In his eulogy on behalf of Congress and the nation, Henry Lee praised George Washington as being “first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.” He was also perhaps the first American hero. The classic strong silent type, George Washington was an imposing figure, well over six feet tall, and a man of few precisely chosen words. Edward G. Lengel, author of Inventing George Washington, says:
George Washington is an elusive quarry. The closer he seems, the more easily he slips away. Washington fostered this with his own demeanor. Conscious of his role as an actor on the public stage, he crafted an outward persona that obscured his private being. He deliberately hid certain elements of his inner life, and carried them with him to the grave. Even so, he wanted to be known. He preserved the bulk of his correspondence and records, public and private, for posterity, and he fretted endlessly about how his countrymen would remember him after he was gone.
Washington served as commander in chief of the Continental army during the American Revolution, but as soon after the British surrender as possible, he retired “victorious from the field of War to the field of agriculture.” He was tapped for the first presidency of the new republic, serving two terms and refusing to serve another, further enhancing his reputation as a man who put country first and his ambitions second.
It seems that every generation has invented its own George Washington, a figure who can be held up as the paragon of so many American virtues. And it may be that the elusive quality that makes him difficult to pin down is what allows his legacy to help each generation of Americans explain who they are and what’s important to them. In this Conversation, you will read and view texts that ask not just who George Washington was but what his mythology means to the nation.
Sources
George Washington, Letter to Colonel Lewis Nicola (1782)
George Washington, from Farewell Address (1796)
Gilbert Stuart, George Washinton—Lansdowne Portrait (1796)
Mason Locke Weems, from A History of the Life and Death, Virtues and Exploits of General George Washington (1799)
Horatio Greenough, George Washington (1832)
Emanuel Leutze, Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851)
Jane Addams, Tribute to George Washington (1903)
Frank O’Hara, On Seeing Larry Rivers’ Washington Crossing the Delaware at the Museum of Modern Art (1957)
Jill Lepore, from His Highness (2010)
Dodge Motor Company, This Is the Car You Buy…(2010)
Edward G. Lengel, from Inventing George Washington (2011)