Henry Knox to George Washington Reflecting on the Revolutionary War and News of Congress, 21 February 1784

Book excerpt: Knox reflects on the Revolutionary War: Your calm retreat to Mount Vernon must be a source of ineffable delight to you. You can from there take a retrospective view of the critical exigencies of the War, and see a thousand ways by which the issue might have been the reverse of what it is- And your happiness must be in proportion to the extreme difficulties and danger in the contest and the immense blessings secured to your country by the glorious peace... Gives Washington news of Congress. Discusses the Society of the Cincinnati: The Cincinnati appears however groundless to be an object of jealousy... Notes that in response to the Society of the Cincinnati, a committee has been chosen by the Legislature of Massachusetts to investigate associations that may have a tendency to create a race of an hereditary nobility... Knox's retained draft.