And, the Constitution once adopted, all men turned to Washington to
start the new Nation on her great voyage. Remember, there was no
government, only some written pages saying that a government was to be;
it was Washington who converted that idea into a reality, who brought
that government into existence. It was a venture new to history; a
Republic founded upon principles which, however admirable in the
abstract, had been declared impossible to embody in the life of a
nation. And yet, eight years later, when Washington retired from the
presidency, he left behind him an effective government, with an
established revenue, a high credit, a strong judiciary, a vigorous
foreign policy, and an army which had repressed insurrections, and which
already showed the beginnings of a truly national spirit.
At the end of his second term as President, the country demanded that he
accept a third; the country, without Washington at the head of it,
seemed to many people like a ship on a dangerous sea without a pilot.
But he had guided her past the greatest dangers, and he refused a third
term, setting a precedent which no man in the country's history has been
strong enough to disregard. In March, 1797, he was back again at Mount
Vernon, a private citizen.
He looked forward to and hoped for long years of quiet, but it was not
to be.
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