Reading Excerpts from George Washington’s Diary (1753-1754) | A Primary Source Close Read w/ BRI

0:03 Hi, I’m Tony Williams, a senior fellow with the Bill of Rights Institute. And welcome to another Bill of Rights Institute Primary Source Close Read. And for this one, we are very honored to have a scholar joining us to examine the document, which is going to be George Washington’s

0:23 Diary and Actions in the French and Indian War. And you can find that document along with several others at our website billofrightsinstitute.org. And if you sign up for the new Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness textbook, like I said, you will find this document and many others there as well.

0:44 So our guest is Steven, Knott. Welcome Steve. Good to have you. Thank you for having me, Tony. It’s a pleasure to be with you. And I’m a real fan of the work of the Bill of Rights Institute. Right thanks. And we’ve collaborated before you presented us some of our seminars, so we really appreciate all you do for the Institute.

1:05 Thank you. Well, I’ll introduce you. Steve. Steven F Knott is a professor in the National Security Affairs department at the Naval War College. He co chaired the Presidential Oral History program at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, which, by the way, has an extremely useful website on all the presidents.

1:28 He has taught teachers for many years for the graduate school program at the Ashbrook Center of Ashland University. And he’s written numerous excellent books, including Washington and Hamilton the alliance of Forged America with yours truly. We did that one together. Steve. Also the Alexander Hamilton and the persistence of myth.

1:50 His most recent book is The Lost Soul of the American Presidency the Decline into Demagoguery and the Prospects for Renewal. And he is currently at work on a book on the presidency of John F. Kennedy. His website is stevenfknott.com. So you’ll

2:10 find lots of great lectures and other useful resources there as well. Steve, again, welcome and thanks for coming on. Thanks, Tony. It’s always a pleasure to talk to you and to talk about George Washington, who is one of my favorites. Yeah, definitely mine too. So why don’t we jump right in?

2:30 And in thinking about this document, maybe provide some historical context, can you provide a little bit of general background about the struggle for empire that was going on among the European powers in North America when this diary was written? Yeah, you had basically a superpower confrontation superpowers,

2:52 at least in terms of the 1750s and 60s, between Britain and France for control of North America, all of North America, Canada and current day United States, stretching all the way down into Florida. And partly this was a commercial or trade conflict,

3:14 but partly this was again a superpower struggle between two nations that were always trying to one up the other in terms of acquiring bases, ports, et cetera, both for trading purposes, but also for strategic military purposes. The French had controlled parts of Canada, obviously present day Quebec,

3:40 and then down through into the Mississippi Valley region. There were sporadic French trading posts stretching all the way down to New Orleans. The British, of course, had made quite a foothold on the East Coast of the current United States. And in fact, the Brits had the edge

4:01 in this conflict in that the population of the British settlers in North America far outnumbered that of the French population. So before the war even begins, I would say, strategically speaking, due to the population that the Brits had, and also due to the fact that the British Navy was superior to the French Navy,

4:25 the Brits weren’t going to have the upper hand in this struggle. However, that’s not how it appeared initially. Of course, George Washington was at the center of a number of these early setbacks for the British and their American colonial collaborators. Okay, and can you tell us a little bit about the background and character

4:49 of the young George Washington who writes this journal? Yes, well, George Washington, Tony, as you know quite well, was an extremely ambitious young man. I mean, to be appointed what was he, 21 or so when Lieutenant Governor Dinwiddie he makes him, a prominent figure in the Virginia militia.

5:11 Washington, as I said, was extremely ambitious, but it was a noble kind of ambition. This was a person who could have easily lived a comfortable plantation existence and yet yearned for more. And I think he yearned for a kind of secular, eternal fame, if you will.

5:35 And as you so brilliantly pointed out in our book on Washington and Hamilton, it was this kind of fame, the kind of fame that could be earned through merit, through military accomplishment, that really motivated young George Washington.

5:55 So again, it’s fascinating to me that this man who could have led a comfortable existence, could have been a prominent member of the Virginia gentry, chose instead to live the life of a pioneer and a military life, both of which were very taxing.

6:16 I mean, this man had so many brushes with death, and yet that pursuit of ambition, that pursuit of this noble fame, drove him to take those risks. Okay. Yeah, and speaking of risks, we have a very dramatic source here, and as the source notes, and we’ll look at some of the relevant sections, you received a commission

6:37 from the royal governor of Virginia to warn off the French. They were building a series of forts in the Ohio Valley. And as you pointed out, that’s quite an assignment for a young 21 year old. It sure is. And to have to make his way out into, really, the wilderness at this point

7:03 through some hostile Native American the territory claimed by some hostile Native American tribes and also, of course, the French who were lurking out in this region, just a remarkable risk. And not to mention the weather, as you see here in one of these passages, just the incredible cold, the snow, lack of roads, the lack of just basic

7:30 the things we take for granted in modern life here’s. This Virginia gentryman really taking in some ways the ultimate risk, the ultimate challenge, right? The viewers can see on this slide right here, he gets that commission. He has to get horses and baggage and gunpowder and food.

7:52 He’s leaving in late fall. He’s leaving at the end of October. And as you say, the snow is already piling up, and I’m not sure students understand. He plunged into the wilderness at the Appalachian Mountains. That was the American frontier at the time because the American columnist were mostly on the East Coast.

8:16 And he’s going on this adventure. He’s meeting up with Christopher Geese and some others, and he walks hundreds of miles, walks, rides, of course, paddles over hundreds of miles of frontier territory.

8:37 He had had some experience there, right. He had been a surveyor as a young man. And as he said, he wasn’t afraid of a little adventure. And in the resource, we have a map of this, but he goes all the way up to Lake Erie. I mean, he walks and rides there from Virginia. This is quite a car ride in today’s world.

8:59 So I don’t know if you want to speak a little bit more to that frontier adventure and just kind of that struggle with the elements. Well, I think it’s a good thing for modern Americans to take note of this because I think we have this impression, and I’ve used this term already,

9:19 of Washington being a member of the Virginia gentry, which he was. But again, this was an atypical member of the Virginia gentry. This is a man who loved a good challenge and loved a good adventure and risked his life in so doing. And we’ll get to this shortly, I’m sure.

9:41 But I mean, during both the French and Indian War and the American Revolution, this man had multiple horses shot out from under him. And the fact that he managed to live a full life and die at a relatively old age for this era is really remarkable. So

10:02 people who assume that George Washington was a child of privilege, which he was to some extent, they also need to factor into this equation. This is a man who took incredible risks and who was willing to really, in some ways, defy death on many occasions, right?

10:22 And so, as we see here, he’s headed towards the Forks of the Ohio, but then meets up with some Native Americans trying to gain them as allies and goes up to the Forks, but then has to go further and further beyond that. As we go through the source here,

10:45 he’s going up through the series of French forts and they keep sending them to the next fort in the chain and the next fortnite chain, and eventually he goes up and meets with them. How does he gather intelligence about the French forts? The number of troops, their allies,

11:05 other important military matters for the colonists and British. Why is it so important? Well, of course, success in any military and this is a semi military, semi diplomatic venture on Washington’s part success requires accurate intelligence.

11:26 And Washington, by the way, throughout his entire career, both in this era and when he’s the commander of the Continental Army is a great believer in the importance of intelligence and will create during the Revolutionary War a very effective firing called the Culper Ring that helps provide a fairly accurate, fairly consistent information

11:51 on the British military headquarters in New York. But at this time, he’s reliant primarily upon Native American sources. You mentioned Half king. And other Indian leaders who have been dealing with the French now for decades, and their ancestors would have been dealing with them as well.

12:12 So the primary sources of information he’s getting is coming from Indian leaders, but also occasionally traders with a D who are in this area and have dealt both with the French and the British in terms of marketing various goods.

12:34 Right, good. So he’s gathering all this information. And. So what’s the French answer? He travels all these hundreds of miles, goes in and speaks to them, get hands them the Dinwitty warning and see what’s their answer and what impact does this have on the larger Franco British diplomatic

12:59 situation, which is fascinating that this 21 year old really has control over sort of the diplomatic relations of these two great powers. His mission can determine sort of war or peace. No question. His mission could determine war and peace.

13:19 Again, it’s truly remarkable, as we keep saying, in terms of how youthful Washington was. The French answer, at least if we are to believe George Washington is an abrupt no in terms of acquiescing to any of the British, any of Lieutenant Governor didn’t Woody’s demands that they acknowledge the British presence there?

13:44 Now, look, we’re getting this from George Washington’s perspective. One always has to be careful with looking at any dispute, to try to look at sources from all sides. But from the American colonial perspective, as reflected here by young George Washington, it’s the French who are not only saying no to any sort of diplomatic settlement, but doing so,

14:11 not always doing so in a very abrupt and, one might say rude manner. And George Washington was not the kind of person that you dealt with in that way. Washington had a bit of a razor thin temper, and if he felt his honor had been insulted, I think he had a tendency to act also abruptly in those situations.

14:37 So, again, the French could not have been more abrupt and more final in their rejection of any British demands. Yes, as it says here, they told me that it was their absolute design to take possession of the Ohio, and by God, they would do it. Right. So it seems a little arrogant, as you say, on the part of the front, and yet the British, their absolute design

15:01 was to keep possession of the Ohio River as well. So these two contending empires really have the same goal, as you say, to control the trade and the military routes, settlement of the area. So all very important. Yeah absolutely. Okay. And so within several months, he’s going to be sent on a mission,

15:26 as we’re looking at, to expel the French from the Forks at modern day Pittsburgh. He’s accused later of assassinating a French officer in an ambush where supposedly he may or may not have fired the first shot, depending on what source he looked at, lost a battle at Great Meadows and then he rallied the ill fated Braddock expedition

15:49 when the British colonel was killed and those troops are routed again. And so Washington loses several battles out in the wilderness after this message is delivered, and yet he emerges as a hero and a very well known columnist, even in the 1750s 60s.

16:12 So my question is, what lessons did he learn from these early battles in this French and Indian War that would later influence his command in the American Revolution? How does it shape him? Sure. Terrific question. Well, look, one of the things he learns and I teach at a war college, and any military officer will tell you this one of the most dangerous moments

16:36 in any sort of military endeavor is if one has to retreat and to keep ones cool, to keep your forces steady and to keep them alive. And in the many instances that you just mentioned, Tony, that is precisely what this young colonel was able to do keep his cool, execute two withdrawals,

17:01 particularly the second one after General Braddock is killed. That is a very difficult thing to do under any circumstance, but particularly in a wilderness situation where the enemy seems to be behind almost every tree that you turn around. So that’s one thing he learns. And during the American Revolution, that’s going to be important,

17:23 an important lesson, because George Washington is going to lose more battles than he wins, but he manages to keep his forces intact, and that was the key, ultimately, to success in the American Revolution. The other thing he learned is that the importance of discipline and the importance of logistics.

17:48 One of the things that affected both Washington’s early mission to Fort Necessity and then later with Braddock is the difficulty of keeping that force supplied through this hostile wilderness. And of course, logistics and supplies are going to be a major issue for General Washington during the Revolution as well.

18:10 It’s going to be a constant issue, and one arguably that was as great a threat to Washington’s army as the British were. So he learns about logistics, he learns about discipline in terms of keeping his force intact. He learns also, I think, a very important lesson about civil military relations

18:35 in terms of his dealings with Dinwiddie and other Virginia political figures. So he’s balancing sort of the military with the civilian side of things. And that, of course, is something that he masters during the American Revolution, where he strikes that perfect balance between keeping his army intact and in fighting shape while keeping his

18:56 civilian political overseers satisfied at the same time. And the final thing I’ll say, Tony, that I think he learns, and this one is more of a sort of negative lesson, in a sense. He learns that the British look down their noses at the American colonials sure. And that is going to stay with him and certainly contribute to his ultimate break with Great Britain.

19:19 Right okay. So some really powerful lessons for later on. Excellent. And just a general question as we conclude things in our discussion of this primary source. How did the French and Indian war help lead to the American Revolution?

19:40 Yeah, I think most historians would conclude, and I would put myself in this camp, that the French and Indian War certainly expedited the arrival of the American Revolution. It probably would have happened at some point, but maybe not as quickly, at least in terms of the as it did so by the British ultimately succeeding

20:05 in removing the French, for the most part from the Mississippi Valley region. The Americans no longer felt in some ways that they had to rely on this great colonial power across the Atlantic to provide for their protection. So the defeat of the French removes this threat all along the American frontier.

20:27 The other thing the French and Indian War does in terms of expediting the arrival of the American Revolution is the British government decides that they need to raise taxes to help pay for the debt that they had racked up during that war. And it was a costly war for Great Britain well, for France as well.

20:48 And I actually looked up before we came online here, by the 1770s, the British had racked up excuse me, by the end of the war, in 1764, I should say, the British had racked up £129,000,000 of debt just in terms of financing that war leads to the Stamp Act, leads to other unpopular taxes

21:15 that, of course, produce the American Revolution. Do you think that also the Americans, and maybe specifically George Washington, learned a lesson about unity and about working together? Because it seems that during the French Indian War there was so much disunity.

21:36 There was an attempted plan, Albany Plan of Union that was agreed upon, but none of the legislatures voted for it. They were sort of very disunited and not much sense of unity or common good among these disparate, very different colonies. And yet later on, Washington helps to promote this sort

21:58 of more continental vision of what America should be. Do you think there were some lessons learned during the war? No question, Tony. This is one of many important steps towards the forging of a national of an American identity. And you’re right, the divisions that existed within the colonies,

22:18 which to some extent were fostered by the British across the Atlantic. But, yeah, there is slowly but surely, I think, the formation of an American identity, which you and I have argued before, was arguably one of George Washington’s greatest accomplishments,

22:38 both as commander of the Continental Army and as our first president. But this seed of an American identity is forged right here. You begin to see some cooperation. I think the Massachusetts governor, was it William Shirley, I believe is dealing with his Virginia counterparts.

23:00 There is this formation of a kind of defensive alliance that’s one of the first steps towards the Continental Congress. Excellent. Well, steve, I want to thank you very much for joining us and examining this document via a young and nobly ambitious

23:23 George Washington and examining the French and Indian War in its role in the American Revolution as well as broadly in colonial history. So thank you again for joining us. Thank you very much, Tony. I enjoyed it very much. And teachers and students, you can find more documents as well as many essays and other valuable resources

23:47 at Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, our free online textbook which is available at at our website BillofRightsInstitute.org. Thank you very much for joining us for this Close Read.