Recently I carved out time to read Ron Chernow's 800-page biography of George Washington. We tend to have only vague notions about Washington, but Chernow's biography truly brings him to life. Far from being the wooden, mythical figure we imagine, Washington was a man of great passions and strong emotions, which he worked hard to direct into productive channels throughout his long career in private life and public service.
Washington's strengths were legion. A French military officer observed, perhaps with slight exaggeration, that Washington was "brave without temerity, laborious without ambition, generous without prodigality, noble without pride, virtuous without severity." I'm especially fascinated by Washington's decision making, and how he improved in that regard over time. Apparently he excelled at learning from his mistakes; not only did he welcome honest criticism from others, but he was ruthlessly self-critical as well. First as commander in chief of the Continental Army and then as the founding president of the United States of America, he actively sought out competing opinions from the men on his staff. Yet he didn't rush headlong to figure out the practical truth: as Chernow says, "Washington's inestimable strength, whether as a general, a planter, or a politician, was prolonged deliberation and slow, mature decisions."
Furthermore, Washington held himself to extremely high standards of personal and professional integrity. Whereas a lesser leader could easily have turned dictatorial in such a revolutionary environment, Washington hewed to a stricter path and always deferred to civilian authority as commander in chief and to constitutional principles as president. As Kipling might have said, he kept his head when all about him were losing theirs and blaming it on him: he did not allow himself to be overly impressed with his great successes, nor to seek revenge against critics and rivals who attacked him so incessantly. And yes, as a Virginia planter Washington did own slaves (as did his wife Martha through her first marriage), but he was the only slaveholding Founder who freed his slaves, albeit at the end of his life after long reflection on both the moral evils of slavery and the practicalities of emancipation (such as keeping families together and training his slaves in the skills they would need for a free life).
In sum, I conclude that, although Washington wasn't perfect, overall he was close to an exemplar of the virtue that Aristotle called phronesis or practical wisdom. The contrast with present-day demagogues is as glaring as it is distressing.
(Cross-posted at philosopher.coach.)
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