Posted on 02/22/2010 11:57:40 AM PST by La Enchiladita
1st. Washington was a real person. God-like images of Washington appear on the dollar bill, in Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze's painting Washington Crossing the Delaware, and in Jean-Antoine Houdon's life-sized statue in the Rotunda of the Virginia Capitol. They are important historically and symbolically, but they make Washington seem remote and unapproachable. The real Washington was a lot like us. He was ambitious, enterprising, passionate, resolute, courageous, obstinate, vain, rash, short-fused, detailed and, yes, honest.
2d. Washington was one of the most charismatic men of his age. Far from the humorless, droll individual that 18th-century iconography suggests, Washington knew how to carry himself; to use his own metaphor, he was an actor on a stage. Thomas Jefferson wrote of Washington that "his deportment [was] easy, erect and noble." And at 6'2" (possibly 6'3"), Washington, a physically strong man, towered over most of his contemporaries. "You had prepared me to entertain a favorable opinion of General Washington," wrote Abigail Adams to her husband, John, after her first introduction to Washington, "but I thought the half was not told me."
3d. Washington was a man of integrity. He based his public service on this quality. "Integrity and firmness are all I can promise," he wrote to his former comrade-in-arms, Henry Knox, shortly before taking office as president. While Washington never confessed to the mythical lie about chopping down a cherry tree, even Thomas Jefferson, who became a political enemy, thought "he was, indeed, in every sense of the words, a wise, a good and a great man."
(Excerpt) Read more at wlu.edu ...
4th. Washington was a visionary.
He learned the vastness of the American landscape during his surveying career and during the French and Indian War. Early on, he realized that the West was a land of opportunity, and he believed that the colonies had more in common with one another than with Great Britain. Washington’s vision of an American nation inspired him to command the Continental army. It gave him the courage to risk his reputation by serving two terms as president. It also gave him a concern for the political and economic survival and success of America, not only for his generation but also for future citizens, whom he called “millions unborn.”
5th. Washington was exceedingly practical.
He had little inclination toward philosophical ruminations; he was a man of action. Whether supplying troops, overseeing his plantations, or guiding his stepchildren and grandchildren, Washington always had in mind some practical end. This quality gave him insight into how to join his personal interests and well-being with those of the emerging nation. It also gave him the greatest moral quandary, in that he could see no way out of participating in the system of slave labor that underpinned his native Virginia. To his credit, wrestling with that quandary eventually led him to free his own slaves, although it meant dismantling his beloved Mount Vernon estate and upending the lives of his wife’s slaves, to whom he could not legally grant freedom.
6th. Washington suffered great failure and loss.
He lost his father when he was 11; his half-brother and mentor when he was 20; his stepdaughter, Patsy; and his stepson, Jacky. He failed to win a British army commission, lost important battles, and survived attempts made on his life. As a president who warned against factions, his popularity waned as partisan bickering turned on him. His farms suffered through years of drought, and his western lands drained time and resources. He endured serious illnesses and was denied the wish of his final years, to “glide gently down the stream of life in tranquil retirement,” when he was struck down with a sudden and fatal illness.
7th. Washington was a family man.
While he had no children of his own, he was the doting father to the two children of his wife, Martha Custis, and a loving grandfather to their offspring. He likewise took a lively interest in his nieces and nephews, the children of his five siblings, with whom he had a lasting intimacy. Washington’s relationship with his mother, Mary Ball Washington, was strained, but he dutifully cared for her. And he and his wife shared a loving relationship. Though we know little of their private thoughts-Martha burned their correspondence before her death-we know that she made extended visits to her husband at his Continental army headquarters each year of the Revolutionary War and never left Washington’s side during his last illness.
8th. Washington greatly valued education.
He thought his own schooling was deficient. Had his father not died when Washington was a child, perhaps he would have attended school in England like his elder half brothers. Washington eagerly supplemented that inadequate education throughout his life by keeping abreast of the latest developments in politics, agriculture, science and the arts. He was adamant that Martha’s children and grandchildren would receive an appropriate education, and he financed the education of the children of siblings and friends. As president, Washington unsuccessfully proposed a national university. In his will, he bequeathed money to schools in Alexandria, Va., and Rockbridge County, Va., the latter of which formed an early endowment for Washington College (now Washington and Lee University). And of all the honors bestowed on him during his lifetime, the degrees from Harvard and other colleges pleased him most.
9th. Washington was America’s “Indispensable Man.”
Perhaps the American Revolution would have succeeded without George Washington. If so, the outcome would have been radically different. The war effort may have failed without his zeal and perseverance. Washington personally held together the Continental army, and no one else even came in second to connecting the chief executives of the states and the factions of the Continental Congress. After the war, as the unanimously elected president of the Constitutional Convention, he worked behind the scenes, discussing differences and forging alliances. Most importantly, Washington was there, a hands-on president. For example, when making federal appointments, he read each application and painstakingly balanced sectional and political rivalries. The reputation and popularity of this indispensable man, as his biographer James Thomas Flexner calls him, propelled him into the presidency; his own inner star, assisted by other able men, guided him through the burdens of eight years’ service. Washington left office with his vision and integrity intact.
10th. Washington left us a valuable political and moral legacy.
With his coherent and sophisticated political philosophy, he set an example for his fellow citizens over the course of nearly half a century. He summed up the lessons he’d learned in his “Farewell Address to the People of the United States,” with its central theme of perpetual union based on the primacy of the Constitution. He buttressed his theme with warnings to steer clear of sectional and political divisions. Washington also advised on foreign relations; on the role of religion, morality and education in public life; and on the need to protect public credit and stabilize commercial and manufacturing interests. “You should properly estimate the immense value of your national Union to your collective & individual happiness,” he said, “that you should cherish a cordial, habitual & immoveable attachment to it.”
One of my favorite Washington quotes - because he was talking about my people...
“If all else fails, I will retreat up the valley of Virginia, plant my flag on the Blue Ridge, rally around the Scotch-Irish of that region, and make my last stand for liberty amongst a people who will never submit to British tyranny whilst there is a man left to draw a trigger.”
George Washington, at Valley Forge.
One of heroes. When they made him, they indeed broke the mold. My daughter gave a speech about him which was delivered well. She did not receive any recognition because it was not PC enough. Afterall, our kids are taught that he owned slaves and that is pretty much all they know about him.
"Droll"?
I do not think that word means what you think it means...
The man who could have been a King, but founded a Republic instead, like Brutus.
The man who led our armies to victory, only to beat his sword into a plowshare and go back to the land, like Cincinnatus.
Isn't that pathetic? I found that in my internet searches too. It is dreadful and depressing the way kids are being brainwashed, not only in public schools but in private. Catholic schools are bursting with PC indoctrination as well; there is no difference.
He was a founding father, does that make him a native American?
What do you think I think it means? Hint: I am not the author.
And, when all was said and done, he declined to write his memoirs.... leaving the assessment to posterity.
My assessment: He is still an inspiration, perhaps more than ever.
I remember reading that Washington strove at all times to observe strict propriety in all things and was excessively careful about appearances, his own and that of his associates… he never wanted to appear as anything short of proper and a gentleman.
America showed King George III what they thought of hereditary monarchies and made itself into a country without an aristocracy (truly a novel idea)... that said, the real distinction between people was not wealth, titles or rank.
Nothing demonstrated your status in society so much as your demeanor. No matter what you owned or what rank you held, if you did not possess acceptable manners and correct deportment, you would be excluded from good society and would be held in low esteem. No on wanted to be seen in that light.
Little known fact. He hates Barrack Obama.
Patriot ping.
“First in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen.”
The only thing your kid knows if taught at a public school:
He owned slaves
/***src off***/
Obviously, my comment was directed at the author
Thanks for posting this on Washington’s Birthday.
BTTT!
I think our Olympic Snowboarders with their grungewear and ipods earbuds would of faced a good tongue lashing by the Father of our Country.
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