Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 71

GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE PATIENCE OF POWER

of social etiquette: learning the basic courtesies of giving heed to
others. A historian points out that "his statesmanship"-including
his refusal to become an American Caesar-"evolved from codes
of conduct and self-scrutiny he began developing as a young
man."27 Although his father died when he was only eleven, and
his mother consistently withheld her approval, George Washington "refused to yield to self-pity, and devising a regimen of selfimprovement that was at once moral and practical, he mastered
the maxims of 'genteel' etiquette even as he taught himself the
practical art of land surveying."28 As he matured, Washington
became willing to attend to the views of those better informed
than he, to weigh their opinions, and often to adjust his ideas
accordingly.29
Other forces probably contributed to his patience, as well.
Surviving deadly illnesses and armed attacks, discovering as a
young officer that aggressiveness alone did not yield favorable
results, receiving remarkable opportunities following the deaths
of others, caring for his extended family at Mount Vernon, working his fields and raising crops and attending to the rhythms of
nature, reading encouragements to equanimity and gratitude
in philosophical and religious texts, identifying with a national
cause and subordinating his personal aggressive instincts to a
goal that required a defensive strategy-all these experiences
undoubtedly taught Washington various aspects of the virtue of
patience.30
He believed in a benevolent Providence that looked out for
him and for his country. And certainly toward the end of his public career, in his presidential administration, he saw and lamented
the consequences of intemperate self-assertion by Alexander
Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. He told the latter that "his earnest
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