Blood of Tyrants: George Washington & the Forging of the Presidency (52 page)

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Authors: Logan Beirne

Tags: #American Revolution, #Founding Fathers, #George Washington, #18th Century

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17
Doyle,
The Enemy in Our Hands
, 26.
18
“Rivington’s Reflections,”
Royal Gazette of New York
, December 14, 1782.
19
This was the intrepid John Paul Jones.
20
Washington Irving,
History of the American Revolution
(1876), 619.
21
Ibid., 618.
22
“Toms River Blockhouse Fight,” Patriot Pirates,
www.patriotpirates.com
.
23
Frank Landon Humphreys,
Life and Times of David Humphreys: soldier–statesman—poet—“Belov’d of Washington”
(1917), 1:252.
24
Irving,
Life of George Washington
, 4:364.
25
Washington to Sir Henry Clinton, April 21, 1782, in
The Writings of George Washington
, 24:146.
26
Ibid., 147.
27
The Lost War: Letters from British Officers during the American Revolution
, ed. Marion Balderston and David Syrett (New York: Horizon, 1975), 216.
28
Ibid.
29
Francis Bazley Lee,
New Jersey as a Colony and as a State: One of the Original Thirteen
(1902), 251.
30
The Lost War
, ed. Balderston and Syrett, 216.
31
Irving,
Life of George Washington
, 4:394–97.
32
James Thacher,
Military Journal of the American Revolution
, 304.
33
Friedrich Melchior Freiherr von Grimm et al.,
Historical and Literary Memoirs and Anecdotes, selected from the Correspondence of Baron de Grimm and Diderot
(1815), qtd. in Thacher,
Military Journal of the American Revolution
, 308.
34
Thacher,
Military Journal
, 306.
35
Ibid., 308.
36
Ibid.
37
Von Grimm et al.,
Historical and Literary Memoirs and Anecdotes
, qtd. by Thacher,
Military Journal of the American Revolution
, 40.
38
Journal of Colonel Elias Boudinot, as qtd. in Simon Schama,
Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves, and the American Revolution
(New York: Ecco, 2006), 143.
Part III: Dictator of America
 
1
Ironically, the statue is positioned with its left foot forward.
Chapter 13: Scorpion on a Leash
 
1
Washington to Lund Washington, October 6, 1776, in
The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series
, 6:494.
2
John R. Bumgarner,
The Health of the Presidents: The 41 United States Presidents Through 1993 from a Physician’s Point of View
(Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., 1994), 9.
3
Brian P. Janiskee,
Local Government in Early America: The Colonial Experience and Lessons from the Founders
(Lanham, Md., Rowman & Littlefield, 2010), 94. Adams oscillated from aggressive to puritanical as his inborn temperament vied with his puritanical upbringing for control.
4
John Adams to Horatio Gates, June 18, 1776, in
Letters of Delegates to the Continental Congress
, ed. Edmund C. Burnett (Washington, D.C., 1921–36), 1:497.
5
Resolution of the Continental Congress, June 16, 1775.
6
Qtd. in Don Higginbotham,
War and Society in Revolutionary America
(Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1988), 196;
American Archives
, Fifth Series, 2:1066–67.
7
This fable of unknown origin has been around for millennia. Briefly, the scorpion asks the frog to carry him across the river. When the frog says “no, you will sting me,” the scorpion responds, “of course I will not, because then I would drown.” So the frog lets the scorpion onto his back and they set out across the river. The scorpion stings the frog and the frog cries out in disbelief, “why?!” The scorpion responds, “it is in my nature.”
8
“Address to the New York Provincial Congress, June 26, 1775, in
The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series
, 1:41.
9
Chernow,
Washington: A Life
, 131.
10
Circular to the States, June 8, 1783.
11
Washington to John Augustine Washington, July 18, 1766, in
The Writings of George Washington
, 1:153.
12
General Orders, July 9, 1776, in
The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series
, 5:246.
13
Colonel Loammi Baldwin to his wife, Mary, of Woburn, Massachusetts, June 12, 1777, in
The Spirit of Seventy-Six
, 420.
14
Carol Berkin,
Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America’s Independence
(New York: Knopf, 2005), 62.
15
Qtd. in ibid.
16
Ibid.
17
Chernow,
Washington: A Life
, 293.
18
The North-British Intelligencer: or Constitutional Miscellany
, ed. Robert Dick (1777), 26.
19
Ibid.; Glenn A. Phelps,
George Washington and American Constitutionalism
(Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1993), 26.
20
Ibid., 37.
21
Abraham D. Sofaer,
War, Foreign Affairs and Constitutional Powers: The Origins
20–21, 388n76 (1976), as cited in Barron and Lederman, “The Commander in Chief at the Lowest Ebb,” 774.
22
Henry Cabot Lodge,
George Washington
(Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1898), 170.
23
According to the Papers of George Washington Project.
24
Washington to Joseph Reed, March 3, 1776, in
The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series
, 3:372.
25
John Adams to Washington, January 6, 1776, in ibid., 3:37.
26
Joseph J. Ellis,
His Excellency: George Washington
(New York: Knopf, 2004), 93.
27
John Adams to Abigail Adams, July 7, 1776, in
Adams Family Correspondence
, ed. L. H. Butterfield (Boston, 1963–2011), 2:38.
28
Ibid.
29
Nicholas Cresswell,
The Journal of Nicholas Cresswell, 1774–1777
(Carlisle, Mass.: Applewood Books, 1924), 159.
30
McCullough,
1776
, 205.
31
John Adams to Abigail Adams, June 26, 1776, in
Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789
, ed. Paul H. Smith et al. (Washington D.C.: Library of Congress, 1976–2000), 4:324.
32
Qtd. in Ann M. Becker, “Smallpox in Washington’s Army: Strategic Implications of the Disease During the American Revolutionary War,”
Journal of Military History
68 no. 2 (2004): 400.
33
Ibid., 401. Becker refers to the
Boston Gazette
, February 12, 1776, and adds, “Though the evidence strongly suggests intentional exposure, Cash discounts the idea that General Howe deliberately spread smallpox among the refugees.”
34
Washington to John Hancock, December 11, 1775, in
The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series
, 2:533–34.
35
Washington to John Hancock, President of Congress, December 14, 1775, in ibid., 2:548.
36
General Orders, May 24–26, 1776, in
The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series
, 4:384–87.
37
Erwin H. Ackerknecht,
A Short History of Medicine
(New York: The Ronald Press Co., 1968), 45.
38
General Orders, December 11, 1775, in
The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series
, 2:528–29.
39
Benson John Lossing,
Mount Vernon and Its Associations: Historical, Biographical, and Pictorial
(1859), 52.
40
Washington Irving,
Life of George Washington
, 1:92.
41
Lossing,
Mount Vernon and Its Associations
, 52.
42
Helen Bryan,
Martha Washington: First Lady of Liberty
(New York: Wiley, 2002), 192.
43
Washington to John Augustine Washington, April 29, 1776, in
The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series
, 4:173.
44
He knew of her anxiety when her son had been inoculated and “doubted she would make good on her pledge” to undergo the procedure. Chernow,
Washington: A Life
, 231.
45
Ibid., 205.
46
Jean Edward Smith,
John Marshall: Definer of a Nation
(New York: H. Holt & Co., 1996), 53.
47
Elizabeth Anne Fenn,
Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775–82
(New York: Hill & Wang, 2001), 101.
48
Joseph Hodgkins to Sarah Hodgkins, qtd. in
This Glorious Cause: The Adventures of Two Company Grade Officers in Washington’s Army
, ed. Robert Lively (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1958).
49
Washington to John Hancock, September 2, 1776, in
The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series
, 6:199.
Chapter 14: Between a Hawk and a Buzzard
 
1
McCullough,
1776
, 166.
2
Ibid., 167.
3
John Trumbull, “M’Fingal,”
The Spirit of Seventy-Six
, 416.
4
Natalie Wolchover, “Why Do Americans and Brits Have Different Accents?” Life’s Little Mysteries, citing John Algeo,
The Cambridge History of the English Language
(Cambridge University Press, 2001).
5
Ibid.
6
Ibid.
7
Ibid.
8
Ibid.
9
London Chronicle
, qtd. in McCullough,
1776
, 167.
10
Lord Rawdon Francis to Francis, tenth Earl of Huntington, August 5, 1776, in
The Spirit of Seventy-Six
, 424.
11
Ibid.
12
Ibid.
13
Ibid.
14
Lord Hugh Percy to Lord George Germain, September 2, 1776, in
Letters of Hugh, Earl Percy, from Boston and New York, 1774–1776
, ed. Charles Knowles Bolton (1902), 71.
15
From the Journals of Sir George Collier, in
Memoirs of the Long Island Historical Society
(1869), 2:413.
16
Resolution of the Continental Congress, June 16, 1775, in
Journals of the Continental Congress
, 2:92–95.
17
Barron and Lederman, “The Commander in Chief at the Lowest Ebb,” 776.
18
Washington to John Hancock, September 8, 1776, in
The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series
, 6:251
19
Ibid.
20
Ibid.
21
It is unclear how strongly Washington felt about conducting a full withdrawal. His letters to Congress express profound uncertainty about his next moves.
22
Ibid.
23
Congress said they did not intend for Washington to be bound by the war council’s decisions, but they did not inform him of this until later.
24
Colonel Joseph Reed to Mrs. Reed, September 6, 1776, in
American Archives,
Fourth Series, 2:198.
25
Ibid.
26
Ibid.
27
Ira K. Morris,
Morris’s Memorial History of Staten Island, New York
(1898), 1:144.
28
Walter Isaacson,
Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004), 319.
29
Francis Wharton,
The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States
(1889), 2:141–42.
30
Gregory T. Edgar,
Campaign of 1776: The Road to Trenton
(Bowie: Heritage Books, 1995), 170.
31
Ira Gruber,
The Howe Brothers and the American Revolution
(New York: Atheneum, 1972), 199.

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