Profiles in Character: George Washington Steps Down to Save the Republic - Twice

In 1756, just 24 and an officer in Virginia’s colonial militia, George Washington resolved that his life would be defined by what he called “Honor and Reputation.”  In 1796, upon leaving public life, he had accomplished that goal perhaps most significantly not by acquiring power but by giving it up.

Washington’s military experience in the French and Indian War made him a logical and unanimous choice by the Second Continental Congress in 1775 to take command of all colonial forces.  Sensing the challenge a nearly non-existent army faced against the world’s most powerful nation, he told Patrick Henry that “[F]rom the day I enter upon the command of the American armies, I date my fall and the ruin of my reputation.”  He declined a salary and would only ask for expenses after the war’s end.  Eight years later, his reputation had soared. Victory and the Treaty of Paris in September 1783 left Washington with more power than he could have imagined – and more than he wanted or felt was healthy for the nation’s future.  Like his model, the Roman general Cincinnatus who left his farm to save the republic and then returned home, he relinquished command and went back to Mount Vernon.

In June, he had sent a Circular Letter to the States promising to leave the scene, and on November 2 he penned a Farewell Address to the army. In an early December tearful ceremony, he said goodbye to his officers, and on December 23 he formally relinquished command in a brief speech to Congress. He stood while they sat, a visible acknowledgement of the subordination of military to civilian authority which has ever since been an America hallmark.   “Having now finished the work assigned to me,” he said, “I retire from the great theatre of Action.”

While these formal good-byes might seem political theater, Washington had no political ambitions.  This surprised some of his countrymen and astounded the crowned heads of Europe.  This action, wrote the American painter John Trumbull from London in 1784, is “a Conduct so novel, so unconceivable to People, who, far from giving up powers they possess, are willing to convulse the empire to acquire more.”  King George III, hearing Washington might relinquish command, said that “he will be the greatest man in the world.”

Nearing 52 and knowing his father died at 48 and his half-brother at 34, Washington sought to spend his remaining years on the farm he had left eight years before and that now badly needed his attention.  He was not however – and never would be – disinterested in the fate of the nation he helped birth. 

By 1787 it had become clear that the existing government under the Articles of Confederation was too weak to safeguard either the internal or external security of the United States.  Anxious to forge a more powerful national government, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton deftly accomplished the call for a “Federal Convention” in Philadelphia.  Washington’s presence at what we call the Constitutional Convention would signal the seriousness of the need and presiding over it might ensure its success.  Yet he didn’t want to hazard his reputation on an effort not at all likely to succeed.  In the end, he agreed when told that its failure might be blamed on his absence – with resulting damage to his reputation and honor.

The Constitution that emerged called for a president, and that role was designed with the expectation that Washington would be the first.  Reluctantly – and again persuaded that he would hazard his reputation if he did not serve, Washington filled and defined the role until 1796.  Once again he declined any salary accepting only the payment of his expenses.  He remains the only president elected unanimously by the Electoral College for both terms

Washington could have been elected a third time since the Constitutional amendment limiting a president to two terms was not ratified until 1951.  Yet again he stepped down.  If resigning military command signaled that the nation should never have a military dictator, resigning the presidency set the precedent that it should never have the equivalent of a king for life.  Thus, in his Farewell Address of September 19, 1796 he began by saying that “The period for a new election of a citizen to administer the executive government of the United States being not far distant . . .  it appears to me proper . . . that I should now apprise you of the resolution I have formed, to decline being considered.”  Another citizen would need to take on that responsibility, assuring the peaceful transfer of power also essential to the American republic.

In 1784, Thomas Jefferson remarked that “[T]he 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 intended to establish.”   That applied equally in 1796.  Washington’s achievements as military commander and president were prodigious, but stepping down twice from the pinnacle of power was arguably an even greater gift to the nation.

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Photo Credit: Washington relinquishes command of Continental Army to Congress, meeting at the Maryland State House, December 23, 1783, by John Trumbull