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Subject Area: War and Peace
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

OBSERVATIONS UPON A PEACE ESTABLISHMENT. - George Washington, The Writings of George Washington, vol. X (1782-1785) [1891]

Edition used:

The Writings of George Washington, collected and edited by Worthington Chauncey Ford (New York and London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1890). Vol. X (1782-1785).

Part of: The Writings of George Washington, 14 vols.

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OBSERVATIONS UPON A PEACE ESTABLISHMENT.

It remains, then, to be my final and only request, that your Excellency will communicate these sentiments to your legislature at their next meeting, and that they may be considered as the legacy of one, who has ardently wished, on all occasions, to be useful to his country, and who, even in the shade of retirement, will not fail to implore the Divine benediction upon it.

I now make it my earnest prayer, that God would have you, and the State over which you preside, in his holy protection; that he would incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government; to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for their brethren who have served in the field; and finally, that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind, which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation.

Upon a careful examination of the Report delivered to Congress the 17th of June, by the Committee on the Peace Arrangement, the following remarks have occurred.

I have the honor to be, with much esteem and respect, Sir, your Excellency’s most obedient and most humble servant.1

Notwithstanding there may not be any very essential difference between the proposed Plan for a standing Force now under consideration, and the Sketches which were given in my Memorial of the 1st of May; yet it is my wish to make known the Motives which induced me to offer my former opinions, together with the reasons which now lead me to differ in judgment from the Committee in some instances respecting the Peace Arrangement, and to alter my sentiments on other points in consequence of new informations which have been produced by further discussion.