Hear How George Washington Saved the Country from a Military Coup Sept. 16

SAN LUIS OBISPO – James Kirby Martin, distinguished professor at the University of Houston and author of numerous books on Revolutionary America, will discuss “Our Remarkable Revolution: How George Washington Saved the American Republic,” at Cal Poly Thursday, September 16 at 7:30 p.m.

The professor and author will speak in Philips Hall at the Performing Arts Center on Grand Avenue. The event is free and open to the public and is sponsored by the Sons of the American Revolution, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Cal Poly History Dept., Cal Poly Arts, and the Robert E. Kennedy Library. High school and college students are encouraged to attend.

Martin is currently working on a book pertaining to George Washington and how he prevented a military dictatorship in America, thereby saving the American republic.

An overview of his Cal Poly speaking engagement:

In 1782, a group of military officers in the American Revolutionary Army were distrustful of republicanism and disillusioned with the new American government; they preferred a military dictatorship and plotted a coup while headquartered in upstate New York.

They urged their commander-in-chief, General George Washington, to step forward as the savior of a disorganized civil society and accept the crown as America’s monarch. Washington vehemently refused and ultimately thwarted the conspiracy. His actions and loyalty to republican principles sustained the new American republic.

As Thomas Jefferson observed, “The moderation and virtue of a single character probably prevented this Revolution from being closed, as most others have been, by a subversion of that liberty that it was intended to establish."

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