NY, USA
Washington Proclaims Cessation of Hostilities
April 19, 1783
On April 19, 1783 — the eighth anniversary of Lexington and Concord — Washington issued a proclamation from Hasbrouck House announcing the cessation of hostilities with Great Britain. The timing was deliberate. The army at the Newburgh cantonment heard the proclamation read aloud. The war was effectively over, though the formal Treaty of Paris would not be ratified until January 1784.
People Involved
Maintained headquarters at Hasbrouck House in Newburgh from April 1782 to August 1783. His address to the officers on March 15, 1783, prevented the Newburgh Conspiracy from becoming a military coup and established the precedent of civilian control that has defined American civil-military relations ever since.
Owner of Hasbrouck House in Newburgh, who died in 1780. His widow Tryntje allowed Washington to use the family's Dutch stone house as his headquarters from April 1782. The house remained in the family until New York State purchased it in 1850, making it one of the first publicly owned historic sites in America.