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The propositions read as follows:

I. That there be one Commander-in-Chief.

II. That the army should be enlisted for the war.

III. That a system of bounties should be ordained which would provide for the families of soldiers absent in the field.

IV. That the troops should serve wherever required throughout the Colonies.

V. That funds should be borrowed equal to the demands of the war and for the complete equipment and support of the army.

VI. That Independence should be declared at once, and every resource of every Colony be pledged to its support.

In estimating the character of Washington the Soldier, and accepting these propositions as sound, it is of interest to be introduced to their author.

The youthful tastes and pursuits of Nathaniel Greene, of Rhode Island, those which shaped his subsequent life and controlled many battle issues, were as marked as were those of Washington. Unlike his great captain, he had neither wealth, social position, nor family antecedents to inspire military endeavor. A Quaker youth, at fourteen years of age he saved time from his blacksmith’s forge, and by its light mastered geometry and Euclid. Providence threw in his way Ezra Stiles, then President of Yale College, and Lindley Murray, the grammarian, and each of them became his fast friend and adviser.