Washington was a physically dominating figure who was not well educated, but married into elite society. Possessing an outsized ego, he managed his image closely, particularly regarding early military failures. After a successful French and Indian War, he accumulated land and aspired to fulfill the promise of the west, but his debts to British cotton agents transformed him into a revolutionary. Ideology played no real role, although he did wrestle with the question of slavery. As a general in the Revolutionary War, he is proclivity was to attack but he realized survival was the victory, a la Fabius. He grew to recognize the ineffectiveness of the Articles of Confederation during this time, and subsequently agreed to lead the Constitutional Convention and become the first president. He disliked partisan politics, reluctantly agreed to a second term, and all but dismissed Jefferson as a schemer. Hamilton was responsible for much of the administration’s success. Ultimately, says Ellis, Washington never conquered his ego but recognized posterity is the final judge and had the confidence to submit — unlike Napoleon, Lenin, Mao, etc.
George Washington
13. Wood, Revolutionary Characters (21 Nov 2010)
Sketches the moral and political sensibilities of the Founding Fathers: Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Hamilton, Adams, and Madison along with Burr and Paine. Each of the core six was conscious of belonging to a new meritocracy, of setting an example for the Revolutionary generation. Washington and Jefferson receive the fullest historiographical treatment; Franklin’s portrait is most revealing. Paine and Burr are present to serve as counterpoints, as well to illustrate the code: even as the Founding Fathers proved themselves a brilliant cohort of elites, the 18th-century American aristocracy was ending, sped along by the example of these (largely) self-made men and their rhetorical appeals to the common man. That essay, which treats the story of the Revolutionary- and Federalist-era newspapers, also makes a telling explanation of the overheated, lugubrious prose so often found in the century’s polemics: the elites were talking amongst themselves, above the proletariat.
5. Ellis, His Excellency (~ Mar 2005)
Washington was a physically dominating figure who was not well educated, but married into elite society. Possessing an outsized ego, he managed his image closely, particularly regrinding early military failures. After a successful French and Indian War, he accumulated land and aspired to fulfill the promise of the west, but debts to British cotton agents catalyzed his transformation to revolutionary. Ideology played no real role, although he did wrestle with the question of slavery. As a Revolutionary War general, he favored attack but realized survival was the victory, a la Fabius. He grew to recognize the ineffectiveness of the Articles of Confederation during this time, and subsequently agreed to lead the Constitutional Convention and become the first president. He disliked partisan politics, reluctantly agreed to a second term, and all but dismissed Jefferson as a schemer. Hamilton was responsible for much of the administration’s success. Ultimately, says Ellis, Washington never conquers his ego but recognized posterity is the final judge and had the confidence to submit — unlike Napoleon, Lenin, Mao, etc.