The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1913-06-20
But an Empty Success.


on the Delaware below the capital"
and removed the distractions from
the river to give access to his fleet;
the British power was broken and
made an end OF in the north; and
Washington was still at hand as men
acing and dangerous as ever.
DIR. Franklin was told in Paris that
General Howe had taken Philadelphia.
philadelphia has taken Howe" he
laughed
Winters at Valley Forge.
Philadelphia kept Howe safely
through the winter, and his officers
made themselves easy amidst a round
of gayeties in the complacent town,
while Washington went to Valley
Forge to face the hardships and the
intrigues Of a bitter season.
A deep decentralization fell that win
ter, like blight, upon all the bust
ness of the struggling confederacy.
The congress, In its exile at York, had
lost its tone and it's command in at
fairs. It would have lost it as com
pletely in Philadelphia, no doubt, for
1t was no longer the body it had been.
It's best members were withdrawn
to serve their respective states in the
critical business, now everywhere in
hand, of recognizing their govern
ment: and it itself was no government
at all, but simply committee Of ad-
vice, which the states needed or ig-
nored as they pleased
Congress Without Power.
Oftentimes but ten or twelve mem
bers could be got together to transact
it's business 1t suffered itself to fall
into the hands of intriguers and sec.
tional politicians. 1t gave commits
sions in the army not according to
merit, but upon a plan carefully de-
vised to advance no more officers from
one section than from another-even
men like John Adams approving.
Adams denounced claims of senior
fly and service as involving "one of
the most putrid corruptions of abso-
lutte monarchy" and suggested that
the officers who did not relish the
idea of seeing the several states given
"a share of the general officers" pro-
portioned to the number of troops they
had sent to the army, had better take
themselves off, and see how little
they would be missed.
Plot to DispIace Chief.
Worst of all, an ugly plot was
Matched to displace Washington; and
the various distempers of different
men for a brief season gave it a chance
to succeed.
Some were impatient Of Washing
tons Fabian policy" as they called
it, and would have had him annihilate,
instead of merely checking. these in
vading hosts.
my toast" cried John Adams, lis
a short and violent war"
Others envied Washington his pow
er and his growing fame, resented
their own subordinatiOn and his SUI
premacy, and intrigued to put General
Gates in his place. Had not Gates
won at Saratoga. and Washington lost
at the Brandywine and at German
town? Schuyler had prepared the
victory in the north; Arnold and Nor
gan had done the fighting that secured
It: but Gates had obtained the COM
mand when all was ready. and was
willing to receive the reward
With a political committee-congress
in charge OF affairs. nothing was i'm
possible.
Washington and his army were
starving the while at Valley Forge, in
desperate straits to get anything to
eat or anything to cover them in that
bitter season-nOt because there were
no supplies, but because congress had
disorganized the commissary depart
ment, and the supplies seldom reach
ed the camp.
The country had not been too heav-
lily stricken by the war. Abundant
crops we're everywhere sown and
peacefully reaped. and there were men
enough to do the work of seed-time
nd harvest.
The Army Chief Sufferers.
1t was only the army that was suf-
fering for lack of food and lack of
men. The naked fact was that the
confederacy was falling apart for lack
of a government. Local selfishness
had overmastered national feeling, and
only few men like Washington held
the breaking structure together.
Washington's steadfastness was new
er shaken; and Mrs. Washington,
stanch lady that she was, joined him
even at Valley Forge.
The intrigue against him he watch
ed in stern silence till it was ripe and
evident, then he crushed it with sud-
den exposure. and turned away in con-
tempt, hardly so much as mentioning
it in his letters to his friends. Their
own artless zeal to advance their
views has destroyed them he said.
The idol of His Men.
His soldiers he succored and sup
piled as he could, himself sharing their
privations, and earning their love as
no carvad and 90