in Massachusetts
which had grown out of efforts to enforce federal laws. Washington was
unwilling to be classed among the opponents of the convention, or to
remain inactive, while violence was assuming to defy all law, and when
an era of anarchy in his country seemed about to dawn. Added to these
considerations, and the sanction of the convention by law, his friends,
whose minds had been changed in the course of a few months, now urged
him, by every consideration of patriotism, to come forth from his
retirement, for the salvation of the country depended in a great measure
upon his exertions. Washington no longer hesitated, and prepared to go
to the convention at the head of the Virginia deputies.

He resolved not to go uninformed upon the great subject that would
engage the attention of that body, and he commenced a course of
preparation. "His knowledge of the institutions of his country and of
its political forms," says Sparks, "both in their general character and
minute affiliated relations, gained by inquiry and long experience, was
probably as complete as that of any other man. But he was not satisfied
with this alone. He read the history and examined the principles of the
ancient and modern confederacies. There is a paper in his handwriting
which contains an abstract of each, and in which are noted, in a
methodical order, their chief characteristics, the kinds of authority
they possessed, their modes of operation, and their defects. The
confederacies analyzed in this paper are the Lycian, Amphictyonic,
Achaen, Helvetic, Belgic, and Germanic. He also read the standard works
on general politics and the science of government, abridging parts of
them, according to his usual practice, that he might impress the
essential points more deeply on his mind." He resolved to do all in his
power, in that convention, to affect a radical cure of the political
maladies with which his country was afflicted.

Washington set out from Mount Vernon on the ninth of May, in his
carriage, for Philadelphia, to attend the convention. He arrived at
Chester on the thirteenth, and was there met by General Mifflin (who was
then the speaker of the Pennsylvania assembly), Generals Knox and
Varnum, Colonels Humphreys and Meigs, and Majors Jackson and Nicholas,
by whom he was escorted toward Philadelphia. At Gray's ferry, on the
Schuylkill, a company of light-horse under Colonel Miles met and
escorted him into the city, when the bells were rung in