GENERAL WASHINGTON BETRAYED BY HIS OWN OFFICERS

HUMILIATED BY INGRATES

December 4, 1783

New York City

General George Washington was shot in the back.

The shots came from those who should have been his most trusted friends: his own officers.

The general, who is about to retire from the Continental Army, showed up to a farewell dinner, to be honored by those he led through the dark days of the War for Independence. It was going to be a send-off of a beloved leader, planned by his officers.

But when he arrived, he found that most of the officers themselves were absent.

George tried to brush the incident away, telling reporters, “It was a delightful evening with old comrades in arms.” But those close to the general say he confided to them that he felt betrayed and humiliated. He is, understandably, privately seething at the disgraceful treatment.

After eight years as Commander in Chief, General Washington has proven himself as a soldier, a leader, and a strategist. The one thing he hasn’t learned, is how to be a politician. As if it wasn’t enough fighting the British Army, he was expected to mediate the interests of his officers and men on one side, and the cowardly lackluster congress on the other.

The soldiers expected to be paid for their service. The congress failed to compensate them as they deserved, offering only excuses and empty promises. The general was caught in the middle. And he was not up to the job. He did what he could to persuade the congress to pay his men, but he wasn’t as adept as negotiating the political waters as he was at crossing the Delaware.

His officers, short-sighted and peevish, blamed him. And lost the chance to honor the man who, to future generations, will be known as General Washington, the father of the Revolution.

We wish him all the best on his well-deserved retirement. Lucky for him, he won’t have to deal with politics any more.

That’s a good thing, because he’s just not cut out for it.

But seriously…

September 1, 2021

George Washington was actually a wily politician. The men who unanimously chose him to be our first president knew this about him. Yes, he was a great general. Yes, he had shown courage and fortitude and character at the head of the army during the war. But he also had displayed, in his dealings with the congress and other Patriot leaders, the qualities of a politician: subtlety, resourcefulness, ruthlessness, and patience.

It was that patience that his officers didn’t appreciate. They just wanted to be paid. He saw the big picture. And he was- usually- able to mediate between two strongly opposed camps in the political arena.

The dispute he endeavored to mediate in 1783 had a bitter history.

Mutiny

On January 1st, 1781, a group of Pennsylvania Continentals at Morristown mutinied, killing two captains who tried to stop them, and began a march to Philadelphia to collect their back pay. General Anthony Wayne stopped them. Washington executed four of them.

In 1783 the congress had to flee mutinous unpaid soldiers; they took refuge at Annapolis, Trenton, and New York.

In that same year there was another outbreak of mutiny- by a gaggle of officers- which amounted to a planned coup. Again the beef was failure to get paid. This plan, known as the Newburgh Conspiracy, was stopped not by force but by persuasion- and maybe a little craftiness- when Washington, alerted to the scheme, addressed the would-be traitors. He prepared a written speech to deliver to them, but couldn’t read it. He then pulled out his reading glasses, probably fumbled with them for effect, and said,

“Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for, I have grown not only gray, but almost blind in the service of my country.”

War-hardened men shed tears; the plan was abandoned on the spot.

That was an example of Washington’s powers of political persuasion.

General and Politician

The sentiment was sincere; the grayed hairs and failing eyes were real; he meant everything he said; but he knew how to appeal to his “constituency”.

His officers knew he believed they should be paid. He went so far as to propose half-pay pensions for life for all officers. He understood that patriotism was a good motivation for a short-term fight, but to keep men in arms over the course of a protracted war, you had to pay them. He pushed lawmakers to do they duty and pay his men and officers. But the money wasn’t there, and at the end of the war he endorsed a plan to release the troops without pay, assured that they would eventually be taken care of. That wasn’t enough for the officers, who failed to see that Washington had done what he could. So they stood him up at his farewell dinner.

A Loyal Friend

The dinner took place at Fraunces Tavern, which was a popular place in New York City for loyalists during the revolution. It was there that the Sons of Liberty had met to plan the New York Tea Party. Its proprietor, Samuel Fraunces, had served the cause, and Washington appreciated him for it.

On August 18, 1783, General Washington wrote Samuel a letter in which he praised him as a patriot:

“you have invariably through the most trying Times, maintained a constant friendship and Attention to the Cause of our Country and its Independence and Freedom.”

George Washington never forgot Samuel Fraunces. He hired him as steward of his presidential household.

Loyalty was important to George Washington. That served him well as a general and as a politician.

Sources

The Strategy of Victory, How General George Washington Won the American Revolution, Thomas Fleming

The Return of George Washington, Edward J. Larson

Letter from George Washington to Samuel Fraunces:

https://www.loc.gov/resource/mgw3c.005/?sp=53&st=text