When the war ended their pay was still heavily in
arrears. The States were timid about imposing taxation and few if
any paid promptly the levies made upon them. Congress bridged the
chasm in finance by issuing paper money which so declined in
value that, as Washington said grimly, it required a wagon-load
of money to pay for a wagon-load of supplies. The soldier
received his pay in this money at its face value, and there is
little wonder that the "continental dollar" is still in the
United States a symbol of worthlessness. At times the lack of pay
caused mutiny which would have been dangerous but for
Washington's firm and tactful management in the time of crisis.
There was in him both the kindly feeling of the humane man and
the rigor of the army leader. He sent men to death without
flinching, but he was at one with his men in their sufferings,
and no problem gave him greater anxiety than that of pay,
affecting, as it did, the health and spirits of men who, while
unpaid, had no means of softening the daily tale of hardship.
Desertion was always hard to combat. With the homesickness which
led sometimes to desertion Washington must have had a secret
sympathy, for his letters show that he always longed for that
pleasant home in Virginia which he did not allow himself to
revisit until nearly the end of the war.
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