If he had wanted to, George Washington could easily have become king of the United States. Only his determination to support the newly devised democratic form of government saved the new nation from monarchy.

What an irony that would have been for the colonies to have thrown off Britain’s monarchical rule only to adopt the same structure themselves!

Even the then king of England, George III, admired what Washington did. When this other George heard that Washington was about to stand down from public life, he supposedly said: “He will be the greatest man in the world,”

Independence Day, July 4th, means more to me than it used to. Part of this increased appreciation of our national holiday comes from a growing interest in history. It’s as if the elongation of my own life history disposes me to place greater value on the aging of the nation to which I belong.. This comparison may not strike you as logical but to me it makes perfect sense.

That’s why the book Revolutionary Characters, published last year by Brown University historian Gordon Wood, has won my attention. In its pages, Wood details the personal characteristics, both inborn and acquired, of Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Hamilton, and other founders.

Among these leaders, George Washington stands out, for the historian and for me, as the greatest. Earlier in my life, he seemed to me a pale figure, both literally and figuratively. All those pictures of him with ashen face, and the stories about his moral rectitude, left me cold. But more reflection, and the influence of fine historians like Wood, have brought me to a deeper appreciation of the man’s stature.

First, I have learned more about the uniqueness of the American Revolution. In giving to the people the right to choose its own leaders, and in balancing the powers of the federal government, the founders went against virtually all of previous history. And in separating church and state, they found a workable formula for averting the wars of religion.

But a large number of people in the colonies were left enslaved. Of Virginia’s population, an astounding forty percent were held in bondage. It is to the everlasting credit of Washington that, unlike Jefferson, he left in his will a provision for his own slaves to be freed.

This latter fact points to the character of America’s first president. Character, in fact, was the dominant concern of those who were most important in founding our nation. Gordon Wood, at least, makes it central in his book.

Long ago, my age were taught about the character of young George Washington, who refused to lie about cutting down the cherry tree. Though historians no longer accept it as factual truth, the story attests to the stature that he would attain as an adult.

Not only did the man grow to stand over six feet tall; he also towered over most other political figures in the personal disinterest he brought to his roles in public life. Others among the founders would fight bitterly to maintain their own prerogatives but Washington continued to put the good of the new nation before his own advantage.

When he turned down those who wanted him to accept a third term as president, he again showed what he was made of. Given his presidential track record and the still shaky condition of the new republic, it would probably have contributed to the nation’s welfare to have had him in office for four more years. However, his adamant refusal clearly set an example that was crucial in those early days of the republic.

Even to this latter-day admirer of the man, Washington still appears rather cold in personality. It’s hard to imagine becoming his close friend. But the historical record remains lamentably incomplete.

We know little about his emotional life because of the dearth of his private correspondence. Unfortunately, none of his letters to Martha Custis, his future wife, have survived. In them, presumably, he would have disclosed more tender feelings than we can find elsewhere.

But he never wanted to be a cult figure, at least of the kind we have imposed on us in the age of celebrity worship. He was deeply conscious of his own dignity as chosen leader of the new nation. As a Virginian aristocrat, he cultivated manners that forbade undue familiarity.

Gilbert Stuart, famous for the portraits he did of Washington, recalled having once suggested that Washington, while he posed, forget who he was so as to could be more at ease. Washington stiffly rejected his request on the grounds of his own dignity.

So this Fourth of July brings for me a new appreciation of the birth of our nation with a distinctiveness unprecedented in the world’s history. And a large part of this drama features George Washington to whose leadership all of us contemporary Americans owe much.

We can only hope to discover new leaders who will find inspiration in his character and his abiding moral stature.

Richard Griffin