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Henry Knox Quotes

Henry Knox was a military officer of the Continental Army and later the United States Army, who also served as the first United States Secretary of War from 1789 to 1794.

Born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, he owned and operated a bookstore there, cultivating an interest in military history and joining a local artillery company. When the American Revolutionary War broke out in 1775, he befriended General George Washington, and quickly rose to become the chief artillery officer of the Continental Army. In this role he accompanied Washington on most of his campaigns, and had some involvement in many major actions of the war. He established training centers for artillerymen and manufacturing facilities for weaponry that were valuable assets to the fledgling nation.

Following the adoption of the United States Constitution, he became President Washington's Secretary of War. In this role he oversaw the development of coastal fortifications, worked to improve the preparedness of local militia, and oversaw the nation's military activity in the Northwest Indian War. He was formally responsible for the nation's relationship with the Indian population in the territories it claimed, articulating a policy that established federal government supremacy over the states in relating to Indian nations, and called for treating Indian nations as sovereign. Knox's idealistic views on the subject were frustrated by ongoing illegal settlements and fraudulent land transfers involving Indian lands.

He retired to Thomaston, District of Maine in 1795, where he oversaw the rise of a business empire built on borrowed money. He died in 1806 from an infection he contracted after swallowing a chicken bone, leaving an estate that was bankrupt. Wikipedia  

✵ 25. July 1750 – 25. October 1806
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Famous Henry Knox Quotes

“Were an energetic and judicious system to be proposed with your signature it would be a circumstance highly honorable to your fame... and doubly entitle you to the glorious republican epithet, The Father of your Country.”

Henry Knox

Letter to George Washington http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/04-05-02-0095, urging Washington to attend the Philadelphia Convention. (March 19, 1787)

“It is a melancholy reflection that our modes of population have been more destructive to the Indian natives than the conduct of the conquerors of Mexico and Peru. The evidence of this is the utter extirpation of nearly all the Indians in the most populous parts of the Union. A future historian may mark the causes of this destruction of the human race in sable colors. Although the present Government of the United States cannot with propriety be involved in the oppropbrium, yet it seems necessary however, in order to render their attention upon this subject strongly characteristic of their justice, that some powerful attempts should be made to tranquilize the frontiers, particularly those south of the Ohio.”

Henry Knox

Report by then Secretary of War Henry Knox to the president http://www2.hawaii.edu/~rrath/hist281/IndianPolicyNewNation.html, 1790.

“The eyes of all America are upon us, as we play our part in posterity will bless or curse us.”

Henry Knox

Knox on the Declaration of Independence. Reported in David McCullough, 1776 (2005), p. 83.

“It is not easy to conceive the difficulties we have had.”

Henry Knox

Knox to George Washington on the difficulties of taking to Boston. Reported in David McCullough, 1776 (2005), p. 83.

“I most earnestly beg you to spare no trouble or necessary expense in getting these.”

Henry Knox

Knox to a local officer while taking cannon to Boston. Reported in David McCullough, 1776 (2005), p. 83.

“We want great men who, when fortune frowns, will not be discouraged.”

Henry Knox

Reported in David McCullough, 1776 (2005), p. 201.

“We shall cut no small figure through the country with our cannon.”

Henry Knox

Knox to his wife, on the difficulties of dragging Cannon. Reported in David McCullough, 1776 (2005), p. 83.

“Trusting that…we shall have a fine fall of snow…. I hope in sixteen or seventeen days to be able to present to your Excellency a noble train of artillery.”

Henry Knox

Knox to George Washington on when the cannon would arrive. Reported in David McCullough, 1776 (2005), p. 83.

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