Free Blood of Tyrants: George Washington & the Forging of the Presidency by Logan Beirne Page A

Starve, dissolve, or disperse, in order to obtain subsistence.” National Archives photo no. 148-GW-436 (The George Washington Bicentennial Commission)

     

    Sloppy in appearance and crude in manner, Charles Lee was reputed to have a romantic life “of the transient kind.” A military genius who resented serving under Washington, he got along better with his pack of dogs than he did with most people. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-3617

     

    “Parade with us, my brave fellows!” Washington shouts as he leads the charge at Princeton in January 1777. With his hat in hand, he rode ahead on his horse, yelling, “There is but a handful of the enemy, and we will have them directly.” Despite being caught in the crossfire, Washington emerged unscathed as he had done time and again. He believed that a divine Providence protected him. National Archives photo no. 148-GW-335 (The George Washington Bicentennial Commission)

     

    American women were crucial to winning the Revolutionary War, with some even jumping into battle. When John Adams wrote his wife of the Continental Army’s defeats, Abigail confidently declared that if Washington’s troops were overrun, the British forces would then be compelled to fight “a race of Amazons in America.” National Archives photo no. 148-GW-436 (The George Washington Bicentennial Commission)

     

    Alexander Hamilton served as Washington’s shrewd right-hand man and one of his closest confidants during the war. After the United States’ victory, he ardently advocated a more centralized nation. National Archives photo no. 148-GW-436 (The George Washington Bicentennial Commission)

     

    A mere five feet tall and 120 pounds, James Madison was an intellectual giant and a driving force behind the drafting of the Constitution. He declared that creating even a “limited monarchy . . . was out of the question” and used his masterful political skills to help form the new republican government. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsca-19166

     

    The wily Benjamin Franklin used his guile to charm the French court—particularly the female contingent. Through parties and chess games, he persuaded the French to send aid to the American cause and eventually declare war on Britain. As the war wound down, he then infuriated the French by working with John Adams and John Jay to outmaneuver them in the peace process. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-DIG-pga-01591



I
     
    THE KING OF AMERICA
     
    “I am free to acknowledge that His Powers are full great, and
greater than I was disposed to make them. Nor, Entre Nous,
do I believe they would have been so great had not many of
the members cast their eyes towards General Washington as
President; and shaped their Ideas of the Powers to be given to
a President, by their opinions of his Virtue.” 1
     
    —PIERCE BUTLER, REPRESENTATIVE
OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION, 1788
     
     
 
    E ven as the embers of war still smoldered, he found peace. Standing alongside the blue-gray waters of the Potomac River, the gentleman farmer gazed across his sprawling estate. The lush foliage of billowing weeping willows and blossoming laurel dotted the softly rolling fields, which glimmered in the fiery light of the rising sun. A silent spring breeze grazed his weathered face, sending the aromas of earth and grass into the air. Over the farmer’s impressive frame, still powerfully built after fifty-five years of backbreaking use, soared his mansion’s majestic white columns. They rose two stories to meet a striking red roof, topped by two large chimneys, pointed dormers, and an ornately domed cupola. Beneath this grandiose architectural crown, a white, neoclassical Georgian-style mansion provided a comfortable home for the gentleman and his beloved wife, along with her two rambunctious young grandchildren who had been orphaned during the war.
    He had fought courageously for his