Life and Times of Washington, Volume 2 / Revised, Enlarged, and Enriched

by John Frederick Schroeder; Benson John Lossing

This energetic letter, connected with recent events, induced Congress to decide on the claims of the army. These were liquidated, and the amount acknowledged to be due from the United States. Thus the country was once more indebted to the wisdom and moderation of Washington for its preservation from imminent danger.

Soon after these events intelligence of a general peace was received. The news came by a French vessel from Cadiz, with a letter from Lafayette, who was then at that place preparing for an expedition to the West Indies, under Count d'Estaing. Shortly after, Sir Guy Carleton gave official information to the same effect and announced a cessation of hostilities. The joyful intelligence was notified by proclamation of Washington to the army, in the camp at Newburg, on the 19th of April (1783), exactly eight years after the commencement of hostilities at Lexington. In general orders a public religious service and thanksgiving was directed by him to take place on the evening of the same day, when the proclamation was read at the head of every regiment and corps of the army. The immediate reduction of the army was resolved upon, but the mode of effecting it required deliberation. To avoid the inconveniences of dismissing a great number of soldiers in a body, furloughs were freely granted on the application of individuals, and after their dispersion they were not enjoined to return. By this arrangement a critical moment was got over. A great part of an unpaid army was dispersed over the States without tumult or disorder.

At the instance of Washington the soldiers were permitted to carry home their arms, to be preserved and transmitted to their posterity as memorials of the glorious war of independence.

While the veterans serving under the immediate eye of their beloved Commander-in-Chief manifested the utmost good temper and conduct, a mutinous disposition broke out among some new levies stationed at Lancaster, in Pennsylvania. About eighty of this description marched in a body to Philadelphia, where they were joined by some other troops, so as to amount in the whole to 300. They marched with fixed bayonets to the statehouse, in which Congress and the State Executive Council held their sessions. They placed guards at every door and threatened the President and Council of the State with letting loose an enraged soldiery upon them, unless they granted their demands in twenty minutes. As soon as this outrage was known to Washington, he detached General Howe with a competent force to suppress the mutiny. This was effected without bloodshed before his arrival. The mutineers were too inconsiderable to commit extensive mischief, but their disgraceful conduct excited the greatest indignation in the breast of the Commander-in-Chief, which was expressed in a letter to the President of Congress in the following words:

"While I suffer the most poignant distress in observing that a handful of men, contemptible in numbers, and equally so in point of service (if the veteran troops from the southward have not been seduced by their example), and who are not worthy to be called soldiers, should disgrace themselves and their country, as the Pennsylvania mutineers have done, by insulting the sovereign authority of the United States, and that of their own, I feel an inexpressible satisfaction that even this behavior cannot stain the name of the American soldiery.

"It cannot be imputable to or reflect dishonor on the army at large, but, on the contrary, it will, by the striking contrast it exhibits, hold up to public view the other troops in the most advantageous point of light. Upon taking all the circumstances into consideration, I cannot sufficiently express my surprise and indignation at the arrogance, the folly, and the wickedness of the mutineers; nor can I sufficiently admire the fidelity, the bravery, and patriotism which must forever signalize the unsullied character of the other corps of our army. For when we consider that these Pennsylvania levies who have now mutinied are recruits and soldiers of a day, who have not borne the heat and burden of war, and who can have in reality very few hardships to complain of, and when we at the same time recollect that those soldiers who have lately been furloughed from this army, are the veterans who have patiently endured hunger, nakedness, and cold; who have suffered and bled without a murmur, and who, with perfect good order have retired to their homes without a settlement of their accounts or a farthing of money in their pockets, we shall be as much astonished at the virtues of the latter as we are struck with detestation at the proceedings of the former."

On the occasion of disbanding the army, Washington addressed a circular letter to the governors of all the States, in which he gave his views of the existing state of the country and the principles upon which the future fabric of united government should be founded. It is one of the most remarkable state papers ever produced in this country.

Meantime Sir Guy Carleton was preparing to evacuate the city of New York. On the 27th of April (1783) a fleet had sailed for Nova Scotia with 7,000 persons and their effects. These were partly soldiers and partly Tories exiled by the laws of the States.

On the 6th of May Washington had a personal interview with Carleton at Orangetown respecting the delivery of the British ports in the United States, and of property directed to be surrendered by an article of the treaty.

The independence of his country being established, Washington looked forward with anxiety to its future destinies. These might greatly depend on the systems to be adopted on the return of peace, and to those systems much of his attention was directed. The future peace establishment of the United States was one of the many interesting subjects which claimed the consideration of Congress. As the experience of Washington would certainly enable him to suggest many useful ideas on this important point, his opinions respecting it were requested by the committee of Congress to whom it was referred. His letter on this occasion will long deserve the attention of those to whom the interests of the United States may be confided. His strongest hopes of securing the future tranquility, dignity, and respectability of his country were placed on a well-regulated and well-disciplined militia; and his sentiments on this subject are entitled to the more regard as a long course of severe experience had enabled him to mark the total incompetence of the existing system to the great purposes of national defense.