In 1797 King George III of England, Washington's erstwhile enemy, appraised Washington's resignation from the presidency, looking back at the dramatic 1783 resignation as Commander-in-Chief upon concluding the Revolutionary War that had won Washington world-wide fame, and concluded that they "placed him in a light the most distinguished of any man living, and that he thought him the greatest character of the age."

King George doubtless had no idea of Machiavelli's advice in mind as he spoke. George Washington, however, so frequently and well used the art of resignation, that one can wonder if he were not inspired by considerations like to those advised by Machiavelli.

Washington began his career of resignations when he was still a youthful commander of the colonial militia in Virginia in the early 1750s. His objective then, however, was to pressure the colonial governor and assembly into providing more adequate provision for defense of the frontiers against Indian attacks. By the time of his resignation as Commander-in-Chief in 1783, however, he had clearly established concrete political plans that were to be advanced no less from "a private position" as they previously had been in his public role.