The United States’ first president established a lasting precedent for the military’s subordination to civilian authority.
This is part of 1776 All-Stars, a series about Reason‘s favorite American Founders. Read more here.
In the closing days of the American struggle for independence, soldiers of the Continental Army gathered in Newburgh, New York, pressing Congress to settle overdue pay and the pensions they had been promised. Anonymous letters circulating among the troops hinted that they could refuse to disperse, and even topple Congress if their benefits were not delivered.
Some of the generals and politicians prodding the men hoped George Washington would champion their cause and, by doing so, replace a weak Congress with a robust new federal government. Instead, Washington quashed the mutiny with a handful of words and a display of political savvy.
During a speech to the unsettled troops in which he urged them to respect Congress, the veteran commander distinctly drew from his pocket for his glasses.
“Gentlemen, allow me to don my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray but nearly blind in the service of my country,” he told the assembled soldiers. The room was moved to tears by the moment.
The so-called Newburgh conspiracy collapsed at once. American history did not begin with a military coup; instead, Washington gave the young nation a powerful impression of republican restraint and a tradition of the armed forces bowing to civilian authority.
That is no small feat to accomplish with a simple gesture of lifting one’s glasses.
Libertarians may well find much to criticize in George Washington. At the outset of the War of Independence, some proposed relying on voluntary militias to oppose the British. Washington insisted on forming a full European-style army, which in turn demanded European-style discipline, taxes, and inflation. After the war, he pushed to supplant the decentralized government created by the Articles of Confederation with a stronger central government empowered to levy taxes. As the first president under the new Constitution, Washington was hardly a proponent of small government. He supported a permanent standing army and quelled a tax revolt by force.
Even so, the most notable moments of Washington’s military and political life repeatedly show him choosing to step back from power when he could have asserted control. The Newburgh affair stands as a prime illustration.
Washington sympathized with his soldiers’ grievances. Yet he could not abide by the mutineers’ demand to “never sheath your sword…until you have obtained full and ample justice.” Instead, he pressed the troops to trust the slow, often frustrating process of representative government.
“Like all large bodies, where a variety of interests must be reconciled, Congress’s deliberations move slowly,” he told the soldiers. “Why, then, should we distrust them? And, because of that distrust, should we take actions that might dim the glory so justly earned?”
Washington continued to defer to Congress as president, even when it lagged behind in funding his favored projects—canals and a national university. He explained that delicacy of conduct prevented him from steering legislative affairs too aggressively.
And after two terms, Washington retired, despite having the option to stay in office for life and thereby set the troubling precedent of an enduring presidency.
His restraint stands out when measured against the deeds of other revolutionary leaders. It would have been easier to pursue the path of Cromwell or Napoleon.
It is equally striking given Washington’s own ambitious nature. One does not rise from modest gentry to the wealthiest, most powerful figure in a continent-spanning nation without a certain drive.
Nor was he shy about self-promotion. When the Second Continental Congress convened, Washington appeared in his militia uniform, sending a clear signal about who should steer a new continental army.
Yet Washington was willing to subordinate his own ego to safeguard the proper functioning of representative government and the natural rights it protected.
That temperament feels almost foreign today. Neither the sitting president nor the current protest movement seems prepared to sacrifice short-term partisan gain, even if doing so carries lasting consequences. The presidency has, for many, become the centerpiece of our political system rather than a modest public servant.
But more than two centuries later, the United States continues to be a nation where the military remains loyal to civilian leadership, with commanders and troops answering to presidents who come and go every four to eight years. That enduring pattern suggests the most enduring elements of Washington’s legacy are the ones that still shape the country today.
1776 All-Stars, a series about Reason‘s favorite American Founders:
- Benjamin Franklin
- Samuel Adams
- Thomas Jefferson
- George Mason
- A Farmer
- George Washington
- Patrick Henry
