BIOGRAPHER Ron Chernow has waded through an enormous amount of material – 77 volumes of letters and diaries, plus a seven volume and a four volume previous biographies – to produce a monumental work Washington, A Life. A gallant horseman, enthusiastic hunter and able general, George Washington, the first president of America, was also an elegant dancer and a man of fiery, passionate opinions.
The Americans almost worship George Washington. His image invokes awe and respect rather than love and affection. The biographies on him till now have tended to paint him as a harsh man, with frozen emotions. Ron Chernow has demolished this to reveal a man who was intensely emotional, but who had learnt to mask it. When a British ambassador’s wife remarked to him that he seemed to be happy to relinquish the office of president, he grew indignant and said, “You are wrong. My countenance never yet betrayed my feelings!” That guarded he was about letting his feelings show.
Washington’s mother was a crusty woman. She was strict and hardly ever complimented him on his various achievements. According to the book, when Washington was winning many wars for America and when people went to congratulate her, she only said that he was a good son and was doing his duty.
He was a six-footer and he put it to the best advantage by dressing up elegantly, carrying himself in style, “pulled his shoulders back and thrust his chest out, giving him added dignity. Like a figure strutting on a stage, he never lounged or slouched and seemed comfortable in a ballroom as in a battlefield.”
Washington gathered around him some of the best men of his time. His core team included James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. And when people let him down or betrayed him, he chose to ignore it. Says Ron Chernow “Washington knew perfectly how to wield silence as a weapon.” As he did with Charles Lee and Joseph Reed. Reed had been made adjunct general by Washington and Lee was a general. Washington ‘happened’ to read a letter that was harshly critical of him sent by Lee to Reed. He forwarded it to Reed, without mentioning that he had read it and had been hurt.
The biographer takes the reader through all the major moments in Washington’s life. How a faithful subject of Britain rebels against her, to lead the war from the front, how he metamorphoses into a statesman and a political genius. Washington was by no means a kind person. He worked his slaves hard, very hard. “It is hard to imagine more brutal manual labor than women pulling up tree stumps in icy swamps in record-setting cold, but Washington seems not to have found this inhuman scene objectionable and in no way diminished the work” says the author. Commenting on his position on slavery, the biographer feels that it was more an economic reasoning than humanness that prompted Washington to moot the idea of abolishing slavery. In 1786 he wrote to John Francis Mercer sounding this idea.
Washington died quietly, at his home, working till the last day. He was fully conscious and did not seek any religious service. In fact, his tolerance not only towards other denominations in Christianity, than the Episcopal Church to which he belonged, but also to other religions has been made a special mention of in the book. In his will, Washington freed his slaves.
In a lauding analysis of Washington, Ron Chernow says, “never a perfect man, he always had a normal quota of human frailty, including a craving for money, status and fame. Ambitious and self-promoting in his formative years, he had remained tightfisted, sharp-elbowed businessman and a hard-driving slave master. But over the years, this man of deep emotions and strong opinions had learned to subordinate his personal dreams and aspirations to the service of a larger cause, evolving into a statesman with a prodigious mastery of political skills and an unwavering sense of America’s future greatness. In the things that mattered most for his country, he had shown himself capable of constant growth and self-improvement.” Indeed a touching portrayal.
Washington has been written about and will continue to be a subject for exploration in future. But this biography is a remarkable work for two reasons – it portrays Washington in a light that endears him to the people who admire him and it has churned a vast body of previous work and given the reader the essence and flavor of them. A valuable addition to one’s biography collection.
(Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Books Ltd, Strand, London WC2R ORL, England)
