Dead Presidents

I think this nation needed Washington’s leadership at the beginning to get through those rough years of infancy.  Washington was well-respected by all Americans but, most importantly, he was trusted.

As the first President of a brand-new country, the United States needed the stewardship of a leader who could bring all of the disparate regions and people of the new country together and hold them together in the experimental form of government that the Founders had created.  But more importantly, Americans had just escaped one form of tyranny and they entrusted the Presidency to Washington because they knew he was a man of integrity and that he shared their values considering he fought so hard to shape those values.

If Washington had stepped down after one term, I think it would have been far too soon.  American political parties were beginning to form towards the end of his first term and with their formation came the first true hints of post-Revolution dissension among the federal government and the American people.  Washington helped hold everything together and give the government a bit more security before turning it over to John Adams in 1797.  That second term also saw Washington establishing the U.S. position of neutrality in international relations and his response to the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794 put down what was the first serious challenge of the federal government’s authority by the American people.  Washington’s eight years in office were necessary to guide the nation through those dangerous early years, so I think the country would have been very different — and most likely wouldn’t have survived — if he had refused the Presidency or stepped down after one term.