Many men of great and various powers played important parts in effecting this change of government which at length established the American Union in such a form that it could endure; but the three who stood foremost in the work were George Washington, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton. Two other men, whose most important work came somewhat later, must be mentioned along with these, for the sake of completeness. It was John Marshall, chief justice of the United States from 1801 to 1835, whose profound decisions did more than those of any later judge could ever do toward establishing the sense in which the Constitution must be understood. It was Thomas Jefferson, president of the United States from 1801 to 1809, whose sound democratic instincts and robust political philosophy prevented the federal government from becoming too closely allied with the interests of particular classes, and helped to make it what it should be,—a "government of the people, by the people, and for the people." In the making of the government under which we live, these five names—Washington, Madison, Hamilton, Jefferson, and Marshall—stand before all others. I mention them here chronologically, in the order of the times at which their influence was felt at its maximum.
When the work of the Federal Convention was sanctioned by the Continental Congress and laid before the people of the several states, to be ratified by special conventions in each state, there was earnest and sometimes bitter discussion. Many people feared that the new government would soon degenerate into a tyranny. But the century and a half of American history that had already elapsed had afforded such noble political training for the people that the discussion was, on the whole, more reasonable and more fruitful than any that had ever before been undertaken by so many men. The result was the adoption of the Federal Constitution, followed by the inauguration of George Washington, on the 30th of April, 1789, as President of the United States. And with this event our brief story may fitly end.
COLLATERAL READING.
The following books may be recommended to the reader who wishes to get a general idea of the American Revolution:—
1. General Works. The most comprehensive and readable account is contained in Mr. Fiske's larger work, The American Revolution, in two volumes. The subject is best treated from the biographical point of view in Washington Irving's Life of Washington, vols. i.-iv. Mr. Fiske has abridged and condensed these four octavos into one stout duodecimo entitled Washington and his Country, Boston, Ginn & Co., 1887. Our young friends may find Frothingham's Rise of the Republic rather close reading, but one can hardly name a book that will more richly reward them for their study. Green's Historical View of the Revolution should be read by every one. Carrington's Battles of the Revolution makes the military operations quite clear with numerous maps. Very young readers find it interesting to begin with Coffin's Boys of Seventy-Six, or C. H. Woodman's Boys and Girls of the Revolution. The social life of the time is admirably portrayed in Scudder's Men and Manners in America One Hundred Years Ago. See also Thornton's Pulpit of the Revolution. Lossing's Field Book of the Revolution—two royal octavos profusely illustrated—is an excellent book to browse in. Lecky's England in the Eighteenth Century gives an admirable statement of England's position.
2. Biographies. Lodge's George Washington, 2 vols., Scudder's George Washington, Tyler's Patrick Henry, Tudor's Otis, Hosmer's Samuel Adams, Morse's John Adams, Frothingham's Warren, Quincy's Josiah Quincy, Parton's Franklin and Jefferson, Fonblanque's Burgoyne, Lossing's Schuyler, Riedesel's Memoirs, Stone's Brant, Arnold's Arnold, Sargent's André, Kapp's Steuben and Kalb, Greene's Greene, Amory's Sullivan, Graham's Morgan, Simms's Marion, Abbott's Paul Jones, John Adams's Letters to his Wife, Morse's Hamilton, Gay's Madison, Roosevelt's Gouverneur Morris, Russell's Fox, Albemarle's Rockingham, Fitzmaurice's Shelburne, MacKnight's Burke, Macaulay's essay on Chatham.
3. Fiction. Cooper's Chainbearer, Miss Sedgwick's Linwoods, Paulding's Old Continental, Mrs. Child's Rebels, Motley's Morton's Hope, Herman Melville's Israel Potter, Kennedy's Horse Shoe Robinson. There is an account of the battle of Bunker Hill in Cooper's Lionel Lincoln. Thompson's Green Mountain Boys gives interesting descriptions of many of the events in that region. The border warfare is treated in Grace Greenwood's Forest Tragedy and Hoffman's Greyslaer. Simms's Partisan and Mellichampe deal with events in South Carolina in 1780, and later events are covered in his Scout, Katharine Walford, Woodcraft, Forayers, and Eutaw. See also Miss Sedgwick's Walter Thornley, and Cooper's Pilot and Spy, and H. C. Watson's Camp Fires of the Revolution. The scenes of Paul and Persis, by Mary E. Brush, are laid in the Mohawk Valley.
For further references, see Justin Winsor's Reader's Handbook of the American Revolution, a book which is absolutely indispensable to every one who wishes to study the subject.