**** "The principal objects of its appointment being thus accomplished, the members of this convention think fit to dissolve the same, and it is hereby dissolved accordingly. "Steuben, Major General, President."
The Society of the Cincinnati.—Final Proceedings in the Organization of the Institution
"While contemplating a final separation of the officers of the army," says Doctor Thacher, "the tenderest feelings of the heart had their afflicting operation. It was at the suggestion of General Knox, and with the acquiescence of the commander-in-chief, that an expedient was devised by which a hope was entertained that their long-cherished friendship and social intercourse might be perpetuated, and that at future periods they might annually communicate, and revive a recollection of the bonds by which they were connected." *. Pursuant to these suggestions, the officers held a meeting. A committee, consisting of Generals
* Military Journal p. 317.
Plan and Name of the Society of the Cincinnati.—The Constitution.—Opposition of Judge Burke and others.
Knox. Hand, and Huntington, and Captain Shaw, was appointed to revise the proposals for the institution. Another meeting was held on the 13th of May, at the quarters of Steuben (Verplanck's), when the committee reported. A plan, in the following words, was adopted, * and the society was duly organized:
"It having pleased the Supreme Governor of the universe, in the disposition of human affairs, to cause the separation of the colonies of North America from the domination of. Great Britain, and, after a bloody conflict of eight years, to establish them free, independent, and sovereign states, connected by alliances, founded on reciprocal advantages, with some of the greatest princes and powers of the earth:
"To perpetuate, therefore, as well the remembrance of this vast event, as the mutual friendships which have been formed under the pressure of common danger, and in many instances cemented by the blood of the parties, the officers of the American army do hereby, in the most solemn manner, associate, constitute, and combine themselves into one society of friends, to endure so long as they shall endure, or any of their eldest male posterity, and in failure thereof, the collateral branches, who may be judged worthy of becoming its supporters and members. **
"The officers of the American army, having generally been taken from the citizens of America, possess high veneration for the character of that illustrious Roman, Lucius Quin-tius Cincinnatus, and being resolved to follow his example, by returning to their citizenship, they think they may with propriety denominate themselves the Society of the Cincinnati.
"The following principles shall be immutable, and form the basis of the Society of the Cincinnati: