zard the glory, however great, which he
might have previously acquired.

"Secondly. Your signature to the proposed system, pledges your
judgment for its being such an one as upon the whole was worthy of the
public approbation. If it should miscarry, (as men commonly decide
from success or the want of it) the blame will in all probability be
laid on the system itself. And the framers of it will have to
encounter the disrepute of having brought about a revolution in
government, without substituting any thing that was worthy of the
effort; they pulled down one Utopia, it will be said, to build up
another. This view of the subject, if I mistake not, my dear sir, will
suggest to your mind greater hazard to that fame, which must be, and
ought to be dear to you, in refusing your future aid to the system,
than in affording it. I will only add, that in my estimate of the
matter, that aid is indispensable.

"I have taken the liberty to express these sentiments, and to lay
before you my view of the subject. I doubt not the considerations
mentioned have fully occurred to you, and I trust, they will finally
produce in your mind the same result which exists in mine. I flatter
myself the frankness with which I have delivered myself, will not be
displeasing to you. It has been prompted by motives which you would
not disapprove."

In answer to this letter General Washington opened himself without
reserve. "In acknowledging," said he, "the receipt of your candid and
kind letter by the last post, little more is incumbent on me than to
thank you sincerely for the frankness with which you communicated your
sentiments, and to assure you that the same manly tone of intercourse
will always be more than barely welcome,--indeed it will be highly
acceptable to me.

"I am particularly glad, in the present instance, that you have dealt
thus freely and like a friend. Although I could not help observing
from several publications and letters that my name had been sometimes
spoken of, and that it was possible the _contingency_ which is the
subject of your letter might happen, yet I thought it best to maintain
a guarded silence, and to lack the counsel of my best friends (which I
certainly hold in the highest estimation) rather than to hazard an
imputation unfriendly to the delicacy of my feelings. For, situated as
I am, I could hardly bring the question into the slightest discussion,
or ask an opinion even in the most confidential manner, without