In anticipation of an interesting discussion of the Founders Tuesday, I’ve read Paul Johnson’s brief biography of the Father of Our Country.

Johnson’s areas of emphasis are at times puzzling, but he does make a great point about the mindset George Washington displayed during his conduct of the Revolution’s military campaigns.

Washington started with a fundamental conviction: that America’s cause was not merely just, morally, but legitimate in a legal sense. The colonies — now states — had been self-governing since their inception and delegation of power by their peoples to legislative assemblies. Britain’s assertion of power, as in the Declaratory Act, was ultra vires and a usurpation, and resistance to it not merely lawful but a moral obligation. He never deviated from this belief, which was the ultimate source of his energy and determination to win, especially when times were bad.