s papers in order, and when it was
proposed to give him a sword, Roger Sherman suggested that they had
better "give the lad a pair of spurs." This thrust and some delay
seem to have nettled Wilkinson, who was swelling with importance, and
although he was finally made a brigadier-general, he rode off to the
north much ruffled. In later years Wilkinson was secretive enough; but
in his hot youth he could not hold his tongue, and on his way back to
Gates he talked. What he said was marked and carried to headquarters,
and on November 9 Washington wrote to Conway:--

"A letter which I received last night contained the following
paragraph,--'In a letter from General Conway to General Gates he
says, "_Heaven has determined to save your country, or a weak
general and bad counsellors would have ruined it_" I am, sir, your
humble servant,'" etc.

This curt note fell upon Conway with stunning effect. It is said that
he tried to apologize, and he certainly resigned. As for Gates, he
fell to writing letters filled with expressions of wonder as to who
had betrayed him, and writhed most pitiably under the exposure.
Washington's replies are models of cold dignity, and the calm
indifference with which he treated the whole matter, while holding
Gates to the point with relentless grasp, is very interesting. The
cabal was seriously shaken by this sudden blow. It must have dawned
upon them dimly that they might have mistaken their man, and that the
silent soldier was perhaps not so easy to dispose of by an intrigue as
they had fancied. Nevertheless, they rallied, and taking advantage of
the feeling in Congress created by Burgoyne's surrender, they set to
work to get control of military matters. The board of war was enlarged
to five, with Gates at its head and Mifflin a member, and, thus
constituted, it proceeded to make Conway inspector-general, with the
rank of major-general. This, after Conway's conduct, was a direct
insult to Washington, and marks the highest point attained by his
opponents.

In Congress, too, they became more active, and John Jay said that
there was in that body a party bitterly hostile to Washington. We know
little of the members of that faction now, for they never took the
trouble to refer to the matter in after years, and did everything that
silence could do to have it all forgotten. But the party existed none
the less, and significant letters have come down to us, one of them
written by Lovell