"  I  have  endeavored  to  the  utmost  of  my  power  to  enter
into  the  spirit  and  intention  of  your  Excellency's  measures  ;
and  if  my  conduct  has  not  been  satisfactory  to  govern-
ment and  to  yourself,  it  has  been  owing  to  a  want  of
abilities,  and  not  inclination."

"  I  have  received  your  letter  of  yesterday,"  "Washington
answers  from  Peekskill  on  the  6th.  "  When  you  quit  the
department,  I  shall  be  happy  to  give  you  my  sense  of  your
conduct ;  and  I  am  persuaded  it  will  be  such  as  will  be
entirely  satisfactory.     I  cannot,  however,  forbear  thinking


1780.]  LIFE    OF   NATHAJMAEL   GREENE.  327

that  it  would  be  unadvisable  for  you  to  leave  the  depart-
ment before  the  success  of  the  letters  written  from  Para-
mus  by  the  committee  and  myself  to  Congress,  is  known,
and  I  entreat  you  to  wait  the  issue  of  the  application."  ^

The  success  of  those  letters  was  very  different
from  what  either  Washington  or  Greene  or  the
committee  had  expected.  Of  the  members  of
Congress  who  had  taken  up  a  prejudice  against
Greene,  no  one  seems  to  have  taken  it  up  more
strongly  than  Joseph  Jones  of  Virginia,  an  active
m.ember  of  the  committee  of  three  which  had
been  appointed  on  the  10th  of  March,  to  confer
with  the  commissioners  appointed  on  the  20th  of
January  to  inquire  into  the  expenses  of  the  staff
departments.  In  this  capacity  he  had  taken  part
in  the  formation  of  the  new  system,  and  his  feel-
ings were  naturally  enlisted  in  the  support  of  it.^
It  was  from  him  that  Washington  received  his  first
intimation  of  the  intentions  of  Congress.
