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CHAP are citizens, having all the ties and interests of citizens." In violation of military usage, and contrary to his advice, 1778. Congress made several promotions in the army, which not only slighted but wronged some of its best and bravest officers.

While Washington labored at Valley Forge to keep the army together, and to prevent its disbanding from sheer necessity, a few were intriguing to remove him from the command. Some members of Congress, a few officers, and perhaps some others, joined in what was known as the "Conway Cabal," a name derived from the Irish adventurer, already mentioned, who, if not the prime mover in the plot, was a pliant tool of others. The whole truth on the subject can never be fully known, as each actor ever after desired to conceal the part he had taken in the affair. By means of anonymous letters, underhand appeals, designed to seduce the officers of the army, and other dishonorable measures, the attempt was made to defame Washington; to draw invidious comparisons between his military successes and those of Gates; and to destroy that confidence which the people and soldiers reposed in his integrity. They dared not attack him openly, but by these means they hoped to disgust him with his office, and induce him to resign; and General Gates, their hero, would receive the appointment of Commander-in-chief. Thus the intrigue was carried on for months. General Mifflin and Gates himself were prominent in the scheme, but their efforts to win over Lafayette signally failed. Anonymous letters were sent to Henry Laurens, President of Congress, and to Patrick Henry, then Governor of Virginia; but these high-minded men forwarded them at once to the Commander-in-chief. Washington himself, though he knew, to some extent, of the existence of these plots, never publicly noticed them, nor turned aside a moment from his great work. He was only anxious lest the

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enemy should learn of these dissensions. But when it CHAP was proposed in Congress to appoint Conway inspector of the army, he remonstrated, and in writing to Richard 1778. Henry Lee, then a member, he says: "General Conway's merit as an officer, and his importance in this army, exist more in his own imagination than in reality." Yet Congress, under the influence of the Cabal, appointed Conway "Inspector of the Armies of the United States!" -with the rank of major-general.

Ere long intelligence of these intrigues stole abroad. So great was the indignation which burst forth from the officers and soldiers, from the Legislatures of the States, and from the people themselves, that the Cabal cowered before it.

The effect of this abortive attempt to remove Washington from the chief command was only to strengthen his hold on the confidence of the nation. The invidious comparisons made between his successes and those of Gates, were unjust, but that some persons should be influenced by them is not strange. "The Washington of that day was not Washington as we know him, tried and proved by twenty years of the most disinterested and most successful public services." The capture of Burgoyne at Saratoga was due to his plan of defence, as concerted with Schuyler, and not to General Gates. In his effort to save Philadelphia, he was surrounded with almost insurmountable difficulties. His army, ill-equipped and imperfectly disciplined, was smaller than that of Howe's; the scene of operation was in a region filled with Tories, who gave every facility to the British. He says himself: "Had the same spirit pervaded the people of this and the neighboring States, as the States of New York and New England, we might have had General Howe nearly in the same situation of General Burgoyne."

We may here anticipate. Conway found his position

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CHAP. unenviable, and he sent to Congress a note complaining that he had been ill-treated, and intimated that he would 1778. resign because he was ordered to the Northern Department. His self-complacency never doubted but he would be urged to remain as "Inspector." But Congress, ashamed of having ever appointed him, interpreted it as a resignation, and gladly accepted it. No explanation of Conway, though urged in person, could induce them to change their decision. Some time afterward he was wounded in a duel with General Cadwallader, who had charged him with cowardice at the battle of Germantown, and also of derogatory remarks in relation to the Commander-in-chief. When he thought himself near death, Conway wrote to Washington: "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." He recovered from his wound, and soon after he left the country.

During the winter at Valley Forge, every effort was made to increase the army, and make it more efficient. To accomplish this end, Baron Steuben, a Prussian officer of great merit as a disciplinarian, was appointed Inspector, with the rank of major-general. Congress called upon all the States, except Georgia and South Carolina, for their quotas of men to the continental army. These States were excused, except for local defence, in consideration of their large slave population. Several independent bodies of horse were raised by Count Pulaski and Henry Lee, who, because of his success and genius as a commander of light-horse, was known in the army as Light-Horse Harry.

Baron Steuben soon infused his own spirit into the officers and men. He was prompt, and they obeyed him with alacrity. The tactics were taught by system, and the result was very gratifying. Congress designed to raise

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the army to sixty thousand, but it really never reached CHAP. more than half that number. Many of the more experienced officers were compelled by necessity to resign; 1778. their families were dependent upon them, and they received scarcely any pay. These resignations were unfortunate. Washington appealed to Congress in behalf of the officers, and also of the soldiers. That body promised half pay for seven years to those officers who should serve to the end of the war, and to the soldiers thus serving a gratuity of eighty dollars. But the treasury was empty; new bills of credit were issued, and the several States were called upon to levy taxes for the public expenses; but the States were poor, and some of them were negligent. Their bills of credit continued to lose their value; and to increase the evil, the British and Tories flooded the country with counterfeits. The depreciation became so great, that a pair of boots cost more than seven hundred dollars in some of these bills of credit. Yet it shows the patriotism of the great mass of the people, that at this time of despondency and distress, the British, with their promises of gold and protection, could induce only three thousand five hundred Tories to enlist in their army.

The office of quartermaster had been held during the last campaign by Mifflin; but he was seldom at his post, and the department was in great confusion. Many difficulties had grown out of this neglect; the army was irregularly supplied with provisions and forage, while the country people suffered much on account of the demands made upon them for provisions by unauthorized foraging parties. At the urgent request of Washington, Congress appointed General Greene quartermaster. He assumed the duties of the office, so irksome to him, for one year, but without compensation. The system with which Greene performed all his duties was soon apparent; the army was regularly furnished with provisions and ammu

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CHAP. nition, so that it could be ready to march at a few minutes' notice.

1778.

General Lee was returned to the army in exchange for April General Prescott. Lee was as selfish as he was destitute of the true nobleness of a man of honor. In a document in his own handwriting, written when a prisoner in New York, dated" March 29, 1777," and endorsed by Lord and Sir William Howe as "Mr. Lee's plan," may be found the evidence of his willingness to ruin the cause of American Independence. In this elaborate plan, he urged with great earnestness upon the British ministry to send a large force; part of which to take position at Alexandria, on the Potomac, and part at Annapolis, on the Chesapeake. Thus to separate the Northern and Southern colonies, and prevent them from aiding each other, while to oppose Burgoyne's advance would require all the force that New England could raise. He was willing to forfeit his life, if the measure did not speedily terminate the war and dissolve the "Congress Government."

For some reason the ministry did not adopt Lee's suggestion, and the document was filed away among British state papers, to bear testimony to the dishonesty of the author three-quarters of a century after his death.1

In the Spring, Sir William Howe, after complaining that his government did not furnish him a sufficiency of men and supplies, resigned his command, and Sir Henry Clinton was appointed his successor. With the exception of foraging parties, the British, as yet, made no military May movements. About this time came intelligence of the

passage of Lord North's conciliatory bills, and that the commissioners would soon be on their way to open negotiations. The substance of these bills was circulated very extensively by zealous Tories. Congress ordered them to

"Treason of General Charles Lee," by George H. Moore. Esq.,