Resignation letters are a dime a dozen these days in Annapolis, but Wednesday the state agreed to pay $750,000 to buy a really, really important one ? George Washington?s resignation of his commission in the Maryland Senate chamber 223 years ago this Saturday.
Taxpayers are picking up half the tab for the speech Washington wrote in his own hand after riding to Annapolis from his Mount Vernon home on Dec. 23, 1783. The document, which Washington delivered to the Continental Congress that day, has been appraised at $1.5 million. The rest of the money comes from private donations and the partial gift of the owners, who wish to remain anonymous.
“This is a momentous occasion for the state,” State Archivist Edward Papenfuse told the Board of Public Works on Wednesday. “It is one of the most fundamental documents in American history.”
With the Revolutionary War over and the young United States in need of strong leadership instead of government by committee, Washington had been urged by some of his own officers to assume the title and trappings of monarchy. Instead, Washington told the Congress, which was meeting in the recently constructed State House,: “I have now the honor of offering my sincere Congratulations to Congress & of presenting myself before them to surrender into their hands the trust committed to me, and to claim the indulgence of retiring from the Service of my Country.”
This act firmly established the tradition of civilian control of the military in the new nation, historians say.
“He was an extraordinary man,” State Treasurer Nancy Kopp said. “It was an unprecedented act.”
“We have a moral obligation to preserve our history,” Gov. Robert Ehrlich said.
Papenfuse gave credit to first lady Kendel Ehrlich for helping raise the private donations to acquire the historic document.
At Wednesday?s board meeting, Nancy Ehrlich, the governor?s mother, presented Comptroller William Donald Schaefer with her painting of the fountain Schaefer had installed at the back of the governor?s mansion in honor of his longtime companion, Hilda Mae Snoops, now deceased.
“Gee, it?s wonderful,” said Schaefer, who was moved to tears. “It?s one of my favorite spots in the state.”
