In an undelivered draft of his first inaugural address, George Washington wrote that his lack of biological children would benefit the country.
“Divine Providence hath not seen fit, that my blood should be transmitted or my name perpetuated by the endearing, though sometimes seducing channel of immediate offspring,” the first U.S. president had considered including in the April 30, 1789, speech. “I have no child for whom I could wish to make a provision — no family to build in greatness upon my Country’s ruins.”
In other words: There would be no American royal dynasty, as The Washington Post reported more than 225 years later.
The subject of politicians without biological children made a wave of fresh headlines this week after a 2021 video resurfaced in which Sen. JD Vance (Ohio), the Republican vice-presidential nominee, described Vice President Harris and other Democrats as “childless cat ladies” in an interview with Tucker Carlson.
“The entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children,” Vance said in the footage, which has racked up more than 28 million views on X. “And how does it make any sense that we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?”
Vance said in a 2021 speech that the Democratic Party had become “controlled by people who don’t have children” but added that his remarks were not directed at people who are unable to have children, including for medical reasons. Asked for comment Wednesday on the “childless cat ladies” remark, a spokesman for Vance responded with statements from the senator’s aunt and sister.
“JD was raised by some of the strongest women I know and went on to marry an incredibly strong woman in Usha,” his wife, said Lindsay Lewis, Vance’s sister. “JD is a testament to the women in his life, and the attacks from the media and Democrats that assume anything otherwise is vile.”
While Harris would be a pioneer in many respects if she is elected in November — namely, becoming the first female president — she would not be the first president without biological offspring. In addition to Washington, four other commanders in chief have not had biological children. Several had nonnuclear families, like Harris’s.
Barbara Perry, a professor of presidential studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, said American politicians have long campaigned alongside their families to try to appeal to would-be constituents. In the 1950s, sitcoms such as “Leave It to Beaver” and “Father Knows Best” helped cement the idea of a traditional family.
“This norm of a big, American, happy family really took off,” Perry said. “And then again, why wouldn’t politicians speak to that and say, ‘Look, I’m like you’?”
But for Washington, having no biological children served a specific purpose.
When he stepped into the role in 1789, about six years after the Revolutionary War ended, there was widespread concern that the presidency would become hereditary, like the British monarchy, said Lindsay Chervinsky, executive director of the George Washington Presidential Library. Some also feared that John Adams, Washington’s successor, wanted to put his son, diplomat John Quincy Adams, in line after him, she added. Term limits had yet to be established, further heightening fears about the presidency.
In his personal writings, Washington expressed regret about not having biological children. Publicly, Chervinsky said, he pointed to that fact to highlight that he could not pass down the presidency.
“He was almost using it as a way to reassure the American people and demonstrate that he was a safe person to trust with that type of authority,” she said.
Like Harris, whose stepchildren Ella and Cole refer to her as “Momala,” Washington was a stepparent to two children, Patsy and Jacky, from his marriage to Martha Custis. Washington had an active role in their lives, as well as those of his grandchildren, Chervinsky said. In one well-known portrait of the family, he and his wife are shown alongside two of their grandchildren at their Mount Vernon estate.
Former presidents James Madison‚ James Buchanan, James K. Polk and Andrew Jackson also did not have biological offspring.
Madison, who was referred to as the “father of the Constitution,” had a stepson from the first marriage of his wife, Dolley. Buchanan during his presidency served as a guardian to his niece, Harriet Lane Johnston, who took on the duties that a first lady would typically have because Buchanan was unmarried. Jackson and his wife, Rachel, adopted one of her nephews when he was an infant and were guardians of several other children in their family.
In Washington’s case, scholars have posited that his lack of biological children lent itself to his idolization. In the 2010 biography “Washington: A Life,” Ron Chernow wrote that the president having no children “made it seem that he had been divinely preserved in an immaculate state to become the Father of his Country.”
Source link : https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2024/07/25/george-washington-no-children-jd-vance/
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Publish date : 2024-07-26 00:37:00
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