WILKINSON THROWN OUT OF EMPLOY. 429 occasion, nor can I recollect particular passages of that letter, as I had but a cursory view of it at a late hour. However, I so well remember its general tenor, that, although General Gates has pledged his word it was a wicked and malicious forgery, I will stake my reputation, if the genuine letter is produced, that words to the same effect will appear." A few days afterwards, Wilkinson addressed the following letter to the President of Congress : "SIR,-While I make my acknowledgments to Congress, for the appointment of Secretary to the Board of War and Ordnance, I am sorry I should be constrained to resign that office; but, after the acts of treachery and falsehood in which I have detected Major-general Gates, the president of that board, it is impossible for me to reconcile it to my honor to serve with him.” * After recording this letter in his memoirs, Wilkinson adds: “I had previously resigned my brevet of brigadiergeneral, on grounds of patriotism; but I still retained my commission of colonel, which was never to my knowledge revoked; yet the dominant influence of General Gates, and the feuds, and factions, and intrigues which prevailed in Congress and in the army of that day, threw me out of employ."-There we shall leave him; it * Wilkinson's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 409. was a kind of retirement which we apprehend he had richly merited, and we doubt whether his country would have been the loser had he been left to enjoy it for the remainder of his days. Throughout all the intrigues and manoeuvres of the cabal, a part of which we have laid before the reader, Washington had conducted himself with calmness and self-command, speaking on the subject to no one but a very few of his friends; lest a knowledge of those internal dissensions should injure the service. In a letter to Patrick Henry he gives his closing observations concerning them. "I cannot precisely mark the extent of their views; but it appeared in general, that General Gates was to be exalted on the ruin of my reputation and influence. This I am authorized to say, from undeniable facts in my own possession, from publications, the evident scope of which could not be mistaken, and from private detractions industriously circulated. General Mifflin, it is commonly supposed, bore the second part in the cabal; and General Conway, I know, was a very active and malignant partisan; but I have good reason to believe that their machinations have recoiled most sensibly upon themselves." An able and truthful historian, to whose researches we are indebted for most of the documents concerning the cabal, gives it as his opinion that there is not sufficient evidence to prove any concerted plan of action or any fixed design among the leaders: a few aspiring men CLOSING REMARKS ON THE CABAL. 431 like Gates and Mifflin, might have flattered themselves with indefinite hopes, and looked forward to a change as promising the best means of aiding their ambitious views; but that it was not probable they had united in any clear or fixed purpose.* These observations are made with that author's usual candor and judgment; yet, wanting as the intrigues of the cabal might be in plan or fixed design, they were fraught with mischief to the public service, inspiring doubts of its commanders and seeking to provoke them to desperate enterprises. They harassed Washington in the latter part of his campaign, contributed to the dark cloud that hung over his gloomy encampment at Valley Forge, and might have effected his downfall, had he been more irascible in his temper, more at the mercy of impulse, and less firmly fixed in the affections of the people. As it was, they only tended to show wherein lay his surest strength. Jealous rivals he might have in the army, bitter enemies in Congress, but the soldiers loved. him, and the large heart of the nation always beat true to him. NOTE. The following anecdote of the late Governor Jay, one of our purest and most illustrious statesmen, is furnished to us by his son Judge Jay :-"Shortly before the death of John Adams, I was sitting alone with my father, conversing about the American Revolution. Suddenly he remarked, ‘Ah, William! the history of that Revolution will never be known. *Sparks' Writings of Washington, vol. v. Appendix-where there is a series of documents respecting the Conway Cabal, Nobody now alive knows it but John Adams and myself.' Surprised at such a declaration, I asked him to what he referred? He briefly replied, The proceedings of the old Congress.' Again I inquired, 'What proceedings?' He answered, 'Those against Washington; from first to iast there was a most bitter party against him.'” As the old Congress always sat with closed doors, the public knew no more of what passed within than what it was deemed expedient to disclose. CHAPTER XXXI. COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENT.-REFORMS IN THE ARMY.-SCARCITY IN THE CAMP. THE ENEMY REVEL IN PHILADELPHIA. - ATTEMPT TO SURPRISE LIGHT-HORSE HARRY.-HIS GALLANT DEFENSE.-PRAISED BY WASHINGTON.— PROMOTED.-LETTER FROM GENERAL LEE.-BURGOYNE RETURNS TO ENGLAND. MRS. WASHINGTON AT VALLEY FORGE.-BRYAN FAIRFAX VISITS THE CAMP.-ARRIVAL OF THE BARON STEUBEN.-HIS CHARACTER.-DISCIPLINES THE ARMY.-GREENE MADE QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL. URING the winter's encampment in Valley Forge, Washington sedulously applied himself to the formation of a new system for the army. At his earnest solicitation Congress appointed a committee of five, called the Committee of Arrangement, to repair to the camp and assist him in the task.* Before their arrival he had collected the written opinions and suggestions of his officers on the subject, and from these, and his own observations and experience, had prepared a document exhibiting the actual state of the army, the defects of previous systems, and the alterations and reforms that were necessary. The committee remained three months with him in camp, and then made a report * Names of the committee-General Reed, Nathaniel Folsom, Francis Dana, Charles Carroll, and Gouverneur Morris. VOL. III.-28 433 |