Carolina QuotesAs to pay, Sir, I beg leave to assure the Congress that as no pecuniary consideration could have tempted me to accept this arduous employment at the expense of my domestic ease and happiness, I do not wish to make any profit from it.
George Washington Connected to the Carolinas
Source
Acceptance speech after being "elected" by the Continental Congress as commander of the yet-to-be-created Continental Army (15 June 1775)
- form
- speech
- year
- 1775
Cite this record
“As to pay, Sir, I beg leave to assure the Congress that as n…” George Washington. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-3D89F3E9DD. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/3d89f3e9dd
More from George Washington
Nothing is a greater stranger to my breast, or a sin that my soul more abhors, than that black and detestable one, ingratitude.
The reflection upon my situation, and that of this army, produces many an uneasy hour, when all around me are wrapped in sleep. Few people know the predicament we are in, on a thousand accounts; fewer still will believe, if any disaster happens to these lines, from what cause it flows. I have often thought how much happier I should have been, if instead of accepting of a command under such circumstances, I had taken my musket upon my shoulders and entered the rank, or if I could have justified the measure of posterity, and my own conscience, had retired to the back country, and lived in a wigwam. If I shall be able to rise superior to these, and many other difficulties which might be enumerated, I shall most religiously believe that the finger of Providence is in it, to blind the eyes of our enemies; for surely if we get well through this month, it must be for want of their knowing the disadvantages we labor under. Could I have foreseen the difficulties which have come upon us, could I have known that such a backwardness would have been discovered in the old soldiers to the service, all the generals upon earth should not have convinced me of the propriety of delaying an attack upon Boston till this time.
When we assumed the Soldier, we did not lay aside the Citizen.