[0:01]Wanted, ambitious individual for leadership position. Be prepared for difficult application process and stressful work environment. Challenges, many. Rewards, numerous. Failure, possible. Your employer, the American people. The few chosen have been the presidents.
[0:38]Never in history has there been a job like this. And yet, the American presidency, as we know it today, may never have existed, had it not been for one man. I think one can debate Washington's intelligence and perhaps his political savvy, but what you cannot debate was the fact that this man was the embodiment of the revolution, and in fact now would become the embodiment of the new American Republic. Washington is the only president who was ever unanimously elected, whoever got every single vote in the Electoral College, and he got that twice. Number one, George Washington. Federalist, 1789 to 1797. 57 years old from Virginia. George Washington's inauguration took place on April 30th, 1789 at Federal Hall in New York City. As the first man to take the oath of office, Washington added the words, "So help me God," establishing the very first presidential precedent. So help me God. So help me God. So help me God. So help me God. So help me God.
[1:57]At best, Washington was apprehensive about his new job. After leaving his home at Mount Vernon, he wrote, "My movements to the chair of government will be accompanied with feelings not unlike those of a culprit who is going to the place of his execution. I greatly fear that my countrymen will expect too much from me."
[2:27]There were many questions about this new job, this president person. People wondered, what do you say? How do you describe this person, this man who was going to head the United States of America? His Excellency? We could laugh about it a bit, I suppose. Mr. Speaker, the President of the United States. But think for a moment what it would be like in our own time, if the sergeant at arms had to introduce the president today as his mightiness, his Excellency, his high mightiness, the President of the United States and defender of our liberties. That, in fact, was one of the titles suggested for the president. And he said, "No, no, no, call me Mr. President." And I mean, that's a nice gesture. It doesn't mean much, but it's a nice gesture. It almost meant nothing at all. Just weeks after taking office, Washington came down with a rare bacterial infection. Some believe it may have been anthrax picked up on a farm. Washington nearly died, which could have wrecked the fragile New Republic. American historians have spent more than two centuries now trying to dig up dirt on George Washington, to find the flaws in Washington. It's a tough chore. For a long time, Washington was thought of as a nice guy, sort of a boob, not real smart, famous for being tall. George Washington brought many personal qualities to the presidency. His dignity, integrity, and honesty are well known. But he also had his quirks. He refused to shake hands when he became President, he thought that was beneath the presidency.
[4:25]It was all part of establishing the image of the presidency. One example is how Washington projected his physical being. George Washington was the most athletic, the most robust, the most dynamic of all the founding fathers. He was the action hero, if you will, the 18th century. Who was considered by Jefferson the best horseback rider of the entire period. Washington usually wrote a white horse named Nelson. And Nelson became a vital part of Washington's public relations package. His version of a tail hook landing. When he would visit towns during the presidency, sometimes he would travel in the comfort of a carriage. Most of the distance between towns. But in many cases, he would hop out of that carriage and get on to Nelson and ride into town, looking like a million bucks, looking like that war hero, that man among men, looking like someone who could lead anyone.
[5:35]Washington traveled extensively during his presidency, deliberately visiting every state in the new union. Along the way he bought American landscape paintings. Many still hang at Mount Vernon. By doing so, he became America's first great patron of the arts. Being first was a Washington trademark. We all knew that he was first in war and first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen. But we never knew such things as the fact that he was first in dancing, a minuet man.
[6:17]George Washington loved to dance and at presidential receptions had ladies waiting in line for one dance with the president.
[6:27]Another thing that he never got credit for, he was first in interior decorating, for example. He was always working on fixing up Mount Vernon, even during the Revolutionary War. He was into designing uniforms. He never got credit, he was like the Calvin Klein of his day. And um, he was first in gambling. He would bet on anything. He may have had certain personal foibles, but in terms of political leadership, the man was a marvel.
[7:06]Now, I don't know if Washington fully understood what his role was. But he was a man accustomed to commanding. Washington as a general, the way he commanded was to have frequent councils of war and to get everyone's opinion. And then he would judge. And this is the same way he ran his administration as President. He seems to have been a very, very good judge of character and at the same time a good judge of people's talents. So he surrounded himself with people who would do their job and in the process make him look good. In creating the executive branch of government, Washington hired men he knew and trusted. Brilliant men of great talent. Certainly his first cabinet is probably the best we've ever had. You know, when you have Hamilton at Treasury and Jefferson at State and Henry Knox at War, it just makes every subsequent one look like a pickup team. Chief among them, of course, Alexander Hamilton. I think bringing Hamilton in as Secretary of the Treasury was his landmark achievement because, in fact, Alexander Hamilton set the course of this country in terms of its economy. What Hamilton did was build the framework of a national banking system. As a first step, he proposed that the new government assume all the leftover war debt of the 13 original states, thereby establishing a federal line of credit.
[8:44]In order to get that done, he had to make a deal with people who were reluctant to have it done. These included people such as James Madison and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, a state that had paid off most of its war debt. The issue of assumption, as it was called, became Washington's first test as president. Behind closed doors, he urged Madison, Jefferson, and Hamilton to consider a compromise. What he offered in return was the location of the nation's capital. The deal was straightforward. Hamilton got the funding, and the Virginians got the Federal Capital, to be permanently located on land that belonged to Virginia. Washington let others hammer out the details. But when it came to choosing the actual site of the new federal city, Washington made the final decision himself. He chose a plot of swampland called Foggy Bottom. It soon became unofficially known as the city of Washington. Because it was just a stone's throw from his home, Washington micromanaged the project. He personally surveyed the land where the new city would be built. He helped lay out the roads, and he left his imprint on the proposed president's mansion by tinkering with the blueprints. The building would not be finished until November 1800, a year after Washington's death. George Washington is the only president who never serves in Washington. George Washington defined the presidency, but it defined him as well, especially in times of crisis. One troubling crisis arose in 1793 when war broke out between England and France. Suddenly, America was called upon to choose sides. But Washington chose neutrality. It was a decision that would come to haunt his successors. On the domestic front, however, Washington faced crisis head on.
[11:02]One defining moment of the Washington presidency happens in his second term, and it's the Whiskey Rebellion. In 1794, Pennsylvania farmers were up in arms over a federal excise tax on liquor. They even dusted off an old battle cry. No taxation without representation. Washington's point of view was, wait a second. In 1776, we were rebelling against taxes that have been passed in London by the King and Parliament. But these taxes now, 1794, these are passed in Philadelphia. That's the law of the land. You have to pay them. As the nation's first Commander-in-Chief, Washington personally mustered 12,000 volunteers to march to Pennsylvania.
[11:53]This show of force was all it took to put down the rebellion. Washington understood very clearly that everything he did as the first president of the United States would be watched by nations abroad and by people at home and would set a precedent. Well, the main precedent, the one that he's known the most for is that he left. He decides at the end of his second term that he wants to step down. Partly, I think he's feeling the approach of age. He's in his mid 60s. I think he also wants to teach the country a lesson in the passing on of power. And you wonder, for example, if somebody like Richard Nixon say had been our first president, would Nixon have stepped down? Grace is a knowing when to leave. Washington left after two terms. I think that was his finest moment. In 1798, George Washington produced 11,000 gallons of whiskey at Mount Vernon, making him the single largest distiller of alcohol in America.
