Henry Knox of Massachusetts was head of the War Department under the confederacy, and was continued in office by Washington, who appointed him secretary of war under the new arrangement.  It was a natural and excellent selection.  Knox was a distinguished soldier, he had served well through the Revolution, and Washington was warmly attached to him.  He was not a statesman by training or habit of mind, nor was he possessed of commanding talents.  But he was an able man, sound in his views and diligent in his office, devoted to his chief and unswerving in his loyalty to the administration and all its measures.  There was never any doubt as to the attitude of Henry Knox, and Washington found him as faithful and efficient in the cabinet as he had always been in the field.

Second in rank, but first in importance, was the secretaryship of the treasury.  “Finance!  Ah, my friend, all that remains of the American Revolution grounds there.”  So Gouverneur Morris had written to Jay.  So might he have written again of the American Union, for the fate of the experiment rested at the outset on the Treasury Department.  Yet there was probably less hesitation as to the proper man for this place than for any other.  Washington no doubt would have been glad to give it to Robert Morris, whose great services in the Revolution he could never forget.  But this could not be, and acting on his own judgment, fortified by that of Morris himself, he made Alexander Hamilton secretary of the treasury.

It is one of the familiar marks of greatness to know how to choose the right men to perform the tasks which no man, either in war or peace, can complete single-handed.  Napoleon’s marshals were conspicuous proofs of his genius, and Washington had a similar power of selection.  The generals whom he trusted were the best generals, the statesmen whom he consulted stand highest in history.  He was fallible, as other mortals are fallible.  He, too, had his Varus, and the time was coming when he could echo the bitter cry of the great emperor for his lost legions.  But the mistakes were the exceptions.  He chose with the sureness of a strong and penetrating mind, and the most signal example of this capacity was his secretary of the treasury.  He knew Hamilton well.  He had known him as his staff officer, active, accomplished, and efficient.  He had seen him leave his side in a tempest of boyish rage, and he had watched him charging with splendid gallantry the Yorktown redoubts.  He was familiar with Hamilton’s extraordinary mastery of financial and political problems, and he had found him a powerful leader in the work of forming the Constitution.  He understood Hamilton’s strength, and he knew where his dangers lay.  Now he called him to his cabinet, and gave into his hands the department on which the immediate success of the government hinged.  It was a brilliant choice.  The mark in his lifetime for all the assaults of his political opponents, the leader and the victim of