lyagushka's Full Review: Smith Norton - Patriarch: George Washington and th...
Richard Norton Smith's examination of the first presidency of the United States and the great man who invented the office is a solidly written and soundly researched work. Patriarch: George Washington and the New American Nation is not quite a biography, but neither does the book follow a purely historical approach to this most famous of the American founding fathers. The author's writing in Patriarch rarely soars, but it also rarely stumbles. Smith, a presidential historian is also the author of books devoted to Thomas E. Dewey and Herbert Hoover.
Smith begins his coverage of Washington's life and career in the spring of 1789, just after his first inauguration as chief executive. He ends with Washington's death in December of 1799. In between, he illuminates the sublime balancing act that Washington performed in his two terms as president, hovering over the divisions between the nascent Federalist and Republican parties. He shows a Washington who applied himself diligently to the duty his country called him to, and this despite the nearly incessant barrage of criticism from the popular press at the time. It may surprise modern readers to learn just how much obloquy the hero of the American Revolution had to endure as a politician. The examination of Washington's attitude and reactions to these personal and political attacks, as well as to the squabbling among his own cabinet, goes a fair way towards melting the famous marmoreal reserve that marked Washington in his own time and still lingers around his legend today.
Smith paints a very interesting portrait of the aging warrior contending with the challenges of a political office without any precedent. From a modern perspective, the unbroken line of US presidents and the peaceful, orderly exchange of power that it represents look like the certain outcome of the Revolutionary War. But from Washington's perspective the first republican government since the days of ancient Rome was a fragile creature still in its tenuous infancy. The weight of invention and responsibility sat heavily on the man who had already sacrificed so much to bring the new country to birth. Smith devotes all due attention to the numerous domestic and international situations that challenged Washington's wisdom and physical stamina.
As I said earlier, this is not a true biography of Washington, but Smith does not confine himself just to his subject's political career. There are many highly descriptive passages of the first president's family life, of the routine that Washington kept to when at his Mt. Vernon farms, and of the social life that the President and First Lady accepted as their duty while in Philadelphia, the seat of government at that time. I found the eyewitness accounts of those who dined at the president's table at Mt. Vernon wonderfully revealing and immediate. It also startled me to learn that the Washingtons routinely accepted complete strangers to their frugal dinner table on no notice at all. It was Washington's widely known policy, despite his continually strained personal finances, to dine with anyone who turned up to pay their respects at his estate. Thus, the family almost never dined alone. Through it all, Smith portrays a chief executive whose dearest and most earnest wish was to return to the life of a private citizen, gentleman farmer and country squire.
Furthermore, Smith unearths a few priceless nuggets of Washington's infinitely understated wit, and shows them off to much effect. The president rarely reacted to the slanderous attacks of the broadsheets, most often and most vociferously led by Benjamin Franklin's radical grandson, Benjamin Franklin Bache. But one rare quip preserved in a private letter allows his personal reaction to slip through the barriers of his galactic restraint. Washington, according to Smith, expressed "regret that the author, 'if his object was to convey accurate information to the public mind, had not devoted a little of the time and pains he appears to have employed in writing this pamphlet in the investigation of facts.' By doing so, Washington added stiffly, he might have discovered his charges to be without foundation."
Smith's terse perspectives on the other political players of the age offered me an interesting contrast to the books I've already read. For the most part, I could accept his thumbnail sketches and find value in them, even if he didn't always convince me. On one occasion though, a single word made me seriously question his reliability and judgment. He referred to Abigail Adams, the wife of John Adams, as "saucy." Abigail Adams merited many descriptive adjectives in her life, including sharp-witted, outspoken and well informed. But the word "saucy" goes so much against the grain of everything I know about this prim New England matron and farm wife, that I simply could not fathom how Smith came up with such a term. He clearly takes a rather dim view of John Adams and, by extension, his wife.
The author understands very clearly that he stands on the shoulders of giants in writing this biographical and historic text on the father of the American nation. He gives credit in his endnotes to several previous biographers and Washington scholars, while outlining his rationale for adding yet another book to the literature. His stated aim was to produce a comprehensive, single-volume text on the presidency and subsequent retirement of George Washington. I think it's fair to say that in this he succeeds. Beyond those stated aims, he also succeeds in giving a good sense of the President's personality and world view.
Smith's writing is somewhat scholarly in tone, yet clearly intended for a general audience. His style is rather more unassuming than brilliant, but it at least presents no obstacles to its intended reader. His preference for clear and concise writing over pedantic and overwrought phrases pleased me. I enjoyed the reading and felt that Smith's smooth exposition allowed me to learn a great deal from the book. I appreciated the fact that Smith kept his focus firmly on Washington, to such an extent that he spared hardly any space to examine the personalities of the first First Lady, or the robust characters of his cabinet such as Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson or his vice-president. To be sure, these figures deserve to be considered in their own right, but in a project with Smith's stated aims for Patriarch, such diversions would be detrimental.
Final Thoughts
I found Patriarch to be a good introduction to the life and political career of George Washington. It did not entirely satisfy my curiosity about the great man, but that is not so surprising when one remembers that it deals with only the last ten years of his life, completely omitting his childhood and military career. With some background reading on the history of Washington's era already under my belt, I felt the book was accessible and informative. I would recommend it to those looking for an overview of Washington's presidency, but not to those looking to read their first biography of the man.
To those interested in early American history, I would also highly recommend:
• John Adams - McCullough's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of our unsung second president
• Dearest Friend: A Life of Abigail Adams - Lynne Withey's examination of a very hands-on First Lady
• Understanding Thomas Jefferson - E.M. Halliday's unveiling of our most enigmatic president
• The First American: Benjamin Franklin - a superlative biography on America's premier elder statesman
• Benedict Arnold, Revolutionary Hero - for those interested in reading just a bit further afield
• A Midwife's Tale - a fascinating look at life in pre-revolutionary Maine based on the journal of midwife
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