George Washington - the Irreplaceable Founding Father

On March 10, 1783, General George Washington learned that his officers planned to meet on the following day at the Temple of Virtue, a large hall near his headquarters in Newburgh, New York. The meeting was called to discuss a fiery petition, probably written by John Armstrong, Jr., an aide de camp of General Horatio Gates, calling for the officers to mutiny if Congress failed to deliver their back pay and pensions. If the war continued, they would lead the army into "some unsettled country" and let the American people fend for themselves against the British. If the war was over, they would march on Congress and demand their pay at gunpoint. While Washington was just as concerned as his men that Congress had failed to pay the army, he was determined to prevent a mutiny among his officers. Banning the March 11 meeting, he ordered his men to meet instead at noon on March 15. On that day, as his officers crowded into the Temple of Virtue, Washington quietly entered through a side door and suddenly stood before them to read a nine-page speech, known as the Newburgh Address. Washington sympathized with their demands but rejected their methods. He admitted that the petition made several excellent points : the army had suffered much, but Washington reminded them that he had been with them through it all, he was continuing the fight to persuade the Congress to pay them, but the petition's solutions could only be described as madness. Washington asked the assembled group if they were actually willing to leave their wives, their children, and their property unprotected and defenseless in the face of the British army. Could they "sully the glory" they had won on the battlefield by marching on Congress as a mob? Promising that he would continue his strenuous efforts on their behalf, he urged them to stand with the elected representatives of their young republic, to give them time to solve this problem, rather than opening the "floodgates of civil discontent." After finishing his speech, Washington tried to read a letter from Congressman Joseph Jones of Virginia that clearly supported the officers' demands. Stumbling over the opening words, he put on a new pair of eyeglasses, saying, "Gentlemen, you must pardon me. I have grown gray in your service and now find myself growing blind." The incident moved many of his officers to tears. The next day, they passed a unanimous resolution commending General Washington for his devotion to them. The mutiny of the officers was over. Washington kept his promise, writing one letter after another to Congress, and finally winning his officers five years of full pay for their service in the war. Mary Stockwell, Ph.D. has a fuller account of the Newburgh Address at www.mountvernon.org where you can read much about the life and character of George Wawhington. ~~~~~ Dear readers, George Washington may have been the only irreplaceable member of the Founding Fathers. He was the only one of them to sit in the councils of state and then go forth to give those decisions life. His iron determination to win a military victory by forming, training, fighting and suffering alongside the Continental Army was decisive. His resolution to put aside his failing health to become the first President of the Untied States was another aspect of his determination to leave behind him a young republic ready to unite and grow together. Without the genius of George Washington, the debates and words and political positioning of the other Founders, uniquely great as they were, would have been simply another 18th century philosophical debate about the virtues of libertarian republicanism. George Washington saw the beauty of the Founders' work and understood the necessity of giving it practical shape. He was seamless in this effort and his honesty and moral virtue were the rock he stood on before Americans and the world. When Washington died on December 14, 1799, the eulogy was written and delivered on December 26, 1799, by Virginia's great orator, Richard Henry "Light-Horse Harry" Lee. General Robert E.Lee later wrote of his father that the eulogy alone would give him an immortal place in history. The words are familiar. "First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen, he was second to none in humble and enduring scenes of private life. Pious, just, humane, temperate, and sincere; uniform, dignified, and commanding; his example was as edifying to all around him as were the effects of that example lasting correct throughout. To his equals he was condescending, to his inferiors kind, and to the dear object of his affections exemplarily tender; vice shuddered in his presence, and virtue always felt his fostering hand; the purity of his private character gave effulgence to his public virtues. His last scene comported with the whole tenor of his life - although in extreme pain, not a sigh not a groan escaped him; and with undisturbed serenity he closed his well-spent life. Such was the man America has lost—such was the man for whom our nation mourns." George Washington's last words were, "T'is well." He was surely thinking of America as well as of his own soul.