WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: Was George Washington Almost King of the United States?

0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:05.600
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio.

0:00:08.320 --> 0:00:10.799
<v Speaker 1>Hey brain Stuff, Lauren vog Obam here with a classic

0:00:10.840 --> 0:00:14.280
<v Speaker 1>episode from our archives. When the founders of the United

0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:17.320
<v Speaker 1>States created our government, one thing they did was put

0:00:17.360 --> 0:00:20.759
<v Speaker 1>in place measures to prevent a monarchy from developing. But

0:00:20.880 --> 0:00:24.880
<v Speaker 1>some contemporary people did suggest that George Washington, our first president,

0:00:25.200 --> 0:00:28.760
<v Speaker 1>take on the role of king instead. Here's how it

0:00:28.760 --> 0:00:33.360
<v Speaker 1>all went down, Hey brain Stuff, Lauren vog obam Here.

0:00:33.800 --> 0:00:38.040
<v Speaker 1>There's a popular yarn among American history enthusiasts that George Washington,

0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:41.360
<v Speaker 1>in the waning months of the Revolutionary War, was offered

0:00:41.400 --> 0:00:43.440
<v Speaker 1>the crown of the fledgling nation by a group of

0:00:43.479 --> 0:00:48.120
<v Speaker 1>American military officers fed up with an ineffective Congress. Historians

0:00:48.120 --> 0:00:51.120
<v Speaker 1>even have washington strongly worded rejection letter to prove it,

0:00:51.800 --> 0:00:55.200
<v Speaker 1>but a closer reading of original historical documents tells a

0:00:55.240 --> 0:00:59.000
<v Speaker 1>different story. In this version, the widespread frustration of army

0:00:59.000 --> 0:01:02.160
<v Speaker 1>officers gets mixed up with the pro monarchy day dreams

0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:06.039
<v Speaker 1>of one foolhardy Colonel Washington still comes out of hero,

0:01:06.360 --> 0:01:08.240
<v Speaker 1>but he was never really close to being a king.

0:01:09.160 --> 0:01:12.280
<v Speaker 1>Let's set the scene. The British suffered a decisive defeat

0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:16.280
<v Speaker 1>at Yorktown to American and French forces in seventeen eighty one,

0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:19.160
<v Speaker 1>resulting in the capture of seven thousand British troops and

0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:22.320
<v Speaker 1>their leader, General Charles Cornwallis. The end of the war

0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:25.280
<v Speaker 1>was finally near, but the beleaguer in American Army, under

0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:28.440
<v Speaker 1>the command of Washington was still considered on duty until

0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:31.200
<v Speaker 1>the Treaty of Paris was signed in seventeen eighty three.

0:01:32.040 --> 0:01:36.040
<v Speaker 1>Back in those preconstitution days, the Articles of Confederation handed

0:01:36.120 --> 0:01:39.399
<v Speaker 1>most power to the States, not the federal government. Congress

0:01:39.440 --> 0:01:41.840
<v Speaker 1>had no power to tax, for example, which was a

0:01:41.880 --> 0:01:44.360
<v Speaker 1>problem when it came to paying and equipping the army.

0:01:44.920 --> 0:01:48.000
<v Speaker 1>Congress had to constantly request military funding from the States,

0:01:48.240 --> 0:01:50.560
<v Speaker 1>which were often slow to pay up, if at all.

0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:54.360
<v Speaker 1>With peace, nearly one the army feared that Congress was

0:01:54.400 --> 0:01:57.160
<v Speaker 1>going to stiff them on back pay. The officer corps

0:01:57.200 --> 0:02:00.280
<v Speaker 1>were especially worried about their pensions, which they were romist

0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:02.560
<v Speaker 1>would secure them financially for the rest of their lives.

0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:05.440
<v Speaker 1>Could they trust Congress to keep its word an exact

0:02:05.480 --> 0:02:09.480
<v Speaker 1>payment from the states. Among those army officers sweating over

0:02:09.520 --> 0:02:13.160
<v Speaker 1>their pension in seventeen eighty two was Colonel Louis Nicola,

0:02:13.480 --> 0:02:16.520
<v Speaker 1>a sixty five year old Irish born military veteran who

0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:20.880
<v Speaker 1>lent significant expertise to Washington's forces during the war. Nicola

0:02:20.919 --> 0:02:24.639
<v Speaker 1>and Washington corresponded frequently, usually about Nicola's duties as a

0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:28.200
<v Speaker 1>commander of the Invalid Corps, a garrison of injured soldiers

0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:31.399
<v Speaker 1>who were still fit enough to serve. But Nicola's letter

0:02:31.440 --> 0:02:36.120
<v Speaker 1>to Washington on May seventeen, eight two was something completely different.

0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:39.840
<v Speaker 1>In this now infamous missive, Nicola opened with a reminder

0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:41.920
<v Speaker 1>of what would be at stake if the military wasn't

0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:46.560
<v Speaker 1>properly compensated, namely the threat of open mutiny. Nicola wrote,

0:02:47.000 --> 0:02:49.880
<v Speaker 1>God forbid we should ever think of involving that country

0:02:49.880 --> 0:02:53.560
<v Speaker 1>we have, under your conduct and auspices, rescued from oppression

0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:56.080
<v Speaker 1>into a new scene of blood and confusion. But it

0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:58.680
<v Speaker 1>cannot be expected. We should forego claims on which our

0:02:58.680 --> 0:03:03.000
<v Speaker 1>future subsistence and that of families depend. Then Nicola moved

0:03:03.000 --> 0:03:06.040
<v Speaker 1>on to what he called his scheme. He admitted to

0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:09.200
<v Speaker 1>Washington that he wasn't a quote, a violent admirer of

0:03:09.240 --> 0:03:12.720
<v Speaker 1>a republican form of government, preferring instead a mixed form

0:03:12.760 --> 0:03:16.160
<v Speaker 1>of government with elected representatives ruled by a benevolent monarch,

0:03:16.680 --> 0:03:19.600
<v Speaker 1>and who better for such a leading role than Washington himself.

0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:23.520
<v Speaker 1>Nicola wrote, some people have so connected the ideas of

0:03:23.560 --> 0:03:26.400
<v Speaker 1>tyranny and monarchy as to find it very difficult to

0:03:26.400 --> 0:03:29.120
<v Speaker 1>separate them. It may therefore be requisite to give the

0:03:29.160 --> 0:03:31.919
<v Speaker 1>head of such a constitution, as I propose, some title

0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:35.440
<v Speaker 1>apparently more moderate. But if all things were once suggested,

0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:38.480
<v Speaker 1>I believe strong arguments might be produced for admitting the

0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:41.440
<v Speaker 1>title of king, which I conceive would be attended with

0:03:41.520 --> 0:03:46.360
<v Speaker 1>some material advantages. Washington's response, dated the very same day,

0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:51.080
<v Speaker 1>was withering. He wrote, be assured, sir, no occurrence in

0:03:51.120 --> 0:03:53.680
<v Speaker 1>the course of the war has given me more painful

0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:57.280
<v Speaker 1>sensations than your information of there being such ideas existing

0:03:57.280 --> 0:03:59.520
<v Speaker 1>in the army as you have expressed, and I must

0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:03.080
<v Speaker 1>view with a horrens and reprehend with severity. I am

0:04:03.120 --> 0:04:04.920
<v Speaker 1>much at a loss to conceive what part of my

0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:07.800
<v Speaker 1>conduct could have given encouragement to an address which seems

0:04:07.840 --> 0:04:10.480
<v Speaker 1>to me big with the greatest mischiefs that can befall

0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:13.080
<v Speaker 1>my country. If I am not deceived in the knowledge

0:04:13.120 --> 0:04:15.160
<v Speaker 1>of myself, you could not have found a person to

0:04:15.200 --> 0:04:20.120
<v Speaker 1>whom your schemes are more disagreeable. Washington's rejection of an

0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:23.560
<v Speaker 1>American monarchy was absolute, but was a single letter from

0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:26.719
<v Speaker 1>a presumptuous colonel, the equivalent of being offered the crown,

0:04:26.800 --> 0:04:30.480
<v Speaker 1>as many believe. We spoke with Denver Brunsman, a history

0:04:30.480 --> 0:04:33.920
<v Speaker 1>professor at George Washington University and scholar of the Revolutionary

0:04:33.920 --> 0:04:36.840
<v Speaker 1>War and of Washington. He thinks it would be an

0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:40.159
<v Speaker 1>exaggeration to say that Washington was ever seriously offered the

0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:44.000
<v Speaker 1>title of king. He said, Niccolo was not someone who

0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:46.000
<v Speaker 1>was in the position to do that, and I don't

0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:48.640
<v Speaker 1>think he was part of any real large movement. That

0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:50.960
<v Speaker 1>doesn't mean there weren't people who had those sentiments, and

0:04:51.000 --> 0:04:53.839
<v Speaker 1>I think Niccolo was representative of that. There were other

0:04:53.880 --> 0:04:56.880
<v Speaker 1>individuals in the officer Corps who were extremely frustrated with

0:04:56.920 --> 0:05:01.200
<v Speaker 1>Congress and any hope for a possible solution. Brunsman continued,

0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:04.680
<v Speaker 1>what's most important is Washington's reaction to even the notion

0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:08.360
<v Speaker 1>of being king. She shuts down any possibility. I think

0:05:08.360 --> 0:05:10.920
<v Speaker 1>that's impressive and shows why Washington was able to garner

0:05:10.960 --> 0:05:18.279
<v Speaker 1>the trust of the American people. Today's episode was written

0:05:18.279 --> 0:05:21.120
<v Speaker 1>by Dave Ruse and produced by Tristan McNeil and Tyler Clang.

0:05:21.640 --> 0:05:23.520
<v Speaker 1>For more in listen lots of other topics, visit how

0:05:23.560 --> 0:05:26.760
<v Speaker 1>stuffworks dot com. Brain Stuff is production of iHeart Radio

0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:29.240
<v Speaker 1>or more podcasts. For my heart Radio, visit the iHeart

0:05:29.320 --> 0:05:32.000
<v Speaker 1>Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your

0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:32.720
<v Speaker 1>favorite shows