“Third.  The adoption of a proper peace establishment; and,

“Fourth.  The prevalence of that pacific and friendly disposition among the people of the United States, which will induce them to forget their local prejudices and policies; to make those mutual concessions which are requisite to the general prosperity; and in some instances to sacrifice their individual advantages to the interest of the community.”  The same appeal went forth again in his last address to the army, when he said:  “Although the general has so frequently given it as his opinion, in the most public and explicit manner, that unless the principles of the federal government were properly supported, and the powers of the Union increased, the honor, dignity, and justice of the nation would be lost forever; yet he cannot help repeating on this occasion so interesting a sentiment, and leaving it as his last injunction to every soldier, who may view the subject in the same serious point of light, to add his best endeavors to those of his worthy fellow-citizens towards effecting those great and valuable purposes on which our very existence as a nation so materially depends.”

These two papers were the first strong public appeals for union.  The letter to the governors argued the question elaborately, and was intended for the general public.  The address to the army was simply a watchword and last general order; for the army needed no arguments to prove the crying need of better government.  Before this, Hamilton had written his famous letters to Duane and Morris, and Madison was just beginning to turn his thoughts toward the problem of federal government; but with these exceptions Washington stood alone.  In sending out these two papers he began the real work that led to the Constitution.  What he said was read and heeded throughout the country, for at the close of the war his personal influence was enormous, and with the army his utterances were those of an oracle.  By his appeal he made each officer and soldier a missionary in the cause of the Union, and by his arguments to the governors he gave ground and motive for a party devoted to procuring better government.  Thus he started the great movement which, struggling through many obstacles, culminated in the Constitution and the union of the States.  No other man could have done it, for no one but Washington had a tithe of the influence necessary to arrest public attention; and, save Hamilton, no other man then had even begun to understand the situation which Washington grasped so easily and firmly in all its completeness.

He sent out these appeals as his last words to his countrymen at the close of their conflict; but he had no intention of stopping there.  He had written and spoken, as he said, to every one on every occasion upon this topic, and he continued to do so until the work was done.  He had no sooner laid aside the military harness than he began at once to push on the cause of union.  In the bottom of his heart