The Washington Family Crest
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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."
When handed the manifesto by his officers, he stopped to put on his spectacles. He apologized, saying that he had given his youth, and even his eyesight for his country.
The young officers knew right then it was going to be a bad day.
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Some of the officers, who had fought with Washington all during the campaign, became verklempt.
Hmm. Some things never change.
LOL! Yes, and there were times when it drove him nuts. He once complained that he'd walk down the stairs into a party and the conversation would die down. Think that would mess with your head? BTT...
I had never quite heard it put that way, but I am LOL’ing here!
EXCELLENT point, sir.
Great story, thanks!
It’s easy to understand why he’s been compared to Cincinnatus.
Bump for almost the only revolutionary in history to give up power and go back to private life when the revolution was over.
I remember being taught this in grade school many years ago.
I came across the Society of the Cincinnati a couple of weeks ago because I was reading up on Grant. Cincinnati was the name of his favorite horse.
Another amazing thing is that this article was printed in a SF bay area paper.
Thank you. An incredible story, I am going to read it to my children.
It was the single most noble act in our history, I believe.
Of course, if he had known that a mere 80 years later, the union army would pull his pew out of the Falls Church, in order to make a stable for their horses IN HIS CHURCH, he might have chosen differently.
Thanks for posting this. Washington was an incredible gift from God.
I remember reading about this incident before, but I never thought of it in terms of keeping us from being a banana republic. Excellent analysis here.
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