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.

404 WASHINGTON'S WRITINGS. [ET. 51.
lute aversion of the States to establish any Continental
funds for the payment of the debt due to the army,
did at the close of the last campaign excite greater
discontents, and threaten more serious and alarming
consequences, than it is easy for me to describe or you
to conceive. Happily for us, the officers of highest
rank and greatest consideration interposed; and it was
determined to address Congress in an humble, pathetic,
and explicit manner.
While the sovereign power appeared perfectly well
disposed to do justice, it was discovered that the States
would enable them to do nothing; and in this state
of affairs, and after some time spent on the business
in Philadelphia, a report was made by the delegates of
tlhe army, giving a detail of the proceedings. Before
this could be fully communicated to *the troops, while
the minds of all were in a peculiar state of inquietude
and irritation, an anonymous writer, though he did
not step forth and give his name boldly to the world,
sent into circulation an address to the officers of the
army, which, in point of composition, in elegance and
force of expression, has rarely been equalled in the
English language, and in which the dreadful alternative
was proposed, of relinquishing the service in a body, if
the war continued, or retaining their arms in case of
peace, until Congress should comply with all their demands. At the same time, and at the moment when
their minds were inflamed by the most pathetic representations, a general meeting of the officers was summoned by another anonymous production.
It is impossible to say what would have been the
consequences, had the author succeeded in his first
plans. But, measures having been taken to postpone
the meeting, so as to give time for cool reflection and
counteraction, the good sense of the officers has ter