Leaders Who Gave Power Back

One striking feature of the American Revolution is that its military leader surrendered power. In March 1783, when unpaid officers at Newburgh, New York, discussed defying Congress, George Washington persuaded them to stand down. In December 1783 he resigned his commission to Congress at Annapolis, and in 1797 he left the presidency after two terms. By contrast, Oliver Cromwell in England became Lord Protector, Napoleon crowned himself emperor in 1804, and Simón Bolívar accepted dictatorial powers in Peru and later in Gran Colombia.

Historians explain the difference partly by character, but also by structure: American leaders were embedded in strong colonial assemblies, did not face, after independence, the kind of foreign invasion France met in 1792, and shared a political culture deeply suspicious of standing armies. Washington's example became a model that later republics invoked.