Ron Chernow, Washington: A Life (affiliate link). New York: Penguin Press, 2010. 904 pages.
Ron Chernow is one of my favorite biographers. He is an excellent historian and a great storyteller. He has written superb biographies on Alexander Hamilton (on which the Broadway play “Hamilton” was based), Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan, and Ulysses S. Grant (affiliate links). I had previously read a biography on Washington, but when I was preparing to visit Mount Vernon, I decided it was time to read this book as well. I was not disappointed.
This book is 900 pages and cannot be properly summarized. Like all the greatest men and women of history, Washington clearly had feet of clay. His father died when he was 11. Washington expected to be sent to England for school, but his father’s death brought those dreams to an abrupt end. He felt the effects of his lack of education for the rest of his life (12). Of all the founding fathers, he was the least educated, and he was often reminded of that fact.
Washington was endowed with immense ambition. He also benefitted from the deaths of various relatives through the years. His brother Lawrence owned Mount Vernon. After his death and that of his wife and daughter, the plantation went to George (26). Washington had a strained relationship with his widowed mother. She boycotted his wedding and never visited Mount Vernon. She regularly complained of his treatment of her and never demonstrated any pride in her son’s accomplishments (18). Washington provided adequately for her but failed to erect a tombstone for her upon her death.
Washington was fortunate to be taken in by the most powerful aristocratic family in the area, the Fairfaxes. He developed an infatuation with Sally Fairfax, his friend George William Fairfax’s wife. Historians have speculated about the extent of their relationship. Chernow does not believe they ever consummated it.
Washington rose to enormous heights in war and as the first American president, but Chernow demonstrates that Washington was always obsessed with finances. Mount Vernon was often neglected during his long absences. He was fascinated with land speculation. Even while leading the continental army, he regularly wrote letters to his overseers at home urging them to take proper care of his estate.
Washington was fearless in battle. He often rode his horse into gunfire. On at least one occasion he was the only officer not killed or wounded in an engagement, though his hat and uniform had multiple bullet holes in them. He seemed to be protected from death, even when others fell all around him. After an early battle, Washington famously confessed, “I can with truth assure you, I heard bullets whistle and believe me there was something charming in the sound” (44).
Washington was never an outstanding general or tactician. He was outmaneuvered on several occasions by British generals. After one such incident, John Adams quipped, “In general, our generals were outgeneraled” (248).
Washington always acted like a disinterested aristocrat, even when he could not afford to do so. He once chose not to receive pay for his military service, including leading the revolutionary army for six years. Though extremely ambitious, he thought it beneath him to express his ambition openly. Chernow notes, “The hallmark of Washington’s career was that he didn’t seek power but let it come to him” (186). Chernow adds, “Things didn’t happen accidentally to George Washington, but he managed things with such consummate skill that they seemed to happen accidentally” (186). Chernow continues, “Even as a young man, the complex Washington seldom had a single reason for his actions. His pursuit of self-interest and selfless dedication to public service were often intermingled, sometimes making it hard to disentangle his true motives” (69).
Washington’s wife Martha was considered quite lovely as a young woman but was later viewed as matronly and stout. She was beloved by those who knew her. Though perhaps not a passionate marriage, she proved to be her husband’s dearest friend and supporter and a perfect foil to Washington’s mother (80). Chernow notes that Washington always enjoyed the company of ladies. After Sally Fairfax, he had one other close female friend (102). Nevertheless, Chernow believes that Washington, a man of self-control who was mindful of his reputation, would never have acted recklessly in a fit of passion.
Chernow suggests that, after losing his father as a boy and experiencing a tumultuous relationship with his mother, Washington spent most of his life cultivating self-control. Chernow notes that “Washington’s storied self-control was not something inherited but achieved by dint of hard work” (86).
Chernow explores Washington’s frustrations with his bad teeth. He eventually lost them all and wore painful archaic dentures that made his mouth protrude awkwardly. Chernow suggests embarrassment over his teeth may be a reason Washington was sensitive about speaking in public. He notes that “The man who faced bullets with sangfroid never conquered his terror of public speaking” (99). Ironically, Washington masterfully used silence as a means of garnering respect. Chernow quotes Thomas Jefferson, who observed Washington and Benjamin Franklin during the constitutional debates. Jefferson noted that “I never heard either of them speak ten minutes at a time, nor to anything but the main point. They laid their shoulders to the great points, knowing that the little ones would follow of themselves” (99). Chernow notes that “People sensed something a bit studied about his behavior and suspected, correctly, that the manner was partly learned” (123).
Washington was a devoted Mason all of his adult life. He refrained from taking communion, but he was a regular church attender. He never spoke of his personal faith in Christ but often cited Providential care over him and his army (131, 294). He also enlisted chaplains for his army. He seems to have been too measured in his self-control to display his feelings about God publicly.
Washington was not brilliant. He preferred to come to the best decision slowly. But as a general, he did not always have the luxury of time. Chernow observes, “With a mind neither quick or nimble, Washington lacked the gift of spontaneity and found it difficult to improvise on the spot” (305). This deficiency cost him in active battles but helped him set numerous precedents as America’s first president.
Washington had detractors and enemies within the army who sought to replace him. But even though Washington was not always victorious in battle, he usually won victories over his own character and temper. Chernow notes, “It was perhaps less his military skills than his character that eclipsed all competitors. Washington was dignified, circumspect, and upright, whereas his enemies seemed petty and skulking” (320). Chernow adds, “The quintessential man of action, he would act like a national icon long before he became one” (121).
Though far from perfect, Washington seemed to have an uncanny sense of what should be done in critical moments. When his soldiers who had not been paid appeared to be in a rebellious mood, he hurried to address them. Washington pulled out his glasses and said, “Gentlemen, you must pardon me . . . I have grown gray in your service and now I find myself going blind” (435). This remark broke his hardened veterans, and the rebellion came to an abrupt end.
Washington was at his wit’s end about the condition of his property and was anxious to return to Mount Vernon after being away for almost six years during the war. Yet the allure of being his nation’s first president and setting it in the proper direction was a powerful force in Washington’s life. People recognized that if the new nation was to succeed, Washington was the only man who could be trusted to lead it. Many dreaded the thought of a man such as Napoleon Bonaparte, who after achieving power could not relinquish it. Chernow suggests that most people believed Washington was wealthier than he was. He certainly gave that impression. Therefore, people assumed he would be just as happy enjoying his luxurious estate as building a new nation.
After people pleaded with him to serve, Chernow notes, “That is what Washington yearned to hear: That overwhelming necessity demanded that he make the supreme sacrifice and serve as president” (549). Washington initially assumed he would hold the post one or two years until the nation was properly launched. He could not have foreseen serving for eight years. Washington visibly aged as president and faced several life-threatening illnesses. He seemed to know instinctively that by agreeing to be president, he would have little time left to enjoy retirement at Mount Vernon.
Chernow contrasts Washington with people like John Adams who resented Washington’s popularity and success. Chernow comments, “Vain and thin skinned, Adams felt demeaned by receiving only half as many votes as Washington” (551). He would never have a close relationship with Washington. Adams famously said of his role as vice president, “My country, in its wisdom, contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of a man contrived or his imagination conceived” (594).
Washington had four primary cabinet members, but as Chernow notes, it was a “small but stellar group” (596). Thomas Jefferson, over time, would lose his admiration of Washington, especially as he seemed to lean progressively on Alexander Hamilton (600). As Jefferson and Hamilton’s feud worsened, Washington became increasingly frustrated that his lieutenants could not put aside their animosity for the sake of the country.
Chernow claims that the one great blemish on Washington’s presidency was that he never used his position of power to address and eradicate slavery (624). Chernow suggests, “George Washington desperately wanted to think well of himself and believed he was merciful toward the slaves even as the inherent cruelty of the system repeatedly forced him into behavior that questioned that belief” (641). Chernow chronicles the mixed feelings Washington experienced over slavery. He knew the institution was immoral. He also believed it was an inefficient system, with many of his slaves unable to work and their work ethic and motivation far below what he desired. A man trapped in his age, Washington was blind to the fact that people in slavery had no motivation to make someone else rich. He also faced enormous political pressures. He knew that southern politicians would threaten to secede from the union if anything was done about slavery. Not wanting the nation to arrive stillborn, Washington avoided discussing the issue publicly. His will permitted his slaves to be freed after his and Martha’s death, but he never felt he could address the nation’s foremost issue during his life.
Washington was aware that everything he did set a precedent. It was here that his caution and slowness to act proved invaluable. By choosing not to run for re-election for a third term, he set a powerful precedent that was only challenged much later by Franklin Roosevelt. Washington meticulously kept his correspondence and prepared it to be reviewed by later historians and biographers. By the time he completed eight years in office, he was weary of the infighting and the tabloids that regularly attacked him. He worried about the financial condition of Mount Vernon. Having suffered from increasing deafness and blindness, he knew it was time for someone else to take the helm.
Washington was deeply hurt by what he viewed as a betrayal by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. They attacked him behind his back and supported newspapers that publicly maligned his character. Washington eventually ceased to have contact with either man. Chernow notes that “For all his years in public service, Washington never developed a thick rind for the cut and thrust of politics” (686). Though Washington worked hard to conceal his emotions from the public, he was extremely sensitive to attacks on his integrity and character, and he felt deeply the attacks that came at an increasing rate over the course of his presidency.
He died fully in control of the situation. Even though the weather was horrendously cold and wet, he stuck to his routine of riding across his plantation each morning. He contracted an illness. Popular medicinal practice at that time called for bleeding the patient. As a result, five pints of blood were ultimately taken from him, making him much weaker. Even as he lay dying and suffering much pain and discomfort, he expressed concern for those at his bedside. He told his doctor, “I die hard, but I am not afraid to go” (808). The last thing he did was check his own pulse, even as life was leaving his body.
There is an ongoing debate among historians over who was the greatest US president. Typically, Washington and Lincoln vie for top spot. Lincoln dealt with the nation’s most grievous issue, one Washington declined to address. Lincoln led during the greatest trial the nation ever faced: civil war. People can make a good case for Lincoln. But having read this biography, I am inclined to think that Washington exerted the greatest influence on the nation. He led the fight for its independence from the most powerful superpower of that day. He then led the precariously infant nation through its earliest steps and formative decisions. There were numerous opportunities for the union to come unraveled before it was fully formed. Had Washington been led by his ego, we might live in a very different nation today. Everything Washington did as president became a precedent. No other president had that pressure. Washington was far from perfect. He missed out on parental affirmation and a solid education. Many of the adults in his life died prematurely. His life was miraculously spared on numerous occasions. Washington appeared to believe that Providence had guided and protected him for a special purpose. He certainly fretted over how posterity would view his life. He need not have worried.
Rating: 4
