Washington

"He ranks as the most famously elusive figure in American history, a remote, enigmatic personage more revered than truly loved. He seems to lack the folksy appeal of Abraham Lincoln, the robust vigor of a Teddy Roosevelt, or the charming finesse of Franklin Roosevelt. In fact, George Washington has receded so much in our collective memory that he has become an impossibly stiff and inflexible figure, composed of too much marble to be quite human." So writes Ron Chernow in his Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of the indispensable man of the founding of America, whose command of the Continental Army led the colonies to victory in the American Revolution and then, as first president, ensured that the fledgling republic held together. Chernow has written a doorstop of a book--over 800 pages--but they are all a delight to read, and I was gratified to be awash in facts about perhaps the most famous American who has ever lived.

Chernow provides a cradle to grave study of the man, touching on his Virginia boyhood, conscious of males in his family having a habit of dying early. But it was through those deaths, and his fortuitous marriage to Martha Dandridge Custis, that provided him a fortune. Before that, though, he was a frontiersman and an able soldier, participating in the French and Indian War. In fact, that he did not receive a commission from the British Army (colonial soldiers were routinely looked down upon) first began to nettle Washington about the British. That, and his difficulty in dealing with British merchants. It could be sad that bad customer service provoked Washington to desire independence.

Washington was chosen as commander of the army because he had the most military experience--I was surprised to learn that John Hancock wanted the gig. But no matter how often I read about the war, I can't wrap my mind around how the Americans won, as Chernow vividly points out how the army was ill-fed, underpaid, and ill-clothed. Washington lost more battles than he won. Imagine the scene after Washington fled from Long Island (with the help of a thick fog), but then was routed by the British in Harlem. Chernow writes: "The man of consummate self-control surrendered to his emotions. Fuming, he flung his hat to the ground and shouted, 'Are these the men with which I am to defend America!' According to another account, he swore, 'Good God! Have I got such troops as these?'"

But Washington, when he did win, did so brilliantly, as in his surprise attack on Trenton after crossing the Delaware, and the subsequent Battle of Princeton. No less a person than Frederick the Great wrote, "The achievements of Washington and his little band of compatriots between the 25th of December and the 4th of January, a space of 10 days, were the most brilliant of any recorded in the annals of military achievements."

What's clear is that the United States of America would not exist in its present form without the help of the French, particularly their navy, which kept Cornwallis from retreating from Yorktown. The antipathy for the French, though, came almost immediately. Memories are short.

Washington was then chosen as the president of the constitutional convention, after which he became the first president of the United States. His primary attribute was the ability to listen and absorb the opinions of others before deliberating and making a decision. He had no interest in becoming a monarch, and feared that the country would lean that way. That didn't stop his critics, most notoriously the son of Benjamin Franklin, who ran a newspaper called the Aurora, from criticizing him mercilessly, claiming that Washington was monarchical. Chernow bends over backwards to disprove that notion.

Washington knew that everything he did as chief executive was establishing precedent. He actually wanted to resign in his first term after two years--his health was failing already, and he almost died more than once. But many feared that he was the glue holding everything together. He dithered about running for a second term, and regretted it almost at once. He was criticized for picking the site of the new capital so close to his home at Mount Vernon, and his cabinet was like a nest of vipers, with Hamilton and Jefferson at each other's throats, and John Adams, his vice president, providing more carping than help. It is to be noted that Adams, Jefferson and James Madison come in for a lot of criticism from Chernow.

Washington's second term was pretty much misery for him. In addition to cabinet squabbles, there was the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania (Washington actually led an army ready to put down those who did not wish to pay taxes), and the treaty John Jay forged with Britain, which Francophiles like Jefferson excoriated. It was with great relief that he left the presidency after two terms. But Chernow enumerates the triumph of Washington's tenure: "Washington's catalog of accomplishments was simply breathtaking. He had restored America's 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...Most of all he had shown a disbelieving world that republican government could prosper without being spineless or disorderly or reverting to authoritarian rule. In surrendering the the presidency after two terms and overseeing a smooth transition of power, Washington had demonstrated that the president was merely the servant of the people."

There is a lot to savor about this book, but I think the personality of Washington that Chernow paints is the best. To start with, he had a horrible mother, a woman who thought nothing of her son's accomplishments and only of herself. Chernow wryly puts it, "With more to brag about than any other mother in American history, she took no evident pride in her son's accomplishments." Perhaps because of this, Washington rarely displayed emotion. He did not like to be touched, and frequently employed an icy stare. One could judge how one stood with him by the salutation of his letters, which were either "Sir," "Dear Sir," or "My Dear Sir," which were, in ascending order, his warmth toward his subject.

But Washington loved the theater, he loved the company of pretty ladies (Chernow includes Washington's flirtation with Sally Fairfax, although seems to think that nothing untoward took place) and had a droll sense of humor. Once, before a battle, Anthony Wayne said to him, "I'll storm hell, sir, if you'll make the plans." To which Washington retorted dryly, "Better try Stony Point first, general." Apparently he also liked dirty jokes--J.P. Morgan purchased some of his letters and had them burned, citing them as "smutty."

He was also extremely generous, although his finances were always precarious. He and Martha had no children of their own, and her two children surviving at the time of their marriage died young, but he doted on his step-grandchildren, and took in all sorts of nieces and nephews. He could also be a rank sentimentalist, as Chernow magnificently describes in his tearful farewell address to his officers at Fraunces Tavern, and his equally lachrymose farewell address as president.

Of course, as with many of the founding fathers, there is the devilish issue of slavery. Washington owned hundreds of slaves, and though he treated them more kindly than others did--he would not break up slave families, and at one point stopped selling them altogether, he did not free them until after his death. This was a major deal at the time, but one can't help but feel it was too little, too late. When a slave escaped, he and Martha couldn't understand why a slave that was so well treated would want to leave, an odd thing for a man who fought a war for freedom to think. Chernow puts it thusly: "He privately made no secret of his disdain for the institution, but neither did he have the courage to broadcast his views or act on them publicly. After endorsing abolition, he shunted direct action onto other shoulders." He did, however, allow blacks to serve in the Continental Army; from six to 12 percent of his army was black.

This book is a treasure trove of history and psychology. If you didn't know Washington as anything more than marble man before, you'll feel like you know him intimately after reading it. There are too many delicious facts to chew on, but I'll end with one of my favorites, when Chernow writes about Washington out hunting: "A month earlier, he recorded that he had killed five mallards and five bald eagles in one day--a curious triumph for the Father of His Country."