Washington replied, “It would, indeed, be a hard matter if I had not as good manners as a negro.” The fortunes of war in 1777-80 brought the struggle to Valley Forge, just north of Philadelphia. Here the patriot army wintered in log cabins in the forest. Daniel Conant returned to his place in the ranks, and during the long winter met most of the inhabitants of the neighborhood. Among these was a fatherly Tory Quaker who one day met Washington on foot, walking within the lines, looking sad and dejected. “The British will hang thee, George,” said the Quaker. In a twinkling the great man revived, pulled down the collar of his coat, and saying, “This neck never was made for a halter,” walked briskly away. A few days after the Quaker was walking alone in the forest. While making his way he heard a voice being lifted up in prayer. Pushing the bushes aside in the direction of the sound, he saw Washington, bare-headed and kneeling in the snow, with upturned face and closed eyes, asking the God of battles to preserve his little army and himself, and to favor the right. Reverently the Quaker waited until the General had ended his prayer, then he stepped to his side as he rose, and said, “George, thee will succeed and conquer the British.” As to the character of Washington, there never were two opinions; he seemed always to tower above all and every one. At first when he came to New England, they said, he was disposed to find fault and look with doubt upon the New England levies. Time, however, corrected that, and not a few of the Revolutionary generals and leaders among them became known as genuine men. John Hancock the Conant brothers did not care for, saying that he went into the war mainly to avoid the heavy suits then pending against him for customs dues. Among the leading civilians they admired and revered John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, although they did say of Adams that he was always finding fault with the British Government, and that he was offered lucrative offices in order to keep him quiet; but he was not to be held. General Knox, who was a Boston bookseller, they always spoke well of. Greene and Schuyler they thought were men who possessed real military ability and were high-minded gentlemen. Ethan Allen and General Putnam they thought brave men, but not in possession of military abilities. Roger Conant said of Sir William Johnson, that “he was the cleverest man he had ever met. He could manage both Indians and white men.” He had met Brant also, and always spoke of him as “one of nature’s noblemen with a tawny skin.”