Alfred Jacob Miller - George Washington at Mount Vernon - Walters 372526
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"Let your heart feel for the affliction and distress of everyone," George Washington advised.
This was no small feat for a general who shivered with his troops and felt helpless as many of them starved to death at Valley Forge. Yet letters to trusted allies and friends reveal that he had been dealing with his own profound sensitivity for years, struggling to maintain composure in the midst of searing empathic responses to the settlers he encountered during the French and Indian War two decades earlier:
"I see their situation, know their danger, and participate in their sufferings without having it in my power to give them further relief than uncertain promises," he wrote to his British superiors in 1756, asking for support. "The supplicating tears of the women and moving petitions from the men melt me into such deadly sorrow that I solemnly declare, if I know my own mind, I could offer myself a willing sacrifice to the butchering enemy, provided it would contribute to the people 's ease."
Emotional Heroism
After the French and Indian War, Washington renewed himself in the pastoral embrace of his beloved Virginia farm. But rest and success did not make him complacent. As he repeatedly reentered public life, supporting one desperate cause after another, the turmoil he endured voluntarily was truly staggering.
Rather than shield his heart against the disappointment, anguish, and sheer horror he witnessed, General Washington remained steady and thoughtful in the midst of feelings that would have short-circuited the average person's nervous system. His was not the coolness of the sociopath who feels no fear, but the authentic hard-won calmness of a man whose emotional heroism was so great that he was willing to accompany people into the depths of despair, and stay with them, offering hope through sheer presence .
As I pored over numerous books and colonial era documents, looking for clues to Washington's extraordinary presence in the patterns of his actions, it struck me that his unique combination of fierceness, fairness, and compassion kept the troops together at Valley Forge, and beyond.
Washington's open heart was not hardened by adversity, nor did it keep him from making tough decisions. He refused to coddle deserters or looters, ordering severe punishment for men caught stealing food. On rare occasions, he executed soldiers planning widespread revolt. And yet, he instituted a policy of humanity for prisoners of war, even as the British executed and tortured his own captured troops. In all of these efforts, he successfully kept large groups of people from lapsing into selfish, cynical, revenge seeking behavior.
A Vision of Strength and Hope
As the war progressed, the Commander in Chief increasingly rejected flamboyant, alpha-style dominance tactics in favor of a more thoughtful and compassionate approach, preferring to lead by example rather than intimidation. Though he wasn't shy about pulling rank when necessary, his was a strong, steady, collected presence.
"I cannot describe the impression that the first sight of that great man had on me," said one Frenchman. "I could not keep my eyes from that imposing countenance: grave yet not severe; affable without familiarity. Its predominant expression was calm dignity, through which you could trace the strong feelings of the patriot and discern the father as well as the commander of his soldiers."
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