The Truth About George Washington

(CBS)  At Washington's home Mount Vernon, Va., you'll discover just about everything you thought you knew about our first president is wrong.

The first thing you probably didn't know about Washington is his unconventional choice for a retirement job. The father of our country was, in fact, a moonshiner.

"It turns out that this was one of the largest whiskey distilleries in the country," Dennis Pogue told CBS News correspondent Joie Chen. "It had five stills, [and] produced 11,000 gallons of spirit in one year."

Pogue spent the last decade creating an exact working replica of Washington's still on the very spot where the president built his distillery back in 1797.

"Washington's distillery used rye and corn," Pogue said.

To be fair, this was no backwoods operation. Washington's distillery was a big and profitable business.

"This is a hog's head — with boiling water and, you stir it together," Pogue said. "And you mix it."

In its day it was a cutting edge operation. Who knew the first president was an alchemist? Or that he wasn't at all the grim-looking guy you have stuffed in your wallet?

"This was the action hero of the period," Mount Vernon's director Jim Rees said. "He wasn't just the most powerful, he was the most fascinating of all the founding fathers."

Rees wanted the estate's new $60 million exhibition space to offer more than a welcome mat. He wanted visitors to get to know the real George Washington. Many of the folk tales — like how he chopped down the cherry tree and threw a coin across the river — are probably false. Even rumors of wooden teeth are false, Rees said.

"And that's one of the big, bad rumors we fight all the time," he said. "Washington had the Cadillac of dentures, which means they were made from the finest ivory."

Still, they were a miserable fit. The dentures were set in lead. That explains that pained grimace you see in his portraits, and which leave us with no sense of the dashing young man Rees says the president once was.

"We tried to use every bit of science we could to get down to what he really looked like," Rees said.

No portraits were made of Washington while he was a young man. Using super-sleuth technology — the kind you see in a "CSI" investigation — scientists and artists worked together to create a young George Washington: a 6"3', sharply-dressed surveyor of America's new frontiers.

"He's tall, but he's fairly thin, almost gangly," Rees said. "His hair was kind of an auburn-colored brown."

By all accounts, he was an ambitious young adventurer — and maybe a little too bold. Rees said it was Washington who really began the French and Indian War when he was only 23.

Rees describes an eager — even rash — young officer whose ambush of a French commander sparked the war between England and France that would soon spread around the world. In his corner of Pennsylvania at Fort Necessity, Washington was forced to a humiliating surrender.

It was an embarrassing lesson for the commander, but useful later when he became the wary leader of the Revolutionary Forces.

"Washington lost more battles than he won, by far," Rees said.

But he was smart when it mattered. Washington was a wily commander and inspired his men in ways other military leaders didn't.

"He could have done what many generals did, which is live in the nearest city in the comfort of a townhouse," Rees said. "He stayed with his men in the camp with Martha. She was with him more than half of the six years of the revolution."

But Rees says the most impressive thing he's learned about Washington happened after the revolution.

"No one had ever led a revolution, knocked out a King and then let the people rule themselves," Rees said. "Until this man came along, everybody else put themselves in the position of a king or a dictator."

After two terms as our first president, Washington returned to his land and to farming.

"Washington was probably the most creative cutting-edge farmer in 18th century America," Rees said. "He did everything, [including] introduce the mule to America, which changed American farming dramatically."

He also preached the wonders of manure. In a way, Washington was the first green president.

"He once compared manure to gold," Rees said. "He thought it was such good fertilizer."

He built a state of the art grist mill near his estate.

"The automated milling system that Washington installed in 1791, he was one of the first in the country to do it," Pogue said. "It became the standard technology. And everybody was doing it within a few years. But Washington was one of the very first."

Back in the distillery where Washington used some of his grain to make whiskey, visitors tested whiskey made using his original recipe — which wasn't exactly top shelf.

But give the man his due. A bit of George Washington's spirit is still with us.

[candojj1]

In Democracy in America, published in 1835, Tocqueville wrote of the New World and its burgeoning democratic order. Observing from the perspective of a detached social scientist, Tocqueville wrote of his travels through America in the early 19th century when the market revolution, Western expansion, and Jacksonian democracy were radically transforming the fabric of American life. He saw democracy as an equation that balanced liberty and equality, concern for the individual as well as the community. A critic of individualism, Tocqueville thought that association, the coming together of people for common purpose, would bind Americans to an idea of nation larger than selfish desires, thus making a civil society which wasn't exclusively dependent on the state.

[l8c6]

Hmm, he doesn't sound too much like a right wing neo con fascist christian fundamentalist fanatic.

[ioweign]

And then along came The Shrub!
All hat, No cattle!

Posted by IOWEIGN at 12:44 PM : Jul 01, 2007

But he does compare himself to Washington.
Posted by rharrin1 at 04:53 PM : Jul 01, 2007

Washington was into cocaine?

[learn_decide]

That is exactly why we should get involved and not only have high expectations for our politicians, but through informed, well- planned organizing, change the laws. That is what ended the prohibition, what has, at least on some state levels, made marijuana legal for medical uses. If we can better inform the electorate, maybe they'll realize that moderate use of marijuana is no different than the moderate use of alcohol, antidepressants, etc.

[gkc99]

"How can we expect local and national politicians to productively study and discuss issues"

We don't expect that.

IN any event, a law that keeps hundreds of thousands of "perps" of victimless crime in prison for years, at the costs of tens of billions of dollars, is hardly irrelevant to "issues," now is it? And the way that pot possession was federalized (under the pressure of racist governors of California and ARizona, Harry J. Anslinger promoted the "reefer madness" lies of drug-crazed Rastus and yesa-happy Juan raping white women in order to make pot possession a federal offense (normally basic law enforcement duties are the states"). It's interesting how the scum scammed that one thru. It's that kind of behavior that makes us NOT expect any politician to be worth more than a pile of dog sheeiyt.

[learn_decide]

I apologize for the typos. It should read...Instead of discussing what we can learn and apply from the study of our Founding Fathers, we are more interested in prostitutes, racist remarks, and pot growing. How can we expect local and national politicians to productively study and discuss issues, if the electorate can%u2019t do it themselves? To adapt a clichi, we reap what we sow.

[gkc99]

"Take your Judeo-Marxist smears somewhere else. Keep your slimy Talmudic hands off our kids' minds."
Posted by Ensynoptic

Oh goodness gracious where did that come from--a Nazi with regularity problems--cramping again, ********? No problem, it just runs out of you like S**T our of an A$$hole. That figures

[learn_decide]

Instead of discussing what we can learn and apply from the study of our Founding Fathers, we are more interested in prostitutes, racist remarks, and pot growing. How can we expect local and national politicians to productively study and discuss issues; if the electorate can%u2019t do it themselves? To adapt a clichi, we reap what we sow.

[learn_decide]

Every race has those who are successful and those who are not. Welfare and public education records are filled with whites who cannot or refuse to become better educated and live the "American Dream." Parent nights in various school districts across the country are better attended by non-English speaking parents than English speaking parents. They are often better attended by black parents than white parents. Our large number of "poor white trash" do very little to encourage or help their children succeed in school. Caucasians of all socio-economic groups often blame their children's lack of success in school on the school system, yet fail to check the quality of a finished homework assignment(let alone make sure it's completed), see that their children read more instead of spending countless hours in front of the TV or video game, or spend quality time discussing world issues. Employers go out of the country to recruit employees who have a strong work ethic, don't make continuous excuses for poor quality work, and are capable of productive, critical thinking and problem solving-something now lacking in our mostly white working force. Instead of discussing ways to solve these problems and working together to find solutions to this country's and the world's problems, the average responders to news show posts give racist, angry responses. It must be the genetics.

[learn_decide]

To Ensynoptic: Thank you for fueling the already raging, out of controlled anger and hate in this world. You really help make this a positive, inspiring, productive place to raise children. You are a true legacy builder-not! Please think twice about posting, unless you can hold an intelligent discussion on issues.