Realistic Visionary:
Essays on the Life and Character of
George Washington
Peter R. Henriques
Copyright and not to be reproduced or quoted without
specific permission from the author
Contents
Acknowledgements [To be written]
Dedication [To be written]
List of Illustrations[To be written]
Preface
1
His First Proving Ground:
George Washington and the French and Indian War
2
Taking Command: George Washington
and the Beginning of the War for American Independence
3
“A Kind of Inevitable Necessity”:
The Presidency of George Washington
4
“A Votary to Love:”
George Washington’s Relationship With
Sally Cary Fairfax
5
From An ‘Agreeable Consort’ to ‘My Dear Patsy’: The Relationship Between
George and Martha Washington
6
Reluctant Enemies:
The Increasingly Strained Relationship Between
George Washington and Thomas Jefferson
7
The Great Collaboration:
The Increasingly Close Relationship Between
George Washington and Alexander Hamilton
8
"The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret":
George Washington and Slavery
9
A Few Simple Beliefs:
George Washington and Religion
10
He died as he lived:
The Death of George Washington
11
On the Triumphant Navigation of Power, Love, and Freedom:
A New Effort to Understand George Washington
Preface
George Washington would not be particularly pleased with this volume of
essays. It is not because the essays denigrate the man or belittle his contributions.
Readers will soon realize that I greatly admire Washington and believe that he
undoubtedly deserves the premier position among all American statesmen. It is not
because he did not want people to write about him, for he had an unquenchable thirst
for secular immortality. It is, rather, because the major focus of the chapters is on the
personal side of George Washington. The great historian, Edmund Morgan, is probably
correct in asserting that Washington would prefer to be admired from a distance. There
are many aspects of his personal life that, in GW’s words, “the world has no business to
know.”
Can we recover the flesh and blood Washington? Morgan is certainly skeptical.
Marcus Cunliffe warns it is “useless for his biographers to try and separate Washington
from the myths and images surrounding him” [p.147], although, ironically, in much of
his book, he attempts to do just that. Certainly, the task is difficult. Because of his
reserve and his caution, Washington is not an easy man to know. Nevertheless, I am of
the school that believes such a reconstruction, while inevitably partial and incomplete,
is worthwhile. Happily, the historical record is rich enough to accomplish the task, and
that record is increasingly accessible thanks to the ongoing efforts at the University of
Virginia to compile the definitive edition of the George Washington’s Papers [nearly 50
volumes published and still counting]. I accept that we can probably never know the
“real” George Washington. All the same, I believe the image presented in the following
essays is a “realistic” portrayal of this remarkable man.
Perhaps the most striking and most commonly overlooked aspect of the
historical George Washington is the force of his personality. The widely accepted view
of GW as a man of limited ability who was little more than a figurehead and effective
symbol is simply incorrect. Joseph Ellis, in his brilliant new study of Washington
entitled, appropriately enough, His Excellency, expressed it perfectly. GW was “the
most ambitious, determined and potent personality of an age not lacking for worthy
rivals.” A remarkable leader who combined and tempered his vision with an
insightfully realistic understanding of human nature, it is amazing how much George
Washington accomplished of what he set out to achieve, and how closely he came to
living up to the very difficult role he had chosen for himself. As Richard Brookhiser
notes, that is the striking thing about this man: the consistency of his behavior with his
ideals, and his efforts over twenty-four years to make the two line up.
My goal in my classes, my lectures, and my writing is to introduce this
fascinating man to a wider audience, and I find the challenge of attempting to reveal
GW’s character infinitely more interesting than simply recounting his career. Over the
past several years, I have been privileged to present a series of lectures on various
aspects of George Washington’s life and character at historic Gadsby’s Tavern in Old
Town Alexandria. Happily, they have been very well received, and several people
suggested that I publish them. Those requests were the impetus for this book.
Publishing a book of essays presents particular challenges and difficulties. Each
essay is designed to stand on its own, but this presents organizational problems when
the same themes, for example Washington’s ambition or his sensitivity to criticism,
figure prominently in several of the essays. Some repetition is therefore inevitable,
although I have tried my best to minimize it. Then too, I initially selected the lecture
topics simply because I was interested in them, not as part of any master plan or
projected book. I wanted, for example, to explore GW’s relationships with various
individuals that played an important or significant role in his life. Four that
particularly interested me were Sally Cary Fairfax, his wife Martha, Thomas Jefferson,
and Alexander Hamilton. Naturally, these relationships have been discussed in many,
many volumes, but nowhere did I find a succinct, scholarly treatment of the
relationships in a manner that was accessible to the general reader. To remedy that
deficiency, I have attempted to synthesize the findings of scholars, often adding my own
specific interpretation.
Some topics appealed to me because of their timely nature. The reverberations
of slavery and racism have had such an impact on modern America that I wanted to
explore them in connection to Washington. Probably, the most controversial chapter of
my book will be the one focusing on Washington and religion, and especially the
question of his Christian beliefs. The current tension between those emphasizing a faith
based knowledge and those emphasizing a fact based knowledge give special relevance
to Washington’s warnings against sectarianism and his strong support for religious
liberty.
I have often wondered about death, or more specifically about dying, and
how I would react if circumstances allowed me the time and the mental capacity to
do so. Being at my father’s bedside, when he died in November of 1995, impressed
on my mind the vividness, the emotion, and the power of a deathbed farewell. I
discovered that messages could be conveyed and important lessons learned even
when communication was difficult. I then decided to look closely and critically at
Washington’s death, and, as is so often the case, I found George Washington’s
example instructive and enlightening. My chapter on this topic draws extensively
from my two published works on the subject, The Death of George Washington: He
Died as He Lived, published by the Mount Vernon Ladies Association in December
of 2000 and "The Final Struggle Between George Washington and the Grim King:
Washington's Attitude Toward Death and Afterlife," Virginia Magazine of History
and Biography, winter, 1999 [Reprinted in Don Higginbotham, editor, George
Washington Reconsidered (University Press of Virginia, 2001).
Still focusing on the personal side, I also wished to examine how Washington
took command and how he performed in his public service – as Commander-in-Chief of
the First Virginia Regiment in the French and Indian War, as Commander-in-Chief of
the Continental Army during the War for Independence, and as the first president of
the newly created United States of America. Essays on such broad topics had to be
particularly selective. A full length book could [and has] been written about each.
Nevertheless, examining them even in a selective fashion can enrich our knowledge
about both Washington’s character and his philosophy.
Finally, I wanted to focus specifically on the question of what made GW “tick.”
What motivated him to act in the manner that he did. As William Safire wrote,
“Historians try mightily to get inside their subjects’ minds. They enliven the written
record with intuitive judgment after subjecting it to rigorous professional discipline.”
That is what I try to do. In this effort I have been aided by the profound insights of my
son, Gregg, who is a clinical psychologist and professor at James Madison University.
Using his new model of human behavior and my knowledge about George Washington,
we have combined to write the final essay in an effort to present a new and hopefully
helpful answer to this ever elusive question.
Whenever George Washington was appointed to a new position, he seemed
constrained to point out that he was not properly qualified for the job. Whenever I am
about to publish or publicly lecture on George Washington I feel constrained to point
out that I am an eclectic thief. I owe a tremendous debt to a great many fine scholars.
When brilliant word smiths like Joe Ellis, Ron Chernow, and Paul Longmore make
important points more effectively and succinctly than I can, I don’t hesitate to use their
words. Of course, I want to give explicit recognition in all such cases. Yet, since the
essays in this volume are drawn in part from classroom lectures developed over many
years, it may be, in a very few cases, that parts of my lectures, which I have
incorporated as my own, are in fact words from another scholar. At the end of each
essay I include a note on sources and recognition of specific quotations. If I have
inadvertently omitted any, it is due to a lack of careful note taking and poor memory,
and not from any wish to appropriate another scholar’s words as my own.