More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
George himself inherited Ferry Farm, a half share in an upriver parcel called Deep Run, and assorted lots in Fredericksburg.
The hypercritical mother produced a son who was overly sensitive to criticism and suffered from a lifelong need for approval.
“every hour misspent is lost forever” and that “future years cannot compensate for lost days at this period of your life.”
“Light reading (by this, I mean books of little importance) may amuse for the moment, but leaves nothing solid behind.”
He loved to swim in the smooth, deep waters of the Rappahannock.
“Errors once discovered are more than half amended,”
He instructed his brother to canvass the opinions of prominent men in the county “with[ou]t disclosing much of mine; as I know your own good sense can furnish you with means enough without letting it proceed immediately from me.”
Washington believed that ambitious men should hide their true selves, retreat into silence, and not tip people off to their ambition. To sound out people, you had to feign indifference and proceed only when convinced that they were sympathetic and like-minded.
The objective was to learn the maximum about other people’s thoughts while revealing the minimum about your own.
Developing a mature instinct for power, Washington began to appreciate the value of diffidence, cultivating the astute politician’s capacity to be the master of events while seeming to be their humble servant.
Washington believed that courage and cowardice originated from the top of an army. As he wrote during the American Revolution: “This is the true secret . . . that wherever a regiment is well officered, the men have behaved well—when otherwise, ill—the [misconduct] or cowardly behavior always originating with the officers, who have set the example.”
Washington never fought a duel and usually tried to harmonize differences after even the most withering arguments.
“Human affairs are always checkered and vicissitudes in this life are rather to be expected than wondered at.”
Washington was vehement on the subject of debt and frequently lectured relatives about its dangers.
is striking how moody and snappish Washington could be about money. This man who was generally so polite and courteous tended to shed all tact in business matters, the one dimension of his career unimproved by the passage of time. He adopted a blistering style whenever he thought someone had cheated him.
Washington “carried the scheme of manufacturing to a greater height than almost any man [in Virginia].”37
“In no other direction did Washington demonstrate such acquisitiveness as in his quest for the ownership of land.”
The piazza, with its spectacular view of the Potomac and wooded hills beyond, turned into Washington’s favorite haunt, the place that Abigail Adams hailed as Mount Vernon’s “greatest adornment.”33
Amid gifted talkers, he was a masterful listener who characterized his role as that of “an attentive observer and witness.”
“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not
what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”
“ten talents” that had propelled George Washington to fame
“a handsome face,” “tall stature,” “an elegant form,” and “graceful attitudes and movements”—traits
“He possessed the gift of silence” and “He had great self-command.”
exerted more power by withholding opinions than by expressing them.
Washington was a Virginian,
Washington was wealthy—almost
As he once observed about choosing officers, “The first rule . . . is to determine whether the candidate is truly a gentleman, whether he has a genuine sense of honor and a reputation to risk.”
As Washington examined his army with care, he was dismayed to find no more than 14,500 men fit for service—far fewer than the 20,000 fighting Yankees he had expected to find. This, the first of many unpleasant surprises, meant that he had to be an expert bluffer, pretending to a military strength he didn’t possess.
“I can bear to hear of imputed or real errors,” he wrote. “The man who wishes to stand well in the opinion of others must do this, because he is thereby enabled to correct his faults or remove the prejudices which are imbib[e]d against him.”
Washington made excellent use of war councils to weigh all sides of an issue. Never a man of lightning-fast intuitions or sudden epiphanies, he usually groped his way to firm and accurate conclusions. Equipped with keen powers of judgment rather than originality, he was at his best when reacting to options presented by others. Once he made up his mind, it was difficult to dislodge him from his opinion, so thoroughly had he plumbed things through to the bottom.
“Be easy and condescending in your deportment to your officers,” he instructed a Virginia commander, “but not too familiar, lest you subject yourself to a want of that respect which is necessary to support a proper command.”
In choosing winter quarters at Valley Forge, he had surmised, correctly, that the surrounding countryside possessed ample food supplies. What he hadn’t reckoned on was that local farmers would sell their produce to British troops in Philadelphia rather than to shivering patriots.
Washington presented a rare case of a revolutionary leader who, instead of being blinded by political fervor, recognized that fallible human beings couldn’t always live up to the high standards he set for them. Though often embittered by the mercenary behavior of his countrymen, he tried to accept human nature as it was.
Washington allowed junior officers to stage his favorite play, Cato,
“it is a maxim founded on the universal experience of mankind that no nation is to be trusted farther than it is bound by its interest.”15
Like many southern slaveholders who were uncomfortable with slavery in principle, Washington hoped the institution would wither away on some foggy, distant day.
“A disposition to peace in these people can only be ascribed to an apprehension of danger,” he told Congress, “and would last no longer than till it was over and an opportunity offered to
resume their hostility with safety and success.”7
“We may be beaten by the English; it is the chance of war; but behold an army which they can never conquer.”34
for all the atrocities Washington had witnessed, he still believed that well-bred people inhabited a genteel world, governed by incontrovertible rules.
Washington had a retentive mind for detail and a politician’s knack for remembering names:
At dusk on October 14 Washington delivered a pep talk to Hamilton’s men, urging them to “act the part of firm and brave soldiers” in storming the redoubt.43 “I thought then that His Excellency’s knees rather shook,” said Captain Stephen Olney, “but I have since doubted whether it was not mine.”44 The artillery pounded the two redoubts to weaken them for the assault. Then, as night fell, with shells illuminating the sky, Hamilton and his party rose from their trenches and sprinted across the open field. To ensure speed and surprise, they had orders not to shoot their muskets but only to employ
...more
He didn’t want to give them a formal reprieve, but neither did he wish to condone vigilante actions against them. He solved the dilemma with a subtle compromise: he allowed the British to send a ship to New York, which the Tories could clamber aboard as an escape route.
He had dealt with it the way he would with many controversies during his presidency: by letting them simmer instead of bringing them to a premature boil.
“With a heart filled with love and gratitude, I now take leave of you. I most devoutly wish that your latter days may be as prosperous and happy as your former ones have been glorious and honorable.”13
At war’s end, he stood alone at the pinnacle of power, but he never became drunk with that influence, as had so many generals before him, and treated his commission as a public trust to be returned as soon as possible to the people’s representatives. Throughout history victorious generals had sought to parlay their fame into political power, whereas Washington had only a craving for privacy. Instead of glorying in his might, he feared its terrible weight and potential misuse. He had long lived in the shadow of the historical analogy to the Roman patriot Cincinnatus, and now, with his
...more
“He was a silent thoughtful man,” Nelly said years later. “He spoke little generally, never of himself. I never heard him relate a single act of his life during the war.”
Hunter reported that his “greatest pride
now to be thought the first farmer in America.”
