George Washington was not just “first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen,” as he was eulogized by Henry Lee, but first among America’s chief executives in the minds of many presidential scholars, including Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Joseph Ellis. After leading the Continental Army to an improbable victory over the world’s most powerful empire, Washington faced another daunting challenge to transform ink on parchment into the actuality of the American presidency.
The power of the modern presidency is not defined by the Constitution. It’s defined by the Washington presidency. If you read the Constitution of the United States on the executive branch and the power of the presidency, it’s extremely vague. And the ghost hovering over the entire Constitutional Convention is fear of monarchy. Washington makes real and palpable what is vague in the Constitution. He makes the office of president both prime minister and king. He gives it its executive power. He creates the idea of a cabinet, which didn’t exist in the Constitution, and he defines the primary role of the executive branch in the making of foreign policy.
Washington has the incalculable advantage of being first. That can’t simply be dismissed. Lincoln saved the republic that Washington created. Lincoln’s tremendous act of leadership is dependent completely upon the existence of a stable, enduring republic that would not have come into existence if the Founding Fathers and Washington, the Founding-est Father of all, hadn’t created it. Everything Lincoln does wouldn’t have happened if Washington wasn’t the leader he was.
A lesser man might have been consumed by power and reigned like a monarch, but Washington would never be a King George. He didn’t even want to be president in the first place. No president in American history didn’t want to be president more than George Washington. He knew no person could enter and exit the office with the same level of reputation. He tried to quit after his first term but was told the republic couldn’t survive without him.
In spite of pleas to remain in office, Washington stepped aside after two terms with a memorable goodbye to the American people. The big thing with Washington’s farewell address wasn’t the address but the farewell. People think they can’t exist without him. He is the closest thing to an indispensable figure in American history, and yet by exiting he sends the signal that no person in the republic is indispensable. Everyone is disposable.
Washington, of course, wasn’t immune from America’s original sin. His wealth was built upon the backs of hundreds of slaves who lived at Mount Vernon, although Ellis notes that the first president is the only one of the Founding Fathers from Virginia to free his slaves upon his death. Washington knows that if you start to argue about slavery in the early years it would have destroyed the republic. He believes the time to debate it is 1808 when the slave trade ends.
Washington, as the commander of the Continental Army, brought a stature to the presidency that no one could ever match. He’s the only president elected unanimously both times. He is the one founder who is a legend in his own time—and not just after. Every one of the other prominent founders agree that he is in a separate category among the founders. He gets all the big things right. His judgement is impeccable. He brings a level of popular support that is impossible for any subsequent American leader to ever have.
The power of the modern presidency is not defined by the Constitution. It’s defined by the Washington presidency. If you read the Constitution of the United States on the executive branch and the power of the presidency, it’s extremely vague. And the ghost hovering over the entire Constitutional Convention is fear of monarchy. Washington makes real and palpable what is vague in the Constitution. He makes the office of president both prime minister and king. He gives it its executive power. He creates the idea of a cabinet, which didn’t exist in the Constitution, and he defines the primary role of the executive branch in the making of foreign policy.
Washington has the incalculable advantage of being first. That can’t simply be dismissed. Lincoln saved the republic that Washington created. Lincoln’s tremendous act of leadership is dependent completely upon the existence of a stable, enduring republic that would not have come into existence if the Founding Fathers and Washington, the Founding-est Father of all, hadn’t created it. Everything Lincoln does wouldn’t have happened if Washington wasn’t the leader he was.
A lesser man might have been consumed by power and reigned like a monarch, but Washington would never be a King George. He didn’t even want to be president in the first place. No president in American history didn’t want to be president more than George Washington. He knew no person could enter and exit the office with the same level of reputation. He tried to quit after his first term but was told the republic couldn’t survive without him.
In spite of pleas to remain in office, Washington stepped aside after two terms with a memorable goodbye to the American people. The big thing with Washington’s farewell address wasn’t the address but the farewell. People think they can’t exist without him. He is the closest thing to an indispensable figure in American history, and yet by exiting he sends the signal that no person in the republic is indispensable. Everyone is disposable.
Washington, of course, wasn’t immune from America’s original sin. His wealth was built upon the backs of hundreds of slaves who lived at Mount Vernon, although Ellis notes that the first president is the only one of the Founding Fathers from Virginia to free his slaves upon his death. Washington knows that if you start to argue about slavery in the early years it would have destroyed the republic. He believes the time to debate it is 1808 when the slave trade ends.
Washington, as the commander of the Continental Army, brought a stature to the presidency that no one could ever match. He’s the only president elected unanimously both times. He is the one founder who is a legend in his own time—and not just after. Every one of the other prominent founders agree that he is in a separate category among the founders. He gets all the big things right. His judgement is impeccable. He brings a level of popular support that is impossible for any subsequent American leader to ever have.
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