And the character that he developed over a lifetime, and if you think about what weve done for the duration of this course, weve brought him into the story intermittently throughout. Whether its talking about individual battles or whether its talking about how he organized men or how he kept men he recruited men to get them to maintain or stay in the service. And one of the things i try to get across whenever im talking about washington is that washington is a bit of an inenia to a modern audience. Why . Because we really dont know who he was, what he was, how he looked. I mean, when i show you these images here, these images are of three of our noteworthy president s. Every ten years or so about 700 political scientists and historians across the country, they rank our president s. Now, who knows how our current president is going to rank. But nonetheless, whenever those rankings come out, generally these three guys here rank at the top. Sometimes it will be lincoln. Sometimes it will be washington. Sometimes it will be fdr, but the interesting thing about this is that we do not know what george really looked like. We have images of lincoln. Photograph images. And you can follow those photographs over time and see how he changed, how he aged, and, of course, we have images of fdr. I mean, we even have some images of him in his wheelchair. And generally the prez did not take images of him in his wheelchair. But with George Washington, he was there before photography. So we dont have photographs of him. And what we have instead is artist representations. And those artist representations are not always very accurate. I mean, you look at some representation abstract art, and does it really look like a cube . I dont know. Maybe not. Well, George Washington weve spent the better part of 14 weeks already kind of addressing him, talking about him. We know that he is a famous man. We know he was commander of the Continental Army. We know that he had served in the Continental Congress for a short period of time before he accepted command. We know that he is subsequently going to become first president of the United States. Obviously he is a famous man in our history. But hes also a man who had faults. A man who had insecurities. A man who had vices. Hes a man who was a human being just like all of us. And because he was a human being, he was also a complex man. A manysighted man. And the problem with paintings is they dont show that kind of complex character. What i want to do is spend a little time talking about the myths of George Washington, and then we will then talk about how he made choices that ultimately brought him to the point where he became the most revered man in america. Well, you probably know that george is considered the father of our country. But do you know george when he married martha, he wasnt able to sire children . He wasnt able to give martha children, and could he really be the father of our country if he couldnt sire children himself . I mean, and think about when the country decided to make a monument to him. What do they choose to make . The monument is this giant phallicshaped symbol which is kind of ironic for the man who couldnt sire children himself. But even though he couldnt, here is the George Washington shown with marshas children, and when he married martha, he did accept her children, and he became a paternalistic loving father to her children. So in that respect, you know, it shows the character of a person who accepted her children. It showed paternalism, acceptance. Now, most of the stories that we have of washington came from the first real biography of washington. Written by mason lock weems. It was published just shortly after washingtons death. And the washington that weems talks about is a man that is like thor, a man who was larger than life. I mean, weems talks about George Washington throwing a Silver Dollar across the Potomac River. A couple problems with that story. The first is, anybody . There were no Silver Dollars. So how could he throw a Silver Dollar that didnt exist . The second, the Potomac River where mt. Vernon is is about a mile wide. I dont care if youre nolan ryan or roger clemmons, youre probably not going to throw a Silver Dollar across a milewide river. Well, one of washingtons grandsons did say that as a young man George Washington had thrown a piece of slate across his the river at his childhood home this was on the rapahanic, the rapahanic not quite as wide. If you slow slate right, it might bounce across the river. It might have been possible, but what weems is trying to do is give you an image of a man who is larger than life with a great athletic prowess. We know that george is a large man. He stood about 63. About my height. He had a long, straight nose. High cheekbones. At his heaviest he was significantly less than i am. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 220 or so. And at his lightest he was probably about 175, 180. You know, at that day and age, they didnt have the obesity problems that we experience today. But virtually every school kid learns that George Washington had what kind of teeth . Wooden. Wooden, false teeth. Yeah. And that is just absolutely wrong. Here you can see a pair of his dentures. Whats interesting about it you know this right here, thats a spring. Its a ledbase that is Spring Loaded so when you put this in, your jaw keeps it shut. When your mouth opens, it springs open. The teethes themselves are animal, human teeth, pieces of ivory, and i am convinced if you had to wear that thing in your mouth, it would probably be far more uncomfortable than wooden teeth. Well, its those teeth that always play a central role in washingtons life. Youll see right here, theres no tooth there. Because even at the time of his presidency, george had one of his own teeth. And the dentures slipped over the tooth so hes able to highlight his tooth as well. Well, that mouth and those teeth become a big part of the story about who George Washington is. Now, this portrait right here, this portrait, one of the most famous of washington. Its done by the artist Gilbert Stuart. Stuart, when he painted washington at this time, he was a young painter. This was one of his earliest commissions. And stuart was just absolutely terrified to meet the great general. So during the setting stuart tried to make washington more at ease. He said something to the effect to washington, general washington, you must let yourself forget that you are general washington, and i am stuart the painter. Well, washington gave a well intentioned reply. He said something to the effect that well, theres no need for me to forget that i am general washington and you are but stuart the painter. Kind of insulted stuart. He felt that washington was giving him a back handed slap. Well, because of that Gilbert Stuart got to portray washington. One of the images we have of him. This is one of the most famous. When you look at that, what is the central feature of that painting . What is it . The mouth. Look at it. Its kind of clenched. It looks like hes in some discomfort. Some kind of pain. From that image, the view that we have of washington is that he is glum, that he is awkward, he is unapproachable, he is grumpy, perhaps. And that is not so. He wasnt a squarejawed stiff shirt as this image of washington by stuart portrays him. I mean, the George Washington that we know that historians have documented was a George Washington who loved to have a good time. But you remember what ive told you about washington. He believed that theres the personal man and then theres the public man. And those people who had the personal relationship would not display that personal relationship in public. The private man had a public persona, and you stayed outside of arms reach. Well, this was a George Washington who enjoyed playing cards. He enjoyed dock fights, horse races. This is the George Washington who loved to dance. It was reported that george was the best dancer in all of virginia. This is the George Washington who loved to hunt and fish. He loved going to the theater. In fact, his favorite play was tragedy of kato. Its the story of a young, selfless patriot. He also liked hamlet. He also liked jewel yas kree zar. Those were a couple favorites. This was the George Washington who had an eye for the attractive women. In the 18th century she was considered an attractive woman. Not only was an attractive woman. She was the widow of a gentleman, and she was very wealthy. So george is going to end up marrying up. He is not unawe approachable, but he is the man that is going to keep himself in proper decorum. Ive referenced about how he couldnt control his anger. He always had trouble controlling his anger. This episode happens during the Constitutional Convention. Well reference it on thursday, how the governor morris, a new yorker, a man of questionable virtue, was good friends and drinking buddies with alexander hamilton, and the governor morris was boasting he could treat him like any other of his best friends, and morris and hamilton made a wager. Hamilton said if morris could treat him treat washington like any other friend in public, then hamilton would buy dinner and wine for morris and 12 of his friends. Well, on the tight in question a public event, George Washington as we know will become the president of the Constitutional Convention, and he was hosting an event that evening, and governor morris comes in. It was a public event, a big crowd. Governor morris comes in and immediately reaches out his hand to shake georges hand. A gentleman would do that. But as they took hands, morris took that secondhand and brought it up and began patting george on the shoulder and saying general washington, my dear friend, its so good to see you looking so well. What had happened, that familiarity, washington pulled his hand back. He took three steps back, and e stare, and the people who were there froze they simply stood and watched and morris went off into the crowd. Morris later told hamilton that i had won the bet. I will collect my wine and dinner, but that is nothing i will ever do again because morris and washington would never be close enough that morris could come up and pat him on the shoulder and treat him with the familiarity that you would treat a close, personal acquaintance. Well, thats because washington maintained that dignity, that personal space. Did that mean washington had an uncontrollable anger he could not control . No. It just meant that he believed in proper decorum. Now probably the greatest or most famous image of george which was not done during his lifetime, this image here, does it look familiar . Where is the original . Down the street at the aimon Carter Museum. Absolutely. Go down and take a look at it, but this came from the story of mas mas mason weems. Young george, for his sixth birthday his father gave hum a new hat and the young boy was so excited about getting this gift that he went around and barking at literally every tree he could find and he barked one of his fathers favorite english cherry trees and when his father approached him according to weems young george simply threw his hands up and said i did it, father. You know i cannot tell a lie. Well, thats the image that school kids for the last 200plus years have been told. This 1939 painting by grant wood which, as i say down at the aimon Carter Museum just about a mile from here showed mason weems pulling back the curtain and it shows the young george being truthful to his father, but the thing that i find particularly interesting about this image is, look, the same head that you have on the dollar bill. Thats the young head and this is the old head, but they essentially looked the same. Now, the interesting thing about this story, it never happened. Theres no evidence that this ever happened. Weems had simply made the story up to portray washington as a man of great hon of they, that even when the trouble might bring problems for young george he had to be honest to his father. Well, weems also tells us another story about the young George Washington, the surveyor, who was out on the frontier and bad weather is setting in and he finds a local tavern where he can spend the night and orders a dram of whiskey and the barkeep gives him a dram of whisky and george offers a skin. He offers a coon skin in payment, well, the barkeep takes the coonskin and in return gives washington 158 rabbit skins. Thats a lot of rabbit skins to carry around. According to weems, george began buying drinks for everyone in the establishment and during the evening he turned 158 rabbit skins back over to the barkeep. Now what weems is trying to tell us in that story is that this is the George Washington who was generous. This is the George Washington who was kind. This is the George Washington that we want to remember. So you think of these images that weems wanted to tell us and hes honest and hes generous and kind. He has a temper, but he can control it. Well, this is the man that has come down to us as the, you know, more or less the savior of americas mankind. This is the story of the man who remember how we talked about confidential inspiration . This is george as providential inspiration. And even some years later, chief Justice Joseph story made the comment from his commentaries on the constitution that george was the first in all america, the first in war, the first in peace and the first in the heart of his country. So what makes him first in the heart of his countrymen . Well, george as a young man before the scope of this course, george was born on february 11, 1731. Is that the day we celebrated his birthday . No. That was the julian calendar in the early 1750s they changed through the gregorian calendar so it moved his birthday even day ahead, february 22nd and 1731, and as a young man he was obsessed with becoming a gentleman. And what did the gentlemen entail and that meant owning wealth and owning property and potentially owning slaves and having a spouse and being successful. Well, the young george when he was 11 his father died, and young george ended up having to live with his older half brother lawrence. Now lawrence was a gentleman. He had a grand home that he had named after admiral Edward Vernon who had served under queen anne or king george, pardon me. And from that, young george saw what it meant to be a gentleman. He saw that status equated to wealth so he wanted to become wealthy and you remember time and again i said that george is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he does learn from others, and while he was staying with his half brother he learned that he, too, could become successful if he made the right choices. So as a young man he became a surveyor, and at the time, being a surveyor was on par with a doctor, a law wrer because surveyors were always going out on the frontier to survey land and if youre good at it, you have a trained eye and you see the land that is advantageous and the land that is not, and oftentimes you could take your payment and land. Land is something that could bring wealth for the future. So the young man began acquiring land. Now the problem is that 1752 lawrence died and the question was who would inherit mount vernon. Hopefully one of lawrences daughters inherited it. She died shortly thereafter and it passed down to young george. By 1753 here was a guy who had this grand plantation home and this is a view that most of us of have mount vernon. That view is the view from the veranda, the porch looking out on to the Potomac River and thats the front of the house or is that the front of the house. Thats the other side. Its interesting. When lawrence was alive he considered the front of the house this because it was there on the Potomac River, the potomac was the highway to the sea. The sea took you to england and he saw himself as an englishman, and george will consider this to be the front of the house because this faces to the frontier. That faced to the land that he would eventually own. Well, i think thats a huge difference for lawrence and for george and it helps to find really who george is. George saw himself not so much as an englishman, but more as an american. George also had the good fortune in 1758 to marry martha da dandridge custer who reportedly was the wealthiest woman in georgia and by marrying her he mauried the widow of a gentleman. By marrying her, george became a gentleman, and with her wealth and with his drive and determination to secure wealth the washingtons would become one of the wealthiest couples in america. He was a plantation owner, farmer, initially growing tobacco, but coming to the realization that tobacco was a crop that was declining in bayou, but by the time of the revolution what was he trying to cultivate . Wheat. Remember you guys read the Tobacco Culture and how the Tobacco Culture was playing out. Well, this is the George Washington who by the time of his death would own 11,000 acres. He had this ambition for wealth that made him inquisitive and made him sometimes contentious and even after hed established himself he would insist upon exact payment of every debt owed to him in his youth, young george wanted to be a British Military officer and the beginning of this course remember we made reference to how young george was the guy who started the seven years war. Glen when half king had killed the you