May 21—Arnold sends first encrypted message to the British.
May 31—British land troops on both sides of the Hudson to seize West Point.
June 1—Arnold court-martial commences; interrupted by attack on West Point.
July 2—Congress returns to Philadelphia.
August 6—Major André writes to Peggy Arnold.
August 19—“Light Horse Harry” Lee’s victory at Paulus Hook, New Jersey.
1780September 12—Birth of a son to the Marquis de Lafayette—named “George Washington Lafayette.”
January 1—Pennsylvania troops mutiny.
January 26—Court-martial convicts Arnold of two minor counts of corruption.
April 6—Washington officially rebukes Arnold.
May 12—General Cornwallis assumes command of the British southern command.
May 25—Two Connecticut regiments are narrowly dissuaded from deserting.
July 7—Arnold writes to Clinton that he is certain he will receive command of West Point.
July 14—Arnold offers to Clinton to betray West Point for a price.
July 31—Near Stony Point, Washington informs Arnold that he is being restored to active command (left wing of Washington’s main army); Arnold declines.
August 3—Washington appoints Arnold as commandant of West Point, replacing General Robert Howe.
September 11—Planned meeting of Benedict Arnold and Major André fails to occur.
September 17—Washington meets with Arnold at Joshua Smith’s house.
September 18—Crosses the Hudson on Arnold’s barge on way to Hartford.
September 21—Arnold dispatches Joshua Smith to
Vulture
to fetch André to him.
September 25—Arnold learns of Andre’s capture and flees to the
Vulture;
Washington inspects West Point, later learns of Andre’s capture; orders Arnold’s arrest; Arnold writes to Washington.
September 27—Peggy Arnold leaves for Philadelphia.
September 29—Board of Inquiry convicts André of espionage.
1781October 2—André executed at Tappan, New York.
January 5—British forces under Arnold burn Richmond.
January 20—New Jersey troops mutiny at Pompton, New Jersey.
January 21—Washington orders General Robert Howe to crush the New Jersey mutineers.
January 27—Two New Jersey mutineers executed.
March 1—Articles of Confederation ratified.
August 1—Cornwallis occupies Yorktown.
September 5—French naval forces defeat the British in the Battle of the Virginia Capes; trap Cornwallis.
September 6—Arnold leads attack on New London, Connecticut.
September 9—Washington arrives at Mount Vernon; first visit home in the course of the war.
September 11—Admiral Graves orders HMS
Terrible
scuttled.
September 28—Siege of Yorktown commences.
1782October 19—Cornwallis surrenders.
February 27—The British House of Commons votes against continuing the war.
March 22—The Washingtons depart Philadelphia for army headquarters at Newburgh, New York.
March 31—The Washingtons arrive at Newburgh.
May 22—Washington responds to Colonel Lewis Nicola.
1783August 7—Establishes the Order of the Purple Heart.
March 15—Washington speech to officers at Newburgh.
September 3—Treaty of Paris grants American independence.
1786–87December 23—Resigns his commission.
1787Shays’s Rebellion disrupts Massachusetts.
February 21—Continental Congress authorizes Constitutional Convention.
May 13—Arrives in Philadelphia for Constitutional Convention.
May 14—Delegates arrive for the scheduled start of Constitutional Convention but lack a quorum.
May 25—A quorum is reached; Washington is unanimously selected as Constitutional Convention’s president.
May 29—Edmund Randolph submits Virginia Plan to Constitutional Convention.
June 15—New Jersey plan presented to Constitutional Convention.
July 2—States deadlock on Connecticut motion for senatorial representation; committee appointed to draft a compromise.
July 16—Constitutional Convention passes Benjamin’s Franklin’s compromise proposal on legislative representation 5–4.
July 24—Five-man committee appointed to draft a constitution.
July 26–August 6—Constitutional Convention adjourns.
September 12—“Committee of Style” begins work on final draft of U.S. Constitution.
September 12—Constitutional Convention receives final draft of Constitution.
October 27—Publication of the first of the
Federalist
papers.
1788December 7—Delaware becomes first state to ratify Constitution.
June 21—New Hampshire becomes the ninth state to ratify Constitution; it takes effect.
June 25—Virginia ratifies Constitution.
July 26—New York ratifies Constitution, but with a recommendation that a bill of rights be enacted.
August—Publication of the last of the
Federalist
papers.
1789September 13—Continental Congress declares Constitution to be in effect; declares New York City to be the nation’s capital.
January 7—First presidential electors selected.
February 4—Electors unanimously elect Washington president.
April 16—Washington leaves Mount Vernon to assume the presidency.
April 30—Inaugurated president at New York City’s Federal Hall.
July 14—Fall of the Bastille in France.
1790August 26—Death of Washington’s mother, Mary Ball Washington.
May 29—Rhode Island is the last of the original thirteen states to ratify the Constitution.
May—Washington writes to the Jewish congregation of Savannah.
August—Letter to Hebrew Congregation at Newport.
December—Writes to the Hebrew Congregations of Philadelphia, New York, Charleston, and Richmond.
1791Capital is relocated from New York to Philadelphia.
March—Passage of the Whiskey Excise Tax.
September—Convention to oppose Whiskey Excise Tax held in Pittsburgh.
September 11—Tax collectors tarred and feathered in Washington County, Pennsylvania. Washington tours the South.
1792December 15—Bill of Rights is ratified on Virginia’s action.
July—The first United States coinage is minted—the “half-disme.”
September 15—Washington issues proclamation denouncing illegal resistance to Whiskey Excise Tax.
October 13—Lays cornerstone of the White House.
1793December 5—Reelected president.
January 21—King Louis XVI of France guillotined.
April 8—Citizen Edmond Genêt arrives in the United States, at Charleston.
November 10—French Constituent Assembly authorizes a “Goddess of Reason.”
November 22—Protestors against Whiskey Excise Tax break into the home of tax collector Benjamin Wells in Fayette County, Pennsylvania.
1793–1794December 29—Thomas Paine arrested by the French revolutionaries.
1794British seize hundreds of American ships on the high seas.
August 1—Seven thousand anti-Whiskey Excise Tax protestors gather at Braddock’s Field, talk of burning Pittsburgh and seceding from the Union.
August 4—U.S. Supreme Court justice James Wilson certifies that western Pennsylvania is in a state of rebellion.
1796August 7—Washington summons the militia to quash the Whiskey Rebellion.
March 15—Washington submits Madison’s four-year-old draft of Washington’s Farewell Address to Hamilton for review.
December 7—Washington gives last message to Congress; proposes establishment of a navy and a military academy.
1797December 7—Electors cast votes for the presidency—Adams defeats Jefferson.
1798March 4—Leaves the presidency; John Adams inaugurated.
July 7—Washington appointed by John Adams to command the American army in anticipation of war with France (effective July 4).
1799July 9—Prepares will, frees Billy Lee on his death and grants Lee a life pension; frees remainder of his slaves upon Martha’s death.
December 13—Composes his last letter (to his farm manager).
December 14—Dies at Mount Vernon.
December 18—Body interred at Mount Vernon.
1801December 26—Huge memorial services held for Washington in Philadelphia; “Light Horse Harry” Lee eulogizes Washington as “First in War, first in Peace, and first in the hearts of his Countrymen.”
1806January 1—Will takes effect.
George Washington, in His Own WordsMay 22—Death of Martha Washington.
P
erhaps no person in history has had more written about him than George Washington. But despite all of the analysis and commentary published over the centuries, the best way to really get to know the man is to read his own words. Below is a selection of quotes, sorted alphabetically by topic, from Washington’s own speeches, letters, and orders. Many of these quotes are not famous, but I think they give great insight into the person George Washington really was—and what it will take to become him today.
ADVANCEMENT, Should Stem from Own Efforts.
—Let your promotion result from your own application and from intrinsic merit, not from the labors of others. The last would prove fallacious and expose you to the reproach of the daw in borrowed feathers.—To George Washington Parke Custis. (1796)
AMERICA, To Be Preserved by God.
—It is indeed a pleasure, from the walks of private life, to view in retrospect all the meanderings of our past labors, the difficulties through which we have waded, and the fortunate haven to which the ship has been brought! Is it possible after this that it should founder? Will not the all-wise and all-powerful Director of human events preserve it? I think he will. He may, however (for wise purposes not discoverable by finite minds), suffer our indiscretions and folly to place our national character low in the political scale; and this, unless more wisdom and less prejudice take the lead in our governments, will most assuredly be the case.—To Jonathan Trumbull. (1784)
AMERICA, To Be an Example to All the World.
—It should be the highest ambition of every American to extend his views beyond himself, and to bear in mind that his conduct will not only affect himself, his country, and his immediate posterity, but that its influence may be
co-extensive with the world and stamp political happiness or misery on ages yet unborn. To establish this desirable end, and to establish [a] government of laws, the union of these states is absolutely necessary; therefore in every proceeding, this great, this important object should ever be kept in view; and so long as our measures tend to this, and are marked with the wisdom of a well-informed and enlightened people, we may reasonably hope, under the smiles of Heaven, to convince the world that the happiness of nations can be accomplished by pacific revolutions in their political systems, without the destructive intervention of the sword.—To the legislature of Pennsylvania. (1789)