WEBVTT - King George Washington I 0:00:00.640 --> 0:00:03.800 Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio 0:00:04.040 --> 0:00:08.320 and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Minky listener, discretion is advised. 0:00:12.600 --> 0:00:16.639 The first three fun facts that you learn about George 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:21.880 Washington are wrong. Before or even out of elementary school 0:00:21.880 --> 0:00:25.240 in the United States of America, we learn plenty of 0:00:25.320 --> 0:00:30.120 myths about our first president, George Washington. Take, for instance, 0:00:30.200 --> 0:00:34.560 the famous anecdote about George Washington cutting down a cherry tree. 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:37.199 If you haven't heard it or haven't heard it in 0:00:37.200 --> 0:00:40.559 a while, the basic story goes like this. At six 0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:44.519 years old, George Washington gets a brand new hatchet, and, 0:00:44.640 --> 0:00:47.600 excited to try it out, he sets about swinging it 0:00:47.760 --> 0:00:51.200 at his father's prize cherry tree in their front yard. 0:00:51.800 --> 0:00:56.200 When George's father gets home, furious about either the hatchet 0:00:56.240 --> 0:00:58.560 marks in the tree or the fact that it had 0:00:58.600 --> 0:01:02.960 been cut down altogether, Mr Washington asks his son if 0:01:03.040 --> 0:01:08.080 he was the responsible party. Ever the paradigm of moral virtue, 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:12.319 even as a kindergartener, George Washington admits what he did 0:01:12.640 --> 0:01:16.360 right away with the phrase, I cannot tell a lie 0:01:17.040 --> 0:01:20.880 if you didn't already know that story, endearing as it is, 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:25.679 simply isn't true. It first appeared in a biography written 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:29.080 by Mason Locke Weemes, who published his book Trying to 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:33.600 Cash In immediately after Washington's death. Although the cherry Tree 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:38.119 anecdote didn't actually appear until the book's fifth edition, published 0:01:38.240 --> 0:01:42.360 six years later, that story just detailed enough to be 0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:46.119 memorable and vague enough to apply as a life lesson 0:01:46.200 --> 0:01:51.080 for all children immediately caught on. In eighteen thirty six, 0:01:51.240 --> 0:01:57.160 a Presbyterian minister and professor named William Holmes McGuffey included 0:01:57.200 --> 0:02:00.360 it as a lesson on morality in a Chill Duran's 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:04.680 grammar school textbook, sort of a nineteenth century equivalent of 0:02:04.760 --> 0:02:10.240 a Highlights magazine. Goofus and Gallant. Mcguffey's textbook stayed in 0:02:10.360 --> 0:02:14.480 print for almost one hundred years. The year before the 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:18.880 textbook came out, circus ringleader and conman P. T. Barnum 0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:23.040 purchased an elderly enslaved woman named Joyce Heath and put 0:02:23.040 --> 0:02:26.720 her on display as a sideshow attraction, claiming that she 0:02:26.919 --> 0:02:31.079 was the slave who had raised George Washington. Heath, who 0:02:31.080 --> 0:02:33.680 would have been one hundred and sixty one years old 0:02:33.760 --> 0:02:38.440 if Barnum's claim was actually true, told stories to wrapped 0:02:38.520 --> 0:02:44.480 audiences about Washington, including the then already famous Cherry Tree anecdote. 0:02:45.360 --> 0:02:48.680 It's easy to understand why the Cherry Tree story had 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:54.960 such longevity. It's an American Horatio Alger novel in anecdote form, 0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:59.079 a modern tutor morality play, and it's a perfect celebration 0:02:59.240 --> 0:03:03.040 of the law myth of America that we're a land 0:03:03.120 --> 0:03:07.360 of meritocracy. If you're a good person, like the six 0:03:07.400 --> 0:03:10.320 year old who was honest to his father, then you 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:15.200 can and will go on to achieve great things. America's 0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:20.799 love mythologizing our founding fathers, turning them into superhero mascots 0:03:20.840 --> 0:03:25.080 of our own national self celebration. The next myth about 0:03:25.080 --> 0:03:28.480 George Washington is a little bit harder to trace. The 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:33.440 idea that George Washington had wooden teeth. He didn't. He 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:36.320 did suffer from issues with his teeth throughout his life, 0:03:36.400 --> 0:03:39.520 and by the time he gave his first presidential address 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:42.120 he only had one of his original teeth left in 0:03:42.200 --> 0:03:46.960 his mouth. But his dentures were never made of wood. Really, 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:51.080 that seems like an awful idea for dentures on any level. 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:56.120 What is porous and absorbent, It warps and cracks. I mean, 0:03:56.200 --> 0:04:01.400 imagine the splinters. Throughout George Washington's life, he had multiple 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:06.640 sets of dentures made for materials like ivory, gold, lead, 0:04:06.840 --> 0:04:12.720 and slave teeth, yes, probably slave teeth. In George Washington's ledger, 0:04:12.920 --> 0:04:17.119 he noted that on May eighth, seventy four, he paid 0:04:17.240 --> 0:04:22.119 six pounds and two shillings to quote Negroes for nine teeth. 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:25.280 While it's possible that he was buying them for a 0:04:25.360 --> 0:04:28.440 family member, it's just as likely that they were meant 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:32.880 for his own mouth. As the Mount Vernon website itself notes, 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:36.039 selling teeth to dentists was a common way to make 0:04:36.080 --> 0:04:38.800 money for poor people since at least the end of 0:04:38.839 --> 0:04:42.320 the Middle Ages. But it is important to remember that 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:46.080 although Washington paid for these teeth, the enslaved people in 0:04:46.160 --> 0:04:49.839 Virginia in the eighteenth century had no choice when it 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:53.960 came to participating in the transaction. So where did the 0:04:54.000 --> 0:04:58.159 idea of wooden teeth come from? Most historian degree that 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:03.000 Washington's ivory dent years became stained and brownish over time, 0:05:03.400 --> 0:05:07.119 which made them look wouldn't But why would that story 0:05:07.200 --> 0:05:11.120 be so enduring? It doesn't have a simple moral narrative 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:14.960 like the cherry tree story unless you assume that Washington 0:05:15.120 --> 0:05:18.360 carved the teeth himself, and then sure it does give 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:22.839 him a rugged, self sufficient man of the people type power. 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:29.200 But well, wooden teeth themselves are memorable. They're oddly specific 0:05:29.480 --> 0:05:34.719 and a little gruesome in their imagery and weirdness, Especially 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:38.640 in conjunction with a historical figure that's so often portrayed 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:42.040 as so virtuous he may as well just be a 0:05:42.080 --> 0:05:47.960 marble sculpture. Is interesting. It makes George Washington seem human 0:05:48.440 --> 0:05:51.599 and lets us in the modern day shake our heads 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:57.520 in superiority at how antiquated, how positively medieval things were 0:05:57.560 --> 0:06:02.400 two years ago. But it the third George Washington myth 0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:06.000 that will be talking about in depth today, a myth 0:06:06.200 --> 0:06:10.320 that has so infiltrated the popular culture that I admit 0:06:10.560 --> 0:06:13.200 I didn't know it was false myself until I started 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:16.880 doing my research for this very podcast. You see, with 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:20.159 all the attention on the American executive branch during a 0:06:20.200 --> 0:06:25.160 presidential election, I found myself thinking about the historical fun 0:06:25.279 --> 0:06:29.000 fact that I've heard so many times, the folk grum 0:06:29.080 --> 0:06:32.800 point in American history that could have changed the course 0:06:32.839 --> 0:06:36.880 of our nation with a single decision. The notion that 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:41.320 they offered to make George Washington not the first president 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:46.320 of the United States, but the first king. Of course, 0:06:46.600 --> 0:06:50.359 you know the rest of that story. George Washington, he 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:54.159 of the moral backbone to come clean after an act 0:06:54.160 --> 0:06:58.919 of fruit tree vandalism, refused the crown, and he ushered 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:04.400 our young country in as a representative democracy. George Washington 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:07.720 could have been a king, they say, and he chose 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:11.440 not to be. It's a story that makes Washington and 0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:16.840 by extension, America, look honorable and virtuous. It's the type 0:07:16.840 --> 0:07:20.520 of story we want to believe about ourselves. But the 0:07:20.600 --> 0:07:25.880 truth is always a little more complicated. I'm Danis Schwartz, 0:07:26.720 --> 0:07:40.400 and this is noble blood. In seventeen eighty, while the 0:07:40.440 --> 0:07:44.280 soldiers of the Continental Army fought against the British, the 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:49.560 delegates of the Second Continental Congress passed a statute promising 0:07:49.680 --> 0:07:53.920 that the American soldiers would receive a pension after they retired, 0:07:54.440 --> 0:07:57.640 half of their current pay for the rest of their lives. 0:07:58.600 --> 0:08:03.320 It was a mighty promise from a government that could 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:06.320 barely find the funds to pay the soldiers. As it 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:10.960 was at this point in American history, the federal body 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:15.960 had almost no actual power beyond the symbolic, especially when 0:08:16.000 --> 0:08:20.040 it came to money. Congress had no power to tax 0:08:20.120 --> 0:08:24.440 the States to pay the army. The federal government relied 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:28.680 on requisitions from the states that the states would pay voluntarily, 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:34.280 and as you might imagine, these voluntary payments weren't nearly enough. 0:08:35.360 --> 0:08:40.280 After the Battle of Yorktown in the war on land 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:44.920 between the colonists and the British was largely over. Peace 0:08:44.920 --> 0:08:48.840 talks were beginning, and even though British ships still bobbed 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:54.080 visible in the Atlantic Ocean, cutting off trade, independence was imminent, 0:08:54.920 --> 0:08:59.400 but the Continental Army remained vigilant monitoring. British occupied New 0:08:59.480 --> 0:09:02.760 York City from their base in Newburg, sixty miles to 0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:06.560 the north, but the soldiers were well aware that they 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:11.280 occupied a strange Noman's land. They were soldiers for a 0:09:11.360 --> 0:09:15.040 country that didn't quite exist yet. Hand with the war ending, 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:20.040 they were about to be unemployed. In the meantime, Robert Morris, 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:23.360 the Superintendent of Finance, who would be called the financier 0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:27.040 of the Revolution, had to stop army pay in seventeen 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:31.200 eighty two to cut costs. He made the assurance that 0:09:31.320 --> 0:09:34.880 it would be only temporary that Congress would pay back 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:38.520 all of its soldiers their back wages and the pensions 0:09:38.559 --> 0:09:42.200 they were promised. It was just under the Articles of 0:09:42.200 --> 0:09:45.600 the Confederation they had no way to actually do that. 0:09:46.480 --> 0:09:52.320 A group of Congressmen, including Alexander Hamilton's, recognized that discrepancy. 0:09:52.520 --> 0:09:56.000 Without a strong central federal branch of the government with 0:09:56.040 --> 0:09:59.920 actual power, this new country wouldn't be a country at all, 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:04.040 and so Hamilton's proposed an amendment to the Articles of 0:10:04.040 --> 0:10:08.440 the Confederation, a workaround for the no federal taxes rule 0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:12.520 that would allow Congress to levy and import tariff. It 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:17.920 was immediately shut down. Soldiers wrote to Congress demanding their 0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:22.080 pay and their promised pensions, and Alexander Hamilton's would read 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:25.720 these letters allowed in chamber, trying to convince his fellow 0:10:25.760 --> 0:10:29.400 congressmen that they needed to do something in order to 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:34.240 actually pay their army. But no amendments or agreements passed. 0:10:35.240 --> 0:10:39.000 Soldiers who had gone months without pay were beginning to 0:10:39.040 --> 0:10:45.000 feel forgotten. Officers covered their tattered, tearing uniforms with blankets. 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:49.160 Lower ranking soldiers didn't even have blankets to cover themselves 0:10:49.280 --> 0:10:54.280 up with. They were all cold and hungry and frustrated 0:10:55.240 --> 0:10:58.760 while waiting for the war to officially end. They also 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:01.400 waited to find out what sort of government they would 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:04.360 be serving on the other side, and the government that 0:11:04.400 --> 0:11:08.080 they currently had under the articles of the Confederation didn't 0:11:08.120 --> 0:11:11.280 seem to be working out for them. It was during 0:11:11.320 --> 0:11:15.200 this period of tension that an officer named Colonel Lewis 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:19.520 Nicola wrote a letter to George Washington to say that 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:24.360 they were colleagues would be incredibly generous to Nicola work 0:11:24.360 --> 0:11:28.720 acquaintances maybe. Niccola was born in Ireland, and before the 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:34.559 Revolutionary War he lived in Philadelphia with a subscription circulating library. 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:37.720 He went on to join the Continental Army to serve 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:41.400 as City Major Philadelphia, and it was actually he who 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:45.320 proposed that the Continental Congress form an Invalid Corps, a 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:48.640 group of men who wouldn't be fit for actual combat, 0:11:49.000 --> 0:11:52.360 but could serve as guards or teachers for other soldiers. 0:11:53.280 --> 0:11:57.599 The corps wasn't quite a success. Nicola, as its commander, 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:01.319 was plagued with challenges when it came to recruiting enough men, 0:12:02.200 --> 0:12:05.600 and he struggled with order and discipline in the ranks 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:12.959 he commanded. And things were getting even harder for Nicola 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:17.719 as Congress continually refused to honor their promises of wages 0:12:17.720 --> 0:12:22.120 and pensions. The wages they did get, Nicola believed where 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:25.800 in paper money whose value had been so depreciated that 0:12:26.040 --> 0:12:29.960 was worth far less than promised. As the war drew 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:34.400 to a close, Nicola was, as one historian characterized him, 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:40.480 quote a man harassed and brooding over the universal gloom 0:12:40.520 --> 0:12:44.079 and sense of injustice at the neglect which the army 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:49.280 was experiencing. He began his letter to George Washington explaining 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:54.160 those grievances. Soldiers, he wrote, have quote much reason to 0:12:54.280 --> 0:12:58.800 fear that the future provision promised two officers by Congress 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:01.720 will be little tended to when our services are no 0:13:01.800 --> 0:13:06.960 longer wanted, and that the recompense of all of our toils, hardships, 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:10.600 expense of private fortune during several of the best years 0:13:10.600 --> 0:13:14.600 of our lives will be forgot and neglected by such 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:18.800 as reap the benefits of our labor without suffering any 0:13:18.920 --> 0:13:22.440 of the hardships. It's at this point in the letter 0:13:22.559 --> 0:13:26.360 that Nicola notes that he is not quote a violent 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:31.800 admirer of the republican form of government. The republics of Europe, 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:36.120 which Nicola names Venice, Genoa, and Holland, were short lived 0:13:36.200 --> 0:13:39.920 in their periods of power when compared to monarchies. Let 0:13:40.000 --> 0:13:43.880 us consider the principal monarchies of Europe. Nicola writes, they 0:13:43.880 --> 0:13:47.480 have suffered great internal commotions, have worried each other, have 0:13:47.600 --> 0:13:51.040 had periods of vigor and weakness, yet they still subsist 0:13:51.120 --> 0:13:54.920 and shine with luster. But Nicola is also quick to 0:13:54.960 --> 0:13:58.719 point out that he is not a fan of absolute monarchy. 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:03.160 The answer he's suggests isn't a government not dissimilar to 0:14:03.200 --> 0:14:06.080 the one that existed in Britain at the time, a 0:14:06.240 --> 0:14:11.920 constitutional monarchy. From there, Nicola proceeds to what he calls 0:14:12.440 --> 0:14:16.520 his scheme. What if Congress made good on all of 0:14:16.559 --> 0:14:21.080 their promises by giving soldiers tracts of land west of 0:14:21.120 --> 0:14:25.800 the existing colonies, where each individual soldier could quote have 0:14:26.080 --> 0:14:30.960 his due land with swamps, mountains, lakes, and rivers, and 0:14:31.320 --> 0:14:34.840 all of the soldiers could put their land together, quote 0:14:34.880 --> 0:14:39.040 into a distinct state under such mode of government as 0:14:39.080 --> 0:14:42.680 those military who choose to remove to it may agree upon. 0:14:43.440 --> 0:14:46.760 Congress could also put some of that pension in cash upfront, 0:14:47.040 --> 0:14:49.200 so that the soldiers in the new state could buy 0:14:49.240 --> 0:14:53.880 farm equipment. For his part, Nicola believes that that agreed 0:14:53.920 --> 0:14:59.240 upon government should be a constitutional monarchy. I quote. This 0:14:59.280 --> 0:15:02.000 war must have shown to all but to military men, 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:05.720 in particular the weakness of republics and the exertion of 0:15:05.760 --> 0:15:07.920 the army that we've been able to make by being 0:15:08.000 --> 0:15:12.120 under a proper head. Therefore a little doubt when the 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:15.880 benefits of a mixed government are pointed out and duly considered, 0:15:16.280 --> 0:15:20.600 But such will be readily adopted. In this case, it will, 0:15:20.760 --> 0:15:24.880 I believe, be uncontroverted that the same abilities which have 0:15:25.000 --> 0:15:29.640 led us through difficulties apparently insurmountable by human power, to 0:15:29.880 --> 0:15:34.320 victory and glory, those qualities that have merited and obtained 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:38.360 the universal esteem and veneration of an army, would be 0:15:38.560 --> 0:15:42.120 most likely to conduct and direct us in these smoother 0:15:42.280 --> 0:15:47.720 paths of peace. In other words, soldiers understand how nice 0:15:47.720 --> 0:15:50.960 it is when it's clear who's in charge, and when 0:15:51.000 --> 0:15:54.480 that person in charge is as good at leading as 0:15:54.560 --> 0:15:58.440 you are, George dot dot dot, if you catch my 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:03.440 drift quote. Some people have so connected the ideas of 0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:06.920 tyranny and monarchy as to find it very difficult to 0:16:06.960 --> 0:16:11.040 separate them. It may therefore be a requisite to give 0:16:11.080 --> 0:16:14.520 the head of such a constitution as I propose some 0:16:14.720 --> 0:16:18.480 title apparently more moderate, but if all other things were 0:16:18.600 --> 0:16:22.560 once adjusted, I believe strong argument might be produced for 0:16:22.640 --> 0:16:25.800 admitting the title of king, which I conceive would be 0:16:25.840 --> 0:16:31.400 attended with some material advantages. The letter is seven pages long, 0:16:31.560 --> 0:16:36.480 filled with adorable justifications and ideas. This new state is 0:16:36.600 --> 0:16:40.480 especially smart, Nicola writes, because won't Congress, and the existing 0:16:40.480 --> 0:16:44.120 colonies want soldiers on their western flank protecting them from 0:16:44.200 --> 0:16:47.760 Native Americans, and we can also protect them from Canada. 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:52.359 It's a win win. The letter has the self delighted 0:16:52.520 --> 0:16:56.200 and slightly delusional energy of a friend who thinks he's 0:16:56.200 --> 0:16:58.520 figured out how to beat the house in a Vegas 0:16:58.560 --> 0:17:02.000 casino once and for all. It's somehow at the same 0:17:02.040 --> 0:17:05.720 time both naive and also the results of way too 0:17:05.800 --> 0:17:16.080 much thought and research. George Washington was wildly freaked out 0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:19.520 by this delusional pitch from a guy who was a 0:17:19.600 --> 0:17:24.320 polite work friend at best. Washington wrote his response the 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:27.520 very day you received the letter, and just to make 0:17:27.560 --> 0:17:29.960 sure that he was on the record loud and clear, 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:34.240 Washington had his secretary write an exact copy of his 0:17:34.320 --> 0:17:38.240 response to keep in his own files. I will read 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:42.600 the entire second paragraph of his response here, just because 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:47.760 I can't imagine a more brutal shutdown quote. I am 0:17:47.880 --> 0:17:50.639 much at a loss to conceive what part of my 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:54.840 conduct could have given encouragement to an address which to 0:17:55.000 --> 0:17:58.800 me seems big with the greatest mischiefs that can befall 0:17:58.960 --> 0:18:01.879 my country. If I am not deceived in the knowledge 0:18:01.880 --> 0:18:04.679 of myself, you could not have found a person to 0:18:04.720 --> 0:18:09.000 whom your schemes are more disagreeable. At the same time, 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:11.640 in justice to my own feeling, I must add that 0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:15.080 no man possesses a more sincere wish to see ample 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:17.960 justice done to the army than I do. And as 0:18:18.000 --> 0:18:21.800 far as my powers and influence in a constitutional way extent, 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:25.480 they shall be employed to the utmost of my abilities 0:18:25.600 --> 0:18:28.960 to affect it, should there be any occasion. Let me 0:18:29.080 --> 0:18:31.960 just conjure you, then, if you have any regard for 0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:36.400 your country, concern for yourself, or posterity, or respect to me, 0:18:36.800 --> 0:18:40.320 to banish these things from your mind, and never communicate 0:18:40.640 --> 0:18:44.320 as from yourself or anyone else, a sentiment of the 0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:48.760 like nature. With esteem, I am your most obedient servant. 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:56.120 George Washington and Nicola received the message. Upon getting such 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:59.480 an icy response from the man, he admired so much 0:19:00.000 --> 0:19:03.680 George Washington himself for what he thought was his brilliant, 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:10.000 little intellectual idea. Nicola absolutely panicked. He wrote back not 0:19:10.200 --> 0:19:14.359 just once, but three times in a single week, backtracking 0:19:14.480 --> 0:19:17.960 and begging for George Washington's forgiveness, saying he must have 0:19:18.000 --> 0:19:22.119 been misunderstood, but he realizes he was way out of line. 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:27.240 We don't have Washington's response to these frantic triple messages, 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:31.480 but we assume that Nicola was forgiven and his little 0:19:31.520 --> 0:19:36.680 indiscretion forgotten, because the relationship between him and Washington returned 0:19:36.680 --> 0:19:39.200 soon enough to the way it had been before the letter, 0:19:39.840 --> 0:19:45.200 the eighteenth century equivalent of saying hi at the Christmas party. Washington, 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:49.040 for his part, never told another person about Nicola's letter, 0:19:49.560 --> 0:19:57.399 lest the idea get any legs. This is the sole 0:19:57.520 --> 0:20:01.679 source and origin of the rumor that George Washington was 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:05.560 offered the position of king. This is the closest that 0:20:05.760 --> 0:20:09.639 anyone got. One guy, not even a congressman, just a 0:20:09.680 --> 0:20:13.480 colonel writing a letter, floating a weather balloon for a 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:16.440 new idea for what the soldiers could do after the war. 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:19.760 Just a blue sky pitch from one guy who thinks 0:20:19.800 --> 0:20:23.200 monarchies are more efficient than republics and wanted to run 0:20:23.240 --> 0:20:27.120 his idea past the big guy. That's the historical basis 0:20:27.400 --> 0:20:31.520 for the story that some faceless capital t they offered 0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:35.920 George Washington a crown. I read so many direct excerpts 0:20:35.960 --> 0:20:39.199 above from Nicola and from Washington because I want to 0:20:39.200 --> 0:20:43.040 be fully transparent about how I get my information. To 0:20:43.160 --> 0:20:48.960 this day, historians completely mischaracterized that exchange. In two thousand four, 0:20:49.200 --> 0:20:52.919 a New York Times best settling biography of George Washington 0:20:53.080 --> 0:20:56.840 called His Excellency, covered the letter from Lewis Nicola by 0:20:56.880 --> 0:20:59.760 saying that the young officer wrote in his letter that 0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:05.600 certain disaster would befall postwar America unless Washington declared himself king. 0:21:06.320 --> 0:21:09.520 That's not what the letter says. The book also claims 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:12.840 that Nicola put into writing an idea that several officers 0:21:12.880 --> 0:21:17.080 were whispering about. That's a wild stretch on multiple levels. 0:21:17.760 --> 0:21:20.439 Lewis knew his idea was outlandish and was going to 0:21:20.480 --> 0:21:24.360 be unpopular. He himself, in his letter calls it heterodox 0:21:24.640 --> 0:21:26.800 and jokes that some would hear his idea and think 0:21:26.840 --> 0:21:30.600 he should be burnt at the state. And again, Lewis 0:21:30.720 --> 0:21:34.399 was proposing a new state not suggesting an overthrow of 0:21:34.440 --> 0:21:38.399 the existing government. And again, to be clear, he doesn't 0:21:38.400 --> 0:21:43.159 really offer Washington the crown explicitly, it's just implied that book. 0:21:43.359 --> 0:21:47.840 His Excellency continued by saying that George Washington's stern response 0:21:47.880 --> 0:21:50.720 to Nicola made its way to King George the Third 0:21:50.760 --> 0:21:54.680 in England, who equipped that if George Washington actually did 0:21:54.720 --> 0:21:57.760 turn down the crown, he would be the greatest man 0:21:57.840 --> 0:22:01.040 in the world. The seed of the story is true, 0:22:01.520 --> 0:22:04.160 but it was what George the Third actually said fifteen 0:22:04.200 --> 0:22:07.239 years later when he heard that Washington was planning on 0:22:07.320 --> 0:22:12.160 retiring after two terms as president. I'm not a professional historian, 0:22:12.320 --> 0:22:15.280 and in the course of this podcast, I have absolutely 0:22:15.320 --> 0:22:19.240 made a number of errors, usually years I accidentally read 0:22:19.240 --> 0:22:21.800 wrong from my script and correct as soon as I can, 0:22:22.320 --> 0:22:27.120 and more often errors of pronunciation. And I don't mean 0:22:27.160 --> 0:22:30.240 to call out that biographer in some sort of gotcha. 0:22:30.840 --> 0:22:33.800 I just think it's important to reflect on how appealing 0:22:33.840 --> 0:22:37.479 mythologies can be so pervasive in our culture that they 0:22:37.560 --> 0:22:41.880 just become wrote things we assume are true because we've 0:22:41.880 --> 0:22:45.920 heard them repeated so many times that then we ourselves 0:22:45.960 --> 0:22:50.760 repeat the narrative of George Washington turning down the crown 0:22:51.080 --> 0:22:54.399 is such a fundamentally appealing one in the myth of 0:22:54.440 --> 0:22:57.800 how America came to be. And if you only read 0:22:57.840 --> 0:23:01.720 George Washington's reply, not the letter to which he was replying, 0:23:02.280 --> 0:23:04.480 it's easy to fill in the gaps of the story 0:23:04.520 --> 0:23:06.679 in your head and make it the story that you 0:23:06.680 --> 0:23:16.840 want to hear. Washington actually would drastically influence the shape 0:23:16.920 --> 0:23:20.520 of the American democracy before the end of the Revolutionary 0:23:20.560 --> 0:23:24.800 War and prevent mutiny against Congress, but he didn't do 0:23:24.880 --> 0:23:27.160 so with a response to a letter that no one 0:23:27.200 --> 0:23:30.439 else actually read. He did it with a pair of 0:23:30.560 --> 0:23:35.119 reading glasses. As things were growing more tense within the 0:23:35.200 --> 0:23:40.280 Continental Army, a delegation of officers arrived in Philadelphia to 0:23:40.440 --> 0:23:44.320 deliver a memo to Congress by hand. There would be 0:23:44.520 --> 0:23:49.479 quote fatal effects, they wrote, if Congress didn't supply what 0:23:49.520 --> 0:23:53.199 they had promised. The threat was almost too blatant to 0:23:53.200 --> 0:23:57.760 be considered implicit nationalists, by which I mean the congressman 0:23:57.800 --> 0:24:02.000 who supported a strong national govern ment like Morris and Hamilton's, 0:24:02.520 --> 0:24:05.640 were able to convince the soldiers to hold type while 0:24:05.640 --> 0:24:09.120 they fought to push their policies through in Congress. On 0:24:09.119 --> 0:24:13.040 one hand, the threat of military coup was terrifying. On 0:24:13.160 --> 0:24:16.960 the other hand, nationalists like Hamilton's We're well aware that 0:24:17.040 --> 0:24:21.960 from a political standpoint, the discontented military was a pretty 0:24:21.960 --> 0:24:25.840 good driving force for convincing his fellow congressman that they 0:24:25.880 --> 0:24:29.840 needed to give the federal government some actual power. To 0:24:29.960 --> 0:24:33.840 this day, historians argue whether the coup was a legitimate, 0:24:33.960 --> 0:24:38.240 impending course of action, or whether the threat was exaggerated 0:24:38.280 --> 0:24:42.680 for political benefit, but whether they were political ponds or not, 0:24:43.400 --> 0:24:54.240 the officers at Newburgh were getting restless. Early on the 0:24:54.320 --> 0:25:00.840 morning of March tene an unsigned letter circular related amongst 0:25:00.840 --> 0:25:04.320 the officers at Newburgh, calling for a meeting at eleven 0:25:04.320 --> 0:25:09.240 a m. The letter, later attributed to Major John Armstrong 0:25:09.440 --> 0:25:14.040 into camp to Washington's rival, General Ratio Gates, said that 0:25:14.080 --> 0:25:17.840 it was time for the army to take a bolder tone. 0:25:19.040 --> 0:25:22.199 You have fought for a country. The letter said that 0:25:22.280 --> 0:25:27.520 now tramples upon your rights, disdains your cries, and insults 0:25:27.600 --> 0:25:32.720 your distresses. And now, the letter said, Congress has left 0:25:32.760 --> 0:25:38.920 you to grow old in poverty, wretchedness, and contempt. Would 0:25:38.960 --> 0:25:42.760 they consent to quote wide through the vile miyer of 0:25:42.840 --> 0:25:47.000 dependency and owe the miserable remnant of that life to 0:25:47.119 --> 0:25:52.080 charity which has hithero been spent in honor. As Professor 0:25:52.200 --> 0:25:55.800 Richard Cohen phrases, that if so, they would be pitied 0:25:56.359 --> 0:26:01.480 ridiculed for suffering this last indignity. They had bled too much. 0:26:02.440 --> 0:26:07.520 They still had their swords. There were two courses of action, 0:26:07.960 --> 0:26:12.480 the anonymous letter posited if Congress didn't provide the money 0:26:12.480 --> 0:26:16.560 they promised, either the army should disband and leave the 0:26:16.600 --> 0:26:21.640 brand new nation defenseless, or once the war ended, they 0:26:21.640 --> 0:26:26.280 should refuse to disband. After all, who was Congress to 0:26:26.320 --> 0:26:31.520 deny them when they were the ones with weapons. Upon 0:26:31.680 --> 0:26:37.439 hearing about the unofficial meeting, George Washington formally objected. He 0:26:37.560 --> 0:26:41.760 scheduled an official meeting four days later, and implying that 0:26:41.800 --> 0:26:45.040 he wouldn't attend himself, he asked for a full report 0:26:45.080 --> 0:26:51.400 to be sent to him after it was over. Four 0:26:51.480 --> 0:26:54.919 days later, on March fifteenth, Gates gabbled in the meeting, 0:26:55.119 --> 0:26:58.280 which took place at Camp in a building known as 0:26:58.440 --> 0:27:02.919 the Temple. But before Gates could begin with the speech 0:27:02.960 --> 0:27:09.560 he had prepared, the door opened. To everyone's surprise, General 0:27:09.640 --> 0:27:14.680 George Washington strode into the building and quietly asked John 0:27:14.720 --> 0:27:19.800 Gates if he might be permitted to speak. Absolutely stunned, 0:27:20.240 --> 0:27:24.920 Gates relinquished the floor to his superior. Washington looked at 0:27:24.920 --> 0:27:28.520 the faces of his officers in the audience. The men, 0:27:29.240 --> 0:27:34.119 usually so reverential, urging on worshipful when it came to Washington, 0:27:34.720 --> 0:27:40.200 were visibly frustrated. Even Washington's presence didn't dispel the air 0:27:40.280 --> 0:27:45.679 of discontent, of unhappiness, of impatience in the room. Still, 0:27:46.160 --> 0:27:50.240 George Washington spoke calmly and gave what would come to 0:27:50.280 --> 0:27:54.199 be known as the New Burgh Address. In it, he 0:27:54.400 --> 0:27:59.640 denounced the veiled threats of mutiny against Congress. What can 0:27:59.640 --> 0:28:02.960 this writer of this anonymous letter have in view by 0:28:03.000 --> 0:28:07.280 recommending such measures? Can he be a friend to the army? 0:28:07.560 --> 0:28:11.399 Can he be a friend to this country? Rather? Is 0:28:11.400 --> 0:28:16.800 he not an insidious foe? Washington asked his officers to 0:28:16.840 --> 0:28:21.919 give once more distinguished proof of their unexampled patriotism and 0:28:21.960 --> 0:28:26.520 patient virtue, and place full confidence in the purity of 0:28:26.560 --> 0:28:31.280 the intentions of Congress. At this point, Washington took out 0:28:31.280 --> 0:28:33.800 a letter from a congressman that he wanted to read 0:28:33.840 --> 0:28:37.040 to his men. He stared at the paper for a moment, 0:28:37.760 --> 0:28:41.680 and then as the room fell quiet, he took out 0:28:41.760 --> 0:28:45.960