Hamilton accompanied him, and upon the President’s return to Philadelphia, assumed the general superintendence of the army, whose commander, Henry Lee, was one of his devoted adherents.  Many motives have been ascribed to Hamilton for this exceptional proceeding, and Washington was bitterly assailed for “not being able to move without his favourite Secretary at his elbow,” and for giving additional conspicuousness to a man whose power already was a “menace to Republican liberties.”  Randolph, then the nominal Secretary of State, but quite aware that while Hamilton remained in the Cabinet he was but a figurehead, was so wroth, that later, in his futile “Vindication,” following what practically was his expulsion from the Cabinet, he animadverted bitterly upon a favour which no one but Hamilton would have presumed to ask.  Fauchet, the successor of Genet, in the intercepted letter to his government, which brought about the fall of Randolph, convicting him of corruption and treachery, has this to say:—­

The army marched; the President made known that he was going to command it; Hamilton, as I have understood, requested to follow him; the President dared not refuse him.  It does not require much, penetration to divine the object of this journey.  In the President it was wise, it might also be his duty.  But in Mr. Hamilton it was a consequence of the profound policy which directs all his steps; a measure dictated by a perfect knowledge of the human heart.  Was it not interesting for him, for his party, tottering under the weight of events without and accusations within, to proclaim an intimacy more perfect than ever with the President, whose very name is a sufficient shield against the most formidable attacks?  Now, what more evident mark could the President give of his intimacy than by suffering Mr. Hamilton, whose name, even, is understood in the west as that of a public enemy, to go and place himself at the head of the army which went, if I may use the expression, to cause his system to triumph against the opposition of the people?  The presence of Mr. Hamilton with the army must attach it more than ever to his party.

There were depths in Hamilton’s mind which no wise mortal will ever attempt to plumb.  It is safe to say he did nothing without one eye on a far-reaching policy; and aside from the pleasure of being in the saddle once more, riding over the wild Alleghanies in keen October weather, after four years of the stenches and climatic miseries of Philadelphia, aside from his fear of Governor Miffin’s treachery, and his lack of implicit confidence in Lee’s judgement, it is quite likely that he had some underlying motive relative to the advantage of his party, which had been weakened by the incessant assaults upon himself.  By going with the army he not only demonstrated the perfect confidence reposed in him by Washington, and his determination that his laws should be enforced, but he gave emphasis to his belief that the resistance to the Excise Law had been deliberately instigated by the Republicans under the leadership of his avowed enemies.  In this connection the following extract from Fauchet’s letter is highly interesting, intimate as he was with the Republican leaders.