How the Personal Qualities of George Washington and His Particular Circumstances Facilitated His Rise to the Become the First President of the United States
The recent nationwide e racial strife that has rocked the United States has galvanized public attention on the nations Founding Fathers whose lives have been subjected to increasingly close scrutiny to determine if they are worthy of continued adoration and respect. Indeed, even formerly sacrosanct figures in U.S. history including George Washington, among others, have become the focus of criticism by modern Americans because they owned slaves while simultaneously and hypocritically advocating for a new country where everyone was equal. The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic review of the relevant literature to identify the personal qualities of George Washington and to determine how these qualities and his particular circumstances facilitated his rise to the first presidency of the Unites States. Following this review, a summary of the research and important findings concerning the personal qualities of Washington and how his particular circumstances facilitated his political career are presented in the conclusion.
Review and Analysis
The current political brouhaha and looming criminal charges over the actions and behaviors of the incumbent commander in chief make it clear that the office of the president of the United States is a high profile position that is subjected to the closest scrutiny possible under the unique circumstances that exist at any given point in time in American history. Entire journals and countless books and scholarly texts have been written about the countrys presidents, but none have received as much attention as George Washington and for good reason (Ellis 2002). Through a life of public service, Washington succeeded in achieving what few of his British contemporaries thought possible, and notwithstanding the critical assistance that was provided by the French, Cornwallis would never have surrendered at Yorktown had it not been for the military genius of Washington and the Union Jack might be flying over the U.S. capitol today.
Although Washington did not have cable television networks and Internet-based social media platforms covering and assessing his every move in detail, the mainstream media of the day was positively fascinated with him and his activities were eagerly reported in the newspapers (Ellis 2004). It is not surprising, then, that Washingtons life and unique qualities have been the focus of a great deal of scholarship over the years due in large part to his contributions to the nations founding and its continued existence to the present, a fact that is firm testament to the possession of those leadership qualities that were desperately needed during the critical period in the nations history when he served as president from 1789 to 1797.
The historical record confirms that he was the right man for the job, and Washingtons contemporaries agreed. Tall even by todays standards, strikingly handsome and charismatic, it is not surprising that many of Washingtons personal qualities contributed to his ultimate career as U.S. president, but they also account for his early correspondence with a paramour at the same time he was courting the nations first first lady. The manner in which he leveraged these personal qualities to become the nations first president, though, makes him stand out from the other Founding Fathers. Indeed, when the layers of peoples outward personas are peeled back like so many layers of onions, there will always be some warts and blemishes, but despite his worst qualities, Washington not only redeemed himself, he helped create a nation and legacy that endure to this day.
There are also some other important issues to consider when evaluating Washingtons personal qualities...
Works Cited
Ellis, Joseph J. His Excellency: George Washington. New York: Vintage Books, 2004. ISBN 1 – 4000-3253-9.
Ellis, Joseph J. Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation. New York: Vintage Press, 2002. ISBN-10: 0375705244Freeman, Joanne B. Affairs of Honor: National Politics in the New Republic. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002. ISBN - 10: 0300097557>Locke, Joseph L and Wright, Ben. The American Yawp: A massively collaborative open U.S. history textbook. Stanford, CA: Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University, 2019.
He also ordered that the "Negros...are...to be taught to read and write; and to be brought up to some useful occupation..." And they are to be "comfortably clothed and fed by my heirs while they live..." Washington also wrote in his will that he "...expressly forbid the Sale, or transportation out of the said Commonwealth, of any Slave I may die possessed of." He did order the immediate freedom of
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George Washington There have been many people in American history who have dedicated their lives to the people and progress of the nation, and perhaps none are more notable than our very own one dollar bill - George Washington, who not only conjures up images of freedom and democracy, but of also the birth of America; a founding-father who was the first to govern the people under their own flag. George Washington
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