The Omnivorous R eader

By Stephen e. Smith When historian Nathaniel Philbrick decided upon the title Travels with George for his most recent book, he took on a hefty obligation. In three words he employed two significant allusions. First, “Travels with” references Travels with Charley, Steinbeck’s classic travelogue (Charley was Steinbeck’s pet poodle) in which the author of Grapes of Wrath takes a thoughtful look at a sedate 1960s America. Second, the name “George” alludes to the George in American histor y — George Washington.

Oh, no, you might groan, not another book about Washington. His diaries are available in a four-volume set, there are numerous explications of his writings, and we are inundated with scholarly biographies. Barring newly discovered facets of Washington’s life or a passing reassessment of his faults and vir tues, what is there lef t to say about the man?

But if new material were unear thed, Philbrick would likely write about it. He is the author of a dozen popular histories and has a following among middlebrow readers who thrive on fascinating facts about our countr y’s origins. His works are perceptive and relevant and always wor th reading. Travels with George is no exception.

T he title immediately divides the book into t wo distinct narratives that Philbrick sk illf ully inter t wines. T he first is the “tour.” W hen Washington became president in 1789, he found America divided into t wo factions. T here were no Republican or Democrat par ties, but the countr y was split by t wo opposing views of how the government should f unction: citizens who favored the Constitution (Federalists) and those who didn’t (Anti-Federalists). If the countr y were to be united, there was one man who possessed the prestige to encourage a sense of unit y. So, it was that Washington set out on a 1789-1791 journey that would take him f rom Por tsmouth, New Hampshire, in the Nor th to Savannah, Georgia, in the South. He embarked on his tour in a fancy horse-drawn coach (the chariot) and kept a sketchy commentar y of his journey. Philbrick and his wife travel by car with their dog, Dora, a red, bushy-tailed Nova Scotia retriever. T he physical America they encounter would, of course, be unrecognizable to Washington, but the divisions that trouble our politics would not be foreign to his understanding of democracy.

Washington spurned undue adoration. He was not fond of crowds and militar y honor g uards, and he avoided both whenever possible. But he was also sensitive to social and political slights. W hen Gov. John Hancock of Massachusetts avoided dining with Washington, the first president never forgot the snub. Moreover, the Washington most Americans think they know — Parson Weems’ godlike contrivance — has little in common with the Father of Our Countr y.

“T his is the Washington who was capable of punishing an enslaved worker who repeatedly attempted to escape by selling him to the sugar plantations in the Caribbean,” Philbrick writes. “T his is the Washington who in the days before leaving for the Constitutional Convention had an enslaved house ser vant whipped for repeatedly walk ing across the f reshly planted lawn in f ront of Mount Vernon.” A par ticularly ghastly example of Washington’s cr uelt y was his habit of having living teeth pulled f rom jaws of his slaves and implanted in his own toothless head.

T he new president c omplete d h is tour of t he Midd le At la nt ic st ates a nd New Engla nd b efore t ur n ing h is at tent ion to t he st ates sout h of Virg in ia, a par t of t he c ount r y w it h wh ich he wa s unf a m i liar. O nc e in Nor t h Carol ina, he sp ent t he n ig ht in Tarb oro a nd lef t e arly t he nex t mor n ing to avoid t he dust t hat wou ld b e k icke d up by a c ompa ny of lo c a l c ava lr y t hat pla nne d to esc or t h im to New B er n. W hen he re ache d “a t r ifl ing plac e c a l le d G re env i l le,” t he

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r iders — a nd t he dust — c aug ht up w it h h im.

“By that point Washington had entered a landscape that was new and utterly strange to him,” Philbrick writes, “the domain of the longleaf pine — a species of tree most of us in the t went y-first centur y have never seen but that in the eighteenth centur y covered an estimated ninet y million acres, all the way south f rom Nor th Carolina to Florida and as far west as Texas.”

Washington found the Nor th Carolina landscape a bit unsettling. T he longleaf forests were dense and shadow y, and he wrote that the landscape was “the most barren countr y I ever beheld,” but conceded that “the appearances of it are agreeable, resembling a lawn well covered with evergreens and a good verdure below f rom a broom of coarse grass which having spr ung since the burning of the woods, had a neat and handsome look. . . .”

Washing ton was feted at ba lls and celebrations. He endured flea-infested beds in dilapidated taver ns and the adulation of the ever-present paramilitar y escor ts. He even inspired a lit tle romantic speculation when he v isited w ith Nathanael Greene’s w idow at Mulber r y Grove Plantation outside Savanna h. From there he passed through Aug usta, Camden, Sa lisbur y and Old Sa lem before ret ur ning to Mount Ver non.

T he second component of Travels with George is not a comparison and contrast with Washington’s tours, but is more a mildly political semi-narrative suppor ted by documents, maps and photographs. T he Philbricks and their dog are agreeable company — their perceptions are folksy and laced with wit and intrig uing obser vations — but inevitably, Philbrick must address the political divisions that trouble contempo rar y America.

Af ter visiting Greene’s plantation, Philbrick wrote: “I was tempted to believe that a monster had been born in Mulberr y Grove. But it was worse than that. A monster is sing ular and slayable. W hat haunts America is more per vasive, more stubborn, and of ten invisible. It is the legacy of slaver y, and it is ever y where.” Reinforcing this point of view, Philbrick quotes f rom obser vations Washington made in his farewell address to the nation.

W hat troubled Washington was what might happen if a president’s priorit y was to divide rather than unite the American people: “It ser ves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration,” Washington wrote. “It agitates the communit y with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, k indles the animosit y of one par t against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corr uption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of par t y passions.”

Washington might well have been writing about America at this moment, and readers who find themselves agreeing politically with Philbrick and Washington are likely to experience Travels with George as a pleasant and reassuring read. T hose who disagree probably won’t make it beyond the preface. PS

Stephen E. Smith is a retired professor and the author of seven books of poetry and prose. He’s the recipient of the Poetry Northwest Young Poet’s Prize, the Zoe Kincaid Brockman Prize for poetry and four North Carolina Press Awards.