The American Cause in Peril

Notwithstanding the Americans were not subdued at the close of 1780, their cause was in great peril from the weakness of its material props. The condition of the currency was an impediment to all vigorous measures. "A wagon-load of money would scarcely buy a wagon-load of provisions." The States were urged to supply quotas of funds for the common use, but their responses were slow and feeble, and there was no central power competent to levy taxes or demand forced loans. A closer union and greater power in the general government were essential to success, and wise patriots in every position appealed to the people in favor of a stronger government. General Greene, who, as quartermaster-general, saw clearly the public needs, wrote in June, 1780: "The Congress have lost their influence. I have for a long time seen the necessity of some new plan of civil constitution. Unless there is some control over the States by the Congress, we shall soon be like a broken band." There was a spirit of patriotism among the people ample to meet the great emergency; but legislators lacked wisdom to grasp the problem. While the people yearned for a closer union and a truly national government, Virginia was contending for State supremacy. The legislators of that State agreed with John Adams, who wrote that the assembly in any State was "every way adequate to the management of all the federal concerns of the people of America, because Congress is not a legislative assembly, nor a representative assembly, but a diplomatic assembly."

At a convention of delegates from three New England States, held in Philadelphia in August, 1780, it was resolved that the national concerns should be "under the superintendency and direction of one supreme head," and recommended the investment of the Congress with such power. These words powerfully impressed the mind of young Hamilton, who was then a member of Washington's military family and his able secretary. He invited Mr. Duane, a representative of New York in the Congress, to propose in that body a convention of all the States in November following, and submitted a general plan for a national government, not in form but in concrete suggestions, full of wisdom and evidences of sound statesmanship. He said, truly, that the plan for a confederation which the Congress had adopted, and was awaiting the ratification of the several States, was "neither fit for war or peace," saying: "The idea of uncontrollable sovereignty in each State will defeat the powers given to Congress, and make our union feeble and precarious." At the same time Washington, who, from the beginning, had urged the necessity of a permanent military force, now pleaded for a system of enlistments "for the war," and other reforms in the army. "We have lived," he wrote, "upon expedients till we can live no longer. The history of this war is a history of temporary devices instead of a system." The Congress took measures for "reforming the army," but that body was powerless, and cast the burden of responsibility upon the several States.