The Dangerous Book of Heroes Read Online Free PDF

Constitution, in its contradictions between ideals and application. Despite every person being a “freeman,” slavery was accepted, although the words slave and slavery were carefully not used. Further, although no slave had a vote, each slave counted as three-fifths toward another vote for their freeman “owner.”
    It was Washington who summed up the realities facing the states. He wrote that the Constitution “or dis-union, is before us to chuse from.” Without its unifying force, the thirteen states would have parted company and France, for one, would have stepped in and snapped up some of them. As it is, there was a threatened French invasion in 1798.
    Although there were other choices for the first president, including John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, once again it seemed inevitable that Washington would be chosen. In the first presidential election—by an electoral college, not the people—Washington received every primary vote. He took office on April 30, 1789, his wife joining him in New York.
    That first presidency concentrated on internal affairs. Washington was determined to bind the states together, to create a stable mechanism of government and establish future presidential and congressional practices. He set the precedents for the presidency and government that exist today. Washington also visited every state, traveling in a white coach-and-four, with footmen in attendance and his stallion trotting behind.
    During the first presidency there were no political parties at all, only men with different opinions. Of no political faction himself, Washington attempted to keep it that way. He selected a balanced,nonpartisan cabinet: Alexander Hamilton was appointed secretary of the treasury, Thomas Jefferson secretary of state, Henry Knox secretary of war, and Edmund Randolph attorney general.
    Hamilton, a pragmatist from the West Indian colonies, introduced several controversial monetary policies. In particular, the federal assumption of state debts, the creation of the Bank of the United States, and, ironically, excise taxes, the spark that had set off the revolution. There were demonstrations and riots against the new taxes, too, and Washington was forced to call on the state militias to calm parts of the country. Hamilton and Jefferson were often in opposition, with the president smoothing the crises.
    Washington’s second presidential term was dominated by foreign affairs. Despite his publicly stated intention to retire to Mount Vernon, he was unanimously reelected in 1792.
    The bloody excesses of the French Revolution, begun in 1789, had horrified Washington. Only days after his second inauguration, without provocation, revolutionary France had declared war on Britain and a host of European countries. The treaty made between monarchist France and America during the Revolutionary War still existed, but Washington had no intention of aligning the United States with this new France and its horrors. The Federalist Hamilton supported the president, but Jefferson was strongly pro-France—or rather, anti-British—and his democrats wanted the United States to support France militarily.
    Meanwhile, the French revolutionary ambassador, Edmond Genet, traveled the country to establish French fund-raising societies. He whipped up support for the United States to declare war on Britain, recruited American volunteers to fight for France, and issued French letters of marque for armed American ships to attack other countries’ cargo vessels. He received no support from the neutral George Washington and so threatened to “appeal from the president to the people.” This amounted to foreign interference in American domestic politics.
    When Genet overruled the president’s order that a French-financed private warship remain in Philadelphia, Washington demanded hisrecall. In reality, the president kicked the French ambassador out of America. Suddenly, Genet changed his tune and