# Washington (1850–1854) explained — The Education of Henry Adams > Chapter companion for The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams. ## What happens Henry Adams reflects on his boyhood in Boston and his early exposure to politics in Washington, D.C., between 1850 and 1854. He contrasts the provincial, unformed society of Boston with the more genial, if pro-slavery, world of Washington. He describes his visits to the Senate, the White House to see President Taylor, and Mount Vernon, and meditates on the inadequacy of his education for the coming twentieth century, feeling that in essentials he stood closer to the year 1 than to 1900. ## Themes in this chapter ### Education and Self-Formation Henry Adams questions the value of his Boston education, feeling it left him unprepared for the twentieth century and closer to the year 1 than to 1900. ### Social Class and Identity The contrast between Boston's provincial, unformed society and Washington's more genial, aristocratic Southern culture, and Henry's sense of not belonging in Boston. ### American Exceptionalism and Europe Henry's vague longing for Europe, watching Cunard steamers from Quincy hills, and his sense that his position in the East was the best in the world. ## Character check-ins ### Henry Adams The narrator and subject, reflecting on his boyhood in Boston and Washington, his education, and his sense of being an exile from Boston. ### Charles Francis Adams Henry's father, who takes him to Washington and to Mount Vernon, and whose political career shapes Henry's early views. ### John Quincy Adams Henry's grandfather, mentioned as a former president and a figure in the family's political legacy. ### George Washington Revered as a primary, steady figure; Henry visits Mount Vernon and sees him as an ultimate relation, like the Pole Star. ### Zachary Taylor President Taylor, whom Henry meets at the White House; described as friendly and simple, with a horse named 'Old Whitey'. ### Henry Higginson A schoolmate and leader in snowball fights on Boston Common, struck by a stone over the eye. ## Key lines > The education he had received bore little relation to the education he needed. Speaking as an American of 1900, he had as yet no education at all. He knew not even where or how to begin. Henry Adams concludes that his schooling was irrelevant to the demands of the modern world, leaving him utterly unprepared. _Reflects the theme of education and self-formation._ > George Washington could not be reached on Boston lines. George Washington was a primary, or, if Virginians liked it better, an ultimate relation, like the Pole Star, and amid the endless restless motion of every other visible point in space, he alone remained steady, in the mind of Henry Adams, to the end. Washington was an unchanging ideal, unlike the shifting figures of other founders, and could not be understood through a New England lens. _Highlights the theme of American exceptionalism and the contrast between North and South._ > To the New England mind, roads, schools, clothes, and a clean face were connected as part of the law of order or divine system. Bad roads meant bad morals. The moral of this Virginia road was clear, and the boy fully learned it. Slavery was wicked, and slavery was the cause of this road's badness which amounted to social crime⁠—and yet, at the end of the road and product of the crime stood Mount Vernon and George Washington. Henry observes the contradiction between the moral condemnation of slavery and the reverence for Washington, who owned slaves. _Illustrates the theme of social class and identity and the moral complexities of American history._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/chapters/iii-washington-1850-1854 - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_education_of_henry_adams_se/chapters