union of America and France. To the ministers who had represented the King of France at Philadelphia, to the admirals who had commanded in the American seas, to the Count de Rochambeau and the generals and colonels of the French troops who had served in the United States, the insignia of the order were to be presented and they were to be invited to consider themselves as members of the society, at the head of which the Commander-in-Chief was respectfully solicited to place his name. An incessant attention, on the part of the members, to the preservation of the exalted rights and liberties of human nature for which they had fought and bled, and an unalterable determination to promote and cherish between the respective States union and national honor, were declared to be the immutable principles of the society. Its objects were to perpetuate the rememberance of the American revolution, ast well as cordial affection and the spirit of brotherly kindness among the officers, and to extend acts of beneficence to those officers and their families whose situation might require assistance. To give effect to the charitable object of the institution a common fund was to be created by the deposit of one month's pay on the part of every officer becoming a member, the product of which fund, after defraying certain necessary charges, was to be sacredly appropriated to this humane purpose.

The military gentlemen of each State were to constitute a distinct society, deputies from which were to assemble triennially in order to form a general meeting for the regulation of general concerns.

Without encountering any open opposition this institution was carried into complete effect, and its honors were sought, especially by the foreign officers, with great avidity. But soon after it was organized those jealousies, which in its first moments had been concealed, burst forth

into open view. In October, 1783, a pamphlet was published by Mr. Burk of South Carolina, for the purpose of rousing the apprehensions of the public, and of directing its resentments against the society. In this work its was denounced as an attempt to form an order of nobility. The hereditary feature of the constitution and the power of conferring its honors on distinguished personages, not descended from the officers of the army, were considered particularly inconsistent with the genius of our republican institutions. In Massachusetts the subject was even taken up by the Legislature, and it was well understood that, in Congress, the society was viewed with secret disapprobation.

It was impossible for Washington to view with indifference this state of the public feeling. Bound to the officers of his army by the strictest ties of esteem and affection, conscious of their merits and assured of their attachment to his person, he was alive to everything which might affect their reputation or their interests. However innocent the institution might be in itself or however laudable its real objects, if the impression it made on the public mind was such as to draw a line of distinction between the military men of America and their fellow-citizens, he was earnest in his wishes to adopt such measures as would efface that impression. However ill founded the public prejudices might be he thought this a case in which they ought to be respected, and, if it should be found impracticable to convince the people that their fears were misplaced, he was disposed "to yield to them in a degree, and not to suffer that which was intended for the best of purposes to produce a bad one."

A general meeting was to be held in Philadelphia in May, 1784, and, in the meantime, he had been appointed the temporary president.

Washington was too much in the habit of considering subjects of difficulty in various points of view, and of deciding on them with coolness and deliberation, to permit his affections to influence his judgment. The most exact inquiries, assiduously made into the true state of the public mind, resulted in a conviction that opinions unfriendly to the institution, in its actual form, were extensively entertained, and that those opinions were founded, not in hostility to the late army, but in real apprehensions for equal liberty.

A wise and necessary policy required, he thought, the removal of these apprehensions, and, at the general meeting in May, the hereditary principle, and the power of adopting honorary members, were relinquished. The result demonstrated the propriety of this alteration. Although a few, who always perceive most danger where none exists, and the visionaries then abounding in Europe, continued their prophetic denunciations against the order, America dismissed her fears, and, notwithstanding the refusal of several of the State societies to adopt the measures recommended by the general meeting, the members of the Cincinnati were received as brethren into the bosom of their country.*

While Washington was engaged in the cultivation of his extensive estate his thoughts were by no means withdrawn from the political concerns of the country, which at this time were assuming rather an ominous aspect. His correspondence evinces that his advice was much sought for by the leading men in the country, and that his opinions on the aspect of the public affairs were freely given. The want of power in the central government, arising from the defects of the old confederation, was becoming more and

* Marshall, "Life of Washington."