Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation

The first president of the United States, the unanimously elected Washington, becomes “a legend in his own time […] the core of gravity that prevented the American Revolution from flying off into random orbits, the stable centre around which the revolutionary energies formed” (121). Washington gains his popularity through his dedication to the Revolution:

His commanding presence had been the central feature in every major event of the revolutionary era: the linchpin of the Continental Army throughout eight long years of desperate fighting from 1775 to 1783; the presiding officer of the Constitutional Convention in 1787; the first and only chief executive of the fledgling federal government since 1789 (121). 

Physically, Washington is an odd combination of “an ugly misshapen oaf” of “pockmarked face, decayed teeth, oversized eye-sockets, massive nose […] heavy […] hips” and “gargantuan hands and feet” and the living embodiment of “sheer majesty” (124). Benjamin Rush, a member of the Continental Congress and signer of the Declaration of Independence, even says that “‘there is not a king in Europe but would look like a valet de chambre by his side’’’ (124). Washington even has the style of a king, riding with six white ponies—but this monarchical flair conflicts with his gesture of retiring after his second term to make way for another head of state.