and disaster.  All these harassing difficulties crowded upon the commander-in-chief as soon as he arrived.  To appreciate him it is necessary to understand these conditions and realize their weight and consequence, albeit the details seem petty.  When we comprehend the difficulties, then we can see plainly the greatness of the man who quietly and silently took them up and disposed of them.  Some he scotched and some he killed, but he dealt with them all after a fashion sufficient to enable him to move steadily forward.  In his presence the provincial committee suddenly stiffened and grew strong.  All correspondence with Tryon was cut off, the Tories were repressed, and on Long Island steps were taken to root out “these abominable pests of society,” as the commander-in-chief called them in his plain-spoken way.  Then forts were built, soldiers energetically recruited and drilled, arrangements made for prisoners, and despite all the present cares anxious thought was given to the Canada campaign, and ideas and expeditions, orders, suggestions, and encouragement were freely furnished to the dispirited generals and broken forces of the north.

One matter, however, overshadowed all others.  Nearly a year before, Washington had seen that there was no prospect or possibility of accommodation with Great Britain.  It was plain to his mind that the struggle was final in its character and would be decisive.  Separation from the mother country, therefore, ought to come at once, so that public opinion might be concentrated, and above all, permanency ought to be given to the army.  These ideas he had been striving to impress upon Congress, for the most part less clearsighted than he was as to facts, and as the months slipped by his letters had grown constantly more earnest and more vehement.  Still Congress hesitated, and at last Washington went himself to Philadelphia and held conferences with the principal men.  What he said is lost, but the tone of Congress certainly rose after his visit.  The aggressive leaders found their hands so much strengthened that little more than a month later they carried through a declaration of independence, which was solemnly and gratefully proclaimed to the army by the general, much relieved to have got through the necessary boat-burning, and to have brought affairs, military and political, on to the hard ground of actual fact.

Soon after his return from Philadelphia, he received convincing proof that his views in regard to the Tories were extremely sound.  A conspiracy devised by Tryon, which aimed apparently at the assassination of the commander-in-chief, and which had corrupted his life-guards for that purpose, was discovered and scattered before it had fairly hardened into definite form.  The mayor of the city and various other persons were seized and thrown into prison, and one of the life-guards, Thomas Hickey by name, who was the principal tool in the plot, was hanged in the presence of a large concourse of people.  Washington