From George Washington to Officers of the Army, 15 March 1783

Why this matters here

Washington’s 15 March 1783 address to army officers, preserved by Founders Online, acknowledges the army’s suffering while rejecting military pressure on Congress and urging fidelity to civil authority. The World We Make Together cites that speech at Newburgh as a hinge: words alone did not transform the room, yet the refusal of armed leverage against elected authority framed what shared power could still mean. The source is the primary text; the book asks how leadership holds when leverage against the polity it fought to establish becomes available.