On the mind of no person had this impression been more strongly made, than on that of General Washington.

His extensive correspondence bears ample testimony to the solicitude with which he contemplated the proceedings of the states on this interesting subject.
The opinion he sought to inculcate was, that the trade between the United States and Great Britain was equally important to each; and therefore, that a commercial intercourse between the two nations might be established on equal terms, if the political arrangements in America would enable its government to guard its interests; but without such arrangements, those interests could not be protected, and America must appear in a very contemptible point of view to those with whom she was endeavouring to form commercial treaties, without possessing the means of carrying them into effect:--who "must see and feel that the union, or the states individually are sovereign as best suits their purposes:--in a word, that we are one nation to day, and thirteen to-morrow.

Who," he added, "will treat with us on such terms ?" About this time, General Washington received a long and affectionate letter from the Marquis de Lafayette, who had just returned from a tour through the north of Europe.

In communicating the occurrences at the courts he had visited, and especially at that of Prussia, whose aged and distinguished monarch, uniting the acquirements of the scholar and the statesman with the most profound skill in the art of war, could confer either literary or military fame, he dwelt with enthusiasm on the plaudits which were universally bestowed on his military patron and paternal friend.

"I wish," he added, "the other sentiments I have had occasion to discover with respect to America, were equally satisfactory with those that are personal to yourself.