t on at great length in denunciation of the funding system, as one
calculated and even _intended_ to "corrupt the legislature," and as the
chief instrument in efforts to establish a monarchical and
aristocratical government upon the ruins of the confederation--of
preparing the way "for a change from the present republican form of
government to that of a monarchy, of which the English constitution is
to be the model." He then said:--

"The confidence of the whole Union is centred in you. Your being at
the helm will be more than an answer to every argument which can be
used to alarm and lead the people in any quarter into violence and
secession. North and South will hang together if they have you to
hang on; and if the first corrective of a numerous representation
should fail in its effects, your presence will give time for trying
others, not inconsistent with the union and peace of the states.

"I am perfectly aware of the oppression under which your present
office lays your mind, and with the ardor with which you pant for
domestic life. But there is sometimes an eminence of character on
which society have such peculiar claims as to control the
predilections of the individual for a particular walk of happiness,
and restrain him to that alone arising from the present and future
benedictions of mankind. This seems to be your condition, and the
law imposed on you by Providence in forming your character, and
fashioning the events on which it was to operate; and it is to
motives like these, and not to personal anxieties of mine or others
who have no right to call on you for sacrifices, that I appeal, and
urge a revisal of it, on the ground of change in the aspect of
things. Should an honest majority result from a new and enlarged
representation; should those acquiesce whose principles or
interests they may control, your wishes for retirement would be
gratified with less danger, as soon as that shall be manifest,
without awaiting the completion of the second term of four years.
One or two sessions will determine the crisis; and I can not but
hope that you can resolve to add more to the many years you have
already sacrificed to the good of mankind."[37]

These were wise and patriotic words, and, no doubt, had much effect upon
Washington's mind. The critical state of public affairs, the growing