George Washington and American Constitutionalism
Sales Date: January 8, 1993
256 Pages, 6.00 x 9.00 in
- Published: January 1993
- Open access ebook available
- Published: January 1993
Known as the Father of His Country, George Washington is viewed as a demigod for what he was and did, not what he thought. In addition to being a popular icon for the forces of American nationalism, he served as commander-in-chief of the victorious Continental Army. That he played a key role in securing the adoption of the Constitution is well known, but few credit him with a political philosophy that actively shaped the constitutional tradition.
In this revisionist study, Glenn Phelps argues that Washington’s political thought influenced the principles informing the federal government then and now. Disinclined to enter the debates by which the framers hammered out a consensus, Washington instead sought to promote his way of thinking through private correspondence, and the example of his public life.
From these sources Phelps draws out his political ideas and demonstrates that Washington developed a coherent and consistent view of a republican government on a continental scale long before Madison, Hamilton, and other nationalists—a view grounded in classically conservative republicanism and continentally-minded commercialism. That he was only partially successful in building the constitutional system that he intended does not undercut his theoretical contribution. Even his failures affected the way our constitutional tradition developed.
Phelps examines Washington’s political ideas not as they were perceived by his contemporaries but in his own words, that is, he shows what Washington believed, not what others thought he believed. He shows how Washington’s political values remained consistent over time, regardless of who his counselors or “ghost writers” were. Using letters Washington wrote to friends and family—written free from the constraints of public politics—Phelps reveals “a man with a passionate commitment to a fully developed idea of a constitutional republic on a continental scale.”
In recent years scholarship about Washington has seemed to focus on mythmaking. For readers interested in the founding period, the framing of what Hamilton called the “frail fabric,” and constitutionalism, Phelps explores the substance behind the myth.
"Helps us to see how Washington became the greatest political leader the United States has produced and, arguably, the greatest leader in the entire experience of constitutional democracy. Phelps’s special contribution is in showing the strength and coherence of Washington’s political philosophy."—Times Literary Supplement
"A strong argument for Washington’s primary role in the formation and early development of the Constitution."—William and Mary Quarterly
"Indispensable to understanding Washington and the history and government he helped make."—Richard B. Bernstein in Constitution
"This book clarifies for the present generation what Washington’s contemporaries knew very well—that throughout his life, and especially during his ten years of extraordinary political leadership, he was an earnest, consistent, and even profound republican constitutionalist, in theory as well as in practice."—Ralph Ketcham, author of Framed for Posterity: The Enduring Philosophy of the Constitution
"This is a book we have long and truly needed. Phelps makes the case for Washington’s decisive importance to the development of American constitutional republicanism."—Lance Banning, author of The Jeffersonian Persuasion: Evolution of a Party Ideology
"A splendid, well-written reexamination of George Washington as a constitutional thinker as well as a practitioner."—Thomas E. Cronin, editor of Inventing the American Presidency
Preface: The Intentions of a Framer
1. The Conservative Revolutionary
2. The Republican General
3. The Restive Correspondent
4. The Framer as Partisan
5. The Framer as Interpreter
6. The Unintentions of a Framer
Epilogue: George Washington and the Constitutional Tradition