in-Chief of the
Continental Army. Controlling his emotion with difficulty, the General
arose, at the conclusion of a light repast, and proposed the following
health: "With a heart full of love and gratitude I must now take my
leave of you. I most devoutly wish that your latter days may be as
prosperous and happy as your former ones have been glorious and
honorable." The toast was drunk in silence, and Washington added: "I
cannot come to each of you to take my leave, but shall be obliged to
you if each will come and take me by the hand."_]

[Sidenote: Mutiny of a part of the Pennsylvania line.]

While these excellent dispositions were manifested by the veterans
serving under the immediate eye of their patriot chief, the government
was exposed to insult and outrage from the mutinous spirit of a small
party of new levies. About eighty men of this description belonging to
Pennsylvania, were stationed at Lancaster. Revolting against the
authority of their officers, they marched in a body to Philadelphia,
with the avowed purpose of obtaining redress of their grievances from
the executive council of the state. The march of these insolent
mutineers was not obstructed; and, after arriving in Philadelphia,
their numbers were augmented by the junction of some troops quartered
in the barracks. They then marched in military parade, with fixed
bayonets, to the state-house, in which congress and the executive
council of the state were sitting; and, after placing sentinels at the
doors, sent in a written message, threatening the executive of the
state with the vengeance of an enraged soldiery, if their demands were
not gratified in twenty minutes. Although these threats were not
directed particularly against congress, the government of the union
was grossly insulted, and those who administered it were blockaded for
several hours by licentious soldiers. After remaining in this
situation about three hours, the members separated, having agreed to
reassemble at Princeton.

On receiving information of this outrage, the Commander-in-chief
detached fifteen hundred men under the command of Major General Howe,
to suppress the mutiny. His indignation at this insult to the civil
authority, and his mortification at this misconduct of any portion of
the American troops, were strongly marked in his letter to the
president of congress.

"While," said he, "I suffer the most poignant distress in observing
that a handful of men, contemptible in num