Powerline reprises a tribute to "the indispensable man" on the day of his actual birth. And there's a podcast and an activity for you here. See also The Man Who Would Not Be King.Remember that we look at history with the luxury of knowing what happened. What might seem inevitable or obvious in hindsight was more often than not a bold course, the outcome of which was uncertain at best. We must recapture this sense of contingency and daring if we are to understand Washington. A soldier by profession and a surveyor by trade, Washington was first and foremost a man of action. He was at every important intersection of the American founding; his decisions and practical wisdom were crucial to the success of the effort at every stage. And at every moment – from the time he became commander in chief to his death – his project was to found a self-governing nation, a constitutional republic. It is here that we see the brilliance of Washington's statesmanship...
Jefferson said of him:
His integrity was pure, his justice the most inflexible I have ever known, no motives of interest or consanguinity, of friendship or hatred, being able to bias his decision," Jefferson later observed. "He was, indeed, in every sense of the words, a wise, a good, and a great man."
