On the Rise of George Washington

George Washington - few men throughout the history of our Nation have managed to better epitomize Classical Civic Virtue and duty to one’s Civilization better than the General and Statesman so often proclaimed to be “Father of the Nation”. So many of the traditions that we consider to be the staples of Civic Virtue in our Republic were championed and epitomized by Washington - Governing Restraint, Separation of Powers, Championing Merit, Compromise, and Nonpartisanry, the Two-Term Tradition, Respect of Civil Liberties, and a Strong Union centered around a responsible, noble Federal Government. However, beyond the occasional folk story surrounding the Legend of Washington and the Apple Tree, or the Christmas Eve Crossing of the Deleware in 1776 - the rise and development of Washington as an individual is often overlooked and relegated to a tragic lack of nuance, one that often neglects the fact that within his lifetime, Washington transformed from the Son of a Planter in a Colonial Society one shade away from Feudalism, to the Patron Saint of the First True Republic of the Modern Age - one characterized by Virtues that just decades before would be dismissed as idealistic fervor.

For George Washington, known by the Native Americans as Conotocaurius, was born on a Reportedly Frigid February Day in 1732, the fourth son of Virginia Landowner Augustine Washington. The Washingtons had been a prominent Landowning Family who had risen the ranks amongst the Virginia Aristocracy since George’s Great-Grandfather John Washington, an English Merchant who had grown disillusioned with the Old World following the English Civil War - was shipwrecked on the Potomac River in what would one day become Virginia. John, enamored with the natural beauty and apparent freedom of the land, remained in Virginia where he became a Planter and a Country Gentleman in the Medieval Sense of the term. By the time of Augustine however, the Washington’s had emerged as a mildly prominent family of Landowners, with a storied history in Virginia and a significant stake in the Colonial Tobacco Trade. George Washington, however, had long aspired to be a country Gentleman in the image of not only folktales but in the image of his role models. Since his father had died at age 9, Washington was largely raised and mentored by his brother Lawrence, fourteen years his elder, who was entrusted control over the Washington Estate following Augustines’ death. Lawrence Washington had been a noted socialite, with a unique fascination for exploration and adventure, having served in the British Army during various Colonial Wars, and having founded the Ohio Company to pursue further Westward Expansion - which Lawrence believed to be key to further development and prosperity of the Colonies. Lawrence was also a statesman, serving in the Virginia Colonial Assembly, and heading the family in business, politics, and war. George Washington, meanwhile - became infatuated with the concept of Civility and Virtuous Conduct in everyday actions, believing that the Colonies - if managed properly, could become an ideal, noble, Gentlemens Society - while preferring a humbler life as a Land Surveyor. Washington, however, was thrust into greater responsibility and a sense of duty when his brother Lawrence passed away from Tuberculosis in 1752, devastating the then 20-year-old Washington - who in response to Lawrence’ death felt obliged to honor his brothers’ Military Career and accomplishments by joining the Virginia Militia.

Washington would quickly be appointed to the position of major and commander due to his impressive knowledge of strategy, the reputation of his family, and his connections to Virginia’s Lieutenant Governor Robert Dinwiddie. Washington would quickly distinguish himself in defending the construction of British forts along the Ohio River adjacent to the emerging French and Iriqouis Allied forts across the River, in what was quickly shaping up to be a Colonial Standoff between the Western world’s two dominant powers at the time - what would eventually become known as the French-Indian War in the Colonies, and the Seven Years War in Mainland Europe. It was through his actions and prowess in this conflict that George Washington first rose to national prominence and became a household name in many Colonial circles; and as Conotocarius, or ‘The Destroyer of Towns’ amongst Indigenous Circles. For it was Washington himself who ignited the French-Indian War when he led his garrison to storm and ambush Fort Duquesne - a newly built French Fort in alliance with the Iroquois Confederacy of Native Tribes, intending to encroach upon British Territory. Washington’s victory at Fort Duquesne had earned him great praise amongst the Colonial Settlers, with his Fellow Landowners perceiving him to be a noble gentleman soldier, his administrative superiors perceiving him to be a qualified leader, and everyday Settlers perceiving him to be a gracious protector of their settlements from French-Indian aggression, who asked nothing in return for his deeds. Once the War had begun however, Washington would begin to grow his first sentiments of resentment towards the British Crown - when it was declared that Colonial-Born Soldiers could not serve in any rank higher than captain (an act designed to favor the English Military Aristocracy) - an action that Washington believed to be a grave attack on his ideals of civility and a firm belief in merit as the basis for which promotions and rank ought to be determined. Despite this emergence of resentment towards the British Military Establishment, Washington still felt an inherent duty to serve in a War which he believed would determine the very future of the Eager Colonial Settlers’ right to seek out opportunity and a new life in new lands - a belief likely deriving from his brothers’ adventurous spirit. Despite the unjust nature of the British Military policy, Washington would rapidly (and controversially) rise through the ranks of the British Regiments - becoming Personal Aide and Strategic Advisor to English-born Edward Braddock - the Commander-In-Chief of the British Army in the Colonies, at the age of 23, before becoming Commander in his own right a year later in 1756.

As Commander of the Virginia Regiment - Washington not only successfully defended the Colonists along the Ohio River from a myriad of French and Iriqouis Raids - but was forced to clash with fellow Colonial Officers due to the woefully dysfunctional British Military System for the Colonies. During the Colonial Era - before the Modernization of the Colonial Army, overseen by Washington nearly 20 years later - the Militias’ of the various colonies required on Militia Commissions granted by British Officials at the behest of the Crown for mandates of leadership, proper directive, and even funding. Due to this inept system, various Commanders and officials within the army but from different states or even regional factions would actively compete in internal clashes amongst one another for this inefficient system of patronage - that in Washington’s view prolonged the conflict and cost thousands of lives. Ultimately, it was this inefficiency and a lack of unity amongst the Colonies that birthed Washington’s belief in the primacy and benefit of not only a unified National Identity, but an Efficient, Centralized, and Powerful Federal Government. After clashes with British Leadership and frustration over the progress of the war, Washington - now a Brigadier General - resigned from service in 1758, a hero in the colonies and a renegade symbol to the growing yet still silent sentiment of disillusion with an incompetent British Government. Despite his frustrations, however, Washington received an immeasurable degree of wisdom and knowledge during his years in the Colonial Army - alongside a towering reputation that earned him his seat in the Virginia Colonial Assembly, having been handily elected in 1758 following a disappointing electoral defeat three years prior.

Initially, Washington ran for and became a member of the Colonial Assembly (then known as the House of Burgesses - an Early Modern term for Freemen) to represent his family interests and estate within the Legislature as his Brother, Grandfather, and Great-Grandfather had all done before him - as was customary for anyone worthwhile in Colonial Society at the time. However, as the French-Indian war gradually came to an end, the British Parliament implemented a series of Tyrannical new Edicts and Taxes upon the Colonies - who lacked any representation or voice in Parliament - to pay for the War and Debts accrued primarily from the European Front and trade disruptions. Hence, Washington - already developing frustration with the British Administration, became a leading voice within the Virginia Assembly in condemnation of the Oppressive British Policy as “Taxation Without Representation” - which in Washington’s eyes violated the principle of the Social Contract (an idea that was increasingly popular amongst Colonial Thinkers, inheriting the concept from Enlightenment Philosophers - namely Rousseau). Furthermore, Washington decried British Trade Policy, which forbade trade with any entity other than England through the Stamp and Townshend Acts which Washington deemed unjustly coercive. Washington’s frustration however noticeably devolved into a more active condemnation on a philosophical level when in 1763, a Royal Proclamation forbade further Westward Settlement. Ultimately, Washington’s condemnation and frustration culminated in 1774, following the British Crackdown on individual liberties and autonomy following the Boston Tea Party - when Washington alongside his close friend and prominent Radical Assemblyman George Mason drafted and published the Fairfax Resolves - where we can actively see more than anywhere else the vehement political convictions of a seemingly otherwise nonpartisan and benevolent George Washington. The Resolves included not only a comprehensive denouncement of tyrannical British Tax, Speech, and Trade Policy, support of a Colonial Boycott of British Goods, and several other resolutions considered widely radical for the time - most notably a condemnation of Slavery and a call to Abolish the Atlantic Slave Trade as a means to gradually phase out the practice (all this despite the fact that both men were prominent Slaveowners). Unfortunately, as Washington rose to national prominence, he would gradually have to distance himself from some of his more radical resolutions, and by his Presidency he was almost entirely severed from these noble positions so as not to alienate his fellow Southerners, instead awkwardly avoiding the matter.

For it was due to the Fairfax Resolves, Washington’s noteworthy presence at the Virginia Convention in late 1774, his reputation for Noble Conduct, and his prowess in both the Political and Military worlds’ that Washington was selected as a delegate to the Continental Congresses, and was shortly thereafter appointed by the Second Continental Congress as the Commander-In-Chief of the New Continental Army in 1775. Interestingly, the major reason he was chosen as Commander-In-Chief was due to his enthusiastic backing by Massachusetts Delegate and respected Lawyer John Adams, due to the fact that his Virginia Heritage and Folk-Hero Status within Virginia was believed to be a key factor in rallying the more Loyalist Southern Colonies behind a Revolution seemingly headed at the time by Northern intellectuals. Washington would end up serving with great distinction, leading the Continental Army to victory in the Revolutionary War - before retiring to his estate at Mount Vernon in 1783 following the resolution of the war - believing his duty of championing Civic Virtue and civility, defending his fellow man, and battling tyranny were complete - ending a 30-year personal crusade following the death of his brother Lawrence, retiring to expansive daily walks around his property. Washington, however, would not remain out of public life for long, becoming a notable critic of the Articles of Confederation which he believed to be lackluster and without proper Federal Authority, and later the President of the Constitutional Convention and the new nation that followed shortly thereafter. In his life, Washington was known for many things, most of all his Civility and a steadfast belief in the innumerable Civic Virtues that guided him in his everyday life, being most notably remembered for his Humility - having said; “I would rather be on my farm than be Emperor of the World”. In national politics following the Ratification of the Constitution and his ascension to the Presidency, he was consistently an arbiter of compromise and was notably Nonpartisan, opposing the emerging Two-Party System, and believing that the best, noblest Republic was one without strict partisan affiliation and one where the legislatures vote with their conscience as best befitting the given circumstance, within the Noble Virtues of a Republic - a position that I personally admire, agree with, and in a perfect world would abide by. Despite his nonpartisanship, the two parties - Federalist and Democratic-Republican, the respective supporters and opponents of the monetary policy of Washington’s Administration headed by Treasury Secretary and longtime protege of Washington, Alexander Hamilton - and his rivalry with Washington’s longtime friend and fellow Virginian Thomas Jefferson (our first and third president were known to frequent the theatre together regularly).

For Washington would die in 1799, two years after leaving office, and was subsequently deified by the American populace as the patron saint of the Republic, Father of the Nation, and a staple of American Civil Religion - however it is important to remember the moments that shaped Washington, his early studies, mentorship, frustrations, and a devotion to Civility that crafted the man we know today as our first president, and arguably one of our greatest.