ORGANIZATIONS NATIONAL

IN CHARACTER

THIS PUBLICATION WILL BE CONSTANTLY ON THE LIBRARY TABLES OF ORGANIZATIONS WHOSE AGGREGATE MEMBERSHIP

NUMBERS 250,000.

Editor's Note.-At the outset of this work, we estimated that the number of organizations that might properly be classified as "Select Organizations in the United States," including national and local societies, would approximate five thousand. We had not been long engaged in the work, however, when we learned that the number of such organizations was far in excess of that figure. In fact, our subscriptions from organizations (social and otherwise) alone approximate nearly five thousand. This is, perhaps, at first glance a surprisingly large figure, but when we remember that almost every one of the organizations classified as "National" in character is itself composed of many separate and distinct organizations, each conducting its affairs independent of the others, each with its own distinct board of officers, its own library and independent administration, then we will understand how wide is the field which this work seeks to cover. We will then also know one of the reasons for the unprecedented success of the present publication.*

* As an instance of this, Frederick W. Janssen's article on "Athletic Clubs in the United States," covers and classifies no less than 759 separate organizations; and other general articles in this volume include a still greater number of societies.

THE SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI

BY HONORABLE HAMILTON FISH

OF NEW YORK

The first suggestion of the organization into a society of the officers of the American Army of the Revolution appears in a paper, in the handwriting of General Knox, entitled "Rough draft of a Society to be formed by the American officers, and to be called the 'Cincinnati.'"' It is dated "West Point, 15 April, 1783."

The original paper of General Knox aimed at some bond which would unite those who for long years had shared the hardships of the camp and the dangers of many a battlefield, now about to separate, many of them penniless, to find homes ruined, and families dispersed or dead: they sought some tie that should bring them together at intervals, in social reunions: above all they sought the means of providing for the necessities of the more unfortunate of their number, and for the support of the indigent widows and children of deceased associates. They wished that their children should inherit and maintain the friendship which bound them together. And conscious of their disinterestedness and proud of their claim to public gratitude and consideration, they followed in the line of that desire for recognition which is the life of the soldier's ambition, and adopted a badge" or "order" to be worn by the members, and which, in too many instances, was all that they might transmit as a visible, actual inheritance to their children.

But this was too much for the civilian politicians, who had secured a country and a field for political ambition, without any of the dangers or the privations of the camp.

The enemy

For eight years the army had stood between them and the enemy. gone-what need of an army? It may become dangerous; it is poor; the soldiers may become the objects of popular favor, and may interfere with our tenure of office-we will withhold pay, dismiss and disperse them. And so they did. And then came forth the outcry against the innocent purpose of these poor, unpaid, homeless and penniless soldiers of an occasional reunion, and of the opportunity of contributing to each other's wants and necessities.

Ancient classical history was overhauled for pseudonyms under which these who had been protected from danger from the enemy might assail the objects of the men who had risked their lives to secure the independence of their country.

Jealousy imagines dangers and magnifies objects of its own creation. And those who had no words of censure, but all of praise and encouragement for the officers and soldiers of the army, so long as they stood between themselves and a powerful enemy, not only forgot their promises, but became profuse in censure and denunciation as soon as peace was insured and the British forces were withdrawn.

It may be not altogether unnatural that those who had been engaged in the civil departments of the government should have looked with an honest apprehension upon