Politics

1776 All-Stars: George Washington Was a Model of Restraint

America's first president helped establish the tradition of military submission to civilian authority.

Christian Britschgi | From the July 2026 issue

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(Illustration: Joanna Andreasson, ChatGPT-5.4; Source images: Wikimedia)

This is part of 1776 All-Stars, a series about Reason's favorite American Founders. Read more here.

In the final days of the American Revolution, Continental Army soldiers gathered in Newburgh, New York, to demand that Congress fund their back pay and promised pensions. Anonymous letters circulating among the troops suggested that they might refuse to disband, and might even overthrow Congress, if their benefits weren't forthcoming.

Some of the generals and politicians egging the soldiers on hoped that George Washington would take up his men's cause and in doing so replace a weak Congress with a powerful new federal government. Instead, Washington ended the mutiny with a few words and some brilliant political showmanship.

In the middle of an address to the restive soldiers in which he urged them to respect Congress, the aged general conspicuously reached into his pocket for his glasses.

"Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray but almost blind in the........

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