Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. I.djvu/43

apprehension that the army would now be disbanded without proper provision being made by congress for meeting the just claims of the troops. Not a few of the officers began to distrust the efficiency of the government and of all republican institutions. One of them, "a colonel of the army, of a highly respectable character and somewhat advanced in life," whose name is given by Irving as Lewis Nicola, was put forward to communicate these sentiments to Washington, and he even dared to suggest for him the title of King. Washington's reply, dated Newburgh, May 22, 1782, expressed the indignation and "abhorrence" with which he had received such a suggestion, and rebuked the writer with severity. "I am at a loss to conceive," wrote he, "what part of my conduct could have given encouragement to an address which to me seems big with the greatest mischiefs that can befall my country. If I am not deceived in the knowledge of myself, you could not have found a person to whom your schemes are more disagreeable. . . . Let me conjure you, then, if you have any regard for your country, concern for yourself or posterity, or respect for me, to banish these thoughts from your mind, and never communicate, from yourself or any one else, a sentiment of the like nature." Nothing more was ever heard of making Washington a king. He had sufficiently shown his scorn for such an overture.