Certainly I agree with you dontom. Besides, people do forget that after the American Revolution ended in 1782/1783, a large number of American military officers demanded for the Continental Congress to finally pay up on the long-unpaid salaries of theirs, many of which planned to march to the capital(Philadelphia, I believe) and force "payment"...at gunpoint.

While Washington understood them, he of course realized what a terrible event this would be for the future of American democracy. With that, he had a private meeting with those officers, and without naming names, pleaded for them to not conduct such actions. Though reportedly, what convinced them was not the message itself, but Washington trying to read this letter from Congress to them that they will be paid "quite soon", he asked them to bear with him for his eyesight was failing, and took out his eyeglasses. That caused many of those officers, working with Washington for years, to tear up in their eyes. So possibly, Washington averted a possibly military coup and thus set an awful precedent from his sheer personality and love that his fellow people had for him.

I would dig to hear anymore thoughts from everyone...