Everyone loved George Washington, until he became president

[viper37]

Link

When the great Gen. George Washington left his comfortable retirement at Mount Vernon to become the first president of the United States, well-wishers threw flowers at his feet. For hundreds of miles, as he made his way to the temporary capital in New York City, thousands of people followed alongside with blessings, toasts and cheers. Once he was in New York, there was a fireworks show.Seven years later, toward the end of his second term, he was so disliked that the House voted against adjourning for 30 minutes to wish him well on his birthday.Nowadays, Washington's birthday is officially recognized, but when he was alive, his legacy was very nearly ruined by his presidency. Historian Alexis Coe describes how and why in her new book, "You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington." It cannot be overstated how much Washington did not want to be president. Years before, he had been so excited to be general at the beginning of the Revolutionary War that he showed up to the Second Continental Congress in uniform. It wasn't so with the presidency. When news of his election reached him in the spring of 1789, he told Henry Knox, "My movements to the chair of Government will be accompanied with feelings not unlike those of a culprit who is going to the place of his execution."
[...]Coe includes a chart in her book of what other Founders said about Washington before his presidency and after. The difference is shocking.John Adams in 1785: "I glory in the character of Washington because I know him to be an exemplification of the American character."John Adams in 1812: "Too illiterate, unlearned, unread for his station and reputation." (Washington was largely self-taught but not illiterate or unlearned.)And here's Thomas Paine in a letter to Washington in 1779: "I shall never suffer a hint of dishonor or even a deficiency of respect to you to pass unnoticed."And in 1796: "The world will be puzzled to decide whether you are an apostate or an impostor; whether you have abandoned good principles, or whether you ever had any."Yikes.Washington's Farewell Address has become famous for warning Americans against political factions and foreign influence. Earlier drafts of the speech also show him railing against "malicious falsehoods" spread about him "to misrepresent my politics and affections; to wound my reputation and feelings." Hamilton encouraged him to cut that part because he sounded too bitter.
[...]

I thought it was an interesting trivia

[Valmy]

Well he showed up in office right in time for the country to be deeply divided on how to deal with the French Revolution. Lucky him.

[The Minsky Moment]

Tom Paine is really in his own category when it comes to vindictive hatchet jobs - in this case he believed Washington had connived with Robespierre to keep Paine imprisoned in France, which seems rather unlikely -  some more detail from his "letter" for extra flavor (skipping over many additional details of Washington's deficiencies as a General):

It is laughable to hear Mr. Washington talk of his sympa∣thetic feelings, who has always been remarked, even among his friends, for not having any. . . . As to the pompous encomiums he so liberally pays to himself on the score of the American revola∣tion, the propriety of them may be questioned; and, since he has forced them so much into notice, it is fair to examine his pretensions.

A stranger might be led to suppose, from the egotism with which Mr. Washington speaks, that himself, and himself only, had generated, condu•ted, completed, and established, the revolution. In fine, that it was all his own doing.

In the first place, as to the political part, he had no share in it; and therefore the whole of that is out of the question with respect to him. There remains, then, only the military part; and it would have been prudent in Mr. Washington not to have awakened inquiry upon that subject. Fame then was cheap; he enjoyed it cheaply; and nobody was disposed to take away the laurels that, whether they were acquired or not, had been given.

. . . when we speak of military character, something more is to be understood than constancy; and something more ought to be understood than the Fabian system of doing nothing. The nothing part can be done by any body, Old Mrs. Thompson, the housekeeper of head-quarters (who threatened to make the sun and the wind shine through Rivington of New-York) could have been as good  . . .

Mr. Washington had the nominal rank of commander in chief, but he was not so in fact. He had, in reality, only a separate command. He had no control over, or direction of, the army to the northward under Gates, that captured Bur∣goyne; or of that to the south under Greene, that recovered the southern states.—The nominal rank, however, of com∣mander in chief, served to throw upon him the lustre of those actions, and to make him appear as the soul and centre of all military operations in America .. .  The commencement of his command was the commencement of inactivity . . .and the injudicious choice of positions taken by him in the campaign of 1776, when the enemy had its greatest force, necessarily produced the losses and misfortunes that marked that gloomy campaign. . . No wonder we see so much pusillanimity in the president, when we see so little enterprise in the general!  . . . it was by the aid of this money, of this fleet, and of Rochambeau's army, that Cornwailis was taken; the laurels of which has been unjustly given to Mr. Washington. His merit in that affair was no more than that of any other American officer . .

It is as well the ingratitude as the pusillanimity of Mr. Washington, and the Washington faction, that has brought upon America the loss of character she now suffers in the world, and the numerous evils her commerce has undergone, and to which it is still exposed. 

[viper37]

Well he showed up in office right in time for the country to be deeply divided on how to deal with the French Revolution. Lucky him.

Yeah, that seems to be the major gripe about his presidency and the Whisky rebellion.  Though I doubt any other president would have acted radically different.  Except for the showing up in uniform part, maybe.

[viper37]

Tom Paine is really in his own category when it comes to vindictive hatchet jobs - in this case he believed Washington had connived with Robespierre to keep Paine imprisoned in France, which seems rather unlikely -  some more detail from his "letter" for extra flavor (skipping over many additional details of Washington's deficiencies as a General):

Well, he does not seem to like the General.  At all. 

[The Minsky Moment]

Extraordinarily powerful and effective polemicist, but not the most stable personality.

[Admiral Yi]

Thomas Paine was a nimrod.

[Razgovory]

Tom Paine is really in his own category when it comes to vindictive hatchet jobs - in this case he believed Washington had connived with Robespierre to keep Paine imprisoned in France, which seems rather unlikely -  some more detail from his "letter" for extra flavor (skipping over many additional details of Washington's deficiencies as a General):

It is laughable to hear Mr. Washington talk of his sympa∣thetic feelings, who has always been remarked, even among his friends, for not having any. . . . As to the pompous encomiums he so liberally pays to himself on the score of the American revola∣tion, the propriety of them may be questioned; and, since he has forced them so much into notice, it is fair to examine his pretensions.

A stranger might be led to suppose, from the egotism with which Mr. Washington speaks, that himself, and himself only, had generated, condu•ted, completed, and established, the revolution. In fine, that it was all his own doing.

In the first place, as to the political part, he had no share in it; and therefore the whole of that is out of the question with respect to him. There remains, then, only the military part; and it would have been prudent in Mr. Washington not to have awakened inquiry upon that subject. Fame then was cheap; he enjoyed it cheaply; and nobody was disposed to take away the laurels that, whether they were acquired or not, had been given.

. . . when we speak of military character, something more is to be understood than constancy; and something more ought to be understood than the Fabian system of doing nothing. The nothing part can be done by any body, Old Mrs. Thompson, the housekeeper of head-quarters (who threatened to make the sun and the wind shine through Rivington of New-York) could have been as good  . . .

Mr. Washington had the nominal rank of commander in chief, but he was not so in fact. He had, in reality, only a separate command. He had no control over, or direction of, the army to the northward under Gates, that captured Bur∣goyne; or of that to the south under Greene, that recovered the southern states.—The nominal rank, however, of com∣mander in chief, served to throw upon him the lustre of those actions, and to make him appear as the soul and centre of all military operations in America .. .  The commencement of his command was the commencement of inactivity . . .and the injudicious choice of positions taken by him in the campaign of 1776, when the enemy had its greatest force, necessarily produced the losses and misfortunes that marked that gloomy campaign. . . No wonder we see so much pusillanimity in the president, when we see so little enterprise in the general!  . . . it was by the aid of this money, of this fleet, and of Rochambeau's army, that Cornwailis was taken; the laurels of which has been unjustly given to Mr. Washington. His merit in that affair was no more than that of any other American officer . .

It is as well the ingratitude as the pusillanimity of Mr. Washington, and the Washington faction, that has brought upon America the loss of character she now suffers in the world, and the numerous evils her commerce has undergone, and to which it is still exposed. 

Why were people in 18th century so in love with commas and semicolons?

A stranger might be led to suppose, from the egotism with which Mr. Washington speaks, that himself, and himself only, had generated, condu•ted, completed, and established, the revolution

This sentence has 7 commas.

Fame then was cheap; he enjoyed it cheaply; and nobody was disposed to take away the laurels that, whether they were acquired or not, had been given.

This sentence has 2 semicolons.

[dps]

Why were people in 18th century so in love with commas and semicolons?

They're a sign of rational, considered, nuanced thought;  have you not read many of my posts?

[Valmy]

Why were people in 18th century so in love with commas and semicolons?

They just liked very descriptive language. Like the original title of Robinson Crusoe was:

The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver'd by Pyrates.

[Razgovory]

Mostly I just read the first three letters of each word someone writes.  It's quicker and I generally get the gist of it.

[The Brain]

Mos def.

[celedhring]

Why were people in 18th century so in love with commas and semicolons?

They just liked very descriptive language. Like the original title of Robinson Crusoe was:

The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver'd by Pyrates.

That's a lot of spoilers 

[The Brain]

Why were people in 18th century so in love with commas and semicolons?

They just liked very descriptive language. Like the original title of Robinson Crusoe was:

The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver'd by Pyrates.

That's a lot of spoilers 

If you only expect to live until 35 you don't want to waste time reading.

[The Brain]

On Old Languish I remember writing a compleat title of an olde style erotic novel. RIP Old Languish.