George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 10

[411] of warm and passionate natures; but Hamilton became

Chap. XIX.} 1780.

the father of a family, while Fox wasted life as a libertine. It was remarkable of both of them, that, with glowing natures, their style in debate and in writing was devoid of ornament, attractive only by strength of thought and clearness of expression.

On the third of September, 1780, Hamilton took

Sept. 3.

the field as a maker of a national constitution by inviting Duane, a member of congress from New York, to hold up to that body the example of the New England states, and to call on the first day of the next November a convention of all the states, with full authority to conclude finally upon a general confederation. He traced the causes of the want of power in congress, and censured that body for its timidity in refusing to assume authority to preserve the republic from harm. ‘Undefined powerss’ he said, ‘are discretionary powers, limited only by the object for which they were given,’ not holding in mind that congress could not have assumed such powers, even if it would. ‘Already,’ he continued, ‘some of the lines of the army, but for the personal influence of the general, would obey their states in opposition to congress, notwithstanding the pains taken to preserve the unity of the army. The sovereign of an empire under one simple form of government has too much power; in an empire composed of confederated states, each with a government completely organized within itself, the danger is directly the reverse.’

‘We must, at all events, have a vigorous confederation,’ he said, ‘if we mean to succeed in the contest, and be happy thereafter. Internal police ’