Years later, he presided over the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia in 1787, and oversaw the drafting of the Constitution that made the United States of America a more perfect union. George Washington was the general who led the Continental Army to a seemingly impossible victory over British forces, at a time when Great Britain was the world’s lone superpower. His excellence in all things is so much a matter of record that, in the American imagination, he has lost much of his humanity. (In fact, even the liberty obsessed Jefferson failed to match Washington's intellectual acknowledgement of the fundamental contradiction of slavery and democracy.)Ī highly pleasurable read and the perfect introduction to the life and times of George Washington.

He also understood the blot of human bondage and was determined to free his slaves upon his death, much to the chagrin of his family and fellow Virginia planters. Yet Washington understood the historic moment and his place in it and seized it for the better, much to our nation's historic benefit. The new nation had no tradition of democracy and would have gladly welcomed their war hero - our first true national celebrity - as a welcomed benign sovereign chastened by a revolutionary re-definition of the relationship of power between ruler and ruled. It is quite obvious that had Washington chosen to serve as an enlightened King (of which many understood there was no such thing), he could have with widespread support. He truly was a man of disciplined self-control who understood throughout his life that his place in history would be solely judged by how he responded to guiding the post-British new nation. It's impossible to not be in awe of Washington, who, unlike many great men throughout history, failed to control ambition and its interaction with the achievement of great power. While no where near the depth of Chernow's tome, Ellis covers all the main themes of Washington's life from youth, to bumbling but ambitious officer in the French and Indians wars, to much-maligned, beleaguered Revolutionary war hero, to his service as President - and truly father of his new nation - for the first two terms of the new federal government (whose survival was by no means guaranteed). Initially I preferred Chernow's book, but as I started to compare the two for interpretation, Ellis's gorgeous narrative writing quickly won me over. Presidents, I began with this and Ron Chernow's behemoth 'Washington: A Life,' a far more comprehensive treatment. As part of my 2-year quest to read the top two biographies of each of our 43 U.S. This was the first of two books I'm currently reading about George Washington.

His Excellency by Joseph J. Ellis