Despite winning the most important engagement in American history, Washington refused to believe the war was over. The British had lost only a quarter of its army and still held New York City, Charleston, North Carolina, Savannah, and Georgia, and when the French fleet left for the Indies, the British would once again control the Atlantic Ocean.
Washington also refused to believe reports from Europe that the British recognized that they had lost their American Empire. He was convinced that King George III would ‘push the war as long as the nation would find men and money’. Washington therefore insisted on maintaining his army in a state of readiness until a treaty acknowledging American independence was signed.
Washington at the Constitutional Convention
This insistence on maintaining the Continental army at full strength was not well received by the public or Congress. History had shown that experiments with Republicanism ended in military dictatorships. Was Washington positioning himself to become the next Julius Caesar or Oliver Cromwell? Washington’s aide, Alexander Hamilton, did little to help matters when he voiced the opinion that the new nation would be in better hands if Washington, with force of arms, ordered the Continental Congress to disperse.
Matters came to a head in May 1782 when one of Washington’s young officers put into writing what many officers believed, that anarchy would befall post-war America unless Washington declared himself king. Washington’s response was quick and stern:
No occurrence in the course of the War has given me more painful sensations than your information of there being such ideas existing in the Army ... If you have any regard for your country, concern for yourself or posterity, or respect for me, you must banish these thoughts from your mind.
When King George learned of this, he said if Washington could resist becoming the monarch of the Americans, he would be ‘the greatest man in the world’. True to his word, that is exactly what he did. Washington resigned his commission on 22 December 1783, following the signing of the Paris Peace Treaty, which recognized America as a free and independent nation.