State gets Washington's copy of historic speech

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Maryland lawmakers celebrated Presidents Day last Monday with the state's acquisition of a handwritten personal copy of a speech by George Washington, in which he announced his resignation from the Continental Army. The address is viewed as a landmark in American history for establishing military subservience to civilian authority.

Lawmakers and Gov. Martin O'Malley gathered in the Rotunda of the State House, just outside the old Senate chamber, where the country's first commander in chief-to-be gave his resignation speech on Dec. 23, 1783.

The room is kept as it looked in the 1780s and includes a mannequin dressed as Washington. The document, which is about 350 words, will be on display in the State House.

"Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theatre 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," Washington wrote.

Edward Papenfuse, the state archivist who worked on acquiring the speech, described it as "that priceless link on paper to the mind of the man who believed that civilian government and leadership was the only answer to the future of the republic."

The document is interesting because it includes scratched-out words from revision. For example, Washington initially wrote that he intended to "take my ultimate leave of all the employments of public life," but the word "ultimate" is crossed out. It is a noteworthy change, considering he became the country's first president about five years later in 1789.

"It is clear from what Washington crossed out that he had two goals in mind in making this speech, one of the most important of his whole career: reinforcing the supremacy of the civil authority and leaving the door open for his being called back to civilian service," Mr. Papenfuse said.

It took state officials about two years to acquire the speech from the family that has owned it all these years. The document is worth an estimated $1.5 million, Mr. Papenfuse said. The state paid $600,000. Two Baltimore philanthropists -- Willard Hackerman and Henry A. Rosenberg -- donated $200,000 each. The owners, who have asked to remain anonymous, donated the rest of the value.

There are two official copies of the speech. One is in the National Archives; the other is in the Library of Congress. The one acquired by Maryland is Washington's personal copy, which he wrote while in Annapolis.

Other than the ratification of the Treaty of Paris and the formal end of the Revolutionary War, Washington's resignation from the army is perhaps the most important historical event to occur in the Annapolis building, the nation's oldest state Capitol in continuous legislative use.