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032 - Chapter 29 · The American Revolution A Historical Overview Vol. 3

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  Speaker 1: Section thirty two of History of the Rise, Progress and
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  Speaker 1: Termination of the American Revolution, Volume three by Mercy Otis Warren.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings of in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. History of the Rise, Progress and
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  Speaker 1: Termination of the American Revolution, Volume three by Mercy Otis Warren,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty nine, Part one, Conduct of the American Army
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  Speaker 1: on the news of Peace, Mutiny and insurrection. Congress surrounded
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  Speaker 1: by a part of the American Army. Mutineers disperse. Congress
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  Speaker 1: removes to Princeton, Order of Cincinnati. Observations thereon, before we
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  Speaker 1: close the curtain on the scenes that have been purpled
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  Speaker 1: the plains of America with the blood of some of
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  Speaker 1: the best of the citizens, or before we congratulate the
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  Speaker 1: European world on the opportunity of closing the Temple of
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  Speaker 1: Janus for a season. It is proper to retrospect and
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  Speaker 1: mark some of the intermediate transactions of the American troops,
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  Speaker 1: from the capture of both Cornwallis and his army to
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  Speaker 1: the proclamation for peace and the disbanding the troops of
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  Speaker 1: the United States. We have seen, through the narration of
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  Speaker 1: events during the war, the armies of the American States,
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  Speaker 1: suffering hunger and cold, nakedness, fatigue, in danger, with unparalleled
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  Speaker 1: patience and valor. A due sense of the importance of
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  Speaker 1: the contest to which they were engaged, and the certain
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  Speaker 1: ruin and disgrace of which they themselves and their children
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  Speaker 1: would be involved on the defeat of their object, was
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  Speaker 1: a strong stimulus to patient suffering, an attachment to their
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  Speaker 1: commanding officers, a confidence in the faith of gaungress and
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  Speaker 1: the sober principles of independence, equity and equality, and which
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  Speaker 1: the most of them had been vertured, all united to
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  Speaker 1: quiet any temporary murmurs that might arise from present feelings,
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  Speaker 1: and to command the fidelity of soldiers contending for personal
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  Speaker 1: freedom and the liberties of their country. The Drange stated
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  Speaker 1: the American finances from a depreciating currency, the difficulty of
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  Speaker 1: obtaining loans of monies, and various other clauses had sufficiently
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  Speaker 1: impressed them with the danger that threatened the great object,
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  Speaker 1: the independence of the United States of America. These circumstances
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  Speaker 1: had led the army to submit to a delay of
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  Speaker 1: payment of their equitable dues, notwithstanding their personal sufferings, and
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  Speaker 1: to wait the effects of more efficient stipulations for adequate
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  Speaker 1: rewards in some future day. But on the certain intelligence
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  Speaker 1: that peace was at hand, that it had been proposed
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  Speaker 1: to disband the army by furloughs, and that there was
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  Speaker 1: no appearance of a speedy liquidation of the public debts,
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  Speaker 1: many of both officers and soldiers grew aloud in their
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  Speaker 1: complaints and boldened their demands. They required an immediate payment
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  Speaker 1: of all our real riches, and insisted on the security
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  Speaker 1: of the commutation engaged by Congress some time before, on
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  Speaker 1: the recommendation of General Washington, He had requested that the
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  Speaker 1: officers of the army might be assured of receiving seven
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  Speaker 1: years old aay, instead of half pay for life, which
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  Speaker 1: had been stipulated before this. After reducing the term to
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  Speaker 1: five years, Congress had engaged. They also demanded a settlement
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  Speaker 1: for rations, clothing, and proper consideration for the delay of
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  Speaker 1: papent of just debts which had long been due, and
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  Speaker 1: an obligation from Congress for compensation or immediate payment. They
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  Speaker 1: chose General MacDougal, Colonel Brooks, and Colonel Ogden. A committee
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  Speaker 1: from the Army to wait on Congress, to resent the
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  Speaker 1: general uneasiness, and to lay the complaints of the army
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  Speaker 1: before them, and to enforce the requests of the officers,
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  Speaker 1: most of whom were supposed to have been concerned in
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  Speaker 1: the business. Anonymous addresses were scattered among the troops, Poisonous
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  Speaker 1: suggestions whispered, and the most inflammatory resolutions drawn up and
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  Speaker 1: disseminated through the army. These were written with ingenuity and spirit,
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  Speaker 1: but the authors were not discovered. Reports were everywhere circulated
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  Speaker 1: that the military Department would do itself justice, that the
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  Speaker 1: Army would not disband until Congress had acceded to all
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  Speaker 1: their demands, and that they would keep their arms in
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  Speaker 1: their hands until they had compelled the delinquent states to
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  Speaker 1: a settlement and Congress to a compliance with all the
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  Speaker 1: claims of the public creditors. These alarming appearances were conducted
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  Speaker 1: with much art and intrigue, it was said, and doubtless
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  Speaker 1: it was true true that some persons not belonging to
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  Speaker 1: the Army, and who were very ajoyed in fiscal management
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  Speaker 1: and in full share in ripening the rupture, deeply involved
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  Speaker 1: in public contracts. Some of the largest public creditors on
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  Speaker 1: the continent were particularly suspected of fomenting a spirit and
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  Speaker 1: a courageing views inconsistent with the principles and professions of
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  Speaker 1: the friends to the Revolution. These were disgusted at the
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  Speaker 1: rejection of the late five percent impost which had been contemplated.
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  Speaker 1: They were thought to have been busy in ripening projects
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  Speaker 1: which might bring forward measures for the speedy liquidation of
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  Speaker 1: the public demands. The private embarrassments and expenses of some
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  Speaker 1: of this class had frequently prompted them to ill digested.
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  Speaker 1: Systems were relieved to themselves in which the public were
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  Speaker 1: also involved, from the confidence placed in them by men
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  Speaker 1: of the first consideration, But their expedients and their adventures
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  Speaker 1: ended in the complete ruling of some individuals. Those gentlemen, however,
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  Speaker 1: most particularly implicated in the public opinion, sustained a character
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  Speaker 1: pure and morals correct when viewed in the comparison with
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  Speaker 1: others who were looking forward to projects of extensive circulation,
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  Speaker 1: to the establishment of banks and funding systems, and to
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  Speaker 1: the erecting a government for the United States, in which
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  Speaker 1: should be introduced ranks, privileged orders, and arbitrary powers. Several
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  Speaker 1: of these were deep designing instruments of mischief, characters able, artful,
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  Speaker 1: and insinuating, who were undoubtedly engaged in the maneuvers of
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  Speaker 1: the army, and though their designs were not fully comprehended,
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  Speaker 1: it was generally believed that they secretly encouraged the discontents
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  Speaker 1: and the attempts of the disaffected soldiery. In answer to
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  Speaker 1: the address of the officers of the army, Congress endeavored
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  Speaker 1: to quiet by palliatives and by expresss of kindness, encouragement,
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  Speaker 1: and hope. Several months passed in this uneasy situation, the
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  Speaker 1: people anxious, the officers restless. The army, instigated by them
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  Speaker 1: and by ambitious and interested men in other departments, proceeded
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  Speaker 1: to the most pernicious resolutions and to measures of a
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  Speaker 1: very dangerous nature. In the meantime, General Washington, both his
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  Speaker 1: commander in chieved and as a man who had the
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  Speaker 1: peace of his country at heart, did everything in his
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  Speaker 1: power to quiet complaint, to urge to patience, and to
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  Speaker 1: dissipate the mutinous spirit that prevailed in the army. By
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  Speaker 1: his assiduity, prudence, and judgment, the Empress were slightly covered,
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  Speaker 1: but the fire was not extinguished. The secret murmurs that
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  Speaker 1: had rankled for several months, and had alternately been sweted
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  Speaker 1: in the sullen bosom or blazed high in the sand
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  Speaker 1: wind now broke out into open insurrection on the twentieth
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  Speaker 1: of June one thousand, seven hundred eighty three, A part
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  Speaker 1: of the Pennsylvania Line, with some others belonging to the
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  Speaker 1: different corps of several of the United States, in defiance
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  Speaker 1: of all order and military discipline, and in contempt of
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  Speaker 1: the advice and even importunity of such as were better disposed,
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  Speaker 1: marched from Lancaster to Philadelphia. There they were joined by
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  Speaker 1: some discontented soldiers in the barracks within the city, who
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  Speaker 1: had recently turned poor, emaciated, and miserable from the Southern Service.
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  Speaker 1: This seditious host surrounded the State House where Congress was sitting,
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  Speaker 1: placed guards at the doors, and threatened immediate outrage unless
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  Speaker 1: their demands were complied with in the short space of
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  Speaker 1: twenty four minutes. Prompt requisitions and immediate decision all well
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  Speaker 1: disciplined armies are used to, but this is no apology
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  Speaker 1: for the precipitation of their present mention. However, from the
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  Speaker 1: pride and success of military madonnas to which they had
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  Speaker 1: been accustomed, they felt themselves superior to all civil subordination
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  Speaker 1: or control. This is usually the case with all armies
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  Speaker 1: or detachments from them in all countries, after they have
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  Speaker 1: stood their ground long enough to feel their strength sufficient
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  Speaker 1: to indulge that military tyranny which grows by abbot and
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  Speaker 1: makes a standing army a fit instrument for the support
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  Speaker 1: of the most cruell of despotism. It was indeed very
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  Speaker 1: alarming to see the General Congress of the United States
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  Speaker 1: held in the kind of duress by a part of
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  Speaker 1: their own army. But though extremely clamorous and insolent, the
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  Speaker 1: mutineers did not proceed to personal abuse, and, as if
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  Speaker 1: struck by a consciousness of the impropriety of their own
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  Speaker 1: conduct or overawed by the appearance of that honorable body
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  Speaker 1: in a state of imprisonment by those whom they ought
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  Speaker 1: to command, the members were soon permitted to separate. Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: they did not meet with any personal insult from the rudent,
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  Speaker 1: disorderly soldiers, though their demands were not complied with, nor
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  Speaker 1: any new concessions made in favor of men who threatened
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  Speaker 1: to become the military masters of the country. Congress thus
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  Speaker 1: rudely assaulted, resented the public affront as they ought, and
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  Speaker 1: judged it improper for themselves to continue longer in a
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  Speaker 1: city where they could not be sure of protection. The
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  Speaker 1: President and the members of Congress agreed to leave Philadelphia
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  Speaker 1: immediately and to meet on the twenty sixth at Princeton
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  Speaker 1: to proceed on the business of the United States. General Washington,
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  Speaker 1: very far from countenancing any of the measures of these
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  Speaker 1: disturbances of order under equyalty, and very unhappy at the
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  Speaker 1: discontents that it appeared among many of his officers, lost
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  Speaker 1: not a moment after he was informed of them, yet
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  Speaker 1: his proceedings of a great product of his army in Philadelphia.
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  Speaker 1: He ordered General Robert Howe to march without delay with
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  Speaker 1: a body of fifteen hundred men to quell the mutineers.
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  Speaker 1: Aided by the prudent conduct of the maguscripts of the city,
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  Speaker 1: things were not carried to the extremities apprehended. The refractory
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  Speaker 1: soldiers were soon reduced to obedience, tranquility restored, and no
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  Speaker 1: blood spilt. Some of the ringleaders of sedition were taken
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  Speaker 1: into custody, but soon after received a pardon from Congress.
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  Speaker 1: The most decided steps were immediately taken, not only to
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  Speaker 1: quell the clamors of the rioters, but to do justice
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  Speaker 1: to the armies of the United States. The commutation, which
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  Speaker 1: had lafen in Congress was some time, was finally agreed
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  Speaker 1: on five years. Full pay was succeeded to instead of
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  Speaker 1: half paid during the lives of the officers of the army.
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  Speaker 1: To this was added promise of a large proportion of
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  Speaker 1: uncultivated land in the Western Territory, to be distributed among them,
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  Speaker 1: according to their rank in the army. Yet they were
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  Speaker 1: not satisfied. Their complaints were loud, the grievances and the
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  Speaker 1: merits of the army recapitulated, and their demands high, even
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  Speaker 1: to the alarm of all, where the interrust of the
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  Speaker 1: country at heart, lest the consequences of this muteness spirit
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  Speaker 1: might be fatal to its future tranquility. End of Section
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  Speaker 1: thirty two.