February 22, 1732: Happy Birthday to his Excellency

His contemporaries called him "Excellency".  After victory in the Revolution, he diffused a near revolt (and potential military coup de etat of his army in Newburgh NY in 1783. He relinquished control of the military to the Confederation Congress and enabled a constitutional republic to arise out of the ashes of war. He is a son of Virginia, a son of the South.

 

Our Cincinnatus: Omnia relinquit servare Republicam

• Lucius (Titus) Quinctius Cincinnatus

  (b. c.519 BC)
  In 458 BCE (according to tradition), Cincinnatus, who had been consul in 460 BCE, was plowing his fields when messengers arrived to tell him he had been named dictator to defend the city against the Aequi and the Volscians. He took up the supreme command, defeated Rome's enemies, freed the beseiged consul Minucius, and returned to his farm, all within 16 days. Further, he refused the honors that came with his military victories. Legend says he was named dictator a second time in 439 BCE, but there is no foundation for this story.
  George Washington was sometimes called an American Cincinnatus because he too held his command only until the defeat of the British and, at a time when he could have chosen to exercise great political power, instead returned as soon as he could to cultivating his lands. After the end of the Revolutionary War, a group of former officers in the (now) American army formed The Society of the Cincinnati, taking the name from the Roman general. The city of Cincinnati was named after this organization, and a statue of Cincinnatus stands there today.
  [The symbol of the] Order of Cincinnatus [is] in the shape of an eagle with the image of Cincinnatus on its breast. The motto of the Order reads: Omnia relinquit servare Republicam (He gave up everything to preserve the Republic.)

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Contrast Washington to Bonaparte:

Bonaparte robs a nation of its independence: deposed as emperor, he is sent into exile, where the world’s anxiety still does not think him safely enough imprisoned, guarded by the Ocean. He dies: the news proclaimed on the door of the palace in front of which the conqueror had announced so many funerals, neither detains nor astonishes the passer-by: what have the citizens to mourn?
Washington's Republic lives on; Bonaparte’s empire is destroyed. Washington and Bonaparte emerged from the womb of democracy: both of them born to liberty, the former remained faithful to her, the latter betrayed her.

• François-René de Chateaubriand, in Mémoires d'outre-tombe (1848 – 1850), Book VI, Ch. 8 : Comparison of Washington and Bonaparte

 

February 22, 1862

Fellow-Citizens:

On this the birthday of the man most identified with the establishment of American independence, and beneath the monument erected to commemorate his heroic virtues and those of his compatriots, we have assembled to usher into existence the Permanent Government of the Confederate States. Through this instrumentality, under the favor of Divine Providence, we hope to perpetuate the principles of our revolutionary fathers. The day, the memory, and the purpose fitly associated...

Jefferson Davis, beginning of 2nd Inaugural address

                 

Jefferson Davis Illustrates original relationships of the States

This is a passage from The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government by Jefferson Davis. Here he describes the period between the 
ratification of the Constitution by 11 of the 13 States, when Rhode Island and North Carolina remained independent nations. The purpose of this passage and letter between the Governor of Rhode Island and 
President George Washington was to demonstrate how individual States did in fact consider themselves sovereign and independent at the time of the Ratification, and the Nationalist school of the founding of the country was a later distortion, and that the compact theory of the formation of the United States is most valid:

Jefferson Davis, 1808-1889

It is particularly to be noted that, during the intervals between the 
organization of the Federal Government under the new Constitution and the 
ratification of that Constitution by, North Carolina and Rhode Island, 
respectively, those States were absolutely independent and unconnected with any 
other political community, unless they be considered as still representing the 
"United States of America," which by the Articles of Confederation had been 
declared a "perpetual union." The other States had seceded from the former 
union—not in a body, but separately, each for itself—and had formed a new 
association, leaving these two States in the attitude of foreign though friendly 
powers. There was no claim of any right to control their action, as if they had 
been mere geographical or political divisions of one great consolidated 
community or "nation." Their accession to the Union was desired, but their 
freedom of choice in the matter was never questioned. And then it is to be 
noted, on their part, that, like the house of Judah, they refrained from any 
attempt to force the seceding sisters to return.

As illustrative of the relations existing during this period between the United 
States and Rhode Island, it may not be uninstructive to refer to a letter sent 
by the government of the latter to the President and Congress, and transmitted 
by the President to the Senate, with the following note:

"United States, September 26, 1789.

"Gentlemen of the Senate: Having yesterday received a letter written in this 
month by the Governor of Rhode Island, at the request and in behalf of the 
General Assembly of that State, addressed to the President, the Senate, and the 
House of Representatives of the eleven United States of America in Congress 
assembled, I take the earliest opportunity of laying a copy of it before you.

(Signed) "GEORGE WASHINGTON."

Some extracts from the communication referred to are annexed:

"State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, In General Assembly, 
September Session, 1789.

"To the President, the Senate, and the House of Representatives of the eleven 
United States of America in Congress assembled:

"The critical situation in which the people of this State are placed engages us 
to make these assurances, on their behalf, of their attachment and friendship to 
their sister States, and of their disposition to cultivate mutual harmony and 
friendly intercourse. They know themselves to be a handful, comparatively 
viewed, and, although they now stand as it were alone, they have not separated 
themselves or departed from the principles of that Confederation, which was 
formed by the sister States in their struggle for freedom and in the hour of 
danger....

"Our not having acceded to or adopted the new system of government formed and 
adopted by most of our sister States, we doubt not, has given uneasiness to 
them. That we have not seen our way clear to it, consistently with our idea of 
the principles upon which we all embarked together, has also given pain to us. 
We have not doubted that we might thereby
 avoid present difficulties, but we have apprehended future mischief....

"Can it be thought strange that, with these impressions, they [the people of 
this State] should wait to see the proposed system organized and in 
operation?—to see what further checks and securities would be agreed to and 
established by way of amendments, before they could adopt it as a Constitution 
of government for themselves and their posterity?...
"We are induced to hope that we shall not be altogether considered as foreigners 
having no particular affinity or connection with the United States; but that 
trade and commerce, upon which the prosperity of this State much depends, will 
be preserved as free and open between this State and the United States, as our 
different situations at present can possibly admit....

"We feel ourselves attached by the strongest ties of friendship, kindred, and 
interest, to our sister States; and we can not, without the greatest reluctance, 
look to any other quarter for those advantages of commercial intercourse which 
we conceive to be more natural and reciprocal between them and us.

"I am, at the request and in behalf of the General Assembly, your most obedient, 
humble servant.

(Signed) "John Collins, Governor.