TO RESCUE THE CONSTITUTION

Fox News chief political correspondent Baier adds to the groaning bookshelves of Washington biographies.

Baier has already written multiple books recounting significant events in American political history, including Three Days in Moscow, Three Days in January, and To Rescue the Republic, so a volume on Washington was inevitable. Born a member of the minor Virginia gentry, he attained a modest reputation as an officer in the French and Indian War, and he married a wealthy widow to become a leading figure in the Virginia establishment and the opposition to British policies. As commander of the Continental Army, his combination of persistence, political skills, and French support led it to victory and made him a national idol, a position he still holds. As president of the 1787 Continental Convention, he worked hard to avoid the appearance of bias. Taking office, he not only oversaw the creation of a national government from scratch (he was “painfully aware that every organizational choice he made set a precedent”); he also showed vision and good sense in leading the nation through difficult times. Thanks to Washington, the nation was stronger during the even more troubled subsequent administrations of Adams, Jefferson, and Madison. Readers uneasy about the author’s Fox News connection can be reassured that he adopts the traditional admiration of the Constitution and deplores today’s vicious political divide without assessing blame, adding that politics was no less nasty during Washington’s time. Perhaps the book’s most original feature is the concluding chapter: a 2020 experiment in which three teams of constitutional scholars (conservative, progressive, libertarian) were assigned to rewrite the Constitution. Surprisingly, they found common ground for many reforms, including term limits for Supreme Court justices (18 years), and “conservatives and progressives agreed that the president should be elected by popular vote through a ranked-choice system, dissolving the Electoral College.”

Although it will not displace the biographers topping the list (Chernow, Ellis, Ferling), Baier touches all the bases.