Washington's Farewell to his officers

At noon on December 4, 1783, Washington met for the last time with some of his offices in New York's St. Fraunces Tavern. Only a few were there: three major generals, a single brigadier general, a colonel or two, a number of lower grades.  Washington tried to eat something from the table of food but could not manage, then filled a glass with wine and signaled the others to do the same.  "With a heart full of love and gratitude, I now take leave of you." he said in a choked voice.  "I most devoutly wish that your later days  may be as prosperous and happy as your former ones have been glorious and honorable." They drank in silence, then Washington asked each to come to him. Starting with Henry Knox they came, and he embraced each without speaking.  Then still to moved to speak, he walked out of the tavern and to the waterfront, where he boarded a waiting boat to be rowed to the New Jersey shore. He was in a hurry, but as he rode south he had to pause to receive the formal expressions of esteem of citizens and politicians: the people of New Brunswick, the legislature of New Jersey, the merchants of Philadelphia, the Executive Council of Pennsylvania, many others.  And to each he had to make an appropriate response, as in his remarks to Baltimore.


Baltimore, December 18, 1783.

The acceptable manner in which you have welcomed my arrival in the Town of Baltimore, and the happy terms in which you have communicated the congratulations of its inhabitants, lay me under the greatest obligations.

Be pleased, Gentlemen, to receive this last public acknowledgement for the repeated instances of your politeness, and to believe, it is my earnest wish that the Commerce, the Improvements, and universal prosperity of this flourishing Town, may, if possible, increase with even more rapidity than they have hitherto done.

He finally reached Annapolis, Md, to which Congress had taken its deliberations early in November. There were some odds and ends of Army business; several officers had asked to be recommended for service in any peacetime Army that might be formed; an  officer wounded and partially disabled in 1776 had asked Washington to present his petition for a pension. 

There were days and nights of dinners and balls; and the Congress formally received the Commander in Chief.  He was escorted into the chamber, bowed, and read a statement of his purpose in being there.

(That statement is in previous post.)

I feel that this December season should be reminded of the nation's birth.