was often distracted by party dissentions, and rendered powerless to
exercise even its acknowledged authority, through disagreement.

To Washington and other sagacious minds, the Articles of Confederation
had been regarded as essentially defective as a system of government,
long before the war had ceased. They perceived the necessity for a
greater centralization of power in the general government; and that
necessity became painfully apparent when peace came, and the people of
the several states found themselves in the condition of independent
sovereignty. The system of credit for the extinction of the national
debt, and to provide for the national expenditures, devised by the
Congress, was tardily accepted by most of the states, and utterly
neglected by others. Local interests and prejudices were consulted
instead of the national welfare; treaty stipulations were disregarded,
and the confederation became, in many respects, a dead letter.

"The confederation appears to me," Washington wrote to James Warren, in
October, 1785, "to be little more than a shadow without the substance,
and Congress a nugatory body, their ordinances being little attended to.
To me it is a solecism in politics, indeed, it is one of the most
extraordinary things in nature, that we should confederate as a nation,
and yet be afraid to give the rulers of that nation (who are the
creatures of our own making, appointed for a limited and short duration,
and who are amenable for every action, and may be recalled at any
moment, and are subject to all the evils which they may be instrumental
in producing) sufficient powers to order and direct the affairs of the
same. By such policy as this the wheels of government are clogged, and
our brightest prospects, and that high expectation which was entertained
of us by the wondering world, are turned into astonishment; and, from
the high ground on which we stood, we are descending into the vale of
confusion and darkness.

"That we have it in our power to become one of the most respectable
nations upon earth, admits, in my humble opinion, of no doubt, if we
would but pursue a wise, just, and liberal policy toward one another,
and keep good faith with the rest of the world. That our resources are
ample and increasing, none can deny; but while they are grudgingly
applied, or not applied at all, we give a vital stab to public faith,
and shall sink, in the eyes of Europe, into contempt.

"It has long been a specu