The pillars of the American Presidency, the largest historical icons, are George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Washington is known as the father of our country and Lincoln as the great emancipator who got us through the Civil War and saved the Union. These are the men that our national celebration of Presidents’ Day really focus on and they were conveniently both born in February, making it a bit more tidy.
Lincoln has been shown in a great new movie bearing his name, which I have written of recently in this post. Following my viewing of that movie a few months ago, I downloaded the book The Ascent of George Washington: The Hidden Political Genius of an American Icon by John Ferling to my Kindle.
The movie showed Lincoln as a real man, not an image carved from stone, but an warm man who invited you in. George Washington, on the other hand, is seen in this book as far as I’ve read, as a master of persuasion and manipulation, an acceptor of credit and denier of blame. He was incredibly capable at creating an image of himself as above politics while at the same time harboring burning personal ambition. He was not a man who invited you in, he was a man aloof and cold, hardworking and meticulous, daring in battle and majestic in presence, who was precisely the individual needed for our country in his time just as Lincoln was in his own.
Gore Vidal once said that history creates roles to be filled and if the person we look back upon filling them had not, someone else would have. In the case of these two men, with the particular roles they filled when they did, it is hard for me to imagine there was another who would have done so. As great a collection as the Founding Fathers were and as great as many of the generals of the time were, none other seemed to possess Washington’s unique combination that made him an outsized leader. Many were smarter intellectually in the Congress and many were better generals in terms of strategic understanding. None projected the image that Washington did, an image necessary for an overmatched army and a fledgling nation.
Looking at the men behind the image only can go so far when they are centuries dead, but these glimpses are both definitely worth the viewing. It’s always good to look behind the image, to see how history is constructed in context, to see the human frailty beneath the projected majesty. Usually, you find that the Great and Mighty Oz is not really that hard to relate to once the curtain is pulled aside.
When it all boils down, each one of us is made from the same pattern, the fabric differs giving one stripes and the other stars.
ReplyDelete@Grannymar
ReplyDeleteVery nicely said! How true.
Fos - did the Washington book make any serious mention that Washington was a Freemason? When you enter the big Masonic Temple in London I'm told (by a high ranking Mason) the first thing you see is a statue og GW.
ReplyDelete@shackman
DeleteIt did speak of it, but his purpose in this book is not to make a broad spectrum biography, but to show Washington the politician. Freemasonry is not figuring in strongly at the stage I am reading. I'm still dealing with Washington the General, which is fascinating in that he has already started to be referred to as the father of his country.
His being a freemason played into everything about him - that's why I'm curious how it is handled. I guess I could always read the book myself - LOL
Delete@shackman
DeleteI'll give you the Cliff's Notes as i go through it. Cliff Claven that is!
George Washington and Abraham Lincoln are men who made great sacrifices for their country. They are American heroes … may it always be.
ReplyDeleteBlessings ~ Maxi
@Maxi
DeleteI hope you don't think I am speaking against their heroism. I find it enhanced, not diminished by their humanity.
They are up there in my list of all time greats, irrespective of how they achieved what they did.
ReplyDelete@rummuser
DeleteI am a person who doesn't mind finding out how the sausage is actually made. What I find is two men without the benefit of hindsight having to work through very trying times without knowing what the outcome would be. An example of Washington's real world courage, he came out of one battle with bullet holes in both his coat and hat, yet none saw a hint of fear in him at any point! It was part of the reason his men would follow him to hell and back.
Frankly heroes that are humanized are more releveant and important - not diminished - I'm with ya Fos - nice knowing how the sausage is made even though the occasional unsavory ingredient sneaks in
ReplyDelete@shackman
ReplyDeleteI think we are fully in agreement. Besides, I fully plan to redeem Washington in a way some may not be expecting. When you look at the reality on the ground, you realize these guys weren't living out a novel with an ending already laid out. They were contending with a huge task with an uncertain outcome.
War in those days was anything but an antiseptic affair and the effort to directly confront a power that was as mighty as the English Empire and needing to get a nation just born fully behind the effort was ENORMOUS! Then, you have to consolidate a brutal, hard fought victory in developing a government that actually worked. All while contending with and taking the leadership of a group of men as strong willed and individually brilliant, creative and motivated as the Founding Fathers were. I mean, these guys had their sails fully filled!