This information, which proved accurate, transformed the previous political calculus, making the prospects for fundamental change at least imaginable. When Washington shared this news with Knox, the trusted confidant reversed his advice. “But were an energetic and judicious system to be proposed with Your Signature,” Knox now argued, “it would be a circumstance highly honorable to your fame in the present and future ages; and doubly entitle you to the glorious republican epithet—the Father of Your Country.”
