affairs, who attended their conferences. Under his impulse and
personal supervision, the military arrangements for 1782 were made
with unusual despatch. On the 10th of December resolutions were passed
in Congress for requisitions of men and money from the several States;
and Washington backed those requisitions by letters to the respective
governors, urging prompt compliance. The persuasion that peace was at
hand was, however, too prevalent for the public to be roused to new
sacrifices and toils to maintain what was considered the mere shadow
of a war. The States were slow in furnishing a small part of their
respective quotas of troops, and still slower in answering to the
requisitions for money. After remaining four months in Philadelphia,
Washington set out in March to rejoin the army at Newburg on the
Hudson.

In a recent letter to General Greene, Washington had expressed himself
strongly on the subject of retaliation. "Of all laws it is the most
difficult to execute, where you have not the transgressor himself in
your possession. Humanity will ever interfere, and plead strongly
against the sacrifice of an innocent person for the guilt of another."
His judgment and feelings were soon put to the proof in this respect.
A New York refugee, by the name of Philip White, had been captured by
the Jersey people, and killed in attempting to escape. His partisans
in New York determined on a signal revenge. Captain Joseph Huddy, who
had been captured when bravely defending a blockhouse in Monmouth
County, was now drawn forth from prison, conducted into the Jerseys by
a party of refugees, headed by a Captain Lippencott, and hanged on the
heights of Middletown. The neighboring country cried out for
retaliation. Washington submitted the matter to a board of general and
field-officers. It was unanimously determined that the offender should
be demanded for execution, and, if not given up, that retaliation
should be exercised on a British prisoner of equal rank. Washington
accordingly sent proofs to Sir Henry Clinton of what he stigmatized as
a murder, and demanded that the officer who commanded the execution of
Captain Huddy should be given up. Sir Henry declined a compliance, but
stated that he had ordered a strict inquiry into the circumstances of
Captain Huddy's death, and would bring the perpetrators of it to
immediate trial.

Washington about the same time received the copy of a resolution of
Congress approving of his firm an