Ralph Izard

Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Izard
Portrait by John Singleton Copley, 1775

OTHER IMAGES

QUICK FACTS
BORN:
23 January 1741/42 at The Elms family estate near Charleston, South Carolina
  DIED:
30 May 1804 at The Elms

  • Buried in the churchyard of St. James Goose Creek Episcopal Church, outside of Charleston, South Carolina.
CONTENTS

     

Portrait to come. See entry in Wikipedia.

 

As in the case of his career as commander-in-chief, Washington’s most important act as president was his giving up the office. The significance of his retirement from the presidency is easily overlooked today, but his contemporaries knew what it meant. Most people assumed that Washington might be president as long as he lived, that he would be a kind of elected monarch like the king of Poland. Hence his retirement from the presidency enhanced his moral authority and set a precedent for future presidents.

Gordon S. Wood
Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815 (2009)