It is one of the most important documents of the Revolutionary period, but has been in private hands and out of public view since it the speech it contains was given at the very beginning of the our nation's independence. It is the speech that set the precedent that the military would be under civilian control -- and likely also kept this country from being ruled by a king or a Caesar.

It was a speech so moving the crowd wept. It was a speech so personally important George Washington's hand shook as he read it until he had to hold the paper still with both hands. After the ceremony, he handed the thing to a friend and sped out the door of the State House in Annapolis, riding off by horse.

For centuries, his words have resonated in American democracy even as the speech itself -- the small piece of paper that shook in his hands that day -- was quietly put away, out of the public eye and largely forgotten.

Today, however, amid festivities celebrating his birthday, Maryland officials plan to unveil the original document -- worth $1.5 million -- after acquiring it in a private sale from a family in Maryland who had kept it all these years. It took two years to negotiate the deal and raise money for the speech, which experts consider the most significant Washington document to change hands in the past 50 years.

The speech, scholars say, was a turning point in U.S. history. As the Revolutionary War was winding down, some wanted to make Washington king. Some whispered conspiracy, trying to seduce him with the trappings of power. But Washington renounced them all.

By resigning his commission as commander in chief to the Continental Congress -- then housed at the Annapolis capitol -- Washington laid the cornerstone for an American principle that persists today: Civilians, not generals, are ultimately in charge of military power.

It would have been very easy for Washington, as head of the Continental Army, to have become the de facto ruler of the newly formed United States. Instead he placed the needs of the country first and retired, however temporarily, from public life. In doing so he earned the respect even of his erstwhile enemy, King George III, whose comment upon his impending resignation to the painter Benjamin West upon hearing the news was "If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world."

And indeed, we were fortunate that t this critical juncture of American history, Washington was clearly one of a number of American patriots who could qualify for that title.