Martha Washington’s worst memory was the death of her husband. Her second worst was Thomas Jefferson’s awkward visit to pay his respects subsequently. Indeed, by the time George Washington had died in 1799, the two founders were estranged. But that estrangement has obscured the fact that for most of their thirty-year acquaintance they enjoyed a productive relationship. In this lecture, Francis D. Cogliano considers the significance of one of the most important but understudied personal relationships of the founding era: the connection between George Washington and Thomas Jefferson that spanned three turbulent decades.