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George Washington George Washington 1732-1799 George Washington By Gilbert Stuart. Courtesy National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC By 1786, General George Washington had enjoyed almost 3 years of retirement and hoped he had stepped out of the public eye for good. However, when news spread of an uprising in Massachusetts, Washington became concerned. Anxious for news, he relied heavily on reports from old comrades like General Henry Knox and General Benjamin Lincoln of Massachusetts. Similarly, Washington asked his former Continental Army aide, Colonel David Humphreys of Connecticut, to "write me fully, I beseech you, on these matters; not only with respect to facts, but as to opinions of their tendency and issue." But for God's sake tell me what is the cause of all these commotions: do they proceed from licentiousness, British-influence disseminated by the tories, or real grievances which admit of redress? If the latter, why were they delayed 'till the public mind had become so much agitated? If the former why are not the powers of Government tried at once?(1) Washington worried that "[c]ommotions of this sort, like snow-balls, gather strength as they roll, if there is no opposition in the way to divide and crumble them. I am mortified beyond expression that in the moment of our acknowledged independence we should by our conduct verify the predictions of our transatlantic foe, and render ourselves ridiculous and contemptible in the eyes of all Europe."(2) In October 1786, Washington wrote to Henry Lee of Virginia expressing alarm at the news from the "Eastern States" and repeating his dismay at the impression the turmoil must make on other nations, including Great Britain. the accounts which are published of the commotions…exhibit a melancholy proof of what our trans-Atlantic foe has predicted; and of another thing perhaps, which is still more to be regretted, and is yet more unaccountable, that mankind when left to themselves are unfit for their own Government. I am mortified beyond expression when I view the clouds that have spread over the brightest morn that ever dawned upon any Country… To be more exposed in the eyes of the world, and more contemptible than we already are, is hardly possible.(3) Letter to Benjamin Lincoln from George Washington asking for a report on Shays' Rebellion. More info As the news coming out of Massachusetts grew worse, Washington asked General Lincoln, "Are your people getting mad? Are we to have the goodly fabric that eight years were spent in raising pulled over our heads? What is the cause of all these commotions? When and how will they end?" Lincoln's response was hardly reassuring; "Many of them appear to be absolutely so [i.e., mad] if an attempt to annihilate our present constitution and dissolve the present government can be considered as evidence of insanity."(4) It was with relief that Washington received the new from General Knox of the "success of General Lincoln's operations" against the insurgents: On the prospect of the happy termination of this insurrection I sincerely congratulate you; hoping that good may result from the cloud of evils which threatned, not only the hemisphere of Massachusetts but by spreading its baneful influence, the tranquillity of the Union.(5) The turmoil in Massachusetts that would later become known as Shays' Rebellion played a key role in convincing Washington to come out of retirement. By March 1787, General Knox felt confident that Washington would attend the convention scheduled to convene in Philadelphia that spring to revise and strengthen the existing Articles of Confederation. Washington's agreement to chair the Convention and endorse its efforts gave crucial legitimacy to the proposed United States Constitution, aiding in its adoption by all thirteen states, including Massachusetts. Shays' Rebellion strengthened at a critical time the movement to create a stronger federal government. In doing so, it also ended George Washington's dream of a long and peaceful retirement from public life. Washington was unanimously elected to serve as the first President under the new Constitution. He served for two terms and at last retired to his estate at Mount Vernon, where he died in 1799. Thomas Jefferson 1743-1826 Thomas Jefferson The Edgehill portrait by Gilbert Stuart, 1805/21. Jointly owned by, and courtesy of, Monticello, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, and the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC Few people are linked as closely to the American Revolution and independence as Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. He formed his political opinions and philosophies in the crucible of the Imperial Crisis, and contemporaries quickly recognized Jefferson's flair for expressing in writing the beliefs and aims of the revolutionaries. In 1775, he became the youngest member of the Second Continental Congress. After drafting the Declaration of Independence in 1776, he served as the Governor of Virginia from 1779-1781. In 1784, Thomas Jefferson replaced Benjamin Franklin as the United States minister to France. When news of the turmoil in Massachusetts reached him in Paris, he wrote to his friend James Madison on January 30, 1787, "I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing." He went on to add that in his opinion, such rebellions were as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccessful rebellions, indeed, generally establish the encroachments on the rights of the people which have produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions as not to discourage them too much. It is medicine necessary for the sound health of government.”i(1) Jefferson's optimistic reaction to the news of unrest in Massachusetts was characteristic. It also distinguished him from most other observers, including Madison, Abigail Adams and George Washington. It certainly set him apart from Massachusetts leaders like Samuel Adams, who declared that "the man who dares rebel against the laws of a republic ought to suffer death”(2), and General Henry Knox who feared that the Regulation was "a formidable rebellion against reason, the principle of all government, and against the very name of liberty"(3). Massachusetts governor James Bowdoin used still more alarming language to describe in a proclamation the armed confrontations in his state: "this high-handed offence is fraught with the most fatal and pernicious consequences, must tend to subvert all law and government; to dissolve our excellent Constitution, and introduce universal riots, anarchy and confusion, which would probably terminate in absolute despotism."(4) In contrast to these alarming descriptions and predictions, Jefferson calmly reasoned that The late rebellion in Massachusetts has given more alarm than I think it should have done. Calculate that one rebellion in 13 states in the course of 11 years, is but one for each state in a century & a half. No country should be so long without one. Nor will any degree of power in the hands of government prevent insurrections. France, with all it's despotism, and two or three hundred thousand men always in arms has had three insurrections in the three years I have been here in every one of which greater numbers were engaged than in Massachusetts & a great deal more blood was spilt.(5) Nine days before the Regulators marched on the Springfield Arsenal, Jefferson wrote in their defense that The people are the only censors of their governors: and even their errors will tend to keep these to the true principles of their institution…The basis of our government being the opinions of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right…Cherish therefore the spirit of our people, and keep alive their attention.(6) The United States Constitution. More info Like John Adams, Thomas Jefferson was abroad in 1787 and thus was not present when the new federal Constitution was created in Philadelphia. Jefferson understood but did not wholly approve of the decision by the delegates to keep their deliberations secret, writing to John Adams in August 1787 that he was "sorry they [the delegates] began their deliberations by so abominable a precedent, as that of tying up the tongues of their members. Nothing can justify this example, but the innocence of their intentions, and ignorance of the value of public discussions." He endorsed their efforts, however, by adding that "I have no doubt that all their other measures will be good and wise. It is really an assembly of demi-gods." James Madison kept his friend well informed once the Convention adjourned and delegates were freed from their self-imposed silence.(7) Ultimately, Jefferson supported the Constitution but with reservations; he criticized the omission of a bill of rights, writing to Madison that this was a protection which "the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference." Jefferson was less restrained in his comments on the Constitution to John Adams: I confess there are things in it which stagger all my dispositions to subscribe to what such an assembly has proposed. The house of federal representatives will not be adequate to the management of affairs either foreign or federal. Their President seems a bad edition of a Polish king. He may be reelected from 4. years to 4. years for life. Reason and experience prove to us that a chief magistrate, so continuable, is an officer for life.(8) Despite these reservations, Jefferson accepted an appointment from the first President George Washington to be the new government's first Secretary of State from 1789-1793. He then served as Vice President under President John Adams from 1797-1801.
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