It was a really sad moment. Washington saved the day with one of his famous speeches. You probably heard it in school. Ive gotten old serving my country and ive grown blind and the soldier said no whatever, well do it. Hamilton hamilton had tried to use this potential army coup to gain more power for the federation government. Washington walked wrote some very strong letters to hamilton in the mid 1780s. One line i do remember he said, its its like an older, very successful military officer talking to a young headstrong guy. He said remember an army is a dangerous thing to play with. In other words, this is out of bounds. At several other times, hamilton became a problem. I believe in the later years when hamilton thought there was a rising of people in pennsylvania, he manipulated washington into coming out of retirement and taking command briefly. It was a really ugly moment. There were no riders in rioters and washington was embarrassed. My reading was there was a man that washington really regarded as a son that he didnt have to. That came across the research as his closest, absolute love of lafayette. Lafayette was then in france but their letters, you can feel the emotional intensity of these letters. Thank you very much. Thank you for having me. [applause]. Books are available down at the register. He will be signing ray here. I think the most important issue for candidates to focus on in this campaign is the refugee crisis going on in the middle east and europe. This is the largest humanitarian crisis since world war ii and it is our duty, as a first world nation as privilege people to help those in need. I think the most important issue my candidate should address should be the National Debt and how they plan on recovering the country from that. I also think that this will be my first election that im voting in and im really excited. Im not sure who im voting for yet. Im anxious to see what will happen. Wrote to the white house coverage continues wednesday from Stanford University where democratic president ial candidate Hillary Clinton will give a speech on counterterrorism. We will take you there live here on cspan2. Next they focus on George Washington as an entrepreneur and businessman. He looks at how washington managed his accounts, developed as a businessman and apply those lessons to leading the nation. This is about an hour and a half good evening everyone. Lovely to get a full crowd like this. My name is doug and im the founding director for the study of George Washington. You made it. Congratulations. Its very exciting to have these book talks. The association has never excepted any government money. They been operating mount vernon since 1860 when they took over the estate of George Washington. They were the founders of National Historic preservation. They are an all woman run preservation and theyre built on private donations from patriotic donations and the people who come here to visit. Its a great honor to serve that mission to preserve the estate at the highest level and teach people all over the world about the life, leadership and legacy of George Washington peer we couldnt do it without the generation of important donors like ford. Henry ford ford was an early donor to mount vernon. He gave mount vernon their first fire engine. Ever since we have gotten fire engines from Ford Motor Company and they have sponsored a number of exciting things including this book talk. I would also like to welcome the cspan audience who is filming tonight and we always appreciate when they come out and help the publicize these events. Theyre popular in their popular on cspan as well. We have a very special guest tonight. An old friend to mount vernon in the story of George Washington. We have ed lengle who is the editorinchief. This is one of the most extraordinary projects of the 20th and 24th century to copy entrance drive all of the documents from George Washington its an extraordinary collective work thats been going on since 1968. The Mount Vernon Ladies Association have been partial funders since that project since the beginning. The recent past we have renewed our partnership and i would like to thank our partnership with the paper as well as other family papers. Two fully encompass the scope of what theyre doing, they change the project from the George Washington papers project to the washington papers project. We are delighted to have him here tonight to talk about what he does on the side when hes not doing all that other stuff which is right many, many books. Hes doing extraordinary, prolific im not envious at all about the spread he got his phd in 1998. Since then hes published six monographs included all the volumes that he is the sole editor on in the project that he manages and the words of minions he has working for him. Hes disciplined and capacious love of writing. He is a wonderful writer and has really developed a great popular style and magazine writing in addition to the scholarly scholarly style he can always bring to bear. Its a very challenging thing for people who are formally trained in the phd universe to walk out of that sometimes. To get out of those intense conversations and try to look at the bigger picture. Ed is really a master and has become a master at that. If that isnt enough, the thing that makes him so extraordinary as a historian, he doesnt he doesnt just write about George Washington, he what writes about world war i and military history in world war i. Hes an extraordinary range and its my delight to welcome him up here. Hes widely known and has one many awards. Ive said enough. Lets get him up here. Its talk about his new book, first undulate entrepreneur how George Washington built his and the countries what he was trying to think is that im a hack writer. I do try to understand my subject. I do try to be honest about my subject in washington is an endlessly fruitful subject. As i found working at the washington papers since 1996, i began as a began as a student and its been 20 years now and ive been directing the project since 2010. We changed our name from the papers of George Washington to the washington papers. Its a very deliberate change because we did not want to offend martha. Lest it be suggested that martha was in some sent an exit sense and exemplary to George Washington or she operated in his shadow for her role was to prop him up and help him become great, we need to emphasize the fact that she was, in herself a very important person. We think the Mount Vernon Ladies Association for supporting us in this vast new expansion we began in july of last year. We published the full papers of Martha Washington in two volumes in the papers of the washington family which will be in three volumes, and letterpress and a comprehensive Digital Edition which will include his parents, his siblings, marthas children and marthas grandchildren and our good friend, justice of the supreme court. First of all as i begin to talk about the George Washington as an entrepreneur, i need to give thanks above all for this work for whats good in it from a good friend jim and carol corder who are in the audience with us who really developed the idea of writing a book. We had lunch, or dinner it was, a few years ago and they pointed out to me, do you know theres nothing that has been written about washington as an entrepreneur businessman since 1930. In that book in 1930 is possibly the dullest book ever written about George Washington. It was extremely dull. I hope mine is somewhat of an improvement. A tremendous debt to mount vernon and my colleagues. Weve been working since 1968 and weve remained on schedule from the very beginning. We are going to be finished eight years from now and we really will be finished eight years from now. This is not an empty promise we are publishing every known letter to and from George Washington. We have 70 volumes now and we have another 16 volumes to go. These are available not only in letterpress but free online through founders online. Its very important to emphasize these are available to all of you to peruse and study and learn from. I owe tremendous deck to my colleagues on the washington paper for their important work. The financial project we began three years ago thanks to a grant from the Records Commission which is the granting arm of the national archives. We were tasked to edit and publish all of washingtons financial papers. Its fascinating for washington and his family. Its amazing how his collection of financial papers is not simply a series of ledgers but it documents the every day life of thousands of everyday americans, both free and enslaved. People who were part of the community and interacting from mount vernon to dunstan hall to alexandria and throughout the region. There will be an incredible jan genealogical pool and will be available freely online beginning at the end of the summer. We began with washingtons three main ledger books and have expanded into all of his other account books, receipts, vouchers and one of my friends, the economic historian John Mccusker has suggested that we should not call these washingtons financial papers which but his business records. It goes even further than that because there is public records as commanderinchief of the continental army, all the very scrupulous and countless attacks he took as commander in chief and also as president. These were very public counts in their very important documents. Those working on those documents was, as well well as jim and joe carols idea, it was this wonderful new resource that was the genesis of this idea. Its looking at washington through a different lens, seeing a different aspect of this endlessly fascinating man, but also to put him in the context of his family and into the context of his time and his nation. How did he manage his accounts . How did he develop as a farmer and a businessman and an entrepreneur and, as i tried tried to show in my book, how did he take the lessons that he learned in the principles he emphasize and how did he apply them to the leadership of our new nation . How do his lessons and deeds resonate down to this day . It is a fascinating topic. We need to begin looking at washington as an entrepreneur with the washington family. He was the First Washington to arrive in virginia. He came in 1656. His idea was to simply load up his ship with tobacco and sail back to england and sell it there. He had no intention of remaining in virginia. We owe the whole future history of art country to the fact that his ship sank. He was ready to go back home in his ship sank. He displayed, some of the first attributes of the washingtons, adaptability, flexibility. He decides im my ship sank. He complains a lot. He is also a very adaptable gentleman and he decides, well, this is the reality. I lost my ship im going to make my fortune here. The next thing that he does that is very characteristic of the washingtons is that he marries very well. Now, i would like to, before i go on to talk about good marriages in the washington family. I would like to emphasize the fact that this was not a matter of the Washington Men looking around in the audience and say wheres a good choice for a wife because the women are waiting just to be swept away. Simply didnt happen that way. The women were also making choices of their own, wanted to marry, of who was the right man for them. Why did george choose to marry martha, well she was very wealthy. Well wait. Why did martha choose to marry george . Why did they choose to marry the washingtons . It was partly because they understood the washingtons were very sober minded, very determined, very focused men and they were dogged and intelligent and they were not wasteful. For the women, part of their goal was to find a man who would be a good partner in a good father to their children and who would also manage their estates. When we look at virginia in this. In the 1600s and 1700s, there is a tendency to assume that these wealthy individuals were complacent, that they had somehow had easy lives, that they could look forward to a future of comfort and wealth. This was a very volatile period. When a farmer or a planter could, in the equivalent of an instant lose their entire fortune and find themselves impoverished. The one thing that was always a threat at their door was dead. Debt was the penn war of prosperity. He marries well and develops his estate. Hes focused in land and people at that time, hes very assiduous and determined that he dies young. Unfortunately, like many washingtons, i believe he died when he was 46. His six. His son lawrence died when he was 38. There grandson augustine died in his 40s. Augustine washington is a fascinating character who we far too often see through the prism of persons weems and his legends of the washington family. The cherry tree story, i would venture venture to guess that if you asked any american, well whether welleducated or not, how they know augustine washington, and they wouldnt know, hes the one who asked washington, did you chop down the cherry tree. He said i cannot tell a lie. Augustine was much more than that. He was a savvy businessman in his own right. He was a very careful recordkeeper. He was a superb entrepreneur. He believed in investment and ventured out into other areas of production, not not just tobacco but he became involved in something called the ironworks. What this meant was among many other things in addition to helping grow the family wealth, he was away from home a lot. His first wife died leaving Lawrence Washington and another child to be taken care of. Augustine had to go around managing the estate and trying to take care of the children and he knew he needed to find another wife. He found one of the most underappreciated women in history. Very often we tend to make the assumption that George Washington didnt like his mom too much therefore she must not have been likable. That is very unfortunate because she was a remarkable woman. This is another case, again the decision to wed goes in both directions. We can only infer from the documentary evidence what their reasons were. I like to think that with mary deciding, and she had been single before this and face the prospect of a single life for the rest of her life. She was in her late 20s when they got married. She was facing, ahead of her maybe all life of spinster herd as they they would call it uptime. She married augustine because she saw him as a very sober minded, very focused and entrepreneur individual. He was interested in her, a part from personal qualities by the fact that she was tough, strongminded, strongwilled, independent and above all, he needed a woman who could manage things. Who could manage a family and an estate and wealth while he was running around doing his own various things and following his own investments. She was all of that and she had to, when augustine died, she had to bring all of these qualities to bear in the management of the estate and the management of her children, her firstborn being George Washington. The decision was made for various reasons, among them being that augustine had died and there was more to thing about that george would not go with his older halfbrother in school in england but would instead stay at mount vernon and receive his education through tutors and also, i think, very clearly from her. She certainly spent a lot of time with him, talking with him and educating him. As well as the education he received from others in his area. Among the principles that she passed on to him, its very clear and very simple principles of thrift, determination, hardware, organization. George washington especially was a really detail oriented, organized guy. His older halfbrother lawrence was not that way. Even augustine was not that way. George was super organized from an early age. That wasnt just a native personality trait. That was his mom. I was as mom telling him, look you have a lot of stuff going on, you have to be very organized and very careful. I like to think that she also imposed in him the fear of debt. He was afraid of two things, Thomas Jefferson and debt. He didnt know tom yet, but in this stage it was debt. That was terrifying to him. As i mentioned, he saw what what happened to many of his neighbors. You can you can see it in the newspapers, these lotteries and tire sales of gentry men going out of business and what would happen. She was a huge influence on his life. She was also the woman who prevented him going out to see when he was 14. He resented this in many ways. Their relationship became very tense and very problematic later on in life, but again, part of this was george, he had an irresponsible side to him but she was constantly keeping it down and he chafed at that for certain. Young george had the Great Fortune in addition to having a mom who focuses education on things like geometry, mathematics, accounting and the rest. He had the great good fortune of which i am profoundly jealous, he had a good first teenage job. I did not. I ventured to say most people did not. He had an Excellent First teenage job. He got this through connections with the fairfax family. His wife sally fairfax, some of you may know george had some sort of relationship with her early on. His connections with the fairfax family gave him this opportunity to work as a surveyor. Surveying gave him an opportunity to apply his own native abilities. Again, in geometry and all the rest. Also, the experience to learn what its like to earn money. He began as an apprentice, but then to become an independent contractor and surveyor on his own right, to begin to save that money, earn that money, serve save that money and invest it. He learned this early on from relatives and friends who would ask him for loans and not pay back. He was not a guy you want to borrow money from and not pay him back. Believe me. So we know he had a temper. When money was involved, that temper increased exponentially. So if you dont pay the guy back, hes going to get really mad. So he learned how to judge character from that, but he learned how to invest. When he earns money, as a surveyor what does he work with . He works with the land. He develops a sense of the lands wealth and richness and potential. What does he do with the first money that he does . He invested in land. He saves and buys a more and more land. Also as a surveyor, and ill mention briefly, he developed an understanding of america and americas potential. Americas potential richness and wealth that was not only buried within the soil waiting to spring out but also geographically, the connection of the east coast cities and settlements to the frontier. How the waterways were essential to connecting east to west and how they were potential highways of commerce and trade. He not only goes from east to west during the french and indian war, he goes north and south and back and forth. He learns a lot about the relationship between the colonies and Great Britain and the subservient nature of that relationship which i will revisit in a moment. He becomes, during the the course of the french and indian war, and although there is talk in the book about washington as an entrepreneur, i think its important to remember that George Washington was a combat veteran. That ties into what i will talk about in the moment about washingtons view of peace and how essential piece is. As a combat veteran, washington understands a number of things. He understands the nature of war and what war does what its impact is, not only on those were on the front line, but on those who are at home who are also affected, and in their own ways participants in war. What war does to a country into a people. He also learns, i think here too, the extreme importance of fundamentals, of basics. This is one element of washingtons character that i saw early on in that it has taken a while to understand that if you look at this gentlemans fixation on detail, he is is often dismissed as a micromanager, but there is a real purpose to that focus on detail which is that detail matters. If you are in the service and in particular if you are in a position of command, you ignore at your peril the basic fact that the men who served with you must eat, they must have shelter, they must have clothing, and yes they must be paid. It sounds silly for me even to say that. Of course its obvious, you would be perhaps surprised to see how many people in the revolutionary war did not understand that basic reality. Washington understood it. If you do not pay, if you do not maintain the accounts, if you do not finance your force well, he called money the sinuous of war. If you dont keep that flowing the whole thing collapses. That learning process of management is extremely important. He marries martha in january of 1759. I mentioned earlier how martha had a choice of her own. Its frustrating how the narrative often goes. Martha was the wealthiest widow in virginia. George washington comes back from the french and indian war and says aha, the wealthiest video of virginia is right down the road, i need i need the money, i will go get her. So she swoons and sweeps her off her feet and carries her back off to mount vernon. It didnt really work that way. Certainly he had his choice and she had hers as well. I would emphasize whatever their motivations may have been, and certainly money was part of it for george, whatever their motivations may have been, the important thing is that they saw each other as partners. From the very beginning, they shot each other as partners. We cannot judge now how much love was in or not in. Ere is no question that eventually, if not immediately, they came to love each other and to rely on a teller completely. From the very beginning, they beginning, they saw their marriage as a partnership. The Partnership Focused on many different areas, but its focus primarily on the beginning of the management of their dual estates. From mount vernon which washington inherited from his halfbrother lawrence who passed away in lawrences wife and and their daughter died so it came down to george who rented it for a while before he got full control in the early 1760s, from mount vernon to marthas estates along the york river, they both looked at this task of managing this estate together. Martha did not go off in the corner to nest and wash dishes while george is managing things. They both looked at the same goal. but there is a much bigger expansion not just in terms of size of the type. Mount vernon is one washington takes management focus the cultivation of tobacco. And i would like to imagine riding through mount vernon in 1761 you would have heard birds chirping, the occasional work of us paid in the field, the enslaved men and women talking to each other, free workers, the work of the occasional plow, and that is pretty much it. This would contrast profoundly with your experience writing through mount vernon in 1768 when you have found a bustling hive of Production Industry that it became an enterprise in its own right with noise and work on multiple different types, metal clanging on metal, spinning and weaving, shoes being calm, then hauling and thats about what gone out. Well, washington sense that the tobacco system was not going to work in the long run. There were a number of disadvantages. Another being that tobacco is very laborintensive requires a lot of human being. But for washington the thing that upset him more than anything else was that the cultivator and sell tobacco he needed to work within the British Colonial mercantilism. Ship it on partnerships to europe, they decide whether think it can and should be sold, what prices they can fetch and where it will go and then they tell you how much credit you. This happened to washington over and over again. Credit of course to purchase. There is another dimension to. The virginia gentry were all about conspicuous consumption. What is the quality. Not just to buy essential manufactured goods but luxury goods. No productive value, they are all about appearance. You cannot invested in anything. You just wasted. Which washington has learned to fear. Georgia is probably to blame. He spends a fair amount of money, wasting money and cards and billiards. I really want some talented artists to paint him playing poker . Questionmark or Something Like that. I have just got to see it. If you look at the account he marries martha, the expenditures on gambling suddenly disappears. The more cards. Suddenly disappears. Play some cards. But he has trouble getting the line. When he is experiencing and witnesses he decides to switch over and. What does that do . It is completely transformative. High quality flour, she washington brand flour. Hardpacked being jumped on by sailors. But itll us in the reallocate labor. He allocates them to Different Industries are they can become productive and selfsufficient. Dont need to use somebody else. You can produce it all right here and with the surplus solid. Mount vernon will be restoring the fishery. Really excited about that and reconstructing the boat and seeing how the fishery would have worked. It was important. Profitable in its own right. It becomes mount vernon the enterprise, multidimensional, multilayered, and amazing transformation. There is much i could say, clamping down the american industry. This was a feeling americans shared in general. Washington shared with his countrymen a sense that we were on the verge of what would be called take off. We were about to reach a point where we could grasp toward prosperity and there was a sense that the british were holding us down. A sense of frustration, being prevented from becoming prosperous in our own right is a major incentive toward revolutionary sentiment as well as taxation without representation, but washington believes for a long time that armed rebellion as a last resort, but he believes pretty confidently that Economic Warfare is the way to break free, right up until 75, he really believes that Economic Warfare boycott is the way to break free. There was a vision of the future involving an implicit resistance of the british and a fascinating series of documents called the fear factor result that washington and george mason worked on. Interesting because they look toward not just what we do now but our future goal. Every little jarring interest in dispute should be buried in eternal. All manner of marjorie and extravagance off immediately to be laid aside as inconsistent. Made a fortune should set examples and give every encouragement in their power to the improvement of arts and manufacturers of america , that great care and attention should be had to the cultivation of flax, cotton, and other materials and goes on to talk about husbandry and will and the rest. I think it is clear based upon washingtons area of interest and expertise that these results washington. Mason was important, but continued to look more at the political side. In war there is more i could say i wont go into it too much. As commanderinchief of the Army Washington applied its own management experience, but there were a couple i would point out as commanderinchief. Washington saw big picture. He saw that this is going to be a difficult for the one that we have a good chance of losing, going to strain and bring there resourced when. Is it worth pointing at all . Is it worth pointing if you burn down your country . If you destroy your infrastructure, sure, ms. Rowan, if towns, forts, villages are destroyed, families are destroyed, and you end up throwing out the british and standing up he flashes in facing a future of impoverishment and suffering, washington answers a prty resounding note about. He views it as a primary obligation of himself as commanderinchief to ensure we emerge from this more with an intact as much as possible infrastructure and economy. Another guiding principle is as commanderinchief the army must not operate in isolation from the people. Theory must be integrated into the national effort, into the civilian population and part of this goes at the top, there is no doubt about it. I have spoken about four and others do as well, part of it has to do with communication, congress, governors, officials confident researching this book there is a completely different level here which is really at the ground level. Washington begins to talk during the revolutionary war , they used a phrase communities of interest. Talked about selfinterest being a governing principle. It is really not just sent us. He believes that patriot loyalist undecided are not six categories. Peoples decision to fight is a daily one and one that is based in part on your sense of hope and your sense of what is happening to your family and yourself right now. This more and it sounds like pandering. It is not, the women of america decided this 400 and it would have. They were making decisions based every day on the world was doing to businesses, families, where was the American Army and what was his role. Washington makes a conscious decision that his army must join together a shared sense of interest so a very deliberately opens a market that is tangible and symbolic. Exchanging. We isolated and push them out. It was a significant part of washingtons strategy. Two things i emphasize, the new scientific agriculture much of bush is important Great Britain. Primarily during this period but it is based on knowledge important i think of washington as an early advocate. An innovator from Great Britain, advocates of gathering all information you possibly can. All over europe and america, classifying that information, publishing and disseminating it. But there is another element slavery should not be relegated. Internal to the development of washingtons estate. The work and labor helps to create over fundamental to creating washingtons wealth. He grew up accepting slavery. He began to turn because of the fundamental principle of liberal. People often speculated. He saw that they could do what white soldiers did. I always been skeptical about that. If you look at his initial writings they come down to the sense that industry and morality go handinhand. So much so that they are really two sides of the same thing. And industrious person is a moral person. A moral person is industrious. Much of this is part of the sense of the work ethic that they call the protestant work ethic, john locke in the ideas of others, but washington was very practical about it. If you deny and enslaved human being the ability to enjoy the fruits of their labor you undercut any motivation to work efficiently. That will do the minimum possible and resist. They will never innovate, never worked for the capacity, never grow and become corrupted by that process and those who force themselves and maintain them in the system also corrupted. And it is ultimately a deadend for himself and his estate and becomes from its ability for the country. Economically as well as morally. The two things going together which was really a file process that would turn them away from that. We couldcan talk more about that in questionandanswer. The Confederation Government , the inability to raise taxes, fundamental to his eventual support for the constitution, but i want to talk before we get to q a of the presidency. Washingtons goal is president of the us. When he becomes president he says to develop the National Prosperity shall be my 1st my only aim, to develop the National Prosperity, my 1st and only aim. That is pretty significant, i think. His vision for the country, his focus on building the foundation for prosperity, on establishing the economy, a few main points, establishing the National Credit, establishing a Stable Currency for the National Credit being the trust that others have that we will fulfill a financial obligations, the stable and secure government maintained through taxation, one that will work to build an infrastructure that will tie the nation together a commerce. He believes with native americans. Naive, yes. But he did not feel native americans as people to be conquered. Bind west to east and north to south. The governments role is to maintain piece which is essential for the development of prosperity and commerce. Briefly Alexander Hamilton is often spoken of as being the guy who somehow created American Economic policy. Make no mistake, washington set the strategy, set the goals. Hamiltons job was to implement those goals. Hamilton certainly came up with exceptionally detailed and very important ideas accepted most of rejected some, can close to vetoing the bank of the us. Washingtons final achievement to maintaining give us a foundation for prosperity, the jay treaty aftermath. People were furious that washington should establish a treaty with the british. In which we did not really get much out of it. Washingtons goal was twofold, piece, piece, piece he was a man of piece. Because he was a soldier. Not at the cost of the national honor. Become prosperous. At least of the next several decades the best hope for our economic future, the british were by far the most advanced people in the world economically, our interest was in working with them and trading with them, the french, we had a great emotional connection with them. Finally, the food home to my greatly distressed them. He returned not a broken man , not backward looking men he was not into regrets for looking backward. Thinking of his heirs and his family can migrate family man not having children out of the zone. He looked to their interest of the long run. He had a great innovation, 1798, a distillery, he had never dealt with this, had no thought or comprehension. But he comes up this idea. He did it in his own compelling way. Charactestically studies in, learned our work. Build the distillery. Less profitable venture. Excellent, potent. He is already looking for it. People pass everything down in one bowl. More work needs to be done. You never know what his net worth is. His eyes to give each of his heirs just enough that they can be reasonably comfortable. That was a process. Mount vernon would come into disrepair. So in conclusion washington is an incredible example in many ways. As an entrepreneur he is an example in the process by which he strove to achieve to become prosperous. He knew everything he did with the closely studied and watched and he knew that is a farmer during the confederation that he would be setting an example for us. If you were card command fewer focused, dedicated, have integrity you can build prosperity. He set the foundation for the wealth that we have enjoyed and he can continue to serve as an example even now. Thank you very much. [applause] we will try to get everybody. Go ahead and pick somebody. Eager were angry. Your argument, industrious and morality we will therefore weaken the country seems to weaken the argument. Not doing more to end slavery methodically. I have priority. It was clearly deeply divided. Personally divided, and the division was, as i was saying, the aspect of what 1st heard some against slavery in his own mind is the idea of the work idea in the labor idea, but he is very much a law and order guy for reasons mentioned. Social disorder, and stability undermines the nation. He was quite simply afraid of what would happen if slaves were freed on a large scale. He did not know what would happen. He was afraid it would cause massive social dislocation, and even though he came to believe in theory and practically been a long one slavery would drag the nation down economically. He is like every other human being. He had doubts. What results is mass bankruptcies . There is no element of fear. It is not just a matter of washington being a man of his times but being a human being. A human being never has complete and total confidence in what idea or another. This is one area where it took him many years and he never quite completely decided. In his will he decided to freedom was suggestion okay. I have the understanding. What did you say about his investments . Invests in shares. He purchases shares in quite a lot of different ventures. Some Men Companies landbased companies and speculation on the frontier. He purchases shares in banks , and also invests in the federal city is established over later become washington dc, investing money in building a couple of lodging houses that he then rinse out. So his investments are quite extensive, diverse, when he dies a big part of his wealth although this is something that will need to be calculated. You folks here as well as other scholars on the door to see exactly what was the base wealth was focused in the different sure she had, but all that being said certainly he was diverse. Many areas of investment, but land remains the primary. This is an area where we need to do more work. Of like to hear more about Martha Washington. [inaudible] so, her 1st husband i believe was 20 years old. He was quite wealthy. His family was a difficult family. His father was an irascible man. It was him on his gravestone that he had. He was married for x number of years but only really leave for the wasnt married. She married the family like that. Did not receive the education. Women did not typically receive the same level of education. She is clearly intelligent woman. It is one of the most interesting letters i have seen. She suddenly has to take over his estate. One of the 1st letter she writes as to the british agents who incidentally George Washington also deals with. Every aspect of our overseas trade, you write to me and ill make the decisions. We need to learn a lot more. Exactly what was removal of all, she was as involved and managed as much is possible and was also very visible. That is one of the things about her. Much of symbolic but practically working in camps. Produce and maintain beyond the domestic economy, cornett the production of clothing and other vital necessities. There is a biography of pat grady that came out about 12 years ago. But more needs to be done. Regulations. They did not sure. And that is the natural question to ask. George washingtons view of government and down his role in the nation in the car was that taxation is essential for the maintenance of the rent and its infrastructure. The government has a role to maintain and as far as possible develop National Infrastructure for communication and the like to further commerce. The government has rolled to maintain a Stable Currency, establish credit, eliminate foreign that eventually. And to maintain the piece domestically and internationally that is pretty much it. Ultimately the government cleared the field. Their own industriousness. Washington could not have 1st and corporations in all their permutations and what he would have done about that i am not entirely sure. The government should not regulate business. Interested if very successful entrepreneurs in new york city . Well, yeah. These are pretentious issues. That he is reading, we do know many of the policy has read, theres a wonderful book that after he marries martha one of the 1st books he orders his one on how to get rich quick, it really is. A selfhelp book about how to manage your state. So he reads some Business Books he read the wealth of nations. Not as widely read as jefferson was. So far as businessmen and merchants in new york city he interacted with many of them, particularly during the course of the war but also before and after the war in reaching out and diversifying on his own right and trading throughout the united states. I am struggling off the top of my head to recall the names of particular new york businessman and merchants, but i know there were several. Robert morris eventually ruined his own reputation. But this is another area certainly that he did interact and get involved in the not level i can pull off the top of my head. But if you look in the washington papers there is no index online we can find the prominent mergers and Business People corresponding. You spoke in a fascinating way that George Washingtons entrepreneurial success. Trying to open up. What else have you uncovered about the attempts . Part of the reason is because the beer was just really bad. It was awful. But this is actually one of the things about since you mentioned and i must talk about it. I used to always assumed washington was always about wine. He loved beer from early on and drink a lot of it. He would order quarter often from, huge shipments, hundreds of bottles time. And drink it. He later on became fixated with the buy American Movement which is another thing i could have talked about only buying American Dream beer. And there were a number in philadelphia and pennsylvania and maryland that he patronized so far as his failures were concerned there is a modern concept, the fail fast technique. Invest. He did not stay stuck in anyone investment long enough for it to have become a disastrous failure. Some mrs. Investments did not work out. He had partnerships for the sale of flour early on that did not work out. He had people, a great soldier but a worthless businessman trying to get george involved in different ventures to buy western land so there were not any disastrous investments in his life which is telling in and of itself. There are things he lost money on, but nothing all largescale. Fairly on and that is subject to have great interest in. Does he come out and say that . Just look at the letter zero during the french and indian war. The cows a firstclass complainer. I am trying not to be of noxious about it. It wasnt a passive aggressive thing. In terms of complaining about mercantilism, some of the most interesting correspondences between washington and robert carrying company. If you follow that the early 1760s they are both quite candid with each other as well as the sense and interestingly enough it is not defendant. I would look at their end is pretty explicit. Some of that i quote in my book, others you can find online. Now i say that with the caveat that sometimes in particular crisis appear washington keeps his own counsel things caps on profile. The Duties Committee is pretty quiet but more generally speaking he is talking about the mercantilist system. Kind of along the lines of what your doing. You mean in their financial efforts of the relationships with each other . Sharing information. Yes, we do. I have been operating from prince for a long time. About a decade ago the the branch at monticello. They do firstclass work and have uncovered a great deal about jefferson. I cannot claim any amazingly revealing new correspondence has been uncovered. I think some of revealing material i found has been jeffersons notes on conversations. Washington tended to hold informal cabinet meetings but to talk to members individually. Jefferson was the exception. As soon as the conversation was done. Particularly when washingt