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 traet 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 reccive 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. THE FORMATION OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. IN FIVE BOOKS. BOOK SECOND. ON THE WAY TO A FEDERAL CONVENTION. 1783-1787. |