"that the union of these states be fixed in a more solid and permanent manner; that the powers of congress be more clearly ascertained and defined; that the important national concerns of the United States be under the superintendency and direction of one supreme head; that it be recommended to the states to empower their delegates in congress to confederate with such of the states as will accede to the proposed confederation; and that they invest their delegates in congress with powers competent for the government and direction of all those common and national affairs which do not nor can come within the jurisdiction of the particular states.”

"These resolutions," wrote Washington to Bowdoin, then president of the council of Massachusetts, "if adopted, will be the means most likely to rescue our affairs from the complicated and dreadful embarrassments under which they labor, and will do infinite honor to those with whom they originate. I sincerely wish they may meet with no opposition or delay in their progress."

The words of the Boston convention sunk deeply into the mind of Hamilton, who for three and a half years had been Washington's most able and confidential secretary; and, under his eye and guidance, had watched the course of affairs from the central point where they could best be overseen. To these opportunities he added the resources of an inventive and fearless mind, the quick impulses of youth, and the habit of steady and severe reflection. Uncontrolled by birth or inherited attachments to any one state, he fastened upon the idea of a stronger union. By disposition and temperament he demanded a strong and well-organized government. From childhood he was unbounded in his admiration of the English constitution, and did not utterly condemn its methods of corruption in the conduct of public affairs; yet in his own nature there was nothing sordid or low; he was always true to the sense of personal integrity and honor. The character of his mind and his leaning to authority, combined with something of a mean opinion of his fellow-men, cut him off from the sympathy of the masses, so that he was in many ways unfit to lead a party; and the years of his life which were most productive of good were those in which he acted under Washington.

1

On the third of September 1780, Hamilton took the field in behalf of a national constitution by urging Duane, a member of congress from New York, to hold up to that body the example of the meeting of the New England states, and to call on the first day of the next November a convention of all the states, with full authority to conclude finally upon a general confederation. He traced the causes of the want of power in congress, and censured that body for its timidity in refusing to assume authority to preserve the republic from harm. "Undefined powers," he said, "are discretionary powers, limited only by the object for which they were given," not holding in mind that congress could not have assumed such powers, even if it would. "Already," he continued, "some of the lines of the army, but for the personal influence of the general, would obey their states in opposition to congress, notwithstanding the pains taken to preserve the unity of the army. The sovereign of an empire under one simple form of government has too much power; in an empire composed of confederated states, each with a government completely organized within itself, the danger is directly the re

verse."

"We must, at all events, have a vigorous confederation,' he said, "if we mean to succeed in the contest, and be happy thereafter. Internal police should be regulated by the legislatures. Congress should have complete sovereignty in all that relates to war, peace, trade, finance, foreign affairs, armies, fleets, fortifications, coining money, establishing banks, imposing a land-tax, poll-tax, duties on trade, and the unoccupied lands." "The confederation should provide certain perpetual revenues, productive and easy of collection-a land-tax, polltax, or the like; which, together with the duties on trade and the unlocated lands, would give congress a substantial existence." "Where the public good is evidently the object, more may be effected in governments like ours than in any other. It has been a constant remark that free countries have ever paid the heaviest taxes. The obedience of a free people to general laws, however hard they bear, is ever more perfect than that of slaves to the arbitrary will of a prince."

"As to the plan of confederation which congress has pro

posed, it is," he said, "defective, and requires to be altered. It is neither fit for war nor peace. The idea of an uncontrollable sovereignty in each state will defeat the powers given to congress, and make our union feeble and precarious."

The second step which Hamilton recommended was the appointment of great officers of state-one for the department of foreign affairs, another for war, a third for the navy, a fourth for the treasury. These were to supersede the committees and the boards which had hitherto been usual; but his plan neither went so far as to propose a president with the chief executive power, nor two branches in the national legislature. He would have placed the army exclusively under congress, and valued it as "a solid basis of authority and consequence." The precedent of the bank of England, of which he overestimated the influence on public credit, led him to expect too much from a bank of the United States.

The advice which Hamilton offered from his tent, in the midst of an unpaid, half-fed, and half-clad army, was the more remarkable from the hopefulness which beamed through his words. No doubt crossed his mind that a republic of united states could embrace a continental territory.

Two days later Washington, with Duane at his side, gazed from Weehawken Heights on the half-ruined city of New York in her bondage. He never gave himself rest in his efforts to create the system of government which was soon to gather the wealth and commercial representatives of all the nations of the world on that island and the neighboring shores. On the twenty-second of October, intent on inspiring his native commonwealth with zeal to lead the way to the establishment of a true union of the states, he poured out his heart to his early friend George Mason: "Our present distresses are so great and complicated that it is scarcely within the powers of description to give an adequate idea of them. With regard to our future prospects, unless there is a material change both in our civil and military policy, it will be in vain to contend much longer.

"We are without money; without provision and forage, except what is taken by impress; without clothing; and shortly shall be, in a manner, without men. In a word, we

have lived upon expedients till we can live no longer. The history of this war is a history of temporary devices instead of system, and economy which results from it.

"If we mean to continue our struggles (and it is to be hoped we shall not relinquish our claims), we must do it upon an entire new plan. We must have a permanent force; not a force that is constantly fluctuating and sliding from under us, as a pedestal of ice would leave a statue on a summer's day; involving us in expense that baffles all calculation-an expense which no funds are equal to. We must at the same time contrive ways and means to aid our taxes by loans, and put our finances upon a more certain and stable footing than they are at present. Our civil government must likewise undergo a reform; ample powers must be lodged in congress as the head of the federal union, adequate to all the purposes of war. Unless these things are done, our efforts will be in vain."

"To accelerate the federal alliance and lead to the happy establishment of the federal union," congress urged on the states a liberal surrender of their territorial claims in the West; and it provided "that the western lands which might be ceded to the United States should be settled and formed into distinct republican states, that should become members of that federal union, and have the same rights of sovereignty, freedom, and independence as the other states." On the fifth of October, in words drafted by Robert R. Livingston, it adhered with hearty good-will to the principles of the armed neutrality, as set forth by Russia. By a vote of a majority of the states it sought to quiet the discontent among the officers in the army by promising them half-pay for life. But, to relieve the embarrassments of the moment, it was helpless.

On the fourth of November congress once more distributed among the several states a tax of six millions of silver dollars, to be paid partly in specific articles. "It is now four days," wrote Glover to Massachusetts on the eleventh of December, "since your line of the army has eaten one mouthful of bread. We have no money; nor will anybody trust us. The best of wheat is at this moment selling in the state of New York for three fourths of a dollar per bushel, and your army is starving for want. On the first of January something will turn up, if

not speedily prevented, which your officers cannot be answer able for."

When congress, in September 1776, had transferred the enlistment of troops to the states, the new recruits were to bind themselves to serve for the war; but in some cases the enlistment was made "for three years or for the war;" and three years had passed since that time. In the night of the first of January 1781, a part of the Pennsylvania line, at Morristown, composed in a large degree of new-comers from Ireland, revolted, and, under the lead of their non-commissioned officers, marched with six field-pieces to Princeton. The want of clothes, of food, and of pay for nearly a year, and the compulsion imposed upon some of them to remain in service beyond the three years for which they believed they had engaged, were extremities which they would no longer endure.

Informed of the mutiny, Sir Henry Clinton passed over to Staten Island with a body of troops for its support; but two emissaries whom he sent to them with tempting offers were given up by the mutineers, and after trial were hanged as spies. Reed, the president of Pennsylvania, repaired to the spot, though it was beyond his jurisdiction; and, without authority and without due examination of each case, he discharged those who professed to have served out their specified term, while measures were taken by the state of Pennsylvania to clothe and pay the rest. They, for the most part, obtained no more than was due them; but it was of evil tendency that they gained it by a revolt.

In a circular letter to the New England states, of which Knox was made the bearer, Washington laid open the aggravated calamities and distresses of the army. "Without relief, the worst," he said, "that can befall us may be expected. I will continue to exert every means I am possessed of to prevent an extension of the mischief; but I can neither foretell nor be answerable for the issue."

Troops of New Jersey, whose ranks next to the Pennsylvania line included the largest proportion of foreign-born, showed signs of being influenced by the bad example; but Washington interposed. The twenty regiments of New England in the continental service had equal reasons for discontent; but they