Washington Take 2
Won't be doing this for the rest of my presidential bios.....but the one I wrote about Washington was so slight I needed a do-over. :)
"Franklin's electric rod smote the ground and out sprang General Washington." - John Adams
Even now I'm still not quite convinced that George Washington was human. With most of the Founding Fathers, get close enough to the marble busts, and you will see their humanity peeking through the cracks. Washington had the opposite effect, especially in his early life. The more I read, the more I expected to discover that he actually came from Krypton or Gallifrey.
Over-the-top biographies, that were really more mythologies, were already in publication within a year of Washington's death. Thanks to Parson Weems and others, some of the most enduring stories about Washington are also not remotely based in fact such as the cherry tree story "I cannot tell a lie, Father. I did it with my little hatchet."
Washington also wasn't quite the writer that Adams and Jefferson were. Martha Washington burned all their love letters after he died, making it all the more difficult to get a good feel for his personality and how his mind worked.
Although however superhuman Washington may seem, he did come from a very human family. Born in Westmoreland Virginia on February 22, 1732, the oldest son of Augustine Washington and his second wife Mary Ball Washington. Augustine died when George was only 11.
Mary Ball Washington would stick around for almost the rest of George's life. She was a piece of work. She was both overly dependent on George, and yet would often interfere with his career. While he was general of the continental army, she sent a letter, with his name spelled wrong, lamenting that she was destitute thanks to him. (Washington was actually a very dutiful son.) As if that weren't bad enough, she backed the loyalists during the Revolutionary War.
I suspect Mary Washington was sort of an anti-role model for George, as he strived to be everything she wasn't: disciplined, ambitious and well-educated.
Initially Washington hoped to be in the Royal Navy but his mother didn't like that idea. So at first, he was a land surveyor. He had a good head for business, and soon acquired land of his own. After the death of his half-brother Lawrence in 1752, Washington inherit the Mount Vernon plantation.
Eventually Washington joined the Virginia militia. The bulk of his early military experience was during the French and Indian War. At six feet tall, Washington was an easy target. He had two horses killed under him, and had four bullet holes in his coat. After a while the Native Americans steered clear of him, because they figured he had to be blessed.
In 1759 he married widow Martha Dandridge Custis. The couple never had any children of their own. Washington was most likely sterile. However Martha had two children from her previous marriage: Jacky and Patsy. For the most part, Washington helped raise the children as his own. However he left the discipline up to Martha, and over the years would become increasingly frustrated with his stepson who could be lazy and hedonistic.
What also came with the marriage to Martha was a sizable number of slaves. Although thanks to complicated inheritance laws, not all of them actually belonged to Washington. George Washington was a mixed bag when it came to his attitudes about slavery. In some respects, he could be just as clueless as other slaveowners of the era, not understanding why a slave would run away when they were living under comfortable circumstances. He also was a strict master. However, over the years he felt more and more guilt about owning slaves. From a business perspective he saw it as an inefficient system that was doomed in the long term. Washington ultimately freed his slaves in his will.
During Washington's years as a planter at Mount Vernon, he became involved in politics. He was first elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1758.
By 1775 relations with Great Britain had deteriorated. The Second Continental Congress chose him to be Commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. It didn't hurt that he had shown up in Philadelphia wearing his military uniform already. "Ahem! Ahem!" This was the end of any sort of private life for Washington. He and Benjamin Franklin emerged as the first American celebrities.
The Revolutionary War was where Washington the myth was born, although it should be noted, he lost more battles than he won. Washington didn't have one cohesive army to command. It was a hodge-podge of militias from the different colonies. Even today, the cultures of different regions of the United States like Massachusetts and South Carolina, are so different they might as well be different nations. How much greater the divide must have been in the 18th century. To make matters worse, most troops enlisted for about a year and went home, so just about the time they were trained, it was time to start over again. All that, against possibly the most formidable military power in the world.
What's lesser known about Washington's time as a general is a good percentage of the time, Martha was along with him. All the portraits may portray her as grandmotherly but she could be quite tough.
Fast forward to 1783. With the war won, Washington resigned his commission and headed home. This led to a lot of comparisons with the Roman consul Cincinnatus, who voluntarily relinquished his power and returned to his farm. That was probably Washington's greatest accomplishment: having power and giving it up.
George and Martha figured then that they'd be able to go back to Mount Vernon for a nice quiet retirement. Only there was nothing quiet about it. There was a constant stream of visitors to Mount Vernon. Most of them total strangers that wanted a close up look of the great General Washington. Due to the customs of the time, Washington was required to provide hospitality for the guests out of his own pocket. Thus, even though his plantation was doing pretty well, he found it nearly impossible to stay afloat financially.
The United States was struggling as well. The government was the Articles of Confederation. A grossly oversimplified version is...picture a United States without a presidency or a Supreme Court, only Congress. Now picture the states are a lot more powerful, and Congress has next to no ability to get any sort of revenue. Four score and some odd years later the seceding Southern states would try a similar form of government. Even without General Sherman's pyrotechnics, it looked like it would be equally disastrous.
This was when Washington had his Michael Corleone moment: "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in." Washington of course, was still in Virginia where quite a few of the key players were. He couldn't help express some of his opinions about how things were going on. Before long, there was a Constitutional Convention, and George was president of it. This played to another one of Washington's strengths: being a mediator between some monumental egos.
To nobody's surprise, Washington was elected to be the first president, the only one to be elected unanimously by the electoral college. John Adams, who came in second, would be the vice-president. That very first inauguration day was a little late, April 30, 1789, because they needed to have enough states ratify the constitution. The swearing in was barely audible. Thanks to pleurisy, Washington was rather soft-spoken. Although I'm willing to wager nobody had any problems hearing John Adams.
Washington agreed to be president partly because he figured he wouldn't have to do it for very long. He figured he could put in 2 years, resign, and go back to Mount Vernon. Probably best he didn't realize he had 8 years ahead of him.
A lot of Washington's administration was establishing the tone and the structure for the executive branch. He set a very high bar with his cabinet: Secretary of State - Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of the Treasury - Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of War- Henry Knox. Although one area where Washington dropped the ball was not allowing Vice-President John Adams to be a real part of his team. He was not allowed to attend cabinet meetings, was not really used in an advisory capacity and was stuck for 8 years presiding over a Senate where he was not allowed to voice his opinions. Thanks to this precedent, for nearly two centuries, some of the best and brightest of Americans languished in the vice-presidency unable to really use their talents. This would not change until the Carter administration.
Initially Washington hoped that the United States would be without political parties. This was a rather naive wish. Over the course of his administration there grew to be a divide between the Federalists: Alexander Hamilton, John Adams. They were a dominant force in the Northeast. The Democratic-Republicans: Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe. The Federalists preferred a strong central government. They tended to be pro-England and anti-France. They also wanted a National Bank. The Democratic-Republicans were pro-France and had a strong emphasis on states' rights. They were a dominant force in the South. Washington, though he tried to stay neutral, gradually sided with the Federalists. This alienated him from a lot of his fellow Virginians. (My personal favorite was when James Monroe wrote a very anti-Washington book. Washington read the book, and filled the margins with comments that were pretty much his version of rolling his eyes.)
Jefferson and Hamilton did manage to come to agreement long enough to establish the future capital city. It was agreed that the site would be on the Potomac river. The towns nearby were all due to benefit from this location. Mount Vernon was not that far away, so I can't imagine Washington had any objections.
Some historians like Richard Norton-Smith believe that Washington's second term was just as good if not stronger than his first. From what I've read, it seems more that this was just another was he was establishing the precedent for everybody else. His first cabinet had the shining stars from across the political spectrum. His later cabinet were lesser political figures, and mostly Federalist. Even the great George Washington found his popularity starting to wane by the end of his second term.
By 1796 he'd had enough. Thus Washington set the standard for 2 terms only that most presidents would stick to. Thanks to having no children of his own, there was no fear of a Washington dynasty. Washington had successfully avoided becoming a king. Although over the years, political dynasties would emerge. Americans have never totally gotten over being part of a monarchy.
Except for one brief return to the military during the Adams administration, Washington lived out the rest of his days at Mount Vernon. He tried to get outside regularly for exercise. On December 12, 1799 he'd spent the day out riding on his plantation in very bad weather. He caught a bad cold. The combination of the infection, and the doctor's method of bleeding him, proved to be fatal. He died on December 14.
If you travel to Mount Vernon today, there is a special spot on the tour where you look in a mirror in the dining room. The tour guide points out that most of the Founding Fathers, and nearly all of the presidents have looked in this mirror, and now you are looking in the same mirror. It is a place where you feel the weight of history. Also a very appropriate symbol for Washington himself. Over the centuries, Washington became so much of an icon that when people look at him, they are often just seeing a reflection of themselves, and how they perceive American history.