Analysis: There’s a reason he didn’t name his estate after himself. And it’s exactly why he’s so revered now
On March 4, 1797, George Washington did something that put him on a historic pedestal above Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte and every past conqueror and crowned head of Europe: He gave up power.Story Continued Below
There are ironies on top of ironies in the Father of Trump Tower offering posthumous advice to the Father of Our Country. But the greatest of them is that, 220 years after his death, George Washington’s name is everywhere, and remembered by everyone, largely because he chose not to maximize his own opportunities for self-promotion.
Washington was neither modest nor lacking in ego. He was, by some measures, the wealthiest American of his age, combining his inheritance with his wife’s fortune and an extremely lucrative series of land purchases that made him proportionally far wealthier than his 44th successor. But few people today either know or care that he was so vastly rich.
The American tradition that even the most revered former office-holders must humbly stand behind their successors, recognizing that they are only guests in the house of power, is almost entirely the product of Washington’s exertions. So, too, are other traditions handed down from the Washington presidency, including the chief executive’s commitment to share power with Congress and the courts.
Indeed, at the tail end of the tour of Mount Vernon, a guide stationed in Washington’s study dutifully relates the story that he was the very first person in all of history to assume so much power and then renounce it. So all these centuries of reverence, symbolized by the unending stream of visitors to Washington’s home, are the product of a decision not to call attention to himself.
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