THE
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at Ne burgh
-
Gen. George Washington
By ELMO SCOTT WATSON
T WAS just 150 years ago that the cur-
tain was rung down on the last act of
the mighty drama known as the Amer
ican Revolution and, appropriately
enough, the stage setting for this act
was the Hudson river, which
had been the scene of so many impor-
tant events during that struggle. More
particularly the town
of Newburgh, N. Y.
It was here that Washington and his
Continental army, after the victory over Corn-
wallis at Yorktown, had settled down on their
last camp ground of the war. In the Hasbrouck
mansion, a small, sloping-roofed farme
house, Washington had established his head-
quarters and here were living with him Martha
Washington and members of his military fami-
ly, officers who had followed his fortunes faith-
fully during the war—Col. Tench Tilghman, Col
David Humphries, Maj. Benjamin Walker. Col.
William Stevens Smith, Hedijah and
Jonathan Trumbull, Jr, son of the famous
“Brother Jonathan” Trumbull, governor of Con-
necticut. 4
The camp of the
semi-circle extending from
along
locale was the
stone
Baylies
in a
four miles southwest
of Newburgh to the village of New Windsor on
the west bank of the Hudson, now a suburb
of Newburgh. On the summit of a high.
less hill overlooking the valley had been erected
a big, oblong wooden known as
Temple or the New Public building which was
used for holding religions
tinentals,
On April 19, 1783 (the anniversary of the Rat
tle of Lexington), a courier rode hastily through
the streets of Newburgh and drew up before the
Hasbrouck mansion. The burden of his
patches was the proclamation of congress for
the cessation of hostilities. At noon of the same
day the proclamation was read to the officers
of the army who were assembled in the Temple
for that purpose and In the evening It was read
to every regiment in the army. Although the
signing of the treaty of peace was still several
months in the
Soptember Toms) i American Revol
was at an end,
soldiers was pliched
tree.
buile the
services for the Con
des.
futnre (it was not slened until
tion
began the work of demobilization and
as the officers prepared to
other, perhaps forever, it occurred to Gen. Hen-
ry Knox, commander at West Point, to whom
had been given the delicate task of disband-
ing the army, that there should be some way
of perpetuating the ties that had bound them
together during the dark days of their struggle
for liberty, hen, there idea of
paying tribute to thelr fellow officers who had
lost their lives In the struggle and of finding
some method of support for the widows and
orphans of the dead heroes.
The proposal of Knox to found a patriotic
and memorial society met with the Instant ap-
proval of the other officers of the army and it
also had “the acquiescence and hearty appro-
bation” of Washington. A meeting to organize
such a soclety was held at Verplanck house, the
headquarters of Baron von Steuben near Fish.
kill, with that doughty German soldier presid
Ing and Knox serving as secretary-general.
The name chosen for the organization was
the Society of the Cincinnati and the selection
of that name Is easily explained. ‘The ecolo-
nists were mostly agriculturists and many of
them had been educated in England where Roman
history was ever the Inspiration of the scholar.
80 the name of Society of the Cincinnatl was
appropriate for them because they, like the
Cincinnatus of Roman legend, had left the plow
for their country's service and like him. now
that their service was over, were returning to
the plow again.
The order, or medal, of the soclety was also
In keeping with this idea. It Is a baldheaded
eagle, suspended on a blue ribbon with white
borders, typifying the union of France and Amer.
lea, On the eagle's breast Is shown Cincinnatus
receiving a sword and Insignia from the Roman
senate and in the background Is his home, his
wife and his plow. Around this scene are dis
played the words “Omnia relinquit servare rem
publican”—He left all to serve the republic. On
the reverse of the order Is Fame crowning Cin-
cinnatus with a wreath, inscribed "Virtotis
Praemium”~the reward of valor. In the back-
ground is a seaport city with open gates and
ships entering the harbor and below this are
Joined hands supporting a heart inscribed “Esto
Peorpetua”—Be thou Faithful, the command of
the society. The design for this medal was the
werk of Major L'Enfant, destined for future
fame as the man who was to plan the new Capl-
tal of the Nation, Washington, D. O
The membe of the society Was composed
of officers of the Continental army, native or
foreign, who had served three years or been
hono discharged and to thelr direct male
nts by order of birth, through females
Now
take leave of each
foo, wing the
a
Henry
Knox
in default of males and then by collaterals if
judged acceptable by the ¢ Individuals dis
tinguished for their patriotisin were to be ad-
mitted as honorary for life and the
state branches were always to meet on the
Fourth of July, eral society was
y third ye an the anniversary of
May 13. 1'S8.
It agreed at the first
wiety,
members
while the ger
meeting that in or.
der to secure the fund for the desired relief of
the widows and orphans that all the officers
should contribute a full month's salary, as soon
as congress appropriated an equal amount. This
would make a very considerable pension fund,
the interest on which alone was to be expended.
Strange as it may seem, the organization of
this patriotic and fraternal organization soon
became the object of bitter denunciation by a
large number of citizens of the new nation. The
first mistake on the part of its founders had
been in limiting the membership to officers, both
native and foreign. Unlike the G. A. R., which
followed the Civil war, and the American Le.
gion, which followed the World war, the Soclety
of the Cincinnati did not include In its member.
ship the common soldier,
Then the memberships were made hereditary,
to pass down to posterity by the rule of prim-
ogeniture, and In this provision the patriots
detected a move toward the perpetuation of a
“military aristocracy.” And then, to cap ‘he
climax, there was the golden “decoration” which
went with a membership. Were not such deco
rations of the very essence of the Old world feu
dal aristocracy?
So, in spite of the faet that the great “Father
of Our Country” vouched for the patriotic spirit
of the new society and honored it by becoming
its first president, the tribunes of the people
raged against it and declaimed against it as an
insidious influence, to such an extent that the
time came when It was as much as a man's
political life was worth to appear in publie
with the insignia of the Cincinnati pinned to
his bosom. France, Just swinging into its bloody
revolutionary period, took a hand In the fight
and even the great Mirabean thundered against
the Cincinnati and warned the young Republic
against its dangerous tendencies.
The young Republic was quite willing to believe
him. It was not only the tavern orators and
the political pamphleteers that pitched into it,
not merely the rabid republican followers of
Jefferson who viewed it as a dangerous menace
to the Republic's new institutions—some of the
most conservative statesmen and publicists of
the tifie raised their voices and employed their
pens against it 4
Jefferson was publicly. hostile to it. Benjamin
Franklin, then representing the republic at the
court of France, wrote home ridiculing the pur
poses of the soclety as an attempt to form an
order of “hereditary knighthood.” He expressed
the wonder that any set of American gentlemen
should, In the face of the provisions of the
Articles of Confederation against “ranks of no-
bility
from
exclusive order Invested
and
Probably the
new order was
the Revolution™
panlike, they man, he
was more ready to remember grateful nd re
* set thems
ives and their posterity apart
their fellow citizens of the Republie in an
with all the privileges
insignia of aristocracy
of the
Samuel! Adam the “father of
While his
were
most influential enem
¥
fat
views were states
severe. No said,
ward the services of the
set of men
had
oF
gle, but it was astounding that any
" :
should
imagine that a people who freely
and tre i
nent the rele was os
“reconciled to the odious hereditary distin
tion of families.” Ie
of the Cincinnati
tary military no
in so short a time, and be could not but lament,
looked upon
1 3
“as a stride toward a heredi
ility as rapid as ever was made
a8 a grievous misfortune to the states,
Mustrious a man as Washington sanctioned it."
to the
John Adams added his voice
Massachusetts inspired by resolutions from Cam.
bridge, the university center. denounced the so
ciety as “dangerous to the peace, liberty and
safety of the Union.™ A flood of pamphieteers
Joined the chorug of condemnation
One of these, Aedanns Burke, a Revolutionary
veteran and a Judge of the Supreme Court of
South Carolina, wrote a bitter pamphlet over
the signature of “Cassius” denouncing the aris
tocratic tendencies of the society, which put the
capsheaf on the condemnatory movement. The
pamphlet was reprinted in every state and found
its way across the Atlantic. A copy fell into the
hands of Mirabeau, who translated it into French
and published it In England.
Washington tried to stem the tide of opposi-
tion to the child of his sponsorship by advocat-
ing the repeal of the provision making the mem.
berships hereditary. But it was too late. Pub
lie suspicion had been aroused and the patriots
of the “rank and file” had placed their taboo
on the order.
One of the most interesting results of the
feeling against the Cincinnati was the founding
of Tammany Hall, a counter movement in New
York, nucleating In a society organized on the
alleged basis of “pure democracy” Ro unpopu-
lar did the Cincinnati become that candidates
for public office curried favor by denouncing
“the aristocrats” from the stump and instances
are related where men publicly divested them.
selves of the eagle and the ribhon at the polls,
vowing that they had severed thelr connection
with the society, Rhode Island went te the length
of disfranchising all members of the hated or
ganization and one by one the state socletios
in Georgla, North Carolina, Virginla, Delaware,
Connecticut and New Hampshire abandoned
their charters and the once propitious Roclety
of the Cincinnatl was in a falr way to oblivion.
The visit of Lafayette, In 1824, revived a
temporary interest in it, but it was many years
before popular apprehension had become so ap
peased that It was safe for a man who asked
preferment at the hands of the Americar nub.
lie to profess that he was a member of the hon.
orable Society of the Cincinnati, America’s first
association of war veterans,
(® by Western Newspaper Union.)
5
Bible Called King
of All Textbooks
Journalism to practice rewriting sto-
ries from the Bible Is but applying
an old idea In a new ssvironment,
The English Bible has long been king
of textbooks for him who would
know how to write the English lan
guage, In addition to its instruc
tional value, the course at
ought to serve as a chastener of van
i
ing to know what the youngsters of
Texans would make out of the account
of the death of a certain royal ter-
“Aud when Jehu was come to Jez
reel, Jezebel heard of it: and she
painted her face, and tired her head,
looked out at a window. And
young, finds himself getting puffed
up over his technical skill al] that is
again, to make him know the limita-
tions of his craftsmanship. is to set
him to reading St, Luke's report of
the parable of the Prodigal Son.
All things considered, there never
wus a better reporter than Luke, He
wasted no never spent
tiie on introductions} he had per-
fect
words: he
understanding of color, move
His account of a
27:28) has not been
centuries, [Ir
ment, background.
shipwreck (Acts
stirpussed in nineteen
beging gently as a zephyr:
“And when the south
softly, posing that
pur O86,
wind
they
loosing thence
had ob
tained their
they sailed
ong
cloge hy Crete,
after there
tempestous
urose against it a
wind, called Euroclydon
And when the ship was caught, and
let her drive”
The wind did not rise more rapidly
un the swell of the narrative nor
fo gh foliohifnlile
subside more delightfully,
ix to tell the tale
ily by the discovery that
ter told. The Old
f \
ment Is full of
Cian not be het
master?
“And he lifted up his face to the
and sald, Who is on my
And there looked ont to
And he
sald, Throw her down, So they threw
her down: and some of her blood
the wall, and on
the horges: and he trode her under
foot.”
For anybody
vivid,
who wishes (0 write
Incisive English there
is more useful
than persistent study of the phrase
ology of the Bible.—~New York Sun.
strong
which
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