a man may be wise and virtuous and not a
deity.

Here, so far as the leading and influential men were concerned, the
matter would have dropped, probably; but there were lesser men like
Lovell who were much encouraged by the surrender of Burgoyne, and who
thought that they now might supplant Washington with Gates. Before
long, too, they found in the army itself some active and not
over-scrupulous allies. The most conspicuous figure among the military
malcontents was Gates himself, who, although sluggish in all things,
still had a keen eye for his own advancement. He showed plainly how
much his head had been turned by the victory at Saratoga when he
failed to inform Washington of the fact, and when he afterward delayed
sending back troops until he was driven to it by the determined energy
of Hamilton, who was sent to bring him to reason. Next in importance
to Gates was Thomas Mifflin, an ardent patriot, but a rather
light-headed person, who espoused the opposition to Washington for
causes now somewhat misty, but among which personal vanity played no
inconsiderable part. About these two leaders gathered a certain number
of inferior officers of no great moment then or since.

The active and moving spirit in the party, however, was one Conway, an
Irish adventurer, who made himself so prominent that the whole affair
passed into history bearing his name, and the "Conway cabal" has
obtained an enduring notoriety which its hero never acquired by any
public services. Conway was one of the foreign officers who had gained
the favor of Congress and held the rank of brigadier-general, but this
by no means filled the measure of his pretensions, and when De Kalb
was made a major-general Conway immediately started forward with
claims to the same rank. He received strong support from the factious
opposition, and there was so much stir that Washington sharply
interfered, for to his general objection to these lavish gifts of
excessive rank was added an especial distrust in this particular
case. In his calm way he had evidently observed Conway, and with his
unerring judgment of men had found him wanting. "I may add," he wrote
to Lee, "and I think with truth, that it will give a fatal blow to
the existence of the army. Upon so interesting a subject I must speak
plainly. General Conway's merit then as an officer, and his importance
in this army, exist more in his own imagination than in reality."
This plain talk soon reached Conway, drove