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+Project Gutenberg's George Washington, Vol. II, by Henry Cabot Lodge
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: George Washington, Vol. II
+
+Author: Henry Cabot Lodge
+
+Release Date: June 19, 2004 [EBook #12653]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GEORGE WASHINGTON, VOL. II ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Tim Koeller and PG Distributed
+Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: MARTHA WASHINGTON]
+
+American Statesmen
+
+STANDARD LIBRARY EDITION
+
+
+[Illustration: Mount Vernon]
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+GEORGE WASHINGTON
+
+      BY
+
+HENRY CABOT LODGE
+
+  IN TWO VOLUMES
+    VOL. II.
+
+     1899
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER.
+
+     I. WORKING FOR UNION
+    II. STARTING THE GOVERNMENT
+   III. DOMESTIC AFFAIRS
+    IV. FOREIGN RELATIONS
+     V. WASHINGTON AS A PARTY MAN
+    VI. THE LAST YEARS
+   VII. GEORGE WASHINGTON
+
+        INDEX
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+MARTHA WASHINGTON
+
+From the painting by Gilbert Stuart in the Museum of Fine Arts,
+Boston. This painting is owned by the Boston Athenaeum and is known as
+the Athenaeum portrait.
+
+Autograph from letter written from Valley Forge, March 7, 1778, now in
+the possession of Hon. Winslow Warren.
+
+
+The vignette of Mount Vernon is from a photograph.
+
+
+WASHINGTON RESIGNING HIS COMMISSION AT ANNAPOLIS
+
+From the original painting by Trumbull in the Art Gallery of Yale
+University.
+
+
+LAFAYETTE
+
+From a contemporary French folio engraving in the Emmet collection,
+New York Public Library, Lenox Building.
+
+
+HENRY KNOX
+
+From the original portrait by Gilbert Stuart in the Museum of Fine
+Arts, Boston.
+
+Autograph from Winsor's "America."
+
+
+NATHANAEL GREENE
+
+From the original painting by C.W. Peale, by kind permission of its
+present owner, Mrs. Wm. Brenton Greene, Jr., Princeton, N.J.
+
+Autograph from Winsor's "America."
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+GEORGE WASHINGTON
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+WORKING FOR UNION
+
+
+Having resigned his commission, Washington stood not upon the order of
+his going, but went at once to Virginia, and reached Mount Vernon the
+next day, in season to enjoy the Christmas-tide at home. It was with
+a deep sigh of relief that he sat himself down again by his own
+fireside, for all through the war the one longing that never left his
+mind was for the banks of the Potomac. He loved home after the fashion
+of his race, but with more than common intensity, and the country life
+was dear to him in all its phases. He liked its quiet occupations and
+wholesome sports, and, like most strong and simple natures, he loved
+above all an open-air existence. He felt that he had earned his rest,
+with all the temperate pleasures and employments which came with it,
+and he fondly believed that he was about to renew the habits which he
+had abandoned for eight weary years. Four days after his return he
+wrote to Governor Clinton: "The scene is at last closed. I feel myself
+eased of a load of public care. I hope to spend the remainder of my
+days in cultivating the affections of good men and in the practice of
+the domestic virtues." That the hope was sincere we may well suppose,
+but that it was more than a hope may be doubted. It was a wish, not a
+belief, for Washington must have felt that there was still work which
+he would surely be called to do. Still for the present the old life
+was there, and he threw himself into it with eager zest, though age
+and care put some of the former habits aside. He resumed his hunting,
+and Lafayette sent him a pack of splendid French wolf-hounds. But they
+proved somewhat fierce and unmanageable, and were given up, and after
+that the following of the hounds was never resumed. In other respects
+there was little change. The work of the plantation and the affairs of
+the estate, much disordered by his absence, once more took shape and
+moved on successfully under the owner's eye. There were, as of old,
+the long days in the saddle, the open house and generous hospitality,
+the quiet evenings, and the thousand and one simple labors and
+enjoyments of rural life. But with all this were the newer and deeper
+cares, born of the change which had been wrought in the destiny of the
+country. The past broke in and could not be pushed aside, the future
+knocked at the door and demanded an answer to its questionings.
+
+He had left home a distinguished Virginian; he returned one of the
+most famous men in the world, and such celebrity brought its usual
+penalties. Every foreigner of any position who came to the country
+made a pilgrimage to Mount Vernon, and many Americans did the same.
+Their coming was not allowed to alter the mode of life, but they were
+all hospitably received, and they consumed many hours of their host's
+precious time. Then there were the artists and sculptors, who came
+to paint his portrait or model his bust. "_In for a penny, in for
+a pound_ is an old adage," he wrote to Hopkinson in 1785. "I am so
+hackneyed to the touches of painters' pencils that I am now altogether
+at their beck, and sit 'like patience on a monument,' whilst they are
+delineating the lines of my face. It is a proof, among many others, of
+what habit and custom can accomplish." Then there were the people who
+desired to write his memoirs, and the historians who wished to have
+his reminiscences, in their accounts of the Revolution. Some of these
+inquiring and admiring souls came in person, while others assailed him
+by letter and added to the vast flood of correspondence which poured
+in upon him by every post. His correspondence, in fact, in the
+needless part of it, was the most formidable waste of his time. He
+seems to have formed no correct idea of his own fame and what it
+meant, for he did not have a secretary until he found not only that he
+could not arrange his immense mass of papers, but that he could not
+even keep up with his daily letters. His correspondence came from all
+parts of his own country, and of Europe as well. The French officers
+who had been his companions in arms wrote him with affectionate
+interest, and he was urged by them, one and all, and even by the king
+and queen, to visit France. These were letters which he was only too
+happy to answer, and he would fain have crossed the water in response
+to their kindly invitation; but he professed himself too old, which
+was a mere excuse, and objected his ignorance of the language, which
+to a man of his temperament was a real obstacle. Besides these letters
+of friendship, there were the schemers everywhere who sought his
+counsel and assistance. The notorious Lady Huntington, for example,
+pursued him with her project of Christianizing the Indians by means of
+a missionary colony in our western region, and her persistent ladyship
+cost him a good deal of time and thought, and some long and careful
+letters. Then there was the inventor Kumsey, with his steamboat, to
+which he gave careful attention, as he did to everything that seemed
+to have merit. Another class of correspondents were his officers, who
+wanted his aid with Congress and in a thousand other ways, and to
+these old comrades he never turned a deaf ear. In this connection also
+came the affairs of the Society of the Cincinnati. He took an active
+part in the formation of the society, became its head, steered it
+through its early difficulties, and finally saved it from the wreck
+with which it was threatened by unreasoning popular prejudice. All
+these things were successfully managed, but at much expense of time
+and thought.
+
+[Illustration: WASHINGTON RESIGNING HIS COMMISSION AT ANNAPOLIS]
+
+Then again, apart from this mass of labor thrust upon him by
+outsiders, there were his own concerns. His personal affairs required
+looking after, and he regulated accounts, an elaborate business always
+with him, put his farms in order, corresponded with his merchants
+in England, and introduced agricultural improvements, which always
+interested him deeply. He had large investments in land, of which from
+boyhood he had been a bold and sagacious purchaser. These investments
+had been neglected and needed his personal inspection; so in
+September, 1784, he mounted his horse, and with a companion and a
+servant rode away to the western country to look after his property.
+He camped out, as in the early days, and heartily enjoyed it, although
+reports that the Indians were moving in a restless and menacing manner
+shortened his trip, and prevented his penetrating beyond his settled
+lands to the wild tracts which he owned to the westward. Still he
+managed to ride some six hundred and eighty miles and get a good taste
+of that wild life which he never ceased to love, besides gathering a
+stock of information on many points of deeper and wider interest than
+his own property.
+
+In the midst of all these employments, too, he attended closely to his
+domestic duties. At frequent intervals he journeyed to Fredericksburg
+to visit his mother, who still lived, and to whom he was always a
+dutiful and affectionate son. He watched over Mrs. Washington's
+grandchildren, and two or three nephews of his own, whose education
+he had undertaken, with all the solicitude of a father, and at the
+expense again of much thought and many wise letters of instruction and
+advice.
+
+Even from this brief list it is possible to gain some idea of the
+occupations which filled Washington's time, and the only wonder is
+that he dealt with them so easily and effectively. Yet the greatest
+and most important work, that which most deeply absorbed his mind, and
+which affected the whole country, still remains to be described. With
+all his longing for repose and privacy, Washington could not separate
+himself from the great problems which he had solved, or from the
+solution of the still greater problems which he had done more than any
+man to bring into existence. In reality, despite his reiterated wish
+for the quiet of home, he never ceased to labor at the new questions
+which confronted the country, and the old issues which were the legacy
+of the Revolution.
+
+In the latter class was the peace establishment, on which he advised
+Congress, much in vain; for their idea of a peace establishment was
+to get rid of the army as rapidly as possible, and retain only a
+corporal's guard in the service of the confederation. Another question
+was that concerning the western posts. As has been already pointed
+out, Washington's keen eye had at once detected that this was the
+perilous point in the treaty, and he made a prompt but unavailing
+effort to secure these posts in the first flush of good feeling when
+peace had just been made. After he had retired he observed with regret
+the feebleness of Congress in this matter, and he continued to write
+about it. He wrote especially to Knox, who was in charge of the war
+department, and advised him to establish posts on our side, since we
+could not obtain the withdrawal of the British. This deep anxiety as
+to the western posts was due not merely to his profound distrust of
+the intention of England, but to his extreme solicitude as to the
+unsettled regions of the West. He repeatedly referred to the United
+States, even before the close of the war, as an infant empire, and he
+saw before any one else the destined growth of the country.
+
+No man of that time, with the exception of Hamilton, ever grasped and
+realized as he did the imperial future which stretched before the
+United States. It was a difficult thing for men who had been born
+colonists to rise to a sense of national opportunities, but Washington
+passed at a single step from being a Virginian to being an American,
+and in so doing he stood alone. He was really and thoroughly national
+from the beginning of the war, at a time when, except for a few
+oratorical phrases, no one had ever thought of such a thing as a
+practical and living question. In the same way he had passed rapidly
+to an accurate conception of the probable growth and greatness of
+the country, and again he stood alone. Hamilton, born outside the
+colonies, unhampered by local prejudices and attachments, and living
+in Washington's family, as soon as he turned his mind to the subject,
+became, like his chief, entirely national and imperial in his views;
+but the other American statesmen of that day, with the exception
+of Franklin, only followed gradually and sometimes reluctantly in
+adopting their opinions. Some of them never adopted them at all, but
+remained imbedded in local ideas, and very few got beyond the region
+of words and actually grasped the facts with the absolutely clear
+perception which Washington had from the outset. Thus it was that when
+the war closed, one of the two ruling ideas in Washington's mind was
+to assure the future which he saw opening before the country. He
+perceived at a glance that the key and the guarantee of that future
+were in the wild regions of the West. Hence his constant anxiety as to
+the western posts, as to our Indian policy, and as to the maintenance
+of a sufficient armed force upon our borders to check the aggressions
+of Englishmen or of savages, and to secure free scope for settlement.
+In advancing these ideas on a national scale, however, he was rendered
+helpless by the utter weakness of Congress, which even his influence
+was powerless to overcome. He therefore began, immediately after his
+retreat to private life, to formulate and bring into existence such
+practical measures as were possible for the development of the West,
+believing that if Congress could not act, the people would, if any
+opportunity were given to their natural enterprise.
+
+The scheme which he proposed was to open the western country by means
+of inland navigation. The thought had long been in his mind. It had
+come to him before the Revolution, and can be traced back to the early
+days when he was making surveys, buying wild lands, and meditating
+very deeply, but very practically, on the possible commercial
+development of the colonies. Now the idea assumed much larger
+proportions and a much graver aspect. He perceived in it the first
+step toward the empire which he foresaw, and when he had laid down
+his sword and awoke in the peaceful morning at Mount Vernon, "with
+a strange sense of freedom from official cares," he directed his
+attention at once to this plan, in which he really could do something,
+despite an inert Congress and a dissolving confederation. His first
+letter on the subject was written in March, 1784, and addressed
+to Jefferson, who was then in Congress, and who sympathized with
+Washington's views without seeing how far they reached. He told
+Jefferson how he despaired of government aid, and how he therefore
+intended to revive the scheme of a company, which he had started in
+1775, and which had been abandoned on account of the war. He showed
+the varying interests which it was necessary to conciliate, asked
+Jefferson to see the governor of Maryland, so that that State might
+be brought into the undertaking, and referred to the danger of being
+anticipated and beaten by New York, a chord of local pride which he
+continued to touch most adroitly as the business proceeded. Very
+characteristically, too, he took pains to call attention to the fact
+that by his ownership of land he had a personal interest in the
+enterprise. He looked far beyond his own lands, but he was glad to
+have his property developed, and with his usual freedom from anything
+like pretense, he drew attention to the fact of his personal
+interests.
+
+On his return from his tour in the autumn, he proceeded to bring
+the matter to public attention and to the consideration of the
+legislature. With this end in view he addressed a long letter to
+Governor Harrison, in which he laid out his whole scheme. Detroit was
+to be the objective point, and he indicated the different routes by
+which inland navigation could thence be obtained, thus opening the
+Indian trade, and affording an outlet at the same time for the
+settlers who were sure to pour in when once the fear of British
+aggression was removed. He dwelt strongly upon the danger of Virginia
+losing these advantages by the action of other States, and yet at the
+same time he suggested the methods by which Maryland and Pennsylvania
+could be brought into the plan. Then he advanced a series of arguments
+which were purely national in their scope. He insisted on the
+necessity of binding to the old colonies by strong ties the Western
+States, which might easily be decoyed away if Spain or England had the
+sense to do it. This point he argued with great force, for it was now
+no longer a Virginian argument, but an argument for all the States.
+
+The practical result was that the legislature took the question up,
+more in deference to the writer's wishes and in gratitude for his
+services, than from any comprehension of what the scheme meant. The
+companies were duly organized, and the promoter was given a hundred
+and fifty shares, on the ground that the legislature wished to take
+every opportunity of testifying their sense of "the unexampled merits
+of George Washington towards his country." Washington was much touched
+and not a little troubled by this action. He had been willing, as he
+said, to give up his cherished privacy and repose in order to forward
+the enterprise. He had gone to Maryland even, and worked to engage
+that State in the scheme, but he could not bear the idea of taking
+money for what he regarded as part of a great public policy. "I would
+wish," he said, "that every individual who may hear that it was a
+favorite plan of mine may know also that I had no other motive for
+promoting it than the advantage of which I conceived it would be
+productive to the Union, and to this State in particular, by cementing
+the eastern and western territory together, at the same time that it
+will give vigor and increase to our commerce, and be a convenience to
+our citizens."
+
+"How would this matter be viewed, then, by the eye of the world, and
+what would be the opinion of it, when it comes to be related that
+George Washington has received twenty thousand dollars and five
+thousand pounds sterling of the public money as an interest therein?"
+He thought it would make him look like a "pensioner or dependent"
+to accept this gratuity, and he recoiled from the idea. There is
+something entirely frank and human in the way in which he says "George
+Washington," instead of using the first pronoun singular. He always
+saw facts as they were; he understood the fact called "George
+Washington" as perfectly as any other, and although he wanted
+retirement and privacy, he had no mock modesty in estimating his own
+place in the world. At the same time, while he wished to be rid of the
+kindly gift, he shrank from putting on what he called the appearance
+of "ostentatious disinterestedness" by refusing it. Finally he took
+the stock and endowed two charity schools with the dividends. The
+scheme turned out successfully, and the work still endures, like the
+early surveys and various other things of a very different kind to
+which Washington put his hand. In the greater forces which were
+presently set in motion for the preservation of the future empire,
+the inland navigation, started in Virginia, dropped out of sight, and
+became merely one of the rills which fed the mighty river. But it was
+the only really practical movement possible at the precise moment when
+it was begun, and it was characteristic of its author, who always
+found, even in the most discouraging conditions, something that could
+be done. It might be only a very little something, but still that was
+better than nothing to the strong man ever dealing with facts as they
+actually were on this confused earth, and not turning aside because
+things were not as they ought to be. Thus many a battle and campaign
+had been saved, and so inland navigation played its part now. It
+helped, among other things, to bring Maryland and Virginia together,
+and their combination was the first step toward the Constitution of
+the United States. There is nothing fanciful in all this. No one would
+pretend that the Constitution of the United States was descended from
+Washington's James River and Potomac River companies. But he worked at
+them with that end in view, and so did what was nearest to his hand
+and most practical toward union, empire, and the development of
+national sentiment.
+
+Ah, says some critic in critic's fashion, you are carried away by your
+subject; you see in a simple business enterprise, intended merely to
+open western lands, the far-reaching ideas of a statesman. Perhaps
+our critic is right, for as one goes on living with this Virginian
+soldier, studying his letters and his thoughts, one comes to believe
+many things of him, and to detect much meaning in his sayings and
+doings. Let us, however, show our evidence at least. Here is what he
+wrote to his friend Humphreys a year after his scheme was afoot: "My
+attention is more immediately engaged in a project which I think big
+with great political as well as commercial consequences to the
+States, especially the middle ones;" and then he went on to argue the
+necessity of fastening the Western States to the Atlantic seaboard
+and thus thwarting Spain and England. This looks like more than a
+money-making scheme; in fact, it justifies all that has been said,
+especially if read in connection with certain other letters of this
+period. Great political results, as well as lumber and peltry, were
+what Washington intended to float along his rivers and canals.
+
+In this same letter to Humphreys he touched also on another point
+in connection with the development of the West, which was of vast
+importance to the future of the country, and was even then agitating
+men's minds. He said: "I may be singular in my ideas, but they are
+these: that, to open a door to, and make easy the way for those
+settlers to the westward (who ought to advance regularly and
+compactly), before we make any stir about the navigation of the
+Mississippi, and before our settlements are far advanced towards that
+river, would be our true line of policy." Again he wrote: "However
+singular the opinion may be, I cannot divest myself of it, that the
+navigation of the Mississippi, _at this time_ [1785], ought to be no
+object with us. On the contrary, until we have a little time allowed
+to open and make easy the ways between the Atlantic States and the
+western territory, the obstructions had better remain." He was right
+in describing himself as "singular" in his views on this matter, which
+just then was exciting much attention.
+
+At that time indeed much feeling existed, and there were many sharp
+divisions about the Mississippi question. One party, for the sake of a
+commercial treaty with Spain, and to get a troublesome business out of
+the way, was ready to give up our claims to a free navigation of
+the great river; and this was probably the prevalent sentiment in
+Congress, for to most of the members the Mississippi seemed a very
+remote affair indeed. On the other side was a smaller and more violent
+party, which was for obtaining the free navigation immediately and
+at all hazards, and was furious at the proposition to make such a
+sacrifice as its opponents proposed. Finally, there was Spain herself
+intriguing to get possession of the West, holding out free navigation
+as a bait to the settlers of Kentucky, and keeping paid agents in that
+region to foster her schemes. Washington saw too far and too
+clearly to think for one moment of giving up the navigation of the
+Mississippi, but he also perceived what no one else seems to have
+thought of, that free navigation at that moment would give the western
+settlements "the habit of trade" with New Orleans before they had
+formed it with the Atlantic seaboard, and would thus detach them from
+the United States. He wished, therefore, to have the Mississippi
+question left open, and all our claims reserved, so that trade by
+the river should be obstructed until we had time to open our inland
+navigation and bind 'the western people to us by ties too strong to
+be broken. The fear that the river would be lost by waiting did not
+disturb him in the least, provided our claims were kept alive. He
+wrote to Lee in June, 1786: "Whenever the new States become so
+populous, and so extended to the westward, as really to need it,
+there will be no power which can deprive them of the use of the
+Mississippi." Again, a year later, while the convention was sitting in
+Philadelphia, he said: "My sentiments with respect to the navigation
+of the Mississippi have been long fixed, and are not dissimilar to
+those which are expressed in your letter. I have ever been of opinion
+that the true policy of the Atlantic States, instead of contending
+prematurely for the free navigation of that river (which eventually,
+and perhaps as soon as it will be our true interest to obtain it, must
+happen), would be to open and improve the natural communications
+with the western country." The event justified his sagacity in all
+respects, for the bickerings went on until the United States were able
+to compel Spain to give what was wanted to the western communities,
+which by that time had been firmly bound to those of the Atlantic
+coast.
+
+Much as Washington thought about holding fast the western country,
+there was yet one idea that overruled it as well as all others. There
+was one plan which he knew would be a quick solution of the dangers
+and difficulties for which inland navigation and trade connections
+were at best but palliatives. He had learned by bitter experience, as
+no other man had learned, the vital need and value of union. He felt
+it as soon as he took command of the army, and it rode like black care
+behind him from Cambridge to Yorktown. He had hoped something from the
+confederation, but he soon saw that it was as worthless as the utter
+lack of system which it replaced, and amounted merely to substituting
+one kind of impotence and confusion for another. Others might be
+deceived by phrases as to nationality and a general government, but
+he had dwelt among hard facts, and he knew that these things did not
+exist. He knew that what passed for them, stood in their place and
+wore their semblance, were merely temporary creations born of the
+common danger, and doomed, when the pressure of war was gone, to fall
+to pieces in imbecility and inertness. To the lack of a proper
+union, which meant to his mind national and energetic government, he
+attributed the failures of the campaigns, the long-drawn miseries, and
+in a word the needless prolongation of the Revolution. He saw, too,
+that what had been so nearly ruinous in war would be absolutely so in
+peace, and before the treaty was actually signed he had begun to call
+attention to the great question on the right settlement of which the
+future of the country depended.
+
+To Hamilton he wrote on March 4, 1783: "It is clearly my opinion,
+unless Congress have powers competent to all general purposes, that
+the distresses we have encountered, the expense we have incurred, and
+the blood we have spilt, will avail us nothing." Again he wrote to
+Hamilton, a few weeks later: "My wish to see the union of these States
+established upon liberal and permanent principles, and inclination
+to contribute my mite in pointing out the defects of the present
+constitution, are equally great. All my private letters have teemed
+with these sentiments, and whenever this topic has been the subject
+of conversation, I have endeavored to diffuse and enforce them." His
+circular letter to the governors of the States at the close of the
+war, which was as eloquent as it was forcible, was devoted to urging
+the necessity of a better central government. "With this conviction,"
+he said, "of the importance of the present crisis, silence in me would
+be a crime. I will therefore speak to your Excellency the language of
+freedom and of sincerity without disguise.... There are four things
+which I humbly conceive are essential to the well-being, I may
+even venture to say, to the existence, of the United States, as an
+independent power:--
+
+"First. An indissoluble union of the States under one federal head.
+
+"Second. A regard to public justice.
+
+"Third. The adoption of a proper peace establishment; and,
+
+"Fourth. The prevalence of that pacific and friendly disposition among
+the people of the United States, which will induce them to forget
+their local prejudices and policies; to make those mutual concessions
+which are requisite to the general prosperity; and in some instances
+to sacrifice their individual advantages to the interest of the
+community." The same appeal went forth again in his last address to
+the army, when he said: "Although the general has so frequently given
+it as his opinion, in the most public and explicit manner, that unless
+the principles of the federal government were properly supported, and
+the powers of the Union increased, the honor, dignity, and justice of
+the nation would be lost forever; yet he cannot help repeating on
+this occasion so interesting a sentiment, and leaving it as his last
+injunction to every soldier, who may view the subject in the same
+serious point of light, to add his best endeavors to those of his
+worthy fellow-citizens towards effecting those great and valuable
+purposes on which our very existence as a nation so materially
+depends."
+
+These two papers were the first strong public appeals for union. The
+letter to the governors argued the question elaborately, and was
+intended for the general public. The address to the army was simply a
+watchword and last general order; for the army needed no arguments to
+prove the crying need of better government. Before this, Hamilton had
+written his famous letters to Duane and Morris, and Madison was
+just beginning to turn his thoughts toward the problem of federal
+government; but with these exceptions Washington stood alone. In
+sending out these two papers he began the real work that led to the
+Constitution. What he said was read and heeded throughout the country,
+for at the close of the war his personal influence was enormous, and
+with the army his utterances were those of an oracle. By his appeal he
+made each officer and soldier a missionary in the cause of the Union,
+and by his arguments to the governors he gave ground and motive for
+a party devoted to procuring better government. Thus he started the
+great movement which, struggling through many obstacles, culminated in
+the Constitution and the union of the States. No other man could
+have done it, for no one but Washington had a tithe of the influence
+necessary to arrest public attention; and, save Hamilton, no other
+man then had even begun to understand the situation which Washington
+grasped so easily and firmly in all its completeness.
+
+He sent out these appeals as his last words to his countrymen at the
+close of their conflict; but he had no intention of stopping there.
+He had written and spoken, as he said, to every one on every occasion
+upon this topic, and he continued to do so until the work was done. He
+had no sooner laid aside the military harness than he began at once to
+push on the cause of union. In the bottom of his heart he must have
+known that his work was but half done, and with the same pen with
+which he reiterated his intention to live in repose and privacy, and
+spend his declining years beneath his own vine and fig-tree, he wrote
+urgent appeals and wove strong arguments addressed to leaders in
+every State. He had not been at home five days before he wrote to the
+younger Trumbull, congratulating him on his father's vigorous message
+in behalf of better federal government, which had not been very well
+received by the Connecticut legislature. He spoke of "the jealousies
+and contracted temper" of the States, but avowed his belief that
+public sentiment was improving. "Everything," he concluded, "my dear
+Trumbull, will come right at last, as we have often prophesied.
+My only fear is that we shall lose a little reputation first." A
+fortnight later he wrote to the governor of Virginia: "That the
+prospect before us is, as you justly observe, fair, none can deny; but
+what use we shall make of it is exceedingly problematical; not but
+that I believe all things will come right at last, but like a young
+heir come a little prematurely to a large inheritance, we shall wanton
+and run riot until we have brought our reputation to the brink of
+ruin, and then like him shall have to labor with the current of
+opinion, when compelled, perhaps, to do what prudence and common
+policy pointed out as plain as any problem in Euclid in the first
+instance." The soundness of the view is only equaled by the accuracy
+of the prediction. He might five years later have repeated this
+sentence, word for word, only altering the tenses, and he would have
+rehearsed exactly the course of events.
+
+While he wrote thus he keenly watched Congress, and marked its sure
+and not very gradual decline. He did what he could to bring about
+useful measures, and saw them one after the other come to naught. He
+urged the impost scheme, and felt that its failure was fatal to the
+financial welfare of the country, on which so much depended. He
+always was striving to do the best with existing conditions, but the
+hopelessness of every effort soon satisfied him that it was a waste of
+time and energy. So he turned again in the midst of his canal schemes
+to renew his exhortations to leading men in the various States on the
+need of union as the only true solution of existing troubles.
+
+To James McHenry, of Maryland, he wrote in August, 1785: "I confess to
+you candidly that I can foresee no evil greater than disunion; than
+those unreasonable jealousies which are continually poisoning our
+minds and filling them with imaginary evils for the prevention of real
+ones." To William Grayson of Virginia, then a member of Congress,
+he wrote at the same time: "I have ever been a friend to adequate
+congressional powers; consequently I wish to see the ninth article of
+the confederation amended and extended. Without these powers we cannot
+support a national character, and must appear contemptible in the eyes
+of Europe. But to you, my dear Sir, I will candidly confess that in
+my opinion it is of little avail to give them to Congress." He was
+already clearly of opinion that the existing system was hopeless, and
+the following spring he wrote still more sharply as to the state of
+public affairs to Henry Lee, in Congress. "My sentiments," he said,
+"with respect to the federal government are well known. Publicly and
+privately have they been communicated without reserve; but my opinion
+is that there is more wickedness than ignorance in the conduct of the
+States, or, in other words, in the conduct of those who have too
+much influence in the government of them; and until the curtain is
+withdrawn, and the private views and selfish principles upon which
+these men act are exposed to public notice, I have little hope of
+amendment without another convulsion."
+
+He did not confine himself, however, to letters, important as the work
+done in this way was, but used all his influence toward practical
+measures outside of Congress, of whose action he quite despaired. The
+plan for a commercial agreement between Maryland and Virginia was
+concerted at Mount Vernon, and led to a call to all the States to
+meet at Annapolis for the same object. This, of course, received
+Washington's hearty approval and encouragement, but he evidently
+regarded it, although important, as merely a preliminary step to
+something wider and better. He wrote to Lafayette describing the
+proposed gathering at Annapolis, and added: "A general convention
+is talked of by many for the purpose of revising and correcting the
+defects of the federal government; but whilst this is the wish of
+some, it is the dread of others, from an opinion that matters are
+not yet sufficiently ripe for such an event." This expressed his own
+feeling, for although he was entirely convinced that only a radical
+reform would do, he questioned whether the time had yet arrived, and
+whether things had become bad enough, to make such a reform either
+possible or lasting. He was chiefly disturbed because he felt that
+there was "more wickedness than ignorance mixed in our councils,"
+and he grew more and more anxious as public affairs declined without
+apparently producing a reaction. The growing contempt shown by foreign
+nations and the arrogant conduct of Great Britain especially alarmed
+him, while the rapid sinking of the national reputation stung him to
+the quick. "I do not conceive," he wrote to Jay, in August, 1786, "we
+can exist long as a nation without having lodged somewhere a power
+which will pervade the whole Union in as energetic a manner as the
+authority of the state governments extends over the several States."
+Thus with unerring judgment he put his finger on the vital point in
+the whole question, which was the need of a national government that
+should deal with the individual citizens of the whole country and
+not with the States. "To be fearful," he continued, "of investing
+Congress, constituted as that body is, with ample authorities for
+national purposes, appears to me the very climax of popular absurdity
+and madness.... Requisitions are actually little better than a jest
+and a byword throughout the land. If you tell the legislatures they
+have violated the treaty of peace, and invaded the prerogatives of the
+confederacy, they will laugh in your face.... It is much to be feared,
+as you observe, that the better kind of people, being disgusted with
+the circumstances, will have their minds prepared for any revolution
+whatever.... I am told that even respectable characters speak of
+a monarchical government without horror. From thinking proceeds
+speaking; thence to acting is often but a single step. But how
+irrevocable and tremendous! What a triumph for our enemies to verify
+their predictions!... It is not my business to embark again upon a sea
+of troubles. Nor could it be expected that my sentiments and opinions
+would have much weight on the minds of my countrymen. They have been
+neglected, though given as a last legacy in the most solemn manner. I
+had then perhaps some claims to public attention. I consider myself as
+having none at present."
+
+It is interesting to observe the ease and certainty with which, in
+dealing with the central question, he grasped all phases of the
+subject and judged of the effect of the existing weakness with regard
+to every relation of the country and to the politics of each State.
+He pointed out again and again the manner in which we were exposed
+to foreign hostility, and analyzed the designs of England, rightly
+detecting a settled policy on her part to injure and divide where she
+had failed to conquer. Others were blind to the meaning of the
+English attitude as to the western posts, commerce, and international
+relations. Washington brought it to the attention of our leading men,
+educating them on this as on other points, and showing, too, the
+stupidity of Great Britain in her attempt to belittle the trade of a
+country which, as he wrote Lafayette in prophetic vein, would one day
+"have weight in the scale of empires."
+
+He followed with the same care the course of events in the several
+States. In them all he resisted the craze for issuing irredeemable
+paper money, writing to his various correspondents, and urging
+energetic opposition to this specious and pernicious form of public
+dishonesty. It was to Massachusetts, however, that his attention was
+most strongly attracted by the social disorders which culminated in
+the Shays rebellion. There the miserable condition of public affairs
+was bearing bitter fruit, and Washington watched the progress of the
+troubles with profound anxiety. He wrote to Lee: "You talk, my
+good sir, of employing influence to appease the present tumults in
+Massachusetts. I know not where that influence is to be found, or,
+if attainable, that it would be a proper remedy for the disorders.
+_Influence_ is not _government_. Let us have a government by which our
+lives, liberties, and properties will be secured, or let us know the
+worst at once." Through "all this mist of intoxication and folly,"
+however, Washington saw that the Shays insurrection would probably be
+the means of frightening the indifferent, and of driving those who
+seemed impervious to every appeal to reason into an active support
+of some better form of government. He rightly thought that riot and
+bloodshed would prove convincing arguments.
+
+In order to understand the utter demoralization of society, politics,
+and public opinion at that time, the offspring of a wasting civil war
+and of colonial habits of thought, it is interesting to contrast the
+attitude of Washington with that of another distinguished American in
+regard to the Shays rebellion. While Washington was looking solemnly
+at this manifestation of weakness and disorder, and was urging strong
+measures with passionate vehemence, Jefferson was writing from Paris
+in the flippant vein of the fashionable French theorists, and uttering
+such ineffable nonsense as the famous sentence about "once in twenty
+years watering the tree of liberty with the blood of tyrants." There
+could be no better illustration of what Washington was than this
+contrast between the man of words and the man of action, between the
+astute leader of a party, the shrewd manager of men, and the silent
+leader of armies, the master builder of states and governments.
+
+I have followed Washington through the correspondence of this time
+with some minuteness, because it is the only way by which his work in
+overcoming the obstacles in the path to good government can be seen.
+He held no public office; he had no means of reaching the popular ear.
+He was neither a professional orator nor a writer of pamphlets, and
+the press of that day, if he had controlled it, had no power to mould
+or direct public thought. Yet, despite these obstacles, he set himself
+to develop public opinion in favor of a better government, and he
+worked at this difficult and impalpable task without ceasing, from
+the day that he resigned from the army until he was called to the
+presidency of the United States. He did it by means of private
+letters, a feeble instrument to-day, but much more effective then.
+Jefferson never made speeches nor published essays, but he built up a
+great party, and carried himself into power as its leader by means
+of letters. In the same fashion Washington started the scheme for
+internal waterways, in order to bind the East and the West together,
+set on foot the policy of commercial agreements between the States,
+and argued on the "imperial theme" with leading men everywhere. A
+study of these letters reveals a strong, logical, and deliberate
+working towards the desired end. There was no scattering fire. Whether
+he was writing of canals, or the Mississippi, or the Western posts,
+or paper money, or the impost, or the local disorders, he always was
+arguing and urging union and an energetic central government. These
+letters went to the leaders of thought and opinion, and were quoted
+and passed from hand to hand. They brought immediately to the cause
+all the soldiers and officers of the army, and they aroused and
+convinced the strongest and ablest men in every State. Washington's
+personal influence was very great, something we of this generation,
+with a vast territory and seventy millions of people, cannot readily
+understand. To many persons his word was law; to all that was best in
+the community, everything he said had immense weight. This influence
+he used with care and without waste. Every blow he struck went home.
+It is impossible to estimate just how much he effected, but it is safe
+to say that it is to Washington, aided first by Hamilton and then
+by Madison, that we owe the development of public opinion and the
+formation of the party which devised and carried the Constitution.
+Events of course worked with them, but they used events, and did not
+suffer the golden opportunities, which without them would have been
+lost, to slip by.
+
+When Washington wrote of the Shays rebellion to Lee, the movement
+toward a better union, which he had begun, was on the brink of
+success. That ill-starred insurrection became, as he foresaw, a
+powerful spur to the policy started at Mount Vernon, and adopted by
+Virginia and Maryland. From this had come the Annapolis convention,
+and thence the call for another convention at Philadelphia. As soon
+as the word went abroad that a general convention was to be held, the
+demand for Washington as a delegate was heard on all sides. At first
+he shrank from it. Despite the work which he had been doing, and which
+he must have known would bring him once more into public service, he
+still clung to the vision of home life which he had brought with him
+from the army. November 18, 1786, he wrote to Madison, that from a
+sense of obligation he should go to the convention, were it not that
+he had declined on account of his retirement, age, and rheumatism to
+be at a meeting of the Cincinnati at the same time and place. But
+no one heeded him, and Virginia elected him unanimously to head
+her delegation at Philadelphia. He wrote to Governor Randolph,
+acknowledging the honor, but reiterating what he had said to Madison,
+and urging the choice of some one else in his place. Still Virginia
+held the question open, and on February 3 he wrote to Knox that his
+private intention was not to attend. The pressure continued, and, as
+usual when the struggle drew near, the love of battle and the sense of
+duty began to reassert themselves. March 8 he again wrote to Knox that
+he had not meant to come, but that the question had occurred to him,
+"Whether my non-attendance in the convention will not be considered
+as dereliction of republicanism; nay, more, whether other motives may
+not, however injuriously, be ascribed for my not exerting myself
+on this occasion in support of it;" and therefore he wished to be
+informed as to the public expectation on the matter. On March 28 he
+wrote again to Randolph that ill-health might prevent his going, and
+therefore it would be well to appoint some one in his place. April 2
+he said that if representation of the States was to be partial, or
+powers cramped, he did not want to be a sharer in the business. "If
+the delegates assemble," he wrote, "with such powers as will enable
+the convention to probe the defects of the constitution to the bottom
+and point out radical cures, it would be an honorable employment;
+otherwise not." This idea of inefficiency and failure in the
+convention had long been present to his mind, and he had already said
+that, if their powers were insufficient, the convention should go
+boldly over and beyond them and make a government with the means of
+coercion, and able to enforce obedience, without which it would be, in
+his opinion, quite worthless. Thus he pondered on the difficulties,
+and held back his acceptance of the post; but when the hour of action
+drew near, the rheumatism and the misgivings alike disappeared before
+the inevitable, and Washington arrived in Philadelphia, punctual as
+usual, on May 13, the day before the opening of the convention.
+
+The other members were by no means equally prompt, and a week elapsed
+before a bare quorum was obtained and the convention enabled to
+organize. In this interval of waiting there appears to have been some
+informal discussion among the members present, between those who
+favored an entirely new Constitution and those who timidly desired
+only half-way measures. On one of these occasions Washington is
+reported by Gouverneur Morris, in a eulogy delivered twelve years
+later, to have said: "It is too probable that no plan we propose will
+be adopted. Perhaps another dreadful conflict is to be sustained. If,
+to please the people, we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can
+we afterwards defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the
+wise and honest can repair. The event is in the hand of God." The
+language is no doubt that of Morris, speaking from memory and in a
+highly rhetorical vein, but we may readily believe that the quotation
+accurately embodied Washington's opinion, and that he took this high
+ground at the outset, and strove from the beginning to inculcate upon
+his fellow-members the absolute need of bold and decisive action.
+The words savor of the orator who quoted them, but the noble and
+courageous sentiment which they express is thoroughly characteristic
+of the man to whom they were attributed.[1]
+
+[Footnote 1: It is necessary to say a few words in regard to this
+quotation of Washington's words made by Morris, because both Mr.
+Bancroft (_History of the Constitution_, ii. 8) and Mr. John Fiske
+(_The Critical Period of American History_, p. 232) quote them as if
+they were absolutely and verbally authentic. It is perfectly certain
+that from May 25 to September 17 Washington spoke but once; that
+is, he spoke but once in the convention after it became such by
+organization. This point is determined by Madison's statement (Notes,
+in. 1600), that when Washington took the floor in behalf of Gorham's
+amendment, "it was the only occasion on which the president entered _at
+all_ into the discussions of the convention." (The italics are mine.)
+I have examined the manuscript at the State Department, and these
+words are written in Madison's own hand in the body of the text and
+inclosed in brackets. Madison was the most accurate of men. His notes
+are only abstracts of what was said, but he was never absent from
+the convention, and there can be no question that if Washington had
+uttered the words attributed to him by Morris, a speech so important
+would have been given as fully as possible, and Madison would not have
+said distinctly that the Gorham amendment was the only occasion when
+the president entered into the discussions of the convention.
+
+It is, therefore, certain that Washington said nothing in the
+convention except on the occasion of the Gorham amendment, and Mr.
+Bancroft rightly assigns the Morris quotation to some time during the
+week which elapsed between the date fixed for the assembling of the
+convention and that on which a quorum of States was obtained. The
+words given by Morris, if uttered at all, must have been spoken
+informally in the way of conversation before there was any convention,
+strictly speaking, and of course before Washington was chosen
+president. Mr. Fiske, who devotes a page to these sentences from the
+eulogy, describes Washington as rising from his president's chair and
+addressing the convention with great solemnity. There is no authority
+whatever to show that he rose from the chair to address the other
+delegates, and, if he used the words quoted by Morris, he was
+certainly not president of the convention when he did so. The latter
+blunder, however, is Morris's own, and in making it he contradicts
+himself. These are his words: "He is their president. It is a question
+previous to their first meeting what course shall be pursued." In
+other words, he was their president before they had met and chosen a
+president. This is a fair illustration of the loose and rhetorical
+character of the passage in which Washington's admonition is quoted.
+The entire paragraph, with its mixture of tenses arising from the use
+of the historical present which Morris's classical fancies led him to
+employ, is, in fact, purely rhetorical, and has only the authority
+due to performances of that character. It seems to me impossible,
+therefore, to fairly suppose that the words quoted by Morris were
+anything more than his own presentation of a sentiment which he, no
+doubt, heard Washington urge frequently and forcibly. Even in this
+limited acceptation his account is both interesting and valuable,
+as indicating Washington's opinion and the tone he took with his
+fellow-members; but this, I think, is the utmost weight that can be
+attached to it. I have discussed the point thus minutely because two
+authorities so distinguished as Mr. Bancroft and Mr. Fiske have laid
+so much stress on the words given by Morris, and have seemed to me to
+accord to them a greater weight and a higher authenticity than the
+facts warrant. Morris's eulogy on Washington was delivered in New
+York, and may be found most readily in a little volume entitled
+_Washingtoniana_ (p. 110), published at Lancaster in 1802.]
+
+When a quorum was finally obtained, Washington was unanimously chosen
+to preside over the convention; and there he sat during the sessions
+of four months, silent, patient, except on a single occasion,[1]
+taking no part in debate, but guiding the business, and using all his
+powers with steady persistence to compass the great end. The debates
+of that remarkable body have been preserved in outline in the full and
+careful notes of Madison. Its history has been elaborately written,
+and the arguments and opinions of its members have been minutely
+examined and unsparingly criticised. We are still ignorant, and shall
+always remain ignorant, of just how much was due to Washington for the
+final completion of the work. His general views and his line of action
+are clearly to be seen in his letters and in the words attributed to
+him by Morris. That he labored day and night for success we know, and
+that his influence with his fellow-members was vast we also know, but
+the rest we can only conjecture. There came a time when everything
+was at a standstill, and when it looked as if no agreement could
+be reached by the men representing so many conflicting interests.
+Hamilton had made his great speech, and, finding the vote of his State
+cast against him by his two colleagues on every question, had gone
+home in a frame of mind which we may easily believe was neither very
+contented nor very sanguine. Even Franklin, most hopeful and buoyant
+of men, was nearly ready to despair. Washington himself wrote to
+Hamilton, on July 10: "When I refer you to the state of the counsels
+which prevailed at the period you left this city, and add that they
+are now, if possible, in a worse train than ever, you will find but
+little ground on which the hope of a good establishment can be formed.
+In a word, I almost despair of seeing a favorable issue to the
+proceedings of our convention, and do therefore repent having had any
+agency in the business." Matters were certainly in a bad state when
+Washington could write in this strain, and when his passion for
+success was so cooled that he repented of agency in the business.
+There was much virtue, however, in that little word "almost." He did
+not quite despair yet, and, after his fashion, he held on with grim
+tenacity. We know what the compromises finally were, and how they were
+brought about, but we can never do exact justice to the iron will
+which held men together when all compromises seemed impossible, and
+which even in the darkest hour would not wholly despair. All that can
+be said is, that without the influence and the labors of Washington
+the convention of 1787, in all probability, would have failed of
+success.
+
+[Footnote 1: Just at the close of the convention, when the
+Constitution in its last draft was in the final stage and on the eve
+of adoption, Mr. Gorham of Massachusetts moved to amend by reducing
+the limit of population in a congressional district from forty to
+thirty thousand. Washington took the floor and argued briefly and
+modestly in favor of the change. His mere request was sufficient, and
+the amendment was unanimously adopted.]
+
+At all events it did not fail, and after much tribulation the work was
+done. On September 17, 1787, a day ever to be memorable, Washington
+affixed his bold and handsome signature to the Constitution of the
+United States. Tradition has it that as he stood by the table, pen in
+hand, he said: "Should the States reject this excellent Constitution,
+the probability is that opportunity will never be offered to cancel
+another in peace; the next will be drawn in blood." Whether the
+tradition is well or ill founded, the sentence has the ring of truth.
+A great work had been accomplished. If it were cast aside, Washington
+knew that the sword and not the pen would make the next Constitution,
+and he regarded that awful alternative with dread. He signed first,
+and was followed by all the members present, with three notable
+exceptions. Then the delegates dined together at the city tavern, and
+took a cordial leave of each other. "After which," the president of
+the convention wrote in his diary, "I returned to my lodgings, did
+some business with, and received the papers from, the secretary of the
+convention, and retired to meditate upon the momentous work which had
+been executed." It is a simple sentence, but how much it means! The
+world would be glad to-day to know what the thoughts were which
+filled Washington's mind as he sat alone in the quiet of that summer
+afternoon, with the new Constitution lying before him. But he was then
+as ever silent. He did not go alone to his room to exhibit himself on
+paper for the admiration of posterity. He went there to meditate for
+his own guidance on what had been done for the benefit of his country.
+The city bells had rung a joyful chime when he arrived four months
+before. Ought they to ring again with a new gladness, or should they
+toll for the death of bright hopes, now the task was done? Washington
+was intensely human. In that hour of silent thought his heart must
+have swelled with a consciousness that he had led his people through
+a successful Revolution, and now again from the darkness of political
+confusion and dissolution to the threshold of a new existence. But at
+the same time he never deceived himself. The new Constitution was but
+an experiment and an opportunity. Would the States accept it? And
+if they accepted it, would they abide by it? Was this instrument of
+government, wrought out so painfully, destined to go to pieces after
+a few years of trial, or was it to prove strong enough to become the
+charter of a nation and hold the States together indissolubly against
+all the shocks of politics and revolution? Washington, with his
+foresight and strong national instinct, plainly saw these momentous
+questions, somewhat dim then, although clear to all the world to-day.
+We can guess how solemnly he thought about them as he meditated alone
+in his room on that September afternoon. Whatever his reflections, his
+conclusions were simple. He made up his mind that the only chance for
+the country lay in the adoption of the new scheme, but he was sober
+enough in his opinions as to the Constitution itself. He said of it to
+Lafayette the day after the signing: "It is the result of four months'
+deliberation. It is now a child of fortune, to be fostered by some and
+buffeted by others. What will be the general opinion or the reception
+of it is not for me to decide; nor shall I say anything for or against
+it. If it be good, I suppose it will work its way; if bad, it will
+recoil on the framers." We catch sight here of the old theory that his
+public life was at an end, and now, when this exceptional duty had
+been performed, that he would retire once more to remote privacy. This
+fancy, as well as the extremely philosophical mood about the fate of
+the Constitution, apparent in this letter, soon disappeared. Within a
+week he wrote to Henry, in whom he probably already suspected the
+most formidable opponent of the new plan in Virginia: "I wish the
+Constitution, which is offered, had been more perfect; but I sincerely
+believe it is the best that could be obtained at this time, and as a
+constitutional door is opened for amendments hereafter, the adoption
+of it under the present circumstances of the Union is, in my opinion,
+desirable." Copies of this letter were sent to Harrison and Nelson,
+and the correspondence thus started soon increased rapidly. He wrote
+to Hamilton and Madison to counsel with them as to the prospects of
+the Constitution, and to Knox to supply him with arguments and
+urge him to energetic work. By January of the new year the tone of
+indifference and doubt manifested in the letter to Lafayette had quite
+gone, and we find him writing to Governor Randolph, in reply to that
+gentleman's objections: "There are some things in the new form, I will
+readily acknowledge, which never did, and I am persuaded never will,
+obtain my cordial approbation, but I did then conceive and do now most
+firmly believe that in the aggregate it is the best Constitution that
+can be obtained at this epoch, and that this or a dissolution of the
+Union awaits our choice, and is the only alternative before us. Thus
+believing, I had not, nor have I now, any hesitation in deciding on
+which to lean."
+
+Thus the few letters to a few friends extended to many letters to many
+friends, and traveled into every State. They all urged the necessity
+of adopting the Constitution as the best that could be obtained. What
+Washington's precise objections to the Constitution were is not clear.
+In a general way it was not energetic enough to come up to his ideal,
+but he never particularized in his criticisms. He may have admitted
+the existence of defects in order simply to disarm opposition, and
+doubtless he, like most of the framers, was by no means completely
+satisfied with his work. But he brushed all faults aside, and drove
+steadily forward to the great end in view. He was as far removed as
+possible from that highly virtuous and very ineffective class of
+persons who will not support anything that is not perfect, and who
+generally contrive to do more harm than all the avowed enemies of
+sound government. Washington did not stop to worry over and argue
+about details, but sought steadily to bring to pass the main object
+at which he aimed. As he had labored for the convention, so he now
+labored for the Constitution, and his letters to his friends not
+only had great weight in forming a Federal party and directing its
+movements, but extracts from them were quoted and published, thus
+exerting a direct and powerful influence on public opinion.
+
+He made himself deeply felt in this way everywhere, but of course more
+in his own State than anywhere else. His confidence at first in regard
+to Virginia changed gradually to an intense and well-grounded anxiety,
+and he not only used every means, as the conflict extended, to
+strengthen his friends and gain votes, but he received and circulated
+personally copies of "The Federalist," in order to educate public
+opinion. The contest in the Virginia convention was for a long time
+doubtful, but finally the end was reached, and the decision was
+favorable. Without Washington's influence, it is safe to say that the
+Constitution would have been lost in Virginia, and without Virginia
+the great experiment would probably have failed. In the same spirit he
+worked on after the new scheme had secured enough States to insure
+a trial. The Constitution had been ratified; it must now be made to
+work, and Washington wrote earnestly to the leaders in the various
+States, urging them to see to it that "Federalists," stanch friends
+of the Constitution, were elected to Congress. There was no vagueness
+about his notions on this point. A party had carried the Constitution
+and secured its ratification, and to that party he wished the
+administration and establishment of the new system to be intrusted.
+He did not take the view that, because the fight was over, it was
+henceforth to be considered that there had been no fight, and that all
+men were politically alike. He was quite ready to do all in his power
+to conciliate the opponents of union and the Constitution, but he did
+not believe that the momentous task of converting the paper system
+into a living organism should be confided to any hands other than
+those of its tried and trusty friends.
+
+But while he was looking so carefully after the choice of the right
+men to fill the legislature of the new government, the people of the
+country turned to him with the universal demand that he should stand
+at the head of it, and fill the great office of first President of the
+Republic. In response to the first suggestion that came, he recognized
+the fact that he was likely to be again called upon for another
+great public service, and added simply that at his age it involved a
+sacrifice which admitted of no compensation. He maintained this tone
+whenever he alluded to the subject, in response to the numerous
+letters urging him to accept. But although he declined to announce any
+decision, he had made up his mind to the inevitable. He had put his
+hand to the plough, and he would not turn back. His only anxiety was
+that the people should know that he shrank from the office, and would
+only leave his farm to take it from a sense of overmastering duty.
+Besides his reluctance to engage in a fresh struggle, and his fear
+that his motives might be misunderstood, he had the same diffidence in
+his own abilities which weighed upon him when he took command of the
+armies. His passion for success, which determined him to accept the
+presidency, if it was deemed indispensable that he should do so, made
+him dread failure with an almost morbid keenness, although his courage
+was too high and his will too strong ever to draw back. Responsibility
+weighed upon his spirits, but it could not daunt him. He wrote to
+Trumbull in December, 1788, that he saw "nothing but clouds and
+darkness before him," but when the hour came he was ready. The
+elections were favorable to the Federalists. The electoral colleges
+gave Washington their unanimous vote, and on April 16, having been
+duly notified by Congress of his election, he left Mount Vernon for
+New York, to assume the conduct of the government, and stand at the
+head of the new Union in its first battle for life.
+
+From the early day when he went out to seek Shirley and win redress
+against the assumptions of British officers, Washington's journeys
+to the North had been memorable in their purposes. He had traveled
+northward to sit in the first continental congress, to take command of
+the army, and to preside over the constitutional convention. Now
+he went, in the fullness of his fame, to enter upon a task less
+dangerous, perhaps, than leading armies, but more beset with
+difficulties, and more perilous to his reputation and peace of mind,
+than any he had yet undertaken. He felt all this keenly, and noted in
+his diary: "About ten o'clock I bade adieu to Mount Vernon, to private
+life, and to domestic felicity; and with a mind oppressed with more
+anxious and painful sensations than I have words to express, set
+out for New York, with the best disposition to render service to my
+country, in obedience to its call, but with less hope of answering its
+expectations."
+
+The first stage of his journey took him only to Alexandria, a few
+miles from his home, where a public dinner was given to him by his
+friends and neighbors. He was deeply moved when he rose to reply to
+the words of affection addressed to him by the mayor as spokesman of
+the people. "All that now remains for me," he said, "is to commit
+myself and you to the care of that beneficent Being who, on a former
+occasion, happily brought us together after a long and distressing
+separation. Perhaps the same gracious Providence will again indulge
+me. But words fail me. Unutterable sensations must then be left to
+more expressive silence, while from an aching heart I bid all my
+affectionate friends and kind neighbors farewell."
+
+So he left his home, sad at the parting, looking steadily, but not
+joyfully, to the future, and silent as was his wont. The simple dinner
+with his friends and neighbors at Alexandria was but the beginning of
+the chorus of praise and Godspeed which rose higher and stronger as he
+advanced. The road, as he traveled, was lined with people, to see him
+and cheer him as he passed. In every village the people from the farm
+and workshop crowded the streets to watch for his carriage, and the
+ringing of bells and firing of guns marked his coming and his going.
+At Baltimore a cavalcade of citizens escorted him, and cannon roared a
+welcome. At the Pennsylvania line Governor Mifflin, with soldiers and
+citizens, gathered to greet him. At Chester he mounted a horse, and
+in the midst of a troop of cavalry rode into Philadelphia, beneath
+triumphal arches, for a day of public rejoicing and festivity. At
+Trenton, instead of snow and darkness, and a sudden onslaught upon
+surprised Hessians, there was mellow sunshine, an arch of triumph,
+and young girls walking before him, strewing flowers in his path, and
+singing songs of praise and gratitude. When he reached Elizabethtown
+Point, the committees of Congress met him, and he there went on board
+a barge manned by thirteen pilots in white uniform, and was rowed to
+the city of New York. A long procession of barges swept after him with
+music and song, while the ships in the harbor, covered with flags,
+fired salutes in his honor. When he reached the landing he declined
+to enter a carriage, but walked to his house, accompanied by Governor
+Clinton. He was dressed in the familiar buff and blue, and, as the
+people caught sight of the stately figure and the beloved colors, hats
+went off and the crowd bowed as he went by, bending like the ripened
+grain when the summer wind passes over it, and breaking forth into
+loud and repeated cheers.
+
+From Mount Vernon to New York it had been one long triumphal march.
+There was no imperial government to lend its power and military
+pageantry. There were no armies, with trophies to dazzle the eyes
+of the beholders; nor were there wealth and luxury to give pomp and
+splendor to the occasion. It was the simple outpouring of popular
+feeling, untaught and true, but full of reverence and gratitude to a
+great man. It was the noble instinct of hero-worship, always keen
+in humanity when the real hero comes to awaken it to life. Such an
+experience, rightly apprehended, would have impressed any man, and it
+affected Washington profoundly. He was deeply moved and touched, but
+he was neither excited nor elated. He took it all with soberness,
+almost with sadness, and when he was alone wrote in his diary:--
+
+"The display of boats which attended and joined us on this occasion,
+some with vocal and some with instrumental music on board; the
+decorations of the ships, the roar of cannon and the loud acclamations
+of the people, which rent the skies as I passed along the wharves,
+filled my mind with sensations as painful (considering the reverse of
+this scene, which may be the case after all my labors to do good) as
+they were pleasing."
+
+In the very moment of the highest personal glory, the only thought is
+of the work which he has to do. There is neither elation nor cynicism,
+neither indifference nor self-deception, but only deep feeling and a
+firm, clear look into the future of work and conflict which lay silent
+and unknown beyond the triumphal arches and the loud acclaim of the
+people.
+
+On April 30 he was inaugurated. He went in procession to the hall, was
+received in the senate chamber, and thence proceeded to the balcony
+to take the oath. He was dressed in dark brown cloth of American
+manufacture, with a steel-hilted sword, and with his hair powdered and
+drawn back in the fashion of the time. When he appeared, a shout went
+up from the great crowd gathered beneath the balcony. Much overcome,
+he bowed in silence to the people, and there was an instant hush over
+all. Then Chancellor Livingston administered the oath. Washington laid
+his hand upon the Bible, bowed, and said solemnly when the oath was
+concluded, "I swear, so help me God," and, bending reverently, kissed
+the book. Livingston stepped forward, and raising his hand cried,
+"Long live George Washington, President of the United States!" Then
+the cheers broke forth again, the cannon roared, and the bells rang
+out. Washington withdrew to the hall, where he read his inaugural
+address to Congress, and the history of the United States of America
+under the Constitution was begun.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+STARTING THE GOVERNMENT
+
+
+Washington was deeply gratified by his reception at the hands of the
+people from Alexandria to New York. He was profoundly moved by the
+ceremonies of his inauguration, and when he turned from the balcony to
+the senate chamber he showed in his manner and voice how much he felt
+the meaning of all that had occurred. His speech to the assembled
+Congress was solemn and impressive, and with simple reverence he
+acknowledged the guiding hand of Providence in the fortunes of the
+States. He made no recommendations to Congress, but expressed his
+confidence in their wisdom and patriotism, adjured them to remember
+that the success of republican government would probably be finally
+settled by the success of their experiment, reminded them that
+amendments to the Constitution were to be considered, and informed
+them that he could not receive any pecuniary compensation for his
+services, and expected only that his expenses should be paid as in the
+Revolution. This was all. The first inaugural of the first President
+expressed only one thought, but that thought was pressed home with
+force. Washington wished the Congress to understand as he understood
+the weight and meaning of the task which had been imposed upon them,
+for he felt that if he could do this all would be well. How far he
+succeeded it would be impossible to say, but there can be no doubt as
+to the wisdom of his position. To have attempted to direct the first
+movements of Congress before he had really grasped the reins of the
+government would have given rise, very probably, to jealousy and
+opposition at the outset. When he had developed a policy, then it
+would be time to advise the senators and representatives how to carry
+it out. Meanwhile it was better to arouse their patriotism, awaken
+their sense of responsibility, and leave them free to begin their work
+under the guidance of these impressions.
+
+As for himself, his feelings remained unchanged. He had accepted the
+great post with solemn anxiety, and when the prayers had all been
+said, and the last guns fired, when the music had ceased and the
+cheers had died away, and the illuminations had flickered and gone
+out, he wrote that in taking office he had given up all expectation
+of private happiness, but that he was encouraged by the popular
+affection, as well as by the belief that his motives were appreciated,
+and that, thus supported, he would do his best. In a few words,
+written some months later, he tersely stated what his office meant to
+him, and what grave difficulties surrounded his path.
+
+"The establishment of our new government," he said, "seemed to be the
+last great experiment for promoting human happiness by a reasonable
+compact in civil society. It was to be, in the first instance, in
+a considerable degree, a government of accommodation as well as
+a government of laws. Much was to be done by prudence, much by
+conciliation, much by firmness. Few who are not philosophical
+spectators can realize the difficult and delicate part which a man in
+my situation had to act. All see, and most admire, the glare which
+hovers round the external happiness of elevated office. To me there
+is nothing in it beyond the lustre which may be reflected from its
+connection with a power of promoting human felicity. In our progress
+towards political happiness my station is new, and, if I may use the
+expression, I walk on untrodden ground. There is scarcely an action
+the motive of which may not be subject to a double interpretation.
+There is scarcely any part of my conduct which may not hereafter be
+drawn into precedent. If, after all my humble but faithful endeavors
+to advance the felicity of my country and mankind, I may indulge a
+hope that my labors have not been altogether without success, it will
+be the only real compensation I can receive in the closing scenes of
+life."
+
+There is nothing very stimulating to the imagination in this soberness
+of mind and calmness of utterance. The military conquerors and the
+saviors of society, with epigrammatic sayings, dramatic effects and
+rhythmic proclamations, are much more exciting and dazzle the fancy
+much better. But it is this seriousness of mind, coupled with
+intensity of purpose and grim persistence, which has made the
+English-speaking race spread over the world and carry successful
+government in its train. The personal empire of Napoleon had crumbled
+before he died an exile in St. Helena, but the work of Washington
+still endures. Just what that work was, and how it was achieved, is
+all that still remains to be considered.
+
+The policies set on foot and carried through under the first federal
+administration were so brilliant and so successful that we are apt
+to forget that months elapsed before the first of them was even
+announced. When Washington, on May 1, 1789, began his duties, there
+was absolutely nothing of the government of the United States in
+existence but a President and a Congress. The imperfect and broken
+machinery of the confederation still moved feebly, and performed some
+of the absolutely necessary functions of government. But the new
+organization had nothing to work with except these outworn remnants of
+a discarded system. There were no departments, and no arrangements for
+the collection of revenue or the management of the postal service. A
+few scattered soldiers formed the army, and no navy existed. There
+were no funds and no financial resources. There were not even
+traditions and forms of government, and, slight as these things may
+seem, settled methods of doing public business are essential to its
+prompt and proper transaction. These forms had to be devised and
+adopted first, and although they seem matters of course now, after
+a century of use, they were the subject of much thought and of some
+sharp controversy in 1789. The manner in which the President was to be
+addressed caused some heated discussion even before the inauguration.
+America had but just emerged from the colonial condition, and the
+colonial habits were still unbroken. In private letters we find
+Washington referred to as "His Highness," and in some newspapers as
+"His Highness the President-General," while the Senate committee
+reported in favor of addressing him as "His Highness the President of
+the United States and Protector of their Liberties." In the House,
+however, the democratic spirit was strong, there was a fierce attack
+upon the proposed titles, and that body ended by addressing Washington
+simply as the "President of the United States," which, as it happened,
+settled the question finally. Washington personally cared little for
+titles, although, as John Adams wrote to Mrs. Warren, he thought them
+appropriate to high office. But in this case he saw that there was a
+real danger lurking in the empty name, and so he was pleased by the
+decision of the House. Another matter was the relation between the
+President and the Senate. Should he communicate with them in writing
+or orally, being present during their deliberations as if they formed
+an executive council? It was promptly decided that nominations should
+be made in writing; but as to treaties, it was at first thought best
+that the President should deliver them to the Senate in person, and
+it was arranged with minute care where he should sit, beside
+the Vice-President, while the matter was under discussion. This
+arrangement, however, was abandoned after a single trial, and it was
+agreed that treaties, like nominations, should come with written
+messages.
+
+Last and most important of all was the question of the mode of conduct
+and the etiquette to be established with regard to the President
+himself. In this, as in the matter of titles, Washington saw a real
+importance in what many persons might esteem only empty forms, and he
+proceeded with his customary thoroughness in dealing with the subject.
+What he did would be a precedent for the future as well as a target
+for present criticism, and he determined to devise a scheme which
+would resist attack, and be worthy to stand as an example for his
+successors. He therefore wrote to Madison: "The true medium, I
+conceive, must lie in pursuing such a course as will allow him (the
+President) time for all the official duties of his station. This
+should be the primary object. The next, to avoid as much as may be the
+charge of superciliousness, and seclusion from information, by too
+much reserve and too great a withdrawal of himself from company on
+the one hand, and the inconveniences, as well as a diminution of
+respectability, from too free an intercourse and too much familiarity
+on the other." This letter, with a set of queries, was also sent to
+the Vice-President, to Jay, and to Hamilton. They all agreed in the
+general views outlined by Washington. Adams, fresh from Europe, was
+inclined to surround the office, of which he justly had a lofty
+conception, with a good deal of ceremony, because he felt that these
+things were necessary in our relations with foreign nations. In the
+main, however, the advice of all who were consulted was in favor
+of keeping the nice line between too much reserve and too much
+familiarity, and this line, after all the advising, Washington of
+course drew for himself. He did it in this way. He decided that he
+would return no calls, and that he would receive no general visits
+except on specified days, and official visitors at fixed hours.
+The third point was in regard to dinner parties. The presidents of
+Congress hitherto had asked every one to dine, and had ended by
+keeping a sort of public table, to the waste of both time and dignity.
+Many persons, disgusted with this system, thought that the President
+ought not to ask anybody to dinner. But Washington, never given to
+extremes, decided that he would invite to dinner persons of official
+rank and strangers of distinction, but no one else, and that he would
+accept no invitations for himself. After a time he arranged to have a
+reception every Tuesday, from three to four in the afternoon, and Mrs.
+Washington held a similar levee on Fridays. These receptions, with a
+public dinner every week, were all the social entertainments for which
+the President had either time or health.
+
+By these sensible and apparently unimportant arrangements, Washington
+managed to give free access to every one who was entitled to it, and
+yet preserved the dignity and reserve due to his office. It was one
+of the real although unmarked services which he rendered to the new
+government, and which contributed so much to its establishment, for it
+would have been very easy to have lowered the presidential office by a
+false idea of republican simplicity. It would have been equally easy
+to have made it odious by a cold seclusion on the one hand, or by pomp
+and ostentation on the other. With his usual good judgment and perfect
+taste, Washington steered between the opposing dangers, and yet
+notwithstanding the wisdom of his arrangements, and in spite of
+their simplicity, he did not escape calumny on account of them. One
+criticism was that at his reception every one stood, which was thought
+to savor of incipient monarchy. To this Washington replied, with the
+directness of which he was always capable, that it was not usual to
+sit on such occasions, and, if it were, he had no room large enough
+for the number of chairs that would be required, and that, as the
+whole thing was perfectly unceremonious, every one could come and go
+as he pleased. Fault was also found with the manner in which he bowed,
+an accusation to which he answered with an irony not untinged with
+bitterness and contempt: "That I have not been able to make bows to
+the taste of poor Colonel B. (who, by the by, I believe never saw one
+of them) is to be regretted, especially too, as, upon those occasions,
+they were indiscriminately bestowed, and the best I was master of.
+Would it not have been better to throw the veil of charity over
+them, ascribing their stiffness to the effects of age, or to the
+unskillfulness of my teacher, rather than to pride and dignity of
+office, which God knows has no charms for me?"
+
+As party hostility developed, these attacks passed from the region of
+private conversation to the columns of newspapers and the declamation
+of mob orators, and an especial snarl was raised over the circumstance
+that at some public ball the President and Mrs. Washington were
+escorted to a sofa on a raised platform, and that guests passed before
+them and bowed. Much monarchy and aristocracy were perceived in this
+little matter, and Jefferson carefully set it down in that collection
+of withered slanders which he gave to an admiring posterity, after the
+grave had safely covered both him and those whom he feared and hated
+in his lifetime. This incident, however, was but an example of
+the political capital which was sought for in the conduct of the
+presidential office. The celebration of the birthday, the proposition
+to put Washington's head upon the coins, and many other similar
+trifles, were all twisted to the same purpose. The dynasty of Cleon
+has been a long one, so long that even the succession of the Popes
+seems temporary beside it, and it flourished in Washington's time as
+rankly as it did in Athens, or as it does to-day. The object of the
+assault varies, but the motives and the purpose are as old and as
+lasting as human nature. Envy and malice will always find a convenient
+shelter in pretended devotion to the public weal, and will seek
+revenge for their own lack of success by putting on the cloak of the
+tribune of the people, and perverting the noblest of offices to the
+basest uses.
+
+But time sets all things even. The demagogues and the critics who
+assailed Washington's demeanor and behavior are forgotten, while the
+wise and simple customs which he established and framed for the great
+office that he honored, still prevail by virtue of their good sense.
+We part gladly with all remembrance of those bold defenders of liberty
+who saw in these slight forms forerunners of monarchy. We would even
+consent to drop into oblivion the precious legacy of Jefferson. But
+we will never part with the picture drawn by a loving hand of that
+stately figure, clad in black velvet, with the hand on the hilt of the
+sword, standing at one of Mrs. Washington's levees, and receiving with
+gentle and quiet dignity, full of kindliness but untinged by cheap
+familiarity, the crowd that came to pay their respects. It was well
+for the republic that at the threshold of its existence it had for
+President a man who, by the kindness of his heart, by his good sense,
+good manners, and fine breeding, gave to the office which he held and
+the government he founded the simple dignity which was part of himself
+and of his own high character.
+
+Thus the forms and shows, important in their way, were dealt with,
+while behind them came the sterner realities of government, demanding
+regulation and settlement. At the outset Washington knew about the
+affairs of the government, especially for the last six years, only
+in a general way. He felt it to be his first duty, therefore, to
+familiarize himself with all these matters, and, although he was in
+the midst of the stir and bustle of a new government, he nevertheless
+sent for all the papers of each department of the confederation
+since the signature of the treaty of peace, went through them
+systematically, and made notes and summaries of their contents. This
+habit he continued throughout his presidency in dealing with all
+official documents. The natural result followed. He knew more at the
+start about the facts in each and every department of the public
+business than any other one man, and he continued to know more
+throughout his administration. In this method and this capacity for
+taking infinite pains is to be found a partial explanation at least
+of the easy mastery of affairs which he always showed, whether on the
+plantation, in the camp, or in the cabinet. It was in truth a striking
+instance of that "long patience" which the great French naturalist
+said was genius.
+
+While he was thus regulating forms of business, and familiarizing
+himself with public questions, it became necessary to fix the manner
+of dealing with foreign powers. There were not many representatives of
+foreign nations present at the birth of the republic, but there was
+one who felt, and perhaps not without reason, that he was entitled
+to peculiar privileges. The Count de Moustier, minister of France,
+desired to have private access to the President, and even to discuss
+matters of business with him. Washington's reply to this demand was,
+in its way, a model. After saying that the only matter which could
+come up would relate to commerce, with which he was unfamiliar, he
+continued: "Every one, who has any knowledge of my manner of acting in
+public life, will be persuaded that I am not accustomed to impede
+the dispatch or frustrate the success of business by a ceremonious
+attention to idle forms. Any person of that description will also be
+satisfied that I should not readily consent to lose one of the most
+important functions of my office for the sake of preserving an
+imaginary dignity. But perhaps, if there are rules of proceeding which
+have originated from the wisdom of statesmen, and are sanctioned by
+the common consent of nations, it would not be prudent for a young
+state to dispense with them altogether, at least without some
+substantial cause for so doing. I have myself been induced to think,
+possibly from habits of experience, that in general the best mode of
+conducting negotiations, the detail and progress of which might be
+liable to accidental mistakes or unintentional misrepresentations, is
+by writing. This mode, if I was obliged by myself to negotiate with
+any one, I should still pursue. I have, however, been taught to
+believe that there is in most polished nations a system established
+with regard to the foreign as well as the other great departments,
+which, from the utility, the necessity, and the reason of the thing,
+provides that business should be digested and prepared by the heads of
+those departments."
+
+The Count de Moustier hastened to excuse himself on the ground that
+he expressed himself badly in English, which was over-modest, for he
+expressed himself extremely well. He also explained and defended his
+original propositions by trying to show that they were reasonable and
+usual; but it was labor lost. Washington's letter was final, and the
+French minister knew it. The count was aware that he was dealing with
+a good soldier, but in statecraft he probably felt he had to do with a
+novice. His intention was to take advantage of the position of France,
+secure for her peculiar privileges, and put her in the attitude of
+patronizing inoffensively but effectively the new government founded
+by the people she had helped to free. He found himself turned aside
+quietly, almost deferentially, and yet so firmly and decidedly that
+there was no appeal. No nation, he discovered, was to have especial
+privileges. France was the good friend and ally of the United States,
+but she was an equal, not a superior. It was also fixed by this
+correspondence that the President, representing the sovereignty of
+the people, was to have the respect to which that sovereignty was
+entitled. The pomp and pageant of diplomacy in the old world were
+neither desired nor sought in America; yet the President was not to be
+approached in person, but through the proper cabinet officer, and all
+diplomatic communications after the fashion of civilized governments
+were to be in writing. Thus within a month France, and in consequence
+other nations, were quietly given to understand that the new republic
+was to be treated like other free and independent governments, and
+that there was to be nothing colonial or subservient in her attitude
+to foreign nations, whether those nations had been friends or foes in
+the past.
+
+It required tact, firmness, and a sure judgment to establish proper
+relations with foreign ministers. But once done, it was done for all
+time. This was not the case with another and far more important
+class of people, whose relation to the new administration had to be
+determined at the very first hour of its existence. Indeed, before
+Washington left Mount Vernon he had begun to receive letters from
+persons who considered themselves peculiarly well fitted to serve the
+government in return for a small but certain salary. In a letter to
+Mrs. Wooster, for whom as the widow of an old soldier he felt the
+tenderest sympathy, he wrote soon after his arrival in New York: "As
+a public man acting only with reference to the public good, I must be
+allowed to decide upon all points of my duty, without consulting my
+private inclinations and wishes. I must be permitted, with the best
+lights I can obtain, and upon a general view of characters and
+circumstances, to nominate such persons alone to offices as in my
+judgment shall be the best qualified to discharge the functions of
+the departments to which they shall be appointed." This sentiment in
+varying forms has been declared since 1789 by many Presidents and many
+parties. Washington, however, lived up exactly to his declarations.
+At the same time he did not by any means attempt to act merely as an
+examining board.
+
+Great political organizations, as we have known them since, did not
+exist at the beginning of the government, but there were nevertheless
+two parties, divided by the issue which had been settled by the
+adoption of the Constitution. Washington took, and purposed to take,
+his appointees so far as he could from those who had favored the
+Constitution and were friends of the new system. It is also clear
+that he made every effort to give the preference to the soldiers
+and officers of the army, toward whom his affectionate thought ever
+turned. Beyond this it can only be said that he was almost nervously
+anxious to avoid any appearance of personal feeling in making
+appointments, as was shown in the letter refusing to make his nephew
+Bushrod a district attorney, and that he resented personal pressure
+of any kind. He preferred always to reach his conclusions so far as
+possible from a careful study of written testimony. These principles,
+rigidly adhered to, his own keen perception of character, and his
+knowledge of men, resulted in a series of appointments running through
+eight years which were really marvelously successful. The only
+rejection, outside the special case of John Rutledge, was that of
+Benjamin Fishbourn for naval officer of the port of Savannah, which
+was due apparently to the personal hostility of the Georgia senators.
+Washington, conscious of his own painstaking, was not a little
+provoked by this setting aside of an old soldier. He sent in a sharp
+message on the subject, pointing out the trouble he took to make sure
+of the fitness of an appointment, and intimated that the same effort
+would not come amiss in the Senate when they rejected one of his
+nominees. In view of the fact that it was a new government, the
+absence of mistakes in the appointments is quite extraordinary,
+and the value of such success can be realized by considering the
+disastrous consequences which would have come from inefficient
+officers or malfeasance in office when the great experiment was just
+put on trial, and was surrounded by doubters and critics ready and
+eager to pick flaws and find faults.
+
+The general tone of the government and its reputation at widely
+scattered points depended largely on the persons appointed to the
+smaller executive offices. Important, however, as these were, the
+fate of the republic under the new Constitution was infinitely more
+involved in the men whom Washington called about him in his cabinet,
+to decide with him as to the policies which were to be begun, and
+on which the living vital government was to be founded. Congress,
+troubled about many things, and struggling with questions of revenue
+and taxation, managed in the course of the summer to establish and
+provide for three executive departments and for an attorney-general.
+To the selection of the men to fill these high offices Washington
+gave, of course, the most careful thought, and succeeded in forming
+a cabinet which, in its aggregate ability, never has been equaled in
+this country.
+
+Edmund Randolph was appointed attorney-general. Losing his father at
+an early age, and entering the army, he had been watched over and
+protected by Washington with an almost paternal care, and at the time
+of his appointment he was one of the most conspicuous men in public
+life, as well as a leading lawyer at the bar of Virginia. He came from
+one of the oldest and strongest of the Virginian families, and had
+been governor of his State, and a leader in the constitutional
+convention, where he had introduced what was known as the Virginian
+plan. He had refused to sign the Constitution, but had come round
+finally to its support, largely through Washington's influence. There
+was then, and there can be now, no question as to Randolph's really
+fine talents, or as to his fitness for his post. His defect was a lack
+of force of character and strength of will, which was manifested by a
+certain timidity of action, and by an infirmity of purpose, such as
+had appeared in his course about the Constitution. He performed the
+duties of his office admirably, but in the decision of the momentous
+questions which came before the cabinet he showed an uncertainty of
+opinion which was felt by all his colleagues.[1]
+
+[Footnote 1: This passage was written before the recent appearance of
+Mr. Conway's _Life of Randolph_. That ample biography, in my opinion,
+confirms the view of Randolph here given. If, in the light of this new
+material, I have erred at all, it is, I think, on the charitable side.
+Mr. Conway, in order to vindicate Randolph, has sacrificed so far as
+he could nearly every conspicuous public man of that period. From
+Washington, whom he charges with senility, down, there is hardly a
+man who ever crossed Randolph's path whom he has not assailed. Yet he
+presents no reason, so far as I can see, to alter the present opinion
+of Randolph.]
+
+Henry Knox of Massachusetts was head of the War Department under the
+confederacy, and was continued in office by Washington, who appointed
+him secretary of war under the new arrangement. It was a natural and
+excellent selection. Knox was a distinguished soldier, he had served
+well through the Revolution, and Washington was warmly attached to
+him. He was not a statesman by training or habit of mind, nor was he
+possessed of commanding talents. But he was an able man, sound in his
+views and diligent in his office, devoted to his chief and unswerving
+in his loyalty to the administration and all its measures. There was
+never any doubt as to the attitude of Henry Knox, and Washington found
+him as faithful and efficient in the cabinet as he had always been in
+the field.
+
+Second in rank, but first in importance, was the secretaryship of the
+treasury. "Finance! Ah, my friend, all that remains of the American
+Revolution grounds there." So Gouverneur Morris had written to Jay. So
+might he have written again of the American Union, for the fate of the
+experiment rested at the outset on the Treasury Department. Yet there
+was probably less hesitation as to the proper man for this place than
+for any other. Washington no doubt would have been glad to give it to
+Robert Morris, whose great services in the Revolution he could never
+forget. But this could not be, and acting on his own judgment,
+fortified by that of Morris himself, he made Alexander Hamilton
+secretary of the treasury.
+
+It is one of the familiar marks of greatness to know how to choose the
+right men to perform the tasks which no man, either in war or peace,
+can complete single-handed. Napoleon's marshals were conspicuous
+proofs of his genius, and Washington had a similar power of selection.
+The generals whom he trusted were the best generals, the statesmen
+whom he consulted stand highest in history. He was fallible, as other
+mortals are fallible. He, too, had his Varus, and the time was coming
+when he could echo the bitter cry of the great emperor for his lost
+legions. But the mistakes were the exceptions. He chose with the
+sureness of a strong and penetrating mind, and the most signal example
+of this capacity was his secretary of the treasury. He knew Hamilton
+well. He had known him as his staff officer, active, accomplished, and
+efficient. He had seen him leave his side in a tempest of boyish rage,
+and he had watched him charging with splendid gallantry the Yorktown
+redoubts. He was familiar with Hamilton's extraordinary mastery of
+financial and political problems, and he had found him a powerful
+leader in the work of forming the Constitution. He understood
+Hamilton's strength, and he knew where his dangers lay. Now he called
+him to his cabinet, and gave into his hands the department on which
+the immediate success of the government hinged. It was a brilliant
+choice. The mark in his lifetime for all the assaults of his political
+opponents, the leader and the victim of the schism which rent his own
+party, Hamilton, after his death, was made the target for attack and
+reprobation by his political foes, who for nearly sixty years, with
+few intermissions, controlled the government. His work, however, could
+not be undone, and as passions have subsided his fame has proved to
+be of that highest and rarest kind which broadens and rises with the
+lapse of years, until in the light of history it overtops that of any
+of our statesmen, except of his own great chief and Abraham Lincoln.
+The work to which he was called was that of organizing a national
+government, and in the performance of this work he showed that he
+belonged to the highest type of constructive statesmen, and was one of
+the rare men who build, and whose building stands the test of time.
+
+Last to be mentioned, but first in rank, was the Department of State.
+For this high place Washington chose Thomas Jefferson, who was then
+our minister in Paris, and who did not return to take up his official
+duties until the following March. Of the four cabinet offices, this
+was the only one where Washington proceeded entirely on public
+grounds. He took Jefferson on account of his wide reputation, his
+unquestioned ability, his standing before the country, and his
+experience in our foreign relations. With the other three there was
+a strong element of personal friendship and familiarity. With the
+secretary of state his intercourse had been, so far as we can judge,
+almost wholly of a public character, and, so far as can be inferred
+from an expression of some years before, the selection was made by
+Washington in deference simply to what he believed to be the public
+interest. The only allusion to Jefferson in all the printed volumes of
+correspondence prior to 1789 occurs in a letter to Robert Livingston,
+of January 8, 1783. He there said: "What office is Mr. Jefferson
+appointed to that he has, you say, lately accepted? If it is that of
+commissioner of peace, I hope he will arrive too late to have any hand
+in it." There is no indication that their personal relations were then
+or afterwards other than pleasant. Yet this brief sentence is a
+strong expression of distrust, and especially so from the fact that
+Washington was not at all given to criticising other people in his
+letters. What he distrusted was not Jefferson's ability, for that
+no man could doubt, still less his patriotism. But Washington read
+character well, and he felt that Jefferson might be lacking in the
+qualities of boldness and determination, so needful in a negotiation
+like that which resulted in the acknowledgment of our independence.
+
+The truth was that the two men were radically different, and never
+could have been sympathetic. Washington was strong, direct, masculine,
+and at times fierce in anger. Jefferson was adroit, subtle, and
+feminine in his sensitiveness. Washington was essentially a fighting
+man, tamed by a stern self-control from the recklessness of his early
+days, but always a fighter. Jefferson was a lover of peace, given to
+quiet, hating quarrels and bloodshed, and at times timid in dealing
+with public questions. Washington was deliberate and conservative,
+after the fashion of his race. Jefferson was quick, impressionable,
+and always fascinated by new notions, even if they were somewhat
+fantastic. A thoroughly liberal and open-minded man, Washington never
+turned a deaf ear to any new suggestion, whether it was a public
+policy or a mechanical invention, but to all alike he gave careful
+consideration before he adopted them. To Jefferson, on the other hand,
+mere novelty had a peculiar charm, and he jumped at any device, either
+to govern a state or improve a plough, provided that it had the
+flavor of ingenuity. The two men might easily have thought the same
+concerning the republic, but they started from opposite poles, and no
+full communion of thought and feeling was possible between them. That
+Washington chose fitly from purely public and outside considerations
+can not be questioned, but he made a mistake when he put next to
+himself a man for whom he did not have the personal regard and
+sympathy which he felt for his other advisers. The necessary result
+finally came, after many troubles in the cabinet, in dislike and
+distrust, if not positive alienation.
+
+Looking at the cabinet, however, as it stood in the beginning, we can
+only admire the wisdom of the selection and the high abilities which
+were thus brought together for the administration and construction of
+a great national government. It has always been the fashion to speak
+of this first cabinet as made up without reference to party, but the
+idea is a mistaken one from any point of view. Washington himself gave
+it color, for he felt very rightly that he was the choice of the whole
+people and not of a party. He wished to rise above party, and in fact
+to have no party, but a devotion of all to the good of the country.
+The time came when he sorrowed for and censured party bitterness and
+party strife, but it is to be observed that the party feeling which he
+most deplored was that which grew up against his own policies and his
+own administration. The fact was that Washington, who rose above party
+more than any other statesman in our history, was nevertheless, like
+most men of strong will and robust mind, and like all great political
+leaders, a party man, as we shall have occasion to see further on.
+It is true that his cabinet contained the chiefs and founders of two
+great schools of political thought, which have ever since divided
+the country; but when these parties were once fairly developed, the
+cabinet became a scene of conflict and went to pieces, only to be
+reformed on party lines. When it was first made up, the two parties of
+our subsequent history, with which we are familiar, did not exist, and
+it was in the administration of Washington that they were developed.
+Yet the cabinet of 1789 was, so far as there were parties, a partisan
+body. The only political struggle that we had had was over the
+adoption of the Constitution. The parties of the first Congress were
+the Federalists and the anti-Federalists, the friends and the enemies
+of the Constitution. Among those who opposed the Constitution were
+many able and distinguished men, but Washington did not invite Sam
+Adams, or George Mason, or Patrick Henry, or George Clinton to enter
+his cabinet. On the contrary, he took only friends and supporters
+of the Constitution. Hamilton was its most illustrious advocate.
+Randolph, after some vacillation, had done very much to turn the
+wavering scale in Virginia in its favor. Knox was its devoted friend;
+and Jefferson, although he had carped at it and criticised it in
+his letters, was not known to have done so, and was considered, and
+rightly considered, to be friendly to the new system. In other words,
+the cabinet was made up exclusively of the party of the Constitution,
+which was the victorious party of the moment. This was of course
+wholly right, and Washington was too great and wise a leader to have
+done anything else. The cabinet was formed with regard to existing
+divisions, and, when those divisions changed, the cabinet which gave
+birth to them changed too.
+
+Outside the cabinet, the most weighty appointments were those of the
+Supreme Court. No one then quite appreciated, probably, the vast
+importance which this branch of the government was destined to assume,
+or the great part it was to play in the history of the country and the
+development of our institutions. At the same time no one could fail to
+see that much depended on the composition of the body which was to be
+the ultimate interpreter of the Constitution. The safety of the entire
+scheme might easily have been imperiled by the selection of men as
+judges who were lacking in ability or character. Washington chose with
+his wonted sureness. At the head of the court he placed John Jay, one
+of the most distinguished of the public men of the day, who gave to
+the office at once the impress of his own high character and spotless
+reputation. With him were associated Wilson of Pennsylvania, Cushing
+of Massachusetts, Blair of Virginia, Iredell of North Carolina, and
+Rutledge of South Carolina. They were all able and well-known
+men, sound lawyers, and also, be it noted, warm friends of the
+Constitution.
+
+Thus the business of organizing the government in the first great and
+essential points was completed. It was the work of the President, and,
+anxious and arduous as it was, it is worth remembering, too, that
+it was done, and thoroughly done, in the midst of severe physical
+suffering. Just after the inauguration, Washington was laid up with an
+anthrax or carbuncle in his thigh, which brought him at one time very
+near death. For six weeks he could lie only on one side, endured the
+most constant and acute pain, and was almost incapable of motion. He
+referred to his illness at the time in a casual and perfectly simple
+way, and mind and will so prevailed over the bodily suffering that
+the great task of organizing the government was never suspended nor
+interrupted.
+
+When the work was done and Congress had adjourned, Washington, feeling
+that he had earned a little rest and recreation, proceeded to carry
+out a purpose, which he had formed very early in his presidency, of
+visiting the Eastern States. This was the first part of a general plan
+which he had conceived of visiting while in office all portions of
+the Union. The personal appearance of the President, representing
+the whole people, would serve to bring home to the public mind the
+existence and reality of a central government, which to many if not to
+most persons in the outlying States seemed shadowy and distant. But
+General Washington was neither shadowy nor distant to any one. Every
+man, woman, and child had heard of and loved the leader of the
+Revolution. To his countrymen everywhere, his name meant political
+freedom and victory in battle; and when he came among them as the
+head of a new government, that government took on in some measure the
+character of its chief. His journey was a well-calculated appeal, not
+for himself but for his cause, to the warm human interest which a man
+readily excites, but which only gathers slowly around constitutions
+and forms of government. The world owes a good deal to the right kind
+of hero-worship, and the United States have been no exception.
+
+The journey itself was uneventful, and was carried out with
+Washington's usual precision. It served its purpose, too, and brought
+out a popular enthusiasm which spoke well for the prospects of the
+federal government, and which was the first promise of the loyal
+support which New England gave to the President, as she had already
+given it to the general. In the succession of crowds and processions
+and celebrations which marked the public rejoicing, one incident of
+this journey stands out as still memorable, and possessed of real
+meaning. Mr. John Hancock was governor of Massachusetts. There is
+no need to dwell upon him. He was a man of slender abilities,
+large wealth, and ready patriotism, with a great sense of his own
+importance, and a fine taste for impressive display. Every external
+thing about him, from his handsome house and his Copley portrait to
+his imposing gout and his immortal signature, was showy and effective.
+He was governor of Massachusetts, and very proud of that proud old
+commonwealth as well as of her governor. Within her bounds he was the
+representative of her sovereignty, and he felt that deference was due
+to him from the President of the United States when they both stood on
+the soil of Massachusetts. He did not meet Washington on his arrival,
+and Washington thereupon did not dine with the governor as he had
+agreed to do. It looked a little stormy. Here was evidently a man with
+some new views as to the sovereignty of States and the standing of the
+union of States. It might have done for Governor Hancock to allow the
+President of Congress to pass out of Massachusetts without seeing its
+governor, and thereby learn a valuable lesson, but it would never
+do to have such a thing happen in the case of George Washington, no
+matter what office he might hold. A little after noon on Sunday,
+October 26, therefore, the governor wrote a note to the President,
+apologizing for not calling before, and asking if he might call
+in half an hour, even though it was at the hazard of his health.
+Washington answered at once, expressing his pleasure at the prospect
+of seeing his excellency, but begging him, with a touch of irony, not
+to do anything to endanger his health. So in half an hour Hancock
+appeared. Picturesque, even if defeated, he was borne up-stairs on
+men's shoulders, swathed in flannels, and then and there made his
+call. The old house in Boston where this happened has had since then a
+series of successors, but the ground on which it stood has been duly
+remembered and commemorated. It is a more important spot than we are
+wont to think; for there it was settled, on that autumn Sunday, that
+the idea that the States were able to own and to bully the Union they
+had formed was dead, and that the President of the new United States
+was henceforth to be regarded as the official superior of every
+governor in the land. It was a mere question of etiquette, nothing
+more. But how the general government would have sunk in popular
+estimation if the President had not asserted, with perfect dignity and
+yet entire firmness, its position! Men are governed very largely by
+impressions, and Washington knew it. Hence his settling at once and
+forever the question of precedence between the Union and the States.
+Everywhere and at all times, according to his doctrine, the nation was
+to be first.[1]
+
+[Footnote 1: The most lately published contemporary account of
+this affair with Hancock can be found in the _Magazine of American
+History_, June, 1888, p. 508, entitled "Incidents in the Life of John
+Hancock, as related by Dorothy Quincy Hancock Scott (from the Diary of
+Gen. W.H. Sumner)."]
+
+So the President traveled on to the North, and then back by another
+road to New York, and that excellent bit of work in familiarizing the
+people with their federal government was accomplished. Meantime the
+wheels had started, the machine was in motion, and the chief officers
+were at their places. The preliminary work had been done, and the next
+step was to determine what policies should be adopted, and to find out
+if the new system could really perform the task for which it had been
+created.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+DOMESTIC AFFAIRS
+
+
+To trace in detail the events of Washington's administration would be
+to write the history of the country during that period. It is only
+possible here to show, without much regard to chronological sequence,
+the part of the President in developing the policy of the government
+at home, and his attitude toward each question as it arose. We are
+concerned here merely with the influence and effect of Washington in
+our history, and not with the history itself. What did he do, and what
+light do we get on the man himself from his words and deeds? These are
+the only questions that a brief study of a career so far-reaching can
+attempt to answer.
+
+Congress came together for the first time with the government actually
+organized on January 4, 1790. On the day when the session opened,
+Washington drove down to the hall where the Congress met, alone in his
+own coach drawn by four horses. He was preceded by Colonel Humphreys
+and Major Jackson, mounted on his two white horses, while immediately
+behind came his chariot with his private secretaries, and Mr. Lewis on
+horseback. Then followed in their own coaches the chief justice and
+the secretaries of war and of the treasury. When the President reached
+the hall he was met at the entrance by the doorkeeper of the Congress,
+and was escorted to the Senate chamber. There he passed between the
+members of each branch, drawn up on either hand, and took his seat by
+the Vice-President. When order and silence were obtained, he rose and
+spoke to the assembled representatives of the people standing before
+him. Having concluded his speech, he bowed and withdrew with his
+suite as he had come. Jefferson killed this simple ceremonial, and
+substituted for it the written message, sent by a secretary and read
+by a clerk in the midst of talk and bustle, which is the form we
+have to-day. Jefferson's change was made, of course, in the name of
+liberty, and also because he was averse to public speaking. From the
+latter point of view, it was reasonable enough, but the ostensible
+cause was as hollow and meaningless as any of the French notions to
+which it was close akin. It is well for the head of the state to meet
+face to face the representatives of the same people who elected him.
+For more than a century this has been the practice in Massachusetts,
+to take a single instance, and liberty in that commonwealth has not
+been imperiled, nor has the State been obliged to ask Federal aid to
+secure to her a republican form of government because of her adherence
+to this ancient custom.
+
+The forms adopted by Washington had the grave and simple dignity which
+marked all he did, and it was senseless to abandon what his faultless
+taste and patriotic feeling approved. Forms are in their way important
+things: they may conceal perils to liberty, or they may lend dignity
+and call forth respect to all that liberty holds most dear. The net
+result of all this business has been very curious. Jefferson's
+written message prevails; and yet at the same time we inaugurate
+our Presidents with a pomp and parade to which those of the dreaded
+Federalists seem poor and quiet, and which would make the hero of the
+message-in-writing fancy that the air was darkened by the shadows of
+monarchy and despotism. The author of the Declaration of Independence
+was a patriotic man and lover of freedom, but he who fought out the
+Revolution in the field was quite as safe a guardian of American
+liberty; and his clear mind was never confused by the fantasies of
+that Parisian liberty which confused facts with names, and ended in
+the Terror and the first Empire. The people of the United States
+to-day surround the first office of the land with a respect and
+dignity which they deem equal to the mighty sovereignty that it
+represents, and in this is to be found the genuine American feeling
+expressed by Washington in the plain and simple ceremonial which he
+adopted for his meetings with the Congress.
+
+In this first speech, thus delivered, Washington indicated the
+subjects to which he wished Congress to direct their attention, and
+which in their development formed the policies of his administration.
+His first recommendation was to provide for the common defense by a
+proper military establishment. His last and most elaborate was in
+behalf of education, for which he invoked the aid of Congress and
+urged the foundation of a national university, a scheme he had much at
+heart, and to which he constantly returned. The history of these
+two recommendations is soon told. Provision was made for the army,
+inadequate enough, as Washington thought, but still without dispute,
+and such additional provision was afterwards made from time to time as
+the passing exigency of the moment demanded. For education nothing
+was done, and the national university has never advanced beyond the
+recommendation of the first President.
+
+He also advised the adoption of a uniform standard of coinage,
+weights, and measures. In two years a mint was duly established after
+an able report from Hamilton, and out of his efforts and those of
+Jefferson came our decimal system. There was debate over the devices
+on the coins in which the ever-vigilant Jeffersonians scented
+monarchical dangers, but with this exception the country got its
+uniform coinage peacefully enough. The weights and measures did not
+fare so well. They obtained a long report from Jefferson, and a still
+longer and more learned disquisition from John Quincy Adams thirty
+years later. But that was all. We still use the rule of thumb systems
+inherited from our English ancestors, and Washington's uniform
+standard, except for the two reports, has gone no further than the
+national university.
+
+Another recommendation to the effect that invention ought to be
+encouraged and protected bore fruit in this same year in patent and
+copyright laws, which became the foundation of our present system. The
+same good fortune befell the recommendation for a uniform rule for
+naturalization, and the law of 1790 was quietly enacted, no one then
+imagining that its alteration less than ten years later was destined
+to form part of a policy which, after a fierce struggle, settled
+the fate of parties and decided the control of the government. The
+post-office was also commended to the care of Congress, and for that,
+as for the army, provision was duly made, insufficient at the outset,
+but growing steadily from this small beginning, as it was called upon
+to meet the spread and increase of population.
+
+Provision was also made gradually, and with much occasional conflict,
+for a diplomatic service such as the President advised. But this was
+merely the machinery to carry out our foreign policy on which, in a
+few years, our political history largely turned, and which will demand
+a chapter by itself.
+
+A paragraph devoted to Indian affairs informed Congress that measures
+were on foot to establish pacific relations with our savage neighbors,
+but that it would be well to be prepared to use force. This brief
+sentence was the beginning of an important policy, which, in its
+consequences and effects, played a large part in the history of the
+next eight years.
+
+These various matters thus disposed of, there remained only the
+request to the House to provide for the revenue and the public credit.
+From this came Hamilton's financial policy which created parties,
+and with it was interwoven in the body of the speech the general
+recommendation to make all proper effort for the advancement of
+manufactures, commerce, and agriculture.
+
+The speech as a whole, short though it was, drew the outline of
+a vigorous system, which aimed at the establishment of a strong
+government with enlarged powers. It cut at a blow all ties between the
+new government and the feeble strivings of the dead confederation. It
+displayed a broad conception of the duties of the government under
+the Constitution, and in every paragraph it breathed the spirit of a
+robust nationality, calculated to touch the people directly in every
+State of the Union.
+
+Before taking up the financial question, which became the great issue
+in our domestic affairs, it will be well to trace briefly the story of
+our relations with the Indians. The policy of the new administration
+in this respect was peculiarly Washington's own, and, although it
+affected more or less the general course of events at that period, it
+did not directly become the subject of party differences. The "Indian
+problem" is still with us, but it is now a very mild problem indeed.
+Within a few years, it is true, we have had Indian wars, conducted by
+the forces of the United States, and ever-recurring outbreaks between
+savages and frontiersmen. But it has been a very distant business. To
+the great mass of the American people it has been little more than
+interesting news, to be leisurely scanned in the newspaper without
+any sense of immediate and personal concern. Moreover, the popular
+conception of the Indian has for a long time been wildly inaccurate.
+We have known him in various capacities, as the innocent victim of
+corrupt agents and traders, and as the brutal robber and murderer with
+the vices and force of the Western frontiersman, but without any of
+the latter's redeeming virtues. Last and most important of all, we
+have known him as the rare hero and the conventional villain of
+romance, ranging from the admirable stories of Cooper to the last
+production of the "penny dreadful." The result has been to create in
+the public mind a being who probably never existed anywhere except in
+the popular imagination, and who certainly is not the North American
+Indian.
+
+We are always loath to admit that our conceptions are formed by
+fiction, but in the case of people remote from our daily observation
+it plays in nine instances out of ten a leading part, and it has
+certainly done so here. In this way we have been provided with two
+types simple and well defined, which represent the abnormally good on
+the one hand and the inconceivably bad on the other. The Indian hero
+is a person of phenomenal nobility of character, and of an
+ability which would do credit to the training of a highly refined
+civilization. He is the product of the orator, the novelist, or the
+philanthropist, and has but slight and distant relation to facts. The
+usual type, however, and the one which has entered most largely into
+the popular mind, is the Indian villain. He is portrayed invariably
+as cunning, treacherous, cruel, and cowardly, without any relieving
+quality. In this there is of course much truth. As a matter of fact,
+Indians are cunning, treacherous, and cruel, but they are also bold
+fighters. The leading idea of the Indian that has come down from
+Cooper's time, and which depicts him as a "cowardly redskin," unable
+to stand for a moment against a white man in fair fight, is a complete
+delusion designed to flatter the superior race. It has been in a large
+measure dissipated by Parkman's masterly histories, but the ideas born
+of popular fiction die hard. They are due in part to the theory that
+cruelty implies cowardice, just as we say that a bully must be a
+coward, another mistaken bit of proverbial wisdom.
+
+As a matter of fact, the records show that the North American Indian
+is one of the most remarkable savage warriors of whom we have any
+knowledge; and the number of white men killed for each Indian slain
+in war exhibits an astonishing disproportion of loss. Captain James
+Smith, for many years a captive, and who figured in most of the
+campaigns of the last century, estimated that fifty of our people were
+killed to one of theirs. This of course includes women and children;
+and yet even in the battle of the Big Kanawha, the Virginia riflemen,
+although they defeated the Indians with an inferior force, lost two
+to one, and a similar disproportion seems to have continued to the
+present day.
+
+The Indian, moreover, not only fought well and to the death, if
+surrounded, but he had a discipline and plan of battle which were
+most effective for the wilderness. It seems probable that, if the
+experiment had been properly tried, the Indians might have been turned
+into better soldiers than the famous Sikhs; and the French, who
+used the red men skillfully, if without much discipline, found them
+formidable and effective allies. They cut off more than one English
+and American army, and the fact that they resorted to ambush and
+surprise does not detract from their exploits. It was a legitimate
+mode of warfare, and was used by them with terrible effect. They have
+fought more than one pitched battle against superior numbers when the
+victory hung long in the balance, and they have carried on guerrilla
+wars for years against overwhelming forces with extraordinary
+persistence and success. There is no savage, except the Zulu or Maori,
+who has begun to exhibit the natural fighting quality of the American
+Indian; and although the Zulu appears to have displayed greater dash,
+the Indian, by his mastery of the tactics of surprise, has shown a
+far better head. In a word, the Indian has always been a formidable
+savage, treacherous, cruel, and cunning to an extreme degree, no
+doubt, but a desperate and dogged fighter, with a natural instinct for
+war. It must be remembered, too, that he was far more formidable
+in 1790 than he is to-day, with the ever-rising tide of civilized
+population flowing upon him and hemming him in. When the Constitution
+came into being, the Indians were pretty well out of the Atlantic
+States, but beyond the Alleghanies all was theirs, and they had the
+unbroken wilderness as their ally and their refuge. There they lay
+like a dark line on the near frontier, threatening war and pillage
+and severe check to the westward advance of our people. They were
+a serious matter to a new government, limited in resources and
+representing only three millions of people.
+
+Fortunately the President was of all men best fitted to deal with
+this grave question, for he knew the Indians thoroughly. His earliest
+public service had been to negotiate with them, and from that time on
+he had been familiar with them in peace and in diplomacy, while he had
+fought with them in war over and over again. He was not in the least
+confused in his notions about them, but saw them, as he did most
+facts, exactly as they were. He had none of the false sentimentality
+about the noble and injured red man, which in later days has been at
+times highly mischievous, nor on the other hand did he take the purely
+brutal view of the fighting scout or backwoodsman. He knew the Indian
+as he was, and understood him as a dangerous, treacherous,
+fighting savage. Better than any one else he appreciated
+the difficulties of Indian warfare when an army had to be
+launched into the wilderness and cut off from a base of supplies.
+He was well aware, too, that the western tribes were a constant
+temptation to England and Spain on either border, and might be used
+against us with terrible effect. In taking up the question for
+solution, he believed first, as was his nature, in justice, and he
+resolved to push every pacific measure, and strive unremittingly by
+fair dealing and binding treaties to keep a peace which was of great
+moment to the young republic. But he also felt that pacific measures
+were an uncertain reliance, and that sharp, decisive blows were often
+the only means of maintaining peace and quiet on the frontier, and
+of warding off English and Spanish intrigue. This was the policy he
+indicated in the brief sentences of his first speech, and it only
+remains to see how he carried it out.
+
+The outlook in regard to the Indians, when Washington assumed the
+presidency, was threatening enough. The Continental Congress had shown
+in this respect most honorable intention and some vigor, but their
+honest purposes had been in large measure thwarted by the action of
+the various States, which they were unable to control. In New York
+peace reigned, despite some grumbling; for the Six Nations had made a
+general treaty, and also two special treaties, not long before, which
+were on the whole just and satisfactory. At the same time a general
+treaty had been made with the western Indians, which modified some of
+the injustices of the treaties of 1785, and which were also fair and
+reasonable. In this treaty, however, the tribes of the Wabash were not
+included, and they therefore were engaged in war with the Kentucky
+people. Those hardy backwoodsmen were quick enough to retaliate, and
+they generally proceeded on the simple backwoods principle that tribal
+distinctions were futile, and that every Indian was an enemy. This
+view, it must be admitted, saved a good deal of thought, but it led
+the Kentuckians in their raids to kill many Indians who did not belong
+to the Wabash tribes, but to those protected by treaty. The result
+of this impartiality was, that, besides the chronic Wabash troubles,
+there was every probability that a general war with all the western
+and northwestern tribes might break out at any moment.
+
+South of the Ohio, matters were even worse. The Choctaws, it is
+true, owing to their distance from our frontier settlements, were on
+excellent terms with our government. But the Cherokees had just
+been beaten and driven back by Sevier and his followers from the
+short-lived state of Franklin, and had taken refuge with the Creeks.
+These last were a formidable people. Not only were they good fighters,
+but they were also well armed, thanks to their alliance with the
+Spaniards, from whom they obtained not only countenance, but guns,
+ammunition, and supplies. They were led also by a chief of remarkable
+ability, a Scotch half-breed, educated at Charlestown, and named
+Alexander McGillivray. With a tribe so constituted and commanded, it
+was not difficult to bring on trouble, as soon proved to be the case.
+Georgia had claimed and seized certain lands under treaties which she
+alleged had been made, whereupon the Creeks denied the validity of
+these treaties and went to war, in which they were highly successful.
+The Georgians had already asked assistance from their neighbors, and
+they now demanded it from the new general government. Thereupon, under
+an act of Congress, Washington appointed as commissioners to arrange
+the difficulties General Lincoln, Colonel Humphrey, and David Griffin
+of Virginia, all remote from the scene of conflict, and all judicious
+selections. The Creeks readily met the new commissioners, but when
+they found that no lands were to be given up, they declined to treat
+further, and said they would await a new negotiation.
+
+Washington attributed this failure, and no doubt correctly, to the
+intrigues and influence of Spain. On the day the report of the
+commissioners went to Congress, he wrote to Governor Pinckney of South
+Carolina: "For my own part I am entirely persuaded that the present
+general government will endeavor to lay the foundations for its
+proceedings in national justice, faith, and honor. But should the
+government, after having attempted in vain every reasonable pacific
+measure, be obliged to have recourse to arms for the defense of its
+citizens, I am also of opinion that sound policy and good economy will
+point to a prompt and decisive effort, rather than to defensive and
+lingering operations." "Lingering" had been the curse of our Indian
+policy, and it was this above all things that Washington was
+determined to be rid of. Whether peace or war, there was to be quick
+and decisive action. He therefore, in this spirit, at once sent
+southward another commissioner, Colonel Willett, who very shrewdly
+succeeded in getting McGillivray and his chiefs to agree to accompany
+him to New York. Thither they accordingly came in due time, the Scotch
+half-breed and twenty-eight of his chiefs. They were entertained and
+well treated at the seat of government, and there, with Knox acting
+for the United States, they made a treaty which involved concessions
+on both sides. The Creeks gave up all claims to lands north and east
+of the Oconee, and the United States, under a recent general act
+regulating trade and intercourse with the Indians, gave up all lands
+south and west of the same river, and agreed to make the tribes an
+annual present. Then Washington gave them wampum and tobacco, and
+shook hands with them, and the chiefs went home. There was grumbling
+on both sides, especially among the Georgians, but nevertheless the
+treaty held for a time at least, and there was peace.
+
+Washington's policy of justice had succeeded, and the Indians got an
+idea of the power and fair dealing of the new government, which was of
+real value. More valuable still was the lesson to the people of the
+United States that this central government meant to deal justly
+with the Indians, and would try to prevent any single State from
+frustrating by bad faith the policy designed to benefit the whole
+country. Trouble soon began again in this direction, and in later days
+States inflated with state-right doctrines carried this resistance in
+Indian affairs to a much greater extent, and flouted the acts of the
+federal government. This, however, does not detract from the wisdom of
+the President, who inaugurated the policy of acting justly toward
+the Indians, and of overruling the selfish injustice of the State
+immediately affected. If the policy of justice and firmness adopted by
+Washington had never been abandoned, it would have been better for the
+honor and the interest both of the nation and the separate States.
+
+The same pacific policy which had succeeded in the south was tried in
+the west and failed. The English, with their usual thoughtfulness,
+incited the Indians to claim the Ohio as their boundary, which meant
+war and murderous assaults on all our people traveling on the river.
+Retaliation, of course, followed, and in April, 1790, Colonel Harmer
+with a body of Kentucky militia invaded the Indian country, burned a
+deserted village, and returned without having accomplished anything
+substantial. The desultory warfare of murder and pillage went on for a
+time, and then Washington felt that the moment had come for the other
+branch of his policy. At all events there should be no lingering, and
+there should be action. Peaceful measures having failed, there should
+be war and a settlement in some fashion.
+
+Accordingly, in the fall of 1790, soon after his successful Creek
+negotiation, he ordered out some three hundred regulars and eleven
+hundred militia from Pennsylvania and Kentucky, and sent them under
+Harmer into the Miami country. The expedition burned a village on the
+Scioto; and then Colonel Hardin, detached with some hundred and
+fifty men in pursuit of the Indians, was caught in an ambush and
+his regulars cut off, the militia running away apparently quite
+successfully. Thereupon Harmer retreated; but, changing his mind in a
+day or two, advanced again, and again sent out Hardin with a larger
+force than before. Then the advance was again surprised, and the
+regulars nearly all killed, while the militia, who stood their ground
+better this time, lost about a hundred men. The end was the repulse
+of the whites after a pretty savage fight. Then Harmer withdrew
+altogether, declaring, with a strange absence of humor, if of no more
+important quality, that he had won a victory. After reaching home,
+this mismanaged expedition caused much crimination and heart-burning,
+followed by courts-martial on Hardin and Harmer, who were both
+acquitted, and by the resignation of the latter.
+
+This defeat of course simply made worse the state of affairs in
+general, and the Six Nations, who had hitherto been quiet, became
+uneasy and were kept so by the ever-kind incitement of the English.
+Various mediations with these powerful tribes failed; but Colonel
+Pickering, appointed a special commissioner, managed at last to
+appease their discontents. To the southward also the Cherokees began
+to move and threaten, but were pacified by the exertions of Governor
+Blount of the Southwest Territory. Meantime an act had been passed to
+increase the army, and Arthur St. Clair was appointed major-general.
+Washington, who had been greatly disturbed by the failure of Harmer,
+was both angered and disheartened by the conduct of the States and of
+the frontier settlers. "Land-jobbing, the intermeddling of the States,
+and the disorderly conduct of the borderers, who were indifferent as
+to the killing of an Indian," were in his opinion the great obstacles
+in the way of success. Yet these very men who shot Indians at sight
+and plundered them of their lands, as well as the States immediately
+concerned, were the first to cry out for aid from the general
+government when a war, brought about usually by their own violation of
+the treaties of the United States, was upon them. On the other hand,
+the Indians themselves were warlike and quarrelsome, and they were
+spurred on by England and Spain in a way difficult to understand at
+the present day.
+
+In all this perplexity, however, one thing was now clear to
+Washington. There could not longer be any doubt that the western
+troubles must be put down vigorously and by the armed hand. Even while
+he was negotiating in the north and south, therefore, he threw himself
+heart and soul into the preparation of St. Clair's expedition, pushing
+forward all necessary arrangements, and planning the campaign with a
+care and foresight made possible by his military ability and by his
+experience as an Indian fighter. While the main army was thus
+getting ready, two lesser expeditions, one under Scott and one under
+Wilkinson, were sent into the Indian country; but beyond burning some
+deserted villages and killing a few stray savages both were fruitless.
+
+At last all was ready. St. Clair had an interview with Washington, in
+which the whole plan of campaign was gone over, and especial warning
+given against ambuscades. He then took his departure at once for the
+west, and late in September left Cincinnati with some two thousand
+men. The plan of campaign was to build a line of forts, and
+accordingly one named Fort Hamilton was erected twenty-four miles
+north on the Miami, and then Fort Jefferson was built forty-four miles
+north of that point. Thence St. Clair pushed slowly on for twenty-nine
+miles until he reached the head-waters of the Wabash. He had been
+joined on the march by some Kentucky militia, who were disorderly
+and undisciplined. Sixty of them promptly deserted, and it became
+necessary to send a regiment after them to prevent their plundering
+the baggage trains. At the same time some Chickasaw auxiliaries, with
+the true rat instinct, deserted and went home. Nevertheless St. Clair
+kept on, and finally reached what proved to be his last camp, with
+about fourteen hundred men. The militia were on one side of the
+stream, the regulars on the other. At sunrise the next day the
+Indians surprised the militia, drove them back on the other camp, and
+shattered the first line of the regulars. The second line stood their
+ground, and a desperate fight ensued; but it was all in vain. The
+Indians charged up to the guns, and, though they were repulsed by the
+bayonet, St. Clair, who was ill in his tent, was at last forced to
+order a retreat. The retreat soon became a rout, and the broken army,
+leaving their artillery and throwing away their arms, fled back to
+Fort Jefferson, where they left their wounded, and hurried on to their
+starting-point at Fort Washington. It was Braddock over again. General
+Butler, the second in command, was killed on the field, while the
+total loss reached nine hundred men and fifty-nine officers, and of
+these six hundred were killed. The Indians do not appear to have
+numbered much more than a thousand. No excuse for such a disaster and
+such murderous slaughter is possible, for nothing but the grossest
+carelessness could have permitted a surprise of that nature upon
+an established camp. The troops, too, were not only surprised, but
+apparently utterly unprepared to fight, and the battle was merely a
+wild struggle for life.
+
+Washington was above all things a soldier, and his heart was always
+with his armies whenever he had one in the field. In this case
+particularly he hoped much, for he looked to this powerful expedition
+to settle the Indian troubles for a time, and give room for that
+great western movement which always was in his thoughts. He therefore
+awaited reports from St. Clair with keen anxiety, but in this case
+the ill tidings did not attain their proverbial speed. The battle was
+fought on November 4, and it was not until the close of a December
+day that the officer carrying dispatches from the frontier reached
+Philadelphia. He rode at once to the President's house, and Washington
+was called out from dinner, where he had company. He remained away
+some time, and on returning to the table said nothing as to what
+he had heard, talked with every one at Mrs. Washington's reception
+afterwards, and gave no sign. Through all the weary evening he was as
+calm and courteous as ever. When the last guest had gone he walked up
+and down the room for a few minutes and then suddenly broke out:
+"It's all over--St. Clair's defeated--routed; the officers nearly all
+killed, the men by wholesale; the rout complete--too shocking to think
+of--and a surprise into the bargain." He paused and strode up and down
+the room; stopped again and burst forth in a torrent of indignant
+wrath: "Here on this very spot I took leave of him; I wished him
+success and honor; 'You have your instructions,' I said, 'from the
+secretary of war; I had a strict eye to them, and will add but one
+word--Beware of a surprise! I repeat it--_beware of a surprise_! You
+know how the Indians fight us.' He went off with that as my last
+solemn warning thrown into his ears. And yet, to suffer that army to
+be cut to pieces, hacked, butchered, tomahawked, by a surprise, the
+very thing I guarded him against! O God, O God, he's worse than a
+murderer! How can he answer it to his country! The blood of the slain
+is upon him, the curse of widows and orphans, the curse of Heaven!"
+
+His secretary was appalled and silent, while Washington again strode
+fiercely up and down the room. Then he sat down, collected himself,
+and said, "This must not go beyond this room." Then a long silence.
+Then, "General St. Clair shall have justice. I looked hastily through
+the dispatches, saw the whole disaster, but not all the particulars;
+I will receive him without displeasure; I will hear him without
+prejudice; he shall have full justice." The description of this scene
+by an eye-witness has been in print for many years, and yet we find
+people who say that Washington was cold of heart and lacking in human
+sympathy. What could be more intensely human than this? What a warm
+heart is here, and what a lightning glimpse of a passionate nature
+bursting through silence into burning speech! Then comes the iron will
+which has mastered all the problems of his life. "He shall have full
+justice;" and St. Clair had justice. He had been an unfortunate
+choice, but as a Revolutionary soldier and governor of the Northwest
+Territory his selection had been natural. He had never been a
+successful general, for it was not in him to be so. Something he
+lacked, energy, decision, foresight, it matters not what. But at least
+he was brave. Broken by sickness, he had displayed the utmost personal
+courage on that stricken field; and for this Washington would always
+forgive much. He received the unfortunate general kindly. He could not
+order a court martial, for there were no officers of sufficient rank
+to form one; but he gave St. Clair every opportunity for vindication,
+and a committee of Congress investigated the campaign and exculpated
+the leader. His personal bravery saved him and his reputation, but
+nothing can alter the fact that the surprise was unpardonable and the
+disaster awful.
+
+Immediate results of the St. Clair defeat were not so bad as might
+have been expected. Panic, of course, ran rampant along the frontier,
+reaching even to Pittsburg; but the Indians failed to follow up
+their advantage, and did not come. Still the alarm was there, and
+Pennsylvania and Virginia ordered troops to be raised, while Congress
+also took action. Another increase of the army was ordered, with
+consequent increase of appropriation, so that this Indian victory
+entered at this point into the great current of the financial policy,
+and thus played its part in the events on which parties were dividing,
+and history was being made.
+
+No matter what happened, however, there was to be neither lingering
+nor delay in this business. The President set to work at once to
+organize a fresh army, and fight out a settlement of the troubles. His
+first thought for a new commander was of Henry Lee of Virginia, but
+considerations of rank deterred him. He then selected and appointed
+Wayne, who recently had got into politics and been deprived, on a
+contested election, of his seat in the House. No little grumbling
+ensued over this appointment, especially in Virginia, but it was
+unheeded by the President, and its causes now are not very clear.
+The event proved the wisdom of the choice, as so often happened with
+Washington, and it is easy to see the reason for it. Wayne was one
+of the shining figures of our Revolution, appealing strongly to the
+imagination of posterity. He was not a great general in the highest
+sense, but he was a brilliant corps-commander, capable of daring feats
+of arms like the storming of Stony Point. He was capable also of
+dashing with heedless courage into desperate places, and incurring
+thereby defeat and consequent censure, but escaping entire ruin
+through the same quickness of action which had involved him in
+trouble. He was well fitted for the bold and rapid movement
+required in Indian warfare, and with him Washington put well-chosen
+subordinates, selected evidently for their fighting capacity, for he
+clearly was determined that this should be at all events a fighting
+campaign.
+
+Wayne, after his appointment, betook himself to Pittsburg, and
+proceeded with characteristic energy to raise and organize his army,
+a work of no little difficulty because he wished to have picked men.
+Washington did all that could be done to help him, and at the same
+time pushed negotiations with admirable patience, but with very
+varying success. Kirkland brought chiefs of the Six Nations to
+Congress with good results, and the Cherokees were pacified by
+additional presents. On the other hand, the Creeks were restless,
+stirred up always by Spain, and two brave officers, sent to try
+for peace with the western tribes, were murdered in cold blood.
+Nevertheless, treaties were patched up with some of them, and a great
+council was held in the fall of 1792, the Six Nations acting as
+mediators, which resulted in a badly kept armistice, but in nothing of
+lasting value. The next year Congress passed a general act regulating
+trade and intercourse with the Indians, and Washington appointed yet
+another commission to visit the northwestern tribes, more to
+satisfy public opinion than with any hope of peace. Indeed, these
+commissioners never succeeded in even meeting the Indians, who
+rejected in advance all proposals which would not concede the Ohio as
+the boundary. English influence, it was said, was at the bottom of
+this demand, and there seems to be little doubt that such was the
+case, for England and France were now at war, and England thereupon
+had redoubled her efforts to injure the United States by every sort of
+petty outrage both on sea and land. This masterly policy had perhaps
+reasons for its existence which pass beyond the average understanding,
+but, so far as any one can now discover, it seems to have had no
+possible motive except to feed an ancient grudge and drive the country
+into the arms of France. Carried on for a long time in secret,
+this Indian intrigue came to the surface in a speech made by Lord
+Dorchester to the western tribes, in which he prophesied a speedy
+rupture with the United States and urged his hearers to continue war.
+It is worth remembering that for five years, covertly or openly,
+England did her best to keep an Indian war with all that it implied
+alive upon our borders,--the borders of a friendly nation with whom
+she was at peace.
+
+But while Washington persistently negotiated, he as persistently
+prepared to fight, not trusting overmuch either the savages or the
+English. Wayne, with similar views, moved his army forward in the
+autumn of 1793 to a point six miles beyond Fort Jefferson, and then
+went into winter quarters. Early in the spring of 1794 he was in
+motion again and advanced to St. Clair's battlefield, where he built
+Fort Recovery, and where he was attacked by the Indians, whom he
+repulsed after two days' fighting. He then marched in an unexpected
+direction and struck the central villages at the junction of the Au
+Glaize and Maumee. The surprised savages fled, and Wayne burned their
+village, laid waste their extensive fields, and built Fort Defiance.
+To the Indians, who had retreated thirty miles down the Maumee to the
+shelter of a British post, he sent word that he was ready to treat.
+The reply came back asking for a delay of ten days; but Wayne at once
+advanced, and found the Indians prepared for battle near the English
+fort. The ground was unfavorable, especially for cavalry, but Wayne
+made good arrangements and attacked. The Indians gave way before the
+bayonet, and were completely routed, the American loss being only one
+hundred and seven men. The army was not averse to storming the English
+fort; but Wayne, with unusual caution, contented himself with a sharp
+correspondence with the commandant, and then withdrew after a most
+successful campaign. The next year, strengthened by his victory and by
+the surrender of the British posts under the Jay treaty, Wayne made
+a treaty with the western tribes by which vast tracts of disputed
+territory were ceded to the United States, and peace was established
+in that long troubled region.
+
+On the southern frontier there were no such fortunate results. While
+Washington was negotiating and fighting in the north and west, all
+his patient efforts were frustrated in the south by the conduct of
+Georgia. The borderers kept assailing the Indians, peaceful tribes
+being generally chosen for the purpose; and the State itself broke
+through and disregarded all treaties and all arrangements made by the
+United States. The result was constant disquiet and chronic war, with
+the usual accompaniments of fire, murder, and pillage.
+
+On the whole, however, when Washington left the presidency, his
+Indian policy had been a marked success. In place of uncertainty and
+weakness, a definite general system had been adopted. The northern
+and western tribes had been beaten and pacified, and the southern
+incursions and disorders had been much checked. The British posts, the
+most dangerous centres of Indian intrigue, had been abandoned, and the
+great regions of the west and northwest had been opened to the tide of
+settlement. These results were due to a well-defined plan, and above
+all to the persistent vigor which pushed steadily forward to its
+object without swinging, as had been done before, between feverish and
+often misdirected activity on the one side and complete and
+feeble inaction on the other. They were achieved, too, amid many
+difficulties, for there was anything but a unanimous support of the
+government in its Indian affairs. The opposition grumbled at the
+expense, and said that money needlessly raised by taxation was
+squandered in Indian wars, while the great body of the people, living
+safely along the eastern coast, thought but little about the frontier.
+Some persons took the sentimental view and considered the government
+barbarous to make causeless war. Others believed that altogether
+too much of the public time and money were wasted in looking after
+outlying settlements. The borderers themselves, on the other hand,
+thought that the general government was in league with the savages,
+and broke through treaties, and destroyed so far as they could the
+national policy. St. Clair was hissed and jeered as he traveled home,
+but a wakeful opposition turned from the unsuccessful general to a
+vain attempt to prove that ambushed savages and sleeping sentries were
+due to a weak war department and a corrupt and inefficient treasury.
+The mass of moderate people, no doubt, desired tranquillity on the
+frontier, and sustained the President's labors for that end, but for
+the most part they were silent. The voices that Washington heard most
+loudly joined in a discordant chorus of disapproval around his Indian
+policy. No one understood that here was an important part of a scheme
+to build up a nation, to make all the movements of the United States
+broad and national, and to open the vast west to the people who were
+to make it theirs. Washington heard all the criticism and saw all the
+opposition, and still pressed forward to his goal, not attaining all
+he wished, but fighting in a very clear and manful spirit, and not
+laboring in vain.
+
+The Indian question in its management touched, as has been seen, at
+various points our financial policy and our foreign relations, on
+which the history of the country really turned in those years. The
+latter had not risen to their later importance when the government
+began, but the former was knocking importunately at the door of
+Congress when it first assembled. The condition of affairs is soon
+told. The Revolution narrowly escaped shipwreck on the financial
+reefs, and the shaky government of the confederation had there gone to
+pieces. The country, as a political organism, was bankrupt. It owed
+sums of money, which were vast in amount for those days, both at
+home and abroad, and it could not pay these debts, nor was there any
+provision for them. All interest was in arrears, there were no means
+provided for meeting it, and the national credit everywhere was
+dishonored and gone. The continental currency had disappeared, and the
+circulating medium was represented by a confused jumble of foreign
+coins and worthless scrip. Many of the States were up to their eyes in
+schemes of inflation, paper money, and repudiation. There was no money
+in the treasury to pay the ordinary charges of government; there was
+no revenue and no policy for raising one, or for funding the debt.
+This picture is darkly drawn, but it is not exaggerated. That high
+spirit of public honor, which seventy-five years later rose above the
+ravages of war and the temptings of dishonesty to pay the debt and the
+interest, dollar for dollar in gold, seemed in 1789 to be wellnigh
+extinct. But it was not dead. It was confused and overclouded in the
+minds of the people, but it was still there, and it was strong, clear,
+and determined in Washington and those who followed him.
+
+Congress grappled with the financial difficulties in the most
+courageous and honest way, but it struggled with them rather
+helplessly despite its good disposition. It could lay taxes in one way
+or another so as to get money, but this was plainly insufficient. It
+could not formulate a coherent policy, which was the one essential
+thing, nor could it settle the thousand and one perplexing questions
+which hedged the subject on every side. The members turned, therefore,
+with a sigh of relief to the new Secretary of the Treasury, asked him
+the questions which were troubling them, and having directed him to
+make various reports, adjourned.
+
+The result is well known. The great statesman to whom the task was
+confided assumed it with the boldness and ease of conscious power,
+and when Congress reassembled it listened to the first report on
+the public credit. In that great state paper all the confusions
+disappeared, and in terse sentences an entire scheme for funding the
+debt, disposing of the worthless currency, and raising the necessary
+revenue came out clear and distinct, so that all men could comprehend
+it. The provision for the foreign debt passed without resistance. That
+for the domestic debt excited much debate, and also passed. Last came
+the assumption of the state debts, and over that there sprang up
+a fierce struggle. It was carried by a narrow majority, and then
+defeated by the votes of the North Carolina members, who had just
+taken their seats. Washington strongly favored this hotly contested
+measure. He defended it in a letter to David Stuart, and again
+to Jefferson, at a later time, when that statesman was trying to
+undermine Hamilton by wailing about a "corrupt squadron" in Congress.
+
+To Washington, assumption seemed as obviously just as it does to
+posterity. All the debts had been incurred in a common cause, he said,
+why should they not be cared for by the common government? He had
+no patience with the sectional argument that assumption was unfair,
+because some States got more out of it than others. Some States had
+suffered more than others, but all shared in the freedom that had been
+won.[1] He saw in it, moreover, as Hamilton had seen, something far
+more important than a mere provision for the debts and for the payment
+of money to this community or to that. Assumption was essentially a
+union measure. The other debts were incurred by the central government
+directly, but the state debts were incurred by the States for a common
+cause. If the United States assumed them, it showed to the people and
+to the world that there were no state lines when the interests of the
+whole country were involved. It was therefore a national measure, a
+breeder of national sentiment, a new bond to fasten the States to each
+other and to the Union. This was enough to assure Washington's hearty
+approval; but the measure was saved and carried finally by the famous
+arrangement between Hamilton and Jefferson, which took the capital
+to the Potomac and made the war debts of the States a part of the
+national debt. Washington was more than satisfied with this solution,
+for both sides of the agreement pleased him, and there was nothing in
+the compromise which meant sacrifice on his part. He rejoiced in
+the successful adoption of the great financial policy of his
+administration, and he was much pleased to have the capital, in which
+he was intensely interested, placed near to his own Mount Vernon, in
+the very region he would have selected if he had had the power of
+fixing it.
+
+[Footnote 1: Sparks, _Writings of Washington_, x. 98.]
+
+The next great step in the development of the financial policy was the
+establishment of the national bank, and on this there arose another
+bitter contest in Congress and in the newspapers. A sharp opposition
+had developed by this time, and the supporters of the Secretary of the
+Treasury became on their side correspondingly ardent. In this debate
+much stress was laid on the constitutional point that Congress had no
+power to charter a bank. Nevertheless, the bill passed and went to the
+President, with the constitutional doubts following it and pressed
+home in this last resort. As has been seen from his letters written
+just after the Philadelphia convention, Washington was not a blind
+worshiper of the Constitution which he had helped so largely to make;
+but he believed it would work, and every day confirmed his belief. He
+felt, moreover, that one great element of its lasting success lay
+in creating a genuine reverence for it among the people, and it was
+therefore of the utmost importance that this reverence should begin
+among those to whom the management of the government had been
+intrusted. For this reason he exercised a jealous care in everything
+touching the organic law of the Union, and he was peculiarly sensitive
+to constitutional objections to any given measure. In the case of the
+national bank, the objections were strongly as well as vigorously
+urged, and Washington paused, before signing, to the utmost limit of
+the time allowed. He turned to Jefferson and Randolph, both opposed
+to the bill, and asked them for their objections to its
+constitutionality. They gave him in response two able reports. These
+he sent to Hamilton, who returned them with that most masterly
+argument, in which he not only defended the bank charter, but
+vindicated, in a manner never afterwards surpassed, the new doctrine
+of the implied powers of the Constitution. With both sides thus before
+him, Washington considered the question, and signed the bill.
+
+Rives, in his "Life of Madison," intimates that Washington had doubts
+even after signing, but of this there is no evidence of any weight. He
+was not a man who indulged in doubts after he had made up his mind and
+rendered a decision, and it was not in his nature to fret over what
+had been done and was past, whether in war or peace. The story that he
+was worried about his action in this instance arose from his delay in
+signing, and from the disappointment of those who had hoped much
+from his hesitation. This pause, however, was both natural and
+characteristic. Washington had approved Morris's bank policy in the
+Revolution, and remembered the service it rendered. He was familiar
+with Hamilton's views on the subject, and knew that they were the
+result of long study and careful thought. He must also have known that
+any financial policy devised by his Secretary of the Treasury would
+contain as an integral part a national bank. There can be no doubt
+that both the plan for the bank and the report which embodied it were
+submitted to him before they went in to Congress, but the violence of
+the objections raised there on constitutional grounds awakened
+his attention in a new direction. He saw at once the gravity of a
+question, which involved not merely the incorporation of a bank,
+but which opened up a new field of constitutional powers and
+constitutional construction. When such far-reaching results were
+involved he paused and reflected, and, as was always the case with him
+under such circumstances, listened to and examined all the arguments
+on both sides. This done he decided, and with his national feeling
+he could not have decided otherwise than he did. The doctrine of the
+implied powers of the Constitution was the greatest weapon possible
+for those whose leading thought was to develop the union of States
+into a great and imperial nation; and we may well believe that it was
+this feeling, and not merely faith in the bank as a financial engine,
+which led Washington to sign the bill. When he did so he assented to
+the charter of a national bank, but he also assented to the doctrine
+of the implied powers and gave to that far-reaching construction of
+the Constitution the great weight of his name and character. It was,
+perhaps, the most important single act of his presidency.
+
+It is impossible here, even were it necessary, to follow Washington's
+action in regard to all the details which went to make up and to
+sustain Hamilton's policy, to which, as a whole, Washington gave his
+hearty approval and support. The revenue system, the public lands,
+the arrangement of loans, the mint, all alike met with his active
+concurrence. He was too great a man not to value rightly Hamilton's
+work, and the way in which that work brought order, credit, honor, and
+prosperity out of a chaos of debt and bankruptcy appealed peculiarly
+to his own love for method, organization, and sound business
+principles. He met every criticism on Hamilton's policy without
+concession, and defended it when it was attacked. To Hamilton's genius
+that policy must be credited, but it gained its success and strength
+largely from the firm support of Washington.
+
+There are two matters, however, connected with the Treasury
+Department, which cannot be passed over in this general way. One was
+a policy reasoned out and published by Hamilton, but never during his
+lifetime put into the form of law in the broad and systematic manner
+which he desired. The other was a consequence of his financial policy
+as adopted, but which reached far beyond the bounds of financial
+arrangements. The first was the policy set forth in Hamilton's Report
+on Manufactures. The second was the enforcement of the excise and its
+results.
+
+The defense of our commerce against foreign discriminations was a
+proximate cause of the movement which resulted in the Constitution of
+the United States, and closely allied to it was the anxious wish to
+develop our internal resources and our domestic industry. This idea
+was not at all new. Sporadic attempts to start and carry on various
+industries had been made during the colonial period. They had all
+failed, either because the watchful mother-country took pains to
+stifle them, or because lack of capital and experience, in addition to
+foreign competition, killed them almost at their birth. The idea of
+developing American industries was generally diffused for the
+first time when the colonists strove to bring England to terms by
+non-intercourse acts. The Americans then thought that they could carry
+their points by making war upon the British pocket, and excluding
+English merchants from their markets. The next step, of course, was
+to supply their own markets themselves; and the non-intercourse
+agreements, which were economically prohibitory tariff acts, gave a
+fitful impulse to various simple industries. In the clash of arms this
+idea naturally dropped out of the popular mind, but it began to revive
+soon after the return of peace. The government of the confederation
+was too feeble to adopt any policy in this or any other matter, but
+in the first Congress the desire to develop American industries found
+expression. The first tariff was laid primarily to raise the revenue
+so sorely needed at that moment. But the effort to do this gave rise
+to a debate in which the policy of protection, strongly advocated by
+the Pennsylvanian members, was freely discussed. Nobody, however, at
+that time, had any comprehensive plan or general system, so that the
+efforts for protection were incoherent, and resulted only in certain
+special protective features in the tariff bill, and not in a broad
+and well-rounded measure. Still the protective idea was there; it was
+recognized in the preamble of the act, and the constitutionality of
+the policy was affirmed by the framers and contemporaries of the
+Constitution.
+
+Hamilton, of course, watched all these movements intently. His guiding
+thought in all things was the creation of a great nation. For this he
+strove for national unity and national sentiment, and he saw of course
+that one essential condition of national greatness was industrial
+independence, in addition to the political independence already won.
+One of the greatest thinkers of the time on all matters of public
+finance and political economy, he perceived at once that the irregular
+attempts of Congress to encourage home industries could have at best
+but partial results. He saw that a system broad, just, and continental
+in its scope must take the place of the isolated industries which
+now and again obtained an uncertain protection under the haphazard
+measures of Congress. With these views and purposes he wrote and sent
+to Congress his Report on Manufactures. In that great state paper he
+made an argument in behalf of protection, as applied to the United
+States and to the development of home industries, which has never been
+overthrown. The system which he proposed was imperial in its range and
+national in its design, like everything that proceeded from Hamilton's
+mind. He argued, of course, with reference to existing economic
+conditions, and in behalf only of what he then sought,--industrial
+independence and the establishment and diversification of industries.
+The social side of the question, which to-day overshadows all others,
+was not visible a hundred years ago. The Report, however, bore no
+immediate fruit, and Hamilton had been in his grave for years before
+the country turned from this practice of accidental protection, and
+tried to replace it by a broad, coherent system as set forth by the
+great Secretary.
+
+But although it had no result at the moment, the Report on
+Manufactures, which laid the foundation of the American protective
+system, and which has so powerfully influenced American political
+thought, was one of the very greatest events of Washington's
+administration. To trace its effects and history through the
+succeeding century would be wholly out of place here. All that
+concerns us is Washington's relation to this far-reaching policy of
+his Secretary. If we had not a word or a line on the subject from his
+pen, we should still know that the policy of Hamilton was his policy
+too, for Washington was the head of his own administration, and was
+responsible and meant to be responsible for all its acts and policies.
+With his keen foresight he saw the full import of the Report on
+Manufactures, and we may be sure that when it went forth it was with
+his full and cordial approval, and after that minute consideration
+which he gave to all public questions. But we are not left to
+inference. We have Washington's views and feelings on this matter set
+forth again and again, and they show that the principle of the Report
+on Manufactures was as near and dear to him, and as full of meaning,
+as it was to Hamilton.
+
+Washington was brought up and had lived all his life under a system
+which came as near as possible to the ideal of the modern free-trader.
+The people of Virginia were devoted almost entirely to a single
+interest, tobacco-growing, that being the occupation in which they
+could most profitably engage. No legislative artifices had been
+employed to enable them to diversify their industries or to establish
+manufactures. They bought in the cheapest market every luxury and
+most of the necessities of life. British merchants supplied all their
+wants, carried their tobacco, and advanced them money. Cheap labor, a
+single staple with wide fluctuations of value, a credit system, entire
+dependence on foreigners, and absolute free trade according to the
+Manchester theories, should have produced an earthly paradise. As a
+matter of fact, the Virginia planters had little ready money and were
+deeply in debt. Bankruptcy, as has been already said, seems to have
+come to them about once in a generation. The land, rapidly exhausted
+by tobacco, was prodigally wasted, and the general prosperity
+declined. Washington, with his strong sense and perfect business
+methods, personally escaped most of these evils, but he saw the
+mischief of the system all the more clearly. It was bad enough in
+his time, but he did not live to see Virginia with her wasted and
+exhausted lands stand still, while her sister States to the north
+passed her with giant strides in the race for wealth and population.
+He did not live to see her become, as a result of her colonial system,
+a mere breeder of slaves for the plantations of the Gulf States. But
+he saw enough, and the lesson taught him by the results of industrial
+dependence was well learned.
+
+When the war came and he was carrying the terrible burden of the
+Revolution, he learned the same lesson in a new and more bitter way.
+Nothing went so near to wreck the American cause as lack of all the
+supplies by which war was carried on, for the United States produced
+little or nothing of what was then needed. The resources of the
+northern colonies were soon exhausted, and the South had none. Powder,
+cannon, muskets, clothing, medical stores, all were lacking, and the
+fate of the nation hung trembling in the balance on account of the
+dependence in which the colonies had been kept by the skillful policy
+of England. These were teachings that a lesser man than Washington
+would have taken to heart and pondered deeply. In the midst of the
+struggle he wrote to James Warren (March 31, 1779): "Let vigorous
+measures be adopted, ... to punish speculators, forestallers, and
+extortioners, and, above all, to sink the money by heavy taxes,
+to promote public and private economy, and _to encourage
+manufactures_.[1] Measures of this sort, gone heartily into by the
+several States, would strike at once at the root of all our evils,
+and give the _coup de grace_ to the British hope of subjugating this
+continent either by their arms or their acts."
+
+[Footnote 1: The italics are mine.]
+
+To Lafayette he wrote in 1789: "Though I would not force the
+introduction of manufactures by extravagant encouragements and to the
+prejudice of agriculture, yet I conceive much might be done in
+that way by women, children, and others, without taking one really
+necessary hand from tilling the earth. Certain it is, great savings
+are already made in many articles of apparel, furniture, and
+consumption. Equally certain it is, that no diminution in agriculture
+has taken place at this time, when greater and more substantial
+improvements in manufactures are making than were ever before known in
+America."
+
+In the same year he wrote to Governor Randolph, favoring bounties, the
+strongest form of protection; and this encouragement he wished to have
+given to that industry which a hundred years later has been held up as
+one of the least deserving of all that have received the assistance of
+legislation. He said in this letter: "From the original letter, which
+I forward herewith, your Excellency will comprehend the nature of a
+proposal for introducing and establishing the woolen manufacture
+in the State of Virginia. In the present stage of population and
+agriculture, I do not pretend to determine how far that plan may be
+practicable and advisable; or, in case it should be deemed so, whether
+any or what public encouragement ought to be given to facilitate
+its execution. _I have, however, no doubt as to the good policy
+of increasing the number of sheep in every state_.[1] By a little
+legislative encouragement the farmers of Connecticut have, in two
+years past, added one hundred thousand to their former stock. If a
+greater quantity of wool could be produced, and if the hands which are
+often in a manner idle could be employed in manufacturing it, a spirit
+of industry might be promoted, a great diminution might be made in
+the annual expenses of individual families, and the public would
+eventually be exceedingly benefited." The only hesitation is as to the
+time of applying the policy. There is no doubt as to the wisdom of the
+policy itself, of giving protection and encouragement in every proper
+legislative form to domestic industry.
+
+[Footnote 1: The italics are mine.]
+
+In his first speech to Congress he recommended measures for the
+advancement of manufactures, having already affixed his signature to
+the bill which declared their encouragement to be one of its objects.
+At the same time he wrote, in reply to an address: "The promotion
+of domestic manufactures will, in my conception, be among the first
+consequences which may naturally be expected to flow from an energetic
+government." In 1791 he consulted Hamilton as to the advisability of
+urging Congress to offer bounties for the culture of cotton and hemp,
+his only doubts being as to the power of the general government in
+this respect, and as to the temper of the time in regard to such an
+expenditure of public money. The following year Hamilton's Report
+on Manufactures was given to the country, finally establishing the
+position of the administration as to our economic policy.
+
+The general drift of legislation, although it was not systematized,
+followed the direction pointed out by the administration. But this did
+not satisfy Washington. In his speech to Congress, December 7, 1796,
+he said: "Congress has repeatedly, and not without success, directed
+their attention to the encouragement of manufactures. _The object is
+of too much consequence not to insure a continuance of their efforts
+in every way which shall appear eligible._"[1] He then goes on to
+argue at some length that, although manufacturing on the public
+account is usually inexpedient, it should be established and carried
+on to supply all that was needed for the public force in time of war.
+This was his last address to Congress, and his last word on this
+matter was to approve the course of Congress in following the
+recommendation of his first speech. All his utterances and all his
+opinions on the subject were uniform. Washington had never been a
+student of public finance or political economy like Hamilton, and he
+lived before the days of the Manchester school and its new gospel
+of procuring heaven on earth by special methods of transacting the
+country's business. But Washington was a great man, a state-builder
+who fought wars and founded governments. He knew that nations were
+raised up and made great and efficient, and that civilization was
+advanced, not by _laissez aller_ and _laissez faire_, but by much
+patient human striving. He had fought and conquered, and again he had
+fought and been defeated, and through all he had come to victory, and
+to certain conclusive results both in peace and war. He had not done
+this by sitting still and letting each man go his way, but by strong
+brain and strong will, and by much organization and compulsion. He had
+set his hand to the building of a nation. He had studied his country
+and understood it, and with calm, far-seeing eyes he had looked
+forward into the future of his people. Neither the study nor the
+outlook were vain, and both told him that political independence
+was only part of the work, and that national sentiment, independent
+thinking, and industrial independence also must be reached. The
+first two, time alone could bring. The last, wise laws could help
+to produce; and so he favored protection by legislation to American
+industry and manufactures, threw all his potent influence into the
+scale, and gave his support to the protective policy set forth by his
+Secretary.
+
+[Footnote 1: The italics are mine.]
+
+Two matters connected with the treasury, I have said, deserved
+fuller consideration than a general review could give. The one just
+described, the policy of the Report on Manufactures, came, as has been
+seen, to no clear and immediate result. The other reached a very
+sharp and definite conclusion, not without great effect on the new
+government of the United States, both at the moment and in the future.
+When Hamilton "struck the rock of the national resources," the stream
+of revenue which he sought at the outset was that flowing from duties
+on imports, for this, in his theory, was not only the first source,
+but the best. He would fain have had it the only one; but the
+situation drove him forward. The assumption of the state debts, a
+part of the legacy of the Revolution, and the continuing and at first
+increasing expenses of unavoidable Indian wars, made additional
+revenue absolutely essential. He turned therefore to the excise on
+domestic spirits to furnish what was needed.
+
+Washington approved assumption. It was a measure of honesty, it would
+raise the public credit, and above all, it was thoroughly national in
+its operation and results. The appropriations for Indian wars he of
+course approved, for their energetic prosecution was part of the
+vigorous policy toward our wild neighbors upon which he was so
+determined. It followed, of course, that he did not shrink from
+imposing the taxes thus made necessary; and to raise the money from
+domestic spirits seemed to him, under the existing exigency, to be
+what it was,--thoroughly proper and reasonable both in form and
+subject.
+
+It would seem, however, that neither Washington nor Hamilton realized
+the unpopularity of this mode of getting revenue. The frontier
+settlers along the line of the Alleghanies in Pennsylvania, Virginia,
+and North Carolina, who distilled whiskey, were not very familiar,
+perhaps, with Johnson's dictionary, but they would have cordially
+accepted his definition of an excise. To them it was indeed a "hateful
+tax," and nothing else. In fact, the word was one disliked throughout
+the States, for it brought up evil memories, and excited much jealous
+hostility and prejudice. The first excise law, therefore, when it went
+into force, was the signal for a general outburst of opposition; and
+in the Alleghany region, as might have been expected, the resistance
+was immediate and most bitter. State legislatures passed resolutions,
+public meetings were held and more resolutions were passed, while
+in the wilder parts of the country threats of violence were freely
+uttered. All these murmurings and menaces came on the passage of the
+first bill in 1791. The administration, however, had no desire to
+precipitate an uncalled-for strife, and so the law was softened and
+amended in the following year, the tax being lowered and the most
+obnoxious features removed. The result was general acquiescence
+throughout most of the States, and renewed opposition in the western
+counties of Pennsylvania and North Carolina. In the former a meeting
+was held denouncing the law, pledging the people to "boycott" the
+officers, and hinting at forcible resistance. If the people engaged in
+this business had stopped to consider the men with whom they had
+to deal, they would have been saved a great deal of suffering and
+humiliation. The President and his Secretary of the Treasury were not
+men who could be frightened by opposition or violent speeches. But
+angry frontiersmen, stirred up by demagogues, are not given to much
+reflection, and they meant to have their own way.
+
+Washington was quite clear in his policy from the beginning. He was
+ready to make every proper concession, but when this was done he meant
+on his side to have his own way, which was the way of law and order
+and good government. He wrote to Hamilton in August, 1792: "If, after
+these regulations are in operation, opposition to the due exercise of
+the collection is still experienced, and peaceable procedure is no
+longer effectual, the public interests and my duty will make it
+necessary to enforce the laws respecting this matter; and however
+disagreeable this would be to me, it must nevertheless take place."
+
+Meantime the disorders went on, and the officers were insulted and
+thwarted in the execution of their duty. Washington's next letter
+(September 7) has a touch of anger. He hated disorder and riot
+anywhere, but he was disgusted when they came from the very people for
+whose defense the Indian war was pushed and the excise made necessary.
+He approved of Hamilton's sending out an officer to examine into the
+survey, and said: "If, notwithstanding, opposition is still given to
+the due execution of the law, I have no hesitation in declaring, if
+the evidence of it is clear and unequivocal, that I shall, however
+reluctantly I exercise them, exert all the legal powers with which the
+executive is invested to check so daring and unwarrantable a spirit.
+It is my duty to see the laws executed. To permit them to be trampled
+upon with impunity would be repugnant to it; nor can the government
+longer remain a passive spectator of the contempt with which they are
+treated. Forbearance, under a hope that the inhabitants of that
+survey would recover from the delirium and folly into which they
+were plunged, seems to have had no other effect than to increase the
+disorder."
+
+A few weeks later he issued a proclamation, declaring formally and
+publicly what he had already said in private. He warned the people
+engaged in resistance to the law that the law would be enforced, and
+exhorted them to desist. The proclamation was effective in the south,
+and the opposition died out in North Carolina. Not so in Pennsylvania.
+There the Scotch-Irish borderers who lived in the western counties
+were bent on having their way. A brave, self-willed, hotheaded,
+turbulent people, they were going to have their fight out. They
+had ridden rough-shod over the Quaker and German government in
+Pennsylvania before this, and they no doubt thought they could do the
+same with this new government of the United States. They merely made a
+mistake about the man at the head of the government; nothing more than
+that. Such mistakes have been made before. The Paris mob, for example,
+made a similar blunder on the 13th Vendemiaire, when Bonaparte settled
+matters by the famous whiff of grape-shot. There is some excuse for
+the error of our Scotch-Irish borderers in their past experience, more
+excuse still in the drift of other events that touched all men just
+then with the madness of France, and gave birth to certain democratic
+societies which applauded any resistance to law, even if the cause was
+no nobler than a whiskey still.
+
+Perhaps, too, the Pennsylvanians were encouraged by the moderation
+and deliberate movement of the government. A lull came after the
+proclamation of 1792. Then every effort was made to settle the
+troubles by civil processes and by personal negotiation, but all
+proved vain. The disturbances went on increasing for two years, until
+law was at an end in the insurgent counties. The mails were stopped
+and robbed, there were violence, bloodshed, rioting, attacks on the
+officers of the United States, and meetings threatening still worse
+things.
+
+Meanwhile Washington had waited and watched, and bided his time. He
+felt now that the moment had come when, if ever, public opinion must
+be with him, and that the hour had arrived when he must put his
+fortune to the touch, and "try if it were current gold indeed." On
+August 7 he issued a second proclamation, setting forth the outrages
+committed, and announcing his power to call out the militia, and his
+intention to do so if unconditional submission did not follow at once.
+As he wrote to a friend three days later: "Actual rebellion exists
+against the laws of the United States." On the crucial point, however,
+he felt safe. He was confident that all the public opinion worth
+having was now on his side, and that the people were ready to stand by
+the government. The quick and unconditional submission did not come,
+and on September 25 he issued a third proclamation, reciting the facts
+and calling out the militia of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and
+Virginia.
+
+Washington had judged rightly. The States responded, and the troops
+came to the number of fifteen thousand, for he was in the habit of
+doing things thoroughly, and meant to have an overwhelming force.
+To Governor Lee of Virginia the command of the combined forces was
+intrusted. "I am perfectly in sentiment with you, that the
+business we are drawn out upon should be effectually executed,
+and that the daring and factious spirit which threatens to
+overturn the laws and to subvert the Constitution ought to be
+subdued." Thus he wrote to Morgan, while the commissioners from the
+insurgents were politely received, and told that the march of the
+troops could not be countermanded. Washington would fain have gone
+himself, in command of the army, but he felt that he could not leave
+the seat of government for so long a time with propriety. He went as
+far as Bedford with the troops, and then parted from them. When he
+took leave, he wrote a letter to Lee, to be read to the army, in which
+he said: "No citizen of the United States can ever be engaged in a
+service more important to their country. It is nothing less than to
+consolidate and to preserve the blessings of that revolution which
+at much expense of blood and treasure constituted us a free and
+independent nation." Thus admonished, the army marched, Hamilton going
+with them in characteristic fashion to the end. They did their work
+thoroughly. The insurrection disappeared, and resistance dropped
+suddenly out of sight. The Scotch-Irish of the border, with all their
+love of fighting, found too late that they were dealing with a power
+very different from that of their own State. The ringleaders of the
+insurrection were arrested and tried by civil process, the disorders
+ceased, law reigned once more, and the "hateful tax" was duly paid and
+collected.
+
+The "Whiskey Rebellion" has never received due weight in the history
+of the United States. Its story has been told in the utmost detail,
+but its details are unimportant. As a fact, however, it is full of
+meaning, and this meaning has been too much overlooked. That this
+should be so, is not to be wondered at, for everything has conspired
+to make it seem, after a century has gone by, both mean and trivial.
+Its very name suggests ridicule and contempt, and it collapsed so
+utterly that people laughed at it and despised it. Its leaders, with
+the exception of Gallatin, were cheap and talkative persons of
+little worth, and the cause itself was neither noble, romantic, nor
+inspiriting. Nevertheless, it was a dangerous and formidable business,
+for it was the first direct challenge to the new government. It was
+the first clear utterance of the stern question asked of every people
+striving to live as a nation, Have you a right to live? Have you a
+government able to fight and to endure? Have you men ready to take up
+the challenge? These questions were put by rough frontier settlers,
+and put in the name and for the sake of distilling whiskey unvexed by
+law. But they were there, they had to be answered, and on the reply
+the existence of the government was at stake. If it failed, all was
+over. If the States did not respond to this first demand, that they
+should put down disorder and dissension within the borders of one of
+their number, the experiment had failed. It came, as it almost always
+does come, to one man to make the answer. That man took up the
+challenge. He did not move too soon. He waited with unerring judgment,
+as Lincoln waited with the Proclamation of Emancipation, until he had
+gathered public opinion behind him by his firmness and moderation.
+Then he struck, and struck so hard that the whole fabric of
+insurrection and riot fell helplessly to pieces, and wiseacres looked
+on and laughed, and thought it had been but a slight matter after all.
+The action of the government vindicated the right of the United States
+to live, because they had proved themselves able to keep order. It
+showed to the American people that their government was a reality
+of force and power. If it had gone wrong, the history of the United
+States would not have differed widely from that of the confederation.
+No mistake was made, and people regarded the whole thing as an
+insignificant incident, and historians treat it as an episode. There
+could be no greater tribute to the strong and silent man who did the
+work and bore the stress of waiting for nearly five years. He did his
+duty so well and so completely that it seems nothing now, and yet the
+crushing of that insurrection in the western counties of Pennsylvania
+was one of the turning-points in a nation's life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+FOREIGN RELATIONS
+
+
+Our present relations with foreign nations fill as a rule but a slight
+place in American politics, and excite generally only a languid
+interest, not nearly so much as their importance deserves. We have
+separated ourselves so completely from the affairs of other people
+that it is difficult to realize how commanding and disproportionate a
+place they occupied when the government was founded. We were then a
+new nation, and our attitude toward the rest of the world was wholly
+undefined. There was, therefore, among the American people much
+anxiety to discover what that attitude would be, for the unknown is
+always full of interest. Moreover, Europe was still our neighbor, for
+England, France, and Spain were all upon our borders, and had large
+territorial interests in the northern half of the New World. Within
+fifteen years we had been colonies, and all our politics, except those
+which were purely local and provincial, had been the politics of
+Europe; for during the eighteenth century we had been drawn into and
+had played a part in every European complication, and every European
+war in which England had the slightest share. Thus the American people
+came to consider themselves a part of the European system, and looked
+to Europe for their politics, which was a habit of thought both
+natural and congenial to colonists. We ceased to be colonists when
+the Treaty of Paris was signed; but treaties, although they settle
+boundaries and divide nations, do not change customs and habits of
+thought by a few strokes of the pen. The free and independent people
+of the United States, as there has already been occasion to point out,
+when they set out to govern themselves under their new Constitution,
+were still dominated by colonial ideas and prejudices. They felt,
+no doubt, that the new system would put them in a more respectable
+attitude toward the other nations of the earth. But this was probably
+the only definite popular notion on the subject. What our actual
+relations with other nations should be, was something wholly vague,
+and very varying ideas were entertained about it by communities and
+by individuals, according to their various prejudices, opinions, and
+interests.
+
+The one idea, however, that the American people did not have on this
+subject was, that they should hold themselves entirely aloof from the
+politics of the Old World, and have with other nations outside the
+Americas no relations except those born of commerce. It had not
+occurred to them that they should march steadily forward on a course
+which would drive out European governments, and sever the connections
+of those governments with the North American continent. After a
+century's familiarity, this policy looks so simple and obvious that
+it is difficult to believe that our forefathers could even have
+considered any other seriously; but in 1789 it was so strange that no
+one dreamed of it, except perhaps a few thinkers speculating on the
+future of the infant nation. It was something so novel that when
+it was propounded it struck the people like a sudden shock of
+electricity. It was so broad, so national, so thoroughly American,
+that men still struggling in the fetters of colonial thought could not
+comprehend it. But there was one man to whom it was neither strange
+nor speculative. To Washington it was not a vague idea, but a
+well-defined system, which he had been long maturing in his mind.
+
+Before he had been chosen President, he wrote to Sir Edward Newenham:
+"I hope the United States of America will be able to keep disengaged
+from the labyrinth of European politics and wars; and that before long
+they will, by the adoption of a good national government, have become
+respectable in the eyes of the world, so that none of the maritime
+powers, especially none of those who hold possessions in the New
+World or the West Indies, shall presume to treat them with insult or
+contempt. It should be the policy of the United States to administer
+to their wants without being engaged in their quarrels. And it is
+not in the power of the proudest and most polite people on earth to
+prevent us from becoming a great, a respectable, and a commercial
+nation if we shall continue united and faithful to ourselves." This
+plain statement shows his fixed belief that in an absolute breaking
+with the political affairs of other peoples lay the most important
+part of the work which was to make us a nation in spirit and in truth.
+He carried this belief with him when he took up the Presidency, and it
+was the chief burden of the last words of counsel which he gave to his
+countrymen when he retired to private life. To have begun and carried
+on to a firm establishment this policy of a separation from Europe
+would have required time, skill, and patience even under the calmest
+and most favorable conditions. But it was the fate of the new
+government to be born just on the eve of the French Revolution. The
+United States were at once caught up and tossed by the waves of that
+terrific storm, and it was in the midst of that awful hurly-burly,
+when the misdeeds of centuries of wrong-doing were brought to an
+account, that Washington opened and developed his foreign policy. It
+was a great task, and the manner of its performance deserves much and
+serious consideration.
+
+His first act in foreign affairs, on entering the Presidency, was to
+make the minister of France understand that the government of the
+United States was to be treated with due formality and respect.
+His second was to examine the whole mass of foreign correspondence
+collected in the State Department of the confederation, and he did
+this, as has been said, pencil in hand, making notes and abstracts as
+he went. It was well worth doing, for he learned much, and from this
+laborious study and thorough knowledge certain facts became apparent,
+for the most part of a hard and unpleasant nature. First, he saw that
+England, taking advantage of our failure to fulfill completely our
+obligations under the treaty, had openly violated hers, and continued
+to hold the fortified posts along the northwestern and western
+borders. Here was a dangerous thorn which pricked sharply, for the
+posts in British hands offered constant temptations to Indian risings,
+and threatened war both with the savages and with Great Britain.
+Further west still, Spain held the Mississippi, closed navigation,
+and intrigued to separate our western settlers from the Union. No
+immediate danger lay here, but still peril and need of close watching,
+for the Mississippi was never to slip out of our power. The mighty
+river and the great region through which it flows were important
+features in that empire which Washington foresaw. His plan was that we
+should get them by binding the settlers beyond the Alleghanies to the
+old States with roads, canals, and trade, and then trust to those
+hardy pioneers to keep the river and its valley for themselves and
+their country. All that was needed for this were time, and vigilant
+firmness with Spain.
+
+Beyond the sea were the West India Islands, the home of a commerce
+long carried on by the colonies and of much profit to them, especially
+to those of New England. This trade was now hampered by England, and
+was soon to be still further blocked, and thereby become the cause of
+much bickering and ill-will.
+
+Across the ocean we maintained with the Barbary States the relations
+usual between brigands and victims, and we tried to make treaties with
+them, and really paid tribute to them, as was the fashion in dealing
+with those pirates at that period. With Holland, Sweden, and Prussia
+we had commercial treaties, and the Dutch sent a minister to the
+United States. With France alone were our relations close. She had
+been our ally, and we had formed with her a treaty of alliance and a
+treaty of commerce, as well as a consular convention, which we were at
+this time engaged in revising. To most of the nations of the world,
+however, we were simply an unknown quantity, an unconsidered trifle.
+The only people who really knew anything about us were the English,
+with whom we had fought, and from whom we had separated; the French,
+who had helped us to win our independence; and the Dutch, from whom
+we had borrowed money. Even these nations, with so many reasons for
+intelligent and profitable interest in the new republic, failed, not
+unnaturally, to see the possibilities shut up in the wild American
+continent.
+
+To the young nation just starting thus unnoticed and unheeded,
+Washington believed that honorable peace was essential, if a firm
+establishment of the new government, and of a respectable and
+respected position in the eyes of the world, was ever to be attained;
+and it was toward England, therefore, as the source of most probable
+trouble, that Washington turned to begin his foreign policy. The
+return of John Adams had left us without a minister at London,
+and England had sent no representative to the United States. The
+President, therefore, authorized Gouverneur Morris, who was going
+abroad on private business, to sound the English government informally
+as to an exchange of ministers, the complete execution of the treaty
+of peace, and the negotiation of a commercial treaty. The mission was
+one of inquiry, and was born of good and generous feelings as well as
+of broad and wise views of public policy. "It is in my opinion very
+important," he wrote to Morris, "that we avoid errors in our system of
+policy respecting Great Britain; and this can only be done by forming
+a right judgment of their disposition and views."
+
+What was the response to these fair and sensible suggestions? On the
+first point the assent was ready enough; but on the other two, which
+looked to the carrying out of the treaty and the making of a treaty of
+commerce, there was no satisfaction. Morris, who was as high-spirited
+as he was able, was irritated by the indifference and hardly concealed
+insolence shown to him and his business. It was the fit beginning of
+the conduct by which England for nearly a century has succeeded in
+alienating the good-will of the people of the United States. Such a
+policy was neither generous nor intelligent, and politically
+it was a gross blunder. Washington, however, was too great
+a man to be disturbed by the bad temper and narrow ideas
+of English ministers. After his fashion he persevered in
+what he knew to be right and for his country's interest, and in due
+time a diplomatic representation was established, while later still,
+in the midst of difficulties of which he little dreamed at the outset,
+he carried through a treaty that removed the existing grievances. In a
+word, he kept the peace, and it lasted long enough to give the United
+States the breathing space they so much needed at the beginning of
+their history.
+
+The greatest perils in our foreign relations came, as it happened,
+from another quarter, where peace seemed most secure, and where no man
+looked for trouble. The government of the United States and the French
+revolution began almost together, and it is one of the strangest facts
+of history that the nation which helped so powerfully to give freedom
+to America brought the results of that freedom into the gravest peril
+by its own struggle for liberty. When the great movement in France
+began, it was hailed in this country with general applause, and with a
+sympathy as hearty as it was genuine, for every one felt that France
+was now to gain all the blessings of free government with which
+America was familiar. Our glorious example, it was clear, was destined
+to change the world, and monarchies and despotisms were to disappear.
+There was to be a new political birth for all the nations, and the
+reign of peace and good-will was to come at once upon the earth at
+the hands of liberated peoples freely governing themselves. It was a
+natural delusion, and a kindly one. History, in the modern sense, was
+still unwritten, and men did not then understand that the force and
+character of a revolution are determined by the duration and intensity
+of the tyranny and misgovernment which have preceded and caused it.
+The vast benefit destined to flow from the French revolution was to
+come many years after all those who saw it begin were in their graves,
+but at the moment it was expected to arrive immediately, and in a form
+widely different from that which, in the slow process of time, it
+ultimately assumed. Moreover, Americans did not realize that the
+well-ordered liberty of the English-speaking race was something
+unknown and inconceivable to the French.
+
+There were a few Americans who were never deceived for a moment, even
+by their hopes. Hamilton, who "divined Europe," as Talleyrand said,
+and Gouverneur Morris, studying the situation on the spot with keen
+and practical observation, soon apprehended the truth, while others
+more or less quickly followed in their wake. But Washington, whom no
+one ever credited with divination, and who never crossed the Atlantic,
+saw the realities of the thing sooner, and looked more deeply into the
+future than anybody else. No man lived more loyal than he, or more
+true to the duties of gratitude; but he looked upon the world of facts
+with vision never dimmed nor dazzled, and watched in silence, while
+others slept and dreamed. Let us follow his letters for a moment. In
+October, 1789, in the first flush of hope and sympathy, he wrote to
+Morris: "The revolution which has been effected in France is of so
+wonderful a nature that the mind can hardly realize the fact. If it
+ends as our last accounts to the first of August predict, that nation
+will be the most powerful and happy in Europe; but I fear though it
+has gone triumphantly through the first paroxysm, it is not the last
+it has to encounter before matters are finally settled. In a word,
+the revolution is of too great magnitude to be effected in so short
+a space, and with the loss of so little blood.... To forbear running
+from one extreme to another is no easy matter; and should this be the
+case, rocks and shelves, not visible at present, may wreck the vessel,
+and give a higher-toned despotism than the one which existed before."
+
+Seven years afterwards, reviewing his opinions in respect to France,
+he wrote to Pickering: "My conduct in public and private life, as it
+relates to the important struggle in which the latter is engaged, has
+been uniform from the commencement of it, and may be summed up in a
+few words: that I have always wished well to the French revolution;
+that I have always given it as my decided opinion that no nation had a
+right to intermeddle in the internal concerns of another; that every
+one had a right to form and adopt whatever government they liked best
+to live under themselves; and that if this country could, consistently
+with its engagements, maintain a strict neutrality and thereby
+preserve peace, it was bound to do so by motives of policy, interest,
+and every other consideration that ought to actuate a people situated
+as we are, already deeply in debt, and in a convalescent state from
+the struggle we have been engaged in ourselves."
+
+Thus prepared, Washington waited and saw his cautious predictions
+verified, and the revolution rush headlong from one extreme to
+another. He also saw the flames spread beyond the borders of France,
+changing and dividing public opinion everywhere; and he knew it was
+only a question of time how soon the new nation, at whose head he
+stood, would be affected. Histories and biographies which treat of
+that period, as a rule convey the idea that the foreign policy of our
+first administration dealt with the complications that arose as they
+came upon us. Nothing could be further from the truth, for the general
+policy was matured at the outset, as has been seen in the letter to
+Newenham, and the occasions for its application were sure to come
+sooner or later, in one form or another. Washington was not surprised
+by the presence of the perils that he feared, and danger only made
+him more set on carrying out the policy upon which he had long since
+determined. In July, 1791, he wrote to Morris: "I trust we shall never
+so far lose sight of our own interest and happiness as to become
+unnecessarily a party to these political disputes. Our local situation
+enables us to maintain that state with respect to them which otherwise
+could not, perhaps, be preserved by human wisdom." He followed this up
+with a strong and concise argument as to the advantage and necessity
+of this policy, showing a complete grasp of the subject, which came
+from long and patient thought.
+
+All his firmness and knowledge were needed, for the position was most
+trying. With every ship that brought news of the extraordinary doings
+in Europe, the applause which greeted the early uprisings of Paris
+grew less general. The wise, the prudent, the conservative, cooled
+gradually at first, and then more quickly in their admiration of the
+French; but in the beginning, this deepening and increasing hostility
+to the revolution kept silence. It was popular to be the friend of
+France, and highly unpopular to be anything else. But when excesses
+multiplied and blood flowed, when religion tottered and the
+foundations of society were shaken, this silence was broken.
+Discussion took the place of harmonious congratulation, and it soon
+became apparent that there was to be a sharp and bitter division of
+public opinion, growing out of the affairs of France. It was necessary
+for the government to maintain a friendly yet cautious attitude toward
+our former ally, and not endanger the stability of the Union and the
+dignity of the country by giving to the French sympathizers any good
+ground for accusing them of ingratitude, or of lukewarmness toward
+the cause of human rights. That a time would soon come when decisive
+action must be taken, Washington saw plainly enough; and when that
+moment arrived, the risk of fierce party divisions on a question of
+foreign politics could not be avoided. Meantime domestic bitterness on
+these matters was to be repressed and delayed, and yet in so doing
+no step was to be taken which would involve the country in any
+inconsistency, or compel a change of position when the crisis was
+actually reached. The policy of separating the United States from all
+foreign politics is usually dated from what is called the neutrality
+proclamation; but the theory, as has been pointed out, was clear and
+well defined in Washington's mind when he entered upon the presidency.
+The outlines were marked out and pursued in practice long before the
+outbreak of war between France and England put his system to the
+touch. In everything he said or wrote, whether in public or private,
+his tone toward France was so friendly that her most zealous supporter
+could not take offense, and at the same time it was so absolutely
+guarded that the country was committed to nothing which could hamper
+it in the future. The course of the administration as a whole, and its
+substantive acts as well, were in harmony with the tone of expression
+used by the President; for Washington, it may be repeated, was the
+head of his own administration, a fact which the biographers of the
+very able men who surrounded him are too prone to overlook. In this
+case he was not only the leader, but the work was peculiarly his own,
+and a few extracts from his letters will show the completeness of his
+policy and the firmness with which he followed it whenever occasion
+came.
+
+To Lafayette he wrote in July, 1791, a letter full of sympathy, but
+with an undertone of warning none the less significant because it was
+veiled. Coming to a point where there was an intimation of trouble
+between the two countries, he said: "The decrees of the National
+Assembly respecting our tobacco and oil do not appear to be very
+pleasing to the people of this country; but I do not presume that any
+hasty measures will be adopted in consequence thereof; for we have
+never entertained a doubt of the friendly disposition of the French
+nation toward us, and are therefore persuaded that, if they have done
+anything which seems to bear hard upon us at a time when the Assembly
+must have been occupied in very important matters, and which, perhaps,
+would not allow time for a due consideration of the subject, they will
+in the moment of calm deliberation alter it and do what is right."
+
+[Illustration: LAFAYETTE]
+
+The unfriendly act was noted, so that Lafayette would understand that
+no tame submission was intended, and yet no resentment was expressed.
+The same tone can be noticed in a widely different direction.
+Washington foresaw that the troubles in France, sooner or later, would
+involve her in war with England. The United States, as the former
+allies of the French, were certain to attract the attention of the
+mother country, and so he watched on that side also with equal
+caution. England, if possible, was to be made to understand that the
+American policy was not dictated by anything but the interests and the
+dignity of the United States, and their resolve to hold aloof from
+European complications. In June, 1792, he wrote to Morris: "One thing,
+however, I must not pass over in silence, lest you should infer from
+it that Mr. D. had authority for reporting that the United States had
+asked the mediation of Great Britain to bring about a peace between
+them and the Indians. You may be fully assured, sir, that such
+mediation never was asked, that the asking of it never was in
+contemplation, and I think I might go further and say that it not only
+never will be asked, but would be rejected if offered. The United
+States will never have occasion, I hope, to ask for the interposition
+of that power, or any other, to establish peace within their own
+territory."
+
+Here is again the same note, always so true and clear, that the United
+States are not colonies but an independent nation. So far as it was in
+the power of the President, this was something which should be heard
+by all men, even at the risk of much reiteration. It was a fact not
+understood at home and not recognized abroad, but Washington proposed
+to insist upon it so far as in him lay, until it was both understood
+and admitted.
+
+Meantime the flames were ever spreading from Paris, consuming and
+threatening to consume the heaped up rubbish of centuries, and also
+burning up many other more valuable things, as is the way with great
+fires when they get beyond control. Many persons were interested in
+the things of worth now threatened with destruction, and many others
+in the rubbish and the tyrannous abuses. It was clear that war of a
+wide and far-reaching kind could not be long put off. In March, 1793,
+Washington wrote: "All our late accounts from Europe hold up the
+expectation of a general war in that quarter. For the sake of
+humanity, I hope such an event will not take place. But if it should,
+I trust that we shall have too just a sense of our own interest to
+originate any cause that may involve us in it."
+
+Even while he wrote, the general war that he anticipated, the war
+between France and England, had come. The news reached him at Mount
+Vernon, and in the letter to Jefferson announcing his immediate
+departure for Philadelphia he said: "War having actually commenced
+between France and Great Britain, it behooves the government of this
+country to use every means in its power to prevent the citizens
+thereof from embroiling us with either of those powers, by endeavoring
+to maintain a strict neutrality. I therefore require that you will
+give the subject mature consideration, that such measures as shall be
+deemed most likely to effect this desirable purpose may be adopted
+without delay." These instructions were written on April 12, and on
+the 18th Washington was in Philadelphia, and had sent out a series
+of questions to be considered by his cabinet and answered on the
+following day. After much discussion, it was unanimously agreed
+to issue a proclamation of neutrality, to receive the new French
+minister, and not to convene Congress in extra session. The remaining
+questions were put over for further consideration.
+
+Hamilton framed the questions, say the historians; Randolph drafted
+the proclamation, says his biographer, in a very instructive and fresh
+discussion of the relations between the Secretary of State and the
+Attorney-General. It is interesting to know what share the President's
+advisers took when he consulted them on this momentous question, but
+the leading idea was his own. When the moment came, the policy long
+meditated and matured was put in force. The world was told that a new
+power had come into being, which meant to hold aloof from Europe,
+and which took no interest in the balance of power or the fate of
+dynasties, but looked only to the welfare of its own people and to the
+conquest and mastery of a continent as its allotted tasks. The policy
+declared by the proclamation was purely American in its conception,
+and severed the colonial tradition at a stroke. In the din then
+prevailing among civilized men, it was but little heeded, and even at
+home it was almost totally misunderstood; yet nevertheless it did
+its work. For twenty-five years afterward the American people slowly
+advanced toward the ground then taken, until the ideas of the
+neutrality proclamation received their final acceptance and extension
+at the hands of the younger Adams, in the promulgation of the Monroe
+doctrine. The shaping of this policy which was then launched was
+a great work of far-sighted and native statesmanship, and it was
+preeminently the work of the President himself.
+
+Moreover, it did not stop here. A circular to the officers of the
+customs provided for securing notice of infractions of the law, and
+the task of enforcing the principles laid down in the proclamation
+began. As it happened, the theory of neutrality was destined at once
+to receive rude tests of its soundness in practice. The new French
+minister was landing on our shores, and beginning his brief career in
+this country, while the proclamation was going from town to town and
+telling the people, in sharp and unaccustomed tones, that they were
+Americans and not colonists, and must govern themselves accordingly.
+
+Everything, in fact, seemed to conspire to make the path of the new
+policy rough and thorny. In the excitement of the time a large portion
+of the population regarded it as a party measure aimed against our
+beloved allies, while, to make the situation worse, France on one
+side and England on the other proceeded, as if deliberately, to do
+everything in their power to render neutrality impossible, and to
+drive us into war with some one.
+
+The new minister, Genet, could not have been better chosen, if the
+special errand for which he had been employed had been to make
+trouble. Light-headed and vain, with but little ability and a vast
+store of unintelligent zeal, the whirl of the French revolution flung
+him on our shores, where he had a glorious chance for mischief. This
+opportunity he at once seized. As soon as he landed he proceeded to
+arm privateers at Charleston. Thence he took his way north, and the
+enthusiastic popular acclaim which everywhere greeted his arrival
+almost crazed him, and drew forth a series of high-flown and most
+injudicious speeches. By the time he reached Philadelphia, and before
+he had presented his credentials, he had induced enough violations of
+neutrality, and sown the seeds of enough trouble, to embarrass our
+government for months to come.
+
+Washington had written to Governor Lee on May 6: "I foresaw in the
+moment information of that event (the war) came to me, the necessity
+for announcing the disposition of this country towards the belligerent
+powers, and the propriety of restraining, as far as a proclamation
+would do it, our citizens from taking part in that contest.... The
+affairs of France would seem to me to be in the highest paroxysm of
+disorder; not so much from the presence of foreign enemies, for in
+the cause of liberty this ought to be fuel to the fire of a patriot
+soldier and to increase his ardor, but because those in whose hands
+the government is intrusted are ready to tear each other to pieces,
+and will more than probably prove the worst foes the country has."
+
+He easily foresaw the moment of trial, when he would be forced to
+the declaration of his policy, which was so momentous for the United
+States, and he also understood the condition of affairs at Paris, and
+the probable tendencies and proximate results of the Revolution. It
+was evident that the great social convulsion had brought forth men of
+genius and force, and had maddened them with the lust of blood and
+power. But it was less easy to foresee, what was equally natural, that
+the revolution would also throw to the surface men who had neither
+genius nor force, but who were as wild and dangerous as their betters.
+No one, surely, could have been prepared to meet in the person of the
+minister of a great nation such a feather-headed mischief-maker as
+Genet.
+
+In everything relating to France Washington had observed the utmost
+caution, and his friendliness had been all the more marked because he
+had felt obliged to be guarded. He had exercised this care even in
+personal matters, and had refrained, so far as possible, from seeing
+the _emigres_ who had begun to come to this country. Such men as the
+Vicomte de Noailles had been referred to the State Department, and in
+many cases the maintenance of this attitude had tried his feelings
+severely, for the exiles were not infrequently men who had fought or
+sympathized with us in our day of conflict. Now came the new minister
+of the republic, a being apparently devoid of training or manners.
+Before he had been received, or had appeared at the seat of
+government, before he had even taken possession of his predecessor's
+papers, he had behaved in a way which would not have been
+inappropriate to a Roman governor of a conquered province. He had
+ordered the French consuls to act as admiralty courts, he had armed
+cruisers, enlisted and commissioned American citizens, and had seen
+the vessels of a power with which the United States were at peace
+captured in American waters, and condemned in the States by French
+consular courts. Three weeks before Genet's audience Jefferson had a
+memorial from the British minister, justly complaining of the injuries
+done his country under cover of our flag; and while the government was
+considering this pleasant incident, Genet was faring gayly northward,
+feted and caressed, cheered and applauded, the subject of ovations
+and receptions everywhere. At Philadelphia he was received by a
+great concourse of citizens, called together by the guns of the very
+privateer that had violated our neutrality, and led by provincial
+persons, who thought it fine to name themselves "citizen" Smith and
+"citizen" Brown, because that particular folly was the fashion in
+France. A day was passed in receiving addresses, and then Genet was
+presented to the President.
+
+A stranger contrast could not easily have been found even in that
+strange time, and two men more utterly unlike probably never faced
+each other as representatives of two great nations. In the difference
+between them the philosopher may find, perhaps, some explanation of
+the difference in the character and results of the revolutions which
+came so near together in the two countries. Nothing, moreover, could
+well be conceived more distasteful to Washington than the Frenchman's
+conduct except the Frenchman himself. There was about the man and his
+performances everything most calculated to bring one of those gusts of
+passionate contempt which now and again had made things unpleasant
+for some one who had failed in sense, decency, and duty. This was
+impossible to a President, but nevertheless his self-restraint from
+the beginning to the end of his intercourse with Genet was very
+remarkable in a man of his temperament. At their first interview his
+demeanor may have been a little colder than usual, and the dignified
+reserve somewhat more marked, but there was no trace of any feeling.
+His manner, nevertheless, chilled Genet and came upon him like a
+cold bath after the warm atmosphere of popular plaudits and turgid
+addresses. He went away grumbling, and complained that he had seen
+medallions of the Capets on the walls of the President's room.
+
+But although Washington was calm and polite, he was also watchful and
+prepared, as he had good reason to be, for Genet immediately began,
+in addition to his wild public utterances, to pour in notes upon the
+State Department. He demanded money; he announced in florid style the
+opening of the French ports; he wrote that he was ready to make a
+new treaty; and finally he filed an answer to the complaints of the
+British minister. His arguments were wretched, but they seemed to
+weigh with Jefferson, although not with the President; and meantime
+the dragon's teeth which he had plentifully sown began to come up and
+bear an abundant harvest. More prizes were made by his cruisers, and
+after many remonstrances one was ordered away, and two Americans whom
+Genet had enlisted were indicted. Genet declared that this was an act
+which his pen almost refused to state; but still it was done, and the
+administration pushed on and ordered the seizure of privateers fitting
+in American ports. Governor Clinton made a good beginning with one at
+New York, and in hot haste Genet wrote another note more furious and
+impertinent than any he had yet sent. He was answered civilly, and the
+work of stopping the sale of prizes went on.
+
+Meantime the opposition were not idle. The French sympathizers
+bestirred themselves, and attacks began to be made even on the
+President himself. The popular noise and clamor were all against the
+administration, but the support of it was really growing stronger,
+although the President and his secretaries could not see it.
+Jefferson, on whom the conduct of foreign affairs rested, was uneasy
+and wavering. He wrote able letters, as he was directed, but held, it
+is to be feared, quite different language in his conversations with
+Genet. Randolph argued and hesitated, while Hamilton, backed by Knox,
+was filled with wrath and wished more decisive measures. Still, as we
+look at it now across a century, we can observe that the policy went
+calmly forward, consistent and unchecked. The French minister was held
+back, privateers were stopped, the English minister's complaints were
+answered, every effort was made for exact justice, and neutrality was
+preserved. It was hard and trying work, especially to a man of strong
+temper and fighting propensities. Still it was done, and toward the
+end of June Washington went for a little rest to Mount Vernon.
+
+Then came a sudden explosion. One July morning the rumor ran through
+Philadelphia that the Little Sarah, a prize of the French man-of-war,
+was fitting out as a privateer. The reaction in favor of the
+administration was beginning, and men, indignant at the proceeding,
+carried the news to Governor Mifflin, and also to the Secretary
+of State. Great disturbance of mind thereupon ensued to these two
+gentlemen, who were both much interested in France and the rights of
+man. The brig would not sail before the arrival of the President, said
+the Secretary of State. Still the arming went on apace, and then came
+movements on the part of the governor. Dallas, Secretary of State for
+Pennsylvania, went at midnight to expostulate with Genet, who burst
+into a passion, and declared that the vessel should sail. This
+defiance roused the governor, and a company of militia marched to
+the vessel and took possession. Greatly excited, Jefferson went next
+morning to Genet, who very honestly declined to promise to detain the
+vessel, but said that she would not be ready to sail until Wednesday.
+This announcement, which was distinctly not a promise, the Secretary
+of State chose to accept as such, and as he was very far from being
+a fool, he did so either from timidity, or from a very unworthy
+political preference for another nation's interests to the dignity of
+his own country. At all events, he had the troops withdrawn, and the
+Little Sarah, now rejoicing in the name of the Petit Democrat,
+dropped down to Chester. Hamilton and Knox, being neither afraid nor
+un-American, were for putting a battery on Mud Island and sinking
+the privateer if she attempted to go by. Great saving of trouble and
+bloodshed would have been accomplished by the setting up of this
+battery and the sinking of this vessel, for it would have informed the
+world that though the United States were weak and young, they were
+ready nevertheless to fight as a nation, a fact which we subsequently
+were obliged to prove by a three years' war.
+
+Jefferson, however, opposed decisive measures, and while the cabinet
+wrangled, Washington, hurrying back from Mount Vernon, reached
+Philadelphia. He was full of just anger at what had been done and left
+undone. Jefferson, feeling uneasy, had gone to the country, where he
+was fond of making a retreat at unpleasant moments, and Washington at
+once wrote him a letter, which could not have been very agreeable
+to the discoverer of diplomatic promises in a refusal to give any.
+"What," said the President, "is to be done in the case of the Little
+Sarah, now at Chester? Is the minister of the French Republic to set
+the acts of this government at defiance _with impunity_? and then
+threaten the executive with an appeal to the people? What must the
+world think of such conduct, and of the government of the United
+States in submitting to it?" Then came a demand for an immediate
+opinion.
+
+To the tender feelings of the Secretary of State, who had not been
+considering the affair from an American standpoint, this must have
+seemed a violent and almost a coarse way of treating the "great
+republic," and he replied that the French minister had assured him
+that the vessel would not sail until the President reached a decision.
+Having got the vessel to Chester, however, by telling the truth, Genet
+now changed his tack. He lied about detaining her, and she went to
+sea. This performance filled the cup of Washington's disgust almost to
+overflowing, for he had what Jefferson seems to have totally lost at
+this juncture--a keen national feeling, and it was touched to the
+quick. The truth was, that in all this business Jefferson was thinking
+too much of France and of the cause of human liberty in Paris, while
+Washington thought of the United States alone. The result was
+the escape of the vessel, owing to Washington's absence, and the
+consequent humiliation to the government. To refrain from ordering
+Genet out of the country at once required a strong effort of
+self-control; but he wished to keep the peace as long as possible, and
+he proposed to get rid of him speedily but decorously. He resolved
+also that no more such outrages should be committed through his
+absence, and the consequent differences among his advisers. He
+continued, of course, to consult his cabinet, but he took the
+immediate control, more definitely even than before, into his own
+hands. On July 25 he wrote to Jefferson, whose vigor at this critical
+time he evidently doubted: "As the letter of the minister of the
+Republic of France, dated the 22d of June, lies yet unanswered, and
+as the official conduct of that gentleman, relative to the affairs of
+this government, will have to undergo a very serious consideration,
+... in order to decide upon measures proper to be taken thereupon, it
+is my desire that all the letters to and from that minister may
+be ready to be laid before me, the heads of departments, and the
+attorney-general, whom I shall advise with on the occasion." He also
+saw to it that better precautions should be taken by the officers of
+the customs to prevent similar attempts to break neutrality, and set
+the administration and the laws of the country at defiance.
+
+The cabinet consultations soon bore good fruit, and Genet's recall
+was determined on during the first days of August. There was some
+discussion over the manner of requesting the recall, but the terms
+were made gentle by Jefferson, to the disgust of the Secretary of the
+Treasury and the Secretary of War, who desired direct methods and
+stronger language. As finally toned up and agreed upon by the
+President and cabinet, the document was sufficiently vigorous to annoy
+Genet, and led to bitter reproaches addressed to his friend in the
+State Department. Then there was question about publishing the
+correspondence, and again Jefferson intervened in behalf of mildness.
+The substantive fact, however, was settled, and the letter asking
+Genet's recall, as desired by Washington, went in due time, and in the
+following February came a successor. Genet, however, did not go back
+to his native land, for he preferred to remain here and save his head,
+valueless as that article would seem to have been. He spent the rest
+of his days in America, married, harmless, and quite obscure. His
+noise and fireworks were soon over, and one wonders now how he could
+ever have made as much flare and explosion as he did.
+
+But even while his recall was being decided, before he knew of it
+himself, and long before his successor came, Genet's folly produced
+more trouble than ever, and his insolence rose to a higher pitch. The
+arming of privateers had been checked, but the consuls continued to
+arrogate powers which no self-respecting nation could permit, and for
+some gross offense Washington revoked the _exequatur_ of Duplaine,
+consul at Boston. An insolent note from Genet thereupon declared that
+the President had overstepped his authority, and that he should appeal
+to the sovereign State of Massachusetts. Next there was riot and the
+attempted murder of a man from St. Domingo who was accused by the
+refugees. Then it began to get abroad that Genet had threatened to
+appeal from the President to the people, and frantic denials ensued
+from all the opposition press; whereupon a card appeared from John Jay
+and Rufus King, which stated that they were authority for the story
+and believed it. Apologies now took the place of denial, and were
+backed by ferocious attacks on the signers of the card. Unluckily,
+intelligent people seemed to put faith in Jay and King rather than in
+the opposition newspapers, and the tide, which had turned some time
+before, now ran faster every moment against the French. To make it
+flow with overwhelming force and rapidity was reserved for Genet
+himself, who was furious at the Jay card, and wrote to the President,
+demanding a denial of the statement which it contained. A cool note
+informed him that the President did not consider it proper or material
+to make denials, and pointed out to him that he must address his
+communications to the State Department. This correspondence was
+published, and the mass of the people were at last aroused, and turned
+from Genet in disgust. The leaders tried vainly to separate the
+minister from his country, and Genet himself frothed and foamed,
+demanded that Randolph should sue Jay and King for libel, and declared
+that America was no longer free. This sad statement had little effect.
+Washington had triumphed completely, and without haste but with
+perfect firmness had brought the people round to his side as that of
+the national dignity and honor.
+
+The victory had been won at no little cost to Washington himself in
+the way of self-control. He had been irritated and angered at every
+step, so much so that he even referred in a letter to Richard Henry
+Lee to the trial of temper to which he had been put, a bit of personal
+allusion in which he rarely indulged. "The specimens you have seen,"
+he wrote, "of Mr. Genet's sentiments and conduct in the gazettes form
+a small part only of the aggregate. But you can judge from them to
+what test the temper of the executive has been put in its various
+transactions with this gentleman. It is probable that the whole will
+be exhibited to public view in the course of the next session of
+Congress. Delicacy towards his nation has restrained the doing of
+it hitherto. The best that can be said of this agent is, that he is
+entirely unfit for the mission on which he is employed; unless (which
+I hope is not the case), contrary to the express and unequivocal
+declaration of his country made through himself, it is meant to
+involve ours in all the horrors of a European war."
+
+But there was another side to the neutrality question even more full
+of difficulties and unpopularity, which began to open just as the
+worst of the contests with Genet was being brought to a successful
+close. Genet had not confined his efforts to the seaboard, nor been
+content with civic banquets, privateers, rioting, and insolent notes
+to the government. He had fitted out ships, and he intended also to
+levy armies. With this end in view he had sent his agents through the
+south and west to raise men in order to invade the Floridas on the
+one hand and seize New Orleans on the other. To conceive of such a
+performance by a foreign minister on the soil of the United States,
+requires an effort of the imagination to-day almost equal to that
+which would be necessary for an acceptance of the reality of the
+Arabian nights. It brings home with startling clearness not merely the
+crazy insolence of Genet, but a painful sense of the manner in which
+we were regarded by the nations of Europe. Still worse is the fact
+that they had good reason for their view. The imbecility of the
+confederation had bred contempt, and it was now seen that we were
+still so wholly provincial that a large part of the people was not
+only ready to condone but even to defend the conduct of the minister
+who engaged in such work. Worst of all, the people among whom the
+French agents went received their propositions with much pleasure. In
+South Carolina, where it was said five thousand men had been enlisted,
+there was sufficient self-respect to stop the precious scheme. The
+assembly arrested certain persons and ordered an inquiry, which
+came to nothing; but the effect of their action was sufficient. In
+Kentucky, on the other hand, the authorities would not interfere. The
+people there were always quite ready for a march against New Orleans,
+and that it did not proceed was due to Genet's inability to get money;
+for the governor declined to meddle, and the democratic society of
+Lexington demanded war. Matters looked so serious that the cavalry was
+sent to Kentucky, and the rest of the army wintered in Ohio. It was
+actually necessary to teach the American people by the presence of the
+troops of the United States that they must not enroll themselves in
+the army of a foreign minister.
+
+Nothing can show more strikingly than this the almost inconceivable
+difficulties with which the President was contending. To develop a
+policy of wise and dignified neutrality, and to impress it upon the
+world, was a great enough task in itself. But Washington was obliged
+to impress it also upon his own people, and to teach them that they
+must have a policy of their own toward other nations. He had to carry
+this through in the teeth of an opposition so utterly colonial that
+it could not grasp the idea of having any policy but that which, from
+sympathy or hate, they took from foreigners. Beyond the mountains, he
+had to bring this home to men to whom American nationality was such a
+dead letter that they were willing to defy their own government,
+throw off their allegiance, and enlist for an offensive war under the
+banners of a crazy French Girondist. It is neither easy nor pleasant
+to carry out a new foreign policy in time of general war, with one's
+own people united in its support; but when the foreign divisions are
+repeated at home, the task is enhanced in difficulty a thousand-fold.
+Nevertheless, there was the work to do, and the President faced it. He
+dealt with Genet, he prevailed in public opinion on the seaboard, and
+in some fashion he maintained order west of the mountains.
+
+Washington also saw, as we can see now very plainly, that, wrong and
+unpatriotic as the Kentucky attitude was, there was still an excuse
+for it. Those bold pioneers, to whom the country owes so much, had
+very substantial grievances. They knew nothing of the laws of nations,
+and did not yet realize that they had a country and a nationality; but
+they had the instincts of all great conquering races. They looked upon
+the Mississippi and felt that it was of right theirs, and that it must
+belong to the vast empire which they were winning from the wilderness.
+They saw the mighty river held and controlled by Spaniards, and they
+were harassed and interfered with by Spanish officials, whom they both
+hated and despised. To men of their mould and training there was but
+one solution conceivable. They must fight the Spaniard, and drive him
+from the land forever. Their purposes were quite right, but their
+methods were faulty. Washington, born to a life of adventure and
+backwoods conquest, had a good deal of real sympathy with these men,
+for he knew them to be in the main right, and his ultimate purposes
+were the same as theirs. But he had a nation in his charge to whom
+peace was precious. To have the backwoodsmen of Kentucky go down the
+river and harry the Spaniards out of the country, as their descendants
+afterwards harried the Mexicans out of Texas, would have been a
+refreshing sight, but it would have interfered sadly with the nation
+which was rising on the Atlantic seaboard, and of which Kentucky was a
+part. War was to be avoided, and above all a war into which we should
+have been dragged as the vassal of France; so Washington intended to
+wait, and he managed to make the Kentuckians wait too, a process by no
+means agreeable to that enterprising people.
+
+His own policy about the Mississippi, which has already been
+described, never wavered. He meant to have the great river, for his
+ideas of the empire of the future were quite as extended as those of
+the pioneers, and much more definite, but his way of getting it was
+to build up the Atlantic States and bind them, with their established
+resources, to the settlers over the mountains. This done, time would
+do the rest; and the sequel showed that he was right. A little more
+than a year after he came to the presidency he wrote to Lafayette:
+"Gradually recovering from the distresses in which the war left us,
+patiently advancing in our task of civil government, unentangled in
+the crooked politics of Europe, _wanting scarcely anything but the
+free navigation of the Mississippi, which we must have, and as
+certainly shall have, if we remain a nation_,"[1] etc.
+
+[Footnote 1: The italics are mine.]
+
+Time and peace, sufficient for the up-building of the nation, that is
+the theme everywhere. Yet he knew that a sacrifice of everything for
+peace was the surest road both to war and ruin. Peace must be kept;
+yet war was still the last resort, and he was ready to go to war with
+the Spaniards, as with the Indians, if all else failed. But he did
+not mean to have all else fail, nor did he mean to submit to Spanish
+insolence and exactions. The grievances of the pioneers of the West
+were to be removed, if possible, by treaty, and if that way was
+impossible, then by fighting.
+
+Carmichael, who had been minister at Madrid under the confederation,
+had been continued there by the new government. But while the
+intrigues of Spain to detach Kentucky, and the interference and
+exactions of Spanish officials, went on, our negotiation for the
+settlement of our rights to the navigation of the Mississippi halted.
+Tired of this inaction, Washington, late in 1791, united William
+Short, our minister to Holland, in a commission with Carmichael, to
+open a fresh and special negotiation as to the Mississippi, and at
+the same time a confidential agent was sent to Florida to seek some
+arrangements with the governor as to fugitive slaves, a matter of
+burning interest to the planters on the border. The joint commission
+bore no fruit, and the troubles in the West increased. Fostered by
+Genet, they came near bringing on war and detaching the western
+settlements from the Union, so that it was clearly necessary to take
+more vigorous measures.
+
+Accordingly, in 1794, after Genet had been dismissed, Washington sent
+Thomas Pinckney, who for some years had been minister in London, on
+a special treaty-making mission to Madrid. The first results were
+vexatious and unpromising enough, and Pinckney wrote at the outset
+that he had had two interviews with the Duke de Alcudia, but to no
+purpose. It was the old game of delay, he said, with inquiries as to
+why we had not replied to propositions, which in fact never had been
+made. Even what Pinckney wrote, unsatisfactory as it was, could not be
+wholly made out, for some passages were in a cipher to which the State
+Department had no key. Washington wrote to Pickering, then acting as
+Secretary of State: "A kind of fatality seems to have pursued this
+negotiation, and, in short, all our concerns with Spain, from the
+appointment of Mr. Carmichael, under the new government, as minister
+to that country, to the present day.... Enough, however, appears
+already to show the temper and policy of the Spanish court, and its
+undignified conduct as it respects themselves, and insulting as it
+relates to us; and I fear it will prove that the late treaty of peace
+with France portends nothing favorable to these United States."
+Washington's patience had been sorely tried by the delays and shifty
+evasions of Spain, but he was now on the brink of success, just as he
+concluded that negotiation was hopeless.
+
+He had made a good choice in Thomas Pinckney, better even than he
+knew. Triumphing over all obstacles, with persistence, boldness, and
+good management, Pinckney made a treaty and brought it home with him.
+Still more remarkable was the fact that it was an extremely good
+treaty, and conceded all we asked. By it the Florida boundary was
+settled, and the free navigation of the Mississippi was obtained. We
+also gained the right to a place of deposit at New Orleans, a pledge
+to leave the Indians alone, a commercial agreement modeled on that
+with France, and a board of arbitration to settle American claims.
+All this Pinckney obtained, not as the representative of a great and
+powerful state, but as the envoy of a new nation, distant, unknown,
+disliked, and embroiled in various complications with other powers.
+Our history can show very few diplomatic achievements to be compared
+with this, for it was brilliant in execution, and complete and
+valuable in result. Yet it has passed into history almost unnoticed,
+and both the treaty and its maker have been singularly and most
+unjustly neglected. Even the accurate and painstaking Hildreth omits
+the date and circumstances of Pinckney's appointment, while the last
+elaborate history of the United States scarcely alludes to the matter,
+and finds no place in its index for the name of its author. It was
+in fact one of the best pieces of work done during Washington's
+administration, and perfected its policy on a most difficult and
+essential point. It is high time that justice were done to the gallant
+soldier and accomplished diplomatist who conducted the negotiation and
+rendered such a solid service to his country. Thomas Pinckney, who
+really did something, who did work worth doing and without many words,
+has been forgotten, while many of his contemporaries, who simply made
+a noise, are freshly remembered in the pages of history.
+
+There was, however, another nation out on our western and northern
+border more difficult to deal with than Spain; and in this quarter
+there was less evasion and delay, but more arrogance and bad temper.
+It was to England that Washington turned first when he took up the
+presidency, and it was in her control of the western posts and her
+influence among the Indian tribes that he saw the greatest dangers
+to the continental movement of our people. Morris, as we have seen,
+sounded the British government with but little success. Still they
+promised to send a minister, and in due time Mr. George Hammond
+arrived in that capacity, and opened a long and somewhat fruitless
+correspondence with the Secretary of State on the various matters of
+difference existing between the two countries. This interchange of
+letters went on peaceably and somewhat monotonously for many months,
+and then suddenly became very vivid and animated. This was the effect
+of the arrival of Genet; and at this point begins the long series of
+mistakes made by Great Britain in her dealings with the United States.
+
+The principle of the declaration of neutrality could be easily upheld
+on broad political grounds, but technically its defense was by no
+means so simple. By the treaty of commerce with France we were bound
+to admit her privateers and prizes to our ports; and here, as any one
+could see, and as the sequel amply proved, was a fertile source of
+dangerous complications. Then by the treaty of alliance we guaranteed
+to France her West Indian possessions, binding ourselves to aid her
+in their defense; and a proclamation of neutrality when France was
+actually at war with a great naval power was an immediate and obvious
+limitation upon this guarantee. Hamilton argued that while France had
+an undoubted right to change her government, the treaty applied to a
+totally different state of affairs, and was therefore in suspense. He
+also argued that we were not bound in case of offensive war, and that
+this war was offensive. Jefferson and Randolph held that the treaties
+were as binding and as much in force now as they had ever been; but
+they both assented to the proclamation of neutrality. There can be
+little question that on the general legal principle Jefferson and
+Randolph were right. Hamilton's argument was ingenious and very
+fine-spun. But when he made the point about the character of the war
+as relieving us from the guarantee, he was unanswerable; and this of
+itself was a sufficient ground. He went beyond it in order to make his
+reasoning fit existing conditions consistently and throughout, and
+then it was that his position became untenable. In reality the French
+revolution was showing itself so wholly abnormal and was so rapid in
+its changes, that as a matter of practical statesmanship it was
+worse than idle even to suppose that previous treaties, made with an
+established government, were in force with this ever-shifting thing
+which the revolution had brought forth. Still the general doctrine as
+to the binding force of treaties remained unaltered, and this conflict
+between fact and principle was what constituted the great difficulty
+in the way of Washington and Hamilton. The latter met it with one
+clever and adroit argument which it was difficult to sustain, and
+avoided it with a second, which was narrower, but at the same time
+sound and all-sufficient, as to the character of the war. Jefferson
+and Randolph stood by the general principle, but abandoned it in
+practice under pressure of imperious facts, as men generally do, while
+France herself soon removed all technical difficulties by abrogating
+by her measures the treaty of commerce, an act which relieved us of
+any further obligations and justified Hamilton's position. But in
+the beginning this was not known, and yet action was none the less
+necessary.
+
+The result was right, and Washington had his way, which it must be
+confessed he had fully determined on before his cabinet supplied him
+with technical arguments.
+
+All these points must have been plain enough to Hammond and the
+English ministry. They could not see the full scope of the neutrality
+policy in its national meaning, and they very naturally failed to
+perceive that it marked the rise of a new power wholly disconnected
+from Europe, to which their own views were confined. But they were
+quite able to understand the immediate aspect of the case. They saw
+Washington adopt and carry out a policy of dignified impartiality;
+they were well able to value rightly the technical objections which
+stood in his path, and they could see also that this policy was at the
+outset very unpopular in America. The remembrance of old injuries and
+of the war for independence was still fresh, and the hatred of England
+was well nigh universal in the United States. On the other hand, a
+lively sense of gratitude to France, and a sympathy with the objects
+of the revolution, made affection for that country uniform and
+general. The easy and popular course was for our government to range
+itself more or less directly with the French, and the refusal to do so
+was bold and in the highest degree creditable to the administration.
+It was, moreover, an important advantage to England that the United
+States should not ally themselves with her enemy, for next to herself,
+the Americans were the great seafaring people of the world, and were
+in a position to ravage her commerce, and, aided by France, to break
+up her West Indian possessions. If the United States had followed the
+natural prejudices of the time and had espoused the cause of France,
+it would have been wise and right for England to attack them and break
+them down if possible. But when, from a sense of national dignity and
+of fair dealing, the United States stood apart from the conflict
+and placed their former foe on the same footing as their friend and
+ancient ally, a very small allowance of good sense would have led
+the British ministry to encourage them in so doing. By favorable
+treatment, and by a friendly and conciliatory policy, they should have
+helped Washington in his struggle against popular prejudices, and
+endeavored by so doing to keep the United States neutral, and
+lead them, if possible, to their side; but with a fatuity almost
+incomprehensible they pursued an almost exactly opposite course. By
+similar conduct England had brought on the war for independence, which
+ended in the division of her empire. In precisely the same way she now
+proceeded to make it as arduous as possible for Washington to maintain
+neutrality, and thereby played directly into the hands of the party
+that supported France. The true policy demanded no sacrifices on the
+part of Great Britain. Civility and consideration in her dealings,
+and a careful abstention from wanton aggression and insult, were
+all-sufficient. But England disliked us, as was quite natural; she did
+not wish us to thrive and prosper, and she knew that we were weak and
+not in a position to enter upon an offensive war.
+
+As soon as it became known that Genet's privateers, manned by seamen
+enlisted in our ports, were preying on British commerce, and that the
+French man-of-war L'Ambuscade had taken an English vessel, The Grange,
+within the capes of the Delaware, Hammond filed a memorial in regard
+to these incidents. In so doing he was of course quite right, and the
+government responded immediately, and proceeded in good faith to make
+every effort to repair these breaches of neutrality, and to redress
+the wrongs suffered by Great Britain. Hammond, however, instead of
+doing all in his power, not merely to gain his own ends, but to
+make it easy for our government to satisfy him, assumed at once a
+disagreeable tone with a strong flavor of bullying, which was not
+calculated to conciliate the statesmen with whom he was dealing. It
+was a small matter enough, but unfortunately it was an indication of
+what was to come.
+
+On November 6, 1793, a British order in council was passed, but not
+immediately published, directing the seizure of all vessels carrying
+the produce of the French islands, or loaded with provisions for the
+use of the French colonies. The object of the order was to destroy all
+neutral trade, and it was aimed particularly at the commerce of the
+United States. The moment selected for its adoption was when the
+troubles with Genet had culminated, when we were on the point of
+getting rid of that very objectionable person, and when we had proved
+that we meant to maintain an honest and a real neutrality. It was as
+well calculated as any move could have been to drive us back into the
+arms of France, yet the manner of executing the order was far worse
+than the order itself. Our merchantmen and traders had been quick to
+take advantage of the opening of the French ports, and they had gone
+in swarms to the French islands. Now, without a word of warning, their
+vessels were seized by the cruisers of a nation with which we were
+supposed to be at peace. Every petty governor of an English island sat
+as a judge in admiralty. Many of them were corrupt, all were unfit for
+the duty, and our vessels were condemned and pillaged. The crews were
+made prisoners, and in many cases thrown into loathsome and unhealthy
+places of confinement, while the ships were left to rot in the
+harbors. The tale of the outrages and miseries thus inflicted on
+citizens of the United States without any warning, and by a nation
+considered to be at peace with us, fills an American with shame and
+anger even to-day. If our people remonstrated, they were told that
+England meant to have no neutrals, and that six of their frigates
+could blockade our coast. A course of kind treatment would have made
+us the friends of Great Britain, but the experiment was not even
+tried. The truth was that we were weak, and this was not only a
+misfortune but apparently an unpardonable sin. England could not
+conquer us, but she could harry our coasts, and let loose her Indians
+on our borders; and we had no navy with which to retaliate. She meant
+that there should be no neutrals, and so adopted a policy which would
+make us the active ally of France. It was no answer to say, what was
+perfectly true, that French privateers preyed upon our commerce with
+that fine indifference to rights and treaties which characterized
+the governments of the Revolution. If both sides maltreated us, the
+natural course was to unite with the power to which we at least owed a
+debt of gratitude.
+
+About the same time a speech was reported from Quebec, in which Lord
+Dorchester told the Indians that they should soon take the war-path
+for England against the United States. Lord Grenville denied in
+Parliament, and subsequently to Jay, that the ministry had ever taken
+any step to incite the Indians against the United States, and the
+authenticity of Lord Dorchester's utterances has been questioned in
+later days; but it was not disavowed at the time, even by Hammond in
+a sharp correspondence which he held on that and other topics with
+Randolph. The speech, as is now known and proved, was probably made,
+whether it was authorized or not, and it was universally accepted at
+the moment as both true and authoritative.
+
+This menace of desolating savage war in the West, in addition to the
+unquestioned outrages to our seamen, the loss of our ships, and the
+destruction of our commerce, with consequent ruin to all our seaboard
+towns, led to a general outburst of indignation from men of all
+parties, and Congress began to prepare for war. Many of the methods
+suggested were feeble and inadequate, but there could be no doubt of
+either the spirit or intentions which dictated them. News that an
+order of January 8, 1794, modified that of November 6, and confined
+the seizure to vessels carrying French property, and reports that
+some of our vessels were being restored, moderated the movements of
+Congress, but it was nevertheless evident that a resolution cutting
+off commercial intercourse with Great Britain would soon pass. In the
+existing state of things such a step in all probability meant war, and
+Washington was thus brought face to face with the most serious problem
+of his administration. It did not take him unawares, nor find him
+unprepared, for he had anticipated the situation, and his mind was
+made up. He had no intention of letting the country drift into war
+without a great effort to prevent it, and the time for that effort had
+now come. As in the case of Spain, he was resolved to send a special
+envoy to make a treaty. His first choice for this important mission
+was Hamilton, which, like most of his selections, would have been
+the best choice that could have been made. Hamilton, however, was so
+conspicuous as the great leader of the party which supported both the
+foreign and domestic policy of the administration, and he was so hated
+by the opposition, that a loud outcry was at once raised against his
+appointment. At that particular juncture it was very important that
+the envoy should depart with as much general good-will and public
+confidence as possible, so Hamilton sacrificed himself to this
+necessity, and withdrew his name voluntarily. His withdrawal was a
+mistake, but it was a wholly natural one under the circumstances.
+Washington then made the next best choice, and appointed John Jay,
+who was a man of most spotless character, honorable, high-minded, and
+skilled in public affairs. He was chief justice of the United States,
+and that fact gave additional weight to the mission. The only point in
+which he fell behind Hamilton was in aggressiveness of character, and
+this negotiation demanded, not merely firmness and tact, which Jay
+had in abundance, but a boldness verging on audacity. The immediate
+purpose, however, was answered, and Jay set forth on his journey with
+much good feeling toward himself, and with a very solemn sense among
+the people of the gravity of his undertaking. Washington himself saw
+Jay depart with many misgivings, and the act of sending such a mission
+at all was very trying to him, for the conduct of England galled him
+to the quick. He had long suspected Great Britain, as well as Spain,
+of inciting the Indians secretly to assail our settlements, and
+knowing as he did the character of savage warfare, and feeling deeply
+the bloodshed and expense of our Indian wars, he cherished a profound
+dislike for those who could be capable of promoting such misery to the
+injury of a friendly and-civilized nation. As England became more and
+more hostile, he made up his mind that she was bent on attacking us,
+and in March, 1794, he wrote to Governor Clinton that he had no doubts
+as to the authenticity of Lord Dorchester's speech, and that he
+believed England intended war. He therefore urged the governor to
+inquire carefully into the state of feeling in Canada, and as to the
+military strength of the country, especially on the border. He put no
+trust in the disclaimers of the ministry when he saw the long familiar
+signs of hostile intrigue among the Indians, and he was quite
+determined that, if war should come, all the suffering should not be
+on one side.
+
+This belief in the coming of war, however, only strengthened him in
+his well-matured plans to leave nothing undone to prevent it. It was
+in this spirit that he despatched the special mission, although his
+first letter to Jay shows that he had no very strong hopes of peace,
+and that his uppermost thoughts were of the wrongs which had been
+perpetrated, and of the perils which hung over the border. He did not
+wish the commissioner to mince matters at all. "There does not remain
+a doubt," he wrote, "in the mind of any well-informed person in this
+country, not shut against conviction, that all the difficulties we
+encounter with the Indians, their hostilities, the murder of helpless
+women and innocent children along our frontiers, result from the
+conduct of the agents of Great Britain in this country.... Can it
+be expected, I ask, so long as these things are known in the United
+States, or at least firmly believed, and suffered with impunity by
+Great Britain, that there ever will or can be any cordiality between
+the two countries? I answer, No. And I will undertake, without the
+gift of prophecy, to predict that it will be impossible to keep this
+country in a state of amity with Great Britain long, if the posts are
+not surrendered. A knowledge of these being my sentiments would have
+little weight, I am persuaded, with the British administration, and
+perhaps not with the nation, in effecting the measure; but both may
+rest satisfied that, if they want to be in peace with this country,
+and to enjoy the benefits of its trade, to give up the posts is the
+only road to it. Withholding them, and the consequences we feel at
+present continuing, war will be inevitable."
+
+Jay meantime had been well received in England. Lord Grenville
+expressed the most friendly feelings, and every desire that the
+negotiation might succeed. Jay was also received at court, where he
+was said to have kissed the queen's hand, a crime, so the opposition
+declared, for which his lips ought to have been blistered to the bone,
+a difficult and by no means common form of punishment. Receptions,
+dinner parties, and a ready welcome everywhere, did not, however,
+make a treaty. When it came to business, the English did not differ
+materially from their neighbors whom Canning satirized.
+
+  "The fault of the Dutch
+  Is giving too little and asking too much."
+
+So the Americans now found it with Lord Grenville. There were many
+subjects of dispute, some dangerous, and all requiring settlement for
+the benefit of both countries. Boundaries, negro claims, and British
+debts were easily disposed of by reference to boards of arbitration.
+Two others, awkward and threatening, but not immediately pressing,
+were the impressment of British seamen, real or pretended, from
+American ships, and the exclusion of American vessels from the trade
+of the British West Indies. The latter circumstance was no doubt
+disagreeable to us, and deprived us of profit; but it is difficult to
+see what right we had to complain of it, for the ports of the British
+West Indies belonged to Great Britain, and if she chose to close
+them to us, or anybody else, she was quite within her rights. At all
+events, Lord Grenville declined to let us in, except in a very limited
+way and under most onerous conditions. The right of search and the
+right of impressment were simply the rights of the powerful over the
+weak. England wanted to get seamen where she could for her navy; and
+so long as she could violate our flag and carry off as recruits any
+able-bodied seaman who spoke English, she meant to do it. It was worse
+than idle to negotiate about it. When we should be ready and willing
+to fight we could settle that question, but not before. In due time we
+were ready to fight. England defeated us in various battles, ravaged
+our coasts, and burned our capital; while we whipped her frigates
+and lake flotillas, and repulsed her Peninsula veterans with heavy
+slaughter at New Orleans. Impressment was not mentioned in the treaty
+which concluded that war, but it ended at that time. The English are a
+brave and combative people, but rather than get into wars with nations
+that will fight, and fight hard, they will desist from wanton and
+illegal aggressions, in which they do not differ greatly from the rest
+of mankind; and so the practical abandonment of impressment came with
+the war of 1812. The fact was officially stated by Webster, not many
+years later, when he announced that the flag covered and protected all
+those who lived or traded under it.
+
+But in 1794 impressment was a negotiable question, because we were not
+ready to go to war about it then and there. So Jay, wisely enough,
+allowed this especial from of bullying to drift aside, along with the
+exclusion from the West India trade, and addressed himself to the
+two points which it was essential to have settled at that particular
+moment. These questions were: the retention of the western posts, and
+neutral rights at sea. In return for the agreement on our part to pay
+the British debts, as determined by arbitration, England agreed
+to surrender the posts on June 1, 1796. There was to be mutual
+reciprocity in inland trade on the North American continent; but
+coastwise, while we opened all our harbors and rivers to the British,
+they shut us out from theirs in the colonies and the territory of the
+Hudson's Bay Company. In the eighteen articles, limited in duration
+to two years after the conclusion of the existing war, a treaty of
+commerce was practically formed and neutral rights dealt with. We were
+to be admitted to British ports in Europe and the East Indies on terms
+of equality with British vessels, but we were refused admission to the
+East Indian coasting trade, and to that between East India and Europe.
+We gained the right to trade to the West Indies, but only on condition
+that we should give up the transportation from America to Europe of
+any of the principal products of the colonies. These were enumerated,
+and besides sugar, molasses, coffee, and cocoa, included cotton, which
+had just become an export from the southern States, and which already
+promised to assume the importance that it afterwards reached. The
+vexed questions of privateers, prizes, and contraband of war were also
+settled and determined.
+
+The treaty as a whole was not a very brilliant one for the United
+States, but its treatment was far worse than its deserts, and it was
+received with such a universal outburst of indignation that even to
+this day it has never freed itself from the bad name it then acquired.
+Nobody, not even its supporters, liked it, and yet it may be doubted
+whether anything materially better was possible at the time. The
+admirers of Hamilton, from that day to this, have believed that if
+he had been sent, his boldness, ability, and force would have wrung
+better terms from England. This is not at all improbable; but that
+they would have been materially improved, even by Hamilton, does not
+seem very likely. The treaty, in reality, was by no means bad; on the
+contrary, it had many good points. It disposed satisfactorily and
+fairly of all the minor questions which were vexatious and threatening
+to the peaceful relation of the two countries. It settled the British
+debts, gave us the western posts, which was a matter of the utmost
+importance, and arranged the disputed and thorny question of neutral
+rights, for the time being at least. It left impressment totally
+unsettled, simply because we were still too weak to be ready to fight
+England profitably on that theme. It opened to us the West Indian
+ports, which was the matter most nearly affecting our interests and
+our pockets, but it did so under limitations and concessions which
+were excessive and even humiliating. We were obliged to pay a price
+far too high for this coveted privilege, and it was on this point that
+the controversy finally hinged.
+
+The treaty reached Philadelphia on March 7. Nothing was said of its
+arrival, which does not seem to have been known to any one but the
+President and Randolph, who had meantime succeeded Jefferson as
+Secretary of State. Three months later, on June 8, the Senate was
+called together in special session, and the treaty was laid before
+them. Washington did not like it and never changed his feeling in that
+respect, but he had made up his mind upon full reflection to accept
+it; and the Senate, after most careful consideration, voted by exactly
+the necessary two thirds to ratify it, provided that the objectionable
+West Indian article could be modified. On no terms could we consent to
+forego the exportation of cotton, and it is difficult to see how
+the Senate could have taken any other ground upon this point. Their
+action, however, opened some delicate questions. Washington wrote to
+Randolph: "First, is or is not that resolution intended to be the
+final act of the Senate; or do they expect that the new article which
+is proposed shall be submitted to them before the treaty takes effect?
+Secondly, does or does not the Constitution permit the President to
+ratify the treaty, without submitting the new article, after it shall
+be agreed to by the British King, to the Senate for their further
+advice and consent?"
+
+These questions were carefully considered, and Washington had made
+up his mind to ratify conditionally on the modification of the West
+Indian article, when news arrived which caused him to suspend action.
+England, having made the treaty, and before any news could have been
+received of our attitude in regard to it, took steps to render its
+ratification both difficult and offensive, if not impossible. The mode
+adopted was to renew the "provision order," as it was called, which
+directed the seizure of all vessels carrying food products to France,
+and thus give to the Jay treaty the interpretation it was designed to
+avoid, that provisions could be declared contraband at the pleasure of
+one of the belligerents. It was a stupid thing to do, for if England
+desired to have peace with us, as her making the treaty indicated,
+she should not have renewed the most irritating of all her past
+performances before we had had opportunity even to sign and ratify.
+Washington, on hearing of this move, withheld his signature, bade
+Randolph prepare a strong memorial against the provision order, and
+then betook himself to Mount Vernon on some urgent private business.
+
+Before he started, however, the storm of popular rage had begun to
+break. Bache had the substance of the treaty in the "Aurora" on June
+29, and Mr. Stevens Thomson Mason, senator from Virginia, was so
+pained by some slight inaccuracies in this version that he wrote Mr.
+Bache a note, and sent him a copy of the treaty despite the injunction
+of secrecy by which he as a senator was bound. Mr. Mason gained great
+present glory by this frank breach of promise, and curiously enough
+this single discreditable act is the only thing that keeps his name
+and memory alive in history. All that he achieved at the moment was to
+hurry the inevitable disclosure of the contents of a treaty which no
+one desired to conceal, except in deference to official form. Mason's
+note and copy of the treaty, made up into a pamphlet, were issued
+from Bache's press on July 2, and hundreds of copies were soon being
+carried by eager riders north and south throughout the Union.
+
+Everywhere, as the treaty traveled, the popular wrath was kindled. The
+first explosion came in Boston, Federalist Boston, devoted beyond any
+other town in the country to Washington and his administration. There
+was a town meeting in Faneuil Hall, violent speeches were made, and a
+committee was appointed to draw up a memorial to the President against
+ratification. This remonstrance was despatched at once by special
+messenger, who seemed to carry the torch of Malise instead of a set of
+dry resolutions. Everywhere the anger and indignation flamed forth.
+The ground had been carefully prepared, for, ever since Jay sailed,
+the partisans of the French had been denouncing him and his mission,
+predicting failure, and, in one case at least, burning him in effigy
+before it was known whether he had done anything at all. As soon as
+the news spread that the treaty had actually arrived, the attacks
+were multiplied in number and grew ever more bitter as the Senate
+consulted. The popular mind was so worked up that in Boston a British
+vessel had been burned on suspicion that she was a privateer, while in
+New York there had been street fights and rioting because of an insult
+to a French flag. In such a state of feeling, artificially stimulated
+and ingeniously misled, the most brilliant diplomatic triumph would
+have had but slight chance of approval. Jay's moderate achievement
+was better than his enemies expected, but it was sufficient for their
+purpose, and the popular fury blazed up and ran through the country,
+like a whirlwind of fire over the parched prairie. Everywhere the
+example of Boston was followed, meetings were held, committees
+appointed, and memorials against the treaty sent to the President. In
+New York Hamilton was stoned when he attempted to speak in favor of
+ratification; and less illustrious persons, who ventured to differ
+from the crowd, were ducked and otherwise maltreated. Jay was hanged
+and burned in effigy in every way that imagination could devise,
+and copies of his treaty suffered the same fate at the hands of the
+hangman. Feeling ran highest in the larger towns where there was a
+mob, but even some of the smaller places and those most Federal in
+their politics were carried away. The excitement seems also to have
+been confined for the most part to the seaboard, but after all that
+was where the bulk of the population lived. The crowd, moreover,
+was not led by obscure agitators or by violent and irresponsible
+partisans. The Livingstons in New York, Rodney in Delaware, Gadsden
+and the Rutledges in South Carolina, were some of the men who guided
+the meetings and denounced the treaty. On the other hand, the friends
+and supporters of the administration appeared stunned, and for weeks
+no opposition to the popular movement except that attempted by
+Hamilton was apparent. Even the administration was divided, for
+Randolph was as hostile to the treaty as it was possible for a man of
+his temperament to be.
+
+The crisis was indeed a serious one. There have been worse in our
+history, but this was one of the gravest; and never did a President
+stand, so far as any one could see, so utterly alone. With his own
+party silenced and even divided, with the opposition rampant, and with
+popular excitement at fever heat, Washington was left to take his
+course alone and unsupported. It was the severest trial of his
+political life, but he met it, as he met the reverses of 1776,
+calmly and without flinching. He was always glad to have advice and
+suggestions. No man ever sought them or benefited from them more
+than he; yet no man ever lived so little dependent on others and so
+perfectly capable of standing alone as Washington. After the Senate
+had acted, he made up his mind to conditional ratification. He
+withheld his signature on hearing of the provision order, and was
+ready to sign as soon as that order was withdrawn. Whether he would
+make its withdrawal another condition of his signature he had not
+determined when he left Philadelphia for Mount Vernon, and on his
+arrival he wrote to Randolph: "The conditional ratification (if the
+late order, which we have heard of, respecting provision vessels
+is not in operation) may, on all fit occasions, be spoken of as my
+determination. Unless, from anything you have heard or met with since
+I left you, it should be thought more advisable to communicate further
+with me on the subject, my opinion respecting the treaty is the same
+now that it was, namely, not favorable to it; but that it is better
+to ratify it in the manner the Senate have advised, and with the
+reservation already mentioned, than to suffer matters to remain as
+they are, unsettled." He had already received the Boston resolutions,
+and had sent them to his cabinet for their consideration. He did not
+for a moment underrate their importance, and he saw that they were
+the harbingers of others of like character, although he could not yet
+estimate the full violence of the storm of popular disapprobation. On
+July 28 he sent his answer to the selectmen of Boston, and it is such
+an important paper that it must be given in full. It was as follows:--
+
+    UNITED STATES, _28th of July_, 1795.
+
+    GENTLEMEN: In every act of my administration I have sought the
+    happiness of my fellow-citizens. My system for the attainment of
+    this object has uniformly been to overlook all personal, local,
+    and partial considerations; to contemplate the United States
+    as one great whole; to confide that sudden impressions, and
+    erroneous, would yield to candid reflections; and to consult only
+    the substantial and permanent interests of our country.
+
+    Nor have I departed from this line of conduct on the occasion
+    which has produced the resolutions contained in your letter of the
+    13th inst.
+
+    Without a predilection for my own judgment, I have weighed with
+    attention every argument which has at any time been brought into
+    view. But the Constitution is the guide which I never can abandon.
+    It has assigned to the President the power of making treaties with
+    the advice and consent of the Senate. It was doubtless supposed
+    that these two branches of government would combine, without
+    passion and with the best means of information, those facts and
+    principles upon which the success of our foreign relations will
+    always depend; that they ought not to substitute for their own
+    convictions the opinions of others, or to seek truth through any
+    channel but that of a temperate and well-informed investigation.
+
+    Under this persuasion, I have resolved on the manner of executing
+    the duty before me. To the high responsibility attached to it, I
+    fully submit; and you, gentlemen, are at liberty to make these
+    sentiments known as the grounds of my procedure. While I feel the
+    most lively gratitude for the many instances of approbation from
+    my country, I can no otherwise deserve it than by obeying the
+    dictates of my conscience. With due respect, I am, etc.
+
+It will be noticed that this letter is dated "The United States, 28th
+of July," which is, I think, the only instance of the sort to be found
+in his letters. In all his vast correspondence there possibly may be
+other cases in which he used this method of dating, but one cannot
+help feeling that on this occasion at least it had a particular
+significance. It was not George Washington writing from Mount Vernon,
+but the President, who represented the whole country, pointing out
+to the people of Boston that the day of small things and of local
+considerations had gone by. This letter served also as a model for
+many others. The Boston address had a multitude of successors, and
+they were all answered in the same strain. Washington was not a man to
+underrate popular feeling, for he knew that the strongest bulwark of
+the government was in sound public opinion. On the other hand, he
+was one of the rare men who could distinguish between a temporary
+excitement, no matter how universal, and an abiding sentiment. In this
+case he quietly resisted the noisy popular demand, believing that the
+sober second thought of the people would surely be with him; but at
+the same time the outcry against the treaty, while it could not make
+him waver in his determination to do what he believed to be right,
+caused him deep anxiety. The day after he sent his answer to Boston he
+wrote to Randolph:--
+
+    "I view the opposition which the treaty is receiving from the
+    meetings in different parts of the Union in a very serious light;
+    not because there is more weight in any of the objections which
+    are made to it than was foreseen at first, for there is none in
+    some of them, and gross misrepresentations in others; nor as it
+    respects myself personally, for this shall have no influence on
+    my conduct, plainly perceiving, and I am accordingly preparing my
+    mind for it, the obloquy which disappointment and malice are
+    collecting to heap upon me. But I am alarmed at the effect it may
+    have on and the advantage the French government may be disposed to
+    make of, the spirit which is at work to cherish a belief in them
+    that the treaty is calculated to favor Great Britain at their
+    expense.... To sum the whole up in a few words I have never,
+    since I have been in the administration of the government,
+    a crisis, which, in my judgment, has been so pregnant with
+    interesting events, nor one from which more is to be apprehended,
+    whether viewed on one side or the other."
+
+He already felt that it might be necessary for him to return to
+Philadelphia at any moment; and, writing to Randolph to this effect
+two days later, he said:--
+
+    "To be wise and temperate, as well as firm, the present crisis
+    most eminently calls for. There is too much reason to believe,
+    from the pains which have been taken before, at, and since the
+    advice of the Senate respecting the treaty, that the prejudices
+    against it are more extensive than is generally imagined. This I
+    have lately understood to be the case in this quarter from men who
+    are of no party, but well-disposed to the present administration.
+    Nor should it be otherwise, when no stone has been left unturned
+    that could impress on the minds of the people the most arrant
+    misrepresentation of facts; that their rights have not only been
+    _neglected_, but absolutely _sold_; that there are no reciprocal
+    advantages in the treaty; that the benefits are all on the side of
+    Great Britain; and, what seems to have had more weight with them
+    than all the rest, and to have been most pressed, that the treaty
+    is made with the design to oppress the French, in open violation
+    of our treaty with that nation, and contrary, too, to every
+    principle of gratitude and sound policy. In time, when passion
+    shall have yielded to sober reason, the current may possibly turn;
+    but, in the mean while, this government, in relation to France and
+    England, may be compared to a ship between the rocks of Scylla and
+    Charybdis. If the treaty is ratified, partisans of the French, or
+    rather of war and confusion, will excite them to hostile measures,
+    or at least to unfriendly sentiments; if it is not, there is no
+    foreseeing all the consequences which may follow, as it respects
+    Great Britain.
+
+    "It is not to be inferred from hence that I am disposed to quit
+    the ground I have taken, unless circumstances more imperious than
+    have yet come to my knowledge should compel it; for there is but
+    one straight course, and that is to seek truth, and pursue it
+    steadily. But these things are mentioned to show that a close
+    investigation of the subject is more than ever necessary, and
+    that there are strong evidences of the necessity of the most
+    circumspect conduct in carrying the determination of government
+    into effect, with prudence, as it respects our own people, and
+    with every exertion to produce a change for the better from Great
+    Britain.
+
+    "The memorial seems well designed to answer the end proposed,
+    and by the time it is revised and new-dressed, you will probably
+    (either in the resolutions which are or will be handed to me, or
+    in the newspaper publications, which you promise to be attentive
+    to) have seen all the objections against the treaty which have
+    any real force in them, and which may be fit subjects for
+    representation in a memorial, or in the instructions, or both. But
+    how much longer the presentation of the memorial can be delayed
+    without exciting unpleasant sensations here, or involving serious
+    evils elsewhere, you, who are at the scene of information and
+    action, can decide better than I. In a matter, however, so
+    interesting and pregnant with consequences as this treaty, there
+    ought to be no precipitation; but on the contrary, every step
+    should be explored before it is taken, and every word weighed
+    before it is uttered or delivered in writing.
+
+    "The form of the ratification requires more diplomatic experience
+    and legal knowledge than I possess, or have the means of acquiring
+    at this place, and therefore I shall say nothing about it."
+
+Three days later, on August 3, he wrote again to Randolph to say that
+the mails had been delayed, and that he had not received the Baltimore
+resolutions. He then continued:--
+
+    "The like may be expected from Richmond, a meeting having been
+    had there also, at which Mr. Wythe, it is said, was seated as
+    moderator; by chance more than design, it is added. A queer chance
+    this for the chancellor of the state.
+
+    "All these things do not shake my determination with respect to
+    the proposed ratifications, nor will they, unless something more
+    imperious and unknown to me should, in the judgment of yourself
+    and the gentlemen with you, make it advisable for me to pause."
+
+A few days later Washington was recalled by a letter from Randolph,
+and also by a private note from Pickering, which said, mysteriously,
+that there was a "special reason" for his immediate return. He had
+been expecting to be recalled at any moment, and he now hastened to
+Philadelphia, reaching there on August 11. He little dreamed, however,
+of what had led his two secretaries, one ignorantly and the other
+wittingly, to hasten his return. On the very day when he dated his
+letter to the selectmen of Boston as from the United States, the
+British minister placed in the hands of Mr. Wolcott, the Secretary of
+the Treasury, an intercepted letter from Fauchet, the French minister,
+to his own government. This dispatch, bearing the number 10, had come
+into the possession of Mr. Hammond by a series of accidents; but the
+British government and its representatives were quick to perceive that
+the chances of the sea had thrown into their hands a prize of much
+more value than many French merchantmen. The dispatch thus rescued
+from the water, where its bearer had cast it, was filled with a long
+and somewhat imaginative dissertation on political parties in the
+United States, and with an account of the whiskey rebellion. It also
+gave the substance of some conversations held by the writer with the
+Secretary of State. This is not the place, nor would space serve, to
+examine the details of this famous dispatch, with reference to the
+American statesman whom it incriminated. On its face it showed that
+Randolph had held conversations with the French minister which no
+American Secretary of State ought to have held with any representative
+of a foreign government, and it appeared further that the most obvious
+interpretation of certain sentences, in view of the readiness of man
+to think ill of his neighbor, was that Randolph had suggested corrupt
+practices. Such was the document, implicating in a most serious way
+the character of his chief cabinet officer, which Pickering and
+Wolcott placed in Washington's hands on his arrival in Philadelphia.
+
+Mr. Conway, in his biography of Randolph, devotes many pages to
+explaining what now followed. His explanations show, certainly, a most
+refined ingenuity, and form the most elaborate discussion of this
+incident that has ever appeared. All this effort and ingenuity are
+needless, however, unless the object be to prove that Randolph was
+wholly without fault, which is an impossible task. There was
+nothing complicated about the affair, and nothing strange about the
+President's course, if we confine ourselves to the plain facts and the
+order of their occurrence.
+
+Before the treaty went to the Senate, Washington made up his mind to
+sign it, and when the Senate ratified conditionally, he still adhered
+to his former opinion. Then came the news of the provision order,
+and thereupon he paused and withheld his signature, at the same time
+ordering a memorial against the order to be prepared. But there is no
+evidence whatever that he changed his mind, or that he had determined
+to make his signature conditional upon the revocation of the order.
+To argue that he had is, in fact, misrepresentation. In the letter
+of July 22, on which so much stress was laid afterwards by Randolph,
+Washington said that his intention to ratify conditionally was to be
+announced, if the provision order was not in operation. Put in the
+converse form, his intention was not to be announced if the order
+was in operation; but this is very different from saying that his
+intention had altered, and that he would not sign unless the order was
+revoked. This last idea was Randolph's, but not Washington's. Indeed,
+in the very next lines of the same letter he said expressly that his
+opinion had not changed, that he did not like the treaty, but that
+it was best to ratify. It is a fair inference, no doubt, that he
+was considering whether he should change his intention and make his
+signature conditional; but if this was the case, it is sure beyond a
+peradventure that his original opinion was only confirmed as the days
+went by.
+
+He examined with the utmost care all the remonstrances and addresses
+that were poured in upon him, and found few solid objections, and none
+that he had not already weighed and disposed of. On July 31 he wrote
+to Randolph that it was not to be inferred that he was disposed to
+quit his ground unless more imperious circumstances than had yet come
+to his knowledge should compel him to do so. The provision order was
+of course within his knowledge, and therefore had not led him to
+change his mind. On August 3 he wrote even more strongly that nothing
+had come to his knowledge to shake his determination. In his letter to
+Randolph of October 21, giving him full liberty to have and publish
+everything he desired for his vindication, Washington said: "You
+know that it was my determination to ratify before submission to the
+Senate; that the doubts which arose proceeded from the provision
+order." Doubts are mentioned here, and not changes of intention. If
+he had changed his mind at any time he would have said so, for he was
+neither timid nor dishonest, but as a matter of fact he never had
+changed his mind. He came to Philadelphia with his mind made up to
+ratify, and that being the case, it was clear that further delay would
+be wrong and impolitic. The surest way to check the popular excitement
+and rally the friends of the administration was to act. Suspense
+fostered opposition more than ratification, for most people accept the
+inevitable when the deed is done.
+
+The Fauchet letter, therefore, although its revelations astounded and
+grieved him, had no effect upon his action, which would have been the
+same in any event; for he had said over and over again that he had not
+changed his first opinion. In the letter to Randolph, just quoted,
+he also said: "And finally you know the grounds on which my ultimate
+decision was taken, as the same were expressed to you, the other
+secretaries of departments, and the late attorney-general, after a
+thorough investigation of the subject in all the aspects in which it
+could be placed." As the Fauchet letter was not disclosed to Randolph
+until after the treaty had been signed, it was impossible that it
+should have been one of the grounds of the President's decision, for
+Washington said to him, "You knew the grounds." If we are to suppose
+that the Fauchet letter had anything to do with the ratification so
+far as the President himself was concerned, we must, in the face of
+this letter, set Washington down as a deliberate liar, which is so
+wholly impossible that it disposes at once of the theory that he was
+driven into signing by a clever British intrigue.
+
+Here as elsewhere the simple and obvious explanation is the true one,
+although the whole matter is sufficiently plain on the mere narration
+of facts. The treaty was a great public question, to be decided on its
+merits, and the only new point raised by the Fauchet dispatch was how
+to deal with Randolph himself at this particular juncture. To have
+shown the letter to him at once would have been to break the cabinet,
+with the treaty unsigned. It would have resulted in much delay,
+extending to weeks, unless the President was ready to have an acting
+secretary sign both treaty and memorial; and it would have added
+during the continued suspense a fresh subject of excitement to the
+popular mind. Washington's duty plainly was to carry out his policy
+and bring the matter to an immediate conclusion, and, as was his
+custom, he did his duty. If, as Mr. Conway thinks, the Fauchet letter
+was what compelled the ratification, Washington would have given it
+to the world at once, and then, having by this means discredited the
+opposition and roused a feeling against the French, would have signed
+the treaty. England, of course, had taken advantage of this letter,
+and equally of course her minister and his influence were against
+Randolph, who was thought to be unfriendly. Hammond intrigued with our
+public men just as all the French ministers did. It is humiliating
+that such should have been the case, but it was due to our recent
+escape from a colonial condition, and to the way in which we allowed
+our politics to turn on foreign affairs. Having made up his mind to
+ratify and end the question, Washington very properly kept silence
+as to the Fauchet letter until the work was done. To do this, it was
+necessary of course that he should make no change in his personal
+attitude toward Randolph, nor was he obliged to do so, for he was too
+just a man to assume Randolph's guilt until his defense had been made.
+The ratification was brought before the cabinet at once. There was a
+sharp discussion, in which it appeared that Randolph had advanced a
+good deal in his hostility to the treaty, a fact not tending to make
+the Fauchet business look better; and then ratification was voted, and
+a memorial against the provision order was adopted. On August 18 the
+treaty was signed, and on the 19th, Washington, in the presence of his
+cabinet, placed the Fauchet letter in Randolph's hands. Randolph read
+it, made some comments, and asked time to offer suitable explanations.
+He then withdrew, and in a few hours sent in his resignation.
+
+There would be no need, so far as Washington is concerned, to say more
+on this unfortunate affair of the Secretary of State, were it not for
+the recent statements made by Randolph's biographer. In order to clear
+his hero, Mr. Conway represents that Washington, knowing Randolph to
+be innocent, sacrificed him in great anguish of heart to an imperious
+political necessity, while the fact was, that nobody sacrificed
+Randolph except himself. He was represented in a dispatch written by
+the French minister in a light which, as Washington said, gave rise to
+strong suspicions; a moderate statement in which every candid man
+who knew anything about the matter has agreed from that day to this.
+According to Fauchet, Randolph not only had held conversations wholly
+unbecoming his position, but on the same authority he was represented
+to have asked for money. That the Secretary of State was corrupt, no
+one who knew him, as Jefferson said, for one moment believed. Whether
+he disposed of this charge or not, it was plain to his friends, as
+it is to posterity, that Randolph was a perfectly honorable man. But
+neither his own vindication nor that of his biographer have in the
+least palliated or even touched the real error which he committed.
+
+As Secretary of State, the head of the cabinet, and in charge of our
+foreign relations, he had, according to Fauchet's dispatch and to his
+own admissions, entered into relations with a foreign minister which
+ought to have been as impossible as they were discreditable to an
+American statesman. That Fauchet believed that Randolph deceived him
+did not affect the merits of the case, nor, if true, did it excuse
+Randolph, especially as everybody with whom he was brought into
+close contact seems at some time or other to have had doubts of his
+sincerity. As a matter of fact, Randolph could find no defense except
+to attack Washington and discuss our foreign relations, and his
+biographer has followed the same line. What was it then that
+Washington had actually done which called for assault? He had been put
+in possession of an official document which on its face implicated
+his Secretary of State in the intrigues of a foreign minister, and
+suggested that he was open to corruption. These were the views which
+the public, having no personal knowledge of Randolph, would be sure to
+take, and as a matter of fact actually took, when the affair became
+known. There was a great international question to be settled, and
+settled without delay. This was done in a week, during which time
+Washington kept silent, as his public duty required. The moment the
+treaty was signed he handed Fauchet's dispatch to Randolph and asked
+for an explanation. None knew of the dispatch except the cabinet
+officers, through whom it had necessarily come. Washington did not
+prejudge the case; he did not dismiss Randolph with any mark of his
+pleasure, as he would have been quite justified in doing. He simply
+asked for explanation, and threw open his own correspondence and
+the archives of the department, so that Randolph might have every
+opportunity for defense. It is difficult to see how Washington could
+have done less in dealing with Randolph, or in what way he could have
+shown greater consideration.
+
+Randolph resigned of his own motion, and then cried out against
+Washington because he had been obliged to pay the penalty of his own
+errors. When it is considered that Washington did absolutely nothing
+to Randolph except to hand him Fauchet's dispatch and accept his
+consequent resignation, the talk about Randolph's forgiving him
+becomes simply ludicrous. Randolph saw his own error, was angry with
+himself, and, like the rest of humanity, proceeded to vent his anger
+on somebody else, but unfortunately he had the bad taste to turn at
+the outset to the newspapers. Like Mr. Snodgrass, he took off his coat
+in public and announced in a loud voice that he was going to begin.
+The President's only response was to open the archives and bid him
+publish everything he desired. Randolph then wrote the President a
+private letter, which was angry and impertinent; "full of innuendoes,"
+said the recipient. Washington drafted a sharp reply, and then out
+of pure kindness withheld it, and let the private letter drop into
+silence, whither the bulky "Vindication," which vindicated nobody,
+soon followed it. The fact was, that Washington treated Randolph with
+great kindness and forbearance. He had known him long; he was fond
+of him on his own account as well as his father's; he appreciated
+Randolph's talents; but he knew on reading that dispatch, if he had
+never guessed it before, that Randolph, although honest and clever,
+and certainly not bad, was a dangerously weak man. Others among
+our public men had put themselves into relations with foreign
+representatives which it is now intolerable to contemplate, but
+Randolph, besides being found out at the moment, had, after the
+fashion of weak natures, gone further and shown more feebleness than
+any one else had. Washington's conduct was so perfectly simple, and
+the facts of the case were so plain, that it would seem impossible to
+complicate them. The contemporary verdict was harsh, crushing, and
+unjust in many respects to Randolph. The verdict of posterity, which
+is both gentler and fairer to the secretary, will certainly at the
+same time sustain Washington's course at every point as sensible,
+direct, and proper.
+
+Only one question remains which demands a word before tracing briefly
+the subsequent fate of the Jay treaty, and that is, to know exactly
+why the President signed it. The answer is fortunately not difficult.
+There was a choice of evils. When Washington determined to send a
+special envoy, he said: "My objects are, to prevent a war, if justice
+can be obtained by fair and strong representations (to be made by a
+special envoy) of the injuries which this country has sustained from
+Great Britain in various ways; to put it into a complete state
+of military defense; and to provide eventually such measures for
+execution as seem to be now pending in Congress, if negotiation in
+a reasonable time proves unsuccessful." From these views he never
+varied. The treaty was not a perfect one, but it had good features and
+was probably, as has been said, the best that could then be obtained.
+It settled some vexed questions, and it gave us time. If the United
+States could only have time without making undue sacrifice, they could
+pass beyond the stage when a foreign war with its consequent suffering
+and debt would endanger our national existence. If they could only
+have time to grow into a nation, there would be no difficulty in
+settling all their disputes with other people satisfactorily, either
+by war or negotiation. But if the national bonds were loosened, then
+all was lost. It was in this spirit that Washington signed the Jay
+treaty; and although there was much in it that he did not like,
+and although men were bitterly divided about the ratification, a
+dispassionate posterity has come to believe that he was right at the
+most difficult if not the most perilous crisis in his career.
+
+The signature of the treaty, however, did not put an end to the
+attacks upon it, or upon the action of the Senate and the Executive.
+Nevertheless, it turned the tide, and, as Washington foresaw, brought
+out a strong movement in its favor. Hamilton began the work by the
+publication of the letters of "Camillus." The opposition newspapers
+sneered, but after Jefferson had read a few numbers he begged Madison
+in alarm to answer them. His fears were well grounded, for the letters
+were reprinted in newspapers throughout the country, and their
+powerful and temperate arguments made converts and strengthened the
+friends of the administration everywhere. The approaching surrender of
+the posts gratified the western people when they at last stopped to
+think about it. The obnoxious provision order was revoked, and the
+traders and merchants found that security and commerce even under
+unpleasant restrictions were a great deal better than the uncertainty
+and the vexatious hostilities to which they had before been exposed.
+Those who had been silent, although friendly to the policy of the
+government, now began to meet in their turn and send addresses to
+Congress; for in the House of Representatives the last battle was to
+be fought.
+
+That body came together under the impression of the agitation and
+excitement which had been going on all through the summer. There was a
+little wrangling at the opening over the terms to be employed in the
+answer to the President's message, and then the House relapsed into
+quiet, awaiting the formal announcement of the treaty. At last the
+treaty arrived with the addition of the suspending article, and the
+President proclaimed it to be the law of the land, and sent a copy to
+the House. Livingston, of New York, at once moved a resolution, asking
+the President to send in all the papers relating to the negotiation,
+and boldly placed the motion on the ground that the House was vested
+with a discretionary power as to carrying the treaty into execution.
+On this principle the debate went on for three weeks, and then the
+resolution passed by 62 to 37. A great constitutional question was
+thus raised, for there was no pretense that the papers were really
+needed, inasmuch as committees had seen them all, and they contained
+practically nothing which was not already known.
+
+Washington took the request into consideration, and asked his cabinet
+whether the House had the right, as set forth in the resolutions, to
+call for the papers, and if not, whether it was expedient to furnish
+them. Both questions were unanimously answered in the negative. The
+inquiry was largely formal, and Washington had no real doubts on the
+point involved. He wrote to Hamilton: "I had from the first moment,
+and from the fullest conviction in my own mind, resolved _to resist
+the principle_, which was evidently intended to be established by the
+call of the House of Representatives; and only deliberated on the
+manner in which this could be done with the least bad consequences."
+His only question was as to the method of resistance, and he finally
+decided to refuse absolutely, and did so in a message setting forth
+his reasons. He said that the intention of the constitutional
+convention was known to him, and that they had intended to vest the
+treaty-making power exclusively in the Executive and Senate. On
+that principle he had acted, and in that belief foreign nations had
+negotiated, and the House had hitherto acquiesced. He declared further
+that the assent of the House was not necessary to the validity of
+treaties; that they had all necessary information; and "as it is
+essential to the due administration of the government that the
+boundaries fixed by the Constitution should be preserved, a just
+regard to the Constitution and to the duty of my office, under all the
+circumstances of this case, forbid a compliance with your request."
+The question was a difficult one, but there could be no doubt as to
+Washington's opinion, and the weight of authority has sustained his
+view. From the practical and political side there can be little
+question that his position was extremely sound. In a letter to
+Carrington he gave the reasons for his action, and no better statement
+of the argument in a general way has ever been made. He wrote:--
+
+    "No candid man in the least degree acquainted with the progress
+    of this business will believe for a moment that the _ostensible_
+    dispute was about papers, or whether the British treaty was a good
+    one or a bad one, but whether there should be a treaty at all
+    without the concurrence of the House of Representatives. This
+    was striking at once, and that boldly, too, at the fundamental
+    principles of the Constitution; and, if it were established, would
+    render the treaty-making power not only a nullity, but such an
+    absolute absurdity as to reflect disgrace on the framers of it.
+    For will any one suppose that they who framed, or those who
+    adopted, that instrument ever intended to give the power to the
+    President and Senate to make treaties, and, declaring that when
+    made and ratified they should be the supreme law of the land,
+    would in the same breath place it in the power of the House of
+    Representatives to fix their vote on them, unless apparent marks
+    of fraud or corruption (which in equity would set aside any
+    contract) accompanied the measure, or such striking evidence of
+    national injury attended their adoption as to make a war or any
+    other evil preferable? Every unbiased mind will answer in the
+    negative.
+
+    "What the source and what the object of all this struggle is, I
+    submit to my fellow-citizens. Charity would lead me to hope that
+    the motives to it would be pure. Suspicions, however, speak
+    a different language, and my tongue for the present shall be
+    silent."
+
+No man who has ever held high office in this country had a more real
+deference for the popular will than Washington. But he also had always
+a keen sensitiveness to the dignity and the prerogatives of the office
+which he happened to hold, whether it was that of president or general
+of the armies. This arose from no personal feeling, for he was too
+great a man ever to worry about his own dignity; but he esteemed the
+great offices to which he was called to be trusts, which were to
+suffer no injury while in his hands. He regarded the attempt of the
+House of Representatives to demand the papers as a matter of right
+as an encroachment on the rights of the Executive Department, and he
+therefore resisted it at once, and after his usual fashion left no one
+in any doubt as to his views. So far as the President was concerned,
+the struggle ended here; but it was continued for some time longer in
+the House, where the debate went on for a fortnight, with the hostile
+majority surely and steadily declining. The current out-doors ran more
+and more strongly every day in favor of the administration, until
+at last the contest ended with Ames's great speech, and then the
+resolution to carry out the treaty prevailed. Washington's policy had
+triumphed, and was accepted by the country.
+
+The Jay treaty and its ratification had, however, other results
+than mere domestic conflicts. Spain, acting under French influence,
+threatened to rescind the Pinckney treaty which had just been made
+so advantageously to the United States; but, like most Spanish
+performances at that time, these threats evaporated in words, and the
+Mississippi remained open. With France, however, the case was very
+different. Our demand for the recall of Genet had been met by a
+counter-demand for the recall of Morris, to which, of course, we were
+obliged to accede, and the question as to the latter's successor was
+a difficult and important one. Washington himself had been perfectly
+satisfied with the conduct of Morris, but he was also aware that the
+known dislike of that brilliant diplomatist to the revolutionary
+methods then dominant in Paris had seriously complicated our relations
+with France. He wished by all fair means to keep France in good humor,
+and he therefore determined that Morris's successor should be a man
+whose friendship toward the French republic was well known. His first
+choice was Madison, which would have answered admirably, for Madison
+was preeminently a safe man. Very unluckily, however, Madison either
+could not or would not go, and the President's final choice was by no
+means equally good.
+
+It was, of course, most desirable that the new minister should be
+_persona grata_ to the republic, but it was vastly more important that
+he should be in cordial sympathy with the administration at home,
+for no administration ought ever to select for a foreign mission,
+especially at a critical moment, any one outside the ranks of its own
+supporters. This was the mistake which Washington, from the best of
+motives, now committed by appointing James Monroe to be minister to
+France. It is one of the puzzles of our history to reconcile the
+respectable and common-place gentleman, who for two terms as President
+of the United States had less opposition than ever fell to the lot
+of any other man in that office, with the violent, unscrupulous, and
+extremely light-headed politician who figured as senator from Virginia
+and minister to France at the close of the last century. Monroe at
+the time of his appointment had distinguished himself chiefly by his
+extreme opposition to the administration, and by his intrigues against
+Hamilton, which were so dishonestly conducted that they ultimately
+compelled the publication of the "Reynolds Pamphlet," a sore trial to
+its author, and a lasting blot on the fame of the enemy who made the
+publication necessary. From such a man loyalty to the President who
+appointed him was hardly to be expected. But there was no reason
+to suppose that he would lose his head, and forget that he was an
+American, and not a French citizen.
+
+Monroe reached Paris in the summer of 1794. He was publicly received
+by the Convention, made an undignified and florid speech, received
+the national embrace from the president of the Convention, and then
+effected an exchange of flags with more embracings and addresses.
+But when he came to ask redress for the wrongs committed against our
+merchants, he got no satisfaction. So far as he was concerned, this
+appears to have been a matter of indifference, for he at once occupied
+himself with the French proposition that we should lend France five
+millions of dollars, and France in return was to see to it that we
+obtained control of the Spanish possessions in North America. Monroe
+fell in with this precious scheme to make the United States a
+dependency of France, and received as a reward vast promises as to
+what the great republic would do for us. Meantime he regarded with
+suspicion Jay's movements in England, and endeavored to obtain
+information, if not control, of that negotiation. In this he
+completely failed; but he led the French government to believe, first,
+that the English treaty would not be made, then that it would not be
+ratified, and finally that the House would not make the appropriations
+necessary to carry it into effect; and all the time he was
+compromising his own government by his absurd efforts to involve it in
+an offensive alliance with France. The upshot of it all was that he
+was disowned at home, discredited in France, and brought our relations
+with that nation into a state of dangerous complication, without
+obtaining any redress for our injuries.
+
+Washington at first, little as he liked the theatrical performances
+with which Monroe opened his mission, wrote about him with great
+moderation to Jay, who was naturally much annoyed by the manner in
+which Monroe had tried to interfere with his negotiations. Six months
+later, however, Washington saw only too plainly that he had been
+mistaken in his minister to France. He wrote to Randolph on July 24,
+1795: "The conduct of Mr. Monroe is of a piece with that of the other;
+and one can scarcely forbear thinking that these acts are part of a
+premeditated system to embarrass the executive government." When it
+became clear that Monroe had omitted to explain properly our reasons
+for treating with England, that he had held out hopes to the French
+government which were totally unauthorized, that he had brought on a
+renewal of the hostilities of that government, and that he had placed
+us in all ways in the most unenviable light, Washington recalled him,
+and appointed Charles Cotesworth Pinckney in his place. By this time
+too he was thoroughly disgusted with Monroe's performances, and in his
+letter to Pinckney, on July 8, 1796, offering him the appointment to
+Paris, he said: "It is a fact too notorious to be denied that the
+greatest embarrassments under which the administration of this
+government labors proceed from the counter-action of people among
+ourselves, who are more disposed to promote the views of another
+nation than to establish a national character of their own; and that,
+unless the virtuous and independent men of this country will come
+forward, it is not difficult to predict the consequences. Such is my
+decided opinion." He felt, as he wrote to Hamilton at the close of his
+administration, that "the conduct of France towards this country is,
+according to my ideas of it, outrageous beyond conception; not to
+be warranted by her treaty with us, by the law of nations, by any
+principle of justice, or even by a regard to decent appearances." This
+was after we had begun to reap the humiliations which Monroe's folly
+had prepared for us, and it is easy to understand that Washington
+regarded their author with anything but satisfaction or approval.
+
+The culprit himself took a very different view, came home presently
+in great wrath, and proceeded to pose as a martyr and compile
+a vindication, which he entitled "A View of the Conduct of the
+Executive," and which surpassed in bulk any of the vindications in
+which that period of our history was prolific. It was published after
+Washington had retired to private life, and did not much disturb his
+serenity. In a letter to Nicholas, on March 8, 1798, he said: "If the
+executive is chargeable with 'premeditating the destruction of Mr.
+Monroe in his appointment, because he was the _centre_ around which
+the Republican party rallied in the Senate' (a circumstance quite new
+to me), it is to be hoped he will give it credit for its lenity toward
+that gentleman in having designated several others, not of the Senate,
+as victims to this office _before_ the sacrifice of Mr. Monroe was
+even had in contemplation. As this must be some consolation to him and
+his friends, I hope they will embrace it."
+
+Washington apparently did not think Monroe was worthy of anything more
+serious than a little sarcasm, and he was quite content, as he said,
+to leave the book to the tribunal to which the author himself had
+appealed. He read the book, however, with care, and in his methodical
+way he appended a number of notes, which are worth consideration
+by all persons interested in the character of Washington. They are
+especially to be commended to those who think that he was merely good
+and wise and solemn, for it would be difficult to find a better piece
+of destructive criticism, or a more ready and thorough knowledge of
+complicated foreign relations, than are contained in these brief
+notes. His own opinion of Monroe is concisely stated in one of them.
+Referring to one of that gentleman's statements he said: "For this
+there is no better proof than his own opinion; whilst there is
+abundant evidence of his being a mere tool in the hands of the French
+government, cajoled and led away always by unmeaning assurances of
+friendship." With this brief comment we may leave the Monroe incident.
+His appointment was a mistake, and increased existing complications,
+which were not finally settled until the next administration.
+
+Monroe's recall was the last act, however, in the long contest of the
+Jay treaty, and it was also, as it happened, the last important act in
+Washington's foreign policy. That policy has been traced here in its
+various branches, but it is worth while to look at it as a whole
+before leaving it, in order to see just what the President aimed at
+and just what he effected. The guiding principle, which had been with
+him from the day when he took command of the army at Cambridge, was to
+make the United States independent. The war had achieved this so far
+as our connection with England was concerned, but it still remained to
+prove to the world that we were an independent nation in fact as well
+as in name. For this the neutrality policy was adopted and carried
+out. We were not only to cease from dependence on the nations of
+Europe, but we were to go on our own way with a policy of our own
+wholly apart from them. It was also necessary to lift up our own
+politics, to detach our minds from those of other nations, and to make
+us truly Americans. All this Washington's policy did so far as it was
+possible to do it in the time given to him. A new generation had to
+come upon the stage before our politics were finally taken out of
+colonialism and made national and American, but the idea was that
+of the first President. It was the foresight and the courage of
+Washington which at the outset placed the United States in their
+relations with foreign nations on the ground of a firm, independent,
+and American policy.
+
+His foreign policy had, however, some immediate practical results
+which were of vast importance. In December, 1795, he wrote to Morris:
+"It is well known that peace has been (to borrow a modern phrase)
+the order of the day with me since the disturbances in Europe first
+commenced. My policy has been, and will continue to be while I have
+the honor to remain in the administration, to maintain friendly terms
+with, but to be independent of, all the nations of the earth; to share
+in the broils of none; to fulfill our own engagements; to supply the
+wants and be carriers for them all; being thoroughly convinced that it
+is our policy and interest to do so. Nothing short of self-respect
+and that justice which is essential to a national character ought to
+involve us in war; for sure I am, if this country is preserved in
+tranquillity twenty years longer, it may bid defiance in a just cause
+to any power whatever; such in that time would be its population,
+wealth, and resources."
+
+He wanted time, but he wanted space also for his country; and if we
+look for a moment at the results of his foreign policy we see clearly
+how he got both. The time gained by peace without any humiliating
+concessions is plain enough. If we look a little further and a little
+deeper, we can see how he compassed his other object. The true and the
+first mission of the American people was, in Washington's theory, the
+conquest of the continent which stretched away wild and silent behind
+them, for in that direction lay the sure road to national greatness.
+The first step was to bind by interest, trade, and habit of
+communication the Atlantic States with the settlements beyond the
+mountains, and for this he had planned canals and highways in the days
+of the confederation. The next step was to remove every obstacle which
+fettered the march of American settlement; and for this he rolled
+back the Indian tribes, patiently negotiated with Spain until the
+Mississippi was opened, and at great personal sacrifice and trial
+signed the Jay treaty, and obtained the surrender of the British
+posts. When Washington went out of office, the way was open to the
+western movement; the dangers of disintegration by reason of foreign
+intrigues on the frontier were removed; peace had been maintained; and
+the national sentiment had had opportunity for rapid growth. France
+had discovered that, although she had been our ally, we were not her
+dependants; other nations had been brought to perceive that the United
+States meant to have a foreign policy all its own; and the American
+people were taught that their first duty was to be Americans and
+nothing else. There is no need to comment on or to praise the
+greatness of a policy with such objects and results as these. The mere
+summary is enough, and it speaks for itself and for its author in a
+way which makes words needless.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+WASHINGTON AS A PARTY MAN
+
+
+Washington was not chosen to office by a political party; he
+considered parties to be perilous things, and he entered the
+presidency determined to have nothing to do with them. Yet, as has
+already been pointed out, he took the members of his cabinet entirely
+from one of the two parties which then existed, and which had been
+produced by the divisions over the Constitution and its adoption. To
+this charge he would no doubt have replied that the parties caused
+by the constitutional differences had ceased to exist when that
+instrument went into operation, and that it was to be supposed that
+all men were then united in support of the government. Accepting this
+view of it, it only remains to see how he fared when new and purely
+political parties, as was inevitable, sprang into active life.
+
+Whatever his own opinions may have been as to parties and
+party-strife, Washington was under no delusions in regard either to
+human nature or to himself, and he had no expectation that everything
+he said or did would meet with universal approbation. He well knew
+that there would be dissatisfaction, and no man ever took high office
+with a mind more ready to bear criticism and to profit by it. Three
+months after his inauguration he wrote to his friend David Stuart:
+"I should like to be informed of the public opinion of both men and
+measures, and of none more than myself; not so much of what may be
+thought commendable parts, if any, of my conduct, as of those which
+are conceived to be of a different complexion. The man who means to
+commit no wrong will never be guilty of enormities; consequently he
+can never be unwilling to learn what are ascribed to him as foibles.
+If they are really such, the knowledge of them in a well-disposed mind
+will go half-way towards a reform. If they are not errors, he can
+explain and justify the motives of his actions." This readiness
+to hear criticism and this watching of public opinion were
+characteristic, for his one desire was to know the truth and never
+deceive himself. His journey through New England in the autumn of that
+year, his visit to Rhode Island a year later, and his trip through the
+southern States in the spring of 1791, had a double motive. He wished
+to bring home to the people the existence and the character of the new
+government by his appearance among them as its representative; and he
+desired also to learn from his own observation, and from inquiries
+made on the spot, what the people thought of the administration and
+its policies, and of the doings of Congress. He was a keen observer
+and a good gatherer of information; for he was patient and persistent,
+and had that best of all gifts for getting at public opinion, an
+absolute and cheerful readiness to listen to advice from any one. His
+travels all had the same result. In the South as in New England he
+found that the people were pleased with the new government, and
+contented with the prosperity which began at once to flow from the
+adoption of a stable national system.
+
+More credit, if anything, was given to it than it really deserved;
+for, as he had written to Lafayette before the Constitution went into
+effect, "Many blessings will be attributed to our new government which
+are now taking their rise from that industry and frugality into which
+the people have been forced from necessity." Whether this were true or
+not, the new government was entitled to the benefit of all accidents,
+and Washington's correct conclusion was that the great body of the
+people were heartily with him and his administration. But he was
+also quite aware that all the criticism was not friendly, and as
+the measures of the government one by one passed Congress, he saw
+divisions of sentiment appear, slight at first, but deepening and
+hardening with each successive contest. Indeed, he had not been in
+office a year when he wrote a long letter to Stuart deploring the
+sectionalism which had begun to show itself. The South was complaining
+that everything was done in the interest of the northern and eastern
+States, and against this idea Washington argued with great force. He
+was especially severe on the unreasonable and childish character of
+such grievances, and he attributed the feeling in certain States
+largely to the outcries of persons who had come home disappointed
+in some personal matter from the seat of government. "It is to be
+lamented," he said, "that the editors of the different gazettes in the
+Union do not more generally and more correctly (instead of stuffing
+their papers with scurrility and nonsensical declamation, which few
+would read if they were apprised of the contents) publish the debates
+in Congress on all great national questions. And this, with no
+uncommon pains, every one of them might do." Washington evidently
+believed that there was no serious danger of the people going wrong
+if they were only fully informed. But the able editors of that day no
+doubt felt that they and their correspondents were better fitted to
+enlighten the public than any one else could be, and there is no
+evidence that any of them ever followed the President's suggestion.
+
+The jealousies and the divisions in Congress, which Washington watched
+with hearty dislike on account of their sectional character, began, as
+is well known, with the financial measures of the Treasury. As time
+went on they became steadily more marked and better defined, and at
+last they spread to the cabinet. Jefferson had returned to take his
+place as Secretary of State after an absence of many years, and
+during that time he had necessarily dropped out of the course of
+home politics. He came back with a very moderate liking for the
+Constitution, and an intention undoubtedly to do his best as a member
+of the cabinet. His first and most natural impulse, of course, was
+to fall in with the administration of which he was a part; and so
+completely did he do this that it was at his table that the famous
+bargain was made which assumed the state debts and took the capital to
+the banks of the Potomac.
+
+Exactly what led to the first breach between Jefferson and Hamilton,
+whose financial policy was then in the full tide of success, is not
+now very easy to determine. Jefferson's action was probably due to a
+mixture of motives and a variety of causes, as is generally the case
+with men, even when they are founders of the democratic party. In the
+first place, Jefferson very soon discovered that Hamilton was
+looked upon as the leader in the cabinet and in the policies of the
+administration, and this fact excited a very natural jealousy on his
+part, because he was the official head of the President's advisers.
+In the second place, it was inevitable that Jefferson should dislike
+Hamilton, for there never were two men more unlike in character and in
+their ways of looking at things. Hamilton was bold, direct, imperious,
+and masculine; he went straight to his mark, and if he encountered
+opposition he either rode over it or broke it down. When Jefferson
+met with opposition he went round it or undermined it; he was adroit,
+flexible, and extremely averse to open fighting. There was also good
+ground for a genuine difference of opinion between the two secretaries
+in regard to the policy of the government. Jefferson was a thorough
+representative of the great democratic movement of the time. At bottom
+his democracy was of the sensible, practical American type, but he
+had come home badly bitten by many of the wild notions which at that
+moment pervaded Paris. A man of much less insight than Jefferson would
+have had no difficulty in perceiving that Hamilton and his
+friends were not in sympathy with these ideas. They hoped for the
+establishment of a republic, but they desired for it a highly
+energetic and centralized government not devoid of aristocratic
+tendencies. This fundamental difference of opinion, increased as it
+was by personal jealousies, soon put Jefferson, therefore, into an
+attitude of hostility to the men who were then guiding the policy of
+the government. The new administration had been so successful that
+there was at first practically no party of opposition, and the task
+before Jefferson involved the creation of a party, the formulation of
+principles, and the definition of issues, with appropriate shibboleths
+for popular consumption. Jefferson knew that Hamilton and all who
+fought with him were as sincerely in favor of a republic as he himself
+was; but his unerring genius in political management told him that he
+could never raise a party or make a party-cry out of the statement
+that, while he favored a democratic republic, the men to whom he was
+opposed preferred one of a more aristocratic caste. It was necessary
+to have something much more highly seasoned than this. So he took the
+ground that his opponents were monarchists, bent on establishing a
+monarchy in this country, and were backed by a "corrupt squadron"
+in Congress in the pay of the Treasury. This was of course utter
+nonsense, but it served its purpose admirably. Jefferson, indeed,
+shouted these cries so much that he almost came to believe in them
+himself, and sympathetic writers to this day repeat them as if they
+had reality instead of having been mere noise to frighten the unwary.
+The prime object of it all was to make the great leaders odious by
+connecting them in the popular mind with the royal government that had
+been overthrown.
+
+Jefferson's first move was a covert one. In the spring of 1791 he
+received Thomas Paine's "Rights of Man," and straightway sent the
+pamphlet to the printer with a note of approbation reflecting upon
+John Adams. The pamphlet promptly appeared in a reprint with the
+note prefixed. It made much stir, and the published approval of the
+Secretary of State excited a great deal of criticism, much of which
+was very hostile. Jefferson thereupon expressed extreme surprise that
+his note had been printed, and on the plea of explaining the matter
+wrote to Washington a letter, in which he declared that his friend
+Mr. Adams, for whom he had a most cordial esteem, was an apostate to
+hereditary monarchy and nobility. He further described his old friend
+as a political heretic and as the bellwether Davila, upon whom and
+whose writings Mr. Adams had recently been publishing some discourses.
+It is but fair to say that no more ingenious attack on the
+Vice-President could have been made, but the purpose of it was simply
+to arrest the public attention for the real struggle which was to
+follow.
+
+The true object of all these movements was to rally a party and break
+down Jefferson's great colleague in the cabinet. The "Rights of Man"
+served to start the discussion; and the next step was to bring on from
+New York Philip Freneau, a verse-writer and journalist, and make him
+translating clerk in the State Department, and editor of an opposition
+newspaper known as the "National Gazette." The new journal proceeded
+to do its work after the fashion of the time. It teemed with abuse
+not only of Hamilton and Adams and all the supporters of the treasury
+measures, denouncing them as "monarchists," "aristocrats," and "a
+corrupt squadron," but it even began a series of coarse assaults
+upon the President himself. Jefferson, of course, denied that he had
+anything to do with the writing in the newspaper, and Freneau made
+oath at the time that the Secretary wrote nothing; but in his old age
+he declared that Jefferson wrote or dictated all the most abusive
+articles, and he showed a file of the "Gazette" with these articles
+marked. Strict veracity was not the strongest characteristic of either
+Freneau or Jefferson, and it is really of but little consequence
+whether Freneau was lying in his old age or in the prime of life. The
+undoubted facts of the case are enough to fix the responsibility upon
+Jefferson, where it belongs. The editor of a newspaper devoted
+to abusing the administration was brought to Philadelphia by the
+Secretary of State, was given a place in his department, and was his
+confidential friend. Jefferson himself took advantage of his
+position to gather material for attacks upon his chief, and upon his
+colleagues, to whom he was bound to be loyal by every rule which
+dictates the conduct of honorable men. He did not, moreover, content
+himself with this outside work. It has been too much overlooked that
+Jefferson, in addition to forming a party and organizing attacks upon
+the Secretary of the Treasury and his friends, sought in the first
+instance to break down Hamilton in the cabinet, to deprive him of the
+confidence of Washington, and by driving him from the administration
+to get control himself. At no time did Jefferson ever understand
+Washington, but he knew him well enough to be quite aware that he
+would never give up a friend like Hamilton on account of any newspaper
+attacks. He therefore took a more insidious method.
+
+Knowing that Washington was in the habit of consulting with old
+friends at home of all shades of opinion in regard to public affairs,
+he contrived through their agency to have his own charges against
+Hamilton laid before the President. He also, to make perfectly sure,
+wrote himself to Washington, candidly setting forth outside criticism,
+and his letter took the form of a well-arranged indictment of the
+Treasury measures. This method had the advantage of assailing Hamilton
+without incurring any responsibility, and the charges were skilfully
+formulated and ingeniously constructed to raise in the mind of the
+reader every possible suspicion. At this point Washington comes for
+the first time into the famous controversy from which our two great
+political parties were born. He did exactly what Jefferson would not
+have done, sent the charges all duly formulated to Hamilton, and asked
+him his opinion about them. As the accusations thus made against the
+policies of the government and the Secretary of the Treasury were all
+mere wind of the "monarchist" and "corrupt squadron" order, Hamilton
+disposed of them with very little difficulty. The whole proceeding,
+if Jefferson was aware of it at the time, must have been a great
+disappointment to him. But his mistake was the natural error of an
+ingenious man wasting his efforts on one of great directness and
+perfect simplicity of character. Hamilton's answer was what Washington
+undoubtedly expected. He knew the hollowness of the attack, but none
+the less he was made anxious by it as an indication of the serious
+party divisions rising about him. This, however, was but the
+beginning, and he was soon to have much more direct evidence of the
+grave nature of a political conflict, which he then could not bring
+himself to believe was irrepressible.
+
+Hamilton, on his side, was not the most patient of men, and although
+he bore the attacks of Frenean for some time in silence he finally
+retaliated. He did not get any one to do his fighting for him, but
+under a thin disguise proceeded to answer in Fenno's newspaper the
+abuse of the "National Gazette." He was the best political writer in
+the country, and when he struck, his blows told. Jefferson winced and
+cried out under the punishment, but it would have been more dignified
+in Hamilton to have kept out of the newspapers. Still there was the
+fight. It had gone from the cabinet to the press, and the public knew
+that the two principal secretaries were at swords' points and were
+marshaling behind them strong political forces. The point had been
+reached where the President was compelled to interfere unless he
+wished his administration to be thoroughly discredited by the bitter
+and open conflicts of its members.
+
+He wrote to both secretaries in a grave and almost pathetic tone of
+remonstrance, urging them to abandon their quarrel, and, sinking minor
+differences, to work with him for the success of the Constitution to
+which they were both devoted. Each man replied after his fashion.
+Hamilton's letter was short and straight-forward. He could not profess
+to have changed his opinion as to the conduct or purpose of his
+colleague, but he regretted the strife which had arisen, and promised
+to do all that was in his power to allay it by ceasing from further
+attacks. Jefferson wrote at great length, controverting Hamilton's
+published letters in a way which showed that he was still smarting
+from the well-aimed shafts. He also contrived to make his own defense
+the vehicle for a renewal of all his accusations against the Treasury,
+and he wound up by saying that he looked forward to retirement with
+the longing of "a wave-worn mariner," and that he should reserve any
+further fighting that he had to do until he was out of office. Soon
+after he followed this letter with another, containing a collection
+of extracts from his own correspondence while in Paris, to show his
+devotion to the Constitution. One is irresistibly reminded by all
+this of the Player Queen--"The lady protests too much, methinks."
+Washington had not accused Jefferson of lack of loyalty to the
+Constitution, indeed he had made no accusations against him of any
+kind; but Jefferson knew that his own position was a false one, and
+he could not refrain from taking a defensive tone. Washington, in his
+reply, said that he needed no proofs of Jefferson's fidelity to the
+Constitution, and reiterated his earnest desire for an accommodation
+of all differences. "I will frankly and solemnly declare," he said,
+"that I believe the views of both of you to be pure and well-meant,
+and that experience only will decide with respect to the salutariness
+of the measures which are the subjects of dispute.... I could, and
+indeed was about to, add more on this interesting subject, but will
+forbear, at least for the present, after expressing a wish that the
+cup which has been presented to us may not be snatched from our
+lips by a discordance of action, when I am persuaded there is no
+discordance in your views."
+
+The difficulty was that there was not only discordance in the views of
+the two secretaries, but a fundamental political difference, extending
+throughout the people, which they typified. The accommodation of views
+and the support of the Constitution could only mean a support of
+Washington's administration and its measures. Those measures not
+only had the President's approval, but they were in many respects
+peculiarly his own, and in them he rightly saw the success and
+maintenance of the Constitution. But, unfortunately for the interests
+of harmony, these measures were either devised or ardently sustained
+by the Secretary of the Treasury. They were not the measures of the
+Secretary of State, and received from him either lukewarm support
+or active, if furtive, hostility. The only peace possible was in
+Jefferson's giving in his entire adherence to the policies of
+Washington and Hamilton, which were radically opposed to his own. In
+one word, a real, profound, and inevitable party division had come,
+and it had found the opposing chiefs side by side in the cabinet.
+
+Against this conclusion Washington struggled hard. He had come in as
+the representative and by the votes of the whole people, and he shrank
+from any step which would seem to make him lean on a party for support
+in his administration. He had made up his cabinet with what he very
+justly considered the strongest material. He believed that a breaking
+up of the cabinet or a change in its membership would be an injury to
+the cause of good government, and he was so entirely single-minded
+in his own views and wishes, that, with all his knowledge of human
+nature, he found it difficult to understand how any one could differ
+from him materially. Moreover, having started with the firm intention
+of governing without party, he determined, with his usual persistence,
+to carry it through, if it were possible. When party feeling had
+once developed, and division had sprung up between the two principal
+officers of his cabinet, no greater risk could have been run than
+that which Washington took in refusing to make the changes which were
+necessary to render the administration harmonious. With any lesser
+man, such a perilous experiment would have failed and brought with it
+disastrous consequences. There is no greater proof of the force of his
+will and the weight and strength of his character than the fact that
+he held in his cabinet Jefferson and Hamilton, despite their hatred
+for each other and each other's principles, and that he not only
+prevented any harm, but actually drew great results from the
+talents of each of them. Yet, with all his strength of grasp, this
+ill-assorted combination could not last, although Washington resisted
+the inevitable in a surprising way, and he even begged Jefferson to
+remain when the impossibility of doing so had become quite clear to
+that gentleman.
+
+The remonstrance in regard to the Freneau matter had but a temporary
+effect. Hamilton stopped his attacks, it is true; but Jefferson did
+not discontinue his, and he set on foot a movement which was designed
+to destroy his rival's public and private reputation. Hamilton met
+this attack in Congress, where he refuted it signally; and although
+the ostensible movers were members of the House, the defeat recoiled
+on the Secretary of State. Having failed in Congress and before the
+public to ruin his opponent, and having failed equally to shake
+Washington's confidence in Hamilton or the latter's influence in the
+administration, Jefferson made up his mind that the cabinet was no
+longer the place for him. He became more than ever satisfied that
+he was a "wave-worn mariner," and after some hesitation he finally
+resigned and transferred his political operations to another field. A
+year later Hamilton, from very different reasons of a purely private
+character, followed him.
+
+Meantime many events had occurred which all tended to show the growing
+intensity of party divisions, and which were not without their effect
+upon the mind of the President. In 1792 it became necessary to
+consider the question of the approaching election, and all elements
+united in urging upon Washington the absolute necessity of accepting
+the presidency a second time. Hamilton and the Federalists, of course,
+desired Washington's reelection, because they regarded him as their
+leader, as the friend and supporter of their measures, and as the
+great bulwark of the government. Jefferson, who was equally urgent,
+felt that in the unformed condition of his own party the withdrawal of
+Washington, in addition to its injury to the general welfare,
+would leave his incoherent forces at the mercy of an avowed and
+thorough-going Federalist administration.
+
+So it came about that Washington received another unanimous election.
+He had no great longing for public office, but at this time he seems
+to have been not without a desire to continue President, in order that
+he might carry his measures to completion. In the unanimity of the
+choice he took a perfectly natural pleasure, for besides the personal
+satisfaction, he could not but feel that it greatly strengthened his
+hands in doing the work which he had at heart. On January 20, 1793,
+he wrote to Henry Lee: "A mind must be insensible, indeed, not to be
+gratefully impressed by so distinguished and honorable a testimony of
+public approbation and confidence; and as I suffered my name to be
+contemplated on this occasion, it is more than probable that I should,
+for a moment, have experienced chagrin if my reelection had not been
+by a pretty respectable vote. But to say I feel pleasure from the
+prospect of commencing another tour of duty would be a departure from
+the truth." Some time was still to pass before Washington, either by
+word or deed, would acknowledge himself to be the chief or even a
+member of a party; but before he entered the presidency a second time,
+he had no manner of doubt that a party existed which was opposed to
+him and to all his measures.
+
+The establishment of the government and the treasury measures had
+very quickly rallied a strong party, which kept the name that it had
+adopted while fighting the battles of the Constitution. They were
+known in their own day, and have been known ever since to history, as
+the Federalists. The opposition, composed chiefly of those who had
+resisted the adoption of the Constitution, were discredited at the
+very start by the success of the union and the new government. When
+Jefferson took hold of them they were disorganized and even nameless,
+having no better appellation than that of "Anti-Federalists." In
+the process of time their great chief gave them a name, a set of
+principles, a war-cry, an organization, and at last an overwhelming
+victory. They began to take on something like form and coherence in
+resisting Hamilton's financial measures; but the success of his policy
+was so dazzling that they were rather cowed by it, and were left by
+their defeat little better off in the way of discipline than before.
+The French Revolution and its consequences, including a war with
+England, gave them a much better opportunity. It is melancholy to
+think that American parties should have entered upon their first
+struggle purely on questions of foreign politics. The only explanation
+is to repeat that we were still colonists in all but name and
+allegiance, and it was Washington's task not only to establish a
+dignified and independent policy of his own abroad, but to beat down
+colonial politics at home.
+
+In the first burst of rejoicing over the uprising of the French
+people, no divisions were apparent; but the arrival of Genet was the
+signal for their beginning. The extraordinary spectacle was then
+presented of an American party arrayed against the administration
+under the lead of the French minister, and with the strong, although
+covert sympathy of the Secretary of State. The popular feeling in fact
+was so strongly with France that the new party seemed on the
+surface to have almost universal support. The firm attitude of the
+administration and Washington's unyielding adherence to his policy of
+neutrality gave them their first serious check, but also embittered
+their attacks. In the first three years of the government almost every
+one refrained from attacking Washington personally. The unlimited love
+and respect in which he was held were the principal causes of this
+moderation, but even those opponents who were not influenced by
+feelings of respect were restrained by a wholesome prudence from
+bringing upon themselves the odium of being enemies of the President.
+
+The fiction that the king could do no wrong was carried to the last
+extreme by the Long Parliament when they made war on Charles in order
+to remove him from evil counselors. It was, no doubt, the exercise of
+a wise conservatism in that instance; but in the United States, and
+in the ordinary condition of politics, such a position was of course
+untenable. The President was responsible for his cabinet and for the
+measures of his administration, and it was impossible to separate them
+long, even when the chief magistrate was so great and so well-beloved
+as Washington. Freneau, editing his newspaper from the office of the
+Secretary of State, seems to have been the first to break the line. He
+passed speedily from attacks on measures to attacks on men, and among
+the latter he soon included the President. Washington had had too much
+experience of slander and abuse during the revolutionary war to be
+worried by them. But Freneau took pains to send him copies of his
+newspapers, a piece of impertinence which apparently led to a little
+vigorous denunciation, the account of which seems probable, although
+our only authority is in Jefferson's "Ana." As the attacks went on and
+were extended, and when Bache joined in with the "Aurora," Washington
+was not long in coming to the unpleasant conclusion that all this
+opposition proceeded from a well-formed plan, and was the work of
+a party which designed to break down his measures and ruin his
+administration. All statesmen intrusted in a representative system
+with the work of government are naturally prone to think that their
+opponents are also the enemies of the public welfare, and Washington
+was no exception to the rule. Such an opinion is indeed unavoidable,
+for a public man must have faith that his own measures are the best
+for the country, and if he did not, he would be but a faint-hearted
+representative, unfit to govern and unable to lead. History has agreed
+with Washington in his view of the work of his administration, and has
+set it down as essential to the right and successful foundation of the
+government. It is not to be wondered at that at the moment Washington
+should regard a party swayed by the French minister and seeking to
+involve us in war as unpatriotic and dangerous. He even thought that
+one probable solution of Genet's conduct was that he was the tool and
+not the leader of the party which sustained him. In fact, his general
+view of the opposition was marked by that perfect clearness which was
+characteristic of all his opinions when he had fully formed them. In
+July, 1793, he wrote to Henry Lee:--
+
+"That there are in this as well as in all other countries,
+discontented characters, I well know; as also that these characters
+are actuated by very different views: some good, from an opinion that
+the general measures of the government are impure; some bad, and, if I
+might be allowed to use so harsh an expression, diabolical, inasmuch
+as they are not only meant to impede the measures of that government
+generally, but more especially, as a great means toward the
+accomplishment of it, to destroy the confidence which it is necessary
+for the people to place, until they have unequivocal proof of demerit,
+in their public servants. In this light I consider myself whilst I
+am an occupant of office; and if they were to go further and call me
+their slave during this period, I would not dispute the point.
+
+"But in what will this abuse terminate? For the result, as it respects
+myself, I care not; for I have a consolation within that no earthly
+efforts can deprive me of, and that is, that neither ambition
+nor interested motives have influenced my conduct. The arrows of
+malevolence, therefore, however barbed and well pointed, never can
+reach the most vulnerable part of me; though, whilst I am up as a
+_mark_, they will be continually aimed. The publications in Freneau's
+and Bache's papers are outrages on common decency, and they progress
+in that style in proportion as their pieces are treated with contempt,
+and are passed by in silence by those at whom they are aimed. The
+tendency of them, however, is too obvious to be mistaken by men of
+cool and dispassionate minds, and, in my opinion, ought to alarm them,
+because it is difficult to prescribe bounds to the effect."
+
+He was not much given, however, to talking about his assailants. If he
+said anything, it was usually only in the way of contemptuous sarcasm,
+as when he wrote to Morris: "The affairs of this country _cannot go
+amiss_. There are _so many watchful guardians of them_, and such
+_infallible guides_, that one is at no loss for a director at every
+turn. But of these matters I shall say little." If these attacks had
+any effect on him, it was only to make him more determined in carrying
+out his purposes. In the first skirmish, which ended in the recall
+of Genet, he not only prevailed, but the French minister's audacity
+especially in venturing to appeal to the people against their
+President, demoralized the opposition and brought public opinion round
+to the side of the administration with an overwhelming force.
+
+Genet's mischief, however, did not end with him. He had sown the seeds
+of many troubles, and among others the idea of societies on the model
+of the famous Jacobin Club of Paris. That American citizens should
+have so little self-respect as to borrow the political jargon and ape
+the political manners of Paris was sad enough. To put on red caps,
+drink confusion to tyrants, sing _Ca ira_, and call each other
+"citizen," was foolish to the verge of idiocy, but it was at least
+harmless. When, however, they began to form "democratic societies"
+on the model of the Jacobins, for the defense of liberty against a
+government which the people themselves had made, they ceased to be
+fatuous and became mischievous. These societies, senseless imitations
+of French examples, and having no real cause to defend liberty, became
+simply party organizations, with a strong tendency to foster license
+and disorder. Washington regarded them with unmixed disgust, for he
+attributed to them the agitation and discontent of the settlers beyond
+the mountains, which threatened to embroil us with Spain, and he
+believed also that the much more serious matter of the whiskey
+rebellion was their doing. After having exhausted every reasonable
+means of concession and compromise, and having concentrated the best
+public opinion of the country behind him, he resolved to put down this
+"rebellion" with a strong hand, and he wrote to Henry Lee, just as
+he was preparing to take the last step: "It is with equal pride and
+satisfaction I add that, as far as my information extends, this
+insurrection is viewed with universal indignation and abhorrence,
+except by those who have never missed an opportunity, by side-blows
+or otherwise, to attack the general government; and even among these
+there is not a spirit hardy enough yet openly to justify the daring
+infractions of law and order; but by palliatives they are attempting
+to suspend all proceedings against the insurgents, until Congress
+shall have decided on the case, thereby intending to gain time, and,
+if possible, to make the evil more extensive, more formidable, and, of
+course, more difficult to counteract and subdue.
+
+"I consider this insurrection as the first formidable fruit of the
+democratic societies, brought forth, I believe, too prematurely for
+their own views, which may contribute to the annihilation of them."
+
+The insurrection vanished on the advance of the forces of the United
+States. It had been formidable enough to alarm all conservative
+people, and its inglorious end left the opposition, which had given it
+a certain encouragement, much discredited. This matter being settled,
+Washington determined to strike next at what he considered the chief
+sources of the evil, the clubs, which, to use his own words, "were
+instituted for the express purpose of poisoning the minds of the
+people of this country, and making them discontented with the
+government." Accordingly, in his speech to the next Congress he
+denounced the democratic societies. After tracing the course of the
+whiskey rebellion, he said:--
+
+"And when in the calm moments of reflection they [the citizens of
+the United States] shall have traced the origin and progress of the
+insurrection, let them determine whether it has not been fomented by
+combinations of men, who, careless of consequences, and disregarding
+the unerring truth, that those who rouse cannot always appease a civil
+convulsion, have disseminated, from an ignorance or perversion
+of facts, suspicions, jealousies, and accusations of the whole
+government."
+
+The opposition both in Congress and in the newspapers shrieked loudly
+over this plain speaking; but when Washington struck a blow, it was
+usually well timed, and the present instance was no exception. Coming
+immediately after the failure of the insurrection, and the triumph of
+the government, this strong expression of the President's disapproval
+had a fatal effect upon the democratic societies. They withered away
+with the rapidity of weeds when their roots have been skillfully cut.
+
+After this, even if Washington still refused to consider himself the
+head of a party, the opposition no longer had any doubts on that
+point. They not only regarded him as the chief of the Federalists, but
+also, and with perfect justice, as their own most dangerous enemy,
+and the man who had dealt them and their cause the most deadly blows.
+Whatever restraint they may have hitherto placed upon themselves in
+dealing with him personally, they now abandoned, and the opportunity
+for open war soon came to them in the vexed question of the British
+treaty, where they occupied much better ground than in the Genet
+affair, and commanded much more popular sympathy. Their orators did
+not hesitate to say that the conduct of the President in this affair
+had been improper and monarchical, and that he ought to be impeached.
+After the treaty was signed, the "Aurora" declared that the President
+had violated the Constitution, and made a treaty with a nation
+abhorred by our people; that he answered the respectful remonstrances
+of Boston and New York as if he were the omnipotent director of a
+seraglio, and had thundered contempt upon the people with as much
+confidence as if he sat upon the throne of "Industan."
+
+All these remarks and many more of like tenor have been gathered
+together and very picturesquely arranged by Mr. McMaster, in whose
+volumes they may be studied with advantage by any one who has doubts
+as to Washington's political position. It is not probable that the
+writer of the brilliant diatribe just quoted had any very distinct
+idea about either seraglios or "Industan," but he, and others of like
+mind, probably took pleasure in the words, as did the old woman who
+always loved to hear Mesopotamia mentioned. Other persons, however,
+were more definite in their statements. John Beckley, who had once
+been clerk of the House, writing under the very opposite signature of
+"A Calm Observer," declared that Washington had been overdrawing his
+salary in defiance of law, and had actually stolen in this way $4,750.
+Such being the case, the "Calm Observer" very naturally inquired:
+"What will posterity say of the man who has done this thing? Will it
+not say that the mask of political hypocrisy has been worn by Caesar,
+by Cromwell, and by Washington?" Another patriot, also of the
+Democratic party, declared that the President had been false to
+a republican government. He said that Washington maintained the
+seclusion of a monk and the supercilious distance of a tyrant; and
+that the concealing carriage drawn by supernumerary horses expressed
+the will of the President, and defined the loyal duty of the people.
+
+The support of Genet, the democratic societies, and now this concerted
+and bitter opposition to the Jay treaty, convinced Washington, if
+conviction were needed, that he could carry on his administration only
+by the help of those who were thoroughly in sympathy with his policy
+and purposes. When Jefferson left the State Department, the President
+promoted Randolph, and put Bradford, a Federalist, in the place of
+Attorney-General. When Hamilton left the Treasury, Oliver Wolcott,
+Hamilton's right-hand man, and the staunchest of party men, was
+given the position thus left vacant. If Randolph had remained in the
+cabinet, he would have become a Federalist. Like all men disposed to
+turn, when he was compelled to jump he sprang far, as was shown by
+his signing the treaty and memorial, both of which he strongly
+disapproved. He was quite ready to fall in with the rest of the
+cabinet, but on account of the Fauchet dispatch he resigned. Then
+Washington, after offering the portfolio to several persons known to
+be in hearty sympathy with him, took the risk of giving it to Timothy
+Pickering, who was by no means a safe leader, rather than take any
+chance of getting another adviser who was not entirely of his own way
+of thinking. At the same time he gave the secretaryship of war to
+James McHenry, a most devoted personal friend and follower. He still
+held back from calling himself a party chief, but he had discovered,
+as William of Orange discovered, that he could not, even with his iron
+will and lofty intent, overcome the impossible, alter human nature,
+or carry on a successful government under a representative system,
+without the assistance of a party. He stated his conclusion with his
+wonted plainness in a letter to Pickering written in September, 1795,
+in the midst of the struggle over the treaty. "I shall not," he said,
+"whilst I have the honor to administer the government, bring a man
+into any office of consequence knowingly, whose political tenets are
+adverse to the measures which the general government are pursuing; for
+this, in my opinion, would be a sort of political suicide. That it
+would embarrass its movements is most certain." A terser statement of
+the doctrine of party government it would be difficult to find, and
+in the conduct of Monroe and the course of the opposition journals
+Washington had ample proofs of the soundness of his theory.
+
+If he had needed to be strengthened in his determination, his
+opponents furnished the requisite aid. In February, 1796, the House
+refused to adjourn on his birthday for half an hour, in order to go
+and pay him their respects, as had been the pleasant custom up to that
+time. The Democrats of that day were in no confusion of mind as to the
+party to which Washington belonged, and they did not hesitate to put
+this deliberate slight upon him in order to mark their dislike. This
+was not the utterance of a newspaper editor, but the well-considered
+act of the representatives of a party in Congress. Party feeling,
+indeed, could hardly have gone further; and this single incident is
+sufficient to dispel the pleasing delusion that party strife and
+bitterness are the product of modern days, and of more advanced forms
+of political organization.
+
+Yet despite all these attacks there can be no doubt that Washington's
+hold upon the masses of the people was substantially unshaken. They
+would have gladly seen him assume the presidency for the third time,
+and if the test had been made, thousands of men who gave their votes
+to the opposition would have still supported him for the greatest
+office in their gift. But this time Washington would not yield to the
+wishes of his friends or of the country. He felt that he had done his
+work and earned the rest and the privacy for which he longed above all
+earthly things. In September, 1796, he published his farewell address,
+and no man ever left a nobler political testament. Through much
+tribulation he had done his great part in establishing the government
+of the Union, which might easily have come to naught without his
+commanding influence. He had imparted to it the dignity of his own
+great character. He had sustained the splendid financial policy of
+Hamilton. He had struck a fatal blow at the colonial spirit in our
+politics, and had lifted up our foreign policy to a plane worthy of an
+independent nation. He had stricken off the fetters which impeded the
+march of western settlement, and without loss of honor had gained time
+to enable our institutions to harden and become strong. He had made
+peace with our most dangerous enemies, and, except in the case of
+France, where there were perilous complications to be solved by his
+successor, he left the United States in far better and more honorable
+relations with the rest of the world than even the most sanguine would
+have dared to hope when the Constitution was formed. Now from the
+heights of great achievement he turned to say farewell to the people
+whom he so much loved, and whom he had so greatly served. Every word
+was instinct with the purest and wisest patriotism. "Be united," he
+said; "be Americans. The name which belongs to you, in your national
+capacity, must exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any
+appellation derived from local discriminations. Let there be no
+sectionalism, no North, South, East or West; you are all dependent one
+on another, and should be one in union. Beware of attacks, open or
+covert, upon the Constitution. Beware of the baneful effects of
+party spirit and of the ruin to which its extremes must lead. Do not
+encourage party spirit, but use every effort to mitigate and assuage
+it. Keep the departments of government separate, promote education,
+cherish the public credit, avoid debt. Observe justice and good faith
+toward all nations; have neither passionate hatreds nor passionate
+attachments to any; and be independent politically of all. In one
+word, be a nation, be Americans, and be true to yourselves."
+
+His admonitions were received by the people at large with profound
+respect, and sank deep into the public mind. As the generations have
+come and gone, the farewell address has grown dearer to the hearts of
+the people, and the children and the children's children of those to
+whom it was addressed have turned to it in all times and known that
+there was no room for error in following its counsel.
+
+Yet at the moment, notwithstanding the general sadness at Washington's
+retirement and the deep regard for his last words of advice, the
+opposition was so thoroughly hostile that they seized on the address
+itself as a theme for renewed attack upon its author. "His character,"
+said one Democrat, "can only be respectable while it is not known; he
+is arbitrary, avaricious, ostentatious; without skill as a soldier, he
+has crept into fame by the places he has held. His financial measures
+burdened the many to enrich the few. History will tear the pages
+devoted to his praise. France and his country gave him fame, and they
+will take that fame away." "His glory has dissolved in mist," said
+another writer, "and he has sunk from the high level of Solon or
+Lycurgus to the mean rank of a Dutch Stadtholder or a Venetian
+Doge. Posterity will look in vain for any marks of wisdom in his
+administration."
+
+To thoughtful persons these observations are not without a curious
+interest, as showing that even the wisest of men may be in error. The
+distinguished Democrat who uttered these remarks has been forgotten,
+and the page of history on which Washington's name was inscribed is
+still untorn. The passage of the address, however, which gave the most
+offense, as Mr. McMaster points out, was, as might have been expected
+from the colonial condition of our politics, that which declared it
+to be our true policy "to steer clear of permanent alliances with any
+portion of the foreign world." This, it was held, simply meant that,
+having made a treaty with England, we were to be stopped from making
+one with France. Another distinguished editor declared that the
+farewell address came from the meanest of motives; that the President
+knew he could not be reelected because the Republicans would have
+united to supersede him with Adams, who had the simplicity of a
+Republican, while Washington had the ostentation of an Eastern Pasha,
+and it was in order to save himself from this humiliation that he had
+cunningly resigned.
+
+When Washington met his last Congress, William Giles of Virginia took
+the opportunity afforded by the usual answer to the President's speech
+to assail him personally. It would be of course a gross injustice to
+suppose that a coarse political ruffian like Giles really represented
+the Democratic party. But he represented the extreme wing, and after
+he had declared in his place that Washington was neither wise nor
+patriotic, and that his retirement was anything but a calamity, he got
+twelve of his party friends to sustain his sentiments by voting
+with him. The press was even more unbridled, and it was said in the
+"Aurora" at this time that Washington had debauched and deceived
+the nation, and that his administration had shown that the mask of
+patriotism may be worn to conceal the foulest dangers to the liberties
+of the people. Over and over again it was said by these writers that
+he had betrayed France and was the slave of England.
+
+This charge of being a British sympathizer was the only one of all the
+abuse heaped upon him by the opposition that Washington seems really
+to have resented. In August, 1794, when this slander first started
+from the prolific source of all attacks against the government, he
+wrote to Henry Lee: "With respect to the words said to have been
+uttered by Mr. Jefferson, they would be enigmatical to those who are
+acquainted with the characters about me, unless supposed to be spoken
+ironically; and in that case they are too injurious to me, and have
+too little foundation in truth, to be ascribed to him. There could not
+be the trace of doubt in his mind of predilection in mine toward Great
+Britain or her politics, unless, which I do not believe, he has set me
+down as one of the most deceitful and uncandid men living; because,
+not only in private conversations between ourselves on this subject,
+but in my meetings with the confidential servants of the public, he
+has heard me often, when occasions presented themselves, express very
+different sentiments, with an energy that could not be mistaken by any
+one present.
+
+"Having determined, as far as lay within the power of the executive,
+to keep this country in a state of neutrality, I have made my public
+conduct accord with the system; and whilst so acting as a public
+character, consistency and propriety as a private man forbid those
+intemperate expressions in favor of one nation, or to the prejudice of
+another, which may have wedged themselves in, and, I will venture to
+add, to the embarrassment of government, without producing any good to
+the country."
+
+He had shown by his acts as well as by his words his real friendship
+for France, such as a proper sense of gratitude required. As has been
+already pointed out, rather than run the risk of seeming to reflect in
+the slightest degree upon the government of the French republic, he
+had refused even to receive distinguished _emigres_ like Noailles,
+Liancourt, and Talleyrand.[1] He was so scrupulous in this respect
+that he actually did violence to his own strong desires in not taking
+into his house at once the son of Lafayette; and when it became
+necessary to choose a successor to Morris, his anxiety was so great
+to select some one agreeable to France that he took such an avowed
+opponent of his administration as Monroe.
+
+[Footnote 1: See the Letter to the Due de Liancourt explaining the
+reasons for his not being received by the President. (Sparks, xi.
+161.)]
+
+On the other hand, he had never lost the strong feeling of hostility
+toward England which he, above all men, had felt during the
+Revolution. The conduct of England, when he was seeking an honorable
+peace with her, tried his patience severely. He wrote to Morris in
+1795: "I give you these details (and if you should again converse with
+Lord Grenville on the subject, you are at liberty, unofficially,
+to mention them, or any of them, according to circumstances), as
+evidences of the unpolitic conduct (for so it strikes me) of the
+British government towards these United States; that it may be
+seen how difficult it has been for the executive, under such an
+accumulation of irritating circumstances, to maintain the ground of
+neutrality which had been taken; and at a time when the remembrance
+of the aid we had received from France in the Revolution was fresh in
+every mind, and while the partisans of that country were continually
+contrasting the affections of _that_ people with the unfriendly
+disposition of the _British government_. And that, too, as I have
+observed before, while _their own_ sufferings during the war with the
+latter had not been forgotten." The one man in the country who above
+all others had the highest conception of American nationality, who
+was the first to seek to lift up our politics from the low level of
+colonialism, who was the author of the neutrality policy, had reason
+to resent the bitter irony of an attack which represented him as a
+British sympathizer. The truth is, that the only foreign party at that
+time was that which identified itself with France, and which was
+the party of Jefferson and the opposition. The Federalists and
+the administration under the lead of Washington and Hamilton were
+determined that the government should be American and not French, and
+this in the eyes of their opponents was equivalent to being in the
+control of England. In after years, when the Federalists fell from
+power and declined into the position of a factious minority, they
+became British sympathizers, and as thoroughly colonial in their
+politics as the party of Jefferson had been. If they had had the
+wisdom of their better days they would then have made themselves the
+champions of the American idea, and would have led the country in the
+determined effort to free itself once for all from colonial politics,
+even if they were obliged to fight somebody to accomplish it. They
+proved unequal to the task, and it fell to a younger generation led by
+Henry Clay and his contemporaries to sweep Federalist and Jeffersonian
+republican alike, with their French and British politics, out of
+existence. In so doing the younger generation did but complete the
+work of Washington, for he it was who first trod the path and marked
+the way for a true American policy in the midst of men who could not
+understand his purposes.
+
+Bitter and violent as had been the attacks upon Washington while he
+held office, they were as nothing compared to the shout of fierce
+exultation which went up from the opposition journals when he finally
+retired from the presidency. One extract will serve as an example of
+the general tone of the opposition journals throughout the country. It
+is to be found in the "Aurora" of March 6, 1797:--
+
+    "'Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace,' was the
+    pious ejaculation of a pious man who beheld a flood of happiness
+    rushing in upon mankind. If ever there was a time that would
+    license the reiteration of the ejaculation, that time has now
+    arrived, for the man who is the source of all the misfortunes
+    of our country is this day reduced to a level with his
+    fellow-citizens, and is no longer possessed of power to multiply
+    evils upon the United States. If ever there was a period for
+    rejoicing, this is the moment. Every heart in unison with the
+    freedom and happiness of the people ought to beat high with
+    exultation that the name of Washington ceases from this day to
+    give currency to political insults, and to legalize corruption. A
+    new era is now opening upon us, an era which promises much to the
+    people, for public measures must now stand upon their own merits,
+    and nefarious projects can no longer be supported by a name. When
+    a retrospect has been taken of the Washingtonian administration
+    for eight years, it is a subject of the greatest astonishment
+    that a single individual should have cankered the principles of
+    republicanism in an enlightened people just emerged from the gulf
+    of despotism, and should have carried his designs against the
+    public liberty so far as to have put in jeopardy its very
+    existence. Such, however, are the facts, and with these staring us
+    in the face, the day ought to be a JUBILEE in the United States."
+
+This was not the outburst of a single malevolent spirit. The article
+was copied and imitated in New York and Boston, and wherever the
+party that called Jefferson leader had a representative among the
+newspapers. It is not probable that stuff of this sort gave Washington
+himself a moment's anxiety, for he knew too well what he had done, and
+he was too sure of his own hold upon the hearts of the people, to be
+in the least disturbed by the attacks of hostile editors. But the
+extracts are of interest as showing that the opposition party of that
+time, the party organized and led by Jefferson, regarded Washington as
+their worst enemy, and assailed him and slandered him to the utmost.
+They even went so far as to borrow materials from the enemies of the
+country with whom we had lately been at war, by publishing the forged
+letters attributed to Washington, and circulated by the British in
+1777, in order to discredit the American general. One of Washington's
+last acts, on March 3, 1797, was to file in the State Department a
+solemn declaration that these letters, then republished by an American
+political party, were base forgeries, of English origin in a time of
+war. His own view of this performance is given in a letter to Benjamin
+Walker, in which he said: "Amongst other attempts, ... spurious
+letters, known at the time of their first publication (I believe in
+the year 1777) to be forgeries, are (or extracts from them) brought
+forward with the highest emblazoning of which they are susceptible,
+with a view to attach principles to me which every action of my life
+has given the lie to. But that is no stumbling-block with the editors
+of these papers and their supporters."
+
+Two or three extracts from private letters will show how Washington
+regarded the course of the opposition, and the interpretation he put
+upon their attacks. After sketching in a letter to David Stuart the
+general course of the hostilities toward his administration, he said:
+"This not working so well as was expected, from a supposition that
+there was too much confidence in, and perhaps personal regard for, the
+present chief magistrate and his politics, the batteries have lately
+been leveled against him particularly and personally. Although he is
+soon to become a private citizen, his opinions are knocked down, and
+his character reduced as low as they are capable of sinking it, even
+by resorting to absolute falsehoods." Again he said, just before
+leaving office: "To misrepresent my motives, to reprobate my
+politics, and to weaken the confidence which has been reposed in my
+administration, are objects which cannot be relinquished by those who
+will be satisfied with nothing short of a change in our political
+system." He at least labored under no misapprehension after eight
+years of trial as to the position or purposes of the party which had
+fought him and his administration, and which had savagely denounced
+his measures at every step, and with ever-increasing violence.
+
+Having defined the attitude of the opposition, we can now consider
+that of Washington himself after he had retired from office, and no
+longer felt restrained by the circumstances of his election to the
+presidency from openly declaring his views, or publicly identifying
+himself with a political party. He rightly regarded the administration
+of Mr. Adams as a continuation of his own, and he gave to it a cordial
+support. He was equally clear and determined in his distrust and
+dislike of the opposition. Not long before leaving office he had
+written a letter to Jefferson, which, while it exonerated that
+gentleman from being the author of certain peculiarly malicious
+attacks, showed very plainly that the writer completely understood the
+position occupied by his former secretary. It was a letter which
+must have been most unpleasant reading for the person to whom it
+was addressed. A year later he wrote to John Nicholas in regard
+to Jefferson: "Nothing short of the evidence you have adduced,
+corroborative of intimations which I had received long before through
+another channel, could have shaken my belief in the sincerity of a
+friendship which I had conceived was possessed for me by the person to
+whom you allude." There was no doubt in his mind now as to Jefferson's
+conduct, and he knew at last that he had been his foe even when a
+member of his political household.
+
+When the time came to fill the offices in the provisional army made
+necessary by the menace of war with France, Washington wrote to the
+President that he ought to have generals who were men of activity,
+energy, health, and "sound politics," carrying apparently his
+suspicion of the opposition even to disbelieving in them as soldiers.
+He repeated the same idea in a letter to McHenry, in which he said:
+"I do not conceive that a desirable set could be formed from the old
+generals, some having never displayed any talent for enterprise,
+and others having shown a general opposition to the government, or
+predilection to French measures, be their present conduct what it
+may."
+
+When the question arose in regard to the relative rank of the
+major-generals, Washington said to Knox: "No doubt remained in my mind
+that Colonel Hamilton was designated second in command (and first, if
+I should decline an acceptance) by the Federal characters of Congress;
+whence alone anything like a public sentiment relative thereto could
+be deduced." He was quite clear that there was no use in looking
+beyond the confines of the Federal party for any public sentiment
+worth considering. He had serious doubts also as to the advisability
+of having the opponents of the government in the army, and wrote to
+McHenry on September 30, 1798, that brawlers against the government in
+certain parts of Virginia had suddenly become silent and were seeking
+commissions in the army. "The motives ascribed to them are that in
+such a situation they would endeavor to divide and contaminate the
+army by artful and seditious discourses, and perhaps at a critical
+moment bring on confusion. What weight to give to these conjectures
+you can judge as well as I. But as there will be characters enough
+of an opposite description who are ready to receive appointments,
+circumspection is necessary. Finding the resentment of the people
+at the conduct of France too strong to be resisted, they have in
+appearance adopted their sentiments, and pretend that, notwithstanding
+the misconduct of the government has brought it upon us, yet if an
+invasion should take place, it will be found that _they_ will be among
+the first to defend it. This is their story at all elections and
+election meetings, and told in many instances with effect." He wrote
+again in the same strain to McHenry, on October 21: "Possibly no
+injustice would be done, if I were to proceed a step further, and give
+it as an opinion that most of the candidates [for the army] brought
+forward by the opposition members possess sentiments similar to their
+own, and might poison the army by disseminating them, if they were
+appointed." In this period of danger, when the country was on the
+verge of war, the attitude of the opposition gave Washington much food
+for thought because it appeared to him so false and unpatriotic. In
+a letter to Lafayette, written on Christmas day, 1798, he gave the
+following brief sketch of the opposition: "A party exists in the
+United States, formed by a combination of causes, which opposed the
+government in all its measures, and are determined, as all their
+conduct evinces, by clogging its wheels indirectly to change the
+nature of it, and to subvert the Constitution. The friends of
+government, who are anxious to maintain its neutrality and to preserve
+the country in peace, and adopt measures to secure these objects, are
+charged by them as being monarchists, aristocrats, and infractors of
+the Constitution, which according to their interpretation of it would
+be a mere cipher. They arrogated to themselves ... the sole merit of
+being the friends of France, when in fact they had no more regard for
+that nation than for the Grand Turk, further than their own views
+were promoted by it; denouncing those who differed in opinion (those
+principles are purely American and whose sole view was to observe
+a strict neutrality) as acting under British influence, and being
+directed by her counsels, or as being her pensioners."
+
+Shortly before this sharp definition was written, an incident had
+occurred which had given Washington an opportunity of impressing his
+views directly and personally upon a distinguished leader of the
+opposite party. Dr. Logan of Philadelphia, under the promptings of
+Jefferson, as was commonly supposed, had gone on a volunteer mission
+to Paris for the purpose of bringing about peace between the two
+republics. He had apparently a fixed idea that there was something
+very monstrous in our having any differences with France, and being
+somewhat of a busybody, although a most worthy man, he felt called
+upon to settle the international complications which were then
+puzzling the brains and trying the patience of the ablest men in
+America. It is needless to say that his mission was not a success, and
+he was eventually so unmercifully ridiculed by the Federalist editors
+that he published a long pamphlet in his own defense. Upon his return,
+however, he seems to have been not a little pleased with himself, and
+he took occasion to call upon Washington, who was then in Philadelphia
+on business. It would be difficult to conceive anything more
+distasteful to Washington than such a mission as Logan's, or that he
+could have a more hearty contempt for any one than for a meddler of
+this description, who by his interference might help to bring his
+country into contempt. He was sufficiently impressed, however, by Dr.
+Logan's call to draw up a memorandum, which gave a very realistic and
+amusing account of it. It may be surmised that when Washington wished
+to be cold in his manner, he was capable of being very freezing, and
+he was not very apt at concealing his emotions when he found himself
+in the presence of any one whom he disliked and disapproved. The
+memorandum is as follows:--
+
+"_Tuesday, November_ 13, 1798.--Mr. Lear, my secretary, being from our
+lodgings on business, one of my servants came into the room where
+I was writing and informed me that a gentleman in the parlor below
+desired to see me; no name was sent up. In a few minutes I went down,
+and found the Rev. Dr. Blackwell and Dr. Logan there. I advanced
+towards and gave my hand to the former; the latter did the same
+towards me. I was backward in giving mine. He, possibly supposing from
+hence that I did not recollect him, said his name was Logan. Finally,
+in a very cold manner, and with an air of marked indifference, I gave
+him my hand and asked _Dr. Blackwell to be seated_; the other _took_
+a seat at the same time. I addressed _all_ my conversation to Dr.
+Blackwell; the other all his to me, to which I only gave negative or
+affirmative answers as laconically as I could, except asking him how
+Mrs. Logan did. He seemed disposed to be very polite, and while Dr.
+Blackwell and myself were conversing on the late calamitous fever,
+offered me an asylum at his house, if it should return or I thought
+myself in any danger in the city, and two or three rooms, by way of
+accommodation. I thanked him slightly, observing there would be no
+call for it."
+
+"About this time Dr. Blackwell took his leave. We all rose from our
+seats, and I moved a few paces toward the door of the room, expecting
+the other would follow and take his leave also."
+
+The worthy Quaker, however, was not to be got rid of so easily. He
+literally stood his ground, and went on talking of a number of things,
+chiefly about Lafayette and his family, and an interview with Mr.
+Murray, our minister in Holland. Washington, meanwhile, stood facing
+him, and to use his own words, "showed the utmost inattention," while
+his visitor described his journey to Paris. Finally Logan said that
+his purpose in going to France was to ameliorate the condition of
+our relations with that country. "This," said Washington, "drew my
+attention more pointedly to what he was saying and induced me to
+remark that there was something very singular in this; that _he_,
+who could only be viewed as a private character, unarmed with proper
+powers, and presumptively unknown in France, should suppose he could
+effect what three gentlemen of the first respectability in our
+country, especially charged under the authority of the government,
+were unable to do." One is not surprised to be then told that Dr.
+Logan seemed a little confounded at this observation; but he recovered
+himself, and went on to say that only five persons knew of his going,
+and that his letters from Mr. Jefferson and Mr. McKean obtained for
+him an interview with M. Merlin, president of the Directory, who had
+been most friendly in his expressions. To this Washington replied
+with some very severe strictures on the conduct of France; and the
+conversation, which must by this time have become a little strained,
+soon after came to an end. One cannot help feeling a good deal of
+sympathy for the excellent doctor, although he was certainly a
+busybody and, one would naturally infer, a bore as well. It would have
+been, however, a pity to have lost this memorandum, and there is every
+reason to regret that Washington did not oftener exercise his evident
+powers for realistic reporting. Nothing, moreover, could bring out
+better his thorough contempt for the opposition and their attitude
+toward France than this interview with the volunteer commissioner.
+
+There were, however, much more serious movements made by the
+Democratic party than well-meant and meddling attempts to make
+peace with France. This was the year of the Kentucky and Virginia
+resolutions, the first note of that disunion sentiment which was
+destined one day to involve the country in civil war and be fought out
+on a hundred battlefields. Washington, with his love for the Union and
+for nationality ever uppermost in his heart, was quick to take alarm,
+and it cut him especially to think that a movement which he esteemed
+at once desperate and wicked should emanate from his own State, and as
+we now know, and as he perhaps suspected, from a great Virginian
+whom he had once trusted. He straightway set himself to oppose this
+movement with all his might, and he summoned to his aid that other
+great Virginian who in his early days had been the first to rouse the
+people against oppression, and who now in his old age, in response to
+Washington's appeal, came again into the forefront in behalf of the
+Constitution and the union of the States. The letter which Washington
+wrote to Patrick Henry on this occasion is one of the most important
+that he ever penned, but there is room to quote only a single passage
+here.
+
+"At such a crisis as this," he said, "when everything dear and
+valuable to us is assailed, when this party hangs upon the wheels of
+government as a dead weight, opposing every measure that is calculated
+for defense and self-preservation, abetting the nefarious views of
+another nation upon our rights, preferring, as long as they dare
+contend openly against the spirit and resentment of the people, the
+interest of France to the welfare of their own country, justifying
+the former at the expense of the latter; when every act of their own
+government is tortured, by constructions they will not bear, into
+attempts to infringe and trample upon the Constitution with a view to
+introduce monarchy; when the most unceasing and the purest exertions
+which were making to maintain a neutrality ... are charged with being
+measures calculated to favor Great Britain at the expense of France,
+and all those who had any agency in it are accused of being under
+the influence of the former and her pensioners; when measures are
+systematically and pertinaciously pursued, which must eventually
+dissolve the Union or produce coercion; I say, when these things have
+become so obvious, ought characters who are best able to rescue their
+country from the pending evil to remain at home?...
+
+"Vain will it be to look for peace and happiness, or for the security
+of liberty or property, if civil discord should ensue. And what else
+can result from the policy of those among us, who, by all the measures
+in their power, are driving matters to extremity, if they cannot be
+counteracted effectually? The views of men can only be known, or
+guessed at, by their words or actions. Can those of the _leaders_ of
+opposition be mistaken, then, if judged by this rule? That they are
+followed by numbers, who are unacquainted with their designs and
+suspect as little the tendency of their principles, I am fully
+persuaded. But if their conduct is viewed with indifference, if there
+are activity and misrepresentations on one side and supineness on
+the other, their numbers accumulated by intriguing and discontented
+foreigners under proscription, who were at war with their own
+government, and the greater part of them with _all_ governments, they
+will increase, and nothing short of omniscience can foretell the
+consequences."
+
+It would have been difficult to draw a severer indictment of the
+opposition party than that given in this letter, but there is one
+other letter even more striking in its contents, without which no
+account of the relation of Washington to the two great parties which
+sprang up under his administration would be complete. It was addressed
+to Governor Trumbull of Connecticut, was written on July 21, 1799,
+less than six months before his death, and although printed, has
+been hidden away in the appendix to the "Life of Benjamin Silliman."
+Governor Trumbull, who bore the name and filled the office of
+Washington's old revolutionary friend, had written to the general, as
+many other Federalists were writing at that time, urging him to come
+forward and stand once more for the presidency, that he might heal the
+dissensions in his own party and save the country from the impending
+disaster of Jefferson's election. That Washington refused all these
+requests is of course well known, but his reasons as stated to
+Trumbull are of great interest. "I come now," he said, "my dear sir,
+to pay particular attention to that part of your letter which respects
+myself.
+
+"I remember well the conversation which you allude to. I have not
+forgot the answer I gave you. In my judgment it applies with as much
+force _now_ as _then_; nay, more, because at that time the line
+between the parties was not so clearly drawn, and the views of the
+opposition so clearly developed as they are at present. Of course
+allowing your observation (as it respects myself) to be well founded,
+personal influence would be of no avail.
+
+"Let that party set up a broomstick, and call it a true son of
+liberty,--a democrat,--or give it any other epithet that will suit
+their purpose, and it will command their votes _in toto_![1] Will not
+the Federalists meet, or rather defend, their cause on the opposite
+ground? Surely they must, or they will discover a want of policy,
+indicative of weakness and pregnant of mischief, which cannot be
+admitted. Wherein, then, would lie the difference between the present
+gentleman in office and myself?
+
+[Footnote 1: "As an analysis of this position, look to the pending
+election of governor in Pennsylvania."]
+
+"It would be matter of grave regret to me if I could believe that a
+serious thought was turned toward me as his successor, not only as
+it respects my ardent wishes to pass through the vale of life in
+retirement, undisturbed in the remnant of the days I have to sojourn
+here, unless called upon to defend my country (which every citizen is
+bound to do); but on public grounds also; for although I have abundant
+cause to be thankful for the good health with which I am blessed, yet
+I am not insensible to my declination in other respects. It would
+be criminal, therefore, in me, although it should be the wish of my
+countrymen and I could be elected, to accept an office under this
+conviction which another would discharge with more ability; and this,
+too, at a time when I am thoroughly convinced I should not draw a
+_single_ vote from the anti-Federal side, and of course should stand
+upon no other ground _than any other Federal character_[1] well
+supported; and when I should become a mark for the shafts of envenomed
+malice and the basest calumny to fire at,--when I should be charged
+not only with irresolution but with concealed ambition, which waits
+only an occasion to blaze out, and, in short, with dotage and
+imbecility.
+
+[Footnote 1: These italics are mine.]
+
+"All this, I grant, ought to be like dust in the balance, when put in
+competition with a _great_ public good, when the accomplishment of it
+is apparent. But, as no problem is better defined in my mind than that
+principle, not men, is now, and will be, the object of contention; and
+that I could not obtain a _solitary_ vote from that party; _that any
+other respectable Federal character could receive the same suffrages
+that I should_;[1] that at my time of life (verging towards threescore
+and ten) I should expose myself without rendering any essential
+service to my country, or answering the end contemplated; prudence on
+my part must avert any attempt of the well-meant but mistaken views of
+my friends to introduce me again into the chair of government."
+
+[Footnote 1: These italics are mine.]
+
+It does not fall within the scope of this biography to attempt to
+portray the history or weigh the merits of the two parties which came
+into existence at the close of the last century, and which, under
+varying names, have divided the people of the United States ever
+since. But it is essential here to define the relation of Washington
+toward them because one hears it constantly said and sees it as
+constantly written down, that Washington belonged to no party, which
+is perhaps a natural, but is certainly a complete misconception.
+Washington came to the presidency by a unanimous vote. He had in his
+mind very strongly the idea of the framers of the Constitution that
+the President, by the method of his election and by his independence
+of the other departments of government, was to be above and beyond
+party, and the representative of the whole people. In addition to this
+he was so absorbed by the great conception which he had of the future
+of the country, and was so confident of the purity and rectitude of
+his own purposes, that he was loath to think that party divisions
+could arise while he held the chief magistracy. It was not long
+before he was undeceived on this point, and he soon found that party
+divisions sprang up from the measures of his own administration.
+Nevertheless, he clung to his determination to govern without the
+assistance of a party as such. When this, too, became impossible, he
+still felt that the unanimity of his election required that he should
+not declare himself to be the head of a party; but he had become
+thoroughly convinced that under the representative system of the
+Constitution party government could not be avoided. In his farewell
+address he warned the people against the excesses of that party
+spirit which he deplored; but he did not suggest that it could be
+extinguished. Being a wise and far-seeing man, he saw that if party
+government was an evil, it also was under a free representative
+system, and in the present condition of human nature a necessary evil,
+furnishing the only machinery by which public affairs could be carried
+on.
+
+In a time of deep political excitement and strong party feeling,
+Washington was the last man in the world not to be decidedly on one
+side or the other. He was possessed of too much sense, force, and
+virility to be content to hold himself aloof and croak over the
+wickedness of people, who were trying to do something, even if
+they did not always try in the most perfect way. He was himself
+preeminently a doer of deeds, and not a critic or a phrase-maker, and
+we can read very distinctly in the extracts which have been brought
+together in this chapter what he thought on party and public
+questions. He was opposed to the party which had resisted all the
+great measures of his administration from the foundation of the
+government of the United States. They had assailed and maligned him
+and his ministers, and he regarded them as political enemies. He
+believed in the principles of that party which had supported the
+financial policy of Hamilton and his own policy of neutrality toward
+foreign nations. He was opposed to the party which introduced the
+interests of France as the leading issue of American politics, and
+which embodied the doctrines of nullification and separatism in the
+resolutions of Kentucky and Virginia. In one word, Washington, in
+policies and politics, was an American and a Nationalist; and the
+National and American party, from 1789 to 1801, was the Federalist
+party. It may be added that it was the only party which, at that
+precise time, could claim those qualities. While he remained in the
+presidency he would not declare himself to be of any party; but as
+soon as this fetter was removed, he declared himself freely after his
+fashion, expressing in words what he had formerly only expressed in
+action. His feelings warmed and strengthened as the controversy with
+France deepened, and as the attitude of the opposition became more
+un-American and leaned more and more to separatism. They culminated
+at last in the eloquent letter to Patrick Henry, and in the carefully
+weighed words with which he tells Trumbull that he can hope for no
+more votes than "any other Federal character."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE LAST YEARS
+
+
+Washington had entered upon the presidency with the utmost reluctance,
+and at the sacrifice of all he considered pleasantest and best in
+life. He took it and held it for eight years from a sense of duty,
+and with no desire to retain it beyond that which every man feels
+who wishes to finish a great work that he has undertaken. He looked
+forward to the approaching end of his second term with a feeling of
+intense relief, and compared himself to the wearied traveler who sees
+the resting-place where he is at length to have repose. On March 3 he
+gave a farewell dinner to the President and Vice-President elect, the
+foreign ministers and their wives, and other distinguished persons,
+from one of whom we learn that it was a very pleasant and lively
+gathering. When the cloth was removed Washington filled his glass and
+said: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is the last time I shall drink
+your health as a public man. I do it with sincerity, wishing you all
+possible happiness." The company did not take the same cheerful view
+as their host of this leave-taking. There was a pause in the gayety,
+some of the ladies shed tears, and the little incident only served to
+show the warm affection felt for Washington by every one who came in
+close contact with him.
+
+The next day the last official ceremonies were performed. After
+Jefferson had taken the oath as Vice-President and had proceeded with
+the Senate to the House of Representatives, which was densely crowded,
+Washington entered and was received with cheers and shouts, the waving
+of handkerchiefs, and an enthusiasm which seemed to know no bounds.
+Mr. Adams followed him almost immediately and delivered his inaugural
+address, in which he paid a stately compliment to the great virtues of
+his predecessor. It was the setting and not the rising sun, however,
+that drew the attention of the multitude, and as Washington left the
+hall there was a wild rush from the galleries to the corridors and
+then into the streets to see him pass. He took off his hat and bowed
+to the people, but they followed him even to his own door, where
+he turned once more and, unable to speak, waved to them a silent
+farewell.
+
+In the evening of the same day a great banquet was given to him by
+the merchants of Philadelphia, and when he entered the band played
+"Washington's March," and a series of emblematic paintings were
+disclosed, the chief of which represented the ex-President at Mount
+Vernon surrounded by the allegorical figures then so fashionable.
+After the festivities Washington lingered for a few days in
+Philadelphia to settle various private matters and then started for
+home. Whether he was going or coming, whether he was about to take the
+great office of President or retire to the privacy of Mount Vernon,
+the same popular enthusiasm greeted him. When he was really brought in
+contact with the people, the clamors of the opposition press and the
+attacks of the Jeffersonian editors all faded away and were forgotten.
+On March 12 he reached Baltimore, and the local newspaper of the next
+day said:--
+
+"Last evening arrived in this city, on his way to Mount Vernon, the
+illustrious object of veneration and gratitude, GEORGE WASHINGTON. His
+excellency was accompanied by his lady and Miss Custis, and by the son
+of the unfortunate Lafayette and his preceptor. At a distance from
+the city, he was met by a crowd of citizens, on horse and foot, who
+thronged the road to greet him, and by a detachment from Captain
+Hollingsworth's troop, who escorted him in through as great a
+concourse of people as Baltimore ever witnessed. On alighting at the
+Fountain Inn, the general was saluted with reiterated and thundering
+huzzas from the spectators. His excellency, with the companions of his
+journey, leaves town, we understand, this morning."
+
+Thus with the cheers and the acclamations still ringing in his ears
+he came home again to Mount Vernon, where he found at once plenty
+of occupation, which in some form was always a necessity to him. An
+absence of eight years had not improved the property. On April 3 he
+wrote to McHenry: "I find myself in the situation nearly of a new
+beginner; for, although I have not houses to build (except one, which
+I must erect for the accommodation and security of my military, civil,
+and private papers, which are voluminous and may be interesting),
+yet I have scarcely anything else about me that does not require
+considerable repairs. In a word, I am already surrounded by joiners,
+masons, and painters; and such is my anxiety to get out of their
+hands, that I have scarcely a room to put a friend into or to sit
+in myself without the music of hammers or the odoriferous scent of
+paint." He easily dropped back into the round of country duties and
+pleasures, and the care of farms and plantations, which had always
+had for him so much attraction. "To make and sell a little flour
+annually," he wrote to Wolcott, "to repair houses going fast to ruin,
+to build one for the security of my papers of a public nature, will
+constitute employment for the few years I have to remain on this
+terrestrial globe." Again he said to McHenry: "You are at the source
+of information, and can find many things to relate, while I have
+nothing to say that would either inform or amuse a secretary of war at
+Philadelphia. I might tell him that I begin my diurnal course with the
+sun; that if my hirelings are not in their places by that time I send
+them messages of sorrow for their indisposition; that having put these
+wheels in motion I examine the state of things further; that the more
+they are probed the deeper I find the wounds which my buildings have
+sustained by an absence and neglect of eight years; that by the time
+I have accomplished these matters breakfast (a little after seven
+o'clock, about the time I presume that you are taking leave of Mrs.
+McHenry) is ready; that this being over I mount my horse and ride
+round my farms, which employs me until it is time to dress for dinner,
+at which I rarely miss seeing strange faces, come, as they say, out of
+respect for me. Pray, would not the word curiosity answer as well?
+And how different this from having a few social friends at a cheerful
+board. The usual time of sitting at table, a walk, and tea bring me
+within the dawn of candle-light; previous to which, if not prevented
+by company, I resolve that as soon as the glimmering taper supplies
+the place of the great luminary I will retire to my writing-table and
+acknowledge the letters I have received; that when the lights
+are brought I feel tired and disinclined to engage in this work,
+conceiving that the next night will do as well. The next night comes
+and with it the same causes for postponement, and so on. Having given
+you the history of a day, it will serve for a year, and I am persuaded
+you will not require a second edition of it. But it may strike you
+that in this detail no mention is made of any portion of time allotted
+for reading. The remark would be just, for I have not looked into a
+book since I came home; nor shall I be able to do it until I have
+discharged my workmen; probably not before the nights grow longer,
+when possibly I may be looking in Doomsday book."
+
+There is not much that can be added to his own concise description of
+the simple life he led at home. The rest and quiet were very pleasant,
+but still there was a touch of sadness in his words. The long interval
+of absence made the changes which time had wrought stand out more
+vividly than if they had come one by one in the course of daily life
+at home. Washington looked on the ruins of Belvoir, and sighed to
+think of the many happy hours he had passed with the Fairfaxes, now
+gone from the land forever. Other old friends had been taken away
+by death, and the gaps were not filled by the new faces of which he
+speaks to McHenry. Indeed, the crowd of visitors coming to Mount
+Vernon from all parts of his own country and of the world, whether
+they came from respect or curiosity, brought a good deal of weariness
+to a man tired with the cares of state and longing for absolute
+repose. Yet he would not close his doors to any one, for the Virginian
+sense of hospitality, always peculiarly strong in him, forbade such
+action. To relieve himself, therefore, in this respect, he sent
+for his nephew Lawrence Lewis, who took the social burden from
+his shoulders. But although the visitors tired him when he felt
+responsible for their pleasure, he did not shut himself up now any
+more than at any other time in self-contemplation. He was constantly
+thinking of others; and the education of his nephews, the care of
+young Lafayette until he should return to France, as well as the
+happy love-match of Nellie Custis and his nephew, supplied the human
+interest without which he was never happy.
+
+Before we trace his connection with public affairs in these
+closing years, let us take one look at him, through the eyes of a
+disinterested but keen observer. John Bernard, an English actor,
+who had come to this country in the year when Washington left the
+presidency, was playing an engagement with his company at Annapolis,
+in 1798. One day he mounted his horse and rode down below Alexandria,
+to pay a visit to an acquaintance who lived on the banks of the
+Potomac. When he was returning, a chaise in front of him, containing a
+man and a young woman, was overturned, and the occupants were thrown
+out. As Bernard rode to the scene of the accident, another horseman
+galloped up from the opposite direction. The two riders dismounted,
+found that the driver was not hurt, and succeeded in restoring the
+young woman to consciousness; an event which was marked, Bernard tells
+us, by a volley of invectives addressed to her unfortunate husband.
+"The horse," continues Bernard, "was now on his legs, but the vehicle
+still prostrate, heavy in its frame, and laden with at least half a
+ton of luggage. My fellow-helper set me an example of activity in
+relieving it of the internal weight; and when all was clear, we
+grasped the wheel between us, and to the peril of our spinal columns
+righted the conveyance. The horse was then put in, and we lent a
+hand to help up the luggage. All this helping, hauling, and lifting
+occupied at least half an hour, under a meridian sun, in the middle of
+July, which fairly boiled the perspiration out of our foreheads." The
+possessor of the chaise beguiled the labor by a full personal history
+of himself and his wife, and when the work was done invited the two
+Samaritans to go with him to Alexandria, and take a drop of "something
+sociable." This being declined, the couple mounted into the chaise and
+drove on. "Then," says Bernard, "my companion, after an exclamation at
+the heat, offered very courteously to dust my coat, a favor the return
+of which enabled me to take deliberate survey of his person. He was
+a tall, erect, well-made man, evidently advanced in years, but who
+appeared to have retained all the vigor and elasticity resulting from
+a life of temperance and exercise. His dress was a blue coat buttoned
+to his chin, and buckskin breeches. Though the instant he took off his
+hat I could not avoid the recognition of familiar lineaments, which
+indeed I was in the habit of seeing on every sign-post and over every
+fireplace, still I failed to identify him, and to my surprise I found
+that I was an object of equal speculation in his eyes." The actor
+evidently did not have the royal gift of remembering faces, but the
+stranger possessed that quality, for after a moment's pause he said,
+"Mr. Bernard, I believe," and mentioned the occasion on which he had
+seen him play in Philadelphia. He then asked Bernard to go home with
+him for a couple of hours' rest, and pointed out the house in the
+distance. At last Bernard knew to whom he was speaking. "'Mount
+Vernon!' I exclaimed; and then drawing back with a stare of wonder,
+'Have I the honor of addressing General Washington?' With a smile
+whose expression of benevolence I have rarely seen equaled, he offered
+his hand and replied: 'An odd sort of introduction, Mr. Bernard; but
+I am pleased to find you can play so active a part in private, and
+without a prompter.'" So they rode on together to the house and had a
+chat, to which we must recur further on.
+
+There is no contemporary narrative of which I am aware that shows
+Washington to us more clearly than this little adventure with Bernard,
+for it is in the common affairs of daily life that men come nearest
+to each other, and the same rule holds good in history. We know
+Washington much better from these few lines of description left by
+a chance acquaintance on the road than we do from volumes of state
+papers. It is such a pleasant story, too. There is the great man,
+retired from the world, still handsome and imposing in his old age,
+with the strong and ready hand to succor those who had fallen by the
+wayside; there are the genuine hospitality, the perfect manners, and
+the well-turned little sentence with which he complimented the actor,
+put him at his ease, and asked him to his house. Nothing can well be
+added to the picture of Washington as we see him here, not long before
+the end of all things came. We must break off, however, from the quiet
+charm of home life, and turn again briefly to the affairs of state.
+Let us, therefore, leave these two riding along the road together in
+the warm Virginia sunshine to the house which has since become one of
+the Meccas of humanity, in memory of the man who once dwelt in it.
+
+The highly prized retirement to Mount Vernon did not now, more than
+at any previous time, separate Washington from the affairs of the
+country. He continued to take a keen interest in all that went on,
+to correspond with his friends, and to use his influence for what he
+thought wisest and best for the general welfare. These were stirring
+times, too, and the progress of events brought him to take a more
+active part than he had ever expected to play again; for France,
+having failed, thanks to his policy, to draw us either by fair words
+or trickery from our independent and neutral position, determined,
+apparently, to try the effect of force and ill usage. Pinckney, sent
+out as minister, had been rebuffed; and then Adams, with the cordial
+support of the country, had made another effort for peace by sending
+Pinckney, Marshall, and Gerry as a special commission. The history of
+that commission is one of the best known episodes in our history. Our
+envoys were insulted, asked for bribes, and browbeaten, until the two
+who retained a proper sense of their own and their country's dignity
+took their passports and departed. The publication of the famous X, Y,
+Z letters, which displayed the conduct of France, roused a storm of
+righteous indignation from one end of the United States to the other.
+The party of France and of the opposition bent before the storm, and
+the Federalists were at last all-powerful. A cry for war went up from
+every corner, and Congress provided rapidly for the formation of an
+army and the beginning of a navy.
+
+Then the whole country turned, as a matter of course, to one man to
+stand at the head of the national forces of the United States,
+and Adams wrote to Washington, urging him to take command of the
+provisional army. To any other appeal to come forward Washington would
+have been deaf, but he could never refuse a call to arms. He wrote to
+Adams on July 4, 1798: "In case of _actual invasion_ by a formidable
+force, I certainly should not intrench myself under the cover of age
+or retirement, if my services should be required by my country to
+assist in repelling it." He agreed, therefore, to take command of the
+army, provided that he should not be called into active service
+except in the case of actual hostilities, and that he should have the
+appointment of the general's staff. To these terms Adams of course
+acceded. But out of the apparently simple condition relating to the
+appointment of officers there grew a very serious trouble. There were
+to be three major-generals, the first of them to have also the rank of
+inspector-general, and to be the virtual commander-in-chief until the
+army was actually called into the field. For these places, Washington
+after much reflection selected Hamilton, Pinckney, and Knox, in the
+order named, and in doing so he very wisely went on the general
+principle that the army was to be organized _de novo_, without
+reference to prior service. Apart from personal and political
+jealousies, nothing could have been more proper and more sound than
+this arrangement; but at this point the President's dislike of
+Hamilton got beyond control, and he made up his mind to reverse the
+order, and send in Knox's name first. The Federalist leaders were of
+course utterly disgusted by this attempt to set Hamilton aside, which
+was certainly ill-judged, and which proved to be the beginning of the
+dissensions that ended in the ruin of the Federalist party. After
+every effort, therefore, to move Adams had failed, Pickering and
+others, including Hamilton himself, appealed to Washington. At a
+distance from the scene of action, and unfamiliar with the growth of
+differences within the party, Washington was not only surprised, but
+annoyed by the President's conduct. In addition to the evils which he
+believed would result in a military way from this change, he felt that
+the conditions which he had made had been violated, and that he had
+not been treated fairly. He therefore wrote to the President with
+his wonted plainness, on September 25, and pointed out that his
+stipulations had not been complied with, that the change of order
+among the major-generals was thoroughly wrong, and that the
+President's meddling with the inferior appointments had been hurtful
+and injudicious. His views were expressed in the most courteous
+way, although with an undertone of severe disapproval. There was no
+mistaking the meaning of the letter, however, and Adams, bold man and
+President as he was, gave way at once. Mr. Adams thought at the time
+that there had been about this matter of the major-generals too much
+intrigue, by which Washington had been deceived and he himself made a
+victim; but there seems no good reason to take this view of it, for
+there is no indication whatever that Washington did not know and
+understand the facts; and it was on the facts that he made his
+decision, and not on the methods by which they were conveyed to him.
+The propriety of the decision will hardly now be questioned, although
+it did not tend to make the relations between the ex-President and
+his successor very cordial. They had always a great respect for
+each other, but not much sympathy, for they differed too widely in
+temperament. Even if Washington would have permitted it, it would have
+been impossible for the President to have quarreled with him, but at
+the same time he felt not a little awkwardness in dealing with his
+successor, and was inclined to think that that gentleman did not show
+him all the respect that was due. He wrote to McHenry on October 1:
+"As no mode is yet adopted by the President by which the battalion
+officers are to be appointed, and as I think I stand on very
+precarious ground in my relation to him, I am not over-zealous
+in taking _unauthorized_ steps when those that I thought _were
+authorized_ are not likely to meet with much respect."
+
+[Illustration: HENRY KNOX]
+
+There was, however, another consequence of this affair which gave
+Washington much more pain than any differences with the President. His
+old friend and companion in arms, General Knox, was profoundly hurt at
+the decision which placed Hamilton at the head of the army. One cannot
+be surprised at Knox's feelings, for he had been a distinguished
+officer, and had outranked both Hamilton and Pinckney. He felt that he
+ought to command the army, and that he was quite capable of doing so;
+and he did not relish being told in this official manner that he had
+grown old, and that the time had come for younger and abler men to
+pass beyond him. The archbishop in "Gil Blas" is one of the most
+universal types of human nature that we have. Nobody feels kindly to
+the monitor who points out the failings which time has brought, and we
+are all inclined to dismiss him with every wish that he may fare well
+and have a little more taste. Poor Knox could not dismiss his Gil
+Blas, and he felt the unpleasant admonition all the more bitterly from
+the fact that the blow was dealt by the two men whom he most loved and
+admired. Hamilton wrote him the best and most graceful of letters, but
+failed to soothe him; and Washington was no more fortunate. He tried
+with the utmost kindliness, and in his most courteous manner, to
+soften the disappointment, and to show Knox how convincing were the
+reasons for his action. But the case was not one where argument could
+be of avail, and when Knox persisted in his refusal to take the place
+assigned him, Washington, with all his sympathy, was perfectly frank
+in expressing his views.
+
+In a second letter, complaining of the injustice with which he had
+been treated, Knox intimated that he would be willing to serve on the
+personal staff of the commander-in-chief. This was all very well; but
+much as Washington grieved for his old friend's disappointment, there
+was to be no misunderstanding in the matter. He wrote Knox on October
+21: "After having expressed these sentiments with the frankness of
+undisguised friendship, it is hardly necessary to add that, if you
+should finally decline the appointment of major-general, there is none
+to whom I would give a more decided preference as an aide-de-camp, the
+offer of which is highly flattering, honorable, and grateful to my
+feelings, and for which I entertain a high sense. But, my dear General
+Knox, and here again I speak to you in a language of candor and
+friendship, examine well your mind upon this subject. Do not unite
+yourself to the suite of a man whom you may consider as the primary
+cause of what you call a degradation, with unpleasant sensations.
+This, while it was gnawing upon you, would, if I should come to the
+knowledge of it, make me unhappy; as my first wish would be that my
+military family and the whole army should consider themselves a band
+of brothers, willing and ready to die for each other."
+
+Knox would not serve; and his ill temper, irritated still further
+by the apparent preference of the President and by the talk of his
+immediate circle, prevailed. On the other hand, Pinckney, one of the
+most generous and patriotic of men, accepted service at once without a
+syllable of complaint on the score that he had ranked Hamilton in the
+former war. It was with these two, therefore, that Washington
+carried on the work of organizing the provisional army. Despite his
+determination to remain in retirement until called to the field, his
+desire for perfection in any work that he undertook brought him out,
+and he gave much time and attention not only to the general questions
+which were raised, but to the details of the business, and on November
+10 he addressed a series of inquiries, both general and particular,
+to Hamilton and Pinckney. These inquiries covered the whole scope of
+possible events, probable military operations, and the formation of
+the army. They were written in Philadelphia, whither he had gone, and
+where he passed a month with the two major-generals in the discussion
+of plans and measures. The result of their conferences was an
+elaborate and masterly report on army organization drawn up by
+Hamilton, upon whom, throughout this period of impending war, the
+brunt of the work fell.
+
+Careful and painstaking, however, as Washington was in the matter of
+appointments and organization, dealing with them as if he was about to
+take the field at the head of the army, there was never a moment when
+he felt that there was danger of actual war. He had studied foreign
+affairs and the conditions of Europe too well to be much deceived
+about them, and least of all in regard to France. He felt from the
+beginning that the moment we displayed a proper spirit, began to arm,
+and fought one or two French ships successfully, that France would
+leave off bullying and abusing us, and make a satisfactory peace. The
+declared adherent of the maxim that to prepare for war was the most
+effectual means of preserving peace, he felt that never was it more
+important to carry out this doctrine than now; and it was for this
+reason that he labored so hard and gave so much thought to army
+organization at a time when he felt more than ever the need of repose,
+and shrank from the least semblance of a return to public life. In
+all his long career there was never a better instance of his devoted
+patriotism than his coming forward in this way at the sacrifice of
+every personal wish after his retirement from the presidency.
+
+Yet, although he closely watched the course of politics, and gave, as
+has been said, a cordial support to the administration, his sympathies
+were rather with the opponents of the President within the ranks
+of their common party. The conduct of Gerry, who had been Adams's
+personal selection for a commissioner, was very distasteful to
+Washington, and was very far from exciting in his mind the approval
+which it drew from Mr. Adams. He wrote to Pickering on October 18:
+"With respect to Mr. Gerry, his own character and public satisfaction
+require better evidence than his letter to the minister of foreign
+relations to prove the propriety of his conduct during his envoyship."
+He did not believe that we were to have war with France, but he was
+very confident that a bold and somewhat uncompromising attitude was
+the best one for the country, and that above all we should not palter
+with France after the affronts to which we had been subjected. When
+President Adams, therefore, made his sudden change of policy by
+nominating Murray as a special envoy, Washington, despite his desire
+for peace, was by no means enthusiastic in his approval of the methods
+by which it was sought. The President wrote him announcing the
+appointment of Murray, and Washington acknowledged the letter and
+the information without any comment. He saw, of course, that as the
+President had seen fit to take the step he must be sustained, and he
+wrote to Murray to impress upon him the gravity of the mission with
+which he was intrusted; but he had serious doubts as to the success of
+such a mission under such conditions, and when delays occurred he was
+not without hopes of a final abandonment. The day after his letter to
+Murray he wrote to Hamilton: "I was surprised at the _measure_,
+how much more so at the manner of it! This business seems to have
+commenced in an evil hour, and under unfavorable auspices. I wish
+mischief may not tread in all its steps, and be the final result of
+the measure. A wide door was open, through which a retreat might have
+been made from the first _faux pas_, the shutting of which, to those
+who are not behind the curtain and are as little acquainted with
+the secrets of the cabinet as I am, is, from the present aspect of
+European affairs, quite incomprehensible." He hoped but little good
+from the mission, although it had his fervent wishes for its success,
+expressed repeatedly in letters to members of the cabinet; and while
+he was full of apprehension, he had a firm faith that all would end
+well.
+
+For this anxiety, indeed, there was abundant reason. A violent change
+of policy toward France, the disorders occasioned by political
+dissensions at home, and the sudden appearance of the deadly doctrine
+of nullification, all combined to excite alarm in the mind of a man
+who looked as far into the future and as deep beneath the surface of
+things as did Washington. It was then that he urged Patrick Henry to
+reenter public life, and exerted his own influence wherever he could
+to check the separatist movement set on foot by Jefferson. He was
+deeply disturbed, too, by the tendencies of the times in other
+directions. The delirium of the French Revolution was not confined
+to France. Her soldiers bore with them the new doctrines, while far
+beyond the utmost reach of her armies flew the ideas engendered in
+the fevered air of Paris. Wherever they alighted they touched men and
+stung them to madness, and the madness that they bred was not confined
+to those who believed the new gospel, but was shared equally by those
+who resisted and loathed it. Burke, in his way, was as much crazed as
+Camille Desmoulins, and it seemed impossible for people living in the
+midst of that terrific convulsion of society to retain their judgment.
+Nowhere ought men to have been better able to withstand the contagion
+of the revolution than in America, and yet even here it produced the
+same results as in countries nearly affected by it. The party
+of opposition to the government became first ludicrous and then
+dangerous, in their wild admiration and senseless imitation of ideas
+and practices as utterly alien to the people of the United States as
+cannibalism or fire-worship. Then the Federalists, on their side, fell
+beneath the spell. The overthrow of religion, society, property, and
+morals, which they beheld in Paris, seemed to them to be threatening
+their own country, and they became as extreme as their opponents in
+the exactly opposite direction. Federalist divines came to look
+upon Jefferson, the most timid and prudent of men, as a Marat or
+Robespierre, ready to reproduce the excesses of his prototypes; while
+Pickering, Wolcott, and all their friends in public life regarded
+themselves as engaged in a struggle for the preservation of order and
+society and of all that they held most dear. They were in the habit of
+comparing French principles to a pestilence, and the French republic
+to a raging tiger. Even Hamilton was so moved as to believe that the
+United States were on the verge of anarchy, and he laid down his life
+at last in a senseless duel because he thought that his refusal to
+fight would disable him for leading the forces of order when the final
+crash came.
+
+Washington, with his strong, calm judgment and his penetrating vision,
+was less affected than any of those who had followed and sustained
+him; but he was by no means untouched, and if we try to put ourselves
+in his place, his views seem far from unreasonable. He had at the
+outset wished well to the great movement in France, although even then
+he doubted its final success. Very soon, however, doubts changed
+to suspicions, and suspicions to conviction. As he saw the French
+revolution move on in its inevitable path, he came to hate and dread
+its deeds, its policies, and its doctrines. To a man of his temper it
+could not have been otherwise, for license and disorder were above all
+things detestable to him. They were the immediate fruits of the French
+revolution, and when he saw a party devoted to France preaching the
+same ideas in the United States, he could not but feel that there was
+a real and practical danger confronting the country. This was why he
+felt that we needed an energetic policy, and it was on this account
+that he distrusted the President's renewed effort for peace. The
+course of the opposition, as he saw it, threatened not merely the
+existence of the Union, but wittingly or unwittingly struck at the
+very foundations of society. His anxiety did not make him violent, as
+was the case with lesser men, but it convinced him of the necessity of
+strong measures, and he was not a man to shrink from vigorous action.
+He was quite prepared to do all that could be done to maintain the
+authority of the government, which he considered equivalent to the
+protection of society, and for this reason he approved of the Alien
+and Sedition acts.
+
+In the process of time these two famous laws have come to be
+universally condemned, and those who have not questioned their
+constitutionality have declared them wrong, inexpedient and impolitic,
+and the immediate cause of the overthrow of the party responsible for
+them. Everybody has made haste to disown them, and there has been a
+general effort on the part of Federalist sympathizers to throw the
+blame for them on persons unknown. Biographers, especially, have tried
+zealously to clear the skirts of their heroes from any connection with
+these obnoxious acts; but the truth is, that, whether right or wrong,
+wise or unwise, these laws had the entire support of the ruling party
+from the President down. Hamilton, who objected to the first draft
+because it was needlessly violent, approved the purpose and principle
+of the legislation; and Washington was no exception to the general
+rule. He was calm about it, but his approbation was none the less
+distinct, and he took pains to circulate a sound argument, when he
+met with one, in justification of the Alien and Sedition acts.[1] In
+November, 1798, Alexander Spotswood wrote to him, asking his judgment
+on those laws. As the writer announced himself to be thoroughly
+convinced of their unconstitutionally, Washington, with a little
+sarcasm, declined to enter into argument with him. "But," he
+continued, "I will take the liberty of advising such as are not
+'thoroughly convinced,' and whose minds are yet open to conviction,
+to read the pieces and hear the arguments which have been adduced
+in favor of, as well as those against, the constitutionality and
+expediency of those laws, before they decide and consider to what
+lengths a certain description of men in our country have already
+driven, and seem resolved further to drive matters, and then ask
+themselves if it is not time and expedient to resort to protecting
+laws against aliens (for citizens, you certainly know, are not
+affected by that law), who acknowledge no allegiance to this country,
+and in many instances are sent among us, as there is the best
+circumstantial evidence to prove, for the express purpose of poisoning
+the minds of our people and sowing dissensions among them, in order to
+alienate their affections from the government of their choice, thereby
+endeavoring to dissolve the Union, and of course the fair and happy
+prospects which are unfolding to our view from the Revolution."
+
+[Footnote 1: See letter to Bushrod Washington, Sparks, vi. p. 387.]
+
+With these strong and decided feelings as to the proper policy to
+be adopted, and with such grave apprehensions as to the outcome
+of existing difficulties, Washington was deeply distressed by the
+divisions which he saw springing up among the Federalists. From his
+point of view it was bad enough to have the people of the country
+divided into two great parties; but that one of those parties, that
+which was devoted to the maintenance of order and the preservation
+of the Union, should be torn by internal dissensions, seemed to him
+almost inconceivable. He regarded the conduct of the party and of its
+leaders with quite as much indignation as sorrow, for it seemed to him
+that they were unpatriotic and false to their trust in permitting for
+a moment these personal factions which could have but one result. He
+wrote to Trumbull on August 30, 1799:--
+
+"It is too interesting not to be again repeated, that if principles
+instead of men are not the steady pursuit of the Federalists, their
+cause will soon be at an end; if these are pursued they will not
+_divide_ at the next election of President; if they do divide on
+so _important_ a point, it would be dangerous to trust them on any
+other,--and none except those who might be solicitous to fill the
+chair of government would do it."[1]
+
+[Footnote 1: _Life of Silliman_, vol. ii. p. 385.]
+
+He was a true prophet, but he did not live to see the verification
+of his predictions, which would have been to him a source of so much
+grief. In the midst of his anxieties about public affairs, and of
+the quiet, homely interests which made the days at Mount Vernon so
+pleasant, the end suddenly came. There was no more forewarning than if
+he had been struck down by accident or violence. He had always been a
+man of great physical vigor, and although he had had one or two acute
+and dangerous illnesses arising from mental strain and much overwork,
+there is no indication that he had any organic disease, and since his
+retirement from the presidency he had been better than for many years.
+There was not only no sign of breaking up, but he appeared full of
+health and activity, and led his usual wholesome outdoor life with
+keen enjoyment.
+
+The morning of December 12 was overcast. He wrote to Hamilton warmly
+approving the scheme for a military academy; and having finished this,
+which was probably the last letter he ever wrote, he mounted his horse
+and rode off for his usual round of duties. He noted in his diary,
+where he always described the weather with methodical exactness, that
+it began to snow about one o'clock, soon after to hail, and then
+turned to a settled cold rain. He stayed out notwithstanding for about
+two hours, and then came back to the house and franked his letters.
+Mr. Lear noticed that his hair was damp with snow, and expressed a
+fear that he had got wet; but the General said no, that his coat had
+kept him dry, and sat down to dinner without changing his clothes. The
+next morning snow was still falling so that he did not ride, and he
+complained of a slight sore throat, but nevertheless went out in the
+afternoon to mark some trees that were to be cut down. His hoarseness
+increased toward night, yet still he made light of it, and read the
+newspapers and chatted with Mrs. Washington during the evening.
+
+When he went to bed Mr. Lear urged him to take something for his cold.
+"No," he replied, "you know I never take anything for a cold. Let
+it go as it came." In the night he had a severe chill, followed by
+difficulty in breathing; and between two and three in the morning he
+awoke Mrs. Washington, but would not allow her to get up and call a
+servant lest she should take cold. At daybreak Mr. Lear was summoned,
+and found Washington breathing with difficulty and hardly able to
+speak. Dr. Craik, the friend and companion of many years, was sent
+for at once, and meantime the General was bled slightly by one of the
+overseers. A futile effort was also made to gargle his throat, and
+external applications were tried without affording relief. Dr. Craik
+arrived between eight and nine o'clock with two other physicians, when
+other remedies were tried and the patient was bled again, all without
+avail. About half-past four he called Mrs. Washington to his bedside
+and asked her to get two wills from his desk. She did so, and after
+looking them over he ordered one to be destroyed and gave her the
+other to keep. He then said to Lear, speaking with the utmost
+difficulty, but saying what he had to say with characteristic
+determination and clearness: "I find I am going; my breath cannot last
+long. I believed from the first that the disorder would prove fatal.
+Do you arrange and record all my late military letters and papers.
+Arrange my accounts and settle my books, as you know more about them
+than any one else; and let Mr. Rawlins finish recording my other
+letters, which he has begun." He then asked if Lear recollected
+anything which it was essential for him to do, as he had but a very
+short time to continue with them. Lear replied that he could recollect
+nothing, but that he hoped the end was not so near. Washington smiled,
+and said that he certainly was dying, and that as it was the
+debt which we must all pay, he looked to the event with perfect
+resignation.
+
+The disease which was killing him was acute oedematous laryngitis,[1]
+which is as simple as it is rare and fatal,[2] and he was being
+slowly strangled to death by the closing of the throat. He bore
+the suffering, which must have been intense, with his usual calm
+self-control, but as the afternoon wore on the keen distress and the
+difficulty of breathing made him restless. From time to time Mr. Lear
+tried to raise him and make his position easier. The General said,
+"I fear I fatigue you too much;" and again, on being assured to the
+contrary, "Well, it is a debt we must pay to each other, and I hope
+when you want aid of this kind you will find it." He was courteous and
+thoughtful of others to the last, and told his servant, who had been
+standing all day in attendance upon him, to sit down. To Dr. Craik he
+said: "I die hard, but I am not afraid to go. I believed from my first
+attack that I should not survive it. My breath cannot last long." When
+a little later the other physicians came in and assisted him to sit
+up, he said: "I feel I am going. I thank you for your attentions, but
+I pray you will take no more trouble about me. Let me go off quietly.
+I cannot last long." He lay there for some hours longer, restless and
+suffering, but utterly uncomplaining, taking such remedies as the
+physicians ordered in silence. About ten o'clock he spoke again to
+Lear, although it required a most desperate effort to do so. "I am
+just going," he said. "Have me decently buried, and do not let my body
+be put into the vault in less than three days after I am dead." Lear
+bowed, and Washington said, "Do you understand me?" Lear answered,
+"Yes." "'Tis well," he said, and with these last words again fell
+silent. A little later he felt his own pulse, and, as he was counting
+the strokes, Lear saw his countenance change. His hand dropped back
+from the wrist he had been holding, and all was over. The end had
+come. Washington was dead. He died as he had lived, simply and
+bravely, without parade and without affectation. The last duties
+were done, the last words said, the last trials borne with the quiet
+fitness, the gracious dignity, that even the gathering mists of the
+supreme hour could neither dim nor tarnish. He had faced life with a
+calm, high, victorious spirit. So did he face death and the unknown
+when Fate knocked at the door.
+
+[Footnote 1: It was called at the time a quinsy.]
+
+[Footnote 2: See Memoir on _The Last Sickness of Washington_, by James
+Jackson, M.D. In response to an inquiry as to the modern treatment of
+this disease, the late Dr. F.H. Hooper of Boston, well known as
+an authority on diseases of the throat, wrote me: "Washington's
+physicians are not to be criticised for their treatment, for they
+acted according to their best light and knowledge. To treat such
+a case in such a manner in the year 1889 would be little short
+of criminal. At the present time the physicians would use the
+laryngoscope and _look_ and _see_ what the trouble was. (The
+laryngoscope has only been used since 1857.) In this disease the
+function most interfered with is breathing. The one thing which saves
+a patient in this disease is a _timely tracheotomy_. (I doubt if
+tracheotomy had ever been performed in Virginia in Washington's time.)
+Washington ought to have been tracheotomized, or rather that is the
+way cases are saved to-day. No one would think of antimony, calomel,
+or bleeding now. The point is to let in the air, and not to let out
+the blood. After tracheotomy has been performed, the oedema and
+swelling of the larynx subside in three to six days. The tracheotomy
+tube is then removed, and respiration goes on again through the
+natural channels."]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+GEORGE WASHINGTON
+
+
+This last chapter cannot begin more fitly than by quoting again the
+words of Mr. McMaster: "George Washington is an unknown man." Mr.
+McMaster might have added that to no man in our history has greater
+injustice of a certain kind been done, or more misunderstanding been
+meted out, than to Washington, and although this sounds like the
+merest paradox, it is nevertheless true. From the hour when the door
+of the tomb at Mount Vernon closed behind his coffin to the present
+instant, the chorus of praise and eulogy has never ceased, but has
+swelled deeper and louder with each succeeding year. He has been set
+apart high above all other men, and reverenced with the unquestioning
+veneration accorded only to the leaders of mankind and the founders
+of nations; and in this very devotion lies one secret at least of the
+fact that, while all men have praised Washington, comparatively
+few have understood him. He has been lifted high up into a lonely
+greatness, and unconsciously put outside the range of human sympathy.
+He has been accepted as a being as nearly perfect as it is given to
+man to be, but our warm personal interest has been reserved for other
+and lesser men who seemed to be nearer to us in their virtues and
+their errors alike. Such isolation, lofty though it be, is perilous
+and leads to grievous misunderstandings. From it has come the
+widespread idea that Washington was cold, and as devoid of human
+sympathies as he was free from the common failings of humanity.
+
+Of this there will be something to say presently, but meantime there
+is another more prolific source of error in regard to Washington to
+be considered. Men who are loudly proclaimed to be faultless always
+excite a certain kind of resentment. It is a dangerous eminence
+for any one to occupy. The temples of Greece are in ruins, and her
+marvelous literature is little more than a collection of fragments,
+but the feelings of the citizens who exiled Aristides because they
+were weary of hearing him called "just," exist still, unchanged and
+unchangeable. Washington has not only been called "just," but he
+has had every other good quality attributed to him by countless
+biographers and eulogists with an almost painful iteration, and the
+natural result has followed. Many persons have felt the sense of
+fatigue which the Athenians expressed practically by their oyster
+shells, and have been led to cast doubts on Washington's perfection
+as the only consolation for their own sense of injury. Then, again,
+Washington's fame has been so overshadowing, and his greatness so
+immutable, that he has been very inconvenient to the admirers and the
+biographers of other distinguished men. From these two sources, from
+the general jealousy of the classic Greek variety, and the particular
+jealousy born of the necessities of some other hero, much adverse and
+misleading criticism has come. It has never been a safe or popular
+amusement to assail Washington directly, and this course usually has
+been shunned; but although the attacks have been veiled they have none
+the less existed, and they have been all the more dangerous because
+they were insidious.
+
+In his lifetime Washington had his enemies and detractors in
+abundance. During the Revolution he was abused and intrigued against,
+thwarted and belittled, to a point which posterity in general scarcely
+realizes. Final and conclusive victory brought an end to this, and
+he passed to the presidency amid a general acclaim. Then the attacks
+began again. Their character has been shown in a previous chapter, but
+they were of no real moment except as illustrations of the existence
+and meaning of party divisions. The ravings of Bache and Freneau,
+and the coarse insults of Giles, were all totally unimportant in
+themselves. They merely define the purposes and character of the party
+which opposed Washington, and but for him would be forgotten. Among
+his eminent contemporaries, Jefferson and Pickering, bitterly opposed
+in all things else, have left memoranda and letters reflecting upon
+the abilities of their former chief. Jefferson disliked him because he
+blocked his path, but with habitual caution he never proceeded beyond
+a covert sneer implying that Washington's mental powers, at no time
+very great, were impaired by age during his presidency, and that he
+was easily deceived by practised intriguers. Pickering, with more
+boldness, set Washington down as commonplace, not original in his
+thought, and vastly inferior to Hamilton, apparently because he was
+not violent, and did not make up his mind before he knew the facts.
+
+Adverse contemporary criticism, however, is slight in amount and vague
+in character; it can be readily dismissed, and it has in no case
+weight enough to demand much consideration. Modern criticism of the
+same kind has been even less direct, but is much more serious and
+cannot be lightly passed over. It invariably proceeds by negations
+setting out with an apparently complete acceptance of Washington's
+greatness, and then assailing him by telling us what he was not. Few
+persons who have not given this matter a careful study realize how far
+criticism of this sort has gone, and there is indeed no better way
+of learning what Washington really was than by examining the various
+negations which tell us what he was not.
+
+Let us take the gravest first. It has been confidently asserted that
+Washington was not an American in anything but the technical sense.
+This idea is more diffused than, perhaps, would be generally supposed,
+and it has also been formally set down in print, in which we are more
+fortunate than in many other instances where the accusation has not
+got beyond the elusive condition of loose talk.
+
+In that most noble poem, the "Commemoration Ode," Mr. Lowell speaks of
+Lincoln as "the first American." The poet's winged words fly far, and
+find a resting-place in many minds. This idea has become widespread,
+and has recently found fuller expression in Mr. Clarence King's
+prefatory note to the great life of Lincoln by Hay and Nicolay.[1] Mr.
+King says: "Abraham Lincoln was the first American to reach the lonely
+height of immortal fame. Before him, within the narrow compass of our
+history, were but two preeminent names,--Columbus the discoverer, and
+Washington the founder; the one an Italian seer, the other an English
+country gentleman. In a narrow sense, of course, Washington was an
+American.... For all that he was English in his nature, habits, moral
+standards, and social theories; in short, in all points which,
+aside from mere geographical position, make up a man, he was as
+thorough-going a British colonial gentleman as one could find anywhere
+beneath the Union Jack. The genuine American of Lincoln's type came
+later.... George Washington, an English commoner, vanquished George,
+an English king."
+
+[Footnote 1: Mr. Matthew Arnold, and more recently Professor Goldwin
+Smith, have both spoken of Washington as an Englishman. I do not
+mention this to discredit the statements of Mr. Lowell or Mr. King,
+but merely to indicate how far this mistaken idea has traveled.]
+
+In order to point his sentence and prove his first postulate, Mr.
+King is obliged not only to dispose of Washington, but to introduce
+Columbus, who never was imagined in the wildest fantasy to be an
+American, and to omit Franklin. The omission of itself is fatal to Mr.
+King's case. Franklin has certainly a "preeminent name." He has, too,
+"immortal fame," although of course of a widely different character
+from that of either Washington or Lincoln, but he was a great man
+in the broad sense of a world-wide reputation. Yet no one has ever
+ventured to call Benjamin Franklin an Englishman. He was a colonial
+American, of course, but he was as intensely an American as any man
+who has lived on this continent before or since. A man of the people,
+he was American by the character of his genius, by his versatility,
+the vivacity of his intellect, and his mental dexterity. In his
+abilities, his virtues, and his defects he was an American, and so
+plainly one as to be beyond the reach of doubt or question. There were
+others of that period, too, who were as genuine Americans as Franklin
+or Lincoln. Such were Jonathan Edwards, the peculiar product of New
+England Calvinism; Patrick Henry, who first broke down colonial lines
+to declare himself an American; Samuel Adams, the great forerunner
+of the race of American politicians; Thomas Jefferson, the idol of
+American democracy. These and many others Mr. King might exclude on
+the ground that they did not reach the lonely height of immortal fame.
+But Franklin is enough. Unless one is prepared to set Franklin down
+as an Englishman, which would be as reasonable as to say that Daniel
+Webster was a fine example of the Slavic race, it must be admitted
+that it was possible for the thirteen colonies to produce in the
+eighteenth century a genuine American who won immortal fame. If they
+could produce one of one type, they could produce a second of another
+type, and there was, therefore, nothing inherently impossible in
+existing conditions to prevent Washington from being an American.
+
+Lincoln was undoubtedly the first great American of his type, but that
+is not the only type of American. It is one which, as bodied forth in
+Abraham Lincoln, commands the love and veneration of the people of the
+United States, and the admiration of the world wherever his name is
+known. To the noble and towering greatness of his mind and character
+it does not add one hair's breadth to say that he was the first
+American, or that he was of a common or uncommon type. Greatness like
+Lincoln's is far beyond such qualifications, and least of all is it
+necessary to his fame to push Washington from his birthright. To say
+that George Washington, an English commoner, vanquished George, an
+English king, is clever and picturesque, but like many other pleasing
+antitheses it is painfully inaccurate. Allegiance does not make race
+or nationality. The Hindoos are subjects of Victoria, but they are not
+Englishmen.
+
+Franklin shows that it was possible to produce a most genuine American
+of unquestioned greatness in the eighteenth century, and with all
+possible deference to Mr. Lowell and Mr. King, I venture the assertion
+that George Washington was as genuine an American as Lincoln or
+Franklin. He was an American of the eighteenth and not of the
+nineteenth century, but he was none the less an American. I will go
+further. Washington was not only an American of a pure and noble type,
+but he was the first thorough American in the broad, national sense,
+as distinct from the colonial American of his time.
+
+After all, what is it to be an American? Surely it does not consist in
+the number of generations merely which separate the individual from
+his forefathers who first settled here. Washington was fourth in
+descent from the first American of his name, while Lincoln was in
+the sixth generation. This difference certainly constitutes no real
+distinction. There are people to-day, not many luckily, whose families
+have been here for two hundred and fifty years, and who are as utterly
+un-American as it is possible to be, while there are others, whose
+fathers were immigrants, who are as intensely American as any one can
+desire or imagine. In a new country, peopled in two hundred and fifty
+years by immigrants from the Old World and their descendants, the
+process of Americanization is not limited by any hard and fast rules
+as to time and generations, but is altogether a matter of individual
+and race temperament. The production of the well-defined American
+types and of the fixed national characteristics which now exist has
+been going on during all that period, but in any special instance the
+type to which a given man belongs must be settled by special study and
+examination.
+
+Washington belonged to the English-speaking race. So did Lincoln. Both
+sprang from the splendid stock which was formed during centuries from
+a mixture of the Celtic, Teutonic, Scandinavian, and Norman peoples,
+and which is known to the world as English. Both, so far as we can
+tell, had nothing but English blood, as it would be commonly called,
+in their veins, and both were of that part of the English race which
+emigrated to America, where it has been the principal factor in the
+development of the new people called Americans. They were men of
+English race, modified and changed in the fourth and sixth generations
+by the new country, the new conditions, and the new life, and by the
+contact and admixture of other races. Lincoln, a very great man, one
+who has reached "immortal fame," was clearly an American of a type
+that the Old World cannot show, or at least has not produced. The idea
+of many persons in regard to Washington seems to be, that he was a
+great man of a type which the Old World, or, to be more exact, which
+England, had produced. One hears it often said that Washington was
+simply an American Hampden. Such a comparison is an easy method of
+description, nothing more. Hampden is memorable among men, not for
+his abilities, which there is no reason to suppose were very
+extraordinary, but for his devoted and unselfish patriotism, his
+courage, his honor, and his pure and lofty spirit. He embodied what
+his countrymen believe to be the moral qualities of their race in
+their finest flower, and no nation, be it said, could have a nobler
+ideal. Washington was conspicuous for the same qualities, exhibited
+in like fashion. Is there a single one of the essential attributes of
+Hampden that Lincoln also did not possess? Was he not an unselfish
+and devoted patriot, pure in heart, gentle of spirit, high of honor,
+brave, merciful, and temperate? Did he not lay down his life for
+his country in the box at Ford's Theatre as ungrudgingly as Hampden
+offered his in the smoke of battle upon Chalgrove field? Surely we
+must answer Yes. In other words, these three men all had the great
+moral attributes which are the characteristics of the English race in
+its highest and purest development on either side of the Atlantic.
+Yet no one has ever called Lincoln an American Hampden simply because
+Hampden and Washington were men of ancient family, members of an
+aristocracy by birth, and Lincoln was not. This is the distinction
+between them; and how vain it is, in the light of their lives and
+deeds, which make all pedigrees and social ranks look so poor and
+worthless! The differences among them are trivial, the resemblances
+deep and lasting.
+
+I have followed out this comparison because it illustrates perfectly
+the entirely superficial character of the reasons which have led men
+to speak of Washington as an English country gentleman. It has been
+said that he was English in his habits, moral standards, and social
+theories, which has an important sound, but which for the most part
+comes down to a question of dress and manners. He wore black velvet
+and powdered hair, knee-breeches and diamond buckles, which are
+certainly not American fashions to-day. But they were American
+fashions in the last century, and every man wore them who could afford
+to, no matter what his origin. Let it be remembered, however, that
+Washington also wore the hunting-shirt and fringed leggins of the
+backwoodsman, and that it was he who introduced this purely American
+dress into the army as a uniform.
+
+His manners likewise were those of the century in which he lived,
+formal and stately, and of course colored by his own temperament. His
+moral standards were those of a high-minded, honorable man. Are we
+ready to say that they were not American? Did they differ in any vital
+point from those of Lincoln? His social theories were simple in the
+extreme. He neither overvalued nor underrated social conventions, for
+he knew that they were a part of the fabric of civilized society, not
+vitally important and yet not wholly trivial. He was a member of an
+aristocracy, it is true, both by birth and situation. There was a
+recognized social aristocracy in every colony before the Revolution,
+for the drum-beat of the great democratic march had not then sounded.
+In the northern colonies it was never strong, and in New England
+it was especially weak, for the governments and people there were
+essentially democratic, although they hardly recognized it themselves.
+In Virginia and the southern colonies, on the other hand, there was a
+vigorous aristocracy resting on the permanent foundation of slavery.
+Where slaves are there must be masters, and where there are masters
+there are aristocrats; but it was an American and not an English
+aristocracy. Lineage and family had weight in the south as in the
+north, but that which put a man undeniably in the ruling class was the
+ownership of black slaves and the possession of a white skin. This
+aristocracy lasted with its faults and its virtues until it perished
+in the shock of civil war, when its foundation of human slavery was
+torn from under it. From the slave-holding aristocracy of Virginia
+came, with the exception of Patrick Henry, all the great men of that
+State who did so much for American freedom, and who rendered such
+imperishable service to the republic in law, in politics, and in war.
+From this aristocracy came Marshall, and Mason, and Madison, the Lees,
+the Randolphs, the Harrisons, and the rest. From it came also Thomas
+Jefferson, the hero of American democracy; and to it was added Patrick
+Henry, not by lineage or slave-holding, but by virtue of his brilliant
+abilities, and because he, too, was an aristocrat by the immutable
+division of race. It was this aristocracy into which Washington was
+born, and amid which he was brought up. To say that it colored his
+feelings and habits is simply to say that he was human; but to urge
+that it made him un-American is to exclude at once from the ranks
+of Americans all the great men given to the country by the South.
+Washington, in fact, was less affected by his surroundings, and rose
+above them more quickly, than any other man of his day, because he was
+the greatest man of his time, with a splendid breadth of vision.
+
+When he first went among the New England troops at the siege of
+Boston, the rough, democratic ways of the people jarred upon him, and
+offended especially his military instincts, for he was not only a
+Virginian but he was a great soldier, and military discipline is
+essentially aristocratic. These volunteer soldiers, called together
+from the plough and the fishing-smack, were free and independent men,
+unaccustomed to any rule but their own, and they had still to learn
+the first rudiments of military service. To Washington, soldiers who
+elected and deposed their officers, and who went home when they felt
+that they had a right to do so, seemed well-nigh useless and quite
+incomprehensible. They angered him and tried his patience almost
+beyond endurance, and he spoke of them at the outset in harsh terms by
+no means wholly unwarranted. But they were part of his problem, and he
+studied them. He was a soldier, but not an aristocrat wrapped up in
+immutable prejudices, and he learned to know these men, and they came
+to love, obey, and follow him with an intelligent devotion far better
+than anything born of mere discipline. Before the year was out, he
+wrote to Lund Washington praising the New England troops in the
+highest terms, and at the close of the war he said that practically
+the whole army then was composed of New England soldiers. They stayed
+by him to the end, and as they were steadfast in war so they remained
+in peace. He trusted and confided in New England, and her sturdy
+democracy gave him a loyal and unflinching support to the day of his
+death.
+
+This openness of mind and superiority to prejudice were American in
+the truest and best sense; but Washington showed the same qualities in
+private life and toward individuals which he displayed in regard to
+communities. He was free, of course, from the cheap claptrap which
+abuses the name of democracy by saying that birth, breeding, and
+education are undemocratic, and therefore to be reckoned against a
+man. He valued these qualities rightly, but he looked to see what a
+man was and not who he was, which is true democracy. The two men who
+were perhaps nearest to his affections were Knox and Hamilton. One
+was a Boston bookseller, who rose to distinction by bravery and good
+service, and the other was a young adventurer from the West Indies,
+without either family or money at his back. It was the same with much
+humbler persons. He never failed, on his way to Philadelphia, to stop
+at Wilmington and have a chat with one Captain O'Flinn, who kept a
+tavern and had been a Revolutionary soldier; and this was but a single
+instance among many of like character. Any soldier of the Revolution
+was always sure of a welcome at the hands of his old commander.
+Eminent statesmen, especially of the opposition, often found his
+manner cold, but no old soldier ever complained of it, no servant ever
+left him, and the country people about Mount Vernon loved him as a
+neighbor and friend, and not as the distant great man of the army and
+the presidency.
+
+He believed thoroughly in popular government. One does not find in his
+letters the bitter references to democracy and to the populace which
+can be discovered in the writings of so many of his party friends,
+legacies of pre-revolutionary ideas inflamed by hatred of Parisian
+mobs. He always spoke of the people at large with a simple respect,
+because he knew that the future of the United States was in their
+hands and not in that of any class, and because he believed that they
+would fulfill their mission. The French Revolution never carried him
+away, and when it bred anarchy and bloodshed he became hostile to
+French influence, because license and disorder were above all
+things hateful to him. Yet he did not lose his balance in the other
+direction, as was the case with so many of his friends. He resisted
+and opposed French ideas and French democracy, so admired and so
+loudly preached by Jefferson and his followers, because he esteemed
+them perilous to the country. But there is not a word to indicate that
+he did not think that such dangers would be finally overcome, even
+if at the cost of much suffering, by the sane sense and ingrained
+conservatism of the American people. Other men talked more noisily
+about the people, but no one trusted them in the best sense more than
+Washington, and his only fear was that evils might come from their
+being misled by false lights.
+
+Once more, what is it to be an American? Putting aside all the outer
+shows of dress and manners, social customs and physical peculiarities,
+is it not to believe in America and in the American people? Is it not
+to have an abiding and moving faith in the future and in the destiny
+of America?--something above and beyond the patriotism and love which
+every man whose soul is not dead within him feels for the land of his
+birth? Is it not to be national and not sectional, independent and not
+colonial? Is it not to have a high conception of what this great new
+country should be, and to follow out that ideal with loyalty and
+truth?
+
+Has any man in our history fulfilled these conditions more perfectly
+and completely than George Washington? Has any man ever lived who
+served the American people more faithfully, or with a higher and truer
+conception of the destiny and possibilities of the country? Born of an
+old and distinguished family, he found himself, when a boy just out of
+school, dependent on his mother, and with an inheritance that promised
+him more acres than shillings. He did not seek to live along upon what
+he could get from the estate, and still less did he feel that it was
+only possible for him to enter one of the learned professions. Had
+he been an Englishman in fact or in feeling, he would have felt very
+naturally the force of the limitations imposed by his social position.
+But being an American, his one idea was to earn his living honestly,
+because it was the creed of his country that earning an honest living
+is the most creditable thing a man can do. Boy as he was, he went out
+manfully into the world to win with his own hands the money which
+would make him self-supporting and independent. His business as a
+surveyor took him into the wilderness, and there he learned that the
+first great work before the American people was to be the conquest of
+the continent. He dropped the surveyor's rod and chain to negotiate
+with the savages, and then took up the sword to fight them and the
+French, so that the New World might be secured to the English-speaking
+race. A more purely American training cannot be imagined. It was not
+the education of universities or of courts, but that of hard-earned
+personal independence, won in the backwoods and by frontier fighting.
+Thus trained, he gave the prime of his manhood to leading the
+Revolution which made his country free, and his riper years to
+building up that independent nationality without which freedom would
+have been utterly vain.
+
+He was the first to rise above all colonial or state lines, and grasp
+firmly the conception of a nation to be formed from the thirteen
+jarring colonies. The necessity of national action in the army was of
+course at once apparent to him, although not to others; but he carried
+the same broad views into widely different fields, where at the time
+they wholly escaped notice. It was Washington, oppressed by a thousand
+cares, who in the early days of the Revolution saw the need of Federal
+courts for admiralty cases and for other purposes. It was he who
+suggested this scheme, years before any one even dreamed of the
+Constitution; and from the special committees of Congress, formed for
+this object in accordance with this advice, came, in the process of
+time, the Federal judiciary of the United States.[1] Even in that
+early dawn of the Revolution, Washington had clear in his own mind the
+need of a continental system for war, diplomacy, finance, and law, and
+he worked steadily to bring this policy to fulfilment.
+
+[Footnote 1: See the very interesting memoir on this subject by the
+Hon. J.C. Bancroft Davis.]
+
+When the war was over, the thought that engaged his mind most was
+of the best means to give room for expansion, and to open up the
+unconquered continent to the forerunners of a mighty army of settlers.
+For this purpose all his projects for roads, canals, and surveys were
+formed and forced into public notice. He looked beyond the limits of
+the Atlantic colonies. His vision went far over the barriers of the
+Alleghanies; and where others saw thirteen infant States backed by the
+wilderness, he beheld the germs of a great empire. While striving thus
+to lay the West open to the march of the settler, he threw himself
+into the great struggle, where Hamilton and Madison, and all who
+"thought continentally," were laboring for that union without which
+all else was worse than futile.
+
+From the presidency of the convention that formed the Constitution, he
+went to the presidency of the government which that convention brought
+into being; and in all that followed, the one guiding thought was to
+clear the way for the advance of the people, and to make that people
+and their government independent in thought, in policy, and in
+character, as the Revolution had made them independent politically.
+The same spirit which led him to write during the war that our battles
+must be fought and our victories won by Americans, if victory and
+independence were to be won at all, or to have any real and solid
+worth, pervaded his whole administration. We see it in his Indian
+policy, which was directed not only to pacifying the tribes, but
+to putting it out of their power to arrest or even delay western
+settlement. We see it in his attitude toward foreign ministers, and in
+his watchful persistence in regard to the Mississippi, which ended in
+our securing the navigation of the great river. We see it again in his
+anxious desire to keep peace until we had passed the point where war
+might bring a dissolution; and how real that danger was, and how clear
+and just his perception of it, is shown by the Kentucky and Virginia
+Resolutions and by the separatist movement in New England during the
+later war of 1812. Even in 1812 the national existence was menaced,
+but the danger would have proved fatal if it had come twenty years
+earlier, with parties divided by their sympathies with contending
+foreign nations. It was for the sake of the Union that Washington was
+so patient with France, and faced so quietly the storm of indignation
+aroused by the Jay treaty.
+
+In his whole foreign policy, which was so peculiarly his own, the
+American spirit was his pole star; and of all the attacks made upon
+him, the only one which really tried his soul was the accusation that
+he was influenced by foreign predilections. The blind injustice, which
+would not comprehend that his one purpose was to be American and to
+make the people and the government American, touched him more deeply
+than anything else. As party strife grew keener over the issues raised
+by the war between France and England, and as French politics and
+French ideas became more popular, his feelings found more frequent
+utterance, and it is interesting to see how this man, who, we are now
+told, was an English country gentleman, wrote and felt on this matter
+in very trying times. Let us remember, as we listen to him now in his
+own defense, that he was an extremely honest man, silent for the most
+part in doing his work, but when he spoke meaning every word he said,
+and saying exactly what he meant. This was the way in which he
+wrote to Patrick Henry in October, 1795, when he offered him the
+secretaryship of State:--
+
+"My ardent desire is, and my aim has been as far as depended upon the
+executive department, to comply strictly with all our engagements,
+foreign and domestic; but to keep the United States free from
+political connection with every other country, to see them independent
+of all and under the influence of none. In a word, I want an
+_American_ character, that the powers of Europe may be convinced that
+we act for _ourselves_, and not for others. This, in my judgment, is
+the only way to be respected abroad and happy at home; and not, by
+becoming partisans of Great Britain or France, create dissensions,
+disturb the public tranquillity, and destroy, perhaps forever, the
+cement which binds the Union."
+
+Not quite a year later, when the Jay treaty was still agitating the
+public mind in regard to our relations with France, he wrote to
+Pickering:--
+
+"The Executive has a plain road to pursue, namely, to fulfill all the
+engagements which duty requires; be influenced beyond this by none of
+the contending parties; maintain a strict neutrality unless obliged
+by imperious circumstances to depart from it; do justice to all, and
+never forget that we are Americans, the remembrance of which will
+convince us that we ought not to be French or English."
+
+After leaving the presidency, when our difficulties with France seemed
+to be thickening, and the sky looked very dark, he wrote to a friend
+saying that he firmly believed that all would come out well, and then
+added: "To me this is so demonstrable, that not a particle of doubt
+could dwell on my mind relative thereto, if our citizens would
+advocate their own cause, instead of that of any other nation under
+the sun; that is, if, instead of being Frenchmen or Englishmen in
+politics they would be Americans, indignant at every attempt of either
+or any other powers to establish an influence in our councils or
+presume to sow the seeds of discord or disunion among us."
+
+A few days later he wrote to Thomas Pinckney:
+
+"It remains to be seen whether our country will stand upon independent
+ground, or be directed in its political concerns by any other nation.
+A little time will show who are its true friends, or, what is
+synonymous, who are true Americans."
+
+But this eager desire for a true Americanism did not stop at our
+foreign policy, or our domestic politics. He wished it to enter into
+every part of the life and thought of the people, and when it was
+proposed to bring over the entire staff of a Genevan university to
+take charge of a national university here, he threw his influence
+against it, expressing grave doubts as to the advantage of importing
+an entire "seminary of foreigners," for the purpose of American
+education. The letter on this subject, which was addressed to John
+Adams, then continued:--
+
+"My opinion with respect to emigration is that except of useful
+mechanics, and some particular descriptions of men or professions,
+there is no need of encouragement; while the policy or advantage of
+its taking place in a body (I mean the settling of them in a body) may
+be much questioned; for by so doing they retain the language, habits,
+and principles, good or bad, which they bring with them. Whereas by
+an intermixture with our people, they or their descendants get
+assimilated to our customs, measures, and laws; in a word, soon become
+one people."
+
+He had this thought so constantly in his mind that it found expression
+in his will, in the clause bequeathing certain property for the
+foundation of a university in the District of Columbia. "I proceed,"
+he said, "after this recital for the more correct understanding of the
+case, to declare that it has always been a source of serious regret
+with me to see the youth of these United States sent to foreign
+countries for the purposes of education, often before their minds were
+formed, or they had imbibed any adequate ideas of the happiness of
+their own; contracting too frequently not only habits of dissipation
+and extravagance, but _principles unfriendly to republican government
+and to the true and genuine liberties of mankind_, which thereafter
+are rarely overcome; for these reasons it has been my ardent wish to
+see a plan devised on a liberal scale, which would have a tendency
+to spread systematic ideas through all parts of this rising empire,
+thereby to do away with local attachments and state prejudices, as
+far as the nature of things would or indeed ought to admit, from our
+national councils."
+
+Were these the words of an English country gentleman, who chanced to
+be born in one of England's colonies? Persons of the English country
+gentleman pattern at that time were for the most part loyalists;
+excellent people, very likely, but not of the Washington type. Their
+hopes and ideals, their policies and their beliefs were in the mother
+country, not here. The faith, the hope, the thought, of Washington
+were all in the United States. His one purpose was to make America
+independent in thought and action, and he strove day and night to
+build up a nation. He labored unceasingly to lay the foundations of
+the great empire which, with almost prophetic vision, he saw beyond
+the mountains, by opening the way for the western movement. His
+foreign policy was a declaration to the world of a new national
+existence, and he strained every nerve to lift our politics from the
+colonial condition of foreign issues. He wished all immigration to
+be absorbed and moulded here, so that we might be one people, one in
+speech and in political faith. His last words, given to the world
+after the grave had closed over him, were a solemn plea for a home
+training for the youth of the Republic, so that all men might think
+as Americans, untainted by foreign ideas, and rise above all local
+prejudices. He did not believe that mere material development was the
+only or the highest goal; for he knew that the true greatness of a
+nation was moral and intellectual, and his last thoughts were for the
+up-building of character and intelligence. He was never a braggart,
+and mere boasting about his country as about himself was utterly
+repugnant to him. He never hesitated to censure what he believed to be
+wrong, but he addressed his criticisms to his countrymen in order to
+lead them to better things, and did not indulge in them in order
+to express his own discontent, or to amuse or curry favor with
+foreigners. In a word, he loved his country, and had an abiding faith
+in its future and in its people, upon whom his most earnest thoughts
+and loftiest aspirations were centred. No higher, purer, or more
+thorough Americanism than his could be imagined. It was a conception
+far in advance of the time, possible only to a powerful mind, capable
+of lifting itself out of existing conditions and alien influences, so
+that it might look with undazzled gaze upon the distant future. The
+first American in the broad national sense, there has never been a man
+more thoroughly and truly American than Washington. It will be a sorry
+day when we consent to take that noble figure from "the forefront of
+the nation's life," and rank George Washington as anything but an
+American of Americans, instinct with the ideas, as he was devoted to
+the fortunes of the New World which gave him birth.
+
+There is another class of critics who have attacked Washington from
+another side. These are the gentlemen who find him in the way of their
+own heroes. Washington was a man of decided opinions about men as well
+as measures, and he was extremely positive. He had his enemies as
+well as his friends, his likes and his dislikes, strong and clear,
+according to his nature. The respect which he commanded in his life
+has lasted unimpaired since his death, and it is an awkward thing for
+the biographers of some of his contemporaries to know that Washington
+opposed, distrusted, or disliked their heroes. Therefore, in one way
+or another they have gone round a stumbling-block which they could
+not remove. The commonest method is to eliminate Washington by
+representing him vaguely as the great man with whom every one agreed,
+who belonged to no party, and favored all; then he is pushed quietly
+aside. Evils and wrong-doing existed under his administration from the
+opposition point of view, but they were the work of his ministers and
+of wicked advisers. The king could do no wrong, and this pleasant
+theory, which is untrue in fact, amounts to saying that Washington had
+no opinions, but was simply a grand and imposing figure-head. The only
+ground for it which is even suggested is that he sought advice, that
+he used other men's ideas, and that he made up his mind slowly. All
+this is true, and these very qualities help to show his greatness,
+for only small minds mistake their relations with the universe, and
+confuse their finite powers with omniscience. The great man, who
+sees facts and reads the future, uses other men, knows the bounds of
+possibility in action, can decide instantly if need be, but leaves
+rash conclusions to those who are incapable of reaching any others.
+In reality there never was a man who had more definite and vigorous
+opinions than Washington, and the responsibility which he bore he
+never shifted to other shoulders. The work of the Revolution and the
+presidency, whether good or bad, was his own, and he was ready to
+stand or fall by it.
+
+There is a still further extension of the idea that Washington
+represented all parties and all views, and had neither party nor
+opinions of his own. This theory is to the effect that he was great by
+character alone, but that in other respects he did not rise above the
+level of dignified common-place. Such, for instance, is apparently the
+view of Mr. Parton, who in a clever essay discusses in philosophical
+fashion the possible advantages arising from the success attained by
+mere character, as in the case of Washington. Mr. Parton points his
+theory by that last incident of counting the pulse as death drew nigh.
+How characteristic, he exclaims, of the methodical, common-place
+man, is such an act. It was not common, be it said, even were it
+common-place. It was certainly a very simple action, but rare enough
+so far as we know on the every-day deathbed, or in the supreme hour of
+dying greatness, and it was wholly free from that affectation which
+Dr. Johnson thought almost inseparable from the last solemn moment.
+Irregularity is not proof of genius any more than method, and of the
+two, the latter is the surer companion of greatness. The last hour of
+Washington showed that calm, collected courage which had never failed
+in war or peace; and so far it was proof of character. But was it not
+something more? The common-place action of counting the pulse was in
+reality profoundly characteristic, for it was the last exhibition of
+the determined purpose to know the truth, and grasp the fact. Death
+was upon him; he would know the fact. He had looked facts in the face
+all his life, and when the mists gathered, he would face them still.
+
+High and splendid character, great moral qualities for after-ages to
+admire, he had beyond any man of modern times. But to suppose that in
+other respects he belonged to the ranks of mediocrity is not only a
+contradiction in terms, but utterly false. It was not character that
+fought the Trenton campaign and carried the revolution to victory.
+It was military genius. It was not character that read the future of
+America and created our foreign policy. It was statesmanship of the
+highest order. Without the great moral qualities which he possessed,
+his career would not have been possible; but it would have been quite
+as impossible if the intellect had not equaled the character. There is
+no need to argue the truism that Washington was a great man, for that
+is universally admitted. But it is very needful that his greatness
+should be rightly understood, and the right understanding of it is by
+no means universal. His character has been exalted at the expense of
+his intellect, and his goodness has been so much insisted upon both by
+admirers and critics that we are in danger of forgetting that he had a
+great mind as well as high moral worth.
+
+This false attitude both of praise and criticism has been so persisted
+in that if we accept the premises we are forced to the conclusion that
+Washington was actually dull, while with much more openness it is
+asserted that he was cold and at times even harsh. "In the mean time,"
+says Mr. McMaster, "Washington was deprived of the services of the
+only two men his cold heart ever really loved." "A Cromwell with the
+juice squeezed out," says Carlyle somewhere, in his rough and summary
+fashion. Are these judgments correct? Was Washington really, with
+all his greatness, dull and cold? He was a great general and a great
+President, first in war and first in peace and all that, says our
+caviler, but his relaxation was in farm accounts, and his business war
+and politics. He could plan a campaign, preserve a dignified manner,
+and conduct an administration, but he could write nothing more
+entertaining than a state paper or a military report. He gave himself
+up to great affairs, he was hardly human, and he shunned the graces,
+the wit, and all the salt of life, and passed them by on the other
+side.
+
+That Washington was serious and earnest cannot be doubted, for no man
+could have done what he did and been otherwise. He had little time
+for the lighter sides of life, and he never exerted himself to say
+brilliant and striking things. He was not a maker of phrases and
+proclamations, and the quality of the charlatan, so often found in men
+of the highest genius, was utterly lacking in him. He never talked or
+acted with an eye to dramatic effect, and this is one reason for the
+notion that he was dull and dry; for the world dearly loves a little
+charlatanism, and is never happier than in being brilliantly duped.
+But was he therefore really dull and juiceless, unlovable and
+unloving? Responsibility came upon him when a boy, and he was hardly
+of age when he was carrying in his hands the defense of his colony and
+the heavy burden of other human lives. Experience like this makes a
+man who is good for anything sober; but sobriety is not dullness, and
+if we look a little below the surface we find the ready refutation of
+such an idea. In his letters and even in the silent diaries we detect
+the keenest observation. He looked at the country, as he traveled,
+with the eye of the soldier and the farmer, and mastered its features
+and read its meaning with rapid and certain glance. It was not to him
+a mere panorama of fields and woods, of rivers and mountains. He
+saw the beauties of nature and the opportunities of the farmer, the
+trader, or the manufacturer wherever his gaze rested. He gathered
+in the same way the statistics of the people and of their various
+industries. In the West Indies, on the Virginian frontier, in his
+journeys when he was President, he read the story of all he saw as he
+would have read a book, and brought it home with him for use.
+
+[Illustration: NATHANAEL GREENE]
+
+In the same way he read and understood men, and had that power of
+choosing among them which is essential in its highest form to the
+great soldier or statesman. His selection never erred unless in a rare
+instance like that of Monroe, forced on him by political exigencies,
+or when the man of his choice would not serve. Congress chose Gates
+for the southern campaign, but Washington selected Greene, in whom he
+saw great military ability before any one else realized it. He took
+Hamilton, young and unknown, from the captaincy of an artillery
+company, and placed him on his personal staff. He bore with Hamilton's
+outbreak of temper, kept him ever in his confidence, and finally gave
+him the opportunity to prove himself the most brilliant of American
+statesmen. In the crowd of foreign volunteers, the men whom he
+especially selected and trusted were Lafayette and Steuben, each in
+his way of real value to the service. Even more remarkable than the
+ability to recognize great talent was his capacity to weigh and value
+with a nice exactness the worth of men who did not rise to the level
+of greatness. There is a recently published letter, too long for
+quotation here, in which he gives his opinions of all the leading
+officers of the Revolution,[1] and each one shows the most remarkable
+insight, as well as a sharp definiteness of outline that indicates
+complete mastery. These compact judgments were so sound that even the
+lapse of a century and all the study of historians and biographers
+find nothing in their keen analysis to alter and little to add. He did
+not expect to discover genius everywhere, or to find a marshal's
+baton in every knapsack, but he used men according to their value and
+possibilities, which is quite as essential as the preliminary work
+of selection. His military staff illustrated this faculty admirably.
+Every man, after a few trials and changes, fitted his place and did
+his particular task better than any one else could have done it.
+Colonel Meade, loyal and gallant, a good soldier and planter, said
+that Hamilton did the headwork of Washington's staff and he the
+riding. When the war was drawing to a close, Washington said one day
+to Hamilton, "You must go to the Bar, which you can reach in six
+months." Then turning to Meade, "Friend Dick, you must go to your
+plantation; you will make a good farmer, and an honest foreman of the
+grand jury."[2] The prediction was exactly fulfilled, with all that it
+implied, in both cases. But let it not be supposed that there was any
+touch of contempt in the advice to Meade. On the contrary, there was
+a little warmer affection, if anything, for he honored success in any
+honest pursuit, especially in farming, which he himself loved. But he
+distinguished the two men perfectly, and he knew what each was and
+what each meant. It seems little to say, but if we stop to think of
+it, this power to read men aright and see the truth in them and about
+them is a power more precious than any other bestowed by the kindest
+of fairy godmothers. The lame devil of Le Sage looked into the secrets
+of life through the roofs of houses, and much did he find of the
+secret story of humanity. But the great man looking with truth and
+kindliness into men's natures, and reading their characters and
+abilities in their words and acts, has a higher and better power than
+that attributed to the wandering sprite, for such a man holds in his
+hand the surest key to success. Washington, quiet and always on the
+watch, after the fashion of silent greatness, studied untiringly the
+ever recurring human problems, and his just conclusions were powerful
+factors in the great result. He was slow, when he had plenty of time,
+in adopting a policy or plan, or in settling a public question, but
+he read men very quickly. He was never under any delusion as to Lee,
+Gates, Conway, or any of the rest who engaged against him because they
+were restless from the first under the suspicion that he knew them
+thoroughly. Arnold deceived him because his treason was utterly
+inconceivable to Washington, and because his remarkable gallantry
+excused his many faults. But with this exception it may be safely
+said that Washington was never misled as to men, either as general or
+President. His instruments were not invariably the best and sometimes
+failed him, but they were always the best he could get, and he knew
+their defects and ran the inevitable risks with his eyes open. Such
+sure and rapid judgments of men and their capabilities were possible
+only to a man of keen perception and accurate observation, neither of
+which is characteristic of a slow or common-place mind.
+
+[Footnote 1: _Magazine of American History_, vol. iii., 1879, p. 81.]
+
+[Footnote 2: _Memoir of Rt. Rev. William Meade_, by Philip Slaughter,
+D.D., p. 7.]
+
+These qualities were, of course, gifts of nature, improved and
+developed by the training of a life of action on a great scale. He had
+received, indeed, little teaching except that of experience, and the
+world of war and politics had been to him both school and college. His
+education had been limited in the extreme, scarcely going beyond the
+most rudimentary branches except in mathematics, and this is very
+apparent in his early letters. He seems always to have written a
+handsome hand and to have been good at figures, but his spelling at
+the outset was far from perfect, and his style, although vigorous, was
+abrupt and rough. He felt this himself, took great pains to correct
+his faults in this respect, and succeeded, as he did in most things.
+Mr. Sparks has produced a false impression in this matter by smoothing
+and amending in very extensive fashion all the earlier letters, so as
+to give an appearance of uniformity throughout the correspondence; a
+process which not only destroyed much of the vigor and force of the
+early writings, but made them somewhat unnatural. The surveyor and
+frontier soldier wrote very differently from the general of the army
+and the President of the United States, and the improvements of Mr.
+Sparks only served to hide the real man.[1]
+
+[Footnote 1: These facts in regard to Washington's early letters,
+and to his correspondence generally, were first brought to public
+attention by the Reed letters, and by the controversy between Mr.
+Sparks and Lord Mahon. They have, of course, been long familiar to
+students of the original manuscripts. The full extent, however, of the
+changes made by Mr. Sparks, and of the mischief he wrought, and of the
+injustice thus done both to his hero and to posterity, has but lately
+been made known generally by the new edition of Washington's papers
+which have been published, under the supervision of Mr. W.C. Ford.
+Washington himself, when he undertook to arrange his military and
+state papers after his retirement from the presidency, began to
+correct the style of some of his earlier letters. This was natural
+enough, and he had a right to do what he pleased with his own, even
+if he thereby injured the material of the future historian and
+biographer. But he did not proceed far in his work, and the fact
+that he corrected a few of his own letters gave Mr. Sparks no right
+whatever to enter upon a wholesale revision.]
+
+If Washington had been of coarse fibre and heavy mind, this lack of
+education would have troubled him but little. His great success in
+that case would have served only to convince him of the uselessness of
+education except for inferior persons, who could not get along in the
+world without artificial aids. As it was, he never ceased to regret
+his deficiency in this respect, and when Humphreys urged him to
+prepare a history or memoirs of the war, he replied: "In a former
+letter I informed you, my dear Humphreys, that if I had talent for
+it, I have not leisure to turn my thoughts to commentaries. A
+consciousness of a defective education and a certainty of a want of
+time unfit me for such an undertaking." He was misled by his own
+modesty as to his capacity, but his strong feeling as to his lack of
+schooling haunted and troubled him always, although it did not make
+him either indifferent or bitter. He only admired more that which he
+himself had missed. He regarded education, and especially the higher
+forms, with an almost pathetic reverence, and its advancement was
+never absent from his thoughts. When he was made chancellor of the
+college of William and Mary, he was more deeply pleased than by any
+honor ever conferred upon him, and he accepted the position with a
+diffidence and a seriousness which were touching in such a man. In the
+same spirit he gave money to the Alexandria Academy, and every scheme
+to promote public education in Virginia had his eager support. His
+interest was not confined by state lines, for there was nothing so
+near his heart as the foundation of a national university. He urged
+its establishment upon Congress over and over again, and, as has been
+seen, left money in his will for its endowment.
+
+All his sympathies and tastes were those of a man of refined mind, and
+of a lover of scholarship and sound learning. Naturally a very modest
+man, and utterly devoid of any pretense, he underrated, as a matter of
+fact, his own accomplishments. He distrusted himself so much that he
+always turned to Hamilton, both during the Revolution and afterwards,
+as well as in the preparation of the farewell address, to aid him in
+clothing his thoughts in a proper dress, which he felt himself unable
+to give them. His tendency was to be too diffuse and too involved,
+but as a rule his style was sufficiently clear, and he could express
+himself with nervous force when the occasion demanded, and with a
+genuine and stately eloquence when he was deeply moved, as in the
+farewell to Congress at the close of the war. It is not a little
+remarkable that in his letters after the first years there is nothing
+to betray any lack of early training. They are the letters, not of a
+scholar or a literary man, but of an educated gentleman; and although
+he seldom indulged in similes or allusions, when he did so they were
+apt and correct. This was due to his perfect sanity of mind, and to
+his aversion to all display or to any attempt to shine in borrowed
+plumage. He never undertook to speak or write on any subject, or to
+make any reference, which he did not understand. He was a lover of
+books, collected a library, and read always as much as his crowded
+life would permit. When he was at Newburgh, at the close of the war,
+he wrote to Colonel Smith in New York to send him the following
+books:--
+
+  "Charles the XIIth of Sweden.
+  Lewis the XVth, 2 vols.
+  History of the Life and Reign of the Czar Peter the Great.
+  Campaigns of Marshal Turenne.
+  Locke on the Human Understanding.
+  Robertson's History of America, 2 vols.
+  Robertson's History of Charles V.
+  Voltaire's Letters.
+  Life of Gustavus Adolphus.
+  Sully's Memoirs.
+  Goldsmith's Natural History.
+  Mildman on Trees.
+  Vertot's Revolution of Rome, 3 vols.
+  Vertot's Revolution of Portugal, 3 vols.
+  {The Vertot's if they are in estimation.}
+
+  If there is a good Bookseller's shop in the City, I would thank
+  you for sending me a catalogue of the Books and their prices that
+  I may choose such as I want."
+
+His tastes ran to history and to works treating of war or agriculture,
+as is indicated both by this list and some earlier ones. It is not
+probable that he gave so much attention to lighter literature,
+although he wrote verses in his youth, and by an occasional allusion
+in his letters he seems to have been familiar with some of the great
+works of the imagination, like "Don Quixote."[1]
+
+[Footnote 1: At his death the appraisers of the estate found 863
+volumes in his library, besides a great number of pamphlets,
+magazines, and maps. This was a large collection of books for those
+days, and showed that the possessor, although purely a man of affairs,
+loved reading and had literary tastes.]
+
+He never freed himself from the self-distrust caused by his profound
+sense of his own deficiencies in education, on the one hand, and
+his deep reverence for learning, on the other. He had fought the
+Revolution, which opened the way for a new nation, and was at the
+height of his fame when he wrote to the French officers, who begged
+him to visit France, that he was "too old to learn French or to talk
+with ladies;" and it was this feeling in a large measure which kept
+him from ever being a maker of phrases or a sayer of brilliant things.
+In other words, the fact that he was modest and sensitive has been the
+chief cause of his being thought dull and cold. This idea, moreover,
+is wholly that of posterity, for there is not the slightest indication
+on the part of any contemporary that Washington could not talk well
+and did not appear to great advantage in society. It is posterity,
+looking with natural weariness at endless volumes of official letters
+with all the angles smoothed off by the editorial plane, that has
+come to suspect him of being dull in mind and heavy in wit. His
+contemporaries knew him to be dignified and often found him stern, but
+they never for a moment considered him stupid, or thought him a man at
+whom the shafts of wit could be shot with impunity. They were fully
+conscious that he was as able to hold his own in conversation as he
+was in the cabinet or in the field; and we can easily see the justice
+of contemporary opinion if we take the trouble to break through the
+official bark and get at the real man who wrote the letters. In many
+cases we find that he could employ irony and sarcasm with real force,
+and his powers of description, even if stilted at times, were vigorous
+and effective. All these qualities come out strongly in his letters,
+if carefully read, and his private correspondence in particular shows
+a keenness and point which the formalities of public intercourse
+veiled generally from view. We are fortunate in having the account of
+a disinterested and acute observer of the manner in which Washington
+impressed a casual acquaintance in conversation. The actor Bernard,
+whom we have already quoted, and whom we left with Washington at the
+gates of Mount Vernon, gives us the following vivid picture of what
+ensued:--
+
+"In conversation his face had not much variety of expression. A look
+of thoughtfulness was given by the compression of the mouth and the
+indentations of the brow (suggesting an habitual conflict with, and
+mastery over, passion), which did not seem so much to disdain a
+sympathy with trivialities as to be incapable of denoting them. Nor
+had his voice, so far as I could discover in our quiet talk,
+much change or richness of intonation, but he always spoke with
+earnestness, and his eyes (glorious conductors of the light within)
+burned with a steady fire which no one could mistake for mere
+affability; they were one grand expression of the well-known line: 'I
+am a man, and interested in all that concerns humanity.' In one hour
+and a half's conversation he touched on every topic that I brought
+before him with an even current of good sense, if he embellished it
+with little wit or verbal elegance. He spoke like a man who had felt
+as much as he had reflected, and reflected more than he had spoken;
+like one who had looked upon society rather in the mass than in
+detail, and who regarded the happiness of America but as the first
+link in a series of universal victories; for his full faith in the
+power of those results of civil liberty which he saw all around him
+led him to foresee that it would, erelong, prevail in other countries,
+and that the social millennium of Europe would usher in the political.
+When I mentioned to him the difference I perceived between the
+inhabitants of New England and of the Southern States, he remarked: 'I
+esteem those people greatly; they are the stamina of the Union and its
+greatest benefactors. They are continually spreading themselves too,
+to settle and enlighten less favored quarters. Dr. Franklin is a New
+Englander.' When I remarked that his observations were flattering to
+my country, he replied, with great good-humor, 'Yes, yes, Mr. Bernard,
+but I consider your country the cradle of free principles, not their
+armchair. Liberty in England is a sort of idol; people are bred up in
+the belief and love of it, but see little of its doings. They walk
+about freely, but then it is between high walls; and the error of its
+government was in supposing that after a portion of their subjects had
+crossed the sea to live upon a common, they would permit their friends
+at home to build up those walls about them.' A black coming in at this
+moment with a jug of spring water, I could not repress a smile, which
+the general at once interpreted. 'This may seem a contradiction,' he
+continued, 'but I think you must perceive that it is neither a crime
+nor an absurdity. When we profess, as our fundamental principle, that
+liberty is the inalienable right of every man, we do not include
+madmen or idiots; liberty in their hands would become a scourge. Till
+the mind of the slave has been educated to perceive what are the
+obligations of a state of freedom, and not confound a man's with a
+brute's, the gift would insure its abuse. We might as well be asked
+to pull down our old warehouses before trade has increased to demand
+enlarged new ones. Both houses and slaves were bequeathed to us by
+Europeans, and time alone can change them; an event, sir, which, you
+may believe me, no man desires more heartily than I do. Not only do I
+pray for it, on the score of human dignity, but I can already foresee
+that nothing but the rooting out of slavery can perpetuate the
+existence of our Union, by consolidating it in a common bond of
+principle.'
+
+"I now referred to the pleasant hours I had passed in Philadelphia,
+and my agreeable surprise at finding there so many men of talent, at
+which his face lit up vividly. 'I am glad to hear you, sir, who are an
+Englishman, say so, because you must now perceive how ungenerous are
+the assertions people are always making on your side of the water.
+One gentleman, of high literary standing,--I allude to the Abbe
+Raynal,--has demanded whether America has yet produced one great
+poet, statesman, or philosopher. The question shows anything but
+observation, because it is easy to perceive the causes which have
+combined to render the genius of this country scientific rather than
+imaginative. And, in this respect, America has surely furnished her
+quota. Franklin, Rittenhouse, and Rush are no mean names, to which,
+without shame, I may append those of Jefferson and Adams, as
+politicians; while I am told that the works of President Edwards of
+Rhode Island are a text-book in polemics in many European colleges.'
+
+"Of the replies which I made to his inquiries respecting England, he
+listened to none with so much interest as to those which described the
+character of my royal patron, the Prince of Wales. 'He holds out every
+promise,' remarked the general, 'of a brilliant career. He has been
+well educated by _events_, and I doubt not that, in his time, England
+will receive the benefit of her child's emancipation. She is at
+present bent double, and has to walk with crutches; but her offspring
+may teach her the secret of regaining strength, erectness, and
+independence.' In reference to my own pursuits he repeated the
+sentiments of Franklin. He feared the country was too poor to be a
+patron of the drama, and that only arts of a practical nature
+would for some time be esteemed. The stage he considered to be an
+indispensable resource for settled society, and a chief refiner; not
+merely interesting as a comment on the history of social happiness
+by its exhibition of manners, but an agent of good as a school for
+poetry, in holding up to honor the noblest principles. 'I am too old
+and too far removed,' he added, 'to seek for or require this pleasure
+myself, but the cause is not to droop on my account. There's my friend
+Mr. Jefferson has time and taste; he goes always to the play, and I'll
+introduce you to him,' a promise which he kept, and which proved to me
+the source of the greatest benefit and pleasure."
+
+This is by far the best account of Washington in the ordinary converse
+of daily life that has come down to us. The narrator belonged to the
+race who live by amusing their fellow-beings, and are in consequence
+quick to notice peculiarities and highly susceptible to being bored.
+Bernard, after the first interest of seeing a very eminent man had
+worn off, would never have lingered for an hour and a half of chat and
+then gone away reluctantly if his host had been either dull of speech
+or cold and forbidding of manner. It is evident that Washington talked
+well, easily, and simply, ranging widely over varied topics with a
+sure touch, and that he drew from the ample resources of a well-stored
+and reflective mind. The scraps of conversation which Bernard
+preserves are interesting and above the average of ordinary talk,
+without manifesting any attempt to be either brilliant or striking,
+and it is also apparent that Washington had the art of putting his
+guest entirely at his ease by his own pleasant and friendly manner. He
+had picked up the English actor on the road, liked his readiness to
+be helpful (always an attraction to him in any one), found him
+well-mannered and intelligent, and brought him home to rest and chat
+in the pleasant summer afternoon. To Bernard he was simply the plain
+Virginia gentleman, with a liberal and cultivated interest in men and
+things, and not a trace of oppressive and conscious greatness about
+him. It is to be suspected that he was by no means equally genial to
+the herd of sight-seers who pursued him in his retirement, but in this
+meeting he appeared as he must always have appeared to his family and
+friends.
+
+We get the same idea from the scattered allusions that we have to
+Washington in private life. Although silent and reserved as to
+himself, he was by no means averse to society, and in his own house
+all his guests, both great and small, felt at their ease with him,
+although with no temptation to be familiar. We know from more than
+one account that the dinners at the presidential house, as well as at
+Mount Vernon, were always agreeable. It was his wont to sit at table
+after the cloth was removed sipping a glass of wine and eating nuts,
+of which he was very fond, while he listened to the conversation and
+caused it to flow easily, not so much by what he said as by the kindly
+smile and ready sympathy which made all feel at home. We can gather
+an idea also of the charm which he had in the informal intercourse of
+daily life from some of his letters on trifling matters. Here is a
+little note written to Mrs. Stockton in acknowledgment of a pastoral
+poem which she had sent him:--
+
+  "MOUNT VERNON, February 18, 1784.
+
+  "Dear Madam: The intemperate weather and very great care which the
+  post riders take of themselves prevented your letter of the 4th of
+  last month from reaching my hands till the 10th of this. I was then in
+  the very act of setting off on a visit to my aged mother, from whence
+  I am just returned. These reasons I beg leave to offer as an apology
+  for my silence until now.
+
+  "It would be a pity indeed, my dear madam, if the muses should be
+  restrained in you; it is only to be regretted that the hero of your
+  poetical talents is not more deserving their lays. I cannot, however,
+  from motives of pure delicacy (because I happen to be the principal
+  character in your Pastoral) withhold my encomiums on the performance;
+  for I think the easy, simple, and beautiful strain with which the
+  dialogue is supported does great justice to your genius; and will not
+  only secure Lucinda and Amista from wits and critics, but draw from
+  them, however unwillingly, their highest plaudits; if they can
+  relish the praises that are given, as they must admire the manner of
+  bestowing them.
+
+  "Mrs. Washington, equally sensible with myself of the honor you have
+  done her, joins me in most affectionate compliments to yourself, and
+  the young ladies and gentlemen of your family.
+
+  "With sentiments of esteem, regard and respect,
+  I have the honor to be
+  ---- ----"
+
+This is not a matter of "great pith or moment," but it shows how
+pleasantly he could acknowledge a civility. The turn of the sentences
+smacks of the formality of the time. They sound a little labored,
+perhaps, to modern ears, but they were graceful according to the
+standard of his day, and they have a gentle courtesy which can never
+be out of fashion.
+
+He had the power also of paying a compliment in an impressive and
+really splendid manner whenever he felt it to be deserved. When
+Charles Thomson, who for fifteen years had been the honored secretary
+of the Continental Congress, wrote to announce his retirement,
+Washington replied: "The present age does so much justice to the
+unsullied reputation with which you have always conducted yourself in
+the execution of the duties of your office, and posterity will find
+your name so honorably connected with the verification of such a
+multitude of astonishing facts, that my single suffrage would add
+little to the illustration of your merits. Yet I cannot withhold any
+just testimonial in favor of so old, so faithful, and so able a
+public officer, which might tend to soothe his mind in the shades of
+retirement. Accept, then, this serious declaration, that your services
+have been important, as your patriotism was distinguished; and enjoy
+that best of all rewards, the consciousness of having done your duty
+well."
+
+Dull men do not write in this fashion. It is one thing to pay a
+handsome compliment, although even that is not by itself easy, but to
+give it in addition the note of sincerity which alone makes it of real
+value demands both art and good feeling. Let us take one more example
+of this sort before we drop the subject. When the French officers were
+leaving America Washington wrote to De Chastellux to bid him farewell.
+"Our good friend, the Marquis of Lafayette," he said, "prepared me,
+long before I had the honor to see you, for those impressions of
+esteem which opportunities and your own benevolent mind have since
+improved into a deep and lasting friendship; a friendship which
+neither time nor distance can eradicate. I can truly say that never in
+my life have I parted with a man to whom my soul clave more sincerely
+than it did to you. My warmest wishes will attend you in your voyage
+across the Atlantic to the rewards of a generous prince, the arms of
+affectionate friends; and be assured that it will be one of my highest
+gratifications to keep up a regular intercourse with you by letter."
+
+These letters exhibit not only the grace and point born of
+intelligence, but also the best of manners; by which I mean private
+manners, not those of the public man, of which there will be something
+to say hereafter. The attraction of Washington's society as a private
+gentleman lay in his good sense, breadth of knowledge, and good
+manners. Now the essence of good manners of the highest and most
+genuine kind is good feeling, which is thoughtful of others, and which
+is impossible to a cold, hard, or insensible nature. Such manners as
+we see in Washington's private letters and private life would have
+been strange offspring from the cold heart attributed to him by Mr.
+McMaster. In justice to Mr. McMaster, however, be it said, the charge
+is not a new one. It has been hinted at and spoken of elsewhere, and
+many persons have suspected that such was the case from the well-meant
+efforts of what may be called the cherry-tree school to elevate
+Washington's character by depicting him as a soulless, bloodless prig.
+The blundering efforts of the latter need not be noticed, but the
+reflections of serious critics cannot be passed by. The theory of the
+cold heart and the unfeeling nature seems to proceed in this wise.
+Washington was silent and reserved, he did not wear his heart upon his
+sleeve for daws to peck at, therefore he was cold; just as if mere
+noise and chatter had any relation to warm affections. He would take
+no salary from Congress, says Mr. McMaster, in fine antithesis, but
+he exacted his due from the family of the poor mason. This has an
+unpleasant sound, and suggests the man who is generous in public, and
+hard and grasping in private. Mr. McMaster in this sentence, however,
+whether intentionally or not, is not quite accurate in his facts, and
+conveys by his mode of statement an entirely false impression. The
+story to which he refers is given by Parkinson, who wrote a book about
+his experiences in America in 1798-1800. Parkinson had the story from
+one General Stone, and it was to this effect:[1] A room was plastered
+at Mount Vernon on one occasion, and was paid for during the owner's
+absence. When Washington returned he examined the work and had it
+measured, as was his habit. It then appeared that an error had been
+made, and that fifteen shillings too much had been paid. Meantime the
+plasterer had died. His widow married again, and her second husband
+advertised in the newspapers that he was prepared to pay the debts of
+his predecessor and collect all moneys due him. Thereupon Washington
+put in his claim, which was paid as a matter of course. He did not
+extort the debt from the family of the poor mason, but collected it
+from the second husband of the widow, in response to a voluntary
+advertisement. It was very careful and even close dealing, but it was
+neither harsh nor unjust, and the writer who has preserved the story
+would be not a little surprised at the interpretation that has
+been put upon it, for he cited it, as he expressly says, merely
+to illustrate the extraordinary regularity and method to which he
+attributed much of Washington's success.
+
+[Footnote 1: Parkinson's _Tour in America_, 1798-1800, 437 and ff.]
+
+Parkinson, in this same connection, tells several other stories,
+vague in origin, and sounding like mere gossip, but still worthy of
+consideration. According to one of them, Washington maintained a
+public ferry, which was customary among the planters, and the public
+paid regular tolls for its use. On one occasion General Stone, the
+authority for the previous anecdote, crossed the ferry and offered
+a moidore in payment. The ferryman objected to receiving it, on the
+ground that it was short weight, but Stone insisted, and it was
+finally accepted. On being given to Washington it was weighed, and
+being found three half-pence short, the ferryman was ordered to
+collect the balance due. On another occasion a tenant could not make
+the exact change in paying his rent, and Washington would not accept
+the money until the tenant went to Alexandria and brought back
+the precise sum. There is, however, still another anecdote, which
+completes this series, and which shows a different application of the
+same rule. Washington, in traveling, was in the habit of paying at
+inns the same for his servants as for himself. An innkeeper once
+charged him three shillings and ninepence for himself, and three
+shillings for his servant. Thereupon Washington sent for his host,
+said that his servant ate as much as he, and insisted on paying the
+additional ninepence.
+
+This extreme exactness in money matters, down even to the most
+trifling sums, was no doubt a foible, but it is well to observe that
+it was not a foible which sought only a selfish advantage, for the
+rule which he applied to others he applied also to himself. He meant
+to have his due, no matter how trivial, and he meant also that
+others should have theirs. In trifles, as in greater things, he was
+scrupulously just, and although he was always generous and ready to
+give, he insisted rigidly on what was justly his. A gift was one
+thing, a business transaction was another. The man himself who told
+these very stories was a good example of the kindliness which went
+hand in hand with this exactness in business affairs. Parkinson was
+an Englishman, of great narrowness of mind, who came out here to be a
+farmer, failed, and went home to write a book in denunciation of the
+country. America never had a more hostile critic. According to
+this profound observer, there was no good land in America, and no
+possibility of successful agriculture. The horses were bad, the cattle
+were bad, and sheep-raising was impossible. There was no game, the
+fish and oysters were poor and watery, and no one could ever hope in
+this wretchedly barren land for either wealth or comfort. It was a
+country fit only for the reception of convicts, and the cast-off
+mistress of an Englishman made a good wife for an American. A person
+who held such views as these was not likely to be biased in favor of
+anything American, and his evidence as to Washington may be safely
+trusted as not likely to be unduly favorable. He tells us that on his
+arrival at Mount Vernon, with letters of introduction, he was kindly
+received; that this hospitality was never relaxed; and that the
+general lent him money. He was at least grateful, and these are his
+last words as to Washington:--
+
+"To me he appeared a mild, friendly man, in company rather reserved,
+in private speaking with candor. His behavior to me was such that I
+shall ever revere his name.
+
+"General Washington lived a great man, and died the same.
+
+"I am of opinion that the general never knowingly did anything wrong,
+but did to all men as he would they should do to him."
+
+Evidently he appeared to Mr. Parkinson kindly and generous, as well
+as exactly just. It is well to have the truth about Washington, and
+nothing but the truth. Yet in escaping from the falsehoods of the
+eulogist and the myth-maker, let us beware of those which spring from
+the reaction against the current and accepted views. I have quoted
+the Parkinson stories at length, because they enforce this point
+admirably. No _a priori_ theory is safe, and to assume that Washington
+must have committed grave errors and been guilty of mean actions
+because they are common to humanity, and have not been admitted in his
+case, is just as misleading as to assume, as is usually done, that he
+was absolutely perfect and without fault.
+
+Let it be admitted that Washington, ever ready to pay his own dues,
+was strict, and sometimes severe, in demanding them of others; but
+let it be also remembered, this is the worst that can be said. He was
+always ready to overlook faults of omission or commission; he would
+pardon easily mismanagement or extravagance on his estate or in
+his household; but he had no mercy for anything that savored of
+ingratitude, treachery, or dishonesty, and he carried this same
+feeling into public as well as private affairs. No officer who had
+bravely done his best had anything to fear in defeat from Washington's
+anger. He was never unjust, and he was always kind to misfortune or
+mistake, but to the coward or the traitor he was entirely unforgiving.
+This it was which made Arnold's treason so bitter to him. Not only had
+he been deceived, but the country as well as himself had been most
+basely betrayed; and for this reason he was relentless to Andre, whom
+it is said he never saw, living or dead. The young Englishman had
+taken part in a wretched piece of treachery, and for the sake of the
+country, and as a warning to traitors, Washington would not spare him.
+He would never have ordered a political prisoner to be taken out and
+shot in a ditch, after the fashion of Napoleon; nor would he have
+dealt with any people as the Duke of Cumberland dealt with the
+clansmen after Culloden. Such performances would have seemed to him
+wanton as well as cruel, and he was too wise and too humane a man
+to be either. Indian atrocities, for instance, with which he was
+familiar, never led him to retaliate in kind. But he was perfectly
+prepared to exact the extremest penalty by just and recognized
+methods; and had it not been for the urgent entreaties of his friends,
+he would have sent Asgill to the scaffold, repugnant as it was to his
+feelings, because he felt that the murder of Huddy was a crime for
+which the English army was responsible, and which demanded a just and
+striking vengeance. He was, it may be freely confessed, of anything
+but a tame nature. There was a good deal of Berserker in his make-up,
+and he was fierce in his anger when he believed that a great wrong had
+been done. But because he was stern and unrelenting when he felt that
+justice and his duty required him to be so, no more proves that he had
+a cold heart than does the fact that he was silent, dignified, and
+reserved. Cold-blooded men are not fierce in seeking to redress the
+wrongs of others, nor are the fluent of speech the only kind and
+generous members of the human family.
+
+Washington's whole life, indeed, contradicts the charge that he was
+cold of heart and sluggish of feeling. The man who wrote as he did in
+his extreme youth, when Indians were harrying the frontier where he
+commanded, was not lacking in humanity or sympathy; and such as he
+then was he remained to the end of his life. A soldier by instinct and
+experience, he never grew indifferent to the miseries of war. Human
+suffering always appealed to him and moved him deeply, and when it was
+wantonly inflicted stirred him to anger and to the desire for the wild
+justice of revenge.
+
+The goodness and kindness of man's heart, however, are much more truly
+shown in the little details of life than in the great matters which
+affect classes or communities. Washington was considerate and helpful
+to all men, and if he was ever cold and distant in his manner, it was
+to the great, and not to the poor or humble. As has been indicated by
+his recognition of the actor Bernard, he had in high degree the royal
+gift of remembering names and faces. When he was at Senator Dalton's
+house in Newburyport, on his New England tour of 1789, he met an
+old servant whom he had not seen since the French war, thirty years
+before. He knew the man at once, spoke to him, and welcomed him. So it
+was with the old soldiers of the Revolution, who were always sure of a
+welcome, and, if he had ever seen them, of a recognition. No man ever
+turned from his presence wounded by a cold forgetfulness. When he was
+at Ipswich, on this same journey, Mr. Cleaveland, the minister of the
+town, was presented to him. As he approached, hat in hand, Washington
+said, "Put on your hat, parson, and I will shake hands with you." "I
+cannot wear my hat in your presence, general," was the reply, "when I
+think of what you have done for this country." "You did as much as I."
+"No, no," protested the parson. "Yes," said Washington, "you did what
+you could, and I've done no more." What a gracious, kindly courtesy is
+this, and not without the salt of wit! Does it not show the perfection
+of good manners which deals with all men for what they are, and is
+full of a warm sympathy born of a good heart? He was criticised
+for coldness and accused of monarchical leanings, because, at Mrs.
+Washington's receptions and his own public levees, he stood, dressed
+in black velvet, with one hand on the hilt of his sword and the other
+behind his back, and shook hands with no one, although he talked with
+all. He did this because he thought it became the President of the
+United States upon state occasions, and his sense of the dignity of
+his office was always paramount. But away from forms and ceremonies,
+with the old servant or the old soldier, or the country parson, his
+hand was never behind his back, and his manners were those of a great
+but simple gentleman, and came straight from a kind heart, full of
+sympathy and good feeling.
+
+He was, too, the most hospitable of men in the best sense, and his
+house was always open to all who came. When he was away during the war
+or the presidency, his instructions to his agents were to keep up the
+hospitality of Mount Vernon, just as if he had been there himself; and
+he was especially careful in directing that, if there were general
+distress, poor persons of the neighborhood should have help from his
+kitchen or his granaries.
+
+His own more immediate hospitality was of the same kind. He always
+entertained in the most liberal manner, both as general and President,
+and in a style which he thought befitted the station he occupied. But
+apart from all this, his table, whether at home or abroad, was never
+without its guest. "Dine with us," he wrote to Lear on July 31, 1797,
+"or we shall do what we have not done for twenty years, dine alone."
+The real hospitality which opens the door and spreads the board for
+the friend or stranger, admitting them to the family without form or
+ceremony, was his also. "My manner of living is plain," he wrote to
+a friend after the Revolution; "I do not mean to be put out of it. A
+glass of wine and a bit of mutton are always ready; and such as will
+be content to partake of them are always welcome. Those who expect
+more will be disappointed, but no change will be effected by
+it." Genuine hospitality as unstinted as it was sincere was not
+characteristic of a cold man, or of one who sought to avoid his
+fellows. It is one of the lighter graces of life, perhaps, but when it
+comes freely and simply, and not as a vehicle for the display or the
+aggrandizement of its dispenser, it is not without a meaning to the
+student of character.
+
+Washington was not much given to professions of friendship, nor was he
+one of the great men who keep a circle of intimates and sometimes of
+flatterers about them. He was extremely independent of the world and
+perfectly self-sufficing, but it is a mistake to suppose that because
+he unbosomed himself to scarcely any one, and had the loneliness of
+greatness and of high responsibilities, he was therefore without
+friends. He had as many friends as usually fall to the lot of any man;
+and although he laid bare his inmost heart to none, some were very
+close and all were very dear to him. In war and politics, as has
+already been said, the two men who came nearest to him were Hamilton
+and Knox, and his diary shows that when he was President he consulted
+with them nearly every day wholly apart from the regular cabinet
+meetings. They were the two advisers who were friends as well as
+secretaries, and who followed and sustained him as a matter of
+affection as much as politics. At home his neighbor, George Mason,
+although they came to differ, was a strong friend whom he liked and
+respected, and whose opinion, whether favorable or adverse, he always
+sought. His feeling to Patrick Henry was much deeper than mere
+political or official acquaintance, and the lovable qualities of the
+brilliant orator, clear even now across the gulf of a century, were
+evidently strongly felt by Washington. They differed about the
+Constitution, but Washington was eager at a later day to have Henry by
+his side in the cabinet, and in the last years they stood shoulder to
+shoulder in defense of the Union with a personal sympathy deeper than
+any born of a mere similarity of opinion. Henry Lee, the son of his
+old sweetheart, he loved with a tender and peculiar affection. He
+watched over him and helped him, rejoiced in the dashing gallantry
+which made him famous as Light-horse Harry, and, when he had won civil
+as well as military distinction, trusted him and counseled with him.
+Dr. Craik, the companion of his youth and his life-long physician, was
+always a dear and close friend, and the regard between the two is very
+pleasant to look at, as we see it glancing out here and there in the
+midst of state papers and official cases. For the officers of the army
+he had a peculiarly warm feeling, and he had among them many close
+friends, like Carrington of Virginia, and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
+of South Carolina. His immediate staff he regarded with especial
+affection, and it is worthy of notice that they all not only admired
+their great chief, but followed him with a personal devotion which is
+not a little curious if Washington was cold of heart and distant of
+manner in the intimate association of a military family.
+
+This feeling for his soldiers and his officers extended also to those
+civilians who had stood by him and the army, and who had labored
+for victory in all those trying years. Such a one was old Governor
+Trumbull, "Brother Jonathan," who never failed to respond when a call
+was made for men and money, and upon whose friendship and advice
+Washington always leaned. Such, too, were Robert and Gouverneur
+Morris. The sacrifices and energy of the one and the zeal and
+brilliant abilities of the other endeared both to him, and his
+friendship for them never wavered when misfortune overtook the elder,
+and when the younger was driven by malice, both foreign and domestic,
+from the place he had filled so well. Another, again, of this kind was
+Franklin. In the dark days of the old French war, Washington had seen
+displayed for the first time the force and tact of Franklin, which
+alone obtained the necessary wagons and enabled Braddock's army
+to move. The early impression thus obtained was never lost, and
+Franklin's patriotism, his sympathy for the general and the army in
+the Revolution, as well as the stanch support he gave them, aroused in
+Washington a sense of obligation and friendship of the sincerest kind.
+In proportion as he loathed ingratitude was he grateful himself. He
+loved Franklin for his friendship and support, he admired him for
+his successful diplomacy, and he reverenced him for his scientific
+attainments. The only American whose fame could for a moment come
+in competition with his own, he regarded the old philosopher with
+affectionate veneration, and when, after his own fashion, and not at
+all after the fashion of the time, he arrived in Philadelphia on the
+exact day set for the Constitutional Convention, his first act was to
+call upon Dr. Franklin and pay his respects to him. The courtesy and
+kindliness of this little act on the part of a man who had come to the
+town in the midst of shouting crowds, with joy bells ringing above his
+head, speak well for the simple, honest heart that dictated it.
+
+After all, it may be said that a passing civility of this sort
+involved but little trouble, and was more a matter of good-breeding
+than anything else. Let us look, then, at another and widely different
+case. Of all the men whom the fortunes of war brought across
+Washington's path there was none who became dearer to him than
+Lafayette, for the generous, high-spirited young Frenchman, full of
+fresh enthusiasm and brave as a lion, appealed at once to Washington's
+heart. He quickly admitted him to his confidence, and the excellent
+service of Lafayette in the field, together with his invaluable
+help in securing the French alliance, deepened and strengthened the
+sympathy and affection which were entirely reciprocal. After Lafayette
+departed, a constant correspondence was maintained; and when the
+Bastille fell, it was to Washington that Lafayette sent its key, which
+still hangs on the wall of Mt. Vernon. As Lafayette rose rapidly to
+the dangerous heights of revolutionary leadership, he had at every
+step Washington's advice and sympathy. Then the tide turned; he fell
+headlong from power, and brought up in an Austrian prison. From that
+moment Washington spared no pains to help his unhappy friend, although
+his own position was one of extreme difficulty. Lafayette was not only
+the proscribed exile of one country, but also the political prisoner
+of another, and the President could not compromise the United States
+at that critical moment by showing too much interest in the fate of
+his unhappy friend. He nevertheless went to the very edge of prudence
+in trying to save him, and the ministers of the United States were
+instructed to use every private effort to secure Lafayette's release,
+or at least the mitigation of his confinement. All these attempts
+failed, but Washington was more successful in other directions. He
+sent money to Madame de Lafayette, who was absolutely beggared at the
+moment, and represented to her that it was in settlement of an account
+which he owed the marquis. When Lafayette's son and his own namesake
+came to this country for an asylum, he had him cared for in Boston and
+New York by his personal friends; George Cabot in the one case, and
+Hamilton in the other. As soon as public affairs made it proper for
+him to do it, he took the lad into his own household, treated him like
+a son, and kept him near him until events permitted the boy to return
+to Europe and rejoin his father. The sufferings and dangers of
+Lafayette and his family were indeed a source of great unhappiness
+to Washington, and we have the authority of Bradford, his
+attorney-general, that when the President attempted to talk about
+Lafayette he was so much affected that he shed tears,--a very rare
+exhibition of emotion in a man so intensely reserved.
+
+Absence had as little effect upon his memory of old friends as
+misfortune. The latter stimulated recollection, and the former could
+not dim it. He found time, in the very heat and fire of war and
+revolution, to write to Bryan Fairfax lamenting the death of "the good
+old lord" whose house had been open to him, and whose hand had ever
+helped him when he was a young and unknown man just beginning his
+career. When he returned to Mount Vernon after the presidency, full of
+years and honors, one of his first acts was to write to Mrs. Fairfax
+in England to assure her of his lasting remembrance, and to breathe
+a sigh over the changes time had brought, and over the by-gone years
+when they had been young together.
+
+The loyalty of nature which made his remembrance of old friends so
+real and lasting found expression also in the thoughtfulness which he
+showed toward casual acquaintances, and this was especially the case
+when he had received attention or service at any one's hands, or when
+he felt that he was able to give pleasure by a slight effort on his
+own part. A little incident which occurred during the first year of
+his presidency illustrates this trait in his character very well.
+Uxbridge was one among the many places where he stopped on his New
+England tour, and when he got to Hartford he wrote to Mr. Taft, who
+had been his host in the former town, and who evidently cherished for
+him a very keen admiration, the following note:--
+
+    "November 8, 1789.
+
+    "Sir: Being informed that you have given my name to one of your
+    sons, and called another after Mrs. Washington's family, and being
+    moreover very much pleased with the modest and innocent looks of
+    your two daughters, Patty and Polly, I do for these reasons send
+    each of these girls a piece of chintz; and to Patty, who bears the
+    name of Mrs. Washington, and who waited more upon us than Polly
+    did, I send five guineas, with which she may buy herself any
+    little ornament she may want, or she may dispose of them in any
+    other manner more agreeable to herself. As I do not give these
+    things with a view to having it talked of, or even to its being
+    known, the less there is said about the matter the better you will
+    please me; but, that I may be sure the chintz and money have got
+    safe to hand, let Patty, who I dare say is equal to it, write me
+    a line informing me thereof, directed to 'The President of the
+    United States at New York.' I wish you and your family well, and
+    am," etc.
+
+Let us turn now from friendship to nearer and closer relations.
+Washington was not only too reserved, but he had too much true
+sentiment, to leave his correspondence with Mrs. Washington behind
+him; for he knew that his vast collection of papers would become the
+material of history, and he had no mind that strangers should look
+into the sacred recesses of his private life. Only one letter to
+Mrs. Washington apparently has survived. It is simple and full of
+affection, as one would expect, and tells, as well as many volumes
+could, of the happy relations between husband and wife. Washington had
+many love affairs in his youth, but he proved in the end a constant
+lover. His wife was a high-bred, intelligent woman, simple and
+dignified in her manners, efficient in all ways to be the helpmate of
+her husband in the high places to which he was called. No shadow ever
+rested on their married life, and when the end came Mrs. Washington
+only said, "All is over now. I shall soon follow him." She could not
+conceive of life without the presence of the unchanging love and noble
+character which had been by her side so long.
+
+Children were denied to Washington, but although this was a
+disappointment it did not chill him nor narrow his sympathies, as is
+so often the case. He took to his heart his wife's children as if
+they were his own. He watched over them and cared for them, and their
+deaths caused him the deepest sorrow. He afterwards adopted his wife's
+two grandchildren, and watched over them, too, in the same way. In the
+midst of all the cares of the presidency, Washington found time always
+to write to George Custis, a boy at school or at college; while Nellie
+Custis was as dear to him as his own daughter, and her marriage a
+source of the most affectionate interest. Indeed, it is evident from
+various little anecdotes that he was much less strict with these
+children than was Mrs. Washington, and much more disposed to condone
+faults. Certain it is that they loved him tenderly, and in a way that
+only long years of loving-kindness could have made possible.
+
+He showed the same feeling to all his own kindred. His mother was ever
+the object of the most loyal affection, and even at the head of the
+armies he would turn aside to visit her with the same respect and
+devotion as when he was a mere boy. He was ever mindful of his
+brothers and sisters, and their fortunes. None of them were ever
+forgotten, and he was especially kind to the children of those who
+had been least fortunate and most needed his help. He educated and
+counseled his favorite nephew Bushrod, and did the same for the sons
+of George Steptoe Washington. Nothing is pleasanter than to read in
+the midst of official papers the long letters in which he gave these
+boys great store of wise and kindly advice, guided their education,
+strove to form their characters, and traced for them the honorable
+careers which he wished them to pursue. Very few men who had risen to
+the heights reached by Washington would have found time, in the midst
+of engrossing cares, to write such letters as he wrote to friends and
+kinsmen. A kind heart prompted them, but they were much more than
+merely kind, for when Washington undertook to do anything he did it
+thoroughly. Whether it was a treaty with England, the education of a
+boy, or the service of a friend, he gave it his best thought and his
+utmost care. Where those he loved were concerned, he was never too
+busy to think of them, and he spared no pains to help them; censuring
+faults where they existed, and giving praise in generous manner where
+praise was due.
+
+To any one who carefully studies his life, it is evident that
+Washington was as warm-hearted and affectionate as he was great in
+character and ability, and that he was so without noise or pretense.
+This really only amounts to saying that he was a well-balanced man,
+and yet even this cannot be said without admitting still another
+quality. The sanest of all senses is the sense of humor, and the
+nature in which it is wholly lacking cannot be thoroughly rounded and
+complete. Humor is not the most lofty of qualities, but it is one of
+the most essential, and it is generally assumed that Washington
+was very deficient in humor. This idea has arisen from a hasty
+consideration of the subject, and from a superficial conception of
+humor itself. To utter jests, or to say or write witty, brilliant, or
+amusing things, no doubt implies the possession of humor, but they are
+not the whole of it, for a man may have a fine sense of humor, and yet
+never make a joke nor utter a sarcasm. The distinction between humor
+and the want of it lies much deeper than word of mouth. The man
+without a sense of humor is sure to make a certain number of solemn
+blunders. They may be in matters of importance or in the merest
+trifles, but they are blunders none the less, and come from
+insensibility to the incongruous, the ludicrous, or the impossible. It
+may be said that common sense suffices to avoid these pitfalls, but
+this is really begging the question, inasmuch as common sense of a
+high order amounting almost to genius cannot exist without humor, for
+humor is the root and foundation of common sense. Let us apply this
+test to Washington and we shall find that there never was a man who
+made fewer mistakes than he, down even to matters of the smallest
+detail. Search his career from beginning to end, and there is not a
+solemn blunder to be found in it. He was attacked and assailed both as
+general and President, but he was never laughed at. In other words,
+he had a sense of humor which made it impossible for him to blunder
+solemnly, or to do or say anything which ridicule could touch.
+
+It is not, however, necessary to leave his possession of a sense of
+humor to inference from his career and his freedom from blunders. That
+he had humor strong, sane, and abundant is susceptible of much more
+direct proof; and the idea that he was lacking in this respect arose
+undoubtedly from the gravity of demeanor which was characteristic of
+the man. He had assumed the heavy responsibilities of an important
+military command in the French war at an age when most men are just
+leaving college and beginning to study a profession. This of itself
+sobered him, and added to his natural quiet and reserve, so that in
+estimating him in after-life this early and severe discipline at a
+most impressionable age ought never to be overlooked, for it had a
+very marked effect upon his character.
+
+He was not perhaps exactly joyous or gay of nature, but he had a
+contented and happy disposition, and, like all robust, well-balanced
+men, he possessed strong animal spirits and a keen sense of enjoyment.
+He loved a wild, open-air life, and was devoted to rough out-door
+sports. He liked to wrestle and run, to shoot, ride or dance, and
+to engage in all trials of skill and strength, for which his great
+muscular development suited him admirably. With such tastes, it
+followed almost as a matter of course that he loved laughter and fun.
+Good, hearty, country fun, a ludicrous mishap, a practical joke, all
+merriment of a simple, honest kind, were highly congenial to him,
+especially in his youth and early manhood. Here is the way, for
+example, in which he described in his diary a ball he attended in
+1760: "In a convenient room, detached for the purpose, abounded great
+plenty of bread and butter, some biscuits, with tea and coffee which
+the drinkers of could not distinguish from hot water sweetened. Be
+it remembered that pocket handkerchiefs served the purposes of
+tablecloths, and that no apologies were made for them. I shall
+therefore distinguish this ball by the style and title of the
+bread-and-butter ball." The wit is not brilliant, but there was a good
+hearty laugh in the young man who jots down this little memorandum in
+his diary.
+
+The years after the French war were happy years, free from care and
+full of simple pleasures. Then came the Revolution, bringing with it a
+burden such as has seldom been laid upon any man, and the seriousness
+bred by earlier experiences, came back with tenfold force. The popular
+saying was that Washington never smiled during the war, and, roughly
+speaking, this was quite true. In all those years of danger and trial,
+inasmuch as he was a man big of heart and brain, he had the gravity
+and the sadness born of responsibility, and the suffering sure to come
+to an unselfish mind. It was at this time that he began to be most
+closely observed of men, and hence came the idea that he never
+laughed, and therefore was a being devoid of humor, the most
+sympathetic of gifts. But as a matter of fact, the old sense of fun
+never left him. It would come to his aid at the most serious moments,
+just as an endless flow of stories brought relief to Lincoln and
+carried him round many jagged corners. With Washington it was hearty,
+laughing mirth at some ludicrous incident. Putnam riding into
+Cambridge with an old woman clinging behind him; Greene searching for
+his wig while it was on his head; a young braggart flung over the head
+of an unbroken colt; or a good, rollicking story from Colonel Seammel
+or Major Fairlie,--all these would delight Washington, and send him
+off into peals of inextinguishable laughter. It was ever the old,
+hearty love of fun born of animal spirits, which never left him, and
+which would always break out on sufficient provocation. Mr. Parton
+would have us believe that this was all, and that the common-place
+hero whom he describes never rose above the level of the humor
+conveyed by grinning through a horse-collar. Even admitting the truth
+of this, a real love of honest fun and of a hearty laugh is a kindly
+quality that all men like.
+
+But was this all? Is it quite true that Washington had only a love of
+boisterous fun, and nothing else? It is worth looking a little deeper
+than the current stories of the camp to find out, and yet one of these
+very camp-stories raises at once a strong suspicion that Mr. Parton's
+conclusion in this regard, like so many conclusions about Washington,
+is unfounded. When General Lee took the oath of allegiance to the
+United States, he remarked, in making abjuration of his former
+allegiance, that he was perfectly ready to abjure the king, but could
+not bring himself to abjure the Prince of Wales, at which bit of irony
+Washington was greatly amused. The wit of the remark is a little cold
+to-day, but at the moment, accompanying as it did a solemn act of
+abjuration, it was keen enough. Washington himself, moreover, was
+perfectly capable of good-natured banter. Colonel Humphreys challenged
+him one day to jump over a hedge. Washington, always ready to accept
+a challenge where riding was concerned, told the colonel to go on.
+Humphreys put his horse at the hedge, cleared it, and landed in
+a quagmire on the other side up to his horse's girths; whereupon
+Washington rode up, stopped, and looking blandly at his struggling
+friend, remarked, "Ah, colonel, you are too deep for me." "Take care,"
+he wrote to young Custis, when he sent him money for his college gown,
+"not to buy without advice; otherwise you may be more distinguished by
+your folly than your dress."
+
+We find in his letters here and there a good-natured raillery, and
+jesting, which show a sense of humor that goes beyond the limits of
+mere fun and horse-play. Here is a letter he wrote toward the close of
+the war, asking some ladies to dine with him in his quarters at West
+Point:--
+
+    "WEST POINT, August 16, 1779.
+
+    "Dear Doctor: I have asked Mrs. Cochran and Mrs. Livingston to
+    dine with me to-morrow; but ought I not to apprise you of their
+    fare? As I hate deception, even where imagination is concerned, I
+    will.
+
+    "It is needless to premise that my table is large enough to hold
+    the ladies: of this they had ocular demonstration yesterday. To
+    say how it is usually covered is rather more essential, and this
+    shall be the purport of my letter.
+
+    "Since my arrival at this happy spot, we have had a ham, sometimes
+    a shoulder of bacon, to grace the head of the table. A piece
+    of roast beef adorns the foot, and a small dish of green
+    beans--almost imperceptible--decorates the centre. When the cook
+    has a mind to cut a figure,--and this I presume he will attempt
+    to-morrow,--we have two beefsteak pies, or dishes of crabs, in
+    addition, one on each side of the centre dish, dividing the space,
+    and reducing the distance between dish and dish to about six feet,
+    which without them would be nearly twelve feet apart. Of late he
+    has had the surprising luck to discover that apples will make
+    pies; and it is a question if, amidst the violence of his efforts,
+    we do not get one of apples instead of having both of beef.
+
+    "If the ladies can put up with such entertainment, and submit to
+    partake of it on plates once tin, but now iron, not become so by
+    the labor of hard scouring, I shall be happy to see them."
+
+We may be sure that the ladies found their dinner a pleasant one, and
+that the writer of the note was neither a stiff nor unsocial host. A
+much more charming letter is one to Nellie Custis, on the occasion of
+her first ball. It is too long for quotation, but it is a model of
+affectionate wisdom tinged with a gentle humor, and designed to guide
+a young girl just beginning the world of society.
+
+Here, however, is another extract from a letter to Madame de
+Lafayette, of rather more serious purport, but in the same strain, and
+full of a simple and, as we should call it, an old-fashioned grace. He
+was replying to an invitation to visit France, which he felt obliged
+to decline. After giving his reasons, he said: "This, my dear
+Marchioness (indulge the freedom), is not the case with you. You have
+youth (and, if you should incline to leave your children, you can
+leave them with all the advantages of education), and must have a
+curiosity to see the country, young, rude, and uncultivated as it is,
+for the liberties of which your husband has fought, bled, and acquired
+much glory, where everybody admires, everybody loves him. Come, then,
+let me entreat you, and call my cottage your home; for your own doors
+do not open to you with more readiness than mine would. You will see
+the plain manner in which we live, and meet with rustic civility; and
+you shall taste the simplicity of rural life. It will diversify the
+scene, and may give you a higher relish for the gayeties of the court
+when you return to Versailles."
+
+There is also apparent in many of his letters a vein of worldly
+wisdom, shrewd but kindly, too gentle to be called cynical, and yet
+touched with the humor which reads and appreciates the foibles of
+humanity. Of an officer who grumbled at disappointments during the war
+he wrote: "General McIntosh is only experiencing upon a small scale
+what I have had an ample share of upon a large one; and must, as I
+have been obliged to do in a variety of instances, yield to necessity;
+that is, to use a vulgar phrase, 'shape his coat according to his
+cloth,' or in other words, if he cannot do as he wishes, he must do
+what he can." The philosophy is homely and common enough, but the
+manner in which the reproof was administered shows kindly tact, one
+of the most difficult of arts. Here is another passage, touching on
+something outside the range of war and politics. He was writing to
+Lund Washington in regard to Mrs. Washington's daughter-in-law, Mrs.
+Custis, who was contemplating a second marriage. "For my own part," he
+said, "I never did, nor do I believe I ever shall, give advice to a
+woman who is setting out on a matrimonial voyage: first, because I
+never could advise one to marry without her own consent; and secondly,
+because I know it is to no purpose to advise her to refrain when she
+has obtained it. A woman very rarely asks an opinion or requires
+advice on such an occasion till her resolution is formed; and then it
+is with the hope and expectation of obtaining a sanction, not that she
+means to be governed by your disapprobation, that she applies. In a
+word, the plain English of the application may be summed up in these
+words: 'I wish you to think as I do; but if unhappily you differ from
+me in opinion, my heart, I must confess, is fixed, and I have gone too
+far _now_ to retract.'"
+
+In the same spirit, but this time with a lurking smile at himself,
+did he write to the secretary of Congress for his commission: "If my
+commission is not necessary for the files of Congress, I should be
+glad to have it deposited among my own papers. It may serve _my
+grandchildren_, some fifty or a hundred years hence, for a theme to
+ruminate upon, if _they_ should be contemplatively disposed."
+
+He knew human nature well, and had a smile for its little weaknesses
+when they came to his mind. It was this same human sympathy which made
+him also love amusements of all sorts; but he was as little their
+slave as their enemy. No man ever carried great burdens with a higher
+or more serious spirit, but his cares never made him forbidding, nor
+rendered him impatient of the pleasure of others. He liked to amuse
+himself, and knew the value of a change of thought and scene, and he
+was always ready, when duty permitted, for a chat. He liked to take a
+comfortable seat and have his talk out, and he had the talent so rare
+in great men of being a good and appreciative listener. We hear of him
+playing cards at Tappan during the war, and he was always fond of a
+game in the evening, realizing the force of Talleyrand's remark to the
+despiser of cards: "Quelle triste vieillesse vous vous preparez." In
+1779 it is recorded that at a party he danced for three hours with
+Mrs. Greene without sitting down or resting, which speaks well for
+the health and spirits both of the lady and the gentleman. Even after
+Yorktown, he was ready to walk a minuet at a ball, and to the end
+he liked to see young people dance, as he had danced himself in his
+youth. As has been seen from his treatment of Bernard, he liked the
+theatre and the actors, and when he was in Philadelphia he was a
+constant attendant at the play, as he had been ever since he went to
+see "George Barnwell" in the Barbadoes. His love of horses stayed with
+him to the last. He not only rode and drove and trained horses,[1] but
+he enjoyed the sport of the race-course. He was probably aware, like
+the Shah of Persia who declined to go to the Derby, that one horse
+could run faster than another, but nevertheless he liked to see them
+run, and we hear of him, after he had reached the presidency, acting
+as judge at a race, and seeing his own colt Magnolia beaten, which he
+no doubt considered the next best thing to winning.
+
+[Footnote 1: The Marquis de Chastelleux speaks of the perfect training
+of Washington's saddle horses, and says the general broke them
+himself. He adds "He (the general) is an excellent and bold horseman,
+leaping the highest fences and going extremely quick, without standing
+upon his stirrups, bearing on the bridle or letting his horse run
+wild; circumstances which our young men look upon as so essential a part
+of English horsemanship, that they would rather break a leg or an arm
+than renounce them."]
+
+He had, indeed, in all ways a thoroughly well-balanced mind and
+temper. In great affairs he knew how to spare himself the details to
+which others could attend as well as he, and yet he was in no wise
+a despiser of small things. Before the Revolution, there was a warm
+discussion in the Truro parish as to the proper site for the Pohick
+Church. Washington and George Mason led respectively the opposing
+forces, and each confidently asserted that the site he preferred was
+the most convenient for the largest number of parishioners. Finally,
+after much debate and no conclusion, Washington appeared at a vestry
+meeting with a collection of statistics. He had measured the distance
+from each proposed site to the house of each parishioner, and found,
+as he declared, that his site was nearer to more people than the
+other. It is needless to add that he carried his point, and that the
+spot he desired for the church was the one chosen.
+
+The fact was that, if he confided a task of any sort to another, he
+let it go on without meddling; but if he undertook anything himself,
+he did it with the utmost thoroughness, and there is much success
+in this capacity to take pains even in small things. He managed his
+plantations entirely himself when he was at home, and did it well. He
+knew the qualities of each field, and the rotation of its crops. No
+improvement in agriculture and no ingenious invention escaped his
+attention, although he was not to be carried away by mere novelty,
+which had such a fascination for his ex-secretary at Monticello. Every
+resource of his estate was turned to good use, and his flour and
+tobacco commanded absolute confidence with his brand upon them. He
+followed in the same painstaking way all his business affairs, and his
+accounts, all in his own hand, are wonderfully minute and accurate. He
+was very exact in all business as well as very shrewd at a bargain,
+and the tradition is that his neighbors considered the general a
+formidable man in a horse-trade, that most difficult of transactions.
+Parkinson mentions that everything purchased or brought to the house
+was weighed, measured, or counted, generally in the presence of the
+master himself. Some of his letters to Lear, his private secretary,
+show that he looked after his china and servants, the packing and
+removal of his furniture with great minuteness. To some persons this
+appears evidence of a petty mind in a great man, but to those who
+reflect a little more deeply it will occur that this accuracy and
+care in trifles were the same qualities which kept the American army
+together, and enabled their owner to arrive on time and in full
+preparation at Yorktown and Trenton. The worst that can be said is
+that from his love of perfection and completeness he may in this
+respect have wasted time and strength, but his untiring industry and
+his capacity for work were so great that he accomplished so far as we
+can see all this drudgery without ever neglecting in the least more
+important duties. It was a satisfaction to him to do it; for he was
+methodical and exact to the last degree, and he was never happy unless
+he held everything in which he was concerned easily within his grasp.
+
+He had the same attention to details in external things, and he wished
+everything about him to be of the best, if not "express'd in fancy."
+He had the handsomest carriages and the finest horses always in his
+stables. It was necessary that the furniture of his house should be as
+good as could be procured, and he was most particular in regard to it.
+When he was preparing as President to move to Philadelphia, he made
+the most searching inquiries as to horses, stables, servants, schools
+for young Custis, and everything affecting the household. He sent at
+the same time most minute directions to his agents as to the furniture
+of his house, touching upon everything, down to the color of the
+curtains and the form of his wine-coolers. He had a like feeling in
+regard to dress. His fancy for handsome and appropriate dress in his
+youth has already been alluded to, but he never ceased to take an
+interest in it; and in a letter to McHenry, written in the last year
+of his life, he discusses with great care the details of the uniform
+to be prescribed for himself as commander-in-chief of the new army. It
+would be a mistake, of course, to infer that he was a dandy, or that
+he gave to dress and furniture the importance set upon them by shallow
+minds. He simply valued them rightly, and enjoyed the good things of
+this world. He had the best possible taste and the keenest sense of
+what was appropriate, and it was this good taste and sense of fitness
+which saved him from blundering in trifles, as much as his ability and
+his sense of humor preserved him from error in the conduct of great
+affairs.
+
+The value of all this to the country he served cannot be too often
+reiterated, for ridicule was a real danger to the Revolutionary cause
+when it started. The raw levies, headed by volunteer officers from the
+shop, the plough, the work-bench, or the trading vessel, despite their
+patriotism and the nobility of their cause, could easily have been
+made subjects of derision, a perilous enemy to all new undertakings.
+Men prefer to be shot at, if they are taken seriously, rather than to
+be laughed at and made objects of contempt. The same principle holds
+true of a revolution seeking the sympathy of a hostile world. When
+Washington drew his sword beneath the Cambridge elm and put himself at
+the head of the American army, effective ridicule became impossible,
+for the dignity of the cause was seen in that of its leader. The
+British generals soon found that they not only had a dangerous enemy
+to encounter, but that they were dealing with a man whose pride in his
+country and whose own sense of self-respect reduced any assumption of
+personal superiority on their part to speedy contempt. In the same way
+he brought dignity to the new government of the Constitution when
+he was placed at its head. The confederation had excited the just
+contempt of the world, and Washington as President, by the force of
+his own character and reputation, gave the United States at once the
+respect not only of the American people, but of those of Europe as
+well. Men felt instinctively that no government over which he presided
+could ever fall into feebleness or disrepute.
+
+In addition to the effect on the popular mind of his character and
+services was that of his personal presence. If contemporary testimony
+can be believed, few men have ever lived who had the power to impress
+those who looked upon them so profoundly as Washington. He was richly
+endowed by nature in all physical attributes. Well over six feet
+high,[1] large, powerfully built, and of uncommon muscular strength,
+he had the force that always comes from great physical power. He had
+a fine head, a strong face, with blue eyes set wide apart in deep
+orbits, and beneath, a square jaw and firm-set mouth which told of a
+relentless will. Houdon the sculptor, no bad judge, said he had no
+conception of the majesty and grandeur of Washington's form and
+features until he studied him as a subject for a statue. Pages might
+be filled with extracts from the descriptions of Washington given by
+French officers, by all sorts of strangers, and by his own countrymen,
+but they all repeat the same story. Every one who met him told of the
+commanding presence, and noble person, the ineffable dignity, and
+the calm, simple, and stately manners. No man ever left Washington's
+presence without a feeling of reverence and respect amounting almost
+to awe.
+
+[Footnote 1: Lear in his memoranda published recently in full in
+McClure's Magazine for February, 1898, states that Washington measured
+after death six feet three and one half inches in height, a foot
+and nine inches across the shoulders, two feet across the elbows;
+evidently a spare man with muscular arms, which we know to have been
+also of unusual length.]
+
+I will quote only a single one of the numerous descriptions of
+Washington, and I select it because, although it is the least
+favorable of the many I have seen, and is written in homely phrase, it
+displays the most evident and entire sincerity. The extract is from
+a letter written by David Ackerson of Alexandria, Va., in 1811, in
+answer to an inquiry by his son. Mr. Ackerson commanded a company in
+the Revolutionary war.
+
+"Washington was not," he wrote, "what ladies would call a pretty man,
+but in military costume a heroic figure, such as would impress the
+memory ever afterward."
+
+The writer had a good view of Washington three days before the
+crossing of the Delaware.
+
+"Washington," he says, "had a large thick nose, and it was very red
+that day, giving me the impression that he was not so moderate in the
+use of liquors as he was supposed to be. I found afterward that this
+was a peculiarity. His nose was apt to turn scarlet in a cold wind.
+He was standing near a small camp-fire, evidently lost in thought
+and making no effort to keep warm. He seemed six feet and a half in
+height, was as erect as an Indian, and did not for a moment relax from
+a military attitude. Washington's exact height was six feet two inches
+in his boots. He was then a little lame from striking his knee against
+a tree. His eye was so gray that it looked almost white, and he had
+a troubled look on his colorless face. He had a piece of woolen tied
+around his throat and was quite hoarse. Perhaps the throat trouble
+from which he finally died had its origin about then. Washington's
+boots were enormous. They were number 13. His ordinary walking-shoes
+were number 11. His hands were large in proportion, and he could not
+buy a glove to fit him and had to have his gloves made to order.
+His mouth was his strong feature, the lips being always tightly
+compressed. That day they were compressed so tightly as to be painful
+to look at. At that time he weighed two hundred pounds, and there was
+no surplus flesh about him. He was tremendously muscled, and the fame
+of his great strength was everywhere. His large tent when wrapped up
+with the poles was so heavy that it required two men to place it in
+the camp-wagon. Washington would lift it with one hand and throw it in
+the wagon as easily as if it were a pair of saddle-bags. He could hold
+a musket with one hand and shoot with precision as easily as other men
+did with a horse-pistol. His lungs were his weak point, and his voice
+was never strong. He was at that time in the prime of life. His hair
+was a chestnut brown, his cheeks were prominent, and his head was not
+large in contrast to every other part of his body, which seemed large
+and bony at all points. His finger-joints and wrists were so large as
+to be genuine curiosities. As to his habits at that period I found
+out much that might be interesting. He was an enormous eater, but was
+content with bread and meat, if he had plenty of it. But hunger seemed
+to put him in a rage. It was his custom to take a drink of rum or
+whiskey on awakening in the morning. Of course all this was changed
+when he grew old. I saw him at Alexandria a year before he died. His
+hair was very gray, and his form was slightly bent. His chest was very
+thin. He had false teeth, which did not fit and pushed his under lip
+outward."[1]
+
+[Footnote 1: This letter, recently printed, is in the collection of
+Dr. Toner, at Washington. It contains some obvious errors, as
+in regard to the color of the eyes, but it is nevertheless very
+interesting and valuable.]
+
+This description is certainly not a flattering one, and all other
+accounts as well as the best portraits prove that Washington was a
+much handsomer man than this letter would indicate. Yet the writer,
+despite his freedom from all illusions and his readiness to state
+frankly all defects, was profoundly impressed by Washington's
+appearance as he watched him meditating by the camp-fire at the crisis
+of the country's fate, and herein lies the principal interest of his
+description.
+
+This personal impressiveness, however, affected every one upon all
+occasions.
+
+Mr. Rush, for instance, saw Washington go on one occasion to open
+Congress. He drove to the hall in a handsome carriage of his own,
+with his servants dressed in white liveries. When he had alighted
+he stopped on the step, and pausing faced round to wait for his
+secretary. The vast crowd looked at him in dead silence, and then,
+when he turned away, broke into wild cheering. At his second
+inauguration he was dressed in deep mourning for the death of his
+nephew. He took the oath of office in the Senate Chamber, and Major
+Forman, who was present, wrote in his diary: "Every eye was on him.
+When he said, 'I, George Washington,' my blood seemed to run cold and
+every one seemed to start." At the inauguration of Adams, another
+eye-witness wrote that Washington, dressed in black velvet, with a
+military hat and black cockade, was the central figure in the scene,
+and when he left the chamber the crowds followed him, cheering and
+shouting to the door of his own house.
+
+There must have been something very impressive about a man who, with
+no pretensions to the art of the orator and with no touch of the
+charlatan, could so move and affect vast bodies of men by his presence
+alone. But the people, with the keen eye of affection, looked beyond
+the mere outward nobility of form. They saw the soldier who had given
+them victory, the great statesman who had led them out of confusion
+and faction to order and good government. Party newspapers might rave,
+but the instinct of the people was never at fault. They loved, trusted
+and well-nigh worshiped Washington living, and they have honored and
+reverenced him with an unchanging fidelity since his death, nearly a
+century ago.
+
+But little more remains to be said. Washington had his faults, for
+he was human; but they are not easy to point out, so perfect was his
+mastery of himself. He was intensely reserved and very silent, and
+these are the qualities which gave him the reputation in history
+of being distant and unsympathetic. In truth, he had not only warm
+affections and a generous heart, but there was a strong vein of
+sentiment in his composition. At the same time he was in no wise
+romantic, and the ruling element in his make-up was prose, good solid
+prose, and not poetry. He did not have the poetical and imaginative
+quality so strongly developed in Lincoln. Yet he was not devoid of
+imagination, although it was here that he was lacking, if anywhere. He
+saw facts, knew them, mastered and used them, and never gave much play
+to fancy; but as his business in life was with men and facts, this
+deficiency, if it was one, was of little moment. He was also a man of
+the strongest passions in every way, but he dominated them; they never
+ruled him. Vigorous animal passions were inevitable, of course, in a
+man of such a physical make-up as his. How far he gave way to them in
+his youth no one knows, but the scandals which many persons now desire
+to have printed, ostensibly for the sake of truth, are, so far as
+I have been able to learn, with one or two dubious exceptions, of
+entirely modern parentage. I have run many of them to earth; nearly
+all are destitute of contemporary authority, and they may be relegated
+to the dust-heaps.[1] If he gave way to these propensities in his
+youth, the only conclusion that I have been able to come to is that he
+mastered them when he reached man's estate.
+
+[Footnote 1: The charge in the pamphlet purporting to give an account
+of the trial of the New York conspirators in 1776 is of such doubtful
+origin and character that it hardly merits consideration, and the only
+other allusion is in the well-known intercepted letter of Harrison,
+which is of doubtful authenticity in certain passages, open to
+suspicion from having been intercepted and published by the enemy and
+quite likely to have been at best merely a coarse jest of a character
+very common at that period and entirely in keeping with the notorious
+habits of life and speech peculiar to the writer. (See Life of John
+Adams, iii. 35.)]
+
+He had, too, a fierce temper, and although he gradually subdued it, he
+would sometimes lose control of himself and burst out into a tempest
+of rage. When he did so he would use strong and even violent language,
+as he did at Kip's Landing and at Monmouth. Well-intentioned persons
+in their desire to make him a faultless being have argued at great
+length that Washington never swore, and but for their argument the
+matter would never have attracted much attention. He was anything but
+a profane man, but the evidence is beyond question that if deeply
+angered he would use a hearty English oath; and not seldom the action
+accompanied the word, as when he rode among the fleeing soldiers at
+Kip's Landing, striking them with his sword, and almost beside himself
+at their cowardice. Judge Marshall used to tell also of an occasion
+when Washington sent out an officer to cross a river and bring back
+some information about the enemy, on which the action of the morrow
+would depend. The officer was gone some time, came back, and found
+the general impatiently pacing his tent. On being asked what he had
+learned, he replied that the night was dark and stormy, the river full
+of ice, and that he had not been able to cross. Washington glared at
+him a moment, seized a large leaden inkstand from the table, hurled it
+at the offender's head, and said with a fierce oath, "Be off, and send
+me a _man_!" The officer went, crossed the river, and brought back the
+information.
+
+But although he would now and then give way to these tremendous bursts
+of anger, Washington was never unjust. As he said to one officer, "I
+never judge the propriety of actions by after events;" and in that
+sound philosophy is found the secret not only of much of his own
+success, but of the devotion of his officers and men. He might be
+angry with them, but he was never unfair. In truth, he was too
+generous to be unjust or even over-severe to any one, and there is not
+a line in all his writings which even suggests that he ever envied any
+man. So long as the work in hand was done, he cared not who had the
+glory, and he was perfectly magnanimous and perfectly at ease about
+his own reputation. He never showed the slightest anxiety to write his
+own memoirs, and he was not in the least alarmed when it was proposed
+to publish the memoirs of other people, like General Charles Lee,
+which would probably reflect upon him.
+
+He had the same confidence in the judgment of posterity that he had in
+the future beyond the grave. He regarded death with entire calmness
+and even indifference not only when it came to him, but when in
+previous years it had threatened him. He loved life and tasted of it
+deeply, but the courage which never forsook him made him ready to face
+the inevitable at any moment with an unruffled spirit. In this he was
+helped by his religious faith, which was as simple as it was profound.
+He had been brought up in the Protestant Episcopal Church, and to that
+church he always adhered; for its splendid liturgy and stately forms
+appealed to him and satisfied him. He loved it too as the church of
+his home and his childhood. Yet he was as far as possible from being
+sectarian, and there is not a word of his which shows anything but
+the most entire liberality and toleration. He made no parade of his
+religion, for in this as in other things he was perfectly simple and
+sincere. He was tortured by no doubts or questionings, but believed
+always in an overruling Providence and in a merciful God, to whom he
+knelt and prayed in the day of darkness or in the hour of triumph with
+a supreme and childlike confidence.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As I bring these volumes to a close I am conscious that they speak, so
+far as they speak at all, in a tone of almost unbroken praise of the
+great man they attempt to portray. If this be so, it is because I
+could come to no other conclusions. For many years I have studied
+minutely the career of Washington, and with every step the greatness
+of the man has grown upon me, for analysis has failed to discover
+the act of his life which, under the conditions of the time, I could
+unhesitatingly pronounce to have been an error. Such has been my
+experience, and although my deductions may be wrong, they at least
+have been carefully and slowly made. I see in Washington a great
+soldier who fought a trying war to a successful end impossible without
+him; a great statesman who did more than all other men to lay the
+foundations of a republic which has endured in prosperity for more
+than a century. I find in him a marvelous judgment which was never at
+fault, a penetrating vision which beheld the future of America when it
+was dim to other eyes, a great intellectual force, a will of iron,
+an unyielding grasp of facts, and an unequaled strength of patriotic
+purpose. I see in him too a pure and high-minded gentleman of
+dauntless courage and stainless honor, simple and stately of manner,
+kind and generous of heart. Such he was in truth. The historian and
+the biographer may fail to do him justice, but the instinct of mankind
+will not fail. The real hero needs not books to give him worshipers.
+George Washington will always hold the love and reverence of men
+because they see embodied in him the noblest possibilities of
+humanity.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX for Volumes I & II
+
+
+  ACKERSON, DAVID,
+    describes Washington's personal appearance, ii. 386-388.
+
+  Adams, Abigail,
+    on Washington's appearance in 1775, i. 137.
+
+  Adams, John,
+    moves appointment of Washington as commander-in-chief, i. 134;
+    on political necessity for his appointment, 135;
+    and objections to it, 135;
+    statement as to Washington's difficulties, 163;
+    over-sanguine as to American prospects, 171;
+    finds fault with Washington, 214, 215;
+    one of few national statesmen, 252;
+    on Washington's opinion of titles, ii. 52;
+    advocates ceremony, 54;
+    returns to United States, 137;
+    attacked by Jefferson as a monarchist, 226;
+    praised by Democrats as superior to Washington, 251;
+    his administration upheld by Washington, 259;
+    advised by Washington, 260;
+    his inauguration, 276;
+    sends special mission to France, 284;
+    urges Washington to take command of provisional army, 285;
+    wishes to make Knox senior to Hamilton, 286;
+    censured by Washington, gives way, 287;
+    lack of sympathy with Washington, 287;
+    his nomination of Murray disapproved by Washington, 292, 293;
+    letter of Washington to, on immigration, 326.
+
+  Adams, J.Q.,
+    on weights and measures, ii. 81.
+
+  Adams, Samuel,
+    not sympathized with by Washington in working for independence, i. 131;
+    his inability to sympathize with Washington, 204;
+    an enemy of Constitution, ii. 71;
+    a genuine American, 309.
+
+  Alcudia, Duke de,
+    interviews with Pinckney, ii. 166.
+
+  Alexander, Philip,
+    hunts with Washington, i. 115.
+
+  Alien and Sedition Laws,
+    approved by Washington and Federalists, ii. 290, 297.
+
+  Ames, Fisher,
+    speech on behalf of administration in Jay treaty affair, ii. 210.
+
+  Andre, Major,
+    meets Arnold, i. 282;
+    announces capture to Arnold, 284;
+    confesses, 284;
+    condemned and executed, 287;
+    justice of the sentence, 287, 288;
+    Washington's opinion of, 288, ii. 357.
+
+  Armstrong, John, Major,
+    writes Newburg address, i. 335.
+
+  Army of the Revolution,
+    at Boston, adopted by Congress, i. 134;
+    its organization and character, 136-143;
+    sectional jealousies in, at New York, 162;
+    goes to pieces after defeat, 167, 175, 176;
+    condition in winter of 1777, 186;
+    difficulties between officers, 189;
+    with foreign officers, 190-192;
+    improvement as shown by condition after Brandywine and Germantown,
+  200, 201;
+    hard winter at Valley Forge, 228;
+    maintained alive only by Washington, 227, 228, 232;
+    improved morale at Monmouth, 239;
+    mutinies for lack of pay, 258;
+    suffers during 1779, 270;
+    bad condition in 1780, 279;
+    again mutinies for pay, 291, 292, 295;
+    conduct of troops, 292, 293;
+    jealousy of people towards, 332;
+    badly treated by States and by Congress, 333;
+    grows mutinous, 334;
+    adopts Newburg addresses, 335, 336;
+    ready for a military dictatorship, 338, 340;
+    farewell of Washington to, 345.
+
+  Arnold, Benedict,
+    sent by Washington to attack Quebec, i. 144;
+    sent against Burgoyne, 210;
+    plans treason, 281;
+    shows loyalist letter to Washington, 282;
+    meets Andre, 282;
+    receives news of Andre's capture, 284;
+    escapes, 284, 285;
+    previous benefits from Washington, 286;
+    Washington's opinion of, 288;
+    ravages Virginia, 303;
+    sent back to New York, 303;
+    one of the few men who deceived Washington, ii. 336.
+
+  Arnold, Mrs.,
+    entertains Washington at time of her husband's treachery, i. 284, 285.
+
+  Articles of Confederation,
+    their inadequacy early seen by Washington, i. 297, 298; ii. 17.
+
+  Asgill, Capt.,
+    selected for retaliation for murder of Huddy, i. 328;
+    efforts for his release, 329;
+    release ordered by Congress, 330.
+
+
+  BACHE, B.F.,
+    publishes Jay treaty in "Aurora," ii. 185;
+    joins in attack on Washington, 238, 244;
+    rejoices over his retirement, 256.
+
+  Baker,----,
+    works out a pedigree for Washington, i. 31.
+
+  Ball, Joseph,
+    advises against sending Washington to sea, i. 49, 50.
+
+  Barbadoes,
+    Washington's description of, i. 64.
+
+  Beckley, John,
+    accuses Washington of embezzling, ii. 245.
+
+  Bernard, John,
+    his conversation with Washington referred to, i. 58, 107;
+    describes encounter with Washington, ii. 281-283;
+    his description of Washington's conversation, 343-348.
+
+  Blackwell, Rev. Dr.,
+    calls on Washington with Dr. Logan, ii. 264.
+
+  Blair, John,
+    appointed to Supreme Court, ii. 73.
+
+  Bland, Mary,
+    "Lowland Beauty," admired by Washington, i. 95, 96.
+
+  Blount, Governor,
+    pacifies Cherokees, ii. 94.
+
+  Boston,
+    visit of Washington to, i. 97, 99;
+    political troubles in, 120;
+    British measures against condemned by Virginia, 122, 123;
+    appeals to colonies, 124;
+    protests against Jay treaty, ii. 186;
+    answered by Washington, 190.
+
+  Botetourt, Lord, Governor of Virginia,
+    quarrels with Assembly, i. 121;
+    manages to calm dissension, 122;
+    on friendly terms with Washington, 122.
+
+  Braddock, General Edward,
+    arrives in Virginia, i. 82;
+    invites Washington to serve on his staff, 82;
+    respects him, 83;
+    his character and unfitness for his position, 83;
+    despises provincials, 83;
+    accepts Washington's advice as to dividing force, 84;
+    rebukes Washington for warning against ambush, 85;
+    insists on fighting by rule, 85;
+    defeated and mortally wounded, 85;
+    death and burial, 87.
+
+  Bradford, William,
+    succeeds Randolph, ii. 246.
+
+  Brandywine,
+    battle of, i. 196-198.
+
+  Bunker Hill,
+    question of Washington regarding battle of, i. 136.
+
+  Burgoyne, General John,
+    junction of Howe with, feared by Washington, i. 194, 195, 205, 206;
+    significance of his defeat, 202;
+    danger of his invasion foreseen by Washington, 203-206;
+    captures Ticonderoga, 207;
+    outnumbered and defeated, 210;
+    surrenders, 211.
+
+  Burke, Edmund,
+    understands significance of Washington's leadership, i. 202;
+    unsettled by French Revolution, ii. 294.
+
+
+  CABOT, GEORGE,
+    entertains Lafayette's son, ii. 366.
+
+  Cadwalader, General,
+    fails to cross Delaware to help Washington, i. 180;
+    duel with Conway, 226.
+
+  Calvert, Eleanor,
+    misgivings of Washington over her marriage to John Custis, i. 111.
+
+  Camden, battle of, i. 281.
+
+  Canada,
+    captured by Wolfe, i. 94;
+    expedition of Montgomery against, 143, 144;
+    project of Conway cabal against, 222; 253;
+    project of Lafayette to attack, 254;
+    plan considered dangerous by Washington, 254, 255;
+    not undertaken by France, 256.
+
+  Carleton, Sir Guy,
+    informs Washington of address of Commons for peace, i. 324;
+    suspected by Washington, 325;
+    remonstrates against retaliation by Washington for murder of
+  Huddy, 328;
+    disavows Lippencott, 328;
+    fears plunder of New York city, 345;
+    urges Indians to attack the United States, ii. 102, 175.
+
+  Carlisle, Earl of,
+    peace commissioner, i. 233.
+
+  Carlyle, Thomas,
+    sneers at Washington, i. 4, 14;
+    calls him "a bloodless Cromwell," i. 69, ii. 332;
+    fails to understand his reticence, i. 70;
+    despises him for not seizing power, 341.
+
+  Carmichael, William,
+    minister at Madrid, ii. 165;
+    on commission regarding the Mississippi, 166.
+
+  Carrington, Paul,
+    letter of Washington to, ii. 208;
+    Washington's friendship for, 363.
+
+  Cary, Mary,
+    early love affair of Washington with, i. 96.
+
+  Chamberlayne, Major,
+    entertains Washington at Williams' Ferry, i. 101.
+
+  Charleston,
+    siege and capture of, i. 273, 274, 276.
+
+  Chastellux, Marquis de,
+    Washington's friendship for and letter to, ii. 351;
+    on Washington's training of horses, 380.
+
+  Cherokees,
+    beaten by Sevier, ii. 89;
+    pacified by Blount, 94,101.
+
+  Chester, Colonel,
+    researches on Washington pedigree, i. 31.
+
+  Chickasaws,
+    desert from St. Clair, ii. 96.
+
+  China,
+    honors Washington, i. 6.
+
+  Choctaws,
+    peaceable in 1788, ii. 89.
+
+  Cincinnati, Society of the,
+    Washington's connection with, ii. 4.
+
+  Clarke, Governor,
+    thinks Washington is invading popular rights, i. 215.
+
+  Cleaveland, Rev.----,
+    complimented by Washington, ii. 359.
+
+  Clinton, George,
+    appealed to by Washington to attack Burgoyne, i. 210;
+    journey with Washington to Ticonderoga, 343;
+    enters New York city, 345;
+    letter of Washington to, ii. 1;
+    meets Washington on journey to inauguration, 45;
+    opponent of the Constitution, 71;
+    orders seizure of French privateers, 153.
+
+  Clinton, Sir Henry,
+    fails to help Burgoyne, i. 210;
+    replaces Howe at Philadelphia, his character, 232;
+    tries to cut off Lafayette, 233;
+    leaves Philadelphia, 234;
+    defeats Lee at Monmouth, 236;
+    retreats to New York, 238;
+    withdraws from Newport, 248;
+    makes a raid, 265;
+    fortifies Stony Point, 268;
+    his aimless warfare, 269, 270;
+    after capturing Charleston returns to New York, 276;
+    tries to save Andre, 287;
+    alarmed at attacks on New York, 306;
+    jealous of Cornwallis, refuses to send reinforcements, 308;
+    deceived by Washington, 311;
+    sends Graves to relieve Cornwallis, 312.
+
+  Congress, Continental,
+    Washington's journey to, i. 128;
+    its character and ability, 129;
+    its state papers, 129;
+    adjourns, 132;
+    in second session, resolves to petition the king, 133;
+    adopts Massachusetts army and makes Washington commander, 134;
+    reasons for his choice, 135;
+    adheres to short-term enlistments, 149;
+    influenced to declare independence by Washington, 160;
+    hampers Washington in campaign of New York, 167;
+    letters of Washington to, 170, 179, 212, 225, 229, 266, 278, 295,
+  321, 323, 333;
+    takes steps to make army permanent, 171;
+    its over-confidence, 171;
+    insists on holding Forts Washington and Lee, 174;
+    dissatisfied with Washington's inactivity, 187;
+    criticises his proclamation requiring oath of allegiance, 189;
+    makes unwise appointments of officers, 189;
+    especially of foreigners, 190-192; 248, 249;
+    applauds Washington's efforts at Germantown, 200;
+    deposes Schuyler and St. Clair, 208;
+    appoints Gates, 210;
+    irritation against Washington, 212-215;
+    falls under guidance of Conway cabal, 221, 222;
+    discovers incompetence of cabal, 223;
+    meddles with prisoners and officers, 231;
+    rejects English peace offers, 233;
+    makes alliance with France, 241;
+    suppresses protests of officers against D'Estaing, 244;
+    decline in its character, 257;
+    becomes feeble, 258;
+    improvement urged by Washington, 259, 266;
+    appoints Gates to command in South, 268;
+    loses interest in war, 278;
+    asks Washington to name general for the South, 295;
+    considers reduction of army, 313;
+    elated by Yorktown, 323;
+    its unfair treatment of army, 333, 335;
+    driven from Philadelphia by Pennsylvania troops, 340;
+    passes half-pay act, 342;
+    receives commission of Washington, 347-349;
+    disbands army, ii. 6;
+    indifferent to Western expansion, 15;
+    continues to decline, 22;
+    merit of its Indian policy, 88.
+
+  Congress, Federal,
+    establishes departments, ii. 64;
+    opened by Washington, 78, 79;
+    ceremonial abolished by Jefferson, 79;
+    recommendations made to by Washington, 81-83;
+    acts upon them, 81-83;
+    creates commission to treat with Creeks, 90;
+    increases army, 94, 99;
+    fails to solve financial problems, 106;
+    debates Hamilton's report on credit, 107, 108;
+    establishes national bank, 109;
+    establishes protective revenue duties, 113;
+    imposes an excise tax, 123;
+    prepares for retaliation on Great Britain, 176;
+    Senate ratifies Jay treaty conditionally, 184;
+    House demands papers, 207;
+    debates over its right to concur in treaty, 208-210;
+    refuses to adjourn on Washington's birthday, 247;
+    prepares for war with France, 285;
+    passes Alien and Sedition Laws, 296.
+
+  Constitution, Federal,
+    necessity of, foreseen by Washington, ii. 17-18, 23, 24;
+    the Annapolis Convention, 23-29;
+    the Federal Convention, 30-36;
+    Washington's attitude in, 31,34;
+    his influence, 36;
+    campaign for ratification, 38-41.
+
+  Contrecoeur, Captain,
+    leader of French and Indians in Virginia, i. 75.
+
+  "Conway cabal,"
+    elements of in Congress, i. 214, 215;
+    in the army, 215;
+    organized by Conway, 217;
+    discovered by Washington, 220;
+    gets control of Board of War, 221;
+    tries to make Washington resign, 222, 224;
+    fails to invade Canada or provide supplies, 222, 223;
+    harassed by Washington's letters, 223,226;
+    breaks down, 226.
+
+  Conway, Moncure D.,
+    his life of Randolph, ii. 65, note, 196;
+    his defense of Randolph in Fauchet letter affair, 196;
+    on Washington's motives, 200;
+    on his unfair treatment of Randolph, 201, 202.
+
+  Conway, Thomas,
+    demand for higher rank refused by Washington, i. 216;
+    plots against him, 217;
+    his letter discovered by Washington, 221;
+    made inspector-general, 221, 222;
+    complains to Congress of his reception at camp, 225;
+    resigns, has duel with Cadwalader, 226;
+    apologizes to Washington and leaves country, 226.
+
+  Cooke, Governor,
+    remonstrated with by Washington for raising state troops, i. 186.
+
+  Cornwallis, Lord,
+    pursues Washington in New Jersey, i. 175;
+    repulsed at Assunpink, 181;
+    outgeneraled by Washington, 182;
+    surprises Sullivan at Brandywine, 197;
+    defeats Lee at Monmouth, 236;
+    pursues Greene in vain, 302;
+    wins battle of Guilford Court House, 302;
+    retreats into Virginia, 302;
+    joins British troops in Virginia, 303;
+    his dangerous position, 304;
+    urged by Clinton to return troops to New York, 306;
+    plunders Virginia, 307;
+    defeats Lafayette and Wayne, 307;
+    wishes to retreat South, 307;
+    ordered by ministry to stay on the Chesapeake, 307;
+    abandoned by Clinton, 308;
+    establishes himself at Yorktown, 308;
+    withdraws into town, 315;
+    besieged, 316, 317;
+    surrenders, 317;
+    outgeneraled by Washington, 319, 320.
+
+  Cowpens,
+    battle of, i. 301.
+
+  Craik, Dr.,
+    attends Washington in last illness, ii. 300-302;
+    Washington's friendship with, 363.
+
+  Creeks,
+    their relations with Spaniards, ii. 89, 90;
+    quarrel with Georgia, 90;
+    agree to treaty with United States, 91;
+    stirred up by Spain, 101.
+
+  Curwen, Samuel,
+    on Washington's appearance, i. 137.
+
+  Cushing, Caleb,
+    appointed to Supreme Court, ii. 72.
+
+  Custis, Daniel Parke,
+    first husband of Martha Washington, i. 101.
+
+  Custis, G.W.P.,
+    tells mythical story of Washington and the colt, i. 45;
+    Washington's care for, ii. 369.
+
+  Custis, John,
+    Washington's tenderness toward, i. 111;
+    care for his education and marriage, 111;
+    hunts with Washington, 141;
+    death of, 322.
+
+  Custis, Nellie,
+    marriage with Washington's nephew, ii. 281, 369;
+    letter of Washington to, 377.
+
+
+  DAGWORTHY, CAPTAIN,
+    claims to outrank Washington in Virginia army, i. 91, 97.
+
+  Dallas, Alexander,
+    protests to Genet against sailing of Little Sarah, ii. 155.
+
+  Dalton, Senator,
+    entertains Washington at Newburyport, ii. 359.
+
+  Deane, Silas,
+    promises commissions to foreign military adventurers, i. 190.
+
+  De Barras,
+    jealous of De Grasse, decides not to aid him, i. 310;
+    persuaded to do so by Washington and Rochambeau, 311;
+    reaches Chesapeake, 312.
+
+  De Grasse, Comte,
+    announces intention of coming to Washington, i. 305;
+    warned by Washington not to come to New York, 305;
+    sails to Chesapeake, 306;
+    asked to meet Washington there, 308;
+    reaches Chesapeake, 312;
+    repulses British fleet, 312;
+    wishes to return to West Indies, 315;
+    persuaded to remain by Washington, 315;
+    refuses to join Washington in attack on Charleston, 322;
+    returns to West Indies, 322.
+
+  De Guichen,----,
+    commander of French fleet in West Indies, i. 280;
+    appealed to for aid by Washington, 281;
+    returns home, 282.
+
+  Delancey, Oliver,
+    escapes American attack, i. 306.
+
+  Democratic party,
+    its formation as a French party, ii. 225;
+    furnished with catch-words by Jefferson, 226;
+    with a newspaper organ, 227;
+    not ready to oppose Washington for president in 1792, 235;
+    organized against treasury measure, 236;
+    stimulated by French Revolution, 238;
+    supports Genet, 237;
+    begins to attack Washington, 238;
+    his opinion of it, 239, 240, 258, 261, 267, 268;
+    forms clubs on French model, 241;
+    Washington's opinion of, 242, 243;
+    continues to abuse him, 244, 245, 250, 252;
+    exults at his retirement, 256;
+    prints slanders, 257.
+
+  Demont, William,
+    betrays plans of Fort Washington to Howe, i. 175.
+
+  D'Estaing, Admiral,
+    reaches America, i. 242;
+    welcomed by Washington, 243;
+    fails to cut off Howe and goes to Newport, 243;
+    after battle with Howe goes to Boston, 244;
+    letter of Washington to, 246;
+    sails to West Indies, 246;
+    second letter of Washington to, 247;
+    attacks Savannah, 248;
+    withdraws, 248.
+
+  De Rochambeau, Comte,
+    arrives at Newport, i. 277;
+    ordered to await second division of army, 278;
+    refuses to attack New York, 280;
+    wishes a conference with Washington, 282;
+    meets him at Hartford, 282;
+    disapproves attacking Florida, 301;
+    joins Washington before New York, 306;
+    persuades De Barras to join De Grasse, 311;
+    accompanies Washington to Yorktown, 314.
+
+  Dickinson, John,
+    commands scouts at Monmouth, i. 326.
+
+  Digby, Admiral,
+    bitter comments of Washington on, i. 325.
+
+  Dinwiddie, Governor,
+    remonstrates against French encroachments, i. 66;
+    sends Washington on mission to French, 66;
+    quarrels with the Virginia Assembly, 71;
+    letter of Washington to, 73;
+    wishes Washington to attack French, 79;
+    tries to quiet discussions between regular and provincial troops, 80;
+    military schemes condemned by Washington, 91;
+    prevents his getting a royal commission, 93.
+
+  Diplomatic History:
+    refusal by Washington of special privileges to French minister,
+  ii. 59-61;
+    slow growth of idea of non-intervention, 132, 133;
+    difficulties owing to French Revolution, 134;
+    to English retention of frontier posts, 135;
+    attitude of Spain, 135;
+    relations with Barbary States, 136;
+    mission of Gouverneur Morris to sound English feeling, 137;
+    assertion by Washington of non-intervention policy toward Europe,
+  145, 146;
+    issue of neutrality proclamation, 147, 148;
+    its importance, 148;
+    mission of Genet, 148-162;
+    guarded attitude of Washington toward emigres, 151;
+    excesses of Genet, 151;
+    neutrality enforced, 153, 154;
+    the Little Sarah episode, 154-157;
+    recall of Genet demanded, 158;
+    futile missions of Carmichael and Short to Spain, 165, 166;
+    successful treaty of Thomas Pinckney, 166-168;
+    question as to binding nature of French treaty of commerce, 169-171;
+    irritating relations with England, 173-176;
+    Jay's mission, 177-184;
+    the questions at issue, 180, 181;
+    terms of the treaty agreed upon, 182;
+    good and bad points, 183;
+    ratified by Senate, 184;
+    signing delayed by renewal of provision order, 185;
+    war with England prevented by signing, 205;
+    difficulties with France over Morris and Monroe, 211-214;
+    doings of Monroe, 212, 213;
+    United States compromised by him, 213, 214;
+    Monroe replaced by Pinckney, 214;
+    review of Washington's foreign policy, 216-219;
+    mission of Pinckney, Marshall, and Gerry to France, 284;
+    the X.Y.Z. affair, 285.
+
+  Donop, Count,
+    drives Griffin out of New Jersey, i. 180;
+    killed at Fort Mercer, 217.
+
+  Dorchester, Lord.
+    See Carleton.
+
+  Duane, James,
+    letters of Washington to, i. 294, 329.
+
+  Dumas, Comte,
+    describes enthusiasm of people for Washington, i. 288.
+
+  Dunbar, Colonel,
+    connection with Braddock's expedition, i. 84, 87.
+
+  Dunmore, Lord,
+    arrives in Virginia as governor, i. 122;
+    on friendly terms with Washington, 122, 123;
+    dissolves assembly, 123.
+
+  Duplaine, French consul,
+    exequatur of revoked, ii. 159.
+
+
+  EDEN, WILLIAM,
+    peace commissioner, i. 233.
+
+  Edwards, Jonathan,
+    a typical New England American, ii. 309.
+
+  Emerson, Rev. Dr.,
+    describes Washington's reforms in army before Boston, i. 140.
+
+  Emigres,
+    Washington's treatment of, ii. 151, 253.
+
+  England,
+    honors Washington, i. 20;
+    arrogant behavior toward colonists, 80, 81, 82, 148;
+    its policy towards Boston condemned by Virginia, 119, 121, 123, 126;
+    by Washington, 124, 125,126;
+    sends incompetent officers to America, 155, 201, 202, 233;
+    stupidity of its operations, 203, 205, 206, 265;
+    sincerity of its desire for peace doubted by Washington, 324, 325;
+    arrogant conduct of toward the United States after peace, ii. 24, 25;
+    stirs up the Six Nations and Northwestern Indians, 92, 94, 101;
+    folly of her policy, 102;
+    sends Hammond as minister, 169;
+    its opportunity to win United States as ally against France, 171, 172;
+    adopts contrary policy of opposition, 172, 173;
+    adopts "provision order," 174;
+    incites Indians against United States, 175;
+    indignation of America against, 176;
+    receives Jay well, but refuses to yield points at issue, 180;
+    insists on monopoly of West India trade, 180;
+    and on impressment, 181;
+    later history of, 181;
+    renews provision order, 185;
+    danger of war with, 193;
+    avoided by Jay treaty, 205;
+    Washington said to sympathize with England, 252;
+    his real hostility toward, 254;
+    Washington's opinion of liberty in, 344.
+
+  Ewing, General James,
+    fails to help Washington at Trenton, i. 180.
+
+
+  FAIRFAX, BRYAN,
+    hunts with Washington, i. 115;
+    remonstrates with Washington against violence of patriots, 124;
+    Washington's replies to, 124, 126, 127;
+    letter of Washington to in Revolution, ii. 366.
+
+  Fairfax, George,
+    married to Miss Cary, i. 55;
+    accompanies Washington on surveying expedition, 58;
+    letter of Washington to, 133.
+
+  Fairfax, Mrs.----,
+    letter of Washington to, ii. 367.
+
+  Fairfax, Thomas, Lord,
+    his career in England, i. 55;
+    comes to his Virginia estates, 55;
+    his character, 55;
+    his friendship for Washington, 56;
+    sends him to survey estates, 56;
+    plans a manor across the Blue Ridge, 59;
+    secures for Washington position as public surveyor, 60;
+    probably influential in securing his appointment as envoy to
+  French, 66;
+    hunts with Washington, 115;
+    his death remembered by Washington, ii. 366.
+
+  Fairlie, Major,
+    amuses Washington, ii. 374.
+
+  Farewell Address, ii. 248, 249.
+
+  Fauchet, M.,----,
+    letter of, incriminating Randolph, ii. 195,196, 202.
+
+  Fauntleroy, Betsy,
+    love affair of Washington with, i. 97.
+
+  Fauquier, Francis, Governor,
+    at Washington's wedding, i. 101.
+
+  Federal courts,
+    suggested by Washington, i. 150.
+
+  "Federalist,"
+    circulated by Washington, ii. 40.
+
+  Federalist party,
+    begun by Hamilton's controversy with Jefferson, ii. 230;
+    supports Washington for reelection, 235;
+    organized in support of financial measures, 236;
+    Washington looked upon by Democrats as its head, 244, 247;
+    only its members trusted by Washington, 246, 247, 259, 260, 261;
+    becomes a British party, 255;
+    Washington considers himself a member of, 269-274;
+    the only American party until 1800, 273;
+    strengthened by X, Y, Z affair, 285;
+    dissensions in, over army appointments, 286-290;
+    its horror at French Revolution, 294, 295;
+    attempts of Washington to heal divisions in, 298.
+
+  Fenno's newspaper,
+    used by Hamilton against the "National Gazette," ii. 230.
+
+  Finances of the Revolution,
+    effect of paper money on war, i. 258, 262;
+    difficulties in paying troops, 258;
+    labors of Robert Morris, 259, 264, 312;
+    connection of Washington with, 263;
+    continued collapse, 280, 290, 312.
+
+  Financial History,
+    bad condition in 1789, ii. 105;
+    decay of credit, paper, and revenue, 106;
+    futile propositions, 106;
+    Hamilton's report on credit, 107;
+    debate over assumption of state debt, 107;
+    bargain between Hamilton and Jefferson, 108;
+    establishment of bank, 109;
+    other measures adopted, 112;
+    protection in the first Congress, 112-115;
+    the excise tax imposed, 123;
+    opposition to, 123-127;
+    "Whiskey Rebellion," 127-128.
+
+  Fishbourn, Benjamin,
+    nomination rejected by Senate, ii. 63.
+
+  Fontanes, M. de,
+    delivers funeral oration on Washington, i. 1.
+
+  Forbes, General,
+    renews attack on French in Ohio, i. 93.
+
+  Forman, Major,
+    describes impressiveness of Washington, ii. 389.
+
+  Fox, Charles James,
+    understands significance of Washington's leadership, i. 202.
+
+  France,
+    pays honors to Washington, i. I, 6;
+    war with England, see French and Indian war;
+    takes possession of Ohio, 65;
+    considers Jumonville assassinated by Washington, 74;
+    importance of alliance with foreseen by Washington, 191;
+    impressed by battle of Germantown, 200;
+    makes treaty of alliance with United States, 241;
+    sends D'Estaing, 243;
+    declines to attack Canada, 256;
+    sends army and fleet, 274, 277;
+    relations of French to Washington, 318, 319;
+    absolute necessity of their naval aid, 318, 319;
+    Revolution in, applauded by America, ii. 138, 139, 142;
+    real character understood by Washington and others, 139-142, 295;
+    debate over in America, 142;
+    question of relations with United States, 143, 144;
+    warned by Washington, 144, 145;
+    neutrality toward declared, 147;
+    tries to drive United States into alliance, 149;
+    terms of the treaty with, 169;
+    latter held to be no longer binding, 169-171;
+    abrogates it, 171;
+    demands recall of Morris, 211;
+    mission of Monroe to, 211-214;
+    makes vague promises, 212, 213;
+    Washington's fairness toward, 253;
+    tries to bully or corrupt American ministers, 284;
+    the X, Y, Z affair, 285;
+    war with not expected by Washington, 291;
+    danger of concession to, 292, 293;
+    progress of Revolution in, 294.
+
+  Franklin, Benjamin,
+    gets wagons for Braddock's expedition, i. 84;
+    remark on Howe in Philadelphia, 219;
+    national, like Washington, 252, ii. 8;
+    despairs of success of Constitutional Convention, 35;
+    his unquestioned Americanism, 309;
+    respect of Washington for, 344, 346, 364.
+
+  Frederick II., the Great,
+    his opinion of Trenton campaign, i. 183;
+    of Monmouth campaign, 239.
+
+  French and Indian war, i. 64-94;
+    inevitable conflict, 65;
+    efforts to negotiate, 66, 67;
+    hostilities begun, 72;
+    the Jumonville affair, 74;
+    defeat of Washington, 76;
+    Braddock's campaign, 82-88;
+    ravages in Virginia, 90;
+    carried to a favorable conclusion by Pitt, 93, 94.
+
+  Freneau, Philip,
+    brought to Philadelphia and given clerkship by Jefferson, ii. 227;
+    attacks Adams, Hamilton, and Washington in "National Gazette," 227;
+    makes conflicting statements as to Jefferson's share in the paper,
+  227, 228;
+    the first to attack Washington, 238.
+
+  Fry, Colonel,
+    commands a Virginia regiment against French and Indians, i. 71;
+    dies, leaving Washington in command, 75.
+
+
+  GAGE, GENERAL THOMAS,
+    conduct at Boston condemned by Washington, i. 126;
+    his treatment of prisoners protested against by Washington, 145;
+    sends an arrogant reply, 147;
+    second letter of Washington to, 147, 156.
+
+  Gallatin, Albert,
+    connection with Whiskey Rebellion, ii. 129.
+
+  Gates, Horatio,
+    visits Mt. Vernon, his character, i. 132;
+    refuses to cooperate with Washington at Trenton, 180;
+    his appointment as commander against Burgoyne urged, 208;
+    chosen by Congress, 209;
+    his part in defeating Burgoyne, 210;
+    neglects to inform Washington, 211;
+    loses his head and wishes to supplant Washington, 215;
+    forced to send troops South, 216, 217;
+    his attitude discovered by Washington, 221;
+    makes feeble efforts at opposition, 221, 223;
+    correspondence with Washington, 221, 223, 226;
+    becomes head of board of war, 221;
+    quarrels with Wilkinson, 223;
+    sent to his command, 226;
+    fears attack of British on Boston, 265;
+    sent by Congress to command in South, 268;
+    defeated at Camden, 281, 294;
+    loses support of Congress, 294.
+
+  Genet, Edmond Charles,
+    arrives as French minister, ii. 148;
+    his character, 149;
+    violates neutrality, 151;
+    his journey to Philadelphia, 151;
+    reception by Washington, 152;
+    complains of it, 153;
+    makes demands upon State Department, 153;
+    protests at seizure of privateers, 153;
+    insists on sailing of Little Sarah, 155;
+    succeeds in getting vessel away, 157;
+    his recall demanded, 158;
+    reproaches Jefferson, 158;
+    remains in America, 158;
+    threatens to appeal from Washington to Massachusetts, 159;
+    demands denial from Washington of Jay's statements, 159;
+    loses popular support, 160;
+    tries to raise a force to invade Southwest, 161;
+    prevented by state and federal authorities, 162;
+    his arrival the signal for divisions of parties, 237;
+    hurts Democratic party by his excesses, 241;
+    suggests clubs, 241.
+
+  George IV.,
+    Washington's opinion of, ii. 346.
+
+  Georgia,
+    quarrels with Creeks, asks aid of United States, ii. 90;
+    becomes dissatisfied with treaty, 91;
+    disregards treaties of the United States, 103.
+
+  Gerard, M.,
+    notifies Washington of return of D'Estaing, i. 246.
+
+  Germantown,
+    battle of, i. 199.
+
+  Gerry, Elbridge,
+    on special mission to France, ii. 284;
+    disliked by Washington, 292.
+
+  Giles, W.B.,
+    attacks Washington in Congress, ii. 251, 252.
+
+  Gist, Christopher,
+    accompanies Washington on his mission to French, i. 66;
+    wishes to shoot French Indians, 68.
+
+  Gordon,----,
+    letter of Washington to, i. 227.
+
+  Graves, Admiral,
+    sent to relieve Cornwallis, i. 312; defeated by De Grasse, 312.
+
+  Grayson, William,
+    hunts with Washington, i. 115; letter to, ii. 22.
+
+  Green Springs,
+    battle of, i. 307.
+
+  Greene, General Nathanael,
+    commands at Long Island, ill with fever, i. 164;
+    wishes forts on Hudson held, 174;
+    late in attacking at Germantown, 199;
+    conducts retreat, 200;
+    succeeds Mifflin as quartermaster-general, 232;
+    selected by Washington to command in South, 268;
+    commands army at New York in absence of Washington, 282;
+    appointed to command Southern army, 295;
+    retreats from Cornwallis, 302;
+    fights battle of Guilford Court House, 302;
+    clears Southern States of enemy, 302;
+    strong position, 304;
+    reinforced by Washington, 322;
+    letter to, 325;
+    his military capacity early recognized by Washington, ii. 334;
+    amuses Washington, 374.
+
+  Greene, Mrs.----,
+    dances three hours with Washington, ii. 380.
+
+  Grenville, Lord,
+    denies that ministry has incited Indians against United States,
+  ii. 175;
+    receives Jay, 180;
+    declines to grant United States trade with West Indies, 181.
+
+  Griffin, David,
+    commissioner to treat with Creeks, ii. 90.
+
+  Griffin,----,
+    fails to help Washington at Trenton, i. 180.
+
+  Grymes, Lucy,
+    the "Lowland Beauty," love affair of Washington with, i. 95;
+    marries Henry Lee, 96.
+
+
+  HALDIMAND, SIR FREDERICK,
+    leads Indians against colonists, i. 325.
+
+  Hale, Nathan, compared with Andre, i. 288.
+
+  Half-King,
+    kept to English alliance by Washington, i. 68;
+    his criticism of Washington's first campaign, 76.
+
+  Hamilton, Alexander,
+    forces Gates to send back troops to Washington, i. 216, 217;
+    remark on councils of war before Monmouth, 234;
+    informs Washington of Arnold's treason, 284;
+    sent to intercept Arnold, 285;
+    writes letters on government and finance, 298;
+    leads attack at Yorktown, i. 316;
+    requests release of Asgill, 329;
+    aids Washington in Congress, 333;
+    only man beside Washington and Franklin to realize American future,
+  ii. 7;
+    letters of Washington to on necessity of a strong government, 17, 18;
+    writes letters to Duane and Morris, 19;
+    speech in Federal Convention and departure, 35;
+    counseled by Washington, 39;
+    consulted by Washington as to etiquette, 54;
+    made secretary of treasury, 66;
+    his character, 67;
+    his report on the mint, 81;
+    on the public credit, 107;
+    upheld by Washington, 107, 108;
+    his arrangement with Jefferson, 108;
+    argument on the bank, 110;
+    his success largely due to Washington, 112;
+    his report on manufactures, 112, 114, 116;
+    advocates an excise, 122;
+    fails to realize its unpopularity, 123;
+    accompanies expedition to suppress Whiskey Rebellion, 128;
+    comprehends French Revolution, 139;
+    frames questions to cabinet on neutrality, 147;
+    urges decisive measures against Genet, 154;
+    argues against United States being bound by French treaty, 169;
+    selected for English mission, but withdraws, 177;
+    not likely to have done better than Jay, 183;
+    mobbed in defending Jay treaty, 187;
+    writes Camillus letters in favor of Jay treaty, 206;
+    intrigued against by Monroe, 212;
+    causes for his breach with Jefferson, 224;
+    his aristocratic tendencies, 225;
+    attacked by Jefferson and his friends, 228, 229;
+    disposes of the charges, 229;
+    retorts in newspapers with effect, 230;
+    ceases at Washington's request, 230, 234;
+    resigns from the cabinet, 234;
+    desires Washington's reelection, 235;
+    selected by Washing, ton as senior general, 286;
+    appeals to Washington against Adams's reversal of rank, 286;
+    fails to soothe Knox's anger, 288;
+    report on army organization, 290;
+    letter of Washington to, condemning Adams's French mission, 293;
+    fears anarchy from Democratic success, 295;
+    approves Alien and Sedition Acts, 296;
+    his scheme of a military academy approved by Washington, 299;
+    Washington's affection for, 317, 362;
+    his ability early recognized by Washington, 334, 335;
+    aids Washington in literary points, 340;
+    takes care of Lafayette's son, 366.
+
+  Hammond, George,
+    protests against violations of neutrality, ii. 151;
+    his arrival as British minister, 169;
+    his offensive tone, 173;
+    does not disavow Lord Dorchester's speech to Indians, 176;
+    gives Fauchet letters to Wolcott, 195;
+    intrigues with American public men, 200.
+
+  Hampden, John,
+    compared with Washington, ii. 312, 313.
+
+  Hancock, John,
+    disappointed at Washington's receiving command of army, i. 135;
+    his character, ii. 74;
+    refuses to call first on Washington as President, 75;
+    apologizes and calls, 75, 76.
+
+  Hardin, Colonel,
+    twice surprised and defeated by Indians, ii. 93.
+
+  Harmar, Colonel,
+    invades Indian country, ii. 92;
+    attacks the Miamis, 93;
+    sends out unsuccessful expeditions and retreats, 93;
+    court-martialed and resigns, 93.
+
+  Harrison, Benjamin,
+    letters of Washington to, i. 259, 261; ii. 10.
+
+  Hartley, Mrs.----,
+    admired by Washington, i. 95.
+
+  Heard, Sir Isaac,
+    Garter King at Arms, makes out a pedigree for Washington, i. 30, 31.
+
+  Heath, General,
+    checks Howe at Frog's Point, i. 173;
+    left in command at New York, 311.
+
+  Henry, Patrick,
+    his resolutions supported by Washington, i. 119;
+    accompanies him to Philadelphia, 128;
+    his tribute to Washington's influence, 130;
+    ready for war, 132;
+    letters of Conway cabal to against Washington, 222;
+    letter of Washington to, 225;
+    appealed to by Washington on behalf of Constitution, ii. 38;
+    an opponent of the Constitution, 71;
+    urged by Washington to oppose Virginia resolutions, 266-268, 293;
+    a genuine American, 309;
+    offered secretaryship of state, 324;
+    friendship of Washington for, 362.
+
+  Hertburn, Sir William de,
+    ancestor of Washington family, i. 31, 33.
+
+  Hessians,
+    in Revolution, i. 194.
+
+  Hickey, Thomas,
+    hanged for plotting to murder Washington, i. 160.
+
+  Hobby,----, a sexton,
+    Washington's earliest teacher, i. 48.
+
+  Hopkinson, Francis,
+    letter of Washington to, ii. 3.
+
+  Houdon, J.A., sculptor,
+    on Washington's appearance, ii. 386.
+
+  Howe, Lord,
+    arrives at New York with power to negotiate and pardon, i. 161;
+    refuses to give Washington his title, 161;
+    tries to negotiate with Congress, 167;
+    escapes D'Estaing at Delaware, 244;
+    attacks D'Estaing off Newport, 244.
+
+  Howe, Sir William,
+    has controversy with Washington over treatment of prisoners, i. 148;
+    checked at Frog's Point, 173;
+    attacks cautiously at Chatterton Hill, 173;
+    retreats and attacks forts on Hudson, 174;
+    takes Fort Washington, 175;
+    goes into winter quarters in New York, 177, 186;
+    suspected of purpose to meet Burgoyne, 194, 195;
+    baffled in advance across New Jersey by Washington, 194;
+    goes by sea, 195;
+    arrives at Head of Elk, 196;
+    defeats Washington at Brandywine, 197;
+    camps at Germantown, 199;
+    withdraws after Germantown into Philadelphia, 201;
+    folly of his failure to meet Burgoyne, 205, 206;
+    offers battle in vain to Washington, 218;
+    replaced by Clinton, 232;
+    tries to cut off Lafayette, 233.
+
+  Huddy, Captain,
+    captured by English, hanged by Tories, i. 327.
+
+  Humphreys, Colonel,
+    letters of Washington to, ii. 13, 339;
+    at opening of Congress, 78;
+    commissioner to treat with Creeks, 90;
+    anecdote of, 375.
+
+  Huntington, Lady,
+    asks Washington's aid in Christianizing Indians, ii. 4.
+
+
+  IMPRESSMENT,
+    right of, maintained by England, ii. 181.
+
+  Independence,
+    not wished, but foreseen, by Washington, i. 131, 156;
+    declared by Congress, possibly through Washington's influence, 160.
+
+  Indians,
+    wars with in Virginia, i. 37, 38;
+    in French and Indian war, 67,68;
+    desert English, 76;
+    in Braddock's defeat, 85, 86, 88;
+    restless before Revolution, 122;
+    in War of Revolution, 266, 270;
+    punished by Sullivan, 269;
+    policy toward, early suggested by Washington, 344;
+    recommendations relative to in Washington's address to Congress,
+  ii. 82;
+    the "Indian problem" under Washington's administration, 83-105;
+    erroneous popular ideas of, 84, 85;
+    real character and military ability, 85-87;
+    understood by Washington, 87, 88;
+    a real danger in 1788, 88;
+    situation in the Northwest, 89;
+    difficulties with Cherokees and Creeks, 89, 90;
+    influence of Spanish intrigue, 90;
+    successful treaty with Creeks, 90, 91;
+    wisdom of this policy, 92;
+    warfare in the Northwest, 92;
+    defeats of Harmar and Hardin, 93;
+    causes for the failure, 93, 94;
+    intrigues of England, 92, 94, 175, 178;
+    expedition and defeat of St. Clair, 95-97;
+    results, 99;
+    expedition of Wayne, 100, 102;
+    his victory, 103;
+    success of Washington's policy toward, 104, 105.
+
+  Iredell, James,
+    appointed to Supreme Court, ii. 73.
+
+
+  JACKSON, MAJOR,
+    accompanies Washington to opening of Congress, ii. 78.
+
+  Jameson, Colonel,
+    forwards Andrews letter to Arnold, i. 284;
+    receives orders from Washington, 285.
+
+  Jay, John,
+    on opposition in Congress, to Washington, i. 222;
+    consulted by Washington as to etiquette, ii. 54;
+    appointed chief justice, 72;
+    publishes card against Genet, 159;
+    appointed on special mission to England, 177;
+    his character, 177;
+    instructions from Washington, 179;
+    his reception in England, 180;
+    difficulties in negotiating, 181;
+    concludes treaty, 182;
+    burnt in effigy while absent, 186;
+    execrated after news of treaty, 187;
+    hampered by Monroe in France, 213.
+
+  Jay treaty, ii. 180-184;
+    opposition to and debate over signing, 184-201;
+    reasons of Washington for signing, 205.
+
+  Jefferson, Thomas,
+    his flight from Cornwallis, i. 307;
+    discusses with Washington needs of government, ii. 9;
+    adopts French democratic phraseology, 27;
+    contrast with Washington, 27, 28, 69;
+    criticises Washington's manners, 56;
+    made secretary of state, 68;
+    his previous relations with Washington, 68;
+    his character, 69;
+    supposed to be a friend of the Constitution, 72;
+    his objections to President's opening Congress, 79;
+    on weights and measures, 81;
+    letter of Washington to on assumption of state debts, 107;
+    makes bargain with Hamilton, 108;
+    opposes a bank, 110;
+    asked to prepare neutrality instructions, 146;
+    upholds Genet, 153;
+    argues against him publicly, supports him privately, 154;
+    notified of French privateer Little Sarah, 155;
+    allows it to sail, 155;
+    retires to country and is censured by Washington, 156;
+    assures Washington that vessel will wait his decision, 156;
+    his un-American attitude, 157;
+    wishes to make terms of note demanding Genet's recall mild, 158;
+    argues that United States is bound by French treaty, 170, 171;
+    begs Madison to answer Hamilton's "Camillus" letters, 206;
+    his attitude upon first entering cabinet, 223;
+    causes for his breach with Hamilton, 224;
+    jealousy, incompatibility of temper, 224;
+    his democratic opinions, 225;
+    skill in creating party catch-words, 225;
+    prints "Rights of Man" with note against Adams, 226;
+    attacks him further in letter to Washington, 226;
+    brings Freneau to Philadelphia and gives him an office, 227;
+    denies any connection with Freneau's newspaper, 227;
+    his real responsibility, 228;
+    his purpose to undermine Hamilton, 228;
+    causes his friends to attack him, 229;
+    writes a letter to Washington attacking Hamilton's treasury measures,
+  229;
+    fails to produce any effect, 230;
+    winces under Hamilton's counter attacks, 230;
+    reiterates charges and asserts devotion to Constitution, 231;
+    continues attacks and resigns, 234;
+    wishes reelection of Washington, 235;
+    his charge of British sympathies resented by Washington, 252;
+    plain letter of Washington to, 259;
+    Washington's opinion of, 259;
+    suggests Logan's mission to France, 262, 265;
+    takes oath as vice-president, 276;
+    regarded as a Jacobin by Federalists, 294;
+    jealous of Washington, 306;
+    accuses him of senility, 307;
+    a genuine American, 309.
+
+  Johnson, William,
+    Tory leader in New York, i. 143.
+
+  Johnstone, Governor,
+    peace commissioner, i. 233.
+
+  Jumonville, De, French leader,
+    declared to have been assassinated by Washington, i. 74,79;
+    really a scout and spy, 75.
+
+
+  KENTUCKY RESOLUTIONS,
+    condemned by Washington, ii. 266-268.
+
+  King, Clarence,
+    his opinion that Washington was not American, ii. 308.
+
+  King, Rufus,
+    publishes card exposing Genet, ii. 159.
+
+  King's Bridge,
+    fight at, i. 170.
+
+  Kip's Landing,
+    fight at, i. 168.
+
+  Kirkland, Rev. Samuel,
+    negotiates with Six Nations, ii. 101.
+
+  Knox, Henry,
+    brings artillery to Boston from Ticonderoga, i. 152;
+    accompanies Washington to meet De Rochambeau, 283;
+    at West Point, 285;
+    sent by Washington to confer with governors of States, 295;
+    urged by Washington to establish Western posts, ii. 7;
+    letters of Washington to, 30, 39;
+    made secretary of war, 65;
+    his character, 65;
+    a Federalist, 71;
+    deals with Creeks, 91;
+    urges decisive measure against Genet, 154, 155;
+    letters of Washington to, 260;
+    selected by Washington as third major-general, 286;
+    given first place by Adams, 286;
+    angry at Hamilton's higher rank, 288;
+    refuses the office, 289;
+    his offer to serve on Washington's staff refused, 289;
+    Washington's affection for, 317, 362.
+
+
+  LAFAYETTE, Madame de,
+    aided by Washington, ii. 366;
+    letter of Washington to, 377.
+
+  Lafayette, Marquis de,
+    Washington's regard for, i. 192;
+    his opinion of Continental troops, 196;
+    sent on fruitless journey to the lakes by cabal, 222, 253;
+    encouraged by Washington, 225;
+    narrowly escapes being cut off by Clinton, 233;
+    appointed to attack British rear, 235;
+    superseded by Lee, 235;
+    urges Washington to come, 235;
+    letter of Washington to, regarding quarrel between D'Estaing and
+  Sullivan, 245;
+    regard of Washington for, 249;
+    desires to conquer Canada, 254;
+    his plan not supported in France, 256;
+    works to get a French army sent, 264;
+    brings news of French army and fleet, 274;
+    tries to get De Rochambeau to attack New York, 280;
+    accompanies Washington to meet De Rochambeau, 283;
+    told by Washington of Arnold's treachery, 285;
+    on court to try Andre, 287;
+    opinion of Continental soldiers, 293;
+    harasses Cornwallis, 307;
+    defeated at Green Springs, 307;
+    watches Cornwallis at Yorktown, 308;
+    reinforced by De Grasse, 312;
+    persuades him to remain, 315;
+    sends Washington French wolf-hounds, ii. 2;
+    letters of Washington to, 23, 26, 118, 144, 165, 222, 261;
+    his son not received by Washington, 253;
+    later taken care of, 277, 281, 366;
+    his worth, early seen by Washington, 334;
+    Washington's affection for, 365;
+    sends key of Bastile to Mt. Vernon, 365;
+    helped by Washington, 365,366.
+
+  Laurens, Henry,
+    letter of Conway cabal to, making attack on Washington, i. 222;
+    letters of Washington to, 254, 288;
+    sent to Paris to get loans, 299.
+
+  Lauzun, Duc de,
+    repulses Tarleton at Yorktown, i. 317.
+
+
+  Lear, Tobias,
+    Washington's secretary, ii. 263;
+    his account of Washington's last illness, 299-303, 385;
+    letters to, 361, 382.
+
+  Lee, Arthur,
+    example of Virginia gentleman educated abroad, i. 23.
+
+  Lee, Charles,
+    visits Mt. Vernon, his character, i. 132;
+    accompanies Washington to Boston, 136;
+    aids Washington in organizing army, 140;
+    disobeys orders and is captured, 175;
+    objects to attacking Clinton, 234;
+    first refuses, then claims command of van, 235;
+    disobeys orders and retreats, 236;
+    rebuked by Washington, 236, 237;
+    court martial of and dismissal from army, 237;
+    his witty remark on taking oath of allegiance, ii. 375.
+
+  Lee, Henry, marries Lucy Grymes,
+    Washington's "Lowland Beauty," i. 96.
+
+  Lee, Henry,
+    son of Lucy Grymes, Washington's "Lowland Beauty," i. 96; ii. 362;
+    captures Paulus Hook, i. 269;
+    letters of Washington to, ii. 23, 26, 149, 235, 239, 242, 252;
+    considered for command against Indians, 100;
+    commands troops to suppress Whiskey Rebellion, 127;
+    Washington's affection for, 362.
+
+  Lee, Richard Henry,
+    unfriendly to Washington, i. 214;
+    letter of Washington to, ii. 160.
+
+  Lewis, Lawrence,
+    at opening of Congress, ii. 78;
+    takes social duties at Mt. Vernon, 280.
+
+  Liancourt, Duc de,
+    refused reception by Washington, ii. 253.
+
+  Lincoln, Abraham,
+    compared with Washington, i. 349; ii. 308-313.
+
+  Lincoln, Benjamin,
+    sent by Washington against Burgoyne, i. 210;
+    fails to understand Washington's policy and tries to hold Charleston,
+  273, 274;
+    captured, 276;
+    commissioner to treat with Creeks, ii. 90.
+
+  Lippencott, Captain,
+    orders hanging of Huddy, i. 327;
+    acquitted by English court martial, 328.
+
+  Little Sarah,
+    the affair of, 155-157.
+
+  Livingston, Chancellor,
+    administers oath at Washington's inauguration, ii. 46.
+
+  Livingston, Edward,
+    moves call for papers relating to Jay treaty, ii. 207.
+
+  Logan, Dr. George,
+    goes on volunteer mission to France, ii. 262;
+    ridiculed by Federalists, publishes defense, 263;
+    calls upon Washington, 263;
+    mercilessly snubbed, 263-265.
+
+  Long Island,
+    battle of, i. 164,165.
+
+  London, Lord,
+    disappoints Washington by his inefficiency, i. 91.
+
+  Lovell, James,
+    follows the Adamses in opposing Washington, i. 214;
+    wishes to supplant him by Gates, 215;
+    writes hostile letters, 222.
+
+
+  MACKENZIE, CAPTAIN,
+    letter of Washington to, i. 130.
+
+  Madison, James,
+    begins to desire a stronger government, ii. 19, 29;
+    letters of Washington to, 30, 39, 53;
+    chosen for French mission, but does not go, 211.
+
+  Magaw, Colonel,
+    betrayed at Fort Washington, i. 175.
+
+  "Magnolia,"
+    Washington's pet colt, beaten in a race, i. 99, 113; ii. 381.
+
+  Marshall, John,
+    Chief Justice, on special commission to France, ii. 284;
+    tells anecdote of Washington's anger at cowardice, 392.
+
+  Maryland, the Washington family in, i.36.
+
+  Mason, George,
+    discusses political outlook with Washington, i. 119;
+    letter of Washington to, 263;
+    an opponent of the Constitution, ii. 71;
+    friendship of Washington for, 362;
+    debates with Washington the site of Pohick Church, 381.
+
+  Mason, S.T.,
+    communicates Jay treaty to Bache, ii. 185.
+
+  Massey, Rev. Lee,
+    rector of Pohick Church, i. 44.
+
+  Mathews, George,
+    letter of Washington to, i. 294.
+
+  Matthews, Edward,
+    makes raids in Virginia, i. 269.
+
+  Mawhood, General,
+    defeated at Princeton, i. 182.
+
+  McGillivray, Alexander,
+    chief of the Creeks, ii. 90;
+    his journey to New York and interview with Washington, 91.
+
+  McHenry, James,
+    at West Point, i. 284;
+    letters to, 325, ii. 22, 278, 287, 384;
+    becomes secretary of war, 246;
+    advised by Washington not to appoint Democrats, 260, 261.
+
+  McKean, Thomas, given letters to Dr. Logan, ii. 265.
+
+  McMaster, John B.,
+    calls Washington "an unknown man," i. 7, ii. 304;
+    calls him cold, 332, 352;
+    and avaricious in small ways, 352.
+
+  Meade, Colonel Richard,
+    Washington's opinion of, ii. 335.
+
+  Mercer, Hugh,
+    killed at Princeton, i. 182.
+
+  Merlin,----,
+    president of Directory, interview with Dr. Logan, ii. 265.
+
+  Mifflin, Thomas,
+    wishes to supplant Washington by Gates, i. 216;
+    member of board of war, 221;
+    put under Washington's orders, 226;
+    replies to Washington's surrender of commission, 349;
+    meets Washington on journey to inauguration, ii. 44;
+    notified of the Little Sarah, French privateer, 154;
+    orders its seizure, 155.
+
+  Militia,
+    abandon Continental army, i. 167;
+    cowardice of, 168;
+    despised by Washington, 169;
+    leave army again, 175;
+    assist in defeat of Burgoyne, 211.
+
+  Mischianza, i. 232.
+
+  Monmouth,
+    battle of, i. 235-239.
+
+  Monroe, James,
+    appointed minister to France, ii. 211;
+    his character, 212;
+    intrigues against Hamilton, 212;
+    effusively received in Paris, 212;
+    acts foolishly, 213;
+    tries to interfere with Jay, 213;
+    upheld, then condemned and recalled by Washington, 213, 214;
+    writes a vindication, 215;
+    Washington's opinion of him, 215, 216;
+    his selection one of Washington's few mistakes, 334.
+
+  Montgomery, General Richard,
+    sent by Washington to invade Canada, i. 143.
+
+  Morgan, Daniel,
+    sent against Burgoyne by Washington, i. 208;
+    at Saratoga, 210;
+    wins battle of Cowpens, joins Greene, 301.
+
+  Morris, Gouverneur,
+    letters of Washington to, i. 248, 263;
+    efforts towards financial reform, 264;
+    quotes speech of Washington at Federal convention in his eulogy,
+  ii. 31;
+    discussion as to his value as an authority, 32, note;
+    goes to England on unofficial mission, 137;
+    balked by English insolence, 137;
+    comprehends French Revolution, 139;
+    letters of Washington to, on the Revolution, 140,142,145;
+    recall demanded by France, 211;
+    letter of Washington to, 217,240, 254;
+    Washington's friendship for, 363.
+
+  Morris, Robert,
+    letter of Washington to, i. 187;
+    helps Washington to pay troops, 259;
+    efforts towards financial reform, 264;
+    difficulty in helping Washington in 1781, 309, 312;
+    considered for secretary of treasury, ii. 66;
+    his bank policy approved by Washington, 110;
+    Washington's friendship for, 363.
+
+  Moustier,
+    demands private access to Washington, ii. 59;
+    refused, 59, 60.
+
+  Murray, Vans, minister in Holland,
+    interview with Dr. Logan, ii. 264;
+    nominated for French mission by Adams, 292;
+    written to by Washington, 292.
+
+  Muse, Adjutant,
+    trains Washington in tactics and art of war, i. 65.
+
+
+  NAPOLEON,
+    orders public mourning for Washington's death, i. 1.
+
+  Nelson, General,
+    letter of Washington to, i. 257.
+
+  Newburgh,
+    addresses, ii. 335.
+
+  New England,
+    character of people, i. 138;
+    attitude toward Washington, 138, 139;
+    troops disliked by Washington, 152;
+    later praised by him, 152, 317, 344;
+    threatened by Burgoyne's invasion, 204;
+    its delegates in Congress demand appointment of Gates, 208;
+    and oppose Washington, 214;
+    welcomes Washington on tour as President, ii. 74;
+    more democratic than other colonies before Revolution, 315;
+    disliked by Washington for this reason, 316.
+
+  Newenham, Sir Edward,
+    letter of Washington to on American foreign policy, ii. 133.
+
+  New York,
+    Washington's first visit to, i. 99, 100;
+    defense of, in Revolution, 159-169;
+    abandoned by Washington, 169;
+    Howe establishes himself in, 177;
+    reoccupied by Clinton, 264;
+    Washington's journey to, ii. 44;
+    inauguration in, 46;
+    rioting in, against Jay treaty, 187.
+
+  Nicholas, John,
+    letter of Washington to, ii. 259.
+
+  Nicola, Col.,
+    urges Washington to establish a despotism, i. 337.
+
+  Noailles, Vicomte de, French emigre,
+    referred to State Department, ii. 151, 253.
+
+
+  O'FLINN, CAPTAIN,
+    Washington's friendship with, ii. 318.
+
+  Organization of the national government,
+    absence of materials to work with, ii. 51;
+    debate over title of President, 52;
+    over his communications with Senate, 53;
+    over presidential etiquette, 53-56;
+    appointment of officials to cabinet offices established by Congress,
+  64-71;
+    appointment of supreme court judges, 72.
+
+  Orme,----,
+    letter of Washington to, i. 84.
+
+
+  PAINE, THOMAS,
+    his "Rights of Man" reprinted by Jefferson, ii. 226.
+
+  Parkinson, Richard,
+    says Washington was harsh to slaves, i. 105;
+    contradicts statement elsewhere, 106;
+    tells stories of Washington's pecuniary exactness, ii. 353, 354, 382;
+    his character, 355;
+    his high opinion of Washington, 356.
+
+  Parton, James,
+    considers Washington as good but commonplace, ii. 330, 374.
+
+  Peachey, Captain,
+    letter of Washington to, i. 92.
+
+  Pendleton, Edmund,
+    Virginia delegate to Continental Congress, i. 128.
+
+  Pennsylvania,
+    refuses to fight the French, i. 72,83;
+    fails to help Washington, 225;
+    remonstrates against his going into winter quarters, 229;
+    condemned by Washington, 229;
+    compromises with mutineers, 292.
+
+  Philipse, Mary,
+    brief love-affair of Washington with, i. 99, 100.
+
+  Phillips, General,
+    commands British troops in Virginia, i. 303;
+    death of, 303.
+
+  Pickering, Colonel, quiets Six Nations, ii. 94.
+
+  Pickering, Timothy,
+    letter of Washington to, on French Revolution, ii. 140;
+    on failure of Spanish negotiations, 166;
+    recalls Washington to Philadelphia to receive Fauchet letter, 195;
+    succeeds Randolph, 246;
+    letters of Washington to, on party government, 247;
+    appeals to Washington against Adams's reversal of Hamilton's rank,
+  286;
+    letters of Washington to, 292, 324;
+    criticises Washington as a commonplace person, 307.
+
+  Pinckney, Charles C.,
+    letter of Washington to, ii. 90;
+    appointed to succeed Monroe as minister to France, 214;
+    refused reception, 284;
+    sent on special commission, 284;
+    named by Washington as general, 286;
+    accepts without complaint of Hamilton's higher rank, 290;
+    Washington's friendship with, 363.
+
+  Pinckney, Thomas,
+    sent on special mission to Spain, ii. 166;
+    unsuccessful at first, 166;
+    succeeds in making a good treaty, 167;
+    credit of his exploit, 168;
+    letter of Washington to, 325.
+
+  Pitt, William,
+    his conduct of French war, i. 93, 94.
+
+  Princeton,
+    battle of, i. 181-3.
+
+  Privateers,
+    sent out by Washington, i. 150.
+
+  "Protection"
+    favored in the first Congress, ii. 113-115;
+    arguments of Hamilton for, 114, 115;
+    of Washington, 116-122.
+
+  Provincialism,
+    of Americans, i. 193;
+    with regard to foreign officers, 193, 234, 250-252;
+    with regard to foreign politics, ii. 131, 132, 163, 237, 255.
+
+  Putnam, Israel,
+    escapes with difficulty from New York, i. 169;
+    fails to help Washington at Trenton, 180;
+    warned to defend the Hudson, 195;
+    tells Washington of Burgoyne's surrender, 211;
+    rebuked by Washington, 217;
+    amuses Washington, ii. 374.
+
+
+  RAHL, COLONEL,
+    defeated and killed at Trenton, i. 181.
+
+  Randolph, Edmund,
+    letter of Washington to, ii. 30, 39;
+    relations with Washington, 64;
+    appointed attorney-general, 64;
+    his character, 64, 65;
+    a friend of the Constitution, 71;
+    opposes a bank, 110;
+    letter of Washington to, on protective bounties, 118;
+    drafts neutrality proclamation, 147;
+    vacillates with regard to Genet, 154;
+    argues that United States is bound by French alliance, 170;
+    succeeds Jefferson as secretary of state, 184;
+    directed to prepare a remonstrance against English "provision order,"
+  185;
+    opposed to Jay treaty, 188;
+    letter of Washington to, on conditional ratification, 189, 191, 192,
+  194;
+    guilty, apparently, from Fauchet letter, of corrupt practices, 196;
+    his position not a cause for Washington's signing treaty, 196-200;
+    receives Fauchet letter, resigns, 201;
+    his personal honesty, 201;
+    his discreditable carelessness, 202;
+    fairly treated by Washington, 203, 204;
+    his complaints against Washington, 203;
+    letter of Washington to, concerning Monroe, 213;
+    at first a Federalist, 246.
+
+  Randolph, John,
+    on early disappearance of Virginia colonial society, i. 15.
+
+  Rawdon, Lord,
+    commands British forces in South, too distant to help Cornwallis,
+  i. 304.
+
+  Reed, Joseph,
+    letters of Washington to, i. 151, 260.
+
+  Revolution, War of,
+    foreseen by Washington, i. 120, 122;
+    Lexington and Concord, 133;
+    Bunker Hill, 136;
+    siege of Boston, 137-154;
+    organization of army, 139-142;
+    operations in New York, 143;
+    invasion of Canada, 143, 144;
+    question as to treatment of prisoners, 145-148;
+    causes of British defeat, 154, 155;
+    campaign near New York, 161-177;
+    causes for attempted defense of Brooklyn, 163, 164;
+    battle of Long Island, 164-165;
+    escape of Americans, 166;
+    affair at Kip's Bay, 168;
+    at King's Bridge, 170;
+    at Frog's Point, 173;
+    battle of White Plains, 173;
+    at Chatterton Hill, 174;
+    capture of Forts Washington and Lee, 174, 175;
+    pursuit of Washington into New Jersey, 175-177;
+    retirement of Howe to New York, 177;
+    battle of Trenton, 180, 181;
+    campaign of Princeton, 181-183;
+    its brilliancy, 183;
+    Philadelphia campaign, 194-202;
+    British march across New Jersey prevented by Washington, 194;
+    sea voyage to Delaware, 195;
+    battle of the Brandywine, 196-198;
+    causes for defeat, 198;
+    defeat of Wayne, 198;
+    Philadelphia taken by Howe, 199;
+    battle of Germantown, 199;
+    its significance, 200, 201;
+    Burgoyne's invasion, 203-211;
+    Washington's preparations for, 204-206;
+    Howe's error in neglecting to cooperate, 205;
+    capture of Ticonderoga, 207;
+    battles of Bennington, Oriskany, Fort Schuyler, 210;
+    battle of Saratoga, 211;
+    British repulse at Fort Mercer, 217;
+    destruction of the forts, 217;
+    fruitless skirmishing before Philadelphia, 218;
+    Valley Forge, 228-232;
+    evacuation of Philadelphia, 234;
+    battle of Monmouth, 235-239;
+    its effect, 239;
+    cruise and failure of D'Estaing at Newport, 243, 244;
+    failure of D'Estaing at Savannah, 247, 248;
+    storming of Stony Point, 268, 269;
+    Tory raids near New York, 269;
+    standstill in 1780, 272;
+    siege and capture of Charleston, 273, 274, 276;
+    operations of French and Americans near Newport, 277, 278;
+    battle of Camden, 281;
+    treason of Arnold, 281-289;
+    battle of Cowpens, 301;
+    retreat of Greene before Cornwallis, 302;
+    battle of Guilford Court House, 302;
+    successful operations of Greene, 302, 303;
+    Southern campaign planned by Washington, 304-311;
+    feints against Clinton, 306;
+    operations of Cornwallis and Lafayette in Virginia, 307;
+    naval supremacy secured by Washington, 310, 311;
+    battle of De Grasse and Graves off Chesapeake, 312;
+    transport of American army to Virginia, 311-313;
+    siege and capture of Yorktown, 315-318;
+    masterly character of campaign, 318-320;
+    petty operations before New York, 326;
+    treaty of peace, 342.
+
+  Rives,
+    on Washington's doubts of constitutionality of Bank, ii. 110.
+
+  Robinson, Beverly,
+    speaker of Virginia House of Burgesses, his compliment to Washington,
+  i. 102.
+
+  Robinson, Colonel,
+    loyalist, i. 282.
+
+  Rumsey, James,
+    the inventor, asks Washington's consideration of his steamboat, ii. 4.
+
+  Rush, Benjamin,
+    describes Washington's impressiveness, ii. 389.
+
+  Rutledge, John,
+    letter of Washington to, i. 281;
+    nomination rejected by Senate, ii. 63;
+    nominated to Supreme Court, 73.
+
+
+  ST. CLAIR, Arthur,
+    removed after loss of Ticonderoga, i. 208;
+    appointed to command against Indians, ii. 94;
+    receives instructions and begins expedition, 95;
+    defeated, 96;
+    his character, 99;
+    fair treatment by Washington, 99;
+    popular execration of, 105.
+
+  St. Pierre, M. de,
+    French governor in Ohio, i. 67.
+
+  St. Simon, Count,
+    reinforces Lafayette, i. 312.
+
+  Sandwich, Lord,
+    calls all Yankees cowards, i. 155.
+
+  Saratoga,
+    anecdote concerning, i. 202.
+
+  Savage, Edward,
+    characteristics of his portrait of Washington, i. 13.
+
+  Savannah,
+    siege of, i. 247.
+
+  Scammel, Colonel,
+    amuses Washington, ii. 374.
+
+  Schuyler, Philip,
+    accompanies Washington to Boston, i. 136;
+    appointed military head in New York, 136;
+    directed by Washington how to meet Burgoyne, 204;
+    fails to carry out directions, 207;
+    removed, 208;
+    value of his preparations, 209.
+
+  Scott, Charles, commands expedition against Indians, ii. 95.
+
+  Sea-power,
+    its necessity seen by Washington, i. 283, 303, 304, 306, 310, 318, 319.
+
+  Sectional feeling,
+    deplored by Washington, ii. 222.
+
+  Sharpe, Governor,
+    offers Washington a company, i. 80;
+    Washington's reply to, 81.
+
+  Shays's Rebellion,
+    comments of Washington and Jefferson upon, ii. 26, 27.
+
+  Sherman, Roger,
+    makes sarcastic remark about Wilkinson, i. 220.
+
+  Shirley, Governor William,
+    adjusts matter of Washington's rank, i. 91, 97.
+
+  Short, William, minister to Holland,
+    on commission regarding opening of Mississippi, ii. 166.
+
+  Six Nations,
+    make satisfactory treaties, ii. 88;
+    stirred up by English, 94;
+    but pacified, 94, 101.
+
+  Slavery,
+    in Virginia, i. 20;
+    its evil effects, 104;
+    Washington's attitude toward slaves, 105;
+    his condemnation of the system, 106, 107;
+    gradual emancipation favored, 107, 108.
+
+  Smith, Colonel,
+    letter of Washington to, ii. 340.
+
+  Spain,
+    instigates Indians to hostilities, ii. 89, 94, 101;
+    blocks Mississippi, 135;
+    makes treaty with Pinckney opening Mississippi, 167, 168;
+    angered at Jay treaty, 210.
+
+  Sparks, Jared,
+    his alterations of Washington's letters, ii. 337, 338.
+
+  Spotswood, Alexander,
+    asks Washington's opinion of Alien and Sedition Acts, ii. 297.
+
+  Stamp Act,
+    Washington's opinion of, i. 119, 120.
+
+  Stark, General,
+    leads attack at Trenton, i. 181.
+
+  States, in the Revolutionary war,
+    appeals of Washington to, i. 142, 186, 204, 259, 277, 295, 306, 323,
+  324, 326, 344;
+    issue paper money, 258;
+    grow tired of the war, 290;
+    alarmed by mutinies, 294;
+    try to appease soldiers, 295, 296;
+    their selfishness condemned by Washington, 333; ii. 21, 23;
+    thwart Indian policy of Congress, 88.
+
+  Stephen, Adam,
+    late in attacking at Germantown, i. 199.
+
+  Steuben, Baron,
+    Washington's appreciation of, i. 192, 249;
+    drills the army at Valley Forge, 232;
+    annoys Washington by wishing higher command, 249;
+    sent on mission to demand surrender of Western posts, 343;
+    his worth recognized by Washington, ii. 334.
+
+  Stirling, Lord,
+    defeated and captured at Long Island, i. 165.
+
+  Stockton, Mrs.,
+    letter of Washington to, ii. 349.
+
+  Stone, General,
+    tells stories of Washington's closeness, ii. 353, 354.
+
+  Stuart, David,
+    letters of Washington to, ii. 107, 221, 222, 258.
+
+  Stuart, Gilbert,
+    his portrait of Washington contrasted with Savage's, i. 13.
+
+  Sullivan, John, General,
+    surprised at Long Island, i. 165;
+    attacks at Trenton, 180;
+    surprised and crushed at Brandywine, 197, 198;
+    unites with D'Estaing to attack Newport, 243;
+    angry at D'Estaing's desertion, 244;
+    soothed by Washington, 244;
+    sent against Indians, 266, 269.
+
+  Supreme Court,
+    appointed by Washington, ii. 72.
+
+
+  TAFT,----,
+    kindness of Washington toward, ii. 367.
+
+  Talleyrand,
+    eulogistic report to Napoleon on death of Washington, i. 1, note;
+    remark on Hamilton, ii. 139;
+    refused reception by Washington, 253.
+
+  Tarleton, Sir Banastre,
+    tries to escape at Yorktown, i. 317.
+
+  Thatcher, Dr.,
+    on Washington's appearance when taking command of army, i. 137.
+
+  Thomson, Charles,
+    complimented by Washington on retiring from secretary-ship of
+  Continental Congress, ii. 350.
+
+  Tories,
+    hated by Washington, i. 156;
+    his reasons, 157;
+    active in New York, 158;
+    suppressed by Washington, 159;
+    in Philadelphia, impressed by Continental army, 196;
+    make raids on frontier, 266;
+    strong in Southern States, 267;
+    raids under Tryon, 269.
+
+  Trent, Captain,
+    his incompetence in dealing with Indians and French, i. 72.
+
+  Trenton, campaign of, i. 180-183.
+
+  Trumbull, Governor,
+    letter of Washington to, refusing to stand for a third term,
+  ii. 269-271;
+    other letters, 298.
+
+  Trumbull, John,
+    on New England army before Boston, i. 139.
+
+  Trumbull, Jonathan,
+    his message on better government praised by Washington, ii. 21;
+    letters to, 42;
+    Washington's friendship for, 363.
+
+  Tryon, Governor,
+    Tory leader in New York, i. 143;
+    his intrigues stopped by Washington, 158, 159;
+    conspires to murder Washington, 160;
+    makes raids in Connecticut, 269.
+
+
+  VALLEY FORGE,
+    Continental Army at, i. 228-232.
+
+  Van Braam, Jacob,
+    friend of Lawrence Washington, trains George in fencing, i. 65;
+    accompanies him on mission to French, 66.
+
+  Vergennes,
+    requests release of Asgill, i. 329, 330;
+    letter of Washington to, 330;
+    proposes to submit disposition of a subsidy to Washington, 332.
+
+  Virginia, society in,
+    before the Revolution, i. 15-29;
+    its entire change since then, 15, 16;
+    population, distribution, and numbers, 17, 18;
+    absence of towns, 18;
+    and town life, 19;
+    trade and travel in, 19;
+    social classes, 20-24;
+    slaves and poor whites, 20;
+    clergy, 21;
+    planters and their estates, 22;
+    their life, 22;
+    education, 23;
+    habits of governing, 24;
+    luxury and extravagance, 25;
+    apparent wealth, 26;
+    agreeableness of life, 27;
+    aristocratic ideals, 28;
+    vigor of stock, 29;
+    unwilling to fight French, 71;
+    quarrels with Dinwiddie, 71;
+    thanks Washington after his French campaign, 79;
+    terrified at Braddock's defeat, 88;
+    gives Washington command, 89;
+    fails to support him, 89, 90, 93;
+    bad economic conditions in, 104,105;
+    local government in, 117;
+    condemns Stamp Act, 119;
+    adopts non-importation, 121;
+    condemns Boston Port Bill, 123;
+    asks opinion of counties, 124;
+    chooses delegates to a congress, 127;
+    prepares for war, 132;
+    British campaign in, 307, 315-318;
+    ratifies Constitution, ii. 40;
+    evil effect of free trade upon, 116, 117;
+    nullification resolutions, 266;
+    strength of its aristocracy, 315.
+
+
+  WADE, COLONEL,
+    in command at West Point after Arnold's flight, i. 285.
+
+  Walker, Benjamin,
+    letter of Washington to, ii. 257.
+
+  Warren, James,
+    letters of Washington to, i. 262, ii. 118.
+
+  Washington,
+    ancestry, i. 30-40;
+    early genealogical researches concerning, 30-32;
+    pedigree finally established, 32;
+    origin of family, 33;
+    various members during middle ages, 34;
+    on royalist side in English civil war, 34, 36;
+    character of family, 35;
+    emigration to Virginia, 35, 36;
+    career of Washingtons in Maryland, 37;
+    in Virginia history, 38;
+    their estates, 39.
+
+  Washington, Augustine, father of George Washington,
+    birth, i. 35;
+    death, 39;
+    character, 39;
+    his estate, 41;
+    ridiculous part played by in Weems's anecdotes, 44, 47.
+
+  Washington, Augustine, half brother of George Washington,
+    keeps him after his father's death, i. 48.
+
+  Washington, Bushrod,
+    refused appointment as attorney by Washington, ii. 62;
+    educated by him, 370.
+
+  Washington, George,
+    honors to his memory in France, i. 1;
+    in England, 2;
+    grief in America, 3, 4;
+    general admission of his greatness, 4;
+    its significance, 5, 6;
+    tributes from England, 6;
+    from other countries, 6, 7;
+    yet an "unknown" man, 7;
+    minuteness of knowledge concerning, 8;
+    has become subject of myths, 9;
+    development of the Weems myth about, 10, 11;
+    necessity of a new treatment of, 12;
+    significant difference of real and ideal portraits of, 13;
+    his silence regarding himself, 14;
+    underlying traits, 14.
+
+  _Early Life_.
+    Ancestry, 30-41;
+    birth, 39;
+    origin of Weems's anecdotes about, 41-44;
+    their absurdity and evil results, 45-48;
+    early schooling, 48;
+    plan to send him to sea, 49, 50;
+    studies to be a surveyor, 51;
+    his rules of behavior, 52;
+    his family connections with Fairfaxes, 54, 55;
+    his friendship with Lord Fairfax, 56;
+    surveys Fairfax's estate, 57, 58, 59;
+    made public surveyor, 60;
+    his life at the time, 60, 61;
+    influenced by Fairfax's cultivation, 62;
+    goes to West Indies with his brother, 62;
+    has the small-pox, 63;
+    observations on the voyage, 63, 64;
+    returns to Virginia, 64;
+    becomes guardian of his brother's daughter, 64.
+
+  _Service against the French and Indians_.
+    Receives military training, 65;
+    a military appointment, 66;
+    goes on expedition to treat with French, 66;
+    meets Indians, 67;
+    deals with French, 67;
+    dangers of journey, 68;
+    his impersonal account, 69, 70;
+    appointed to command force against French, 71, 72;
+    his anger at neglect of Virginia Assembly, 73;
+    attacks and defeats force of Jumonville, 74;
+    called murderer by the French, 74;
+    surrounded by French at Great Meadows, 76;
+    surrenders, 76;
+    recklessness of his expedition, 77, 78;
+    effect of experience upon, 79;
+    gains a European notoriety, 79;
+    thanked by Virginia, 79;
+    protests against Dinwiddie's organization of soldiers, 80;
+    refuses to serve when ranked by British officers, 81;
+    accepts position on Braddock's staff, 82;
+    his treatment there, 82;
+    advises Braddock, 84;
+    rebuked for warning against surprise, 85;
+    his bravery in the battle, 86;
+    conducts retreat, 86, 87;
+    effect of experience on him, 87;
+    declines to solicit command of Virginia troops, 88;
+    accepts it when offered, 88;
+    his difficulties with Assembly, 89;
+    and with troops, 90;
+    settles question of rank, 91;
+    writes freely in criticism of government, 91, 92;
+    retires for rest to Mt. Vernon, 93;
+    offers services to General Forbes, 93;
+    irritated at slowness of English, 93, 94;
+    his love affairs, 95, 96;
+    journey to Boston, 97-101;
+    at festivities in New York and Philadelphia, 99;
+    meets Martha Custis, 101;
+    his wedding, 101, 102;
+    elected to House of Burgesses, 102;
+    confused at being thanked by Assembly, 102;
+    his local position, 103;
+    tries to farm his estate, 104;
+    his management of slaves, 105, 106, 108, 109;
+    cares for interests of old soldiers, 109;
+    rebukes a coward, 110;
+    cares for education of stepson, 111;
+    his furnishing of house, 112;
+    hunting habits, 113-115;
+    punishes a poacher, 116;
+    participates in colonial and local government, 117;
+    enters into society, 117, 118.
+
+  _Congressional delegate from Virginia_.
+    His influence in Assembly, 119;
+    discusses Stamp Act with Mason, 119;
+    foresees result to be independence, 119;
+    rejoices at its repeal, but notes Declaratory Act, 120;
+    ready to use force to defend colonial rights, 120;
+    presents non-importation resolutions to Burgesses, 121;
+    abstains from English products, 121;
+    notes ominous movements among Indians, 122;
+    on good terms with royal governors, 122, 123;
+    observes fast on account of Boston Port Bill, 123;
+    has controversy with Bryan Fairfax over Parliamentary policy,
+  124, 125, 126;
+    presides at Fairfax County meeting, 126;
+    declares himself ready for action, 126;
+    at convention of counties, offers to march to relief of Boston, 127;
+    elected to Continental Congress, 127;
+    his journey, 128;
+    silent in Congress, 129;
+    writes to a British officer that independence is not
+    desired, but war is certain, 130, 131;
+    returns to Virginia, 132;
+    aids in military preparations, 132;
+    his opinion after Concord, 133;
+    at second Continental Congress, wears uniform, 134;
+    made commander-in-chief, 134;
+    his modesty and courage in accepting position, 134, 135;
+    political motives for his choice, 135;
+    his popularity, 136;
+    his journey to Boston, 136, 137;
+    receives news of Bunker Hill, 136;
+    is received by Massachusetts Provincial Assembly, 137.
+
+  _Commander of the Army_.
+    Takes command at Cambridge, 137;
+    his impression upon people, 137, 138, 139;
+    begins reorganization of army, 139;
+    secures number of troops, 140;
+    enforces discipline, his difficulties, 140, 141;
+    forced to lead Congress, 142;
+    to arrange rank of officers, 142;
+    organizes privateers, 142;
+    discovers lack of powder, 143;
+    plans campaigns in Canada and elsewhere, 143, 144;
+    his plans of attack on Boston overruled by council of war, 144;
+    writes to Gage urging that captives be treated as prisoners of war,
+  145;
+    skill of his letter, 146;
+    retorts to Gage's reply, 147;
+    continues dispute with Howe, 148;
+    annoyed by insufficiency of provisions, 149;
+    and by desertions, 149;
+    stops quarrel between Virginia and Marblehead soldiers, 149;
+    suggests admiralty committees, 150;
+    annoyed by army contractors, 150;
+    and criticism, 151;
+    letter to Joseph Reed, 151;
+    occupies Dorchester Heights, 152;
+    begins to like New England men better, 152;
+    rejoices at prospect of a fight, 153;
+    departure of British due to his leadership, 154;
+    sends troops immediately to New York, 155;
+    enters Boston, 156;
+    expects a hard war, 156;
+    urges upon Congress the necessity of preparing for a long struggle,
+  156;
+    his growing hatred of Tories, 156, 157;
+    goes to New York, 157, 158;
+    difficulties of the situation, 158;
+    suppresses Tories, 159;
+    urges Congress to declare independence, 159, 160;
+    discovers and punishes a conspiracy to assassinate, 160;
+    insists on his title in correspondence with Howe, 161;
+    justice of his position, 162;
+    quiets sectional jealousies in army, 162;
+    his military inferiority to British, 163;
+    obliged by political considerations to attempt defense of New York,
+  163, 164;
+    assumes command on Long Island, 164;
+    sees defeat of his troops, 165;
+    sees plan of British fleet to cut off retreat, 166;
+    secures retreat of army, 167;
+    explains his policy of avoiding a pitched battle, 167;
+    anger at flight of militia at Kip's Bay, 168;
+    again secures safe retreat, 169;
+    secures slight advantage in a skirmish, 170;
+    continues to urge Congress to action, 170, 171;
+    success of his letters in securing a permanent army, 171;
+    surprised by advance of British fleet, 172;
+    moves to White Plains, 173;
+    blocks British advance, 174;
+    advises abandonment of American forts, 174;
+    blames himself for their capture, 175;
+    leads diminishing army through New Jersey, 175;
+    makes vain appeals for aid, 176;
+    resolves to take the offensive, 177;
+    desperateness of his situation, 178;
+    pledges his estate and private fortune to raise men, 179;
+    orders disregarded by officers, 180;
+    crosses Delaware and captures Hessians, 180, 181;
+    has difficulty in retaining soldiers, 181;
+    repulses Cornwallis at Assunpink, 181;
+    outwits Cornwallis and wins battle at Princeton, 182;
+    excellence of his strategy, 183;
+    effect of this campaign in saving Revolution, 183, 184;
+    withdraws to Morristown, 185;
+    fluctuations in size of army, 186;
+    his determination to keep the field, 186, 187;
+    criticised by Congress for not fighting, 187;
+    hampered by Congressional interference, 188;
+    issues proclamation requiring oath of allegiance, 188;
+    attacked in Congress for so doing, 189;
+    annoyed by Congressional alterations of rank, 189;
+    and by foreign military adventurers, 191;
+    value of his services in suppressing them, 192;
+    his American feelings, 191, 193;
+    warns Congress in vain that Howe means to attack Philadelphia, 193;
+    baffles Howe's advance across New Jersey, 195;
+    learning of his sailing, marches to defend Philadelphia, 195;
+    offers battle at Brandywine, 196, 197;
+    out-generaled and beaten, 197;
+    rallies army and prepares to fight again, 198;
+    prevented by storm, 199;
+    attacks British at Germantown, 199;
+    defeated, 200;
+    exposes himself in battle, 200;
+    real success of his action, 201;
+    despised by English, 202;
+    foresees danger of Burgoyne's invasion, 203;
+    sends instructions to Schuyler, 204;
+    urges use of New England and New York militia, 304;
+    dreads northern advance of Howe, 205;
+    determines to hold him at all hazards, 206, 207;
+    not cast down by loss of Ticonderoga, 207;
+    urges New England to rise, 208;
+    sends all possible troops, 208;
+    refuses to appoint a commander for Northern army, 208;
+    his probable reasons, 209;
+    continues to send suggestions, 210;
+    slighted by Gates after Burgoyne's surrender, 211;
+    rise of opposition in Congress, 212;
+    arouses ill-feeling by his frankness, 212, 213;
+    distrusted by Samuel and John Adams, 214;
+    by others, 214, 215;
+    formation of a plan to supplant him by Gates, 215;
+    opposed by Gates, Mifflin, and Conway, 215, 216;
+    angers Conway by preventing his increase in rank, 216;
+    is refused troops by Gates, 217;
+    defends and loses Delaware forts, 217;
+    refuses to attack Howe, 218;
+    propriety of his action, 219;
+    becomes aware of cabal, 220;
+    alarms them by showing extent of his knowledge, 221;
+    attacked bitterly in Congress, 222;
+    insulted by Gates, 223;
+    refuses to resign, 224;
+    refuses to notice cabal publicly, 224;
+    complains privately of slight support from Pennsylvania, 225;
+    continues to push Gates for explanations, 226;
+    regains complete control after collapse of cabal, 226, 227;
+    withdraws to Valley Forge, 227;
+    desperation of his situation, 228;
+    criticised by Pennsylvania legislature for going into winter quarters,
+  229;
+    his bitter reply, 229;
+    his unbending resolution, 230;
+    continues to urge improvements in army organization, 231;
+    manages to hold army together, 232;
+    sends Lafayette to watch Philadelphia, 233;
+    determines to fight, 234;
+    checked by Lee, 234;
+    pursues Clinton, 235;
+    orders Lee to attack British rearguard, 235;
+    discovers his force retreating, 236;
+    rebukes Lee and punishes him, 236, 237;
+    takes command and stops retreat, 237;
+    repulses British and assumes offensive, 238;
+    success due to his work at Valley Forge, 239;
+    celebrates French alliance, 241;
+    has to confront difficulty of managing allies, 241, 242;
+    welcomes D'Estaing, 243;
+    obliged to quiet recrimination after Newport failure, 244;
+    his letter to Sullivan, 244;
+    to Lafayette, 245;
+    to D'Estaing, 246;
+    tact and good effect of his letters, 246;
+    offers to cooperate in an attack on New York, 247;
+    furnishes admirable suggestions to D'Estaing, 247;
+    not dazzled by French, 248;
+    objects to giving rank to foreign officers, 248, 249;
+    opposes transfer of Steuben from inspectorship to the line, 249;
+    his thoroughly American position, 250;
+    absence of provinciality, 251, 252;
+    a national leader, 252;
+    opposes invasion of Canada, 253;
+    foresees danger of its recapture by France, 254, 255;
+    his clear understanding of French motives, 255, 256;
+    rejoices in condition of patriot cause, 257;
+    foresees ruin to army in financial troubles, 258;
+    has to appease mutinies among unpaid troops, 258;
+    appeals to Congress, 259;
+    urges election of better delegates to Congress, 259;
+    angry with speculators, 260, 261;
+    futility of his efforts, 261, 262;
+    his increasing alarm at social demoralization, 263;
+    effect of his exertions, 264;
+    conceals his doubts of the French, 264;
+    watches New York, 264;
+    keeps dreading an English campaign, 265;
+    labors with Congress to form a navy, 266;
+    plans expedition to chastise Indians, 266;
+    realizes that things are at a standstill in the North, 267;
+    sees danger to lie in the South, but determines to remain himself near
+  New York, 267;
+    not consulted by Congress in naming general for Southern army, 268;
+    plans attack on Stony Point, 268;
+    hatred of ravaging methods of British warfare, 270;
+    again has great difficulties in winter quarters, 270;
+    unable to act on offensive in the spring, 270, 272;
+    unable to help South, 272;
+    advises abandonment of Charleston, 273;
+    learns of arrival of French army, 274;
+    plans a number of enterprises with it, 275, 276;
+    refuses, even after loss of Charleston, to abandon Hudson, 276;
+    welcomes Rochambeau, 277;
+    writes to Congress against too optimistic feelings, 278, 279;
+    has extreme difficulty in holding army together, 280;
+    urges French to attack New York, 280;
+    sends Maryland troops South after Camden, 281;
+    arranges meeting with Rochambeau at Hartford, 282;
+    popular enthusiasm over him, 283;
+    goes to West Point, 284;
+    surprised at Arnold's absence, 284;
+    learns of his treachery, 284, 285;
+    his cool behavior, 285;
+    his real feelings, 286;
+    his conduct toward Andre, 287;
+    its justice, 287, 288;
+    his opinion of Arnold, 288, 289;
+    his responsibility in the general breakdown of the Congress and army,
+  290;
+    obliged to quell food mutinies in army, 291, 292;
+    difficulty of situation, 292;
+    his influence the salvation of army, 293;
+    his greatness best shown in this way, 293;
+    rebukes Congress, 294;
+    appoints Greene to command Southern army, 295;
+    sends Knox to confer with state governors, 296;
+    secures temporary relief for army, 296;
+    sees the real defect is in weak government, 296;
+    urges adoption of Articles of Confederation, 297;
+    works for improvements in executive, 298,299;
+    still keeps a Southern movement in mind, 301;
+    unable to do anything through lack of naval power, 303;
+    rebukes Lund Washington for entertaining British at Mt. Vernon, 303;
+    still unable to fight, 304;
+    tries to frighten Clinton into remaining in New York, 305;
+    succeeds with aid of Rochambeau, 306;
+    explains his plan to French and to Congress, 306;
+    learns of De Grasse's approach, prepares to move South, 306;
+    writes to De Grasse to meet him in Chesapeake, 308;
+    fears a premature peace, 308;
+    pecuniary difficulties, 309;
+    absolute need of command of sea, 310;
+    persuades De Barras to join De Grasse, 311;
+    starts on march for Chesapeake, 311;
+    hampered by lack of supplies, 312;
+    and by threat of Congress to reduce army, 313;
+    passes through Mt. Vernon, 314;
+    succeeds in persuading De Grasse not to abandon him, 315;
+    besieges Cornwallis, 315;
+    sees capture of redoubts, 316;
+    receives surrender of Cornwallis, 317;
+    admirable strategy and management of campaign, 318;
+    his personal influence the cause of success, 318;
+    especially his use of the fleet, 319;
+    his management of Cornwallis through Lafayette, 319;
+    his boldness in transferring army away from New York, 320;
+    does not lose his head over victory, 321;
+    urges De Grasse to repeat success against Charleston, 322;
+    returns north, 322;
+    saddened by death of Custis, 322;
+    continues to urge Congress to action, 323;
+    writes letters to the States, 323;
+    does not expect English surrender, 324;
+    urges renewed vigor, 324;
+    points out that war actually continues, 325;
+    urges not to give up army until peace is actually secured, 325;
+    failure of his appeals, 326;
+    reduced to inactivity, 326;
+    angered at murder of Huddy, 327;
+    threatens Carleton with retaliation, 328;
+    releases Asgill at request of Vergennes and order of Congress,
+  329, 330;
+    disclaims credit, 330;
+    justification of his behavior, 330;
+    his tenderness toward the soldiers, 331;
+    jealousy of Congress toward him, 332;
+    warns Congress of danger of further neglect of army, 333, 334;
+    takes control of mutinous movement, 335;
+    his address to the soldiers, 336;
+    its effect, 336;
+    movement among soldiers to make him dictator, 337;
+    replies to revolutionary proposals, 337;
+    reality of the danger, 339;
+    causes for his behaviour, 340, 341;
+    a friend of strong government, but devoid of personal ambition, 342;
+    chafes under delay to disband army, 343;
+    tries to secure Western posts, 343;
+    makes a journey through New York, 343;
+    gives Congress excellent but futile advice, 344;
+    issues circular letter to governors, 344;
+    and farewell address to army, 345;
+    enters New York after departure of British, 345;
+    his farewell to his officers, 345;
+    adjusts his accounts, 346;
+    appears before Congress, 347;
+    French account of his action, 347;
+    makes speech resigning commission, 348, 349.
+
+  _In Retirement_.
+    Returns to Mt. Vernon, ii. I;
+    tries to resume old life, 2;
+    gives up hunting, 2;
+    pursued by lion-hunters and artists, 3;
+    overwhelmed with correspondence, 3;
+    receives letters from Europe, 4;
+    from cranks, 4;
+    from officers, 4;
+    his share in Society of Cincinnati, 4;
+    manages his estate, 5;
+    visits Western lands, 5;
+    family cares, 5, 6;
+    continues to have interest in public affairs, 6;
+    advises Congress regarding peace establishment, 6;
+    urges acquisition of Western posts, 7;
+    his broad national views, 7;
+    alone in realizing future greatness of country, 7, 8;
+    appreciates importance of the West, 8;
+    urges development of inland navigation, 9;
+    asks Jefferson's aid, 9, 10;
+    lays canal scheme before Virginia legislature, 10;
+    his arguments, 10;
+    troubled by offer of stock, 11;
+    uses it to endow two schools, 12;
+    significance of his scheme, 12, 13;
+    his political purposes in binding West to East, 13;
+    willing to leave Mississippi closed for this purpose, 14, 15, 16;
+    feels need of firmer union during Revolution, 17;
+    his arguments, 18, 19;
+    his influence starts movement for reform, 20;
+    continues to urge it during retirement, 21;
+    foresees disasters of confederation, 21;
+    urges impost scheme, 22;
+    condemns action of States, 22, 23, 25;
+    favours commercial agreement between Maryland and Virginia, 23;
+    stung by contempt of foreign powers, 24;
+    his arguments for a national government, 24;
+    points out designs of England, 25;
+    works against paper money craze in States, 26;
+    his opinion of Shays's rebellion, 26;
+    his position contrasted with Jefferson's, 27;
+    influence of his letters, 28, 29;
+    shrinks from participating in Federal convention, 29;
+    elected unanimously, 30;
+    refuses to go to a feeble convention, 30, 31;
+    finally makes up his mind, 31.
+
+  _In the Federal Convention_.
+    Speech attributed to Washington by Morris on duties of delegates,
+  31, 32;
+    chosen to preside, 33;
+    takes no part in debate, 34;
+    his influence in convention, 34, 35;
+    despairs of success, 35;
+    signs the Constitution, 36;
+    words attributed to him, 36;
+    silent as to his thoughts, 36, 37;
+    sees clearly danger of failure to ratify, 37;
+    tries at first to act indifferently, 38;
+    begins to work for ratification, 38;
+    writes letters to various people, 38, 39;
+    circulates copies of "Federalist," 40;
+    saves ratification in Virginia, 40;
+    urges election of Federalists to Congress, 41;
+    receives general request to accept presidency, 41;
+    his objections, 41, 42;
+    dreads failure and responsibility, 42;
+    elected, 42;
+    his journey to New York, 42-46;
+    speech at Alexandria, 43;
+    popular reception at all points, 44, 45;
+    his feelings, 46;
+    his inauguration, 46.
+
+  _President_.
+    His speech to Congress, 48;
+    urges no specific policy, 48, 49;
+    his solemn feelings, 49;
+    his sober view of necessities of situation, 50;
+    question of his title, 52;
+    arranges to communicate with Senate by writing, 52, 53;
+    discusses social etiquette, 53;
+    takes middle ground, 54;
+    wisdom of his action, 55;
+    criticisms by Democrats, 55, 56;
+    accused of monarchical leanings, 56, 57;
+    familiarizes himself with work already accomplished under
+  Confederation, 58;
+    his business habits, 58;
+    refuses special privileges to French minister, 59, 60;
+    skill of his reply, 60, 61;
+    solicited for office, 61;
+    his views on appointment, 62;
+    favors friends of Constitution and old soldiers, 62;
+    success of his appointments, 63;
+    selects a cabinet, 64;
+    his regard for Knox 65;
+    for Morris, 66;
+    his skill in choosing, 66;
+    his appreciation of Hamilton, 67;
+    his grounds for choosing Jefferson, 68;
+    his contrast with Jefferson, 69;
+    his choice a mistake in policy, 70;
+    his partisan characteristics, 70, 71;
+    excludes anti-Federalists, 71;
+    nominates justices of Supreme Court, 72;
+    their party character, 73;
+    illness, 73;
+    visits the Eastern States, 73;
+    his reasons, 74;
+    stirs popular enthusiasm, 74;
+    snubbed by Hancock in Massachusetts, 75;
+    accepts Hancock's apology, 75;
+    importance of his action, 76;
+    success of journey, 76;
+    opens Congress, 78, 79;
+    his speech and its recommendations, 81;
+    how far carried out, 81-83;
+    national character of the speech, 83;
+    his fitness to deal with Indians, 87;
+    his policy, 88;
+    appoints commission to treat with Creeks, 90;
+    ascribes its failure to Spanish intrigue, 90;
+    succeeds by a personal interview in making treaty, 91;
+    wisdom of his policy, 92;
+    orders an expedition against Western Indians, 93;
+    angered at its failure, 94;
+    and at conduct of frontiersmen, 94;
+    prepares St. Clair's expedition, 95;
+    warns against ambush, 95;
+    hopes for decisive results, 97;
+    learns of St. Clair's defeat, 97;
+    his self-control, 97;
+    his outburst of anger against St. Clair, 97, 98;
+    masters his feelings, 98;
+    treats St. Clair kindly, 99;
+    determines on a second campaign, 100;
+    selects Wayne and other officers, 100;
+    tries to secure peace with tribes, 101;
+    efforts prevented by English influence, 101, 102;
+    and in South by conduct of Georgia, 103;
+    general results of his Indian policy, 104;
+    popular misunderstandings and criticism, 104, 105;
+    favors assumption of state debts by the government, 107, 108;
+    satisfied with bargain between Hamilton and Jefferson, 108;
+    his respectful attitude toward Constitution, 109;
+    asks opinions of cabinet on constitutionality of bank, 110;
+    signs bill creating it, 110;
+    reasons for his decision, 111;
+    supports Hamilton's financial policy, 112;
+    supports Hamilton's views on protection, 115, 116;
+    appreciates evil economic condition of Virginia, 116, 117;
+    sees necessity for self-sufficient industries in war time, 117;
+    urges protection, 118, 119, 120;
+    his purpose to build up national feeling, 121;
+    approves national excise tax, 122, 123;
+    does not realize unpopularity of method, 123;
+    ready to modify but insists on obedience, 124, 125;
+    issues proclamation against rioters, 125;
+    since Pennsylvania frontier continues rebellious, issues second
+  proclamation threatening to use force, 127;
+    calls out the militia, 127;
+    his advice to leaders and troops, 128;
+    importance of Washington's firmness, 129;
+    his good judgment and patience, 130;
+    decides success of the central authority, 130;
+    early advocacy of separation of United States from European politics,
+  133;
+    studies situation, 134, 135;
+    sees importance of binding West with Eastern States, 135;
+    sees necessity of good relations with England, 137;
+    authorizes Morris to sound England as to exchange of ministers and a
+  commercial treaty, 137;
+    not disturbed by British bad manners, 138;
+    succeeds in establishing diplomatic relations, 138;
+    early foresees danger of excess in French Revolution, 139, 140;
+    states a policy of strict neutrality, 140, 142, 143;
+    difficulties of his situation, 142;
+    objects to action of National Assembly on tobacco and oil, 144;
+    denies reported request by United States that England mediate with
+  Indians, 145;
+    announces neutrality in case of a European war, 146;
+    instructs cabinet to prepare a neutrality proclamation, 147;
+    importance of this step not understood at time, 148, 149;
+    foresees coming difficulties, 149, 150;
+    acts cautiously toward _emigres_, 151;
+    contrast with Genet, 152;
+    greets him coldly, 152;
+    orders steps taken to prevent violations of neutrality, 153, 154;
+    retires to Mt. Vernon for rest, 154;
+    on returning finds Jefferson has allowed Little Sarah to escape, 156;
+    writes a sharp note to Jefferson, 156;
+    anger at escape, 157;
+    takes matters out of Jefferson's hands, 157;
+    determines on asking recall of Genet, 158;
+    revokes exequatur of Duplaine, French consul, 159;
+    insulted by Genet, 159, 160;
+    refuses to deny Jay's card, 160;
+    upheld by popular feeling, 160;
+    his annoyance at the episode, 160;
+    obliged to teach American people self-respect, 162, 163;
+    deals with troubles incited by Genet in the West, 162, 163;
+    sympathizes with frontiersmen, 163;
+    comprehends value of Mississippi, 164, 165;
+    sends a commission to Madrid to negotiate about free navigation, 166;
+    later sends Thomas Pinckney, 166;
+    despairs of success, 166;
+    apparent conflict between French treaties and neutrality, 169, 170;
+    value of Washington's policy to England, 171;
+    in spite of England's attitude, intends to keep peace, 177;
+    wishes to send Hamilton as envoy, 177;
+    after his refusal appoints Jay, 177;
+    fears that England intends war, 178;
+    determines to be prepared, 178;
+    urges upon Jay the absolute necessity of England's giving up Western
+  posts, 179;
+    dissatisfied with Jay treaty but willing to sign it, 184;
+    in doubt as to meaning of conditional ratification, 184;
+    protests against English "provision order" and refuses signature, 185;
+    meets uproar against treaty alone, 188;
+    determines to sign, 189;
+    answers resolutions of Boston town meeting, 190;
+    refuses to abandon his judgment to popular outcry, 190;
+    distinguishes temporary from permanent feeling, 191;
+    fears effect of excitement upon French government, 192;
+    his view of dangers of situation, 193, 194;
+    recalled to Philadelphia by cabinet, 195;
+    receives intercepted correspondence of Fauchet, 195, 196;
+    his course of action already determined, 197, 198;
+    not influenced by the Fauchet letter, 198;
+    evidence of this, 199, 200;
+    reasons for ratifying before showing letter to Randolph, 199, 200;
+    signs treaty, 201;
+    evidence that he did not sacrifice Randolph, 201, 202;
+    fairness of his action, 203;
+    refuses to reply to Randolph's attack, 204;
+    reasons for signing treaty, 205;
+    justified in course of time, 206;
+    refuses on constitutional grounds the call of representatives for
+  documents, 208;
+    insists on independence of treaty-making by executive and Senate, 209;
+    overcomes hostile majority in House, 210;
+    wishes Madison to succeed Morris at Paris, 211;
+    appoints Monroe, 216;
+    his mistake in not appointing a political supporter, 212;
+    disgusted at Monroe's behavior, 213, 214;
+    recalls Monroe and appoints C.C. Pinckney, 214;
+    angered at French policy, 214;
+    his contempt for Monroe's self-justification, 215, 216;
+    review of foreign policy, 216-219;
+    his guiding principle national independence, 216;
+    and abstention from European politics, 217;
+    desires peace and time for growth, 217, 218;
+    wishes development of the West, 218, 219;
+    wisdom of his policy, 219;
+    considers parties dangerous, 220;
+    but chooses cabinet from Federalists, 220;
+    prepared to undergo criticism, 221;
+    willingness to bear it, 221;
+    desires to learn public feeling, by travels, 221, 222;
+    feels that body of people will support national government, 222;
+    sees and deplores sectional feelings in the South, 222, 223;
+    objects to utterances of newspapers, 223;
+    attacked by "National Gazette," 227;
+    receives attacks on Hamilton from Jefferson and his friends, 228, 229;
+    sends charges to Hamilton, 229;
+    made anxious by signs of party division, 229;
+    urges both Hamilton and Jefferson to cease quarrel, 230, 231;
+    dreads an open division in cabinet, 232;
+    desirous to rule without party, 233;
+    accomplishes feat of keeping both secretaries in cabinet, 233;
+    keeps confidence in Hamilton, 234;
+    urged by all parties to accept presidency again, 235;
+    willing to be reelected, 235;
+    pleased at unanimous vote, 235;
+    his early immunity from attacks, 237;
+    later attacked by Freneau and Bache, 238;
+    regards opposition as dangerous to country, 239;
+    asserts his intention to disregard them, 240;
+    his success in Genet affair, 241;
+    disgusted at "democratic" societies, 242;
+    thinks they fomented Whiskey Rebellion, 242;
+    denounces them to Congress, 243;
+    effect of his remarks, 244;
+    accused of tyranny after Jay treaty, 244;
+    of embezzlement, 245;
+    of aristocracy, 245;
+    realizes that he must compose cabinet of sympathizers, 246;
+    reconstructs it, 246;
+    states determination to govern by party, 247;
+    slighted by House, 247;
+    refuses a third term, 248;
+    publishes Farewell Address, 248;
+    his justification for so doing, 248;
+    his wise advice, 249;
+    address Attacked by Democrats, 250, 251;
+    assailed in Congress by Giles, 251;
+    resents charge of being a British sympathizer, 252;
+    his scrupulously fair conduct toward France, 253;
+    his resentment at English policy, 254;
+    his retirement celebrated by the opposition, 255;
+    remarks of the "Aurora," 256;
+    forged letters of British circulated, 257;
+    he repudiates them, 257;
+    his view of opposition, 259.
+
+  _In Retirement_.
+    Regards Adams's administration as continuation of his own, 259;
+    understands Jefferson's attitude, 259;
+    wishes generals of provisional army to be Federalist, 260;
+    doubts fidelity of opposition as soldiers, 260;
+    dreads their poisoning mind of army, 261;
+    his condemnation of Democrats, 261, 262;
+    snubs Dr. Logan for assuming an unofficial mission to France, 263-265;
+    alarmed at Virginia and Kentucky resolutions, 266;
+    urges Henry to oppose Virginia resolutions, 267;
+    condemns the French party as unpatriotic, 267;
+    refuses request to stand again for presidency, 269;
+    comments on partisanship of Democrats, 269;
+    believes that he would be no better candidate than any other
+  Federalist, 270, 271;
+    error of statement that Washington was not a party man, 271, 272;
+    slow to relinquish non-partisan position, 272;
+    not the man to shrink from declaring his position, 273;
+    becomes a member of Federalist party, 273, 274;
+    eager for end of term of office, 275;
+    his farewell dinner, 275;
+    at Adams's inauguration, 276;
+    popular enthusiasm at Philadelphia, 276;
+    at Baltimore, 277;
+    returns to Mt. Vernon, 279;
+    describes his farm life, 278, 279;
+    burdened by necessities of hospitality, 280;
+    account of his meeting with Bernard, 281-283;
+    continued interest in politics, 284;
+    accepts command of provisional army, 285;
+    selects Hamilton, Pinckney, and Knox as major-generals, 286;
+    surprised at Adams's objection to Hamilton, 286;
+    rebukes Adams for altering order of rank of generals, 286, 287;
+    not influenced by intrigue, 287;
+    annoyed by Adams's conduct, 288;
+    tries to soothe Knox's irritation, 289;
+    fails to pacify him, 289;
+    carries out organization of army, 290;
+    does not expect actual war, 291;
+    disapproves of Gerry's conduct, 292;
+    disapproves of Adams's nomination of Vans Murray, 292;
+    his dread of French Revolution, 295;
+    distrusts Adams's attempts at peace, 296;
+    approves Alien and Sedition laws, 296;
+    his defense of them, 297;
+    distressed by dissensions among Federalists, 298;
+    predicts their defeat, 298;
+    his sudden illness, 299-302;
+    death, 303.
+
+  _Character_,
+    misunderstood, 304;
+    extravagantly praised, 304;
+    disliked on account of being called faultless, 305;
+    bitterly attacked in lifetime, 306;
+    sneered at by Jefferson, 306;
+    by Pickering, 307;
+    called an Englishman, not an American, 307, 308;
+    difference of his type from that of Lincoln, 310;
+    none the less American, 311, 312;
+    compared with Hampden, 312;
+    his manners those of the times elsewhere in America, 314;
+    aristocratic, but of a non-English type, 314-316;
+    less affected by Southern limitations than his neighbors, 316;
+    early dislike of New England changed to respect, 316, 317;
+    friendly with people of humble origin, 317, 318;
+    never an enemy of democracy, 318;
+    but opposes French excesses, 318;
+    his self-directed and American training, 319, 320;
+    early conception of a nation, 321;
+    works toward national government during Revolution, 321;
+    his interest in Western expansion, 321, 322;
+    national character of his Indian policy, 322;
+    of his desire to secure free Mississippi navigation, 322;
+    of his opposition to war as a danger to Union, 323;
+    his anger at accusation of foreign subservience, 323;
+    continually asserts necessity for independent American policy,
+  324, 325;
+    opposes foreign educational influences, 325, 326;
+    favors foundation of a national university, 326;
+    breadth and strength of his national feeling, 327;
+    absence of boastfulness about country, 328;
+    faith in it, 328;
+    charge that he was merely a figure-head, 329;
+    its injustice, 330;
+    charged with commonplaceness of intellect, 330;
+    incident of the deathbed explained, 330, 331;
+    falsity of the charge, 331;
+    inability of mere moral qualities to achieve what he did, 331;
+    charged with dullness and coldness, 332;
+    his seriousness, 333;
+    responsibility from early youth, 333;
+    his habits of keen observation, 333;
+    power of judging men, 334;
+    ability to use them for what they were worth, 335;
+    anecdote of advice to Hamilton and Meade, 335;
+    deceived only by Arnold, 336;
+    imperfect education, 337;
+    continual efforts to improve it, 337, 338;
+    modest regarding his literary ability, 339, 340;
+    interested in education, 339;
+    character of his writing, 340;
+    tastes in reading, 341;
+    modest but effective in conversation, 342;
+    his manner and interest described by Bernard, 343-347;
+    attractiveness of the picture, 347, 348;
+    his pleasure in society, 348;
+    power of paying compliments, letter to Mrs. Stockton, 349;
+    to Charles Thompson, 350;
+    to De Chastellux, 351;
+    his warmth of heart, 352;
+    extreme exactness in pecuniary matters, 352;
+    illustrative anecdotes, 353,354;
+    favorable opinion of teller of anecdotes, 356;
+    stern towards dishonesty or cowardice, 357;
+    treatment of Andre and Asgill, 357, 358;
+    sensitive to human suffering, 357, 358;
+    kind and courteous to poor, 359;
+    conversation with Cleaveland, 359;
+    sense of dignity in public office, 360;
+    hospitality at Mt. Vernon, 360, 361;
+    his intimate friendships, 361,362;
+    relations with Hamilton, Knox, Mason, Henry Lee, Craik, 362, 363;
+    the officers of the army, 363;
+    Trumbull, Robert and Gouverneur Morris, 363;
+    regard for and courtesy toward Franklin, 364;
+    love for Lafayette, 365;
+    care for his family, 366;
+    lasting regard for Fairfaxes, 366, 367;
+    kindness to Taft family, 367, 368;
+    destroys correspondence with his wife, 368;
+    their devoted relationship, 368;
+    care for his step-children and relatives, 369, 370;
+    charged with lack of humor, 371;
+    but never made himself ridiculous, 372;
+    not joyous in temperament, 372;
+    but had keen pleasure in sport, 373;
+    enjoyed a joke, even during Revolution, 374;
+    appreciates wit, 375;
+    writes a humorous letter, 376-378;
+    not devoid of worldly wisdom, 378, 379;
+    enjoys cards, dancing, the theatre, 380;
+    loves horses, 380;
+    thorough in small affairs as well as great, 381;
+    controversy over site of church, 381;
+    his careful domestic economy, 382;
+    love of method, 383;
+    of excellence in dress and furniture, 383, 384;
+    gives dignity to American cause, 385;
+    his personal appearance, 385;
+    statements of Houdon, 386;
+    of Ackerson, 386, 387;
+    his tremendous muscular strength, 388;
+    great personal impressiveness, 389, 390;
+    lacking in imagination, 391;
+    strong passions, 391;
+    fierce temper, 392;
+    anecdotes of outbreaks, 392;
+    his absence of self-love, 393;
+    confident in judgment of posterity, 393;
+    religious faith, 394;
+    summary and conclusion, 394, 395.
+
+  _Characteristics of_.
+    General view, ii. 304-395;
+    general admiration for, i. 1-7;
+    myths about, i. 9-12, ii. 307 ff.;
+    comparisons with Jefferson, ii. 69;
+    with Lincoln, ii. 310-312;
+    with Hampden, ii. 312, 313;
+    absence of self-seeking, i. 341;
+    affectionateness, i. 111, 285,331,345, ii. 332, 362-371;
+    agreeableness, ii. 344-347, 377;
+    Americanism, ii. 307-328;
+    aristocratic habits, ii. 314, 316;
+    business ability, i. 105, 109, ii. 5, 352, 382;
+    coldness on occasion, i. 223, 224, 263, ii. 318;
+    courage, i. 77, 78, 86, 127, 168, 292;
+    dignity, i. 81,161, ii. 52-57, 76;
+    hospitality, ii. 360;
+    impressiveness, i. 56, 83, 130, 138, 319, ii. 385;
+    indomitableness, i. 177, 181, 227;
+    judgments of men, i. 295, ii. 64, 86, 334, 335;
+    justice and sternness, i. 287, 330, ii. 203, 352-358, 389;
+    kindliness, ii. 349-356, 359;
+    lack of education, i. 62, ii. 337;
+    love of reading, i. 62, ii. 341, 342;
+    love of sport, i. 56, 98, 113-116, 118, ii. 380;
+    manners, ii. 282-283, 314;
+    military ability, i. 154, 166, 174, 183, 197, 204, 207, 239, 247,
+  265, 267, 305-320, ii. 331;
+    modesty, i. 102, 134;
+    not a figure-head, ii. 329, 330;
+    not a prig, i. 10-12, 41-47;
+    not cold and inhuman, ii. 332, 342;
+    not dull or commonplace, ii. 330, 332;
+    not superhuman and distant, i. 9, 10, 12, ii. 304, 305;
+    open-mindedness, ii. 317;
+    passionateness, i. 58, 73, 90;
+    personal appearance, i. 57, 136, 137, ii. 282, 343, 385-389;
+    religious views, i. 321, ii. 393;
+    romantic traits, i. 95-97;
+    sense of humor, ii. 371-377;
+    silence regarding self, i. 14, 69, 70, 116, 129, 285; ii. 37, 336;
+    simplicity, i. 59, 69, 348; ii. 50, 340;
+    sobriety, i. 49, 52, 134; ii. 43, 45, 333, 373;
+    tact, i. 162, 243, 244-246;
+    temper, i. 73, 92, 110, 168, 236, 237, 260; ii. 98, 392;
+    thoroughness, i. 112, 323, 341, ii. 381.
+
+  _Political Opinions_.
+    On Alien and Sedition Acts, ii. 196;
+    American nationality, i. 191, 250, 251, 255, 262, 279, ii. 7, 61,
+  133, 145, 324, 325, 327, 328;
+    Articles of Confederation, i. 297, ii. 17, 24;
+    bank, ii. 110, 111;
+    colonial rights, i. 120, 124-126, 130;
+    Constitution, i. 38-41;
+    democracy, ii. 317-319;
+    Democratic party, ii. 214, 239, 240, 258, 261, 267, 268;
+    disunion, ii. 22;
+    duties of the executive, ii. 190;
+    education, ii. 81, 326, 330;
+    Federalist party, ii. 71, 246, 247, 259, 260, 261, 269-274, 298;
+    finance, ii. 107, 108, 112, 122;
+    foreign relations, ii. 25, 134, 142, 145, 147, 179, 217-219, 323;
+    French Revolution, ii. 139, 140, 295, 318;
+    independence of colonies, i. 131, 159, 160;
+    Indian policy, ii. 82, 87, 88, 91, 92, 104, 105;
+    Jay treaty, ii. 184-205;
+    judiciary, i. 150;
+    nominations to office, ii. 62;
+    party, ii. 70, 222, 233, 249;
+    protection, ii. 116-122;
+    slavery, i. 106-108;
+    Stamp Act, i. 119;
+    strong government, i. 298, ii. 18, 24, 129, 130;
+    treaty power, ii. 190, 207-210;
+    Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, ii. 266, 267;
+    Western expansion, ii. 6, 8-16, 135, 163-165, 218, 322.
+
+  Washington, George Steptoe,
+    his sons educated by Washington, ii. 370.
+
+  Washington, John, brother of George,
+    letter of Washington, to, i. 132.
+
+  Washington, Lawrence, brother of George Washington,
+    educated in England, i. 54;
+    has military career, 54;
+    returns to Virginia and builds Mt. Vernon, 54;
+    marries into Fairfax family, 54, 55;
+    goes to West Indies for his health, 62;
+    dies, leaving George guardian of his daughter, 64;
+    chief manager of Ohio Company, 65;
+    gives George military education, 65.
+
+  Washington, Lund,
+    letter of Washington to, i. 152;
+    rebuked by Washington for entertaining British, ii. 303.
+
+  Washington, Martha, widow of Daniel P. Custis,
+    meets Washington, i. 101;
+    courtship of, and marriage, 101, 102;
+    hunts with her husband, 114;
+    joins him at Boston, 151;
+    holds levees as wife of President, ii. 54;
+    during his last illness, 300;
+    her correspondence destroyed, 368;
+    her relations with her husband, 368, 369.
+
+  Washington, Mary,
+    married to Augustine Washington, i. 39;
+    mother of George Washington, 39;
+    limited education but strong character, 40, 41;
+    wishes George to earn a living, 49;
+    opposes his going to sea, 49;
+    letters to, 88;
+    visited by her son, ii. 5.
+
+  Waters, Henry E.,
+    establishes Washington pedigree, i. 32.
+
+  Wayne, Anthony,
+    defeated after Brandywine, i. 198;
+    his opinion of Germantown, 199;
+    at Monmouth urges Washington to come, 235;
+    ready to attack Stony Point, 268;
+    his successful exploit, 269;
+    joins Lafayette in Virginia, 307;
+    appointed to command against Indians, ii. 100;
+    his character, 100;
+    organizes his force, 101;
+    his march, 102;
+    defeats the Indians, 103.
+
+  Weems, Mason L.,
+    influence of his life of Washington on popular opinion, i. 10;
+    originates idea of his priggishness, 11;
+    his character, 41, 43;
+    character of his book, 42;
+    his mythical "rectorate" of Mt. Vernon, 43, 44;
+    invents anecdotes of Washington's childhood, 44;
+    folly of cherry-tree and other stories, 46;
+    their evil influence, 47.
+
+  West, the,
+    its importance realized by Washington, ii. 7-16;
+    his influence counteracted by inertia of Congress, 8;
+    forwards inland navigation, 9;
+    desires to bind East to West, 9-11, 14;
+    formation of companies, 11-13;
+    on Mississippi navigation, 14-16, 164;
+    projects of Genet in, 162;
+    its attitude understood by Washington, 163, 164;
+    Washington wishes peace in order to develop it, 218, 219, 321.
+
+  "Whiskey Rebellion,"
+    passage of excise law, ii. 123;
+    outbreaks of violence in Pennsylvania and North Carolina, 124;
+    proclamation issued warning rioters to desist, 125;
+    renewed outbreaks in Pennsylvania, 125, 126;
+    the militia called out, 127;
+    suppression of the insurrection, 128;
+    real danger of movement, 129;
+    its suppression emphasizes national authority, 129, 130;
+    supposed by Washington to have been stirred up by Democratic clubs,
+  242.
+
+  White Plains,
+    battle at, i. 173.
+
+  Wilkinson, James,
+    brings Gates's message to Washington at Trenton, i. 180;
+    brings news of Saratoga to Congress, 220;
+    nettled at Sherman's sarcasm, discloses Conway cabal, 220;
+    quarrels with Gates, 223;
+    resigns from board of war, 223, 226;
+    leads expedition against Indians, ii. 95.
+
+  Willett, Colonel,
+    commissioner to Creeks, his success, ii. 91.
+
+  William and Mary College,
+    Washington Chancellor of, ii. 339.
+
+  Williams,
+    Washington's teacher, i. 48, 51.
+
+  Willis, Lewis,
+    story of Washington's school days, i. 95.
+
+  Wilson, James,
+    appointed to Supreme Court, ii. 72.
+
+  Wilson, James, "of England,"
+    hunts with Washington, i. 115.
+
+  Wolcott, Oliver,
+    receives Fauchet letter, ii. 195;
+    succeeds Hamilton as Secretary of Treasury, 246.
+
+  Wooster, Mrs.,
+    letter of Washington to, ii. 61.
+
+
+  YORKTOWN,
+    siege of, i. 315-318.
+
+  "Young Man's Companion,"
+    used by George Washington, origin of his rules of conduct, i. 52.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's George Washington, Vol. II, by Henry Cabot Lodge
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