Review: His Excellency by Joseph J. Ellis
In many aspects, George Washington is a mystery to us, despite the many books that have been written about him. He hadn’t even died yet before myths began to emerge surrounding him.
His Excellency by Joseph J. Ellis is a concise biography of a man who has had volumes dedicated to him since the founding of this country.
It portrays Washington’s younger years, describes moments when Washington had to use his aloofness to conceal a great passion, for he is described as a passionate man.
Ellis points out things that were clearly myths, or are at least dubious to history—for instance, the supposed cherry-tree incident.
He also points out Washington’s human side, mentioning things such as the love that he harbored early in life for the married woman Sally Fairfax. Ellis is also frank about Washington’s obsession with buying land, and the fact that he was in part motivated to marry the widow Martha Custis because she was wealthy.
But he also speaks of the man’s kindness, the readiness with which he cared for Martha’s children while unable to have children of his own.
The father of our own country could not have natural children; he was to parent something greater. All Americans have the privilege of being able to claim him as our Founding Father.
Washington was not perfect, but he possessed incredible discipline, which he needed in order to keep at bay the energy which would help him win the war.
I know more about him now that I have read this book, but still feel I don’t know him enough.
I’m eager to find more books about him; there will never be another leader like him, flaws and all.
His Excellency is not so long as to be intimidating. It covers important points in a readable style, an easy-to-follow narrative.
Our country is built on the courage of men such as him, but of all the men who could have been chosen to do the job, most of them pointed at him to carry out the task: Washington, the one man of who very much did not want to do it.
Or did he?
We shall never know exactly what he thought in those most intimidating moments.
But we do know this: he won, and so did we.
