Everywhere the conviction spread that American independence was assured! Lafayette, who had greatly distinguished himself in leading a storming column, wrote to Count Maurepas: “The piece is played out, the fifth act is just ended.” On receiving the news, Franklin said: “Hearty thanks for the glorious news. The young Hercules has strangled his second serpent in the cradle!” In England also it was recognized more and more that “the colonies cannot again be brought under our dominion!” A new ministry took the reins, negotiations were begun, and at last, on September 3, 1783, peace was formally declared between Great Britain and the American Republic, whose independence was thereby recognized. Chapter XVI Washington’s Farewell to the Army America was free. It had won its freedom by an heroic struggle. And now came the task of making a wise use of this freedom. One who had contemplated the character of the American people, as it had revealed itself during the preliminaries to the war and during its progress, must have said to himself: “A circumspect and therefore secure procedure in the affairs of the new government is to be expected from a people of such character!” And yet, immediately after the conclusion of peace, the republic was in great danger. The nucleus of the army consisted of men who for years had been weaned from the occupations of peace. Congress had granted them a bonus of several years’ pay, but after that the prospect remained of their being obliged to return to their former occupations. This did not suit them. They had had an opportunity of comparing their position with that of the French soldiers with whom they had fought side by side. In the French army the officers were in great part young nobles, to whom the profession of arms was a sort of charitable institution and haven of refuge. What a contrast between these gold-embroidered marquises, counts, and cadets and the plainly dressed officers of the American army. In their outward appearance the American officers could not even compare with the common French soldiery, the spruce musketeers and grenadiers of the French line. Thus the American soldiers, thinking more of their own advantage and position than of the general good, considering that the soldier would be better off if the country were ruled by a king, conceived the wish that the free form of government which had arisen during the war should be set aside and a monarchical form substituted for it. If this had been the general demand of the country, there would have been nothing to be said against it. The discussion as to whether the republican or monarchic form of government is the better is an idle one. Nations have lived happily under one as well as the other. The happiness of a people does not depend on a particular form of government so much as on the respect for law and on the self-sacrificing devotion of individuals to the welfare of the State.