It was a most arduous task to combine at once, into one system, elements which had hitherto been separated, without holding them together by violence, and, while leaving them free, to induce them to act in concert under the guidance of one and the same power. The feelings of individuals no less than public institutions, passions as well as laws, were opposed to this result. The colonies wanted confidence in each other. All of them were jealous of the power of Congress, the new and untried rival of the local assemblies; they were still more jealous of the army, which they regarded as being, at the same time, dangerous to the independence of the States and to the liberty of the citizens. Upon this point, new and enlightened opinions were in unison with popular feeling. The danger of standing armies, and the necessity, in free countries, of perpetually resisting and diminishing their power, their influence, and the contagion of their morals, was one of the favorite maxims of the eighteenth century. Nowhere, perhaps, was this maxim more generally or more warmly received than in the colonies of America. In the bosom of the national party, those who were the most ardent, the most firmly resolved to carry on the contest with vigor and to the end, were also the most sensitive friends of civil liberty; that is to say, these were the men, who looked upon the army, a military spirit, military discipline, with the most hostile and suspicious eye. Thus it happened, that obstacles were met with precisely in that quarter in which it was natural to look for, and to expect to find, the means of success.
And in this army itself, the object of so much distrust, there prevailed the most independent and democratic spirit. All orders were submitted to discussion. Each company claimed the privilege of acting on its own account and for its own convenience. The troops of the different States were unwilling to obey any other than their own generals; and the soldiers, any other than officers, sometimes directly chosen, and always at least approved, by themselves. And the day after a defeat which it was necessary to retrieve, or a victory which was to be followed up, whole regiments would break up and go home, it being impossible to prevail upon them to wait even a few days for the arrival of their successors.
A painful doubt, mingled with apprehension, arises in the mind at the contemplation of the many and severe sufferings with which the course of the most just revolution is attended, and of the many and perilous chances to which a revolution, the best prepared for success, is exposed. But this doubt is rash and unjust. Man, through pride, is blind in his confident expectation, and, through weakness, is no less blind in his despair. The most just and successful revolution brings into light the evil, physical and moral, always great, which lies hidden in every human society. But the good does not perish in this trial, nor in the unholy connexion which it is thus led to form; however imperfect and alloyed, it preserves its power as well as its rights; if it be the leading principle in men, it prevails, sooner or later, in events also, and instruments are never wanting to accomplish its victory.
Let the people of the United States for ever hold in respectful and grateful remembrance, the leading men of that generation which achieved their independence, and founded their government! Franklin, Adams, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, Jay, Henry Mason, Greene, Knox, Morris, Pinckney, Clinton, Trumbull, Rutledge; it would be impossible to enumerate them all; for, at the time the contest began, there were in each colony, and in almost every county in each colony, some men already honored by their fellow citizens, already well known in the defence of public liberty, influential by their property, talent, or character; faithful to ancient virtues, yet friendly to modern improvement; sensible to the splendid advantages of civilization, and yet attached to simplicity of manners; high-toned in their feelings, but of modest minds, at the same time ambitious and prudent in their patriotic impulses; men of rare endowments, who expected much from humanity, without presuming too much upon themselves, and who risked for their country far more than they could receive from her, even after her triumph.
It was to these men, aided by God and seconded by the people, that the success of the cause was due. Among them, Washington was the chief.
While yet young, indeed very young, he had become an object of great expectation. Employed as an officer of militia in some expeditions to the western frontier of Virginia against the French and Indians, he had made an equal impression on his superiors and his companions, the English governors and the American people. The former wrote to London to recommend him to the favor of the King. [Footnote 20] The latter, assembled in their churches, to invoke the blessing of God upon their arms, listened with enthusiasm to an eloquent preacher, Samuel Davies, who, in praising the courage of the Virginians, exclaimed, "As a remarkable instance of this, I many point out to the public that heroic youth, Colonel Washington, whom I cannot but hope Providence has hitherto preserved in so signal a manner for some important service to his country." [Footnote 21]
[Footnote 20: Washington's Writings, Vol. II. p. 97.]