{337}It is believed that Conway was the most active man among the secret enemies of Washington. He was possessed of considerable literary abilities and military genius, and had the advantage of thirty years' experience in the art of war. [Illustration: 8347] He was an Irishman by birth, but received his military education in the French service, where he was employed from his youth. He went, with many others, to the American commissioners in France to offer his services to Congress, and, encouraged by the injudicious promises of the ardent Silas Deane, he came to America with the full expectation of receiving the commission and pay of a major general. He was disappointed at the outset, for Congress gave him only the commission of a brigadier. Hoping for promotion, he joined the army under Washington at Morristown. Boastful, intriguing, presumptuous, and [[May, 1777]] selfish, looking only to his personal advantage, and unprincipled in regard to the means by which his desires might be gratified, he greatly disgusted Washington, not only at the first interview, but throughout the whole campaign. When it was rumored that Conway was to be promoted by Congress to major general, Washington wrote a letter to a member of that body, remonstrating against it. This fact, coming to the ears of Conway, filled him with indignation and malice, and made him a fit instrument to be employed against the chief. In November, Conway, perceiving no chance for promotion, offered his resignation, and asked permission to leave the army. Congress would not accept it, although aware of Washington's opinion of him, and the enmity that existed, but appointed him inspector general of the army, with the rank of major general. This act is evidence that there was then an influence at work in the supreme Legislature unfriendly to the commander-in-chief. It can not be denied that faction was rife in the Continental Congress, and that the purity of purpose which controlled the acts of the first great assembly was alloyed, in an alarming degree, with personal and sectional interests. * Instead of strengthening the hands of the commander-in-chief when they most needed extraneous aid, men of influence were found in the army, in Congress, and among citizens, base enough, or blind enough, to attempt to weaken his power and accomplish his removal, either by a forced resignation of his command, or by actual supercedure by competent authority. Already Gates and Lee, Englishmen born, and officers in other wars, had shown themselves impatient at holding subordinate stations in the army, each deeming himself superior to Washington, and each thirsting for supreme command. The victory of Gates over Burgoyne at Saratoga, and the defeats of Washington in the Jerseys and Pennsylvania, were contrasted. That contrast tended to strengthen the pretensions of the former. Inconsiderate and ardent men in Congress lent their influence in favor of investing him with the supreme command.