Some security that the engagements of the government would be complied with was also requested.

A committee of officers was deputed to solicit the attention of congress to this memorial, and to attend its progress through the house.
Among the most distinguished members of the federal government, were persons sincerely disposed to do ample justice to the public creditors generally, and to that class of them particularly whose claims were founded in military service.

But many viewed the army with jealous eyes, acknowledged its merit with unwillingness, and betrayed, involuntarily, their repugnance to a faithful observance of the public engagements.

With this question, another of equal importance was connected, on which congress was divided almost in the same manner.
One party was attached to a state, the other to a continental system.
The latter laboured to fund the public debts on solid continental security, while the former opposed their whole weight to measures calculated to effect that object.
In consequence of these divisions on points of the deepest interest, the business of the army advanced slowly, and the important question respecting the commutation of their half pay remained undecided, when intelligence was received of the signature of the preliminary and eventual articles of peace between the United States and Great Britain.
[Sidenote: Anonymous letters and the proceedings in consequence thereof.] The officers, soured by their past sufferings, their present wants, and their gloomy prospects--exasperated by the neglect which they experienced, and the injustice which they apprehended, manifested an irritable and uneasy temper, which required only a slight impulse to give it activity.

To render this temper the more dangerous, an opinion had been insinuated that the Commander-in-chief was restrained, by extreme delicacy, from supporting their interests with that zeal which his feelings and knowledge of their situation had inspired.