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043 - Chapter 31 - Part 4 · The American Revolution A Historical Overview Vol. 3

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  Speaker 1: Section forty three of History the Rise, Progress and Termination
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  Speaker 1: of the American Revolution, Volume three by Mercy Otis Warren.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information under the volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. History of the Rise, Progress, and
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  Speaker 1: Termination of the American Revolution, Volume three by Mercy Otis Warren,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter thirty one, Part four. Thus, notwithstanding the many dark
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  Speaker 1: appearances that for a time spread a cloud over the
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  Speaker 1: United States, notwithstanding the apprehensions and prejudices against the new
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  Speaker 1: Constitution which had pervaded the minds of many, though strong
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  Speaker 1: parties had arisen, and acrimonious divisions were fomented on the
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  Speaker 1: great and important question of ratification, Yet by the mode
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  Speaker 1: adopter by five states opposing amendments at the time of
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  Speaker 1: ratifying it, the fears of the people in general evaporated
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  Speaker 1: by degrees. The new Constitution was adopted with the laws
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  Speaker 1: and success and the promise of the expectations of amendments
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  Speaker 1: flattered all classes, with every advantage that could be rationally expected.
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  Speaker 1: The new system of government was ushered into existence under
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  Speaker 1: peculiar advantages and no circumstance tended more rapidly to dissipate
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  Speaker 1: every unfavorable impression than the unanimous choice of a gentleman
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  Speaker 1: to the presidential chair. At once meritorious, popular, and beloved
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  Speaker 1: beyond any man, Washington, the favorite of every class of people,
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  Speaker 1: was placed at the head of a government of experiment
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  Speaker 1: and expectation. Had any character of less popularity and celebrity
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  Speaker 1: been designated to this high trust, it might at this
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  Speaker 1: period have en dangered, if not have proved fatal to
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  Speaker 1: the peace of the Union. The sum thought the executive
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  Speaker 1: vested with two great powers to be entrusted to the
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  Speaker 1: hand of any individual. Washington was an individual in whom
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  Speaker 1: they had the most unlimited confidence. After the dissolution of
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  Speaker 1: the American Army and the retirement of the Commander in
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  Speaker 1: Chief from the conspicuous station of which he had been placed,
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  Speaker 1: the celebrity of his life and banners, associated with the
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  Speaker 1: circumstances of a remarkable revolution in which he always stood
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  Speaker 1: on the foreground, naturally turned the eyes of all toward him.
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  Speaker 1: The hearts of the whole continent were united to give
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  Speaker 1: him their proparatory voice. As the most suitable character in
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  Speaker 1: the United States presided the head of civil government. This
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  Speaker 1: funded insignia of military command, laid aside. The voluntary retirement
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  Speaker 1: of General Washington had raised his reputation to the scene
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  Speaker 1: of the human glory. Had he persevered in his resolution
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  Speaker 1: never again to engage in the thorny path of public life,
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  Speaker 1: his repose might have been forever ensured. In the delightful
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  Speaker 1: walks of rural occupation. He might, in his retirement of
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  Speaker 1: Mount Vernet, have cherished those principles of republicanism which he
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  Speaker 1: always professed, as well as the patriotism which he exhibited
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  Speaker 1: in the field. And by his disinterested example, he might
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  Speaker 1: have checked the aspiring ambition a sum of his former associates,
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  Speaker 1: and handed down his own name to posterity with redoubled luster.
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  Speaker 1: But man, after long habits of activity in the meridian
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  Speaker 1: of applause, is generally restless in retirement. But not. This
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  Speaker 1: was the opinion of some of his most intimate associates
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  Speaker 1: at the time. Yet doubtless General Washington thought of his
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  Speaker 1: duty to aid his country so critical an error, and
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  Speaker 1: the footnote the difficulty of entirely quitting the luminous scenes
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  Speaker 1: on the great stage of public action is often exemplified
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  Speaker 1: the most exalted characters. Thus, even the dignified Washington could not,
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  Speaker 1: amidst the bustle of the world, become a calm, disinterested
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  Speaker 1: spectator of the transactions of statesmen and politicians. His most
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  Speaker 1: judicious friends were confident he had no faime to acquire,
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  Speaker 1: and wished him to remain on the pinnacle he had
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  Speaker 1: already reached. But urged by the strong voice of his
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  Speaker 1: native state, and looked up to about every state in
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  Speaker 1: the Union, the call was strong and impressive, and he
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  Speaker 1: again came forward in public life, though it appeared to
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  Speaker 1: be in counteraction of his warm of determinations. Thus, the
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  Speaker 1: former commander of the Armies of America had been chosen
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  Speaker 1: one of the delegates for a general Convention of the States,
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  Speaker 1: and lent his hand to the formation of a new
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  Speaker 1: constitution of civil government. This instrument, as above observed, appeared
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  Speaker 1: to the public eye to lie open to many objections.
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  Speaker 1: It was viewed, if doubtful in its origin, dangerous in
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  Speaker 1: its aspect, and to a term, very alarming to the
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  Speaker 1: feelings of men who were trembling alive on the smallest
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  Speaker 1: encroachment of rights and privileges of which they had sacrificed
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  Speaker 1: their fortunes, immolated their friends, and risked their own wives.
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  Speaker 1: General Washington himself of syred when he signed the New Constitution,
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  Speaker 1: that it was an experiment of which the destiny of
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  Speaker 1: the Republican model of government was staked. But the system
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  Speaker 1: was adopted with expectations of amendment, and the experiment proved
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  Speaker 1: salutary and has ultimately redounded as much to the honor
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  Speaker 1: and interest of America as any mode of form of
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  Speaker 1: government it could have been devised by the wisdom of man.
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  Speaker 1: It is beyond a doubt that no man in the
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  Speaker 1: Union had it so much in its power to assimilate
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  Speaker 1: the parties, conciliate the affections, and obtained a general sanction
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  Speaker 1: to the new Constitution as a gentleman who commanded their
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  Speaker 1: obedience in the field. And it won the veneration, respect,
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  Speaker 1: and affections of the people in the most distant parts
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  Speaker 1: of the Union. Yet soon after the organization of the
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  Speaker 1: new constitutional government, a struggle began to take place between
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  Speaker 1: monarchists and Republicans, the consequences of which some huture period
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  Speaker 1: must disclose. From a variety of new sources, of new
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  Speaker 1: objects of magnificence opening before them of no prospects of
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  Speaker 1: wealth anticipated. This spirit of intrigue was matured even among
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  Speaker 1: the politicians of yesterday. Some of them were fighting for
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  Speaker 1: more leberty, without discression or judgment, to make a proper
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  Speaker 1: use of what they already possessed. Others were grasping it
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  Speaker 1: powers which neither reason or law, the constitution of their
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  Speaker 1: own forming nor the feelings of nature could justify. Thus,
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  Speaker 1: in a feared convulsions might ensue, great conflicts be sustained,
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  Speaker 1: and great spirits be subdued. Before the minds of every
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  Speaker 1: class could be perfectly tranquilized, even under the wisest system
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  Speaker 1: of human government. But such a people as the Americans,
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  Speaker 1: cannot suddenly be reduced to a state of slavery. It
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  Speaker 1: is a work of time to obliterate old opinions founded
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  Speaker 1: in reason and fanned by enthusiasm, till they had become
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  Speaker 1: a part of the religious creed of a nation. Notwithstanding
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  Speaker 1: the apprehensions which have pervaded the minds of many, America
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  Speaker 1: will probably long retain a greater share of freedom than
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  Speaker 1: can perhaps be found in any other part of the
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  Speaker 1: civilized world. This may be more the result of her
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  Speaker 1: local situation than from her superior policy or moderation, and
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  Speaker 1: the general equality of fortune which it formerly ran upon them.
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  Speaker 1: It may be modestly asserted that most of the inhabitants
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  Speaker 1: of America were too proud for monarchy, in too poor
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  Speaker 1: for nobility, and it is to be feared, too selfish
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  Speaker 1: and apparicious for a virtuous republic. The people of America, however,
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  Speaker 1: were not yet prepared, like the ungrateful Israelites, to ask
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  Speaker 1: a king, nor were this spirit sufficiently broken to yield
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  Speaker 1: the best of their olive grounds to his servants, or
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  Speaker 1: to see their sons appointed to run before his chariots.
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  Speaker 1: Yet it was to be regretted that they soon appeared
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  Speaker 1: a class of men who, though taken from the bark,
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  Speaker 1: the shop, or the more simple occupations of life, to
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  Speaker 1: command armies and to negotiate with foreign nations, had imbibed
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  Speaker 1: ideas of distinguished rank and ostentatious titles, incompatible with republican
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  Speaker 1: principles and totally repugnant to the views of the selfish
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  Speaker 1: advocates of American freedom. Indeed, many of these had been
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  Speaker 1: swept off by the end of time and death. Those
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  Speaker 1: who still lived in the shade of retirement observed with
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  Speaker 1: regret that, unless counteracted with firmness, the fiat of an
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  Speaker 1: individual might become more respected than the general will of
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  Speaker 1: the people. They yet remained a considerable class of these
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  Speaker 1: firm adherents to the principles of the revolution. They were
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  Speaker 1: strongly impressed with the necessity of an energetic government and
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  Speaker 1: the weakness of the old confederation. They were also sensible
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  Speaker 1: of the many difficulties that must arise in the fiscal
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  Speaker 1: arrangements of a people or had been long without a
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  Speaker 1: stable medium of trade, while agricultural commerce in every other
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  Speaker 1: pursuit wore a new face in consequence of a long war.
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  Speaker 1: But they had not contemplated the introduction of new projects,
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  Speaker 1: which were thought designed to enrich an anable sum of
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  Speaker 1: the officers of the army, to create a splendid government,
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  Speaker 1: and to support the dignity of new orders in the state.
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  Speaker 1: These were the articles that had made no part of
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  Speaker 1: their creed. The spirit of finance, which a sensible writer observes,
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  Speaker 1: accumulates woes on the head of a people by stripping
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  Speaker 1: them up the means of subsistence, and what is infinitely
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  Speaker 1: more to be regretted sets the foundations of morality had
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  Speaker 1: hereto form and only the dream of some overgrown public creditor.
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  Speaker 1: A funding system afterwards introduced attentive with all the intricracies
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  Speaker 1: of more aged than it seers which never could be understood,
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  Speaker 1: and a public debt thereby enhanced, which was probably never
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  Speaker 1: intended to be paid, was impregnated in the brain of
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  Speaker 1: a young officer for a foreign extraction, an adventure of
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  Speaker 1: a bold genius, active talents and fortune combinations from his
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  Speaker 1: birth to the exalted station to which he was lifted
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  Speaker 1: by the spirit of apiritism in American arrangements. Yet, when
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  Speaker 1: the system appeared, it was embraced with warrant by a
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  Speaker 1: considerable class as a legitimate child of speculation. But it
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  Speaker 1: appeared a monster in the eye of a very large
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  Speaker 1: part of the community, who viewed it as the parent
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  Speaker 1: of a national debt that would hang on the neck
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  Speaker 1: of America to the latest generations. Hence, a train of
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  Speaker 1: restless passions were awakened and excited to activity and created
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  Speaker 1: a rage for project speculation and various artifices to support
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  Speaker 1: a Factricio's dignity, which finally ruined multitudes of unsuspecting citizens.
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  Speaker 1: Hence a spirit of public gambling, speculation of paper in lands,
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  Speaker 1: and everything else to a degree unparalleled in any nation.
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  Speaker 1: Many other contingencies were held too severely to require a
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  Speaker 1: particular specification. When General Washington was placed in the presidential chair,
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  Speaker 1: he doubtless helped all the solicitude for the discharge of
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  Speaker 1: his duty which such a sacred deposit entrusted to his
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  Speaker 1: integrity would naturally awaken. His own reputation was blended with
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  Speaker 1: the administration of government of those principles of republicanism which
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  Speaker 1: he had always professed, and which he had supported by
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  Speaker 1: his sword. While time, circumstances and interests had changed the
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  Speaker 1: opinions of many influential characters. Thus the favid and beloved
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  Speaker 1: Washington called from his first retirement to act as chief
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  Speaker 1: Magister and the administration of civil government. Whatever measures he
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  Speaker 1: sanctioned were considered as the best, the wisest, and most
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  Speaker 1: just by a great majority of the people. In most instances,
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  Speaker 1: it is true he resided with wisdom, dignity, and moderation,
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  Speaker 1: But complete perfection is not to be attributed to man.
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  Speaker 1: Undue prejudices and partiality. These often imperceptibly brief into the
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  Speaker 1: best of hearts, and with all the veneration. Due to
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  Speaker 1: so meritorious a character, there were many who thought him
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  Speaker 1: too much under the abhorence of military favorites. A very
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  Speaker 1: judicious gentleman, well acquainted with ancient history and with modern politics,
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  Speaker 1: observed during the administration of General Washington that the President
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  Speaker 1: of the United States held the hearts of all America
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  Speaker 1: in his hand, from the moment of his elevation to
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  Speaker 1: the command of her armies, to his honorable retirement to
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  Speaker 1: private life, and from his dignified retreat to his inauguration
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  Speaker 1: in New York. Placed in the executive chaev of the
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  Speaker 1: United voice of all parties, it was expected the chief magistrate,
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  Speaker 1: whom flattery endows with all perfection, and to whom justice
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  Speaker 1: attributes many excellent qualities, would have felt himself above the
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  Speaker 1: partialities that usually hang about the human art, and that,
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  Speaker 1: divesting himself to the little prejudices that obtrude and frequently
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  Speaker 1: fully the greatest characters, he would have been no party
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  Speaker 1: in his appointments, and that real merit, whether federal or
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  Speaker 1: anti federal, would have been equally noticed. End of Section
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  Speaker 1: forty three