Prelude to Glory, Vol. 7 by Ron Carter

Author:Ron Carter [Carter, Ron]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Historical
Publisher: Deseret Book Company
Published: 2003-08-31T04:00:00+00:00

Annapolis, Maryland

December 23, 1783

CHAPTER XX

* * *

Never had there been such a flood of ecstatic buzzing in the small, Chesapeake Bay town of Annapolis!

The citizenry had walked a bit livelier and held their heads a bit higher when Congress adjourned at Princeton, New Jersey, on November 4, 1783, to reconvene at Annapolis on November 26. Hosting the United States in congress assembled created a momentary national stir and provided a slight nudge upward in the Annapolis hotel and tavern businesses and gave the local fledgling newspaper a few headlines and a modicum of bragging rights. But soon enough the citizenry learned that the luster of politics is a thin, transient veneer that can quickly fade into the humdrum everyday business of life. The newfound celebrity of the small town soon dulled and began slipping away.

That was November.

No one in the country was prepared for the bombshell that burst over Annapolis in December.

On Saturday, December 20, startled citizens had slowed in the streets at the sight of a cluster of army officers with gold braid on their tricorns and large epaulets on their shoulders, riding high-blooded horses through the streets toward the state house. In the midst of the group, a full head taller than those around him, was General George Washington, astride his tall, dapple-gray mare, ramrod straight, blue-gray eyes watching everything. The officers tied their horses to the hitching posts in front of a large, white building, and walked beneath the columned portico, through double doors into the entryway, then down the hardwood hallway with their boot heels tapping, to the large hall where Congress was seated.

Upon their entry, the hall quieted. When he could collect his wits, Thomas Mifflin, president of the body, inquired the purpose of the unexpected but most welcome visit. General Washington stood at attention facing him.

“I wish to tender my letter of resignation from the office which this august body conferred on me in the year 1775.”

Audible gasps echoed, followed by stunned silence, then a spontaneous outburst of exclamations from every congressman in the room. Washington remained at attention, chin high, eyes locked onto President Thomas Mifflin—the same Thomas Mifflin who had been suspected of collusion with generals Thomas Conway and Horatio Gates in the infamous Conway Cabal five years earlier, in which it was suspected Conway and Gates were covertly attempting to undermine General Washington and replace him as commander in chief of the Continental Army. If rancor against these men still had a place in Washington’s heart, it was not evident as he stood on the floor of the United States Congress. He appeared before Mifflin as a servant of his country, subject to the will of the people, through their congress, and its president.

His letter of resignation was read and returned to him. A motion was made, loudly seconded, and unanimously voted in the affirmative: that on Monday, December 22, Congress should entertain the general and his aides with a day touring the city of Annapolis, followed by a sumptuous supper in his honor.

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