George Washington famously became America’s Cincinnatus by voluntarily resigning his appointment as commander in chief of the United States armed forces.
Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus was a Roman patrician of the early Roman republic who seized power as consul but voluntarily gave it up when civil war ceased. He was celebrated in Roman culture for this, and the story was well known to 18th-century Americans who saw in Rome’s history a guide to the dos and don’ts of democratic practice.
When Washington modeled true republican forbearance, he became celebrated as America’s answer to Cincinnatus. He quietly retired to private life until he went to the Constitutional Convention as the assumed first president of the United States. He then served two terms and once again voluntarily gave up power — becoming Cincinnatus twice over.
What very few people know today is that even George Washington was attacked for his advanced age and perceived senility as president. Age took its toll on Washington in the presidency. He was not more immune to the intense stresses of the job than later presidents.
Two months after he was sworn in, surgery to remove a tumor led to his life hanging in the balance. His desperate staffers laid straw in the street outside his residence to dampen the noise and vibrations from the horse-drawn traffic. People in the capital began to panic. The fact that no one was allowed to see or visit the president for six weeks further drove frantic concern.
Washington’s health and vitality declined even faster as his presidency wore on. Illness followed illness, with each seeming closer together than the last round.
The political elite — and anyone with eyes in the capital — were aware of Washington’s decline. In many cases, they were alarmed.
One-term Pennsylvania Sen. William Maclay wrote about Washington’s “almost cadaverous” look. Others found his advanced age made an easy soft spot for media-based political attacks.
Thomas Jefferson helped spread the incessant rumors that Washington was slipping into senility. Alexander Hamilton was often accused of taking advantage of the president’s confusion and using him as a puppet for his advantage. Later Jefferson would record that Washington’s “memory was already sensibly impaired by age.”
Opposition newspaper The Aurora was even more blunt. It urged Washington to “Retire immediately.”
Most importantly, George Washington also believed his health and abilities were declining as he passed 60. He monitored himself for signs of aging and seriously considered retiring after one term.
He apparently told Jefferson “that he really felt himself growing old, his bodily health less firm, his memory, always bad, becoming worse, and perhaps the other faculties of his mind shewing a decay to others of which he was insensible himself, that this apprehension particularly oppressed him.”
Washington was aware that people suffering from cognitive decline are often unaware of how much they have been affected. He was horrified by the idea he would remain in office past his abilities — destroying his hard-won reputation. Better to go out on a high note.
Washington would remember bitterly how often the opposition press accused him of “dotage and imbecility.” But he told ally John Jay that the wave of attacks coupled with “the weight of years which passed over me” had worn down “my mind more than my body.”
The charge was so explosive because it mirrored worries the populace and Washington shared about whether old men should continue in political office past their prime. Washington’s popularity dropped in line with visible changes in his health.
George Washington certainly was enough of a politician to understand that his popularity was fading. He also took seriously his own concerns about whether he was still fit to serve.
He chose to set the example of leaving the presidency by choice rather than death. Kings died on the throne. Presidents retired.
President Biden has invoked the example of George Washington choosing to stay for only two terms instead of staying “for two, three, four or five terms till he died.” What many do not know is that Washington was twice faced with the question of whether to serve a third term.
After he left the presidency, his desperate fellow party members tried to buttonhole him into running once again. Successor John Adams was not to their taste and so unpopular as to be a liability.
Washington turned them down flat. Had he not, he would indeed have died in office.
George Washington was a Cincinnatus two times. President Biden, you have stepped into Washington’s shoes.
Washington and Biden have made enormous sacrifices of personal ambition for their country. They teach us that our nation is far bigger than any single person no matter how much power they amass or good they do.
Rebecca Brannon Ph.D. is an associate professor of early American history at James Madison University. She is finishing a book on the Founding Fathers and Mothers and how the American Revolution changed their experiences with aging.