George Washington ’s Legacy and the Electoral Count Reform Act

Andy CraigOn this day in 1783, George Washington appeared before Congress at the statehouse in Annapolis to resign his military commission at the end of the Revolutionary War. In so doing, he created the first of a  series of precedents establishing the peaceful, voluntary transfer of power in the United States, along with his decision to not seek a third term as president in 1796 and, four years later, when John Adams became the first president to concede defeat for re‐​election.The significance of the moment was not lost at the time. Washington ’s former aide‐​de‐​camp, John Trumbull, wrote that his resignation “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. ” Trumbull’s monumental painting of the occasion stands today in the rotunda of the Capitol. On the other side of the Atlantic, even King George III later remarked that Washington ’s action would “place him in a light the most distinguished of any man living” and make him “…the greatest character of the age.” The idea that the highest power in the land would be voluntarily surrendered, subject to the rule of law, was unheard of at the time. Though the Founders had some contemporary examples of quasi ‐​republican government, elective heads of state, and victorious generals after a revolution, these rulers typica...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs