There were also Continental Congress Representatives who disagreed with Morris' suggestion that Adams apologize to Charles, believing that Adams' deployment of the Western Expeditionary Force was for the benefit of all America.
Although his order to Sherman was a bit early, the militias in other towns had also been authorized by the Continental Congress to be transferred recently, so it was basically fair and there was no need to apologize to Charles.
However, now that Charles said he wouldn't come, they felt it would still be better to apologize.
After all, everyone could see that Adams' deployment order at the time was indeed made without authorization when the situation was not critical, which indeed infringed upon Charles' rights and even tarnished the reputation of the Continental Congress.
Therefore, under the lobbying of Morris and others, everyone came forward to ask Adams to apologize to Charles for the deployment incident.
As a seasoned politician, Adams, how could he not have made arrangements for such an unauthorized deployment order? With the support of a group of his followers, he firmly stated that he was unwilling to apologize.
"If everyone believes that Councilor Charles-Lee must lead us, then I can also withdraw from the Continental Congress and simply hand over everything to Councilor Charles, letting him handle it all alone."
Of course, such a declaration would lead to his supporters stepping forward to retain him, and the other Continental Congress Representatives would not possibly agree to his approach.
Two Representatives were at odds, and now both were using their work as a bargaining chip; who was trying to scare whom?
Adams, after all, was different from Charles; what he did was typical bureaucratic maneuvering.
He still had to consider his own future and the interests of the entire United States, and relatively speaking, his temper was much better than Charles', and more people could persuade him.
Therefore, under the strong demands and persuasion of Hancock and others, he finally reluctantly agreed to apologize to Charles.
He was quite satisfied with Charles' actions.
Originally, he was in the wrong, and everyone sympathized with Charles.
If Charles had secretly worked against him, it would have been difficult to get help from others.
However, now, although it wouldn't make other Representatives feel indebted to him, at least they wouldn't feel indebted to Charles either.
Adams was actually very willing to use a meaningless apology to atone for his mistakes.
But how could Charles let Adams have his way so easily?
In fact, when he produced Adams' order, he already knew that he had to force the Continental Congress to choose between him and Adams.
Political matters, either don't expose them, or once exposed, they must be resolved properly, otherwise, one will be looked down upon and even affect one's political future.
And among the Continental Congress, those who trusted Adams more undoubtedly constituted the majority.
Making them choose would inevitably offend some people to some extent.
Charles wouldn't be so foolish as to force these people to take a stand just for an apology.
If there were no substantial benefits, he simply wouldn't have brought out that letter.
James, as Charles' representative, rejected the Continental Congress' proposal when the Continental Congress stated that Adams should go to see Charles to express condolences.
"Mr. Hancock, Councilor Charles is currently ill, and it might be inconvenient for Mr. Adams to see him."
"Inconvenient?" Hancock frowned deeply, "Mr. Jonathan, His Excellency Adams is going to visit Councilor Charles, to visit!"
When he spoke, he specifically emphasized the word "visit."
"Exactly! Your Excellency Hancock, from a secretary's perspective, I believe Councilor Charles' illness was originally caused by Adams.
If he goes to apologize now, he might even make His Excellency the Councilor even sicker," James said indifferently.
Hancock was greatly astonished; Councilor Charles-Lee was still not satisfied with Adams' mere apology.
Morris, who had long suspected that Charles was not yet satisfied, was now certain that Charles was not merely content with Adams' apology.
In fact, as soon as they heard that Charles was unwilling to come out and lead Philadelphia, many people understood what was going on.
The events that occurred yesterday in the Diana family castle had already spread throughout the city's upper circles, and those with keen political instincts would naturally understand Charles' intentions.
Just when the whole city was asking Charles to come out and lead the resistance, he feigned illness; these people naturally gnashed their teeth in hatred over this matter.
However, relatively speaking, when people rely on someone, they generally do not directly hate that person, but instead direct their hatred towards the person who caused the problem.
Therefore, everyone's resentment was basically directed towards another person, Adams; if it weren't for his reckless actions, why would Charles be unwilling to come out?
And at this moment, everyone already understood that unless Charles was satisfied with how Adams' matter was handled, he would not come out to lead Philadelphia's resistance movement.
Adams, who had been an object of everyone's trust, had now become an expendable one.
Because if they only forced him to apologize to Charles, then the Continental Congress would only owe Adams a favor.
A favor could be repaid in the future.
But if they forced him to do other things, or even directly compensated Charles with Adams' interests, that would no longer be a favor but hatred.
In the future, the Continental Congress would only be able to choose Charles, who came at a great cost, and not Adams, with whom they had already made an enemy.
From the current situation, everyone undoubtedly supported choosing Charles.
That evening, Hancock, the President of the Continental Congress, Thompson, the secretary of the meeting, and Representatives Morris, Wilson, and others who had a good relationship with Charles, all came to the Diana family castle to visit and express condolences to Charles, who was "recuperating."
Charles also did not stand on ceremony with them and received them directly in his bedroom.
Of course, to prevent everyone from being in an awkward situation, Charles still lay in bed, feigning illness.
"Councilor Charles! We heard you caught a cold on the road, and all our colleagues in the Continental Congress were very concerned when they heard about it.
They specifically entrusted us to come and express our condolences, hoping you recover soon and come to the Continental Congress to start working."
"Oh dear! Mr. Hancock, to trouble you to personally visit me, I am truly sorry.
I very much want to serve the Continental Congress and the people of the United States, but unfortunately, my body cannot bear it.
However, the Continental Congress won't be much different with or without me, so it's better to just revoke my representative status, lest someone always complains next to me, then my illness might never get better."
Charles spoke with a sorrowful tone, but his face was smiling, showing no sign of illness at all.
Just put on a show.
No need to actually make the other party believe he was sick.
"Uh…" Hancock was a bit embarrassed.
He knew that the "patient" in front of him had probably already learned about Adams' proposal to revoke Charles' representative status.
"Charles, you can't say that.
Within our Continental Congress, there has long been a consensus: in military command, General Washington is the best; in military strategic arrangements, you are the best.
Your easy capture of Ohio with only a thousand men this time is the best example.
The Continental Congress cannot do without you; if you resign, it will be a loss for the entire United States," Morris advised from the side.
"Exactly, the Continental Congress will absolutely not agree to revoke your representative status," Hancock also clarified his position.
"Alas.
But I heard that there are people in the Continental Congress who dislike me and have always wanted to remove me from the Continental Congress.
Being treated like this, I'd rather not be this Representative, lest we all fight among ourselves and fail to accomplish anything," Charles shook his head.
Good gracious, he directly aimed the spearhead at Adams!
Wasn't this clearly saying that if I am in the Continental Congress, Adams cannot be, and if Adams is in, I cannot be?
Hancock looked at the several Representatives accompanying him, not knowing what to say.
"Your Excellency Councilor Charles, you cannot shirk responsibility.
Our other Representatives were just thinking about whether to grant you full authority to lead Philadelphia and command the resistance forces to lead us against a possible British army attack," Thompson, the secretary of the meeting, finally interjected.
"Haha! Mr. Thompson, that would be even worse.
If I work with people I have conflicts with, pulling and tugging at each other, major problems will likely occur frequently.
If the British army's attack succeeds, then we will be the sinners of the entire Philadelphia," Charles still looked disagreeable.
But this time, it was clearly much more conciliatory than his previous talk of resigning as a Representative.
To put it bluntly, it's not that I'm unwilling to come out and do things, but that Adams and I have a conflict, and even if I do come out, things won't go smoothly, so now it's up to your choice.
Everyone was also sensible people and indeed understood that Charles' concerns were valid, and their original complaints about him using conditions to threaten the Continental Congress immediately vanished.
"Haha! Then if Your Excellency is given full responsibility for a region, wouldn't there be no conflict? Like you becoming the Commander-in-Chief of Philadelphia's military and civilians, including the Military and Ordnance Committee, and no one being allowed to interfere, and so on."
Hancock, being an old and experienced man, immediately came up with an idea to cater to Charles' wishes.
"Alas, if someone with objections keeps hovering in front of me, constantly making sarcastic remarks and pouring cold water, it's still meaningless to do anything.
As for your hypothesis, I'm afraid it's also unrealistic.
The Commander-in-Chief of the military and civilians and the Military and Ordnance Committee must have overlap; if they don't work together, it will be fraught with difficulties."
Charles now stated his conditions more clearly.
"Oh!" Hancock and the others also understood Charles' meaning.
Firstly, Charles would agree to lead Philadelphia, but on the condition that he have full command, which meant at least the Military and Ordnance Committee led by Adams could not be outside his control.
Secondly, he did not want to see his enemy, Adams, so Adams had to disappear from his sight, meaning he had to at least leave Philadelphia.
With these conditions clear, everyone breathed a sigh of relief but also felt secretly annoyed.
What was this? Originally, it was just a squabble between two Representatives, but now they were using national affairs as their bargaining chips, and ironically, their reasons were quite justifiable.
If they weren't also seasoned politicians, they wouldn't have seen through the hidden tricks of the two.
Such conditions could not be agreed to immediately, nor could they be discussed on the spot.
So, after a few more perfunctory condolences, these people took their leave and returned to the Continental Congress to formally discuss the conditions proposed by Charles.
Charles did not know how the Continental Congress discussed it that day, but the next day, Adams officially announced his resignation as Chairman of the Military and Ordnance Committee, left Philadelphia with his entourage, and returned to Virginia to lead the resistance forces there.
In fact, according to news Charles later received, the Virginia Representatives had already promised to let Adams temporarily act as governor of Virginia and lead America's largest state upon his return in order to persuade him to leave.
Without such an exchange of interests, getting Adams to leave would not have been resolved overnight.
His interests were not diminished; in some respects, they were even strengthened.
Otherwise, a seasoned politician like him would absolutely not have compromised.
However, his relationship with the Continental Congress was also officially strained; even if he didn't hold a grudge over the Continental Congress forcing him to leave this time, other Continental Congress Representatives would still worry about him holding a grudge and would not be able to directly reconcile with him.
In any case, Adams indeed left Philadelphia as Charles wished, and the position Charles wanted was officially vacant.
One day before the New Year, seeing his conditions met, Charles announced his recovery and officially returned to participate in the work of the Continental Congress.
The Continental Congress immediately granted him the right to lead Philadelphia and unanimously decided that he would serve as Chairman of the Military and Ordnance Committee.
They had originally planned to give him the title of "Conqueror of Ohio," but because Charles was truly too embarrassed to accept it, it was ultimately awarded to Major Sullivan in Pittsburgh.
And one of the first decisions Charles announced after his return was to provide, through the Kiel Laboratory, a batch of medicines worth two thousand pounds to the Continental army free of charge, as emergency aid.
Other military supplies such as cotton clothes and blankets were also donated in large quantities, but they needed to be transported from Pittsburgh before they could be delivered, so they could only serve as a New Year's gift for the Continental army.
This action was not immediately understood by the people of Philadelphia and the Continental Congress, but those suffering from illness in Washington's camp, upon hearing this news, greatly increased their support for the new Chairman of the Military and Ordnance Committee.
Even Washington specifically wrote to thank Charles for his good deed and congratulated him on his appointment as Chairman of the Military and Ordnance Committee.