By Julia Parmley
Legend has it that George Washington wore wooden teeth, chopped down a cherry tree and threw a silver dollar across the Potomac River. While these are nothing but tall tales, much is known about the nation’s first president. George Washington was a successful businessman, respected commander and a brilliant politician. “There would not be a United States of America if there were not a George Washington,” says Adjunct Professor of History Kenneth Bowling.
GW Today sat down with Professor Bowling, co-editor of the documentary history of the First Federal Congress, 1789-1791, and creator of the GW course “George Washington and His World,” to learn more about the university’s namesake and the creation of Washington, D.C.
Q: What was the District like when George Washington was president?
A: Peter Charles L’Enfant and Washington designed the city in March 1791. It was a 6,000-acre track that extended along the Potomac River, north along Rock Creek, toward present-day Florida Avenue, over to the Anacostia River, and back to the Potomac. The mudflats of the Potomac extended all the way to what are now the grounds of the White House. Georgetown, to the west of what is now the university’s campus, was at the time the largest tobacco exporter in the state of Maryland. The area had long been seen as a great place for development.
There’s a story that the District, then known as the Federal City, was a swamp. This is nonsense. At the time, people used the term “swamp” to mean uncultivated land. But there was salt water, brackish and cattail marshes along the Potomac River and low lands to the north of GW’s current campus, just beyond K Street.
The name Washington, D.C., was given to the city in September 1791. The city’s commissioners named the city after Washington within the first year of its existence. George Washington himself never referred to it by that name.
Q: What was George Washington’s vision for the city?
A: George Washington envisioned a capital. He believed the Federal City would be, in 100 years, comparable to London. This would be a city that would have cultural institutions and be a commercial city, which was why it was located on tide water. It would be grand; it would be beautiful; it would be far more than just a seat of government.
Q: In his will, George Washington left stock for the creation of a national university in the District. Why did he want one?
A: George Washington proposed to the Federal City commissioners that a national university be created near what is now the Kennedy Center. He supported the idea because of his strong commitment to education. He understood you could not maintain a republican form of government unless your citizenry is educated. Also, he believed that a university would bring the male youth of the various sections of the country together. This would build a stronger union. Without question, Washington’s failure to convince Congress to create a national university was one of his greatest disappointments as a leader.
Q: Who was George Washington the person?
A: George Washington not only ran a plantation but was a prominent businessman. He had one of the largest liquor distilleries in the nation, a state-of-the-art grist mill (where grain is ground into flour) and a fishing industry on the Potomac River that managed to export hundreds of thousands of fish every year.
He had a temper. He was able to control it for the most part, but there were times he lost control of himself; for example, in New York City in 1789 during the first session of the federal Congress. When he heard the Senate refused to confirm one of his nominees for office, he burst into the chamber and demanded to know why.
George Washington was the only founder during the American Revolution to free his slaves, and he did it in his will as a very public declaration to the American people. His anti-slavery position was slow in coming. General [Gilbert du Motier] Lafyette and Alexander Hamilton were militantly anti-slavery and they spent a lot of time talking to Washington about it. Washington believed that states should pass legislation dealing with the issue, but they didn’t do so, so he took it upon himself as an iconic leader to make a public declaration of freeing his slaves.
Q: Who was George Washington the politician?
A: John Adams said Washington had “the gift of silence.” This allowed George Washington to become, in my opinion, the most successful politician of the American Revolution. He had his hand on public opinion in a society where letters and newspapers took days to travel to their destinations. He was a centralist, someone who believed in a strong central, federal government. He also believed religion was a private matter.
I believe that Washington, even more than Jefferson, was responsible for separation of church and state. As a president, Washington could have established informal connections between church and state, but he decided not to. I think that is his second most important contribution to American constitutional history, after civilian control of military.
At the end of the Revolutionary War, Washington went back to his Mount Vernon Estate. He didn’t attempt a military takeover of the government. It was virtually unheard of that somebody who had achieved what he had did not insist on becoming the leader of the country. But Washington went back to Mount Vernon, where he sat and waited for the American people to call him forth. Of course, he wanted to be president of the United States. But if the revolution had not been successful, nobody would know George Washington.
Q: Where should we turn to learn more about George Washington?
A: “The Invention of George Washington” by Paul Longmore and “George Washington: Man and Monument” by Marcus Cunliffe, a former professor of American studies at GW. Also, “Martha Washington” by Patricia Brady. George and Martha Washington had a wonderful marriage, according to people who saw them together.
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