Essay, Research Paper: Washington

Everyone always thinks that George Washington was this great monument statue of power, strength, and confidence. In actuality George Washington feared that somehow someone would notice or discover his lack of education and ruin him. He was always trying to move up in the social world, that was one of his biggest goals, to be a well respected gentleman. He always wore good tailored army outfits to show others that he was the right to be commander. He did not have a very self esteem until he married to one of the wealthiest widows in Virginia.
George Washington had another flaw, blaming others for his mistakes. He really was not an oringal thinker, even though he loved being in control, that is why he always had aids from his advisers and when something did go not was planned he would blame one of them for the mistake. Washington's lifelong need for control expressed itself through a mastery of nearly everyone and everything around him.
Washington was not a good leader nor a good politician. He not only told lies, he lived them. In fact, no small part of his genius as a political leader was his ability to convince everyone, himself included, that he was no politician. Washington's capacity for self-deception did not end there. Painfully sensitive about his lack of formal education, he refused to write his war memoirs because his awful writing skills.
But there were means better than self-interest, and causes greater than personal elevation. Over time, Washington's campaign for nationhood, rooted in the fundamental idea that men could be confided to govern themselves without the superintendency of an established church or divinely appointed monarch. That is why he was the man who would not be king. At his best, Washington hoped to illustrate by force of example that men could love their country no less than themselves.


Word Count: 421