Washington was the greatest of leaders, but he was ONLY able to lead us to action because we had several dozen brave and rebellious men in our legislature who raised money, and trained and supplied a regular army. They also declared war on the king and forced the 2/3rds of the population who were not engaged to come along for the ride.

If Paine, Jefferson and Madison had been leading a cabal to undermine Washington and secretly meeting with our enemies Wahington would have "failed."