Hello and welcome to how to take over the world. This is Ben Wilson. This is episode one. on the life of George Washington, the great American general and statesman, and the first president of the United States of America. George Washington is really one of the great leaders of all time.

He was able to lead the U. S. through a revolutionary war against the most powerful empire on Earth and come out victorious, and he came out universally beloved. That's one of the things that I think is so interesting about George Washington. is in his own lifetime, and afterwards, there was this ecstatic outpouring of almost worshipful devotion towards him.

People just loved George Washington so much. He was, like, more myth than man. In fact, if you go to the capital of the United States, which is called Washington, and you go to the Capitol building and look at the interior of the Rotunda, you will see a fresco called the Apotheosis of Washington, and it depicts George Washington sitting as a god in judgment of America.

You  And that's interesting to me. What kind of person inspires that kind of devotion that verges on worship? What did he do? How did he do it? That's what I want to explore on this episode. This episode will focus on his life from his birth up until the eve of the American revolution.  

My sources are Washington Alife by Ron Chernow and George Washington The Forge of Experience by James Thomas Flexner. And you can find links for both of those in the show notes. So with all that said, let's get into it. This is The Making of George Washington.

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 📍  George Washington was born on February 11th, 1732, at 10 a. m. in Westmoreland County, Virginia. Virginia was the largest and most prosperous of Great Britain's southern American colonies, and the  Washingtons were an aristocratic family. They were well to do, but not quite at the very top of the social or economic ladder.

Here is what Flexner writes about the Washington family in his biography. Although no Washington ever sat in the Virginia equivalent of the House of Lords, the King's Council, They often married above themselves. They continued important enough so that when they produced a transcendentally able scion, no eminence was considered

in that semi aristocratic society, beyond their rightful reach.  So no, the Washingtons were not at the very top of Virginia society, but they were high enough that it wouldn't be a surprise that the most powerful man in America would come from their ranks. So, a rags to riches story, this is not.  George soon showed himself to be a very strong and distinctive personality.

He was much like his father, who was described as, and I love this quote, a blonde giant, fabulously strong, but miraculously gentle. Similarly, Flexner describes George Washington as quote imbued with the boat imbued with similarly Flexner describes George Washington as quote imbued with both sweetness and animal power.

Okay, so I love that description, sweetness and animal power, and that leads to this very special charisma. If you've ever been to the gym. And you've, you know, had the biggest guy in the gym be nice to you, you know, tell you like, Hey man, nice shoulders or like, Hey, do you need help with that? Or, you know, it's like this great feeling to have the big dude.

Be kind to you. And that's George Washington. He is, has this animal power. He's enormous. He's somewhere between six foot and six three, which is very tall for the time. And he's got this incredible strength. He's thick, strong, wide shouldered, long limbed. Um, and he has, you know, this beautiful Auburn hair and light grayish blue eyes.

And one of the things people talk a lot about from his early life is just how strong he was. He was like the Schwarzenegger of his time. Strongest man in America. There's one story that I love that shows what a gifted athlete he was. So this is from the Flexner biography. He says, we get a more vivid picture from an account of this guy named peel.

There's a story.

We get a vivid picture from an account.

We get a vivid picture from one account. The man writes

me and several of the man writes several other gentlemen and I were pitching the bar during the stay.

Okay.  He writes, we get a vivid picture from an account of someone who was staying at Mount Vernon.

He writes, we get a vivid picture from an account where this guy who's writing with several other,

we get a vivid picture from an account where Peel, that's the guy who's writing, and several other gentlemen were pitching the bar during his stay at Mount Vernon. Pitching the bar is just a game of throwing a metal bar as far as you can. Like, really simple game. Who can throw it the furthest? And so they're playing this game and Washington appeared, quote, and requested to be shown the pegs that mark the bounds of our effort.

Then, smiling and without putting off his coat, held out his hand for the missile. No sooner did the heavy iron bar feel the grasp of his mighty hand than it lost the power of gravitation and whizzed the air, striking the ground far. beyond the utmost limits. We were indeed amazed as we stood around, all stripped to the buff and short sleeves rolled up, and having thought ourselves very clever fellows, while the colonel, on retiring, pleasantly observed, When you beat my pitch, young gentleman, I'll try again.

Okay. So in other words, these guys are playing a game of throwing an iron bar as far as they can, they're all stripped down to their shirts, sleeves rolled up, they're sweaty and George comes out and says, let me see that thing doesn't warm up, doesn't take off his coat.  Just heaves the bar, crushes their best throw and walks away.

So he was like a, a, a mythic man, genuinely. Of heroic stature and physical abilities. And it's not just brute strength. He had a grace to him as well. And athleticism. He was a very gifted horse rider and a very gifted dancer.  Mentally, George Washington was not well educated, but he was intelligent. He received a rudimentary education in reading, writing, and arithmetic, as well as culture and history.

He was expected like his father and his older brothers to be educated at the Appleby grammar school in England. And this was a good school for young aristocrats. But when George Washington was 11 years old. Which eliminated the possibility of him going to England for economic reasons and because he was now needed to help run things on the estate.

He was always a little embarrassed by this lack of education, especially compared to some of his peers who were very well educated. But like I said, just because he wasn't well educated doesn't mean that he wasn't intelligent.

I think sometimes his intelligence is discounted or overlooked, and Chernow has a good theory on why he writes. Washington has suffered from comparisons with other founders, several of whom were renowned autodidacts, but by any ordinary standard. He was an exceedingly smart man with a quick capability.

He was an exceedingly smart, he was an exceedingly smart man with a quick ability to grasp ideas. He seized every interval of leisure to improve himself and showed a steady capacity to acquire and retain useful knowledge.  Okay, so yes, especially later in life, he was constantly surrounded by geniuses like Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Adams, all of these guys probably had IQs of 140 or above.

And Washington was clearly not that intelligent. But he was still brilliant. And that was evidenced in his military and political career, and in his business career, as we shall later see.

But just because, you know, he wasn't, um, but just because he didn't have, like, Franklin level of intelligence doesn't mean he wasn't smart. He was very smart. One of the other things that he becomes known for very early in life, and this is something that's not widely known, Uh, this was a discovery for me, at least, is he was exceptionally well dressed.

There's a story where he writes out a 152 word description of a coat he wants made for him from a tailor. And he writes to this tailor and writes a very, you know, detailed description of exactly how he wants the coat cut, down to how many inches apart the buttonholes should be, and everything. He believed, as Chernow writes, that a man's apparel was an outward sign of inner order.

Okay, I like that a lot. A man's apparel is an outward sign of inner order.  I really need a clothing or apparel sponsor to go here. Too bad. This is a missed opportunity. Maybe next time. But throughout his life, that is one thing that George Washington was known for. He was fashionable and exceptionally well dressed.

So as I said, as a young man, he's only 11 and his father dies. And when that happens, his older brother inherits much of the plantation, much of the landownings that the Washingtons had and the rest that is kind of Washington's  and the rest that is kind of George's portion actually goes to his mother because he's underage.

His mother was very strong willed and she actually refused to give up this portion of the inheritance for a long time, which was disastrous for George because she turned out to not be a very good business woman. She was very strong willed, but not very capable of doing When it came to managing the estate  and his mother is a very interesting character.

She's very independent, very hard, very exacting, very religious, kind of grasping. She always undercut and downplayed her son's achievements. It's kind of sad. She, uh, she lived to see him become president of the United States. She lived a long time and still this did not satisfy her. You know, she was just one of those kind of hypercritical.

Mother types.  So with no father to kind of show Washington the ropes, he needed guidance and mentorship. And he found that in two places. The first was his older brother, Lawrence, with whom he was very close. And then just a couple of months after Washington's father died, Lawrence married a woman named Anne Fairfax.

And she was the oldest daughter of William Fairfax. The Fairfax family was the wealthiest family in Virginia. They were both extremely wealthy and extremely well connected. So again,  that is George Washington's older brother, Lawrence,  Marries a Fairfax girl named Anne Fairfax and her father is the richest man in Virginia William Fairfax

And so this marriage kind of pulls George into the Fairfax orbit He's able to meet them and he immediately makes an impression. They really like him so he becomes best friends with a boy named George William Fairfax and And then eventually develops this kind of surrogate father relationship with William Fairfax himself.

Part of this kind of surrogate father, surrogate son thing is, you know, George's best friend, George William Fairfax, William Fairfax's son, is like, not that bright. He's fine, he's a good guy, but he's just a little dull. Whereas, you know, George Washington is strong, strapping, intelligent, ambitious. And so William Fairfax,  Really takes a liking to George Washington.

And so they have this strong mentor mentee relationship. He does two important things for George Washington initially. The first is he introduces him to the world of the ancient Romans. So George Washington becomes obsessed with Caesar, Alexander the Great, the Stoics, he reads Caesar's commentaries, he reads Seneca, he reads Plutarch's lives, and when he was older, he would order busts of Caesar and Alexander the Great and a few other great generals and conquerors.

So that kind of gives him his pattern of life. Like a Roman of old, he is obsessed with public renown.  Flexner writes,  He explained that his motive was the hope of meriting the love of my country and the friendly regard of my acquaintances. Washington subscribed to the Stoic conception, which he thus phrased in 1781.

The confidence and affections of his fellow citizens is the most valuable and agreeable reward a citizen can achieve.  And this is, of course, a pattern with the greats. They are obsessed with other greats who came before them. Napoleon was obsessed with Caesar. Caesar was obsessed with Alexander the Great.

Steve Jobs idolized Edwin Land. Thomas Edison idolized Michael Faraday. And for young George Washington, he took his inspiration from the great statesman of  And so for young George Washington, he took his inspiration from great statesmen of old, like Caesar and Alexander, and also from more immediate examples like William Fairfax.

The other thing William Fairfax does for George Washington is open doors. And the first door he opens for him is to get him a job as a surveyor. And so a surveyor is someone who goes out and surveys, yes. Surveys the land, maps it, sets it out,  lays out lots, looks at where the property lines are, things like that.

Today, um, no offense to any of my listeners who are surveyors, it's not like a super prestigious job, but at the time it was, and it was very important. And so George Washington is now the youngest surveyor in Virginia history at the tender age of 17.  It's also a position that is laden with opportunity because if you're someone who wants to acquire land, well, now you're seeing where the land is.

You're literally surveying it. Uh, you can see where the valuable land is, what turns a profit, what doesn't. So it's a very good position for George to be in. And he does in fact, Not only serve as a surveyor, but he starts trading on his own account. As a young man, he rapidly starts acquiring land and adding it to the family estate.

And throughout all of this surveying and acquiring, he's also acquiring more and more friends. And a good reputation as someone who is both friendly and reliable. Flexner writes,  with that sweetness that was part of his character, although it has fanned it.  Flexner writes, George Washington charmed with that sweetness that was part of his character, although it has vanished from his legend.

The adjective most often applied to him by those who knew him as a young man was amiable.  Okay, so he's very amiable. He's just making friends everywhere he goes.

And so that combination of amiability, friendliness, along with competence,  means that a lot of people, um, Want to help him out, right? If you've got someone who you like and who you also think that you can trust,  then you want to do favors for them. Cause it's going to reflect well back on you. So not just William Fairfax now, but he starts to get other wealthy and powerful patrons.

With these powerful connections, they pay off when he has given another very important appointment. At this point, the United States was really only settled on the east coast. So you have the coast, then you have some civilization, and then you have these hills and mountains. And beyond that is the Ohio River Valley.

And the Ohio Valley is, at this point, really sparsely settled. There's almost no one there. Mostly wilderness. But, at this point in time,  you know, the, the late 18th  But at this point in time, you know, the late 1700s,  people are just starting to go over the hills and set up farms and settlements. But there's a problem in that you have the French, who are settled in Canada, who also think that they have a claim to the land.

To this Ohio area. And so there's some conflict between the British colonists, like Washington and these French who are mostly trappers, hunters, and traders. And so someone, uh, and so the French are starting to cause problems. They're allying with the Indians and, um, and they're,  and there are some minor conflicts.

And so someone needs to go and make contact with the French troops in the area and say, Hey,  what's going on here, guys, we see you building a fort, establishing a presence, making contact with the Indians, and so on. We want to make sure everything's clear here because we have the right to settle this land.

You don't. So they need someone to go through the wilderness, which is unsettled. There are no roads to go contact the French and open diplomatic contact. And George Washington is given this diplomatic appointment to go out into the wilderness, find the French. And deliver a diplomatic letter.

He's given this appointment because people like him. He's reliable, but also because he's been a surveyor. So he's sort of been out on the frontier already. He's a good woodsman. He knows how to hack it out there in the wilderness.  So it's a dangerous journey. There are Indians, wild animals, half frozen rivers and difficult terrain.

But Washington is able to find the French fort, make contact. And deliver the message.  Crucially, when he's in the French fort, he tries to count the number of troops. That was pretty difficult, right? You're, you're looking at men and they're kind of  milling around. And so did I already count that guy? And some of them are indoors and some of them are going in and out.

So he's like, I can't get an accurate count. So he tells his companion to go down to the river and count the number of canoes.  So canoes don't move. They're just sitting there. They're easy to count. And so that gives them a more accurate picture of the French forces in the area. Yeah. It's a very clever bit of quick thinking from George to give him valuable intelligence that he can bring back to the colonial government.

On the way back, he and his companion, uh, who's like a translator, knows French, um, and  On the way back, he and his companion, who, crucially, knows French, served as a translator, they are shot at by an Indian and almost die when they try to cross a half frozen river. and an ice flow nearly capsizes the raft that they're on.

But, they manage to make it back, and George's performance is widely hailed as nothing short of spectacular. Flexner writes, Reading the journal today, one is impressed with the greenness of the young man and the cockiness. There is no hint that at any moment he felt he had come up against anything he could not understand and could not handle.

Yet he did handle everything. However bludgeringly at times,  And he did handle everything. However, bludgeringly at times, he moved forward with dauntless energy, got where he was supposed to go, delivered his message, came home successfully through stupendous hardships, taken by itself, the physical vitality displayed was on the level of genius.

Well, the message that he brings back from the French is not helpful. They basically tell the British, No, man, we belong here. And you guys can buzz off as far as we're concerned. So the British colonials gear up for conflict and start raising troops. And George Washington, even though he's very young, 21 years old at this point, is tapped to lead the troops of Virginia.

And why is he chosen? At such a young age with no military experience, here's what Ron Chernow writes. He says, how could young George Washington have snared this prestigious commission? At the time, few Virginians were seasoned in frontier warfare. Creating a simple lack of competitors. Washington confirmed that he was picked to go, quote, when I believed few or none would have undertaken it.

Some practical reasons made Washington an excellent choice. He knew the western country from surveying, had the robust constitution to survive the winter woods, was mostly unflappable, had a mature appearance and sound judgment, and was a model youth with no tincture of rowdiness in his nature.

So they tab Washington to lead the Virginia militia, but he actually doesn't want to do it at first. He says, I must be impartial enough to confess. It is a charge too great for my youth and inexperience, but he says he would be interested in the Lieutenant position. The second in command, he says, quote, with my own application and diligent study, I could in time render myself worthy of the position if under a skilled commander or man of sense.

So I think that's actually a really smart approach, right? You're not doing yourself any favors. If you take a position that you're not ready for. So get yourself a good mentor and put yourself in a place to succeed. And so that's what happens. He's appointed second in command with a general over him.

However, the guy who they appoint as the head of the army is old and fat and slow.

And so in the meantime, George Washington has to take command while this other general makes his way to the troops. And the course of events are such that things start happening, and so he has to command in the absence of this other general.  And actually, the other general, this guy, catches a disease and dies on the way.

So he's like weeks or months, so he's like weeks or months in transit and then he dies. And so even though George Washington doesn't want to be the guy, the leader of the Virginia troops, that's what ends up happening anyway. And now he's the man. He's the leader.

So even though George,  so even though George Washington has all these trepidations about leading the troops, he shows no hesitation in leading them.

So even though George Washington has all these hangups, all these trepidations about being the commanding general, he shows no hesitation in leading his men. He's one of the most aggressive people that I have ever read about. And so you think, you know, it's this uncertain diplomatic environment. All these troops are green, are fresh.

Virginia has not been at war at all. There's been frontier fighting with Indians. There are no experienced soldiers though. So like he's the blind leading the blind, but what does he do? He just goes straight out and attacks a superior French force. He just starts marching right towards them. And so they're marching and he actually hears about some French troops marching towards him.

And so he takes out an advanced scouting detachment. And he actually stumbles on the French before he's ready. So the French fire on them, and they fire back, and they   So the French fire on them, but Washington regroups his troops, and they fire back, and Washington actually gets the better of the French.

And he likes this first taste of war. He loves battle. He writes back to his brother, I heard the bullets whistle, and believe me, There is something charming in the sound.  So Washington's forces win this engagement, but as they're winning, they hear the French, you know, screaming out. They're throwing up their hands and they surrender.

And when George Washington goes to talk to them, the French say, Hey, we're a diplomatic detachment. We were coming just to talk to you guys. We weren't here to fight. And Washington doesn't really believe this. He's like, well, then why did you fire on us first? You know, but they say, no, no, no, no. This is a big misunderstanding.

We have diplomatic papers, and so you guys actually have been shooting and killing diplomats, which is a big international no no. And Washington says, yeah, I don't believe you, and so he takes the survivor's prisoner and goes back to his little fort that he has constructed in the forest.  Now, Washington may or may not have been wrong in firing on these French soldiers.

Maybe they really were being deceptive, okay? They had these diplomatic papers in case they got caught in a bad situation, but really they were coming to fight the British. That's what he believed, and that may have been true. Or, it may have been what they said.  they were just marching toward the British in order to deliver a diplomatic message, and they were totally surprised to see these British guys, and they accidentally fire, and you know, stuff happens.

But what happens next is definitely not an accident. The French attack this little fort that Washington has constructed, and he actually does a terrible job. This fort is badly positioned and not nearly strong enough to be defensible. And so what unfolds next is essentially a horror movie. Imagine, they are just huddled up in the cold weather They were just marching toward the British in order to deliver a diplomatic communique, in order to, awaiting this attack from a far superior French force.

And this is what unfolds. Here's the quote from,  here's the quote from Flexner.

Awaiting this attack from a far superior French force, and this is what unfolds.  📍 Quote.  A bullet zinged into the fort,  📍 and then another.  📍 Even after the lead had become a downpour, he could see no  📍 enemy.  📍 Only powder smoke drifting  📍  📍 upward from every little rising tree  📍 stump, stone, and bush.

📍  In what had been planned as safe positions leaped  📍 and fell. The artillerymen were driven from their swivels. Anguished cries and bellows,  📍  anguished cries and bellowing signaled that the horses  📍 and beef cattle were going down under the constant  📍 galling fire. Crouching low, Washington shunted his men to spots  📍 that seemed to promise protection.

📍 But as soon as they revealed their location by firing over the ramparts,  📍 enemy bullets came in among them. Now, as he  📍 tried to encourage his men,  📍 Washington was slipping  📍 on blood. But the casualties  📍 were episodic. A slumped form here, a man crawling there. And the nightmares  📍  A slumped form here, a  📍 man crawling there. And the  📍 nightmare was able to drag on for hour after hour, with  📍 enough colonials still upright to hold the attackers  📍 at musket range. 📍   So, after a few hours, After a few hours, one third of his  📍  📍 men, more than a hundred,  📍 were dead gasping out their lives or  📍 contorted with various wounds.

 And so here at the edge of the world in the middle of nowhere, with musket balls from unseen enemies falling all around them, it seemed that all these men were going to die in this fort.  But then, rescue came like a ray of sunshine out of heaven. The French commander, a man named de Villiers, put up a flag of ceasefire and asked to come talk.

He offers Washington papers of surrender, on very lenient terms. Great. The Virginians will be allowed to retreat with all military honors, a total ceasefire, and there are basically no conditions on them, other than a very simple apology.  And Washington was too young and inexperienced to realize the trap that was being laid for him.

That simple apology was a huge mistake. It was essentially an admission that the British had known that the French force they had initially encountered and beaten was a diplomatic mission, and that they had assassinated them.  Now, that was not true, but that was what he was admitting to in cleverly disguised language.

in this treaty, in this treaty,  in this ceasefire that he was signing.  This would set off a diplomatic crisis that would result in what came to be known as the Seven Years War, which was essentially the first truly global war, with major fighting on five continents and millions of deaths. And George Washington, who Had set it off by signing this poison pill contract.

Flexner writes concerning that little skirmish Voltaire was to write, such was the complication of political interests that a cannon shot fired in America could give The signal that set Europe in a blaze Washington had indeed shed the first blood in the seven years war. A conflict, which according to Frederick of Prussia, cost the lives of about 853,000 soldiers plus civilians by the hundreds of thousands.

And even more damningly, Flexner goes on, On the European diplomatic level, Washington had prejudiced the moral position of the whole British Empire at the eve of a world war. A French poet exclaimed, The assassination of Jumonville is a monument of perfidy that ought to enrage eternity. While an English writer stated in a pamphlet published in both London and Boston, that the articles of capitulation Washington had signed at Fort Necessity were the most infamous a British subject ever put his hand to.

Okay, so, disastrous decision by Washington. And I highlight this story because,  okay, disastrous decision by Washington. And I highlight this story because, if you think that you have failed, that you have done something so stupid, a mistake so egregious, that you don't feel like you can come back from it, just remember that George Washington accidentally started a world war and put his nation in a compromised position at the start of it.

If he can come back from that, you can overcome whatever little hurdles that you face. I mean, it is amazing.  You know, if George Washington had died the next year, he would be known not as a great man, but as the idiot who started the seven years war and put Britain in a bad position in so doing.  So truly anything can be overcome.

And so this kicks.

And so in the context of colonial Britain of Virginia, this kicks off a low level of conflict across the American frontier. So you had all these colonials, the note,  so you had all these colonials, all these, you want to call them Americans, but they all consider themselves British subjects at the time.

There's no independence yet. We can call them Americans. , all these Americans who had started to settle in these frontier regions. And now the French ally with the native Americans in that area. The Indians, they're called Indians at the time. So we'll just call them that.

And the Indians had a pretty simple viewpoint, which was we're going to ally with whoever is not going to take our land.  And so the French, their approach was not to settle and not to farm so much. They mostly, as I said earlier, send in trappers and traders and hunters, you know, they extract some resources, but they can get along pretty well with the Indians.

They don't kick them off their land. Whereas the British, the Americans, the colonials are coming to settle. Okay.  Okay. So the Indians correctly into it, we can coexist with the French, but the British, if their policy continues, they're going to lead to our extermination. And so they ally with the French and they start this low level conflict in which they are going and raiding all these outlying settlements.

And so I know people get very,  um, emotional. They want to talk about the morality of who's right in conflicts like this. Um, colonialism. Yeah. Gets people feeling all sorts of ways. Let me just say that  I feel that kind of everyone is right. In this conflict, like from the American perspective, you have all these settlements and Indians are coming over in the middle of the night and they are indiscriminately murdering men, women, children, they're raping, they're killing people in horrible, torturous ways.

And so of course you sympathize with these poor American settlers, most of whom are poor, who are just trying to scratch out a living on the American frontier.

And then at the same time, from the Indian perspective, they are 100 percent correct. As soon as these colonists settle this region, it's going to lead to their expulsion, which does eventually happen. And so what they're doing, which is burning and destroying these settlements, is the only thing they could do to delay that process by any period of time.

And so to be honest, I sympathize with everyone involved.  Everyone is right from their perspective.  Obviously you can get deeper into it than that, but I'll leave it there.

So, Washington is kept in charge of the Virginia troops, with the charge to go stop  all of this conflict to the extent that he can. The problem is he can't stop it. He has very few troops, and they're hundreds of miles.  The problem is he can't stop it. He has very few troops, and hundreds of miles of frontier that he's supposed to be protecting.

And Indians can just attack wherever they want, they don't have to hold any territory. They just attack, kill, burn, and then they can melt back into the woods. So Washington sets about building forts, raising local militias and defending sellers wherever he can. And he's doing an okay job. He's delaying

and he's doing an okay job. You know, he's delaying them a little bit. He's saving some lives. Uh, but the fact of the matter is they are slowly losing the frontier to the French and Indians. And so eventually the British say, okay, we need to send in some professionals here to help the situation's getting out of control.

So they send some British regular troops and some British commanders, the regular British army from England to come help take care of this situation. And so Washington says, great. I didn't want to be in charge anyway. I'm excited to serve under someone and learn from him.

And so the British general that is sent, his name is Braddock, and they actually get along really well. Washington does not mind being replaced, he wants to be replaced, and he's eager to learn from Braddock as much as he can. They have a great relationship. And so Braddock comes and he says, The problem here is the French.

It's the French who are arming the Indians, they're uniting them, coordinating them, so we need to clear out all these French troops, and especially take their base of operations, which is at a place called Fort Duquesne. And so there's our mission, take Fort Duquesne.

And like I said, this is wilderness frontier area. It's heavily wooded. So they actually need to cut a road to Fort Duquesne. And so they slowly start building this road and they eventually realized that they are not going to be able to build it all the way to Fort Duquesne. in time before winter sets in.

Fort Duquesne, by the way, is located in what is today Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. So they're not going to make it and they decide to forget the road for the last little bit. They're just going to travel light and make a lightning attack on Fort Duquesne.

So the journey through the woods goes fairly well. They're very anxious the entire time, looking for French and Indian snipers. Eventually, they're less than a mile from the fort, and they think, Great, we're almost there. When all of a sudden, Washington looks up to see scouts sprinting toward them.

When all of a sudden, Washington looks up to see his vanguard, his scouts, sprinting toward him and screaming. Flexner writes about what happens next.

 📍  Bullets filled the air, striking particularly the officers who towered conspicuous on horseback as they rode in circles, hitting the men with the flats of their swords. Washington's horse sank under him. He leapt clear. As a riderless whore reared by, he caught it and sprang up again. A strange yank on Washington's coat made him look down.

There were bullet gashes in it. He pushed his way to Braddock, whose normally red face was brick colored, and whose voice was hoarse from shouting. Having finally caught the distraught general's attention, Washington offered to head the provincials and engage the enemy in their own way. But Braddock refused.

Braddock fell wounded from his horse, as did Orm and another of his aides. Washington's second horse faded away from under him, and his hat was carried off by a bullet.

So,  so, as you can hear, the British are being slaughtered. They are a conventional fighting force, tightly grouped, that is surrounded by a guerrilla force of fighters behind it.  They are a conventional fighting force, tightly grouped, that is surrounded by a guerrilla force of fighters hiding behind trees.

So they're trying to fire back, but it's like they're firing into the abyss. They can't see anyone, let alone hit them. As Flexner mentioned, the officers are the first to go because they're so conspicuous on their horses. And so actually all the officers who outrank Washington are shot and either wounded or killed, including Braddock, who sinks into a coma.

It's Washington himself who leads the retreat and saves at least some of the men. You know, this battle sounds again like something out of a horror movie. There's no enemy, just the dark forest and death.  And it was like a horror movie to Braddock. So, he is shot and falls into a coma. Washington gets him out in the retreat.

And when Braddock wakes up, he thinks he's still in a horror movie. Flexner says, quote, He proved to have one ruling thought. To get out of the forest. He ordered that everything which could not immediately be moved be destroyed. Irreplaceable ammunition detonated, wagons burned, cannons smashed. Then the whole army set out passionately for civilization.

So in other words, he wakes up from his coma and he's like,  Let's just get the freak out of this haunted death forest as quickly as we can.

So, in other words, he wakes up and he says, Let's get out of this haunted death forest as quickly as we possibly can.  Now, despite being a part of this total disaster of an attack, Washington's reputation actually improves. He becomes known as a war hero in the British colonies, and that's for two reasons.

One, he's a hero. Is his physical bravery. You know, all these men tell these stories of Washington riding around on his horse, having multiple horses shot out from under him and just getting a new one. Every time his coat,

his coat is shot through his hat is shot through and somehow  his coat is shot through his hat is shot through and somehow he survives.

His coat is shot through, his hat is shot through, and yet somehow he survives untouched.  And so it seems like this man is touched by God. And the other thing is, you may have caught this, uh, in the passage that I read, Braddock is marching like a regular army, he keeps the men clumped together, like a classic European fighting force, and George Washington actually says, Give me my men and let us fight them  in this guerrilla way.

You know, let us go in the trees and do what they're doing.

You know, fight fire with fire. And Braddock says no. And so it was recognized that Washington had the better and smarter strategy and that he was kind of stymied by the rigid British way of fighting.

, Everybody seems willing to venture under your command.

So for those reasons, he's still popular. Uh, Flexner writes, Benjamin Franklin wrote from Pennsylvania. Everybody seems willing to venture under your command in Washington's home colony. A minister wondered from the pulpit, whether Providence had not preserved the heroic youth in so signal a manner because he was destined for some important service of his country.

Even regular soldiers praised him, Mr. Washington. Even regular soldiers praised him. Mr. Washington, his friend Orm wrote, had two horses shot under him and his clothes shot through in several places, behaving the whole time with the greatest courage and resolution.

And there's another good quote that I think sums up what he was able to accomplish  throughout his,

and there's another quote that I think sums up what he was able to accomplish, what showed that he was a good leader while he led the troops from Virginia, even though.  He was often leading them in defeat. It says, brashness, greenness. All the concomitants of inexperience may be outgrown. And Washington had exhibited to a superlative degree, a quality that is inborn, the ability to lead men.

As the war unrolled, the colonial soldiers hardly trained at all and members of no continuing establishment displayed a dismaying tendency to flee from their own shadows. His soldiers marched into the howling forests and, although badly supplied and often unpaid, built roads, fought a superior force, and died under his orders.

So in other words, you're like, yeah, maybe that's a low bar, right? But the conditions are horrible. I want you to imagine, put yourself in George Washington's position. There's no colonial army. These are not professional troops. They've never been drilled. They have not been trained. Most of them come with little or no supplies.

Some of them don't even have guns and they're not under military discipline. So if they don't like what George Washington has to say, they can just go home. And if they don't want to fight in this battle, they can not fight in this battle. He has no power of capital punishment. He can't punish desertion.

It's not. A real army. And despite these circumstances, it's not a real army. And despite these circumstances unique to everyone in the British colonies, he alone is able to get people to fight and die for him, which is an accomplish in. Which is an accomplishment in and of itself. He's able to do something to stem the tide of these Indian attacks.

He's able to do something to stem the tide of these Indian attacks. It might not be much, but he's the only one doing anything. And he shows leadership and bravery, even in the midst of these defeats. And so he's a military hero in part, because  he's one of the only people, one of the very, very, very few people who has accomplished anything in this frontier fighting.

And so after these disasters, he's still in charge of the Virginia troops. And he says, look. We need to reform some things around here. And he sets about trying to turn the Virginia Militia into an actual professional fighting force. And so it's worth looking at what his approach was to this. How does he do it?

How does he lead?  When he's finally given the kind of tools that he wants and needs in order to form an actual professional fighting force, the first thing he does, He is professionalized. So,  so one of his contemporaries writes method and exactness are the forte of his character. And so that was the first thing method and exactness drill the troops, get the details down.

Another thing is he's very good at finding and maintaining talent. So he has this really big emphasis on merit,  and  this is a time,  and this is at a time when much of the British Army  based their promotions on connections. Whose son are you? Who do you know? Who's willing to vouch for you? You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.

And Washington, on the other hand, had a big focus on merit, on ability. I shall make it, Washington announced, the most agreeable part of my duty to study merit and reward the brave and deserving. I assure you, gentlemen, that partiality shall never bias my conduct, nor shall prejudice injure any. But throughout the whole tenor of my proceedings, I shall endeavor, as far as I am able, to reward and punish without the least diminution.

To reward and punish without the least diminution.  Another thing he does that is a hallmark of great leaders, from Steve Jobs to Napoleon, is that he tends to reward and praise the unit. Not the individual.  So mostly he takes the blame or the credit for himself, but when there is stuff to merit it out, when there is special recognition to be had either positive or negative, he gives it to the unit.

So here's what Flexner writes.  When reporting to his superiors, he usually did not eulogize or blame his subordinates unless he wished what he said to lead specifically to promotion or its opposite. This kept the lines of power within the regiment leading up to Washington as its head.   wrote his colonel that he altogether depended on him for protection and was sensible that, as far as justice is on my side,  depend on your favor. In his letters to his officers, Washington criticized when he considered that necessary, but rarely included individual praise. From day to day, even in battle, he assumed that each man or detachment would do his best for all, and so, if he phrased a compliment, it was to the regiment as a whole.

Pride in the regiment rather than individual pride was what Washington sought to inculcate.

Okay. And one other thing to point out there is another thing that is common of great leaders. Which is that typically they're not big on positive reinforcement. They have high expectations. And if you meet them, that is the status quo. If not, you'll be reprimanded and you have to go truly above and beyond to merit praise.

And that is an environment that is aggressive and not always easy, but leads to very high performance. Well,  despite this professionalization of the Virginia militia, there's just no way that they're going to be able to win this war. And the turning of the tide actually comes with the election of William Pitt.

He becomes prime minister back in England and he's very active and he's controlling the grand strategy. And so this turns the tide. He sends a new commander to take over for George Washington. And this new British commander comes in and says, okay, we're going to attack Fort Duquesne again. And we're not going to screw it up this time.

He wants to build a new road on a different route to attack Fort Duquesne. And Washington argues very strongly against this. He wants to go back to the Braddock Road and finish building that.

And he really stakes his reputation on the idea that this new road is a bad idea and it's going to lead to failure and they should be doing something about it. The road that he had started with Braddock.  So what ends up happening is he's overridden. This new general builds the new road.  Over the course of months, they get very close to Fort Duquesne.

And then once they're close enough to attack, they go to attack and they find that the French have evacuated and burned the fort to the ground.

George Washington is confused. He doesn't understand what happened. You know, he had been ambushed. And had this incredible defense put up against him the last time he had attacked and now they melted away. Like it was nothing. And that's because he didn't understand the grand strategy of what was happening.

so as I mentioned, this prime minister, William Pitt,  very sharp guy, one of the great prime ministers  And he realizes that  where George Washington is fighting, the Ohio Valley, is dependent on the Great Lakes region for their supplies and their communications. So the French have their region of Canada, what is now Quebec, and they have some forts up there.

And so French supplies, when they come, They come through the Great Lakes and into those forts, and then they make their way down the Allegheny River and the Ohio River to Fort Duquesne. And so he realizes, well, if we just cut off  and he realizes, well, we don't have to do all this forest fighting. If we just use our superior Navy and cut them off in this Great Lakes region, they're not going to be able to get supplies and communications down to Fort Duquesne and they're going to be forced to leave.

So that's exactly what happens. They cut off communications, they cut off supplies. That's why. When they build this new road and the French see them coming, they just take off before they even find a battle. They are low on food, they're low on supplies, and they have no communication so they don't know what's happening, so they don't want to stick around and fight.

Now, look, Washington might have been right. You know, concerning the two roads, maybe the Braddock Road was way better than the new road they built, and if the French actually had been able to stand and fight, it would have gone horribly for the British. That doesn't really matter. He's got egg on his face.

It doesn't really matter that it's, you know, for a reason that has nothing to do with him. Uh, it's still just embarrassing.

Flexner writes,

To civilian life with bitterness, resentful of injustice, stung with a sense of unmerited failure. He was not to serve again in any military capacity for 17 years.

 Okay? And that was something I didn't realize going in that George Washington was only a soldier for five years, and then there's a 17 year gap on his resume before he comes back. But in the meantime, he goes back to Mount Vernon, which is his estate, and he lives the life of a country gentleman, farmer.

And he's quite good. He's good socially, he's good politically, and he's good at just the business side of farming. He uses powers of observation and extensive,  he uses powers of observation and extensive record keeping and experimentation, and experimentation to improve his yield. He has a fairly simple, but very analytical approach.

So So for example, John Hancock, who you may have heard of, so for example, one visitor visits him at Mount Vernon,

for example, one visitor to Mount Vernon talks about his operations and says, everything he does is by method of system. He keeps a journal where he records everything. He is a model of the highest perfection.

So what does it actually mean?  So what does it actually mean? So for example, he takes soil from six different parts of his estate, you know, up on the hills, down in the valleys, over here, over there, uh, different, different corners, different areas. And he pots them all. And then he plants four different kinds of crops.  In all these different soils.

And then he observes them to see what grows best where. So, you know, maybe hay grows really well in this soil and tobacco grows really well in this soil. And corn grows really well in this soil. And so then he shuffles where he's growing, what based on what responds best to, to certain soils. So that gives you an idea of the type of analysis that he's doing to make sure he's getting the best yield.

He lives a quite simple, but very disciplined life. Here's what Chernow writes about his routine. He said Washington benefited from the un varying regularity of his daily routine and found nothing monotonous about it. Like many thrifty farmers, he rose before sunrise and accomplished much of his work while others still slept.

Prior to breakfast, he shuffled about in dressing gown and slippers and passed an hour or two in his library reading and handling correspondence. He also devoted time to private prayers before Billy Lee, that's one of his slaves, laid out his clothes, brushed his hair, and tied it in a queue. Washington liked to examine his stables before breakfast, inspect his horses, and issue instructions to the grooms.

Then he had an unchanging breakfast of corn cakes, tea, and honey.

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So Washington.

So Washington, he's really analytical, but one thing that he can't wrap his mind around is the price that is paid for his tobacco. And that's because he has a single buyer. So you have the single merchant from England who comes to basically all the tobacco growers in Virginia. And they sail up these rivers and they basically can dictate to the Virginians what price they are going to buy the tobacco at.

It's classic,  it's classic power laws stuff. And so George Washington is not happy with this at all. He's always writing to them being like, why is it this amount? I feel like I'm not getting paid enough. And they have cornered the,  but they have all the market information. So there's not really anything he can do.

And rather than accepting this, George Washington says, And rather than accepting this George Washington,  and rather than accepting this, George Washington says, you know what, I'm going to try something different. I'm going to experiment with different crops. And so he starts growing wheat and corn. And one of the reasons that that's good is because he can sell to local buyers.

And so he's able to, um,  and so he's able to see where prices are at, what people are buying for why the prices are what they are. And so he starts growing wheat and corn, selling it to other American farmers. And that is much more profitable than his tobacco business had been. He increases the profitability of the farm quite a bit.

You know, he had been in debt. Basically every farmer wasn't that you read about these really wealthy Virginians, even people like Thomas Jefferson are just chronically in debt to British lenders and Washington was on that path as well. You know, he comes back from the army, he starts farming, he's going deeper and deeper into debt to the British banks until he says, no, I'm going to keep until he says, no, I'm going to try this new strategy, start selling locally.

Wheat and corn. And then his debt gets reduced year over year, every single year, as he's able to create this really profitable farm. So he's a grant, so he's acquiring more and more land because of this profitability and because he also makes a very intelligent

and he's able to acquire a lot more land when he makes a great decision

and he gets married to a very wealthy widow. Named Martha.  She had this huge estate that she had inherited from her now deceased husband.

And look, that was a happy coincidence. He didn't marry her for her money necessarily. He loved her. They got along really well. It was a great and pretty interesting partnership and marriage,

but yes. Um,

so whereas his previous companion was basically his mom who always tried to cut him down to size, uh, Martha was very supportive, very loving. They had a very intimate relationship. And she's also a really great partner for his social ambitions. She's a great hostess. And they love to host. They're very social.

They always have people over for dinner. Anytime it's just them at dinner, they talk about how lonely they feel. Because they just basically almost always have other people over. He gets two stepchildren, and he's a very doting and loving person. Father to those stepchildren.

He also inherits two stepchildren and they're part of his social life as well. And he's a great father to them. Uh, he, he likes playing with them and they loved him very much, but they're very social and he has this unique approach to making friends and developing relationships as he's hosting all these people at his farm.

Here's what Ron Chernow writes. He says, Washington was an excellent host of a certain sort. He was congenial without being deeply personal, friendly, without being familiar. and perfected a cool sociability that distanced him from people even as it invited them closer. He never felt the urge to impress people.

As John Marshall wrote, he had no pretensions to the vivacity which fascinates and to the wit which dazzles. He knew the value of silence, largely kept opinions to himself, and seldom committed a faux pas.  Okay, so he is still friendly,  but now he's kind of reserved as well. He doesn't disclose more than is necessary.

Um, Chernow also writes later, quote, His reserve, if not impenetrable, was by no means lightly surrendered. He was habitually cautious with new people and only gradually opened up as they passed a series of loyalty tests. Be courteous to all,

be courteous to all, but intimate with few, he advised his nephew, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. True friendship, true friendship is a plant,  true friendship is a plant of slow growth because Washington never invited, true friendship, true friendship is a plant of slow growth, he said.

Because Washington never invited people readily into his confidence, it had a nearly irresistible appeal when he did.

So he uses this popularity and these social connections to create a political career. So he joins the House of Burgess, which is the lower house, of the Virginia Parliament, essentially the House of Representatives or the House of Commons in the American or British system.  His approach is to only speak on important matters.

His approach is to only speak on important matters. So often he doesn't even show up for debates or voting on matters. He only shows up and speaks out on things that he thinks are critical. Uh,

he revealed his attitude about this in advice he gave to his nephew in 1787. He wrote, speak seldom, but to important subjects, except such as particularly relate to your constituents. And in the former case, make yourself perfectly master of the subject. Never exceed a decent warmth and submit your sentiments with diffidence.

A dictatorial style, though it may carry conviction, is always accompanied with disgust.  Okay, so I like that approach. Speak simply and powerfully about  Only important topics. And that way people get used to  taking what you have to say very seriously.  Chernow writes, there was a gravitas about the young Washington, a seriousness of purpose and a fierce determination to succeed that made him stand out in any crowd.

And I liked that description. I actually think that word seriousness really captures one of the things that made Washington so significant. There's this great essay, uh, by, uh, uh, entrepreneur.

There's a great essay by an investor named Catherine Boyle that I really like.

There's an essay by an investor named Catherine Boyle that I really like. It's called On Seriousness. And she says that something that we lack in today's day and age is seriousness. Uh, here's a quote from her article. She says, seriousness is the maniacal belief in a project greater than oneself. It's anchored by a type of sacrifice and solemnity that went out of vogue in the United States at the end of the second world war.

If you're pinpointing a time when America became less serious, it's around the same time when America began sacrificing communal responsibility in favor of individual pursuits. Though it's unfair to pin everything on the boomers, the concept of finding oneself did not exist during the German Blitz.  She goes on to identify irony as the antithesis of seriousness.

I don't think irony was as much a concern during Washington's time. For him, the antithesis probably would have been something more like frivolity. Regardless, irony is what we have to worry about today. And I like this quote that Catherine Boyle gives from David Foster Wallace. This is great. Listen to this.

Irony and cynicism were just what the U. S. hypocrisy of the 50s and 60s called for. That's what made the early postmodernists great artists. The great thing about irony is that it splits things apart, gets up above them so we can see the flaws in hypocrisies and duplicates. The virtuous always triumph?

Ward Cleaver is the prototypical fifties father? Sure. Sarcasm, parody, absurdism Sarcasm, parody, absurdism, and irony are great ways to strip off stuff's mask and show the unpleasant reality behind it. The problem is that once the rules of art are debunked and once the unpleasant realities and once the unpleasant realities the irony diagnoses are revealed and diagnosed, then what do we do?

Irony's useful for debunking Irony's  debunking illusions But most of the illusion debunking in the US has been done and redone Once everybody knows that equality of opportunity is bunk And Mike Brady is bunk  Once everybody knows that equal opportunity is bunk And Mike Brady of opportunity is bunk And Mike Brady is bunk And just say no is bunk Now what do we do?

All we seem to want to do is keep ridiculing the stuff. Postmodern irony and cynicism becomes an end in itself, a measure of hip sophistication and literary savvy. Few artists dare to try to talk about ways of working towards redeeming what's wrong, because they'll look sentimental and naïve all to because they'll look sentimental and naïve to all the weary ironists.

Irony's gone from liberating to enslaving. There's some great essay somewhere that has a line about irony being the song of the prisoner who's come to love his cage.  Okay, so, I think that's another great lesson from Washington. He was serious. He was serious about his commitment to the United States. He was sincere about his

He was sincere about his desire to serve his fellow citizens.

He was sincere in his military service. Even in an age that was sincere. He was particularly sincere and earnest.

One other thing to talk about is George Washington's philosophy and religious beliefs, which he was developing a lot during this period of time, people often refer to George Washington as a deist and a deist is someone who believes that there was a God who created the universe, but that he doesn't interfere in human affairs.

And I think that's kind of accurate, but George Washington was not a committed deist In the way to say Thomas Jefferson was like Thomas Jefferson  really got deep into the philosophy and he rejected the divinity of Jesus Christ. I don't think George Washington really rejected  these religious ideas so much as he just didn't care.

Like he was a man of action and it just wasn't interesting to him.  Um,

there's a great quote. Someone had sent him a sermon and said that it was extraordinary and he should read it and he sent it to someone else. And here's what he said.

I presume it is good coming all the way from New Hampshire, but do not vouch for it. Not having read a word of it myself.  So like, um, you know, he went to, he, he believed in church as a social practice.  He didn't go to church any more than was strictly necessary for him.

He was just very practical and I don't think he thought much about this stuff. Flexner writes, quote, in 1793, Washington thus summarized the religious philosophy he was evolving during his Mount Vernon years. How happenings would terminate is known only to the great ruler of events and confiding in his wisdom and goodness.

We may safely trust the issue to him without perplexed. without perplexing ourselves to seek for that which is beyond human ken, only taking care to perform the parts assigned to us in a way that reason and our own consciences approve of.  

So those were his religious beliefs. In terms of his philosophy, he had this Stoic detachment, this acceptance of fate. He called it Providence. And actually, his philosophy was very similar to that of Napoleon Bonaparte. Both were extremely brave. Both had this stoic, laconic acceptance of whatever happened.

Whatever happened was the will of destiny for Napoleon and of providence for Washington. They used the two different words in almost exactly the same way and it created the same effect, the same philosophical outlook.  You know, somewhat paradoxically,  this acceptance of providence or destiny in both cases did not lead either man to be resigned to events, but to be extremely active.

I think that sort of Zen acceptance of events combined with that determination to do everything in one's power within the course of that cosmic or divine will leads to very powerful outcomes.

I just think that's so interesting that they saw it the same way that there is this great, that there's this great Providence, this great destiny and,  and that we can't control it, and we should accept it.  Within that context, we should do everything that we can to make sure that we are performing our part admirably. Within that philosophy, Washington wrote, It is assuredly better to go laughing than crying through the rough journey of life.  And so, again, I think that describes this sort of detachment, right?

Of, it's a rough journey, there's not too much we can do about it, but  you have to go through it anyway, so you might as well laugh.

Okay, so that is Washington's development as a  Okay. So that was Washington's development as a country gentleman.  Wow.  So for 17 years, that is Washington's course. He is a gentleman farmer.  He is extremely successful.  He's renowned. He's well known. He's well liked, but his life has no particular course. It doesn't seem like he's destined for anything earth shaking.

And then in the early 1770s, you start to hear rumblings of revolution.

I won't tell you the full history of the American revolution, but this essentially starts because of some taxes that the British were imposing.  It's funny, they were actually lowering their taxes,  but the taxes were so widely flouted. The Americans were paying essentially zero in taxes. They were just, uh, they were smugglers.

They weren't paying any of this stuff. And so the British government said, look.  We're going to lower these taxes, but we're going to step up enforcement a ton, and you guys are going to actually have to start paying.  And so this makes the Americans mad because it is effectively a tax raise. And also it starts to get them thinking, well, how come we don't get a vote on any of this?

How come parliament gets to vote? What happens to us? It gets the rallying cry of taxation without representation, which people don't like. And so anyways. This revolutionary fervor starts to develop. Now, Washington's natural disposition was to be pro British. Remember, he's mixed up with the Fairfaxes and their claim to,

remember, he's mixed up with the Fairfaxes. They're good friends of his and their claim to all this land in Virginia was based on royal decree and was opposed. By many locals. Uh, so he has his lot kind of in with the Fairfax's.  so he's got a natural disposition to be, so he's got a natural disposition to be pro British for that reason.

He had also served in the British army and had lobbied hard to be a part of, you know, not just the Virginia militia, but to be considered an actual British soldier. So for those reasons,  You know, he, he should be a loyalist you would think, but he actually goes along with the revolution.  he hesitates to make up his mind at first, but there is another local farmer who he's friends with named George Mason. And he has these conversations with George Mason and that does a lot to persuade him to the revolutionary side. And so one of the first things he does that shows his pro independence turn is that he and George Mason together.

Draw up a proposal for a sort of boycott of British goods as some of this stuff is happening

and they propose it to the Virginia legislature and it is adopted. It doesn't really work out. It wasn't super well designed. Boycotts are always hard to carry out. Um,  it shows signs that he's thinking about this stuff and he's willing to put his name toward the cause of independence.

 Things really start to heat up.  It was really Massachusetts that kind of dragged the rest of the colonies into this revolution.  It was New England in general, but especially Massachusetts was the center of revolutionary foment.

And so there start to be serious conflicts between Massachusetts and New England. And British soldiers, and this really starts to heat up. So they call together a continental Congress. So they asked for representatives from every colony to form this little Congress to talk about, okay, what are we going to do?

How are we going to respond to British aggression? What are our demands? You know, how are we going to navigate this diplomatic crisis? At first, this Congress is not called together  specifically for declaring independence. But they just want to figure out what to do.  And, uh, as they get together, things. Go even further downhill in Massachusetts.

And now you have a actual,

as they meet in this continental Congress, things continue to go downhill in Massachusetts. And now for the first time, you're starting to have actual battles between British forces and kind of locally organized militias.

And so everyone can kind of see, uh, we need some sort of force. Remember there is no declaration of independence yet. This is actually more than a year off.  They realize

They would prefer still a negotiated settlement.  Most people in the Continental Congress would still prefer a negotiated settlement if they can come to one. But in the meantime, they need to prepare for independence. And then as the situation deteriorates, they realize, Okay.

Actually,  it's more than likely that we're going to have to fight that we're going to have to declare independence. And so. These forces are going to be really important.  Washington is elected to the continental Congress is a member there and does not want to be commander in chief of these forces. He says, no desire or insinuation of mine.

So Chernow writes, no desire or insinuation of mind.  So Chernow writes, no desire or insinuation of mine. Washington was to write, drew the command his way. Indeed, he seems actively to have tried to avoid the command, inducing his friend and fellow Virginia delegate, Isaac Pemberton to argue publicly for another candidate.

Despite the fact that Washington is actively lobbying not to be the commander in chief of continental troops, he is in fact elected commander in chief.

He's elected because he's the only one.  A, with the experience, B, who's from Virginia, again, New England was the ones that really want to be independent. And so they have to offer some concessions to the Southerners if they want them to come along. And so one of those things is, hey, let's let a Southerner lead this army.

And also Washington,  you know, the fact that he didn't want it and he had this impartiality made him really attractive. To a lot of people, you know, there's actually another consideration, which was the wealthiest people in the colonies did not want independence and we're not on board with this movement.

And that actually disturbed a lot of members of the continental Congress. They wanted this to be, you know, not a rabble rousing, you know, low class revolution. They wanted this to be something that United all Americans. And so there was really concern that  the wealthiest Americans were not on board with this revolution.

Now, George Washington was very wealthy and somehow his wealth got kind of exaggerated at the Continental Congress. There were rumors flying that he was the wealthiest man in Virginia. That was not true, but he was very wealthy. And so they thought also they love, and so they love George Washington for that reason too.

That he was a sign that, look, we're We can get some of these very wealthiest people in America to support the revolution as well. And so, you know, there's just a mix of factors. People loved George Washington, and so it starts to become clear he's the guy. And so on the actual day, here's what happens.

Quote, Washington, who knew what was likely to take place, stayed away. Probably he sat alone in his lodgings. His name, so Adams believed, was put in nomination by Thomas Johnson of Maryland. The official minute reads, Resolved that a general to be appointed The official minutes read, Resolved that a general be appointed to command all the continental forces raised or to be raised for the defense of American liberty.

That 500 a month be allowed for his pay and expenses, the Congress then proceeded to the choice of a general by ballot, when George Washington Esquire was unanimously selected. In all history,  In all history, no general had ever been more strangely and momentously commissioned. Far from stepping to the head of a constituted force, the commander in chief was the only man, no rifleman having yet been enlisted, actually to be enrolled in the Continental Army.

Not by any direct vote or broad decision had Congress brought the 13 colonies into the war then, being waged. Not by any direct vote or broad decision had Congress brought the 13 colonies into the war then, being waged in New England. But by the act of elevating Washington, there was no nation to fight for.

The Declaration of Independence lay more than a year in the future. There was, except for intangibles, grievances and resented atrocities, Only Washington.  I think that is an amazing fact.  Just imagine that  there was no army, there was no nation, there was no constitution, there was no declaration of independence,  there was nothing.

There was only George Washington  and an army to come. And  so for a  📍 time, George Washington stood alone against the greatest empire on the earth.

Chernow writes of,   Chernow writes of this moment, George Washington was already becoming more than a mere man. He was the face and form of an amorphous cause. As Gary Willis has noted, Before there was a nation, before there was any symbol of that nation, a flag, a constitution, a national seal, there was Washington.

Washington is somewhat horrified. That he has been elected to this position.

He's not sure that he can do it. He's not sure what the future will.  He's not sure that he can do it. He's not sure what the future will bring.

He wrote to a friend Burwell Bassett. I can answer for about three things.

He wrote to a friend Burwell Bassett. I can answer for about three things, a firm belief in the justice of our cause, close attention in the prosecution of it and the strictest integrity.  the place of ability and experience, the cause will suffer, and more than probable, my character along with it.

I am now embarked on a tempestuous I am now embarked on a tempestuous ocean from whence perhaps no friendly harbor is to be found.  He would turn out to be right about that.   So, tune in next time to hear about the coming storm, the revolution, and George Washington's presidency after, spoiler alert, America wins.

But before we go, a few takeaways. Uh, just a few reminders of things that we talked about.  Number one, be a serious person. Take yourself seriously. Believe in something. Don't mask everything with irony. Have the courage to be sincere.  Number two, decisiveness and speed. Those are hallmarks of Washington's approach.

Number three, you have to understand the broader context of what you are involved in. That comes from some of Washington's mistakes. Early on when he did not so don't let make the same mistakes as Washington

and try to understand more than just your part Of what you're involved in

Number four be careful with your words and what you speak on

that was one of Washington's secrets all of his words carried a huge weight of Significance and that is and that really increases your impact when you can do that

next have physical presence You know,  I am NOT a physical specimen like George Washington  Next point for me, next point I wrote down, have physical presence. I am not a physical specimen like George Washington was. Few of us are, but you can still work on it, right? You can  work out, you can improve your fitness, you can improve your looks.

Uh, you can do the physical, you can dress extremely well as George Washington did. You can do whatever it is. You can do whatever you can to improve and increase your physical presence.  Uh, next point. Take inspiration from the greats. If you want to be like George Washington, keep listening to How to Take Over the World.

He took inspiration from Julius Caesar from Napole He took inspiration from Caesar from Alexander the Great. And from some of those greats who were nearer to his own time and place.  Next, make the right connections by being reliable and friendly.  And that's all I got for you until next time.  And that's all I got for you.

I'll see you on part two until next time. Thank you for  📍 listening to how to take over the world.

Hey, if you like this podcast and you would like to create a podcast like this, I've got a company that does just that. It's called pod ramp. We do podcast production on top notch shows that break through the noise. There are so many bad podcasts that are out there. And we think that if a podcast is worth doing.

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‍

Hello and welcome to how to take over the world. This is Ben Wilson. Welcome to part two. On the life of George Washington, the American president, the American general statesman, and the first president of the United States of America. So far in part one, this is an interesting story about a guy who has achieved some success, but he is far away from being one of the most famous men of all time. In this episode, we are going to explore the revolutionary war, his leadership there, why it was so vital and how he was able to so successfully.

In this episode, we're going to explore the revolutionary war. So that's when the United States declares independence from great Britain, his leadership in that war, why it was so vital and how he was able to be so successful, despite being a pretty mediocre battlefield general.  One of the things that I think is so powerful is when you identify great, really successful people who were bad at certain things.

And not just anything, but things that were core to what they were trying to do. So for example, Demosthenes is known as one of the greatest speakers of all time. He, he lived in ancient Greece and he had a horrible speech impediment. Okay. So here you have someone who was the greatest speech giver of all time, who was physically bad at speaking.

And so that means that there is something incredibly valuable that you can learn from Demosthenes because you learn what is actually valuable in the pursuit of something and what is not. So if I'm giving you a sports analogy to this, LeBron James, he's a little bit older now, but let's wind back the clock 10 years, 2014 and LeBron James is the strongest player in the NBA.

He's one of the fastest players in the NBA. He's also one of the best passers, one of the best rebounders, one of the best on ball defenders.  One of the smartest players in the NBA. And so it's incredibly difficult to know what to focus on, what to learn from his career, because he's so good at everything.

It's hard to differentiate because he's so good at everything. It's hard to differentiate what matters the most from what is dispensable.

Tim Ferriss, the famous author and podcaster has a good phrase for this. He says, you generally. When you're talking to coaches, you don't want to talk to the most successful coaches in any given field. You can't learn as much from them because they usually get the best athletes. And so oftentimes, they never learn to actually be an extraordinary coach.

They never learn to develop talent in an extraordinary way. Because they're doing what Tim calls babysitting mutants. Okay. They aren't developing talent. They are just getting the most successful people, mutants, like people who are so genetically predisposed to be great at a sport. They just have to babysit them.

They just have to make sure they're okay. They get them to play for them, the best coach. And I think that's a really interesting point.

He likes to talk to the second most successful coaches because they get athletes who are very gifted, but who they actually have to develop. And so they learn to develop skills and they're actually good at coaching.

So all that is to say, I think you can learn a lot from people who are very successful, but who have a very obvious fatal flaw. And that is very true of George Washington. He's one of the greatest generals of all time, despite being pretty bad. On the battlefield, or at least not excellent. He's like the Mastinese.

How do you become a great speaker despite literally being bad at speaking? How do you become a great general despite not being very good at commanding troops?  So that is what we're going to find out on this episode.

It's one of my favorite episodes I've ever done. I think you'll like it. My sources are George Washington in the Revolutionary War by James Thomas Flexner and Washington a Life by Ron Chernow. Special thanks to Camille Doom for her research assistance. Forgot to give her a shout out last episode. So with all that said, let's get into it.

This is George Washington part two, Revolutionary General. 📍

Before we get into it, if you,  before we get into it, if you love this podcast, if you love learning from it, then there's more to learn. And that is by subscribing to the premium version of this podcast. Then you'll get all of my end notes episodes and all of my guides to how to take over the world and I think this is the most,  and look, if you want to be great, I think this is the most valuable education that you can receive.

Uh, every single great achiever has been obsessed with those who came before. Uh, it's really interesting to read about. Thomas Edison was obsessed with Michael Faraday. Napoleon was obsessed with Julius Caesar. Steve Jobs was obsessed with Edwin Land. Like everyone that is their main education is by copying the lives of the great achievers who came before them.

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 Okay. So we left last episode and George Washington has been appointed the commander in chief of American forces without any real forces. Now, what you do have is you already have some militiamen. In New England, New England is the Northern part of the United States. And these militiamen are fighting the British around Boston.

So he's put in command of these forces and then some other militias are raised from the other colonies as well to support. Now, one of the first things he does is interesting. You know, he's one of those people who argued for a boycott of British goods, but that doesn't mean a total end. Commercial relations with Britain.

Listen to what Churnow writes. He says remarkably in this fierce letter He argued that the colonists should refrain from purchasing British imports But not renege on paying debts owed to British creditors for I think whilst we are accusing others of injustice We should be just ourselves. He said It was this steadfast sense of fairness, even at the most feverish political moments, that set George Washington apart.

Alright, I think that's really interesting. George Washington really wants to do things the right way. And it reminds me a lot of Julius Caesar. If you go back and listen to, uh, The Caesar Guide to Taking Over the World, it's a recent episode, I talk a lot about Caesar's clemency. So he's involved in the civil war, much like George Washington.

And he has this policy of forgiving people, of not executing them, not taking their stuff. Uh, he says, I'm the rightful ruler and I'm just trying to set everything right. So there's going to be no retribution. I'm going to be very clement, very forgiving, and we're all going to go on our merry way with me as the leader.

He wants to do things like George Washington, the right way. He's sort of the law and order, peace and stability candidate from the beginning. And that makes his job more difficult. In the short term,  but it makes him a more attractive option in the long run.

And his contemporary Cicero has this quote that I love. He says Caesar's treacherous  and his contemporary Cicero, who was opposed to him in the civil war, has this great quote that I love. He says, Caesar's treacherous clemency, enchants them. Okay. And by doing things the right way, it really does have this enchanting effect.

Uh, it pulls people into your orbit because they see you as more than a partisan in a conflict, but as someone who is kind of above it all. Yeah. As someone who sees beyond the conflict

and that was George. He was always trying to take the high road. Here's another example. Great story. Here's, here's another quote. It says, if any officer or soldier shall presume to strike, imprison, or otherwise ill treat any of the inhabitants,  And that was George. He was always trying to take the high road. Uh, there's another example of how he does this. A lot of people want to, there's another example of when he does this, a lot of people want to just take the stuff of the loyalists, the Tories, the people who wanted to remain loyal to the crown.

You know, there's a lot of revolutionaries who are like, well, these people aren't on our side. Let's take their stuff. And here's what Washington says. If any officer or so,  If any officer or soldier shall presume to strike, imprison, or otherwise ill treat any of the inhabitants, they may depend on being punished with the utmost severity, he announced.

In a beautiful symbolic act, he returned a horse given to him after learning that he had been That it had been swiped from a departed Tory who had been an avowed enemy to the American cause. actions, , Washington shaped the tone and character of the American army. Okay, so as you can imagine, he's losing out on cheap victories.

There's a lot of stuff to be taken. And  okay.  okay. So as you can imagine, he's losing out on a lot of cheap victories this way, but there are a lot of long term benefits to doing things the right way. You develop trust, you excite the imagination. People want to be a part of what you're doing. In fact, he goes so far.

Um, later there's a statue of King George. And people behead it and they melt it down and they use the metal from the statue, it's in New York, to create musket balls for the Continental Army. And Washington, instead of saying, hey, thank you for the ammunition, is very disturbed by this and condemns it. So just imagine that.

It's a purely symbolic object, it's doing nothing, that demonstrates support for the enemy. And it is destroyed in order to create much needed Resources for your army and Washington vehemently opposes this because it was so important for him to do things the right way. So that is one of my big takeaways from Washington.

It is worth it to do things the right way from the very beginning, even when it might be convenient and you might score cheap victories by, by doing things the easy way.

So he's trying to do things the right way. If you remember from last episode, He's actually initially open to peace and a lot of people in the colonies are open to peace They're thinking this is kind of a conflict to show that we're serious Hopefully to convince the king to give us some of the rights that we're asking for and hopefully this can all be negotiated But in late 1775 and early 1776 three things happen that change that the first is in southern Virginia the British attack and And torch completely destroy the city of Norfolk.

And this really outraged people.  The second thing is that in early 1776, King George gives a speech stating his absolute contempt for the American cause that it must be crushed. So then the Americans had been holding out the hope that this whole conflict was caused by parliament. By an overactive parliament, but Hey, the King, when he realizes what's going on, he's going to side with us and this will all get sorted out.

And King George comes out and says, that is not the case. I'm with parliament. So that's strike two. And then the third thing is that Thomas Paine writes a very persuasive pamphlet called common sense, and it is very effective at persuading people that independence is necessary. So these three things happen in quick succession.

And so by early 1776, Most people in the American colonies believe in independence and support the cause of separating from Great Britain.

And this starts everyone down the path that would lead to the Declaration of Independence in July of 1776.

One thing that George Washington is also very proud of,

One thing George Washington is also very passionate about is intelligence. He has this thirst for learning more. He's a great spy master. He is immediately cultivating spies wherever he can to spy on the British troops who are initially in Boston. And of course he needs to keep secrets. He's trying to keep as much information as he can from the British.

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  📍  📍  Okay.  So Washington takes command of the troops, uh, in and around Boston in late.  Okay. So George Washington takes command of the troops in and around Boston in 1775. And initially some of these troops don't like him.  Uh, the American identity had not really been developed yet. And so these new Englanders consider themselves.

Somewhat different from Southerners from people like George Washington who's from Virginia, which is a southern colony And so they give him a little bit of a hard time So he really has to ingratiate himself to the men and get them to buy into his leadership So he does this in a few ways. One is a theme I'll return to from the first episode which is physicality It helps to be jacked.

This is something I'll return to again and again because it really helps George Washington, you don't have to be physically impressive to be great, but it helps is definitely one path to get there. You know, Arnold Schwarzenegger talks about this. He has this great quote. He says, uh, once he starts weightlifting and getting really big, he said, before long people began looking at me as a special person.

I was growing, getting bigger, gaining confidence. I was given consideration I had never received before. It was as though I was the son of a millionaire. I'd walk into a room at school and my classmates would offer me food. Or ask if they could help me with my homework. Even my teachers treated me differently.

Okay, so people are treating him differently. And you hear this all the time with George Washington. So, uh, one contemporary writes, people were transfixed by Washington's lean, virile presence. Okay, I love that. People are just transfixed by the way he looks.

Here's another quote, um, This one's from Chernow. Washington had the inestimable  Washington had the inestimable advantage of looking the part of a military leader. As Benjamin Rush stated, he had so much martial dignity in his deportment that you would distinguish him to be a general and a soldier from among 10, 000 people.

There is not a king in Europe that would not look like a valet de chambre by his side. And his com  Okay, and as Benjamin Rush is hinting at, it's not just how he looks, it's how he acts. So again, sure now. Henry Knox stood in awe of Washington's panache. George Washington fills his place with vast ease and dignity and dispenses happiness around him.

An enthusiastic friend reported to John Adams that Washington has in a manner inspired officers and soldiers to with a taste for discipline and they go into it readily as they all venerate and love the general.  Okay, so it is both the way he looks, this massive, strong, impressive man, and the way he acts, this upright, dignified, proper, polite, friendly, serious man.

One story I like that demonstrates this, the kind of the physicality of greatness, is all these continental forces are coming together  in Massachusetts, around Boston, and they're interacting. For the first time and many of them have not met people from some of these far flung colonies and there are a lot of cultural differences and there's kind of cultural whiplash.

And uh, so in one incident, a huge brawl breaks out. People are fighting from different states, from different colonies,  And  And here's how Chernow describes it, quote, A fierce struggle commenced with southern s

A fierce Here's how Chernow, uh, describes what happened. A fierce struggle commenced with biting and gouging on the one part, and knockdown on the other part with as much apparent fury as the most deadly enemy could create. Reinforced by their friends in less than five minutes, More than a thousand combatants were on the field, struggling for the mastery.

Okay. More than a thousand soldiers in the same army are all punching, gouging, kicking, fighting each other  at this juncture, general Washington made his appearance, whether by accident or design. I never knew. I only saw him and his colored servant, Billy Lee, both mounted with the spring of a deer, he leaped from his saddle through the reins of his bridle into the hands of his servant and rushed into the thickest of the melee and rushed into the thickest of the melee and with an iron grip seized to and held them fast.

Okay, so he comes in and he physically breaks up a fight of more than a thousand men by going right into the fray and At first he just grabs two men and pulls them apart and he keeps doing this just physically separating the two sides Until everyone calms down and separates so you can see that like with his physical present So you can see that with his physical presence.

He is unifying this army

One of the other things he does, uh, I think maybe it goes back to the idea of doing things the right way is, um, you know, he believes in discipline. He also believes in hygiene. Uh, he wants everyone looking clean, acting clean. So one of the,  so one of the most important decisions he makes of the entire war is one that he makes early in the war.

Uh, here's the quote by January, 1777, he ordered Dr. William Shippen to inoculate every soldier who had never had smallpox.  Authorizes, but seems to require the measure, he wrote, for should the disorder infect the army in the natural way and rage with its usual virulence, We should have more to dread from it than the sword of the enemy.

This enlightened decision was as important as any military measure Washington adopted during the war.  So he's getting his army in order, both in terms of their discipline and in terms of their hygiene and in terms of their unity, let's get into the action and see what happens.

So the first thing that Washington does.   Okay. So let's get into the action and see what he actually does. The first thing that he does, I mentioned his thirst for intelligence. The first thing he does is lie through his teeth because he comes into command and he is told that he has 308 barrels of gunpowder, which is comforting to him.

That's exactly where they should be at. So he goes and he inspects and he finds that this is completely wrong. They actually have 36,  barrels of gunpowder.  And this is like catastrophic the British don't know it. They don't know there's this low on gunpowder  But if they did know it they could just attack the americans And wipe them out immediately.

Um, they just, they don't have the resources to defend themselves, let alone attack the British. And so he lies to everyone. He lies to his enemies. He lies.  He lies to his enemies. He even lies to his friends. This is so dire that if word gets out to the British, the war's over before it begins. So he writes back to continental Congress and says, um, yep.

Everything good here. We have tons of gunpowder. He's afraid that if he writes to Congress, you know, this is a body Of dozens, I think it's maybe a couple hundred men and someone is going to let slip that they're in desperate need of gunpowder. So he can't just write to the continental con so he can't just write to continental Congress and say, send me more gunpowder.

That's going to lead to disaster. So he lies to them and he's lying to the British. He actually lies to his own troops. He says, uh, we have so much gunpowder. I'm embarrassed. I'm embarrassed by the amount of gunpowder we have, but he says, I am regardless instituting, uh, a rule against target practice and the, and unnecessary firing of muskets, uh, just cause it's, it's good practice, right?

So he's trying to limit the amount of gunpowder they're using, um, while not giving away the reason that he doesn't want to waste any gunpowder in the meantime, he starts sending around to other forts that Americans own saying, Hey, do you guys have gunpowder doing whatever he can in a secretive.  Doing whatever he can in a clandestine way to get more gunpowder.

So the crisis passes in about two weeks, he's able to, uh, get all the gunpowder he, he needs, and this is all alleviated when one of his subordinates, um, a guy named Knox, when one of his subordinates, a Lieutenant named Henry Knox, manages this amazing feat of transporting 120, 000 pounds of cannons, mortars, and  from a fort in upstate New York where it wasn't needed and he brings it down to Boston, which lays the groundwork for an offensive attack.

Now they have enough resources, they have enough cannons, gunpowder, to think about actually attacking the British and getting them out of Boston.

So there's a hill, uh, south of Boston, it's called the Dorchester Heights, and it looms over Boston from the south, and if it was fortified, It would be a very commanding, it would be a very commanding position. The problem is the British absolutely hammer them with cannons anytime they try and take and fortify the Dorchester Heights.

But on the night of March 4th, they fortify the Hill. Henry Knox bombards the British with cannons the entire time to keep them occupied so they don't see what's going on.  And then another brilliant thing that George Washington does is he has them prefabricate the fortifications. So they build these kind of  modular walls.

Down below the hill. And then in the middle of the night, they just bring up the hills and kind of push them into the ground. So they don't have to do all this construction that takes time on top of the hill. Uh, they also get lucky with, um, weather. So it's foggy down in the city. So the British can't see what's happening, but it's a clear moonlit night above the fog so that the Americans have a clear view with which to build their fort on the Dorchester Heights  

so the British wake up on the morning of March 5th, 1776, and they see an impregnable fort in a perfect position firing down on them. So this is untenable for them. And within a couple of weeks they pack up. And by March 17th, the British flee from Boston.  It's a huge feather in the cap of George Washington.

He has scored the first real victory of the revolutionary war. He has scored the first real victory of the revolutionary war. It is in many ways symbolic. They had secured Boston, but they hadn't really done any damage to the British army. Nevertheless, Boston was an important city and it was important to secure it for the American cause.  Now the British are at sea.

Uh, they don't have any beachhead, any major presence in the colonies. And so the next target becomes pretty clear. And that is going to be New York. New York is America's second biggest city, after its capital, Philadelphia. It is also a hotbed of Tories, of Loyalists, people who want to stay with the British Crown.

And, it has all of these deep water ports, and so it lends itself to naval action. You know, the British have Pretty good army, especially compared to the colonies,  but they have the world's greatest Navy by far. They have this amazing Navy. And so New York is a perfect place to use it because you have not only  the ocean, the sea, but you have all these rivers and little bays.

You can basically attack any part of the city from the sea. And so it makes it a perfect place for them to come and land and establish a beachhead. And so, with the consent,  and so with the advice and consent of the Continental Congress, foolishly George Washington decides to try to defend New York City.

There was a thought, and actually George Washington favored, There was a thought, and actually George Washington favored the course, Of saying, look, there's no way that we can defend New York from this Navy, but,  uh, he wasn't really determined in this path. And so he let himself be convinced and Congress really believed that the psychological effect of giving up America's second biggest city undefended would be too great on the American public.

It looked like throwing in the towel. So they say, Hey, we have to try and defend New York. And so they try and it is a complete disaster. From beginning to end.

And it starts right when the British arrive.

They had had a presence in the colonies. They had sent some troops to Boston, which they were trying to hold Boston with those troops.  In July, the Americans declare independence. And so the British say, okay, we're doing this for real. So they send half their Navy. They have this global Navy that is supposed to be in Europe and in India and in Africa.

Well, they take half of it and they send it all to the British. to New York, along with 30,  along with 32, 000 troops. Um, and so you read the accounts, uh, well, let me just read some of the accounts of the Americans seeing this happening. Here's what they say. And so the Americans are just overawed. By this, um,  um, here is what one American soldier named Daniel McCurtain,  he sees this happening. And here's what he writes. I could not believe my eyes, keeping my eyes fixed at the very spot. Judge you of my surprise. When in about 10 minutes, the whole bay was full of shipping.

I declare, I thought all London was afloat.  Now, keep in mind.  Now, keep in mind the largest city.  In the American colonies on the North American continent is Philadelphia with about 40, 000 residents. This British naval fleet has more people in it than that.  Like, so  like that is the peak of American experience in terms of  dense population.

And now they're seeing more than that. And it's all in a Navy coming to destroy them. And so you have American soldiers who are supposed to be preparing for an attack. And they're just doing nothing. Like they're just looking at this overwhelming force coming to attack them and, uh, they're, they're frozen with fear and with awe at the spectacle of this amazing Navy and army coming to destroy them.

As I said, things go wrong immediately. Uh, Americans don't man their posts. The British Admiral in charge, Lord Richard Howe was an extremely capable commander and at every turn he bests Washington's defenses. First he lands on Long Island and embarrassingly defeats the American forces there. In fact, 8, 000 American forces are nearly captured and Washington has to lead a daring nighttime escape to keep them from being captured.

The men start to panic at the end of this escape and start cramming on board the last transport boats, which starts to sink them. There's too many men on the boats and Washington picks up a massive rock and threatens to sink the boats himself if soldiers don't disembark. And then he says, look, calm down.

I promise you, I will be the last one to leave. So if anyone gets captured, it's going to be me. And so this calms men down, some of them get off the boats and there's a more orderly, uh,  and there's a more orderly retreat after that. And true to his word, he boards the last boat out of Brooklyn, and he can hear the British firing at them through the thick fog as they depart.

And this move basically saves the revolution. If that many thousands of soldiers had been captured that early in the war, it was basically a quarter, I think more than a quarter of the forces they had raised. And so, you know, if they were all gone, it's game over.

So just getting them out alive is a sort of mini victory. So he gets them out of Brooklyn and over to Manhattan. They are then defeated in Manhattan. They go up, uh, they are defeated at a couple of different forts. One of them named Fort Washington, complete catastrophe at Fort Washington. There. Uh, about 3, 000 soldiers are taken prisoner and hundreds are killed, along with much needed supplies.

Uh, after that, the British keep marching, and then north of Manhattan, they are defeated again, at a place called White Plains.

And at this point, and basically the whole time, American morale is breaking. None of these people are trained soldiers, almost, you have a very few veterans from the French and Indian War. Very, very few. Most of these people are completely green, have never been in combat before. And they are facing hardened, trained, professional British soldiers.

And so they're just melting anytime they face British.  And so they're just melting anytime they face, uh, a determined British attack. And George Washington cannot believe the cowardice that his men are displaying. And so at White Plains, he has like a breakdown. Here's the quote, fuming. He flung his hat to the ground and shouted, are these the men with which I am to defend America?

Yeah. According to another account, he swore, Good God, have I got such troops as these? This display of Washington's wrath still could not stem the panic. As he told Hancock, I used every means in my power to rally and get them into some order, but my attempts were fruitless and ineffectual.

Another officer says this, Colonel George Whedon says that Washington grew so distraught that he struck several officers in their flight. It is extraordinary to think of Washington flogging officers amid It is extraordinary to think of Washington flogging officers amid a battle, a measure of his impotent frustration and shattered nerves.

It eventually gets even worse. George Washington, General Green George Washington, General Green wrote, was so vexed at the infamous conduct of his troops that he sought death rather than life.

And what he's referring to here is at a certain point, he's whipping all these people. He's smacking them with the broad side of a sword, uh, yelling at men to, to stay and fight. And soon everyone just keeps fleeing. And so he just stops in the middle of the road and he says, well, I'm not retreating. And he stands there as the British march closer and closer to him.

Eventually his aides come up and grab his horse and like tear him away from the battle. Um, rather than letting him die, essentially a suicidal death.  This is the end of what is. A very ignominious defeat, uh, all these battles in New York. Here's what Chernow writes. He says,

it was a defeat without redeeming features, a disastrous campaign in which Washington's army had suffered one humiliating, costly reverse after another. The outcome could only have deepened Washington's nightmarish sense of helplessness. Just as he fretted about expiring enlistments, he had losses of almost 3, 000 men killed or captured.

At the same time, a huge cache of valuable muskets and cannon had fallen into British hands.  The only redeeming feature is First you have this The only redeeming Thing that happens throughout any of this is first that escape from Brooklyn that I talked about. And then there is another kind of miraculous escape over the Delaware river to get his troops to safety

in this final escape to save, you know, some part of the continental army.  They need cover fire from the British.  There is one

and there's one artillery detachment that stands very bravely and fires very accurately, just serves incredibly capably and provides this very necessary cover fire so that some men can be rescued. And Washington takes note of the officer in charge of this Um, artillery battery and his name is Alexander Hamilton.

And so he says, okay, I got to remember that name. This, this guy seems very capable.

Once they set up camp, uh, in Pennsylvania, kind of away from the action gets his men removed from danger. Uh, true. Now writes

dismayed by his officer's behavior, Washington scouted for new talent and was impressed by the proficiency of a young artillery captain named Alexander Hamilton. As the latter superintended earthworks,  as the latter, as the latter superintended earthworks construction, Washington entered into conversation with him, invited him to his tent and received an impression of his military talent.

So thus began one of the most important relationships of Hamilton's life. So that's began one of the most important relationships of George Washington's life. I won't say too much about Hamilton on this episode, cause I'm going to do an episode about Hamilton. Um, but I think people misunderstand Hamilton.

I'm glad for the play because it puts him on people's radar.  He was maybe really vital  that he was really vital to the American founding. Um,  Hamilton was probably the greatest mind of the American revolution.  That's what I think even more so than Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, um, even Washington.  Hamilton had the most greatness inside of him.

If America had had a Napoleon, it would have been Hamilton. We'll get more to that story. , but look out for the Hamilton episode. That's going to be what I do after George Washington.

I think his greatness is underestimated, uh, by most people and is not helped, frankly, by the play Hamilton. Like I'm glad it puts people on his radar. I'm glad it puts him on people's radar, but I think most people think of him as like  scrappy and inspirational.  When he was, was  like brilliant and egotistical and arrogant,  but so, so capable, like true, a true genius, a true genius and truly great, uh, in a way that, that you rarely, rarely see.

So, um, I mean, I guess that's one good thing you can say is that Washington is starting to form a core. Of capable officers beneath him. He was, you know, seeing some men who were really incapable and others who could distinguish themselves a little bit, even in the midst of this disaster. But still things are really bad after the invasion of New York.

And the problem is that problems, we get problems, everything compounds. So you lose all these battles. And now it becomes difficult to issue currency. No one wants to take your American dollars because they're like, well, it looks like you guys are about to lose to the British anyway, and this is just going to be valueless paper in a couple of months.

So you can't issue currency. Therefore you can't raise money. And because you don't have money, you can't raise more troops because you can't pay them. And therefore you have fewer men with which to fight battles. And so it's a vicious cycle, right? It all compounds.  And so Washington knows that he needs to find a way to change this narrative and change it fast.

So that's going to be his next mission.

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episode. Okay.   📍  Okay. So Washington badly needs to restore hope in the American cause. As Napoleon said, more wars are lost by loss of hope.  And,

and so Washington wants to counter attack. The problem that he's facing is that, um, all these enlistments, all these men who signed up for military service in the Continental Army,  their enlistments are going to end. At the end of the year. And it's now December. So he's got a month to attack with badly demoralized men who just want to go home and get away from all this horrible, you want to get away from this horrible demoralizing war that they've been a part of so far.

Luckily, the mood of the army is somewhat stabilized by another pamphlet from Thomas Paine. He writes one of the most famous passages of all time. He says, these are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and sunshine patriot will in the crisis shrink from the service of their country. But he that stands at now deserves the love and thanks of every man and woman.

And so this stabilizes the mood a little bit, but still a military victory is needed to change the narrative. And so Washington plans this daring raid on British positions in New Jersey.  And again, it's going to happen before the enlistments expire at the end of the year. And so the attack is scheduled for Christmas day, December 25th.

The odds are badly against them. It's a pretty desperate mission. They have to get a victory somehow, though, the revolution is crumbling around them. And so the actual password that they use in this secret operation in its planning is victory or death.  That is how dire this is victory or death. This thing has to work.

The morning comes and there are three separate detachments that are all supposed to attack in concert. You know, they have their, their times when they're supposed to land and the weather is so bad. It's so cold and freezing.  The two other detachments figure. There's no way this thing is going ahead, and they call off the attack.

But George Washington proceeds with his forces.  They have to cross the Delaware River in order to attack the British positions.

And the Delaware River is partially frozen and has ice flows floating down it, which are very dangerous and could easily capsize their boats. But Washington says, hey, it's victory or death. We got one shot, we're taking it. And so he grows, And so he goes, and crossing the Delaware is one of the most famous moments of the Revolutionary War.

And it led to one of the most famous paintings of the Revolutionary War.

You can go look up George Washington crossing of You can go look up George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River.

You can go look up Washington crossing the Delaware. If you're American, you have definitely seen it. Even if you're not, you may have seen it. It's an extremely famous painting.

They do manage to cross the river, despite ice flows. Without casualties. Uh, however it is so cold that on the March four to five men just lay down on the side of the road and die from cold exposure.

The upside of this horrible weather is that when they make it to Trenton, the city they were attacking, the German forces there, they were mercenaries for the British, were so convinced that it was so cold. No one would ever attack on a day like today that they're completely unprepared for the American attack.

And so it's this lightning surprise attack and it is a huge victory, hundreds of casualties, and the Americans only lose.  So they actually lost more people to the weather than they did in the actual fighting.  The traditional story that you hear sometimes is that because it was Christmas, the Germans were drunk and, uh, weren't prepared for the attack.

That's actually not true. If you look at the sources, it's just that they weren't prepared because the weather was so cold. And Washington decided to attack anyway. Uh, not knowing that two thirds of his forces wouldn't be there with him. Anyways, it's a huge success. They not only capture all of these forces, but they capture a ton of much needed supplies.

You know, muskets, cannons, ammunition, as well as blankets and clothing. And then, um, and they hold the position for a few days. And then when the British come to attack,  rather than just retreating, because they couldn't hold the position, uh, from, from the whole British army, they  But they retreat to,  they retreat, but they don't just retreat to the safety of their own positions.

They actually go and attack another city, Princeton, New Jersey. And that's another success during this attack on Princeton. You have one of my favorite stories from the war. There is an advanced party that is kind of scouting ahead and they stumble into the British. They're surprised some of them get shot.

And so these Americans take off running and they run into the main force of the army commanded personally by George Washington, just as this main force is about to engage with the main force of the British troops.  And George Washington sees all these men running, and he says, 'Parade with us, my brave fellows!

he exclaimed, waving his hat. 'There is but a handful of the enemy, and we will have them directly! According to his aide de camp, Colonel John Fitzgerald, Washington rallied the men with an act of unbelievable bravery. He reined in his horse, faced the enemy directly, and simply froze. Yet again, the intrepid Washington acted as if he were protected by an invisible aura.

' I shall never forget what I felt when I saw him brave all the danger The End 'I shall never forget what I felt when I saw him brave all the dangers of the field and his important life hanging, as if it were, by a single hair, with a thousand deaths flying around him, wrote a young Philadelphia officer.

Believe me, I thought not of myself.  So he calls out to these men and he performs this unbelievable act of bravery, just standing there exposed to enemy fire,  musket balls are flying all around him. Somehow he doesn't get hit and doesn't die.

And that stems the retreat of this advanced party that had been running away. Another great quote comes from one of his secretaries. Um, Another great quote comes from one of his secretaries. He says, As he issued the command to fire, Washington, on his white charger, was such a conspicuous target that Fitzgerald clapped his hat over his eyes because he couldn't bear to see him shot.

When the fusillade of bullets ended and the enemy scattered, Fitzgerald finally peeked and saw Washington untouched, sitting proudly atop his horse, wreathed by eddying smoke. Thank God your excellency is safe, Fitzgerald said to him, almost weeping with relief. Washington, unphased, took his hand fondly.

Away, my dear colonel. And bring up the troops. The day is our own.  Okay. So I think that's a story  that gives you an idea of why these people would so willingly go die for him, even though he had lost a few battles in New York.  Like, uh, it is amazing what that personal touch can do to inspire people, even when things are not going your way.

That personal bravery, that skin in the game, um, exposing yourself to the same sorts of dangers as your men goes a long way.

So, this attack, this victory at Trenton and Princeton, really changes the calculus of the war. The British had been thinking, We might have this thing wrapped up in a couple months. Um, you know, it's not just the actual military victories. It's the public perception, which is totally going the opposite way.

And now this is enough to stabilize the American public and say, no, we can counterpunch, we can stand with these guys, we can fight with them. And so henceforth, the British are actually going to have to conquer the Americans. They're going to have to win a war. They're not going to just be able to overwhelm and impress them and convince them to come to terms.

These victories at Trenton and Princeton are what vault Washington into an even greater tier of celebrity. Uh, there's one newspaper, the Pennsylvania, there's one newspaper, the Pennsylvania Journal, which writes, had he lived in the days of idolatry, Washington would have been worshipped as a god. And I think that's a pretty good summary of how far his star had risen.

Uh, one thing I want to pull out of this that's interesting to me.  Is, you have this pattern with Washington, which is,  he kind of bungles some things. You have this pattern with Washington, which is, um, things do not go his way until his back is against the wall, and then he pulls an amazing victory, uh, out of his hat.

So there, there's a quote from one of his colonels who said, his excellency George Washington never appeared to so much advantage as in the hour of distress. Which is true, you see it again and again.

His Excellency George Washington never appeared so much  His Excellency George Washington never appeared to so much advantage as in the hour of distress.

And so, you know, that's a really interesting point. But part of me wonders, okay, what can you learn from this? Because you're not going to intentionally put your back against the wall.

You're not going to intentionally lose everything just so that you can You're not going to intentionally lose everything just to improve your performance. Like that doesn't make sense. Right. Um, but I think what you can do  is, uh, is get what I call nothing to lose energy.  Like just get into that mindset where you feel like you have nothing to lose.

Even if you do, I think that's a powerful framework to evaluate decisions is what would I do, what decision would I make? If I had nothing to lose  for me personally, I have a mortgage, a car payment, three kids. Like  I do have things to lose,  and also in terms of the podcast, you know, I've got an audience now I've got to think about,  you know, tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of people who are listening to this.

But when I get too caught up in that, I make bad decisions. Instead, when I just think as if I have nothing to lose, as if I'm a new podcaster, just making this podcast for myself, that's when I make the best decisions and make the best content.  And so. Um, yeah, I think there's something to that having that nothing to lose mentality you gotta think, uh, you know, as Washington did, he wrote it on all his papers. He wrote it on his pen. It was the password of this operation of this great victory at Trenton and Princeton victory or death. All right. Sometimes it's good to take that mentality, victory or death.

Okay, but as I mentioned, the Americans can't actually hold these positions in Princeton or Trenton. It's more of a raid.  They take some stuff, they embarrass the British, they improve morale, and then they retreat back to their battle lines in Pennsylvania.  The British decide to attack Pennsylvania, and specifically they're trying to attack And specifically, they're trying to take Philadelphia.

It's the largest city in North America. It is the capital of the United States, the United Colonies. And so it's going to be a huge symbolic victory. And so the British attack, and once again, this General Howe just completely outmaneuvers George Washington. Uh, they defeat them at the battle of Brandywine  and they're able to take Philadelphia.

The Continental Congress has to move and they go to first York, Pennsylvania. Later Lancaster, Pennsylvania. And eventually they moved to Baltimore, Maryland to have their capital  because they cannot continue to meet in British occupied territory. Washington attempts a counter attack at a place called Germantown, Pennsylvania.

It's unsuccessful because of some strategic errors by Washington and his lieutenants,  but it's not really a defeat. It's more of a costly draw. Um, it's a disappointment. They had hoped for it to be a big victory, uh, but there's kind of even casualties and they're able to retreat. What it does show is that, uh, once again,  they're battling with the British.

It's not just one loss after another. They're giving as well as taking and, uh, it stabilizes public opinion.

So with the loss of Philadelphia, the continental army retreats to an area called Valley Forge. Where they settle in for a brutal winter.  They build their own village. Uh, they have basically no supplies, so they have to chop down trees and build their own little huts.  They, many of the soldiers are hungry.

Many of them are half naked. You know, if you've ever been to the East coast of the United States, the Northeast, like the winters are pretty brutal. The winters are pretty brutal. They're quite cold and they have to make it through this winter. Many of them don't have shoes. Many of them have torn coats and torn pants.

Like these people are unclothed. It's a really bad situation.  And,

and what makes it worse is this situation is fairly avoidable.  Congress is not giving them the supplies they need. And in fact, instead, uh, they tell them, you know, why don't you just go scour around, see what you can find, take it from the countryside. This is exactly the opposite of what Washington wants to do.

Remember he wanted to do things the right way. That means not stealing from people. That means acting like a professional force. And this is not what a professional force does. They don't reign. They don't raid American farms for food and clothing, but it's what they're forced to do in order to make it through the winter.

Like I said, this is avoidable. Congress was reaching the limit of their ability to finance the war, but there was another issue, which is that they were intentionally hamstringing the army. Uh, Flexner in his biography says that this was quote, the solution to the dangers seen in a standing army and too much continental unity.

And that it was obvious and so deeply rooted in American tradition that the civilian leaders found it maddening that Washington couldn't understand.  So,  like, this is an amazing situation to me. You want independence.  You've got this army that is fighting, sacrificing, and dying for you in order to achieve it.

And Continental Congress is essentially saying, yeah, but we're kind of worried about their power and influence if we win. So we're not going to give them what they need so that they don't get too powerful, like intentionally hamstringing your army, even as they're trying to win a victory for you so that they don't win too completely is just.

A mind bogglingly bad decision. I can't believe that the Continental Congress was even somewhat thinking about it in this way,   and they were they, you know, and they were, I mean, there were material constraints as well. Um, but they were definitely thinking about not letting this army get too powerful and that was part of the calculus.

It was a very stupid decision on multiple levels because as we will see later in this episode,  It almost backfired, like, like the very fact of them not supplying the army is what almost leads  to that army becoming too powerful. We'll get to that at the end of the episode. But for our purposes, the point is, it's a very cold winter, the army is very poorly supplied, and thousands of men die of cold and disease.

And it is only the charismatic leadership of Washington that holds the army together. The important thing is just to keep the army in the field, so that the revolution can go on. And he does that

at the same time when he's in Valley Forge, he comes upon a threat from an unexpected place. And that is from within the army, from something called the Conway cabal. Basically there was one other general who had accomplished some things and shown himself to be very capable, a general Gates, and he had just scored a major victory in the North and upstate New York.

And so he had a few of his cronies seek to have Washington removed from office and they want him Gates. made the commander in chief in his place. Washington is able to survive it, and the way he's able to survive this kind of attempted coup is interesting. He's kind of above the fray. He only marginally engages in the back and forth, tit for tat, of, you know, Well, you messed up this.

Well, no, you did this. Yadda yadda yadda. He does a little. Like, he makes the arguments, but he tries to be kind of subtle, and he tries to be above it all.  The real reason people are afraid to go with Gates is is outlined very well by Flexner, who says Washington's presumptive successor, Gates, would not have been a replacement, but a new departure.

He was an altogether different kind of man, a controversialist, an extremist. He was bitter against the upper classes who had thwarted his career in England, and he had sharp elbows. Backed by the New England Radicals and their allies elsewhere, he had allowed his battle for the Northern Command against the conservative Schuyler to continue.

To be fought not only on military, but on ideological grounds.  The opposition to Washington tended to come from the very ideological groups. Those who most wished a social as well as a national revolution. Should Gates replace Washington, extreme it  should Gates replace Washington. Extremism on the left would be encouraged.

The right would feel a necessity to  right would feel a necessity to defend itself and the whole cause would be sent spinning toward the in the left. And the whole cause would be sent spinning toward the inter Nicene controversy and perhaps warfare, which all responsible leaders, left as well as right, knew must above all things be avoided.

So, essentially what he's getting at there is,  you have the American Revolution, which is very different from the French Revolution,  and part of the reason it was different is you have these radicals, these liberals, who kind of favored a French style revolution. That is what Gates favored. But you had moderates, like Washington, and even outright conservatives, who who were still a part of the revolution,  uh, for more moderate reasons, right?

Just, we want to be independent from Great Britain. We want to do our own thing. We don't want a complete social upheaval. As, uh, Flexner said, a social revolution. They didn't want that. And so it is this more moderate revolution. And it wouldn't have been if Washington had been replaced with Gates.

Okay. So once again, you have this idea that doing things the right way pays off in the end, people still go with Washington, despite his losses, despite Gates looking like a pretty good commander because he does things the right way. And they figured, no, this is what we really want. We want a socially stable, moderate revolution.

We don't want these extremists in charge  being a fire brand. Grabbing attention, um,

being a firebrand screaming for attention, being very ideological. Um, that, that's fine. It gets some attention in the short term and you can get some followers that way, but ultimately people want to go, but ultimately people want to follow stable, serious people. Like Washington. So once again, it's worth doing things the right way, being stable, being serious, being pragmatic, that's what ultimately people want to associate themselves with.

Well, so Gates is big victory. Um, it might not have made him the commander in chief of Washington stays the commander in chief, but one thing it did do, which was very important for the revolution is it. Convinced some of the European powers that America had a really good chance of winning this thing.

And so the French decide to back America with an official alliance. And that means money, troops, and ships. And by the way, it's not just Gates and his victory. Also, Benjamin Franklin is hugely responsible for this. We'll get more into that. Uh, this is going to be a series on the American founders. So we're doing Washington, Hamilton, and then Benjamin Franklin.

But this is a huge, huge deal. diplomatic victory for Benjamin Franklin, who manages to convince the French that, uh, the Americans are a winning ticket and that they should ally with them, and that this is a chance for them to score a victory against Great Britain.

So the entrance of France into the war completely changes the game.  Um, you know, previously, again, they had sent half their Navy over just to fight this one war with these pesky little American colonies, a huge chunk of their forces, and now the British are going to be distracted. They have to defend way more places.

They have to think about fighting in Europe. They have to think about fighting in the Caribbean and a ton of forces actually immediately leave the Caribbean. The colonies and they're no longer able to defend Philadelphia because they don't have enough men.  So they retreat from Philadelphia. Washington pounces attacks them while they're retreating.

They don't win the battle. Um, but they do have, uh, again, sort of a,

but they do once again, have a draw. And once again, it's kind of showing, okay, the Americans might not have won this battle, but  you know, the, these guys are just supposed to be militia men. They're not supposed to be able.  To line up pound for pound against the British and fight them at all. And they do.

And so this is showing more and more people that, Hey, the Americans have a serious chance. And so eventually the Spanish enter the war with the French against the British. And so you've got all these European powers. aligning with the Americans against the British, which is tipping the balance in favor of the Americans.

So after this, this one attack by Washington's battle Monmouth, uh, what this leads to is a big waiting game. The Americans don't want to do anything without the French support, which is promised and still coming.

And so Washington keeps his army in the field. Uh, there are some skirmishes back and forth between the Americans and the British, but mostly it's just a waiting game to see what the French will do.

After a couple of years of waiting and skirmishing and still just struggling to keep his army in the field,  the cavalry finally does show up, the French show up in North America. And at this point, you know, the French army, like the British army is much more professional than the American army.  They just know what they're doing.

They know how to march in formation. They know how to fight in formation.  They've been doing this for a long time. And so George Washington kind of takes a back seat. He is nominally in charge. The French pay him lip service. They say, yes, yes, yes, we're serving under your command. This is your revolution.

But in reality, they often don't listen to his advice and they do their own thing. They come up with their own plans, which the Americans have to respond to because they're the ones with the men and the money.

Uh, because of this dynamic, you have essentially a repeat of

because of this dynamic, you have essentially what is a repeat of what happened in the French and Indian war. If you remember at the end of episode one, George Washington argues very vociferously for a certain road of attack against the French.  Um, and ultimately, uh, you know, he argues that if they take this other road, they're going to fail.

Well, the British general in charge takes the other road and they're victorious. It's a little bit embarrassing for Washington. Same thing happens here. Washington says, no, I really think we should attack New York.  That is where the British are centered. And, uh, that is, And that is the key to the whole thing.

The French favor, uh, attack in the South. So the, the British land an expeditionary force in Virginia, and they say, well, let's, let's take out this expeditionary force. And so they kind of force his hand. And so once again,  and so once again, the war takes a course that Washington did not approve of, and once again, it is very successful.

, they managed to bottle up the British troops and, um,  they managed to bottle up the British troops and besiege them. At a town called Yorktown,

the British are just holding out, hoping for reinforcement and there were reinforcements, you know, in New York, but they're slow to get there. And so, uh, the Americans are attacking actually in the climactic moment of the attack, Alexander Hamilton is the one who leads the attack is very successful in that way.

, finally, the situation is looking really desperate for the British and, uh, they realized they only have one hope.  Which is to escape George Washington style in the middle of the night. And so they try this, they get some boats and they sneak out and the Americans have no idea. And it looks like it's going to be successful.

Uh, here's what Flexner writes. The God of the weather who had so often interfered in the affairs of this war had interfered again, the storm passed and under a pink dawn that glinted,

so they try to escape. And but what happens is that a storm comes in the middle of the night. And blows the boats back to Yorktown so they can't get away. Here's what Flexner writes. He says, The god of the weather, who had so often interfered in the affairs of this war, had interfered again.

The storm passed, and under a pink dawn that glinted on what foliage had escaped the destruction of warfare, messengers galloped to Washington's tent. British troops were on the river. Cornwallis had evidently tried to ferry his troops to Gloucester and had been interrupted by the weather. He was now bringing back those soldiers who had got across.

And so because they can't get across, they have to surrender.

Six years of living in, Six years,

So the British can't escape. I like to think of what Washington must've felt that morning.  I like to think about what Washington must've felt that morning when the letter came, you know, had been six years of revolution, six years of stress, six years of suffering, six years of often difficult circumstances, six years of just trying to hold together this army.

And. Then one day everything changed. , here's what Flexner writes about what happened.  Washington had just sat down to his morning's correspondence when in came another messenger. This one very excited. He carried a letter, which had come out of Yorktown under a flag of truce. Having read it through, Washington told his aides that it had come at an earlier period than most sanguine hopes had induced me to expect.

The letter read, My sir.  The letter read, Sir, I propose a cessation. Sir, I propose a cessation of hostilities for 24 hours, and that two officers may be appointed by each side to meet at Mr. Moore's house to settle terms for the surrender of the posts of York and Gloucester.  I have the honor to be, et cetera, Cornwallis.

And so the British surrender, according to legend, according to legend, I don't know if this is very well documented, but supposedly the British, when they are marching out of Yorktown, uh, surrendering, you know, they're surrounded by the American forces. The band plays a song called the world turned upside down.

Uh, which was sort of a shot at the Americans, even in their moment of defeat, saying, Can you believe this? These filthy colon Can you believe this? These filthy colonials, these militiamen, they aren't even real soldiers. Can you believe that we're surrendering to these guys? Truly, the world has turned upside down.

Washington didn't know it at the moment. Um, Washington knew This was a pivotal moment that this was a turning point. Uh, he didn't understand that this would be the last battle of the war. . It took a few months for everything to unwind for the negotiators to work out the details of the treaties out in Europe,  but it turned out that yes, there would be no more large scale fighting um, And with Yorktown, the war was over and America had independence

in the aftermath,  you know, there is this idea that Washington could have been King and I suppose if he had really wanted to be King, that would have been possible. There is one soldier who proposed it to him. And here's what Washington said. He said, be assured, sir, no occurrence in the course of the war has given me more painful sensations than your information of there being such ideas existing in the army,

as you have expressed, and as I must view, with abhorrence and reprehend with severity, I am much at a loss to conceive what part of my conduct could have given encouragement to an address which, to me, seems big with the greatest mischiefs that can befall my country. If I am not deceived in the knowledge of myself, you could not have found a person to whom your schemes are more disagreeable.

, so, there was never any realistic point of view.  So there was never any realistic chance that Washington was going to be king. One person proposed it, and he smacked it down with as much force as he could. He's just like, what? Did I do that would lead you to believe that there was even a modicum of possibility that I would want to be King.

So no, what there was a chance of though,  is a military dictatorship. And that is because the army is very upset. And now there are no British to fight. They have not been well supplied throughout the war. They have not been paid. Some of them are years.  And so, uh, they go to continental Congress and they say, okay, we're ready for our back pay and continental Congress says, uh, yeah, we can't do that.

Sorry. We don't have the money. , can't raise the debt. So, you know, deal with it. We'll, we'll, we'll do the best we can. They really drag their feet. They're not paying them. So the officers get together and they say, uh, we should take matters into our own hands.  We're not talking about necessarily a total overthrow, but we should gather the troops and we should start marching.

On state capitals, let these people know that we mean business. And I bet you that the money will magically appear.

And so, um, you know, some people who serve both in continental Congress and in the military are fans of this. Congress is completely frozen. They don't know what to do. They,  there's nothing they really can do that. This is the only army they have and it's turning on them. Here's what Flexner writes. Most of the members of Congress sat there aghast, not knowing what to do, but there were others, including men of great influence who agreed with Alexander Hamilton, that If handled properly, the desperate situation may be turned to good account.

Perhaps the army could be induced to rise against the civilian authorities. Perhaps George Washington could be persuaded to lead what would be put forward as a salutary insurrection.  So in other words, the government as presently constituted is not working. If they can't raise the funds, if they can't take care of their own soldiers and their own army, it's clearly not working.

And so, you know, this will, Implement a more muscular federal government, which is clearly needed as,  which is clearly needed. And look, as events would come to show, it really was needed. Um, what Alexander Hamilton was proposing  was what Alexander Hamilton was proposing was almost exactly along the lines of what would eventually be adopted as the U S constitution.

But what he's trying to do is enforce it at the point of a sword. And so many, Military officers agree with this and want to do it. In fact, all of them. In fact, it's starting to look like this can't be stopped. And Hamilton is putting himself at the head of all these officers who want to do this.

Washington though, is the one man who is opposed to this. Not the one man. But the one really important person, uh, and certainly the most influential person who opposes this,  there is a pamphlet that's written. That's very persuasive, very well written that argues why this would be beneficial. Circulated amongst the officers and the officers are nodding their heads.

They're getting on board. So they call a meeting and they really want to get Washington on board if they can, but they're fully prepared to go forward without Washington if they have to.  So they have this meeting and Washington is asked to speak. And what happens next is one of, uh, The great moments that makes Washington.

Immortal. Uh, here's what happens. He gets up and he makes an argument and, uh,  fails. , it falls flat on its face. No one is interested, and then this is what happens next. Here's what Flexner writes. Washington had finished his prepared speech, but the chill in the temple had not.  Washington had finished his prepared speech, but the chill in the room had not thawed the familiar faces looking up at him were uneasy, perplexed Solen Washington reached in his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper.

This he stated was a letter from a member of Congress that would show the officers. what that body was trying to do and what the problems were. He would read it.

The officers stirred impatiently in their seats. And then suddenly, every heart missed a beat. Something was the matter with His Excellency. He seemed unable to read the paper. He paused in bewilderment. He fumbled in his waistcoat pocket. And then, he pulled out something that only his intimates had seen him wear.

A pair of glasses.  And then, he pulled out something that only his intimates had seen him wear. A pair of glasses. With infinite sweetness and melancholy, he explained, And Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray, but almost blind in the service of my country.

 This simple statement achieved what all Washington's rhetoric and all his arguments had been unable to achieve. The officers were instantly in tears, and from behind the shining drops, their eyes looked with love at the commander who had led them all so far and long.  And it's a traumatic gesture, and with that simple statement, gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles for, I have not only grown gray, but almost blind in the service of my country. He melts the hearts of all these officers and they agree with him.

They agree not to go forward with this military coup to submit to civilian leadership and to take, you know, whatever is given to them.  George Washington was a master of the dramatic gesture, whether that was standing in the face of enemy fire. Or taking out his glasses to read a letter, um, or taking out his glasses to read a letter or physically pulling apart, uh, or physically pulling apart, fighting soldiers during a brawl.

These gestures had a way of conveying what pure logic could not.  you know, Washington was a master of political theater, a master of drama. And I think the meat. And I think the thing that made him so effective was that he didn't appear to be dramatic.  He was totally unselfconscious. Um,

you know, one of the best things to dispel.  You know, one thing that really breaks drama is when you become aware that you're in a drama, when you become aware that something is, um, when you become aware that something is intentionally dramatic, but when it feels like you're really a part of the movie.

Right? When,  when it feels like everything is authentic, that's when you can really get carried away by these dramatic gestures. And so Washington's obvious sincerity, his seriousness, is what enables all of these dramatic gestures to be so successful.  

And so that is where we will end it with Washington's most successful move of the revolution. And that is convincing everyone that  what is needed is not a military push.  What is needed is not a military, what is needed is not a military overthrow. What is needed is now to submit to civilian authority and to come together as the United States of America.

So I'm going to run briefly as I usually do through some of the lessons that we have learned. One is physical presence.

One is physical presence and the power of strong physicality. Another is,  another is be honest, but not too honest. You know, George Washington was known for his trustworthiness, his reliability,  When it came to deceiving the enemy, he lied where he needed to. He engaged in spy craft and in deceiving the enemy. And sometimes you got to be crafty about the image that you project to others.

Another lesson is to get a great, another lesson is to get a great group of young people around you. Your tribe of maniacs, your young, ambitious hustlers who are gonna help you get where you want to go. And because he could get the buy in from the Alexander Hamilton's of the world is a large part of what allowed him to be so successful.

So to answer the initial question, how was it that you. That George Washington was such a successful general, despite not being a great battlefield general. , and I think he compares favorably with Napoleon Bonaparte, who is probably the greatest battlefield general of all time and yet, uh, left his country in ruins and Washington is kind of the opposite of that, and that is because Washington  always kept his eyes on the final goal.

You know, Napoleon loved the battlefield for the battlefield's sake, and that has its own beauty to it, but Washington loved it for what it created.  And so he always kept his eyes on what it was that he was trying to create.  Therefore, he was successful in the larger endeavor, despite some failures along the way.

There's a quote from Flexner like, an intelligent comparison between Washington and the celebrated soldiers of the past is greatly impeded by a fact too often overlooked. Washington was never truly a military man. He remained to the end of the war, a civilian serving half reluctantly in uniform.

And he goes on to talk about,  and he goes on to talk about what I just said, that the greatest victories of Washington's were over the hearts and minds of the American people and getting them to buy in to this new endeavor into the United States of America. The hindsight of the historian, the hindsight of the historian, Flexner says, can only reinforce Washington's conviction that the crucial battles of the war were in the arenas of public, were in the arenas of public opinion.

And then I, uh, I'll close with one more quote that I like that captures many of Washington's virtues, uh, is by a French contemporary. One of these officers that came over with the French army. And was observing Washington for the first time. And here's what he said.  Uh, and here's what he said. Brave without temerity.

Brave without temerity. Laborious without ambition. Generous without prodigality. Noble without pride. Virtuous without severity. He seems always to have avoided passing beyond those limits where the virtues, by clothing themselves in more lively, But more changeable and doubtful colors may be mistaken for false.

This is the seventh year he has commanded the army and he has obeyed Congress. More need not be said.  That's it. Um, in the next episode, we will talk about George Washington and his presidency. And how he sets the United States of America on the right foot and really establishes the future of the nation as the first president of the United States of America.

So until next time, thank you for listening to How to Take Over the World.

One last point,  one last point about Washington that I didn't mention is that many people think he was dyslexic because he struggled with writing and spelling correctly. for his entire life and exhibited many of the, and exhibited many of the characteristics of dyslexia that you see in modern people who have dyslexia.

, because he was dyslexic, Washington would have loved Because he was dyslexic, Washington would have loved speechify, which is a startup that was started by my friend,

which is a service that was started by my friend, Cliff Weitzman, uh, who himself is dyslexic. Who himself was dyslexic. And so struggled to be able to read everything that he wanted to digest and understand in order to take over the world in his own way. And so what he figured out was a way to turn almost any written material Basically into a podcast.

And so I use this for the research into this episode. Um,  and so I use speechify all the time. I used speechify for the research for pulling quotes for this episode.

So you can listen to articles, you can listen to books that don't have an audible version. You can listen to emails and newsletters.

For this episode. I actually listened to the Ron Chernow biography in speechify. It actually does have an audible version. Um, but what,  but what speechify allows me to do is to listen. And then I also have the text with it so I can read as I listen and having both the visual and the audio.

Allows me to get through it faster. So I can listen on three or even four X speed and just speed through really long books. And then as I'm reading, I just screenshot. Uh, the parts that I want to remember, and then I have a text of quotes that I want to remember for later. So Speechify is really great. If you're serious about education, about learning more and about developing yourself, I highly recommend getting Speechify.

And  if you like my voice, if you like listening to this podcast, you can listen to whatever you want to listen to on Speechify in my voice is one of the options that's available there. Just go select Ben from how to take over the world.

So check it out. Use the link in the show notes. It's speechify. com slash Ben for up to 15 percent off. I promise you'll love using speechify. So again, go check it out at speechify.  com slash.

Okay. Thanks for listening. Uh, part three on the life of George Washington will be coming soon until then. Thanks for listening to how to take over the world. 📍

Hello and welcome to how to take over the world. This is Ben Wilson. Welcome to part three on the life of George Washington. This will cover from the end of the revolutionary war through his presidency and to the end of his life. I think that the presidency of George Washington is probably the most underrated part of his legacy.

If you're an American like I am, and you grew up hearing about George Washington, I feel like you hear a lot about him as the revolutionary general and his heroic efforts there. And you hear less about his presidency and how impactful that was. And he genuinely. Shaped the nation, shaped what the United States would become.

He was an amazing president, uh, like really effective, did a really good job as a president. Uh, and that's just not something I knew a lot about. So I think it's a really interesting part of his story. Um,

and I think it's a really interesting part of his story. Uh, before we get into it, I will be releasing shortly the Washington guide to taking over the world. And that will be available to subscribers only. So if you want to hear. Uh, sort of my condensed thoughts about what made him so great and how you can follow in his footsteps, how you can follow that Washington guide to achieving greatness, then go ahead and sign up at takeoverpod.

supercast.  And that link, as always, is in the show notes.

So to start off with George Washington, uh, ends his service as the leader of the military forces of the United States of America and goes back to Mount Vernon, his farm and finds it in ruinous condition. It had not been kept up well while he was serving in the military. And yeah, he just finds things really run down.

Uh, it was not profitable. Lots of parts of the estate had been neglected.  So he goes about trying to set everything right. Uh, he enjoys being a gentleman farmer. One of the things, however, he doesn't enjoy is his celebrity.  People from all walks of life want to come to Mount Vernon and meet George Washington.

And he felt like he couldn't really turn anyone away. It's because there was this Republican attitude of equality. No one's better than anyone. And so for him to say  to a prospective visitor, you know, no, I can't receive you right now would have gone against public attitude. And so he just had to take in everyone that came by and people were constantly coming by to meet him.

This really imposes upon him again, his estate is in ruinous condition is not profitable. And so he doesn't have the money to be hosting and feeding people Every day. And it's basically every day that people are coming by and expecting this treatment. So he comes to really, uh, I would say resent. This celebrity.

And it's interesting to hear quotes about celebrity from the 1700s and how people felt the same way about it then that they do today. So Washington said retirement from the public walks of life has not been so productive for leisure and ease as might have been expected. And, uh, even more poignantly, you know, Benjamin Franklin had the same experience.

So Washington and Franklin are the first two American celebrities. Actually, Franklin was a celebrity before Washington was. And then Washington slip, uh,  actually Franklin was the first and then Washington and Benjamin Franklin and said, quote, celebrity may for a while flatter one's vanity, but its effects are troublesome.

I just think that's so interesting. Like, that's what you hear from celebrities today that, ,  celebrity is great for a while when you become a celebrity. But then it's really a burden. And Franklin says almost exactly that back in the 1700s, one of the things that Washington does in order to dissuade people from coming to Mount Vernon is he doesn't put up any signage and it's kind of hard to get to Alexandria, which is the nearest town is eight miles away.

And you have to go through woods and, and marshes. And so he just doesn't put up any signs, hoping that people will get lost, trying to make their way to Mount Vernon. And many people do get lost, trying to find George Washington. And he likes it that way.  He's trying to stay. As far away from all these visitors as he can,  you know, he can't get away from it must,  but you know, he can't get away from it much.

And this does prove to be a huge drain on his energy and on his finances.

As he goes about trying to get his affairs in order and kind of turn around his estate, he gets kind of tired of farming, of trying to make it as a farmer, you know, farming. Has always been a business where it's tough to be really, really profitable. And so he's saying, all right, can I try some different stuff?

So he takes on some minor industrial projects, you know, he creates mills and distilleries

and just doing anything he can to say, can I turn a profit in a different way? One of the effects of this is there's this huge divide in the United States at this time between agricultural interests who are mostly in the South. You know, these biggest States, these big farms and then industrial interests in the North.

These factories

and industrial interests in the North, you know, all these factories and mills and things like that. Well, his experience with this makes Washington, uh, kind of bipartisan in that way. He's open to both. So he has a history as a gentleman farmer.  He kind of sees the limits of that. And he has also experience as an industrialist.

And And so he's open to those interests and to increasing and improving that part of the economy as well. Makes him an ideal first president because he can understand everyone in the country and all these major interests. One of the other things, this should probably go in the end notes, but whatever, I'm going to say it here, that I thought was just kind of funny and interesting is, uh, You know, he's a, he's a very interesting guy with lots of interests and he's very energetic and he can accomplish all these random things.

So, uh, I'll just read one quote about one of his random accomplishments. It says, In addition to his better known title of father of his country, Washington is also revered in certain circles as the father of the American mule.  So that's one of the projects that Washington undertakes is to create this new,  is to create this new breed of mule.

That's very productive on his farm. And he goes through this long selective breeding process of getting just the right temperament, uh, to be helpful and productive. And it takes a few generations, but he ends up, , with this  American mule, which I guess now is a, a prominent and useful type of mule.  so that's random.

I think it gives you an idea for the energy that Washington had and his ability to accomplish things in all these different domains.

You know, as Washington  does this, it goes back to being a gentleman farmer. He thinks his time in the public eye. He's done and he frankly wants it to be done. However, he did have this critique of the Articles of Confederation, which was, uh, how the United States function. It was their constitution at the time, and, uh, he thought it wasn't strong enough.

It wasn't robust enough. The central government was way too weak. So the Articles of Confederation basically gave all powers to the 13 states  and uh, uh, made a very, very weak central government that could accomplish almost none.  That could accomplish almost nothing. And Washington said, we are either a united people under one head, or we are 13 independent sovereignties, eternally counteracting each other.

And so he's saying, look, if we're eternally counteracting each other, if we're always fighting against each other, then we're never going to be able to realize what we're doing. Greatness as a nation.

The reason for this is that there was all this skepticism towards England and towards anything that reeked of Englishness. So Chernow writes, Americans now define themselves as the antithesis of everything English, even if that acted to their detriment. And so people are really afraid of a strong central government, because that's what England had and that's what had led to this tyranny.

Or so they perceived it, uh, and led to the Revolutionary War and led to them wanting their independence.

But Washington, in his role as the leader of the military, had worked from people But Washington, in his role as leader of the military, had worked in the only institution that had been a functioning, uh, That had been a functioning combination of all 13 states. And he said, you know, this is the way to go.

And he thought this was the way to go. And he actually thought that the biggest, uh, threat of tyranny came from not having a strong enough central government. He wouldn't have phrased it this way, but he was afraid of the Napoleon option, right? If we don't have a strong enough central government that. Uh, it, it can handle crises as they come up, then what we're gonna have is anarchy.

And when there's anarchy, people are willing to look to a strong leader who, uh, uh, can give them order, even if he's despotic. And so, uh, that's what Washington's afraid of. It would turn out to be a very prescient fear.  And I think he's right. I think that  the Constitution had not been adopted. There's a very strong chance that someone like this would have come along, and in fact, We'll get more into this in the Hamilton episode that's coming up.

I think Alexander Hamilton would have been the American Napoleon. The two of them are extremely similar. Anyway,  Washington has this belief and it seems prophetic when something happens called Shays Rebellion.

And what Shaves Rebellion is, is a bunch of former soldiers, Revolutionary War soldiers, are farmers in western Pennsylvania and, uh, they're not happy about the taxes that are being levied against them, and they're not happy about some of this back pay that still hasn't been paid to them. And so they take up arms.

It doesn't really go very far, but it really shakes people. Because there's a rebellion and the American government has a lot of trouble dealing with it. And so people see for the first time, wow,  people like Washington and Hamilton are right. Uh, this is really a bad thing that our government can't respond to crises when they adopt.

So, uh, it leads to a lot of lost sleep for the continental Congress. And.  And has a big part in shifting American public opinion towards the idea.  Yeah, we do need something new. We can't just keep going with these articles of confederation. We need a stronger government.  Continental Congress might have been losing sleep over Shay's rebellion, but you shouldn't be losing sleep.

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So since things seem to be going the wrong direction with these articles of confederation,  people come together around this idea. Okay. We need a new constitution. Let's call together a constitutional convention.  Uh, technically when it starts, the constitutional convention is illegal. People are plotting a new government as there's an existing government are already there.

Uh, but you know, what are they going to do about it? Uh, that's the whole point is that the American government is so weak. They don't have a standing army. They don't have any forces with which they can stop this. And you know, they, they didn't care that much. The continental Congress, many of the people who served in it would serve in the constitutional convention and they do end up passing a bill, uh, belatedly that says, okay, uh, this constitutional convention is okay, even though it ends up.

Stepping beyond, uh, the, the powers that continental Congress gave it.

Virginia  names Washington as their chief representative to the constitutional Congress without consulting him.  And at first Washington considers turning this down because he had made a promise when he left the military in 1783, that he was done with public life. And he wanted to set the example that I'm not going to become a tyrant.

I'm not going to try and take power for myself. My public service is done. I'm going to go back to being a gentleman farmer.  So  he is nominated, but he considers turning it down for this reason. He didn't want to break a promise,

but ultimately he decides, okay, well, this thing actually might fail, uh, without my presence and we really need this. And so I'm going to answer the call of duty one more time. And he goes. To,  and he goes to the constitutional convention to help hammer out, figure out what should our new constitution be.

He has, uh, his same approach that he always uses. I I think that Chernow writes something really interesting about his approach. He says, having learned to accumulate power by withholding his ascent, he understood the influence of his  having learned to accumulate power. By withholding his ascent, he understood the influence of his mystique and kept people in suspense.

Okay, so that's one of the things he's doing is.  Uh, keeping people in suspensing and maybe I'll go, maybe I won't and staying aloof and staying mysterious, having this mystique about him. I think that's one of the big lessons that I am taking away from this whole story is,  you know, especially in the time of social media, people want to be so present.

People want to put more and more out there.  And in some ways, absence is really powerful. Like if you're listening to a song  and you hear a few seconds of silence, you go. What just happened there  in a noisy world, silence is a superpower. Silence actually calls more attention than noise does.

And so that's something I learned from this. That's something I've been thinking about is how do I cultivate that mystique? Um,

how do I cultivate that mystique? There's actually a good,  how do I cultivate that mystique? There's actually a good scene from one of my favorite TV shows called the young Pope, where, uh, I think this is explained really well. And the young Pope is the story of.  A Pope who gets elected and is very young is played by Jude law.

And he comes in and one of the first things that happens is the marketing director of the Vatican says, Okay, we need an official portrait for you so that we can, you know, publish all these plates and pictures and all this memorabilia and merchandise with the image of the Pope on it. So, uh, what, what portrait do you want to use?

And here is what the Pope played by Jude Law says about his portrait.

okay. And I think that really gets at it. George Washington created this mystique by being inaccessible. Um, and that led to this frenzy  to get him involved, get his attention.

And so I think that's something that a lot of people.  And so I think that's something that can definitely be learned from.

When he gets to the constitutional convention, they want a president to preside over the thing. The only people considered are him and Benjamin Franklin. And Benjamin Franklin actually nominates George Washington to be the president of the constitutional convention. One, so that there's not conflict.

The last thing that either of them want is for this to devolve into petty partisanship. And then the other thing is Benjamin Franklin is older than Washington and his health is not great at that point. So he doesn't think he has the energy to be the president. So he nominates Washington,  uh, despite Franklin Washington, really wanting this to be nonpartisan, non contentious.

It does get very contentious. You know, there are different states with different interests, different ideas about how this new constitution should look, and it gets very, very heated for a while.

Washington himself tries to stay above it all. , here's a good quote. Most of the time he stood forth as a neutral arbiter and honest broker. Okay. So that's all he's trying to do.  Arbitrate, be an honest broker, gather all the views, synthesize, and kind of keep people moving forward productively. Uh,  Uh, this whole thing happens in Philadelphia.

And so as an attempt. To seem like a neutral party, who's inclusive of everyone, who is inclusive of everyone. One of the things he does is he goes to many different churches in Philadelphia. And he attends different services, showing that, you know, religiously, he's kind of a man of all seasons, a man for all people.

He even, he doesn't go to church with him, but he goes to a dinner with one of the prominent Jewish merchants. And he goes to a Catholic Mass. So he's showing that, Hey, it doesn't matter if you are,  Episcopalian or Presbyterian or Catholic or Jewish, you know, I can get along with you. And I want all of you involved in this new American project.

One of the other things that's interesting to me is a lot of people, when they meet Washington, they want to go down memory lane. You know, they want to talk about the victories of the revolutionary war. And all the successes that he had had and all the experiences they'd had in Washington did not like to do that.

Uh, Uh, here's the quotes is active and forward looking Washington did not amble very often down memory lane. And that's a really common attribute of great men of great. And that's a really common attribute of the greats, you know, whether it was Steve jobs who hated talking about his childhood, Edison was the same.

Like they don't like to look backwards. They only like to look forward. And that might seem like a small thing, but to me, I mean, just consider how different the course of America would have been if Washington had used this constitutional convention as an opportunity to replay the hits. If he had been consumed with what he had already accomplished, but he wasn't, he was forward looking.

He had everyone focused on this new constitution and that leads to some great results.

One of the biggest contributions that Washington makes to the new constitution is just his presence because they're talking about three branches of government from the very beginning. This is called the Virginia plan. And so they have a legislative branch and executive branch and a judicial branch.

And the executive branch, people are very skeptical of,  because, again, they're really afraid of tyranny, of an English model of government, so they don't want anyone that looks like a monarch, or who has a lot of power centralized in a single person.  And so, if Washington wasn't there, the executive would have been very, very weak.

And it would have been a sclerotic, I think, and weak government that couldn't get much done. However, because Washington is there, when people are talking about and thinking about the executive, they are thinking about Washington. In Washington, everyone trusts because he had voluntarily put down power. He had never tried to get more power for himself.

And he's just an incredibly trustworthy character. And so with him in their mind, here's the quote. This is true now. He says that the delegates overcame their dread of executive power and produced an energetic presidency. Can be traced directly to Washington's imperturbable presence. Pierce Butler doubted that the presidential powers would have been so great.

Had not many members cast their eyes towards general Washington as president and shape their ideas of the powers to a president by their opinion of his virtue.  With his image before their eyes, the delegates were inevitably governed by their hopes. Instead of their fears.  And so, you know, the constitution as written does have a pretty strong executive branch, a much stronger than many were thinking without Washington's presence.

Uh, this process of the constitutional convention. A lot of compromises have to be arrived at.  No one loves what comes out of it because of these compromises. But I think it's interesting, uh, here's another Chernow quote. He says, Whatever his misgivings about individual provisions, Washington was no lukewarm supporter of the final document.

And so they come out with this document, with this constitution, and Washington, Strongly supports it. And I think there's this temptation, uh, for many people to not strongly support something that they don't 100 percent agree with. And I think it takes a lot of bravery  to, to take something, whether that's a document, a constitution or a product, and you might not love everything about it, but  You helped create it and you're a supporter of it and champion it anyways.

And that's what he does.  This constitution, he might not have loved everything that went into it.  He puts aside his misgivings about individual provisions and as a strong supporter and works hard to get it passed,

you know, without Washington's presence, I don't think that the Washington, you know, without Washington's presence, I don't think that the constitution.  Would have passed. I don't think it would have been ratified by all the states. Certainly not the constitution that the United States eventually did adopt.

And in fact, Washington kind of doesn't want to be the first president. Yeah, he really does just want to be done with all this public service. Uh, but many of the people, especially one governor Morris, I think he's the governor of New York says to Washington, look, dude, if you make it known that you're not going to be the first president.

This constitution is not going to pass. People aren't going to ratify it. You're the only person that people trust to not take power for yourself.  And so Washington does basically get kind of forced into running as first president of the United States of America.  He doesn't campaign.  He can't campaign because  he doesn't campaign for the presidency.

He kind of can't, his hands are kind of bound because.  You know, that's his whole brand. This is the guy who doesn't want to take power. Uh, but it doesn't matter. No one really runs against him. There's not a lot of debate. And in the first ever election for president of the United States, Washington receives all the electoral votes.

He wins in a landslide unanimously.

You know, Flexner points out that it's a good thing that he didn't have to run for president because he wouldn't have been a very good candidate. He wasn't a very good politician. Here's what he says. With his rather formal personality, Washington was lucky that he didn't need to engage in electioneering.

For he lacked the requisite skills for such campaigning. Had he been forced to make speeches or debate on the stump, he would not have fared very well.  And I think this is something a lot of people who are interested in the political sphere could learn from. If you can't be a great politician, if you're not good at shaking hands and kissing babies, then you need to be a movement.

You need to be larger than life. And you need that mystique. You need to be a little mysterious. That way you're a blank canvas that people can kind of project their hopes onto. It's something Washington does very well.

So in 1788, George Washington is elected as the first ever president of the United States of America.

He is 56 years old

and immediately he starts setting precedent that would become important for how the United States would function. The first thing he does is at the inauguration, he decides not to wear his military uniform, thereby emphasizing that there is civilian control over the United States and that he's not taking power as a military leader, but as a.

as a civilian one, as an elected official.  It's funny how slapdash his entire inauguration is, because this had never been done. There are no rules, there are no precedents. So, for example, the constitution sets out that he should take an oath of office, and at the last minute, People putting it on decide, well, he should swear on the Bible, but there is no Bible where they're, where they're doing the inauguration.

So they have to run over to a Masonic lodge and just grab a random Bible. And that's the one that he, uh, that he swears on,  you know, you know, the other thing to realize, I mean, this is just such a crazy situation, something that I had not thought about  when George Washington takes over as president of the United States,  it's literally just him.

He is the entire executive branch.  Of the federal government.  And even for the first few months, his presidential staff is smaller than his household staff. Uh, here's the quote from Chernow  at its inception, the executive branch was extraordinarily small. Washington initially oversaw a larger staff of slaves and servants at Mount Vernon than he did as president of the United States, but the new government quickly overshadowed his estate in size.

So it does quickly grow, but he has to decide everything. About what the executive government,  but he has to decide everything about what the executive branch is going to look like. And that's an incredibly difficult thing.  To figure out how do I go about  creating a government from scratch?  And, you know, over the years, the presidency has changed, especially you think about  Abraham Lincoln kind of reshaped the American presidency.

So did Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, FDR.  But even through all those changes, the institution of the presidency of the United States still maintains the imprint of George Washington. A ton of the precedents that he set still stand. And it's amazing to think about that legacy that's lasting, you know, a couple hundred years later.  It's amazing to think about that legacy that's lasting 250 years later. Now,

just to give you an idea of, of what a challenge this is at first, he can't get any work done because similar  to his time at Mount Vernon, people are just coming to see him all day. And petition him and meet him. And again, he kind of thinks as a Republican leader, uh, as a, as a leader of a democratic country, he can't turn down anyone.

So he's just taking meetings with random people all day, every day. And eventually he says, look, this is not working. And so he had, and so he creates special times when people come to meet with him. He'll come down, shake their hand, say hello, and then go back to getting work done. Uh, Uh, the first thing he does is set up a staff.

And so he makes his first few crucial hires. And I think this is the real key to the Washington presidency is the team that he puts around him. So initially,  uh, there are only three departments of the United States. So there is the treasury department, the state department. And the war department and for his three leaders, he gets Thomas Jefferson as his first secretary of state.

Okay. So he's handling international relations as his first treasury secretary . He gets Alexander Hamilton. So he's in charge of all the finances of the United States. And then as his war secretary, he gets a general who had served with him in the revolutionary war named Henry Knox. And it's kind of interesting because he only has these three departments.

Uh, They kind of take on random duties a lot of time,  especially Hamilton. Hamilton is very active and, , has a strong vision for how the government should look. So any kind of random initiatives end up getting sucked   under Hamilton.

So he's got these three really strong leaders. They're brilliant, and that's the first thing. But they have strong personalities, and they're definitely not easy to manage. And so I think it's interesting to take a look at how he did that. Here's a really good quote from Chernow. He says, Thomas Jefferson, the first Secretary of State, would dub Washington the hub of the wheel, with the department heads arrayed like brilliant spokes around him.

In choosing those heads, Washington surrounded himself with a small but decidedly stellar group. With his own renown secure, he had no fear that subordinates would upstage him and never wanted subservient courtiers whom he could overshadow. He excelled as a leader precisely because he was able to choose and orchestrate bright, strong personalities.

So the way that he does this, the way that he orchestrates these strong, bright personalities, is one, he takes his time. Okay, there's a bunch of quotes about this. Uh, he, he,

there are a bunch of quotes about this, uh, that are good, but he wanted to hear every side of the issue. And he wanted to take his time before deciding on, on anything. That way, he didn't let himself get bowled over by men who were, frankly, a little bit smarter than him. Okay, so he takes into account every viewpoint and really takes his time to understand the issue before making a decision.

Another thing he does,

another thing he does is make sure that he hears dissenting voices. So, he set a very cordial tone, a collegiality, so it's open, it's kind of friendly, and people really felt like they could make their voices heard uninhibited, and they weren't going to be, you know, smacked down or,

Punished for voicing an unpopular view.

Another good quote says, Through his tolerant attitude, he created a protective canopy under which subordinates could argue freely, but, and I think this is the third key, once decisions were made. He wanted the administration to speak with one voice. So internally, lots of dissent, externally, no dissent.

That was one of his rules. He hated  disloyalty and really punished it. So internally, yes. Argue strongly.  Externally,  we are a united front and, uh, and you don't get to air any grievances once a decision has been made.

And then the last thing is, yes, we're going to take a while in decision making, but once the decision is made, we are going to act fast. And we're going to act strong. Uh, the actual quote is deliberate maturely, but execute promptly and vigorously. And I think that that is,  and I think that that is a really smart way to approach things.

Take as much time as you need  to decide,  take as much time as you need to come to the right decision. But once you decided execute quickly, And vigorously, as he says.

It's worth digging a little more into the Hamilton relationship. Here's a good long quote from Chernow, who calls him Washington's unofficial prime minister. Chernow says, At a time when politicians were supposed to be self effacing, Hamilton was openly ambitious, and in many respects the antithesis of Washington.

Where Washington had no compulsion to shine and company, Hamilton, who was charming, urbane, and debonair, wanted to be the most brilliant figure in every group. And he usually was. A prolific writer of letters, essays, and pamphlets, he was a systematic thinker who knew how to translate principles into workable policies.

Hamilton saw the advantage of setting a brisk tempo to the administration and pushing through quickly an ambitious legislative package,  for future administrations he wanted to capitalize on the short lived goodwill granted to a new president.

Okay, so Hamilton kind of realizes, hey, we got all this goodwill, all these people love Washington right now,  We've got this golden opportunity  to implement a lot of stuff and we got to do it now. And we got to do it quickly. And so the amount of stuff that they pass really is breathtaking. One of the first things that they do is pass this legislative.

One of the first things they do is assume the state debt, which was not popular with a number of states. But,

A lot of these states had racked up debt during the Revolutionary War, and they had done that by issuing bonds. So you got all these outstanding, so you got all these outstanding bonds, and they are held by mostly Americans, just American citizens. And so they're paying interest, all these bonds. And,  so  Washington and Hamilton have this idea that the federal government is going to go buy all of this debt so that it becomes American debt.

And it seems kind of like a  I don't know, like a bureaucratic,  and it seems kind of just like, I don't know, a bureaucratic, and it seems just kind of like a bureaucratic move, right? Uh, it's, you have still have the same amount of debt. It was just held by the States. Now it's held by the central government, just different layer of government.

But behind this seemingly mundane change was a very profound difference, which is you have all these Americans who are used to doing transactions with their states. So they're holding this debt, they're getting payments. From their state governments. Now they're getting payments from the federal government that increases their reliance on this federal government, their familiarity with it.

And makes them more comfortable doing business with this brand new government. And so it seems like a little thing, but it's really crucial. And that is one of the things Hamilton was great at and that Washington saw and encouraged him to do was,  what actions can we take?

that seem small, that seem unthreatening, but have, uh, a really profound impact when they're played out. Another thing that Hamilton, another thing that Washington pushes through, uh, through Hamilton is a central bank.  And this, and this is really unpopular with, uh, especially southern states. They hated the idea of, uh, a national bank.

It was based on the model of the Bank of England. I was like,  it is very obviously and explicitly based on the Bank of England. In fact, when Hamilton is drawing up the Bank of America,  in fact, when Hamilton is drawing up the Central Bank for America, he has the Articles of Incorporation for the Bank of England.

On one hand, he's kind of just copying them over. Like it's very explicitly one for one copying this model. And so all these Southern states are like,  we just tried to get away from this system of government.  But it's really important for generating the, but it's really important for generating the capital needed to form this new federal government.

And it works. Uh, there are definitely some ups and downs, some complications, there's some, uh, bank runs, you know, a bunch of boom and bust for buying and selling these, uh,  a bunch of boom and bust, a bunch of boom and bust for buying and selling these bonds issued by the new central bank. But at the end of it, Washington's assessment, which is true is our public credit stands on that ground, which three years ago it would have been considered as a species of madness.

To have foretold.  Okay. So the, the credit worthiness of the United States skyrockets through the creation of this central bank.   Washington and Hamilton also have to implement an entirely new taxation system, and of course people don't like being taxed. It's kind of unpopular, but extremely necessary.

And only Washington has the public goodwill and has the gravitas to implement this without too much of a, without too much resistance. And I say too much resistance. It did in fact lead eventually to a small rebellion called the whiskey rebellion. And

so it's not like it went over without any hiccups. Uh, but the point is. This Whiskey Rebellion was in fact quite small and was easily put down  and so they are able to implement a whole new taxation structure.

Anyway, there are a bunch of other stuff. I can't go through every single policy initiative. The whole point is that through all of this they really unleash the power of the United States, especially as an industrial power on the world stage.

One of the things that Washington does is he doesn't want to be ensconced in this bubble  where he doesn't really know  how popular his initiatives are and what people are thinking. So first he goes on a tour of new England because you know, the North was not his home. He didn't know it as well. So he's meeting people.

He's talking with common people saying, you know, what do you think of this stuff? And then once they pass this ambitious legislative package, he goes to the South.  Where it was most unpopular, and he's able to talk with people there, conciliate, and kind of get their viewpoint on all this stuff that has gone through.

So, these tours Of the North and South where he can talk with people who are outside of his bubble and get their viewpoints are crucial to his model for, uh, uh, properly functioning government and administration.

Now, throughout this first term,  it starts as a, a good unified group, but as time goes on, there start to be very. Deep,  but as time goes on there are really deep fissures between Hamilton and Jefferson. So Jefferson is a committed ideologue He's a democratic republican  at this time There are no

now as this administration goes along at first it's united because but it so as this administration goes along It starts pretty united, but over time it becomes very  And that's because his two main department heads are very divided.  Uh, at the time there are no political parties, but they would develop because of this essentially.

So on the one hand you have Hamilton,  who is strongly in favor of a strong central government, who's in favor of industrial interests, who's in favor of the United States becoming an economic powerhouse. And on the other hand, you have Jefferson, who is a member of what would become the Democratic Republican Party.

So he's very strongly in favor of agrarian interests. He's very skeptical of a strong central government. And more sides with southern interests.

Jefferson and Hamilton eventually become,

Jefferson and Hamilton are increasingly at each other's throats. Until the point where, towards the end of his first term, Jefferson says to Washington that, uh, he thinks Hamilton has a plan that is intended to, quote, prepare the way for a change from the present republican form of government to that of a monarchy, of which the English constitution is to be the model.

And Washington tells Jefferson essentially, like, Dude, grow up. What are you talking about? Washington tells him, I don't think there are 10 people of repute in the United States who legitimately favor a con who legitimately favor a monarchy.

And so this creates a fracture that can never fully be recovered. And so early in his second administration, Washington is reelected in 1792. Jefferson leaves. The administration and, um, Jefferson leaves the administration and, uh, is no longer associated with Washington and the federal government,

you know, things are already heated  between the democratic Republicans and Hamilton's party, which comes to be known as the Federalists, and then everything gets turned to the Democrats. You know, from a five to a nine by the French revolution, colors, everything in Washington's second term. And that is because Washington who is increasingly becoming affiliated with the Federalists,  uh, was very apprehensive of the French revolution.

Whereas the democratic Republicans really embraced it. Uh, here's the quote while Washington grew increasingly apprehensive about the violent events in Paris, Jefferson viewed them with philosophical serenity, lecturing Lafayette. that one couldn't travel from despotism to liberty in a feather bed.

Unlike Washington, Jefferson regarded the French Revolution as the proud and inevitable sequel to the American Revolution.  And Washington, you actually get to see kind of a preview of  His excellent judgment, because he looks at this burgeoning French revolution and he says,  uh, this thing is going to get more and more violent is going to get out of control.

And it's going to lead to the demise of King Louis.  Initially, you know, the thought was maybe this will just become a constitutional monarchy and, uh, it'll become a moderate Republican form of government, uh, Washington says, I don't see that happening. Jefferson, on the other hand, predicted quote, I think it pro  Jefferson, on the other hand, predicted quote, I think it probable this country will within two or three years be in the enjoyment of a tolerably free constitution that with  Jefferson on the other hand predicted for france He said I think it probable this country will within two or three years Be in the enjoyment of a tolerably free constitution and that without its having cost them a single drop of blood  Okay, so you see  Like how wrong he was And it just throws into contrast how prescient Washington was, how good his judgment was that he could see all of this coming.

So you have the situation where the Federalists led by Washington and Hamilton are trying hard to remain neutral. They don't want any entangling alliances. They don't want to pick between England and France. Whereas the democratic Republicans say, Hey, you know, we just had a Republican revolution.  The French who are having a Republican revolution, these are our brothers in arms.

These are our comrades. You know, we should support them.  And it's really tough for Washington to remain neutral. So there's one incident where  the ambassador that France sends is named a citizen's DNA.  And  this guy is like, yeah, man, United States is totally gonna be on our side. You know, they just had this revolution.

We're having a revolution, same, same. We're totally on the same team. And so he takes liberties that are completely inappropriate. When French ships. When French privateers take British ships, he has them brought to American ports where they are refitted as friendships and sent out to battle. And so the French are trying to use  American ports as like a base of military operations against the English.

and Washington is, is very strongly against this and it's being encouraged by all these people who are democratic Republicans. You know, this eventually evolves into essentially a red scare.  It's actually amazing. You know, they say history doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme.

And here's one instance where it really rhymes because you have  this,

because you have this revolutionary leftist government. In France, that is sort of international in its outlook. Right. And so you have the leftist party in the United States that supports it. And it's just like the red scare, you know, in, uh, and it's just like the situation with the Soviets in the 20th century, where you do have a lot of people on the left side of the spectrum of American politics who support communism, who support.

We support communism who support, you know, socialist ideals in the United States, and then you have this really strong reaction against that and against anything affiliated with it on the American right. And so what you eventually have is Adams, John Adams. Who is the next president is a federalist and he, uh, passes something called the alien and seditions act, which makes it difficult for foreigners, but especially it was targeted at French people, makes it difficult for the French to become American citizens.

And it shuts down, uh, democratic, uh, And it shuts down Republican newspapers that, uh, that's, you know, criticize the government and we're speaking in favor of, you know, French style ideals.  It's just like the same thing as the 1950s Red Scare of Adam saying, yeah, this is not legitimate opposition. Uh, he thinks that this is international influence in American affairs.

In fact, Adams becomes convinced that if the French were to attack the United States, people like Jefferson and James Madison, who were strong Democratic Republicans, would form a fifth column and help the French to take over the United States.  And, uh, I think this is kind of  a fevered imagination of John Adams.

In the same way that Thomas Jefferson suggesting that Hamilton wanted to implement a monarchy is ridiculous, I think this The idea that Jefferson, who had fought so hard for American independence would give that up for French control of America is also ridiculous, but I think it just shows the hyper partisanship that everyone suspected each other, not just a differing viewpoints, actual,

but of actual disloyalty.  

It's just like today where people on the left side of the spectrum say, Hey, uh, Donald Trump is actually controlled by Russia. And if Donald Trump is elected, it's going to lead to fascism. And then, you know, on the far right, you also, uh, have people on the right side of the spectrum saying of Democrats, you know, they're globalists, they're not loyal to America, they don't, they're not patriotic.

, and so everyone suspects each other, not just of differences of opinion, but of actual bad faith.

Washington is. Able to stay above this for a certain amount of time.  , but especially once Jefferson leaves his administration,  he says, you know, I can't get along with Hamilton anymore. You're basically passing all of Hamilton's initiatives. I don't want to be associated with this government anymore.

And it's a big blow to Washington when he leaves because Jefferson, whatever, you know, differences of opinion they might've had, he's extremely gifted, extremely intelligent, and a really gifted diplomat who was very capably able to  manipulate.

Who was very capable in implementing foreign policy and all that stuff. So it's a big blow to Washington's. So it's a big blow to Washington's administration when Jefferson leaves. And also he can't manage to find another Southern democratic Republican to take his place. And so he has to pull in another federalist.

And so all of a sudden it seems like, yeah, Washington doesn't really stand above all this anymore. He's really a federalist. He won't admit to it.  He's partisan, just like everyone else.

One of the last things to happen to make him seem really partisan is he passes something called the Jay Treaty.

So  John Jay, who's an American diplomat negotiates this treaty with England, ends up being called the Jay Treaty. And then the Congress And then the Senate passes it, the legislative branch, but you know, it's still basically Washington's thing and what this treaty did and what this treaty was, was an agreement with the British.

And so what it did is, um, um, it agreed on a trade deal, a very good trade deal for the United States. It got the British to remove their forts from North America as well. So that's also a great for the United States, but. In some ways, the British had kinda out negotiated John Jay, because the trade deal was, in many ways, very favorable, uh, to, to Great Britain, It didn't stop the impressment of US soldiers. I won't get into all that, but anyways, there's some stuff that doesn't go into the treaty that a lot of people wanted in it. And so, uh, the democratic Republicans see this as Washington siding with the English over the French. And they're incensed. They're like, Hey, the French just helped us in this revolutionary war.

These are our allies. They stand up for Republican ideals, just like the United States does. And you guys  are instead signing a treaty with the monarchists, the hated monarchists, you know, you're signing a deal with the King.

And part of the fallout from this is James Monroe is a democratic Republican and he is the American ambassador to France.  And when the J treaty passes, instead of him trying to assuage the French government and say, no, look,  we were just signing this deal in order to resolve some things and get on good terms with the English, but we also want to be on good terms with you guys.

Instead. He takes to the streets with the French and he's like, yeah, can you believe what Washington did?  This guy is supposed to be serving under Washington and he's actively undermining him in France. Of course, he's recalled and fired from the Washington administration, but the damage in large part is done.

And so in this environment, you know, in his first administration, Washington, he's such a national hero. He's able to avoid public criticism  in his second administration, in his second term. Uh, the Democratic Republicans really come after him and they have all these newspapers and they're sniping at him and nothing is off limits, you know, they're doing the classic,

they're doing the classic tabloid thing, uh, they're digging up everything, they're making really personal attacks on him, in fact, they go back. And they attack.  In fact, they go back and they dig up the Jumanville incident. If you remember that thing where  Washington accidentally kills the wrong Frenchmen and it sets off this international incident, they, they bring that back up and say that he assassinated a man under a flag of truce and they play it up in, in the worst terms possible.

And you can see how petty things get by the end of his administration. In one particular story that I think is interesting  after Washington's farewell address, federalists in the Virginia house of delegates, Introduced a motion  that hailed Washington for his quote, virtue, patriotism, and wisdom.  And the Republicans in Virginia,  you know, they have to be kind of passive aggressive about it because Washington still is a national hero, despite all of this.

But they lobby to have the word wisdom removed from the resolution  basically saying like, oh, yeah, no one can question Washington's virtue and patriotism. Oh his wisdom.  I'm not sure about that. Let's take that out  It's very passive aggressive And so

and so look Washington  had this viewpoint that he wanted the United States to be united He didn't want this factionalism.  He didn't want political parties. He didn't want

He didn't want factionalism. He didn't want these political parties and this partisanship and this division. But, you know, I think that was a little bit naive because at the end of the day,  parts of the United States were divided in terms of what they wanted. And so no amount of saying, Hey guys, let's stick to it together can overcome the fact that there are different interests for different groups

And so this opposition is one of the reasons that. And so this, this, and so this opposition, this division is one of the reasons that Washington decides to step down after just two terms, eight years as president of the United States of America. Another reason that he decides to step down is his health.

Um, his health is, is bad. So. His teeth had started to rot in his twenties, uh, but by the end of his presidency, he had no natural teeth remaining. So he had to wear these dentures. The dentures were really uncomfortable. Remember, this is 1700s technology. So they are made out of metal, uh, and then the teeth are made out of ivory and, um, and actually human teeth from poor people and slaves, uh, that would be bought.

Um, these dentures are incredibly uncomfortable. They scratch. Uh, his gums when he talks or when he opens his mouth, it made speech really difficult and his gums were just often inflamed and infected and really painful. He also has other health scares. He develops pneumonia at one point. He has a recurring tumor in his leg that makes him very sick and, uh, and has to be drained from time to time.

His hearing was going, his eyesight was going.  He was in his sixties. So he's not that old, but he had lived a really hard life and a very stressful life and had taken its toll on him. And so he was aging very quickly in the sixties. His health was not good. And so he didn't want to continue to subject himself to that.

He wanted to be free of the presidency.

And so he does, he steps down after two terms. And, you know, peacefully turns over power and there was a free and fair election after his presidency.  It's a remarkable run. Uh, I'm just going to read at length actually from Chernow. I think he has a great summary. It was kind of long, but I think it's a great summary of what Washington was able to accomplish in eight years.

You know, the thing that really stands out to me is  just forming a federal government.  Is accomplishment enough.  There's no precedent. There's nothing to do. Like just forming this whole bureaucratic structure from the ground up is a huge accomplishment. Anything beyond that is gravy. You know, any initiatives, any actual initiatives.

It's amazing that he could do that as well. And yet there were many things  that he did accomplish. And so let's, uh, let's read some of that turnout rights. Washington had forged the executive branch of the federal government appointed outstanding department heads and set a benchmark for fairness, efficiency, and integrity.

That future administrations would aspire to match  Washington's catalog of accomplishments was simply breathtaking. He had restored American credit and assumed state debt, created a bank, a mint, a coast guard, a custom service, and a diplomatic corps introduced the first accounting tax and budgetary procedures, maintained peace at home and abroad, inaugurated a Navy, bolstered the army.

and shored up coastal defenses and infrastructure, proved that the country could regulate commerce and negotiate binding treaties, protected frontier settlers, subdued Indian uprisings, and established law and order amid rebellion, scrupulously adhering all the while to the letter of the Constitution.

During his successful presidency, exports had soared, shipping had boomed, and state taxes had declined dramatically. Washington had also opened the Mississippi to commerce, negotiated treaties with the Barbary states, and forced the British to evacuate their northwestern forts. Most of all, he had shown a disbelieving world that a Republican government could prosper without being spineless or disorderly or reverting to authoritarian rule.

So, you know, I think to understand how successful  His first presidency.  So I think to understand how successful his presidency was, you just have to look to the French example and the French revolution,

you know, the French revolution is a total mess in terms of how it's managed until Napoleon takes over and once Napoleon takes over, he's an amazing reformer, gets the French government really in shape,

gets the French government really in shape. But, you know, because of his temperament, uh, leads to all this violent. It leads to all this violence, and to his eventual overthrow, and just multiple decades of chaos.  With Washington, you get something like the Napoleonic Reformation, but without any of the chaos.

And so it's just smooth sailing for the United States.

And to what extent is Washington responsible for all this? Because many people will just say,  That Hamilton was actually the one responsible. And people said that at the time, you know, the democratic Republicans definitely accused  Washington of just being a marionette and that Hamilton was the one behind him, pulling all the strings.

It was all of his ideas that were being implemented. And while it's true that Hamilton hatched a lot of these ideas.  You know, Jefferson had a lot of ideas too. The reason that all this stuff was implemented is because fundamentally Washington had had the same experience as Hamilton in the continental army.

And so they had a similar viewpoint. And so he agreed with Hamilton and he enabled him and he served as a check on him. Uh, Uh, he used his judgment.  to pick and choose of what Hamilton put forward and saw that it was implemented.

You know, it was only Washington that had the stature to actually get this stuff through. If Hamilton himself had been president, you know, the, the,  if Hamilton himself had been president, the suspicion, From the democratic republicans would have been so strong  either a none of the stuff would have been passed or b There would have been a civil war very early in the life of the united states of america  And you can actually see  that it wasn't just you know,  A genius Hamilton as the man behind the curtains and  Washington as a paper leader by what happened after they parted.

Regarding Hamilton, here's a good quote from Chernow, I think. He says he began a long tragic descent. He had achieved his most stellar feats under Washington's benign auspices and seemed to lose his moral compass when When he no longer operated under his direct guidance for all his brilliance, Hamilton's judgment was as erratic as Washington's seemed unerring.

And so  Hamilton and Washington really were kind of the founding partnership of the United States. And it was Hamilton's brilliance with Washington's unerring judgment, you know, his just unbelievable ability to maybe think slower, but always make the right decision that led to these awesome outcomes.

And,

and I think Hamilton's lack of accomplishment without Washington shows just how necessary he was for that to happen.  After his presidency, once again, Washington tries to go home, be a gentleman farmer. Once again, he is kind of pulled into public service for a little bit. Uh, what happens is that when John Adams is president, Again,  uh, you know, there's kind of this cold war

Adams is really suspicious of all these democratic Republicans, all these leftists who, you know, just want to side with the communistic French. And so there is this, uh,

and so there is this kind of quasi war it's actually called the quasi war is the name it's known by, but there's our naval action between France and the United States, it's called a quasi war. Cause it never breaks out into actual open warfare. It's But it sure looks like the beginning of a war. And so there's some thought that the French might try to invade the United States, or at least try to foment a new revolution.

This one, not a moderate revolution like the United States had originally, but like a real, you know, rabble rousing. leftist French style, uh, uh, social revolution. And so an army is called together and John Adams asks Washington to come out of retirement to lead this army. And so Washington takes some steps, tries to get, you know, his lieutenants in order.

Um, Um, however, it never actually becomes necessary. And Adams eventually signs a peace treaty with the French that ends the whole episode. So that is kind of the last real incident. of Washington's life.

Washington's health continues to degrade. Um,  at Mount Vernon, Washington's health continues to degrade and eventually he catches a sickness. It's an infection of the throat and he's getting sicker and sicker and it's inflaming his throat more and more until swallowing is agonizing and he's having trouble breathing.

Uh, some doctors come to try and treat him and they bleed him, which was standard procedure for the time. You know, they cut him and, and drain some blood. And I always thought when I heard the story that, you know, maybe the bloodletting had some impact, but no, it was a, a huge part of his death. They took,  it was like two or three liters of blood from Washington's body.

Half of his blood, half the blood in his body. They end up letting out of his body, and so that incredibly weakens him to this infection, and so he continues to go downhill. You know, Washington was such a, a strong personality, was such a sturdy person, that he doesn't complain at all, despite this agonizing illness.

One of the last things he says is, quote, I feel myself going.  One of the last things he says is actually to the doctors and the slaves who are tending him. He says, quote, I feel myself going. I thank you for your attentions, but I pray you to take no more trouble about me. Let me go off quietly. I cannot last long.

And I think that just says something about his personality, that selfless service, the thinking of others,

the strong, resolute personality. He was who he was to the very end.

You know, I think the thing that enabled so much of the great achievements of his presidency was not so much what he did, but who he was. The fact that he was so trustworthy, the fact that he didn't seek power for its own sake. That is what allowed. All of this to happen and the trust that it engendered with the citizenry with his and the trust that it engendered with the citizenry, with the legislature, with foreign governments, with everyone.

He was the most trustworthy man in the world at the time.  He was one of the most trustworthy men in the world. He's one of the most trustworthy men I've ever read about. And I think that is the key to Washington and to his presidency.

So what did we learn? Uh, one Surround yourself with a brilliant team and enable them to do great work. By creating this open environment where views can be expressed. If you do surround yourself with people who are smarter than you, take the time to hear every viewpoint to make sure that you're not just kind of bowled over by stronger, more intelligent personalities.

Another lesson I take away is use that air of mystique, that mysteriousness, that aloofness,

to generate excitement and energy around what you want to accomplish. And then the last thing is just that trustworthiness that if you have that focus on a goal bigger than yourself, and you're willing to subsume your personal interests and your personal ambition to that, then it's going to draw people to you, they're going to have that trust in you, and it's going to accompl and it's going to allow you to accomplish much more than you could if you were overtly ambitious.

So that's it. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Uh, tune in next time. To hear my end notes. You know, one of the things I haven't touched on at all is slavery. And that was a big part of his life and a big part of his evolution. I just, there was no place where I could do this whole sidebar on slavery. So I'll do that in the end notes in the Washington guide.

I'll also talk about Martha Washington, how important she was to his development and success.

I'll talk about his, um, his. Maybe potential affair and whether he had another love in his life, , as well as more takeaways, more things that you can learn  📍 from his management style and how to be great like Washington was. So until then, thank you for listening to how to take over the world.

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