Washington's Revolution: The Making of America's First Leader (58 page)

25.
Fowler,
American Crisis
, 129–30.

26.
For the meeting with Carleton, May 6, 1783, Fitzpatrick, ed.,
Writings
, 26:402–6.

27.
The reference to Negroes in the Treaty of Peace is in Article 7. Washington wrote Theodorick Bland on Mar. 31, 1783, that he had not noticed the treaty article on blacks, and that he had not attempted to recover his own slaves who had run away to the British, ibid., 26:274.

28.
Carleton’s quotations, ibid., 26:404.

29.
Washington to Benjamin Harrison, May 6, 1783, ibid., 26:401. See also Fowler,
American Crisis, 199–201
.

30.
In a sample of Washington’s attitudes in 1783, see his letter to James Duane, Sept. 7, 1783, Fitzpatrick, ed,
Writings
, 27:134–40; quotations 136–37, 140.

31.
For these characterizations of whites, ibid., 27:133, 136–37.

32.
Ibid., 27:137.

33.
For a short account of the expedition against the Iroquois in 1779, led by General John Sullivan, see the essay by Charles P. Whittemore on Sullivan in George Anthan Billias, ed.,
George Washington’s Generals and Opponents: Their Exploits and Leadership
(New York: De Capo Press, 1994, 2 vols.), 1:137–62. Washington’s letter of appointment of Sullivan,
PGW: Rev. War Ser.
, 19:388–89.

34.
Washington wrote to members of Congress about pay and pensions for officers. A representative example is his letter to Theodorick Bland, Apr. 4, 1783, Fitzpatrick, ed.,
Writings
, 26:285–91. This letter also contains his suggestion that Congress write an address of gratitude.

35.
For this address in full, ibid., 27:222–27; quotation 223–24.

36.
Ibid., 27:225–26, quotations this paragraph and the following one.

37.
The account by Dr. Tilton of the public dinner (Dec. 23, 1783) in Washington’s honor, ibid., 27:285n86. The ceremony at which he resigned receives fine treatment in Freeman, 5:472. There is a splendid short monograph on the entire
affair in Julian Boyd et al., eds.,
The Papers of Thomas Jefferson
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1950–, 40 VOLS. to date), 6:402–14, with the speeches by Washington and Mifflin.

38.
Quotations from Washington’s speech, ibid., 6:412; Mifflin’s, 6:413.

EPILOGUE: RETURN TO VIRGINIA

1.
Washington to Chastellux, Feb. 1, 1784,
PGW: Conf. Ser.
, 1:85; to Lafayette, Feb. 1, 1784, 1:87–88.

2.
George Washington to Charles Washington, Feb. 28, 1784, ibid., 1:163.

3.
George Washington to Bushrod Washington, Jan. 15, 1784, ibid., 1:48–49. See also note on 49.

4.
For Corbin Washington, see ibid., 1:262; his placement with Tench Tilghman took a little more effort than Washington wished to make. See his letter to Robert Morris, June 2, 1784, 1:420–21, and Robert Morris to Washington, 1:450–52. John Augustine wrote George Washington July 8, 1784, 490–91. Washington eventually placed Corbin with Tench Tilghman. See G. Washington to Tilghman, July 14, 1784, 1:503–4.

5.
Fielding Lewis Jr. wrote Washington on Feb. 22, 1784, who responded Feb. 27, 1784. See ibid., 1:145–46, 1:161–62.

6.
Fielding Lewis’s parents’ comments are in ibid., 1:62n2.

7.
Henry Knox to Washington, Jan., 3, 1784, ibid., 1:5–8, including notes. Quotations at 6.

8.
For Humphries, see his letters of Jan. 6 and May 18, 1784, ibid., 1:13–15, 397–98. Washington’s replies of Jan. 14 and Jun. 2, 1784, are on 1:40–41 and 1:416–18.

9.
Walter Stewart to Washington, Jan. 26, 1784, ibid., 1:81–82. Washington’s reply with the letter of recommendation Stewart requested, Feb. 5, 1784, 1:105–106n2. Stewart had been a colonel of the 2nd Pennsylvania Regiment in the war. In the final two years of the war, he was inspector of the Northern District and reported to Washington. Washington’s letter to Stewart includes lighthearted joking that indicates that George and Martha Washington were on good terms with the Stewarts.

10.
D’Estaing to Washington, Feb. 26, 1784, ibid., 1:158–60 and notes, quotations at 158, 159. For John Jones’s letter of May 12, 1784, 1:379; Reuben Harvey’s of May 25, 1784, 1:408–9.

11.
John Davidson to Washington, Jan. 20, 1784, ibid., 1:61–63, quotation at 62n2.

A Note on the Sources

The principal source for this book is the modern edition of the
Papers of George Washington
, edited in Charlottsville, Virginia, and published by the University of Virginia Press. The two series most useful for me were the
Colonial Series
, containing ten volumes, and the
Revolutionary War Series
, which has reached twenty-one volumes as I write. These volumes contain Washington’s correspondence, all the surviving letters written and received by him, and a great variety of other documents, including the army’s general orders, reports, circulars of various sorts, and letters by and to others that bear on Washington’s activities, and some financial passages, among others. The notes are extraordinarily full and help make the
Papers
a magnificent source.

The
Papers
are now at a midpoint of the Revolutionary War, and until they are finished scholars will have to consult John C. Fitzpatrick, ed.,
Writings of George Washington
(Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1931–1939, 39 vols.). This collection offers a selected collection of Washington’s correspondence but does not include (with some exceptions) letters to him. It is a fine work, and represents the Revolution, especially its second half, helpfully.

Washington’s diaries have also been printed in a modern edition: Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig, eds.,
The Diaries of George Washington
(Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1976–1979, 6 vols.). Washington apparently stopped keeping a diary in the war, from the beginning of 1776 to the beginning of 1781. Though he did not reveal all that he thought and did in the years of diary keeping, he did record much that is useful to the study of his life.

I have found the modern editions of the papers of the other founders helpful in the study of Washington, though I have not cited them often in this book. Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Alexander Hamilton have all been served well in the modern editions. The collections of their works are still in progress, with the exception of Hamilton’s.

SCHOLARSHIP

Books and essays on Washington and the Revolution are abundant. I cannot begin to mention them all, but I will list several that I especially admire for the insights and inspiration they provide.

BIOGRAPHIES:
Douglas Southall Freeman,
George Washington: A Biography
(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1948–1954, 6 vols.); James Thomas Flexner,
George Washington
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1965–1972, 4 vols.); John Ferling,
The First of Men: A Life of George Washington
(Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1988); Ron Chernow,
Washington: A Life
(New York: Penguin Press, 2010).

SPECIALIZED STUDIES AND ESSAYS:
Joseph J. Ellis,
His Excellency: George Washington
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004); Edward C. Lengel,
General George Washington: A Military Life
(New York: Random House, 2005); Paul Longmore,
The Invention of George Washington
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988); Don Higgenbotham,
George Washington Reconsidered
(Charlottsville: University of Virginia Press, 2001). There are many essays of great merit, especially those by Higgenbotham, Bruce Ragsdale, Dorothy Twohig, W. W. Abbot, E. S. Morgan, and Gordon Wood. E. S. Morgan, ed.,
The Meaning of Independence: John Adams, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson
(Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1976) expresses the judgments and insight of a great American historian.

ILLUSTRATION CREDITS

i1.1
Surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, Va. Oct. 19th, 1781
: Courtesy of the Library of Congress

i1.2
Detail of Continental soldier in the background of a
Portrait of George Washington
: Courtesy of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Gift of John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

i1.3
General Thomas Gage
: Courtesy of Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

i1.4
Washington Rallying the Troops at Monmouth
: Courtesy of University of California, Berkeley Art Museum. Gift of Mrs. Mark Hopkins.

i1.5
Portrait of Sir Henry Clinton
: Courtesy of William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan

i1.6
John Laurens
: Courtesy of Independence National Park

i1.7
Friedrich Wilhelm Augustus, Baron von Steuben
: Courtesy of Independence National Park

i1.8
General Nathanael Greene
: Courtesy of Independence National Park

i1.9
Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, Comte de Rochambeau
: Courtesy of Independence National Park

i1.10
George Washington Following the Battle of Princeton
: Bequest of Jane J. Boudinot, 1927. Courtesy of Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association.

i1.11
General Sir William Howe
: Courtesy of Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection, Brown University Library

i1.12
George Washington at Princeton
: Courtesy of Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Gift of Maria McKean Allen and Phebe Warren Downes through bequest of their mother, Elizabeth Wharton McKean.

A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Robert L. Middlekauff is Preston Hotchkis Professor of American History, Emeritus, at the University of California, Berkeley.

Surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, Va. Oct. 19th, 1781
by Franz Venino, after a painting by John Trumbull, lithograph (
illustration credit i1.1
)

Continental soldier in the background of a
Portrait of George Washington
(detail) by Charles Willson Peale, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1780, oil on linen ticking (
illustration credit i1.2
)