Patrick Henry’s rousing line: “Give me Liberty, or give me death,” and George Washington became the personification of such sentiment. As he willingly accepted the nomination of his peers to command the newly adopted “army,” he knew he would risk his life on a regular basis.
Within three weeks of the incidents at Lexington and Concord, the Second Continental Congress convened once again after a crisis in the colonies. They had convened in 1774 after the Boston Tea Party. This time they reconvened on May 10th in order to decipher eyewitness accounts of the battles against British regulars.
There seemed little doubt that the British government would send more shiploads of troops, but there were some in Congress who held the belief that the King George III and the British government could be still be trusted to look upon the colonials with respect and esteem after all that had happened. Washington, the former colonel in the British Army, most likely harbored no illusions about the future.
There would definitely be a reckoning, and circumstances had deteriorated in the weeks since shots were fired at the King’s troops, the day acknowledged by historians as the initiation of the American War for Independence. During this time, Congress had argued about a proper course of action, yet no decision was made to formally declare war against the mother country. Finally, on June 14, 1775, John Adams rose on the floor of Congress to offer an appeal from the Massachusetts Provincial Congress for assistance with organization and some assumption of authority for the crisis. Adams addressed the delegates of Congress with a sense of urgency to avoid a disaster should the British troops manage to break out of Boston and “spread desolation as far as they could go.”
It was true patriots like John Adams and George Washington and Benjamin Franklin who understood the ruthlessness of the British, for they all had worked closely in their own ways with such men of ruthlessness. John Adam’s first formal resolution was for the Congress to take charge of the band of amateur troops; his second was to appoint a commanding general to take charge of the troops in the field.
Some of what Adams recommended has been recorded regarding who should lead such an “army.” He proclaimed that he “had but one Gentleman in… Mind for that important command, and that was a Gentleman from Virginia who was among Us… a Gentleman whose Skill and Experience as an Officer, whose independent fortune, great Talents and excellent universal Character, would command the Approbation of all of America, and unite the cordial Exertions of all the Colonies better than any other person in the Union.”
After John Adams finished his proposal, George Washington eventually consented to his nomination to ‘that important command.’ However, Washington made some points clear in his formal response to the members of Congress:
Mr. President, Though I am truly sensible of the high honor done me in this appointment, yet I feel great distress from a consciousness that my abilities and military experience may not be equal to the extensive and important trust. However, as the Congress desire it, I will enter upon the momentous duty, and exert every power I possess in their service and for the support of their glorious cause…
As to pay sir, I beg leave to assure the Congress that no pecuniary consideration could have tempted me to accept the arduous employment at the expense of my domestic ease and happiness, I do not wish to make profit from it…
Ultimately, Washington’s efforts as the Commander of the Continental Army would surprise the British, as he fought the most powerful military on the planet for six long years from this turning point in his life.
Nevertheless, when Washington took command, he realized that he had a tremendous amount of work in front of him. The “troops” did not resemble an army, and the newly appointed general did not initially refer to them as an army, but rather as the “raw material” for an army. The ‘troops’ were not a genuine army in practical form, but a volunteer force: fa