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034 - Chapter 29 - Part 3 · The American Revolution A Historical Overview Vol. 3

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  Speaker 1: Section thirty four of History the Rise, Progress and Termination
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  Speaker 1: of the American Revolution, Volume three by Mercy Ogus Warren.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings live in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information are to 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 Ogus Warren,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty nine, Part three. The Benevolent Principles about in
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  Speaker 1: the declarations of the Society allowed many to unite with
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  Speaker 1: them who had no idea of establishing and her reditary
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  Speaker 1: bank of nobility in America. Their views were too circumscribed
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  Speaker 1: and perhaps too virtuous to wish for anything more than independence,
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  Speaker 1: retirement in peace, and to return to the plow or
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  Speaker 1: to the humbler occupations of their former life, with the
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  Speaker 1: concious disposition of doing good to their old associates, if
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  Speaker 1: affliction should assail or misfortunes rendered them at any future day.
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  Speaker 1: The objects of commiseration and beneficence, and America had nurtured
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  Speaker 1: sense about this ambition, or thus early contemplated stars, goddess
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  Speaker 1: and diadems, crown scepters in the regalia of kings in
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  Speaker 1: the yet simple posm of their country. Donnel Washington was
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  Speaker 1: looked to as the head of the society, though for
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  Speaker 1: a time he prudently declined this style of president or
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  Speaker 1: grand Master of the Order, and chose to be considered
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  Speaker 1: only as an honorary member. This might have been for
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  Speaker 1: an apprehension that it would give a stab to his popularity,
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  Speaker 1: but more probably it was from a sense of the
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  Speaker 1: impropriety of an assumption so incompatible with the principles of
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  Speaker 1: a young republic. The commander of the Armies of the
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  Speaker 1: United States, However, after the Baron Disturbin had acted as
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  Speaker 1: Grandmaster the Order until October one, Thousan seven hundred and
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  Speaker 1: eighty three publicly a knowledge and subscribed himself the president
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  Speaker 1: of the Society of the Cincinnati. It was observed by
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  Speaker 1: a writer at England that this was the only blood
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  Speaker 1: hitherto discovered in the character this venerable hero. The same
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  Speaker 1: right adds it is impossible, ever to exculpate him. If
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  Speaker 1: he understood the tendency of his conduct, his ideas of
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  Speaker 1: liberty must have been less pure and elevated than they
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  Speaker 1: have been represented. And if he rushed into the measure blindfold,
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  Speaker 1: he must still be considered as wanting in some degree
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  Speaker 1: that penetration and presence of mind so necessary to complete
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  Speaker 1: his character. He was censured by several opposed to such
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  Speaker 1: an institution who wrote on the subject built in Europe
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  Speaker 1: and America. It was considered as a blameable deviation in
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  Speaker 1: him from the principles of the Revolution, which he defended
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  Speaker 1: by his sword, and appeared now ready to relinquish. By
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  Speaker 1: his example. The name of Washington was alone sufficient to
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  Speaker 1: render the institution popular in the army, But neither his
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  Speaker 1: nor any other name could sanction the design in the
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  Speaker 1: eye of the sober republican and other men of modern
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  Speaker 1: views in the common grades of life, these were tenacious
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  Speaker 1: of the principles in the Articles of the Confederation, which
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  Speaker 1: expressly forbad any rank or dignity to be conferred on
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  Speaker 1: the citizens of the United States, either by princes abroad
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  Speaker 1: or self created societies at home. Much less satisfied were
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  Speaker 1: many high spirited individuals than the higher classes of life.
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  Speaker 1: Ambassadors abroad who had adopted a fondness for nominal distinctions,
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  Speaker 1: members of Congress and of state legislatures, and many others
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  Speaker 1: who had acquired a taste for the external superiority, that
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  Speaker 1: wealth and titles, Stone could not be pleased to see
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  Speaker 1: themselves and their children thus excluded from herreditary claim to
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  Speaker 1: the honors, privileges, and emoluments are the first order of
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  Speaker 1: American nobility. These assertive without hesitation that this self created
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  Speaker 1: peerage of military origin would throw an undue weight into
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  Speaker 1: the scale of the army. While the sincere of voldaries
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  Speaker 1: of freedom and the natural equality of man apprehended that
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  Speaker 1: this institution would give a fatal wound to the liberties
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  Speaker 1: of America. Many judicious observers of the story of mankind
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  Speaker 1: thought that the United States had, now, at the conclusion
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  Speaker 1: of the war, an opportunity to make a fair experiment
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  Speaker 1: between the advantages of a republican form of government and
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  Speaker 1: warn hispotic modes. It is true America had obtained her
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  Speaker 1: independence and spurned at every idea of kingly power. Yet
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  Speaker 1: at this period it was difficult to conjecture into a
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  Speaker 1: form of government the United States would finally settle. Republicanism
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  Speaker 1: had spent the order of the day. A theory was beautiful,
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  Speaker 1: and the system warmly advocated by many of the best
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  Speaker 1: political writers, But the manners and the opinions of many
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  Speaker 1: discovered that they had not entirely shaken off their prejudices
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  Speaker 1: in vapor of monarchy under which their ancestors had suffered,
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  Speaker 1: enough to lead them to impress the wisest lessons on
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  Speaker 1: their posterity. Some circumstances orged symptoms that Americans I post
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  Speaker 1: on the nations would succumb to the will of assumed superiority,
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  Speaker 1: and by their servility justified the attempt to establish inequalities
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  Speaker 1: of rank, and that they would relinquish with their rights
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  Speaker 1: a spirit that ought to support them, That the dignity
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  Speaker 1: of republican principles would, in summer a very distant day
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  Speaker 1: be lost in the adulation of the sincophat trembling under
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  Speaker 1: the frown of a despotic master. This was consistent with
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  Speaker 1: the ideas of a sensible American writer on the subject
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  Speaker 1: of the Institution of the Cincinnati. He observes that this
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  Speaker 1: order was a deep laid plan to beget and perpetuate
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  Speaker 1: family grand during aristocratic nobility, which might terminate at last
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  Speaker 1: to monarchical tyranny, but adds the same writer never let
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  Speaker 1: so foul a stain be fastened on the human character,
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  Speaker 1: as that the very men who with unfading honor rescued
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  Speaker 1: their country from the galling yoke of foreigners, should lay
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  Speaker 1: the cornerstone for erecting a tyranny themselves. Let not their
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  Speaker 1: example prove that all that Plato, Sidney, and Locke have said,
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  Speaker 1: and others have bequeathed to posterity on the subject of
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  Speaker 1: political happiness was no more than ideal pictures of a
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  Speaker 1: fine imagination. The Baron des Stuben and many other foreign
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  Speaker 1: officers were very active and zealous in promoting this new institution.
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  Speaker 1: It was, however, generally thought it originated more in the
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  Speaker 1: ambition of some American than in the influence of any
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  Speaker 1: European officers, And perhaps the society was not more indebted
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  Speaker 1: to any individual who was a native son of America
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  Speaker 1: for this dignified innovation than to Major General Knox, a
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  Speaker 1: man of extensively ambition who had imbibed ideas of distinction
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  Speaker 1: too extravagant for a genuine Republican. Mister Knox had not
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  Speaker 1: the advantages of a literary education, but his natural inquisitive
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  Speaker 1: disposition and attention to books rendered him a well informed,
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  Speaker 1: agreeable man with ingratiating accomplishments. His love of military parade,
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  Speaker 1: and the affability of his manners brought him forward to
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  Speaker 1: the command of a contected company in Boston before the
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  Speaker 1: commencement of the American War. Naturally of a complacent disposition,
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  Speaker 1: his jovial humor and easy deportment wended him acceptable in
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  Speaker 1: all companies and made him a favorite with the commander
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  Speaker 1: in chief, even before his talents as a soldier were
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  Speaker 1: called into exercise. With an assemblage of policing qualities, it
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  Speaker 1: is not strange that he rose rapidly in the military line.
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  Speaker 1: He commanded the artillery department for several years before the
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  Speaker 1: conclusion of the war, and performed his study in this
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  Speaker 1: line with courage and vigilance, which did honor to his
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  Speaker 1: military character. Towards the close of the war, many gentlemen
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  Speaker 1: had indulged the most expensive modes of life, without resources
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  Speaker 1: sufficient to support the pernicious habits which they had adopted
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  Speaker 1: from a wild fondness for all ideas of rank, titles
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  Speaker 1: and privileged orders. Little short of men princely education, birth,
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  Speaker 1: and expectation. These probably might think that some badge of
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  Speaker 1: hereditary nobility might give consequence to certain characters and families,
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  Speaker 1: or they might have sagacity to see that no exigencies
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  Speaker 1: might arise that would open loose sources of Weald's favored
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  Speaker 1: individuals sufficient to maintain the pageantry assumed by self originated
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  Speaker 1: titles and distinguished orders, and of Section thirty four