Why Cincinnati is Named After George Washington...and a Roman Farmer

On this episode of Our American Stories, King George III, upon hearing that George Washington planned to resign from his military commission and return to his plow stated; "If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world." George Washington wasn't the first man to do this though—he was simply following in the footsteps of another farmer, statesman, and victorious general from ancient Rome—Cincinnatus. Here's Professor Kenneth Calvert of Hillsdale College to tell the story of how these two men connect and why Cincinnati is named in honor of both of them.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American
people up next to the story of the interesting connection
between our first president, George Washington and the ancient Roman
dictator Cincinnatus, and now that relates to the southern Ohio
city Cincinnati. Here to tell the story is doctor Kenneth Calvert,

(00:35):
a professor of history at Hillsdale College. Let's get into
the story. Take it away.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Ken, you look at George Washington and his regard for
classical virtue and biblical virtue, he's also looking to particular
models like Cincinnatus. Cincinnatus was a Roman who served as
a dictator in Rome, and one has to understand that

(01:02):
in Rome, a dictator was someone who was elected to office,
not someone who takes power, but has given power for
eighteen months, total power to save the republic. And George
Washington had a kind of Cincinnatus ideal surrounding him because

(01:23):
he was given a good amount of power to fight
this war on behalf of Congress and behalf of the colonies.
He never wanted to be called a dictator or even
suggested that even though Cincinnatus was an ideal here there
is no way that they wanted to go back to
kind of a Julius Caesar notion of dictatorship and tyranny.

(01:49):
George Washington, on a number of occasions lived up to
the ideal of this man Cincinnatus. And let me say
a little bit more about Cincinnatus. Cincinnatus asked by the
Senate to save Rome when its armies were surrounded by
the Etruscans, and Cincinnatus marched out. He saved Rome, he

(02:13):
marched home, He settled one court case on behalf of
a numbskull son, and then went on to give his
power back to the Senate and people. He surrendered his power.
He did all that in two weeks. He didn't serve
out the full term of the dictatorship as he could have.

(02:34):
He gave it all back. And this is why people
viewed Washington as something of an American Cincinnatus, in that
when it was time, he surrendered his sword to Congress,
he gave up his military power. At the end of
eight years as president of the United States, he surrendered
that power back to Congress. And Washington was this model

(02:58):
of being a a virtuous man who rightly surrendered his
power back to the civilian government he upheld and supported
the rule of law and order, just as Cincinnatus had.
And this is why the city in Ohio is not
named only after a Roman dictator, but named after George

(03:22):
Washington himself. Finally, George Washington, the war was not over yet,
and there was a conspiracy in New York of officers
who wanted to march down to Philadelphia and to get

(03:43):
what was promised to them to pay. And Washington shows
up at this conspiracy and he basically he preaches from
Cato the tragedy and tells them, you are not upholding
the virtues that we meant to defend. And what's very

(04:04):
very interesting is that he's upholding the kind of republicanism
that Cincinnatis upheld and that Cato the younger. He then
the next day he writes a letter to Congress saying,
we better pay these guys. So he talks them out
of a coup, but then he also stands up for
them and encourages their payment from Congress. Speaking of the

(04:29):
city of Cincinnati in southern Ohio, it's interesting that there
is a graveyard and a place called Marietta, Ohio that
very few people have heard about, but Marietta, Ohio is
actually considered as a potential spot for the capital of
the United States. Didn't end up that way. But in
the cemetery at Marietta, Ohio, you have the largest number

(04:53):
of colonial officers buried there. And indeed, the Marquis de Lafayette,
when he toured the United States after the war, he
stopped there at Marietta, Ohio and gave a speech, and
he talked about many of these men were men that
he fought alongside, and men that he knew personally, and
they were brave in battle. What are they all doing

(05:16):
in southern Ohio. Well, when Congress paid them, they paid
them in land there along the Ohio River, and they
were all members of a society called the Society of
the Cincinnati. These were men who also surrendered their swords
and their military authority back to the civilian government. And

(05:39):
so you have at the core of this this notion
of serving peace and the rule of law and the government,
the civilian government. And so the government that was established
by the founders is looking back to this balance of
powers that Polybius talks about. It's looking back to peace.

(06:00):
Like Cincinnatis, people like Cato, the younger and what they
want to do is establish a form of government that
is rooted in these ancient models that will provide the
greatest amount of freedom, of rights, of happiness, seeking excellence
for the citizens as possible. And therefore the citizens would

(06:22):
be kind of the locality for all of the true power,
the true government, and this new constitution.

Speaker 1 (06:31):
And a terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling
by our own Megan Pitcock, and she's a product of
Hillsdale College. Thanks also to doctor Kenneth Calvert, he too
is a product of Hillsdale College. He's a professor of
history at the college. And what a story he told
about the connections between a Roman dictator and George Washington
surrendering his commissions, which we have a story of told

(06:54):
by doctor Larry Arne who's the president of Hillsdale College.
And what Washington and he did was return power back
to the civilian government. In fact, King George the Third
when he heard that, said, if that's true, George Washington
is and will be the greatest man that ever lived.
The story of George Washington's unique connection to the city

(07:16):
of Cincinnati and Cincinnatis here on our American stories. This
is Lee Hbib And this is our American stories, and
all of our history stories are brought to us by

(07:39):
our generous sponsors, including Hillsdale College, where students go to
learn all the things that are beautiful in life and
all the things that matter in life. If you can't
get to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their
free and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale dot edu.
That's Hillsdale dot edu.