More than at any other moment in the war it was in this winter of deprivation and despondency that the seeds sprouted for what later would be called the “nationalist” or “consolidation” movement, the drive to create a strong and sovereign national government, a quest that culminated in the Constitutional Convention in 1787. It was while the miseries of Morristown were fresh on his mind that Washington first despaired that “our measures are not under the influence and direction of one council, but thirteen.” He added that unless Congress possessed “absolute powers in all matters relative to the
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