GENERALS JAMES EWING & JOHN ARMSTRONG REVOLUTIONARY WAR DATE MILITARY COMMISSION

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GENERALS JAMES EWING & JOHN ARMSTRONG REVOLUTIONARY WAR DATE MILITARY COMMISSION:
$790.00

1783 Pennsylvania Military Commission signed by the controversial, General John Armstrong Jr., and by James Ewing, Vice-President of the Supreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Official Paper and Wax seal in Good Condition.

GEN JOHN ARMSTRONG Jr. (1758-1843)\'s life was long, well-connected, prosperous-and often controversial. The son of a great Revolutionary War General, the younger Armstrong carried a dying General Hugh Mercer off the field in the Battle of Princeton. He later represented Pennsylvania in the Continental Congress, served as U.S. Senator from New York and then Minister to France. During the war of 1812 Armstrong defended the port of New York City, and under Madison was Secretary of War. He energetically revitalized the Army - but was forced to resign by Madison when he insisted the British would never invade.

In 1783 Armstrong penned the Newburgh Resolves in the Newburgh Conspiracy, which many historians consider the early stages of a coup d\'état. Armstrong\'s address called upon officers to demand back pay from Congress or threaten the Army would disband and leave the country undefended, or refuse to disband after peace came in a challenge to civilian authority. It remains unclear who was actually behind the Resolves. Nationalists in Congress may have been seeking to force Congress to pass legislation or an officer mutiny, perhaps led by General Gates, a rival for Washington\'s leadership may have been the plan. (Armstrong was General Gate\'s aide-de-camp.) General George Washington successfully defused the growing crisis, perhaps deliberately appealing to comradeship and sentiment when he pulled out his spectacles to read, saying: \"Gentlemen, you must pardon me, for I have not only grown gray but almost blind in service to my country.\" The Newburgh Conspiracy is regarded as an early, successful test of civilian control over the military.

James Ewing (1736-1806) is best known for the role assigned him by George Washington in the CROSSING OF THE DELAWARE. Ewing experienced earlier military service in 1755, taking part along with George Washington in British General Edward Braddock\'s disastrous campaign against the French. As a Pennsylvania Assemblyman, Ewing urged an immediate break with Britain, and was commissioned Brigadier General of the Pennsylvania Militia on JULY 4 1776. Soon after he was assigned by General George Washington to guard his flank in the famous crossing. But the icing of the river made a crossing impossible from Ewing\'s position across from Trenton. Washington wrote that \"the Quantity of ice was so great, that tho\' he did everything in his power to effect it, he could not get over.\" Ewing went on to serve several years in Pennsylvania\'s Supreme executive council, for two years as Vice-President (The equivalent of Lieutenant-Governor).

Accompanied by an early image of another commission to William Thompson who is therecipient of thisoriginal signed by two founding fathers during the revolution