David Humphreys

In a letter to Catherine McAulay Graham, he said, quote, The United States enjoys a sense of prosperity and tranquility under the new government that could hardly have been hoped for, end quote.

And in a letter to the American poet and diplomat David Humphreys, Washington exclaimed, quote, Our public credit stands on that high ground which three years ago it would have been considered as a species of madness to have foretold.

On the specific subject of paper money without backing a gold or silver, without backing by gold or silver, Washington wrote, quote, We may one day become a great commercial and flourishing nation, but if in pursuit of the means, we should unfortunately stumble again on unfunded paper money or any similar species of fraud, we shall assuredly give a fatal stab to our national credit in its infancy.

Words of wisdom.

And even as the idea of Philadelphia took shape, Washington doubted it would come to much.

He confided to his old aide David Humphreys that he saw little prospect that the states, even if they all came, would agree on anything worth having.

But at Mount Vernon, George Washington had watched the whole drift of the country with mounting despair, and the rebellion broke through his reluctance.

Getting George Washington to Philadelphia for Madison was the single most important task of all.