The Presidents: #1: George Washington

[Ardent15]

I think in order to understand where we are today as a nation, we have to understand where we went right, where we went wrong, and the general history of the nation and the Presidency.

So, I've decided to launch threads discussing each of America's 44 Presidencies.

Number 1: George Washington

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_washington

For the mods, I have moved this to the Lounge.

[billyclem]

1. Washington wasn't the first,

John Hanson was, and there were six others before Washington.

[Zomby Woof]

2. Ah, what would DU be without its Cliff Clavens?

The presidency as defined by the Constitution? Hanson, et al, are not counted. The OP is referring to the presidents whose office is defined by Article II of the Constitution.

That would make Washington the first.

Thanks for the playing. We have lovely consolation prizes.

[jobycom]

3. Including Richard Starky?

:shrug: Or is he yet to come.

That old John Hanson myth is still hanging around, eh? :rofl:

[Bucky]

4. No. Hanson held an entirely different job with entirely different responsibilities

Being president of Congress was not, in any fashion, comparable to being president of the United States.

[Bucky]

5. Washington once shocked his male dinner companions by speculating on remarriage if Martha died

This happened in the 1780s. He believed if Martha died off he'd be in a good position to marry some sweet young thing and sire up a brood of young'uns. Oh, that poor devil. Even that late in life our Founding Father was living in denial of the fact that he was shootin' blanks.

[jobycom]

6. Most underappreciated figure in our nation's history, except maybe Frederick Douglass.

Washington was the linchpin who held together the dreamers and schemers and idealists, and balanced them all to form a stable nation. He was enough an idealist to resist becoming king, and to shame those who wanted to turn the Revolution into their own power grab, but he was enough of a pragmatic leader, military and civilian, to persuade the idealists to work together when they disagreed. He motivated the most cynical with higher goals, and the most unrealistic with calls to reason, all while reigning with a charisma that inspired all sides to work with him. He was that mythical creature who could be a man of action or of intellect, and who even seemed to know when he should be each.

He's become such an often-recited name we've lost who he really was.

[Captain Hilts]

7. Gotta give him dap for declining the job of King. nt

[Bucky]

8. Actually no one ever actually offered him that job.

Anyone with any power in the 1780s who made that suggestion would be quickly laughed out of office.

[Captain Hilts]

9. He opposed the idea while Al Hamilton was flogging it. nt

[Bucky]

10. Hamilton never suggested there be a king

At the convention he did advocated a life time term for the Upper House (which wasn't called the Senate yet), but if I recall correctly he only wanted a president with a really long term of office, 9 or 7 years--nothing hereditary. Basically he was calling for an aristocratic republic.

The other thing you can ping Hamilton for was egging on the dissatisfied Continental Army officers in 1783 over Congress's inability to raise money to pay them. That dissatisfaction nearly turned into a march on congress, the Newburgh Conspiracy, which may or may not have turned into a military coup. GW, as I'm sure you know, headed that off with his "gone blind in the service of my country" speech. But again, there was zero talk about anyone making Washington king.

In 1783 most people approved of a government so weak that it couldn't even pay its bills or enforce its own laws. Talking about making anyone king was strictly tin foil territory back then. No one would've taken the suggestion seriously.