ns among the troops
for consideration; and after due deliberation the mutineers agreed to
march to Trenton, to meet their officers and commanders. At Trenton, the
terms offered by congress were accepted; and then the mutineers gave up
Sir Henry Clinton's emissaries, who were all hanged as spies. But mutiny
did not end here. Encouraged by the success of the Pennsylvania line,
a part of the Jersey brigade, stationed at Pomp-ton, flew to arms, and
marched to Chatham to join another part of the same brigade; and these
all demanded the same terms which had been granted to the Pennsylvanian
mutineers. In the former instance, Washington, probably wishing that
congress should be made to feel that the grievances of the troops must
be redressed, and that the army must be treated with greater respect,
had not taken any measures for bringing back the mutineers to their
duty. On this occasion, however, foreseeing that continued revolts would
tend to the disorganization of his army, he sent General How to Chatham
with a considerable force, and with orders to make no terms with the
revolted brigade while in a state of resistance. He even instructed How,
after the brigade should surrender, to seize a few of the ringleaders
and put them to death on the spot. How's task was not a very arduous
one, for the mutineers at Chatham scarcely amounted to more than two
hundred men; and he surrounded them in their quarters, seized a few of
the ringleaders, and executed them according to Washington's orders, and
reduced the rest to submission. These revolts alarmed congress; and they
contrived to raise three months' pay in specie, and to obtain a quantity
of clothes, which they forwarded to the camp, in order to prevent
further defection. But this was only a temporary remedy for the evil;
and as the inhabitants were distressed in order to satisfy the soldiers,
congress resolved to seek a loan from France. Lieutenant-colonel
Laurens, son of the prisoner in the Tower, was sent on this commission
to the court of Versailles; and at the same time, Mr. Jay, the young
lawyer, who was now installed as minister plenipotentiary to the court
of Madrid, was instructed to press the court of Spain for co-operation
and direct assistance. It is evident, indeed, that congress and the
general officers of the army, all thought that the affairs of the
Americans were in a desperate condition; and that if they did not
speedily obtain assistance in money and troops from th