330 History of Hingham. 



the 4th of December following, Washington bid farewell to the 

 comrades who for eight years had with him patiently and bravely 

 endured the dangers and privations of the field and the camp. 

 At about the same time General Lincoln resigned his office of 

 Secretary of War and retired to private life. From the opening 

 hour of the Revolution to its closing moment, the roll of Hing- 

 ham's drums and the inspiring music of her fifes had echoed 

 through her streets and been heard on many a weary march, 

 while the rattle of musketry and the dull roar of artillery served 

 by her children had testified to her unflinching and unwearying 

 patriotism on land and sea. Beneath the kindly enshrouding soil 

 in secluded shady and forgotten places, from Canada to the 

 Potomac, rest those who laid their young lives down in the heat 

 of the conflict, while many an old moss-grown stone in the town 

 cemeteries marks the burial spot of some soldier who in the early 

 days of the nation " shouldered his crutch and told how fields 

 were won," to his children and grandchildren long after the close 

 of the War for Independence. 



While with the advent of peace there doubtless came that 

 reaction from interest in military matters which is common to 

 all human affairs where the undivided attention has been too long 

 fixed in a single direction, there was still, fortunately, enough 

 patriotism left in the wearied people to listen to the urgent sug- 

 gestions of Washington, and in a small regular army and the 

 West Point establishment, provide a nucleus at least, around 

 which might be gathered the forces for the defence of the young 

 nation. Many of the statutes under which the armies were gath- 

 ered and the militia governed still remained in force, and these 

 derived powerful support from the dangerous and threatening con- 

 dition of a number of the Indian tribes, from the menace which the 

 continued occupancy in the West and North of posts and forts by 

 the British constantly offered, and from the ill-concealed contempt 

 felt by the empires of the world for the small, weak, and exhausted 

 State in the Western Hemisphere. More than all, there was the 

 internal discontent and distrust experienced by a weary and 

 debt-laden people entering upon the experiment of new forms of 

 government towards which many were antagonistic, and in which a 

 large number had little faith. To all this must be added the bitter 

 disappointment of the discharged and half-paid soldiery, who, after 

 giving eight of their best years to the service of the country, 

 found themselves adrift, poverty-stricken, and for a time, at least, 

 neglected. Fortunately, for the most part these men were Fed- 

 eralists, and believers in and supporters of their old officers, 

 more particularly of Washington, and were generally friends of a 

 strong government and a national spirit. Fortunately, too, the 

 militia organization for the most part remained intact, and many 

 a fine regiment which had seen active service during the war was 

 still under the command of its old officers, and in the ranks were 



