A lesson learned from A REVOLUTIONARY FRIENDSHIP: WASHINGTON, JEFFERSON, AND THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC, by Francis Cogliano

 Some friendships are not meant to survive politics. 

In our intensely divided modern world, it is a common assumption that an ideal America once existed where intense political divisions did not drive us apart to the extent they do today. On some level, this myth has always been just that, a romanticization of the past. It is true that ordinary Americans could more readily ignore politics during the (relatively) more peaceful days of the 1980’s and 1990’s, but that did not mean that intense divisions did not bubble just under the surface. As ancient political philosophers pointed out, politics by their very definition are a struggle over who gets what and how, and those types of disputes tend to inevitably have periods when they are ugly and explosive. No American generation learned this lesson harder than the Founding Fathers, who had assumed they were building a better and more peaceful nation away from Great Britain, only to realize they had radically different visions as to what exactly that nation was supposed to be. Many a friendship was torn asunder by the political polarization of early America, and one of the most prominent ones was that between George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, as brilliantly recapped in Francis Cogliano’s new book. 

Washington and Jefferson had much in common. Both were born into a relatively modest background, and managed to earn and marry their way up into the richest levels of colonial Virginian society. Both managed large plantations, and obsessed over their reputation and status, originally within the British Empire, and eventually within the new United States. Both men became brilliant leaders who scoffed at Britain’s exploitive relationship with the 13 Colonies, and eloquently thought up a freer, more democratic country that could build a new global empire to the Pacific (and were glad to downplay or ignore the subsequent devastation wrought on indigenous American societies by that process). Both men developed an intellectual loathing for slavery, while simultaneously profiting off enslaved labor and barely lifting a finger to convince the new nation to abandon it. On all levels, Washington and Jefferson developed a close working friendship as they built the new nation, and they played a pivotal role in solidifying a new American government as the Founders created one in the 1780’s. 

Washington and Jefferson could have preserved their friendship forever by downplaying their political differences, and focusing on all the beliefs that united them. However, ultimately their visions of America’s future proved incompatible, and it permanently tore them apart in the years prior to Washington’s death. Notably, Jefferson saw an America modeled off plantation Virginia—an agricultural nation run by rural white people, with a weak national government and a strong respect for the freedoms of states and individuals. Washington, by contrast, saw a future America defined by its booming northern cities—a modern nation of a powerful national government, run by free people and respectful of economic hierarchies. As those differences solidified and became apparent, both men began to believe the worst about each other, with Washington seeing Jefferson as a dangerous revolutionary hellbent on chaos, and Jefferson seeing Washington as a dupe of the British Empire and its nobility. Ironically, Jefferson’s love of equality for white men made him more reactionary than Washington on a key issue—Washington could see a future of freed African Americans who simply joined the ranks of America’s poor working classes, whereas Jefferson could not imagine a nation where black people could work as equals with white people on America’s farms (Washington subsequently freed his slaves upon his death, whereas Jefferson followed his worst impulses into the unforgivable assaults on Sally Hemmings). 

The division between Washington and Jefferson showed that even the most famous of American leaders allowed their political differences to blow up a long friendship, and that such divisions have never been easy for us to overcome. The question is whether we should fight to overcome our political differences, or accept that we are destined to group into different like-minded communities. As difficult as it is, I must believe that we must always strive for the first possibility. As Cogliano notes, America lost a great deal when Washington and Jefferson stopped trying to learn from each other and exchange ideas, and we all do as well when we isolate ourselves away from those who think differently from how we do.