Four days afterward, M'Henry, the secretary of war, wrote: "You see how
the storm thickens, and that our vessel will soon require its ancient
pilot. Will you--may we flatter ourselves that, in a crisis so awful
and important, you will accept the command of all our armies? I hope you
will, because you alone can unite all hearts and all hands, if it is
possible that they can be united."

The letters of the president and of the secretary of war were detained
on the way. They both reached Washington on the fourth of July, and were
answered on the same day. He assured the president that, as far as was
in his power, he should be ready to support the administration; and, "to
render it easy, happy, and honorable," he said, "you may command me
without reserve." After alluding to his former opinion that the United
States were in no danger of invasion from a foreign power, he added:
"But this seems to be an age of wonders; and it is reserved for
intoxicated and lawless France (for purposes of Providence far beyond
the reach of human ken) to slaughter its own citizens, and to disturb
the repose of all the world besides.

"From a view of the past and the present," he continued, "and from the
prospect of that which seems to be expected, it is not easy for me to
decide satisfactorily on the part it might best become me to act. In
case of _actual invasion_ by a formidable force, I certainly should not
intrench myself under the cover of age and retirement, if my services
should be required by my country to assist in repelling it. If there be
good cause--which must be better known to the government than to private
citizens--to expect such an event, delay in preparing for it might be
dangerous, improper, and not to be justified by prudence."

After again expressing his conviction that the French would not, in the
face of the unequivocal display of public opinion in the United States
in favor of resenting the national insults, proceed to the extremity of
actual war, he said: "Having with candor made this disclosure of the
state of my mind, it remains only that I should add, that, to those who
know me best, it is best known that, if imperious circumstances should
induce me to renounce the smooth paths of retirement for the thorny ways
of public life--at a period, too, when repose is most congenial to
nature, and a calm indispensable to contemplation--it would be
productive of sensations more easily conceived than expressed."

Washington