This Week in History

December 13 — 19, 1777

The Conway Cabal Attempts To Slander and then Replace General George Washington

Whether it was launched as one of the many British intelligence operations during the American Revolution, or was simply the result of blind partisanship that ignored the general welfare, or perhaps a combination of both, the Conway Cabal caused much short-term damage to America's prospects of becoming an independent nation. Fortunately, the cabal's adherents helped to bring about their own defeat, just at the point that they had reached the height of their power and thought that victory was within their grasp.

That point was Dec. 14, 1777, when the cabal members in Congress succeeded in appointing Thomas Conway as a Major General, against the advice of Gen. George Washington. The main focus of the Continental Army officers and members of Congress who comprised the grouping was to replace Washington with English-born Gen. Horatio Gates.

In the fall and winter of 1777, Gates was the hero of America, for the troops under his command had defeated and captured British Gen. John Burgoyne and his entire army at Saratoga, N.Y. on Oct. 17. However, the plans for the American campaign to stop Burgoyne's march from Canada had been laid many months before by General Washington, working closely with Gen. Philip Schuyler, who commanded at Albany.

Schuyler, however, was unacceptable to many of the New England militia commanders, who were desperately needed to help stop Burgoyne. So the competent Schuyler was shunted aside, although he continued to provide logistical support, and the less gifted Gates was put in his place.

Flushed with his own importance, General Gates neglected to inform Washington, his Commander-in-Chief, of the victory over Burgoyne. Instead, he sent his aide-de-camp, James Wilkinson, with a flowery message to Congress, leaving Washington to depend on rumors. Wilkinson took an incredibly long time to reach Congress, and then spent three days "arranging his papers" before he gave them the news. Congress, although noting his dilatoriness, proposed voting him a sword for bringing such glad tidings, but a Scottish-American delegate named Dr. Witherspoon quipped, "I think ye'll better gie the lad a pair of spurs."

Meanwhile, Washington had been dealing with a very difficult situation, trying to determine what American target General Howe would attack next, and endeavoring to obtain the troops and supplies to stop him, wherever he might strike. Finally, it became clear that Howe was going to attack Philadelphia, and Washington had a heavy barrier, called a cheveaux-de-frise, built across the Delaware River below the city, guarded by a fort on either side.

After the victory at Saratoga, Washington looked forward to the return of Daniel Morgan's rifle corps, which he had forwarded from his own command to help General Gates. He also wrote to Gates asking for the transfer of some of the northern troops to help him keep the British from setting up a permanent base in Philadelphia. Washington's small and ill-equipped army had not succeeded in keeping Howe out of Philadelphia, but the barrier across the Delaware and its guardian forts were keeping the British warships south of the city. If the ships could not anchor at Philadelphia itself and provide artillery cover for the Redcoats, the British occupation of Philadelphia would become untenable and the army would have to withdraw.

General Gates sent no troops, so Washington dispatched Col. Alexander Hamilton to hurry the reinforcements on their way. The letter which Hamilton carried from Washington to Gates congratulated him on his victory, but added, "At the same time, I cannot but regret that a matter of such magnitude, and so interesting to our general operations, should have reached me by report only; or through the channel of letters not bearing that authenticity which the importance of it required, and which it would have received by a line under your signature stating the simple fact."

Hamilton enlisted the aid of Governor Clinton of New York to help him shake loose some troops from the Northern Department, but obstacles faced him everywhere. Washington wrote that "Colonel Hamilton, one of my aides, is up the North [Hudson] River doing all he can to push them forward, but he writes me word that he finds many unaccountable delays thrown in his way. The want of these troops has embarrassed all my measures exceedingly." Hamilton finally succeeded in mobilizing some troops southward, but he wrote to Washington that, "I doubt whether you would have had a man from the Northern army, if the whole could have been kept at Albany with any decency."

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