Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. I.djvu/44

26 The apprehensions of the army, however, were by no means quieted. A memorial on the subject of their pay was prepared and transmitted to congress in December, 1782, but the resolutions that congress adopted did not satisfy their expectations. A meeting of officers was arranged, and anonymous addresses, commonly known as the Newburgh addresses, were issued, to rouse the army to resentment. Washington insisted on attending the meeting, and delivered an impressive address. Gen. Gates was in the chair, and Washington began by apologizing for having come. After reading the first paragraph of what he had prepared, he begged the indulgence of those present while he paused to put on his spectacles, saying, casually, but most touchingly, that "he had grown gray in the service of his country, and now found himself growing blind." He then proceeded to read a most forcible and noble paper, in which, after acknowledging the just claims of the army on the government and assuring them that those claims would not be disregarded, he conjured them "to express their utmost horror and detestation of the man who wishes, under any specious pretences, to overturn the liberties of our country, and who wickedly at tempts to open the floodgates of civil discord and deluge our rising empire in blood."

The original autograph of this ever-memorable address, just as it came from Washington's own