George Washington: The Cage

George Washington had a temper that frightened the men who saw it.Jefferson said it was the most terrifying thing he ever witnessed in a human being. Washington's face went white before it went red. He flung his hat to the ground and stomped on it in front of his cabinet. He hanged deserters and walked past their bodies in the morning. He had been at Jumonville Glen when an Indian chief beat a Frenchman's brains out with a tomahawk, and he never spoke honestly about what he had seen.At fourteen he started copying out an etiquette manual — one hundred and ten rules of civility, the Jesuit instructions for the performance of gentility. He did not study them as quaint suggestions. He studied them the way a soldier studies a field manual. He was building a cage. He spent the rest of his life reinforcing it because he knew what lived behind the bars.The cage held the army together at Valley Forge. The cage held the room at Newburgh when the officers were ready to march on Congress and he stopped them with a pair of reading glasses. The cage held the cabinet together while Hamilton and Jefferson fought each other to a standstill. The cage gave the power back — twice — when no other man in history had given it back at all.The republic he built rested on a single proposition. A man who cannot master his own passions cannot be trusted with power. He mastered his. He went home to his farm.This is the story of George Washington.⚔️ AMBIENT LECTURES — narrated articles on great men in history.📜 CHAPTERS00:00 - The Man Who Gave It Back01:38 - The Weight of a Name06:41 - Fire in the Wilderness15:08 - The Education of a Soldier21:17 - The Planter and the Parliament30:15 - The Long Defeat49:46 - The Temptation at Newburgh56:39 - The Whiskey and the Crown1:03:57 - The Farewell1:11:45 - What He Built📖 SOURCES & FURTHER READINGRon Chernow, Washington: A LifeJoseph Ellis, His Excellency: George WashingtonJames Thomas Flexner, Washington: The Indispensable ManEdward G. Lengel, General George Washington: A Military LifeJohn Ferling, The Ascent of George WashingtonThe Papers of George Washington (University of Virginia Press)✍️ Researched and Written by: Vir Imperium Studios#GeorgeWashington #AmericanHistory #FoundingFathers #RevolutionaryWar #AmericanRevolution #Cincinnatus #MountVernon #USHistory #History