A very minor but most malignant enemy was Dr. Benjamin Rush. In 1774
Washington dined with him in Philadelphia, which implied friendship.
Very early in the war, however, an attempt was made to remove the
director-general of hospitals, in which, so John Armstrong claimed,
"Morgan was the ostensible—Rush the real prosecutor of Shippen—the
former acting from revenge,... the latter from a desire to obtain the
directorship. In approving the sentence of the court, Washington
stigmatized the prosecution as one originating in bad motives, which made
Rush his enemy and defamer as long as he lived." Certain it is he wrote
savage letters of criticism about his commander-in-chief of which the
following extract is a sample:
"I have heard several officers who have served under General Gates compare
his army to a well regulated family. The same gentlemen have compared
Gen'l Washington's imitation of an army to an unformed mob. Look at the
characters of both! The one on the pinnacle of military glory—exulting in
the success of schemes planned with wisdom, & executed with vigor and
bravery—and above all see a country saved by his exertions. See the other
outgeneral'd and twice heated—obliged to witness the march of a body of
men only half their number thro' 140 Miles of a thick settled country—
forced to give up a city the capitol of a state & after all outwitted by
the same army in a retreat."
Had Rush written only this, there would be no grounds for questioning his
methods; but, not content with spreading his opinions among his friends,
he took to anonymous letter-writing, and sent an unsigned letter abusing
Washington to the governor of Virginia (and probably to others), with the
request that the letter should be burned. Instead of this, Henry sent it
to Washington, who recognized at once the handwriting, and wrote to Henry
that Rush "has been elaborate and studied in his professions of regard to
me, and long since the letter to you." An amusing sequel to this incident
is to be found in Rush moving heaven and earth on the publication of
Marshall's "Life of Washington" to prevent his name from appearing as one
of the commander-in-chief's enemies.
After the collapse of the attempt Washington wrote to a friend, "I thank
you sincerely for the part you acted at York respecting C—-y, and believe
with you that matters have and will turn out very different to what that
party expected. G—-s has involved himself in his letters to me in the
most absurd contradictions. M—- has brought himself into a scrape that he
does not know how to get out of with a gentleman of this State, and C—-,
as you know is sent upon an expedition which all the world knew, and the
event has proved, was not practicable. In a word, I have a good deal of
reason to believe that the machination of this junta will recoil upon
their own heads, and be a means of bringing some matters to light which,
by getting me out of the way, some of them thought to conceal."
