separate States were 
 bitterly jealous of any infringement on their own rights and 
 liberties. "This Provincial Congress," as Judge Marshall 
 says, "that met in 1775, had adjourned the same year with 
 strong hopes that the difficulties between the colonies and 
 the mother country would be adjusted to mutual satis- 
 faction;" but when the temper of the King and Parliament 
 dissipated these hopes and the immense hostile preparations 
 of Great Britain convinced them of their mistake, they 
 
realized they had wasted valuable time. Unaccustomed 
 to war on a great scale, as heretofore each province had 
 taken care of its own little wars, they had an idea that 
 an army could be created each campaign for the purposes 
 of that campaign and that such temporary means were 
 all that was necessary. Under these false ideas, the project 
 of enlisting a permanent army, or rather "for the war," 
 was too long neglected, and in the meanwhile the fire of 
 patriotism which had inspired the first rush to arms had 
 somewhat dimmed as the trials and privations of a sol- 
 dier's life became better known. 
 
 George Washington, who, in the Legislature of Vir- 
 ginia, had taken an early and decided stand against the 
 tyrannical aggressions of Great Britain, received his com- 
 mission as Commander-in-Chief from Congress June 19, 
 1775, with less enthusiasm than we should expect, but 
 with a determination (as he wrote to his brother Augustine) 
 ''to devote himself and his best endeavors, but fearing his 
 own want of experience to conduct a business so extensive 
 in its nature and so arduous in its execution." 
 
 With the promptness of a conscientious man, he first 
 made his will, which he sent to his wife, "his dear Patsey," 
 hoping its provisions would please her, and begging his 
 brother and sister-in-lav/ to visit Mt. Vernon as often as 
 possible to comfort her, he left Philadelphia for head- 
 quarters at Cambridge, where the Provincial Army was 
 gathered to oppose the British, whose forces, partly on the 
 main land and partly in Boston, were supported by 
 numerous ships of war in the bay. 
 
 He arrived July 3d. What did he find there? From 
 the reports of officers, he expected to find 18,000 or 20,000 
 
men, but there were only 14,500 fit for duty. These came 
 from dififerent States, without order or discipHne, and 
 owing allegiance only to their own State, could not form 
 an effective army without complete reorganization, which 
 he immediately set himself to effect; but this work required 
 time and, unfortunately, the terms of most of these troops 
 would expire in November and December, so that a 
 council of war, called July 9th, decided that more men 
 must be immediately fonvarded to the seat of war to be 
 properly drilled to take the place of the disbanded regi- 
 ments. 
 
 This was the first want; next the General tells Con stress, 
 there are neither tents, nor clothes, nor arms, nor ammuni- 
 tion, no Commissar}^, no Quartermaster, no commission of 
 artillery, no military chest, which is an elegant way of 
 saying no money to buy anything; further, the engineers 
 on the ground knew nothing of military needs and he 
 begs Congress, if there are any engineers anywhere in 
 the country who know anything that can help him, to send 
 them on at once; the last, and certainly not the least of 
 these needs, was one whose importance we can fully 
 understand, there was no pozvder. In the first reports it 
 was told him there were 303 barrels, but a few days after 
 revealed the astounding fact that there had been a blunder, 
 and that, in fact, there were only nine rounds to each man. 
 
 Instantly secret application was made in every quarter 
 where powder might possibly be obtained, but not until a 
 fortnight passed was even a very small quantity received 
 from Elizabeth, New Jersey, and if the citizens of that 
 place had known that their means of defense was being 
 sent to Cambridge, they would have risen *'en masse-' to 
 
prevent it, but night and darkness kept the secret from 
 them. No powder had ever been made in this country; 
 indeed, everything Hke munitions of war, guns, artillery, 
 uniforms, blankets, even, had been sent from England — 
 that government had not only discouraged all efforts made 
 by patriotic men to supply their own needs in manufac- 
 tured articles, but by official orders had closed twenty-five 
 years earlier factories and foundries that were in successful 
 operation/'' 
 
 In this campaign, as late as August 4th, we find the 
 Commander-in-Chief writing thus to Gov. Cooke, of Rhode 
 Island: 
 
 "I am now, sir, in strict confidence, to acquaint you 
 that our necessities in the articles of powder and lead are 
 so great as to require an immediate supply. I must 
 earnestly entreat that you will fall upon some measure to 
 forward every pound of each in your colony that can pos- 
 sibly be spared. It is not within the propriety or safety 
 of such a correspondence to say what I might on this 
 subject." 
 
 Of course it must be kept a secret, a secret that could 
 not be confided to the 14,000 men most affected by it, and 
 if any rumor of the fact reached the British general's ears, 
 intrenched in the good town of Boston, he no doubt 
 
 * It gives me pleasure to say here that men of my husband's 
 name and family, taking one of these foundries that had been idle 
 for a quarter of a century, turned it into a powder mill and, to the 
 extent of their ability, supplied the patriotic army with this neces- 
 sary implement of war, until the end of the contest: for this they 
 received no remuneration, the only help the government gave 
 being the power to seize salt petre wherever it could be found. 
 
thought it was meant to deceive him, as it was past all 
 belief, that an army without bayonets would dare to defy 
 him without powder also. No wonder that Washington 
 was obliged to confine his operations to simply holding 
 the enemy in check, cutting off all their supplies, or that 
 he wrote to Richard Henry Lee, August loth: "Between 
 you and me, I think we are in an exceedingly dangerous 
 situation." 
 
 September 21 he informs Congress: ''It gives me great 
 pain to be obliged to solicit the attention of the honorable 
 Congress to the state of the army, which might imply the 
 slightest apprehension of being neglected. But my situa- 
 tion is inexpressibly distressing — to see winter fast ap- 
 proaching upon a naked army, the term of their service 
 within a few weeks of expiring, and no provision yet made 
 for such important events. Added to this, the military 
 chest is totally exhausted; the paymaster has not a single 
 dollar in hand; the Commissary General assures me he has 
 strained his credit for the subsistence of the army to the 
 utmost; the Quartermaster General is precisely in the same 
 situation and the greater part of the troops are in a con- 
 dition not far from mutinyJ' 
 
 That this most insubordinate temper existed in other 
 of the military departments is evident from a letter of 
 Major General Schuyler to Washington. Schuyler had 
 been without powder — but all that Washington could reply 
 to his application was an assurance that *'on that point 
 their distress was mutual." 
 
 Afterwards, writing from Ticonderoga from a sick-bed, 
 Schuyler says: "The anxiety I have felt since my arrival 
 here lest the army should stai-ve, occasioned by a scandal- 
 
ous want of subordination and inattention to my orders 
 in some of the of^cers, the vast variety of vexations and 
 disagreeable incidents that ahnost every hour arise in some 
 department or other, not only retard my cure but have 
 put me considerably back for some time past. If Job had 
 been a general in my situation, his memory had not been 
 so famous for patience, but," he adds, "the glorious end 
 we have in view and which I have a confident hope will 
 be attained, will atone for all." 
 
 General Montgomery, who was investing the British 
 fort at St. Johns, wrote the same October to the General: 
 ''When I mentioned my intentions, I did not consider 
 that I was at the head of troops who carry tlie spirit of 
 freedom into the field and think for themselves. I cannot 
 help observing to how little purpose I am here. Were 
 I not afraid the example would be too generally followed 
 and that the public service might suffer, I would not stay 
 an hour at the head of troops whose operations I cannot 
 direct. I must say, I have no hope of success unless from 
 the garrison;" the garrison of the fort he was besieging— 
 "needing provisions." 
 
 Later in the same season, both officers, finding them- 
 selves so hampered by the confusion and want of discipline 
 of their unruly troops, who would acknowledge no 
 authority beyond the State they came from, and greatly 
 criticised for their inefficiency, had signified to Congress 
 their intention to resign, but Washington wrote a most earn- 
 est appeal to Schuyler, telling him that he had the same 
 troubles, but was bearing them as best he could and beg- 
 ging them to do the same and not desert their country in 
 the hour of her utmost need. This appeal to both was 
 
successful. Montgomery left the memory of a patriot 
 when he fell, gallantly fighting for his country at Quebec 
 — while Schuyler's career is known to you all. 
 
 To return to Washington before Boston, December 5th, 
 he writes to Gov. Cook that it will be impossible to recruit 
 the army by voluntary enlistments, the fact is so, he will 
 not attempt to point out the causes; the Connc^cticut troops 
 are about to desert the noble cause they are engaged in, 
 and when their time -is up, he fears the Rhode Island, New 
 Hampshire and Massachusetts men will do the same. In 
 the same month, December, 1775, he writes to his one 
 confidential friend, Joseph Read: "Our enlistment goes on 
 slowly; only 5,917 are engaged for the ensuing campaign, 
 and yet we are told we shall get the number wanted, as 
 they are only playing off to see what advantages are to be 
 made, and whether a bounty cannot be extorted from the 
 public at large or from individuals in case of a draft." 
 
 January 4th, 1776, Washington again wrote to Read: "It 
 is easier to imagine than to describe the situation of my 
 mind for some time past and my feelings under our present 
 circumstances. Search the volumes of history through, 
 and I much question whether a case similar to ours is to 
 be found, namely, to maintain a post against the power 
 of the British Army for six months together, •ivithoiit 
 powder, and then to have one army disbanded and another 
 to be raised within the same distance of a re-inforced 
 enemy. It is too much to attempt. I wish this month 
 were well over our lieads. The same desire of retiring 
 into a chimney corner seized the troops of Rhode Island, 
 New Hampshire, and Massachusetts as soon as their time 
 
expired, as had wrought upon those of Connecticut, not- 
 withstanding many of them made an offer to me to remain 
 till the lines could be sufficiently strengthened. We are 
 now left with a good deal less than half-raised regiments 
 and about 5,000 militia, who only stand engaged to the 
 middle of this month, when, according to custom, they 
 will depart, be the necessity never so urgent.-' 
 
 In another letter to Read, the General pours out his soul 
 thus: "Such a dearth of public spirit and such want of 
 virtue, such stock-jobbing and fertility in all low arts to 
 obtain advantages of one kind or another in this great 
 change of military arrangements, I never saw^ before, and 
 pray God's mercy I may never be witness to again. After 
 the last of the month the minute men and militia must be 
 called on for the defence of the lines, and these being under 
 no kind of control themselves, will destroy the little 
 subordination I have been laboring to establish, and run 
 me into one evil while I am endeavoring to avoid another. 
 "Could I have foreseen,*' exclaimed the overtaxed Com- 
 mander, "could I have foreseen what I have experienced 
 and am likely to experience, no consideration upon earth 
 should have induced me to accept this command. A 
 regiment or any subordinate department would have been 
 accompanied with ten times the satisfaction and perhaps 
 the honor." Seeing no way out of these difficulties, he 
 ejaculates, "God in his great mercy will direct.'^ 
 
 The minute men here referred to vv^ere bodies of men 
 organized to serve under their own officers — who brought 
 their own arms and provisions, who came when called on, 
 but left at the end of three days — no doubt very useful in 
 any sudden emergency. 
 
In another letter to the same friend Washington .vrites: 
 "We are now without any money in our treasury, powder 
 in our magazines, or arms in our stores. We are without 
 a brigadier — the want of which has been twenty times 
 urged on Congress — engineers, or expresses, and by and 
 by, when called to take the field, shall not have a tent to 
 lie in. These are evils but small in comparison with those 
 which disturb my present repose. Our enlistments are at 
 a stand ; the fears I ever entertained are realized, viz. : The 
 discontented officers have thrown such difficulties or stumb- 
 ling blocks in the way of recruiting that I no longer 
 entertain a hope of completing the army by voluntary 
 enlistments,'' etc. "Thus am I situated with respect to 
 men;" and he goes on to tell how in the matter of arms 
 he is worse off. "How to get furnished I know not. I 
 have applied to this and the neighboring colonies, but with 
 what success time only can tell. The reflections on my 
 situation produce many an unhappy hour, when all around 
 me are wrapped in sleep. Fezv people knozv the predicament 
 we are in; fewer still will believe, if any disaster happens 
 to these lines, from what cause it flows. I have often 
 thought how much happier I should have been if, instead 
 of accepting the command under such circumstances, I 
 had taken my musket on my shoulder and entered the 
 ranks, or if I could have justified it to my conscience, had 
 retired to the back country and lived in a wigwam. Could 
 I have known that such a backwardness would have been 
 discovered among the old soldiers" (meaning those at head- 
 quarters when he took command), "all the generals upon 
 earth should not have convinced me of the propriety of 
 delaying an attack on Boston till this time." 
 
The Commander-in-Chief here refers to the fact that soon 
 after his arrival at Cambridge he called a Council of War 
 to consider the expediency of attacking- Boston, but the 
 officers negatived it, as they did a second proposal of the 
 same kind later. For himself, he would have risked much 
 to give an impetus to public spirit; he deeply felt the 
 criticisms on his own inactivity; we all know^ what a wise 
 critic the public is of military aftairs, and that public was 
 just as wise in such matters as our own. 
 
 February i8th, 1776, the Commander-in-Chief writes to 
 the President of Congress that the ice being now sufficiently 
 strong to bear troops, he called a council of war, and pro- 
 posed for the third time to assault Boston, but the general 
 officers would not support him. 'True it is," he writes, 
 "and I cannot help acknowledging it, that I have many 
 disagreeable sensations on account of my situation, for to 
 have the eyes of the whole continent fixed with anxious 
 expectation of hearing of some great event, and to be 
 restrained in every military operation for want of the 
 necessary means to carry it on, is not very pleasing, 
 especially as the means used to conceal my weakness from 
 the enemy conceal it also from my friends, and add to their 
 wonder." 
 
 Finally — the patriots having thrown - up works that 
 commanded the city — Howe, obliged to choose between 
 fighting or evacuating, chose the latter, and In March 
 sailed with his troops, as it was supposed, for New York, 
 followed as soon as possible by his adversary. This, as you 
 all know, was a very important point, strategically, and 
 also on account of the strong Tory element in the province. 
 
 In a letter to Congress from Headquarters near New 
 
York, September 24, 1776, the General thus expresses him- 
 self: "We are now on the eve of another" — what? You 
 would naturally expect him to say battle or engagement, 
 oh! no! — "another dissolution of our army! The remem- 
 brance of the difficulties which happened on the occasion 
 last year, and the consequences which might have followed 
 the change, if proper advantages had been taken by the 
 enemy, added to a knowledge of the present temper and 
 disposition of the troops, afiford but a very- gloomy prospect 
 in the appearances of things now, and satisfy me, beyond 
 the possibility of doubt, that unless some very speedy and 
 effectual measures are adopted in Congress, our cause will 
 be lost." 
 
 He goes on to tell of his many various and distracting 
 trials. "The present appearance of things is so little 
 pleasing to myself as to render it a matter of no surprise 
 to me if I should stand capitally censured by Congress, 
 added to a consciousness of my inability to govern an army 
 composed of such discordant parts and under a variety of 
 intricate and perplexing circumstances, induce a behef not 
 only, but a thorough conviction, in my mind that it will 
 be impossible for me to conduct matters in such a manner 
 as to give satisfaction to the public, which is all the 
 recompense I aim at or wish for." 
 
 In a further communication of October 4, 1776, dealing 
 with many needs of the Army, he says: "The interval of 
 time between the old and new^ armies must be filled up with 
 militia from the separate States, "if to be had," with whom 
 he knew his authority was entirely valueless; and he 
 further tells Congress that "unless the most vigorous and 
 decisive exertions are immediately adopted, the certain and 
 
 14 
 
absolute loss of our liberties will be the inevitable conse- 
 quence.'' 
 
 November 6, the General writes to the Assembly of 
 Massachusetts of the very critical state of things at Head- 
 quarters; of the dissolution of one army and very little 
 prospect of getting a new one in any reasonable time, and 
 this in face of a powerful enemy; so he begs for State 
 militia from Massachusetts to serve at least till March ist, 
 unless their services could be earlier dispensed w^th. 
 
 The temper of the New York militia at this time may bt 
 judged of by the following extract from a letter of Gen. 
 Greene's to Washington: "I am informed by Col. Hawkes 
 Hay that the militia whom he commands refuse to do duty. 
 They say Gen. Howe has promised them peace, liberty anct 
 safety; and that is all they want. What is to be done?" 
 
 To his brother, under date of November 19, 1776, the 
 poor General writes how he had constantly and urgently 
 put before Congress the absolute necessity of long enlist- 
 ments and the extra expense of short enlistments; the 
 backwardness of the States in filling the quotas called for 
 by Congress; the different States quarreling among them- 
 selves about the appointments of their officers, and nomi- 
 nating such as arc not fit to he shoeblacks, from favoritism 
 of this or that member of Assembly." 
 
 At the end of November, Congress is again informed of 
 the truly alarming state of things: "The last levies just 
 going home, some who were engaged till January ist, now- 
 leaving — a month before their time — and this with the 
 enemy near." 
 
 December 20, 1776, Washington writes to the President 
 of Congress in the same strain. He is impatient to know 
 
 15 
 
whether Cong^ress will allow the corps of artillery to be 
 augmented and establish a corps of engineers. "No man 
 ever had a greater choice of difficulties than he," and these 
 have all come from short enlistments and a mistaken 
 dependence on State militia. ''Militia will do for a little 
 while, but in a little while, if often called upon, tniey will 
 not come at all. The militia might have saved New Jersey, 
 but they did not, and consequently the civilians there were 
 fraternizing with the British. Can anything, he says, "be 
 more destructive to the general recruiting service than 
 giving $io bounty for six weeks' sendee of the militia, who 
 come in, you cannot tell how; go, you cannot tell where; 
 consume your provisions, exhaust your stores, and leave 
 you at a critical moment. These, sir, are the men I am to 
 depend upon ten days hence: this is the basis on which 
 your cause will and must forever depend till you get a large 
 standing army.-' 
 
 This "standing army'' was bitterly opposed in Congress, 
 but finally, experience having shewn its necessity, consent 
 was reluctantly given for 88 battalions to be recruited. 
 
 Washington tells Congress they must have lOO; his 
 officers say no. In return they might say it would be 
 difficult enough to get the first number; but in his opinion 
 the officers of i lo Vv^ould be able to recruit many more men 
 than the 88, Then he proceeds to tell them what this army 
 must have: clothes, tents, ammunition, things that in this 
 day are implied in the very name of army and absolutely 
 essential to its efficiency. 
 
 The winter of 1777 and 1778 was a very depressing one. 
 The Commander-in-Chief had begun it with a force dimin- 
 ished to 4,000 half-disciplined men, and an empty army- 
 
 16 
 
chest. He had had to contend not merely with an enemy, 
 but with the parsimony and meddlesome interference of 
 Congress. Instead of that body using all its influence to 
 urge the separate States, and especially those least affected 
 by the war, to send men and means, it had left the army 
 without funds and without reinforcements. It had made 
 promotions contrary to his advice, and contrar}^ to military 
 usage — thereby wronging and disgusting some of his 
 bravest officers and changed the commissariat in the midst 
 of a campaign, throwing the whole service into confusion. 
 He applied to the Governors of Virginia and Pennsylvania 
 for assistance until the new army authorized by Congress, 
 and as yet only on paper, could be gathered and drilled. 
 He depicted his condition in the most forcible manner, and 
 urged them to send him reinforcements even if compelled 
 to resort to a draft. ''A long and continual sacrifice of 
 the individual for the public good,-' he wrote, "ought not 
 to be expected or required. The nature of men must be 
 changed before institutions built on the presumptive proot 
 of such a principle can succeed. This condition is sup- 
 ported by the conduct of the American Army as well as by 
 that of all other men. At the commencement of the dis- 
 pute, in the first effusion of zeal, when it was believed that 
 service would be temporary, they entered into it without 
 regard to pecuniaiy considerations, but finding its duration 
 much longer than they had expected, and that instead of 
 deriving advantage from the hardships and dangers to 
 which they had been exposed, they were losers by their 
 patriotism, and fell far short of even a competency for their 
 wants, they have gradually abated in their ardor, and, with 
 many, an entire disinclination to the service under present 
 
 17 
 
circumstances has taken place. To this must be ascribed 
 the frequent resignations and frequent importunities for 
 permission to resign from officers of the highest merit.'* 
 He goes on to say, ''You can only have a hold on a man 
 when he values his commission and fears to lose it.'' The 
 evils caused by the short enlistments and the jealousies 
 of the separate States are thus commented on in a letter 
 to Washington at this time from Robert Morris, a letter full 
 of despondency at the condition of affairs. "It is iseless 
 at this period to examine into the causes of our present 
 unhappy situation unless that examination would be pro- 
 ductive of a cure for those evils ; in fact, those causes have 
 long been known to such as would open their eyes. It has 
 been my fate to make an ineffectual opposition (in Con- 
 gress) to all short enlistments, to colonial appointment of 
 officers, and many other measures which I thought pregnant 
 with mischief, but these things either suited the genius 
 and habits or squared with the interests of some States that 
 had sufficient interest to prevail, and nothing is now left 
 but to extricate ourselves as well as we can." 
 
 As time passed Washington must have viewed with the 
 greatest anxiety not only the military, but the political 
 situation. In a letter to his brother, in the spring of 1778, 
 he regrets that the ablest men are kept at home in the ser- 
 vice of the Independent States, while inferior men are sent 
 to the General Congress; and yet on these depend the great 
 national interests. "Those wiio are at a distance from the 
 seat of war are living in such perfect tranquility that they 
 conceive the war to be in a manner at an end, while those 
 near it are so disaffected tliat they only serve as embarrass- 
 ments." 
 
 18 
 
It seemed to devolve on Washington to arouse the 
 patriotism as well as to lead the armies of his country. In 
 the winter of 1777-78, through Col. Harrison of Virginia, 
 he made a most earnest appeal to the men of his native 
 State. "Our affairs are in a more distressed, ruinous and 
 deplorable condition than they have been since the com- 
 mencement of the war. By a faithful laborer then in the 
 cause; by a man who is daily injuring his private estate 
 without the smallest earthly advantage, not common to all 
 in case of a favorable issue of the dispute; by one who 
 wishes the prosperity of America most devoutly, but sees 
 it, or thinks he sees it, on the brink of ruin; you are 
 besought most earnestly, my dear Colonel Harrison, to 
 exert yourself in endeavoring to rescue your country, by 
 sending your best and ablest men to Congress. If I were 
 to be called upon to draw a picture of the times and of men, 
 from what I have seen, heard and in part know, I should 
 in one word say that idleness, dissipation, and extravagance 
 seem to have laid fast hold of most of them; that specula- 
 tion, peculation, and an insatiable thirst for riches, seem 
 to have got the better of every other consideration, and 
 almost of every order of men; that party disputes and 
 personal quarrels are the great business of the day; while 
 the momentous concerns of an empire, a great and accumu- 
 lating debt, ruined finances, depreciated money and want 
 of credit, which in its consequences is the want of every- 
 thing, are but secondary considerations, and postponed from 
 day to day, from wxek to week, as if our affairs wore the 
 most promising aspect." 
 
 As a remedy for this culpable indifference, he suggests 
 that each colony should not only choose, but absolutely 
 
 19 
 
compel their ablest men to attend Congress, and should 
 instruct them to go into a thorough investigation of the 
 causes that have produced such effects for the purpose of 
 remedying them. "Of what use is it," he enquires, ''for the 
 States to be wholly engrossed in their individual affairs, 
 framing constitutions and making laws? If the great whole 
 is mismanaged, they will sink with the general wreck — being 
 lost by their own folly and negligence, or by the desire of 
 living at ease and tranquility during so great a revolution, 
 which demanded the ablest efforts of their ablest and most 
 honest men." 
 
 At this very time, and while the army was suffering the 
 extremes of cold and hunger, in Philadelphia, not very 
 distant from it, "An assembly, a concert, a dinner, a supper, 
 that will cost 300 or 400 pounds, will not only take men 
 off from acting in this business, but even from thinking 
 of it; while a great part of the ofificers of our army, from 
 absolute necessity, are quitting the service, and the more 
 virtuous few, rather than do this, are sinking by sure de- 
 grees into beggary and want.'' 
 
 To add to other trials, in this year appeared the forged 
 letters which were circulated freely through the country, and 
 represented the General as secretly attached to the British 
 cause. He took no public notice of them whatever, but to 
 his friends denounced their villainy, it being evident they 
 were written by some one who had been familiar in his 
 household. He probably never would have noticed them 
 publicly if in his last presidential term, in the midst of the 
 bitterest calumny, these letters had not re-appeared on the 
 stage of public affairs. Till this time his enemies had been 
 able to say, "Of course he wrote them; he has never denied 
 
it.'' And for this reason we may judg-e he made such a 
 very formal and public denial just as he left public life 
 forever. 
 
 Another difficulty which Washington had to meet, and 
 which required infinite tact, address and secrecy to adjust, 
 was, in addition to the conflicting claims of the officers from 
 the various independent States, those of foreigners, who, as 
 our war continued, offered their experience and their 
 services to the cause of freedom. From Poland, from 
 France, from Germany, came enthusiastic men, holding 
 high commissions at home, and not willing to be put under 
 inferior officers here. This was a difficult matter to arrange ; 
 their services must not be refused, and yet to place in com- 
 mand of our troops men ignorant of their peculiar char- 
 acter, habits and customs, and especially of their language, 
 seemed unwise. He did, however, overcome these difficul- 
 ties successfully. Kosciusko, De Kalb, Steuben, Pulaski, 
 and many others of lesser fame, became valuable aids in our 
 cause, and as for Lafayette, 3^ou know how his name is 
 inseparably linked with that of Washington. 
 
 The Continental Congress had limited themselves to the 
 expenditure of twenty millions. When this and much more 
 had been used ; when, in fact, it had become bankrupt, and 
 its paper worthless, Washington's difficulties were greatly 
 increased. 
 
 Many officers had entered the army with a little means, 
 which soon melted away, leaving them destitute and in 
 rags. At one time a year's pay would hardly buy a pair 
 of shoes; many commissions were thrown up, and the 
 General's heart bled at losing some of his very best officers. 
 
 But I can only glance, in the time allotted me, at a few 
 of the secret troubles of our great General. Perhaps the 
 
■one that affected him most is known in history as "Con- 
 way's Cabal/' 
 
 A Frenchman of Irish descent named Conway, a veteran 
 of European wars, received a commission from Congress 
 as Brigadier. Boastful, ambitions, intriguing and bent only 
 on pushing his personal fortunes, he contrived to influence 
 not only Generals Gates, Mifflin and others of less rank, 
 b)ut also members of Congress, including its committee 
 called the Board of War. This intrigue was in opposition 
 to Washington, whom it was hoped to force to a resigna- 
 tion and have Gates appointed in his place. The Com- 
 mander-in-Chief had seen enough of Conway to understand 
 his character and his aims, and hearing he was to be pro- 
 moted, wrote a strong letter of remonstrance to a member 
 of Congress, which, however, did not prevent Conway 
 l3eing made Inspector General. This conspiracy was 
 carried on by insidious and depreciating public conversation 
 and by anonymous letters of the same character. The fol- 
 lowing anonymous letter received by Patrick Henry, 
 Governor of Virginia, was sent by him to General Wash- 
 ington : 
 
 "Yorktown, January 12, 1778. 
 
 ''Dear Sir — The common danger of our country first 
 "brought you and me together. I recollect with pleasure 
 the influence of your conversation and eloquence upon the 
 opinions of this country, in the beginning of the present 
 controversy. You first taught us to shake off our idolatrous 
 •attachment to royalty, and to oppose its encroachments 
 upon our liberties with our veiy lives. By these means you 
 saved us from ruin. The independence of America is the 
 offspring of that liberal spirit of thinking and acting which 
 
followed the destruction of the sceptres of kings and the 
 mighty power of Great Britain. But, sir, w^e have only 
 passed the Red Sea; a dreary wilderness is still before us, 
 and unless a Moses or a Joshua are raised up in our behalf, 
 we must perish before wc reach the promised land. We 
 have nothing to fear from our enemies on the way. Gen. 
 Howe, it is true, has taken Philadelphia, but he has only 
 changed his prison. His dominions are bounded on all 
 sides by his out-sentries. America can only be undone by 
 herself. She looks up to her councils and arms for pro- 
 tection; but, alas! what are they? Her repiesentation in 
 Congress dwindled to only twenty-one members. Her 
 Adams, her Wilson, her Henry are no more among them. 
 Her councils weak — and partial remedies applied constantly 
 for universal diseases. Her army, what is it? A Major- 
 General belonging to it called it a few days ago, in my 
 hearing, a mob. Discipline — wholly neglected; the Com- 
 missary's and Quarter-Master's departments, filled with 
 idleness, ignorance and peculation; our hospitals crowded 
 with 6,000 sick, but half provided with necessaries or accom- 
 modations, and more dying in them in one month than 
 perished in the field during the whole of the last season. 
 The money depreciating without effectual means being 
 taken to raise it; the country distracted with Quixotic 
 attempts to regulate the price of provisions; an artificial 
 famine created by it and a real one dreaded from it. The 
 spirit of our people failing through a more intimate 
 acquaintance with the causes of our misfortunes: many 
 submitting daily to Gen. Howe, and more wishing to do it 
 only to avoid the calamities that threaten our country. . But 
 is our cause desperate? By no means. We have wisdom, 
 
 23 
 
virtue and strength enough to save us if they could be 
 called into action. The northern army has shown what 
 Americans are capable of doing with a General at their head. 
 A Gates, a Lee, or a Conway would in a few weeks render 
 them an irresistible body of men. The last of the above 
 officers has accepted of the new office of Inspector-General 
 of our Army, in order to reform abuses — but the remedy 
 is only a palliative one. In one of his letters to a friend 
 he says, 'A great and good God hath decreed America to 
 be free — or a weak General and bad counselors would have 
 ruined her long ago.' You may rest assured of each of 
 the facts related in this letter. The author of it is one of 
 your Philadelphia friends. A hint of his name if found out 
 by the handwriting must not be mentioned to your intimate 
 friend. Even tlie letter must be thrown into the fire, but 
 some of its contents ought to be made public in order to 
 awaken, enlighten and alarm our country. I rely upon 
 your prudence and am, dear sir, with my usual attachment 
 to you and to our beloved independence, 
 
 "Yours sincerely, .'' 
 
 There is no doubt anonymous letters ought usually to 
 be thrown into the fire, but this one went straight to 
 Washington with a most reverential epistle from Patrick 
 Plenry, to whom it had been addressed. After saying that 
 the anonymous correspondent may be too insignificant to 
 be noticed, and yet fearing there may be some scheme or 
 party forming against the General, he continues: 'To give 
 you the trouble of this gives me pain. It would suit my 
 inclination better to give you some assistance in the great 
 business of the v/ar. But I will not conceal anything from 
 
 24 
 
you by which you may be affected, for I really think your 
 personal welfare and the happiness of America are inti- 
 mately connected." 
 
 Another anonymous letter was received by the patriotic 
 President of Congress, Henry Laurens, with a request to 
 lay it before that body. This letter is too long to quote 
 here. After dwelling minutely upon all the losses and dis- 
 asters of the campaign, and showing how in the opinion 
 of the writer they ought not to have occurred, it ended thus : 
 ''The people of America have been guilty of idolatry in 
 making a man their God, and the God of Heaven and 
 earth will convince them by woeful experience that he is 
 only a man ; that no good may be expected from the stand- 
 ing army until Baal and his worshipers are banished from 
 the camp." This epistle also, instead of being laid before 
 Congress as requested by the writer, was sent at once to 
 Washington. 
 
 At this time also came a warning from the General's old 
 and faithful friend. Dr. Craik, informing him that secret 
 enemies were trying to ruin him in the estimation of the 
 country, claiming that he had had abundant force to crush 
 the enemy; that he had really given up Philadelphia; that 
 he could have defeated the enemy many times, and holding 
 up Gates' success in contrast. Dr. Craik further told him 
 that his enemies dared not appear openly, but were power- 
 ful in Congress, even in the Board of War itself, and hoped 
 to force him to resign, 
 
 Washington's conduct in this emergency is really a model 
 to humanity and shows to what heights a noble motive and 
 a clear conscience can elevate human nature. In his reply 
 to Laurens, President of Congress, who had sent him one 
 
 25 
 
of the anonymous letters, he writes: "1 was not unapprized 
 that a malignant faction had been for some time forming 
 to my prejudice, which could not but give me pain on a 
 personal account, but my chief concern arises from the 
 apprehension of the dangerous consequences which 
 intestine dissensions may produce to the common cause. I 
 would not desire in the least degree to suppress a free spirit 
 of inquiry into any part of my conduct that even faction 
 itself may deem reprehensible. The anonymous paper 
 handed to you exhibits many serious charges, and it is my 
 wish that it should be submitted to Congress. My enemies 
 take an unfair advantage of me. They know the delicacy 
 of my situation, and that motives of policy deprive me of 
 the defense I might otherwise make against their insidious 
 attacks. They know I cannot combat their insinuations, 
 however injurious, without disclosing secrets which it is of 
 the utmost moment to coiiceal.^^ 
 
 What these were the Commander-in-Chief does not relate. 
 They may have been already known to Laurens — it may 
 have been again deficiency of powder, or men, or arms, or 
 clothes, or food, or all these together — it was something 
 that could not be made public without encouraging the 
 enemy. 
 
 The movers in this conspiracy were startled to find the 
 General knew of its existence, but he took no public notice, 
 not even Vv^hen Conway was confirmed as Inspector-General; 
 he left the matter to work itself out. Washington Irving 
 says that the Cabal might have accomplished the downfall 
 of the Commander-in-Chief if he had been more irascible 
 in his temper, more impulsive, and less firmly fixed in the 
 affections of the people. The after history of the chief 
 
 26 
 
conspirator is an interesting comment on this affair. While 
 he held the office of Inspector-General, his reports to Con- 
 gress were often disrespectful and fault-finding, and finally 
 that body not carrying out one of his suggestions, in a fit 
 of temper he sent in his resignation, which to his surprise 
 was immediately accepted. Being in the habit of making 
 offensive speeches about the army, he was challenged by 
 General Cadwallader for one made in his presence. They 
 fought and Conway fell, it was supposed, mortally wounded. 
 In this condition he sent the following note to Washington: 
 
 "Philadelphia, July 2.:}^, 1778. 
 "Sir — I find myself just able to hold my pen during a few 
 moments, and I take this opportunity to express my sincere 
 grief for having written, said, or done anything disagree- 
 able to your Excellency. jNIy career will soon be over; 
 therefore justice and truth prompt me to declare my last 
 sentiments. You are in my eyes the great and good man. 
 May you long enjoy the love, veneration and esteem of 
 these States, whose liberties you have asserted by your 
 virtues. I am with the greatest respect, Thomas Conway." 
 
 This clique hostile to Washington contented themselves 
 afterwards in secretly encouraging disaffection, contraven- 
 ing his wishes and obstructing his plans, hoping his popu- 
 larity would thus be gradually undermined till they could 
 adopt bolder measures. It was perhaps to this affair that 
 the following story, related by Washington Irving as told 
 him by Judge Jay, referred: 
 
 "Shortly before the death of John Adams, I was sitting 
 alone with my father" (the John Jay of the treaty), "con- 
 versing about the American Revolution. Suddenly he 
 
 27 
 
remarked, 'Oh! William! the history of that revolution will 
 never be known; nobody now alive knows it but John 
 Adams and myself.' Surprised at such a declaration, I 
 asked him to what he referred. He briefly replied, 'The 
 proceedings of the old Congress.' Again I inquired, 'What 
 proceedings?' To this he answered, 'Those against Wash- 
 ington; from first to last there was a most bitter party 
 against him.' As the old Congress sat with closed doors 
 the public knew no more than it chose to reveal." 
 
 Let us be thankful for our ignorance here, and that we do 
 not know the men who opposed and hated the man who 
 gained our liberties for us; they are forgotten; while his 
 memory, as Conway wished, is loved and venerated not 
 only in this country, but by the whole civilized world. 
 
 Washington's character was so lofty in ideal, and in fact, 
 that no malice, no scandal, could really affect him; it was 
 this thorough honesty of heart and purpose, this absolute 
 consecration to duty, however hard, that so greatly 
 impressed all who came in personal contact with him; this 
 unreserved devotion of himself stood in the place of that 
 enthusiasm that attracts and controls men — often for evil 
 as well as good. To the soldiers of the Continental Army, 
 his influence, example and sympathy became all powerful, 
 and transformed them into a band of heroes, bearing 
 hunger, nakedness and suffering of every kind without a 
 murmur, cheerfully offering their lives on their country's 
 altar. Their sufferings might have been averted or greatly 
 lessened if the thirteen independent States had quickly 
 and patriotically met the requisitions of Congress; or even, 
 as we look back, if the great cities had come forward to the 
 extent of their ability. There was money enough and food 
 
 28 
 
enough in the country for the needs of the army, but the 
 extreme jealousy of each other, of the separate States, and 
 fear of a standing army — producing want of co-operation, 
 added to the difficulties of transportation, often made the 
 burden fall very unequally. To these conditions Wash- 
 ington alludes in a farewell circular addressed to the 
 (jovernors of the thirteen colonies, when he took leave of 
 the army at the end of the war: 
 
 "The war might have been earlier brought to the same 
 happy conclusion if the resources of the country could have 
 been properly drawn forth; the discouragements occasioned 
 by the complicated diiftculties and embarrassments in which 
 our affairs were by this means involved, would have long 
 ago produced the dissolution of an army less patient, less 
 virtuous, and less persevering than that T have had the 
 honor to command.'' 
 
 Conway recovered from his wounds, but finding his position in 
 this country intolerable, returned to France. 
 
 29 
 
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