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directly at the Cincinnati that "The Society of St. Tammany; or Columbian Order," came into ex­istence. The Cincinnati had been formed to per­petuate in the bonds of an association the friend­ships of the officers of the Continental Army and to "extend the most substantial acts of beneficence towards those officers and their families who may be under the necessity of receiving it." It was to continue forever through membership devolving by inheritance upon the eldest son of each member.

The idea, doubtless well-meant and innocent enough, found little favor with the mass of the peo­ple. To them the Cincinnati, with its elaborate jeweled insignia, its foreign title and its aristocratic exclusiveness smacked entirely too much of poten­tial menace. Would the affiliated officers content themselves merely with preserving the memories of patriotic and loyal service in the field or would they, representing as they did every prominent fam­ily throughout the erstwhile Colonies, set them­selves to perpetuate a powerful body devoted strictly to the interests of the classes and the recog­nition of hereditary distinction?

William Mooney, an ex-enlisted man of the Revolutionary Army, plied his trade as an up­holsterer in New York City for six years after the formation of the Society of the Cincinnati and, along with many fellow patriots, pondered these and

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