Temple of Virtue

Temple of Virtue. . In part to keep the soldiers gainfully occupied during the long winter months, Army Chaplain Israel Evans proposed the construction of a meeting hall in December 1782. Unlike the soldiers' huts, the building was handsomely finished with a vaulted ceiling and large, glazed windows. The building was used primarily for church services as well as military functions and occasional musical performances. Two rooms on one end were offices and a store for the quartermaster and commissary, and two on the other side were used for officer meetings and issuing general orders. , The name Temple of Virtue may have been derived from a 1757 sermon by David Fordyce called The Temple of Virtue A Dream:

“… a pilgrim traveled to an eminence crowned by a “sacred mansion” of “quadrangular form” whose whole fabric was simple and solemn …”

, [Bottom left] Over 500 officers and local families attended the unfinished building's inaugural event on February 6, which celebrated the anniversary of America's military alliance with France. (Detail from copy of An Original View of the Encampment of the Massachusetts Soldiers During the Last Year of the Revolutionary War, after the 1783 drawing by Private William Tarbell of the 7th Massachusetts Regiment, Washington's Headquarters State Historic Site) , The Newburgh Conspiracy , During the winter of 1782, soldiers grew discontent over unpaid wages, and officers worried about the security of their pensions. A conspiracy ignited among the officers in early March when, under secret instructions from nationalists in the Continental Congress, Major John Armstrong wrote two anonymous letters to threaten Congress with military force unless their pensions and wages were protected. Passions stirred among the officers. , General George Washington was incredulous. Taking charge of the crisis, he personally confirmed the support of every troop commander, cancelled the conspirators' meeting and called his own for March 15. , At the meeting, Washington made an impassioned speech, but the embittered officers were still unmoved. In a fit of desperation, Washington began to read a letter from one of the army's staunchest supporters, but his eyesight was failing. His now famous apology, “Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray, but almost blind, in the service of my country,” proved more powerful than his speech in quelling his officers' unrest and ending the crisis. , [Captions] , Top right: George Washington. Charles Peale Polk, 1790, Metropolitan Museum of Art. , Bottom right: George Washington's spectacles. Courtesy of Mount Vernon Ladies' Association.