Washington’s Stoic Heroes Teach Us How To Be Memorable
George Washington was taught to be humble & relinquish power
On December 23, 1783 an astonishing event occurred at a senate chamber in Maryland. A man at the height of his power and popularity stood in front of an assembly of the new American Congress. After leading a ragtag army of farmers in a victory over the greatest empire in the world, he would do something equally earth shattering.
He’d resign his commission, effectively giving up his power and ending his career. This resignation not only made waves across the new United States, it stunned the globe. The King of England himself would say:
“If [Washington] does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.”
John Trumbull while in England would describe the resignation as something that, “excites the astonishment and admiration of this part of the world. ’Tis a Conduct so novel, so inconceivable to People, who, far from giving up powers they possess, are willing to convulse the Empire to acquire more.”
After receiving a commission in 1820 to paint four defining events in American history, Trumbull would pick Washington’s resignation as one of the events he’d paint.
