In the mean time, a visible change for the better took place almost immediately, and these happy effects shed their benign influence throughout all ranks of society, and among all classes of the people. Those who had been in despair on account of the times, had now the charming prospect before them of returning happiness and prosperity, when the active scenes of life would again impel the multitude to the exercise of laudable industry, whereby they might ultimately realize the success and proceeds attending on an honest perseverance in business. The country that had been unwillingly drawn into combat had been victorious, and its inhabitants left in peaceful possession of the warrior's field. An honourable peace had been concluded, and happy tranquillity was once more the fate of the American nation. The miseries and unhappy grievances occasioned by war, were again at an end, and happily terminated. The cheering consequences of peace again communicated their happy effects among the people, awakening to their imagination new hopes and prospects, filling their minds with exultation, and anticipations the most sanguine. The painful, unpleasant effects of discord, animosity, and contention, were now changed to the exercise of those better qualities and dispositions, more pacific and praiseworthy. The scenes of fury, terror, and confusion, were succeeded by those of placid serenity. The hours but a short time before spent in moping melancholy and sadness, in individual discouragement and wo, were now passed in listening to musical serenades, in scenes of mirth and festivity. The people whose independence had been gloriously won, nearly half a century before, by the superior prowess of a renowned hero,* who, as a general, marshalled the peasant into a veteran, and supplied by discipline the absence of experience, and through the vicissitudes of a protracted conflict displayed a magnanimity that defied misfortune, and a moderation that ornamented victory. [_Alida_ page 58 (chapter VIII), quoting _Alonzo and Melissa_ (itself quoting an earlier text): he wooed the silent and solitary haunts of musing, moping melancholy....] [* Washington.] [Phillips: Speech on Washington: As a General, he marshalled the peasant into a veteran, and supplied by discipline the absence of experience;] [Phillips: Speech on Washington: through all the vicissitudes of her protracted conflict, displaying a magnanimity that defied misfortune, and a moderation that ornamented victory.]