CHAPTER II.

DEATH OF JOSEPH HUDDY--RETALIATION RESOLVED UPON--CASE OF CAPTAIN
ASGILL--PEACE PROCEEDINGS IN THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT--PRELIMINARY
TREATY NEGOTIATED AND SIGNED AT PARIS--DISCONTENTS IN THE
ARMY--MEMORIAL OF OFFICERS SENT TO CONGRESS--INFLAMMATORY ADDRESS
CIRCULATED IN CAMP--MEETING OF OFFICERS CALLED--WASHINGTON
DETERMINES TO CONTROL THE MATTER--THE MEETING AND ITS
RESULTS--WASHINGTON'S ADDRESS--ITS EFFECTS--PATRIOTIC
RESOLUTIONS--INTELLIGENCE OF PEACE RECEIVED BY WASHINGTON--ITS
PROCLAMATION TO THE ARMY--JUSTICE TO THE SOLDIERS--FURLOUGHS FREELY
GRANTED--VIRTUAL DISSOLUTION OF THE ARMY--CONFERENCE BETWEEN
WASHINGTON AND CARLETON--DEPARTURE OF LAFAYETTE--CINCINNATI
SOCIETY--ADDRESS TO GOVERNORS OF STATES--MUTINY OF PENNSYLVANIA
TROOPS--CONGRESS ADJOURNS TO PRINCETON--WASHINGTON'S TOUR TO THE
NORTH--INVITED TO PRINCETON--A BRONZE STATUE OF WASHINGTON VOTED BY
CONGRESS.

A very painful affair occupied the attention of Washington in the autumn
of 1782, when his judgment and his sympathies were placed in opposition.
In the neighborhood of Freehold, in New Jersey, lurked a band of
marauding tories, known as Pine Robbers. One of these named Philip
White, notorious for his depredations, had been caught by the New Jersey
people, and killed while attempting to escape, when being conducted to
Monmouth jail. His partisans in New York vowed revenge. Captain Huddy, a
warm whig, then in confinement in New York, was taken by a party of
loyalists under Captain Lippincott, to the Jersey shore, near Sandy
Hook, and hanged. Upon Huddy's breast the infamous Lippincott placed a
label, on which, after avowing that the act was one of vengeance, he
placed the words in large letters--

"UP GOES HUDDY FOR PHILIP WHITE."

From the neighboring country went forth a strong cry for retaliation.
Washington submitted the case to a board of general officers, when it
was agreed that Lippincott should be demanded as a murderer, for
execution, and if Sir Henry Clinton would not give him up, retaliation
should be exercised upon some British officer in the possession of the
Americans.

Sir Henry refused. At the same time the Congress, by resolution,
approved Washington's course, and he proceeded to select a British
officer for execution, by lot, from among prisoners at Lancaster,
Pennsylvania. It fell upon Captain Asgill, a young man nineteen years of
age, an officer