10 Reasons I Wish George Washington Were Still Alive: (Parts 1 of 3 )
Many conservatives point to great modern men and leaders, such as Ronald Reagan, as models we can follow, and I concur with their sentiments. But I think the best leaders lived long ago, during the founding of our republic, away from the limelight and luster of today's politics and Washington drama.
With Feb. 18's being Presidents Day and Feb. 22's being the actual day George Washington was born, I thought there would no better time to honor the man I consider to be one of the greatest leaders ever born.
And I'm going to take a few weeks (columns) to do it.
Let me begin by highlighting a few background notes for some who might not be so familiar with this pillar of American life beyond the basics, as documented by the University of Virginia and the History channel.
On Feb. 22, 1732, George Washington was born to a family of middling wealth in Westmoreland County, Va., the second son from the second marriage of a colonial plantation owner.
In 1752, Washington joined the British army and served as a lieutenant in the French and Indian War.
In 1759, he married Martha Dandridge Custis, a wealthy widow, and adopted her two children.
In 1775, at age 43, Washington became the commander in chief of the Continental Army, and in 1783, he led America to victory over the British after eight years of war.
As far as his political career goes, Washington served as a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses from 1759 until 1774. He was also a member of the first and second Continental Congresses in 1774 and 1775. But while others were signing the Declaration of Independence, Washington was already on the battlefield, fighting for independence. As the president of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, however, Washington was the first signer of the U.S. Constitution.
In 1789, Washington became the first president of the United States of America. He was elected unanimously by the 69 presidential electors to serve his first term, which was from 1789 to 1793. He was elected unanimously again for his second term, from 1793 to 1797. He declined a third term.
So here are my top 10 reasons I wish George Washington were still alive and why I believe the model of his life is still worthy to shadow today. (These are also the reasons I often cited in my New York Times best-seller "Black Belt Patriotism," which has an expanded paperback edition.)
10) Even as a youth, Washington was a role model for many. At just 14, George wrote out in freehand by his own volition "110 Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation." At 17, George's first official job was as the official surveyor of Culpeper County, Va.
9) Washington epitomized courage. While others were frightened by their signing of the Declaration of Independence, Washington was on the front lines, battling for its tenets. He faced his fears, endured grave hardships and even stared death in the eyes while helping others to do the same. Who can forget the severe conditions of Valley Forge? And what about the repeated threat of personal injury?
Washington even dodged bullets on several occasions. The University of Virginia documented a few of them: "at Braddock's Defeat where two horses were shot under him and he had four bullets in his clothes; at the final skirmish of the Forbes expedition, on November 12, 1758, where he rushed between two parties of British who were firing at each other; at Kip's Bay skirmish on September 15, 1776, where he rashly exposed himself in an attempt to rally the militia; at the Battle of Princeton, January 3, 1777; and when making a reconnaissance of the British after the landing at the Head of Elk on August 26, 1777."
8) Washington wasn't afraid of public opinion or challenging the status quo. As History's website explained, "he struggled with advisors over what sort of image a president should project. He preferred one of dignity and humility and stumbled when encouraged to act out of character or monarchical. ... A member of the Virginia planter class, he grew increasingly uncomfortable with the hypocrisy of owning slaves, yet publicly he promoted a gradual abolition of slavery. In his will, he requested that his slaves be freed upon Martha's death." As far back as 1786, Washington wrote, "There is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a plan adopted for the abolition of (slavery)."
7) Washington was a man of integrity and character yet just as human as the rest of us. History explained: "Washington possessed that intangible quality of a born leader and had earned a reputation for coolness under fire and as a strict disciplinarian during the French and Indian campaign. ... An extraordinary figure in American history and unusually tall at 6'3", Washington was also an ordinary man. He loved cricket and fox-hunting, moved gracefully around a ballroom, was a Freemason and possibly a Deist, and was an astute observer of the darker side of human nature. His favorite foods were pineapples, Brazil nuts (hence the missing teeth from cracking the shells) and Saturday dinners of salt cod. He possessed a wry sense of humor and, like his wife Martha, tried to resist the vanities of public life. Washington could also explode into a rage when vexed in war or political battles. Loyal almost to a fault, he could also be unforgiving and cold when crossed. When Republican Thomas Jefferson admitted to slandering the president in an anonymous newspaper article for his support of Federalist Alexander Hamilton's policies, Washington cut Jefferson out of his life. On at least one occasion, Washington's stubbornness inspired John Adams to refer to him as Old Muttonhead."
To commemorate Presidents Day and Washington's Birthday, last week I highlighted the first four of the top 10 reasons I wish George Washington were still alive:
10) Washington was a role model for many, even as a youth.
10) Washington was a role model for many, even as a youth.
9) Washington epitomized courage.
8) Washington wasn't afraid of public opinion or challenging the status quo.
7) Washington was a man of integrity and character yet just as human as the rest of us.
Here are a few more of the reasons I wish Washington were still alive and why I believe the model of his life is still worthy to shadow today (These are also the reasons I cited in my New York Times best-seller "Black Belt Patriotism," which has an expanded paperback edition.)
6) Washington was a first-class servant leader who walked what he talked about. He believed so firmly in our newly founded but poor republic that he took no pay for his service during the Revolutionary War (besides official expenses). And after eight long years of leading the war and retiring to his peaceful estate at Mount Vernon, he re-enlisted rather than stay retired. It is amazingly commendable -- if not astonishing -- that Washington came out of military retirement to serve two terms as president. He even had to borrow money to pay off debts and travel to his own inauguration.
5) Washington didn't allow personal obstacles to hinder his service to God, his country and his family. Among other sicknesses, according to Fox News, beginning at the age of 17, Washington suffered multiple malaria attacks throughout his life. He even had a case of smallpox and dysentery and struggled with depression and hearing loss.
In 1779, during the middle of the Revolutionary War, Washington "feared for his survival," not from bullets but from an abscess of the tonsils. And after all he had been through, at 57 years old, with his war-torn body and reportedly only a single real tooth in his mouth, Washington left behind the comfort of his estate on the edge of the Potomac River and traveled eight days to New York, where he was sworn in as president.
4) Washington was a devoted family man. In 1759, at 26 years of age, Washington married widow, Martha Dandridge Custis. Though Martha and George had no children, he adopted her daughter and son from her former marriage. They also provided personal and financial support to nephews, nieces and other extended family members.
If it's true that behind every great man is a great woman (and it is, as evidenced by my wife, Gena, who does more for me and others than the world will ever know), then Washington's wife, Martha, is definitely to be credited for part of the power behind the myth of the Father of Our Country. For example, for each of the eight years of the Revolutionary War, Martha came to Washington's winter encampments (including Valley Forge) to boost his morale, as well as the other officers' morale.
No doubt Martha's initial struggle to support Washington's departure as president must have had some emotional connection to her finally having him home at Mount Vernon after his service in the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention and his eight years of leading the war. Though Martha refused to attend his inauguration, she stood by her man by living with him at the temporary U.S. capitals New York and Philadelphia.
Though Martha and George had a strong relationship, there's no doubt he had a lifelong love interest in the beautiful and intellectually astute Sally Fairfax -- the wife of his friend George William Fairfax -- whom he met when he was just 16. Sally's father never would have allowed her to marry someone other than a man from a wealthy family like theirs, and Washington didn't fit the bill.
Mount Vernon historians noted how Sally "remained ever faithful to her marriage" yet a good friend of the Washingtons'. In 1773, she moved with her husband to England, where he died in 1787. In 1798, just a year before Washington's death, he wrote to Sally, urging her to return to Virginia. He added, "(Nothing has) been able to eradicate from my mind the recollection of those happy moments, the happiest in my life, which I have enjoyed in your company." Sally never returned and died alone in England in 1811.
No man is perfect, and that included George Washington. He himself confessed: "We must take human nature as we find it. Perfection falls not to the share of mortals." Remembering that was likely the key to his humility, service, and mercy to others. Maybe his own struggle to receive the Holy Eucharist when he attended services at an Anglican church was born from his wrestling with his own humanity and possibly even the human toll that incurred when he was leading the war.
George was married to Martha for roughly 40 years. Just before her death in 1802, Martha destroyed nearly all of Washington's letters to her, though three did survive.
In the previous two columns, I highlighted the first seven of the top 10 reasons I wish George Washington were still alive:
10) Washington was a role model for many, even as a youth.
10) Washington was a role model for many, even as a youth.
9) Washington epitomized courage.
8) Washington wasn't afraid of public opinion or challenging the status quo.
7) Washington was a man of integrity and character yet just as human as the rest of us.
6) Washington was a first-class servant leader who walked what he talked about.
5) Washington didn't allow personal obstacles to stop his service to God, his family, and his country.
4) Washington was a devoted family man.
Here are the remaining three reasons I wish he were still alive and why I believe the model of his life is still worthy to shadow today. (These are also the reasons I cited in my New York Times best-seller "Black Belt Patriotism," which has an expanded paperback edition.)
3) Washington revered God and religion, often elevating their irreplaceable and invaluable roles in our republic. For example, in 1789, during the same time when the First Amendment was written, then-President Washington signed into law the Northwest Ordinance, which states, "Religion, Morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, Schools and the means of education shall be forever encouraged."
On Oct. 3, 1789, Washington issued the first presidential Thanksgiving proclamation to God: "a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the many signal favors of Almighty God."
A must-see at Washington's estate at Mount Vernon is his museum's exhibition display and video (set up within a mini chapel setting) of how the general of the Revolutionary War and the first president of our nation esteemed God and religion -- not exactly what you might read in textbooks or hear in classrooms today about Washington.
2) Washington led our nation with frugality and self-sacrifice. Throughout the Revolutionary War as commander in chief of the Continental Army, Washington refused to accept any pay, though he was reimbursed by Congress for expenses accrued during the war. He was reluctant even to be paid as president but was convinced by others that it would not be a good precedent for future presidents. So Congress gave Washington $25,000 a year, the largest salary in the U.S. for personal service at the time (2 percent of the national budget).
It should be noted, however, that being president then didn't have the thousands of perks that come with the position today, including a free mansion in which to live. For example, after staying for 16 months in New York, Washington and his wife, Martha, rented a mansion in Philadelphia (the nation's capital before D.C.), where they lived from 1790-97. Washington had to use his salary both for official duties and to maintain his personal affairs. It was an amount that even he complained was scarcely enough.
Because Washington conducted a presidential business from that residence, as well, he supported a robust staff, in addition to his family. UShistory.org notes, "In November (1790), when the presidential household moved in, there were up to thirty people living on the premises: Washington, his wife, Martha, and her grandchildren, Nelly and G.W. Parke Custis; Chief Secretary Tobias Lear, his wife, and the three male secretaries; eight enslaved Africans from Mount Vernon; and about fifteen white servants."
Much is made today of Washington's financial fortune (USA Today labeled him "the big daddy of presidential wealth"), but most overlook that his wealth was largely amassed in the Mount Vernon estate, which he inherited from his elder half brother in 1761, and in Martha's land and slaves, inherited from her former husband.
Sure, he had lots of assets, but his liquidity didn't flow like wealthy people's money today. Remember that back then, there was no established national banking system. Bartering and oscillating state currencies and commodities were the names of the game (until the 1792 Coinage Act), with the value of land fluctuating sharply based upon weather and crop production. As The Atlantic put it, "because there was no central banking system and no regulatory framework for commodities, markets were subject to panics in ways unknown today." Consider that at 57 years old, Washington even had to borrow money to pay off debts and to travel to his own inauguration.
1) The No. 1 reason I wish George Washington were still alive is that his character and leadership are so rare and desperately needed in our nation's capital today, as much as, if not even more so than, it was in our republic's formation.
In 1797, after winning the Revolutionary War and serving two presidential terms in office, Washington finally retired to Mount Vernon at 65 years of age, but he would enjoy his rest for only two years.
On Dec. 14, 1799, Washington died of a severe respiratory sickness. His beloved Martha died only three years later.
In his will, he humbly and simply referred to himself as "George Washington of Mount Vernon, a citizen of the United States, and lately President of the same."
At first, the Washingtons were laid to rest in an unmarked brick tomb at Mount Vernon. But their final resting place is in a crypt there that bears the title of him who refused to be king. The engraved words over the tomb make known the title by which people knew Washington best back then -- not as a president but as general.
The inscription reads, "Within this Enclosure Rest the remains of Gen.l George Washington." And over the door of the inner tomb are inscribed these words from Jesus: "I am the resurrection and the life."
Washington's good friend Henry Lee probably summarized his life, leadership and legacy best in the eulogy for the father of the United States: "First in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen."
And so he remains -- or should remain -- always.
God, please give the U.S. more men and women like George and Martha Washington.
(SET ITAL) For more on the monumental figure, I recommend the amazing book "George Washington's Sacred Fire," by Peter Lillback and Jerry Newcombe.
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. -- Plato (429-347 BC)
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