58 Ducere Est Servire: THE LEADERSHIP JOURNAL OF DALLAS BAPTIST UNIVERSITY events of the passing hour,” and Hay added, “he yet has such a wealth of simple bonhomie & good fellow ship that he gets out of bed” and rambled about the house in his shirt. He did so, Hay said, “to find us that we may share with him the fun… .”12 Such statements serve as a comparison with the stamp collecting of Roosevelt and the oil painting of Eisenhower and the escape these hobbies afforded. Nor should modern leaders overlook the example of the very first president of the United States. Long before the American Civil War and even longer before the U.S. becoming a world power, events forced George Washington to seek out a refuge from the stresses of being both the commanding general of the Continental Army in 1776-1783 and as the first president of the United States, 1789-1797. However, long before Washington achieved fame in the American Revolution and from his leadership of the fledging nation, Washington had already located his sanctuary, his estate on the Potomac River.13 A brief study by Washington’s best recent biographers, Ron Chernow, Joseph Ellis, and Richard Brookhiser, and a quick perusal of Washington’s correspondence, demonstrate the significance of Mount Vernon’s role as sanctuary.14 Especially during some of the most difficult times of the American Revolution but also at key points in his presidential leadership, his correspondence is loaded with references to Mount Vernon, his estate in Virginia. Many of the references related to seemingly minute details of the day-to-day operations of his household and farm. A limited consideration of these detailed letters raise certain questions. For example, how could Washington have the time to deal with these types of seemingly insignificant issues? Didn’t he have more important things to worry about than these minute concerns back home? Was he such a micromanager that he could not allow his overseers, managers, or even Mrs. Washington to deal with these mundane matters? After all, his soldiers were freezing and starving at Valley Forge. Readers should remember that Washington actually lost more battles than he won. The British Army frequently thrashed Washington’s Continental Army in several campaigns, especially early in the war as he, his officers, and men learned the trade of warfare on the job. The visionary smallpox inoculations that he initiated weakened the army and made
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