George Washington, Tyrant

Yes, yet another installment of the kraken's "debunking gun propaganda in favor of public safety" series. Luckily I am not the only one interested in the truth of these matters, numerous false quotations are challenged here. Now Washington has always been my favorite founding father, he was not the smartest or most educated, nor the best military leader but he was a true gentleman,  committed to his country and quite selflessly serving it. I wrote my senior capstone paper on GW, combing through multiple volumes of his published letters, diaries, speeches, and other writings. You can find the online version here, though not everything is available online unfortunately. To get a good sense of GW the man, you could do worse than J. Ellis' His Excellency: George Washington. Ellis the author has had his own issues with honesty, but only in his personal life as his scholarship and narrative are top notch.

So you can see that whoever made this meme up, taking a fictitious phrase completely anachronistic to GW's contemporaries that so brazenly supports modern gun maniacs and simply slap Washington's name at the bottom with no attribution or citation, really rubbed me the wrong way. Guncite.com's post referenced above provided the actual quotation from GW's First Annual Message to Congress that shows how much liberty was taken in twisting his words:

A free people ought not only to be armed but disciplined; to which end, a uniform and well digested plan is requisite: and their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories, as tend to render them independent on others for essential, particularly for military supplies.
 

The further into it you go, the more the unnamed propagandist trails off into fantasyland. Especially when combined with the preceding and following remarks it becomes evident that GW was talking about national defense and plans for the American people, the whole of the people government included, to defend the republic against outsiders not against tyranny from within.

Among the many interesting objects which will engage your attention, that of providing for the common defence will merit particular regard. To be prepared for war, is one of the most effectual means of perserving peace....The proper establishment of the troops, which may be deemed indispensable, will be entitled to mature deliberation. In the arrangements which may be made respecting it, it will be of importance to conciliate the comfortable support of the officers and soldiers with a due regard to economy.
 

Remember who Washington was addressing, Congress, that body established by the new Constitution to control matters of war and peace. The president was commander in chief but the congress declares war, the senate negotiates treaties, the house controls the purse strings and is charged with responsibility for raising and maintaining the armed forces. GW was asking Congress to address problems with the military, not warning them against disarming the people or imploring citizens to become vigilantes. By 1790 he had had enough of that. Especially when you consider that a year after this address Washington led THE LARGEST AMERICAN ARMY TO DATE against rebellious farmers in western Pennsylvania who were resisting the authority of the federal government to place a tax on their whiskey. George Washington, the president, personally led an army against "free people" attempting "to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them... includ[ing] their own government."

Historians may argue over the tactics, or the precedent set by this action but gun maniacs and the propagandists influencing them cannot dispute what George Washington actually did when confronted by free people rebelling against perceived tyranny. All they can do is consign the whiskey rebellion to the memory hole.

To his credit, the guy I got this picture/quote from did not know these facts and when I challenged the veracity of the quote he was upset at being used. He is a good guy whom I have known for many years and was glad to know the truth, but he is also a Texan so guns are in his blood. And that's cool with me, believe what you want but I am happy to know there is at least one person out there who will not stubbornly cling to bullshit just because it confirms what they want to believe. I guess the moral of this story is that if you are desperately looking for support for your positions, i.e. stockpiling weapons to defend yourself against tyranny, do not hang you hat on Washington unless you want to look like an ignorant fool.