GENERAL VARNUM’S LETTER, PAGES 138-39 (QUOTED IN APPENDIX B, PAGES 270-72)
Major General James Varnum referred to the low opinion the American public had of Congress with his statement “We are too young to govern ourselves.” In his letter, Varnum advocated for an absolute monarchy or a military state. “The Citizens at large are totally destitute of that Love of Equality which is absolutely requisite to support a democratic Republick: Avarice, Jealousy, & Luxury controul their Feelings, & consequently, absolute Monarchy, or a military State, can alone rescue them from all the Horrors of Subjugation” (Robert F. Haggard, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 146, no. 2, June 2002, 162).
In his reply, Washington was much milder than in his reply to Colonel Nicola. He opined that some credit was due to Congress and the states and that he did not “consent” to Varnum’s views, but he agreed that “the conduct of the people at large is truly alarming” and hoped that the “destructive passions, which I confess too generally pervade all Ranks, shall give place to that love of Freedom which first animated us in this contest.” This mildness of the General’s tone in response to Varnum’s suggestion of monarchy must have been noticed by Washington’s aides (Robert F. Haggard, ibid., 162).
TAVERNS AND OTHER SIGNS OF VENERATION FOR WASHINGTON, PAGE 140
Josiah reports a trip with the General where they saw a sign with King George III’s portrait lying on the ground outside a tavern and a sign with the General’s portrait raised in its place. This was highly likely as, even before the end of the war, Washington was idolized by many in our country. In 1783, Princeton University commissioned Charles Willson Peale to replace George III’s portrait with Washington’s. Congress commissioned an equestrian statue of Washington in 1783. Even earlier in the war, Cambridge, Williamsburg, Richmond, and Milton, Connecticut, were celebrating his birthday, and the army celebrated his birthday at Newburgh. Americans celebrated his birthday as early as 1779. (See John Ferling, The First of Men, 314, 319.) Counties and towns were named after Washington in four states during the war. A college was named after him in Maryland in 1782. (See Barry Schwartz, George Washington: The Making of an American Symbol, 33.)
Nor was the idolization confined to America. In 1781, the French general Rochambeau proclaimed Washington’s birthday a holiday for French troops. Other American leaders may have been idolized, but the evidence of the idolization came after their deaths. With Washington, it came while he was alive. A Russian traveler noticed in the early 1800s that almost every American family had a likeness of Washington in its home, and this practice had started while Washington was alive. This veneration of a living person understandably made Josiah and others leery of Washington assuming greater power at Newburgh in 1783.
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, PAGE 146-47
Today many colleges have intern programs in Washington, DC, for students to learn about their government. Every college in Washington, DC—Georgetown, American, George Washington, and others—has courses where congressmen, senators, and federal officials lecture to students to give them insights into how our government works. Many times when I served in Congress such students came to visit and talk with me. This was all envisioned by Washington—a national university where students from all over would attend congressional debates and learn about their new government. (See Ron Chernow, Washington, 705.)
Josiah was correct about Washington’s enthusiasm for a national university. Sixteen years later, Washington devoted several pages in his last will and testament to laying out the case for a national university and bequeathing to such a project shares in inland water navigation companies given him by the legislature of Virginia, shares that Washington had previously declined as improper compensation for his services but that he now deemed appropriate if used for a public purpose such as a national university. Washington stated the purpose of such a university to be “to do away with local attachments and State prejudices” and offer an alternative to the great European universities that Washington believed were teaching “principles unfriendly to Republican Governmnt” (The Writings of George Washington, 1025–27). This dream of Washington’s in its exact form never came to pass, but when students visit our national capital from all over the United States to see their government in action, they do fulfill part of Washington’s dream.
FARMING, GARDENING, AND HOSPITALITY, PAGE 147
To say that General Washington was obsessed with farming and gardening would not be an overstatement. As Josiah notes, Washington believed it was his duty to advance American agriculture through experiments that ranged from herring to whiskey to textile mills to grapes to how to plant six different varieties of corn. For his neighbors, Washington tried to invent a grazing grass that would lead to a superior line of sheep and wool, and he also tried to breed a line of super mules with the gift of a Spanish jackass from the king of Spain and some other mules procured in Malta by Lafayette. (See James Thomas Flexner, George Washington and the New Nation, 42–50.) Washington’s drill plough, which dispensed seed and corn through a twisting barrel as the plough moved forward, was used by neighbors and even later in the Midwest.
Washington, always conscious of appearances, was well aware that Southern hospitality was not a meaningless phrase and that Mount Vernon was becoming the most visited private residence in America. Many Virginia planters could be called “gentleman farmers,” but Washington was more. He talked of trees “which my hands have planted,” and it was not idle boasting as visitors noted with surprise that he did not just instruct his slaves but often, stripped to the waist, worked alongside his men. Washington could wax rhapsodic about seeing “the work of one’s own hands, fostered by care and attention, rising to maturity . . . which, by the combination of nature and taste . . . is always regaling to the eye, at the same time [that], in their seasons, they are . . . grateful to the palate” (James Thomas Flexner, George Washington and the New Nation, 43). Strangers so often stopped by for a day or two that Washington advised his mother that Mount Vernon was becoming a “well resorted tavern” (Andrea Wulf, Founding Gardeners, 27).
Citizens today may stop by and gaze at presidents’ private residences, but we do not stay overnight and have a few meals!
CHAPTER SIX: DAY SIX, FRIDAY—THE SHOWDOWN