Gray and almost blind

The story, from several sources

This account blends Rothbard’s chapter with the other sources listed below and has not yet been separated into Rothbard’s own account and the fuller story. Read Rothbard’s chapter 72 for his account.

By the winter of 1783 the war was won and the army was unpaid. Its officers petitioned Congress for half-pay for life, and Congress said no. Rothbard says the answer from the circle around Robert Morris, Gouverneur Morris, Hamilton and James Wilson was to unite the officers with the public creditors and press for a central government that could tax, with hints of an army coup if Congress refused. An agent of Morris reached Newburgh on March 8, and on March 10 an anonymous address by young John Armstrong called the officers to a meeting. Washington postponed the meeting to the 15th. Hamilton had already urged him to take the army’s side, and Washington had refused a course that would end in blood. On the 15th he walked in unannounced as General Gates was presiding. He had a letter from a congressman to read, and he took out a pair of spectacles, which few had seen him wear, and told the officers that he had not only grown gray but almost blind in the service of his country. Captain Samuel Shaw, who was there, wrote that you could see feeling moisten every eye. The officers voted unanimous loyalty to Congress, and the plot died. Hamilton hurried to assure Washington that he had never meant to urge illegal means.