Le premier président américain était un homme confiant et bien conscient de son influence. Sa fortune était importante, il fut peut-être l'homme le plus riche de son temps. Malgré son statut de héros il a refusé de s'accrocher au pouvoir et il s'est assuré qu'on comprenne bien que la fonction était plus importante que l'homme qui l'occupe. L'auteur raconte que lors de sa visite à Mount Vernon en compagnie d'Emmanuel Macron l'actuel président américain s'étonnait que George Washington n'ait pas utilisé son nom pour nommer son domaine et ses propriétés. Peut-être que le respect des institutions dont a fait preuve le premier président de l'histoire devrait inspirer l'actuel occupant de la Maison Blanche. Je crois que c'est peine perdue...
"Washington was neither modest nor lacking in ego. He was, by some measures, the wealthiest American of his age, combining his inheritance with his wife’s fortune and an extremely lucrative series of land purchases that made him proportionally far wealthier than his 43rd successor. But few people today either know or care that he was so vastly rich. He’s entirely remembered for the qualities that made him an outstanding steward of a young and fragile nation: the good judgment and sense of propriety that led him to put the national interest ahead of his own.
Washington understood that institutions outlive individuals. That may not seem like a radical notion, but it’s striking how unfamiliar it was in Washington’s day. Even more shocking was the idea that one could gain power and esteem by not coveting it. After leading the American Army to victory in the Revolutionary War, Washington made his first decision to retire to Mount Vernon, even though there were calls for him to be the monarch of the new nation."
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/04/10/trump-mount-vernon-george-washington-226619
