"  I  hope  this  business  wiE.  meet  with  no  delay,  as  the
agent  for  purchasing  in  New  Jersey  will  wait  the  return
of  this  express."

Instead  of  the  |150,000  that  he  asked  for,  Con-
gress, on  a  report  of  the  Treasury  Board,  voted
him  $50,000.^

Among  the  many  troublesome  questions  that
arise  is  the  question  of  appointments,  and  the  mix-
ing up  of  civil  and  military  rank  —  one  of  the  vices
of  the  former  system.  "  My  blacksmith  is  a  cap-
tain," writes  De  Kalb.  "  The  numerous  assistant
quartermasters  are  for  the  most  part  people  with-
out  any   military  education,    often   the    common

tradesmen,    but   collectively  colonels

The  army  swarms  with  colonels."  ^  Greene  was
determined  to  bring  the  question  of  his  own  rights
to  an  immediate  decision.
"  This  will  be  handed  to  you,"  he  writes  to  the  President
of  Congress  on  the  first  of  May,  "  by  Lieut.-Col.  Hay,
who  acted  as  deputy  quartermaster-general  to  the  North-
em  army  the  last  year  by  an  appointment  from  Congress.
Upon  my  offering  a  new  deputation,  he  informed  me  that
as  Congress  had  been  pleased  to  give  him  the  rank  of

1  Journal,  April  24,  1778.  Wagon-masters,    regimental     qnar-

'^  Kapp's  De  Kalb, -p.  132.     Jolm  termasters,  etc.,  have  had  titles  which

Laurens  writes  to  his  father :  "  Rank  cease  to  be  honorable  when  possessed

has    likewise   been   vilified  by  the  by  such  personages."— Cwrespont/-

indiscriminate    distribution    of     it.  ence  of  John  Laurens,  p  83.
vol..  II.  5


66  LIFE   OF   NATHANAEL   GEEENE.  [1778.
