possessed no funds, and the resource of foreign loans failed, as well from the want of security to be tendered, as the want of opulence in those who might be inclined to make advances. In 1780, Congress had passed a resolution granting half-pay for life to officers; but they could only support it by requisitions to local assemblies, which were not likely to produce their effect; nor, if contrary to all reasonable hope the supplies should be given, was it believed that Congress would sustain their original vote. The concurrence of nine provinces was necessary, and the state of the public mind did not warrant a hope that such an assent would ever be obtained. Separate applications to the different states, for which individuals had served, were suggested; but it was objected that the army, thus divided into thirteen parts, would cease to be respectable, and furnish means and pretexts of refusal. 66 СНАР. LIV. 1783. Congress. Under these circumstances, the officers in the camp Memorial to addressed a memorial to Congress, which was presented by a deputation from a general committee of the whole army. After reciting their services, and the neglect under which they laboured, they said, "Our distresses "are brought to a point; we have borne all that men "can bear; our property is expended; our private resources are at an end; our friends are wearied out "and disgusted with incessant applications." They urged, therefore, an immediate remittance of money to supply the wants of the soldiers; a commutation of the half-pay promised for life, for whole pay, during a term of years, or for a sum in present money; and they cautioned the legislative body on the ill consequences which might arise from a dependence on the future forbearance of the army, exhorting them to convince the soldiery and the world that the independence of America should not be placed upon the ruins of any particular class of citizens. This impressive memorial occasioned much dissension in Congress. Some members, yielding to the calls of justice, were disposed to grant the demands of the petitioners, and to arrange those of all public creditors, as a general act of the whole community; but, on the other hand, a party, CHAP. 1783. Answer of 10th March. Prudence of less liberally disposed, maintained the principles of separate and sovereign control in each state, and refused to sanction an expenditure not voted by their own legislature. Under such circumstances, an evasive and unsatisfactory answer was given, and the officers were disposed to adopt measures for enforcing their demands. Their minds were exasperated by some strong and passionate publications, which were called the Newburgh Addresses*. The formidable effects thus menaced, were averted through the temperance and judgment of General Washington. He first mollified the minds of the officers, in separate interviews, and afterward, in a general meeting, represented, in glowing colours, the infamy of adopting measures which would sully the glory of seven years' service. They were affected, and unanimously declared that no circumstance of distress or danger should shake their confidence in the justice of their country, and that they viewed, with abhorrence and rejected with disdain the infamous propositions of the anonymous address. General Washington was highly applauded for his conduct in this 22nd March. alarming crisis; and the legislative body, instructed by recent danger, offered to the officers the amount of five years' full pay in money, or in securities bearing interest at six per cent. instead of the half-pay which had been promised them for life. 26th May. When the officers were satisfied, a considerable difficulty still presented itself in dispersing so large a body of soldiers; but this was evaded: Washington granted furloughs, and, after the preliminaries of peace were signed, Congress never required those who held them to return. Thus the impatience of individuals to revisit their homes diminished the risk of disbanding an unpaid army; the men, without means of meeting to confer on grievances, resumed their situations as So called from the place where they were written. The authorship was the subject of doubt; but it was at length avowed by the Major (afterward General) Armstrong, who was at the time Aid-de-camp to General Gates, at Newburgh. In the first of these addresses, the army were advised to assert their rights, while they still had arms in their hands. Life of General Greene, vol. ii. p. 397. CHAP. husbandmen or artificers, and forgot those demands LIV. 1783. The army Washington's At a late period of the year, when the numbers of 18th Oct. the collective military body were greatly diminished disbanded. by permissive absences, Congress issued a proclamation, applauding their armies for having displayed, in the progress of an arduous and difficult war, every military and patriotic virtue, thanking them for their long, eminent, and faithful services, and declaring the third of November the day of their dismission. With great 2nd Nov. difficulty, four months' in part of several pay, of years farewell. arrears, were presented to them. On the day preceding their separation, the General issued his valedictory orders, in endearing language, imploring "the choicest "favour of Heaven on those who, under divine auspices, "had secured innumerable blessings to others;" he announced, at the same time, his intention to retire from the service; "the curtain of separation was soon "to be drawn, and the military scene to him closed for "ever." with honours After assisting at a splendid festival on the evacu- 15th Nov. ation of New York, the General took an affecting His retreat leave of his officers. At Annapolis, which was then and acclamathe seat of Congress, he resigned his commission, with tions. an animated and eloquent compliment, into the hands of the President; having previously delivered to the Beside the Histories and authenticated documents, I have derived these events from Sparks's Life of Washington, vol. i. p. 384 to 392; Marshall's Life, vol. v.; Johnson's Life of General Greene, vol. ii.; and Sparks's Life of Gouverneur Morris, vol. i. p. 249. CHAP. 1783. Observations ter. Comptroller in Philadelphia, in his own hand-writing, an account of the public monies expended by him during the war, which did not amount to fifteen thousand pounds, and persevering in his original intention to decline all pecuniary compensation. In his journey to his paternal estate at Mount Vernon, he was saluted at every town and village with acclamations, fireworks, bonfires, and other testimonials of joy and congratulation, and received, from a grateful and admiring people, the well-merited homage of numerous affectionate addresses. Contemplating the character and conduct of Geneon his charac- ral Washington during this period of his public life; considering his services, his magnanimity, his firmness, and his heroic disinterestedness, it is not easy, either in ancient or modern history, to find a parallel. At the beginning of the discussions which agitated his country in general, and his province most particularly, he took a part from strong internal conviction alone. He had not the passion for distinction as an orator, or leader of a party, by which so many are impelled to violent exertion, without a due consideration of consequences; he never attempted to influence or to deceive: his aim always was to impart a rational and sensible view of the subject under consideration. It is observed of him by Mr. Jefferson, that he never heard him speak ten minutes at a time, nor to any but the main point which was to decide the question*. When he consented to take the command of an undisciplined and unprovided army, to sustain a hopeless cause, he gave up much and hazarded all, without the hope, or even the desire, to obtain any thing beyond the consciousness of having contributed to the happiness and deserved the gratitude of his country. He had acquired military reputation sufficient to distinguish him among those with whom he lived, and had retired to the enjoyment of affluence in a domestic life to which he was ardently attached, and the cultivation of an estate which he had the happiness to see daily improving * Memoirs, vol. i. p. 50. under his care. He had no debts in England to extinguish or delay by a revolution in America; but it was obvious that if the attempt to make one failed, his property would have been forfeited to the law, and he would have been deemed fortunate if he secured the safety of his person. How he exercised command when he had accepted it, has been already related. To say that he displayed bravery in the field is very little; the attribute is common to so many, that the want, rather than the possession of it, excites observation: but Washington's military career was distinguished by courage of a different description; by that undisturbed firmness which could not be goaded into indiscretion, either by the efforts of his opponents or the reproaches or insinuations of his adherents. If, from the general praise due to his character, a single act were selected for the purpose of making a deduction, it would be his conduct in the case of Captain Asgill*, when he stood prepared to shed what he himself called "innocent blood," not under the impulse even of ferocious excitement, but with a mercantile precision, measuring the number of lives to be sacrificed by the scale laid down for the exchange of prisoners. This transaction may be extenuated, by considering the shameful conduct exercised by the loyalists toward Huddy, when a prisoner in their hands, and by the hatred so generally entertained against the loyalists amongst those whose feelings he must consult in order to retain their services. And it is important, in the elucidation of his character, to add, that, during the negotiation for peace, when Franklin made it a matter of exultation that England had given up the loyalists, and the confiscation of all their property was loudly called for, Washington alone stretched out a friendly hand for their protection†. If disinterestedness can, with propriety, be termed heroic, that of Washington is peculiarly intitled to that denomination. It is not to be maintained that, by ac Ante, vol. iii. p. 386. The expression of Sir Guy Carleton, in a dispatch to the Right Honourable Thomas Townshend, 15th March, 1783.-State Papers. CHAP. LIV. 1783. |