Greatest day in U.S. history is all but forgotten

It is probably the most important date in United States history, but to most people Dec. 23 signifies only that there are two shopping days left until Christmas. After victoriously leading an army for more than eight years against the mightiest military force on the planet, Gen. George Washington walked before the Continental Congress and announced, “Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theater of action …”

As Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, George Washington knew like no other man of the shortcomings of the Articles of Confederation. From the despair at Valley Forge in 1777-78, and a congressional recommendation that he plunder the Pennsylvania countryside for supplies, George Washington and his men felt the full measure of inadequate government.

On March 15th 1783, Washington prevented a mutiny of his army encamped at Newburgh NY that would have changed the course of American history. The Revolutionary War did not end with victory at Yorktown; British troops still held New York, Charleston, Savannah, and western outposts. Ironically, it was rumors of peace that put soldiers in a mutinous mindset, because they rightfully feared a penniless congress might disband the army without paying it off. Thomas Jefferson credited Washington with preventing the revolution from closing as most others, in a subversion of the liberty it was intended to establish.

Whatever Happened to the Articles of Confederation?

Excellent article. Everything I have read about Washington expands my respect and regard for a man who so thoroughly believed in the American people that he gave them the opportunity to be the greatest Nation ever to exist on Earth.

And our PRESIDENT Trump, arm in arm with the spirit of Ronald Reagan, is walking in his footsteps.

I am not able to find this confirmed but I have heard this since boyhood;

At the end of the Revolutionary War, the British, knowing that there was going to be a new country where their 13 Colonies had been, wondered how they would govern themselves. The history of successful generals led most in Britain to assume that George Washington, the undeniable leader of a successful army, would become, at the least, a 'Protector' like Oliver Cromwell, OR allow himself to be proclaimed a monarch like Caesar.

The story goes that King George III called upon one of his court artists, the expatriate American, Benjamin West, for his opinion of what General George Washington would do with his command and Army. West, while Pennsylvania born and educated and a solid friend of Benjamin Franklin, had remained in London throughout the War and become a painter of the London elite, but was still was friendly with many on the Revolutionary side.

The 'money shot' comment came when West said, from his knowledge of Washington and others, that he had heard Washington planned resigning his Commission and retiring back to his farm at Mount Vernon. Reportedly, upon being told this, George III said; "If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world."

Perhaps apocryphal but probably matches the feelings that many in Britain, France and the rest of Europe felt, to do this and then to retire was not the European way. At least not since the times of ancient Rome and Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus (520 BC – 430 BC). Indeed, earlier that year, a large group of (Continental) Army Officers had founded a new fraternal organization, The Society of the Cincinnati, based, in part, on the image of Cincinnatus, the selfless hero, who having achieved glorious military victory, returns to being an ordinary citizen.

Yet, there is no national holiday marking the occasion. No fireworks light the skies. The calendar does not even designate Dec. 23 as a day to fly the flag.

Cincinnatus was a great Roman general who went back to his plow after being dictator for the war he won. That is the great man Washington followed into history.

There was Washington's birthday but they got rid of that too. It's lumped together with Lincoln's birthday as the now generic "President's day"

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