Free dom Ring
promotes the ideals of independence
By Kyle Hanlin
to officers in the Continental Army or Navy
dedicated to perpetuating the ideals of the War of
Independence.
“What the Revolution did for us was set our nation
and world on the path toward universal liberty,”
Lunger says. “They didn’t want the principles of the
Revolution to be forgotten or displaced.”
The group held its first meeting, chaired by one of
the Founding Fathers of the United States, American
statesman Alexander Hamilton, in May 1783 in
Fishkill, New York. Within a year, all 13 colonies and
France, America’s fierce ally in the Revolution, established
constituent societies.
In the nearly two and a half centuries since, Society
members have continued to uphold the charge of its
founders — to perpetuate the solidarity that existed
among the officers, and to preserve the memory of
the War.
The Society does not borrow its name from
the city in southern Ohio, but rather from the
5th century B.C. Roman leader Lucius Quinctius
Cincinnatus.
Far left: Encrusted with 198 diamonds, emeralds, and rubies, the Diamond
Eagle of the Society of the Cincinnati was the gift of French naval officers
to George Washington, commander-in-chief of the Colonial Army, in
1784 and has been the official insignia of the Society’s president general
ever since. Top: An engraving of Society of the Cincinnati founder Major
General Henry Knox. Above: The Society is named for Cincinnatus,
a Roman statesman and military leader who had supreme authority
following a victory over an invading force, but relinquished power and
returned to his farm. Background image: William Washington, a distant
cousin of George Washington, fights at the Battle of Cowpens.
COURTESY OF THE SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI
ENGRAVING BY THOMAS PHILLIBROWN AFTER ALONZO CHAPPEL
BACKGROUND IMAGE DRAWN AND ENGRAVED FOR GRAHAM’S MAGAZINE BY S. H. GIMBER
23
PAINTING BY JUAN ANTONIO RIBERA
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