James Monroe, President No. 5 (1817-1825)
Ash Lawn 

It was a drizzly cool May day when we found ourselves yet again in the pursuit of another president — this time James Monroe. To see his plantation, Ash Lawn, we needed to retrace our steps from last January; Ash Lawn is just a few miles from Jefferson’s Monticello, outside Charlottesville, Virginia. (This is no coincidence, but more on that later.)

The admission was $12.00 for each adult ticket but they threw in a nice AAA discount of $1.00 for us. There is no museum per se at Ash Lawn, hence no movie to give us a sense of the man (and a chance to nap). There is a museum at his birthplace, just outside Fredericksburg, Va.

Note that the home has not always been called Ash Lawn. It was called Highland in Monroe’s day. Subsequent owners renamed it Ash Lawn for the majestic ash trees that line the entrance drive.

We were greeted at the house by Allison, a self-proclaimed history buff. She was extremely knowledgeable, but Tom had a hard time following her rapid-fire delivery. Cathy was forced into the note-taking role.

The first thing we learned is that the majority of the house is not from Monroe’s era. It is only the “white” portion of the home that is original. It consists of five rooms on a single floor.

As noted above, it is no coincidence that Monroe lived so close to Jefferson. He sought to live close to his friend (and father figure), who in fact selected the house site for Monroe. James and his wife, Elizabeth, occupied the house from 1799 to 1823 — except for their eight years in the White House.

What we would call the living room holds an original bust of Napoleon. The bust was a gift to Monroe, who negotiated the Louisiana Purchase with France while serving as Jefferson’s Minister to France.

The house has many portraits and paintings. Among them are portraits of Washington, Ben Franklin and a print of the signing of the Declaration of Independence – according to tour guide Allison, it was fashionable in the late 1700s and early 1800s to have those three pieces of art hanging in your house.

Highland was pretty small, compared with Monticello and Montpelier. So Monroe didn’t have many house guests. However, James and Dolly Madison, who lived about 30 miles away in Orange, were the first overnight guests. The Marquis de Lafayette also stayed with the Monroes, sleeping in a guest house near the main house. As Allison said, “Lafayette slept everywhere in Virginia.”

Under the house, we visited the kitchen. We learned that the Monroes were the first family in the U.S. to have a waffle iron. They also had a cookie press, which had George Washington’s likeness on it – Pillsbury would be jealous.

We also learned about tea bricks. Tea leaves were very expensive and tea bricks were much cheaper. Yes, they are bricks of tea. Kitchen help would grate off the tea leaves from the brick with something like a lemon grater and then put that into a tea cup. Each square is called a cachet, and each cachet would make 20 cups of tea.

Outside the house, we wandered the rather small but nice grounds and eventually found ourselves in the old ice house. There another guide, Gerald, was giving a lecture on Monroe’s role in the expansion of the United States. Monroe negotiated the Louisiana Purchase for $15 million while serving as Jefferson’s Minister to France.

Who was James Monroe?
Monroe held more political offices than any other U.S. president: Virginia state delegate, member of the Continental Congress, U.S. senator, ambassador to France, Virginia governor, Secretary of State, Secretary of War, and, of course, President.

Throughout his life James Monroe preferred to be called Colonel. He was the first veteran since Washington to be elected president. His Revolutionary War credentials are deep. In December 1776, he crossed the Delaware twice with General Washington--first as a scout and second as a combatant. He was wounded in the Battle of Trenton the next day. He also joined General Washington at the infamous winter at Valley Forge (1777-1778).

Monroe began his political life in 1782 when he was elected to the Virginia General Assembly. He served at the Confederation Congress in Philadelphia from 1783 to 1786.

Allison told us that Monroe is the only person to be fired by two different presidents. He was fired by President Washington for favoring the French too much when John Jay was negotiating “Jay’s Treaty” with Great Britain. Monroe loved France and hated Britain, which obviously was an issue when negotiating treaties and walking a fine line between the two countries, which were constantly quarreling--and the U.S. hadn’t decided yet whose side to take in their spats.

Monroe also was fired by President Jefferson for not negotiating a favorable treaty over Britain’s impressment of American sailors. Monroe had actually negotiated a treaty with Britain in 1806 that would have ended the slave trade in both countries, but Jefferson didn’t like the language regarding the impressment issue. Britain agreed to stop taking American sailors, but the treaty didn’t explicitly say that Britain “didn’t have the right to take” American sailors. Jefferson was furious and refused to send it to the Senate for ratification.

Monroe also served as Secretary of State under President Madison and later was appointed to the second position of Secretary of War.

James Monroe was the last Founding Father to be elected President. He was first elected as President in 1816 and was re-elected in 1820. He is the only president besides George Washington to run unopposed. However, he lost one vote in the electoral college when an elector from New Hampshire voted for John Quincy Adams—the next U.S. president—instead.

Monroe had many legacies in his two terms as president, some large, some small.

His first legacy is probably the expansion of the U.S. during his two terms in office. As president, he bought Florida and parts of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana from the Spanish for $5 million.

He was a tireless proponent of national security and reached treaties with every major power. He convinced Congress to fund a system of coastal fortifications and built forts all along the coasts to protect the U.S. from foreign enemies. He also secured the border with Canada, which was owned by Britain. He vowed never to allow the United States to be attacked as it had been by the British during the War of 1812 when they were able to easily reach Washington, DC and burn it.

In 1820, President Monroe faced the so-called Missouri Compromise, a bill that allowed Missouri to join the Union as a slave state but restricted slavery in future states that were located above latitude 36°30′ north. This was 30 years after the Compromise of 1790 that located the nation’s capital in the slave holding south in exchange for the establishment of the First United States Bank. These compromises were leading inexorably toward the Civil War.

It is prescient that during the contentious Congressional debates, Georgia Congressman Thomas W. Cobb screamed at New York Congressman James Tallmadge, Jr. that “if you persist, the Union will be dissolved. You have kindled a fire which all the waters of the ocean cannot put out, which seas of blood can only extinguish.” Tallmadge replied: “ Let it come!” And it would…40 years later (May, 2008).

His most enduring legacy is the Principles of 1823, which later became known as the Monroe Doctrine. These were actually three paragraphs in a speech he gave to Congress in December 1823. He thought the U.S. was too weak to fight lots of wars, so he thought a policy of sticking to affairs in the Western Hemisphere would be advantageous to the fledgling country. As well, South American countries were declaring their independence from Spain and Portugal and he wanted to keep them secure from recolonization. Essentially he told Europe to stay the heck out of the of the Americas and the United States would stay the heck out of Europe. (Not that the United States was actually powerful enough to do much in Europe.) (Historians are divided on how much of the Monroe Doctrine is attributable to Monroe and how much to his Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams.)

But other small legacies are important, too. For example, he was the first president to make rules about where people sat at dinner in the White House, a European custom. And his daughter Maria Hester was the first presidential daughter to be married in the White House.

Monroe struggled financially his entire life. Plantations were not big money makers, and Monroe suffered when tobacco prices dived. He did try to diversify, and ran a quarry, grist mill, blacksmith shop and added a sheep farm. He also started switching to wheat when tobacco prices fell. And one of his slaves was a spinner, who was able to make lots of money for Monroe with her woven goods.

But he was able to acquire a lot of land out west in poker games, since land often was used as payment. And he was able to exchange land grants for items he wanted to buy for the house.

Yes, we continue to be amazed by the lack of financial acumen by the Founding Fathers. Although Allison told us that Jefferson was actually a great financial adviser, though he was deeply in debt when he died.

Jefferson’s death affected Monroe, particularly the fact that Monticello and all of Jefferson’s belongings had to be auctioned off because he was so deeply in debt. At that point, Monroe started trying to get his financial house in order. Still, his son-in-law had to sell all of Monroe’s 3,000 books – and all of his slaves -- when he died.

It is worth noting that in the early days of the United States, the pay for public service was not high and public servants were required to pay much of their expenses out of pocket. According to Hart (2005), Monroe petitioned Congress and several presidents for unpaid expenses. His entreaties were largely ignored and he died destitute.

Following our tour we asked Allison her impressions of Monroe. She said that she was aware that many people think Monroe did whatever Jefferson and Madison told him to do. But she believes that he was very much his own man—although admittedly a better administrator and delegator than intellectual thinker.

Monroe’s French Connection
Monroe loved France, and you can tell by looking around his house. The design of the house, which was built by Jefferson, is French. Much of the décor inside is French, including the French wallpaper, which many rich colonists used to convey their status to guests. And Monroe’s French-designed serving pieces are in the White House. Monroe and his family were the only Americans to attend Napoleon’s coronation as Emperor of France in 1804. This is no coincidence since Monroe’s daughter, Eliza, was close friends with the daughter of Empress Josephine, Hortense, from a previous marriage.

Monroe was in quandary the first time he went to Paris. The French Revolution was underway, Robespierre had been to the guillotine, and the Republic had taken over. He didn’t know who to present his official diplomatic papers to, so he presented them to the Assembly, which was a first. (The French turmoil was advantageous to Monroe and Elizabeth, though – the Republic needed money and was auctioning off Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette’s possessions at Versailles, so the Monroes were able to buy lots of French stuff at a discount.)

Monroe and Slavery
Monroe did the most of the Founding Fathers to end slavery, but he never freed any himself.

He had about 30 slaves on his plantation doing everything from working the tobacco crops to spinning yarn and making candles. He, like Jefferson, thought slavery was evil but couldn’t figure out how to deal with it.

The big hang-up, apparently, was that he and other politically active slave-owners thought it was the state’s responsibility to pay landowners for freeing the slaves since the slaves were considered property. He also believed that freeing the slaves would lead to a never-ending race war. (While governor of Virginia, he quashed a planned 1800 slave revolt and had 26 slaves hanged including the instigator, Gabriel Prosser.)

The United States abolished the slave trade in 1808 when Monroe was Secretary of State under Madison. However, the law allowed states to decide what to do with any slaves captured from slave ships sailing from Africa caught off the states’ shores. And since slaves were valuable, selling slaves quickly became a good way for states to make money. Rhode Island, for example, was a big slave-trading state. And many New England states traded slaves down to the Caribbean since they didn’t allow slavery themselves.

And as the country expanded south and west, slaves became more valuable in those areas, where new and successful crops were being grown, such as cotton and sugar cane. Slaves sometimes were sold in New Orleans and Georgia for twice what they would go for in Virginia.

In fact, Monroe had a problem with slaves trying to run away. So he threatened to sell them to landowners in New Orleans, which had a much higher death rate than Virginia.

Skin color also determined the value of a female slave – the lighter skin the better, particularly in New Orleans. Why? Because light-skinned slaves could be used for prostitution.

And of course female slaves were more valuable than male slaves for the obvious reason that they could produce offspring. But also, their jobs were year-round since they did the kitchen and house work. Men worked the fields, but not in the winter.

Although Monroe never freed his own slaves, he did support the American Colonization Society, which established Liberia in West Africa as a place for freed slaves to colonize. Its capital was named Monrovia in his honor.

References

Hart, G. 2005. James Monroe. Henry Holt and Company. New York, NY.

May, G.  2008.  John Tyler.  Henry Holt and Company.  New York, NY. 

Unger, H.G. 2009. The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation’s Call to Greatness. Da Capo Press. Philadelphia, PA.

James Madision

President No. 3 (1809-1817)
Montpelier The day after we toured Monticello, we were off to Montpelier, James Madison's estate in nearby Orange County. Now, Cathy is a graduate of James Madison University, in relatively nearby Harrisonburg, so she was particularly looking forward to this visit, since she never did a road trip during college.

Montpelier is in Orange, about 45 minutes outside Charlottesville, Va., on Route 20. Because the ground contains a horse race track as well as the mansion and visitor center, they collect the $16 entrance fee immediately upon entering the property.

We started off at the visitor’s center with a movie on the life of James Madison, our fourth president and also the father of the Bill of Rights.

Note: We highly recommend watching the visitor center films on your tours of the presidential estates. Tour guides have time to only tell you so much, and films are able to fill in many of the gaps.

Following the film, we walked over to the mansion about 5 minutes away and were met by Bob Davis, our tour guide, and two other visitors from South Carolina. (Note: A big advantage to visiting in the winter is that it is not crowded.)

The Mansion Montpelier has just undergone a five-year, $24 million renovation in which the mansion was brought back to its original size, and it now represents the house when the Madisons lived there, not when the DuPont family lived there and expanded upon it.

Currently, the house is devoid of furnishings — it looks like a house for sale where the owners have already moved out.

It seems Dolly Madison sold most of the house's contents as well as the house itself after the death of her husband to help drum in some quick cash. Archivists are now searching to find the original pieces or at the least to learn what types of furnishings were in the house so that they can purchase or build copies. They have had limited success, though, and the success they have had — red velvet wallpaper for the dining room, for example — has not come cheap.

One piece of furniture that historians are sure Madison used was a “campeachy chair.” This low-slung brown chair was a comfort to Madison, who suffered from severe rheumatism for most of his life. (It was a comfort to us as well: We found a replica of this surprisingly comfortable chair in a warm sunny room and Cathy used the opportunity to grab a quick nap. You'll notice a trend — we tend to sneak in a nap on most of our presidential visits. Don't even ask about art museums, but let's just say that any nice, dark film room in an art museum is visited early and often.)

Upstairs, gazing out on the Shenandoah Mountains from Madison's study, Bob pointed to dark spots on the wooden floor that he said were likely ink spots and might indicate where Madison’s desk had been. It was in this room that Madison reviewed the pros and cons of different governmental systems and developed the Virginia Plan prior to attending the Constitutional Convention in 1787.

In another upstairs room is a cutaway of one of the walls that showed the renovation nicely. When the archivists were working on the walls, they found mouse nests that contained pieces of paper from Madison's time — a most valuable finding, indeed.

His Life Montpelier already belonged to the Madison family when James was born in 1751. Like Jefferson, Madison was a bibliophile. He read all of his father’s books by the age of 11. Madison attended college at the far off College of New Jersey, now known as Princeton. (Unlike the other Virginian presidents, he did not go to nearby William and Mary.)

Constitutional Convention James Madison is considered the pivotal figure in the Constitutional Convention held in Philadelphia in 1787 to find a way to strengthen the confederation of states as outlined in the Articles of Confederation.

How did historians come to this conclusion?

--First, Madison was key in persuading George Washington to attend the convention. He (and others) believed that without Washington’s involvement, the public would not accept the results. --Second, prior to attending the Constitutional Convention, he spent the spring of 1787 studying world governments to learn what did and didn’t work. From his research, he developed the Virginia Plan.
--Third, Madison persuaded the Virginia delegation and eventually all of the delegates to throw out, and not merely amend, the Articles of Confederation.
--Fourth, Madison was the only delegate to attend every meeting of the Constitutional Convention.
--Fifth, Madison, with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay wrote The Federalist, a series of 85 newspaper articles that explained to the public the reasons for the Constitution.
--And finally, Madison led Virginia to ratify the Constitution over the objections of the brilliant orator Patrick Henry.

Bill of Rights Madison eventually came to the view that the Constitution gave too much power to the federal government. In 1789, he penned a series of amendments to the Constitution, of which the first 10 became known as the Bill of Rights. These include the freedom of speech, the right to bear arms, the freedom from self-incrimination, etc., that we know so well. In 1791, the amendments were ratified under the rules set forth in the Constitution.

Dolly Madison Madison did not marry until well after the Constitutional Convention in 1794 at the age of 43. He married a much younger Quaker widow, 26-year-old Dolly, having been introduced to her by — the not yet infamous — Aaron Burr. Dolly was taller than the 5-foot-4, 100 pound Madison.

Dolly was a popular extrovert and part of the reason for Madison’s political success. Our tour guide told us that one of Madison’s opponents said he could have beaten Madison alone but not the two together.

Political Life While Madison served in the House of Representative, he was an ally and confidant of President Washington. However, over time their political philosophies diverged as Madison aligned with Jefferson’s Republican views of limited central government. Later he served as President Jefferson’s Secretary of State for two terms, including during the 1803 Louisiana Purchase.

Madison, the Republican Madison's conversion to Republicanism is odd since he was a staunch Federalist at the time he wrote the Federalist with Hamilton. Author Joseph Ellis suggests that the reason that Madison and Jefferson became so opposed to the Federalists was because of slavery. They saw the power of the federal government after Hamilton set up a national bank (the Bank of the United States) to consolidate national finances and absorb state war debt. They feared that if the government could do set up a national bank, it also could also abolish slavery. And as planters and plantation owners, they could not see any way to run the Virginia economy without slavery.

Madison held dozens slaves at this plantation. Our guide, Bob, said that he treated his slaves well and that they attended Madison's funeral. However, we spied this rather telling sign at the mansion: “These last few days I saw a Negro ninety-five years old engaged in splitting wood. He belongs to President Madison.” — Baron de Montlezun, 1816.

We also read a sign describing how Madison had brought one of his slaves, Billey, to Philadelphia for the Constitutional Convention. Following the Convention, Madison declined to return Billey to the plantation because he was afraid that the Billey would advocate the idea of freedom to the other slaves. Madison said, “I am persuaded that his mind is too thoroughly tainted to be a fit companion for fellow slaves in Virginia.” He ended up selling Billey in Pennsylvania. Madison thought his action justifiable since he didn’t get as much money as he could have elsewhere and because in Pennsylvania a slave could be held only for seven years.

Presidency Madison was elected president in 1808 and served two terms. The War of 1812 occurred on Madison’s watch. The main issue was that Britain was stopping American ships and kidnapping what they claimed were British deserters and “impressing” them into service on British ships. (British sailors worked under notoriously harsh conditions.) The war went on until 1815 and featured naval engagements on the Great Lakes, the burning of the White House, the writing of the “Star Spangled Banner” during the bombardment of Ft. McHenry, and Andrew Jackson’s heroic defense of New Orleans (after the peace treaty had already been signed).

Later Life The “Sage of Montpelier” retired to his plantation in 1817. With the help of Dolly, he spent his time editing his notes from the Constitutional Convention. Since the meetings were held in secret, his Notes on the Debates of the Federal Constitution notes represent his version of the events of the time.

Madison died in 1836 at the age of 85, the last of the Founding Fathers to die. After Madison died, the much younger Dolly wore black mourning clothes for the rest of her life. She died deeply in debt and had to sell off much of Montpelier. Some of this was due to the profligacy of Payne Todd, her son from her first marriage.

We find it troubling that both Jefferson and Madison managed to become so deeply in debt. For all of their political acumen, they couldn’t seem to manage their household finances.

Place in History For his masterful accomplishments at the Constitutional Convention, Madison is relatively unheralded. We wonder how much of this is due to recent (say last 100 years) publicity and promotion. The Thomas Jefferson Foundation has been around since 1923 and has the advantage of funding from thousands of descendants. Montpelier was owned by the DuPonts until 1984 and was not fully transferred to the Montpelier Foundation until 2000. In addition, Madison and Dolly had no children — hence no descendants.

We should always remember that in the absence of irrefutable evidence, history is interpreted and shaped by those who were born after historical events. For example, the simple phrase “Founding Fathers” did not even exist until coined by Warren G. Harding in 1916. Somehow we always thought the term was used immediately after the Constitutional Convention.

It was interesting to also learn that some of the tour guides think that the Montpelier Foundation is not promoting the Constitution as well as it could at this important time in our history. In recent months, the Tea Party movement has been pushing the strict interpretation of the Constitution. In fact, the week before we visited Montpelier, the incoming House of Representatives read the entire Constitution on the chamber floor. (However, they left out some parts that have been amended, effectively removing any mention of slavery. This is disturbing since the reading becomes part of the Congressional Record.)

References
Ellis, J. 2000. Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation. Alfred A. Knopf. New York, New York.

Ellis, J. 2007. American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic. Alfred A. Knopf. New York, New York.

Wills, G. 2002. James Madison. Henry Holt and Company. New York, New York.

Thomas Jefferson

President No. 3 (1801-1809)
Monticello
Not satisfied with taking another one-year break between visiting the presidents (see our timeframe between George Washington and John Adams), we headed out to Thomas Jefferson’s famed Monticello estate on a cold, cloudy, windy January day.

The three-hour drive to Charlottesville, Va., from the Washington, D.C., area was peaceful and scenic, since we chose to head down the bucolic Route 29 through the Shenandoah Valley instead of I-81 or I-64.

Travel note: There are several Wawa and Sheetz service stations on the road to Charlottesville. We particularly like the touch-screen ordering kiosks and the cleanliness of the stores. But our “quick” stops end up taking about 30 minutes as Cathy slowly peruses the aisles looking at all the food options. She has not taken a side on the Sheetz vs. Wawa debate – she likes both and stops at both.MonticelloThe visit to Monticello starts at the visitor’s center, where tourists can watch a short movie about Jefferson’s life. Then you hop on a shuttle for a 10-minute trip to the mansion, located at the highest point on the mountain overlooking Charlottesville.

We were met by a guide—without an overcoat in the biting cold—who pointed out the vastness of the land inherited by Jefferson in 1768. It extended almost as far as we could see.

Then he shepherded us out of the cold and into the house, pointing out that the single- pane class and the high ceilings would have made the house quite cold in Jefferson’s day. Almost every room has a fireplace, but the warmth would not have permeated very far.

Note: All the presidential residences we have visited so far have not allowed indoor photography. Thus, all of our photos are of the outside of the house or in the out buildings.
Jefferson rebuilt the home on several occasions, taking ideas from Roman architecture. His final version — the one standing today — has a domed roof and 13 skylights. Other features borrowed from houses he saw on his travels include alcoves for the beds and a dumbwaiter to quickly bring food from the outside, ground-level kitchen to the dining area.

The rooms at Monticello are quite small, particularly compared to those at Adams’ residence. As Adams’ house was expanded and modernized, the rooms became larger and larger, as Abigail filled them with all types of décor she saw on her European travels. Monticello comparatively is quite spare, and the rooms tiny.

Jefferson was a bibliophile and could read in seven languages: French, Italian, Spanish, Latin, Greek, Old English, and English. He had three immense libraries during his life. He lost the first library in a fire. He donated his second library of 6,500 books to the federal government to replenish the Library of Congress following the burning of Washington by the British in 1814. When he died, he had rebuilt his personal library to about 2,000 books. He was also a prodigious writer, having written 19,000 letters in his life – a rate of about five letters a week during adulthood.

Jefferson was deeply in debt at the end of his life — troubling because one of his written principles, on display at the gift shop, was “Never spend money before you have earned it.”

He had six children with his wife, Martha, although four of them died young. His daughter, Martha Jefferson Randolph, had 11 children who have produced about 2,100 descendents today — more than any other president. His wife, sadly, died from complications following the birth of their last child.

Our guide parted by thanking us for the opportunity to get out of the house and talk. He quipped, “I can’t talk at home because I’m married.”

The GroundsThe grounds are the home of Monticello’s inner workings. Underneath the house are the kitchen, stables, blacksmith shop, and other critical functions that kept Monticello humming. The ice house, also under the building, was particularly interesting. During the winter, workers filled the deep hole with lake ice and covered it with straw. When properly tended, the ice would last into the following fall.

On the cold walk back to the visitor’s center (we chose exercise instead of the much warmer shuttle bus), we stopped at the family cemetery. Many of the major figures from the time are buried there as well as those from more recent times. We learned from a shivering young guide that any member of the extended Jefferson family can be buried there. (Not sure about the Sally Hemings branch of the family tree.)

Jefferson designed his own gravesite and marker — an obelisk — for his tomb, as well as the wording that lists the accomplishments for which he wished to be remembered:
“Author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia”. (Strangely, he never mentioned his presidency.)

Visitor’s CenterWe continued our way down the trail to the two-story visitor’s center museum. It was here that we learned that Jefferson was also an inventor, although our guide pointed out that he was not much of one; he redesigned a moldboard to improve the performance of plows.

One exhibit shows how Monticello was built. A 3-D visualization shows each stage of the creation including how Jefferson had the mansion mostly torn down and reconstructed following his return from France in 1789.

We were also impressed with a multi-screen exhibit (21 screens) called the Boisterous Sea of Liberty. However, as we sat in the warm, sunlit room, listening to the soft music, and watching the presentation, our eyes got heavy and we napped sitting up. OK, maybe that was the plan all along. Later Cathy asked if I knew there were people in the room with us. “Um, no.”

Note: We have found that we can’t get a complete picture of each president in a half day visit. Therefore, we are doing some post-visit research to get a fuller understanding. Some of that material is presented below.
Early Political LifeJefferson is, of course, known as the writer of the Declaration of Independence. He wrote the Declaration during the summer of 1776 when he was only 33 years old.

He later served as governor of Virginia from 1779–1781. During his governorship he was almost captured by the British and was forced to flee.

He was appointed Minister for France from 1785 to 1789 and was absent from the Constitutional Convention. Upon his return from France, Jefferson served in the Washington administration as Secretary of State. Following Washington’s retirement, he ran against John Adams in the election of 1796 but came in second in the voting. Under the Constitution at that time, the second-place finisher served as vice president, which he did under John Adams.

By this time, Jefferson had changed his political stance from a staunch Federalist (with a belief in a strong central government) to a Republican (with an emphasis on state autonomy). Because Adams remained a Federalist, their formerly close relationship soured. Jefferson was strongly opposed to Adams’ Alien and Sedition Act of 1800, which had the effect of squelching political dialog and which Jefferson had repealed during his presidency.

Jefferson’s PresidencyJefferson won a bitter battle with Adams for the 1800 presidential election. The legacy of that fight was the establishment of the two-party system that still exists today. Jefferson was reelected in 1804.

Perhaps Jefferson’s greatest presidential accomplishment was the purchase of a huge piece of land from cash-starved French in 1803 — the Louisiana Purchase. The territory extended from New Orleans all the way to the Canadian border, effectively doubling the size of the country for a mere $15 million. To learn more about this vast territory, he commissioned Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the territory.

Post PresidencyJefferson and Adams reconciled in 1813 and redeveloped a strong relationship exclusively through letters. (One can argue that Jefferson and Adams were the first Facebook friends. Without physical or voice contact, their entire friendship was based on letters—dozens and dozens of letters.) As we noted during our John Adams write-up, their friendship lasted until their deaths on the same day – July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

Jefferson and James Madison were also long-term friends. Madison’s home, Montpelier, was a day’s ride from Monticello, and he and Dolly Madison often visited. In fact, one of the rooms in Monticello is named the Madison Room because it was there that the Madisons stayed overnight. (We particularly liked the alcove bed in that room and were plotting how we could steal a nap in it.)

Thomas Jefferson and SlaveryJefferson inherited slaves with his large plantation. Apparently, the question of slavery troubled him. He believed it was a moral evil but that future generations would have to deal with this “deplorable entanglement.”

However, it didn’t trouble him enough to end his own practice of it. He owned between 150 and 200 slaves. He reportedly hired overseers who were known for their cruelty including the whipping of slaves. (On the positive side, if there can be one, he also gave incentives to some slaves and promoted them for hard work. For example, he gave one slave a barrel for every 30 barrels he made, which he could then sell and make money when not working.)

Even the house slaves worked hard. They were responsible for the weekly washing of clothes, linens and other laundry. This involved soaking, soaping, rubbing, washing, boiling, draining, rinsing, bluing, rerinsing, starching, wringing, drying, and ironing. Since there was no running water, all water needed to be brought up and heated in tubs.

During his life it was rumored that Jefferson had fathered children with Sally Hemings, one of his young, light skinned slaves. Recent DNA evidence shows a high likelihood that he fathered at least one and possibly all six of Hemings’ children. When I asked a docent about how often the sex was consensual, she offered that “slaves were considered property.” In the present day that would be considered rape, but it obviously it wasn’t seen that way by Jefferson (I hope). Heming’s was actually related to Jefferson’s deceased wife, Martha, through her father. (Don't ask.)  Jefferson scholar Paul Finkelman of the Albany Law School calls Thomas Jefferson “one of the most deeply creepy people in American history.” 

Jefferson was deeply in debt in his later years and was unable to provide for the freedom of his slaves upon his death (as Martha Washington had done). His grandson ended up selling the 130 slaves.

Jefferson’s ownership of slaves erodes his credibility — how could he write the famous, inspiring phrase “all men are created equal” and yet own other men and women? The same applied to Washington, Madison and James Monroe, the other plantation-owning Founding Fathers.

Cathy suggested that he and the other slave-holding Founding Fathers rationalized their behavior. Perhaps they thought (correctly) that the institution was not of their making and that this infrastructure was already in place. Perhaps they thought that the agrarian South couldn’t economically sustain itself without slavery. Perhaps they thought that slaves were somehow not human. Joseph Ellis, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, postulates that that the Founding Fathers needed to be practical and that there was zero chance of reaching a consensus on the Constitution if the issue of slavery was included. It was insoluble at that time.

All these reasons make sense. But, if anyone were to understand the implications of withholding freedom from a group of people, it was the Founding Fathers. They of all people should have known better. Many of them were not just tolerating slavery, they were practicing it. I can’t think of a historical parallel of such demonstrable hypocrisy.

As a final note, Halliday (2001) points out that at least some of the inscriptions on the Jefferson Memorial are truncated. One, for example, reads, "Nothing in more certainly written in the book of fate, than that these people are to be free." But the same sentence as written in Jefferson's autobiography concludes with, "...nor is it less certain that the two races, equally free, cannot live in the same government."

References
Ellis, J. 2000. Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation. Alfred A. Knopf. New York, New York.

Ellis, J. 2007. American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic. Alfred A. Knopf. New York, New York.

Halliday, E.M. 2001. Understanding Thomas Jefferson. Harper Collins Publishers. New York, New York.

Schuessler, J.  2012.  Jefferson:  Slaveholder Vs. Patriot.  New York Times.  November 27, 2012.

John Adams - Boston and Quincy, MA

President No. 2 (1797-1801)
Boston – October 30, 2010
“We can’t go to all houses. Houses are boring. Do you really want to go to 43 houses?” Cathy said as we flew to Boston to learn about president number two, John Adams.

We were debating where to go to learn the most about John Adams. The John Adams Peacefield estate in nearby Quincy would certainly yield good information. But Cathy was right; did we really want to visit nothing but homes? We decided that walking the streets of Adams’ beloved Boston also could tell us much about him. So we decided to visit the Freedom Trail, a two-mile walk through historical Boston that stops at all of the major Boston Revolutionary War sites.

Travel note: We landed at Logan Airport on a crisp autumn day. We took the above ground T bus (silver line) to downtown Boston then switched to the underground rail. We later learned that it is quicker and easier to take the shuttle bus to the Airport T station (blue line), then zip into town. All rides on the T cost $2, no matter where you’re going.

Freedom Trail

Boston Masacre /
Crispus Attucks Monument

“The Idiot’s Guide to Boston: Follow the red line,” Cathy said. The Freedom Trail is indeed a thick red line painted on the sidewalk. In some areas it is represented by bricks. There is no real way to get lost. The trail starts in Boston Commons, an enormous grassy park so-named because it used to be a pasture where the commoners grazed their cattle and other farm animals.

On the Commons is a monument to the five colonists killed in the Boston Massacre. We’ll say more about that later, but it is worth noting that the monument contains an inscription from John Adams that reads “On that night the foundation of American Independence was laid.”

Dachshund in Full Gear

(Note: The following has nothing to do with John Adams. As we started up the Freedom Trail to Beacon Hill and the State House, we noticed a crowd. As we approached we saw dozens of wiener dogs scampering about, yelping. We had stumbled upon the monthly “Dachshund Meet-Up.” Since this was Halloween weekend, the dogs were in costume. My favorite was the hot dog costume, although the eventual winner of the costume contest was the ice cream sundae dog.)

Granary Burial Ground

Granary Burial Ground
Boston is full of old graveyards, perfect for a Halloween weekend. The Granary Burial Ground, a major cemetery, houses the graves of three Revolutionary War patriots — John’s cousin, Samuel Adams; John Hancock; and Paul Revere. (John Adams is buried in nearby Quincy, his birthplace and retirement home, with wife Abigail.) Also buried here are the remains of the five colonists killed during the Boston Massacre and Robert Treat Paine, one of the prosecuting attorneys against the British soldiers accused of murder during the massacre. Again, more on this later.

Although well maintained, the old gravestones are discolored and many are sinking into the earth. Many of the gravestones had been moved over time and they don’t necessarily reside over the grave referenced.

The Old State House and the Boston MassacreWe decided to the tour the Old State House for two reasons. First, it is a major historical site. Second, it was warm. (We had layered up, but found the 50-degree temperatures and the wind a cold combination).

This brings us to another travel aside: There are plenty of Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts lining the Freedom Trail, so staying warm with coffee or hot chocolate is not a problem.

For a $6 entrance fee, we had two guided tours — an indoor tour and an outdoor lecture on the Boston Massacre.

It was here in 1761 that James Otis railed against the Writs of Assistance — the British Army’s “illegal” searches of homes and businesses without cause and without warrant. John Adams attended the speech and it inspired him.

A bit of background is in order. Prior to the mid 1700s, the colonies had enjoyed 150 years of relative freedom from extensive British interference. In the mid-1700s the British Empire was in debt from the Seven Years’ War and needed additional revenue from the colonies. They imposed taxes on the colonists, the most notorious being the so-called Stamp Act. The colonists naturally were not eager to see their taxes increased, and resisted — the Massachusetts Bay Colony being one of the most resistant. The British sent over 4,000 troops to quell the 16,000 Bostonians, an astounding ratio of four to one.

Now, during our outdoor lecture about the Boston Massacre, we learned that basically what you were taught about the incident in third grade was propaganda for the colonists. The famous engraving of the incident that Paul Revere made and was distributed to the other colonies — showing British soldiers firing on unarmed, rich colonists — was also propaganda.

Instead, a large, angry mob surrounded a small band of British soldiers at the Customs House, across from the Old State House on March 5,1770. The mob was taunting the troops and throwing snow and ice at them. The soldiers could not fire on the citizens because the citizens had not been read the provisions of the Riot Act. This gives the citizens fair warning to disburse before possibly violent action is taken. (This also apparently led to the phrase, “Read them the riot act.”) The soldiers eventually opened fire on the unarmed citizens and killed five people. The governor, standing on the balcony of the Old State House, was successful in getting the crowd to disperse and had several soldiers arrested.

This is where John Adams comes in. The governor asked Mr. Adams — a well-respected lawyer at the time — to defend the soldiers, after nobody else would take the case. Adams agreed because he wanted to show the British that the Americans could follow due process of law and give the soldiers a proper trial instead of just hanging them in the public square. He also knew that proper representation of the soldiers would be important if the colonies wanted to run their own government.

Our guide makes a point.

Mr. Adams so skillfully defended the soldiers that all but two were acquitted. The remaining two were convicted but saved from hanging by Adams’ use of an arcane law that stated that if the soldiers could read a Bible passage in court, they could not be hanged. Instead, the soldiers had their palms branded with an “M” for manslaughter. If they were ever caught in another illegal act, the brand would give away their past history. (The act of branding sometimes caused the hand to become swollen and red, which according to our guide, led to the use of the phrase “getting caught red handed.”)

Spooky!

Halloween Eve
(Note: The following also has nothing to do with John Adams. As Halloween Eve fell, we considered going to Salem, home of the notorious witch trials. But it would have been difficult to get there and back in a reasonable time, not to mention it would be packed. Instead we opted for the Ghosts and Graveyards tour. For a rather steep admission cost of $38, we were taken on a bus/trolley to the haunted sites of Boston. Led by Constance, the undead bride, we toured the King’s Chapel Burial Ground, the Boston Commons and the Granary Burial Ground. Various actors, who all sported proper British accents, told us tales of haunted Boston. There was more laughter and joking than actual dread, but we were well entertained.)

Quincy, MA – October 31, 2010

After a long day of walking the Freedom Trail, we still didn’t have a good sense of John Adams; he is just not mentioned that much in Boston. The two major Boston colonial figures are his older cousin, Samuel (who actually was a brewer as well as a patriot), and John Hancock. We decided to break from our vow to avoid homes and hopped on the T (25 minutes on the Red Line from downtown) to make the short trip to John’s birthplace and long-time residence.

National Park Visitor CenterNote: Before visiting the Adams houses, you have to go to the visitor center run by the National Park Service, at most a five-minute walk from the Quincy Center T stop. The visitor center sells tour tickets, books, and souvenirs. It also shows a short film covering some of the basics of his life.
John Adams’ 275th birthday was Oct. 30, so his birthplace and estate were both reportedly swamped with visitors the day before. (So this worked out well for us, as it turns out.) A large wreath sent by President Obama was displayed in the window of the visitor center.

We signed up for the $5 trolley tour that would take us to three buildings: John Adams’ birth home, his early residence, and the Old House at Peacefield. And because everybody else had showed up the day before, we had our own personal tour of all three houses.

John Adams Birth Home and Early Residence

We had a personal tour of both buildings, a stone’s throw from each other. His birth house is a restored building still resting on the original 1680s-era foundation. Adams was born to Deacon John Adams and Susanna Boyleston on the afore mentioned October 30, 1735. He moved into in his first residence upon marrying Abigail Smith (who was also a distant cousin.)

John Adams Birth House

Both homes are notably spartan which very few restored pieces of furniture. During our tour we learned (or at least we noted) more historical zingers than deep history. Here are the origins of some of the common phrases still used today:

· Board Meeting and Chairman of the Board – the wooden slab or board over which people such as Adams’ father, Deacon Adams, presided was known as the “board” and meetings were thus called, “board meetings.” A single chair was reserved for the Deacon making him the “chairman of the board.”
· Grid Iron – A rectangular cooking iron with parallel bars. This was later used to describe the lines markings on a football field.
· Hot Toddy – Adams and other colonists used a metal stick called a “toddy” that was laid over hot coals and then immersed in a cup of liquids to heat it up.
· Hitting the Sack or Hitting the Hay – Colonists beat their straw-filled mattresses every night to remove insects.

Peacefield

Old House at Peacefield
The house where John and Abigail Adams spent most of their life together is a far cry from the simple abode that John Adams’ father built. The large Colonial house has the look of a current McMansion, with an addition, plenty of guest rooms, a formal dining room, studies both for John and Abigail, wall paper, sculptures and shelves of china.

John and Abigail Adams moved into this long-time residence after completing an ambassadorship in England in 1788. Except for stays in Philadelphia and Washington, this was their final home. During our tour we viewed the extensive collection of china. Although Abigail had asked her relatives to warn her if she were “putting on airs,” she still had a weakness for the good life. She had the house expanded by a third and collected gold-plated china.

It was in this house that Abigail died in 1818 promoting Adams to move permanently out of the bedroom into his study. It was also here that John Adams died. Some attributed to divine intervention the fact that both Adams and Thomas Jefferson—two of the five writers of the Declaration of Independence--died on July 4, 1826, exactly 50 years after the signing of the document.

Final Resting Place

First Baptist Church

A block from the Visitor’s Center is the First Baptist Church. The tour guides kindly let us skip the tour and go directly down to the crypt where we viewed the tombs of John and Abigail Adams. John Adams’ tomb was covered by an American flag as well as by another birthday wreath from the president.





Major Accomplishments
So what were Adams’ major accomplishments?

· He was one of the Massachusetts Bay Colony’s representatives to the Continental Congresses during 1774 to 1776.

· Adams was one of the Committee of Five (with Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson) who drafted the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

· Adams served as vice president during Washington’s two terms. (Back then, the runner-up in the electoral voting became vice president.)

· In 1796 he was elected president as a Federalist. (The Federalist party believed in a strong central government.)

· As president, he helped build up the Navy, which included the famous USS Constitution (“Old Ironsides”) which is still in Boston Harbor.

· His legacy is tainted by his support and signature on the Alien and Sedition Acts, a set of four acts that made it illegal to criticize the president and allowed the expulsion of foreign-born U.S. citizens for seditious acts.

· Adams appointed fellow Federalist John Marshall to the Supreme Court.

Adams served only one term. He lost the 1800 election to Thomas Jefferson, his one-time collaborator on the Declaration of Independence as well as his vice president. Adams felt that he had lost the election because he had bucked the popular sentiment to go to war against one-time ally France. By this point, the United States favored Britain in its war with France. Adams sent a peace emissary to France that was successful. However, word of peace did not make it back to the States until after the election, and Adams was swept from power.

Adams’ Federalist party was replaced by Jefferson’s Republican party, the first transfer of power between political parties in the newly formed Republic. (The major distinction being that the Federalists believed in a strong central government and the Republicans believed in strong states’ rights.)

Adams spent many years getting over his loss to Jefferson. Adams also believed that his major role in the Continental Congresses was not recognized. Eventually he reached out to Jefferson in a letter. Thus began a long and eventually warm correspondence between the men. His friendship with Jefferson grew to be so deep that his last words were reportedly: “Thomas Jefferson survives.” He never knew that Jefferson’s death had preceded his own by only hours, on July 4, 1826, exactly 50 years after they signed the Declaration of Independence.

Writings

To his wife Abigail he wrote of the Declaration of Independent on July 3, 1776:

“The second day of July 1776, will be the most memorable event in the history of America. I am apt to believe it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance , by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of the continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore.”
(Note the Declaration had been approved by Congress with the text still being debated.)

Abigail Adams wrote back to him on July 13, 1776:

“I cannot but feel sorry that some of the most manly sentiments in the Declaration are expunged from the printed copy. Perhaps wise reasons induced it.” (Note: The writers apparently deleted passages about the evils of slavery in an earlier version.)

John and Abigail’s love was legendary. On May 6, 1777, Abigail wrote:

“Tis ten days, I believe, since I wrote you a line, yet not ten minutes pass without thinking of you. Tis four months wanting three days since we parted. Every day of the time I have mourned the absence of my friend, and felt a vacancy in my heart which nothing, nothing can supply. In vain the spring blooms or the birds sing. Their music has not its former melody, nor the spring its usual pleasures. I look around with a melancholy delight and sigh for my absent partner.”

References
Shuffelton, F. (ed). 2004. The Letters of John and Abigail Adams. Penguin Books. New York, New York.

McCullough, D. 2001. John Adams. Simon & Schuster. New York, New York.

McDougall, W.A. 2004. Freedom Just Around the Corner. Harper Collins. New York, New York.

Current, N., T. H. Williams, F. Freidel. 1975. American History: A Survey. Alfred A. Knopf. New York, New York.

George Washington

Mount Vernon

A year and a half after our first visit to Mount Vernon, we returned to mitigate our failure to visit the mansion during our first visit in 2009. It was a brilliant spring morning but uncharacteristically cool for late April.

Our experience started out quite differently than last time – the reason we skipped the mansion tour in September 2009 was because it was drizzling, chilly and the line waiting to get into the mansion was long — and outside.

But this time, we learned that the long lines are a thing of the past. Now, the staff hands out timed entry tickets, so you’re free to wander around the grounds — the very informative grounds (in fact, much more so than the actual mansion tour, but we’ll get to that shortly) — while you wait the half hour or two hours to get in.

We arrived early enough (9:30 a.m.) so that we could go directly to the mansion. Sadly, though, buses filled with tour groups had already started lining the end of the George Washington Parkway.

Maybe we’ve been spoiled by visiting presidential houses during off-peak seasons and so tour guides have had more time to spend with us. And granted, Mt. Vernon is the most visited of all presidential houses — about one million people each year visit Mt. Vernon, compared with 450,000 at Monticello. But our tour of the mansion was comparatively disappointing.

The Mansion 'Tour'

Prior to entering the mansion, a female guide briefed us on the rules of the mansion. First, no pictures and no cell phones. Then we were told NOT to ask questions during the tour. This is apparently because the answers might take too long. Then she told us that they don’t allow pens in the mansion, which means no note-taking. When we told her that Monticello has no such rules, she said that this is Mount Vernon and they have different rules (It would have been helpful if she had given a real explanation, like they’re worried about graffiti). So we were left to our ability to recall — a talent that Cathy possesses more than Tom.

There are really no “tours” of the mansion but rather a line of people snaking through rooms. Guides are stationed at strategic points to give a one-minute narrative that they repeat almost immediately. Few details and no interpretation are offered. We were asked not to linger and to move along with the crowd.

But still, we got an idea of the home life of George and Martha Washington in the year 1799, the last year of George Washington’s life.

The first and most impressive room is the dining room, painted in Large Dining Room Green and Large Dining Room Verdigris. (We know this because the gift shop sells these paints through Fine Paints of Europe, in addition to Houdon Grey, Globe Thistle, and Cistern. It kind of cracks us up that they have ‘Europe’ in the title, but it is an American company.) The ceiling is decorated with images of farming tools because Washington, as we had discovered on our first visit, considered himself a farmer first and foremost. The walls are decorated with four paintings of rivers — the Potomac at Great Falls, the Potomac at Harper’s Ferry, the Hudson River, and one unknown river. A painting of French King Louis XVI hangs on the wall — homage to France for its help in the Revolutionary War. Most of the items in the room are original, including the three vases that perch on the Italian marble mantle.

We snaked our way into the main hallway. The most interesting item is an enormous key hanging on the wall — the key to the Bastille. It is a gift from Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier (better known as the Marquis de Lafayette) to Washington. We learned that Washington was like a father to the much younger Lafayette. One of the upstairs rooms we see next is the “Lafayette Room,” where Lafayette would stay on his visits.

Also upstairs is Washington’s bedroom containing the bed where he lingered dying for 36 hours, slowly suffocating to death, according to one of the guides. Washington had contracted what is now thought to be acute epiglottitis on his last ride around the plantation on a cold, rainy December day. Bleeding Washington for a total of about five pints of blood during his last hours probably didn’t help the situation.

Outside we were allowed to linger and ask questions of the guides. We asked one of the women her most frequent question. “The most stupid one,” she asks? Sure. “What’s up those stairs,” is her choice as the most stupid question. The guides have decided the best answer is “the basement.”

On a more serious note she said that her most interesting discovery about Washington is that he had a sense of humor. As evidence she mentions one of the approximately 20,000 letters he wrote during his lifetime. In this particular letter he wrote to a European friend about the institution of marriage and said that in this country we customarily only do it once. (I think that most people — including presidents — have a sense of humor. It’s just that the evidence may not have survived.) She also mentioned another letter to his family, written in the midst of the Revolution, where he advises them to be sure to thin the carrot crop.

We asked another guide his opinion of Washington. He said that Washington was a “humble” man who could have been an “emperor like Cromwell” had he so chosen. He is not the first guide we have encountered on our travels who thinks that this is Washington’s true legacy. Washington could have continued serving as president and basically been king, but instead chose to step down at the end of two terms and let the new American citizens vote for a new leader.

Washington and Slavery
Washington had more than 300 slaves running the Mount Vernon plantation as well as four outlying farms.

During our previous visit, we had visited the 1983 slave memorial erected by Howard University. However, we didn’t see until now the 1929 slave memorial placed by the Mount Vernon Ladies Association, which runs Mount Vernon. It was the first memorial of its kind in the United States and it was to their credit that they erected the memorial. It was to their discredit that they called the slaves “faithful colored servants.”

We viewed a slave cabin on the grounds close to the river. The cabin consisted of a single room with a mud floor, a straw-filled mattress on one side, and a fireplace and cooking area on the other. Signage indicated that such cabins could have held a family of eight including a husband and wife who worked on two different farms several miles apart on the Mount Vernon property, forcing them to be separated six days per week. One day per week, the husband would walk the five miles to spend Sunday with his family.

Washington willed his slaves to Martha with the stipulation that they be freed upon her death. Although she freed his slaves prior to her death, she was unable to free all the Mount Vernon slaves since some were held in trust for her children (from her previous marriage) and therefore was not legally allowed to. To make matters more complicated, some of those freed slaves had intermarried with others who were not.

George Washington, Farmer
George Washington’s passion was working his farm. He successfully experimented with crop rotation using a seven-year cycle. He also designed a 16-sided grain thrashing building, a replica that now stands on the grounds.

He was also a farmer of fish. When the fish were migrating in the Potomac River, his slaves were directed to harvest and process the fish to eat and sell. The fishermen were able to catch enough during the fish season to feed everyone on the plantation for the entire year.

Visitors to Mount Vernon can walk down a trail to a pier on the Potomac River, where boat tours are offered. There also is a working farm, where Colonial-dressed interpreters cook vegetables and beef in a pot over a fire (even in the sweltering sun of the Washington summer).

Museum and Education Center
On this visit, we visited the museum, which we had missed last time—we had only toured the Education Center during our first visit. The highlight is a bust of Washington created by renowned French sculpture Jean Antoine Houdon in 1785 and is considered the most accurate likeness of Washington that exists. Houdon had turned down a commission from Catherine the Great to create this work. As part of the creation process, Houdon created a life mask of Washington, which he used to complete the bust. The bust was later used to create a statue of Washington in the Virginia state capital in Richmond.

The museum also contains many original works of art. The ones that most impressed me were those depicting the activities at Mount Vernon. One shows Washington and Lafayette deep in discussion on the porch of the mansion. Lafayette leans against the same pillar we had sat next to earlier that morning. Another shows Washington, Patrick Henry, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison seated around a table on the grounds of the mansion. It is a snapshot of some of the most important people in American history.

Visiting Mount Vernon
The tour of George Washington’s home is definitely not worth the $15, but the rest of the plantation is.

Visitors easily can spend several hours wandering around the plantation, which is fortunate, since the mansion tour takes maybe 15 minutes. In addition to the educational center and museum, visitors can roam the trails, visit replica stables and barns complete with farm animals, visit George Washington’s tomb, and the slave memorial. They also can wander down to the Potomac and visit the small working farm.

Ground has been broken for a new library on the site, as well.

And be sure to linger on the chairs on the mansion’s porch overlooking the Potomac River. The view is spectacular — the “viewshed” was recently protected so that no development can be built across the river — and the chairs are comfortable. All that’s missing is some lemonade and cookies.

Which brings us to — eat at the Mount Vernon Inn, if you get a chance. The food is good and isn’t particularly expensive. A tasty and huge pulled pork sandwich with homemade potato chips cost a mere $8.50, for example (cheaper than buying lunch in downtown D.C.). The salmon corncakes were also large and delicious, for $11.50. But be warned, the inn stops serving lunch at 2:30.

References
White McKenzie Wallenborn, W.M. 1997. George Washington's Terminal Illness: A Modern Medical Analysis of the Last Illness and Death of George Washington

George Washington

Mount Vernon

“It’s raining. I so don’t understand why we’re doing this,” Cathy said as we drove through a light drizzle south on the George Washington Parkway toward Mount Vernon, Virginia.

We had chosen this day, gray and with a 100 percent forecast of rain, to start the Presidents Project.

What a more fitting way to start than a visit to Mount Vernon, Washington’s home for 40 years. (Sure, we could have gone to the Washington Monument in D.C., but the giant obelisk wasn’t constructed until 1885, so it didn’t fit our criteria of being important to the president himself.)

Location
Mount Vernon is about eight miles south of Washington, D.C., along the Potomac River (or “Potowmack,” back in Washington’s day).

Entrance
We entered the grounds through the Texas gate, which was commissioned by the Texas Freemasons in 1899 and dedicated to fellow Freemason, George Washington.

Entrance to the expansive Mt. Vernon estate will cost you $15 ($14 for seniors, $7 for youths). That gets you a tour of the mansion, visits to the numerous buildings on the 200 acres of grounds, the gardens and the spectacular views of the Potomac River. Sitting on the green, high-backed chairs on the back porch of the mansion, overlooking the Potomac, might alone be worth the price of admission.

Mount Vernon is owned by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association who purchased it in 1858. Thus the need to purchase tickets. (The idea of buying tickets to museums and historical spots is odd for Washingtonians, like us, who grew up with the free Smithsonian museums).

Orientation Center
The Orientation Center holds two theaters, a model of the Mansion, stained glass images of Washington’s life, life size bronze statues of George and Martha Washington and two grandchildren. We were ushered into a movie theater to see two short films. The first was an introduction to Mount Vernon hosted by Pat Sajack (of “Wheel of Fortune” fame). The second, a live-action 18-minute overview of the Revolutionary War years, is not bad, with the actors actually spouting believable dialogue.


The Estate
First a confession: We didn’t go into the mansion itself. The line was just too long. Instead, we walked to the porch at the back of the mansion, sat in wooden, green chairs and admired the view of the Potomac River and the Maryland shore.

The grounds of Mount Vernon are huge and include 200 acres of buildings and fields.
Wandering around Mt. Vernon, what impressed us most was the self-sufficiency of the estate: The plantation workers grew, fruits, vegetables and wheat; they raised sheep, cows and other farm animals; they fished along the banks of the Potomac. An interesting tidbit about Washington is that he was somewhat obsessed with creating “live fences” (hedges and trees) around the property to keep out wild beasts.


Most of the work on the plantation was done by slaves—More than 300 by 1799--who now have been memorialized with a monument on the grounds where 150 slaves are thought to be buried. Mt. Vernon holds a ceremony on the anniversary of the erection of the slave memorial in September 1983 to pay tribute to the slaves and their descendants, many of whom attend the event. Coincidentally, we caught the tail end of this year’s service. (We didn’t know about it until we arrived). A purple-clad gospel choir of African Americans sang the phrase, “I don’t believe” as they filed out of the memorial site and tossed branches of same kind on the memorial. Allie Johnson King, 104 years old, was one of the slave descendants who came to the ceremony. She was pushed in her wheelchair accompanied by four additional generations of her descendants. They politely posed for pictures.

Among the highlights of the plantation is the tomb that holds the bodies of George and Martha Washington and 25 relatives. During the Civil War, Mount Vernon (which was in the South) was declared a neutral ground. Soldiers from both the North and South would leave their guns at the gate and pay their respects to Washington. A docent told us that the soldiers carved their names into the bricks. However, the carvings were so intricate that it didn’t seem possible that they were original. Plus, the dates didn’t match those of the Civil War. (A dead giveaway.)

Museum and Education Center
The new Museum and Education Center is exactly that – educational. It is an impressive display of facts and films about Washington’s life. Particularly impressive is a reverse 3-D likeness of Washington’s face that appears to look at you no matter where you stand. Another don’t-miss is the interactive movie theater. During the 14-minute movie, the seats vibrate as cannons are shot and imitation snow falls during the Valley Forge scenes. The Education Center also houses Washington’s famous dentures--surprisingly realistic. (We had been brought up on the tale of the wooden dentures. But these dentures were made of ivory.)

The center is devoted mostly to Washington’s war-time heroics and Mt. Vernon itself, and very little to his presidency. The characteristic that most impressed us was his unwavering fortitude and leadership. During the Revolutionary War, he was somehow able to convince a beaten army of sick, underfed, ill-clothed troops to cross the Delaware River in the middle of Christmas Eve night of 1776, march nine miles in the snow, and finally attack Hessian troops in Trenton, New Jersey. And win. He managed to accomplish this without losing a single person and captured 900 Hessian troops to boot. This is one of many stories of Washington’s perseverance and flat out bravery.

Washington’s main accomplishment during his two terms ((1789-1793 and 1793-1797) was to stabilize the new nation – not easy since the North and South were already fighting over such major issues as power of the federal government vs. power of the states as well as slavery.

He created the first Cabinet, with many of the same posts that we still have today: Department of State (Thomas Jefferson), Department of Treasury (Alexander Hamilton), Secretary of War (Henry Knox), and Attorney General (Edmund Randolph). He appointed the Supreme Court, led by John Jay as Chief Justice. He established the Bank of the United States and began work on creating Washington, D.C., as the nation’s capital. He even declared Thanksgiving as the first national holiday. And his military exploits were not over. In 1791 he led 13,000 militia men against the whiskey tax protesters in western Pennsylvania. The show of force caused the rebellion to evaporate with no bloodletting. Perhaps his biggest accomplishment was to avoid another war with Great Britain by sending Chief Justice John Jay to England to negotiate a truce—at terms that were less than favorable to the United States. This cost Washington some of his popularity but gave our young nation time to strengthen before the War of 1812.

Initially, some called for Washington to be crowned king. It is to his credit that he resisted such calls and became president. It also is to his credit that he did not run for a third term (which he would have won handily) and instead retired to his farm, where he died two years later.


Writings
George Washington was a prolific writer. A collection of his writings (Rhodehamel, 1997) covers more than 1,000 pages.

To his nephew, George Steptoe Washington, he advised (March 23, 1789): “ The first and great object with you at present is to acquire, by industry and application, such knowledge as your situation enables you to obtain, and as will be useful to you in life. In doing this two other important objects will be gained besides the acquisition of knowledge—namely, a habit of industry, and a disrelish of that profusion of money & dissipation of time which are ever attendant upon idleness. …When you have a leisure to go into Company that it should always be of the best kind that the place you are in will afford; by this means you will be constantly improving your manners and cultivating your mind while you are relaxing from your books; and good Company will always be found much less expensive than bad.”

To his step granddaughter, Eleanor Parke Custis, he wrote of love and marriage (January 16, 1795): “Love is said to be an involuntary passion, and it is, therefore, contended that it cannot be resisted. This is true in part only, for like all things else, when nourished and supplied plentifully with aliment, it is rapid in its progress; but let these be withdrawn and it may be stifled in its birth or much stinted in its growth. For example, a woman (the same may be said of the other sex) all beautiful and accomplished, will, while her hand and heart are indisposed of, turn the heads and set the circle in which she moves on fire. Let her marry, and what is the consequence? The madness ceases and all is quiet again. Why? Not because there is any diminution in the charms of the lady, but because there is an end of hope.”

To John Price Posey he unleashed his anger on the disposition of the estate of one of his wife’s relatives (August 7, 1782): “If what I have heard, or the half of it be true, you must not only be lost to thee feelings of virtue, honor and common honesty; but you must have suffered an unwarrantable thirst of gain to lead you into errors which are so pregnant with folly and indiscretion, as to render you a mark for every man’s arrow to level at….Conscience, must have kicked out of the doors before you could have proceeded to the length of selling another Mans Negros for your own emolument…Conscience again seldom comes to a Mans aid while he is in the zenith of health, and reveling in pomp and luxury upon ill gotten spoils; it is generally the last act of his life and comes too late to be of much service to others here, or to himself hereafter.”

To his sister, Betty Washington Lewis, regarding his mother death (September 13, 1789): “Awful, and affecting as the death of a Parent is, there is consolation in knowing that Heaven has spared ours to an age, beyond which few attain, and favored her with the full enjoyment of her mental faculties, and as much bodily strength as usually falls to the lot of four score….It will be impossible for me at this distance, and circumstanced as I am, to give the smallest attention to the execution of her will…The Negros who are engaged in the crop, and under an Overseer must remain I conceive on the Plantation until the crop is finished..after which the horses, stock of all sorts, and every species of property, not disposed of by the will…must by law be equally dived into five parts, one of which you, another my Brother Charles, and third myself, are entitled to.



Rhodehamel, J. (ed.) 1997. George Washington Writings. The Library of America.