Cincinnati, Society of the

CINCINNATI, SOCIETY OF THE

CINCINNATI, SOCIETY OF THE. Organized in May 1783, the Society of the Cincinnati was established by disbanding officers of the American Continental Army. Moved by the bonds of friendship forged during the war years and concerned by the financial plight of many whose pay was in arrears, the officers enthusiastically adopted the suggestion of General Henry Knox for a permanent association. The organization first met at the headquarters of General Friedrich von Steuben at Fishkill, New York, with George Washington as the first president general. The name alluded to Cincinnatus, the Roman general who retired quietly to his farmstead after leading his army to victory. The society established a fund for widows and the indigent and provided for the perpetuation of the organization by making membership hereditary in the eldest male line. There were thirteen state societies and an association in France for the French officers, comprising a union known as the General Society.

The society aroused antagonism, particularly in republican circles, because of its hereditary provisions, its large permanent funds, and its establishment of commit-tees of correspondence for the mutual exchange of information between the member societies. Due to popular suspicion of elitist organizations, the group grew dormant after the French Revolution. About 1900 a revival of interest began that reestablished the dormant societies, enlarged the membership, and procured a headquarters and public museum, Anderson House, in Washington, D.C. In the early 1970s membership numbered about 2,500.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Resch, John Phillips. Suffering Soldiers: Revolutionary War Veterans, Moral Sentiment, and Political Culture in the Early Republic. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1999.

Wills, Garry. Cincinnatus: George Washington and the Enlightenment. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1984.

John D. Kilbourne / h. s.

See also Revolution, American: Military History ; Veterans' Organizations .