In addition to this flattering testimonial of their worth, and as a farther evidence of national gratitude, a resolution was passed granting to each, two hundred dollars per annum during life, to be paid in specie or an equivalent in current money.
[Footnote 48: Their names were John Paulding, David Williams, and Isaac Vanwert.] The efforts of General Washington to obtain a permanent military force, or its best substitute, a regular system for filling the vacant ranks with draughts who should join the army on the first day of January in each year, were still continued.

Notwithstanding the embarrassments with which congress was surrounded, it is not easy to find adequate reasons for the neglect of representations so interesting, and of recommendations apparently so essential to the safety of the United States.
[Sidenote: Parties in Congress.] Private letters disclose the fact that two parties still agitated congress.

One entered fully into the views of the Commander-in-chief.
The other, jealous of the army, and apprehensive of its hostility to liberty when peace should be restored, remained unwilling to give stability to its constitution by increasing the numbers who were to serve during the war.

They seemed to dread the danger from the enemy to which its fluctuations would expose them, less than the danger which might be apprehended for the civil authority from its permanent character.

They caught with avidity at every intelligence which encouraged the flattering hope of a speedy peace,[49] but entered reluctantly into measures founded on the supposition that the war might be of long duration.