Back to the Beginning

We keep accumulating U. S. presidents where to the present day we’ve hit number forty-five. I had one college professor who required us to memorize the names of the presidents, a task not so hard since we’d reached only number 36 in 1963. I remember well the day John F. Kennedy, the 35th president, was assassinated. I was sitting in the student lounge in MacFarland Hall at Valley City State when someone passed through saying, “Kennedy was shot.” That event sat everyone back on their heels. The professor in my next class deemed it proper to cancel class that day, and the country suffered from shock for the next three days until the funeral.

With that, Lyndon B. Johnson, our 36th president, took office, followed by Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Trump. Everyone knows the man who started the countdown, but it’s so long ago that who knows or thinks much about him. I wanted to remind myself about George Washington, the man who did more than just being first president.

Many books have been written about him, but a recent one has gained favor among historians for being a good one, maybe the best. So this past Christmas I asked Santa Claus for “Washington: A Life” by Ron Chernow. He heard me and brought a big book, 890 pages, printed with a small font which I need to read in good light. In reading it, his life story and the actions he took as president are seen as something which impacts us today.

Washington’s first real job was tramping around the terrain as a surveyor’s assistant. The fledgling country desperately needed accurate surveys for the vast countryside, and soon he became a certified surveyor in his own right. Because the French and British did not mix well, the potential for conflict was always present and Washington found a role as a British army officer in the French and Indian War where he met defeat ending with his only surrender. 

Jump to a relevant factor in his life: British trade policies caused him to side with colonialists and take action. There’s the Washington we’ve come to know, the one who led us through the Revolutionary War and on into independence. After adopting the Articles of Confederation, then discovering they were an ineffective means of government, the familiar constitutional convention met. Washington was elected to preside over the proceedings where it became known he favored a strong federal government as a replacement for the weak confederation.

After adoption of the constitution, he became the unanimous selection as the first American president. When in office he determined to surround himself with a cabinet he could trust, and the government as we recognize it today began to form. Two major players, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, who possessed decidedly different philosophies, became forefathers of the present two-party system. Hamilton as secretary of the treasury took the position of favoring a strong central government while Jefferson supported states’ rights and limited federal power.

Again, too many details will lengthen the discussion, but Washington could’ve had a third term but refused it and went home like, Cincinnatus in Roman history, to his farm at Mount Vernon. In December, 1799, while riding horseback, he encountered unexpected winter weather and became soaked. Illness began setting in when he returned home and a day later his wife Martha sent for three doctors who proceeded to bleed him four times. Finally he told them to stop when he said, “Doctor, I die hard, but I am not afraid to go.” After his death, one of his military leaders summed up Washington’s legacy, “First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.”