George Washington: Address to Congress on Resigning His Commission

Explanation and Analysis of the Document

George Washington’s resignation as commander in chief of the Continental army following the Revolutionary War was one of his most significant acts. More than the retirement of a general, it set the important precedent in U.S. political culture of civilian authority over the military at the very time the new republic was being born. Washington had been the only leader and singular symbol of unity that the disparate, newly independent states had had during the Revolution. In ongoing contact with the Continental Congress and the state governors or legislatures throughout the war, he thus served as the de facto commander in chief of the country when no national government or chief executive existed. His resignation from the army also set a precedent regarding power—how to wield it and the necessity in a republic that leaders be willing to relinquish it—that he himself would later follow when as president he declined to run for a third term.

In July 1783, Washington sent a farewell letter to state governors, imploring them to remain united. To notify Congress officially, he arrived in Annapolis, Maryland, in mid-December 1783; he acceded to Congress's request that the resignation be done in a public ceremony rather than merely in writing. The general begins his speech by noting that the recent “great events” have ended, making “the trust committed to me” no longer necessary. Washington thus begs “the indulgence of retiring from the Service of my Country.” This carefully crafted, humble language was important, making clear that the civilian government, not the general, was in charge. Just nine months earlier, certain leading army officers had complained to Congress about their continued lack of pay, among other things. Implicit in their complaint was the possibility of a military coup if congressional inaction were to continue. When Washington learned of this unrest, he headed off the potential revolt. This event came to be known as the Newburgh conspiracy.

He could resign, Washington tells Congress, because he confidently believed that the “Independence and Sovereignty” of the United States were secure. Indeed, three weeks after his resignation, the Congress of the Confederation, representing the new nation under its first constitution, the Articles of Confederation, approved the Treaty of Paris, officially ending hostilities with Great Britain. Washington continues in the self-effacing, humble tones of an eighteenth-century Virginia gentleman, recalling his own “diffidence in my abilities.” In fact, after some of his early defeats, the Congress and some generals lacked confidence in his abilities as well. Washington says that he had placed his trust in “the rectitude of our Cause, the support of the Supreme Power of the Union, and the patronage of Heaven”; since the cause of liberty always is just, and because the people of the several states had unified to oppose tyranny, God had blessed American arms. A problem with this statement, as the Congress and Washington well knew, was that the general had faced resistance when seeking funding, assistance, and troops from the states and Congress throughout the war. By not mentioning this, Washington allowed his resignation to become an even stronger statement of civilian control over the military, for his final obeisance as general is offered to essentially the same Congress with which he had had so much trouble.

Having asserted his submission to Congress, Washington next addresses his “obligations to the Army in general.” That he squelched the Newburgh conspiracy did not mean that Washington failed to understand his officers' complaints; nor did it mean that in his last official act as commander in chief of the Continental army he would fail to sing the praises of his men and ask for their just recognition and due from Congress. In particular, he compliments “the peculiar Services and distinguished merits of the Gentlemen” who have served on his staff. He recommends “as worthy of the favorable notice and patronage of Congress” those still in the army.

Washington closes his speech by “commending the Interests of our dearest Country to the protection of Almighty God.” For Washington, who as a Freemason spoke often of Providence or the Divine Architect but rarely of God and never of Jesus Christ, this was a rare but pointed choice of words. As he would state in his more famous retirement announcement, his presidential farewell address, without religion a republic is doomed to decline rapidly.

There is a legend that when King George III heard that Washington would resign his commission, the king said that if he did so, he would be the greatest man in the world. Not only in Europe but also in the United States, many expected and some even hoped that Washington would instead name himself military ruler. That he did not do so earned him the title “American Cincinnatus,” after the Roman farmer Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, who answered the call of Rome to lead its armies as dictator and then, immediately after defeating the Aequians, relinquished power and returned to his farm.

Washington's final words in his resignation speech remain famous: “Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theatre of Action.” In his view, to retain his position any longer would have been unseemly and an abuse of power. To relinquish it would be the greatest support he could offer to the new government, in which civilians were to have authority over the military. Thus did Washington take his “leave of all the employments of public life,” thinking that he was retiring to Mount Vernon forever.