Washington Resigns Commission
In December 1783 a signal event in US history occurred. It was during this month that General George Washington made his progress home to Mount Vernon, having definitively won the colony’s independence from Great Britain. On his travels from New York he made a number of historically significant appearances in places such as Fraunces Tavern in New York and stops in Princeton and Philadelphia.
The most significant of these was on December 22 & 23 in Annapolis. It was here that the Congress was meeting and held a dinner and festivities to honor General Washington. But Washington came not as a conquering hero, but as a humble citizen soldier to resign his commission. This he did stating; “I here offer my Commission, and take my leave of the enjoyments of public life.”
This was a courageous and unprecedented act. Never before had a person, at the peak of his power and glory, voluntarily surrendered all his status back to a legally constituted and democratic authority. This cemented Washington’s greatness for the ages and ensured that a tradition of civilian control of the military was established in our young nation.
In 2008, Annapolis will celebrate the 225th anniversary of this critical event in US and world history.
