Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/553

] burnt what they could not defend.

It may well be believed, that Washington was filled with anguish at the calamities of the army. But nothing gave him more pain, than to see his soldiers exposed to the most injurious example; the officers openly declared their design of resigning their commissions; and many of them had already left the army, and returned to their families. This determination was principally owing paper money; to the depreciation of it was become so considerable, and the price of all articles of consumption, as well for this reason as from the difficulties of commerce, was so prodigiously advanced, that the officers, far from being able to live as it became their rank, had not even the means of providing for their subsistence. Some had already exhausted their private resources; others had become deeply involved in debt; and it was evident that, unless some steps were taken to prevent it, the army would ere long be deprived of nearly all its best and most efficient officers.

Washington spared no exertions to remedy this evil; besides holding out every encouragement in his power to his officers, he besought Congress to take some steps to meet the emergency. With great force and clearness, he urged upon Congress to secure half-pay to the officers after the war, either for life, or for a definite term. Disclaiming absolutely any personal interest in the settlement of this question, he observed, that it was easy to talk of patriotism, and to cite a few examples from ancient history, of great enterprises carried by this alone to a successful conclusion; but that they who relied solely upon individual sacrifices for the support of a long and bloody war, must not expect to enjoy their illusion long; that it was necessary to take the passions of men as they are, and not as it might be wished to find them; that the love of country had indeed operated great things in the commencement of the present revolution; but that to continue and complete it required also the incentive of interest and the hope of reward.

Congress manifested, at first, very little inclination to adopt the propositions of the commander-in-chief, either because they deemed them too extraordinary, or from reluctance to load the state with so heavy a burden, or, finally, because they thought the grants of lands to the officers and soldiers, of which we have already spoken, ought to satisfy the wishes of men possessed of any moderation. But at length, in the spring of 1778, submitting to what seemed to be a necessity, they decreed an allowance of half-pay for life to the officers of the army, with the reservation, however, to the government, of the power to commute it, if deemed expedient, for the sum of six years' half-pay. A short time after, this resolution was reconsidered, and another passed, which restricted the allowance of half-pay to seven years, dating from the end of the war. These measure, though salutary, were not taken till too late, and, moreover, were not sufficiently spontaneous on the part of the