Stoic, heroic and fiercely devoted to duty. But he was also a slave owner. An unyielding taskmaster somewhat vain and a failure business. Unlike his peers, Jefferson Madison hamilton and items were all college graduates, washington only the equivalent of 1 7 grade education. Ron chernow was born in brooklyn and is an honest graduate of yale and cambridge. He is considered to be one of the most distinguished commentators on politics, business, finance in america today. The st. Louis postdispatch has helped him as one of the most preeminent biographers of his generation and the New York Times calls him mr. Ron chernow is an elegant architect of monumental histories as we have seen in decades. In 2004 his biography of Alexander Hamilton won the inaugural George Washington book prize early american history. Mr. Ron chernow brings political perspective to the politics of today. Listen to his words. President washington, like president obama enters the office hoping for reasonable and sensible discourse. Hoping to enjoy it. Of nonpartisan politics. The twoparty system emerges rather rapidly from his own cabinet. Hamilton and jefferson heading up different rings. For two years there seems to be a political honeymoon for washington due to his doctor. But once the attacks start and apposition, they are ferocious and relentless. Washington is actually accused of being a british double agent. All along during the revolutionary war. Sound familiar . [laughter] ladies and gentlemen lets hear more about George Washington from his biographer. Please join me in welcoming mr. Ron chernow. [applause] thank you hank for that wonderful introduction. It is always a thrill to be here at the miami book fair. February 1789, in other words, two months before George Washington was sworn in as the first president , he was received a fascinating letter from europe from his friend reporting for the first time on the sudden madness of king george iii. Morris said that in the kings delirious state quote he had conceived himself to be no less a personage than George Washington marching at the head of the continental army. And then morris added facetiously, have apparently done something or other to fix most terribly in the kings stomach. Indeed, washington had. Now, who was this commoner george who was such a legend in his own time . And of course ever since, that he actually managed to invade the feverish dream world of the deranged royal george . Well, i first real interested in this question i was writing my hamilton biography. And one day i was reading a series of letters that hamilton wrote after he had a quarrel late in the world with washington that led to hamilton quitting washington staff as. In these letters he described working for washington and said that he is moody, irritable and temperamental. And he informed his fatherinlaw with more than a touch of youthful bravado. He said the great man and i have come to an open rupture. He self for once at least repent his ill humor. And i can remember sitting there stunned. Ill humor . Did hamilton mean to imply that the saintly father of our country was this sulky, volatile boss . Needless to say, this was far from the whole truth about George Washington. And i hope in this book that i do both lavish and sufficient praise to washingtons courage, fortitude, his patriotism, integrity and a thousand other wonderful traits. This is not a debunking book. In fact, my book is an effort to try to recreate the charisma and the magnetism that so excited washingtons contemporaries. That have gotten lost somehow in translation to posterity. Having said that, hamilton did paint very perceptive purchase of people. His comments began to open a window into George Washingtons emotion. All of these strong and powerful emotions swirling around inside him. Needless to say, emotions that he and check with formidable selfcontrol. But i came to learn that George Washington was not this kind of worthy figure, bland but if we are honest a bit boring who has taken up residence in the american imagination. No, revolutions are not made of such team stuff. And i began to wonder even though there had been so many books about washington, whether George Washington seemly, the most familiar figure in american history, the man is portrait we carry in our wallets was perhaps at bottom, the lease money figure. I thought that perhaps there were other significant dimensions of his personality that would enable me as a biographer, to bring him to a vivid and threedimensional life would make him immediate and comprehensible to people. I am here this morning to report after six years of very intensive work on this book, i founded George Washington who is complex, a man of many moods, often strong in fiery opinions. Fierce harddriving perfectionist who had the immense force of his personality under that stoic facade that we know so very well. What has happened in the course of history is that in our very laudable desire to venerate the father of the country have sanded down the rough edges of his personality. We have turned him into this impossibly stiff and lifeless figure. Very much like the standing portrait where he is standing there with his arm rigidly thrust out. But it stands to reason that that wouldnt figure could never have defeated the british empire. The mightiest military regime of the 18th century. Could never have presided over the Constitutional Convention. Could never have forged the office of the presidency. Quite obviously, the man who was able to do all of those things must have been a force of nature. Although he kept that force carefully under wraps. Now, unfortunately, in order to fashion a first port of washington, the poor biographer has to begin by taking up a sharp machete and hacking his way through a very dense jungle of myths and misconceptions. About George Washington, and i have discovered that he had been very well educated americans, their minds are so cluttered with all of these tales. So let me retire some of the most egregious errors. However trivial they may seem to this highly cultured audience. You have already heard the cherry tree story was pure invention. It was invented shortly after his death after a transport there were stories that would humanize him. Our friends rushed into the vacuum armed with all of these fictitious tales. The cherry tree story has been unfortunate for many reasons. One and most obviously, its been used to terrorize american schoolchildren for 200 years now. [laughter] it has also created as we shall see, a very misleading image of George Washington as this cold and character when he was anything but. Another common myth as we already heard was the wooden teeth. Again, it is estrangement because obviously digestive enzymes would rot would in the mouth. George washington would lose his teeth in the 20s. By the time he was president he only one tooth left in his mouth. Very brave and very lonely lower left bicuspid. He had a full set upper and lower dentures made. You can see the lower is a little round hole where the tooth was. And they were painful to examine. I can only examine how painful they were to wear. It would have been scraping incessantly against his raw gums. They were made from elephant or walrus ivory and they were inserted with human teeth. We now know that in 1784, he brought 19th from slaves, possibly his own that were inserted into those iv frames. This sounds good, i must tell you, in 18th century it was routine for people to advertise that, dentist to advertise they were buying tea. Often the ad said, white teeth for white people. So washington was doing something weirdly egalitarian, if indeed, he had 19th from his own slaves. And of course what happened over time as the ivory aged and cracked and stand, it developed a grainy look that to the eyes of later generations look like wood. The most significant thing that i discovered about the dentures, they were connected in the back by curved metal springs. The only way that washington could hold them in his mouth is by keeping his lips firmly compressed. But this meant every time he opened his mouth to speak it would relax the pressure on the springs and it was always the possibility that the teeth would come flying out of his mouth. Whether it is coincidental or not as president washington gave a suspiciously large number of speeches, they were only one, two or three paragraphs in length. [laughter] and other common myth that i find universal is that George Washington wore a wig. So how did you get a very strange and distractive hairdo . He had these wings on either side. He then sprinkled powder, grayish powder on his hair very common at the time. If you look closely at some portraits of the time, if he was wearing a black velvet suit you is he a fine dust on his shoulders did not dandruff, it was a portrait artist showing that the powder had sprinkled down onto his shoulders. And then most significantly he put the remaining hairs which he drew straight back over his back and tied in a black satin bow. That style that we would call ponytail in the 18th century was called a q. Even though it looks quaint and genteel, the q was considered a family of military look. So anyone seeing washington walked down the street would have said, there goes the general. Finally, everyone repeats that George Washington was six feet three inches and and a half. And i discovered as a left into this that it all rested on a single piece of evidence. Which was after washington died and he was measured for his casket. He measured six feet 3 1 2. That would seem to settle the controversy, right . Wrong. I will need to do an experiment when you go home tonight. Lie down in bed on your back. Just relax. Youll see that your feet will fall forward, your toes will point out words, if rigor mortis were to set in it would add about three inches to your height. I collected in the course of doing the book, i collected about 40 quotations from contemporary letters and diaries of people that commented on washingtons height and about 35 of them guests and guessed correctly that he was six feet tall. Then came the real clincher. Before the revolutionary war, washington, like most virginia planters under his clothing from london. And so every six months he sat down and gave his london taylor a very precise description of his physique and described himself as a man who was exactly its feet tall. Now, we all know that the one person you cannot lie to you about your height unless you want to end up looking like the laughingstock, is your taylor. So i think we consider the case closed. George washington was six feet tall. Which was of course relatively tall for that time. Now of course he spent five and half years fighting in the french and indian war. In fact washington was really, he was a precocious he was kind of a prodigy. By the age of 23, he was a colonel, he was put in charge of all of the military forces in virginia. Virginia was both populous and powerful in the union. His perseverance, his bravery were already the stuff of legend. But i must warn you when you start reading the book, young washington is not yet the wise paragon of later years. Washington first rebels against the british. Not for idealistic reasons but for selfish reasons. The british deny him the Royal Commission in the army. The british sell him shoddy overpriced goods from london. The british band settlement west of the Allegheny Mountains at a time when washington is amassing real estate there. The british are bad for business, the british are bad for your career. So in those early sections you will not feel that you are getting the company of historic greatness. Even though there were a lot of admirable and good traits that would have wondrous things to come. The banner washingtons early years was not royal george but someone infinitely more formidable. His mother. Mary boyle washington. She was, to speak frankly, a very difficult woman. Very querulous and selfcentered. She took no apparent pride or pleasure in her sons career. Here she had more to boast about than any mother in american history. And we have no comments about her praising the commanderinchief or if she was even still alive when he became president. We have no evidence that she intended the wedding of george and martha washington. We have no evidence that she ever visited them at mount vernon, although she lived in fredericksburg, which is not very far away. Historic rumor has even tagged her as a possible tory during the war. Georges father died when he was 11. George is the eldest son. Mary felt that george should be taken care of her rather than pursuing his career. And so, even when he is in his 20s and he is out on the western frontier, he suddenly received a letter from his mother one day thinking urgently needs a new duct servant and some butter. As if youre supposed to travel in his regimental duties and go fetch his poor mother some butter. [laughter] late in the revolutionary war much more bizarre, washington receives a letter from the speaker of the Virginia Assembly he says dear general, something has been going on here in the Virginia State capital at richmond that no one has had the courage to tell you about. Your mother has been here for a couple of months. She has applied for a special petition for emergency relief. Claiming poverty and hinting at abandonment by you know who. [laughter] the commanderinchief. Washington was a very dutiful son and brought his mothers Beautiful House in fredericksburg and given her a lot of money. And that was his reward. I speculate in the book that the first grade in general that George Washington ever had to do battle with was his mother. [laughter] with this very difficult mother to deal with in a father that died when he was 11, it is no wonder he does not start out as a saint. But then what happens . Fascinating, in the mid1760s with the stamp act and the townshend duties and the Boston Tea Party and the intolerable acts, washington begins to realize that all of his personal grievances simply reflect a larger political problem and that the deck has been stacked against the colonists. And then suddenly, and rather gloriously, all of his feelings about the british are elevated into these universal principles of freedom and liberty and justice. It is rather miraculous to behold. And he begins to find his political voice. And that political voice is very strong and very militants. You know, if ever there was a man who was a noble by circumstances. If ever there was a man who was pride of by a just and righteous cause. That man was George Washington. Who, as you shall see, transcends his origins in a way that has few, if any parallels in american history. Now, all of us, if we know any investment revolutionary war we know Washington Crossing the delaware and valley forge. Both events in their way a little bit misleading. Washington deserves full credit and crossing the delaware and he actually lost more battles than he won. But i also argue that he cannot georges member of the usual scorecard of battles lost and won. Because this is a rare case in history. What hes doing between battles is arguably more important than what he does on the battlefield. He singlehandedly holding this ragged army together for 8 and a half years. In the face of constant shortages of men, money, clothing, blankets, shoes, muskets, gunpowder, on and on and on. Only George Washington has the strength of character, the clarity of vision and the tenacity of purpose to maintain the cause. And there was you and we all know about the bleak winter at valley forge. As youll see in the book there are many other winters that were just as bleak as valley forge. Nobody but washington would have the coverage and stomach to hold this army together and holding the army together meant holding the cause together. It meant holding the american nation together. If you do not think there is at least a grain of truth to the great man or quick woman in history please read this book and let me a book and let who could have stepped into issues in this battle. There were other general smith Strategic Plan point that were his equal but they were jockeying for power and sidetracked by petty disputes. George washington had an inspired simplicity. To give michael to pursue he would harness all of the energy and fortitude in his nature to achieve it. He had a focus and discipline and drive that was truly unique. Now, whatever his shortcomings as a politician, washington was a genius. Whatever shortcomings as a general washington politician was a genius. Considering this stunning record, he was unanimously elected commanderinchief by the continental congress. He was unanimously elected president of the Constitutional Convention. And he is twice unanimously elected president of the United States by the electoral college. Obviously, that will never happen again. And mind you, he does all of these things without the benefit of a single focus group or poster or Political Action committee. He is just responding to his own instincts. And because he never seemed to be grasping for power, people were that much more eager to give it to him. The more that the comfrey clamor to calm him come out of retirement, the more reluctant he was and the more people wanted him. Now, washington is presence in philadelphia in 1787 was absolutely vital. The Constitutional Convention was held behind closed doors. It is washingtons position as president of the convention and reassures the skittish public outside the doors that no sinister cabal is being hatched inside. And of course, it is washingtons presence, is the assumption washington will be the first president. That and both of the delegates to create a powerful office of the presidency at a time after the revolutionary war. When there was a quite understandable fear of excessive executive power. In fact, if you look at the constitution, article 1 of the constitution by design is about congress. Because t