it to Heath on the score of his merit: "Congress has not determined to have no regard to the line of succession in promotions, but only that this line shall not be an invariable rule, but they mean to reserve a right of distinguishing extraordinary merit or demerit. It is my opinion he would have been made a major-general much sooner, if his experience had not been thought indispensable in the adjutant-general's department." * * * This impression of his extraordinary merit, without any previous act to warrant it, prompted caresses he little deserved, of most pernicious influence upon a character too susceptible to flattery. His invidious and querulous temper is seen throughout his career. 66 'What," he wrote to Putnam on the eve of the battle of Long Island, "what have you, and what have you not done? Sense, courage, honor and abilities, you know to be the great outlines of a general. My friend Tom Mifflin has an uncommon share of all four. Present my affectionate compliments to him." His complaisant countryman Gordon writes to him at this time: "I learn that the week before last our friends at New York were in much the same state as at the beginning of last January. If our dilatoriness does not ruin us, we shall be indebted to a special providence." Thus, between jeers upon Washington and commendations of himself, Gates only wanted the lights of fortune to exhibit his weakness. The successes of the northern army were rewarded by Congress with the honors that were their due. A proclamation for a national thanksgiving was issued. This was followed by a vote of thanks to Gates, Lincoln and Arnold, and to the officers and troops under their command. A gold medal was also ordered in commem * J. Adams to Heath, Aug. 3, 1776. oration of this great event, to be presented in the name of the United States to Gates. Nor were Massachusetts or Connecticut content with this tribute of the whole people. Each ordered a special day of religious rejoicing. Gates now loomed largely in the public eye. The prudential energy of Schuyler, the enterprise, the skill, the consummate prudence of Washington and Greene, their superintending care-all seemed to fade or be forgotten amid the blazon of his glory. On a public occasion in Massachusetts his health was drank before that of Washington, and her jealousy of military power was so far, for the moment, suppressed, that she authorized him to fill up all the commissions that might be vacant in the regiments of that State. Lovell, chairman of the committee of foreign affairs, at first a schoolmaster in Boston, writes from Yorktown: “In truth, if you would give Burgoyne a little leisure to exercise his talent at farce writing, which he discovered in the Boston blockade,' he would furnish the world with a winter evening's entertainment at the expense of Congress, at least, if not of Congress and General Washington. Your army and the eastern militia are now strongly contrasted with those in the Middle States, even by the inhabitants of Philadelphia. It is said Howe would not have passed more than seventy miles from the ships which landed him, in his whole skin, in your neighborhood or among Yankee stone walls. Our (hope)* springs all from the northward, and almost all our confidence. By the winter, the middle army will be divided into Greenites and Mifflinians, if things do not take a great turn from their present situation. Verily our salvation must come from far." * Illegible in the original. On the day of Hamilton's mission to Gates, Colonel Reed, Washington's former aide-de-camp, also wrote to the successful general: "I have for some time volunteered it with this army, which, notwithstanding the labors and efforts of our amiable chief, has yet gathered no laurels. Howe's army is much stronger than we once apprehended, and repeated checks have taken off that ardor of emulation which leads to success. I have been so unlucky as to differ in opinion too generally with those who conduct our operations, but I perfectly agree with them in that sentiment which leads to request your assistance." Lovell again wrote: "You have saved our northern hemisphere. In spite of our consummate and repeated blundering, you have changed the constitution of the southern campaign of the enemy from offensive to defensive. If you had remained with this army we might have opposed, but could not have counteracted the deep-rooted system of favoritism which began to shoot forth at New York, and which now has arrived at its full growth and maturity. Repeated slights and unjustifiable arrogance combined with other causes to drive from the army those who would not worship the image, and pay an undeserved tribute of praise and flattery to the great and powerful. The list of our disgusted patriots is long and formidable; their resentments keen against the reigning cabal; and their powers of opposition not despicable. The campaign here must soon close. If no brilliant action takes place before it ends, if our troops are obliged to retire to Lancaster, Reading, Bethlehem, &c., for winter quarters, and the country below is left open to the enemy's flying parties, great and very general will be the murmur. great and so general, that nothing inferior to a commander-in-chief will be able to resist the mighty torrent of public clamor and public vengeance. We have had a So noble army melted down by ill-judged marches-marches that disgrace their authors and directors, and which have occasioned the severest and most just sarcasm and contempt of our enemies. How much are you to be envied, my dear general! How different your conduct and your fortune! "A letter from Colonel Mifflin, received since the writing of the last paragraph, gives me the disagreeable intelligence of the loss of our fort in Delaware. You must know the consequences. Loss of the river, boats, galleys, ships-of-war &c., good winter quarters to the enemy, and a general retreat, or an ill-judged, blind attempt on our part to save a gone character. "Conway, Spotswood, Conner, Ross, Col. J. Mifflin resigned; and many good officers preparing their letters to Congress on the same subject. In short,this army will be totally lost unless you come down and collect the virtuous band who wish to fight under your banner, and with their aid save the southern hemisphere. Prepare yourself for a jaunt to this place. Congress must send for you. I have a thousand things to tell you." Weak and vain-glorious Gates had precisely those traits of character which would recommend him to the designing, without having the penetration to discover that he was a tool. Presumptuous and irresolute, he engaged in intrigues that he had not the sagacity to direct, and sought responsibilities which he had not the firmness to sustain. Immediately after the surrender of Burgoyne, Colonel Morgan waited upon Gates for orders. Gates for orders. He led him aside and told him, confidentially, that the main army was extremely dissatisfied with the conduct of the war by the commander-in-chief; and that several of the best officers threatened to resign unless a change took place. The VOL. I.-24 plain teamster, Morgan, sternly replied, "I have one favor to ask of you, that is, never to mention this detestable subject to me again, for under no other man than Washington as commander-in-chief will I ever serve." Gates punished the offence by a mere cursory notice in his despatches of this gallant officer, to whom he was so much indebted, and treated him with marked reserve.* Arnold was not less unfairly dealt with. He was the object of his jealous hate. Gates also sought to win the favor of Governor Clinton, of too much practical sense to be thus ensnared. In his notion of assembling at Morristown the forces detached from himself, he proposed to him their command.† The arrests of several officers for misconduct, and the well-grounded dissatisfaction of other officers with the fickle policy of Congress, prepared the army for improper influences. From its many heads the faction which had formed was called "The Monster Party," the busiest of whom were Conway and Mifflin. The former, appearing before Congress, a penniless colonel in the French service, decorated with the cross of the order of St. Louis, a vain, weak intriguer, had been in the preceding spring appointed to the command of a brigade. A few days after the action at Germantown, a rumor reached Washington that he either had been, or was about to be chosen major-general. This rumor probably arose from a proposition in Congress, founded upon a letter from Conway asking promotion, to direct an inquiry to be made by Washington as to the priority of rank in France *Lee's Southern War. Graham's "Life of Morgan." |