Freedom Just Around the Corner by Walter A. McDougall

Author:Walter A. McDougall
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9780061899843
Publisher: HarperCollins

Did Washington ever glance skyward and ask the Divine Author, “Why must it always be me?” He wanted only to improve Mount Vernon and some of his lands in the west. He had served his country beyond the call of duty. He cherished his reputation and knew politics could only besmirch it. Yet he also knew the Constitutional Convention designed the presidency for him, and by late 1788 he worried lest Anti-Federalists promote a candidate such as New York’s Governor Clinton, opposed to a strong federal executive. Hence Washington’s stipulation to the effect he would serve only if elected unanimously was statesmanship rather than vanity: he was already protecting the office. For his part, Hamilton was learning to manipulate the rules of American politics and realizing the rules were flawed. Under the Constitution each member of the electoral college was to cast two votes for president, with the second place finisher becoming vice president. So Hamilton had to promote a second candidate, preferably a northerner, strong enough to defeat other opponents but not so strong as to rival Washington! His choice was John Adams, but his work that winter was to conspire with some Federalist electors not to cast their second votes for him. Hamilton succeeded too well. When the Senate tallied the vote in April 1789, Washington was named on all ballots, but only Massachusetts and New Hampshire were solid for Adams. He won the vice presidency with a mere thirty-four of the remaining sixty-nine votes. Adams was livid when he learned of the ploy, a fact pregnant with mischief should he and Hamilton ever need to unite in a party.

Washington’s purpose was to prevent the emergence of parties. So he made his journey to the erstwhile capital city of New York a leisurely procession in which he displayed his dignity and republican humility to the people of the middle states. Later he toured New England and in 1791 journeyed south so Americans might see and respect, but not fear, their president. In churches, Masonic temples, and synagogues he denounced bigotry and exhorted good citizenship. At the inauguration he added the pledge “So help me God” to the presidential oath, noted how Providence had guided Americans to liberty and “unparalleled unanimity,” and concluded by invoking the benign Parent of the Human Race.28

The fifty-seven-year-old Virginia gentleman then mustered his characteristic stage presence and placed it at the service of his new office and country. “Characteristic” is the right word, because Washington knew any effective leader must be an actor sufficiently self-possessed not to step “out of character.” The least lapse into haughty, capricious, or otherwise regal behavior, even if born of honest frustration, would be seized upon by Cassandras who believed with Patrick Henry that the presidency “squinted toward monarchy.” Washington’s unique position also required deliberation. He confided to Madison that as everything he would do “will serve to establish a precedent, it is devoutly wished on my part that these precedents be fixed on firm principles.”29 He must resist

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