Washington organized an improvised executive household—Tobias Lear, David Humphreys, and William Jackson—while leaning on James Madison for early constitutional guidance. He confronted symbolic questions shaping the office, rejecting inflated titles, establishing weekly levees, and orchestrating formal dinners as controlled access points. Martha hosted Friday receptions.

Critics, notably Senator William Maclay, decried “courtly” airs; Chernow shows Washington’s stiffness, partial deafness, and cost battles with steward Sam Fraunces. From the cramped Cherry Street mansion, Washington curated republican dignity—walks among citizens, church attendance, theatergoing—while projecting ceremonial authority via dress, equipage, and ritual.

Washington’s first year as president was marked by a severe thigh infection that required painful surgery by Dr. Samuel Bard and weeks of convalescence, during which he maintained public decorum and then adopted more exercise. At the same time, his mother, Mary Ball Washington, died; he observed formal mourning amid their complicated history.

Institutionally, Washington navigated unsettled constitutional boundaries—clashes over appointments, a consequential confrontation with the Senate on Creek diplomacy, and the emergence of “senatorial courtesy.” He thereafter corresponded with the Senate in writing, effectively strengthening executive leadership in foreign affairs while John Adams remained sidelined as vice president.

Washington confronted a crush of office seekers while defining criteria—merit, constitutional loyalty, experience, geographic balance—for nearly a thousand appointments. He and Congress created State, War, and Treasury, plus the offices of attorney general and postmaster general; Washington then gathered Knox, Hamilton, Jefferson, and Randolph, coordinating them through written opinions rather than a formal cabinet at first. He built the federal judiciary via the Judiciary Act of 1789 and appointed John Jay chief justice. Administratively, he centralized paper flow, encouraged debate, decided slowly but firmly, and—backing Madison—helped advance the Bill of Rights, aiding national consolidation.

In autumn 1789, Washington undertook a month-long New England tour to gauge public sentiment, dispel monarchical perceptions, and study regional conditions, traveling with a minimal entourage and declining private lodgings. Despite efforts to avoid pomp, he received elaborate civic welcomes, navigated protocol with Governor John Hancock, and briefly fell ill amid a widespread “President’s Cough.” He observed industry, infrastructure, and social equality, then returned to New York rejuvenated. He amplified national unity through portrait sittings (Ramage, Bréhan, Savage, Trumbull) and soon moved the presidential household to a larger Broadway residence, modernized with bright Argand lamps.

In January 1790, Washington established the precedent of delivering an in‑person annual address to Congress, urging public credit, national defense, and encouragement of learning. Hamilton soon unveiled his sweeping Report on Public Credit, igniting controversy over funding, speculation, and federal assumption of state debts, with Madison breaking from the administration. Quaker anti-enslavement petitions stirred sectional anxieties, and Congress tabled them.

That spring, Washington suffered a severe bout of influenza and pneumonia but recovered, prompting renewed attention to his health and schedule while the new government’s institutions continued to take shape.

In 1790, bitter deadlock over federal assumption of state debts intersected with the fight over the permanent capital. At Jefferson’s Maiden Lane dinner, he, Madison, and Hamilton struck a bargain: Assumption would pass, the seat would move temporarily to Philadelphia, then permanently to a Potomac district Washington would select. Washington soon toured newly admitted Rhode Island and issued his famous letter on religious liberty to Newport’s Jews. Preparing the Philadelphia presidency, he oversaw renovations, backed Hamilton’s excise on whiskey, and—facing Pennsylvania’s gradual abolition law—quietly rotated enslaved household workers to prevent them from claiming freedom.

Chapter 53 traces Washington’s dental ordeal and secretive correspondence with dentist John Greenwood, his adaptation to Philadelphia’s lavish social scene, and mounting political clashes over Hamilton’s financial program—culminating in Washington’s deliberate approval of the Bank of the United States after soliciting rival constitutional opinions.

It then follows his arduous 1791 southern tour—meticulous, ceremonial, and physically taxing—used to gauge regional sentiment and foster national unity. The chapter closes with his return to Philadelphia, public acclaim, and yet another health scare—a recurrence of the thigh tumor that had previously sidelined him.

Chapter 54 follows Washington’s effort to steer foreign policy amid cabinet splits over Britain versus France. He tacitly backed Hamilton’s outreach to London while maintaining guarded public support for the French Revolution, even as private letters voiced alarm about mob violence. The chapter also covers L’Enfant’s visionary but contentious plan for the federal city, his dismissal, and the naming of Washington, DC.

On the frontier, US forces suffered disastrous defeats under Generals Harmar and St. Clair, prompting congressional scrutiny, an early assertion of executive privilege, and Washington’s appointment of Anthony Wayne to rebuild the army.