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.

,ET. 50.] LIFE OF WASHINGTON 381
Amnerica, it will undoubtedly be wisdom in us to meet
them with great caution and circumspection, and by
all means to keep our arms firm in our hands, and,
instead of relaxing one iota in our exertions, rather to
spring forward with redoubled vigor, that we may take
the advantage of every favorable opportunity, until our
wishes are fully obtained. No nation ever yet suffered
in treaty by preparing, even in the moment of negotiation, most vigorously for the field."
The discontents of the officers and soldiers, respecting the arrearages of their pay, had for some'time increased; and, there being now a prospect, that the
army would ultimately be disbanded without an adequate provision by Congress for meeting the claims of
the troops, these discontents manifested themselves in
audible murmurs and complaints, which foreboded serious consequences. But a spirit still more to be dreaded
was secretly at work. In reflecting on the limited
powers of Congress, and on the backwardness of the
States to comply with the most essential requisitions,
even in support of their own interests, many of the
officers were led to look for the cause in the form of
government, and to distrust the stability of republican
institutions. So far were they carried by their fears
and speculations, that they meditated the establishment
of a new and more energetic system. A colonel in
the army, of a highly respectable character, and somewhat advanced in life, was made the organ for communicating their sentiments to the Commander-in-chief.
In a letter elaborately and skilfully'Written, after describing the gloomy state of affairs, the financial difficulties, and the innumerable embarrassments in which
the country had been involved during the war, on
account of its defective political organization, the writer
adds;