that only the reliance they placed on their general, and their
attachment to his person and character, could have moderated their
resentments so far as to induce them to adopt the measures he
recommended.

On the 15th, the convention of officers assembled, and General
Gates[14] took the chair. The Commander-in-chief then addressed them
in the following terms.

[Footnote 14: By a resolution of the preceding year, the
inquiry into his conduct had been dispensed with, and he had
been restored to his command in the army.]

"Gentlemen,--

"By an anonymous summons, an attempt has been made to convene you
together. How inconsistent with the rules of propriety, how
unmilitary, and how subversive of all order and discipline, let the
good sense of the army decide.

"In the moment of this summons, another anonymous production was sent
into circulation, addressed more to the feelings and passions than to
the judgment of the army. The author of the piece is entitled to much
credit for the goodness of his pen; and I could wish he had as much
credit for the rectitude of his heart; for as men see through
different optics, and are induced by the reflecting faculties of the
mind, to use different means to attain the same end, the author of the
address should have had more charity, than to mark for suspicion the
man who should recommend moderation and longer forbearance; or, in
other words, who should not think as he thinks, and act as he advises.
But he had another plan in view, in which candour and liberality of
sentiment, regard to justice, and love of country, have no part; and
he was right to insinuate the darkest suspicion to effect the blackest
design. That the address was drawn with great art, and is designed to
answer the most insidious purposes; that it is calculated to impress
the mind with an idea of premeditated injustice, in the sovereign
power of the United States, and rouse all those resentments which must
unavoidably flow from such a belief; that the secret mover of this
scheme, whoever he may be, intended to take advantage of the passions,
while they were warmed by the recollection of past distresses, without
giving time for cool deliberate thinking, and that composure of mind
which is so necessary to give dignity and stability to measures, is
rendered too obvious by the mode of conducting the business to need
other proof than a reference to the proceedings.

"Thus much, gentlemen, I have thought