5354. MONARCHY, Washington and.—
I am satisfied that General Washington had not a wish to perpetuate his authority; but he
who supposes it was practicable, had he wished
it, knows nothing of the spirit of America,
either of the people or of those who possessed
their confidence. There was, indeed, a cabal
of the officers of the army who proposed to
establish a monarchy and to propose it to General
Washington. He frowned indignantly at
the proposition (according to the information
which got abroad), and Rufus King and some
few civil characters, chiefly (indeed, I believe,
to a man) north of Maryland, who joined in
this intrigue. But they never dared openly
to avow it, knowing that the spirit which had
produced a change in the form of government
was alive to the preservation of it.—
Notes on Marshall's Life of Washington. Washington ed. ix, 478.
Ford ed., ix, 262.
