424
pages, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, ISBN-13: 978-0395524428
Revered
but remote, George Washington rarely evokes passions rendered Lincoln,
Jefferson, or even FDR. Perhaps he did his job too well; after all, he was the
first executive of a radical experiment, daily vulnerable to foreign and
domestic threats that could easily foreclose a young republic. Some
contemporaries compared him to a king, but he helped sever monarchical bonds
(English and French) and stepped down (with relief) after two terms. He became
the rock that sustained a new nation, but remains to many an ephemeral legend
shrouded in patriotic cliches.
This
volume exposes the man (and the myth) in a broad chronicle of Washington’s life
during his eight-year Presidency and his almost three years afterward to his
death (his youth is also briefly related). He navigated many trials
(nationalization of state debt, capital location, the Whiskey Rebellion, Jay’s
Treaty, yellow fever, primitive medicine, slavery, native nations, the French
Revolution, British and Spanish relations, etc.), but proved a consummate
pragmatist irrevocably focused on national self-interest. Everything he did (as
he knew at the time) became precedent and the republic survived. In addition to
politics, we get pieces that tell us how Washington felt about many other subjects,
such as the building of what would become Washington D.C. The narrative is
sometimes interrupted by small stories; for example, who dined with Washington
one evening and who argued with whom. I learned to regard these breaks as
information about who was in his larger circle and what was considered fair
dinner conversation in his company.
There
are some surprises on the personal side: a lack of formal schooling, a happy
(childless) marriage, a sociability that delighted in attending dances but
insisted on maintaining formal distance, renowned horsemanship, a preference
for agriculture, a modesty that eschewed salaries (though accepted expense),
dental torment, and natural hair (he never wore a wig, despite portraits). I
felt that the author drives to two conclusions. One is in the first half of
chapter 13, An Honorable Discharge: here
the author explains the significance of Washington’s Farewell Address in terms
of the man, the country he fought to create, and the Constitution he helped
create and to which he yielded as President. This is worth all the reading that
came before. The second conclusion is the Epilogue in which the author tries to
redress the common myth of Washington as the cold icon on the dollar bill; his famous
reserve was more likely the cautious deliberation of a self-educated man. Like
Lincoln, he proved more sagacious than elite subordinates. His pragmatism (when
followed) has served us and the world well throughout subsequent history.
By
the end, the author convinced me of Washington’s greatness as the man who led
the new republic into fairly using its new Constitution. (I think we should be
thankful he considered farming Mount Vernon more rewarding than political
leadership). Washington was the rarest of military heroes – he chose to be a
visionary guardian of the new country instead of riding his reputation into a
dictatorship. Young America was very fortunate.
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