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.

PARTII.] THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 385
P. S. I most sincerely wish,. that Congress would
lay the charge, and order the trial of the major-generals
in disgrace. St. Clair is exceedingly uneasy and distressed at..the delay; and with pain I add, that the
proceeding, or more properly not proceeding, in this
matter, is looked upon as cruel and oppressive.
TO MAJOR-GENERAL GATES.
Valley Forge, 29 May, 1778.
SIR,
If the States will not or cannot send their quota of
troops into the field, it is no fault of mine. I have
been urgent in my requisitions on that head; and whatever consequences may arise from the deficiency, they
will not, I trust, be chargeable on me. I cannot detach
Indeed they have furnished strong ground for opposition against an immediate compliance with the demand. If we cannot make justice one
of the pillars, necessity may be submitted to at present; but republicans
will at a proper time withdraw a grant, which shall appear to have been
extorted. Were I in private conversation with an officer on this point,
I should not despair of fairly balancing every grievance he might suppose
to be peculiar to the army, by instances of losses and inconveniences
in my own property and person; and I count myself very happy compared with thousands, who have as faithfully adhered to our original
compact.
"Would to God, gentlemen had followed the noble, patriotic example
of their Commander-in-chief. How superior are many of the gentlemen
now in my contemplation (for I know many with whom I do not converse) to the acceptance of half-pay, contributed to by widows and
orphans of soldiers, who had bled and died by their sides, shackled with
a condition of being excluded from the privilege of serving in offices
in common with their fellow-citizens, bated in every House of Assembly
as the drones and incumbrances of society, pointed at by boys and girls,
-' There goes a man, who robs me every year of part of my pittance.'
I think, Sir, I do not overstrain. This will be the language of republicans. How pungent, when applied to gentlemen, who shall have stepped
from the army into a good remaining estate! How much deeper to
some, who, in idleness and by peculation, have amassed estates in the
war! I am most heartily disposed to distinguish the gallant officer and
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