CINCINNATI, sOCIETY OF TUE. An heredi tary patriotic society, organized on May 13, I753, by the American and foreign officers of the Continental Army, assembled in their can tonment on the Hudson River, hear Fishkill, N. Y. The original meeting was held in the Verplanck House. then the headquarters of ltaron Steuben, where the objects of the society were thus formulated: "To perpetuate as well the remembrance of this vast event [the War of the Revolution] as the mutual friendship, which have been formed under the pressure of common danger, and in many instances cemented by the blood of the parties. the officers of the American Army do hereby, in the most solemn manner, associate, 1'011'41411W, and combine them selves into one society of friends, to endure as long as they shall endure. or any of their closest male posterity. and in failure thereof, the col lateral branches who may he deemed worthy of becoming its supporters :I nd members." And as the officers of the Revolution were now returning to their farms. which they hail left to fight the battles of the Republic, they named their society the Society of the Cincinnati. after their Roman prototype. Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus. The emblem chosen was an eagle, on which appears as the principal figure Chwinnatus receiving a sword and other military insignia presented by three Senators, while in the background his wife is standing at the door of their cottage, near which are a plow and other instruments of husbandry. Surrounding this is the motto. Omni,/ Refinquit Serrarc Rein publicam ; on the reverse is shown .1 sun rising, a city with open gates, and vessels entering the port. and Fame is represented as crowning Cineinnatus with a wreath bearing the inscription. Fir tutis Prrn/in/a : while below are hands joined supporting a heart with the motto. 1:::to Per i." t un—tlw whole suspended front a light-blue ribbon edged with white. suggesting the union of France and America.
Membership was accorded to all Continental officers who bail served with honor and resigned after years' servive. or who hail been hon orably• discharged for disability, and in turn to the eldest male posterity of such officers. In failure of direct male descent, the honor passed to male descendants through intervening female descendants, and in failure of all direct descent. the collateral descendants who should he judged worthy of becoming members. The society was organized into thirteen State societies. The first general meeting was held in Philadelphia. on May 7, 17S4. at which delegates from the origi n:11 States were present. and an amended consti tution was adopted. under which a society was
authorized and organized in Franey. Although General Washington was the first president of the society and held office until his death, the society was immediately and continuously un popular throughout the country. Many persons claimed that it was the beginning of an hereditary aristocracy, and others discerned the formation of an armed league to seize all the military and civil offices in the new Republic. Even so conserva tive a statesman as Benjamin Franklin ques tioned the society's influence; while John Adams, dams. and Thomas Jefferson were avowedly hostile toward it The 1:issachusetts Legislature deelared the society to he "dangerous to the peace, liberty, and safety of the Union:" and .Edamus Burke, an Irishman who was a judge of the Supreme Court in South Carolina, published a pamphlet under the pseudonym of 'Cassius,' which attained a wide circulation, and in which lie endeavored to show that the society was subversive of nearly every principle of hu man rights for which the War of the 'Revolution was fought. The fact that many members of the French nobility, who had served with the Americans, including the Marmis de Lafayette, were members of the society, gave sonic reason for the popular impression against the Cincin nati: and opposition did not cease until after the 'eritieal period' of American history liad passed and the Union was firmly established. One of the most interesting results of the feelhig against the society was the founding of Tam many Hall (q.v.) in New York, on the alleged basis of 'pure democracy.' The State Societies of Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, Conne•tieut, Rhode island, and New Hampshire soon ceased to exist. and although a temporary interest in the society was revived by the visit of Lafayette to the United States in 1S•4, still it was not until 1893 that Connecticut, as the first of the revived State societies, was admitted into the general society, and one by one the other State societies were restored. until, at the triennial Convention held in 1902, Georgia, the last of the original thirteen, was provision ally readmitted. The State societies meet an nually, and the general society once in every three years. The Presidents-General have been: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, C. Ceteswo•th Pinckney, Thomas Pinckney, Aaron Ogden, Morgan Lewis, William Popham, H. A. S. Dearborn, Hamilton Fish, 'William Wayne, and Warren. Many of the State societies, such as Delaware, Maryland. Massachusetts, New York, and North Carolina, have published State books, in which is given a history of the society.