Harry Truman probably said it best. “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.”

The Thick Hide

It is a part of human nature to be sensitive to criticism. Those who achieve celebrity, whether it be political or artistic or academic or elsewise, invariably make enemies for a variety of reasons. Resentment and jealousy usually being at the top of the list.

There are many instances in recent history where fine public figures withdraw from public life due to the intrusive instant-judgments of social media.

Ergo, being in the public eye makes you subject to the public mouth, and “truth” is also a victim.

George Washington the Tight-Lipped

George Washington’s father died when his son was eleven. Every aspiration for a formal classical education (like his older half-brothers) was now denied.

Eldest brother Lawrence was fond of George, and frequently invited him to visit at his Mount Vernon plantation. The property was a work-in-progress, but perhaps its most valuable asset then (other than splendid location) was its neighbor: Lord Fairfax, one of the highest ranking noblemen in the Colonies, and one of the wealthiest. Lawrence was happy to introduce George into the Fairfax circle, and it made a huge impression on the teenager. It provided him with manners to emulate and a lifestyle to dream about.

Washington’s lack of formal education weighed heavily on him, especially when he served in the Virginia House of Burgesses. He was now in the company of some of the best and brightest men in the Colony. He made it his lifelong habit to keep silent as much as possible, speaking only on subjects he knew about. The reticence served him well. His peers grew to like and respect the quiet man of Mount Vernon. When he did rise to speak, it was usually something worth listening to.

General George: The Target of Calumny

By the time of the American Revolution, George Washington (left) was 44 years old, one of the wealthiest planters in Virginia, a former Colonel of the Virginia Militia (highest ranking officer in the American colonies), and was widely regarded. For a while.

Major General Charles Lee, a Virginian and erstwhile British military officer, was hugely jealous of Washington, and believed that his own experience in the British army far outranked GW. He commented to a fellow General, “a certain great man is most damnably deficient…unless something we do not expect turns up we are lost.”

Even John Adams, (right) ardent patriot, but jealous of GW’s height, frame and demi-god appearance (which GW could do nothing about), once remarked “Washington was a Virginian. This is equivalent to five Talents. Virginian Geese are all Swans.”

Most of the time, GW countered criticism by ignoring it, nevertheless it rankled.

POTUS George: The Worst Nightmare

Smart and educated fellows that our founders were, they were nevertheless somewhat naive about “human nature.” They had hoped that the new United States citizens would act in concert for the good of the country rather than sectional or petty needs. They deplored political parties. By the time GW became President, newspapers throughout the colonies had proliferated, (basically the only form of mass communication then), whipping their readers into the usual frenzies of opinion. The founders’ great fear of political parties and factions was coming to pass.

The Political Slings and Arrows

GW had spent the better part of nine years with the American Army. When the War for Independence was finally concluded, GW voluntarily relinquished his command, and happily became “Farmer Washington” once again.

But as the arguably most famous man in the United States, he was inevitably drawn into the realities of forming a workable union of thirteen vastly different colonies. He became a creature of politics, whether he liked it or not.

He was twice elected unanimously to the office of President, the highest honor the country could bestow. But everything he did from this point on, set precedents and all of it was now open for criticism true, false, conjectured, half-truth or plain imaginary.

He was attacked for being monarchial, and too formal in his entertainment (left), emulating foreign courts. He was attacked for his clothing, his carriage, his dinner service and the price he paid for fish. His foreign and domestic policies were either reviled or revered, depending on who was asked. When GW seemed too much of a “presence”, his advisors were blamed for giving poor advice.

Adding insult to Washington’s true antipathy for parties, was their emergence via two of his most important advisors: fellow Virginian Thomas Jefferson (Sec/State), and former ADC Alexander Hamilton (Sec/Treasury). GW admired and liked them both. But they were perhaps unwittingly, tearing the country apart.

By his second term, criticism of GW included slurs to his character, his abilities and even his military prowess.

Former “pen of the Revolution” Thomas Paine (right) was no friend of GW, writing “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.”

Benjamin Franklin Bache (grandson of Ben himself), publisher of a popular contemporary newspaper, called him “a Virginia planter, by no means that most eminent, a militia-officer ignorant of war both in theory and useful practice, and a politician certainly not of the first magnitude.”

And those were tame. There were frequently worse.

Washington did not suffer criticism gladly. He was forced to hold his temper, and most of the time, he countered it by ignoring it. This did not make him impervious. He may have ridden out the storms of pernicious poison, but he admitted that the experience had “worn away my mind”.

He could not wait to return to his beloved Mount Vernon (left) and his “vine and fig tree” and a life of retirement and ease, far from the gabbing crowd.

Sources:

Beschloss, Michael – Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America (1789-1989) – Simon and Schuster, 2007

Chernow, Ron – Washington: A Life – Penguin Press – 2010

Randall, Willard Sterne – George Washington – Galahad Books, 2000

https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-u-s-president-elected