Company to partake we have ever seen in this town on any occasion somebody has recorded. A remarkable moment for many reasons not the least of which offering a toast to the constitution, president , Vice President , congress and then to the illustrious neighbor he truly had retired from Public Service his words in response are words i think of often no wish can exceed that to see our country happy. I can entertain no doubt of it being so if all of us act the part of goodod citizens. He included himself in that equation he is also a citizen that came with rights and duties particularly he would ansay a duty to maintain the constitution to support the laws and guard our independence. As we will see it was a duty he took very seriously he did not retire so much as taken air different approach. Tonight we get to hear about a wonderful book i am excited for you to learn about i read about in the prepublication stage which iub read over my Vacation Home christmas break. I was daunted how good this book was. I am excited for you to hear about it tonight. Also our Upcoming Events in the very near future and just last couple of weeks thursday marc march 19 we have a free monthly event that will bring three authors together to talk about their experience as widows of war. Their book the knock at the door will be an important statement of that challenge and their approach from the news that came from what they heard also Martha Washington lecture which we have every march it will be march 24th to bring together three historians and one biographer all focused on Mary Ball Washington and to explore different aspects of the mother of the founder of our country and will be an exciting event that will be on our website with more information. Of course the other Michelle Smith lectures coming up to talk about franklin and washington and the American Revolution in the hands of the American People not because it was led by philosophers but the power of the ordinary American People so lets talk about tonight we will hear from Jonathan Warren graduate of yale a former white house president ial speechwriterve and assistant to george w. Bush and was well known until the book came out decidedly not about George Washington if you have read it you remember the title the man who would not be washington about robert elee and his times is written for the New York Times and weekly standardn lives with his wife carol and his here tonight to discuss his book washingtons and the final years and forgotten struggle. Joining him is general david on general patraeus and mount vernon has a long and fruitful relationship serving over 37 years in us military with a dedicated life of Public Service please welcome Jonathan Horn and general patraeus. [applause] thank you very much. Thank you for the kind introduction and your leadership of what is washingtons library even though they didnt have those back in those days and thank you for being here. We were told it was a sellout we werent sure if this would truly be a sellout in the end for those bold and intrepid souls here tonight not risking handshakes. [laughter] but a much more enjoyable evening than sitting at home calculating how much you lost in the stock market today. [laughter] the most important position is that i am up partner of the kkr the biggest Global Investment firm so i also would be sitting at home calculating my losses. [laughter] congratulations jonathan on a great book. It will be a delightful evening tonight but i want to start by saying thanks for what you did when you were in government which just happened to coincide with the surge in iraq. The speechwriter for president bush during that time as he reminded me some of those speeches he did for the president. [laughter] but this is a terrific book. And with the. That is almost entirely overlooked by historians typically any history of washington when he leaves the white house gets very little coverage to what follows and i also was very intrigued to read the book before it was published to find out how much it did take place with all of the other developments that took place during that period but first the previous book what was it that made you turn to George Washington . Did have to do with your speech writing in the failures of the president . First of all thank you so much general patraeus for being here at the home of George Washington the part of that is rising to the republic i can think of someone more fitting to be in this house tonight then you so thank you for being here. K my previous book was called the man who would not be washington but they said the next book should be the man who was washington. Od [laughter] as the speechwriter that as the general mentioned at the end of the presidency so i saw what happened when a president leaves office and becomes a former president. One of the surprises i had was discovering the story of the first post presidency was never told which is kind of surprising you think of all of the biographies written about George Washington but you have little sympathy for them its not quite as surprising because think of how much ground they have to cover a man who heard the first shots , held the Continental Army together during the revolutio revolution, presided over the Constitutional Convention and served two terms as president and by the time you get through that as a biographer youre out of time and out of space the editor is on the phone i have sympathy for that to say where is your book . So the last years get shortchanged of his life. Why did it take so long . [laughter] because those forgotten years which turn out to be incredible they are great fodder for historians and are tumultuous. Your editors on the phone saying where is the book and it happened with me because George Washington march 1797 he dies december 1799 a. A little less than three years. Intarted to write the book 2015 so that means it took me more years to to write about his post presidency than he was in his post presidency. [laughter] but it is difficult to surrender power and far more difficult than he ever imagined. You chose a particular style as you relay history from those who lived it. Tell us about that style and why you decided to adopt that quick. Thats a great question. Thats one of the things one of the explanations i give why it took so long to write the book as a biographer you can tell the book through the comfort of the 21st century so with that hindsight gives you but the problem with thatbl approach is it gives you a sense you would have made better decisions than the People Living in the past and then it robs the past of everything of which people experienced it. And another approach is to actually tell the story of the past of those who actually lived it and that you only give the reader information that was then available to people who lived in the past and present new information as it came new to them in this story acquired that so to understand why surrendering power was so difficult for George Washington and wyatt brought his life to an end it was a little more after the presidencycy he found himself drawn out of retirement and put back in command of the armies of the United States but his immediate and future successors really is the opposite of what he was expecting euro from the capital in philadelphia and to see how we got there you have to see it through his eyes and his friends and rivals and family members of other people who made of the mount vernon community. Washington claimed he was counting the days until he left office. I have heard a lot of people say that over the years but very few of them make it. Normally thats what they say right before they inquire if they are invited to stay on in the current cabinet position. But he seems sincere. Granted it was philadelphia and not washington dc but why was he so eager to leave . And how people viewed him . That is a great question. He was extremely eager to leave the presidency. The truth is he wanted to leave after the first term in office. He got very close to doing so it went so far to write a farewell address but then he was convinced the country would come apart if he left office and people told him and then he immediately regrets that decision to serve a second term. He said he would rather be anywhere then be president of the United States by the time the second termhe ends nothing in the world could have convinced him to serve a third term at that particularm moment. He wanted to return to mount vernon to see himself living out his days as a farmer. He wanted to fix up the Mansion House here he felt had gone into ruin, and put his personal papers in order. Because he knew people like yours truly would one day want to write his biography. That is how he saw his post presidency going he thought it would be peaceful and it was anything but with all the controversy and personal torment. President s now days set a precedent. There is a sequence of events and to raise money for your library, but there was no precedent at that time. Was there any example at all to look to the future . You do have to raise money now to the president ial library and then to have the idea one of the things he did when he got back to mount vernon is he wanted to build an archive for his papers. So back to the question of precedent the American People are very well aware of thean story of the roman general who save the republic and then returned to his farm that is a story they were very much aware of but it wasnt modern for washington and to understand how impressive this was, you have to look across the ocean to france of what was happening there. Louise 16 recently left power and afterwords literally lost his head in the guillotine. And that is how things tended to go in the world at that time. If you are head of state giving up power you lost your head. So there really was very revolutionary so something to keep in mind about the way the post presidency may diverge from today. If you reflect on the fact to fall very far from philadelphia but that it was never far from washingtons thoughts. How did he adjust to life back here at mountar vernon . He tried to put himself back into a routine to find and keepd himself busy to monitor the improvements and was lying around his farm and did throw himself into his old papers to get them in order. At the same time he had a very hard time to separate himself from what was happening in the then capital of philadelphia he was eager to get moved. He is a voracious reader of newspapers but they dont satisfy him. He wants to know more so he goes to the people who know tthe most the members of john adams cabinet and they just happen to be the same members of his own cabinet because adams made the mistake to retain all of George Washingtons cabinet secretaries. Ca[laughter] so he says send me an update of philadelphia. So he really does push the boundaries of confidentiality he really does want them to go further and says dont go too far but let me know whats happening. So what is happening with the foreignpolicy crisis developing between United States and france. France has been seizing american ships at sea and john adams has sent envoys to france to negotiate a settlement is a long period of time everybodys waiting to find out you can see washington getting more and more agitated. What happened to the envoys they said were they guillotined . The answer comes it will up and his peaceful retirement. We will get to that but first we hear a lot these days about the relationship between president s and the press what was thatpr relationship like back in washingtons days . Did he read the press to supplement what he was getting directly from the former appointees in w office . Thats a great question. If you look back at this. It was always a difficult relationship. George washington, one of the reasons he so eager to leave is he is attacked by newspaper editors by the emerging Opposition Party they say the even forged letters to suggest he was a lukewarm patriot during the American Revolution. To give you an idea how far this goes washington spends is also they in Office Putting documentation down those letters are not true not only he wastr a patriot of the American Revolution. Some of these were funded by certain politicians. Thats true. One of the first opposition newspapers the editor is working for Thomas Jefferson secretary of state. So yes a very interesting y relationship with the press them the president during this period of time. It is important to understand about washington. He really cares whats put out that criticism wound him deeper than you might imagine. But at the same time he doesnt want people to think they are reading the newspapers but to find creative ways that doesnt require him to be a subscriber. He is a voracious reader of newspapers and the tension is so high many people have learned the alien and sedition act that is legislation against some journalists that were associated with the Opposition Party to be put in prison in the Unitedd States and George Washington supports this. Like we dont have that these days. [laughter] some of the concerns washington had of the post presidency sound like today. What else do you see between the late 17 nineties and today . That was the Biggest Surprise was discovering so many of the things we are worried about today with sound familiar to George Washington. For example, we are worried about foreign intervention in elections. Washington was worried about that too. In fact the first foreign intervention was 1796 the foreign power intervened on behalf of the Republican Party which79 fha was then tried to gt Thomas Jefferson elected president of the United States of the ford power waspres franc. We were worried about new forms a of media they were worried about new forms of media back then it was the newspaper that is what they would describe this fake news and also worried about the emergence of Political Parties and polarization tearing the country apart. In a way to see that they have these concerns that our concerns today should give us great confidencee because they were worried it would come up part and they endured that should give us confidence that we can endure challenges as enwell. What was observed over the years whenen Foreign Countries whats going on in the us not just recently but many occasions b to be noted that we had been through very tough times before. So tough one episode had to be settled with a four year civil war and plenty others as well but it is constructive to go back that far to realize that even then at the beginning that our Founding Fathers literally were put on a pedestal all over the country were actually engaged in such intrigue. So lets turn to france the first foreignpolicy crisis that dominated at least the successors turn of john adams so give us some background in the sequence of events from 1798 and ultimately end up cutting short washingtons retirement. Right i mentioned adams sent envoys to france and especially waiting what happened to the envoys in france and that the french would not receive the envoys unless they got a bribe. Into the parallels that day. [laughter] so as a result, there is an uproar in the United States and immediately the country goes into prepare for war there are preparations made, a new army reparations at sea and as part of that, john adams nominates George Washington to be commanderinchief for the armies of the United States without pausing to ponder why the constitution might specifically reserve the commanderinchief or the president or bothering to ask was washington had any terms or conditions for acceptance. It turns out he did have some conditions for acceptance and that would cause problems between john adams and George Washington. Oh so what will be several fax i have many and i must confess i completely overlooked the factsh washington served again as the commander of armies but how did he react to this request and what were his thoughts . He is torn and feels he cannot sit on the sidelines for everything he has worked his whole life for he is the father of the country. For him to come out of retirement but at the same time he is hesitant because he has some questions. For example hes worried about what people will say he sensitive to criticism or all the things he said during his second term or his farewell address itself is a sham he is worried if he is too old for the job or if there is someone younger who is more qualified the french are having terrific success with bonaparte who was very young and the final thing hes worried about if it would damage his legacy his legacy is so important to him at this stage he is very conscious of his role in history and doesnt want to do something that will sacrifice the fame he has earned and that is one of the reasons he has a condition he doesnt want to take active command of the army unless there is an actual i