They said they were not Arnolds, and that America had no truer friends than themselves; and then seized the emissaries and their papers and handed them over to Wayne and the mercy of a court-martial.  The men were tried as spies, found guilty and executed.  A reward which had been offered for their apprehension was tendered to the mutineers who had seized them.  But they refused it.  One of them said that necessity had wrung from them the act demanding justice from Congress, but they wanted no reward for doing their duty to their bleeding country.  Congress appointed a commissioner to meet the mutineers at Princeton, and soon after their demands were satisfied.  A large part of the Line was disbanded for the winter, and the remainder was well supplied with provisions and clothing.  About the middle of January, the greater part of the New Jersey line, which was encamped near Pompton, followed the example of the Pennsylvanians, and revolted; but different measures were taken to quell them.  General Washington ordered General Robert Howe to march with five hundred men, and reduce the rebels to submission.  Howe marched four days through a deep snow, and reached the encampment of the Jersey troops on the 27th of January.  His men were paraded in line, and he then ordered the mutineers to appear unarmed in front of their huts, within five minutes.  They hesitated, but on a second order, they obeyed.  Three of the chief movers in the revolt were tried and sentenced to be shot.  Two of them suffered, and the third was pardoned as being less to blame.  The two who were shot fell by the hands of twelve of the most guilty of the mutineers.  That, I think, was piling it on rather too thick.  General Howe then addressed them by platoons, and ordered their officers to resume their commands.  Clinton had again sent an emissary to make offers to the mutineers; but the man heard of the fate of the Tory and the British serjeant, and he took his papers to General Howe instead of the men.  These Jersey mutineers were reduced to submission, without much difficulty.  But the Pennsylvanians displayed a determination to fight if their demands were not satisfied, and so they gained their point.”

“Perhaps,” said Hand, “the Jersey troops had not as much reason to revolt as the Pennsylvanians.”

“I know they hadn’t as much reason,” said Kinnison.  “They had suffered as much for want of food and clothing, but their term of service was more certainly known.”

“How nobly the men treated the offers of Sir Henry Clinton!” said Hand.  “I should think the British government might have learned from that affair, the spirit of the Americans, and the futility of efforts to conquer men with such motives and sentiments.”

“They might have learned it if they had wished to learn,” said Pitts.  “They might have learned the same thing from the Boston tea-party.  But they determined that they had a right to act towards us just as they pleased, and their pride was blind to consequences.”