the last book I ever read (Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner, excerpt thirteen)

from Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner:

No one then understood how yellow fever was transmitted. Unsuspected by science, mosquitoes took over Philadelphia. In August, 1793, the disease moved on insect wings down the streets from the waterfront, creating the most murderous epidemic in all American history. Hamilton was soon believed to be dying. Those still-living inhabitants who had not fled the city, cowered indoors, the principal movement on the streets being of open carts driven by blacks (Negroes were considered immune) on which sprawled corpses being hurried to the pits which had taken over from the glutted graveyards.

The presidential office, Washington wrote, was “in a manner blockaded by the disorder,” yet word came to him that his presence in the city was one of the few things that gave inhabitants hope. Although he had announced a date for his departure for a Mount Vernon holiday, he decided to remain. However, Martha could not be persuaded to leave without him. Unwilling to expose her and the children to the contagion, he agreed to leave, but not one day sooner than he had previously intended.

the last book I ever read (Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner, excerpt twelve)

from Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner:

Morris was brilliant: the actual wording of the Constitution came from his pen. But Morris was sarcastic to those he considered more stupid than he, and possessed of such a reputation for licentiousness that the leg he had lost in a carriage accident was generally considered to have come off as a result of his jumping out of a lady’s window as her husband came in at the door. He was an inveterate prankster. Those who believed Washington was always proper and grave could not understand why he was intimate with such a man. They did know that Washington relished scapegraces who kept him amused.

As a financier intimately associated with the Hamiltonian circle, Morris belonged to the pro-British faction. Yet, as Washington’s unofficial representative in London, he had followed without deviation the interests of the United States, making reports Washington had used in his efforts to persuade Congress into commercial retaliation. Now, although Washington’s prestige carried the confirmation through, Morris was strongly opposed in the Senate.

the last book I ever read (Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner, excerpt eleven)

from Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner:

Oceans of ink have been spilled in describing the mounting conflict between Jefferson and Hamilton—and, in the process, the fundamentals have tended to become drowned.

Most confusing to the record has been the Marxist interpretation that arose in the 1930’s, which envisions the controversy as an example of “class warfare” waged between Hamilton as a champion of privilege, and Jefferson, who desired laws that would help the underprivileged. This attributes twentieth-century issues to the eighteenth. Those who wished through government action to support the poor in opposition to the rich were in those days known as “levelers.” Far from being a leveler, Jefferson boasted that the nation’s “mass of weight and wealth” supported his ideas. Had a welfare state been thought of during Washington’s Presidency, it would surely have been less sympathetic to Jefferson than Hamilton, since it involved so great an increase in governmental power. The controversy which embroiled the two champions was not basically concerned with the haves and the have-nots. It was between rival economic systems, each of which was aimed at generating its own men of property.

the last book I ever read (Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner, excerpt ten)

from Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner:

When Congress acted to establish the great departments, it was argued that the provision that the senators must approve the appointments implied that they should also insist on the power to veto dismissal. Such a provision would, by allowing the senators to keep in office cabinet ministers with whom they agreed but who opposed the policies of the President, reduce the President to a figurehead similar to a constitutional monarch. Thus the issue became a rallying ground for all who distrusted a strong executive.

Washington remained silent, but his intimate collaborator, Madison, persuaded the House to vote against empowering the Senate to veto dismissals. The Senate was not so easily persuaded. There was a tie vote there, which the presiding officer, Vice President Adams, broke to preserve the authority of the executive. Who can doubt that, had the President been less popular and trusted than Washington, the decision would have gone the other way, changing the whole direction of the American government.

the last book I ever read (Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner, excerpt nine)

from Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner:

Washington’s most obvious plight did not particularly bother him. Having once been the only soldier in the Continental Army, he was not dismayed to find that, at the opening of the government, he and the Vice President were the only members of the new executive. Their solitary eminence did not draw the two men together. In his fear of tyranny (and perhaps his jealousy of Washington) Adams had fought in the Continental Congress against Washington’s desire to build a professional, long-term army. Adams’s selection as Vice President had been dictated by the old need to balance a Virginia leader with a leader from Massachusetts. Recognizing the political wisdom of the choice, Washington had agreed to it, but he had no intention of working closely with his old opponent, nor did Adams want to work closely with Washington. It lay within the bounds of the Constitution that the Vice President could become the President’s prime minister, but the Washington-Adams hostility placed the Vice Presidency in the shadow whence it has never emerged.

the last book I ever read (Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner, excerpt eight)

from Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner:

It was surprising the variety of worries that crowded into Washington’s mind. Since he had publicly stated that he would never return to public life, would he be accused of indecision, of devious ambition even? Or, if he stayed home, would he be accused of failing to put his shoulder to the wheel because he wished the American republican experiment to collapse so that he could make himself king? More serious: would the convention be defeated before it started by each state’s binding its delegates with so many instructions that the men from the different regions would be prevented from agreeing on anything? And then there was the fact that his beloved wife was in a state of consternation: she had grounded her happiness, so she tearfully reiterated, on the belief that nothing could possibly happen that would destroy her tranquility by calling her husband back to public life.

Yet, however much Washington repined and struggled, he had no choice once it became clear that the convention presented a solid hope of matching the military victory of the Revolutionary army he had led with a political victory that would not only stabilize the nation but demonstrate for all the world to see that a people’s government was not synonymous with anarchy.

the last book I ever read (Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner, excerpt seven)

from Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner:

After the definitive peace had been signed, the British announced that they would evacuate New York on November 25, 1783. For once, Washington was willing to take part in a triumphal procession. However, the parade was ridiculously delayed because the British had, in a final mocking gesture, left their flag flying over Fort George with the halyards cut and the pole greased. Not until an indigenous sailor had mounted the pole and substituted an American flag could Washington consummate victory by advancing down the streets. It was as sad an occasion as a joyful one, for the city was desolate and battered, the few inhabitants who came out to cheer were thin and strained. There was a further wait until the British fleet finally sailed out of the harbor. Then Washington ordered a boat to take him across the Hudson to New Jersey. But first he would say farewell to the few officers still in service and to any others residing in the vicinity.

The assurances Washington had given his officers, during that stormy meeting at Newburgh, that they would receive what was due them had, despite his own best efforts, came to nothing. He approached this last parting with a sad and anxious heart. The small group of men who turned as he came in the door of the room at Fraunces Tavern saw that their general’s face was working with strong emotion. He walked over to the table where a collation was laid, tried to eat, but failed. He filled a glass of wine and motioned for the decanters to go around. As the officers saw his hand shake and his lip tremble, the bitterness in their hearts was drowned by love. The men who had fought so hard with Washington and suffered so deeply found tears in their eyes. With tears streaming down his own face, Washington embraced each separately, and then, the height of emotion having become unbearable, walked out of the room.