And that is a load of nonsense. When the entirity of Washington's career is considered, the list of persons that was probably closest to comes down to those who were also essentially his "nextdoor" neighbors. This category would generally include other well known planters such as George Mason, but his friendship with the longest duration on good terms was probably that with his comparatively obscure neighbor Bryan Fairfax.
Fairfax and Washington remained friends for decades. This friendship held firm even under its strongest test - the revolution. Fairfax was a loyalist out of conscience when Washington was leader of the revolutionaries, yet even that did not stop Washington from using his influence to protect Fairfax from persecution by others on the American side. They remained close friends until Washington's death in 1799. Fairfax was by then a clergyman and it was in him that Washington regularly confided his most personal thoughts. A few months before his death he wrote this famous passage in a private letter to Fairfax:
"The favorable sentiments which others, you say, have been pleased to express respecting me, cannot but be pleasing to a mind who always walked on a straight line, and endeavored as far as human frailties, and perhaps strong passions, would enable him, to discharge the relative duties to his Maker and fellow-men, without seeking any indirect or left handed attempts to acquire popularity."
LOL, Oh, please. I have already addressed your nonsense about Madison's contributions to Washington's farewell address in post # 810. If you would just read it, you'll see that the address applies just as much to the pro-British policies of Hamilton, a fact your revisionist Hamiltonian "historians" have conveniently failed to mention.
It is simply a FACT that Washington regarded no man higher than Hamilton. Upon his death Hamilton lamented that Washington had been an "aegis" for him. A shield, a protection.
LOL, he was bemoaning the fact that he couldn't use Washington anymore to further his personal political ambitions and partisan back-stabbing. He was on his own.
Even as early as 1780 there were those claiming Washington was a captive of his aides (meaning Hamilton.)
Hamilton's selfish manipulations were obvious to many.