Sex and the Founding Fathers: The American Quest for a Relatable Past (Sexuality Studies) Read Online Free Page A

Continental Army. He became the first president of the United
States in 1789 and served two terms before stepping down. His retirement
was lauded as a pivotal moment in the establishment of American democracy, as history was rife with military leaders who assumed positions of
political power and remained unwilling to relinquish their authority. Washington died in 1799 at the age of sixty-seven.'
    During the American Revolution, Washington was subjected to a variety
of sexually charged public attacks on his personal reputation. These were
designed to attack not simply his character but the larger political project
that he represented. British satirists, for example, lampooned Washington
as a cross-dressing woman. The emasculating slur was then captured in an
engraving that ran in a London newspaper. Captioned "Mrs. General Washington Bestowing Thirteen Stripes on Britania [sic]," it depicts Washington
with his general's tricornered hat, his familiar profile, in a long dress while
exclaiming, "Parents should not behave like Tyrants to their Children."5 The
image was typical of the cross-dressing satire of London's late-eighteenthcentury print culture. Sexual satire in London and America was common,
and leaders bore the brunt of it. Images were not as common as clever verses
and prose, but Washington's stature no doubt warranted the extra expense
for the printer.
    During the American Revolution, other sex scandals surrounded Washington. Some writers alleged that Alexander Hamilton, who had become a
close aide, was his illegitimate son. This claim has become one of the enduring myths of the era.' Another tale came from a pamphlet that was published in London, supposedly reprinting captured records of New York trials
of Tories. Included in the testimony was a charge that Washington made
secret visits to a Tory woman. Still another rumor named Washington as the father of a neighbor's son.7 Yet another, from a pro-British newspaper
account, alleged that he had a relationship with a servant girl while in Philadelphia.' In the Revolutionary era, he was smeared with many unsupportable charges, as was the tactic of the day.

    Figure 1.2. Cover of David Hackett Fischer's Washington's Crossing, featuring an Eastman
Johnson version of Leutze's masterpiece, which eliminated the gold and red ornamental
watch fob that dangles close to Washington's crotch in the original painting. (David
Hackett Fischer, Washington's Crossing [New York: Oxford University Press, 2004].)

    Figure 1.3. Detail from Washington Crossing the Delaware. (Emanuel Leutze. Oil on
canvas, 1851. Metropolitan Museum of Art, Images for Academic Publishing. Copyright
(D Metropolitan Museum of Art.)

    As a member of the Freemasons, the fraternal order that was founded
in London in the early eighteenth century, Washington may have enjoyed
the esteem of the brotherhood but would almost certainly, too, have been
the subject of occasional whispers by those who were deeply unsettled by
the all-male secret society. In eighteenth-century newspapers, the Freemasons were mockingly associated with homoeroticism. In the mid-eighteenth
century, for example, the Boston Evening Post ran an engraving and poem
suggesting that Freemasons were overly interested in socializing, drinking,
and dancing with one another. The satire went a step further by accusing the
men of engaging in anal penetration with wooden spikes used in ship building.' Clearly, the desexualized Washington has long been accompanied by a
twin-one sexualized in the public sphere.
    Today, perhaps the most obvious sex "scandal" surrounding Washington
is that he never fathered any of his only wife's children. This was certainly
unusual in the eighteenth century. Consolidated families, stepchildren, the
raising of other people's children and extended family, and multiple marriages
due to the death of a spouse were all common in the eighteenth century. Not
siring any children, however, was