First and Always: A New Portrait of George Washington by Peter R. Henriques

Abstract

Reviewed by: First and Always: A New Portrait of George Washington by Peter R. Henriques David Head (bio) Keywords George Washington, Leadership, Mary Ball Washington, Slavery First and Always: A New Portrait of George Washington. By Peter R. Henriques. (Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2020. Pp. 240. Cloth, $27.95.) Who was George Washington on the inside? That’s the question Peter R. Henriques investigates in his new book about the father of his country. It’s a kind of sequel to his previous book, Realistic Visionary: A Portrait of George Washington, and like the earlier work, it features a series of thematic essays.1 Henriques does not try to tell Washington’s life story in full. Rather, he reveals Washington’s inner life through stories about his leadership, character, and relationships. It’s a difficult task, despite the mountain of paper documenting Washington. Two centuries of myth-making is one obstacle, but an even larger hindrance is Washington himself. “George Washington wanted very much to be famous,” Henriques writes, “but he had no wish to be truly known” (xiii). Nevertheless, Henriques’s frequently [End Page 671] wise insights go as far as anyone has in peeking behind Washington’s mask. Henriques’s choice of topics is eclectic. He discusses the factors that fostered Washington’s success as a leader; plumbs Washington’s relationship with his mother, Mary Ball Washington; busts common myths about Washington; examines the mistakes Washington made in ordering the execution of a British prisoner of war in what is known as the Asgill Affair; looks at why Washington fell out with five Virginia politician neighbors; tells the stories of several people enslaved by Washington; describes Washington’s attempted return to command the army during the Quasi-War with France; and, finally, delves into Washington’s psyche. On the whole, Henriques’s sketches are thoughtful, sensitive to both external context and the interiority of people as individuals. Washington longed for “secular immortality” or “fame across the ages” (146). But he also wanted to bask in immediate praise. Living in an eighteenth-century world suspicious of ambition as the enemy of liberty, however, Washington could not admit his desires, not even to himself. “At an unstated but deep level,” Henriques writes, “he craved the ego-based gratification that came from public affirmation of the notion that he was special and it was his uniqueness that was needed to birth the nation” (146). To calm the inner conflict, Washington crafted a more publicly acceptable persona: the virtuous, self-sacrificing Cincinnatus. Washington got the praise he desired by playing the role masterfully. He won fame by giving up power. Henriques also excels at exploring Washington’s relationships, especially with his mother. Following Martha Saxton, Henriques rejects the image of Mary Ball Washington as an illiterate shrew advanced by biographers such as James Thomas Flexner and Ron Chernow.2 Yes, Mary Ball Washington liked to complain, but she had a difficult life marked by family instability. While a child she lost her mother, father, stepfather, and stepbrother, and when her husband, Augustine Washington, George’s father, died, she was left to raise five children on her own. Relationships between mothers and sons are complex, and it seems that although the two did care for each other, they never could quite fully comprehend what the other needed. Mary couldn’t understand why she didn’t come [End Page 672] first for her son. George never grasped why, when he’d become world famous, she was still so stingy with praise and so lavish with demands. It’s a sensitive portrait, deftly crafted. Throughout, Henriques has a sharp eye for Washington as a flesh-and-blood person. He cites “physicality” as one secret to Washington’s success (3). Again and again, his looks reveal how he saw himself and how people related to him. His powerful body, his handsome face, the military yet graceful way he stood, moved, and carried himself, all drew people to him. Washington looked the part of a leader, which played no small role in convincing people to be led by him. Henriques admires his subject. In the introduction he mentions that he wears a gold coin medallion...