Making Connections

1. Historian and critic Garry Wills writes, in Cincinnatus, George Washington and the Enlightenment, “Generations of Americans grew up admiring the Washington of Parson Weems, who trivializes the man, in our eyes, by turning him into a moral fable. Horatio Greenough, by contrast, deprives us of the human by rendering the god. Weems deflates, Greenough inflates; the result is the same.” What do you think Wills means by “the result is the same”? Which version of Washington do you think is the most important and fitting for the “father of our country”?

   Question

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   Making Connections: - Historian and critic Garry Wills writes, in Cincinnatus, George Washington and the Enlightenment, “Generations of Americans grew up admiring the Washington of Parson Weems, who trivializes the man, in our eyes, by turning him into a moral fable. Horatio Greenough, by contrast, deprives us of the human by rendering the god. Weems deflates, Greenough inflates; the result is the same.” What do you think Wills means by “the result is the same”? Which version of Washington do you think is the most important and fitting for the “father of our country”?
2. Both his letter to Colonel Nicola (p. 451) and his Farewell Address (p. 452) are considered examples of how Washington controlled his own image during his lifetime. What do you think he wants the public to take away from these two documents? Are those values still associated with Washington?

   Question

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   Making Connections: - Both his letter to Colonel Nicola (p. 451) and his Farewell Address (p. 452) are considered examples of how Washington controlled his own image during his lifetime. What do you think he wants the public to take away from these two documents? Are those values still associated with Washington?
3. How much fact or history is there in Gilbert Stuart’s Landsdowne Portrait (p. 454) or in Emanuel Leutze’s Washington Crossing the Delaware (p. 459)? Does it matter? Do you think visual texts, such as paintings, should provide accurate historical information? If not, what purpose do they serve?

   Question

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   Making Connections: - How much fact or history is there in Gilbert Stuart’s Landsdowne Portrait (p. 454) or in Emanuel Leutze’s Washington Crossing the Delaware (p. 459)? Does it matter? Do you think visual texts, such as paintings, should provide accurate historical information? If not, what purpose do they serve?
4. What would Jane Addams (p. 460) think of Frank O’Hara’s poem (p. 462)? Do Addams and O’Hara share the same views of the American values personified by Washington? How are their views the same? How are they different?

   Question

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   Making Connections: - What would Jane Addams (p. 460) think of Frank O’Hara’s poem (p. 462)? Do Addams and O’Hara share the same views of the American values personified by Washington? How are their views the same? How are they different?
5. Mason Locke Weems (p. 456) says his anecdote about Washington and the cherry tree is “too valuable to be lost, and too true to be doubted” (par. 7), What would Jill Lepore (p. 463) think of Weems’s skill as a biographer? What do you think?

   Question

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   Making Connections: - Mason Locke Weems (p. 456) says his anecdote about Washington and the cherry tree is “too valuable to be lost, and too true to be doubted” (par. 7), What would Jill Lepore (p. 463) think of Weems’s skill as a biographer? What do you think?
6. Lepore calls Washington’s Farewell Address “enduringly eloquent” (par. 11). How do you think it holds up to other presidential addresses that you have read? Think of Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural (p. 695) or John F. Kennedy’s inaugural (p. 77). Respond to Lepore with your opinion of the Farewell Address.

   Question

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   Making Connections: - Lepore calls Washington’s Farewell Address “enduringly eloquent” (par. 11). How do you think it holds up to other presidential addresses that you have read? Think of Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural (p. 695) or John F. Kennedy’s inaugural (p. 77). Respond to Lepore with your opinion of the Farewell Address.
7. Do you think the portrayal of Washington in the Dodge Challenger poster is closer to the way he is portrayed by Weems, by Stuart, or by Horatio Greenough (p. 458)? Explain your answer.

   Question

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   Making Connections: - Do you think the portrayal of Washington in the Dodge Challenger poster is closer to the way he is portrayed by Weems, by Stuart, or by Horatio Greenough (p. 458)? Explain your answer.