A letter from Lafayette, who had gone to France, shortly afterwards arrived, announcing the signing of the preliminary articles of peace; and the news being confirmed by a letter from Carleton, Washington, on April 19, the eighth anniversary of the day of Lexington, issued a proclamation announcing cessation of hostilities. Sparks's Washington (viii. 425; App. 13); Heath's Memoirs; Madison's Debates (i. 437); Diplom. Correspondence (ii. 319-329; x. 121; xi. 320); Secret Journals of Cong. (iii. 323, under date of April 11, 1783).
Knox had suggested (Drake's Knox), and in April, 1783, the Society of the Cincinnati had been formed from the officers of the army, with a plan of transmitting membership to descendants. It was intended as an organization to perpetuate a brotherhood formed in arms, and to offer an organization which might conveniently deliberate as occasion required upon the condition of the country. As a rule the principal civil leaders of the Revolution looked upon the combination with disapproval (Wells's Sam. Adams, iii. 202; Austin's Gerry, ch. 25; Sparks's Franklin, x. 58; Bigelow's Franklin, iii. 247; John Adams, Works, ix. 524, called it "the first step taken to deface our temple of liberty"), and even with dread, lest it might lend itself to the creation of castes and the furtherance of schemes against the liberties of the country. There was a widespread dissatisfaction among the people generally, not always temperately expressed, and years were required to remove the apprehension so incontinently formed. The society was organized in the Verplanck house (view in Appleton's Journal, xiv. 353); the fac-similes of the signatures to the original subscription are given in the Penna. Archives, vol. xi., and a representation of a certificate signed by Washington is in Lossing's Field-Book, ii. 128. The bibliography of the society and its branches, by States, is given by Lloyd P. Smith in the Bulletin of the Philadelphia Library, July, 1885. Particular reference may he made to the accounts and expositions given in the Penna. Hist. Soc. Memoirs (1858), vi. pp. 15-55, by Alexander Johnston; North Amer. Review, v. lxxvii. 267, by W. Sargent; St. Clair Papers, i. 590; Kapp's Steuben, ch. 26; E. M. Stone's Our French Allies, p. xix; Lossing's Field-Book, ii. 127; J. B. McMaster's People of the U. S., i. 167; R. C. Winthrop's Speeches, etc. (1852, etc.), P. 345; and the account of the centennial of the order in Mag. Amer. Hist., Sept., 1883, pp. 171, 235, 253.
On the 18th June, 1783, Washington from Newburgh, whither he had removed his headquarters from Verplanck's after the departure of the French, issued his last circular letter to the States (Sparks, viii. 439; Irving, iv. 394), full of counsel and warning.[1568]
The troops were in large part dismissed on furlough, and finally, Congress (Oct. 18) by proclamation, directed the disbandment of the army, to take effect Nov. 2 (Secret Journals, iii. 406). A small body was, however, still kept together under Knox, to await the definitive form of the treaty. Washington now occupied a brief space in making a journey with Gov. Clinton over the battlefields of Burgoyne's campaign. He then, at the request of Congress, proceeded to Princeton, and was domiciled for a while at Rocky Hill, in order to be at hand for conferences with that body. From this place, Nov. 2, 1783, he issued a farewell address to the army. (Sparks, viii. 491; Irving, iv. 402; Pickering's Pickering, i. 488.)
The last surviving pensioner of the Revolution is called one Lemuel Cook in the Amer. Hist. Record, ii. 357. In 1864, what purported to be the record of the latest survivors of the war appeared in Elias B. Hillard's Last Men of the Revolution (Hartford, 1864). An account of John Gray as the last soldier of the Revolution, by J. M. Dalzell, was printed at Washington in 1868. B. P. Poore's Descriptive Catal. of Gov't Publications will enable one to trace many of those soldiers whose claims came before Congress.
Carleton giving notice of his readiness to evacuate New York, Washington now returned to West Point, and prepared to enter the city with Gov. Clinton on the appointed day. The general and the governor entered the upper end of the town on Nov. 25, while the British embarked at the lower end. Valentine's N. Y. City Manual for 1861 gives various documentary records, some in fac-simile. On Dec. 1 there were fireworks, a broadside programme of which is in the cabinet of the Mass. Hist. Society. Trumbull painted a picture of the scene of the evacuation, which is given in the Mag. Amer. Hist., 1883, p. 387. The histories of New York city commemorate the event, and there are illustrated papers on it in Harper's Mag., Nov., 1883 (vol. lxvii. 609), and Manhattan Mag., Dec., 1883. Cf. Hist. Mag., xi. 42; Lieut.-Col. Smith's letter in N. Y. City during the Rev. (N. Y., 1861); Irving's Washington, iv. ch. 33; Jones's N. Y. during the Rev. (ii. 504). Some days after the British had gone, Washington met his principal officers (Dec. 4) in Fraunce's Tavern, and bade them farewell.
FRAUNCE'S TAVERN IN NEW YORK.
This building stood on the corner of Pearl and Broad streets, N. Y., and was occupied by Washington as headquarters when he entered the city after the British evacuated in 1783. The cut follows a view given in Valentine's N. Y. City Manual, 1854, p. 547, accompanied by a paper by W. J. Davis. Cf. Mag. of Amer. Hist., iii. 144, 151, 152; Lossing's Field-Book, ii. 839; Gay's Pict. Hist. U. S., iv. 90; Dawson's Westchester. The opening chapter of McMaster's History of the People of the United States, (N. Y., 1883) describes the appearance of New York city at this time, and indeed of the other principal American towns, and the habits of living through the country. An account of New York at this time is also in the Manhattan Mag., ii. 561.
Immediately leaving New York, Washington journeyed to Annapolis, where Congress was then assembled. Here, on Dec. 23, he met Congress in the State House (view in Columbian Mag., Jan., 1789; Lossing's Field-Book, ii. 402), where he resigned his commission in an address. (Sparks, viii. 504, and App., xiv.; Marshall, iv. 622. A fac-simile of the manuscript is given in the Mag. Amer. Hist., 1881, vol. vii. 106. Cf. Journals of Congress, iv. 318; Ridgeley's Hist. of Annapolis.) On Christmas Eve, Washington reached Mount Vernon, once more a private gentleman.