been received, that peace had already been signed, and an order for the cessation of hostilities was daily expected in the camp. The welcome tidings were, at length confirmed, and published at head-quarters on the 19th of April, 1783.

The privations of officers as well as privates in the American army, during the unnatural contest had been great. The consummation of their wishes was now happily accomplished in the acknowledgment of Independence, but whilst they could felicitate themselves on the attainment of their most ardent wishes, their pecuniary embarrassments still continued, the constituted government of their country being altogether incompetent to pay them their just wages. Congress had passed a resolve, in order to reduce the army, with the greatest facility, empowering the Commander-in-chief to grant furloughs to the troops engaged to serve during the war, and to a number of officers proportionate to the troops who might thus be dispersed, unaccompanied, however, with the means to enable them to arrive at their respective destinations. This, as might naturally have been expected, excited a considerable ferment in the army. With a view to suppress the storm which seemed ready to burst, a board of General officers was therefore called, of which General Heath was chosen President. A respectable address to the Commander-in-chief was penned, setting forth the actual situation of officers and men; the defalcation of Congress in complying with their engagements; the inability of the furloughed troops to reach their respective abodes without means; the degradation to which the officers were reduced; and their unwillingness to depart unless Congress should afford redress and give them certificates of their arrears of

pay. The address was couched in very respectful language, and transmitted to General Washington, signed by General Heath, as President of the board. It was directed to the Commanderin-chief, because it only requested of him to use his influence to have their grievance removed. It breathed not the language of servility, because it asked for justice-not favours; nor did it exhibit that of the braggart, by the use of menaces to frighten Congress, to perform what otherwise the imperious dictates of justice, reason, and duty pointed out.

The reply of the Commander-in-chief was highly satisfactory, as he assured them, that their wishes had already been anticipated by every exertion in his power, to have an amicable adjustment of their accounts, and as far as was practicable a relief of their immediate wants.—This is the æra when the celebrated anonymous letters addressed to the army made their appearance, on the writer of whom much obloquy has been since thrown, very probably for party purposes. In that business, their author has never been treated by the parties concerned with that candour, to which from his very meritorious services, he appeared to have been so well entitled.

About this time, the design for forming a military order was begun. Although its object was specious in the exterior, it savoured strongly of aristocracy. General Heath attended its meetings; exerted his influence to oppose its aristocratical features, and only subscribed to its funds for the charitable objects which were professed.

At a subsequent period of his life he was confirmed in his objections to the institution, as it was then conducted, and ordered his name to

be erased from the list of members; continuing, however, his subcription for the charities, which its constitution professed to be its main object.

A coincidence of dates in the chain of events, is, sometimes, remarkable. General Heath was the first officer who ordered and gave directions for the guard at Prospect-hill, in 1775, after the battle of the 19th of April in that year, and he was left the last General of the day in the main army to perform the duties affixed to that station, in 1783.

The germ of aristocracy was imbedded in the constitution of the order of Cincinnati, and they who braved the storm, which menaced them for eight years, blighted their early laurels, by an acquiescence in its organization. A hereditary state of things is so repugnant to the very existence of a free government, that it behoves every member of the community to revolt against the establishment of an institution of this kind. The virtues of man perish with the possessor. They are only the ingredients inherited from ancestry, when properly cultivated by education.

On the 24th of June, General Heath received a letter from General Washington, dated the same day, taking an affectionate leave of him, which was couched in the strongest language of friendship. On the afternoon of that date, General Heath started for his residence in Massachusetts, and, upon his arrival, exchanged the garb of a soldier, for the habiliments of private life.

During the remaining years of his life, he often experienced the manifestations of the esteem, in which he was held by his fellow-citizens, by their suffrages. In the year 1798, he published his memoirs. While they evince, in the manner of memorandum, a man of business, their want of

method and arrangement exhibit the absence of the able penman.

The General in the evening of his days, reposed in domestic felicity, enjoying the reward of a well spent life, in the warm affection of a nation, in whose freedom he had so often risked his exis tence in the field of battle.

MAJOR-GENERAL

ANTHONY WAYNE.

THIS gentleman was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, in the year 1745. His ancestors were Irish, and his grandfather was a Captain under King William, at the battle of the Boyne; but, at what time, the family emigrated to America is not precisely known. Besides the farming business, General Wayne's father carried on the tanning to a large extent. He was annually elected, for many years, a member of the provincial legislature, for Chester county. In consequence of his advanced age, he declined a re-election in 1773, when his son Anthony, the subject of the following memoir, was elected to fill the seat, which had thus became vacant, by the resignation of his father. Our hero had been bred to the profession of a surveyor, to the duties of which he had attended for several years. But as soon as the clouds began to gather in the political hemisphere, he relinquished his private pursuits and united his efforts with the patriots of 1774 and 1775, in warding off the impending storm. He was successively honoured with a seat in the Legislature, until be vacated it for the more ar

duous toils of the tented field, by the acceptance of a Colonelcy in the provincial army; and so great was his interest, that, in a few weeks, he raised a regiment in his native county.

He attended with his regiment, the unfortunate General Thompson into Lower Canada, in 1776, and was present in the attack on Trois Rivieres, when that gallant officer was defeated and taken prisoner. After this disastrous event, he was peculiarly serviceable in securing the retreat of the American troops, which, by his judicious conduct and activity he was able to effect with very little loss. On this occasion, he was slightly wounded In the retreat, after the capture of Thompson, Colonel Maxwell was the commanding officer. This unfortunate expedition was planned and ordered by General Sullivan. Colonel Wayne afterwards served, with his regiment, in the northern army at Ticonderoga under General Gates, in the campaign of 1776. His talents as an engineer, his quickness of perception and accurate coupd'œil estimation of heights and distances, with his other military qualifications, rendered him a most. valuable officer.

In the beginning of the campaign of 1777, he was riased to the rank of Brigadier-general, and with his brigade was ordered to reinforce General Washington, at the head of Elk.

At the battle of Brandywine, General Kniphausen was posted at Chad's ford, as a feint, General Washington having stationed General Wayne, with an adequate force as he supposed, to defend the passage of the ford. When Cornwallis, as he had designed, succeeded in turning. the right flank of the American army, Kniphausen. crossed the ford and attacked Wayne with great vigour. He sustained the shock with much resolution; but, after, a seyere conflict, was obliged to