Civil and Military Relationship throughout U.S. History | Primary Source Close Reads Explained

0:04 The relationship between the military and the government is one Americans often take for granted. But this relationship in world history has been anything but amicable. From Julius Caesar in Rome to Napoleon in France. In innumerable modern-day examples, military success has often transferred into political power. The United States has long held the tradition of military subordination to civilian authority.

0:27 Though this has been challenged at times, there continues to be a strong adherence to this principle in the American armed services. Looking through American history, we can find many examples of what this relationship looks like in practice. And today we’re going to look at three of those examples. The first is going to be General George Washington’s surrendering of his commission to the Confederation Congress in December of 1783.

0:48 The second will be General Ulysses S. Grant’s message to Abraham Lincoln after the surrender of the Confederate forces on April 9, 1865. And finally, we’ll take a look at Dwight D. Eisenhower’s message announcing German surrender on May 7, 1945. For each of these messages, we’re going to pay particular attention to the tone, what that tone says and who the message was addressed to and what that says about

1:12 this military relationship within our constitutional structure. And don’t worry if you think this is going to be a long video, I promise it’s not. These documents are very short, and that’s part of the point. So without further ado, let’s dive in. So the first document we’re going to look at is General George Washington surrendering his commission back to the Confederation Congress in 1783. This came after the conclusion of hostilities during the American Revolution.

1:35 It is immortalized by this painting by John Trumbull, which hangs in the rotunda of the United States Capitol. Here we see Washington surrendering his commission or giving back his authority over the control of the army to the Confederation Congress. This was seen as such a moment that it was chosen by Congress to hang in the rotunda specifically because it reinforces this idea of military subordination to civilian authorities.

1:59 So when Washington surrendered his commission, he gave a short address. And although we’re not going to look the entire address, I think these couple passages tell us a lot about what Washington was thinking and doing. So he says, the great events on which my resignation, depending at length, taking place; I have now the honor of offering my sincere congratulations to Congress and of presenting myself before them

2:20 to surrender into their hands the trust committed to me and to claim the indulgence of retiring from the service of my country. So here this was Washington’s opening line to the Confederation Congress. And what he’s saying is, the revolution is completed. I have done what I’ve been tasked with doing. I am congratulating Congress being the body who was animating this war that was driving it forward.

2:42 That was the purpose behind it happening in the first place. And he is now giving that trust meaning the authority back to Congress. So he’s surrendering up that commission. Why is this significant? Well, Washington had been given the authority over the armed services. Militaries are sort of the most brunt force object a government has at its disposal.

3:03 And with that brunt force comes a lot of power. That power oftentimes is used to sort of take power, seize control, or take the country in another direction that the government may not want it to go. So, as I mentioned, Julius Caesar in Rome is a great example of this, or another one is Napoleon Bonaparte came to power after a lot of success militarily both in Italy and in Egypt.

3:26 He seized power from the Directory and became sort of the head of the government himself. So it’s interesting to see here that Washington is not taking that route. And it’s often mentioned that George III, after hearing that Washington had done that, had stepped away from power, said something in effect of, if Washington had actually done this, then he is the most incredible person ever, because willfully giving up

3:48 that power is something that in most of human history just hasn’t happened. So Washington would go on to conclude his remarks by saying, having now finished the work assigned to me, I retire from the great theater of action and bidding an affectionate parallel to this august body under whose orders I have long acted, I here offer my commission and take leave of all employments of public life.

4:11 So going back over this, looking at it carefully, having finished the work aside to me, so he’s clearly stating, congress empowered me to do a particular thing that would lead the Continental Army or the United States Army in this war against Britain. I have now done that. We have won our independence, and I am now retiring or stepping back from this authority that has been bestowed

4:35 upon me and retreating back into private life. It’s pretty amazing. And this, again, is where Washington is really setting the tone for what that military subordination to civilian authority really looks like. So the same thing happened during the Civil War. Ulysses S. Grant had been named commander over all the Union army during the Civil War, and he had fought that war to his

4:55 conclusion during both the Overland Campaign and on into Petersburg and then finally to the Appomattox courthouse. And it was there at Abomatics in 165 that he cornered the Confederate forces and finally got them to surrender, which, in effect, ended the war, although it didn’t immediately end upon their surrender. This was really the moment when it ended. And so you now have this victorious

5:16 general who was brought to a conclusion, this horrible war that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans and that is seen as a prestigious thing. In fact, Ulysses S. Grant would go on to be president later on, of course, after being elected to that office, not in seizing power as a military dictator, but what he said here is really interesting. So he has this moment where the confederate army has surrendered.

5:39 This is often a time when generals who may in world history have had political designs would make some sort of grandiose statement about how wonderful they were and how great it is that they’ve brought this to conclusion and how thankful people should be for them, for their actions. But instead, this was Grant’s message back to Abraham Lincoln. His civilian superior in the government has generally surrendered.

6:02 The army of North Virginia this afternoon on terms proposed by myself. The accompanying additional correspondence will show the conditions fully, and that’s it. There’s no long praises for what he had accomplished or what his men had done. There was no talk about himself other than saying that he opposed these terms of surrender and they had been accepted by the confederate army.

6:22 That’s it. Simple, to the point, direct and again reporting back to the civilian leaders because they needed to know about this. It was theirs. He was working on their behalf. He wasn’t doing this on his own, and he’s reporting to them what he had accomplished. Again, it’s another great example of the military being subordinate to that civilian authority.

6:44 One final example here. In 1945, general Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had been commander of all of the allied forces in Europe, finally received the surrender of the German army, ending the second world war in Europe. And so, after these years and years of fighting, from 19, really from 1939 up until 1945,

7:05 but for the Americans from 1941 until 1945, years and years of campaigning, finally this triumphant moment has arrived. The surrender happens. And how does Dwight D. Eisenhower announced that it happens? With this short message the mission of this allied force was fulfilled at 2:41 local time, May 7, 1945. That’s it. Again, no grandiose

7:26 grandstanding about how amazing this accomplishment was. Nothing talking about himself or his own actions, but instead simply saying directly to the point that the task he had been given, thinking again back to Washington, that the task he had been assigned was completed, it was fulfilled at this time, and that’s it. It’s done. Pretty amazing when you really step back and think about it.

7:48 So, thinking back on the questions I posed in the beginning, what is the tone of each of these messages? Well, they’re pretty direct and straightforward. They’re not trying to sort of talk about themselves or build themselves up or build up their own accomplishments, and they’re not even trying to leverage that into some kind of informal power. All of them are pretty direct and on point. Where does that communicate? It shows, I think, a good relationship between what these

8:09 generals saw their task as being and how they were executing it. They had been empowered by the civilian authority to execute a particular task. That task being a big one, fighting and winning a war, leading armies. But it was a task nonetheless. And when that task was accomplished, they announced back to the leaders what they had done. And so it again is showing not that they just have this authority to go and do as

8:31 they wish, but they are subordinate to the civilian authority. Who are they directed to? I just kind of talked about that. Their civilian bosses and the government, the president, United States namely, or other sort of government officials. And I think that to the final question here points to what that relationship is because they see themselves as being the position to execute on these tasks.

8:52 And I think it’s really important for all of us to keep in mind that relationship between the civilian government and the military because it is that relationship that sort of keeps things stable, in check and ensures that what’s really being advanced is the interests of the United States as a whole, the collective nation as a whole.

9:14 And to that end, it’s always good to keep in mind or I guess I should say important to keep in mind that every government official and every military official takes an oath to defend and uphold the Constitution of the United States. Which again is a pretty interesting thing when you think about just sort of what that says about their role. Their role is to end our governing document which the people have authorized to rule on their behalf.

9:38 So thank you so much for tuning in. I hope you enjoyed this video is a little bit different than the other ones, a lot shorter documents, but hopefully interesting nonetheless. And I do hope you’ll come back and check out the other channel of shows that we have on our channel. So thank you so much and we’ll see you next time. Oh, no. The video’s over. Oh, come on, don’t be so sad. Don’t you know that the Bill of Rights Institute has tons of videos on American history, government, and civics?

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