In 1797, treaty talks between the United States and France had broken down, and America began to prepare for an all out war with France. In fact, the French made a mockery of the treaty talks by trying to exhort payment (see XYZ affair) from America in return for peace. In 1798, President John Adams called this an "unequivocal act of war". The President urged congress to make appropriations to expand he naval forces and increase the Regular Army. But, in 1798 Congress was reluctant to abandon it's traditional reliance on short-term militia volunteers and denied President Adams' request for an increase in the regular army. Instead, Adams moved forward with plans to raise twelve infantry regiments and one Calvary regiment that would make up the Provisional army. In April of 1798, a bill was passed by the Senate to raise a provisional army of 20,000 men with a purpose to deter invasion. But who would lead this provisional army. John Adams had no experience as a commander in chief, so he looked to the one man whom he believed would rise above party politics and be respected by all, the hero of the American revolution and the first president, George Washington. Adams understood the symbolic importance to the Republic of George Washington leaving retirement to lead the Provisional army, so he had to accept it on Washington's terms. These terms included the appointment of secondary commanders including Adams' Federalist rival, Alexander Hamilton. Alexander Hamilton accepted the position of senior major General and began recruiting in 1799. By time the Provisional army was disbanded in June 1800, approximately 4,100 men had been trained and drilled by Alexander Hamilton.
In Adam's final address to congress, he shared kind words of the honorable men who were driven by "patriotic motives" to give of themselves to the service of their country.
"In compliance with a law of the last session of Congress, the officers and soldiers of the temporary army have been discharged. It affords real pleasure to recollect the honorable testimony they gave of the patriotic motives which brought them into the service of their country, by the readiness and regularity with which they returned to the station of private citizens."On September 30, 1800 the United States and France signed a treaty in which France agreed to recognize American neutrality and tor refrain from seizing American vessels. News traveled very slow across the ocean in those days, and President John Adams penned his final address to Congress without knowledge that the new treaty had been signed.
Within a year of this 1798 appointment, Washington fell ill of a bad cold that turned into acute laryngitis and pneumonia; on December 14, 1799, the Lieutenant General died at his home. In 1854, Congress authorized the building of a equestrian statute by sculptor Clark mills dedicated to Lieutenant General George Washington. It was completed in 1860 and is currently located in the Washington Circle of Washington D.C.
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29442
http://www.history.army.mil/books/amh-v1/ch05.htm
http://www.shsu.edu/~his_ncp/Starmy.html
http://www.presidentprofiles.com/Washington-Johnson/John-Adams-Preparations-for-war.html
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