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.

204 WASHINGTON'S WRITINGS. [IET. 45.
Your appointment of inspector-general to the army,
I believe, has not given the least uneasiness to any
officer in it. By consulting your own feelings upon the
appointment of the Baron de Kalb, you may judge what
must be the sensation of those brigadiers, who by your
promotion are superseded.* I am told they are determined to remonstrate against it. For my own part I
have nothing to do in the appointment of general officers, and shall always afford every countenance and
due respect to those appointed by Congress, taking it
for granted, that, prior to any resolve of that nature,
they take a dispassionate view of the merits of the
officer to be promoted, and consider every consequence
that can result from such a procedure; nor have I any
other wish on that head, but that good, attentive officers
may be chosen, and no extraordinary promotion take
place, but where the merit of the officer is so generally
acknowledged, as to obviate every reasonable cause for
dissatisfaction thereat. t I am, Sir, &c.
W When the Baron de Kalb received an appointment in the army,
Conway sent a remonstrance to Congress, which begins as follows; —
" It is with infinite concern, that I find myself slighted and forgot, when
you have offered rank to persons, who cost you a great deal of money,
and have never rendered you the least service. Baron de Kalb, to
whom you have offered the rank of major-general, is my inferior in
France." And then he proceeds to utter his complaints and objections,
and to demand for himself the rank of major-general.
j Conway's reply to this last clause of the letter is sufficiently indicative of his duplicity and vanity. - " What you are pleased to call an
extraordinary promotion," he says, "is a very plain one. There is nothing
extraordinary in it, only that such a place was not thought of sooner
The general and universal merit, which you wish every promoted officer
might be endowed with, is a rare gift. We see but few of merit so
generally acknowledged. We know but the great Frederic in Europe,
and the great Washington on this continent. I certainly never was so
rash as to pretend to such a prodigious height. Neither do I pretend to
any superiority in personal qualities over my brother brigadiers, for whom
I have much regard. But you, Sir, and the great Frederic, know perfectly well, that this trade is not learnt in a few months. I have served