George Washington addresses fellow officers of the Continental Army at Newburgh, New York, on March 15, 1783.
I have written about many of the instances when the Continental Army faced defeat, and with it, so did the cause of American independence. The Battle of Trenton, the army’s miraculous escape from New York, and the long winter at Valley Forge are some of those examples. In a chapter in American history not widely known, officers within the Continental Army became so upset over a lack of pay that they were actively meeting to discuss a military coup against the Continental Congress in Philadelphia.
After the American victory at Yorktown, the army returned to New York and camped in Newburgh, about 10 miles from West Point. Peace negotiations were underway in Paris and the Americans wanted to keep an eye on the British presence in and around New York. For the soldiers of the Continental Army and their officers, the Revolutionary War was a struggle for many reasons. Not only did they have to fight the most formidable army on earth, the British, but they also had to make do with few resources. Food, clothing, shelter, medications, and military supplies were hard to come by throughout the war.
The Continental Congress depended solely on the states for revenue who paid in different amounts and at different times. The lack of funds created a significant problem. The soldiers were not being paid. With news of a peace accord on the horizon, there was a belief among the officers that the army would be disbanded without payment being made.
A group of officers led by John Armstrong, aid to second in command of the Continental Army Horatio Gates, circulated a letter that, among other items, would give the Continental Congress an ultimatum – pay the soldiers or the army would disband, leaving the brand new country of America unprotected. Alternatively, the army would not disband and become its own force, independent of Congress. This was a not-so-subtle threat of a military coup or dictatorship. The Armstrong letter further implied something almost sacrilege in the Continental Army. George Washington had failed them and could not be trusted to deliver their pay.
As he did so many times in American history, George Washington became the hero of this story. The path to becoming a military dictator or a king was open to him. He had the support of his soldiers outside of this small group of officers and the American people. He could have led the army against the Continental Congress and assumed dictatorial powers. Few were in a position to oppose him.
However, George Washington did not take this course. Power was never something Washington desired. In May 1782, a colonel named Lewis Nicola wrote to Washington and proposed to him that he declare himself king of the United States. Washington’s response was clear:
“Be assured sir, no occurrence in the course of the war has given me more painful sensations than your information of there being such ideas existing in the army as you have expressed, [which are] big with the greatest mischiefs that can befall my country…Let me conjure you then, if you have any regard for your country – concern for yourself or posterity – or respect for me, to banish these thoughts from your mind.”
Newburgh, New York
Washington faced a mutiny by a group of officers within the Continental Army. After he found out about a planned meeting between the officers on March 15, 1783, he asked them to speak among themselves and communicate their chosen course to him. When the meeting started, General Gates began to speak. Quickly, George Washington appeared in the back of the room and the men went silent. Washington addressed them.
George Washington gave a speech he had prepared the night before that talked about many issues, including the meaning of the revolution they had fought together and of the future of their new country. He did not hide his contempt for the proposals being considered but still promised to do all he could to secure their pay. He urged the men “…to express your utmost horror and detestation of the Man who wishes, under any specious pretenses, to overturn the liberties of our Country, and who wickedly attempts to open the flood Gates of Civil discord, and deluge our rising Empire in Blood.”
Did eyeglasses help save our new nation?
His speech did not seem to have its intended effect. At this point, Washington began to read a letter from a member of Congress when he did something nobody in the room had ever seen him do throughout the long struggle for independence these soldiers had endured together – he put on a pair of eyeglasses. He then uttered the following words:
“Gentleman, you must pardon me. I have grown gray in the service of my country, and now find myself growing blind.”
This one line changed the entire tenor of the meeting. It was said that some officers openly wept. They began to feel shame for what they were contemplating. Washington left the room and let the remaining officers ponder their next move. They unanimously voted to give the Continental Congress more time to pay them. They eventually were paid.
Historians debate whether Washington’s reference to his eyeglasses was intentional or spontaneous. What doesn’t seem to be debated is that this episode was a crucial one in the history of our country. One historian called this “the new nation’s most dangerous hour.”
George Washington’s character and devotion to his country above himself did not go unnoticed by history or his contemporaries. Thomas Jefferson observed, “The moderation and virtue of a single character probably prevented this Revolution from being closed, as most others have been, by a subversion of that liberty it was intended to establish.”
Oversees in England, King George III observed that if Washington voluntarily gave up power, he would truly be the greatest man on earth. Washington voluntarily surrendered his commission as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army on December 23, 1783. When he was called back to serve as our nation’s first president under the Constitution, he refused a third term, establishing a precedent of serving only two terms that was followed until the Franklin Roosevelt presidency in the 20th century.
George Washington is an example that the best leaders are the ones who fear power, not those who crave it.