gress. But the cream of the matter is to come. The
news of the revolt reached General Washington and Sir Henry Clinton on
the same day. Washington ordered a thousand men to be ready to march
from the Highlands of the Hudson to quell the revolt, and called a
council of war to decide on further measures. This council sanctioned
general Wayne's course, and decided to leave the matter to the
settlement of the government of Pennsylvania and Congress. You see,
General Washington had long been worried by the sleepy way Congress did
business, and he thought this affair would wake them up to go to work in
earnest. The British commander-in-chief thought he could gain great
advantage by the revolt, and so he very promptly sent two
emissaries--one a British serjeant and the other a Tory named Ogden--to
the mutineers, offering them pardon for past offences, full pay for
their past service, and the protection of the British government, if
they would lay down their arms and march to New York. So certain was
Clinton that his offers would be accepted, that he crossed over to
Staten Island with a large body of troops, to act as circumstances might
require. But he was as ignorant of the character of our men as King
George himself. They wanted to be fed and clothed, and wanted their
families provided for; but they were not soldiers fighting merely for
pay. Every man of them knew what freedom was, and had taken the field to
secure it for his country. You may judge how such men received Clinton's
proposals. They said they were not Arnolds, and that America had no
truer friends than themselves; and then seized the emissaries and their
papers and handed them over to Wayne and the mercy of a court-martial.
The men were tried as spies, found guilty and executed. A reward which
had been offered for their apprehension was tendered to the mutineers
who had seized them. But they refused it. One of them said that
necessity had wrung from them the act demanding justice from Congress,
but they wanted no reward for doing their duty to their bleeding
country. Congress appointed a commissioner to meet the mutineers at
Princeton, and soon after their demands were satisfied. A large part of
the Line was disbanded for the winter, and the remainder was well
supplied with provisions and clothing. About the middle of January, the
greater part of the New Jersey line, which was encamped near Pompton,
followed the example of the Pennsylvanians, and revolted; but dif