t be passed over lightly or in silence, and Washington replied
as follows:--

"With a mixture of surprise and astonishment, I have read with
attention the sentiments you have submitted to my perusal. Be assured,
sir, no occurrence in the course of the war has given me more painful
sensations than your information of there being such ideas existing
in the army as you have expressed, and [which] I must view with
abhorrence and reprehend with severity. For the present, the
communication of them will rest in my own bosom, unless some further
agitation of the matter shall make a disclosure necessary. I am
much at a loss to conceive what part of my conduct could have given
encouragement to an address which seems to me big with the greatest
mischiefs that can befall my country. If I am not deceived in the
knowledge of myself, you could not have found a person to whom your
schemes are more disagreeable. At the same time, in justice to my own
feelings, I must add that no man possesses a more sincere wish to
see justice done to the army than I do; and as far as my power and
influence in a constitutional way extend, they shall be employed to
the utmost of my abilities to effect it, should there be any occasion.
Let me conjure you, then, if you have any regard for your country,
concern for yourself or posterity, or respect for me, to banish these
thoughts from your mind, and never communicate, as from yourself or
any one else, a sentiment of the like nature."

This simple but exceedingly plain letter checked the whole movement
at once; but the feeling of hostility to the existing system of
government and of confidence in Washington increased steadily through
the summer and winter. When the next spring had come round, and the
"Newburgh addresses" had been published, the excitement was at fever
heat. All the army needed was a leader. It was as easy for Washington
to have grasped supreme power then, as it would have been for Caesar
to have taken the crown from Antony upon the Lupercal. He repelled
Nicola's suggestion with quiet reproof, and took the actual movement,
when it reared its head, into his own hands and turned it into other
channels. This incident has been passed over altogether too carelessly
by historians and biographers. It has generally been used merely to
show the general nobility of Washington's sentiments, and no proper
stress has been laid upon the facts of the time which gave birth to
such an idea and such a propo