The Property of the Nation : University Press of Kansas : 9780700628278 : 0700628274 : 30 Oct 2019 : George Washington was an affluent slave owner who believed that republicanism and social hierarchy were vital to the young country's survival. And yet, he remains largely free of the "elitist" label affixed to his contemporaries, as Washington evolved in public memory during the nineteenth century into a man of the common people, the father of democracy. This memory, we learn in The Property of the Nation, was a deliberately constructed image, shaped and reshaped over time, generally in service of one cause or another. Matthew R. Costello traces this process through the story of Washington's tomb, whose history and popularity reflect the building of a memory of America's first president?of, by, and for the American people. Washington's resting place at his beloved Mount Vernon estate was at times as contested as his iconic image; and in Costello's telling, the many attempts to move the