Part III - The Road to Victory: 1778–1783

Summary

Part III compiles Washington’s political writings from the alliance with France – a key turning point in the war – to the concluding of peace with Great Britain and Washington’s subsequent retirement from public life. Here we find the ardent patriot coming to the realization that patriotism alone was not enough to carry the war to a successful end. Enthusiasm, he observed, had done what it could in the beginning of the contest, which could now only be won by realistic appeals to the self-interest of those on whose exertions the outcome depended. Here, too, we find Washington confronting the problems that arose from the lack of effective governing power in the Articles of Confederation—experiences that, for the rest of his life, influenced his political thinking and convinced him of the need for a stronger central government.