"This difficulty ought to have been foreseen when it was determined to execute the law for raising the army. It is now conceiv'd that we cannot at the present stage of our negotiation with France change the defensive position we have taken without much hazard.
"In addition to this many influential characters not only contend that the army ought not now to be disbanded but that it ought to be continued so long as the war in Europe shall last. I am apprehensive that our people would receive with very ill temper a system which should keep up an army of observation at the expense of the annual addition of five millions to our debt. The effect of it wou'd most probably be that the hands which hold the reins wou'd be entirely chang'd. You perceive the perplexities attending our situation.
"In addition to this there are such different views with respect to the future, such a rancorous malignity of temper among the democrats,[1005] such [an ap]parent disposition—(if the Aurora be the index of the [mind of] those who support it) to propel us to a war with B[ritain] & to enfold us within the embrace of Fran[ce], uch a detestation & fear of France among others [that I] look forward with more apprehension than I have ever done to the future political events of our country."[1006]
On December 18 a rumor of the death of Washington reached the Capital. Marshall notified the House. His grief was so profound that even the dry and unemotional words of the formal congressional reports express it. "Mr. Marshall," says the "Annals" of Congress, "in a voice that bespoke the anguish of his mind, and a countenance expressive of the deepest regret, rose, and delivered himself as follows:—
"Mr. Speaker: Information has just been received, that our illustrious fellow-citizen, the Commander-in-Chief of the American Army, and the late President of the United States, is no more!
"Though this distressing intelligence is not certain, there is too much reason to believe its truth. After receiving information of this national calamity, so heavy and so afflicting, the House of Representatives can be but ill fitted for public business. I move, therefore, they adjourn."[1007]
The next day the news was confirmed, and Marshall thus addressed the House:—
"Mr. Speaker: The melancholy event which was yesterday announced with doubt, has been rendered but too certain.
"Our Washington is no more! The Hero, the Sage, and the Patriot of America—the man on whom in times of danger every eye was turned and all hopes were placed—lives now only in his own great actions, and in the hearts of an affectionate and afflicted people.
"If, sir, it has even not been usual openly to testify respect for the memory of those whom Heaven had selected as its instrument for dispensing good to men, yet such has been the uncommon worth, and such the extraordinary incidents, which have marked the life of him whose loss we all deplore, that the American Nation,[1008] impelled by the same feelings, would call with one voice for a public manifestation of that sorrow which is so deep and so universal.