Sex and the Founding Fathers: The American Quest for a Relatable Past (Sexuality Studies) (35 page)

40. Rosemarie Zagarri, ed., David Humphreys' "Life of General Washington" (Athens:
University of Georgia Press, 1991), 37.

41. Henry Cabot Lodge, George Washington (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1889), 107108.

42. Paul Leicester Ford, The True George Washington (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1898),
96.

43. Rasmussen and Tilton, George Washington, 93.

44. Woodrow Wilson, George Washington (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1896), 93.

45. Casper, Constructing American Lives, 9.

46. Daily Commercial (Cincinnati), March 28, 1871.

47. "The Son of Washington," St. Louis (MO) Daily Globe-Democrat, April 21, 1886.
See also Fitzpatrick, "The George Washington Scandals."

48. Fitzpatrick, "The George Washington Scandals."

49. Wilson, George Washington, 101.

50. Ford, The True George Washington, 84.

51. Lodge, George Washington, 92.

52. Ibid., 96-97.

53. Casper, Constructing American Lives, 315.

54. Fitzpatrick, "The George Washington Scandals."

55. Kevin White, The First Sexual Revolution: The Emergence ofMale Heterosexuality in
Modern America (New York: New York University Press, 1993), 13. See also John D'Emilio
and Estelle Freedman, Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America, 3rd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012).

56. Lacayo, "George Washington," 14, 22.

57. Letter to Sarah Cary Fairfax, May 16, 1798, in Crackel, The Papers of George Washington, Digital Edition, available at http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/founders/GEWN
.html.

58. Rebecca Earle, ed., Epistolary Selves: Letters and Letter-Writers, 1600-1945 (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 1999), 7. Historians and literary scholars have argued that letters are
performative and illustrate the construction of a self, rather than being simply transparent
"documents" to be taken at face value. They are "texts" full of multiple layers of meaning and production of meaning. See, for example, Toby L.Ditz, "Formative Ventures:
Eighteenth-Century Commercial Letters and the Articulation of Experience," in Earle,
Epistolary Selves, 59-78.

59. See, for example, Thomas Fleming, The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers
(Washington, DC: Smithsonian Books, 2009), 4-5.

60. Hughes, George Washington, 178.

61. Meade Minnigerode, Some American Ladies: Seven Informal Biographies (1926;
repr., Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1969), 9.

62. Sally Nelson Robins, Love Stories of Famous Virginians, 2nd ed. (Richmond, VA:
Dietz Printing, 1925), 21, 23, 34; italics original.

63. Peter Gay, ed., introduction and "Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality," in
The Freud Reader (New York: Norton, 1989), 239-292. See also D'Emilio and Freedman,
Intimate Matters.

64. Hughes, George Washington, 410, 488-489.

65. Eugene E.Prussing, George Washington in Love and Otherwise (Chicago: Pascal
Covici, 1925), 3, 21.

66. John C.Fitzpatrick, George Washington Himself.•A Commonsense Biography Written
from His Manuscripts (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1933), 42.

67. Prussing, George Washington, 32-33.

68. Douglas Southall Freeman, George Washington: A Biography, 7 vols. (New York:
Scribner, 1948-1957), 2:338n75.

69. Fitzpatrick, George Washington Himself, 113-114, 110, 41.

70. Moore, The Family Life of George Washington, 84.

71. Hughes, George Washington, 477.

72. Prussing, George Washington, 22.

73. Moore, The Family Life of George Washington, 84.

74. Desmond, Martha Washington, 188. An earlier account claims that "the marriage
was a failure in that there were no children" (Haworth, George Washington, 222).

75. Robins, Love Stories of Famous Virginians, 29. In 1960, Elswyth Thane's Washingtons Lady implies that Martha may have become infertile after having measles (28).

76. May, Barren in the Promised Land, 61; White, The First Sexual Revolution.

77. White, The First Sexual Revolution, 57.

78. May, Barren in the Promised Land, 11-12, 131-134, 136.

79. Fitzpatrick, George Washington Himself, 119.

80. Hughes, George Washington, 351.

81. Moore, The Family Life of George Washington, 55.

82. Minnigerode, Some American Ladies, 8.

83. Freeman, George Washington, 2:np (caption to photo between 285 and 286).

84. Cunliffe, George Washington, 47.

85. Desmond, Martha Washington, 77, 64, 220.

86. May, Barren in the Promised Land, 134.

87. It was rereleased in 2002 as Mary Higgins Clark, Mount Vernon Love Story: A Novel
of George and Martha Washington (New York: Pocket Books, 2003).

88. Unger, The Unexpected George Washington, 1.

89. Gore Vidal, Burr: A Novel (1973; repr. New York: Vintage, 2000), 23.

90. Patricia Brady, Martha Washington: An American Life (New York: Viking, 2005),
57.

91. Fleming, Intimate Lives, 10.

92. Willard Sterne Randall, George Washington: A Life (New York: Holt, 1997), 53.
Randall adds yet another woman to Washington's list of "loves" with his discussion of
Betty Fauntleroy, whom he claims Washington fell in "love" with (62-63).

93. Ibid., 53.

94. Joseph J.Ellis, His Excellency: George Washington (New York: Vintage, 2004), 37.

95. Brady, Martha Washington, 232.

96. Fleming, Intimate Lives, 18.

97. James MacGregor Burns and Susan Dunn, George Washington (New York: Times
Books, 2004), 134; Randall, George Washington, 179.

98. Desmond, Martha Washington, 90. On the association of the white male body with
modernity, see, for example, John F.Kasson, Houdini, Tarzan, and the Perfect Man: The
White Male Body and the Challenge of Modernity in America (New York: Hill and Wang,
2001).

99. Susan Bordo, The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and in Private (New
York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1999).

100. Clark, Mount Vernon Love Story, preface.

101. Ellis, His Excellency, 12.

102. Wood, Revolutionary Characters, 33.

103. Randall, George Washington, 3.

104. Fleming, Intimate Lives, 19, 7.

105. Fischer, Washington's Crossing, 7-8.

106. Clark, Mount Vernon Love Story, preface.

107. Unger, The Unexpected George Washington, 1.

108. Brookhiser, Founding Father, 107-109, 111.

109. Brady, Martha Washington, 59.

110. Fleming, Intimate Lives, 19, 7.

111. Ellis, His Excellency, 11.

112. On being "flat chested," see Fitzpatrick, George Washington Himself, 147. On being "wide across the hips," see Ferling, The First of Men, 19.

113. John Ferling, The Ascent of George Washington: The Hidden Political Genius of an
American Icon (New York: Bloomsbury, 2009), 13-14.

114. Zagarri, David Humphreys' "Life of General Washington,"7.

115. Ellis, His Excellency, 40.

116. Bernhard Knollenberg, George Washington, the Virginia Period, 1732-1775 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1964), 72.

117. Ellis, His Excellency, 42.

118. Wood, Revolutionary Characters, 60. Similarly, Ferling notes, "Their union began
as a virtual marriage of convenience" and that "economically it was a good match" (Ferling, The First of Men, 78).

119. Ellis, His Excellency, 42.

120. Ibid.

121. Clark, Mount Vernon Love Story, preface.

122. Brady, Martha Washington, 99, 114-115.

123. Joseph E.Fields, `Worthy Partner" The Papers of Martha Washington (Westport,
CT: Greenwood Press, 1994), xx.

124. Brady, Martha Washington, 233. A film produced by the History Channel and
narrated by Glenn Close that plays at the Mount Vernon visitor center focuses on the relationship of George and Martha and assures visitors that despite his many years away from
her during the Revolution, Martha never suspected that he was unfaithful to her.

125. Fleming, Intimate Lives, 37, 18, 57.

126. Bruce Chadwick, The General and Mrs. Washington: The Untold Story of a Marriage and a Revolution (Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, 2007), 134.

127. This desire to fill in the record has forced biographers to go out on limbs that
would otherwise be unacceptable to most historians. In the absence of much evidence, one
recent biographer claims to understand how Washington felt about not having children of
his own. In describing Mount Vernon, the Washingtons' plantation, he writes, "Another
aspect of his life revealed in this room is the absence of portraits of Washington's own
children. He and Martha were childless, and that failure saddened him." Henry Wiencek,
An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America (New York:
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2003), 10.

Similarly, the C-SPAN website AmericanPresidents.org, which is designed for student
education and for the general public, also styles Washington as a father. In a chart entitled
"Life Facts," the website notes two under "number of children"-counting Martha's children in a manner that makes it appear that he did, indeed, sire children. This accounting
style is not uniformly employed, however. Under James Madison, for example, the website
notes "none"-even though Dolley and James raised her son John Payne Todd.

On Washington, see www.americanpresidents.org/ presidents/gwashington.asp
(accessed April 20, 2009). On Madison, see www.americanpresidents.org/presidents/president.asp?PresidentNumber=4 (accessed April 20, 2009).

128. Brookhiser, Founding Father, 163.

129. Available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_washington (accessed July 21,
2007).

130. Arnold A.Rogow, A Fatal Friendship: Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr (New
York: Hill and Wang, 1998), 7.

131. Flexner, "Washington Mythology," 107.

132. Marcus Cunliffe, George Washington: Man and Monument, rev. ed. (New York:
NAL, 1982), 147-148.

133. Randall, George Washington, 196.

134. Fleming, Intimate Lives, 25.

135. John K.Amory, "George Washington's Infertility: Why Was the Father of Our
Country Never a Father?" Fertility and Sterility 81, no. 3 (March 2004): 497. Dr. Amory
concludes that Washington was most likely sterile due to tuberculosis epididymitis.

136. Edward O.Laumann, Anthony Paik, and Raymond C.Rosen, "Sexual Dysfunction in the United States: Prevalence and Predictors," Journal of the American MedicalAssociation 281, no. 6 (1999): 537-544; John E.Anderson, et al., "Infertility Services Reported
by Men in the United States: National Survey Data," Fertility and Sterility 91, no. 6 (June
2009): 2466-2470.

137. Rasmussen and Tilton, George Washington, 99.

138. Clark, Mount Vernon Love Story, 240.

139. Foster, "Deficient Husbands." See also Angus McLaren, Impotence: A Cultural
History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007).

140. May, Barren in the Promised Land, 34.

141. Wiencek, An Imperfect God, 294, 12.

142. Linda Allen Bryant, I Cannot Tell a Lie: The True Story of George Washington's
African American Descendants (New York: iUniverse Star, 2001).

143. Unger, The Unexpected George Washington, 272.

CHAPTER 2

1. Available at www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/ index.php?pid=45697#axzzIld4W8iFM.
See also Francis D.Cogliano, Thomas Jefferson: Reputation and Legacy (Charlottesville:
University of Virginia Press, 2006), 170.

2. C-SPAN 2000 and 2009 survey of historians, available at www.c-span.org/Presi
dentialSurvey/Overall-Ranking.aspx.

3. Annette Gordon-Reed, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (New
York: Norton, 2008); Charles Haid, Sally Hemings: An American Scandal (Echo Bridge
Home Entertainment Studio, 2004); and Marlon Wayans, Scary Movie (Burbank, CA:
Dimension Home Video, 2000).

4. For recent work on Thomas Jefferson, see Joyce Appleby, Thomas Jefferson (New
York: Times Books, 2003); Joseph J.Ellis, American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson (New York: Knopf, 1997); and Peter S.Onuf, The Mind of Thomas Jefferson (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2007). See also Paul F inkelman, Slavery and the
Founders: Race and Liberty in the Age of Jefferson (London: Sharpe, 1996).

5. Thomas Jefferson Papers Series 1, General Correspondence, 1651-1827 Henry Lee,
1805, John Walker Affair, available at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mtj.mtjbib014530. See
also Fawn M.Brodie, Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History (New York: Norton, 1975), 83.

6. Richmond Recorder, September 1, 1802; italics original.

7. [Joseph Dennie and Asbury Dickens] Oliver Oldschool, Port Folio, vol. 2 (Philadelphia: H.Maxwell, 1802), 312. On Port Folio, see Linda K.Kerber and Walter John Morris,
"Politics and Literature: The Adams Family and the Port Folio," William and Mary Quarterly 23, no. 3 (July 1966): 450-476; and Jonathan Daniels, Ordeal of Ambition: Jefferson,
Hamilton, Burr (New York: Doubleday, 1970), 267.

8. James Akin, 'A Philosophic Cock, "Newburyport, MA, 1804.

9. Quoted in Virginius Dabney and Jon Kukla, "The Monticello Scandals: History
and Fiction," Virginia Cavalcade 29, no. 2 (Autumn 1979): 54.

10. Henry Stephens Randall, The Life of Thomas Jefferson, 3 vols. (New York: Derby
and Jackson, 1857-1858).

11. Sarah N.Randolph, The Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson (1871; repr., Charlottesville: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation by the University Press of Virginia, 1978),
preface, 34.

12. James Parton, Life of Thomas Jefferson (Boston: Osgood, 1874), 34.

13. William Eleroy Curtis, The True Thomas Jefferson (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1901),
29-31.

14. Thomas E.Watson, The Life and Times of Thomas Jefferson (New York: Appleton,
1903), 17, 87.

15. Albert Jay Nock, Jefferson (New York: Hill and Wang, 1926), 15.

16. Sally Nelson Robins, Love Stories of Famous Virginians, 2nd ed. (Richmond, VA:
Dietz Printing, 1925), 51.

17. Brodie, Thomas Jefferson, 64.

18. Phillips Russell, Jefferson: Champion of the Free Mind (New York: Dodd, Mead,
1956), 11.

19. Nock, Jefferson, 11.

20. Francis W.Hirst, Life and Letters of Thomas Jefferson (New York: Macmillan,
1926), 30.