Liberty Without Anarchy
Subtitle: A History of the Society of the Cincinnati
Edition: New Ed edition
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
Published: December 30, 2004
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 280
ISBN-13: 9780813923116
Subjects: American history: c 1500 to c 1800; Pressure groups & lobbying; c 1700 to c 1800; History; History - U.S.; History: American; USA; Customs & Traditions; Social History; United States - General; Military - United States; United States - Revolutionary War; Society of the Cincinnati
Description: Founded in May 1783 at Steuben's headquarters near Newburg, N.Y., by officers of the Continental army and navy, the Society of the Cincinnati was at one time one of America's most controversial organizations. In Liberty without Anarchy, Minor Myers relates how the officers, who had not been paid for four years, began to circulate rumors of a military coup. The society, with Washington as President-General, was formed to exert political pressure on Congress to guarantee payment in response to the angry men. Many Americans, Thomas Jefferson principal among them, viewed the new organization with suspicion, as a seedbed for a hereditary American aristocracy.