chosen by ballot; it consisted of General Schuyler and Messrs. John
Mathews, and Nathaniel Peabody. It was a great satisfaction to
Washington to have his old friend and coadjutor, Schuyler, near him in
this capacity, in which, he declared, no man could be more useful.

The committee, on arriving at the camp, found the disastrous state of
affairs had not been exaggerated. For five months the army had been
unpaid. Every department was destitute of money or credit; there were
rarely provisions for six days in advance; on some occasions the
troops had been for several successive days without meat; there was no
forage; the medical department had neither tea, chocolate, wine, nor
spirituous liquors of any kind.

To soothe the discontents of the army, and counteract the alarming
effects of the depreciation of the currency, Congress now adopted the
measure already observed by some of the States, and engaged to make
good to the Continental and the independent troops the difference in
the value of their pay caused by this depreciation; and that all
moneys or other articles heretofore received by them, should be
considered as advanced on account, and comprehended at their just
value in the final settlement.

At this gloomy crisis came a letter from the Marquis de Lafayette,
dated April 27th, announcing his arrival at Boston. Washington's eyes,
we are told, were suffused with tears as he read this most welcome
epistle. He would immediately have sent a troop of horse to escort the
marquis through the tory settlements between Morristown and the
Hudson, had he known the route he intended to take; the latter,
however, arrived safe at head-quarters on the 12th of May, where he
was welcomed with acclamations, for he was popular with both officers
and soldiers. Washington folded him in his arms in a truly paternal
embrace, and they were soon closeted together to talk over the state
of affairs, when Lafayette made known the result of his visit to
France. His generous efforts at court had been crowned with success,
and he brought the animating intelligence that a French fleet, under
the Chevalier de Ternay, was to put to sea early in April, bringing a
body of troops under the Count de Rochambeau, and might soon be
expected on the coast to co-operate with the American forces; this,
however, he was at liberty to make known only to Washington and
Congress. Remaining but a single day at head-quarters, he hastened on
to the seat of governme