Blood of Tyrants: George Washington & the Forging of the Presidency

by Logan Beirne

  15 Washington to John Sullivan, May 31, 1779, in The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, 20:718.

  16 John Sullivan to Washington, September 30, 1779, in Thomas Coffin Amory, The Military Services and Public Life of Major-General John Sullivan (1868), 137–38.

  17 General John Sullivan’s Report to Congress, September 30, 1779.

  18 Journal of Lieutenant Erkuries Beatty, 4th Pennsylvania Regiment, September 13, 1779, in Journals of the Military Expedition of Major General John Sullivan, 31–32.

  19 Journal of Lieutenant Robert Parker, of the Second Continental Artillery, September 14, 1779, in Jeremiah Whitaker Newman, The Lounger’s Common-Place Book, 1 (1796), 170. The two Americans tortured were Lieutenant Thomas Boyd and Sergeant Michael Parker. Since the bodies were so mangled, it became unclear which gruesome act was performed on whom.

  20 Journal of Sergeant Moses Fellows, 3rd New Hampshire Regiment, September 14, 1779, in Journals of the Military Expedition of Major General John Sullivan, 91.

  21 Journal of Lieutenant Rudolphus Van Hovenburgh, 4th New York Regiment, September 14, 1779, in ibid., 275–84; Colonel John Butler’s report to Lieutenant Colonel Bolton, September 14, 1779.

  22 Journals of the Military Expedition of Major General John Sullivan, 530.

  23 Except for one town far off, near Alleghany. John Sullivan to Washington, September 30, 1779, in Amory, The Military Services and Public Life of Major-General John Sullivan, 137–38.

  24 Allan Eckert, Wilderness War: A Narrative (Boston: Little, Brown, 1978).

  25 Address by Ellis H. Roberts, in Journals of the Military Expedition of Major General John Sullivan, 426.

  26 James Thomas Flexner, George Washington: The Forge of Experience, 1732–1775 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1965), 323. The Native Americans were also commonly referred to as “savages.”

  Chapter 27: Band of Brethren

  1 Aristotle, Politics, transl. Benjamin Jowett, bk. 3, pts. 1–3, 7.

  2 Aristophanes, Ecclesiazousai.

  3 Idiotes meant “layman, person lacking professional skill” in ancient Greece and mutated into Middle English idiot, meaning “simple man, uneducated person, layman” by the fourteenth century. Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary.

  4 A notion of citizenship existed in medieval cities, particularly in the commercially advanced cities of Italy and the Low Countries. A medieval text by Galbert of Bruges, The Murder of Charles the Good (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1967), shows a sense of citizenship in tension with feudal ties. Many thanks to Carol Staswick for her insights into this area.

  5 Rogers M. Smith, “The Meaning of American Citizenship,” in Constitution: A Bicentennial Chronicle, published by Project ’87 of the American Political Science Association and American Historical Association (1985).

  6 While “new conceptions emerged that saw society and government as the product of individual consent and compact, . . . [Sir Edward] Coke’s conclusions regarding the character of allegiance—his maxims and definitions to the effect that the subject-king relationship was personal, natural, perpetual, and immutable—remained deeply embedded in the law.” James H. Kettner, “The Development of American Citizenship in the Revolutionary Era: The Idea of Volitional Allegiance,” American Journal of Legal History 18 no. 3 (July 1974): 209.

  7 It is important to note that Great Britain was far from a tyrannical government but was actually quite progressive compared with the other world powers. Its main legislative body, the Parliament of Great Britain, was composed of the House of Lords and the popularly elected House of Commons. Nevertheless, the notion of unending loyalty to the Crown persisted.

  8 Smith, “The Meaning of American Citizenship,” 3.

  9 Marc Kaufman, “Jefferson changed ‘subjects’ to ‘citizens’ in Declaration of Independence,” Washington Post, July 3, 2010.

  10 John Jay, Federalist No. 2 (October 31, 1787). Seemingly ignoring the religious and ethnic diversity already in the states, he also wrote that the citizens were “descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same language, professing the same religion.”

  11 Declaration of Independence.

  12 Kaufman, “Jefferson changed ‘subjects’ to ‘citizens’ in Declaration of Independence.”

  13 United States Naturalization and Citizenship, FamilySearch. org (2011).

  14 Samuel Adams to James Warren, June 28, 1775, in Letters of Delegates to Congress, ed. Paul H. Smith et al. (Library of Congress), 1:554. See also Donald N. Moran, “Why George Washington?” The Valley Newsletter (Sons of the American Revolution), February/March 1996.

  15 Robert M. Calhoon, “Loyalism and Neutrality,” in A Companion to the American Revolution, ed. Jack P. Greene and J. R. Pole (Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 2000), 235.

  16 Claude Halstead Van Tyne, The Loyalists in the American Revolution (1902), 182–83.

  17 John Adams to Abigail Adams, September 14, 1774, in Adams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield et al. (Boston, 1963), 1:155.

  18 Kettner, “The Development of American Citizenship in the Revolutionary Era,” 213.

  19 This notion indeed dissipated somewhat as the war raged—so much so that the Congress eventually referred to them as British subjects again in the peace treaty—but Washington still displayed respect for their rights.

  20 Kettner, “The Development of American Citizenship in the Revolutionary Era,” 213.

  21 W. Stewart Wallace, The United Empire Loyalists: A Chronicle of the Great Migration (1914), 10.

  22 Angela E. M. Files, Loyalist Families of the Grand River Branch U.E.L.A.C. (United Empire Loyalists’ Association of Canada, 1991).

  23 Nathanael Greene to Alexander Hamilton, January 10, 1781, in The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, ed. Harold C. Syrett et al. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1961–87), 2:529.

  24 Wallace, The United Empire Loyalists, 9.

  25 Ibid., 10.

  26 Qtd. in Kettner, “The Development of American Citizenship in the Revolutionary Era,” 213.

  27 Qtd. in ibid., 214.

  Chapter 28: Poison & Peas

  1 “Dr. William Eustis, Surgeon in the Continental Army,” in David A. Adler, George Washington: An Illustrated Biography (New York: Holiday House, 2004), 111. The details of the plot are largely unknown and the story herein reflects the somewhat conflicting reports from contemporaries.

  2 Reverend John Marsh, July 9, 1776, in Washington Irving, Life of George Washington, 2:83n. The account of the peas is subject to debate; it was added as a note by antiquarian Benson J. Lossing in 1859 to Washington’s step-grandson’s memoirs. George Washington Parke Custis et al., Recollections and Private Memoirs of Washington (1860), 411.

  3 Adler, George Washington: An Illustrated Biography, 111.

  4 Irving, Life of George Washington, 2:83n.

  5 Ibid.

  6 Cornelia Phillips Spencer, First Steps in North Carolina History (1888), 76.

  7 Governor William Tryon to Lord Dartmouth, July 7, 1775, in William Walter Legge, 5th Earl of Dartmouth, The Manuscripts of the Earl of Dartmouth (1895), 2:329.

  8 Washington to Philip Schuyler, June 25, 1775, in The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, 1:37.

  9 Daniel Parker Coke, M.P., The Royal Commission on the Losses and Services of American Loyalists, 1783 to 1785, ed. Hugh Edward Egerton (1915), 168. Many thanks to Stephen Davidson for bringing to my attention much of the material on Mathews.

  10 His home was in Brooklyn, to be precise.

  11 Chernow, Washington: A Life, 233.

  12 Irving, Life of George Washington, 2:81.

  13 John Bakeless, Turncoats, Traitors and Heroes (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1959), 97.

  14 The records containing the exact details of his capture are largely lost.

  15 Bakeless, Turncoats, Traitors and Heroes, 98.

  16 Ibid., 102.

  17 Court Martial for the Trial of Thomas Hickey and Others, June 26, 1776, in American Archives, Fourth Series
, 6:1084.

  18 General Orders, June 28, 1776, in The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, 5:129.

  19 Qtd. in Charles P. Niemeyer, The Revolutionary War (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2007), 36.

  20 Chernow, Washington: A Life, 233.

  21 “Dr. William Eustis, Surgeon in the Continental Army,” in Adler, George Washington: An Illustrated Biography, 111.

  22 General Orders, June 28, 1776, 129–30.

  23 James H. Kettner, “The Development of American Citizenship in the Revolutionary Era: The Idea of Volitional Allegiance,” American Journal of Legal History 18 no. 3 (July 1974): 215.

  24 Irving, Life of George Washington, 2:81.

  25 Journals of the Continental Congress, June 24, 1776, 5:475.

  26 Joshua Hett Smith was likewise a civilian. He was tried via court-martial later in the war by a 1777 resolution calling for such, as well as a specific congressional authorization. Generally, civilian Loyalists were tried in nonmilitary criminal courts.

  27 Daniel Parker Coke, M.P., The Royal Commission on the Losses and Services of American Loyalists, 1783 to 1785, ed. Hugh Edward Egerton (1915), 168.

  28 Memorial of David Mathews Esq., Late Mayor of New York (August 25, 1784), in ibid., 168.

  29 Bakeless, Turncoats, Traitors and Heroes, 98.

  Chapter 29: America’s Defender

  1 Michael Pearson, Those Damned Rebels: The American Revolution as Seen through British Eyes (New York: Putnam, 1972), 318.

  2 Proclamation of John Burgoyne, June 23, 1777, in The Spirit of Seventy-Six, 547.

  3 W. Stewart Wallace, The United Empire Loyalist: A Chronicle of the Great Migration (1914), 11.

  4 After the Battle of King’s Mountain, thirty-nine Loyalists were condemned to death. Nine were executed on the spot for being “the most noted horsethieves and Tories” of North Carolina and the rest were pardoned. Robert Stansbury Lambert, South Carolina Loyalists in the American Revolution (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1987), 102.

  5 Kettner, “The Development of American Citizenship in the Revolutionary Era,” 217.

  6 North Carolina patriot, qtd. in Wallace, The United Empire Loyalists, 11.

  7 Kettner, “The Development of American Citizenship in the Revolutionary Era,” 217.

  8 Journals of the Continental Congress, June 18, 1776, 5:464.

  9 Washington to Colonel Israel Shreve, April 4, 1778, in The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, 14:408.

  10 Don Higginbotham, George Washington: Uniting a Nation (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002), 55–56.

  11 Ibid.

  12 Judith L. Van Buskirk, Generous Enemies: Patriots and Loyalists in Revolutionary New York (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002), 114.

  13 Washington to Andrew Elliot, December 1, 1783, in The Writings of George Washington, 27:253.

  14 Ibid.

  15 Washington to Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., November 15, 1775, in The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, 2:379.

  16 Washington Irving, George Washington: A Biography, ed. and abridged by Charles Neider (1976; Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Press, 1994), 201.

  17 Ibid.

  18 General Orders, October 12, 1777, in The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, 11:490.

  19 Harry S. Blain, “Who Stole the Shoes at Valley Forge: A Tragedy and a Vindication” (1966), 3.

  20 John B. Trussell, Jr., Epic on the Schuylkill: The Valley Forge Encampment (Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical Commission, 1992), 27.

  21 Blain, “Who Stole the Shoes at Valley Forge,” 5.

  22 Washington to a Board of General Officers, June 2, 1778, in The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, 15:296.

  23 Ibid.

  24 General Orders, June 3, 1778, ibid., 15:305.

  25 “The Hammer of Valley Forge,” Boy’s Life Magazine, March 1950, 52.

  26 Washington likewise ordered that Thomas Lewis Woodward be tried by a commission, but he was freed since land records show him purchasing land from his brother in 1782. Washington to Major General Israel Putnam, February 20, 1777, in The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, 8:389.

  Chapter 30: License to Plunder

  1 Joseph Eggleston, Jr., to Joseph Eggleston, September 2, 1777, in The Spirit of Seventy-Six, 791. The modern-day prices are calculated using Professor Samuel H. Williamson’s MeasuringWorth Consumer Price Index metrics.

  2 George Eskridge is the ancestor of William Eskridge, Jr., the John A. Garver Professor of Jurisprudence at Yale Law School. Professor Eskridge was integral in formulating the idea for this book and making it a reality. I am tremendously grateful for his guidance and support.

  3 Chernow, Washington: A Life, 6.

  4 Ibid., 97.

  5 Ibid., 158.

  6 Washington Irving, Life of George Washington, 558, as qtd. in Chernow, Washington: A Life, 55.

  7 Paula S. Felder, Fielding Lewis and the Washington Family, 295, as qtd. in Chernow, Washington: A Life, 423.

  8 Washington to John Augustine Washington, January 16, 1783, in The Writings of George Washington, 26:44.

  9 Chernow, Washington: A Life, 432.

  10 Ibid., 396–97.

  11 The Spirit of Seventy-Six, 793.

  12 Rivington’s Royal Gazette, May 12, 1781, in The Spirit of Seventy-Six, 795.

  13 W. Stewart Wallace, The United Empire Loyalists: A Chronicle of the Great Migration (1914), 10.

  14 Ibid.

  15 James H. Stark, The Loyalists of Massachusetts (1907), 54. Modern equivalent comes from the MeasuringWorth Project’s retail price index. Estimates vary widely.

  16 Ibid.

  17 Stark, The Loyalists of Massachusetts, 54.

  18 Wallace, The United Empire Loyalists, 10.

  19 Journals of the Continental Congress, November 27, 1777, 9:971.

  20 Ibid.

  21 Washington to Henry Laurens, June 2, 1778, in The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, 15:303.

  22 Glenn A. Phelps, “The Republican General,” in George Washington Reconsidered, ed. Don Higginbotham (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2001), 185.

  23 Washington to William Duer, January 14, 1777, in The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, 8:63.

  24 Washington to Matthew Irwin, February 22, 1777, in ibid, 8:412.

  25 Friedrich Kapp, The Life of John Kalb, Major-General in the Revolutionary Army (1884), 139.

  26 Washington to Henry Laurens, November 11, 1777, in The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, 12:208–10.

  27 Approximately $28 in modern U.S. dollars, according to MeasuringWorth.

  28 Washington to Henry Laurens, December 23, 1777, in The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, 12:683; The Spirit of Seventy-Six, 647.

  29 Instructions to Colonel Benedict Arnold, September 14, 1775, in The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, 1:458.

  30 General Orders, January 21, 1777, in ibid., 8:119.

  31 General Orders, September 6, 1776, in ibid., 6:229.

  32 Instructions to Colonel Benedict Arnold, September 14, 1775.

  33 Washington to Henry Laurens, November 11, 1777.

  34 General Orders, September 6, 1776. This paragraph is adapted from Logan Beirne, “George vs. George vs. George: Commander-in-Chief Power,” Yale Law and Policy Review 26 (2007): 303.

  35 General Orders, March 21, 1776, in The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, 3:501.

  36 Washington to Jonathan Sturges, May 16, 1776, in ibid., 4:321.

  37 Washington to John Hancock, September 25, 1776, in ibid., 6:399.

  38 Ibid.

  39 Ibid.

  40 Ibid.

  41 Chernow, Washington: A Life, 287.

  42 Bruce Chadwick, The First American Army: The Untold Story of George Washington and the Men Behind America’s First Fight for Freedom
(Naperville, Ill.: Sourcebooks, 2005), 249.

  43 Ibid.; Chernow, Washington: A Life, 287.

  44 General Orders, October 23, 1778, in The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, 17:539.

  45 Ibid.

  46 Journals of the Continental Congress, September 17, 1777, 8:751.

  47 Washington to the Board of War, January 2–3, 1778, in The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, 13:112.

  48 Washington to Henry Laurens, December 14[–15], 1777, in ibid., 12:606.

  49 Thomas Gordon, A Gazetteer of the State of New Jersey (1834), 100.

  50 Washington to Nathanael Greene, February 2, 1781, in The Writings of George Washington, 21:171–73.

  51 Joseph Reidy, “Washington Headquarters,” Morristown National Historical Park (Morristown, N.J., 2008), 6.

  52 John T. Cunningham, “Morristown: Worse Than Valley Forge,” Washington Association of New Jersey (1979).

  53 Instructions to Officers to Collect Provisions, January 8, 1780, in The Writings of George Washington, 17:360.

  54 Ibid., 362.

  55 Rather than make property seizure a purely military action, Washington was careful to involve the county magistrates, thus meeting the second criterion of his checklist. He reasoned that this would democratize the process and enable him to work with the local authorities to proceed in a manner that was “least inconvenient to the Inhabitants.” Ibid. He could add a layer of protection for the citizenry and also diminish the perception that the military was undemocratically suspending their rights. While Washington was sensitive to civilian concerns, he did not leave the matter of requisitions completely to civilian discretion. He already had congressional approval, after all. He added to his order, “but in case the requisition should not be complied with, we must then raise the supplies ourselves in the best manner we can. This I have signified to the Magistrates.” Ibid. In 1780, some of those local magistrates were indeed pushing back against the congressionally sanctioned impressment. Washington responded by commanding his men, “In case of [the magistrates’] refusal you will begin to impress till you make up the quantity required.” Ibid.