George Washington

Across both founding-era biographies in the wiki, Washington appears as a stabilizing reference point against which other founders are measured. In American Sphinx, Joseph Ellis notes that the conspiratorial cast of Thomas Jefferson’s political thinking in the 1790s was a common feature of the era, shared by John Adams, Madison, and Hamilton — and that “only Washington seems to have remained immune, but then he was immune to everything.” In John Quincy Adams, Washington supplies the model of the office-holder who “stood for” rather than “ran for” office: the “Macbeth Policy” by which a candidate who solicits support has already corrupted himself was, the book notes, “admirably suited to the era of George Washington and, in fact, to the person of George Washington.” The book also uses Washington as a benchmark of presidential stature — Seward judged John Quincy Adams “the best president since Washington.”

Context: George Washington (1732–1799) was commander of the Continental Army and the first President of the United States, whose voluntary surrender of power and disdain for partisan faction made him the era’s archetype of disinterested public virtue.

Where this appears

• American Sphinx — cited as the one founder immune to the conspiratorial mentality of 1790s politics.
• John Quincy Adams — the model for the “stood for, not ran for” ethic of office-seeking and a benchmark of presidential stature.
• Neil Gorsuch: The Heroes of 1776 — quoted describing the bloodied, shoeless march to Valley Forge.