Description

America’s King

In celebration of Presidents’ Day, may a share a story from the life of General George Washington?

In May of 1782, after the American Revolution was over, while America still struggled with her new-found independence, a letter was received by General Washington. The letter was written by one of Washington’s officers, Colonel Lewis Nicola. It outlined the grievances of the soldiers at being yet unpaid for their services, and being underfed along with other things, and it detailed a plan which involved the General that would rectify the situation and solve the woes of the nation if only Washington would lend his support.

Well upon reading the letter, Washington was indignant, even outraged, and he wrote an immediate response saying, “Be assured, sir, no occurrence in the course of the war has given me more painful sensations than your information of there being such ideas existing in the army as you have expressed, and I must view them with abhorrence and reprehend with severity … if I am not deceived in the knowledge of myself, you could not have found a person to whom your schemes are more disagreeable. Let me conjure you, then, if you have any regard for your country, concern for yourself or posterity, or respect for me, to banish these thoughts from your mind and never communicate, as from yourself or anyone else, a sentiment of like nature.”

“I am, sir, George Washington,”

Since the first time I heard this story, I have stood in awe of the Father of our Country, because I believe his unwavering, even outraged response in this one instance changed the entire course of America’s future. You might ask, “What was it they were asking of him?” – To allow the military for the good of the country to install General Washington as ‘George the First’, the first king of America.