Historians have long tried to pinpoint exactly when the name 'United States of America' was first used and by whom. A new find suggests the man might have been George Washington himself.
The 1889 painting by Ramon de Elorriaga entitled 'The Inauguration of George Washington' is seen at New York's Federal Hall. Washington gave his name to the capital; perhaps he also gave the United States of America its name.
Mark Lennihan/AP/File
EnlargeAs if George Washington hasn?t been credited enough with laying the foundation stones of the American republic, a new discovery might put one more feather in his cap. Our leading Founding Father could have been author of the country's name.
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The identity of who coined the name ?United States of America? has eluded historians for years. Online sources vary greatly, erroneously crediting Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and others.
But a letter written by Washington?s aide-de-camp on Jan. 2, 1776, discovered this past Memorial Day, suggests that Washington might have been one of the first people ? if not the first person ? to utter the words "United States of America."
Previously, William Safire and a bevy of Oxford and American researchers essentially concluded in 1998 that Thomas Jefferson was the originator. Jefferson wrote ?UNITED STATES OF AMERICA? in the header of his ?original Rough draught? of the Declaration of Independence sometime on or after June 11, 1776. Then last summer, the Monitor reported the discovery of an earlier citation in an anonymous essay appearing in the Virginia Gazette, dated April 6, 1776.
This latest find comes in a letter that Stephen Moylan, Esq., wrote to Col. Joseph Reed from the Continental Army Headquarters in Cambridge, Mass., during the Siege of Boston. The two men lived with Washington in Cambridge, with Reed serving as Washington?s favorite military secretary and Moylan fulfilling the role during Reed?s absence.
The letter touched on the colonies' desire to enlist Europe's help in their revolution?? most likely in procuring much-needed armaments and gunpowder. The shortage of powder was so desperate that, at one point, orders were issued to use wooden harpoons instead of guns. Moylan wrote that he wished to carry the ?full and ample powers from the United States of America? to Europe to support the revolutionary enterprise.
The letter was written at a time when the American colonies were increasingly taking on the trappings of a new, independent nation. As historian Kevin Philips summarizes, ?Despite lack of international legal recognition, the Continental Congress functioned as a de facto war government. By the end of 1775, the United Colonies had also created an army (June 15), a navy (October 13), and even a marine corps (November 10).?
When Congress appointed Washington commander-in-chief and dispatched him to Boston, Washington called his men ?the Troops of the United Provinces of North America.? Washington sought to turn these troops into a fighting force capable of engaging the most powerful military of the age, and at different times, Reed and Moylan worked side by side with him, issuing orders, writing letters, and sitting in council.
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