transaction, anonymous invitations were circulated, requesting a general meeting of the officers next day. At the same instant many copies of the address to the officers of the army was scattered in every State line of it.

So soon as I obtained knowledge of these things, I issued the order of the 11th, transmitted to Congress, in order to rescue the foot, that stood wavering on the precipice of despair, from taking those steps, which would have led to the abyss of misery, while the passions were inflamed and the mind tremblingly alive with the recollection of past sufferings, and their present feelings. I did this upon the principle, that it is easier to divert from a wrong to a right path, than it is to recall the hasty and fatal steps, that have been already taken.

It is commonly supposed, that, if the officers had met agreeably to the anonymous summons, resolutions might have been formed, the consequences of which may be more easily conceived than expressed. Now they will have leisure to view the matter more calmly and seriously. It is to be hoped that they will be induced to adopt more rational measures, and wait a while longer for the settlemt. of their accts; the postponing of which gives more uneasiness in the army than any other thing. There is not a man in it, who will not acknowledge that Congress have not the means of payment; but why not, say they one and all, liquidate the accts. and certifie our dues? Are we to be disbanded and sent home without this? Are we afterwards to make individual applications for such settlements at Philadel

phia, or any auditing office in our respective States; to be shifted perhaps from one board to another, dancing attendance at all, and finally perhaps, be postponed till we lose the substance in pursuit of ye shadow? While they are agitated by these considerations, there are not wanting insidious characters, who tell them it is neither the wish nor the intention of the public to settle their accounts; but to delay this business under one pretext or another, until Peace, wch: we are upon the verge of, and a separation of the army takes place; when, it is well known it will be difficult if not impracticable; a general settlement never can be effected, and that individual loss in this instance becomes public gain.

However derogatory these ideas are with the dignity, honor, and justice of government, yet a matter so interesting to the army, and at the same time so easy to be effected by the Public, as that of liquidating the accounts, is delayed without any apparent or obvious necessity, they will have their place in a mind that is soured and irritated. Let me entreat you, therefore, my good Sir, to push this matter to an issue; and, if there are Delegates among you, who are really opposed to doing justice to the army, scruple not to tell them, if matters should come to extremity, that they must be answerable for all the ineffable horrors, which may be occasioned thereby. I am most sincerely and affectionately yours.

DEAR LUND,

TO LUND WASHINGTON

NEWBURG, 19 March, 1783.

I did not write to you by the last post. I was too much engaged at the time, in counteracting a most insidious attempt to disturb the repose of the army, and sow the seeds of discord between the civil and military powers of the continent, to attend to small matters. The author of this attempt, whoever he may be, is yet behind the curtain; and as conjectures might be wrong, I shall be silent at present. The good sense, the virtue and patient forbearance of the army on this, as upon every other trying occasion which has happened to call them into action, has again triumphed; and appeared with more lustre than ever. But if the States will not furnish the supplies required by Congress, thereby enabling the Superintendent of Finance to feed, clothe, and pay the army, if they suppose the war can be carried on without money, or that money can be borrowed without permanent funds to pay the interest of it; if they have no regard to justice, because it is attended with expence; if gratitude to men, who have rescued them from the jaws of danger and brought them to the haven of Independence and Peace, is to subside, as danger is removed; if the sufferings of the army, who have borne and forborne more than any other class of men in the United States, expending their health, and many of them their all, in an unremitted service of near eight years in the field; encountering hunger, cold and nakedness, are to be forgotten; if

it is presumed there is no bounds to the patience of the army; or that when peace takes place, their claims for pay due, and rewards promised may die with the military non-existence of its members-if such, I say, should be the sentiments of the States, and that their conduct, or the conduct of some, does but too well warrant the conclusion, well may another anonymous addresser step forward, and with more effect than the last did, say with him, "You have arms in your hands; do justice to yourselves, and never sheath the sword, till you have obtained it." How far men who labor under the pressure of accumulated distress, and are irritated by a belief that they are treated with neglect, ingratitude and injustice in the extreme might be worked upon by designing men, is worthy of very serious consideration. But justice, policy, yea common sense must tell every man that the creditors of the continent cannot receive payments unless funds are provided for it, and that our national character, if these are much longer neglected, must be stamped with indelible infamy in every nation of the world where the fact is known.1

1" Such an avidity appears among our People to make money, and so feeble the Reins of Government (where there is an attempt to use them) to restrain the illicit and pernicious intercourse of Trade with the enemy at New York, that the fence between them and us is entirely broken down, and nothing but an Army quite sufficient to form a close investiture of that place can repair it. Five such armies as I have would be incompetent, employed in any other way. The boats which have been Commissioned to obstruct this trade, are instrumental in carrying it on, and have been caught in the act as many other Trading parties also have been by the Guards and patroles I keep for this purpose. But it avails nothing. By Hook or by

TO GOVERNOR BENJAMIN HARRISON

DEAR SIR,

NEWBURG, 19 March, 1783.

About the first of this month I wrote you a long letter.1 I touched upon the state of the army, the situation of public creditors, and wished to know from you as a friend, what causes had induced the Assembly of Virginia to withdraw their assent to the Impost Law, and how the Continental creditors (without adequate funds) were to come at or obtain security for their money. I little expected at the time of writing that letter, that we were on the eve of an important crisis to this army, when the touchstone of discord was to be applied, and the virtue of its members to undergo the severest trial.

You have not been altogether unacquainted, I dare say, with the fears, the hopes, the apprehensions, and the expectations of the army, relatively to the provision, which is to be made for them hereafter. Altho' a firm reliance on the integrity of Congress, and a belief that the Public would finally do justice to all its Servants and give an indisputable security for the payment of the halfpay of the officers, had kept them amidst a variety of sufferings tolerably quiet and contented for two or three years past; yet the total want of pay, the little prospect of receiving any from the unpromising state of the public finances, and the absolute

Crook they are certain of acquittal. In truth I am quite discouraged, and have scarce any thing left but lamentation for the want [of] virtue and depravity of my Countrymen.”Washington to Robert R. Livingston, 19 March, 1783.

1 For part of this letter see page 181.