ess hath no objections to his leaving
his seat in another department, I have nothing personally to oppose it.
Yet I must think, that gentleman's stepping in and out, as the sun happens
to beam forth or obscure, is not _quite_ the thing, nor _quite_ just, with
respect to those officers, who take ye bitter with the sweet."

Not long after Greene wrote that "I learn that General Mifflin has
publicly declared that he looked upon his Excellency as the best friend he
ever had in his life, so that is a plain sign that the Junto has given up
all ideas of supplanting our excellent general from a confidence of the
impracticability of such an attempt."

A very minor but most malignant enemy was Dr. Benjamin Rush. In 1774
Washington dined with him in Philadelphia, which implied friendship.
Very early in the war, however, an attempt was made to remove the
director-general of hospitals, in which, so John Armstrong claimed,
"Morgan was the ostensible--Rush the real prosecutor of Shippen--the
former acting from revenge,... the latter from a desire to obtain the
directorship. In approving the sentence of the court, Washington
stigmatized the prosecution as one originating in bad motives, which made
Rush his enemy and defamer as long as he lived." Certain it is he wrote
savage letters of criticism about his commander-in-chief of which the
following extract is a sample:

"I have heard several officers who have served under General Gates compare
his army to a well regulated family. The same gentlemen have compared
Gen'l Washington's imitation of an army to an unformed mob. Look at the
characters of both! The one on the pinnacle of military glory--exulting in
the success of schemes planned with wisdom, & executed with vigor and
bravery--and above all see a country saved by his exertions. See the other
outgeneral'd and twice heated--obliged to witness the march of a body of
men only half their number thro' 140 Miles of a thick settled country--
forced to give up a city the capitol of a state & after all outwitted by
the same army in a retreat."

Had Rush written only this, there would be no grounds for questioning his
methods; but, not content with spreading his opinions among his friends,
he took to anonymous letter-writing, and sent an unsigned letter abusing
Washington to the governor of Virginia (and probably to others), with the
request that the letter should be burned. Instead of this, Henry sent it
to Washington, who recogniz