.

The blame for the loss of the forts fell of course upon Schuyler,
who was none too popular in Congress, and who with St. Clair was
accordingly made a scape-goat. Congress voted that Washington should
appoint a new commander, and the New England delegates visited him to
urge the selection of Gates. This task Washington refused to perform,
alleging as a reason that the northern department had always been
considered a separate command, and that he had never done more than
advise. These reasons do not look very weighty or very strong, and it
is not quite clear what the underlying motive was. Washington never
shrank from responsibility, and he knew very well that he could pick
out the best man more unerringly than Congress. But he also saw
that Congress favored Gates, whom he would not have chosen, and he
therefore probably felt that it was more important to have some one
whom New England believed in and approved than a better soldier who
would have been unwelcome to her representatives. It is certain that
he would not have acted thus, had he thought that generalship was an
important element in the problem; but he relied on a popular uprising,
and not on the commander, to defeat Burgoyne. He may have thought,
too, that it was a mistake to relieve Schuyler, who was working in the
directions which he had pointed out, and who, if not a great soldier,
was a brave, high-minded, and sensible man, devoted to his chief and
to the country. It was Schuyler indeed who, by his persistent labor in
breaking down bridges, tearing up roads, and felling trees, while he
gathered men industriously in all directions, did more than any one
else at that moment to prepare the way for an ultimate victory.

Whatever his feelings may have been in regard to the command of the
northern department, Washington made no change in his own course after
Gates had been appointed. He knew that Gates was at least harmless,
and not likely to block the natural course of events. He therefore
felt free to press his own policy without cessation, and without
apprehension. He took care that Lincoln and Arnold should be there to
look after the New England militia, and he wrote to Governor Clinton,
in whose energy and courage he had great confidence, to rouse up the
men of New York. He suggested the points of attack, and at every
moment advised and counseled and watched, holding all the while a firm
grip on Howe. Slowly and surely the net, thus painfully set, tighten