The annual Friendsgiving episode is now available!
Aug. 12, 2018

1.36 – Washington Q&A

1.36 – Washington Q&A

I asked for your questions, and you sent in some great ones! As a part of the transition into a new presidency, we send George Washington off by addressing some lingering issues about his life and tenure including whether he thought of the Federalists as a political party, whether Hamilton would have become president if not for his affair with Maria Reynolds, did Washington really want to be called “His Excellency,” and what was up with the president tallying how many women he saw during his Southern tour. The answers to these questions and more can be found in this special episode of Presidencies!

  • Adams, John. “To Abigail Adams, 25 March 1796,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified April 12, 2018, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-11-02-0119. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Adams Family Correspondence, vol. 11, July 1795 – February 1797, ed. Margaret A. Hogan, C. James Taylor, Sara Martin, Neal E. Millikan, Hobson Woodward, Sara B. Sikes, and Gregg L. Lint. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013, pp. 228–230.] [Last Accessed: 17 Apr 2018]
  • Bartoloni-Tuazon, Kathleen. For Fear of an Elective King: George Washington and the Presidential Title Controversy of 1789. Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press, 2014.
  • Calloway, Colin G. The Indian World of George Washington: The First President, the First Americans, and the Birth of the Nation. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.
  • Chernow, Ron. Washington: A Life. New York: Penguin Press, 2010.
  • Lossing, Benson, J, ed. The Diary of George Washington, From 1789 to 1791. New York: Charles B Richardson & Co, 1860.
  • Morgan, Lewis H. League of the Ho-De’-No-Sau-Nee or Iroquois. Herbert M Lloyd, ed. New York: Dodd, Mead and Co, 1922 [1851].
  • Washington, George. “To Jonathan Trumbull, Jr., 21 July 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified April 12, 2018, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/06-04-02-0165. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Retirement Series, vol. 4, 20 April 1799 – 13 December 1799, ed. W. W. Abbot. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1999, pp. 201–204.] [Last Accessed: 4 Aug 2018]
  • Wiencek, Henry. An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003.

Podcasts mentioned in the episode:

Featured Image: Statue of George Washington at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, courtesy of Matthew G Bisanz and Wikipedia