Ellis, Joseph J. His Excellency: George Washington. New York: Knopf, 2004.
Ellis organizes his biography of the first President of the United States along the lines of Henry Lee’s statement about the man, “First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen,” though he breaks Washington’s life into a few more categories than that. He begins with Washington’s youth on the frontier and follows it through his vigorous retirement.
Ellis presents a man who does not rehearse his past, but seeks lessons from his experience. I’ll take a similar attitude in this review.
One of the things that stands out about Washington is his understanding of models and how to use them. As a youth, he looked up to the landed aristocracy that ruled Virginia and proceeded to become a man in much the same mode. As head of the Continental Army, he looked to Roman general Fabius Cunctator who won through retreat, preserving his army from battles he couldn’t win, even though Washington warred against his on adventurous nature to fight such a war. As a retiring general who could have received great political power from a grateful nation, he looked to Cicero, who retired to his farm when his duty was completed.
Washington also knew how to break with models and go his own way. He twice came out of retirement to lend his reputation to efforts to build an American nation, first to preside over the Constitutional Convention, second to serve as president under the new constitution.
Another notable thing about Washington’s life is the balance he struck between ambition and virtue. Only an ambitious and opportunistic man could have accomplished what he did; he accumulated great wealth and power. However, he held on to power lightly and readily let it go, though he seemed a little more attached to wealth. His virtues restrained his ambitions.
Finally, Washington was a realist. He was certainly a man of high ideals, but he didn’t expect to see people and nations conform themselves to ideals. Just as he had to restrain himself from excesses, so did others. This is clearly where he differed from Thomas Jefferson and his Ant-Federalist faction; Washington didn’t believe in a naturally virtuous class of citizen who would naturally uphold republican values. People pursued their interests; that went double for nations.
Washington was the right man at the right time. His insight into models, ambition, virtue and realism were just what the nascent nation needed to rally it together and lead it through the rough patches that could have broken it to pieces.
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Saturday, December 27, 2008
Sunday, December 21, 2014
A Professor, a President, and a Meteor by Cathryn J. Prince
A Professor, a President, and a
Meteor, a book by Cathryn J.
Prince, is a biography
of Benjamin
Silliman. Silliman helped to establish the United States
as a scientific
leader.
Silliman was part of the post-Revolutionary generation. His father, Gold
Selleck Silliman, was a general in the Continental
Army. Benjamin Silliman had hoped to make a name for himself in the law, but was
persuaded by a family
friend to pursue science, though it was not a career likely to lead to
prominence in America.
American science was not well regarded in those days, especially in Europe. A falling
star, and Silliman’s diligent and careful study, changed that.
In 1807,
a large meteor
fell over Weston,
Connecticut.
Silliman, a very young, new professor of chemistry at Yale, and his
colleague James
Kingsley, went as quickly as they could to the remote community. The carefully
interviewed witnesses, surveyed the location of meteorites, and collected
samples. Silliman took samples back to New Haven
to analyze them in his lab.
Silliman helped to establish that meteors originated in outer space.
Popular theories at the time were that they came for lunar or terrestrial
volcanoes or somehow formed in the atmosphere. The notion that something from
outer space could fall to Earth was radical.
Silliman other contributions to American science were his work as a
popularizer and mentor. He was an able teacher and able to communicate science
to a broad audience. His public lectures on science around the country were
very popular. He also helped to train a generation of American scientists. At
the beginning of his career, he had to go to Europe to study chemistry and geology, at the
end of his career and budding scientist could be educated in the U.S.
Silliman’s ability to reach the people of his day was his devotion to
his Christian
faith. He saw no serious conflict between his religion
and his science. He was able to stay out of debates with clergymen that would
have brought opposition to his scientific views.
In spite of the title, I found little reason to drag the president into
it. Thomas
Jefferson was in office at the time of the Weston Fall. Silliman, like
other New
England Federalists,
had little liking for his policies, nor did Jefferson much care for his
adversaries in the region. In addition, the president did not highly esteem
geology or astronomy,
instead preferring biological
sciences that he considered to have more practical application. Prince
brings up these difference in the book, but they never seem to add up to a
serious conflict between Silliman and Jefferson.
Prince, Cathryn J. A Professor, a President, and a Meteor: The
Birth of American Science. Amherst, NY:
Prometheus
Books, 2011.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
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