Another fertile source of trouble arose from questions of rank.  Members of Congress, in making promotions and appointments, were more apt to consider local claims than military merit, and they also allowed their own personal prejudices to affect their action in this respect far too much.  Thence arose endless heart-burnings and jealousies, followed by resignations and the loss of valuable officers.  Congress, having made the appointments, would go cheerfully about its business, while the swarm of grievances thus let loose would come buzzing about the devoted head of the commander-in-chief.  He could not adjourn, but was compelled to quiet rivalries, allay irritated feelings, and ride the storm as best he might.  It was all done, however, in one way or another:  by personal appeals, and by letters full of dignity, patriotism, and patience, which are very impressive and full of meaning for students of character, even in this day and generation.

Then again, not content with snarling up our native appointments, Congress complicated matters still more dangerously by its treatment of foreigners.  The members of Congress were colonists, and the fact that they had shaken off the yoke of the mother country did not in the least alter their colonial and perfectly natural habit of regarding with enormous respect Englishmen and Frenchmen, and indeed anybody who had had the good fortune to be born in Europe.  The result was that they distributed commissions and gave inordinate rank to the many volunteers who came over the ocean, actuated by various motives, but all filled with a profound sense of their own merits.  It is only fair to Congress to say that the American agents abroad were even more to blame in this respect.  Silas Deane especially scattered promises of commissions with a lavish hand, and Congress refused to fulfill many of the promises thus made in its name.  Nevertheless, Congress was far too lax, and followed too closely the example of its agents.  Some of these foreigners were disinterested men and excellent soldiers, who proved of great value to the American cause.  Many others were mere military adventurers, capable of being turned to good account, perhaps, but by no means entitled to what they claimed and in most instances received.

The ill-considered action of Congress and of our agents abroad in this respect was a source of constantly recurring troubles of a very serious nature.  Native officers, who had borne the burden and heat of the day, justly resented being superseded by some stranger, unable to speak the language, who had landed in the States but a few days before.  As a result, resignations were threatened which, if carried out, would affect the character of the army very deeply.  Then again, the foreigners themselves, inflated by the eagerness of our agents and by their reception at the hands of Congress, would find on joining the army that they could get no commands, chiefly because there were none to give.  They would then become