riking
operation. A notable project had been concerted by him and the Board
of War for a winter irruption into Canada. An expedition was to
proceed from Albany, cross Lake Champlain on the ice, burn the British
shipping at St. Johns, and press forward to Montreal. Washington was
not consulted in the matter: the project was submitted to Congress,
and sanctioned by them without his privity. One object of the scheme
was to detach the Marquis de Lafayette from Washington, to whom he was
devotedly attached, and bring him into the interests of the cabal. For
this purpose he was to have the command of the expedition; an
appointment which it was thought would tempt his military ambition.
Conway was to be second in command, and it was trusted that his
address and superior intelligence would virtually make him the leader.

The first notice that Washington received of the project was in a
letter from Gates, enclosing one to Lafayette, informing the latter of
his appointment, and requiring his attendance at Yorktown to receive
his instructions. Gates, in his letter to Washington, asked his
opinion and advice; evidently as a matter of form. The latter
expressed himself obliged by the "polite request," but observed that,
as he neither knew the extent of the objects in view, nor the means to
be employed to effect them, it was not in his power to pass any
judgment upon the subject. The cabal overshot their mark. Lafayette,
who was aware of their intrigues, was so disgusted by the want of
deference and respect to the commander-in-chief evinced in the whole
proceeding, that he would at once have declined the appointment had
not Washington himself advised him strongly to accept it. [The project
was never carried out. Lafayette, still having a favorable opinion of
Conway's military talents, was aware of the game he was playing, and
succeeded in getting De Kalb appointed to the expedition, whose
commission being of older date, would give him the precedence of that
officer. When Lafayette arrived at Albany it was soon found that the
contemplated irruption was not practicable. Schuyler, Lincoln, and
Arnold all opposed it. Instead of twenty-five hundred men which had
been promised Lafayette, not twelve hundred in all were found to be
fit for duty, and these shrinking from a winter incursion into so cold
a country. Stark, who was to have joined the expedition, was
disinclined. Enlistments could not be made for want of money, or the
means of of