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In this episode we look at the biography of George Washington, and the politics of his administration.
A deep dive into the political history of the United States, hosted by President Shrimpo. In the West Wing with President Shrimpo is a deep dive into the political history of the United States. Each episode looks at the people and driving factors that created the country we live in today with special focus on the stories and voices least heard.
President Shrimpo 0:01
You're listening to in the West Wing, a political history podcast brought to you by WKNC. 88.1 My name is President Shrimpo, and in today's episode, we're going to be taking a look back on the life and times of America's first president, a notorious cherry tree hater, George Washington.
So who was George Washington, he's a lot of different things to a lot of different people. To some, he may be the boy who cut down a cherry tree, but then could not tell a lie to his father. He could be the man with wooden teeth, he could be the man on the dollar bill or a quarter. He's a lot of different things. But we I feel like we don't have many honest conversations about what exactly he was to the beginnings of American history. So I'm going to take a brief look back on his early biography before he became president, just so that we can understand who he was in reality.
So George Washington was born into a wealthy Virginia family in 1732. And his early career was spent primarily as a land surveyor. So what he would do is he would go out and you know, he would make maps of land and help with the development of land out in the rural reaches of the Appalachians.
And so a lot of his early career, he was personally invested in western expansion in the settlement of the mountainous regions out west. And he personally clashed with Native Americans on the land was being seized.
And he really deeply resented the restrictions that the British placed on development of land west of the Appalachians. Now, this sort of flashy career, as a sort of a rugged frontiers, men would come to an end, when his brother sadly passed away of tuberculosis. And in the 1750s, he would then inherit his brother's estate, Mount Vernon, something that he is associated with, to this very day. And in a single moment, he would become a wealthy plantation owner in Northern Virginia, eventually, Mount Vernon would grow to be over 8000 acres of land.
And this land was worked, not primarily by himself, but by slave labor.
It's not pretty. It's something that sadly, quite a few sources will kind of gloss over or try to sort of whitewash. But I don't want to do that I don't want to, you know, talk down to you. And I want to tell you the honest, brutal truth, which is that by the 1760s, he owned roughly 50 slaves, and came in to own over 300 slaves by the time of his death in the 1790s. And, you know, that's a fact that's often sanitized.
Apparently, he morally opposed the practice and apparently refused to break up the slave families, by selling them. And He did ask for most of them to be released upon his death in his will. But the fact remains, he was a willing participant in chattel slavery, and directly profited from the unpaid work of other human beings that he kept as property. And, you know, I don't mean to
make broad assertions, but I just want to make it very clear that the first President of the United States directly made his wealth and, and, you know, was able to build his prestige, off the backs of people in bondage, and that's something that I think we need to reckon with.
But you know, who else was he because he was a lot of different things. Part of his time spent as a land surveyor led to him sort of being
well versed in traveling in the rural reaches of the Appalachians, which served him very well, during a period known as the French and Indian War, also known as the Seven Years War, which lasted from 1754 to 1763. And during this time, Washington would have a distinguished career
serving in the British military. So with these factors, being a wealthy plantation owner, and with his distinguished career in the military, he would become engaged in Virginia's colonial state politics, prior to the American Revolution.
I don't want to go into a whole lot of depth regarding this period, because, quite frankly, other people have talked about it in a way that is more clear and more concise, and I think I could talk about it. But to just generally summarize, Washington was involved in the state legislature of Virginia. And he eventually gravitated towards American nationalism and sort of the idea that the 13 colonies should have some greater degrees of freedom from the British crown. That's not to say he wholeheartedly supported independence from the get go. But, you know, he he was definitely in the sort of slightly more revolutionary camp. And so, by the time the American Revolutionary War began, he will be selected as commander in chief.
He sort of banked off of his reputation as a landowner as a military commander, and an active voice in Virginia and broader colonial politics to secure the position. I don't want to go into a whole lot of detail regarding the events of the Revolutionary War. Quite frankly, that's not something that I am interested in covering.
But broad strokes of his service as Commander in Chief, he built up quite a bit of goodwill during the war, both with other commanding officers and with his own soldiers, as well as with the Continental Congress. And his time as commander in chief helped hold the American military together, it was incredibly disorganized, and loose, and quite frankly, of inferior quality to the British. And ultimately, he was a highly effective commander, leading to eventually, America gaining its independence. So, after the American Revolution was one, he would eventually retire to Mount Vernon, to continue his life as a farmer, as you like to fancy himself. But he was constantly preoccupied with hosting guests, both, you know, former revolutionary commanders, politicians, diplomats, a whole host of figures, mostly based on his distinguished service, as commander in chief.
But during this time, American politics were at best described as turbulent. This was during the Articles of Confederation as had been, as we've discussed in the prior episode,
and has one of the many wealthy landowners in the new United States. George Washington, believed that the Articles of Confederation were simply not a tenable governing document. At the time, George Washington said, quote,
George Washington 8:17
something must be done, or the fabric must fall for it is, certainly tottering.
President Shrimpo 8:24
George Washington was very clear that he favored a strengthened federal government, as was eventually adopted in 1787. And because of his stature, both in Virginia politics prior to the revolution, and for his stature as the commanding commander in chief, he will be selected by Virginia state government to serve as one of five delegates to the Constitutional Convention, and would be eventually selected to serve as the president of the convention.
And his role was fairly neutral, but he essentially held proceedings over the convention. And he only voiced his opinion on the drafting process, a select number of times, and was generally seen as sort of nonpartisan and reasonable compared to some of the other delegates sent.
After the Constitutional Convention, George Washington personally pushed in favor of the Constitutions adoption, circulating copies of the Federalist Papers in its favor. So with the new constitution, one of the three bodies established in the federal government was the executive branch with the presidency. And from the end of 1788 to the end of 1789. America's first presidential election would be held.
This is the only presidential election to stretch out over the course of two years.
But
that's in large part because the process was not set in stone and many States needed to
Who developed necessary political infrastructure for holding such a large scale election.
But in the process, George Washington would be unanimously elected president, not by the popular vote, but by the electors, as I have explained in the prior episode, American elections were not the same as they are today. So we need to sort of wonder why was George Washington unanimously elected? And the simple answer is that nobody else in American politics at the time could unify the sort of disparate forces within the early republic. Most politicians were just overtly partisan and ideological in a way that Washington didn't appear to be.
And few people had the same national stature that Washington did.
Perhaps, Benjamin Franklin could have served in a similar light, but quite frankly, he was too old. He was one of the oldest Founding Fathers and by the time of the election, 1788, he was in no shape to run. So the role of the American presidency essentially fell into the lap of George Washington because he was the only person able to fill the role. The only states that actually had a contested popular vote were Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. These elections were not for the preferred candidate of the voter, but for the selection of the electors to be sent. As a reminder, during this period of time, electors would be the position elected and then the once the Electoral College was assembled, the electors were then free to choose which candidate they prefer to vote for. And each elector was given two equally weighted electoral votes, which were necessary in the selection of the presidency and vice presidency.
So for the role of President George Washington, was essentially not contested. But there was a lot more contention for the selection of the Vice President say,
John Adams would be elected in a distant second place, and would serve as America's first vice president. Three states out of the original 13 colonies actually did not participate in the selection, those being New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island.
They all didn't participate for varying reasons, New York was not able to agree on a slate of electors in time for the election. North Carolina and Rhode Island had neither ratified the Constitution by that time, and so we're ineligible to hold elections for the new presidency.
George Washington, was inaugurated in New York City with the oath of office administrated on Wall Street. You may be wondering why that is? And the simple answer is that the District of Columbia did not exist, as it does today. And so, New York City acted as the sort of provisional capital during this early period, serving as president, George Washington sort of believed himself to be above partisanship in the way that many other politicians were. Um, and so sort of as an act of goodwill across both the political across the political aisle, George Washington filled his cabinet both with Federalist and anti Federalist figures, most notably, with Thomas Jefferson serving as Secretary of State, and Alexander Hamilton, serving as Secretary of the Treasury. While he did surround himself with those who were essentially rivals and disagreed with one another. He really very clearly had favorites. And George Washington especially leaned in favor of the ideas of Alexander Hamilton, serving as Secretary of the Treasury, and regularly leaned on Hamilton for support in developing both domestic and foreign policy.
So Alexander Hamilton was one of the leading policy thinkers under Washington.
So what did exactly what exactly did Hamilton want to do?
Alexander Hamilton essentially sought to strengthen the young Republic by fusing the interests of government and the wealthiest elements of society. A secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton raised taxes to pay down the national debt, something that he was deeply invested in doing. The First National Bank was chartered in 1791, Despite the objections from Jefferson and other anti Federalists in government.
So what exactly was the First National Bank? Essentially, it was a the first attempt at a single centralized banking system in the United States.
It's meant to sort of stabilize currency during this sort of very developmental stage in the American economy.
And essentially, it created a vested interest in the American government to uphold the larger and larger banking system. The federal government had roughly 20% ownership of the bank. And essentially, it established a much more stable national currency that had existed under the Articles of Confederation in which states were the body that printed money and regulated the finances of the states. Alexander Hamilton said of the bank, quote,
Alexander Hamilton 15:40
such a bank is not a mere matter of private property, but a political machine of the greatest importance to the state.
President Shrimpo 15:47
While in the short term, this did stabilize finances. It's it faced serious opposition, with the formation of a pro and anti bank faction within both parties at the time. And essentially, it just kicks the issue down the road with politics in later decades, really centering around the existence of this national bank. But for the time being, it did certainly seem to be a major step forward in American finances. Now, jumping ahead a little bit, George Washington would be reelected unanimously in 1792, along with John Adams. By this time, both the Federalist and anti Federalist factions had officially coalesced into two fledgling parties, with the Federalists becoming the Federalist Party, which is, I think, quite straightforward, and the anti Federalists becoming the democratic Republicans. George Washington's election to the presidency remained nonpartisan, both parties endorsed his reelection, and he remained registered as a non partisan candidate. However, the fight for the vice presidential election was much, much uglier. The re election of John Adams as vice president was challenged by the Democratic Republican George Clinton, which sort of points to a growing tension within government under the surface, which I think sort of undermines the idea that the period of George Washington's presidency was sort of this period that was above partisan fray that we sort of like to imagine and sort of mythologize about this period. Now, we're going a little bit back to something that I mentioned earlier, which was Alexander Hamilton's attempt at paying down the national debt. And in order to do so, he raised a number of federal taxes, specifically, a tax was raised on the production of whiskey in 1791. Now, there's sort of rural poor communities out in the west in western Pennsylvania, really heavily relied on whiskies production,
and really heavily resisted this new tax. When the tax was initially enforced. farmers in the state would tar and feather tax collectors who attempted to enforce the new whiskey tax. With the large scale enforcement of the tax beginning, an armed group of 500 men burn down the local tax collectors home.
This occurring in 1794. And a month later, President Washington issued a proclamation ordering the rebels to return home and for their militias to be raised in opposition to the rebels. When negotiations with the rebels failed, George Washington ordered 13,000 federal troops into the region, and the conflict ended without a single battle. However, three to four rebels were killed in the ensuing conflict, along with a number of civilian casualties. And this remains the only instance in American history in which a sitting president served as a as like an acting field commander during an armed conflict.
This whole incident serves to reinforce the authority of the federal government, which is something that Federalists really approved of, but it horrified anti Federalists such as Thomas Jefferson, with the sheer scale of federal action.
And really, this sort of points to a growing rift that was beginning to occur between the administration of George Washington and anti Federalist thinkers in the Democratic Republican Party.
I believe by 1793 Thomas Jefferson had resigned his role as Secretary of State,
generally on good terms with President Washington, but it does point to a growing rift that was occurring. Another point in which
George Washington was sort of swayed by the thinking of Federalists, more specifically by Alexander Hamilton, we need to look at foreign policy, an area where presumably Thomas Jefferson serving as Secretary of State would hold greater sway. But that was simply not necessarily the case.
A key feature of George Washington's foreign policy during his presidency was non intervention with European powers. And oftentimes, it's sort of asserted that George Washington was just on an ideological level, opposed to American involvement with foreign affairs. And, you know, people often kind of look to
George Washington, maybe as a source of isolationist sort of sentiment. But is that really fully the case, um, there's, I think, sort of a case to be made, that America's position, sort of on general neutrality had less to do with sort of ideological opposition to foreign affairs, but instead towards a sort of very realistic look at the American economy and military. So with war breaking out between the United Kingdom and France, at the start of the revolution of French Revolutionary Wars,
some more radically minded Americans expected America to intervene on the side of the very sort of radically liberal French, I mean, radically liberal in in this sort of revolutionary period,
you know,
basically the same sentiments that eventually led to the foundations of
the American fight for independence.
George Washington very explicitly objected to American involvement in European affairs, aligning once again, with Alexander Hamilton's opinion on the issue, with Washington saying he wanted America to be, quote,
George Washington 22:01
freeore from political connections with every other country, to see them independent of all, and under the influence of none. In a word, I wanted American character that the powers of Europe may be convinced that we act for ourselves and not for others.
President Shrimpo 22:16
While this isolationist sentiment may have been because of some genuine ideological values held by Washington, we need to be honest and say that America was still relatively weak militarily. We only gained independence from the United Kingdom, when the French intervened and on our side, and we also had deep financial ties with the British as particularly northern merchants and manufacturers. So I think it's fair to say that war with Britain during this period, really simply would have hurt the pockets of many northern merchants who were very important for the political legitimacy of the Washington administration. And we see this in Washington's foreign policy even further, particularly with the Jay Treaty, which was drafted in 1794. This treaty was drafted in part by John Jay, and it secured American shipping rights.
Because at the time, the British had been relatively hostile towards British shipping, and it also granted joint trading rights between the two nations along the Mississippi and established a commission to settle the Anglo American border, both in the north and the west. And on yet another issue, many Democratic Republicans felt that Washington was becoming too cozy with British.
So by 1796, it's fair to say that George Washington was just tired. He was increasingly unhappy with the animosity of democratic Republicans towards both his domestic and foreign policy. And so he did not seek a third term. George Washington's retirement after eight years, would set an unofficial precedent for all presidents after him. The only president to successfully be elected to more than two terms was Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was elected to four consecutive terms. And eventually, the 22nd amendment would be passed in the 1950s, which legally set in stone, a two term limit for the presidency. But, you know, looking back on George Washington's career, I think it's fair to say that it's not has deserving of the mythology that I think we often look at it with, it was not nonpartisan. It was not without turbulence, and it was not without issues, but it was the first and it sort of set the precedents for what the American presidency should be for future presidents. Um, and I think it's important to
say that while George Washington never officially embraced the label of being a Federalist, he was very clearly a Federalist in terms of his outlook and approach to government.
Alexander Hamilton was essentially the brainchild behind the entire Federalist agenda. And it's fair to say that he was the single most influential man in Washington's cabinet. So even during his presidency, we begin to see the development of essentially a two party system. And that sort of dynamic of two dominant opposing parties would continue in American politics all the way up until the present. And so with that, we now look to the topic of our next episode, America's first two party system with the Federalist and Democratic Republican parties. You've been listening to in the West Wing, a WKNC 88.1 podcast, and I've been your host, President Shrimpo.
The intro music used on in the West Wing, the Star Spangled Banner by the United States Marine Band, Libertad by Iriarte and Pesoa
Transcribed by https://otter.ai