Re:Sarcasm (Score 0)

The war's end saw considerable maneuvering for personal power. Matters came to a head in the spring of 1783. Washington was approached by some senior army officers who proposed to make him king. A great many men--almost any man--would have jumped at the chance for such ultimate authority. George Washington, however, was not one of them. He had spent the past decade ridding America of a monarch, and was saddened and dismayed by the concept of saddling the country with another one, even himself. The officers set a meeting to advance their ambitions, but Washington preempted them with a meeting of his own. Many people attending Washington's meeting favored installing some form of military dictatorship. If they would have had their way, America might have disintegrated into rule by a pack of feudal warlords, ripe for anarchy or foreign takeover. Washington and his officers traded cold stares. Then the general began to read a letter supporting his viewpoint, but he stopped and put on a pair of spectacles--something few of them had ever seen him wear. Washington quietly said, "Gentlemen, I have grown gray in your service, and now I am going blind." In seconds, almost everyone was wiping away tears. The so-called "Newburgh Mutiny" had ended even before it had really begun, thanks to Washington's meeting.