General Samuel Hopkins Chapter
of
Henderson County, Kentucky

GEORGE WASHINGTON BICENTENNIAL INFOLINE
December 1999 
 

 WASHINGTON'S PATRIMONY

       On December 12, 1799, soon after George Washington left the house to ride out and inspect the farms at Mount Vernon, a snow began to fall.  This later turned into hail and then into a dreary, cold rain.  When Washington returned to the house, his long-time secretary, Tobias Lear, noticed that Washington's neck was wet and that his hair was coated with snow.  The next day, Washington admitted to a sore throat and some hoarseness, but carried on his usual routines.  Early on the morning of December 14th, Washington woke Martha and told her he was feeling very ill and was having trouble breathing.  He forbade her from calling anyone, however, until a more decent hour arrived.  Despite the ministrations of several doctors, the hand of death could not be stayed and  shortly before midnight, Washington died (Flexner, 1974, pp 401-402).

       Today, December 14, 1999, the General Samuel Hopkins Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution joins with others around the world in honoring our first United States President on the bicentennial anniversary of his death.  Each month throughout this year, we have provided an essay on this George Washington Bicentennial Infoline to highlight some facet of Washington's life or to relate some of his many great accomplishments.  Washington's contributions to our nation spanned so many different arenas -- exploration/surveying, military, legislative, politics, government and always leadership, leadership, leadership.  Perhaps his unique contributions were best summed up in these lines, taken from the speech used to dedicate our chapter's February tea to the memory of George Washington: "At his death, the United States House of Representatives passed resolutions of tribute to George Washington, which included these words penned by Henry Lee, one of Washington's cavalry officers, `to the memory of the man, first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen'.  And so he was...he encompassed all of these roles and in regards to the founding of our nation, has been dubbed as the `Indispensable Man'!  While his contemporaries may have made great contributions in either the military or the political arena, few did both, and none did it so well" (Springer, 1999, p 1).

       Richard Brookhiser has provided a very thorough and interesting analysis of Washington in yet another role, that of "Founding Father", in his book, Rediscovering George Washington: Founding Father.  Brookhiser suggests that we should not use the term "founding fathers" in the plural sense that encompasses many of the early patriots.  Rather, he argues, we should focus on Washington as THE founding father.  He states, "We speak of `founding fathers' in the plural yet there has been only one `father' of this country.  National paternity began gravitating to Washington six months before the Declaration of Independence when one Levi Allen addressed him in a letter as `our political father'!  The first reference to him as `Father of His Country' appeared in an almanac in 1778, and since then, the title has been fixed" (Brookhiser, 1996, p 159).

       Brookhiser points out that while Washington never fathered a child in the literal sense, he served as a father in three distinct instances:  he treated his stepchildren and stepgrandchildren as if they were his own; he served as a father figure to his staff during the Revolution, most especially to Hamilton and Lafayette; and finally, he served as a father for "the future generations of Americans."  Washington, himself, addressed the future generations.  In 1783, he referred to his hope that the "peace and Independency for which we have fought" would "be a blessing to millions yet unborn".  Again, in his Circular to the States, in April of 1783, Washington warns that "our fate" is bound up with "the destiny of unborn millions " (Brookhiser, 1996, pp 166-167).  Brookhiser tells us that while "Washington had no children, he could ensure that ... the reflection of a life lived well might be a benefit to the millions unborn, his adopted political heirs"  (Brookhiser, 1996, p 168).

       Brookhiser continues, that fatherhood "...is the result of training and an act of will.  A man who would be father in name as well as fact must go beyond what is merely natural.  A father is a man who follows through.  This is why it was particularly appropriate that Washington came to be known as the founder of his country, for he was the founder, above all others, who followed through" (Brookhiser, 1996, p 161).  Brookhiser reminds us, that to any of the services his country needed, Washington could have said no; he could have done nothing at all.  Or perhaps, he could have opted for less involvement--a seat in the Continental Congress rather than a committee chairmanship or Commander-in-Chief of its army; a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, not its President.  And certainly, he would not have had to become the first President of this new nation, nor to have accepted a second term to help keep it together.  "But always he did the next thing and then the next" (Brookhiser, 1996, p 161).

       Perhaps his greatest act as "Father of his Country", is one which any devoted parent can recognize as the most personally wrenching and demanding---the act of "letting go".  According to Brookhiser, "[this] was the difference between him [Washington} and a Patriot King, a patriarch or a master.  Such political fathers may rule badly or wisely, but they rule for life.  Washington stepped aside, not...because all fathers do, but because he chose to.  ...A political father who steps aside does so because he sees the likeness between himself and his countrymen.  It is an incomplete likeness in many ways, for political as [well as] for actual fathers.  Children know less than their parents, average men are inferior to great men and citizens cannot have exactly the same duties and powers as rulers...  But the likeness is there, because children grow up, and because great men and rulers are still men.  Washington's chosen form of fatherhood complemented his political theory and manners.  The rights of man and the rules of civility urged him to the conclusion that he should be the father of a country whose people would rule their own lives" (Brookhiser, 1996, pp 185-186).

       Brookhiser continues, "Living after Washington, and under the principles he upheld, we think of letting go as the easy choice, yet it could not have been.  Retirement is a foretaste of mortality.  ....It is no accident that resignation means leaving office and accepting fate.  How difficult resignation must have been for a man who loved uniforms, activity and office..."   Then the author tells us, "But Washington was not the only one for whom letting go was difficult; it was difficult for his contemporaries and for the unborn millions.  When a political father lets go, then his political children are on their own, with all the uncertainty that entails" (Brookhiser, 1996, p 187).

       In his final Circular to the States, Washington tells the citizens in two long, narrative  sentences how the peaceful resolution of the Revolutionary War has opened up an opportunity for all citizens to enjoy the fruits of this great land and moreover, to be a part of a society that has "a fairer opportunity for political happiness" than any other nation has ever been favored with.  Then, in a third, short final sentence of this paragraph, Washington warns, "At this auspicious period, the United States came into existence as a Nation, and if their citizens should not be completely free and happy, the fault will be entirely their own!" (Brookhiser, 1996, pp 189-190).

      Brookhiser explains, "Washington is saying that America's political success is problematic. Washington was also saying that responsibility for the `experiment's' success was only partly his....  The rest... is up to us.  When he passed through Trenton on his way to his first Inauguration, the hopeful banner over the bridge at Assunpink Creek said that the defender of the mothers would be the protector of the daughters.  He cannot protect the daughters of the daughters" (Brookhiser, 1996, pp 189-190).

       Brookhiser conjectures, "This may be the deepest source of our distance from him--the resentment and puzzlement that come from being let go.  He seems cryptic, like an oracle that has fallen silent.  We feel bereaved.  He fought for self-government; we govern ourselves, what now?" (Brookhiser, 1996, p 190).

       The author then states, "There is one last service that the political father can perform, even after letting go.  That is to be taken into the country's mind--internalized as an object, as psychoanalysts put it.  ...A political father can serve as a model for a nation as a whole--for its citizens individually, or for all of them acting together.  It is not a matter of discovering what the hero thought two hundred years ago about a particular issue or even imagining what he might think about an issue today;  it is more a matter of thinking how he would think, and judge and proceed" (Brookhiser, 1996, pp 192-193).

        Brookhiser then issues several challenges.  "Each of us is the parent of his life.  Do we know that the first form of self-government is governing ourselves--not through indifference or rigidity, but through respecting our fellows and wanting to play an honorable part in the world?  Do we derive our notions of respect and our definition of honor from our ideas of right and wrong?  Do we have the strength and the heart to make them real?  We are all citizens.  ...How well is the experiment of our country going?  Do we love our rights so much that we would resent laws we had no role in making as slavery?  Do we love others enough that if we had unwarranted power over their lives, we would struggle to give it up?  Do we teach our principles and honor those who upheld them?  Do we understand that liberty isn't a vacation from restraint, but a duty to govern?  That is the model that Washington's life gives us; that is his patrimony" (Brookhiser, 1996, pp 192-193).

       Two hundred years have now passed since Washington, our founding father died.  How will we answer the challenges of his patrimony?

Richard Brookhiser. Founding Father:  Rediscovering
 George Washington, (New York: Free Press, 1996).

James Thomas Flexner. George Washington, 4-vols. (Boston: Little, Brown, 1965-72; 1-vol abridgement, 1974).

Mary Alice Springer. A Tribute to George Washington, Speech presented at the 103rd Annual Tea of the General Samuel Hopkins Chapter, NSDAR, Henderson, KY, February 6, 1999.