Why George Washington Was "capo dei capi" Among the Founding Fathers, the Pennsylvania Line Mutiny

    "capo dei capi"- a Mafioso term, boss of bosses-

One of the puzzling enigmas about the Founding Fathers (Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, Adams, Madison)  is why they deferred to Washington? He was not a particularly great general; in retrospect he seems dull, pedestrian and aloof(his best friend was his slave).

He literally botched the New York campaign against Howe...why wasn't he fired then? Or at Valley Forge? Why did they need him? Why would the Revolution need an incompetent General? He certainly was not a Cromwell.....but then again, maybe he was.

The Revolution needed Washington because he was a mean s.o.b......in fact, this Blogger believes, he was the meanest of all the Founding Fathers. They deferred to him, because they were afraid of him.

The incident revealing Washington's meanness  was the Pennsylvania Line Mutiny. 

There was a mutiny among the Pennsylvania troops; Washington crushed it, without too much effort.

He then ordered the court martial of the mutineers, reasonable. The mutineers were ordered executed.....understandable.

Then one comes to the Cromwellian nature of Washington; he ordered the mutineers executed by a firing squad composed of their friends. He specifically found out who were the best friends of the mutineers, and made them comprise the firing squad. That Reader is the definition of mean.

The first time the firing squad of friends fired at the mutineers, they fired over the mutineer's heads.

What an Oprah, feel good moment in American history; one of those made for Television movie moments, when the little people, in unison, rise up against the big, slave owning General on his white horse. One of those precious film moments, like in TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, when the righteous little girl shames the lynch mob into dispersing.

Alas, Washington was not a regular viewer of Oprah; his response to the firing squad being righteous, was to order a firing squad of loyal troops to be placed behind the firing squad of the friends.

Washington then made the firing squad of friends an offer they could not refuse; he told the firing squad of friends that if they did not execute the mutineers this time, he would order the firing squad of loyal troops to execute them.

The firing squad of friends executed the mutineers.

This noble Father of Our Country, who could not tell a lie, who chaired the Constitutional Convention, who refused to be King of America even when the Crown was offered, was a mean s.o.b. at his bedrock.

Washington was first among equals, because he was the meanest of the Founding Fathers; and they were afraid of him.