A Year With George Washington
On April 16, 1784, Thomas Jefferson responded to George Washington’s request that he render an opinion on the newly formed Society of the Cincinnati.
Instituted by Henry Knox at the close of the Revolutionary War and favored by notable figures such as Colonel Alexander Hamilton and General Horatio Gates, the fraternal organization was founded to maintain the deep and abiding bonds formed among officers during the hardships of war. The order’s stated purpose was to ensure “the remembrance of this vast event, to preserve inviolate those exalted liberties of human nature”, and “to render permanent the cordial affection subsisting among the officers.”
The Society of the Cincinnati was named in honor of the Roman citizen Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus (519 – 430 BC), who was called into service by the leaders of Rome during a momentous crisis in the early republic. The gravity of the emergency was such that its leaders granted Cincinnatus unfettered dictatorial power to extinguish the imminent threat posed by the Aequi, an Italic tribe to the east of Rome in the Apennine Mountains.
At the Battle of Mount Algidus, a fight even most Romans expected to lose, Cincinnatus achieved a decisive victory in a campaign lasting just sixteen days. Though he returned to Rome a hero and more powerful than ever, he relinquished his authority and retired to his farm. George Washington likewise did so some two millennia later and was revered for it just as Cincinnatus was.
The Continental Army and Navy officers who made up the society insisted that the Society was formed merely to solemnize the hard-fought victory of American independence and to provide a charitable organization to care for the families of the military. Its formation was controversial to some; to them, the means of membership in the order ran counter to the precepts of the Revolution.
George Washington, ever careful of his legacy, did not want to join the society unless and until he was convinced it would uphold the virtues he had fought so seflessly for and held so dear. Jefferson’s opinion was thus valuable to Washington, as he knew his fellow Virginian bristled at anything antithetical to the hallowed words he had written years before in the Declaration of Independence.
Jefferson politely noted in his letter that, “The subject has been at the point of my pen in every letter I have written to you; but has been still restrained by a reflection that you had among your friends more able counsellors, and in yourself one abler than them all.”
Jefferson was concilatory before laying out his concerns to Washington writing that, “it was natural for men who had accompanied each other through so many scenes of hardship, of difficulty and danger, who in a variety of instances must have been rendered mutually dear by those aids and good offices to which their situations had given occasion, it was natural I say for these to seize with fondness any propositions which promised to bring them together again at certain and regular periods.”
Jefferson then echoed what many newly minted Americans believed: that the Cincinnati order was elitist and smacked of European nobility, being limited to officers only, and only those of the Continental line. Militia officers and every non-officer who fought and died in the war, though a considerably larger part of the combat forces, were not eligible for admission.
Troubling as well was the requirement of primogeniture, the hereditary system in which the eldest male heir inherits the bulk of the father’s property or title, no matter his qualifications to do so. That practice, as well, was an Old World innovation, and in America, the land of the individual possessed of God-given natural rights, primogeniture was viewed with suspicion, if not disdain.
Another gnawing issue for the detractors was that, early in its existence, a very real fear among the populace held that the Society was actually formed to supplant Congress and the Articles of Confederation. The Newburg Conspiracy, a cabal of disgruntled officers threatening to march on Congress for being denied back pay and pensions, had taken place only two months before the society was formed.
A gold medal was issued to and was to be worn by members in the same manner as the European Orders of Knights. This buttressed the dissenters’ claims of a society laden with royal trappings even more
Foreign membership, with its attendant hereditary traditions, was also a major concern, as foreign influence or interference ran counter to the ideals Americans had just suffered greatly to acquire and preserve.
Washington was not yet a member at the time of Jefferson’s writing, but, knowing that he would be asked to lead it were he to join, he wanted to be sure of its constitution, rules, and expectations. Before he agreed to join and serve, Washington had a few structural demands of the Society. Below is his list, most of which was inspired by Jefferson’s letter (below), with some parts borrowed from Jefferson and recorded verbatim.
Washington wrote, “Strike out every word, sentence, and clause which has a political tendency. Discontinue the hereditary part in all its connexions, absolutely, without any substitution which can be construed into concealment, or a change of ground only; for this would, in my opinion, encrease, rather than allay suspicions. Admit no more honorary Members into the Society. Reject subscriptions, or donations from every person who is not a Citizen of the United States. Place the funds upon such a footing as to remove the jealousies which are entertained on that score‥‥ Abolish the General Meetings altogether, as unnecessary; the Constitution being given, a continuance of them would be expensive, and very probably from a diversity of Sentiment, and tenacity of opinion might be productive of more dissention than harmony; for it has been well observed ‘that nothing loosens the bans of private friendship more, than for friends to pit themselves agst. each other in public debate, where every one is free to speak and to act.’ … No alteration short of what is here enumerated will, in my opinion, reconcile the Society to the Community; whether these will do it, is questionable ‥‥ Without being possessed of the reasons which induce many Gentlemen to retain the order or badge of the Society, it will be conceived by the public that this order (which except in its perpetuity still appears in the same terrific array as at first) is a feather we cannot consent to pluck from ourselves, tho’ we have taken it from our descendants. If we assign the reasons, we might I presume as well discontinue the order”
The national society did as Washington demanded and addressed all of his concerns. The state chapters mostly followed suit, but a few refused to change the rules. Eventually, even those who had acceded to Washington’s demands at the time of his admission reverted to the original rules once the public fervor subsided. Washington served as president of the order until his death in 1799.
The initial public outcry and fears surrounding the Society of the Cincinnati subsided after the army disbanded and the U.S. Constitution was ratified. The order will celebrate its 243rd year on May 13, 2026.
Its main mission now is as it was at its founding: to foster “the remembrance of this vast event (the American Revolution) and to preserve inviolate those exalted liberties of human nature.” It remains the oldest hereditary and patriotic order in the United States.
Thomas Jefferson To George Washington
Annapolis April. 16. 1784.
Dear Sir
I received your favor of the 8th. inst. by Colo. Harrison. The subject of it is interesting, and, so far as you have stood connected with it, has been matter of anxiety to me: because whatever may be the ultimate fate of the institution of the Cincinnati, as in it’s course it draws to it some degree of disapprobation, I have wished to see you stand on ground separated from it; and that the character which will be handed to future ages at the head of our revolution may in no instance be compromitted in subordinate altercations. The subject has been at the point of my pen in every letter I have written to you; but has been still restrained by a reflection that you had among your friends more able counsellors, and in yourself one abler than them all. Your letter has now rendered a duty what was before a desire, and I cannot better merit your confidence than by a full and free communication of facts and sentiments as far as they have come within my observation.
When the army was about to be disbanded, and the officers to take final leave, perhaps never again to meet, it was natural for men who had accompanied each other through so many scenes of hardship, of difficulty and danger, who in a variety of instances must have been rendered mutually dear by those aids and good offices to which their situations had given occasion, it was natural I say for these to seize with fondness any propositions which promised to bring them together again at certain and regular periods. And this I take for granted was the origin and object of this institution: and I have no suspicion that they foresaw, much less intended those mischeifs which exist perhaps in the forebodings of politicians only. I doubt however whether in it’s execution it would be found to answer the wishes of those who framed it, and to foster those friendships it was intended to preserve. The members would be brought together at their annual assemblies no longer to encounter a common enemy, but to encounter one another in debate and sentiment. Something I suppose is to be done at those meetings, and however unimportant, it will suffice to produce difference of opinion, contradiction and irritation. The way to make friends quarrel is to pit them in disputation under the public eye. An experience of near twenty years has taught me that few friendships stand this test; and that public assemblies where every one is free to speak and to act, are the most powerful looseners of the bands of private friendship. I think therefore that this institution would fail of it’s principal object, the perpetuation of the personal friendships contracted thro’ the war.
The objections of those opposed to the institution shall be briefly sketched; you will readily fill them up. They urge that it is against the Confederation; against the letter of some of our constitutions; against the spirit of them all, that the foundation, on which all these are built, is the natural equality of man, the denial of every preeminence but that annexed to legal office, and particularly the denial of a preeminence by birth;—that however, in their present dispositions, citizens might decline accepting honorary instalments into the order, a time may come when a change of dispositions would render these flattering; when a well directed distribution of them might draw into the order all the men of talents, of office and wealth; and in this case would probably procure an ingraftment into the government; that in this they will be supported by their foreign members, and the wishes and influence of foreign courts; that experience has shewn that the hereditary branches of modern governments are the patrons of privilege and prerogative, and not of the natural rights of the people, whose oppressors they generally are; that besides these evils which are remote, others may take place more immediately; that a distinction is kept up between the civil and military which it is for the happiness of both to obliterate; that when the members assemble they will be proposing to do something, and what that something may be will depend on actual circumstances; that being an organized body, under habits of subordination, the first obstructions to enterprize will be already surmounted; that the moderation and virtue of a single character has probably prevented this revolution from being closed as most others have been by a subversion of that liberty it was intended to establish; that he is not immortal, and his successor or some one of his successors at the head of this institution may adopt a more mistaken road to glory.
What are the sentiments of Congress on this subject, and what line they will pursue can only be stated conjecturally. Congress as a body, if left to themselves, will in my opinion say nothing on the subject. They may however be forced into a declaration by instructions from some of the states or by other incidents. Their sentiments, if forced from them, will be unfriendly to the institution. If permitted to pursue their own tract, they will check it by side blows whenever it comes in their way, and in competitions for office on equal or nearly equal ground will give silent preferences to those who are not of the fraternity. My reasons for thinking this are: 1. The grounds on which they lately declined the foreign order proposed to be conferred on some of our citizens. 2. The fourth of the fundamental articles of the constitution for the new states. I inclose you the report. It has been considered by Congress, recommitted and reformed by a Committee according to the sentiments expressed on other parts of it, but the principle referred to having not been controverted at all, stands in this as in the original report. It is not yet confirmed by Congress. 3. Private conversations on this subject with the members. Since the receipt of your letter I have taken occasion to extend these; not indeed to the military members, because being of the order delicacy forbade it; but to the others pretty generally; and among these I have found but one who is not opposed to the institution, and that with an anguish of mind, tho’ covered under a guarded silence, which I have not seen produced by any circumstance before. I arrived at Philadelphia before the separation of the last Congress, and saw there and at Princeton some3 of it’s members not now in delegation. Burke’s peice happened to come out at that time which occasioned this institution to be the subject of conversation. I found the same impression made on them which their successors have received. I hear from other quarters that it is disagreeable generally to such citizens as have attended to it, and therefore will probably be so to all when any circumstance shall present it to the notice of all.
This Sir is as faithful an account of sentiments and facts as I am able to give you. You know the extent of the circle within which my observations are at present circumscribed; and can estimate how far, as forming a part of the general opinion, it may merit notice, or ought to influence your particular conduct. It remains now to pay obedience to that part of your letter which requests sentiments on the most eligible measures to be pursued by the society at their next meeting. I must be far from pretending to be a judge of what would in fact be the most eligible measures for the society. I can only give you the opinions of those with whom I have conversed, and who, as I have before observed, are unfriendly to it. They lead to these conclusions. 1. If the society proceeds according to it’s institution, it will be better to make no applications to Congress on that subject, or on any other in their associated character. 2. If they should propose to modify it so as to render it unobjectionable, I think this would not be effected without such a modification as would amount almost to annihilation; for such would it be to part with it’s inheritability, it’s organisation and it’s assemblies. 3. If they should be disposed to discontinue the whole it would remain with them to determine whether they would chuse it to be done by their own act only, or by a reference of the matter to Congress, which would infallibly produce a recommendation of total discontinuance.
You will be sensible, Sir, that these communications are without all reserve. I supposed such to be your wish, and mean them but as materials, with such others as you may collect, for your better judgment to work on. I consider the whole matter as between ourselves alone, having determined to take no active part in this or any thing else which may lead to altercation, or disturb that quiet and tranquillity of mind to which I consign the remaining portion of my life. I have been thrown back by events on a stage where I had never more thought to appear. It is but for a time however, and as a day labourer, free to withdraw or be withdrawn at will. While I remain I shall pursue in silence the path of right; but in every situation public or private shall be gratified by all occasions of rendering you service and of convincing you there is no one to whom your reputation and happiness are dearer than to, Sir, Your most obedient & most humble servt,
Th: Jefferson
