His Excellency: George Washington (50 page)

22. Washington to d’Estaing, 4 October 1779 and 7 October 1779,
WW
16:408–14, 428–29. See also Washington to Nathanael Greene, 14 July 1780,
WW
19:169.

23. For the deployment of the army and the fixation on New York, see the correspondence in
WW
13:178–80, 346–47;
WW
19:104–5, 174–76, 235, 391–94, 403–4, 481–83;
WW
20:76–81.

24. Washington to Henry Laurens, 14 November 1778,
WW
13:254–57. For his strenuous opposition to a Canadian campaign, see Washington to the President of Congress, 11 November 1778, ibid., 223–44.

25. Washington to John Sullivan, 31 May 1779,
WW
15:189–93. The extensive planning for the western campaign can be followed in
WW
13:501–2;
WW
14:199–201, 278–81, 314–18. The success of the campaign is assessed in
WW
16:242, 293, 347–48.

26. Washington to the President of Congress, 15 March 1779,
WW
14:243–44. For Washington’s effort to comprehend the British strategy in 1778, see the correspondence in
WW
13:35–37, 85–87, 463;
WW
16:240–41.

27. Washington to Benjamin Harrison, 5–7 May 1779,
WW
15:5–11; Washington to Joseph Reed, 28 May 1780,
WW
18:434–35; Washington to William Livingston, 4 May 1779,
WW
14:489–92. The authoritative work on the creation of the British war machine over the course of the eighteenth century is Brewer,
Sinews of Power.
The final quotation is from Washington to James Duane, 1 October 1780,
WW
20:117.

28. Washington to Benjamin Harrison, 18–30 December 1778,
WW
13:466–68; Washington to Joseph Reed, 12 December 1778, ibid., 382–85; Washington to Gouverneur Morris, 4 October 1778, ibid., 21–22, Washington to William Fitzhugh, 10 April 1779,
WW
14:363–65. This litany continues in
WW
13:79–81, 334–37;
WW
14:26–32, 246, 298–302;
WW
15:23–26, 57–62, 293;
WW
16:15–19, 51–53;
WW
17:72–73.

29. Washington to Joseph Jones, 31 May 1780,
WW
18:453; Washington to Fielding Lewis, 6 July 1780,
WW
19:131. See also, along the same theme,
WW
17:425–28;
WW
18:207–11;
WW
21:13–16, 318–21.

30. Circular to the States, 27 August 1780,
WW
19:450–51; Washington to George Mason, 22 October 1780,
WW
20:242; Washington to the President of Congress, 20 June 1780,
WW
19:35.

31. Washington to James Bowdoin, 14 June 1780,
WW
19:9; Washington to the President of Congress, 15 September 1780,
WW
20:49–50; Washington to Nathanael Greene, 13 December 1780,
WW
20:469–71. For more on his reaction to the fall of Charleston, see also
WW
18:463–506.

32. Washington to Nathanael Greene, 25 September 1780,
WW
20:84–85. See also General Orders, 26 September 1780, ibid., 95, and Charles Royster, “ ‘The Nature of Treason’: Revolutionary Virtue and American Reactions to Benedict Arnold,”
WMQ
36 (1979), 163–93. For André’s trial and execution, see Washington to Board of General Officers, 29 September 1780,
WW
20:101; General Orders, 1 October 1780, ibid., 109–10; Washington to the President of Congress, 17 October 1780, ibid., 130–31.

33. Washington to Anthony Wayne, 3–4 January 1781,
WW
22:55–58; Circular to the States, 5 January 1781, ibid., 51–53; Washington to the Commissioners for Redressing the Grievances of the New Jersey Line, 27 January 1781, ibid., 147–48; General Orders, 30 January 1781, ibid., 158–60. See also correspondence on the mutinies in
WW
21:71, 123–24, 128, 132, 135. See also James Kirby Martin, “ ‘A Most Undisciplined, Profligate Crew’: Protest and Defiance in the Continental Ranks, 1776–1783,” in Hoffman and Albert,
Arms and Independence,
119–40.

34. Washington to John Laurens, 9 April 1781,
WW
21:438–40.

35. The quotation is from Piers Mackesy,
The War for America, 1775–1783
(Cambridge, MA, 1964), 434.

36. Conference with Count Rochambeau, 23 May 1781,
WW
22:105–7; Circular to the States, 24 May 1781, ibid., 9–11. For the naval dilemma, see Jonathan R. Dull,
The French Navy and American Independence: A Study of Arms and Diplomacy, 1774–1787
(Princeton, 1975).

37. Theodore Thayer,
Nathanael Greene: Strategist of the Revolution
(New York, 1960), and John S. Pancake,
This Destructive War: The British Campaign in the Carolinas, 1780–1782
(Tuscaloosa, 1985), are the standard works. On Guilford Court House, see Washington to Rochambeau, 3 April 1781,
WW
21:402–3.

38. For Washington’s response to the British successes in Virginia, see Washington to Rochambeau, 7 June 1781,
WW
22:171.

39. Washington confided to Lafayette that his greatest fear was an inconclusive campaign in 1781, leading to a negotiated settlement based on the current deployment of both armies. See Washington to Lafayette, 30 July 1781,
WW
22:431–32.

40. Washington to Joseph Jones, 7 June 1781,
WW
22:178–79; Washington to Thomas Jefferson, 8 June 1781, ibid., 181–82. Memorandum, 1 May 1781, ibid., 23; Henry Clinton to George Germain, 9 June 1781, in ibid., 132, where Clinton claims to have learned “most perfect knowledge of the designs of the Enemy.” For his later claim about a southern campaign, see Washington to Noah Webster, 31 July 1788,
PWCF
6:413–15. See also
Diaries
3:375. Washington resumed making entries in his diary in the spring of 1781 after several years of neglect.

41. See the editorial note in
WW
22:208 for Rochambeau’s letter to de Grasse, urging the French admiral to sail for the Chesapeake rather than New York;
Diaries
3:403; Washington to Robert Morris, 2 August 1781,
WW
22:450–51. See also Washington to Lafayette, 30 July 1781, ibid., 432–33.

42. Washington to de Grasse, 17 August 1781,
WW
23:7–10; Washington to Lafayette, 2 September 1781, ibid., 75. See also Washington to William Greene, 22–24 August 1781, ibid., 46.

43. Washington to Robert Howe, 24 September 1781, ibid., 132. See also Washington to de Grasse, 6 September 1781, ibid., 92–93.

44. General Orders, 5 October 1781, ibid., 179–85; Washington to President of Congress, 12 October 1781, ibid., 212–13. See also Lee Kennett,
The French Forces in America, 1780–83
(Westport, 1977), 48–141.

45. Martin,
Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier,
198–99.

46. Washington to Cornwallis, 18 October 1781,
WW
23:237–38; Washington to President of Congress, ibid., 241–44;
Diaries
3:429–30; Washington to de Grasse, 20 October 1781, ibid., 248–50.

47. 
Diaries
3:432–33, which contains editorial notes on the surrender ceremony; Martin,
Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier,
206–8, which is especially good on the released slaves; Washington to David Ross, 24 October 1781,
WW
23:262, on the policy toward the slaves; for Jackie’s illness and death, see
Diaries
3:437 and Washington to President of Congress, 6 November 1781,
WW
23:338.

48. Washington to James McHenry, 12 September 1782,
WW
25:151; Washington to Jonathan Trumbull, 28 November 1781,
WW
23:359–60; Circular to the States, 19 December 1781, ibid., 397–99.

49. Washington to Thomas Paine, 18 September 1782,
WW
25:176–77; Washington to Nathanael Greene, 6 August 1782,
WW
24:471. For Washington’s insistence on remaining prepared to renew the war, see the correspondence in
WW
24:63, 121–25, 243;
WW
25:265.

50. Washington addressed the persistent rumors about his Cromwellian intentions in Washington to William Gordon, 2 August 1779 and 23 October 1782,
WW
16:39; 25:287. See also the editorial note, reproducing John Sullivan’s report on a sermon in Boston warning of Washington’s dictatorial power, in
WW
17:266–67.

51. Washington to Alexander Hamilton, 2 May 1780,
WW
18:320, asking Hamilton to respond to charges about his provocative remarks.

52. Washington to Lewis Nicola, 22 May 1782,
WW
24:272–73, which also reproduces sections of Nicola’s letter to Washington. For the remark by George III, see Garry Wills,
Cincinnatus: George Washington and the Enlightenment
(Garden City, 1984), 13.

53. Washington to Benjamin Harrison, 4 March 1783,
WW
26:184–85.

54. Washington to James Bowdoin, 26 April 1780,
WW
18:298, on executive power; Washington to Arthur Lee, 29 March 1783,
WW
26:265–66; Washington to Alexander Hamilton, 31 March 1783, ibid., 276–77. And these are but a few of the multiple letters on this theme.

55. Washington to John Armstrong, 10 January 1783,
WW
26:26–27; Washington to Alexander Hamilton, 4 March 1783, ibid., 185–88.

56. The authoritative work on the Newburgh Conspiracy is Richard H. Kohn,
Eagle and Sword: The Beginnings of the Military Establishment in America
(New York, 1975), 17–39. See also the scholarly article by Kohn, “The Inside History of the Newburgh Conspiracy: America and the Coup d’Etat,”
WMQ
27 (1970), 187–220. Washington himself believed that the conspiracy originated in the Congress and apprised Hamilton, who was probably implicated, that “there is something very mysterious in this business.” See Washington to Alexander Hamilton, 12 March 1783,
WW
26:217.

57. To the Officers of the Army, 15 March 1783,
WW
26:224.

58. The most recent and best assessment of Washington’s understanding of republicanism, which was narrow but deep, is Glenn A. Phelps, “The Republican General,”
GWR
165–97.

59. To the Officers of the Army, 15 March 1783,
WW
26:222–23. See Washington to David Rittenhouse, 16 February 1783, ibid., 136, thanking him for the glasses, and ibid., 76, for a description of the New Building. There is some disagreement among the witnesses about the timing of Washington’s gesture with the spectacles. The version here, which places it at the start of the speech, makes most sense to me.

60. Circular to the States, 8 June 1783,
WW
26:483–96.

61. Washington to Lafayette, 12 October 1783,
WW
27:185–90.

62. Circular to the States, 8 June 1783,
WW
26:484–85; the “standing miracle” remark comes from Farewell Orders to the Armies of the United States, 2 November 1783,
WW
27:223.

63. Farewell Orders to the Armies of the United States, 2 November 1783, ibid., 224–27. The army was officially disbanded on 15 November 1783.

64. Address to Congress on Resigning His Commission, 23 December 1783, ibid., 284–86.

CHAPTER FIVE

 1. Francis Hopkinson,
Miscellaneous Essays,
2 vols. (Philadelphia, 1792), 1:120.

 2. Washington to Henry Knox, 20 February 1785,
PWCF
1:136–39; Washington to Tench Tilghman, 24 April 1783,
WW
26:358; Washington to Lucretia Willhemenia van Winter, 30 March 1785,
PWCF
2:473.

 3. Washington to Charles Thomson, 22 January 1784,
PWCF
1:71–72; Jean Le Mayeur to Washington, 20 January 1784, ibid., 63–64; Washington to William Fitzhugh, 15 May 1786,
PWCF
4:52; editorial note on visit to Mount Vernon by Elkanah Watson, 19–20 January 1785,
PWCF
2:457. There is some circumstantial evidence that Washington obtained the teeth for his new implants by purchasing them from his slaves. See Wiencek,
Imperfect God,
112–13.