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George Washington, ( February 22, 1732 December 14, 1799), also called Father of his Country, 1 was an American general and Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War ( 1775 1783) and later the first President of the United States ( 1789 97). He also served as President of the 1787 Constitutional Convention.
For the role he played in winning and securing American independence, George Washington is generally recognized as one of the most important figures in modern history. Unlike many other revolutionary leaders, he voluntarily relinquished power and thus established an important principle of democratic government.
He was born on February 11, 1731 ( old style)/ February 22, 1732 ( new style). His birthday is celebrated on the Gregorian (new style) calendar date. Also note that the English year began on March 25 ( Annunciation Day, or Lady Day) at the time of his birth, hence the difference in his birthyear. His birthplace was Pope's Creek Plantation, south of Colonial Beach in Westmoreland County, Virginia.
Washington was part of the economic and cultural elite of the slave-owning planters of Virginia. His parents Augustine Washington ( 1693 - April 12, 1743) and Mary Ball ( 1708 - August 25, 1789) were of English descent. He spent much of his boyhood at Ferry Farm in Stafford County, near Fredericksburg. As a youth, he was trained as a surveyor and helped survey the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. He visited Barbados, with his sick half-brother Lawrence in 1751, and survived an attack of smallpox, although his face was badly scarred by the disease. He was initiated as a Freemason in Fredericksburg on 4 February 1752. On Lawrence's death in July 1752, he rented and eventually inherited the estate, Mount Vernon (near Alexandria).
Washington was commissioned in 1754 as a colonel in the Virginia militia and built a series of forts in the western frontier of Virginia. He was dispatched by the governor of Virginia, Robert Dinwiddie, to force the French out of the Ohio valley. When they refused, he attacked a French scouting party, killing ten, including its leader, Jumonville. Anticipating retaliation, he built a small fort ( Fort Necessity ). It proved ineffective: Washington's forces were vastly outnumbered and the fort, built on low ground, flooded during a heavy rainfall. He was forced to surrender and negotiated a safe passage back to Virginia. Nevertheless, the incident ignited the French and Indian War.
In 1755, Washington accompanied the Braddock Expedition of the British Army during the French and Indian War. During the Battle of the Monongahela in western Pennsylvania, he had three horses shot out from under him, and four bullets pierced his coat. He showed his coolness under fire in organizing the retreat from the debacle. Washington then organized the First Virginia Regiment, which saw service through the war.
In 1757, he resigned his commission and married Martha Dandridge Custis, the wealthy widow of Daniel Parke Custis. Washington adopted Custis's two children and never fathered any of his own. The newlywed couple moved to Mount Vernon where he took up the life of a genteel farmer. He became a member of the House of Burgesses.
By 1774, Washington had become one of the colonies' wealthiest men. In that year, he was chosen as a delegate from Virginia to the First Continental Congress and the next year to the Second Continental Congress. He did not support colonial independence until 1776, when he read Thomas Paine's Common Sense.
Washington Crossing the Delaware, by Emanuel Leutze, 1851, Metropolitan Museum The Continental Congress appointed Washington as commander-in-chief of the newly-formed Continental Army on June 15, 1775. The Massachusetts delegate John Adams suggested his appointment, citing his "skill as an officer... great talents and universal character." He assumed command on July 3.
Washington successfully drove the British out of Boston on March 17, 1776 by stationing artillery on Dorchester Heights. The British army, led by General William Howe, retreated to Halifax, Canada, and Washington's army moved to New York City in anticipation of a British offensive there. Washington lost the Battle of Long Island on August 22 but managed to retreat, saving most of his forces. However, several other battles in the area sent Washington scrambling across New Jersey, leaving the future of the Revolution in doubt.
On the night of December 25, 1776, Washington led the American forces across the Delaware River to attack Hessian forces in Trenton, New Jersey, who did not anticipate an attack near Christmas. Washington followed up the assault with a sneak attack on General Charles Cornwallis's forces at Princeton on the eve of January 2, 1777, eventually retaking the state. The successful attacks built morale among the pro-independence colonists.
Later in the year, General Howe led an offensive aimed at taking the colonial capital of Philadelphia. He severely defeated Washington's forces at the Battle of Brandywine on September 11 and succeeded in his task. An attempt to dislodge the British, the Battle of Germantown, failed as a result of fog and confusion, and Washington was forced to retire for the winter at Valley Forge.
However, Washington's army recovered from the defeats and harsh winter conditions and drilled during the spring under the German Baron Friedrich von Steuben. Later, it attacked the British army moving from Philadelphia to New York at the Battle of Monmouth on June 28, 1778.
Against tremendous odds, Washington retained an army in being throughout the Revolution, keeping British forces tied down in the center of the country while Generals Horatio Gates and Benedict Arnold won the Battle of Saratoga in 1777. After Monmouth, the British concentrated their offensives in the southern colonies, and rather than attack them there, Washington's forces moved to Rhode Island, where he commanded military operations until the war's end.
In 1781, American and French forces and a French fleet had trapped General Cornwallis at Yorktown in Virginia. Washington quick-marched south, joining the armies on September 14, and pressed the siege until the army surrendered. The British surrender there was the effective end of British attempts to quell the Revolution. In 1783, by means of the Treaty of Paris, the Kingdom of Great Britain recognized American independence. As a result, on November 2 of that year at Rocky Hill, New Jersey General Washington gave his "Farewell Address to the Army". Then at Fraunces Tavern in New York on December 4, General Washington formally bid his officers farewell.
George Washington by John Trumbull, painted in London, 1780, from memory
On December 23, 1783, General George Washington resigned his commission as Commander-in-Chief of the Army to the Congress, which was then meeting at the Maryland State House in Annapolis. This action was of great significance for the young nation, establishing the precedent that civilian elected officials, rather than military officers, possessed ultimate authority. Washington's stature was such that had he wanted to retain powerlike Julius Caesar before him or Napoleon after himhe may have been able to seize it. Indeed, there was even some support among his most devoted followers for making Washington a permanent ruler or king, but Washington, like most of the Founding Fathers of the United States, abhorred the very idea.
At the time of Washington's departure from military service, he was listed on the rolls of the Continental Army as a Lieutenant General even though he was the highest ranking officer.
Washington presided over the American Constitutional Convention in 1787. For the most part he did not participate in the debates involved, but his prestige was great enough to maintain peace. He adamantly enforced the secrecy adopted by the Convention during the summer. After the Convention, his support convinced many, including the Virginia state legislature, to support the Constitution.
In 1798, George Washington returned to military service and was appointed a Major General in the United States Army. Washington's appointment was to serve as a warning to France, with which war seemed imminent. Washington never saw active service, however, and upon his death one year later the U.S. Army rolls listed him as "retired". With the exception of Dwight Eisenhower, who held a life time commission as General of the Army, George Washington is the only President with military service to reenter the miitary after leaving the office of President.
In 1976, George Washington was posthumously promoted to the rank of General of the Armies and also declared to be the senior military officer of the United States of America.
He farmed roughly 8,000 acres (32 km²). Despite the large amount of land he owned at the time, he was considered "land poor" and never had much cash on hand. In fact, he had to borrow £600 to relocate to New York, then the center of the American government, to take office as president.
Washington was unanimously elected as the first President of the United States on February 4, 1789. To date he is the only person ever unanimously chosen by the electoral college in a presidential election (a feat he duplicated in 1792). However, one President has come close: James Monroe took all but one vote in the electoral college in 1820, and John Quincy Adams was embarrassed by that vote.
Washington's inauguration was planned to be held in New York on March 4, 1789, but was delayed until April 30. Many hoped inaugurations would be continued to be held on April 30 because of the fine weather, but they were held as scheduled.
His election as president was a disappointment to his wife, the first First Lady of the United States, who wanted to continue living in quiet retirement at Mount Vernon after the war. Nevertheless, she quickly assumed the role of hostess, opening her parlor and organizing weekly dinner parties for as many dignitaries as could fit around the presidential table.
In 1791, the Federal government imposed an excise tax on whiskey. This tax was highly unpopular on the American frontier, and in July 1794, in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, a Federal marshal was attacked by a mob and a regional inspector's house was burned. On August 7, 1794, Washington called out the militias of several states and personally led a force of 13,000 to suppress the unrest. The event has gone down in history as the " Whiskey Rebellion." By his actions, Washington ensured that Federal law would be upheld and that the new nation would not fall to insurrection.
Washington held the first Cabinet meeting of any U.S. President on February 25, 1793.
In 1793, the revolutionary government of France sent diplomat Citizen Genet, who attempted to turn popular sentiment towards American involvement in the war against Great Britain. Genet also was authorized to issue letters of marque and reprisal to American ships and gave authority to any French consul to serve as a prize court. Genet's activities forced Washington to ask the French government for his recall.
| OFFICE | NAME | TERM |
| President | George Washington | 17891797 |
| Vice President | John Adams | 17891797 |
| Secretary of State | Thomas Jefferson | 17891793 |
| Edmund Randolph | 17941795 | |
| Timothy Pickering | 17951797 | |
| Secretary of the Treasury | Alexander Hamilton | 17891795 |
| Oliver Wolcott, Jr. | 17951797 | |
| Secretary of War | Henry Knox | 17891794 |
| Timothy Pickering | 17951796 | |
| James McHenry | 17961797 | |
| Attorney General | Edmund Randolph | 17891793 |
| William Bradford | 17941795 | |
| Charles Lee | 17951797 | |
| Postmaster General | Samuel Osgood | 17891791 |
| Timothy Pickering | 17911795 | |
| Joseph Habersham | 17951797 | |
Washington appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States:
See external pdf file for complete listings.
Some wonder why the leaders in the intervening time period between the American Revolution and the signing of the United States Constitution are not recognized as the President of the United States.
Some people argue that the Presidents of the Continental Congress under the Articles of Confederation should be retroactively recognized as the true first Presidents of the United States. Politically, the two positions are different in that one was simply a chairman of a Congress that controlled a loose confederation while the other is an active executive official who heads a true federal government. Given this, virtually all historians believe that the positions are not the same, and therefore the first "true" US President (in the sense of being America's full Head of State) is George Washington.
Washington himself believed that the first president was John Hanson.
After retiring from the presidency in March of 1797, George Washington eagerly returned to Mount Vernon. However, he fell ill two years later and died on December 14, 1799.
Modern day doctors now believe that Washington died from either a streptococcal infection of the throat or, since he was bled as part of the treatment, a combination of shock from the loss of blood, asphyxia, and dehydration. He was buried in a family graveyard at Mount Vernon.
Congressman Henry Light Horse Harry Lee, a Revolutionary War comrade, famously eulogized Washington as "a citizen, first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."
Admirers of Washington circulated an apocryphal story about his honesty as a child. In the story, he wanted to try out a new axe and chopped down his father's cherry tree; when questioned by his father, he gave the famous non-quotation: "I cannot tell a lie. It was I who chopped down the cherry tree." The story first appeared after Washington's death in a naive "inspirational" children's book by Parson Mason Weems, who had been rector of the Mount Vernon parish. See also George Washington's axe for an elaboration of this story. Parson Weems also fabricated a famous story about George Washington praying for help in a lonely spot in the woods near Valley Forge.
Nevertheless, Washington was a man of great personal integrity, with a deeply-held sense of duty, honor and patriotism. He was courageous and far-sighted, holding the Continental Army together through eight hard years of war and numerous privations, sometimes by sheer force of will.
Because of Washington's involvement in Freemasonry, some publicly visible collections of Washington memorabilia are maintained by Masonic lodges. The museum at Fraunces Tavern Museum in New York City includes specimens of Washington's false teeth.
George Washington was plagued throughout his adult life with bad teeth, losing about one tooth a year from the age of 24. In his later years he consulted a number of dentists and had a number of sets of false teeth (but none of wood). For a lighthearted, more or less definitive chronicle of his struggles see George Washington's Teeth, Madeleine Comora and Deborah Chandra, illustrated by: Brock Cole, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003, hardcover, BooksEnthsiast.com.
Washington was notable for his modesty and lack of ambition. He never accepted pay during his military service, and was genuinely reluctant to assume any of the offices thrust upon him. When John Adams recommended him for the position of general and commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, Washington left the room to allow any dissenters to freely voice their objections. In later accepting the post, Washington told the Continental Congress that he was unworthy of the honor.
It is often said that one of Washington's greatest achievements was refraining from taking more power than was due. He was conscientious of maintaining a good reputation by avoiding political intrigue. He had no interest in nepotism or cronyism, rejecting, for example, a military promotion during the war for his deserving cousin William Washington lest it be regarded as favoritism. Thomas Jefferson wrote, "The moderation and virtue of a single character probably prevented this Revolution from being closed, as most others have been, by a subversion of that liberty it was intended to establish."
Washington had to be talked into a second term of office and reluctantly agreed to it, but refused to serve a third term setting a precedent that held until the Presidency of Franklin Roosevelt. At John Adams' inauguration, Washington is said to have approached Adams afterwards and stated "Well, I am fairly out and you are fairly in. Now we shall see who enjoys it the most."
Washington was also a cricket enthusiast and was known to have played the sport, which was popular at that time in the British colonies.
Washington owned slaves throughout his adult life, as did most of his peers in the Virginia plantation aristocracy. He was noteworthy, however, for the humane treatment of his slaves and for his growing unease with the "peculiar institution." Historian Roger Bruns has written, "As he grew older, he became increasingly aware that it was immoral and unjust. Long before the Revolution, Washington had taken the unusual position of refusing to sell any of his slaves or to allow slave families to be separated." After the Revolution, Washington told an English friend, "I clearly foresee that nothing but the rooting out of slavery can perpetuate the existence of our [Federal] union by consolidating it on a common bond of principle." He wrote to his friend John Francis Mercer in 1786, "I never mean... to possess another slave by purchase; it being among my first wishes to see some plan adopted, by which slavery in this country may be abolished by slow, sure, & imperceptible degrees." Ten years later, he wrote to Robert Morris, "There is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do to see some plan adopted for the gradual abolition" of slavery.
As President, Washington was mindful of the risk of splitting apart the young republic over the question of slavery (as in fact happened in 1861). He did not advocate the abolition of slavery while in office, but did sign legislation enforcing the prohibition of slavery in the Northwest Territory, writing to his good friend the Marquis de la Fayette that he considered it a wise measure.
Alone among the slaveholding Framers, Washington included provisions in his will which freed his slaves at his death. His widow Martha freed those she owned shortly before she died.
The religious views of George Washington are a matter of some controversy. There is strong evidence that he (like many of the Founding Fathers) was a Deist - believing in God (he preferred more impersonal appellations, like Providence), but not believing that the creator intervened in the world after the initial design. Before the revolution (when Virginia still had an official religion) he served as a vestryman (lay officer) of two Episcopal Churches in Virginia. He spoke often of the value of religion in general, and he often accompanied his wife to Christian church services. However, there is no record of his ever becoming a communicant in any Christian church and he would regularly leave services before communion. Various prayers said to have been composed by him in his later life are highly edited. He did not ask for any clergy on his deathbed, though one was available. His funeral services were those of the Freemasons.
Washington was an early supporter of religious pluralism. In 1775 he ordered that his troops not burn the Pope in effigy on Guy Fawkes night. In 1790 he wrote that he envisioned a country "which gives bigotry no sanction...persecution no assistance.... May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid." This letter was seen by the Jewish community as a significant event; they felt that for the first time in millennia Jews would enjoy full human and political rights.
Tourists pose under the statue of Washington outside the Federal Hall Memorial in lower Manhattan, site of Washington's first inauguration as President
George Washington peacefully relinquished the presidency to John Adams and set many other precedents that established tranquility in the presidential office in the years to come. He was also lauded posthumously as the "Father of His Country" and is often considered to be the most important of the United States's "Founding Fathers". Therefore, he has been commemorated frequently.
The capital city of the United States, Washington, D.C., is named for him. The District of Columbia was created by an Act of Congress in 1790, and Washington was deeply involved in its creation, including the siting of the White House. At this time, the future site of the capital was a swamp, and Washington remained largely marshland well into the 19th century. The capital was placed in the South, rather than in the major towns of the North, as a compromise during the writing of the United States Constitution in order to get Southern votes for important compromises.
Washington also selected West Point, New York, as the site for the United States Military Academy.
Washington State in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. is also named for him, the only state named for a president.Numerous ships of the United States Navy have been named USS George Washington in honor of the man, or USS Washington in honor of the state named in honor of the man.
His image is on the one dollar bill and the quarter-dollar coin.
The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., was named after him, and it was in part founded with shares Washington bequeathed to an endowment to create a university in Washington.See also: List of places named for George Washington
The literature on George Washington is immense. This is the definitive biography, still used as a reference by historians:
This is perhaps the most highly regarded single-volume biography:
This website provides a selected bibliography, divided into areas of interest:
Notable books that have appeared since the list at that website was compiled include:
In recent years, a number of anti-Semitic groups have promulgated forged quotes from George Washington and other founding fathers of the USA, with the intention of inciting anti-Semitism. This subject is discussed in Neo-Nazi Theory (American founding fathers).
[1] The earliest known image in which Washington is identified as such is on the cover of the circa 1778 Pennsylvania German almanac, Lancaster: Gedruckt bey Francis Bailey. This identifies Washington as "Landes Vater" or Father of the Land.)
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| Preceded by: the previous government under the Articles of Confederation | President of the United States 17891797 | Succeeded by: John Adams |
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