What If George Washington Became King?

American History Hit

History Hit

America, History

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 23 October 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

‘No occurrence in the course of the war has given me more painful sensations.' This was George Washington's response when the idea of his becoming 'King' was put to him.

But what if he had? What would an American royalty look like? Who would have succeeded Washington? And why did this not happen?

Don is joined for this episode by Michael Hattem, author of The Memory of ’76: The Revolution in American History’ and ‘Past and Prologue: Politics and Memory in the American Revolution’.

Edited by Aidan Lonergan. Produced by Sophie Gee. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	It's April 30th, 1789. It's quite the scene today here on Wall Street, outside New York's
0:11.5	American Coronation Hall. The stately structure with its pediment and columns shrouded in
0:17.0	red, white and blue, is backdrop to a marching band, moving up the block towards
0:21.7	Broadway. A teeming crowd has gathered, held back by a phalanx of soldiers in tricornered
0:28.0	hats. The atmosphere is giddy and confused. No one's ever witnessed what's about to ensue.
0:35.3	Inside the hall, the Archbishop checks his notes,
0:39.0	the throne is dusted yet again,
0:41.1	and the royal jeweler does a last polish of the crown
0:44.1	before placing it atop its blue velvet cushion.
0:47.6	Everyone's nervous, but none more so than the man who will soon be king.
0:52.5	King George I, King George Washington of America.
1:09.6	Hello, Don Wildman here. This is American History Hit. It is among the bedrock notions of our nation enacted into law that an American president cannot serve more than two elected terms in office. After two, it's over, no questions asked. So says the 22nd Amendment to the United States Constitution
1:28.3	as approved by Congress March 21, 1947, ratified by the states, four years later in 51.
1:36.5	At that point, 75 years ago, it was on the books. Two terms, that's it.
1:41.1	Thing is, all this roots from a pretty grand assumption that our founding father,
1:46.6	George Washington, had made it so, that he deliberately, magnanimously stepped away from the presidency
1:52.3	in 1797 after his two terms were up, thus setting a precedent for presidents for all time,
1:59.5	or at least until FDR came along and flouted the
2:02.4	unwritten rule by being elected four times. In reaction to that dynasty, Congress passed
2:08.6	the 22nd, and enough of the nation agreed, and here we are. So, this assumption, what did
2:14.4	George Washington really say? Was this self-imposed term limit as deliberate a precedent
2:20.1	as popular understanding suggests? Or was it made so by generations that followed? And what if he'd
	...

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