Washington’s Four Essentials for America

By Andrew Cannizzaro  FEB 14, 2020

George Washington Gave America This Advice the First Time He Tried to Retire

 The American Revolution had just come to an end. George Washington, 51 years old and then the commander in chief of the Continental Army, had resigned his duties and wanted nothing more than to retire to his estate at Mount Vernon and study his crops.

Before he stepped back, though, he had some hard-earned wisdom he felt compelled to share with the country. So in the summer of 1783, he drafted his “Circular Letter to the States,” in which he detailed what he believed it would take for this American experiment to succeed.

In many ways, it was a precursor to his famed Farewell Address 13 years later, a prescient warning to the country of the most likely political pitfalls.

Not that he was angling for the job of leading the transitional new nation. After seven years in the battlefield, Washington wanted nothing more than a respite from public service.

“Notwithstanding my advanced season of life,” he wrote in a letter to Colonel Henry Lee, “my increasing fondness for agricultural amusements, and my growing love of retirement, augment and confirm my decided predilection for the character of a private citizen.”

'With our fate will the destiny of unborn millions be involved'

But Washington knew that America had arrived at a momentous crossroads—a place of both great promise and great peril. While the colonists had won the Revolution, a formal peace treaty had not yet been signed with Great Britain. The state governors were wary of handing over any power to Congress, and a wartime army had the daunting task of transitioning back to civilian life. Not to mention, the war had saddled the fledgling nation with massive debt.

With those hardships in mind, General Washington drafted his “Circular Letter,” in which he detailed what he believed it would take for this American experiment to succeed. By June 21, 1783, the letter had been sent to all state governors, but Washington was speaking directly to the people of America through his words.

“It appears to me there is an option still left to the United States of America. That it is in their choice and depends upon their conduct, whether they will be respectable and prosperous, or contemptible and Miserable as a Nation.”

Washington appeared to believe that winning the war would be meaningless if the people of America did not do something with their newly achieved freedom. How Americans chose to act in this moment, he felt, would reverberate for future generations: “For with our fate will the destiny of unborn millions be involved.”

Washington’s Four Essentials for America

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