History and the destiny of nations is often shaped by the character of
leaders. Each November, children in schools throughout the country are taught
about President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, which consecrated that
battlefield and the sacrifices of those who fought there upon the altar of
liberty. Those same children, and all Americans, should likewise be reminded of
an even more important event in the destiny of our nation where the character
of one man--George Washington--saved the American Revolution from descending
into the chaos and tyranny that characterizes most of history's revolutions.
In the spring of 1783, the infant American republic was nearly snuffed-out
in its cradle by mutinous army officers in what has been called the “Newburgh
Conspiracy.”
British General Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown in October 1781 did not
result in an immediate end to the war. To be sure, major fighting between the
British and Americans was over, but British forces remained in New York City
and the details of the anticipated peace treaty had yet to be worked out.
General George Washington was faced with the problem of maintaining the
loyalty and cohesiveness of an exhausted, underpaid army whose officers
increasingly distrusted the ability and willingness of Congress to fulfill its
financial obligations to the troops.
After Yorktown, Washington moved the army to what would be its last
encampment at New Windsor, New York. Washington and his staff established a
headquarters at a fieldstone farmhouse owned by the Hasbroucks, a wealthy Dutch
Huguenot couple, in nearby Newburgh on the banks of the Hudson River, just
north of the American fortress at West Point. Washington, his wife, and his
staff stayed there from April 1782 until August 1783, the longest time period
he stayed at any headquarters during the war.
At Newburgh on August 7, 1782, Washington instituted the awarding of a
“Badge of Military Merit” for troops who demonstrated exceptional courage in
battle. In his general orders establishing the award, Washington wrote:
The General ever desirous to cherish virtuous ambition in his soldiers, as
well as to foster and encourage every species of Military merit directs whenever any singularly meritorious action is performed, the author of it shall be permitted to wear on his
facings, over his left breast, the figure of a heart of purple cloth or silk
edged with narrow lace or binding.
After the Revolutionary War, Washington’s purple Badge of Merit was
forgotten, and it was not until 1932 that Army Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur
revived his idea in what we know today as the awarding of the Purple Heart for
soldiers wounded or killed in battle. That year, 138 World War I veterans were
awarded the Purple Heart at Temple Hill in New Windsor at the sight of the last
encampment of the Continental Army.
The principal concern of the Continental Army and its officers in late 1782
and early 1783, however, was not military badges, but back pay owed to them and
pensions promised to them by Congress. Washington began receiving letters from
confidential correspondents warning of “dangerous combinations” within the army
who planned to march on Congress if their demands were not met. Some
Congressional delegates, worried about a potential military coup d’ etat,
suggested to Washington that he use his stature to threaten Congress in order
to help the officers. Still others within the army urged Washington to assume
dictatorial or monarchical powers to force Congress to fulfill their
obligations to the troops. With the emergence of the Newburgh Conspiracy,
Washington biographer James Thomas Flexner noted, “[t]he American
Revolution…reached its moment of major political crisis.”
On March 10, 1783, the officers of the Continental Army in New Windsor
posted the so-called Newburgh Address which raised the specter, in biographer Bruce
Chadwick’s words, “of a permanent, leaderless, and quite angry military,”
refusing to disband at war’s end and potentially ready to march on
Philadelphia. Washington sensed the urgency of the threat and requested a
gathering of the officers at the Temple Hill meeting hall where they could
discuss their grievances. Washington implied that he would not attend the
meeting.
The officers assembled on benches in the hall on March 15, 1783. Flexner
calls this “probably the most important single gathering ever held in the
United States.” Washington arrived unexpectedly, walked across a small stage,
and pulled from his coat a speech he had prepared at his headquarters.
He
commended their bravery, appealed to their patriotism, promised to persuade
Congress to meet their just demands, and pleaded with them to refrain from
opening “the flood gates of civil discord” and deluging “our rising empire in
blood.” Do not take any action, he said, that “will lessen the dignity and
sully the glory you have hitherto maintained.” His words, however, appeared to
fall on deaf ears.
Then, in a dramatic moment, he reached in his coat for a reassuring letter
from a congressman that he intended to read. He then took from his pocket his
eyeglasses which only a few of his closest aides had ever seen him wear. The
officers sat silently as Washington fumbled to place the eyeglasses on his face
while holding the letter. Washington then remarked, “Gentlemen, you will permit
me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray but almost blind in
the service of my country.”
“This homely act and simple statement,” wrote Flexner, “did what all
Washington’s arguments had failed to do.” Washington’s words, writes Bruce
Chadwick, “touched the hearts of every man in the hall.” One officer who sat in
the Temple Hall that day later wrote in his journal that, “There was something
so natural, so unaffected, in his appeal that it rendered it superior to the
most studied oratory; it forced its way to the heart.” The Newburgh Conspiracy
ended at that moment. Thomas Jefferson later wrote “the moderation and virtue
of a single character probably prevented this Revolution from being closed, as
most others have been, by a subversion of that liberty it was intended to
establish.”
The New Windsor encampment is a New York State historic site. The meeting
hall where Washington quelled the potential mutiny has been reconstructed. The
site also features The National Purple Heart Hall of Honor where visitors can
browse exhibits and galleries, including the electronic Roll of Honor which has
a growing database of the names of Purple Heart recipients. The mission of the
Hall of Honor, according to Director Anita Pidala, is “the collection and
preservation of the stories from Purple Heart recipients in all branches of
service and across all generations to ensure that all recipients are
represented.” The Hall’s website is www.thepurpleheart.com.
Washington’s Headquarters is also a New York State historic site. The original
building, constructed in 1750, still stands. A nearby museum provides an
introductory film, artifacts from the time period, and a tour of the
headquarters for a nominal fee.
Both sites are a short drive from the Newburgh exit of Interstate 84. The story
they tell helps us to understand why George Washington was “the indispensable
man” of the American Revolution. When British King George III was told that
after winning independence Washington planned to retire to Mount Vernon instead
of seizing power as a dictator, he remarked, “If he does that, he will be the
greatest man in the world.”
**Francis P. Sempa is an Associate Editor of American
Diplomacy in charge of the Spoken Word section of the
journal.
An Assistant U.S. Attorney for the
Middle District of Pennsylvania since 2002, Francis was previously a Deputy
Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and an Assistant District
Attorney for Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania.
Also, he is an adjunct professor
of political science at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, where he
has taught courses on American national security, defense, and foreign policy
as well as comparative politics.