Free Henry Knox by Mark Puls Page A

land: The state legislatures could elect delegates to the convention and a new constitution could be sent to the statesfor ratification. Knox asked the rhetorical question: "Would not this, to all intents and purposes, be a government derived from the people and assented to by them as much as they assented to the confederation?“ 21
    In Massachusetts, Shays and his insurgents retreated to Worcester County and stopped at Petersham on Saturday, February 4. General Lincoln's militia caught up with them by 8 P.M. In a surprise attack, the next morning 150 rebels were taken prisoner as the renegades dispersed in all directions. Shays escaped.
    In Knox's updates to Washington, he reported the encouraging news. But he continued to pin his hopes for a long-term solution to the national troubles on the Philadelphia convention. Washington was uncertain, however, whether to attend and was concerned that the event might tarnish his reputation if it failed. He was among those who questioned the legality of the convention. Yet like Knox, Washington had little faith that the delegates were capable of fostering the kind of fundamental changes needed to steady the national government. He did offer his opinion on Knox's plan for a federal government; he thought it certainly represented a more effective constitution than Articles of Confederation but that Knox was perhaps overly optimistic and far reaching. Washington believed that state leaders would never give up any of their power and submit to the authority of a central government. To Knox, he wrote in early February: "The System on which you seem disposed to build a national government is certainly more energetic, and I dare say, in every point of view more desirable than the present one."
    After Shays fled to Vermont, the insurgency was soon broken. Many of the rebels returned to their homes, and Lincoln's militia restored order. Knox informed Congress on Monday, February 12, that "the rebellion in Massachusetts is in a fair train of being speedily and effectually suppressed.“ 22
    Two days later, he sent a letter to Benjamin Lincoln congratulating him on his handling of the Shays crisis and urging his friend to support the Philadelphia convention and a new constitution. "The convention will be at liberty to consider more diffusively the defects of the present system than Congress can, who are the executors of a certain system.“ 23
    On February 21, Congress sanctioned the Philadelphia convention to be held beginning on May 14, and recommended that state legislatures choose delegates to attend for the purpose of revising or amending the Articles of Confederation and that the changes would be sent back to the states for approval. This was the plan that Knox had supported.
    As the date for the convention approached, Washington felt mounting pressure to attend. Uncertain where his duty lay, he turned to Knox and a close circle of advisors. In a letter to Knox written Thursday, March 8, he asked: "Inform me confidentially what the public expectation is on this head, that is, whether I will, or ought to be there? You are much in the way of obtaining this knowledge, and I can depend upon your friendship, candor, and judgment in the communication of it, as far as it shall appear to you.“ 24
    Knox realized that Washington would be compelled to sit as the convention's president and, therefore, the success or failure of the proceedings would be attributed to him. But Knox told Washington in a letter of Monday, March 19, that without his approbation, the convention would lack credibility in the eyes of the public. "Your attendance will be grateful, and your non-attendance chagrining; that your presence would confer on the assembly a national complexion, and that it would more than any other circumstance induce a compliance to the propositions of the convention.“ 25
    By attending the convention and risking failure in Philadelphia, Washington was putting at stake the honor and fame that he had