And we are back with another edition of the Federalist Radio Hour. I'm Matt
Kittle, Senior Elections correspondent at the Federalist and your experience Shirpa on today's quest
for Knowledge. As always, you can email the show at radio at the
Federalist dot com, follow us on x at FDR LST, make sure to
subscribe wherever you download your podcast, and of course to the premium version of
our website as well. I'm joined today by John Burlough, a Senior Fellow
and director of Finance Policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. He's also author of
George Washington Entrepreneur, How our founding fathers private business pursuits changed America and the
world. On this Founding Generation as we celebrate the nation's two hundred forty eighth
birthday today, John, Welcome to the Federalist Radio Hour podcast. Thank you
for having me. Matt. It's a pleasure to be on the Federalist Radio
our podcast and talk about my book, George Washington Entrepreneur. Well, I'm
so glad to have you on. As you know, this is our Independence
Day special and I wanted to really focus on which is often unfortunately in this
day and age in this America, in this Republic, if indeed we can
keep it. Often lost in the conversation is the founding generation and what they
went through to make this promise of liberty, this shining city on the hill
for all of the world. I still believe in despite the tearing down of
the left. It's constant by the left. It's constantly gone on in this
country, is certainly in recent years. But let's start off with George Washington,
the man, the person, how he became the George Washington. We
know, obviously, we know there's a legend surrounding the first president of the
United States, the commander in chief of the army that would secure liberty for
America. But what about George Washington, the boy, George Washington, the
young man, and George Washington's early career in the military. Right. Well,
when we think of the founding fathers and some of the most brilliant ones,
we think of, you know, Jefferson and Franklin, and increasingly because
of the musical Hamilton. But George Washington has sort of been like the faith
on the Dollar. I mean, we know that he's a good man,
that he was a that he crucially led us through the Revolutionary War, and
that you know, was our first president, you know, involuntarily gave up
power twice as general and president. But he was also brilliant, it is
in his own way, and a brilliant entrepreneur. Well when he died was
one of the wealthiest men of the country. And it's all the more remarkable
is that, well he wasn't exactly povery stricken. He didn't come from,
say it's privileged a background as say Thomas Jefferson and some of the others.
His father died when he was eleven. His family really couldn't afford to send
him to school like some to college and preparatories to like some of the other
founding fathers, who was basically working and educating himself since he was fifteen,
but both through the businesses he built, starting on as a surveyor, a
land surveyor in what was the gig economy of its day, and then just
investing in real estate. He didn't inherit Mount Vernon. He bought some of
the land, and he would later you know, inherit it do the death
of the death of this unfortunate death of his older brother. But he was
able even before he did that to acquire some and become a first a freelance
surveyor and establish his reputation and a landowner, and along the way educating himself
from everything from books like John Locke and Adam Smith to books that he would
read on south elf and forcemanship. Yeah, it's interesting too, having read
quite extensively about George Washington, and I think you touch upon this in your
book as well, But George Washington will get more into his entrepreneurship. But
he was a very avid consumer sending away. Now this was of course when
America was you know, a property of the Great Kingdom, and he would
send away. But I've read the list of items that he would send away
for, you know, across the seas in England and France and elsewhere,
including everything from you know, home furnishings to let us just say with Martha
bedroom accoutrement. And he was a believer. He was a believer in the
consumption economy. We are very lucky and there's a lot, you know,
you can learn, you could really learn about a person. That's why I
said that it's so important to ride in you know, the administrative state as
far as like administrative searches because you can know a lot about the person by
just looking at some of their business records, business receipts he would order and
he kept, like all, we don't have the love letters from George and
Martha, and Martha burned them as was a customer as many and so all
the three of those are surviving, So we don't have some of the passionate
things he would have said to to Mark and some of the other uh uh.
And he never took pen in hand to biography, But through his business
records we can see a lot of things, including what he was reading that
people thought he was a good horseman. I mean, he was a great
horseman at the time, and people thought he learned that from experience and a
lot of what he did. But he would also order books on how to
do how to make jumps on horses, and how to take care of horses,
and he would read things like Joe, like John Locke, like even
like even even Shakespeare and others. So some of some of the great books.
He would just become was really a self educated man on on on that
with without without formal schooling, and that informed of course a lot of his
military and uh uh uh career as a statesman, as well as the businesses
he built as an entrepreneur, which ranged from mule breeding, which was the
genetic engineering of its day, when you would cross breed like a horse and
a donkey to make a mule, and the whiskey distillery that after his presidency
that non Vernon has has reopened to the public and now makes whiskey based on
his old recipe. You know, it's funny to me, John, you
mentioned you mentioned this in your book, of course, and I think it's
very compelling. But as you note, you know the many innovative businesses that
George Washington was involved in, again, from whiskey distillery, the mule breeding
service, as you note, a flour mill that so sold flour internationally with
the G. Washington logo on it. Here is a founding father who,
like a former president who would like to be president again, knew how to
market himself, his name and his legacy to full advantage. Am I correct
in that assertion? Oh? Yes, very correct. You know, one
hundred years before people would recognize you know, putting that putting, your putting
the importance of labeling or branding your product like H. J. Hines did
with with ketchup. Washington would put the G Washington on his flour and so
internationally I mane it to England, into some of the British colonies in the
Caribbean, even you know, when America was a colony, and he did
he then that was all a part of, you know, integrating his enterprises.
He thought correctly that tobacco was ruining the soil and that there was more
domestic product for wheat, so he stopped growing tobacco uh at the at the
time. You know, over a period of years, I just would do
wheat, you know, hamp and other crops, and then with some of
the excess wheat, he would use that in the flour met and so it
was it was like, you know, it was like Mount Vernon, Inc.
You know, integrating all of those commodities and products. So let me
ask you, John, how much did George Washington's faith play a role in
the man, particularly in some very difficult hours for him. And I mean
that in in every sense of the word. The faith. I think that
played that played a very important role. He would also he would he would
he would talk about uh provid Providence meaning God. That was most often,
but he talked about that very often and the in the invisible he mentioned he
used the term the invisible hand in which Adam Smith used in UH the Wealth
of Nations in Washington, as they said, read Adam Smith, but also
the invisible hand in his in his anaugrow in his when he was saying in
his an oye grow aggress meant that you know, Washington said, the invisible
hand was led by God, that led us here, you know, as
far as your people working together for liberty. And I think that's sort of
he saw very much God, you know, hand of God is guiding events,
but people have to do their part. He was also very very much
an activist for religious freedom, putting the words of what would be in the
UH the first Amendment about UH about freedom of religion into UH into practice.
He Uh. He said to a Jewish congregation, a Synagogue of Tour Senagogue
in Rhode Island, that the US will give big Atrino sanction and will be
that you know, uh, the Jews, will you fully participate in public
and public life and UH really a landmark uh uh speech that celebrated every year
at that synagogue and also where I spoke at the UH the Church of Saint
Mary now the Basilica of Saint Mary and Alexandria Washington uh had helped his friend
John Fitzgerald uh uh build the church by giving it by probably giving a contribution
there and and and just also you know, champion the rights of both Catholics
Andrews when both I mean in particularly Catholics in Virginia had been victims of religious
persecution so very much had a strong faith. And believe, you know,
others should be able to other denominations of religions, should be able to be
able to exercise theirs. That's interesting to me, I'm I'm you know,
thinking about during the Revolutionary War, the darkest days of the Revolutionary War,
I mean you think about Valley Forge and the starvation, watching you as men
starve, watching some say I'm putting my hands up here, I'm I'm I'm
done. But being able to hold the colonial army together really not professional soldiers
whatsoever, just volunteer as citizens who were fighting for a cause. And what
was there ever a time where George Washington was so down, so depressed,
that he didn't see any hope of what ultimately was the conclusion of the Revolutionary
War. I could not find one now he would he would certainly change tactics
and retreat. Uh may have you know, I don't know that any familiarity
with with what Son the warriors like Son Sue would say about advancing through retreat
when they or tactical retreats if circumstances calling for it. But he very much
believed in the in the cause, in the cause of in the cause of
the cause of liberty, and would give soldiers things like you mentioned. I
mean certainly were certainly religious texts, but also Thomas Paine's common sense, you
know, of knowing what they were fighting for. He even though he was
on the battlefield and didn't sign it, depressed for a declaration of independence.
So there would be a type of mission statement. So very much would I
would read inspirational things, would sort of give a side reading for inspirational things.
And so was it, you know what wasn't Pollyannash, But I would
certainly call him an optimist. Congrats you owe one hundred thousand dollars. The
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And he wasn't above the optics politics. And there are a number of
incidents that I think I could relate here, but the one in particular happened,
of course before he became the first president of the United States, and
that was as the war ended, and he was saying ad to his his
men, to his army, to his his his generals, and it was
at the I believe it was at the pub in New York City, and
him saying goodbye. I think in that quest. Really the way he did
that I think defined the man and who he was. And at one point
even before then, during the war, where he had to grab for his
his glasses and UH and his his defeated feeling men in the field, and
his generals looked at him and said, oh my god, look at how
much this man has suffered for the cause of a free republic. I think
optics were very important. And also he would get close to the the what
today we would call the influencers of his day. I mean, I'm writing
the book. How he actually I mentioned Thomas Paine before the book. He
actually had Thomas pain as his house guest. And actually they did a scientific
experiment where they proved some of the properties of natural gas, you know,
sending the water on fire. So he very much would you know, make
himself available of course to portrait painters, that's why there are so many portraits,
but also writers and artists. And then after he became general, even
before he became president, people would he had just volumes of correspondence by somebody
basically like authors trying to get a woke endorsement, people trying to get him
to say something nice about their invention. And indeed he did champion for patents
for inventions he believed in, like James Rumsey, who was one of the
co inventors of the steamboat twenty years before Robert Fulton. So very much.
Washington thought optics were important as you said, but also getting, you know,
sort of championing and having you know, conversations and bringing in, you
know, some of the artists and writers who would promote the American cause.
John Burlow, a Senior Fellow and Director of Finance Policy at the Competitive Enterprise
Institute, also is author a fascinating book, George Washington Entrepreneur. Now our
founding fathers private business pursuits changed America and the world. As we celebrate this
Independence Day, the nation's birthday, it's founding and all because some founding citizens
of Great Britain at the time decided that they had had enough of the tyrannical
hand of big government, kingly led big government. Let me ask you this
question, is we skip ahead some two hundred and fifty years, what would
George Washington think of not only today's Republic, today's America, but the world
of the free market in America today so called I think, as they say
in as they say in George Washington Entrepreneur, there are many things he would
like. There are certainly, you know, certainly he'd be enthralled with some
of the technology. I mean, he actually we think about it. I
mean he he and the founding fathers would have more of an understanding of the
world today with technology and every else than you might think when Washington. Washington,
as I said, championed inventors, and he had when balloonists were here
in France, people started, really what was the beginning of man fight with
balloons in like the seventeen eighties and in France, and Washington said, you
know, someday we may be flying through the air to go to use that
term, to get to Paris. So I think things like airplanes, he'd
think he'd has some familiarity with like and be fascinated and frankly probably endorsed things
like cryptocurrency, says he kept Ledgers, was familiar with alternative money like tobacco
warehouse receipts, and just was generally was familiar with encryption in terms of like
ciphering with his aspiring and you know, the invisible ink and some forms of
encryption back then. But I think the whole thing he would be saddened,
although maybe uh uh, maybe take some joy in in two recent Supreme Court
cases that you know, as far as the Chevron Doctrine and the restoring of
the right the jury prial that the things he's fought against that Britain, saying
that great Britain, you know, not just taxation, but over regulation with
without regulation, without representation, where they would crack down on colonial home goods
like nails with the Iron Act and the had Act and the Wool Act of
colonists making things like nails and silver. Aware that and and illegally competing with
Britain there that that that was, you know, that that was part of
that that you shouldn't make laws without representing they. That's why Article one,
Section one of the Constitution best law making in the UH in the legislative branch.
Yet the administrative state, you know, makes its own laws. It
can call a wetland and negative of the waterway at cryptocurrency and security, what
kind of whatever whatever it once to as far as and then he said to
make the laws. And so that was but that was somewhat reversed in the
in the Low for Bright case that UH overturned the Chevron doctrine. But what
he really would be upset about because of all the ways the British government,
this is a big grievance bypassed jury trials, like by by having people accused
of smuggling to go to uh, you know, Halifax, Nova Scotia,
which is now part of Canada, without a jury. And that was with
Brievans, you know, prominently listed in the Declaration of Independence and in Washington
before then, in Washington's fair factors always that he wrote with George Mason for
the some of the citizens of Virginia, I said, with with Britain.
And then was the Seventh Amendment right and the Bill of Rights to the Constitution.
Yet you had these things agencies like the sec and and other agencies like
the well the FCC, I r s other things where they say, oh,
okay, we're accusing you of securities fraud. But like they did with
mister Jocacy, yet you can't you can't have a jury trial until this multi
year process within the unhaus Administrative Court. And then the Supreme Court rightly said
in the Jarcacy case, and well, in many instances you can't do that.
So they were putting the path right to that. And Washington actually said,
he warned in the Farewell Address, the spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate
the powers of all the department into one and just to create whatever form of
government a real despotism, and so I think he was almost foreseeing the administrative
state, and so it would have been at least somewhat heartened by the Supreme
Court case, those two Supreme Court cases. And I was, amazingly enough,
just as Soda bay rag Her just said, is saying, well,
well, Washington would like the encroachment of the other of the of the judiciary
of the legislative at the leg decided to abrogate it. So the legislature decided
to average its over roll in it. But I think she totally misinterpreted what
he was he was trying to say and warning against. I agree with you
one hundred percent. And I think George Washington, by his conduct, his
actions, had a great deal of deference obviously to the Constitution and the first
branch, and that it's the first branch for a reason. Compare again,
I realize there are apples and orange comparisons from you know, the early seventeen
nineties to the you know, twenty twenty four, this era in which we
live. But nonetheless, this was an administration, a first administration re elected
that aeshewed big government, did it not? I would say, I would
say, yeah, it's huge and it's huge big government. And also UH,
Washington let UH and it did important things like also the UH the UH
having the setting the patent pack and you know, granting you know, intellectual
property for invetors and championing innovation that way. It tried to pursue, uh,
you know, a policy of neutrality toward all countries, including including Great
Britain until those we fought with and UH. And Washington actually never went for
although he quietly lobby to get some of some of Hamilton's more you know,
all the although he would side with Hamilton, which I think rightly on paying
back you know, say the the war bonds, he wouldn't, you know,
do some of go for some of Hamilton's subsidies on on gun manufacturing.
As some of the subsequent letters letters reveals so very much. He kept,
He kept government, tried to keep government restrained, and warned about enproachments in
the in the Farewell Address. And what about the fiscal condition of the United
States government right now? I mean it is it is hard to imagine a
George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, any of the founders looking at
this debt and not scratching their powdered hair and saying, my goodness, what
have the future generations wrought? Yes, very much they knew and they had
you know, they knew about like inflationary state governments with money, and they
knew about you know, where you couldn't you couldn't trust state money. It
had to have alternative currency, like tobacco warehouse receipts. I think they would
be very disappointed both in that they had did the administrative state. So yes
that they would like. I think they like some of our technology, because
they were very much into technology of them, of them, of themselves and
themselves of their day. You know, you have Robert Libby to do side.
That was one of the drafters of the Decoration of Independents, who helped
fund the Robert Colton in inventing the steamboats. So some of them were involved
in the cutting edge technology of their day. But the way you know that
some of the things the government runs, they they would be very disappointed in.
Let me ask you the law fair question and the concept of weaponizing the
Department of Justice. You know, there certainly was an attorney general at the
founding of this country. It was not the kind of Department of justice we
have today. That goes without saying, what do you think Washington would think
of what has happened in this country with the Department of Justice over the last
three and a half years. I would I would think he would be he
would be very much against the weapon the weaponizing of the weaponizing of government to
uh to do this and would want some of the restraint would very much.
I think I think they all very much believed that, you know, Congress
having the power of the purse and the separation of powers, and that laws
come from Congress. I mean, weaponization is sort of is sort of an
is sort of in some ways a usurpation of the of the law, of
the lawmaking, of the lawmaking brand to try to achieve things that Congress hasn't
made illegal. If you look at things like Operation Choke Point, things like
that, it's it's Congress, it's it's time to do fill into legislative gaps
by the executive branch and say all right, well guns are still guns are
still legal, uh uh, or or what or whatever commodity you someone doesn't
like, but we are going to you know, punish you for dealing with
these customers. And I am uh the Bulow case with the n R A.
Uh. You know, Congress restored I think the meaning of the of
the first This report did a good job, took the first step and in
restoring that saying, you know, if you intimidate someone to buy remember Unfortunately
they didn't do that in some of the jaw boning cases they like the Murphy
case with the with Missouri. As far as what you know, someone with
a Biden administration said with COVID so very much, it would be the type
of encroachment that you know, creates that he said in Washington his farewell address,
you know, creates a real uh a real as his terms are real
destinism. Yeah. At the end of of his two terms in office,
George Washington of course warned us about partisanship in politics. It's interesting that he
did because he saw partisanship grow certainly from the origins and it was something that
certainly was not not surprising to anybody who was following the politics of the day.
But you know, it feels quaint almost to think of the federalist and
the anti federalist at the time. But there was some nasty, nasty campaigning,
you know, the things that the Jefferson, folks said about John Adams
and vice versa, would run up against any of the nasty things, many
of the nasty things we've heard in modern day campaigning. But what do you
think George Washington would think of where we stand today in this two party system
where it has come from his admonishment? Well, I mean, I don't
he was sort of aligning himself with the Federalists at the end. I don't
know how in general he would be disappointed. He may have almost seen it
as inevitable. I mean, he and that was sort of how he was
looking at as he retired to Mount Vernon. He died in you know,
late seventeen ninety nine, and so he was seeing some of the events for
the eighteen hundred election, which would have been kind of the first the first
one where you actually had you know, two parties with the you know,
the Jeffersons Democratic Republicans and the U which we threw the Democrats and the Adams
of the Federalists. So, but I think the usurpation by the just and
some of the things, the weaponization you said, you know, would be
would very much you know, he would be very much agrieved by that.
And the fact that the administrators rate types contolidate both you know, becomes judge
and jury in some of these cases, and these you know, administrative courts,
like the SEC tried to do. And when at least take some solas
that the a Brieboard is now trying to ran some of this in back to
the core of your book and Washington as businessman, as entrepreneur, you know,
one of the reasons, of course, of the many reasons, the
many liberty reasons that the colonists fought to break away from Great Britain was because
they wanted to do business the way they wanted to do business, and they
did not want to have their businesses taxed a without representation, and the regulations,
as you mentioned before, constantly put on them. And here we are
today with all kinds of regulations. You talked about the overturning of Chevron and
the administrative state. That's a big reason for the mountains of regulation that we
have today. Would a George Washington entrepreneur, not a president, but an
entrepreneur be able to survive in today's overregulated state, That is a very good
question. He would certainly have some grievances against that just like he had some
grievances against the regulation without representation and the I crusive of the British government.
And not just George Washington. I've written about Bernie Marcus of Home Depot saying
if things like Starvey's Oxley, which makes it so hard to go public,
had been in place, would he doesn't think Bernie Marcus, I think he
wouldn't been able to be able to probably start Home Depot. And Sam Walton
was able to go public in the seventies when Walmart was really in just two
states Missouri and Arkansas. I said, he tapped out all the banks,
so he went public, did not have to go to get you know,
to raise additional rounds of funding from wealthy private investors in San Francisco. But
Sarvates Astley Act from you know, attended to you know, correct corporate scandals
has made that so hard for American entrepreneurs to go to go public, like
like Walton, and like with Walmart and Home Depot have that it's been you
know, it's not just that George Washington. It's a good somebody who started
in the seventies and eighties deal with the regulations today and a lot of them
are resourceable as they could, but some of it it's going to stop or
to delay the innovation and the jobs that we could get, or or to
give that you know, advantage to countries like China that or even some of
our friendly rivals who don't have that kind of red tape. That's that's a
great point. And I think about George Washington the entrepreneurs as you you talk
about him in your book. How much did George Washington influence capitalism the way
Smith saw John Locke saw it, and the other great thinkers of the free
market system. You know, he had a great deal of influence for so
many people on so many fronts. Commander in chief, President of the United
States, you know, the man who led in essence through his soft but
soft spoken, but yet very powerful presence in that room in Philadelphia during the
Constitutional Convention. You know, he was the great American icon? Was he
the great American icon that really helped American style capitalism off the ground and survive
for so long? I think you could be very you could very much say
in certainly in certain areas well. First of all, you know, he
would listen to people just through the things he did in this administration, like
there was no cabinet meetings required by the constitution, there were no cabinet meetings,
yet he would convene and have you know, Hamilton and Jefferson together and
hash it out. But also things that he did, like you know,
he signed the Patent Act and then took an active role in getting some of
the first patents approved for the like this, the sea, the steamboat,
you know, and I probably had to say, you know, you know,
carrying out the power of the Congress to create a system of patents in
the Constitution. And before that, even if general, he championed state patents
for like some some inventors like Virginia inventor James Rumsey who basically co invented the
steamboat and had a five mile ride with a steamboat actually in the year of
the Constitution seventeen eighty seven, about twenty years before before Robert Coulton would commercialize
it. And then people did emulate his agricultural practices, both with the you
know, the planning of of of we rather and substituting crops for tobacco.
And he was the first in America to have a among the first in America
to have a mule breeding business, so even among mules and through this today
he's been called the father of the American mule. So in a lot of
ways, his entrepreneurial experience and his what he did with branding and others and
other things certainly did influence uh the way that you know, people, you
know what today we call the American dream and UH and people and people pursuing
it. In fact, there was a question about Adams actually mentioned in you
know, nominating him to lead our groups in the in the battlefield, but
in becoming the general charge of recruits Washington's independent portion. It's one of his
qualiblications. So it may have been one of the reasons they even chose him
to lead the American battle for independence. It is, it's it's still interesting
to me, and your book, you know, clearly delves into it.
We've talked about it. I haven't seen a lot of books mentioned that not
only was Washington, you know, the seen as the founder of his country,
he's also the founder of the mule trade, which which is the sort
of moniker that that you don't often hear with George Washington, right right,
I mean mules and mules really increase of the agricultural and productivity at the time
before they had like big practors and the other things. And there's still you
sort of in remote areas today, like in Afghanistan where you can't get cars
through, they can do some heavy work. So there still is a use
for mules today. So that I mean it led to other innovations when he
sold the and began America because of him, began breeding the mule. You
know, I think about as you know, George Washington passed away in late
seventeen ninety nine, So what he saw his vision of America. I know
because he spent time surveying in Ohio and what was called the West of the
United States at that time. So I think he foresaw the expansion of America,
but he died before Jefferson, of course made that a massive reality,
doubling the size of the United States of America, and then obviously what would
happen under Polk and others to expand America to its current footprint today. Do
you think he would be amazed? Do you think he foresaw the so called
manifest destiny that would come later on in subsequent president administrations. I think he
certainly would see and would not be unfamiliar with America expanding. I mean,
there were a couple of new states under his watch. I believe Kentucky became
a state, So so I know, I don't I don't. I don't
think that at that at that much he would have it would have it would
have necessarily he might have made the extent Maya, but not necessarily the country
growing would have would have would have surprised him and developing. I mean he
actually one of one of the things activities business activities he was evolved was trying
to you know, make uh, the building a canal on or several canowns
on on the Potomac River and making it more amenable to U two ships as
well as as well as having things like steamboats for more transportation. So he
very much I think he very much wanted the state to be and the areas
in the states to be more connected. So that would be I think he
would be might be pleasantly surprised, and it would be would be pleasing to
him. Final question for you, John, and you've been very generous at
the time. I appreciate fascinating book and a fascinating conversation. Always, uh,
just relish conversations about the founding generation. I think we need to have
more discussions about the founding generation, not merely just the cultural implications, but
the implications for things as you know that we take for granted the free market
system, the capitalistic system of America. Where where does Washington's legacy play today
in the main in uh business, the economy, and the spirit of entrepreneurship.
I think Washington has set the has set the example of of you know,
given giving up how I mean as prime example would maybe leading America to
victory and giving up giving up power twice, once his general and once his
president, and leading you know the rocky road both as as a new as
you know, struggling for independence and a new nation. But he has had
many other influences as well, on on agriculture, on the beginning of the
free on the of the free, of the free market, and in and
in religious freedom. And I think his influence is continuing and hopefully it will
be even greater as and this is what I try to do in George Washington
Entrepreneur, say that you know, people, his writings are now available at
you know what if you go to Mount Vernon online and look at look at
look at some of a book, at some of his work. You can
see a bunch of things from that he had written, from business correspondents,
uh, correspondence with some statesman like Jefferson, other other things. And that's
still being you know, not all of his work has been has been put
has been put online in catalogs. That's ongoing, like probably we will will
be completed uh by the next twenty years. So people should, you know,
go, you know, and use the tools of technology. They have
to look at what Washington said on a bunch of things and get to know
his business career. And a place to start, if I may give it,
my own book is George Washington Entrepreneur, available Amazon, Barnes and Noble
and wherever many venues, but where where books are sold. I think that's
a good place to start. As the reporter, I always say one final
question. But you've stirred something, and so quickly I'll just add this.
It is very interesting that you know, you have someone with that much power,
that much esteem, that much potential to do what I would say would
be the wrong thing. There were a lot of the New Americans who thought
that this man should be America's new king. He rejected that did he reject
that in no small part because of his entrepreneurial spirit, that he had a
lot of other projects he wanted to attend to in the world of a personal
business. I'd say that is that is certainly part of the reason you're onto
something there with Yes, he always talked about, you know, and he
was I think, you know, I would talk about being under my own
buying in factory I think a reference to the do a biblical passage there,
but my own buying in Big Tree Ant and Mount Vernon and just all of
this he worried about that. He would constantly write letters when he was on
the battlefield or the presidency about how high the fence should be and what materials
they should use. He basically even with that, with just writing letters,
not being online like we are anything directed, how how you know new facilities
should be building Mount Vernon? So, yes, very much. I mean
Mount Vernon was his paradise and he wanted to go home, but he was
a citizen statesman and general, and some other things had to be done so
that he and everyone else could have have the chance of prosperity. Because of
the pleasures that I think he said something like of a free government at the
end of his as he his hand at the of the of his farewell address.
So yes, definitely he wanted to very much. You know, Mount
Vernon would his parent with his parat icy what he wanted to go back there
and was eager to go back there after the war and after his presidency.
Indeed, but it is true George Washington was nothing if not a master of
details. Those letters are just amazing, how detailed they are. To his
staff at Mount Vernon and to the people he entrusted Mount Vernon too while he
was away, and he was a task master, There's no doubt about that.
Very much. Appreciate your time, very much, appreciate your conversation,
sir. I wish you nothing but success in your book and in your future
endeavors. Okay, thanks so much to you man. It was a pleasure
to talk here about George Washington Entrepreneur. Indeed, thanks to my guest today,
John Burlough, a Senior Fellow and director a finance policy at the Competitive
Enterprise Institute. He's also author of George Washington Entrepreneur, How our founding fathers
private business pursuits changed America and the world. You've been listening to another edition
of the Federalist Radio Hour. I'm Matt Kittle, senior correspondent at the Federalist.
We'll be back soon with more. Until then, stay lovers of freedom
and anxious for the fray.