The writings of George Washington; being his correspondence, addresses, messages, and other papers, official and private, selected and published from the original manuscripts; with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. By Jared Sparks.

MET. 45.] LIFE OF WASHINGTON. 269
overt acts, or inferred from less obvious indications.
The affair was at length brought to his notice in a definite shape. When Colonel Wilkinson, one of Gates's
aids-de-camp, was on his way from Saratoga to Congress, as bearer of despatches announcing the capitulation of Burgoyne, he stopped at the quarters of Lord
Stirling, who was then at Reading. In a free conversation while there, Wilkinson repeated part of a letter, which Gates had received from Conway, containing strictures on the management of the army under
Washington, accompanied with disparaging reflections.
Prompted by patriotism and friendship, Lord Stirling
communicated to him an extract from the letter as
repeated by Wilkinson. A correspondence on the subject followed between Washington, Gates, and Conway.
The genuineness of the extract was denied, but the
letter itself was never produced. Two or three persons
afterwards saw it in confidence, among whom was Mr.
Laurens, President of Congress; and, although the
words proved not to be exactly the same, yet the tenor
and spirit of the letter were accurately reported. The
transaction, and the incidents springing from it, could
not long be concealed from the officers of the army.
Rumors respecting them went abroad, and the public
sentiment was expressed in a tone so unequivocal and
decided, as to discourage the instigators; and their
schemes were abandoned, before they had produced
any of the fatal mischiefs, which must inevitably have
followed, if their ambitious hopes had been realized.
There is no reason to suppose, that any of the
officers were directly implicated in the cabal, except
Gates, Mifflin, and Conway. That a considerable party
in Congress favored the projects of these men is evident from the proceedings of that body for several
months. After the capitulation at Saratoga, Gates forw