The demands were so pressing that Morris issued drafts for 100,000 livres on the mere chance of further help from Paris. Shortly after, news came that the king of France had loaned six millions of livres, with the intimation that no more need be expected. Morris requested the minister of France, the secretary for foreign affairs, and the secretary of war, to keep the knowledge of the grant from congress and from all other persons, lest the state legislatures that had not yet passed their tax bills should think it unnecessary to do so.

You have seen some of the specimens of the old Continental currency used by the patriots during the Revolution. It was worth almost nothing during the closing years of the war. On the 31st of July, 1782, Morris sent to congress his budget, or estimate of expenses, for 1783. It amounted to nine millions of dollars. All that could be done was to borrow four millions and raise the other five millions by quotas among the states. The proposal to give congress the right to levy a duty of five per cent. on imports was pressed on the state legislatures; but Virginia and several others refused assent. When General Greene, writing from the south, apologized for not making some returns, he gave as a reason, that there were not two quires of paper in the whole army on which to write the returns. Morris said in reply, "You must continue your exertions with or without men, or provisions, clothing or pay." To Washington, who fully appreciated the giant task before Morris, the latter wrote, "I pray that Heaven may direct your mind to some mode by which we may yet be saved."

I have told enough to show that the lack of money alone, to say nothing of other causes, would soon have ended successful resistance on the part of the Americans. But, fortunately, peace was near. The terms of the preliminary treaty, as already given, were ratified by congress, but it was not until the 3d of September, 1783, that the final treaty was agreed upon by all the nations that had been at war. On that day, the ambassadors of Holland, Spain, England, France and the United States, in a solemn conference in Paris, signed the articles of peace.

The terms of this memorable treaty of 1783, may be summed up as follows: A full recognition of the independence of the United States; the recession by Great Britain of Florida to Spain; the surrender of the rest of the territory east of the Mississippi and south of the Great Lakes to the United States; the free navigation of the Mississippi and the lakes by American vessels; the concession of mutual rights in the Newfoundland fisheries; and the retention by Great Britain of Canada and Nova Scotia, with the exclusive control of the St. Lawrence.

A hundred years ago news traveled much more slowly than to-day, and it was a long time before the conclusion of peace became known to the parties concerned. Thousands of men were in arms, and an idle army is sometimes as dangerous as an active one, though in the former case it is the friends of the troops as well as themselves who are the ones likely to suffer.

The proposition that Washington should establish a monarchy in this country with himself as king would have been pleasing to many more than the few officers in favor of such a step. The great need was a strong, central government, that could not only recommend legislation, but could also enforce it.

Discontent prevailed during the winter of 1782-3. Congress had passed a resolution to give half-pay to officers that should serve to the end of the war, but many believed that it would never be done, for the treasury was empty, and no one could tell where the funds were to come from. Furthermore, the resolution could not become binding until confirmed by nine of the states, and it was well known that many were opposed to such a step.

The anger of the officers deepened. On the 10th of March, 1783, there was circulated through the camp at Newburgh an anonymous paper calling a meeting of the general and field officers, to consider a letter from a committee of their number, who had been sent to Philadelphia to confer with congress, and to discuss what measures should be taken to secure a redress of their grievances. The meeting was to take place the following day. During the 10th, an anonymous address was circulated. It was of an inflammatory character, meant to excite the soldiers to revolutionary action. After referring to the fact that he was one of their companions in arms, whose interests and affections bound him to them, the writer recalled what they had suffered at the hands of congress, and assured them that justice never would be done them until that body was compelled to give it.

"If this, then," continued the writer, "be your treatment while the swords you wear are necessary for the defense 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 be 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 to charity the miserable remnant of that life 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 spirits should revolt at this; if you have sense enough to discover and spirit sufficient 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 will be as empty as your entreaties now!"

The writer advised his brethren to appeal not to the justice but to the fears of the government; to assume a bolder, though still a decent tone; to suspect the man who advised greater moderation, and to draw up a “last remonstrance" to congress.

Such an address was like a torch to a magazine. Few leaders would have been equal to the emergency, but Washington proved himself capable of the delicate and dangerous task of pacifying the malcontents.

On the 11th of March the commander-in-chief issued a general order, referring to the proposal for a meeting that day as a disorderly proceeding, but at the same time he himself convened the officers on the 15th, to hear a report of the Philadelphia committee of

1783.]

THE WISDOM OF WASHINGTON.

183

the army. By postponing the date of the meeting, Washington gave his men time to think over the matter and to allow their passions to cool. The writer of the anonymous address now issued another, claiming to find in Washington's general order a proof that the head of the army was entirely in favor of his view. But he soon learned his mistake.

At the meeting of officers on the 15th, General Gates, the senior officer present, presided. As soon as the meeting was organized, Washington rose and apologized for his presence, saying that the diligence with which the anonymous writings had been circulated called upon him to give his views, and since the matter was of such importance, he had written them. He then proceeded to read his address. First condemning the unknown writer, he disclaimed the charge that he was indifferent to the interests of the army. "But how," he asked, "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 whom are they to defend? Our wives, our children, our farms and other property, which we leave behind us? Or, in the state of hostile separation, are we to take the two first (the latter can not be removed) to perish in a wilderness with hunger, cold 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 distress, or turning our arms against it, which is the apparent object, unless congress can be com、 pelled 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? 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 commends measures, in either alternative, impracticable in their nature!"

Washington then urged patience, assuring them that congress wished to do them justice, but such large bodies, where there was a variety of interests to harmonize, must of necessity move slowly. He pledged them that he would not spare himself in the effort to see their wrongs made right, and begged for more "distinguished proof of unexampled patriotism and patient virtue rising superior to the pressure of the most complicated sufferings."

Having read his address, and also a conciliatory letter from a member of congress, Washington withdrew. Resolutions were then put and unanimously carried that the army reciprocated the affectionate expressions of their head, with the greatest sincerity of which the human heart is capable; that they still had an unshaken confidence in the justice of congress and the country, but expected that half-pay or an equivalent would be given them; and that the officers viewed with abhorrence and with disdain the infamous propositions contained in the anonymous address.

Agreeably to his promise, Washington wrote to the president of congress urging the claims of his comrades. A few days later the subject was taken up, and nine states con. curred in a resolution commuting the half-pay into a sum equal to five years' whole pay.

Thus Washington turned aside one of the gravest perils that ever threatened the American republic.

Who was the author of the fiery addresses that roused the American officers to the fighting point? You know that General Horatio Gates, because he was senior officer, presided at the meeting to consider the matter. Well, a member of his staff was the author of the anonymous addresses that were circulated in manuscript and copied by many of the officers. He was Major (afterward General) John Armstrong, who no doubt expressed the views of many of his brother officers. In a letter to Armstrong, written on the 3d of February, 1797, Washington said, "I have since had sufficient reason for believing that the object of the author was just, honorable, and friendly to the country, though the means suggested by him were certainly liable to much misunderstanding and abuse." Two days after the action of congress respecting the half-pay of the officers, the first

news of the preliminaries of peace reached Philadelphia. On the 5th of February Lafayette had written from Cadiz, announcing the welcome tidings, and inclosing a copy of the orders given by Count D'Estaing for the purpose of stopping hostilities on the sea. Congress thereupon directed the marine agent of the United States to recall all armed ships cruising under commissions. from the American government. On the 4th of April a

vessel arrived at Salem, from Nantes, with a printed copy of a declaration of the Amercan ministers in Paris, made on the 20th of February, and setting forth that ratifications of the preliminaries of peace had been exchanged. The captain that brought this news had carried to England, nearly eight years before, the tidings of the battle of Lexington. By another coincidence, the cessation of hostilities with Great Britain was proclaimed in the American camp on the 19th of April, 1783, just eight years, to a day, after the first collision between the Massachusetts yeomen and the soldiers of King George.

"Nothing now remains," said the commander-in-chief, in his address to his army, "but for the actors of this mighty scene to preserve a perfect, unvarying consistency of character through the very last act, to close the drama with applause, and to retire from the military theater with the same approbation of angels and men that has crowned all their former virtuous actions."

Washington had some misgiving lest the troops, unable to see the difference between the preliminaries and the actual establishment of peace, would insist on going home at once. Having obtained authority, he issued a large number of furloughs, and the men thus