Letters from an American - One of the Highest Moral Lessons

Episode Date: June 15, 2026

June 14, 2026On June 14, 1775, the Second Continental Congress established the Continental Army, The Battles of Lexington and Concord had made it clear that the British government endangered American liberties, Congress then named Virginia planter George Washington as its commander-in-chief, Defending the country without creating a military that could be used to repress the people was a challenge, The army was overlooked by Congress and funds were not available for food or supplies for the militiamen encamped at Valley Forge, PA, When France signed a treaty with the American states in February 1778, they lent money, material, and men to the cause of American independence, The Treaty of Paris formally ended the war in September 1783, and Congress disbanded the army, Washington stepped aside from military leadership, addressing Congress in December, Painter John Trumbull called his retirement one of the highest moral lessons ever given to the world.  Watch today's recording here: https://www.youtube.com/live/g9TUa1Rwd6U?si=T8_KKcHQZElhpnZ-Get full, free access to Letters from an American here: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribeYou can also find me:Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/hcrichardson.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/heathercoxrichardson/?hl=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/heathercoxrichardson/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@heathercoxrichardson Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

June 14, 26. On June 14th, 1775, the Second Continental Congress resolved that six companies of expert riflemen be immediately raised in Pennsylvania, two in Maryland, and two in Virginia, that each company consists of a captain, three lieutenants, four sergeants, four corporals, a drummer or trumpeter, and 68 privates, and that each company, as soon as completed, shall march and join the army near Boston to be there employed as light infantry under the command of the chief officer in that army. And thus, Congress established the Continental Army. The First Continental Congress, which met in 1774, refused to establish a standing army, afraid that a bad government could use an army against its people.

The Congress met in response to the British Parliament's closing of the port of Boston and imposition of martial law there, but its members hoped they could repair their relationship with King George III, and simply sent entreaties to the king to end what were known as the intolerable acts. The battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775 changed the equation. On April 19th, British soldiers opened fire on colonists, just as patriot leaders feared they might. In the aftermath of that deadly day, about 15,000 untrained Massachusetts militiamen converged on Boston and laid siege to the town, where they bottled up about 6,500 British regulars. The battles of Lexington and Concord made it clear the British government endangered American liberties.

The Second Continental Congress met in Independence Hall in Philadelphia on May 10, 1775, to address the crisis in Boston. The delegates overcame their suspicions of a standing army to conclude they must bring the various state militias into a continental organization to stand against King George III. With the establishment of the Continental Army, a British officer, General Charles Lee, resigned his commission in the British Army

and published a public letter explaining that the king's overreach had turned him away from service in his majesty's army and toward the patriots. Whenever it shall please His Majesty to call me forth to any honorable service against the natural hereditary enemies of our country, or in defense of his just rights and dignity, no man will obey the righteous summons with more zeal and alacrity than myself, he wrote. But the present measures seem to me so absolutely subversive of the right, and liberties of every individual subject, so destructive to the whole empire at large, and ultimately so ruinous to His Majesty's own person, dignity, and family,

that I think myself obliged in conscience as a citizen, Englishman, and soldier of a free state to exert my utmost to defeat them. After they established a Continental Army, the next thing Congress members did was to name a French and Indian War veteran, Virginia Planter George Washington, Commander-in-Chief. To Washington fell the challenge of establishing an army to defend the nation without creating a military a tyrant could use to repress the people. It was not an easy project. The Continental Army was made up of volunteers who were loyal primaries. merrily to the officers they had chosen. And because Congress still feared a standing army, their enlistments initially were short. Different units trained with different field manuals,

making it hard to turn them into a unified fighting force. Women came to the camps with their men, often bringing their children. The women worked for the half-rations the government provided, washing, cooking, hauling water, and tending the wounded. After an initial, bout of enthusiasm at the start of the war, men stopped enlisting, and in 1777, Congress increased the times of enlistment to three years or, for the duration of the conflict. That meant that the men in the army were more often poor than wealthy, enlisting for the bounties offered, and Congress found it easy to overlook those 12,000 people encamped about 18 miles to the northwest of Philadelphia in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania for six months in the hard winter of 1777 to 1778. The Congress had no way to

compel the states to provide money, food, or supplies for the Army, and the Army almost fell apart for lack of support. Supply chains broke as the British captured food or it spoiled in transit to the soldiers, and wartime inflation meant Congress did not appropriate enough money for food. Hunger and disease stalked the camp, but even worse was the lack of clothing. More than a thousand soldiers died and about eight or ten deserted every day. Washington warned the president of the Continental Congress that the men were close to mutiny, even as a group of army officers were working with congressmen to replace Washington, complaining about how he was prosecuting the war. By February 1778, a delegation from the Continental Congress had visited Valley Forge,

and understanding that the lack of supplies made the army, and thus the country, truly vulnerable, set out to reform the supply department. Then a newly arrived Prussian officer, Baron Friedrich von Steuben, drilled the soldiers into unity and better morale. Then, in May, the soldiers learned that France had signed a treaty with the American states in February, lending money, material, and men to the cause of American independence. The army survived. By the end of 1778, the main theater of the war had shifted to the south,

where British officers hoped to recruit loyalists to their side. Instead, guerrilla bans helped General Nathaniel Green bait the British into a war of endurance that finally ended on October 19, 1781, at the Battle of Yorktown in Virginia, where British General Charles Cornwallis surrendered to General Washington and French commander Jean-Baptiste Donotienne de Vimour, Conte Rochambeau. The Continental Army had defeated the Army of the King and established a nation based on the principle that all men were created equal and had a right to have a say in the government under which they,

lived. In September 1783, negotiators concluded the Treaty of Paris that formally ended the war, and Congress discharged most of the troops still in service. In his November 2nd farewell addressed to his men, Washington noted that their victory against such a formidable power was, little short, of a standing miracle. Who has before seen a disciplined army formed at once from such raw materials, Washington wrote. Who that was not a witness could imagine that the most violent local prejudices would cease so soon, and that men who came from the different parts of the continent, strongly disposed by the habits of education, to despise and quarrel with each other, would instantly become but one patriotic band of brothers. With the army disbanded, General Washington himself,

stepped away from military leadership. On December 23rd, Washington addressed Congress saying, Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theater of action, and bidding an affectionate farewell to this august body, under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my commission and take my leave of all the employments of public life. In 1817, given the choice of subjects to paint for the rotunda in the U.S. Capitol, being rebuilt after the British had burned it during the War of 1812, fine artist John Trumbull picked the moment of Washington's resignation from the army. As he discussed the project with President James Madison, Trumbull told the president, I have thought that one of the highest moral lessons ever given to the world was that presented by the conduct of the commander-in-chief

in resigning his power and commission as he did. When the army, perhaps, would have been unanimously with him and few of the people disposed to resist his retaining the power which he had used with such happy success and such irreproachable moderation. Madison agreed, and the painting of a man voluntarily walking away from the leadership of a powerful army, rather than becoming a dictator, hangs today in the Capitol Rotunda. Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dead in Massachusetts, recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.