Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Harlow Giles Unger is author of the award-winning Lafayette (Wiley 2002), John Hancock (2000), Noah Webster (Wiley, 1998), The French War Against America (Wiley, 2005) and The Unexpected George Washington (Wiley, 2006). A veteran journalist, he was foreign news editor at The New York Herald Tribune and foreign correspondent for The Times and Sunday Times (London). He is also author of several books on education. He lives in New York City.

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The Declaration of Independence liberated one continent from domination by another, but the Constitution revolutionized the world-by entrusting citizens with rights never before in history granted to ordinary people. Far from the genteel unity implied by the Constitution's opening words "We the People, " the struggle to create and ratify this powerful document was a s difficult as the fight for independence from Britain had been.

The road to independence had led straight to hell. America was ablaze in anarchy and civil strife. As civil war threatened, George Washington called for a new constitution creating a powerful new federal government to restore order. For the majority of American's the new Constitution drafted in Philadelphia seemed a disaster, crating a new American government with the same powers of taxation as the former British government and led by a president with powers to succeed himself indefinitely and become a monarch. Former Virginia governor Patrick Henry cried out against such a central authority that could stifle state sovereignty:"Liberty will be lost and tyranny will result." George Washington countered, calling Henry an enemy of liberty.

The ratification process began and, over the next nine months, America warred with itself, as each state joined in what became American's "second revolution." Just as the first revolution had brought Americans together, the second threatened to rip the nation apart, as Washington's Federalists battled Henry's Antifederalists. Mobs ran riot in the streets of Philadelphia, New York, and Providence. the wealthy elite supported the new Constitution and a strong central government, while a majority of ordinary people opposed both, and populist leaders such as Henry and New York governor George Clinton geared for violent conflict between the states to preserve state sovereignty.

By mid-March 1788, eight of the nine states required for ratification of he Constitution had r4atified. but Virginia, the largest and the wealthiest state, stood firm with New York against union, and without them the new nation would be as fragile as the parchment on which the Constitution had been written.

With the fate of the country in the balance, Washington could only hope for a miracle to save the nation from all-out civil war and disunion. In America's Second Revolution, award-winning author Harlow Giles Unger tells the gripping story of that miracle, the harrowing events that led up to it, and the men who made it possible,. Rich and powerful, they displayed humor, sarcasm, fire, brilliance, ignorance, hypocrisy, warmth, anger, bigotry, and hatred. Their struggle pitted friend against friend, brother against brother, father against son. but, in the end, they helped create a new government, a new nation, and, ultimately, a new civilization.

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The Declaration of Independence liberated one continent from domination by another, but the Constitution revolutionized the world-by entrusting citizens with rights never before in history granted to ordinary people. Far from the genteel unity implied by the Constitution's opening words "We the People, " the struggle to create and ratify this powerful document was a s difficult as the fight for independence from Britain had been.

The road to independence had led straight to hell. America was ablaze in anarchy and civil strife. As civil war threatened, George Washington called for a new constitution creating a powerful new federal government to restore order. For the majority of American's the new Constitution drafted in Philadelphia seemed a disaster, crating a new American government with the same powers of taxation as the former British government and led by a president with powers to succeed himself indefinitely and become a monarch. Former Virginia governor Patrick Henry cried out against such a central authority that could stifle state sovereignty:"Liberty will be lost and tyranny will result." George Washington countered, calling Henry an enemy of liberty.

The ratification process began and, over the next nine months, America warred with itself, as each state joined in what became American's "second revolution." Just as the first revolution had brought Americans together, the second threatened to rip the nation apart, as Washington's Federalists battled Henry's Antifederalists. Mobs ran riot in the streets of Philadelphia, New York, and Providence. the wealthy elite supported the new Constitution and a strong central government, while a majority of ordinary people opposed both, and populist leaders such as Henry and New York governor George Clinton geared for violent conflict between the states to preserve state sovereignty.

By mid-March 1788, eight of the nine states required for ratification of he Constitution had r4atified. but Virginia, the largest and the wealthiest state, stood firm with New York against union, and without them the new nation would be as fragile as the parchment on which the Constitution had been written.

With the fate of the country in the balance, Washington could only hope for a miracle to save the nation from all-out civil war and disunion. In America's Second Revolution, award-winning author Harlow Giles Unger tells the gripping story of that miracle, the harrowing events that led up to it, and the men who made it possible,. Rich and powerful, they displayed humor, sarcasm, fire, brilliance, ignorance, hypocrisy, warmth, anger, bigotry, and hatred. Their struggle pitted friend against friend, brother against brother, father against son. but, in the end, they helped create a new government, a new nation, and, ultimately, a new civilization.

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America's Second Revolution

John Wiley & Sons

Chapter One

* * *

The crowd of officers fell silent as he entered the hall and walked to the lectern. His powerful frame still towered over them, but he had aged visibly. Deep furrows crossed his brow; his head and shoulders slumped just a bit; despair masked his usually stony face. Past fifty, exhausted physically and emotionally after eight years in wartime encampments, George Washington had seldom had a day's respite, let alone a visit to his home and family. Now, with his glorious victory at Yorktown but a distant memory, his officers were threatening to mutiny; his dream of a free and independent people living in Utopian brotherhood was turning into a nightmare. The road to independence had led straight to the edges of hell.

Americans everywhere were turning against one another: separatist factions in five states were in rebellion and threatening to secede; a British blockade was decimating American commerce; two massive fires had left half of New York City in ashes; and, with British troops still in New York, Washington's own officers were threatening to lead the Continental Army to the western frontier and set up their own independent state. Meanwhile, the American government, such as it was, sat helplessly in Philadelphia-bankrupt, with no money to pay its army, no power to tax, virtually no power to do anything.

Eighteen months had elapsed since the bulk of the Continental Army had marched northward in triumph from Yorktown, its pennants flying high, but its troops in tatters-barefoot, hungry, and broke. Many had not been paid for years. "Our Men are almost naked," Washington pleaded to Congress, state leaders, and anyone else who would listen. Few did. "We are without money," he moaned, "totally unprepared for Winter.... There is not a farthing in the military chest."

Only a year before Yorktown, troops in Pennsylvania and New Jersey had mutinied, but after winning promises of redress, they had followed Washington to Virginia to fight in what would prove the decisive, last battle of the American Revolution-though not the end of the war. Washington left Major General Nathanael Greene to command southern operations and led his ragtag northern forces to defend the Hudson River Valley, where, as they had throughout the Revolution, they languished loyally for months without pay or adequate food or clothing, pillaging local farms for scraps to eat, fearing that at any moment they would have to engage the immaculately equipped British enemy. Realizing that requests to Congress for supplies were futile, Washington appealed to the states.

"Officers and Men have been almost perishing for want," he complained to "The Magistrates" of New Jersey. "They have been alternating without Bread or Meat ... and frequently destitute of both.... Their distress has in some instances prompted the Men to commit depredation on the property of the Inhabitants." But the states were as bankrupt as Congress. Although state governments had powers to tax property and levy duties on imports, farmers operated on a barter system that produced virtually no cash to pay taxes, and the British blockade all but ended the flow of duties from foreign trade.

After two years, however, Britain signed the articles of peace, and in the spring of 1783, American soldiers and officers expected to go home with back pay in their pockets. But Congress still had no money, and the army resumed its mutiny-this time with the support of outraged officers, including General Horatio Gates, the hero at the Battle of Saratoga. In Newburgh, New York, an anonymously written leaflet appealed to Washington's officers to take up arms and march against Congress once peace with Britain became a certainty. If, however, Britain resumed the fighting, the letter urged officers to abandon their posts and "set up a new state in the wilderness," thus leaving Congress and the coastal states defenseless.

"My God!" Washington thundered. "What can this writer have in view by recommending such measures? Can he be a friend to the Army? Can he be a friend to the Country? Rather, is he not an insidious foe?"

Appalled by what he saw as a call to treason, Washington had called his officers to assembly in an effort to recapture their loyalties and restore their patriotism and love of country, and now he stood at the lectern before them. He began cautiously, all but mumbling that "an anonymous summons ... was sent into circulation ... and is designed to answer the most insidious purposes." He went on to read and condemn the letter, his voice gradually gaining strength as he described and acknowledged the hardships his officers and troops had faced. He then pledged his name and honor "that, in the attainment of compleat justice for all your toils and dangers ... you may freely command my services." He assured them Congress was working "to discover and establish funds ... but like all other large Bodies, where there is a variety of different Interests to reconcile, their deliberations are slow.

"While I give you these assurances," he pleaded, "and pledge myself ... to exert whatever ability I am possessed of in your favor, let me entreat you, Gentlemen ... not to take any measures, which ... will lessen the dignity, and sully the glory you have hitherto maintained." After reminding his officers that he was "among the first who embarked in the cause of our common Country" and that "I have never left your side one moment," he called the idea of "deserting our Country in the extremest hour of her distress or turning our Arms against it ... something so shocking in it that humanity revolts at the idea.... Let me conjure you, in the name of our common Country, as you value your own sacred honor, as you respect the rights of humanity, and as you regard the Military and National character of America, to express your utmost horror and detestation of the Man who wishes, under any specious pretences, to overturn the liberties of our County, who wickedly attempts to open the flood Gates of Civil discord, and deluge our rising Empire in Blood." Washington paused; his eyes seemed to falter. He laid his papers on the rostrum, fumbled in his pocket, and pulled out a pair of new glasses that evoked murmurs of surprise from his skeptical young audience.

"Gentlemen," Washington's voice quavered, "you must pardon me. I have grown gray in your service and now find myself growing blind." The evident sadness in his voice, according to those present, recaptured the hearts of his officers. Washington had served without pay throughout the war, had won near-universal reverence by remaining with his troops through the most severe winters, when most officers in every army in the world routinely left their troops in winter quarters and returned to the comfort of their homes. "He spoke," according to one officer at the Newburgh meeting, "[and] every doubt was dispelled-and the tide of patriotism rolled again in its wonted course. Illustrious man!" The mutiny ended with a unanimous resolution of confidence in Congress and a request that Washington represent the interests of all army officers.

In fact, there was little that Washington-or Congress, for that matter-could do to ease the army's plight. A vestige of the Continental Congress that had declared independence in 1776, it...