It induced a relaxation in popular energy, and carried with it new and difficult problems for the commander-in-chief.

The successful management of allies, and of allied forces, had been one of the severest tests of the statesmanship of William III., and had constituted one of the principal glories of Marlborough.

A similar problem now confronted the American general.
Washington was free from the diplomatic and political portion of the business, but the military and popular part fell wholly into his hands, and demanded the exercise of talents entirely different from those of either a general or an administrator.

It has been not infrequently written more or less plainly, and it is constantly said, that Washington was great in character, but that in brains he was not far above the common-place.

It is even hinted sometimes that the father of his country was a dull man, a notion which we shall have occasion to examine more fully further on.