preliminary treaty of peace had been concluded, Robert Morris persistently demanded the immediate discharge of the army.* The city of New York and the interior posts being still in British hands, his importunity was resisted by Gorham and Hamilton, and disapproved by the secretary of foreign affairs; but the public penury overcame all scruples. As the time drew near for the officers to pass from military service to civil life, they recalled the example of the Roman Cincinnatus, and, adopting his name, formed themselves into "one society of friends," to perpetuate "the spirit of brotherly kindness" and to help officers and their families in their times of need. An immutable attachment to the rights and liberties of human nature was made the law of conduct for members, to whatever nation they might belong; and those who were Americans pledged to each other their "unalterable determination to promote and cherish union between the states."+ By one grave error, which called forth from many sides in America and in Europe the severest censure, membership was made hereditary in their eldest male posterity. The commander-inchief, who had no offspring, refused to separate himself from his faithful associates in the war; but by his influence the society at its first general meeting in May 1784 proposed to its branches in the states to expunge from its constitution the clauses which had excited alarm and just complaint. The general order of the second day of June published the resolve of congress that the men engaged for the war, with a proper proportion of officers, were immediately to receive furloughs, on the reverse of which was their discharge, to take effect on the definitive treaty of peace. Washington felt the keenest sensibility at their distresses; but he had exhausted all his influence. The army, for three months' pay, received only notes exactly "like other notes issued from the office of finance." # These were nominally due in six months to the bearer, with six per cent interest till paid. Their value in the Sparks, ix., 23, note. * Diary of Morris in Dip. Cor., xii., 367, note. Washington to Heath, 6 June 1783. Sparks, viii., 435. #Washington to Bland, 4 April 1783; Journals of Congress, for July 9 and following days, iv., 237, 238; Morris to congress, 18 July 1783, Dip. Cor., xii., 376, 380-386 and 887-389, and other letters. market was two shillings or two and sixpence for twenty shillings.* The veterans were enthusiasts for liberty, and therefore, with the consciousness of having done their duty to their native land and to mankind, they, in perfect good order, bearing with them their arms as memorials of their service, retired to their homes "without a settlement of their accounts, and without a farthing of money in their pockets.” † The events of the last four months called into full action the powers and emotions of Washington. "State politics," said he, "interfere too much with the more liberal and extensive plan of government which wisdom and foresight would dictate. The honor, power, and true interest of this country must be measured by a continental scale. To form a new constitution that will give consistency, stability, and dignity to the union and sufficient powers to the great council of the nation for general purposes, is a duty incumbent upon every man who wishes well to his country." + Lifted above himself, and borne on by the energy of his belief, he in June addressed the whole people through a last circular to the governor of every state,# for he was persuaded that immediate and extreme danger overhung the life of the union. "With this conviction of the importance of the present crisis," such are his words, "silence in me would be a crime; I will therefore speak without disguise the language of freedom and of sincerity. Those who differ from me in political sentiment may remark that I am stepping out of the proper line of my duty; but the rectitude of my own heart, the part I have hitherto acted, experience acquired by long and close attention to the business of that country in whose service I have spent the prime of my life and whose happiness will always constitute my own, the ardent desire I feel of enjoying in private life, after all the toils of war, the benefits of a wise and liberal government, will sooner or later convince my countrymen that this address is the result of the purest intention." * Pelatiah Webster's Political Essays, 310; compare 272. # Sparks, viii., 439. The date of the circular varies with the time of its suc cessive emission to the several states. Thoughtful for the defence of the republic, the retiring commander-in-chief recommended "a proper peace establishment," and an absolutely uniform organization of the "militia of the union" throughout "the continent." He pleaded for complete justice to all classes of public creditors. He entreated the legislature of each state to pension its disabled non-commissioned officers and privates. He enforced the duty of the states, without "hesitating a single moment," to give their sanction to the act of congress establishing a revenue for the United States, for the only alternative was a national bankruptcy. "Honesty," he said, "will be found on every experiment to be the best and only true policy. In what part of the continent shall we find any man or body of men who would not blush to propose measures purposely calculated to rob the soldier of his stipend, and the public creditor of his due?" He then proceeded to pronounce solemn judgment, and to summon the people of America to fulfil their duty to Providence and to their fellow-men. "If a spirit of disunion, or obstinacy and perverseness, should in any of the states attempt to frustrate all the happy effects that might be expected to flow from the union, that state which puts itself in opposition to the aggregate wisdom of the continent will alone be responsible for all the consequences. * "The citizens of America, the sole lords and proprietors of a vast tract of continent, are now acknowledged to be possessed of absolute freedom and independency. Here Heaven has crowned all its other blessings by giving a fairer opportunity for political happiness than any other nation has ever been favored with. The rights of mankind are better understood and more clearly defined than at any former period. The collected wisdom acquired through a long succession of years is laid open for our use in the establishment of our forms of government. The free cultivation of letters, the unbounded extension of commerce, the progressive refinement of manners, the growing liberality of sentiment, and, above all, the pure and benign light of revelation, have had a meliorating influence on mankind. At this auspicious period, the United States came into existence as a nation. *Sparks, viii., 446, 447. "Happiness is ours if we seize the occasion and make it our own. This is the moment to give such a tone to our federal government as will enable it to answer the ends of its institution. According to the system of policy the states shall adopt at this moment, it is to be decided whether the revolution must ultimately be considered as a blessing or a curse; a blessing or a curse, not to the present age alone, for with our fate will the destiny of unborn millions be involved. "Essential to the existence of the United States is the friendly disposition which will forget local prejudices and policies, make mutual concessions to the general prosperity, and, in some instances, sacrifice individual advantages to the interest of the community. Liberty is the basis of the glorious fabric of our independency and national character, and whoever would dare to sap the foundation, or overturn the structure, under whatever specious pretext he may attempt it, will merit the bitterest execration and the severest punishment which can be inflicted by his injured country. "It is indispensable to the happiness of the individual states that there should be lodged somewhere a supreme power to regulate and govern the general concerns of the confederated republic, without which the union cannot be of long duration,* and everything must very rapidly tend to anarchy and confusion. Whatever measures have a tendency to dissolve the union, or to violate or lessen the sovereign authority, ought to be considered as hostile to the liberty and independence of America. It is only in our united character that we are known as an empire, that our independence is acknowledged, that our power can be regarded, or our credit supported among foreign nations. The treaties of the European powers with the United States of America will have no validity on a dissolution of the union. We shall be left nearly in a state of nature; or we may find by our own unhappy experience that there is a natural and necessary progression from the extreme of anarchy to the extreme of tyranny, and that arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness." This circular letter of Washington the governors of the * Sparks, viii., 444. states, according to his request, communicated to their respective legislatures. In this way it was borne to every home in the United States, and he entreated the people to receive it as "his legacy" on his retirement to private life. He avoided the appearance of dictating to congress how the constitution should be formed; but, while he was careful to declare himself "no advocate for their having to do with the particular policy of any state further than it concerns the union at large," he had no reserve in avowing his "wish to see energy given to the federal constitution by a convention of the people." The newspapers of the day, as they carried the letter of Washington into every home, caught up the theme, and demanded a revision of the constitution, "not by congress, but by a continental convention, authorized for the purpose." + * Washington to Dr. William Gordon, 8 July 1783. Among them: Philadelphia, 3 July 1783; Maryland Gazette, 11 July; Virginia Gazette, 19 July. |