It was a speech so moving the crowd wept. It was a address so personally important, George Washington’s hand trembled as he read it. After the ceremony, he handed it to a friend and fled the statehouse in Annapolis, Md., by horse.
For centuries, his words on that day in 1783 have resonated in American democracy – even as the speech was quietly put away and largely forgotten.
Today, however, amid festivities celebrating his birth, Maryland officials will unveil the original document – worth $1.5 million. Scholars call the speech a turning point in U.S. history.
As the Revolutionary War was winding down, some wanted Washington to be king. Others tried to seduce him with the trappings of power. But Washington renounced them all by resigning his commission as commander in chief of the Army to the Continental Congress – then housed at the Annapolis capitol.
Archivist Edward Papenfuse was the architect behind the secretive deal forged over two years that secured the speech for Maryland. The family who owned it required anonymity.
Officials say the short manuscript – about 350 words on a single page in Washington’s ornate handwriting – was probably given to his former aide, Maryland congressman James McHenry, who kept it among his papers. It was passed down among his descendants along with an account of the day that McHenry wrote to his bride-to-be (also part of the deal.)
Experts believe Washington penned it at an Annapolis inn a few weeks after the last British soldiers withdrew. He had just bid his troops a tearful farewell in New York, after leading them through bitter winters and near starvation, and rode into Annapolis, intent on resigning but unsure of how to go about it.
Recognizing the importance of what was about to unfold, Congress set up a protocol committee chaired by Virginia’s Thomas Jefferson. Members wrote back, asking for a formal speech.
At noon Dec. 23, 1783, the doors of Congress were thrown open and in walked Washington. A throng crowded the avenues. The Senate chamber was packed with delegates and spectators. Ladies filled the gallery.
According to revisions in the manuscript, it appears Washington wanted to stress the importance of Congress and his subservience to it. He crossed out, for example, the word “deliver” and says instead, “I here offer my commission,” leaving his resignation as chief of the Continental Army up to the will of Congress.
When he read it aloud, “the spectators all wept, and there was hardly a member of Congress who did not drop tears,” McHenry writes in his account. “His voice faltered and sunk, and the whole house felt his agitations.”
The draft originally ended “bidding an affectionate, a final farewell to this august body, & I here today deliver my commission and take my ultimate leave of all the employments of public life.”
What is notable in the manuscript is that Washington crossed out “final” and “ultimate,” as though saying to Congress that he would be willing to serve again, if needed.
Five years later, he was indeed called back into service – as the first president of the United States of America.
There are two other final versions of Washington’s speech: one in the Library of Congress and another in the National Archives. But this draft is the original.
