The General & Me

I might as well “out” myself, this being the commemoration of our nation’s 250th. 

Here goes: I am George Washington…at least as far the Philadelphia market goes. 

It’s a weekend hobby, we all have one, right? But it’s also a passion and a dream role for a local actor/history nut like myself to be able to portray The Great Man. The New York Times is about to run a piece on 13 men nationwide who portray The General and I am happy to say I made the cut. So, since the NYT is making it public in this morning’s on-line edition, I might as well too. 

My qualifications, besides reading a bookcase full of Washingtonia and passing a rigorous three-person panel audition, are my love of history, of Philadelphia and its surrounding environs, and an aptitude for wearing heavy wool clothes in the summertime. It’s actually one of the top three questions I get after my teeth (not wooden), the damn Cherry Tree (never happened), then the inevitable “aren’t you hot in that?” (of course I am, but the correct answer is: ‘not when it comes to being in service to my country.’)  

And, at 6’2” and a half, the General and I would see eye-to-eye physically. Suffice to say that when you add an inch and a half with the boots and four more inches with the hat, you’re facing a wall of George. Put that man in a cape and on a horse and that becomes a figure that could intimidate the greatest army on the planet. How he escaped a British musket ball is surely evidence of the “Divine Providence” he cited so often….especially when he put himself in full view of the enemy without a moment’s thought.

I’ve had enough encounters with the general public that, revere him or not, he garners respect for his leadership of a fractured country with meager resources, fighting for an unproven concept in the face of overwhelming opposition.

So what have I learned in my trips to Mount Vernon, encampments at Valley Forge, hundreds of personal encounters, from second-graders to real live generals, and almost dreamlike visits to Independence Hall, literally walking in his footsteps? 

He was a complex man in complicated times. A stoic by nature, yet a lover of the theater…the rowdier, the better. He was a great horseman and, supposedly, an even better dancer. An imbiber of porter, madeira and whiskey yet a strict disciplinarian when it came to the moral behavior of his troops. Cursing, gambling and drunkenness could get you flogged. A man of great physical strength, once separating two fighting colonial soldiers by holding them at arms length with both barely touching the ground. An absolute master at “reading the room” and consistently aware of his place in history. Somewhat ashamed of his lack of formal education and highly respectful, if not envious, of the well-taught geniuses that surrounded him. He came to his decisions slowly but surely, hearing all viewpoints, but resolute once that decision was made. 

He was a God-fearing pious man, for sure; an Anglican and regular attendee at Christ Church in Philadelphia (although he didn’t take communion and left early). As a Mason, he believed in a “Divine Architect” guiding our actions and fate. But there was not a bigger champion of religious freedom in a young nation that accepted the persecuted from all shores. At the American Jewish History Museum here in Philly, I had the honor of reading a letter he wrote to a synagogue in Rhode Island in 1790 where he assured them that in this country “bigotry will have no sanction, persecution no assistance and requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.”

Fortunately, I have the advantage, when pressed to interpret modern politics on taxes or whatever, to say I ‘aspire to see the dawn of the 19th century’ …which he didn’t, of course, passing away in late 1799. So then I go into “questions” mode and try to find an applicable story from the 18th century…and look for an exit.. He absolutely hated the two-party system, btw, and, ever prescient, foresaw the divisiveness it would cause. 

So to those from either side of the aisle looking to utilize him for their respective cause, I’d say ‘slow your roll.’ It was a different age and a different mindset with influences both personal and political that are as countless as they are unfathomable.  

Respect him in that place and time and let us all be thankful he was the right man for the job, maybe the only man on the planet before or since, who could have accomplished what he did in shaping this country.

Huzzah, General!

Happy 250th!

By Jim Fryer, Inside Towers Managing Editor