It looked so easy in the history books.....

 

But George Washington had a vision.  At the war's end, he had circulated a letter to the thirteen governors outlining four things America would need to do to survive, if not to attain its rightful place on world stage:  The states would have to be consolidated under a vigorous "federal" government; there would have to be timely payment of the staggering debts left over by the war; and army and navy needed to be created; and finally, there must be harmony among the people.  This was the theory at least; in truth, the reality was a cyclone of bewilderment and confusion.

-Jay Winik, The Great Upheaval: America and the Birth of the Modern World: 1788-1800