with great credit to himself various eminent posts under our government. At the time of writing them he was a young man, aide-de-camp to General Gates, and he did it at the request of a number of his fellow-officers, indignaut at the neglect of their just claims by Congress, and in the belief that the tardy movements of that body required the spur and the lash. Washington, in a letter dated 23d January, 1797, says, "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."

CHAPTER XXXII.

News of Peace. - Letter of Washington in Rehalf of the Army. Cessation of Hostilities proclaimed. - Order of the Cincinnati formed. - Letter of Washington to the State Governors. Mutiny in the Pennsylvania Line. of Washington on the Subject. - Tour to the Northern Posts.

- Letter

T length arrived the wished-for news of peace. A general treaty had been

signed at Paris on the 20th of January. An armed vessel, the Triumph, belonging to the Count d'Estaing's squadron, arrived at Philadelphia from Cadiz, on the 23d of March, bringing a letter from the Marquis de Lafayette, to the President of Congress, communicating the intelligence. In a few days Sir Guy Carleton informed Washington by letter, that he was ordered to proclaim a cessation of hostilities by sea and land.

A similar proclamation issued by Congress, was received by Washington on the 17th of April. Being unaccompanied by any instructions respecting the discharge of the part of the army with him, should the measure be deemed necessary, he found himself in a perplexing situation.

The accounts of peace received at different times, had raised an expectation in the minds of

cured, and the characters of those who have persevered through every extremity of hardship, suffering, and danger, being immortalized by the appellation of the patriot army, nothing now remains, 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 theatre with the same approbation of angels and men which has crowned all their former virtuous actions."

The letter which he had written to the President produced a resolution in Congress, that the service of the men engaged in the war did not expire until the ratification of the definitive articles of peace; but that the commander-in-chief might grant furloughs to such as he thought proper, and that they should be allowed to take their arms with them.

Washington availed himself freely of this permission: furloughs were granted without stint; the men set out singly or in small parties for their rustic homes, and the danger and inconvenience were avoided of disbanding large masses, at a time, of unpaid soldiery. Now and then were to be seen three or four in a group, bound probably to the same neighborhood, beguiling the way with camp jokes and camp stories. The war-worn soldier was always kindly received at the farm-houses along the road, where he might shoulder his gun and fight over his battles. The men thus dismissed on furlough were never called upon to rejoin the army. Once at home, they sank into domestic life;

EVACUATION OF NEW YORK.

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their weapons were hung up over their fire-places, military trophies of the Revolution to be prized by future generations.

In the mean time Sir Guy Carleton was making preparations for the evacuation of the city of New York. The moment he had received the royal order for the cessation of hostilities, he had written for all the shipping that could be procured from Europe and the West Indies. As early as the 27th of April a fleet had sailed for different parts of Nova Scotia, carrying off about seven thousand persons, with all their effects. A great part of these were troops, but many were royalists and refugees, exiled by the laws of the United States. They looked forward with a dreary eye to their voyage, "bound," as one of them said, "to a country where there were nine months of winter and three months of cold weather every year."

On the 6th of May a personal conference took place between Washington and Sir Guy at Orangetown, about the transfer of posts in the United States, held by the British troops, and the delivery of all property stipulated by the treaty to be given up to the Americans. On the 8th of May, Egbert Benson, William S. Smith, and Daniel Parker, were commissioned by Congress to inspect and superintend at New York the embarkation of persons and property, in fulfillment of the seventh article of the provisional treaty.

While sadness and despair prevailed among the tories and refugees in New York, the officers in in the patriot camp on the Hudson were not without gloomy feelings at the thought of their ap

proaching separation from each other. E years of dangers and hardships, shared in com and nobly sustained, had welded their hearts gether, and made it hard to rend them asune Prompted by such feelings, General Knox, e noted for generous impulses, suggested, as a m of perpetuating the friendships thus formed, keeping alive the brotherhood of the camp. formation of a society composed of the officer the army. The suggestion met with univ concurrence, and the hearty approbation of W ington.

Meetings were held, at which the Baron ben, as senior officer, presided. A plan drafted by a committee composed of gen Knox, Hand, and Huntingdon, and Captain S and the society was organized at a meeting on the 13th of May, at the baron's quarters old Verplanck House, near Fishkill.

By its formula, the officers of the Ame army in the most solemn manner combined t selves into one society of friends: to endu long as they should endure, or any of their e male posterity, and in failure thereof, their c eral branches who might be judged worth being its supporters and members. In me of the illustrious Roman, Lucius Quintius cinnatus, who retired from war to the pea duties of the citizen, it was to be called Society of the Cincinnati." The objects prop by it were to preserve inviolate the rights and erties for which they had contended; to pro and cherish national honor and union between