David Humphreys, a former aide-de-camp currently serving as Washington’s private secretary, reiterated Knox’s argument, emphasizing the stain on Washington’s legacy if the convention failed. Humphreys then added the intriguing insight that if by some miracle a national government emerged from the deliberations at Philadelphia, Washington would almost certainly be chosen to head it, thereby ending his retirement forever. By March 1787 Washington appeared convinced. “In confidence I inform you,” he wrote to Knox, “that it is not, at this time, my purpose to attend.”
