America Turns 250. It Wasn’t a Foregone Conclusion.

As I wrap up an Army training deployment, I’ve been going back over some required reading in military history and ethics. One moment in our country’s early days struck me to the core on our 250th birthday as a nation: George Washington’s response to the Newburgh Conspiracy in 1783. If it doesn’t ring a bell, here’s a quick account.

After suffering a slew of near-fatal defeats since declaring independence from Great Britain in 1776, our upstart nation and its exhausted Army had finally conquered the greatest military on earth. A time for celebration in Newburgh, New York, where the Continentals were encamped? Not exactly.

Instead, some of Washington’s officers, frustrated over lack of pay and mindful of the power they possessed while the British had yet to retreat from nearby New York City, were conspiring against their own fledgling government at Philadelphia. An anonymous proposal was circulated to take up arms against the Continental Congress, America’s elected civil authority, or disband entirely and let Redcoats regain their colony. There was even talk of returning the new republic to authoritarian rule, with General Washington as king.

The most powerful man in America discovered the plot and crashed a meeting of his officers at which it was to be discussed. His at once sympathetic and stinging remarks included these words:

Let me conjure you, in the name of our common Country — as you value your own sacred honor — as you respect the rights of humanity, & as you regard the Military & national character of America, to express your utmost horror & detestation of the Man who wishes, under any specious pretences, to overturn the liberties of our Country, & who wickedly attempts to open the flood Gates of Civil discord. (You can read the full address and learn more about these dramatic events of March 1783 here.)

Washington’s actions were even more eloquent than his words, which quashed the nascent rebellion in a moment. Not only did he win for all his soldiers the pay they were owed by Congress while demanding their full allegiance to democratic civilian rule, but he modeled the same and more. Indeed, later that year of 1783, once the Treaty of Paris had been signed with Great Britain and the Redcoats were headed home, Washington laid down his sword before Congress and resigned as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army.

It was a prelude to his future revolutionary refusal to accept a third term as president — a precedent that stands to this day, with the exception of Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II — and is now enshrined in law as the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

We know Washington, first and foremost, as the man who could and would lead his army across the frozen Delaware on Christmas Eve for a surprise attack after losing the devastating battle for New York; endure long and frigid winters with his men at Valley Forge and Morristown; outlast and outmaneuver the haughty British Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown. Less often do we think of Washington as the man who would not put himself above the nation he loved and served, or let military power or the ambitions of any man supersede democracy. I can think of few more important qualities for public leaders today.

Although the Newburgh Conspiracy is rarely taught in school, every American child learns that the Constitution, not some would-be king, is the supreme law of the land. To this day, Army officers are required to study our founding compact and learn part of it by heart, along with their oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic [and] bear true faith and allegiance to the same.”

On this 250th birthday of the greatest nation on earth, I pray that Washington’s words at Newburgh will rise to the fore of our collective memory and practice: “value your own sacred honor … respect the rights of humanity … regard [and guard] the Military & national character of America.”

Here’s to the next few and centuries of American striving.

New Hampshire Bulletin is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Hampshire Bulletin maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Dana Wormald for questions: [email protected].

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Photo Credit: Angela Graves, who grew up in Merrimack, has received preliminary support from the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services for a pilot program using mushrooms to help clean up forever chemicals at the site of the former Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics plant. (Photo by Molly Rains/New Hampshire Bulletin)