prisoner's behalf, gave up
his leisure to diverting Andre's mind, and persuaded Washington to delay
the execution and send an indirect suggestion to Clinton to offer the
exchange himself. When all hope was over, he personally begged
Washington to heed Andre's request for a soldier's death, and not
condemn such a man to the gibbet. Washington gladly would have saved his
interesting prisoner's life, and felt deeply for him, but again those
motives of policy prevailed, and Andre was executed like a common
malefactor.

VIII

Washington was in temporary quarters--a cramped and wretched tavern--at
Liberty Pole, New Jersey. The inaction being oppressive, Hamilton
concentrated his thoughts on the condition and needs of the country.

I am sorry that the same spirit of indifference to public affairs
prevails, [he wrote to Sears]. It is necessary we should rouse and
begin to do our business in earnest, or we shall play a losing
game. We must have a government with more power. We must have a tax
in kind. We must have a foreign loan. We must have a bank on the
true principles of a bank. We must have an administration distinct
from Congress, and in the hands of single men under their orders.
We must, above all things, have an army for the war.... We are told
here there is to be a Congress of the neutral powers at the Hague
for meditating of peace. God send it may be true. We want it; but
if the idea goes abroad, ten to one if we do not fancy the thing
done, and fall into a profound sleep till the cannon of the enemy
waken us next campaign. This is our national character.

Hamilton, the High Priest of Energy, had long since declared war against
the genius of the American people, who believed in God and the art of
leisure. Hamilton believed in God and a cabinet of zealous ministers. He
was already a thorn in the side of estimable but hesitant patriots, and
in times to come his unremitting and remorseless energy was to be a
subject of reproach by associates and enemies alike. Even Jefferson,
that idol of the present as of the past democracy, had timidly declared
against separation in 1774, while Hamilton, a boy of seventeen, had been
the first to suggest the resort to arms, and incessant in his endeavours
until the great result was accomplished. He had countless other schemes,
and he knew that eventually he would succeed in driving the American
people before the poin