As in war, the Americans were lucky in peace. President Washington set a standard in governance that helped make us the nation we became.

He secured our western frontiers and saw a tremendous surge in population growth. He appointed the most distinguished staff in our history, four key men -- Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison and Randolph. He was irritable, demanding, tough but they revered him, even Jefferson, his secretary of state.

As a military man, he knew how to delegate. The new nation was understandably a credit risk. We were broke. It would be hard to gain respectability in Europe. We'd failed even to keep up payments on interest -- state and national. Our paper money was almost worthless. Washington and Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton combined it all, war debts, previous central government debts, even state indebtedness in one fell swoop and paid every penny. Speculators who'd gambled on this got rich. But within 10 years, the 6 percent bonds we'd issued were trading in Europe at a 10 percent premium. Washington with the consent of Congress established a Bank of the United States. This was truly a fresh-faced nation, fiscally, honorably unique. Even these centuries later all Americans can take pride in this unprecedented honorable way to start our entry into the world of nations.

Washington presided for his full eight years in New York and Philadelphia while a new capital on the Potomac was being drained, planned and built. He presided over a rough, edgy but intelligent populous, always on the move and suspicious of any government. And with first lady Martha, he set the office of the presidency on a path of dignity and refinement that stopped just short of the regal. He defined the limits as well as the powers of the presidency. He refused a third term, gave his fantastic Farewell Address with the help of his greatest wordsmiths (Hamilton and or Madison) and went home, this time to stay.

During all of his 45 years in war and peace, he never accepted a salary.

Retirement

He farmed joyously for the 2-1/2 years left him. He watched the building of the new capital city across the river. If he was ever distressed by some of the doings of his successor, John Adams, who'd been his own loyal vice president for eight years, it never became a weighty issue. Life was serene for this splendid old couple, Martha and George Washington.

The agronomist

Washington, the scie.jpgic farmer, was a wonder to behold. He and friend Jefferson seldom corresponded without some mention of experimentation in areas of crops and animal husbandry. He drove himself hard because he loved it; he rotated crops, owned a flour mill and a distillery (for which he raised rye), a blacksmithy, brick and charcoal kilns. Talented slaves worked as carpenters and masons. He owned a fishery and salted vast quantities of its product, coopers created barrels, weavers and others produced textiles -- linen and cotton; manufactured shoes. He invented a plough. He acquired an American bison for cross breeding; bred cattle and kept horses at stud; was an early producer of the spectacular American mule. He owned 799 sheep; apple and peach orchards; 100 acres in peas alone. He was known to ride into the fields, strip to his shirt and do stoop labor to set an example.

The slave owner

When he acquired Mount Vernon, 19 slaves came with it. When he married, he and Martha owned 49. When he died, there were more than 300. Vast as his operations were, 300 were too many. Why? Because for the last 30 years of his life he refused to sell any. He wrote. "I am principled against this kind of traffic in the human species." He kept a year-round practical doctor on the place. Few slaves of his ever ran away. His overseers were black (during the Revolutionary War, there were Negroes in every regiment and in our navy and merchant marine. After the war, there were 700,000 persons of African descent in the new country, 60,000 of them freedmen).

He provided in his will that, after he and Martha died, all in his employ were to be freed. But immediately after his death, she freed them all. The family provided for all those who were old, disabled or in need for the next 33 years.

At the Constitutional Convention, the subject of slavery, except for allocations for census counting, was never even on the agenda, so deeply was it entrenched in many states. Jefferson, another slave owner, said slavery "was like holding a wolf by the ears." George Washington wrote frequently of the need to abolish slavery. He spoke of devout hope that the state governments would legislate a gradual abolishment of slavery: "It would prevent much future mischief." If he'd only known.

A lucky country

Dating from its genesis, the United States of America has always been a fortunate country. We did it the old-fashioned way, we earned it. We were a mature people from the outset. Putting aside the dreadful aberration of the Civil War, we've been singly and uniquely blessed, blessed in our time and place, in our climate, in our diverse people, in our land mass, our harbors and oceans, blessed in our core beliefs. And blessed to have such Founding Fathers.

Traditionally it has been easy to diminish Washington slightly when comparing him with Jefferson or the combined geniuses of Hamilton, Madison, Franklin and the others. Why? Most of them were lawyer-trained, unequaled in their mastery of the English language, deep thinkers even in their intellectual differences. I've struggled with how to present my reasons for belief that he looms over them.

Well, for one thing they all worked for him loyally. Wherever he was he was the BOSS, quick temper and all. But it's more than that. As I've already written, he was an unfamiliar species to many people on this continent in the 18th century. He was a self-taught scientist, an engineer with a probing mind in things like agronomy, animal husbandry, public works, canals, mapmaking. John Adams said "he knew the power of silence." He was quiet but a presence in any room. But he was the same teenaged boy who wrote out 111 "Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior."

Let's leave it with his words to be pondered today: "At this auspicious period, the United States came into existence as a nation; and if their citizens should not be completely free and happy, the fault will be entirely their own."

Suppose this robust man had lived another 15 years? Maybe going out at the height of his powers was for the best. More than a century later, Theodore Roosevelt blighted his magnificent career with an unwillingness in his last years to give up power. George Washington disapproved of some of Jefferson's agrarian populism, but he'd have loved the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Which brings me to the final event-filled days in a 67-year-old life of health, vigor and effectiveness. No question about it, he even dominated the devoted spectators and the atmosphere surrounding him during his last 36 hours as he lay dying.

See you next Sunday.

Attorney Austin Cunningham has been the president of five business companies and in 1988 was named Outstanding Elder Citizen of the Year for South Carolina.

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