15th. arms, to active exertions for their own benefit. The CHA P. moft formidable effects were apprehended from a me- XLVI. naced combination, but averted through the temper- 1783. ance and judgment of general Washington. He firft 10th Mar. mollified the minds of the officers, in feparate inter- Prudence of views, and afterward, in a general meeting, reprefented Washington. the infamy of adopting measures which would fully the glory of feven years fervice, in fuch glowing colours, that they unanimously declared, no circumstance of distress or danger should shake their confidence in the justice of their country, and that they viewed with abhorrence and rejected with disdain, the infamous propofition of the anonymous addrefs. General Washington was higly applauded for his conduct in this alarming crisis; and the legislative body, inftructed 22d Mar. by recent danger, offered to the officers the amount of five years full pay in money, or in fecurities bearing interest at fix per cent, instead of the half-pay which had been promised them for life. WHEN the officers were fatisfied, a confiderable 26th May. difficulty ftill presented itself in difperfing fo large a body of foldiers; but this was evaded by granting furloughs, and never requiring those who held them to return. Thus the impatience of individuals to revifit their native homes, diminished the risk of disbanding an unpaid army; the men, without means of meeting to confer on grievances, refumed their fituations as husbandmen or artificers, and forgot those demands which the country was unable to liquidate. All were not, however so easily fatisfied; eighty of 20th. the Pensylvania levies marched from Lancaster, and being joined by other malcontents, to the amount of three hundred, repaired to the state-house at Philadelphia in martial array, placing guards at the doors, and threatening fignal vengeance, unless their just demands were gratified within twenty minutes. Congrefs, however, found means to temporize with these mutineers, until general Wafhington dispatched a fuperior force, which quelled the difturbance. Several CHA P. were condemned to death and other punishments, but afterwards pardoned. XLVI. 1783. 18th Oct. The army difbanded. 2d Nov. Washington's farewell. 15th Nov. His retreat Ar a late period of the year, when the numbers of the collective military body were greatly diminished by permiffive abfences, congrefs iffued a proclamation, applauding their armies for having displayed, in the progrefs of an arduous and difficult war, every military and patriotic virtue, thanking them for their long, eminent, and faithful fervices, and declaring the third of November the day of their difmiffion. With great difficulty four months pay, in part of several years of arrears, were prefented to them. On the day preceding their feparation, the general iffued his valedictory orders, in endearing language, imploring" the choiceft favours of heaven on those who, under divine aufpices, had fecured innumberable bleffings to others;" he announced at the fame time his intention to retire from the fervice; "the curtain of feparation was foon to be drawn, and the military scene to him clofed for ever." AFTER affifting at a fplendid festival on the with honours evacuation of New York, the general took an afand acclama- fecting leave of his officers. At Annapolis, which tions. was then the feat of congrefs, he refigned his commission, with an animated and eloquent compliment, into the hands of the prefident'; having previously delivered to the comptroller in Philadelphia, in his own hand writing, an account of the public monies expended by him during the war, which did not amount to fifteen thousand pounds, and perfevering in his original intention to decline all pecuniary compenfation. In his journey to his paternal estate at Mount Vernon, he was faluted at every town and village with acclamations, fireworks, bonfires, and other teftimonials of joy and congratulation, and received from a grateful and admiring people, the homage of numerous affectionate addreffes. Perhaps no perfonal character ever ftood on a more elevated point of view, than XLVI. than that of Washington at this period. The triumph CHA P. of the American caufe was juftly attributed to his perfeverance, prudence, and judgment; and his selfdenial formed a noble and dignified example, rarely paralleled. 1783. YET fuch is the natural jealoufy of republican go- Cincinnati. vernments, that when the general and his officers propofed to perpetuate their friendship by the establishment of a fociety called Cincinnati, the whole continent took alarm. It was regarded as an attempt to introduce into the state a military order; and the propofition to admit the progeny of the founders of American freedom into the fociety, was confidered as a first step towards the establishment of an hereditary nobility: the fubject was argued with fo much heat, that the extenfion of the affociation beyond the perfons of the founders was abandoned; and the project has no traces of existence, but in name and memory d. ments of ALTHOUGH the grofs fum of their debt appeared Debts and trifling, yet the pecuniary embarraffinents of the embarras United States prefented great difficulties, even in tem- America. porary arrangement, and threatened to prove a permanent bar to their future profperity. Their domeftic debt was fomewhat above thirty-four millions of dollars, or seven millions fix hundred thousand pounds fterling. To France America was indebted for pecuniary aids, eighteen millions of livres, which it was agreed to liquidate by inftalments, with interest at five per cent. in twelve years. A further fum of five millions of florins, or ten millions of livres, for which the king of France ftood jointly engaged with congrefs to the States of Holland, was to be paid, with fimilar intereft, in five years. Their remaining foreign debts amounted to about five hundred thou d See Confiderations on the Society or Order of Cincinnati, by Caffius, fuppofed to be Edanus Burke, one of the chiet juftices of South Carolina; and Obfervations by an obfcure Individual, both printed at Philadel, hia in 1783. € 787,500 pounds flerling. 437,500. fand CHAP. fand pounds fterling. XLVI. 1783. The limited authorities of congrefs, and the difcretionary powers of the several provinces, formed great impediments to the funding of this fum: to a fcheme formed by the general legiflature, fome acceded totally, and fome partially; while others withheld their confent from any measure which had a tendency to lodge the purse and the fword in the fame hands, and refifted, by force of arms, the agents employed by congrefs to collect the levies. In vain were exhortations and pathetic addreffes iffued, invoking the public juftice, and appealing to the honour of the country; the difregard of fuch motives, when incompatible with private intereft, had been fo long fanctioned, that fuch appeals met with little regard; and the impotency of government and difhonefty of the people, afforded ferious apprehenfions of general bankruptcy. Under fuch alarms, increased by the violation of public faith, the force of private obligations was dreadfully diminished: government contracts were fold for a tenth part of their nominal value, and all was fpeculation, fraud, injustice, and rapine. THE eagernefs of European powers to obtain a preference in the boafted commerce of America, added to thefe evils. An inundation of manufactures, tendered on eafy terms of credit, tempted the merchants to adventure in purchases much exceeding their powers of payment. Debts were contracted by fome to the full amount of their claims on the American government; while the daily depreciation of government fecurity involved the demands of individuals in the general state of confused speculation. Those who were indebted to British merchants for contracts before the war, were additionally distressed. By the terms of the peace all these debts were to be paid; money was the only medium, fince no hope could exift that a depreciated paper currency would be accepted by the merchant whom a long and hazardous war had greatly injured by delay and rifk. Thus fpecie rapidly difappeared; difappeared; while the means of reftoring it were CHA P. 1783. THE powers of Europe, who had joined without Powers of provocation in an infamous confpiracy against Great Europe. Britain, faw, even in their fuccefs, no great cause for felf-gratulation. They had brought the rival country to the neceffity of accepting terms of peace, which In 1789. h Chiefly from Ramfay, vol. ii. chapters xxvi. and xxvii. I have alfo confulted Stedman, chapter xlvi. and the papers in the Annual Register and the Remem brancer. her |