5355. MONARCHY, Washington and.—[continued].
The next effort was (on
suggestion of the same individuals, in the
moment of their separation), the establishment
of an hereditary order, under the name of the
Cincinnati, ready prepared, by that distinction,
to be engrafted into the future form of government,
and placing General Washington still
at their head. The General wrote to me on
this subject, while I was in Congress at Annapolis.
* * * He afterwards called on
me at that place, on his way to a meeting of
the society, and after a whole evening of consultation,
he left that place fully determined
to use all his endeavors for its total suppression.
But he found it so firmly riveted in the
affections of the members that, strengthened
as they happened to be by an adventitious occurrence
of the moment [the arrival of the
badges of the Order from France], he could
effect no more than the abolition of its hereditary
principle. [333]
He called again on his return,
[334]
and explained to me fully the opposition
which had been made, the effect of the occurrence
from France, and the difficulty with
which its duration had been limited to the lives
of the present members.—
The Anas. Washington ed. ix, 89.
Ford ed., i, 157.
(1818)
See Cincinnati Society.
