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.

280 LIFE OF WASHINGTON. [1778.
the war should end, and no other inducement offered
to them than their common wages while in actual service. Numerous complaints and resignations convinced
Washington, that this motive, even when strengthened
by ambition and patriotism, was not enough. He proposed half-pay for life, after the close of the war, or
some other permanent provision.'"If my opinion be asked," said he in a letter to
Congress, "with respect to the necessity of making
this provision for the officers, I am ready to declare,
that I do most religiously believe the salvation of the
cause depends upon it, and, without it, your officers will
moulder to nothing, or be composed of low and illiterate
men, void of capacity for this or any other business.
To prove this, I can with truth aver, that scarce a day
passes without the offer of two or three commissions;
and my advices from the eastward and southward are,
that numbers who had gone home on furlough mean
not to return, but are establishing themselves in more
lucrative employments. Let Congress determine what
will be the consequence of this spirit.
"Personally, as an officer, I have no interest in their
decision, because I have declared, and I now repeat
it, that I never will receive the smallest benefit from
the half-pay establishment; but, as a man who fights
under the weight of a proscription, and as a citizen,
who wishes to see the liberty of his country established
upon a permanent foundation, and whose property depends upon the success of our arms, I am deeply interested. But, all this apart, and justice out of the
question, upon the single ground of economy and public
saving, I will maintain the utility of it; for I have not
the least doubt, that, until officers consider their commissions in an honorable and interested point of view,
and are afraid to endanger them by negligence and