The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1857-01-01
For the National Era.
d
JUST CLAIMS OF THE REVOLUTIONARY
ARMY.
An Abridged History of thoir Suffsrings and
Wrongs and Unpaid Services.

In the beginning of the Revolutionary War.
in l77o, the American Congress first began the
issue OF Con"nental paper money which, by a
law OF this same Congress, they made legal
tender Tor the payment # all debts In this
continually depreciating curI ~.,cv. the war was
mainly carried on, and the arm na;d bv
enormous Issues, for about six yea{s, 1rt;I
| 1871, when, its value having become almU.
worthless, Congress passed new law, which
permitted it to go for whatever it was thought
| to be- worth. None Of all this, it is believed
| wa ever redeemed.
Early in l777 Congress found it necessary
. order 70 reaTIls and preserve the army, b
AXE 2 l.2N aw, promising and Offering as HE
londtioa aud inducements. that sl who WORLD
I laeiI eftia>5 iae army, = u JesTs or a :
/ fSj.g the .eSr" should, provided they served as
I agreed, ne ntitlet 10 receive " kGlfpg1 tor
! NE Gttel no Ca!.' Here was d3Rbiqutai as
fully noted by Judge Marshall, by Col. Alex
ander Scar,mell, and by other historians At
the end of he three years, lin l780,) the army
became verI uneasy, the soldiers claiming their
discharge under the agreement. Congress now
took advantage of this ambiguity, and refused
to let them go, according to the agreement, but
instead thereof, they now "passed resolution,
to make go)d to the line of the army the def
cheney caused 10y the depreciation of the Con-
tinental currency, the benefits of which resolve
were confined to those only who enlisted then
or thereafter for three years or during the
war. See MarShdWs Life Of Washington,
vol. +. None Of this deficiency for deprecia-
ton, as promised, was we believe, ever made
good to any one.
In the autumn of this same year, (l780,)
Gen. Washington recommended, as the only
remedy, that halfpay for life be secured by
law to all who would then enlist to serve du-
ring the war-See Marshall, vol. 4, PIP. 300
303.
October q, 1870, Congress passed resolu-
tons granting halEpay for life to all those who
would serve thereafter through the war.-See
Marshall, vol. a, p. 800.
Towards the close of the year 1880. the nm.
easness of the army, owing to the wrongs
which they continued to suffer, increased to an
alarming extent and on the lst day of Janu-
ary 1881, thirteen hundred troops of the Penn.
sylvania line, who we're quartered in huts near
Morristown, Penn, revolted, and one captain
was killed. They elected their own generals,
colonies, and other officers, from their own
non-commissioned officers, and had their board
OF war, and put themselves in hostile array fer
th2 redress Of their grievances. Gen. Wayne
was then and there in command, and Lafayette
was sent by Gen. Washington to the camp,
with advice to try conciliatory measures. Col.
Alexander Scammell. who was then an officer
in the army, although avowedly an advocate
to7 putting dowu the revolt by force, thus writes
in letter to the Hon. Meshech Weare, dated
New Hampshire Village, January Is, 1881:
Their complaints are many, and too manu-
OF then, not WITHOUT foundation, though inf
1 rtely inadequate to justify such a mode of
SeLing redress. The first and principal one is
4 cir ec4aeca. errst1alss, which were worded
4 TO- ,e4 o. a'T,a5 te arar.' The sol
ory raef tha -- 20 be binding after
I ae aspiration Of eara.' The State and
f4ears urged ,be latter clause, and compelled
, .ae.-4 :. Co-t.uue I- service
"Their sufferings have been such as no army
ever before underwent for so long a time" X
In another letter of Col. Scammell, dated
New Windsor March 4, 1871, to Jos. Gilman,
of Exeter, N. H., he thus writes:
"Their first complaints were grounded on
their equivocal enlistment, for three gears on
durtno the -iUar And had these
troops been we'll clothed, fed, and paid, be-
lieve they would have served to the end of the
war without murmur. The principal cause
of their complaints was common with all the
other troops. The virtue, perseverance, forti-
tude, and patriotism, of our soldiers, have been
put 10 the EXTREMIST trial. Anu IL assure you
the officers have not escaped the seVerest trials.
Their situation is now, and for a long time past
has been, the most unenviable of any one can
conceive of. A well-found army is
commonly well-disciplined one. But when
hunger compels the soldier to maraud and
plumber, when the insufficiency of pay and SUI
niles sours their minds, when the plighted fl
Of Congress, the States, and that of the off
bottomed on both, are so frequently
murmuring, discomfort, desertion,
pline, distrust, and finally mutiny,
place.
"To Judge rightly" says Ma
ether and like occasion, "of the
prSHSced this uneasy temper
3 DC -sary to recoll