made a prisoner. This decisive victory disconcerted the
plans of the combined powers, and gave security to the British
islands. In the United States, it was feared that this alteration in
the aspect of affairs might influence the councils of the English
cabinet on the question of peace; and these apprehensions increased
the uneasiness with which all intelligent men contemplated the state
of the American finances.

It was then in contemplation to reduce the army, by which many of the
officers would be discharged. While the general declared, in a
confidential letter to the secretary of war, his conviction of the
alacrity with which they would retire into private life, could they be
placed in a situation as eligible as they had left to enter into the
service, he added--"Yet I cannot help fearing the result of the
measure, when I see such a number of men goaded by a thousand stings
of reflection on the past, and of anticipation on the future, about to
be turned on the world, soured by penury, and what they call the
ingratitude of the public; involved in debts, without one farthing of
money to carry them home, after having spent the flower of their days,
and, many of them, their patrimonies, in establishing the freedom and
independence of their country; and having suffered every thing which
human nature is capable of enduring on this side of death. I repeat
it, when I reflect on these irritating circumstances, unattended by
one thing to soothe their feelings, or brighten the gloomy prospect, I
cannot avoid apprehending that a train of evils will follow of a very
serious and distressing nature.

"I wish not to heighten the shades of the picture so far as the real
life would justify me in doing, or I would give anecdotes of
patriotism and distress which have scarcely ever been paralleled,
never surpassed, in the history of mankind. But you may rely upon it,
the patience and long sufferance of this army are almost exhausted,
and there never was so great a spirit of discontent as at this
instant. While in the field, I think it may be kept from breaking out
into acts of outrage; but when we retire into winter quarters (unless
the storm be previously dissipated) I can not be at ease respecting
the consequences. It is high time for a peace."

To judge rightly of the motives which produced this uneasy temper in
the army, it will be necessary to recollect that the resolution of
October, 1780, granting half pay for life to the offi