May 25 Mutiny at Morristown following winter of supply shortages and no pay for troops
1781
March 1 Articles of Confederation ratified
September 8 Battle of Eutaw Springs; British retreat to Charleston
October 19 Battle of Yorktown; Cornwallis surrenders with 7,000 men
1783
March 15 Newburgh Address
May 19 G. W. announces peace agreement, still pending ratification, to army
June 8 “Circular Address to the Governors of the Thirteen States”
September 3 Peace Treaty signed in Paris; the report reaches America in late October
November 2 G. W. bids farewell to the army
December 4 G. W. bids farewell to his officers
December 23 G. W. resigns as Commander-in-Chief before Congress at Annapolis
1785
March 28 Mount Vernon Conference on navigation of Potomac and Chesapeake
1786
September 14 Annapolis Convention; call for Constitutional Convention
October 16 G. W. appointed to Virginia delegation to Constitutional Convention
1787
January-February Shays’ Rebellion in Massachusetts
February 21 Confederation Congress approves call for Convention
May 25 Constitutional Convention opens with quorum of seven states represented; G. W. unanimously elected Convention President
1788
June 21 New Hampshire becomes ninth state to ratify Constitution, making it effective
1789
January 7 Presidential electors appointed
February 4 G. W. unanimously chosen President
April 30 G. W. inaugurated as first President
1791
December 15 Bill of Rights ratified
1792
December 5 G. W. re-elected to presidency
1793
March 4 Second Inaugural
1794
November 19 G. W. declares suppression of Whiskey Rebellion
1795
August 14 G. W. signs Jay Treaty
1796
September 19 G. W. publishes his “Farewell Address” in the American Daily Advertiser
1797
March 4 G. W. retires
1799
December 14 G. W. dies at Mount Vernon
George
Washington
A COLLECTION
During the final years of the war for American independence, no one was trusted more profoundly than George Washington. In its conduct of the war, the Continental Congress seemed little more than a government in name only, and so it was that Washington proved “in the absence of any real government,” as Woodrow Wilson phrased it, “almost the only prop of authority and law.”
This was never more poignantly evident than in the scene at Fraunces Tavern in New York City on December 4, 1783, when Washington ended his military career in a farewell meeting with his officers. After a moment of being at a loss for words, Washington raised his glass and said, “With a heart full of love and gratitude, I now take my leave of you.” Washington extended his hand to shake the hands of his officers filing past. Henry Knox stood nearest, and when the moment came to shake and pass, Washington impulsively embraced and kissed his faithful general. There, in silence, he embraced each of his officers as they filed by, and then they parted.
This dramatic signature to seven years of hard travail testifies how far Washington had conquered the hearts of his countrymen, more decisively than he had conquered the armies of the enemy. The odyssey, the development of thoughts and principles, that brought Washington to this moment had begun at least thirty years earlier; and this development would not end for nearly twenty years more. The story, told
