American Crisis
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Congress dispatched its veteran secretary, Charles Thomson, to deliver the news to the president elect.37 Arriving at Mount Vernon on April 14, he found Washington already apprised of his election and prepared to leave for New York City. (Congress had moved there from Annapolis in January 1785.)38
Two days later Washington bid farewell to his family and his beloved Mount Vernon, climbed into the carriage, and with Thomson and Humphreys accompanying him, he began his journey to New York City, confiding to his diary that he did so understanding that he was leaving behind his “private life and domestic felicity” but was buttressed with “a due sense of this last and greatest token of affection and confidence which [his] country could confer upon [him].”39 Retirement would have to wait.
Plate Section
George Washington
Lieutenant Colonel David Humphreys
Jonathan Trumbull
Benjamin Franklin
Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris
Gouverneur Morris
General Sir Henry Clinton
William Franklin
Sir Guy Carleton
Chief Justice William Smith
Major General Henry Knox
Secretary at War Benjamin Lincoln
General Horatio Gates
Major General William Heath
Major General Alexander McDougall
Frederick, Lord North
King George III
Lord George Germain
Independence Hall, Philadelphia
George Washington’s camp at Newburgh, Hasbrouck House
The opening page of George Washington’s address to his officers, March 15, 1783
Acknowledgments
For anyone interested in George Washington, the gravitational pull of Mount Vernon is irresistible. The museum, education center, grounds, and mansion are extraordinary, and so too is the staff. I am deeply grateful to Gay Hart Gaines, whose generous support of a fellowship in her name allowed me to visit and lecture at Mount Vernon. While I was there James Rees, Ann Bay, Nancy Hayward, Debbie Baker, and Joan Stahl were most helpful. Indeed, without their encouragement I might never have pursued this project.
As usual, the librarians at Snell Library, Northeastern University were my partners in research. I am especially grateful to Yves Hyacinthe, who never failed to find the book I needed. Peter Drummey at the Massachusetts Historical Society was, as is his wont, always helpful, as was the society’s curator, Anne Bentley. Mary Warnement at the Boston Athenaeum (home to George Washington’s library) answered questions about Washington’s reading habits. Elizabeth Frengel at the library of the Society of the Cincinnati was of great help in identifying Continental army officers. Ben Huggins at the Papers of George Washington responded to an important question about the Newburgh Address. Stefan Bielinski, community historian at the New York State Museum, advised me on New York local history, while Susan Leath provided information about the town of Bethlehem, New York. Mike McGurty at the New Windsor Cantonment and Kathleen Mitchell at nearby Hasbrouck House were kind enough to guide me through the cantonment and Washington’s headquarters. Suzanne Prabucki at Fraunces Tavern responded to several requests for information, as did Michelle Cox at Christ Church, Alexandria, Virginia, Colonel Jim Johnson, Hudson River Valley Institute, and William Betts, biographer of John Armstrong Sr. Kellie Laughman, my undergraduate research assistant, tracked down a number of newspaper references, and my friend Gary Boyd Roberts answered genealogical questions.
Among other institutions to which I am indebted, I include: the Boston Public Library; the American Antiquarian Society; Clements Library, University of Michigan; Library and Archives Canada; Library of Congress, Manuscript Division; New York Historical Society; New York Public Library; Clerk’s Office, County of Orange, New York; Rhode Island Historical Society; British National Archives; and the Falmouth Library (Dorset, United Kingdom).
To my editor, George Gibson, I offer my heartiest thanks. His wisdom and patience never wanes. I must also recognize the splendid work of my copy editor, Vicki Haire. I am also in debt to my friend Martin Wain of Ottawa, Canada, whose hospitality allowed me to spend several days at the Library Archives Canada. My colleagues in the History Department at Northeastern, particularly my friend Ray Robinson, as well as my friends elsewhere on campus, were unwaveringly encouraging. Chief among my campus advisers was Linda Smith Rhoads, editor of the New England Quarterly. To this campus list I must add my students, whose interest and enthusiasm for history convince me every day that I have the best job in the world.
No scholar works alone. We rely on the work of others and wisely seek their advice. In this regard I was fortunate to have had the counsel of three eminent scholars: Edward Lengel, editor in chief of the Papers of George Washington, University of Virginia; Richard Kohn, professor of history and peace, war, and defense, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; and John E. Ferling, professor emeritus, University of West Georgia. I am also grateful to my friends Richard Miller and David McCullough, whose examples of scholarship and good writing should encourage us all.
Throughout my career my family has always been present to provide support. To my wife, Marilyn, and children, Alison and Nathaniel, I say once again, but never too often, thanks.
Notes
Abbreviations for frequently cited people, titles, and collections
BLP
Benjamin Lincoln Papers
BPL
Boston Public Library
CPNAC
Papers of Sir Guy Carleton
DAR
Documents of the American Revolution
DCB
Dictionary of Canadian Biography
FW
The Writings of George Washington
GW
George Washington
GWCS
The Papers of George Washington, Confederation Series
GWLC
George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress
HGP
Horatio Gates Papers
JCC
Journals of the Continental Congress
KP
Henry Knox Papers
LD
Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789
LMCC
Letters of the Members of the Continental Congress
MHS
Massachusetts Historical Society
NYPL
New York Public Library
PAH
The Papers of Alexander Hamilton
PJJ
The Papers of John Jay
PNG
The Papers of Nathanael Greene
PP
Pickering Family Papers
PPGC
Public Papers of George Clinton
PRM
The Papers of Robert Morris
RDC
The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States
SPCL
Shelburne Papers, Clements Library
Introduction
1 GW to Governor Thomas Nelson, October 27, 1781, FW, 23:271.
2 Thomas Jefferson to GW, April 16, 1784, GWCS 1:289.
Chapter One
1 Christopher Ward, The War of the Revolution (New York: Macmillan, 1952), 2:655–64.
2 Ibid., 2:737–38.
3 Sydney Fisher, The Struggle for American Independence (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1908), 2:337–38.
4 Richard M. Ketchum, Victory at Yorktown (New York: Henry Holt, 2004), pp. 135–159.
5 Washington was at his headquarters along the Hudson north of New York City while Rochambeau was in Rhode Island.
6 Military Journal of Major of Ebenezer Denny, October 18, 1781 (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1859), p. 44.
7 Ketchum, Yorktown, p. 239.
8 Edward M. Riley, ed., “St. George Tucker’s Journal of the Siege of Yorktown, 1781,” William and Mary Quarterly, third series, 5 (July 1948), pp. 390–91.
9 GW to Cornwallis, in ibid., p. 391.
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10 Edward M. Riley, “Yorktown During the Revolution, Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 57, no. 3 (July 1949), p. 283.
11 “Articles of Capitulation,” the Avalon Project Web site, accessed March 12, 2008. http://Avalon.law.yale.edu
/18th_century/art_of_cap_1781.asp.
12 Ibid., article 8.
13 Dr. James Thacher, Military Journal, During the American Revolutionary War, from 1775 to 1783 (Hartford: Silas Andrus and Son, 1854), pp. 288–89.
14 Ibid., p. 290.
15 Washington also likely motioned to Lincoln since he had been the general who had surrendered Charleston to the British in 1780.
16 Thacher, Journal, p. 291.
17 Donald Jackson, ed., and Dorothy Twohig, assoc. ed., The Diaries of George Washington, 6 vols. (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1978), 3:433–35; GW to de Grasse, October 28, 1781 (two letters) FW, 23:284–86; de Grasse to Lafayette, Ville de Paris, October 24, 1781. Stanley J. Idzerda, ed., Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1981), 4:427–28.
18 Ketchum, Yorktown, p. 284.
19 Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton, A History of the Campaigns of 1780 and 1781 in the Southern Provinces of North America (London: T. Cadell, 1787), p. 427.
20 GW to President of Congress, October 19, 1781, FW, 23:243; Washington to John Sullivan, quoted in Memoir of Lieut Col. Tench Tilghman (Albany: J. Munsell, 1876), p. 35.
21 JCC 21:1071.
22 GW, Diary, 3:437n.
23 GW to de Grasse, October 25, 1781, FW, 23:267–68.
24 General Orders, in ibid., 23:320–23. It is not certain that all twelve men were hanged. Last-minute reprieves were not uncommon, but the action was often unrecorded. James C. Neagles, Summer Soldiers: A Survey and Index of Revolutionary War Courts Martial (Salt Lake City: Ancestry, 1986), pp. 32–40.
25 GW to Governor Thomas Nelson, October 27, 1781, FW, 23:271.
26 John Parke Custis to Martha Washington, October 12, 1781, in Joseph E. Fields, comp., “Worthy Partner”: The Papers of Martha Washington (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994), p. 188n; Washington, Diary, 3:437; Patricia Brady, Martha Washington: An American Life (New York: Viking, 2005), p. 139.
27 Elizabeth Parke, 1776–1832, Martha Parke, 1777–1854, Eleanor Parke, 1779–1852, and George Washington Parke, 1781–1857.
28 Bassett had married Martha’s sister Anna Maria.
29 GW to President of Congress, November 6, 1781, FW, 23:338.
30 Mary Washington to Washington, March 13, 1782, quoted in Douglas Southall Freeman, George Washington: A Biography (New York Scribner’s Sons, 1952), 5:409; James Thomas Flexner, George Washington and the New Nation (Boston: Little, Brown, 1969), 2:471–72. Benson Lossing, Mary and Martha The Mother and Wife of George Washington (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1886), pp. 62–63, gives an alternative account with a long description of the emotional reunion between Washington and his mother. This seems unlikely.
31 GW to Bartholemew Dandridge, November 19, 1781, FW, 23:353; Nelly remarried in 1783, to David Stuart. Her two youngest children, Eleanor (Nelly) and George Washington Parke (Wash), stayed at Mount Vernon.
32 Pennsylvania Journal, November 28, 1781.
33 Although Spain fought against Great Britain as an ally of France, it never officially allied with the United States. Richard B. Morris, The Peacemakers: The Great Powers and American Independence (New York: Harper and Row, 1965), pp. 13–16.
34 The house was large enough that the Washingtons occupied the front portion while Francisco Rendon, the Spanish agent in Philadelphia, lived in the rear. PRM, November 28, 1781, 3:296.
35 John Hill Morgan and Mantle Fielding, The Life Portraits of Washington and Their Replicas (Philadelphia: printed for the Subscribers, 1931), pp. 10–52. Peale painted at least sixty-seven images of Washington during the general’s lifetime. Charles C. Sellers, Charles Willson Peale (New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1969), pp. 189–92; Peale also made jewelry for Martha Washington. Charles Willson Peale to Martha Washington, January 16, 1781, in Fields, “Worthy Partner,” p. 185.
36 Pennsylvania Packet, December 4, 1781.
Chapter Two
1 William S. Baker, Itinerary of General Washington from June 15, 1775, to December 23, 1783 (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1892), p. 147. Washington did pass through Philadelphia in early September 1781 on his way to Yorktown, but he did not attend a formal session of Congress. Ibid., pp. 236–37. memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwjc.html
2 JCC 1:14. The First Continental Congress convened in the newly built Carpenters Hall. The members chose this site over the Pennsylvania statehouse (better known later as Independence Hall) in order to distance themselves from the Pennsylvania Assembly, which was a moderate body. Edmund C. Burnett, The Continental Congress (New York: W.W. Norton, 1941), pp. 30, 33.
3 Burnett, Continental Congress, p. 30
4 Ibid.
5 JCC, 2:91.
6 The president of the Continental Congress was elected by the body. He served almost exclusively as a presiding officer and had virtually no executive responsibility.
7 JCC, 21:1143.
8 William M. Fowler, William Ellery: A Rhode Island Politico and Lord of Admiralty (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow, 1972), p. 40.
9 Jack N. Rakove, The Beginnings of National Politics: An Interpretative History of the Continental Congress. (New York; Alfred A. Knopf, 1979), pp. 192–239; H. James Henderson, Party Politics in the Continental Congress (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1987), pp. 246–80; Calvin Jillson and Rick K. Wilson, Congressional Dynamics: Structure, Coordination, and Choice in the First American Congress, 1774–1789 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994), pp. 91–131.
10 Silas Deane, “To the Free and Virtuous Citizens of America,” Pennsylvania Packet, December 5, 1778.
11 Adams to William Tudor, February 4, 1817, in The Works of John Adams, ed. Charles Francis Adams (Boston: Little, Brown, 1856), 10:241–42.
12 Rakove, The Beginnings of National Politics, pp. 275–84.
13 On Saturday November 3, 1781, the Second Continental Congress resolved “that the several matters now before Congress be referred over and recommended to the attention of the United Sates in Congress Assembled to meet at this place on Monday next” (JCC, 21:1099). When the members of Congress assembled on Monday, they elected John Hanson of Maryland as their first president. (ibid., 21:1100).
14 Burnett, Continental Congress, pp. 489–92.
15 JCC, 21:1144.
16 The Hudson River was often referred to as the North River.
17 GW to Frederick A. Muhlenberg, November 29, 1781, FW, 23:363–64; Baker, Itinerary, pp. 250–58.
18 Unfortunately, Washington apparently did not keep diaries during this period. Donald Jackson, ed., and Dorothy Twohig, assoc. ed., The Diaries of George Washington (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1976) 1:xli. His activities can be tracked in FW, vols. 23–24, as well as in Philadelphia newspapers.
19 PRM, December 3, 1781, 3:317; Edward Lawler Jr., “The President’s House in Philadelphia,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (January 2002), pp. 5–6.
20 Quoted in Ellis P. Oberholtzer, Robert Morris (reprint, New York: Burt Franklin, 1968), pp. 20–21.
21 Quoted in Richard Brookhiser, Gentleman Revolutionary: Gouverneur Morris, the Rake Who Wrote the Constitution (New York; Free Press, 2003), p. 11. He actually injured his leg in a carriage accident (ibid., p. 10).
22 Max Mintz, “Gouverneur Morris: The Emergence of a Nationalist” (Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1957), p. 178.
23 Gouverneur Morris to Greene, December 24, 1781, PRM, 3:439–40.
24 Douglas Southall Freeman, George Washington: A Biography (New York: Charles Scribners’ Sons, 1952), 5:385 opposite illustration of Lincoln.