without one manly effort of your own, would fix your character, and show the world how richly you deserve the chains you broke. To guard against this evil, let us take a review of the ground upon which we now stand, and from thence carry our thoughts forward for a moment into the unexplored field of expedient.

"After a pursuit of seven long 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 bloody war; it has placed her in the chair of independence, 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 the independency 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 favour? How have you been answered? Let the letter which you are called to consider to-morrow, reply.

"If this then be your treatment, while the swords you wear are necessary for the defence of America, what have you to expect from peace, 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 honour? 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 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.

"I would advise you, therefore, to come to some final opinion upon what you can bear, and what you will suffer. If your determination be in any proportion to your wrongs, carry your appeal from the justice to the fears of government. Change the milkand-water style of your last memorial; assume a bolder tone, decent, but lively, spirited, and determined; and suspect the man who would advise to more moderation and longer forbearance. Let two or three men who can feel, as well as write, be appointed, to draw up your last remonstrance; for I would no longer give it the soft, suing name of memorial. Let it be represented in language that will neither dishonour you by its rudeness, nor betray you by its fears, what has been promised by Congress, and what has been performed; how long and how patiently you have suffered; how little you have asked, and how much of that little has been denied. Tell them, that though you were the first, and would wish to be the last, to encounter danger; though despair itself can never drive you into dishonour, it may drive you from the field; that the wound, often irritated, and never healed, may at length become incurable, and that the slightest mark of malignity from Congress, now, must operate like the grave, and part you for ever. That, in any political event, the army has its alternative: if peace, that nothing shall separate you from your arms but death; if war, that, courting the auspices and inviting the directions of your illustrious leader, you will retire to some unsettled country, smite in your turn, and mock when their fear cometh on.' But let it represent, also, that should they comply with the request of your late memorial, it would make you more happy, and them more respectable. That while the war should continue, you would follow their standard into the field; and when it came to an end, you would withdraw into the shade of private life, and give the world another subject of wonder and applause-an army victorious over its enemies, victorious over itself."

Persuaded, says Marshall, as the officers were of the indisposition of government to remunerate their services, this eloquent and impassioned address, dictated by genius and by feeling, found, in almost every bosom, a kindred though latent sentiment, prepared

to receive its impression. Quick as the train to which the torch is applied, the passions caught its flame, and nothing seemed to be required but the assemblage proposed for the succeeding day, to communicate the conflagration to the combustible mass, and to produce an explosion ruinous to the army and to the nation. Fortunately, the commander-in-chief was in camp. His characteristic firmness and decision did not forsake him in this crisis. The occasion required that his measures should be firm, but prudent and conciliatory-evincive of his fixed determination to oppose any rash proceedings, but calculated to assuage the irritation which was excited, and to restore confidence in government.

Knowing well that it was much easier to avoid intemperate measures than to correct them, he thought it of essential importance to prevent the immediate meeting of the officers; but knowing, also, that a sense of injury and a fear of injustice had made a deep impression on them, and that their sensibilities were all alive to the proceedings of Congress on their memorial, he thought it more advisable to guide their deliberations on that interesting subject,. than to discountenance them.

With these views, he noticed, in his orders, the anonymous paper, proposing a meeting of the officers, and expressed his conviction that their good sense would secure them from paying any “attention to such an irregular invitation; but his own duty, he conceived, as well as the reputation and true interests 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 the proper representation from the staff of the army, to assemble at twelve, on Saturday, the 15th, at the new building, to hear the report of the committee deputed by the army to Congress. After mature deliberation, they will devise what further measures ought to be adopted, as most rational, and best calculated to obtain the just and important object in view." The senior officer in rank present was directed to preside, and report the result of their deliberations to the commanderin-chief.

The next day a second anonymous address appeared from the same writer who had sent forth the first. He effected to consider Washington's orders as favourable to his views, as "giving system to their proceedings and stability to their resolves." But Washington took care to explain his intentions to the officers individually, and to exert his utmost influence in preventing hasty and intemperate measures. This was by no means an easy task;

for the officers were fully persuaded of the design of the government to deal unfairly with them, and it was only their reliance on their general, and their attachment to his person and character, which could induce them to adopt the measures which he recommended.

On the 15th, the convention assembled, and General Gates took the chair. The commander-in-chief then addressed them in the following terms:

GENERAL WASHINGTON'S SPEECH AT THE MEETING OF OFFICERS. "Gentlemen,-By an anonymous summons an attempt has been made to convene you together; how inconsistent with the rules of propriety, how unmilitary, and how subversive of all order and discipline, let the good sense of the army decide. In the moment of this summons, another anonymous production was sent into circulation, addressed more to the feelings and passions than to the judgment of the army. The author of the piece is entitled to much credit for the goodness of his pen, and I could wish he had as much credit for the rectitude of his heart; for, as men see through different optics, and are induced by the reflecting faculties of the mind to use different means to attain the same end, the author of the address should have had more charity than to mark for suspicion the man who should recommend moderation and longer forbearance, or, in other words, who should not think as he thinks, and act as he advises.

"But he had another plan in view, on which candour and liberality of sentiment, regard to justice, and love of country has no part; and he was right to insinuate the darkest suspicion to effect the blackest design. That the address was drawn with great art, and is designed to answer the most insidious purposes: that it is calculated to impress the mind with an idea of premeditated injustice in the sovereign power of the United States, and rouse all the resentments which must unavoidably flow from such a belief; that the secret mover of this scheme, whoever he may be, intended to take advantage of the passions, while they were warmed by the recollection of past distresses, without giving time for cool, deliberative thinking, and that composure of mind which is so necessary to give dignity and stability to measures, is rendered too obvious, by the mode of conducting the business, to need other proofs than a reference to the proceedings.

"Thus much, gentlemen, I have thought it incumbent on me to observe to you, to show upon what principles I opposed the irregu

lar and hasty meeting which was proposed to have been held on Tuesday last, and not because I wanted a disposition to give you every opportunity consistent with your own honour and the dignity of the army to make known your grievances. If my conduct, therefore, has not evinced to you that I have been a faithful friend to the army, my declaration of it at this time would be equally improper and unavailing. But, as I was among the first who embarked in the cause of our common country, and as I have never left your side one moment, but when called on public duty; and as I have been the constant companion and witness of your distresses, and not among the last to feel and acknowledge your merits; and as I have ever considered my own military reputation as inseparably connected with that of the army; and as my heart has ever expanded with joy when I have heard its praises, and my indignation has arisen when the mouth of detraction has been opened against it, it can scarcely be supposed at this stage of the war, that I am indifferent to its interests. But, how are they to be promoted? The way is plain, says the anonymous addresser. If war continues, remove into the unsettled country; there establish yourselves, and leave an ungrateful country to defend itself. But who are they to defend? Our wives, our children, our farms, and other property which we leave behind us? or, in this state of hostile preparation, are we to take the two first (the latter cannot be removed) to perish in a wilderness with cold, hunger, and nakedness?

"If peace takes place, never sheathe your swords, says he, until you have obtained full and ample justice. This dreadful alternative, of either deserting our country in the extremest hour of her distress, or turning our arms against it, which is the apparent object, unless Congress can be compelled into instant compliance, has something so shocking in it that humanity revolts at the idea. My God! 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 powers of the continent? And what a compliment does he pay to our understandings, when he recommends measures, in either alternative, impracticable in their nature.

"But here, gentlemen, I will drop the curtain, because it would be as imprudent in me to assign my reasons for the opinion, as it would be insulting to your conception, to suppose you stood in