that they had a man in their army who could die with such firmness."

From Elias Boudinot's "Journal of Events" during the Revolution we
extract the following account of his interview with Cunningham in New
York. "In the spring of 1777 General Washington wrote me a letter
requesting me to accept of a Commission as Commissary General of
Prisoners in the Army of America. I waited on him and politely
declined the task, urging the wants of the Prisoners and having
nothing to supply them."

Washington, however, urged him not to refuse, saying that if no one in
whom he could trust would accept the office, the lot of the prisoners
would be doubly hard. At last Boudinot consented to fill the position
as best he could, and Washington declared that he should be supplied
with funds by the Secret Committee of Congress. "I own," he says,
"that after I had entered on my department, the applications of the
Prisoners were so numerous, and their distress so urgent, that I
exerted every nerve to obtain supplies, but in vain--Excepting L600 I
had received from the Secret Committee in Bills of exchange, at my
first entrance into the Office--I could not by any means get a
farthing more, except in Continental Money, which was of no avail in
New York. I applied to the General describing my delicate Situation
and the continual application of the Officers, painting their extreme
distress and urging the assurance they had received that on my
appointment I was to be furnished with adequate means for their full
relief. The General appeared greatly distressed and assured me that it
was out of his power to afford me any supplies. I proposed draining
Clothing from the public stores, but to this he objected as not having
anything like a sufficient supply for the Army. He urged my
considering and adopting the best means in my power to satisfy the