Washington’s General Order, October 20, 1781.
16. The Meaning of Yorktown
The surrender of Cornwallis was immediately recognized as bringing within sight the end of the Revolution and the independence of the United States.
Your predictions regarding the fate of Lord Cornwallis have, thank God, been verified. It is a glorious, joyful, and important event. Britain feels the force of that stroke and other nations begin to doubt less of the continuance of our independence. Further successes must prepare the way for peace, and I hope that victory will stimulate instead of relaxing our exertions.
John Jay to Elbridge Gerry, Madrid, January 9, 1782.
The news of Yorktown brought the defeat of Lord North’s war ministry in England. Negotiations ending in a treaty of peace, with recognition of the independence of the United States, soon followed. The succeeding century brought out in stronger relief the significance of this decisive victory in the struggle for American self-government.
Upon this soil one hundred years ago our forefathers brought to a successful issue their heroic struggle for independence. Here and then was established, and as we trust made secure upon this continent for ages yet to come, that principle of government which is the very fiber of our system—the sovereignty of the people.
President Chester A. Arthur, Yorktown, October 19, 1881.
With the approach of the 150th anniversary of the Yorktown victory, there was renewed realization of the meaning of the event and of the debt which the people of the United States owed to the men who, by that victory, made the Declaration of Independence a living thing. The National Government and local organizations in 1931 cooperated in impressive commemorative services, and the battlefield of Yorktown was dedicated as a national shrine to be maintained for the people by the National Park Service.
While the events commemorated in other national parks are well worth the expense to the Government in commemorating them, and they all recall to the minds of the citizens important events in our history, as well as the heroism and devotion of our soldiers, they are at best only events, although important ones, in our history, while Yorktown marks the consummation of our national independence. Other battles of the Revolutionary War led up to this one battle, while battles of other wars since then were only struggles for our rights, or for the preservation of the Government, whose existence was decided on the field at Yorktown. It was at the bridge at Concord, Massachusetts, on April 19, 1775, where the embattled farmers stood and fired the shot heard around the world. It was on the field at Yorktown, Virginia, on October 19, 1781, that it was finally decided after six and one-half years of heroic struggle that shot had not been fired in vain. From that date the freedom of our country was secure and has never again been in danger. The treaty of peace acknowledging our independence two years later was but a natural and inevitable sequence to the surrender of our opponent’s finest army and ablest general.