The defining influence of George Washington
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The Re turn of Ge orge Washington, 1783-1789
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By Edward J. Larson
William Morrow. 400 pp. $29.99
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The defining influence of George Washington
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http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/literature/20141019_The_def...
In 1783, during a two-day journey through New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, George Washington,
commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, confessed "to a
certain pleasing, melancholy sensation."
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During a six-year retirement at Mount Vernon, Washington
remained politically active, working behind the scenes for the
adoption of a constitution that would provide a stronger and
more energetic national government, Edward Larson writes in
The Return of George Washington. Without his support, his
service as president of the Constitutional Convention of 1787,
and his willingness to become the first president, the states
might not have agreed to a federal union.
Larson, a professor of history at Pepperdine University, sticks
close to conventional wisdom. The Return of George
Washington, however, does provide a detailed and elegantly
written account of leadership at the most pivotal moment in
our nation's history.
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According to Larson, though other politicians would have
gained respect for themselves by becoming president,
Washington, the military hero and statesman, added prestige
to the presidency by accepting an office he did not seek. As
president, his words and deeds constituted precedents in
substance and tone that defined the office for his successors and for the American people. Although Washington viewed
public opinion as "formidable and fickle," Larson emphasizes
that he understood the importance of cultivating it. For his
inauguration, he wore a suit made of cloth manufactured in
the United States. Though John Adams preferred the title "His
most benign Highness" for the newly elected leader of the
United States, Washington insisted on "Mr. President." Most
important, Larson concludes, Washington assembled a
cabinet of worthies from across the political spectrum,
restored America's credit, fostered economic and territorial
expansion, and established the presidency as an independent
and significant branch of government, checked and balanced
by the legislature and judiciary.
When he died in 1799, Washington was remembered
throughout the nation in military exercises with gun salutes,
solemn music, riderless horses, and flag-draped coffins, and
with civilian funerary processions and eulogies. In death as in
life, he was - as he remains - a unifying force, fully meriting
the praise that Representative Henry Lee of Virginia
showered on him at a commemoration in Philadelphia: "First
in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his
countrymen."
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Glenn C. Altschuler is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies at Cornell
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