His Excellency_George Washington

by Joseph J. Ellis

  A final example, his trademark decision to surrender power as commander in chief and then president, was not, as Morris insisted, a sign that he had conquered his ambitions, but rather that he fully realized that all ambitions were inherently insatiable and unconquerable. He knew himself well enough to resist the illusion that he transcended his human nature. Unlike Julius Caesar and Oliver Cromwell before him, and Napoleon, Lenin, and Mao after him, he understood that the greater glory resided in posterity’s judgment. If you aspire to live forever in the memory of future generations, you must demonstrate the ultimate self-confidence to leave the final judgment to them. And he did.

  At the very least, the eulogies of Lee and Morris, composed when the great man’s body and the memories of him remained warm, allow us to conjure up the outlines of a more potent, less iconic, portrait. Even at that moment of mourning, however, more legendary renderings were being fabricated by Parson Weems and his legion of imitators in the cherry-tree mode. And over the ensuing years the mythology that a new and more democratic nation required of its symbolic hero arose around him to form a smothering blanket of lullabies more impenetrable than Washington’s contrived silences and more wooden than his alleged teeth. But that, as they say, is another story.

  NOTES

  The notes that follow represent my attempt to adopt a policy toward citation that is both scholarly and sensible. All direct quotations are cited, most of which come from primary sources. All secondary sources that directly influenced my thinking or shaped my interpretation have also been identified. And my assessments of the secondary literature are littered throughout the notes, giving them the occasional flavor of a bibliographic essay. On the other hand, I have not attempted to provide an exhaustive account of all the scholarly books and articles related to Washington that I consulted, believing that such an accounting would burden the book with scaffolding that most readers would find excessive. If I have thereby slighted the contributions of my many predecessors, let me offer a blanket apology here. Let me also acknowledge that, when it comes to Washington, no one can claim to have read everything, and anyone who tried to do so would make another contribution to that venerable library of unwritten books. I have done all the research myself—with no research assistants—and made the modern edition of the Washington Papers the central focus of my inquiry and the home base from which all other explorations were launched. My dedication of this book to the founding editor of that massive project is both a personal and professional expression of my indebtedness.

  ABBREVIATIONS

  AFC Lyman Butterfield et al., eds., Adams Family Correspondence, 7 vols. (Cambridge, 1963–).

  Diaries Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig, eds., The Diaries of George Washington, 6 vols. (Charlottesville, 1976–79).

  Flexner James Thomas Flexner, George Washington, 4 vols. (Boston, 1965–72).

  Freeman Douglas Southall Freeman, George Washington: A Biography, 7 vols. (New York, 1948–57). Volume 7 completed by John A. Carroll and Mary W. Ashworth.

  GWR Don Higginbotham, ed., George Washington Reconsidered (Charlottesville, 2001).

  Hamilton Howard Syrett, ed., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, 26 vols. (New York, 1974–92).

  JCC W. C. Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 24 vols. (Washington, D.C., 1904–37).

  Jefferson Julian Boyd et al., eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 27 vols. (Princeton, 1950–).

  Jefferson-Madison James Morton Smith, ed., The Republic of Letters: The Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, 1776–1826, 3 vols. (New York, 1995).

  PWC W. W. Abbot, Dorothy Twohig, and Philander D. Chase, eds., The Papers of George Washington: Colonial Series, 10 vols. (Charlottesville, 1983–95).

  PWCF W. W. Abbot and Dorothy Twohig, eds., The Papers of George Washington, Confederation Series, 6 vols. (Charlottesville, 1992–97).

  PWP W. W. Abbot and Dorothy Twohig, eds., The Papers of George Washington: Presidential Series, 11 vols. (Charlottesville, 1987–).

  PWR W. W. Abbot, Dorothy Twohig, and Philander D. Chase, eds., The Papers of George Washington: Revolutionary War Series, 12 vols. (Charlottesville, 1985–).

  PWRT W. W. Abbot, ed., The Papers of George Washington: Retirement Series, 4 vols. (Charlottesville, 1998–99).

  WMQ William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser.

  WW John C. Fitzpatrick, ed., Writings of George Washington, 39 vols. (Washington, DC, 1931–39).

  CHAPTER ONE

  1. Diaries 1:127–28.

  2. Ibid., 130–61, for the entire journal.

  3. Ibid., 153–57.

  4. Ibid., 146–47.

  5. Ibid., 144–51.

  6. PWC 1:56–62; Diaries 1:183–84. The spelling of the Half-King’s Indian name varies. I have followed the version adopted by the editors of PWC. For background on the Indian cultures of the Ohio Country, see the following: Fred Anderson, Crucible of War: The Seven Years’ War and the Fate of Empire in British North America (New York, 2000), 11–32; Erick Hindesaker, Elusive Empires: Constructing Colonialism in the Ohio Valley (New York, 1997); Daniel K. Richter, The Ordeal of the Longhouse: The Peoples of the Iroquois League in the Era of European Colonization (Chapel Hill, 1992).

  7. Diaries 1:136–40.

  8. John Marshall, The Life of George Washington, 5 vols. (Philadelphia, 1805–07), 2:1; Marcus Cunliffe, ed., The Life of George Washington by Mason L. Weems (Cambridge, MA, 1962). Among the hundreds of books on the Washington legend, three stand out: Marcus Cunliffe, George Washington: Man and Monument (Boston, 1958); Richard Brookhiser, Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington (New York, 1996); Barry Schwartz, George Washington: The Making of an American Symbol (New York, 1987). The most reliable study of Washington’s early years is Bernard Knollenberg, George Washington: The Virginia Period (Durham, 1964).

  9. Flexner 1:9–17; Martin H. Quitt, “The English Cleric and the Virginia Adventurer: The Washingtons, Father and Son,” GWR, 15–37.

  10. Charles Moore, ed., George Washington’s Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior (Boston, 1926). Among the single-volume biographies, the fullest assessment of Washington’s adolescent influences is Paul Longmore, The Invention of George Washington (Berkeley, 1988), 1–16. Also excellent on these early years is Guthrie Sayen, “A Compleat Gentleman”: The Making of George Washington (University of Virginia Press, forthcoming), which I read as a doctoral dissertation.

  11. Joseph Ball to Mary Washington, 19 May 1747, quoted in Freeman 1:198–99; PWC 1:54.

  12. Diaries 1:24–117, for the Barbados trip; PWC, 232–35, for Lawrence’s will.

  13. Edward D. Neill, The Fairfaxes of England and America (Albany, 1868); Flexner 1:26–33.

  14. Diaries 1:10, 13, 18.

  15. PWC 1:8–37, for the surveys. For the Ohio Company, see Kenneth P. Bailey, The Ohio Company of Virginia and the Westward Movement, 1748–92 (Glendale, CA, 1939).

  16. PWC 1:40–41, 46–59.

  17. The physical description of young Washington is based on George Mercer’s famous description in 1759, in PWC 6:192. Washington’s height is a matter of disagreement. Mercer’s account says six feet two inches, but this will be a running debate throughout Washington’s life, and even after his death. Flexner 1:80 and Longmore, Invention of Washington, 181–82, offer convenient synthesis of the lore about his physical prowess.

  18. Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, 10 June 1752, PWC 1:50–51.

  19. Dinwiddie’s Instructions, January 1754, PWC 1:65–67; Diaries 1:189–90.

  20. See the correspondence with Dinwiddie in May 1754, PWC 1:93–95, 99; Diaries 1:192–96; Washington to Dinwiddie, 29 May 1754, PWC 1:107–13, and Diaries 1:195–96, for the quotations.

  21. Anderson, Crucible of War, 5–7, 51–59, for the best scholarly version of the massacre. For an excellent summary of the several eyewitness accounts, see PWC 1:114–15, notes 12–14.

  22. Diaries 1:198; Washington to John Augustine Washington, 31 May 1754, PWC 1:118–19; for the
quote from George II, see the editorial note, Diaries 1:197.

  23. Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, 3 June 1754, PWC 1:124, and the extensive editorial notes on Fort Necessity on 125–26. Dinwiddie’s endorsement of Washington’s decision to make a stand is provided in their correspondence during early June, PWC 1:192–202.

  24. Diaries, 1:164–65, 203–8.

  25. PWC 1:155–57, 162–64; Anderson, Crucible of War, 50–65, which sustains the kind of magisterial tone and narrative verve for this incident that makes his book one of the seminal sources for this phase of Washington’s career.

  26. The Capitulation of Fort Necessity, PWC 1:157–64.

  27. Ibid., 162–66.

  28. Duquesne’s remarks of 8 September 1754 are available in the editorial notes, Diaries 1:172.

  29. John Robinson to Washington, 15 September 1754, Washington to John Robinson, 23 October 1754, PWC 1:209–10, 219–20.

  30. Washington to John Augustine Washington, 2 August 1755, Robert Dinwiddie to Washington, 11 September 1754, Washington to William Fitzhugh, 15 November 1754, PWC 1:206–8, 225–26, 351–52.

  31. Franklin T. Nichols, “The Organization of Braddock’s Army,” WMQ 4 (1947), 130–33; Peter E. Russell, “Redcoats in the Wilderness: British Officers and Irregular Warfare in Europe and America, 1740–1760,” WMQ 34 (1978), 629–52. The best full-length study is Paul E. Kopperman, Braddock at the Monongahela (Pittsburgh, 1977).

  32. See the editorial note on the revisions of his letterbook in PWC 1:236–40; Robert Orme to Washington, 2 March 1755, Washington to Robert Orme, 15 March 1755, Washington to John Augustine Washington, 14 May 1755, ibid. 240–45, 277–78.

  33. PWC 1:259, where the size of Braddock’s train is assessed by the editors. The Braddock quotation is in Stanley Pargellis, ed., Military Affairs in North America, 1748–1765 (New York, 1936), 81–84.

  34. Washington to John Carlyle, 14 May 1755, Washington to Augustine Washington, 28 June–2 July 1755, Memorandum, 8–9 July 1755, PWC 1:274–75, 319–24, 331–33. See also Lee McCardell, Ill-Starred General: Braddock of the Coldstream Guards (Pittsburgh, 1958).

  35. Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, 18 July 1755, PWC 1:339–40; see also ibid., 341, for an editorial note on the surgeon’s report showing that most members of the Virginia Regiment were shot in the back by British regulars.

  36. Washington to John Augustine Washington, 18 July 1755, PWC 1:343. On Boone’s role in the battle, see John Mack Faragher, Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer (New York, 1992), 37–39.

  37. Washington to Mary Ball Washington, 18 July 1755, Washington to John Augustine Washington, 18 July 1755, PWC 1:336–37, 343. See also the editorial note on casualties on both sides in PWC 2:10–11.

  38. Washington to Robert Jackson, 2 August 1755, PWC 1:349–50. The Dinwiddie quotation is on 351, note 2. Washington to Warner Lewis, 14 August 1755, ibid., 360–63.

  39. The Davies quotation can be found in Longmore, Invention of Washington, 30.

  40. For the larger strategic picture of British policy during this phase of the French and Indian War, see Anderson, Crucible of War, 108–32. The quotation is from Cunliffe, Man and Monument, 51. For an assessment of Washington as commander of the Virginia Regiment, see Don Higginbotham, “Washington and the Colonial Military Tradition,” GWR, 38–66.

  41. Washington to Richard Washington, 15 April 1757, PWC 4:132–33; Washington to John Robinson, 25 October 1757, PWC 5:33.

  42. Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, 7 April 1756, PWC 2:333; Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, 24 April 1756, PWC 3:45; Orders, 27 October 1756, ibid., 445.

  43. Orders, 6 October 1755, PWC 2:76.

  44. Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, 10 March 1757, PWC 4:112–15. The correspondence with Dinwiddie throughout 1756–57 is full of complaints that he and the regiment are not sufficiently supported or recognized for their accomplishments.

  45. The examples come from correspondence in the summer and fall of 1755, PWC 2:213–248; Washington to John Ashby, 28 December 1755, ibid., 241.

  46. Role of George Washington’s Company, 28 August 1757, PWC 4:389–91.

  47. General Court Martial, 25–26 July 1757, ibid., 329–35; Washington to John Stanwix, 15 July 1757, ibid., 306–7. Washington had preferred to execute deserters a year earlier, but was prevented from doing so because his authority on this score was unclear.

  48. Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, 10 October 1756, PWC 3:430–35; Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, 9 November 1756, PWC 4:1–6; Washington to John Robinson, 9 November 1756, ibid., 11–18.

  49. Washington to John Robinson, 19 December 1756, ibid., 67–69.

  50. Jack P. Greene, The Quest for Power: The Lower Houses of Assembly in the Southern Royal Colonies, 1689–1776 (Chapel Hill, 1963). See also John R. Alden, Robert Dinwiddie: Servant of the Crown (Charlottesville, 1973), 90–110.

  51. See, for example, Washington to Robert Dinwiddie and Washington to John Robinson, 5 December 1755, PWC 2:200–5; Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, 17 September 1757, PWC 4:411–12.

  52. Stanley Pargellis, Lord Loudoun in North America (1933; reprint, Hamden, CT, 1968); Anderson, Crucible of War, 135–49; Washington to John Campbell, Earl of Loudoun, 25 July 1756, PWC 3:293–94.

  53. Washington to John Campbell, Earl of Loudoun, 10 January 1757, PWC 4:79–83. Longmore, Invention of Washington, 46–47, is particularly good on this theme.

  54. Washington to John Stanwix, 4 March 1758, PWC 5:100–01.

  55. Washington to Thomas Gage, 12 April 1756, PWC 5:126. See also the editorial notes on Forbes and Bouquet on 118–19.

  56. Washington to John Forbes, 19 June 1758, and the editorial note on Forbes’s decision to use “Indian dress,” PWC 5:224–27, 259; Washington to John Forbes, 8 October 1758, PWC 6:66–70; Washington to Henry Bouquet, 21 July 1758, PWC 5:311.

  57. Editorial notes on the road controversy in PWC 5:316; Washington to Henry Bouquet, 24 July 1758 and 2 August 1758, ibid., 318–19, 353–60.

  58. Henry Bouquet to Washington, 27 July 1758 and 3 August 1758, ibid., 344–45, 364–65.

  59. Washington to John Robinson, 1 September 1758, Washington to Francis Fauquier, 2 September 1758 and 5 August 1758, ibid., 433–34, 439–44, 369–71.

  60. Washington to Francis Fauquier, 5 November 1758, Washington to Henry Bouquet, 6 November 1758, PWC 6:113–16.

  61. Orderly Book, 12 November 1758, Orderly Book, 13–19 November 1758, Washington to Francis Fauquier, 28 November 1758, 2 December 1758, ibid., 120–23, 125–45, 158–60, 161–64. Anderson, Crucible of War, 267–85, provides his typically masterful narrative of the Forbes campaign. The fall of Fort Frontenac on the St. Lawrence in late August 1758 had made any effective French reinforcement of Fort Duquesne impossible.

  62. See the editorial note on the Custis estate, PWC 6:202–9. Invoice from Thomas Knox, 18 August 1578, PWC 5:399–402, for the order of furnishings. The alcohol bill from the tavern is available on 332–34. Washington kept a roster of all the voters and how they voted, ibid., 334–43. See also George William Fairfax to Washington, 25 July 1758, on 329.

  63. Washington to Sarah Cary Fairfax, 16 May 1798, PWRT 2:272–73.

  64. Washington to Sarah Cary Fairfax, 12 September 1758, 25 September 1758, PWC 6:10–13, 41–43.

  65. Address from the Officers of the Virginia Regiment, 31 December 1758, To the Officers of the Virginia Regiment, 10 January 1758, ibid., 178–81, 186–87. Washington to Richard Washington, 7 May 1579, ibid., 319.

  CHAPTER TWO

  1. Invoice to Robert Cary & Company, 20 September 1759, PWC 6:352–58.

  2. Andrew Burnaby to Washington, 4 June 1760, ibid., 380–81. The authoritative account of Mount Vernon in all its material and metaphoric meanings is Robert F. Dalzell Jr. and Lee Baldwin Dalzell, George Washington’s Mount Vernon: At Home in Revolutionary America (New York and Oxford, 1998), which both synthesizes and surpasses all previous scholarship on the subject.

  3. Diaries 1:240–41, provides a m
ap and key to the growth of Mount Vernon over these years. The number of slaves at Mount Vernon is difficult to calculate with precision because white servants are also listed among the “tithables” and the accounting varies, sometimes providing those slaves above sixteen years, sometimes below. Dalzell and Dalzell, Mount Vernon, 47–73, 129–49, gives the fullest discussion of both the acreage and the plantation workers.

  4. This is my own distillation of both the evidence and the informed conjecturing available in the major biographies. See Flexner 1:227–48 and, even more compelling, Bernard Knollenberg, George Washington: The Virginia Period, 1732–1775 (Durham, 1964), 70–80, along with the extensive endnotes. Knollenberg’s conclusions are especially persuasive because his interpretation of Washington is more critical than admiring, so evidence of a negative character would not have been ignored. On the promiscuity matter, see John C. Fitzpatrick, The George Washington Scandals (New York, 1929). Dalzell and Dalzell, Mount Vernon, 42–43, concur with this line of thought. The exception among recent biographers is John E. Ferling, The First of Men: A Life of George Washington (Knoxville, 1988), 34–35, 53–54, which is skeptical of Washington’s love for Sally Fairfax to begin with.

  5. Washington to Jonathan Boucher, 16 December 1770, Jonathan Boucher to Washington, 18 December 1770, PWC 8:411–17. For additional correspondence on Jackie’s education, see 89–91, 120–21, 336–41. For the tutoring at Mount Vernon, see PWC 7:77.

  6. For the correspondence and editorial notes on the sad arc of Jackie’s life, see PWC 8:550 and 9:154–55, 209–11, 221–24, 264–67, 406–7.

  7. Washington to Burwell Bassett, 20 June 1773, PWC 9:243–44. Diaries 1:168 for the iron ring; ibid., 257, for Washington’s account of Patsy’s seizures; Washington to Robert Cary, 10 July 1773, PWC 9:271–76, for the cloak.