Posted on 03/21/2008 4:35:56 PM PDT by Pharmboy
ONE OF THE most important dates in American history passed unnoticed last weekend. It was the 225th anniversary of the day we didn't become a banana republic. It ought to be a national holiday, right up there with July Fourth. But hardly anybody remembers it any more.
The date was March 15, 1783. The Revolutionary War had just been won.
Trouble was, the army hadn't been paid during the war. They were promised that they'd get their money when the war was over; but now that the time had come, Congress was reneging on that pledge.
Resentment rippled through the ranks. About 200 of the highest-ranking officers in the army decided to march the troops to Philadelphia, overthrow the government, and set up a military dictatorship with George Washington as its figurehead -- if he was willing. If he wasn't, they'd do it over his dead body.
They scheduled a secret meeting in Newburgh, N.Y., to plan the final details of the coup d'etat.
But Washington got wind of the meeting and decided to crash it. He walked to the front of the room and started to speak. But the officers remained unmoved.
So he pulled a reassuring letter from a congressman out of his pocket and started to read it to them.
But something was wrong. He seemed confused. He stared helplessly at the paper, unable to make out the words. Every man in the room leaned forward, "their hearts constricting with anxiety," as historian James Thomas Flexner put it.
Then Washington did something none of them had ever seen him do before: He put on a pair of eyeglasses. "Gentlemen," he said, "you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray but almost blind in the service of my country."
At those words, those battle-hardened veterans wept like babies. Sobs filled the room. The coup d'etat was over before it began.
A few months later, Washington appeared before the Congress in Philadelphia, handed in his resignation as head of the army, and went home.
It blew everyone's mind. They were all students of history, and they knew that people who start out as liberators almost always end up as tyrants.
It was true of Cromwell and Napoleon, and in our own time it was true of Lenin, Castro and Mao.
But not Washington. He simply walked away. In Star Wars terms, he resisted the temptation of the dark side of The Force.
When King George III heard what he had done, he gasped, "Why, he must be the greatest man in the world!"
And Thomas Jefferson said, "The moderation and virtue of a single character prevented this Revolution from being closed, as most others have been, by a subversion of that liberty it was intended to establish."
Washington stayed home for the next four years, working on his estate and playing doting grandfather to his grandchildren, George Washington Parke Custis (known to the family as "Washy") and Nelly Custis (after whom I named my late cat).
He came out retirement twice -- in 1787, to chair the Constitutional Convention, and 1789, to become the first president of the United States.
But he refused to run for a third term, even though he would have won in a walk, because he didn't want to die in office. He wanted to hand it over to a fairly elected successor, to establish the democratic precedent.
In 1797 he went home for the last time and died two years later.
As historian Gary Wills has observed, he spent his career giving up power, over and over again. But each time he gave it up, he gained something far more valuable: moral authority.
And that's why, when he died, Light Horse Harry Lee called him "First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."
He was, and might be known as the Surveyor of his Country. Mason-Dixon line was his project if I remember correctly.
I believe so. Best wishes and good reading!
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Thanks Pharmboy. And thanks purpleraine for that book description in message 33. |
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Whoops, make that, during the Whiskey Rebellion, he became the first commander-in-chief to lead the troops in person. Hmm. Maybe he was the only one to do so while in office? Dunno.
Washington was already out of retirement. The federal military action came in 1794 and as CIC he actually lead the army in the field.
Thanx for the nod about the book. This site is stronger when folks add their info to the pile.
Hey, nice, this link clarified something else for me:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington#Domestic_issues
50 second split. My fingers don’t type so fast. LOL!
What a great man.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mason-Dixon_line
[snip] It was surveyed between 1763 and 1767 by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon in the resolution of a border dispute between British colonies in Colonial America. Popular speech, especially since the Missouri compromise of 1820 (apparently the first official usage of the term “Mason’s and Dixon’s Line”), uses the Mason-Dixon line symbolically as a cultural boundary between the Northern United States and the Southern United States (Dixie). [end]
Not to be confused with the Dixie Bee Line.
Hey, as clicked the post button on the first one, I said, “duh” to myself, and quick checked it out. ;’)
best seller from a few years ago
Why don’t my url posts show as active links, hmmm?
So did they ever pay the Army?
Newburgh and Fishkill are both in Dutchess County, NY. My 5th great-grandfather was a Lieutenant in the 2nd Regiment of the Dutchess County Militia during the Rev. War. According to my research, that unit had at one time served under Washington’s right-hand man, Israel Putnam. I’ve always wondered if my Patriot ancestor ever got to meet General Washington. What an honor that would have been.
Many got paid thru land grants in the North West terrority : aka Ohio...
This may be of interest to you.
The land in the United States Military District in what is now central Ohio was reserved for veterans of the American Revolution. During the war, American soldiers were issued land warrants to help compensate for their service. The amount of land varied according to rank. In 1796, Congress established the United States Military District to pay off the government's remaining land debts. The eastern boundary was the Seven Ranges. To the south were the Refugee Tract and Congress lands. The western boundary was the Scioto River, and the northern boundary was the line established by the Treaty of Greeneville.
Most veterans did not choose to move to the United States Military District. They often chose to sell their lands without ever seeing them.
Thanks.
It was good that some of the soldiers got some money from their land sales.
http://www.lva.lib.va.us/whatwehave/mil/
I've long called the northern U.S. "Masie".
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