Over the past two decades of American presidential politics, it has been hard to escape the power of family ties. Bill, Hillary, and even Chelsea Clinton; George H.W., George W., and Jeb Bush; Donald, Eric and Don Trump Jr., plus Jared and Ivanka Kushner. The House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry on President Biden’s possible ties to his son Hunter’s international business interests (despite the lack of evidence thus far of any such connection) is only the latest example of seeing politics, especially the presidency, as a family business.
In a democracy, of course, political power and prestige is not supposed to transfer to relatives or serve as a source of wealth for them. But the fact is, family members milking (or been perceived as doing so) relationships to presidents is hardly new. In fact, the roots of this go all the way back to our first president, George Washington.
Part of the appeal of having George Washington as the nation’s first president was the very fact that he did not have “blood-related” children (the distinction “blood-related” is important here). One 1788 newspaper article reprinted across the country listed the benefits of having Washington as president, with one being: “As having no son—and therefore not exposing us to the danger of an hereditary successor.” John Adams noted with relief to Thomas Jefferson that if Washington had had a child, the European royal families would have wanted to set up a marriage, and that would have disrupted American’s commitment to end hereditary power.
Yet, although Washington may not have fathered any children himself, he still had plenty of family members who could benefit from their ties to him. Most prominent, politically, was his nephew Bushrod Washington, who would inherit Mount Vernon. Early in Washington’s presidency, Bushrod asked George Washington to give him an appointment as a district attorney, but Washington refused because he knew critics could pounce on him for nepotism. Nonetheless, he later urged Bushrod to run for the House of Representatives and was disappointed when Bushrod accepted a seat on the (then very weak) Supreme Court from John Adams. It wasn’t that Washington was against having his family members enter politics: He just wouldn’t hand them the job. Bushrod did seem to have taken the lesson from his uncle to heart though, and he not only carved out his career on his own terms, but avoided discussing his relationship to Washington most of his life. Nor did the other Washington nieces and nephews promote that connection; they lived quiet lives as Virginia planters.