Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 1.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

---

[10] if the war was ended before, their time of service would be abridged. The officers, on the contrary, construed these words as implying an engagement to remain under the flag for at least three years, and longer if the war continued for a longer period of time. This question of grammar almost caused the shedding of blood; it was deemed expedient to yield to the demands of the volunteers, and their interpretation was finally adopted. But the harm done to discipline was great and lasting.

Nor did unjust rivalries and petty jealousies spare the most illustrious soldiers of the war of independence; but these belong to all times and to all countries, and the Americans did not wait long to indemnify those who had been their victims by a spontaneous reaction in public opinion. In fact, notwithstanding the defects of their organization, the American soldiers were animated by that ardent and sincere zeal which carries great men and great nations to the accomplishment of their designs; and it was owing to their possession of this quality that they finally compelled victory to perch upon their banners.

The greater the magnitude of the national effort, the more irresistible became the reaction which followed. After so many sacrifices made for the common good, the spirit of local independence again resumed its empire. The remembrance of the English regulars, the need of economy, and the general exhaustion, caused a universal demand to be made for the disbanding of the national army. Freed from the danger which had brought them together, the old colonies hastened to get rid of all the burdens most necessary to their new existence; they wasted their energies in quarrels which nearly lost them the regard of their most zealous partisans in Europe, and, being still more jealous of the central power, they left it no authority—no means of action. It was the golden age of ‘States' Rights,’ the defence of which, at a later day, served as a pretext for the insurrection of 1861. Under this fatal influence the army of the United States gradually disappeared, the entire defence of the extensive frontiers of Canada and the Indian tribes was entrusted to the militia of each State, and in 1784 the national army found itself reduced to the absurd total of eighty men and officers.

When true patriots rescued America from the fatal course she