::::Rossiter says of Washington: " four men ...above all other men of their age as models of conservative statesmanship and wellsprings of conservative thought. The first of these, as he is the first of Americans, is George Washington." and in Washington "all the virtues of gentility, integrity, and duty met to form the archetype of the conservative statesman. In his career those great abstractions—service, loyalty, patriotism, morality—came nobly to life. And from him the nation heard, in his Farewell Address, the earnest plea of the true conservative for that firm support of ordered liberty: the unity that overrides petty dissension and selfish faction."  Pretty convincing evidence from a leading historian of conservatism. Norwood's personal views belong on his blog, not here.