nel Stewart believed, or at least made others believe, that Washington approved it entirely. Meanwhile, the members of the opposite party were soon apprised of what was passing, and set themselves to counteract it. Convinced of the importance of obtaining the countenance of Washington, they put forward a certain Harvey, who had manifested an extreme ardor in these discussions. This man wrote to the commander-in-chief, that, under the pretence of wishing to satisfy the public creditors, the most pernicious designs were meditated against the republic; that nothing less was in agitation than a plot to demolish the fabric of freedom, and to introduce tyranny. To these insinuations he joined others relating to Washington personally; he intimated to him that it was wished to deprive him of his rank, to put down his friends, and, in a word, to destroy the work which they had accomplished with so much glory, and at the expense of so much toil and blood. Washington could not but entertain certain apprehensions. He doubted there were machinations in agitation which portended no good to the state. He circulated the letter of Harvey, that its contents might be known even to the soldiers. He exerted all his authority to prevent an insurrection. The commander-in-chief thus declared himself publicly against a design, which perhaps within his own breast he did not altogether disapprove, though he blamed, and not without reason, the means by which it was to have been carried into execution. The most alarming rumors were propagated on all parts. It was loudly exclaimed that the troops, before they disbanded, ought to obtain justice; that they had a right to claim the fruit of victories which their valor had won; that the other creditors of the state, and many members of the Congress itself, invoked the interference of the army, prepared to follow the example which they expected from it. Minds became highly inflamed; assemblages were formed in the camp, and it was openly proposed in them to make law for the Congress. In the midst of this effervescence, circulated anonymous invitations to the officers to convene in general assembly. On the eleventh of March, was passed from hand to hand an address, the author of which did not name himself, but who was known afterwards to be major John Armstrong. This writing, composed with great ingenuity, and with greater passion, was singularly calculated to aggravate the exasperation of the soldiers, and to conduct them to the most desperate resolutions. Blameable in a time of calm, it became really criminal at a moment when all heads were in a state of the most vehement irritation. Among other incendiary passages, it contained the following; After a pursuit of seven years, the object for which we set out is at length brought within our reach; yes, my friends, that suffering courage of yours was active once; it has conducted the United States of America through a doubtful and a bloody war. It has placed her in the chair of independency, and peace returns again to bless-Whom? A country willing to redress your wrongs, cherish

your worth, and reward your services? a country courting your return to private life, with tears of gratitude, and smiles of admiration, longing to divide with you that independence which your gallantry has given, and those riches which your wounds have preserved ? Is this the case? or is it rather a country that tramples upon your rights, disdains your cries, and insults your distresses? Have you not more than once suggested your wishes, and made known your wants to Congress? Wants and wishes which gratitude and policy should have anticipated rather than evaded; and have you not lately, in the meek language of entreating memorials, begged from their justice what you could no longer expect from their favor? How have you been answered? Let the letter of your delegates to Philadelphia reply.

'If this, then, be your treatment while the swords you wear are necessary for the defence of America, what have you to expect when your voice shall sink, and your strength dissipate by division? When those very swords, the instruments and companions of your glory, shall be taken from your sides, and no remaining mark of military distinction left but your wants, infirmities and scars? Can you then consent to be the only sufferers by this revolution, and retiring from the field, grow old in poverty, wretchedness and contempt? Can you consent to wade through the vile mire of dependency, and owe the miserable remnant of that life to charity, which has hitherto been spent in honor? If you can, go-and carry with you the jest of tories and the scorn of whigs-the ridicule, and what is worse, the pity of the world. Go, starve, and be forgotten! But if your spirit should revolt at this; if you have sense enough to discover, and spirit enough to oppose tyranny, under whatever garb it may assume; whether it be the plain coat of republicanism, or the splendid robe of royalty; if you have yet learned to discriminate between a people and a cause, between men and principles, awake; attend to your situation, and redress yourselves. If the present moment be lost, every future effort is in vain; and your threats then will be as empty as your entreaties now.'

These words, more worthy of a raving tribune of the people, than of a discreet American, chafed minds already exasperated into a delirium of fury. The general fermentation announced the most sinister events; and war between the civil and military powers appeared inevitable. But Washington, whose constancy no crisis could shake, strong in the love and veneration of the people, contemplated the danger of his country, and instantly formed the generous design of extinguishing the kindling conflagration. He was not ignorant how much better it is, in such circumstances, to lead misguided minds than to resist them; how much easier it is to obviate intemperate measures than to correct them. He resolved, therefore, to prevent the meeting of the officers. With this view, in his orders

addressed to the officers, he expressed the conviction he felt that their own good sense would secure them from paying any attention to an anonymous invitation; but his own duty, he added, as well as the reputation and true interest of the army, required his disapprobation of such disorderly proceedings. At the same time, he requested the general and field officers, with one officer from each company, and a proper representation from the staff of the army, to assemble in order to deliberate upon the measures to be adopted for obtaining the redress of their grievances.

By this conduct, the prudence of which is undeniable, Washington succeeded in impressing the army with a belief that he did not disapprove their remonstrances, and the leaders of the insurrection, in particular, that he secretly favored their designs. By this means he gained time for disposing minds and things in such a manner, that the military committee should take only those resolutions which entered into his plan. The following day, Armstrong circulated a second anonymous paper, in which he congratulated the officers upon the prospect that their measures were about to receive the sanction of public authority; he exhorted them to act with energy in the assembly convoked for the fifteenth of March.

In the meantime, Washington exerted the whole weight of his influence to bring the agitations of the moment to a happy termination; he endeavored to impress on those officers individually who possessed the greatest share of the general confidence, a just sense of what the exigency required; to some he represented the dangers of the country; to others, the constancy they had hitherto manifested; to all, the glory they had acquired, and the interest they had in transmitting it entire and unsullied to their posterity. He reminded them also of the exhausture of the public treasury, and of the infamy with which they would brand themselves in giving birth to civil war, at the very moment in which the public happiness was about to revive in the midst of peace. On the day appointed by Washington, the convention of officers assembled. The commander-in-chief addressed them a speech, as judicious as it was eloquent, in which he endeavored to destroy the effect of the anonymous papers. He demonstrated all the horror of the alternative proposed by the author, that in case of peace, the army should turn their arms against the state, unless it instantly complied with their demands, and if war continued, that they should abandon its defence by removing into some wild and unsettled country.

My God!' he exclaimed, 'what can this writer have in view, by recommending such measures? Can he be a friend to the army? Can he be a friend to this country? Rather is he not an insidious foe; some emissary, perhaps, from New York, plotting the ruin of both, by sowing the seeds of discord and separation between the civil and military authorities of the continent?' 'Let me entreat

you, gentlemen,' he added, 'not to take any measures, which, viewed in the calm light of reason, will lessen the dignity, and sully the glory you have hitherto maintained; let me request you to rely on the plighted faith of your country, and place a full confidence in the purity of the intentions of Congress; that previous to your dissolution as an army, they will cause all your accounts to be fairly liquidated; and that they will adopt the most effectual measures in their power to render ample justice to you for your faithful and meritorious services. And let me conjure you in the name of our common country, as you value your own sacred honor, as you respect the rights of humanity, and as you regard the military and national honor of America, to express your utmost horror and detestation of the man who wishes, under any specious prétences, to overturn the liberties of our country; and who wickedly attempts to open the flood-gates of civil discord, and deluge our rising empire in blood.

By thus determining, and thus acting, you will pursue the plain and direct road to the attainment of your wishes; you will defeat the insidious designs of our enemies, who are compelled to resort from open force to secret artifice. You will give one more distinguished proof of unexampled patriotism and patient virtue, rising superior to the pressure of the most complicated sufferings; and you will, by the dignity of your conduct, afford occasion for posterity to say, when speaking of the glorious example you have exhibited to mankind; "Had this day been wanting, the world had never seen the last stage of perfection to which human nature is capable of attaining.'

When Washington had concluded his discourse, a profound silence ensued in the assembly; soon those who composed it communicated to each other in a low voice, the sentiments with which they were impressed. The authority of such a personage, the weight of his words, the sincere affection which he bore to the army, operated irresistibly upon all minds. The effervescence gave place to a calm. No voice was heard in opposition to that of the chief. The deputies of the army declared unanimously that no circumstances of distress or danger should induce them to sully the glory which they had acquired; that the army continued to have an unshaken confidence in the justice of Congress and their country; that they entreated the commander-in-chief to recommend to the government the subject of their memorials; and, finally, that they abhorred the infamous propositions contained in the anonymous writing addressed to the officers of the army. Thus Washington, by his prudence and firmness, was instrumental in preserving his country from the new danger that menaced it, at the very moment when its safety seemed to have been established forever. Who knows what might have happened, if civil war had ensanguined the very cradle of this republic? The captain-general kept his word, and was himself the advocate of his officers with the Congress. He obtained of them a decree, cominut

ing the half pay into a sum in gross equal to five years' full pay, and that either in money, or securities bearing an interest of six per cent. According to the orders of Congress, three months' pay was advanced to the officers and soldiers in the notes of the treasurer. But this measure was not taken till late, and not until the Pennsylvania militia had broken out into so violent an insurrection, at Philadelphia, that they blockaded, with arms in hands, the very hall of Congress for some hours. The reduction of the continental army became then the principal object of attention, and discharges were granted successively to those soldiers, who during seven campaigns of a most obstinate war, had struggled with an heroic constancy, not only against sword and fire, but also against hunger, nakedness, and even the fury of the elements. Their work completed, their country acknowledged independent, they peaceably returned to their families. The Congress voted them public thanks, in the name of a grateful country. The English were not slow to evacuate New York and its dependencies, in which they had made so long a stay. A little after, the French departed from Rhode Island for their possessions, carrying with them the benedictions of all the Americans.

The Congress, in order to celebrate worthily the establishment of peace and independence, appointed the eleventh of December, to be observed as a day of solemn thanksgiving to the Dispenser of all good. By another decree they ordained, that an equestrian statue of bronze should be erected to general Washington, in the city where the Congress should hold its sessions. The general was to be represented by it in the Roman costume, with the staff of command in the right hand, and the head encircled with a crown of laurel. The pedestal of marble was to be invested with bassi relievi commemorative of the principal events of the war, which had taken place under the immediate command of Washington; such as the deliverance of Boston, the taking of the Hessians at Trenton, the affair of Princeton, the battle of Monmouth, and the surrender of Yorktown. The anterior face of the pedestal was to bear the following inscription. The United States assembled in Congress, voted this statue, in the year of our Lord 1783, in honor of George Washington, captain-general of the armies of the United States of America, during the war which vindicated and secured their liberty, sovereignty, and independence.

Such was the issue of a contest which during the course of eight consecutive years, chained the attention of the universe, and drew the most powerful nations of Europe to take a share in it. It is worthy of the observer to investigate the causes which have concurred to the triumph of the Americans, and baffled the efforts of their enemies. In the first place, they had the good fortune not to encounter opposition from foreign nations, and even to find among