Its one of the first books I downloaded onto my kindle I got for Christmas. yay!
One thing I like about the kindle is that it can keep track of my highlights. These are interesting excerpts that I took from the book. Mostly things I found very interesting about George Washington that I had not known before (didn't really study US History in Mexico, and college courses never go into much detail).
17 things I learned about George Washington:
1. He never had kids of his own. He became guardian to Martha's two kids from her previous marriage.
2. He was more opposed to the economic dependance that American colonist had on England that the political dependance. The economic side affected him more as the owner of several plantations.
3. Loc 1513-1514: "(in one of the plans he envisioned a night attack across the ice with advanced units wearing ice skates) His staff rejected each proposal..."
4.After he became President "criticism of Washington could only take the from of whispers, since his transcendent status as "His Excellency" levitated above all political squabbles, making direct criticism almost sacrilegious". Loc 1875-1877.
5. John Marshall who is known as for his roles on the supreme court "wrote the definitive Washington biography" of his time. Loc 2030-2031. Even though "there is no record that Washington noticed him, Marshall certainly noticed Washington" Loc 2029.
6. During the Revolutionary War "the Iroquois Confederation or Six Nations had made the wholly sensible but spectacularity misguided decision that america was destined to lose the war" Loc 2167-2168.
7. "The Articles of Confederation, officially adopted in 1781, accurately embodied the same one-vote principles and did not create, or intend to create, a unified American nation but rather a confederation of sovereign states" Loc 2221-2222
8. After the war was won Washington "refused to believe reports from London and Paris that British negotiators tacitly recognized that they had lost their American empire. Even with the capture of Cornwallis's army, he pointed out, the British still possessed a formidable force on the American continent, considerable larger than the Continental army". Loc 2405-2408. He coundnt believe they were done with the war, that the British were accepting defeat.
9. "When word of Washington's response leaked out" (that he would be a one term president) "to the world, no less an expert on the subject than George III was heard to say that, if Washington resisted the monarchial mantle and retired, as he always said he would, he would be 'the greatest man in the world'"
Loc 2439-2441
10. "Interestingly, Washington seldom used the term "republic" to describe the emerging nation that he, more than anyone else, had helped to create. His preferred term was "empire", which had imperial and monarchical implications that were, in fact, compatible with Napoleonic aspirations" Loc 2508-2510.
11. A description of his final address of his first term "No one has ever seen Washington wear spectacles before on public occasions. He looks out to his assembled officers while adjusting the new glasses and says: "Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for i have not only grown gray, but almost blind in the service of my country" Several officers began to sob. The speech itself is anti-climactic. All through of a military coup die at that moment"Lc 2520-2523.
12. When talking about his lands "he decided to tour his western holdings and came upon several families who had settled on plots he owned in western Pennsylvania. One can only imagine the disappointment the settles felt in learning that the land they had been cultivating as their own for many years belonged to an absentee owner, and that the owner was none other than George Washington. When they questioned the legality of his title, Washington hired a lawyer to have them evicted if they refused to leave or pay him rent as tenants. "I view the defendants as willful and obstinate Sinners", he explained, "persevering after timely and repeated admonition, in a design to injure me". Loc 2742-2747
13. As he was older, he would write to people "who owed him money, saying that he could not accept slaves as payment: "I never mean (unless some particular circumstances should compel me to it) to possess another slave by purchase; it being among my first wishes to see some plan adopted, by the legislature by which slavery in this Country may be abolished by slow, sure and imperceptible degrees" Loc 2858-2860.
14. "...he did honor his pledge to visit all the states in the union. In the fall of 1789 he launched a month -long tour of New England that carried him through sixty towns and hamlets. Everywhere he went the residents turned out in droves to glimpse America's greatest hero parading past. And everywhere he went New Englanders became Americans, at least for the duration of his visit" Loc 3329-2295.
15. "the belief that Washington was living out his retirement on the edge of bankruptcy, a view that has seeped into some of the history books, is dead wrong. In fact, Washington was one of the richest men in America. Second, the core of his wealth bad been acquired early in his life as a result of his prominent role in the French and Indian War". Loc 4535-4538
16. At the end of his life "Washington enjoyed the best care that medical science of that time could provide. Unfortunately, everything the doctors did made matters worse. They bled him four times, extracted more than five pints of his blood. They blistered him around the neck. They administered several strong laxatives- all misguided attempts to purge his body of infection. If antibiotics had been available then, Washington would almost surely have survived to keep his promised to Mrs. Powel. As it was, the infection that had invaded his throat was untreatable and fatal. Loc 4642-4646.
17. As he was dying he said: "I am just going. Have me decently buried, and do not let my body be put into the Vault in less than two days after I am dead... Do you understand me?" Washington believed that several apparently dead people, perhaps including Jesus, had really been buried alive, a fate he wished to avoid. His statement also calls attention to a missing presence at the deathbed scene: there were no ministers in the room, no prayers uttered, no Christian rituals offering the solace of everlasting life" Loc 4653-4657
