These, and others, assembled in council, for consideration of the great interests which they had been summoned to protect by force of arms. At this solemn juncture of affairs, the youngest of their number, Nathaniel Greene, whose subsequent career became so significant a factor in that of Washington the Soldier, submitted to his associates certain propositions which he affirmed to be indispensable conditions of success in a war against the British crown. These propositions read to-day, as if, like utterances of the old Hebrew prophets, they had been inspired rules for assured victory. And, one hundred years later, when the American Civil War unfolded its vast operations and tasked to the utmost all sections to meet their respective shares in the contest, the same propositions had to be incorporated into practical legislation before any substantial results were achieved on either side. It is a historical fact that the failures and successes of the War of American Independence fluctuated in favor of success, from year to year, exactly in proportion to the faithfulness with which these propositions were illustrated in the management and conduct of the successive campaigns. The propositions read as follows: I. That there be one Commander-in-Chief. II. That the army should be enlisted for the war. III. That a system of bounties should be ordained which would provide for the families of soldiers absent in the field. IV. That the troops should serve wherever required throughout the Colonies. V. That funds should be borrowed equal to the demands of the war and for the complete equipment and support of the army. VI. That Independence should be declared at once, and every resource of every Colony be pledged to its support. In estimating the character of Washington the Soldier, and accepting these propositions as sound, it is of interest to be introduced to their author. The youthful tastes and pursuits of Nathaniel Greene, of Rhode Island, those which shaped his subsequent life and controlled many battle issues, were as marked as were those of Washington. Unlike his great captain, he had neither wealth, social position, nor family antecedents to inspire military endeavor. A Quaker youth, at fourteen years of age he saved time from his blacksmith’s forge, and by its light mastered geometry and Euclid. Providence threw in his way Ezra Stiles, then President of Yale College, and Lindley Murray, the grammarian, and each of them became his fast friend and adviser. Before the war began, he had carefully studied “Cæsar’s Commentaries,” Marshal Turenne’s Works, “Sharpe’s Military Guide,” “Blackstone’s Commentaries,” “Jacobs’ Law Dictionary,” “Watts’ Logic,” “Locke on the Human Understanding,” “Ferguson on Civil Society,” Swift’s Works, and other models of a similar class of literature and general science.