In March a call was issued for a meeting of officers, and an anonymous address, written with much skill,--the work, as afterwards appeared, of Major John Armstrong,--was published at the same time.

The address was well calculated to inflame the passions of the troops; it advised a resort to force, and was scattered broadcast through the camp.

The army was now in a ferment, and the situation was full of peril.

A weak man would have held his peace; a rash one would have tried to suppress the meeting.

Washington did neither, but quietly took control of the whole movement himself.