Reflection on Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow

               George Washington was a guy who lived for honor and service and whose extreme ambition fought with his extreme modesty. He spent tons of time improving himself (reminiscent of Ben Franklin), yet never attained a college education. He felt an inferiority to Europeans and the well-read, and always felt that he had to have the latest in European fashions. He was deeply ashamed of his inability to read Latin or Greek, like Jefferson and other founders could. He was an exacting leader and punished his insubordinates harshly and it seems like he spent most of his life feeling that he was above most other people, with a very “patrician” feel. He treated his enlisted soldiers strictly while he enjoyed the presence of officers who were of the upper-class sort. He was also a flirt and loved the company of women, growing very close to two that he wasn’t married to (but there’s no evidence that he ever strayed from his wife). Having read this book, when I think of Washington I think of someone who took great pains to fix the flaws he saw in himself and had little patience for those flaws in others.

               George was thrust into huge responsibility by the time he was 21 years old due to the deaths of his father and older brother, which left him grieving, but also the inheritor of a large estate. The pattern would repeat itself several times thanks to the short lifespans in 18^th century Virginia, with his stepchildren and his brother’s family. His brother’s death on the eve of the French and Indian War would put GW in a position to, as a wealthy landowner and practiced surveyor, lead a force into the frontier. In the one engagement he faced, he lost miserably, though in reporting it back to his superiors he made it seem like a tie. He had faced danger bravely though and bullets had pierced his hat. For his bravery he earned some acclaim in Virginia and gained a reputation in what was still a small state. He would go out again in the war and lose his only other battle as well, but he ended up building a powerful aura as a young, brave commander. In Virginia he was beloved, but the Royal Army and Navy rejected him and treated him poorly being a “colonial.” He would harbor resentment over that for years to come.

Washington the Plantation Owner

               As a plantation owner, Washington seems to have been moderately successful with his crops but always in danger with his financed. He was scientific, experimenting with different crops and soils as well as inventing a new way of threshing wheat (which I got to see demonstrated at Mount Vernon last year). He owned over a hundred slaves at one point, yet he was constantly on the verge of financial collapse. He spent what money he got on improvements for his mansion and farm as well as generous gifts to relatives for education (perhaps because of his own lack of education) but that often left him with little left over, especially in the years between being General and President, when he hosted visitors constantly. Basically, he was land rich and cash poor. Part of the reason that many Virginia planters were fomenting revolution was that half of all the debt owed by the colonies to England was from tidewater Virginia, aka the coastal region.

               How did Washington treat his slaves? Like Franklin, Washington grew in opposition to slavery over the years. He was unlike Jefferson then, who began as an idealist and later found it more practical to advocate for slavery’s tolerance. Washington rarely said the word “slavery” and acknowledged its immorality and his shame, though he was obviously not so ashamed that he would free his slaves. It didn’t help that he and most other planters were in tremendous debt and abolishing slavery would be financial ruin (for them). Washington’s assistant Tobias Lear claimed a more “enlightened” slavery occurred on Mount Vernon: “The negroes are not treated as blacks in general are in this country. They are clothed and fed as well as any laboring people whatever and they are not subject to the lash of a domineering overseer—but they are still slaves.” I should not that Lear was incorrect- Washington did have his overseers whip the slaves.

               In the midst of the Revolutionary War, Washington sent back an order to Mount Vernon not to separate slave families, indicating his developing attitude, also stating that he was anxious to “get clear” of the slaves, though he would not do so in his lifetime. This was part of what looks like a larger trend among slaveowners as in the wake of the Revolution everyone felt a little more enlightened. For example, James Madison wrote to Jefferson that Lafayette’s support of abolition “does him a real honor, as it is proof of his humanity.” But talk was cheap. Madison never freed his slaves, not even upon his death. Lafayette one the other hand was not just talk. In French Guiana he bought a large sugar plantation with seventy slaves and freed them all, paying wages to those who could work, schooling the children, and banning the sale of human beings. He instructed his agent in the area to keep buying more lands and freeing more slaves. Lafayette was the real deal. There is no evidence that GW wanted to educate his slaves, but his steward and cousin, Lund Washington and Lund’s wife, Elizabeth, taught slaves to read the bible.

               It feels like Washington was delusional as to the condition of his slaves. He was perplexed by the fact that when he timed their work they worked so much faster when a master was watching, as if they would enjoy working for free. He also worked them hard reclaiming swamps during freezing winters. Like most racists, he also had his “good ones.” His loyal slave Billy Lee (who had the rare privilege of a last name) was his attendant for decades and he even insisted on being brought to New York as a butler to the new president. He was always treated well, but his treatment only serves to put in starker contrast the maltreatment of the many other slaves. As president he would continue to privately oppose slavery to some but to support it to others. He fantasized that it would go away on its own.

               In a rare example of Washington being duplicitous, he attempted to keep his slaves enslaved when in Philadelphia as president through some clever means. Pennsylvania had a law that required all slaves living in the state for over six months to become free. Washington couldn’t afford to let this happen since his slaves technically belonged to the Custis estate of his grandchildren, which he would have to reimburse for escaped slaves. To prevent this from occurring, he found excuses to bring slaves back to the South every six months without them realizing what was going on. When slaves did escape, as did over 40 of his slaves during his life, he tried to have them captured and some were. Others managed to get away and Washington always had trouble wondering why, if he had treated them so well, that they wanted to escape. One example was the enslaved man Hercules, who left behind a six-year-old daughter at Mount Vernon. When asked if she was upset at her father for leaving her, she replied, “Oh! Sir, I am very glad, because he is free now.” For a really poignant story and a good example of an enslaved person’s yearning to be free, I’d recommend looking into the story of Ona Judge, a successful escapee from Mount Vernon. In short, the Washingtons were delusional when it came to their slaves and there is not one person who wishes to be enslaved if they can avoid it. Most runaways did not escape to a much better quality of life economically or socially in the North, but they did escape bondage, which was a tremendous personal weight to be lifted.

               Interestingly, the book makes several references to the economic backwardness of slavery. Slaves generally worked at a lower pace than people who earned money. Up to and sometimes more than half of slaves did not work at all on a plantation because of being too old, too young, or too sick. Overseers were expensive and often stole from the masters. The problem was that once you had many slaves, it was hard to not have them, as they became a form of currency in the South and, accustomed to free labor, plantation masters were unable to switch to paid labor without a downgrade in their lifestyle, which was apparently the worst fate imaginable. IT should be noted however, that Washington, in freeing his slaves upon his death, was the only Southern founding father to do so. However, he decreed, specifically, that they would be free after Martha’s death, giving them an incentive to kill her. Someone attempted just that, trying to burn Mount Vernon to the ground one day, prompting her to free all those that she legally could.

Washington the General

               Washington’s greatest strengths as a general were in his leadership ability between battles. He lost the majority of battles he fought but his skill was in keeping the army together between them. As in any asymmetrical struggle, the smaller force needed to avoid decisive battles and prolong the effort so that the larger force would decide it wasn’t worthwhile. Washington realized this at the Battle of Monmouth. He was successful at things like inoculating his troops against Smallpox and convincing them to stay on and sign longer enlistment contracts when the old ones expired. In one of his greatest victories, not a single shot was fired; to free the city of Boston he secretly moved artillery captured earlier from the British onto Dorchester Heights for the British to see in the morning. When they saw it, they know their position was impossible and the British fled the city. Unfortunately, this success was followed by a bloody defeat in Brooklyn that lead to a retreat after losing 300 men dead and another thousand prisoners. Yet, in another example of his genius in between battles, he executed a flawless retreat of nine thousand men in the night, losing not one.

               Shortly after the retreat from Brooklyn to Manhattan across the East River, the British and Hessian forces attacked at Kip’s bay (the mid-thirties on the East Side) and Washington, discovering a highly disorderly retreat, broke down in face of it all and froze into a catatonic state until his aides rescued him from British forces closing in just 80 yards away. Other times though, his resolve showed. For example, “For two hours in blazing heat, British and Continentals exchanged cannon fire. As in previous battles, Washington experienced narrow escapes. While he was deep in conversation with one officer, a cannonball exploded at his horse’s feet, flinging dirt in his face; Washington kept talking as if nothing had happened.”

              

Washington the President

               When he became president, GW’s number one priority was strengthening the federal government, putting him in the camp of the Federalists. The Federalist party would quickly emerge and he would ideologically agree with them (more and more so with time), but he never declared for a party, hoping to remain above the petty political arguments. He mainly appointed Federalists and refused to appoint anyone who was overtly hostile to the Constitution. Unconcerned that it was a breach of the separation of powers, congressional leader and main author of the Constitution James Madison serves as one of Washington’s closest confidants and a speech writer. He would continue to do so even as he allied less and less with Washington, Hamilton, and the Federalist and more so with Jefferson and the anti-federalists, who were converging into the Democratic-Republican Party. The relationship was strange as Madison would write Washington’s address to Congress, Congress’s response to Washington, and then Washington’s response to Congress’s response.

               As President, Washington became more and more self-identified with the North. He observed in Massachusetts that “There is a great equality in the people of this state. Few or no opulent men and no poor—great similitude in their buildings… The farms… are small, not averaging more than 100 acres.” As part of his new alignment with Northerners, he came to support Alexander Hamilton more and more, being critical when Hamilton launched the idea of having a permanent, well-funded debt, which terrified Southerners and many conservatives in the new Congress. Hamilton also succeeded in pushing through new taxes to fund a larger federal government. With this crucial bank bill that essentially created US monetary policy with the National Bank (later destroyed by Andrew Jackson and recreated later as the Federal Reserve) Washington argued against Madison that the Constitution granted powers beyond just those explicitly mentioned, setting the stage for the increase of federal powers over the next several hundred years. Years after the bank bill debate, Washington told his friend and colleague Edmund Randolph that is the Union would break up in North and South that he would choose the North.

               Jefferson and Madison would not let Washington go the Federalist way so easy and Jefferson especially had many heated conversations with Washington attempting to bring him back to his side. Eventually, the two created the National Gazette, a newspaper dedicated to haraguing the Commander-In-Chief and claiming that he was monarchical. Both of them ended things on bad terms with Washington and were not on speaking terms with him at the end of his life. Martha Washington especially reviled Jefferson until her death. Many saw the sectional lines that would later tear the country apart in the Civil War and by the end of Washington’s second term as President, anti-Federalists had coalesced into the Democratic-Republican Party, later the Democratic Party that would secede during the Civil War. Many worried that Jeffersonians would tear apart the Union, and indeed they would as the Democratic Party in 1860, despite all the concessions they received in the Constitution.

               Washington is, to me, one of the three greatest American presidents. His achievements, listed by Chernow, are the following: “He had restored American credit and assumed state debt; created a bank, a mint, a coast guard, a customs service, and a diplomatic corps; introduced the first accounting, tax, and budgetary procedures; maintained peace at home and abroad; inaugurated a navy, bolstered the army, and shored up coastal defenses and infrastructure; proved that the country could regulate commerce and negotiate binding treaties; protected frontier settlers, subdued Indian uprisings, and established law and order amid rebellion, scrupulously adhering all the while to the letter of the Constitution. During his successful presidency, exports had soared, shipping had boomed, and state taxes had declined dramatically. Washington had also opened the Mississippi to commerce, negotiated treaties with the Barbary states, and forced the British to evacuate their northwestern forts. Most of all he had shown a disbelieving world that republican government could prosper without being spineless or disorderly or reverting to authoritarian rule.”

Washington the Man

               Washington’s philosophy on success, which was much like Ben Franklin’s, though he wouldn’t have known it, was to remain quiet. He would feign indifference and sound people out to see if they were sympathetic and like-minded. He would learn as much as possible about other’s thoughts before revealing his own, giving him a conversational and persuasive advantage. Thomas Jefferson observed of Washington and Franklin that, “I never heard either of them speak ten minutes at a time, nor to any but the main point… they laid their shoulders to the great points, knowing that the little ones would follow of themselves.” When he was angry, he would do the same, letting his silence speak for him, to leave his victim in a “torment of uncertainty.”

               GW always seemed to have problems with his mother, who was cold and distant. Chernow tells us that she was basically selfish and always wanted him home, working for her, and though he was a dutiful son, he could never satisfy her wants and she never gave him the affection that mothers usually give their sons. Washington’s greatest military triumph would come at the end of the year though, when on Christmas 1776 his forces crossed the Delaware River and attacked the Hessians at Trenton, defeating them and earning praise from Frederick the Great of Prussia, saying, “The achievements of Washington and his little band of compatriots between the 25^th of December and the 4^th of January… were the most brilliant of any recorded in the annals of military achievements.”

               George married Martha Washington not out of a passionate love, but out of a more appropriateness of the match. Most observers said that they were less heated lovers and more best friends. They loved each other, and it didn’t hurt that they both came from upper class Virginia society. In letters to young relatives, George advocated entering into a match based on practical factors such as personality, character, temperament, and money. With Martha he inherited lots of money, slaves, and two stepchildren that he treated as his own.

               Washington was not ultra-creative, but he used his judgment well. The author writes that, “He was at his best when reacting to the opinions of others. Once he made up his mind it was difficult to dislodge him from his opinion…” He would always solicit different opinions from his advisors and was very open to conflicting ideas while he was yet undecided. GW was a man of honor and a strict moral code. In fact, even after Benedict Arnold’s treason, Washington refused to open a letter he had in his possession that Arnold had written to his wife, Peggy. Right on the border of idiotic and honorable, the letter gave her instructions to reach him, which Washington never saw thanks to his sense of honor not to open a letter between a married couple that he’d sworn not to.

               While he seemed like he was always calm, cool, and collected, GW had very strong emotions under the surface. In notes in the margins of a polemic written against him and the Federalists by James Monroe, Washington wrote, “self-importance appears here,” and “insanity in the extreme!” Also during his last days as he said farewell to the presidency and thought more about mortality, he cried openly and was often unable to speak at many events.

               Washington never complained in what must have been an agonizing death. He was sick with some kind of bacterial throat infection that clogged his throat and was slowly suffocating him. As he struggled to breathe, he was at his own urging, drained of blood, with the doctors draining fully half of his blood before his death. To the end he was concerned with others and was attuned to others’ moods. Noticing a slave had been standing for hours on end, he urged him to sit. He is said to have “expired without a struggle or a sigh!”

Conclusion

               I came away from this book with the impression of Washington as a deeply flawed (especially on slavery) but well-meaning man. He knew he was wrong on that issue but he delayed and delayed emancipating his slaves, showing his great shame and yet a weakness as well. He was practically deified after his death and we are just now coming to a more historically correct understanding of the man. I would look to him as flawed in his business dealings, his tolerance of slavery, and his patrician attitude towards people he considered his social inferiors but he is exemplary in his sense of duty, his tenacity, his ability to think of others first, and most of all, his willingness to give up the enormous powers given to him as both General and President, often against the urgings of his advisors. A man like him comes around once in a generation.

Miscellaneous facts:

• ·        George’s older brother Lawrence fought with a Virginia regiment in the Royal Navy in the War of Jenkin’s Ear, a dispute between England and Spain. In that war, he went to battle in Cartagena. Though the English lost, he was so impressed with the Admiral, that he named his farmstead after him, Mount Vernon.
• ·        In the 1920’s, J.P. Morgan, who owned some of Washington’s letters, destroyed them, claiming that they were “smutty.” Washington may not have stood out for his humor but he was known to enjoy “hearty, masculine jokes.”
• ·        Slave masters in the 18^th century didn’t romanticize slavery or find “divine sanction” for it like those of the 19^th century up until the Civil War. It seems that it was that later generation of slave owners that tried to label it a positive thing and that it was God’s will.
• ·        GW had correspondence with Phillis Wheatley, a 22-year-old slave in Boston who became famous for her poetry. His ideals became more and more egalitarian with the war and a good example is that he invited her to visit him in his headquarters.
• ·        As general, Washington commanded five thousand black soldiers in the Continental Army, making it the most integrated American fighting force before the Vietnam War.
• ·        Good quote from the English poet Edward Young, quoted in a letter from Abigail Adams: “Affliction is the good man’s shining time.”
• ·        The term “biting the bullet” comes from the fact that men in the Continental Army would bite lead bullets to help them endure floggings from their officers.
• ·        This is weird, but I made some connections. The book mentions that Washington, always a clever spymaster, had planned to kidnap King George III’s son, who was in New York. While this never came to pass, the operation commander was Matthias Ogden, whose brother, Aaron Ogden would be the famous Ogden of Gibbons v Ogden, the Supreme Court case that held that Congress had the power to regulate interstate commerce. The Gibbons of that case had as an assistant a young Cornelius Vanderbilt, who would go on to be THE Vanderbilt. Connections are crazy.
• ·        Before George Washington, there were hardly any mules in the country. He bred horses and donkeys to create 57 of the first mules in the USA and is today known in some circles as “The Father of the American Mule.”
• ·        Washington did NOT have wooden teeth. He did, however, have teeth problems all his life and eventually lost every single one, using dentures made of ivory that gradually stained and fractured, giving the appearance of wood.
• ·        Here’s a funny story about Washington being painted by five painters at once:
•       “Gilbert Stuart, who was then painting his iconographic images of Washington, happened to stroll by as Washington sat in thrall to the busy swarm of painting Peales: “I looked in to see how the old gentleman was getting on with the picture, and, to my astonishment, I found the general surrounded by the whole family.” As Stuart walked away, he ran into Martha. “Madam,” said Stuart, “the general’s in a perilous situation.” “How sir?” “He is beset, madam—no less than five upon him at once; one aims at his eye—another at his nose—another is busy with his hair—the mouth is attacked by a fourth; and the fifth has him by the button. In short, madam, there are five painters at him, and you who know how much he has suffered when only attended by one, can judge of the horrors of his situation.’”