Thomas Jefferson also was long perplexed by Washington’s ability to make his way in the world without having the sort of education then considered essential for a public life. He recognized that there was something unusual in the man. “His mind was great and powerful, without being of the very first order; . . . and as far as he saw, no judgment was ever sounder. It was slow in operation, being little aided by invention or imagination, but sure in conclusion.”5
