George Washington: The Founding Father
by Paul Johnson
HarperCollins, 126 pages, $19.95
“Render an opinion without footnotes.” That was the challenge put
by Harvard lawyer Arthur Miller to a district judge sitting on an
Ethics in America panel back in 1988. This year the popular British
scholar Paul Johnson has done precisely that — not concerning a
complex legal issue, but about the life and times of George
Washington.
In the span of 120 pages, Johnson’s hand-sized book provides
summary judgments about America’s first Commander in Chief. One
won’t find in this work, part of the HarperCollins Eminent Lives
series, a detailed presentation of primary materials. Indeed, even
quotations are unreferenced. Instead, readers confront the author’s
conclusions without the clutter (or depth) of supporting data that
typically constitutes a biography.
Johnson begins his historical sketch by focusing attention on
how Washington became, through inheritance and marriage, one of the
largest landholders in the colonies. During those early years the
young man’s tutorial education and training as a surveyor are
highlighted — alongside military exploits in the Western
territories. An “incident” within one of these expeditions, which
was “credited” with starting the Seven Years War, is covered
allusively in a few sentences.
Anecdotes and spare quotations generally provide such backing as
is deemed necessary for observations about Washington’s character
and intellectual outlook. The latter, Johnson notes, stressed the
importance of tangible connections or “interests” that are needed
to establish a person in life and to achieve success in public
policy. Prominent among Washington’s own interests was the desire
to develop the western lands he acquired through military service
in His Majesty’s army. These acquisitions reinforced a muted sense
of Manifest Destiny that was in visceral conflict with the
restrictions on western migration that the Crown imposed on its
colonial subjects at the end of the French-Indian conflict.
With respect to religion, Washington was a man of conventional
practice who focused on the pragmatic benefits of religion. He
exhibited no interest in theology and regularly employed the term
“Providence” to refer to the deity that intervenes in human affairs
(one infers) through the natural channels sanctioned by deistic
philosophy. Such explicitly religious sentiments as he may have
possessed were expressed within the confines of his Masonic
associations.
Overall, Johnson’s Washington is a man of admirable qualities,
awesome presence, and solid intelligence. His willingness to walk
away from power is a trait illustrated by an exchange between
Benjamin West and George III. When the artist reported the popular
belief that Washington would return home after resigning his
American military commission, the monarch responded, “If he does
that, he will be the greatest man in the world.” Comments about
President Washington’s desire to return to Mt. Vernon reinforce
this portrait in humility — as do observations about his
reluctance to exercise the potential powers of his office.
(Washington vetoed, for example, only legislation he considered
unconstitutional.)
This lack of political ambition contrasts with Washington’s
personal lust for land. The Virginian’s desire to add acres to an
already vast estate wasn’t so strong, however, that he would
countenance the appearance of impropriety when Virginia sought to
reward the general in spacious coin for his Revolutionary labors.
Indeed, Johnson chides Washington for “moral vanity” — a “flaw”
further illustrated by his wish to forego a presidential salary.
Not surprisingly, this request was vetoed by officials less morally
fastidious than the chief executive — and less affluent.
Johnson also scrutinizes Washington’s attitude toward slavery —
or gives it as much attention as one would expect in a work where
the Revolutionary War, Constitutional Convention, and two
presidential terms are condensed into three extended essays.
Washington’s close relationship with his “fellow” William Lee
illustrates how pragmatism tempered idealism, but did not totally
extinguish it (as was the case with the insolvent Jefferson) when
it came to freeing his slaves. Of presidential leadership on the
same issue, Johnson declares it the administration’s greatest
failure. The author also offers glimpses into Washington’s thoughts
about the tribes that occupied America prior to colonization — a
view that envisioned two possible alternatives: assimilation or
despair.
More unambiguously positive are assessments of Washington’s
strategic vision as Commander of the Continental Army and of his
quiet leadership at the Constitutional Convention. As president,
setting the fledgling nation’s finances on a sound footing
complemented solid accomplishments in foreign policy — among which
was the treaty with Britain negotiated by Chief Justice John Jay.
Against claims by critics that the first president was ignorant and
aloof, Johnson provides evidence of Washington’s mental acuity and
willingness to endure the dangers of travel in order to meet
citizens of the nation he labored so strenuously to create.
Ironically, this compendium of observations about the “father”
of the United States speaks with a thick British accent. References
abound to Cromwell, Wellington, Walpole, and other prominent
figures from the pantheon of British history and literature. Also
surprising is the redundancy one confronts in a work of such
brevity. Twice, for example, Johnson repeats the anecdote where
Washington declares, while picking up his reading glasses,
“Gentleman, you must pardon me. I have grown grey in your service,
and now find myself growing blind.” Additional puzzlement arises
from repeated references to Washington’s fondness for “baseball” —
a sport also favored by George III.
Such considerations make it difficult to say that this book
serves as an “ideal introduction” to Washington’s life — the
publisher’s stated goal for works in this series. But Johnson’s
pointed comments on matters of contemporary concern (e.g. on
judicial power and First Amendment church-state issues) make this
book, at the least, an engaging and informative read.
