George Washington Remembrance

George Washington commanded a consistently ragged, underfed, seldom paid, often mutinous amalgam of regulars and militia through over eight years of war. Toward the end, his officers had determined to confront Congress with a list of their grievances. Washington opposed this initiative, because he foresaw in it an outcome similar to the legions marching to destroy the Roman Republic. The officers would at least assemble to hear him once more. His biographer James Thomas Flexner relates what happened next.

“As he looked at his command, Washington appeared ‘sensibly agitated.’ For the first time since he had won the heart of the army at Cambridge, Washington saw in the faces of his officers not affection, not pleasure in his being present, but resentment, embarrassment, and in some cases anger.

‘If my conduct,’ Washington said, ‘heretofore had not evinced to you that I have been a faithful friend to the army, my declaration of it at this time would be equally unavailing and improper. But as I was among the first who embarked in the cause of our common country; as I have never left your side one moment but when called from you on public duty; as I have been the common companion and witness of your distresses, and not among the last to feel and acknowledge your merits; as I have ever considered my own military reputation as inseparably connected with that of the army; as my heart has ever expanded with joy when I have heard its praises, and my indignation has risen when the mouth of distraction has been opened against it, it can scarcely be supposed, at this late stage of the war, that I am indifferent to its interests.’ Washington paused to examine the faces before him: they were unmoved.

Washington then assured his hearers that it was ‘My decided opinion’ that Congress entertained ‘exalted sentiments of the services of the army’ and would, despite the slowness inherent in deliberative bodies, act justly…..And you will, by the dignity of your conduct, afford occasion for posterity to say, when speaking of this glorious example you have exhibited to mankind, ‘had this day been wanting, the world had never seen the last stage of perfection to which human nature is capable of attaining.’

Washington had finished his speech, but the chill in the Temple had not thawed. He reached in his pocket for a letter from a member of Congress that showed what the body was trying to do…..The officers stirred impatiently in their seats, and then suddenly every heart missed a beat. Something was the matter with His Excellency. He seemed unable to read the paper. He paused in bewilderment. He fumbled in his waistcoat pocket. And then he pulled out something that only his intimates had seen him wear, a pair of glasses. With infinite sweetness and melancholy, he explained, ‘Gentlemen you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown grey but almost blind in service to my country.’

This simple statement achieved what all Washington’s rhetoric and all his arguments had been unable to achieve. The officers were instantly in tears, and, from behind shining drops, their eyes looked with love at the commander who had led them so far.

Americans can never be adequately grateful that George Washington possessed the power and the will to intervene effectively in what may well have been the most dangerous hour the United States has ever known.”

The following is an excerpt from The Gospels of the American Civic Religion, by Publius and Billthedrill. It was an outgrowth of a FReeper Book Club dedicated to both the Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers treated in chronological order. We are still looking for a publisher.

This is from Chapter 57, dedicated to Brutus #10.

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The Fallout from the Newburgh Conspiracy

22 It remains a secret yet to be revealed whether this measure was not suggested or at least countenanced by some who have had great influence in producing the present system.

Brutus explains how George Washington stood up to the coup plotters at Newburgh in 1783, and how his character and example stopped the budding attempt at fascism. Brutus understood that if someone of lesser character had been at the head of the Continental Army, the Confederation would have been toppled and replaced with a dictator or king. The identities of Robert Morris, the Philadelphia banker, and Gouveneur Morris, his assistant, as the instigators of the plot, were unknown at the time except among the men who had comprised Washington’s staff at the end of the war.

Robert Morris had been the Superintendent of Finance and was responsible for keeping the infant nation afloat during the war, founding the Bank of North America, the nation’s first attempt at a central bank. The bank issued paper money backed by gold, silver and commercial paper from France and the Netherlands. However, due to charges of foreign influence, Pennsylvania revoked the charter of the central bank, and the bank reformed under a charter with a much smaller domain of operations.

The Morrises were able to cover their tracks well enough that they were chosen to represent Pennsylvania at the Constitutional Convention. Robert, Gouveneur, and their lawyer, James Wilson, played key roles in writing the Constitution.

When Washington arrived in Philadelphia, he was supposed to stay in rooms rented from Mrs. Mary House. But Robert Morris intercepted Washington’s coach and asked him to stay at his own home. Washington had earlier turned down a written offer to stay with Morris, but he wasn’t going to be seen to turn down a public offer. After unloading his luggage at the Morris home, he immediately took leave of the financier and went to the home of Benjamin Franklin to pay his respects. Washington had delivered a message, although a subtle one.

Gouveneur Morris didn’t get off so easily. David Stewart tells of a social event preceding the Convention. Gouveneur asked Hamilton, the man who had been the conduit between the Morrises and Washington at Newburgh, if His Excellency was as austere as he had heard. Hamilton, knowing Washington’s opinion of the man, suggested he give the general a hearty welcome. Morris went up to Washington, slapped him on the back and welcomed him to Philadelphia. Washington slowly turned and gave Morris a look that would have frozen brimstone. Morris beat a hasty retreat, while Hamilton tried valiantly to hide his mirth.

Despite what had happened four years earlier, Washington let bygones be bygones. Robert Morris’ financial acumen was going to be necessary to the enterprise, as was Gouveneur’s way with words. Their able lawyer, James Wilson, was to be one of the leading lights of the Convention.

Within the tightly knit legal community of New York, Brutus may have heard whispered details of the Newburgh incident from Hamilton or others. Without naming names, he suggests the coup plotters may have been present at the Convention – which they were.

THE “Mr President”, George (NMI) Washington of Mount Vernon, Virginia, the irreplaceable man, general and (reluctant) politician! The man who lived to the classic Roman hero, Cincinnatus (Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus), as the able man who, while seeking fame & fortune when young, made his best history as a man aged in efforts and battles.

Washington was the man who set the mold for the US Army, that they should always be under the civil governance, and walked-the-walk by resigning his Generalship when it was the DOMINANT power of the weak, disunited former colonies. He then became PRESIDENT GENERAL of the 1787 Constitutional Convention some 3 years later. His were the ears that everyone there wanted to talk to and the voice that all listened to.

As THE FIRST PRESIDENT, he set the patterns and the expectations of that brand new government. In a SINGULAR aspect, that of the ‘Address of the Office’, he made an immortal start that cannot be forgotten. In the War, he had the title of General and was frequently addressed as “Your Excellency”. As he took his Presidency, many proffered inflated, near monarchial terms to address his position. The Houses of Congress got to the points of “Majesty” and “Most Illustrious and Excellent President” while a cynic proposed “George IV”! After much bickering and with reputed background urging by the man, himself, the solution became “Mr President”!

Then, as in all great dramas, comes the final act, the denouement of what will this new REPUBLIC does with the EXECUTIVE POWER! History is replete with revolutionaries speaking of restraint but ending with lifetime dictatorships! It was probable that other countries and elites assumed that Washington would do the same or else remain a power figure behind the new President Elect, John Adams! When it became known that Washington was, instead, following the mode of Cincinnatus again and retiring to his quiet plantation, this did again set precedent! Indeed, his former Monarch and adversary, George III, said of this; “... that act placed him in a light, made him the most distinguished of any man living and the greatest character of the age.” Not bad to go from a traitor, yet to be hung, to this near supreme compliment!

...Washinton’s self-possessed demeanor and carefully regulated behavior...

And it took him most of his life to reach that point.

Washington had a ferocious temper. You could pile one straw after another on his camel's back, but the straw that broke it would send him into a blue rage that would make him physically ill for days. Then he would have to go around, hat in hand, to apologize to the people he had wronged. When you saw Washington's jawline tighten, it was considered prudent to leave the premises.

It was the spiritual exercises of the Freemasons, the meditations, that permitted him to get that temper of his under an iron discipline. Martha Washington noted that he had managed to keep his temper "under exquisite control."

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