AFTER the Revolution, chaos. Nothing could exceed the confusion and petty antagonisms of the thirteen states at the close of the Revolutionary War. The bond that had united their sympathies and joined their powers was loosened by the tidings of peace, and the victorious regiments marched home to discover that the feeling of Nationalism had been largely confined to the army, and that narrow, provincial sentiments prevailed in the local districts.
After the war of destruction must follow the era of construction. That remarkable group of men who had guided the affairs of the country in war now set themselves nobly to the great task of building a nation from the fragments that had survived the struggle.
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