Washington loathed religious fanaticism, and on that subject he sounded like a true student of the Enlightenment. 'We have abundant reason to rejoice that, in this land, the light of truth and reason has triumphed over the power of bigotry and superstition,' President Washington wrote to one Baltimore church. ... Washington: A Life, Ron Chernow, pg. 132
A couple of years ago I was speaking with a friend and noted that our current president was, let's say, unique, among all the U.S. presidents. I think many would agree with this assessment. In any case, my friend asked if I had studied all the presidents and I admitted, I had not. So, being the nerd that I am, I set about reading a biography of each president, in order. (I just finished James Buchanan by Jean H. Baker, and just started Lincoln by David Herbert Donald). I get most of my ideas from this excellent web site called My Journey Through the Best Presidential Biographies by Stephen Floyd, whose even nerdier than me, in that he's read multiple bio biographies for each president and writes reviews of each.
As for my original purpose for studying the presidents; our current president still stands unique, especially in his style of communication, especially compared to the "founding fathers"; but the stark divisions in the opinions of the American people is not so unique.
I thought it would be cool to post stuff I'm learning, as I read; especially in the form of quotes from the books, starting with the one above.