Now   what  follows   from  this  just  discovered   impossibility  ?
1  Force,  ui  sup.  p.  557.
APPENDIX.  408

"  I  am,  therefore,  inclined  to  think  that  it  will  not  be  prudent  to
hazard  the  men  and  stores  at  Mount  Washington."  By  what
principle  of  interpretation  was  Greene  required  to  accept  this
dubitative  /  am  inclined  to  think  as  equivalent  to  a  positive  /
think'?  Therefore,  as  the  letter  reads  up  to  this  sentence,  there
is  nothing  in  it  which  could  convey  to  Greene's  mind  the  dea
of  a  positive  decision  or  a  positive  order.
But  even  if  there  had  been,  and  the  expression  had  been  /
think,  what  conclusion  about  Washington's  decision  would
Greene  have  drawn  from  the  next  sentence  ?  "  But  as  you  are
on  the  spot  I  leave  it  to  you  to  give  such  orders  as  to  evacuating
Mount  Washington  as  you  may  judge  best."  Is  this  an  order,
or  is  it  a  i-eference  of  decision  on  the  ground  of  the  Commander-
in-chief's  absence  from  the  spot,  and  his  consequent  incapacity
to  decide  correctly  ?  Congress  had  instructed  Washington  to
hold  Fort  Washington  as  long  as  possible.  What  if  Greene
had  evacuated  it  ?  Would  the  language  of  this  lettei-  have  jus-
tified him  to  a  court-martial,  or  what  to  him  was  always  of  more
importance  than  the  opinions  of  man,  to  his  own  conscience,
unless  he  could  have  affirmed  that  he  believed  it  to  be  neces-
sary ?  How  the  tidings  of  such  an  evacuation  would  have  been
received  by  the  country  may  be  conjectured  from  the  general
outburst  of  indignation  with  which  those  of  St.  Clair's  evacua-
tion of  Ticonderoga  were  received.
