the military and national character of America, to express your utmost horror and detestation of the man who wickedly attempts to open the floodgates 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 give one more proof of unexampled patriotism and patient virtue, rising superior to the pressure of the most complicated sufferings; and you will afford occasion for posterity to say: 'Had this day been wanting, the world had never seen the last stage of perfection to which human nature is capable of attaining.' * On concluding his address, the general, in further proof of the good disposition of congress, began to read parts of a letter from a member of that body; but, after getting through a single paragraph, he paused, and asked leave of his audience to put on spectacles, which he had so lately received that he had never yet worn them in public,† saying: "I have grown gray in your service, and now find myself growing blind." These unaffected words touched every heart. The letter, which was from Joseph Jones of King George county in Virginia, set forth the embarrassments of congress and their resolve that the army should at all events be justly dealt with. Washington then withdrew. Officers, who a few hours before had yielded themselves to the anonymous addresses, veered about, and would now follow no counsellor but their own commander. The assembly unanimously thanked him for his communications and assured him of their affection, "with the greatest sincerity of which the human heart is capable." Then, after a reference to Knox, Brooks, and Howard as their committee, they resolved unanimously: "At the commencement of the present war, the officers of the American army engaged in the service of their country from the purest love and attachment to the rights and liberties of human nature, which motives still exist in the high * From Rittenhouse. Washington to Rittenhouse, 16 February 1783; Memoirs of Rittenhouse, 299, 300. "C'étoit la première fois qu'il les prenoit en publique." Mazzei, Recherches, iv., 122. est degree; and no circumstances of distress or danger shall induce a conduct that may tend to sully the reputation and glory which they have acquired at the price of their blood and eight years' faithful services." Making no demands and confining their expectations within the most reasonable limits, they declared their unshaken confidence in the justice of congress and their country, and they asked nothing of their chief but to urge congress to a speedy decision upon their late memorial. Another resolution declared "that the officers of the American army view with abhorrence and reject with disdain the infamous propositions contained in a late anonymous address to them." Gates meekly put the question, and was obliged to report that it was carried unanimously. No one ever ruled the hearts of his officers like Washington. The army of America had seen him calm and commanding in the rage of battle; patient and persistent under multiplied misfortunes; moderate in victory; but then he had been countenanced by his troops and his friends; here he stood alone, amid injured men of inflamed passions, with swords at their sides, persuaded that forbearance would be their ruin, and, for a fearful moment, looking upon him as their adversary. As he spoke, every cloud was scattered, and the full light of love of country broke forth. Happy for America that she had a patriot army; happy for America and for the world that that army had Washington for its chief! The official narrative of these events was received in congress on the twenty-second, and, before the day came to an end, nine states concurred in a resolution* commuting the half-pay promised to the officers into a sum equal to five years' full pay, to be discharged by certificates bearing interest at six per cent. Georgia and Rhode Island were not adequately represented; New Hampshire and New Jersey voted in the negative; all the other states irrevocably pledged the United States to redeem their promise made to the officers in the dark hours of their encampment at Valley Forge. On the next day a ship dispatched from Cadiz by d'Estaing, at the instance of Lafayette, brought authentic news that the American and British commissioners had signed defini *Bland to Washington, 22 March 1783. MS. tively a provisional treaty, of which an official copy had been received eleven days before, and that peace with Great Britain had already taken effect. The American boundaries on the northwest exceeded alike the demands and the hopes of congress, and it was already believed that a later generation would make its way to the Pacific ocean.* The glad tidings drew from Washington tears of joy in that "happiest moment of his life." "All the world is touched by his republican virtues," wrote Luzerne. "It will be in vain for him to wish to hide himself and live as a simple, private man; he will always be the first citizen of the United States." + All the while no one like him had pursued with single-mindedness and perseverance and constant activity the great object of creating a republican government for the continent. To Hamilton he wrote on the last day of March 1783: "I rejoice most exceedingly that there is an end to our warfare, and that such a field is opening to our view, as will with wisdom to direct the cultivation of it, make us a great, a respectable, and happy people; but it must be improved by other means than state politics, and unreasonable jealousies and prejudices, or it requires not the second sight to see that we shall be instruments in the hands of our enemies and those European powers who may be jealous of our greatness in union, to dissolve the confederation. But to obtain this, although the way seems extremely plain, is not so easy. "My wish to see the union of these states established upon liberal and permanent principles, and inclination to contribute my mite in pointing out the defects of the present constitution, are equally great. All my private letters have teemed with these sentiments, and, whenever this topic has been the subject of conversation, I have endeavored to diffuse and enforce them. No man in the United States is or can be more deeply impressed with the necessity of a reform in our present confederation than myself. No man, perhaps, has felt the bad effects of it more sensibly; for to the defects thereof, and want of power in congress, may justly be ascribed the prolongation of the war and consequently the expenses occasioned * Luzerne to Vergennes, 19 March 1783. MS. + Luzerne to Vergennes, 29 March 1783. by it. More than half the perplexities I have experienced in the course of my command, and almost the whole of the difficulties and distress of the army, have had their origin here. But still, the prejudices of some, the designs of others, and the mere machinery of the majority, make address and management necessary to give weight to opinions which are to combat the doctrines of those different classes of men in the field of politics.” * Upon official information from Franklin and Adams, congress on the eleventh of April made proclamation for the cessation of hostilities. In announcing the great event to the army, Washington did especial honor to the men who had enlisted for the war, and added: "Happy, thrice happy shall they be pronounced hereafter who have contributed anything in erecting this stupendous fabric of freedom and empire; who have assisted in protecting the rights of human nature, and establishing an asylum for the poor and oppressed of all nations and religions." The proclamation of congress that war was at an end was published to the army on the nineteenth, exactly eight years from the day when the embattled farmers of Concord "fired the shot heard round the world.” * Sparks's Washington, viii., 409, 410, 411. March 1783. Washington to Hamilton, 31 CHAPTER VII. DISBANDING THE ARMY. MARCH-JULY 1783. WASHINGTON presented the rightful claims of the "patriot army " with a warmth and energy which never but this once appear in his communications to congress; and his words gained intenser power from his disinterestedness. To a committee on which were Bland and Hamilton, he enforced, by every consideration of gratitude, justice, honor, and national pride, the "universal" expectations of the army, that, before their disbanding, they should receive pay for at least one month in hand, with an absolute assurance in a short time of pay for two months more. "The financier will take his own measures, but this sum must be procured. The soldier is willing to risk the hard-earned remainder due him for four, five, perhaps six years upon the same basis of security with the general mass of other public creditors." + "The expectations of the army," answered Hamilton, "are moderation itself." But, after a week's reflection, Morris, who had already written to congress "our public credit is gone," replied to the committee that the amount of three months' pay was more than all the receipts from all the states since 1781; that there was no resource but the issue of paper notes in anticipation of revenue. | 346. * Washington to congress, 18 March 1783. Sparks, viii., 396–399. Washington to Bland, 4 April 1783. Hamilton to Washington, 11 April 1783. Letters to Washington, iv., 17. # Diplomatic Correspondence, xii., 342. R. Morris to Hamilton, 14 April 1783. Diplomatic Correspondence, xii., |