need of a directing and a sustaining power had never been greater or clearer. If the war itself was over, its consequences, its burdens, its debts, its wasting influences, were but begun.

Washington's counsels.

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At

No one saw this more plainly, no one felt it more deeply, than the retiring commander-in-chief. no time had he been absorbed in his military duties. In his relations to Congress, to the states, even to the citizens, as well as in those to foreigners, whether allies or enemies, he had been almost as much the civil as the military head of the country. The arm that had led the nation through the field was now lifted to point out the paths that opened beyond. According to the system of policy the states shall adopt at this moment," —thus Washington wrote to the governors of the states, on disbanding the army, they will stand or fall; and by their confirmation or lapse, it is yet 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." "There are four things," he continued, "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.

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"Second. A sacred 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."

And

"I now make it my earnest prayer," concluded prayers. the Christian hero," that God would have you, and the state over which you preside, in His holy protection; that He would incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government, to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow-citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for their brethren who have served them in the field; and finally, that He would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind, which were the characteristics of the divine Author of our blessed religion, and without a humble imitation of whose example in these things we can never hope to be a happy nation."

Foreign sympathy.

CHAPTER VI.

THE CONSTITUTION.

ONE loves to dwell upon the sympathy from abroad for the infant nation. What had been repressed while the states were still claimed as the colonies of Great Britain broke forth after the claim was set aside. From all parts of Europe, from all parts of Great Britain itself, there came congratulations and applauses. Even sovereigns did homage to the republic. The King of France continued its friend. The King of Spain, recognizing its national existence, sent gifts and compliments to its great leader, Washington.

visit.

No proof of regard was dearer to Washington or Lafayette's to the nation than one which came from the friend and the champion of many years, the devoted Lafayette. He had spent two years and a half in generous exertions at home, when he crossed the seas to join in the American rejoicings at the definite establishment of independence. The whole people welcomed him. Divided

on many points, they were united in the grateful affection which he had inspired. Soldiers and citizens, the wild borderers and the plodding townspeople, the inhabitants of every section, thronged together with a common desire of doing honor to Lafayette. He was feasted in all the principal places. Congress gave him a public reception. Washington crowned him with love and parental gratitude at Mount Vernon. After a six months' tour, he left America

to share in the struggles of his native country, (August, 1784 January, 1785.)

Wants of

He left the country of his adoption in the midst America. of struggles of its own. It was contending against manifold wants, some common to any youthful nation, others peculiar to itself, to a nation so unique in its history, and especially in the history of the last twenty years. It is to these wants, and to the manner in which they were supplied, that we are to turn.

Organ

men.

Chief of them all, the one, indeed, in which they ization. will be found to have been comprehended, like segments in a circle, was organization. The sharp points, the intersecting lines, the clashing forms of different districts and of different institutions, needed to be reduced to order within the curve, at once enfolding and harmonizing, of a national system. There was hardly a political principle upon which the entire country agreed. There was not one political power by which it was governed. Interests were opposed to interests, classes to classes; nay, men to When the officers of the army, for instance, formed into a society, under the name of the Cincinnati, for the purpose of keeping up their relations with one another, and more particularly of succoring those who might fall into distress, a general uproar was raised, because the membership of the society was to be hereditary, from father to son, or from kinsman to kinsman. It was found necessary to strike out this provision, at the first general meeting of the Cincinnati, (1784.) Even then, though there remained nothing but a charitable association, it was inveighed against as a caste, as an aristocracy; as any thing, in short, save what it really was. It is easy to say that all this is a sign of republicanism, of a 'devoted anxiety to preserve the institutions for which loss and sufferings had been endured. But it is a clearer sign of the suspicions and the collisions

which were rending the nation asunder. There was but a single remedy. The people were to be united; the country was to be made one.

The

states.

troubles

The states were absorbed in their own troubles. The debts of the Confederation lay heavy upon Internal them, in addition to those contracted by themselves. Their citizens were impoverished, here and there maddened by the calamities and the burdens, private and public, which they were obliged to bear together. At Exeter, the assembly of New Hampshire was assailed by two hundred men with weapons, demanding an emission of paper money. All day, the insurgents held possession of the legislative chamber; but in the early evening, they were dispersed by a rumor that Exeter was taking up arms against them, (1786.) The same year, the courts of Massachusetts were prevented from holding their usual sessions by bodies of armed men, whose main object it was to prevent any collection of debts or taxes. So general was the sympathy with the movement, not only in Massachusetts, but in the adjoining states, that twelve or fifteen thousand were supposed to be ready to do the same. Nearly two thousand were in arms at the beginning of the following year, (1787.) The horror excited in the rest of the country was intense. Congress ordered troops to be raised, but as it had no power to interfere with the states, the pretext of Indian hostilities was set up. Massachusetts was fortunate in having James Bowdoin for a governor. Under his influence chiefly, for the legislature was partly paralyzed and partly infected, the danger was met. One or two thousand militia, under the command of General Lincoln, marched against the insurgents, at the head of whom was Daniel Shays, a captain in the continental army. Already driven back from Springfield, where they had attacked the arsenal, the insurgents retreated to