Newburgh Conspiracy - Actions of Congress

Actions of Congress

The officers' warning reached the Congress amid seemingly fortuitous political circumstances. Those members of Congress who supported a stronger central government, prominently Robert Morris, Gouverneur Morris, and Alexander Hamilton, saw providence in the Army's statement of discontent.

MacDougall was a New York acquaintance of Hamilton; the Congressmen later approached Knox, and John Armstrong, aide to General Horatio Gates, through Captain John Brooks, one of MacDougall's colleagues.

Robert Morris accompanied MacDougall to Congress when MacDougall lobbied that body for funds. Congress had none because the states refused to send the money they had promised. Robert counseled patience, as he attempted to secure funding for the Army. Hamilton and G. Morris encouraged both MacDougall and Knox to continue their appeals, and in a private coded letter G. Morris acknowledged the danger of threatening unknown consequences if their demands were not granted. Congress defeated proposals which would have resolved the crisis without establishing general Federal taxation: that the states assume the debt to the army, or that an impost be established but dedicated to the sole purpose of paying that debt.

The content of the Newburgh letter reveals the frustration of the Army. It states that they would refuse to disband if they were not paid, and they would refuse to fight to protect the Congress if it were attacked. Kohn (1970) argues that a coup d'etat was never seriously attempted, and would have been politically impossible in the first place. The enlisted men had much less at stake than the officers, and might not have followed any rebellion; if they had, the insurgent army, completely unsupplied, would have had to catch Congress, which the British had attempted vainly for years. Once caught, any resolution imposed on Congress would still have had to be implemented by the states.