1. GW refers to two anonymous, unsigned letters, dated 10 and 12 March 1783, which were addressed to the officers of the Continental army. Those letters, whose authorship was later attributed to Armstrong, protested congressional inaction vis-à-vis officer grievances over arrears in pay, unresolved clothing accounts, and pension issues. The letters, which summoned the officers to convene on 11 March 1783, called on them to threaten retirement during wartime, thus leaving the United States without defense, and to refuse disbandment or surrender of arms during times of peace. The letter of 12 March sought to implicate GW in the affair by making him appear sympathetic to the appeals. In order to quell any unrest caused by the letters, GW delivered an address to the officers on 15 March 1783, in which he denounced the anonymous appeals and the call for a meeting. GW also acknowledged the officers’ past sufferings and expressed confidence in Congress’s readiness to address their concerns. He ended his speech, which contained no speculation as to the authorship of the anonymous letters, with an appeal to virtue and dignified conduct. Following GW’s address, officers renounced the anonymous letters and developed an even deeper respect for GW. For more on the letters and GW’s actions in what became known as the Newburgh Conspiracy, see William M. Fowler, Jr., American Crisis: George Washington and the Dangerous Two Years After Yorktown, 1781–1783 (New York, 2011), 174–88; and Freeman, Washington description begins Douglas Southall Freeman. George Washington: A Biography. 7 vols. New York, 1948–57. description ends , 5:428–37.

The Newburgh addresses of 1783 were not the only Revolutionary War–era documents that distressed GW at the end of his presidency. In an official statement deposited with the State Department, GW denounced recently republished forgeries first attributed to him during the war (see GW to Timothy Pickering, 3 March 1797; see also John Carey to GW, 1 Oct. 1796, and n.1).