Henry Cabot Lodge: “Washington was wholly free from the vulgar ambition of the usurper, and the desire of mere personal aggrandizement found…”

No man of that time, with the exception of Hamilton, ever grasped and realized as he did the imperial future which stretched before the United States.

High words will not terrify us, loud declamation will not deter us from the discharge of that duty.

It showed that America had demonstrated to Europe that she could win independence, and it had been proved to the traditional enemy of England that the time had come when it would be profitable to help the revolted colonies.

This was not a safe man for the gentlemen of Pennsylvania to cross too far, nor could they swerve him, with all his sense of public opinion, one jot from what he meant to do.