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."
Try it like this:
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Mason-Dixon-Thomas-Pynchon/dp/B0006SHMG6/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206201606&sr=8-3"> http://www.amazon.com/Mason-Dixon-Thomas-Pynchon/dp/B0006SHMG6/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206201606&sr=8-3</a>
he result =:
Thanx
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By far our greatest President.
I’ve seen this many times. My husband was here since Aug 98. He was a mulitple and permanent banee. I may be one of the longest-term lurkers. I figured since I’m working part-time now, I’d finally sign-up. I get lazy and then burden other people with my questions.
That makes sense. :’) OTOH, a lot of folks call me “lasie”. ;’)
Newburgh is in Orange County. I grew up 30 miles away.
Don’t let ‘em kid you — it’s because no one else around here likes Prince.
ah-ha!
He was, and in my mind always will be, in a class by himself!
As President of the United States, a few come very close, some close, most can't walk in his shadow.
So angry and bitter were some folks over the losses sustained to their families from the script “Continental Dollar” used in the early days of this Nation - the term stayed around. The script used by the CSA did not engender the same widespread bitterness, AFAIK.
One wonders when the current (not so green) Greenback finally falls apart how it will be viewed......
Aides of March
Approximately 2 weeks before his death, a British journalist traveled to St Helena to interview him. When questioned about his life, his successes and failures, Bonaparte looked at his interviewer and said (defining his ultimate failure):
They expected me to be another Washington.
I believe Washington was the greatest man in the last thousand years. He combined intelligence, character, bravery, love of mankind, respect for people different from himself, loyalty and fidelity as none had before or since. He truly was
Duh, you're right...and I did a Google search too. Blame it on old age.
'Splain?
What a great post-worthy of a movie if those bastards in Hollywood weren’t commies. Moved me to tears.
After Lee declined Lincoln’s offer to lead the Union Army, he left Arlington House and many of its possessions behind as he joined Virginia...
The union troops soon took over Arlington House and ‘captured’ most everything.
Some of the collection were broken, stolen, disappeared...There never has been a final accounting that I know of. Even now, some families may have a nice piece with or without knowing what they have.
His wife ( and even her father : G W Parker Custis ) apparently gave away or sold some pieces.
Mount Vernon apparently received many of their current pieces from the collection of Governor Caleb Lyon ( who was a frequent mid-19th century visitor to Mt Vernon and Arlington House ).
The more the people examine authentic heroes like Washington, who leads the first rank, the more the phonies of today are revealed for what they are.
Great post!
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