the military reputation of General Gates, acquired some advocates for
the opinion that the arms of America would be more fortunate, should
that gentleman be elevated to the supreme command. He could not be
supposed hostile himself to the prevalence of this opinion; and some
parts of his conduct would seem to warrant a belief that, if it did
not originate with him, he was not among the last to adopt it. After
the victory of the seventh of October had opened to him the prospect
of subduing the arms of Burgoyne, he not only omitted to communicate
his success to General Washington, but carried on a correspondence
with General Conway, in which that officer expressed great contempt
for the Commander-in-chief. When the purport of this correspondence
was disclosed to General Washington, Gates demanded the name of the
informer in a letter far from being conciliatory in its terms, which
was accompanied with the very extraordinary circumstance of being
passed through congress.[97] The state of Pennsylvania too, chagrined
at the loss of its capital, and forgetful of its own backwardness in
strengthening the army, which had twice fought superior numbers in its
defence, furnished many discontented individuals. They imputed it to
General Washington as a fault that, with forces inferior to his enemy
in numbers, and in every equipment, he had not effected the same
result which had been produced in the north, by a continental army, in
itself, much stronger than its adversary, and so reinforced by militia
as to treble his numbers. On the report that General Washington was
moving into winter quarters, the legislature of that state addressed a
remonstrance to congress on the subject, manifesting, in very
intelligible terms, their dissatisfaction with the Commander-in-chief.
About the same time, a new board of war was created, of which General
Gates was appointed the President; and General Mifflin, who was
supposed to be of the party unfriendly to Washington, was one of its
members. General Conway, who was probably the only brigadier in the