Perhaps some of them really thought that he was pursuing wrong methods or policy.
However it may be, few commanders-in-chief in history have had to suffer more than Washington did from malice and faction.
The most serious of the plots against him was the so-called Conway Cabal, whose head was Thomas Conway, an Irishman who had served in the French army and had come over early in the war to the Colonies to make his way as a soldier of fortune.

He seems to have been one of the typical Irishmen who had no sense of truth, who was talkative and boastful, and a mirthful companion.

It happened that Washington received a letter from one of his friends which drew from him the following note to Brigadier-General Conway: A letter, which I received last night, contained the following paragraph: "In a letter from General Conway to General Gates he says, 'Heaven has been determined to save your country, or a weak General and bad counsellors would have ruined it.'"[1] [Footnote 1: Ford, vi, 180.] It was characteristic of Washington that he should tell Conway at once that he knew of the latter's machinations.

Nevertheless Washington took no open step against him.

The situation of the army at Valley Forge was then so desperately bad that he did not wish to make it worse, perhaps, by interjecting into it what might be considered a matter personal to himself.