George Washington

George Washington
1st President of the United States
Term of office 1789 - 1797
Political party	None
Vice President	John Adams
Succeeded by	John Adams
Born	February 22, 1732 Westmoreland County, Virginia
Died	December 14, 1799 Mount Vernon, Virginia
Spouse	Martha Dandridge Custis Washington
Religion	Anglican/Episcopalian

George Washington (February 22, 1732 - December 14, 1799) was born to Augustin and Mary Washington^[1] and was the unanimously elected 1st President of the United States of America and the Commander-in-Chief in the Revolutionary War.^[2] He was also a devout Christian, with his adopted daughter once stating that:

"If you question Washington's faith, you may as well question whether or not he was a patriot."^[3]

Washington endeared himself Americans by fighting to destroy monarchy, aristocracy and rule by military elites. He emulated the model of the citizen-soldier set by the Roman leader Cincinnatus, a comparison drew worldwide attention and acclaim, even in England, the nation he defeated.^[4] The archetype of Washington as the citizen-soldier has become part of America's collective idealization of citizenship, and is immortalized in New York City's Washington Square Arch, which depicts Washington the soldier on the left, and Washington the statesman on the right.^[5] Washington is perhaps the only person other than Jesus who declined enormous worldly power, in Washington's case by voluntarily stepping aside as the ruler of a prosperous nation.

Washington married Martha Dandridge Custis in 1759.

Washington took command of the troops surrounding British-occupied Boston on July 3, devoting the next few months to training the undisciplined 14,000-man army and trying to secure urgently needed powder and other supplies. Early in March 1776, using cannon brought down from Ticonderoga by Henry Knox, Washington occupied Dorchester Heights, effectively commanding the city and forcing the British to evacuate on March 17. He then moved to defend New York City against the combined land and sea forces of Sir William Howe. In New York he committed a military blunder by occupying an untenable position in Brooklyn, although he saved his army by skillfully retreating from Manhattan into Westchester County and through New Jersey into Pennsylvania. In the last months of 1776, desperately short of men and supplies, Washington almost despaired. He had lost New York City to the British; enlistment was almost up for a number of the troops, and others were deserting in droves; civilian morale was falling rapidly; and Congress, faced with the possibility of a British attack on Philadelphia, had withdrawn from the city.

Colonial morale was briefly revived by the capture of Trenton, N.J., a brilliantly conceived attack in which Washington crossed the Delaware River on Christmas night 1776 and surprised the predominantly Hessian garrison. Advancing to Princeton, N.J., he routed the British there on Jan. 3, 1777, but in September and October 1777 he suffered serious reverses in Pennsylvania--at Brandywine and Germantown. The major success of that year--the defeat (October 1777) of the British at Saratoga, N.Y.--had belonged not to Washington but to Benedict Arnold and Horatio Gates. The contrast between Washington's record and Gates's brilliant victory was one factor that led to the so-called Conway Cabal--an intrigue by some members of Congress and army officers to replace Washington with a more successful commander, probably Gates. Washington acted quickly, and the plan eventually collapsed due to lack of public support as well as to Washington's overall superiority to his rivals. After holding his bedraggled and dispirited army together during the difficult winter at Valley Forge, Washington learned that France had recognized American independence. With the aid of the Prussian Baron von Steuben and the French marquis de LaFayette, he concentrated on turning the army into a viable fighting force, and by spring he was ready to take the field again. In June 1778 he attacked the British near Monmouth Courthouse, N.J., on their withdrawal from Philadelphia to New York. Although American general Charles Lee's lack of enterprise ruined Washington's plan to strike a major blow at Sir Henry Clinton's army at Monmouth, the commander in chief's quick action on the field prevented an American defeat.

In 1780 the main theater of the war shifted to the south. Although the campaigns in Virginia and the Carolinas were conducted by other generals, including Nathanael Greene and Daniel Morgan, Washington was still responsible for the overall direction of the war. After the arrival of the French army in 1780 he concentrated on coordinating allied efforts and in 1781 launched, in cooperation with the comte de Rochambeau and the comte d'Estaing, the brilliantly planned and executed Yorktown Campaign against Charles Cornwallis, securing (Oct. 19, 1781) the American victory.

Washington had grown enormously in stature during the war. A man of unquestioned integrity, he began by accepting the advice of more experienced officers such as Gates and Charles Lee, but he quickly learned to trust his own judgment. He sometimes railed at Congress for its failure to supply troops and for the bungling fiscal measures that frustrated his efforts to secure adequate materiel. Gradually, however, he developed what was perhaps his greatest strength in a society suspicious of the military--his ability to deal effectively with civil authority. Whatever his private opinions, his relations with Congress and with the state governments were exemplary--despite the fact that his wartime powers sometimes amounted to dictatorial authority. On the battlefield Washington relied on a policy of trial and error, eventually becoming a master of improvisation. Often accused of being overly cautious, he could be bold when success seemed possible. He learned to use the short-term militia skillfully and to combine green troops with veterans to produce an efficient fighting force.

After the war Washington returned to Mount Vernon, which had declined in his absence. Although he became president of the Society of the Cincinnati, an organization of former Revolutionary War officers, he avoided involvement in Virginia politics. Preferring to concentrate on restoring Mount Vernon, he added a greenhouse, a mill, an icehouse, and new land to the estate. He experimented with crop rotation, bred hunting dogs and horses, investigated the development of Potomac River navigation, undertook various commercial ventures, and traveled (1784) west to examine his land holdings near the Ohio River. His diary notes a steady stream of visitors, native and foreign; Mount Vernon, like its owner, had already become a national institution.

In May 1787, Washington headed the Virginia delegation to the Constitutional Convension in Philadelphia and was unanimously elected presiding officer. His presence lent prestige to the proceedings, and although he made few direct contributions, he generally supported the advocates of a strong central government. After the new Constitution was submitted to the states for ratification and became legally operative, he was unanimously elected president (1789).

The problems of travel and trade on river systems caused the states to call for a conference to work out the differences between the states. Washington asked that the states meet in Annapolis, Maryland. Only five states attended this meeting in 1786. The next meeting was scheduled for Philadelphia in 1787. Congress was also asked to act on the matter of calling a convention but they did not. It was not until the 25th of May that a quorum was available.

The first act of the convention was to elect George Washington as the president of the convention. When he was elected to the post of President Washington decided that the meetings ought to be secret. Washington held the belief that the government should have coercive power, but he did not know what the extent of that power would be. Washington also held to the idea that the government should have three branches. They should be called the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary. George Washington felt very strongly about a Federal Court System as early as 1775. This system should also have an appeals system. Because he was a Virginian, Washington favored what is called the Virginia Plan.

While Washington himself does not write much about the convention, so it becomes necessary to read between the lines of the other delegates to find out that Washington favored. Sources indicate that he did have feelings about presidential life tenure and he supported the compromise of the convention on the setup of the House and Senate.

George Washington had returned to Mount Vernon to wait for the ratification of the Constitution. While he did not speak publicly on the subject, Washington did pass on private support and advice to those who would favor the new Constitution. George Washington was such a popular figure the public felt that it was the correct action to ratify the Constitution. During the ratification process Washington continued to support the Constitution. It has been suggested that before the ratification was done people were already selecting George Washington as the first President.

George Washington was at Mount Vernon when Charles Thompson, the long-term secretary of the Continental Congress brought him the news that he was elected President. The arrival of the document at Mount Vernon made it legal. Washington left on April the 16th traveling to New York City, the temporary capital of the new Republic. On April 30, George Washington stood on the balcony of New York City Hall to take the oath of President of the United States. His Presidency almost never happened as he almost died of pneumonia in 1790 and was unable to function as Chief Executive for several weeks.

Washington acted carefully and deliberately, aware of the need to build an executive structure that could accommodate future presidents. Hoping to prevent sectionalism from dividing the new nation, he toured every state in the union during his first term, from New England (1789) to the South (1791). The White House was built mainly by George Washington's government, with him micromanaging the designs of the executive mansion as well as the future capital. (Construction began on October 13, 1792 and was ready for occupancy on about November 1, 1800).

Washington's Presidency marked the first United States Cabinet in the Executive Branch, the first federal judiciary system and oversaw the ratification of the United States Bill of Rights. Congress provided two executive officers who lacked a department: an attorney general and postmaster general. An able administrator, he nevertheless failed to heal the widening breach between factions led by Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton. Because he supported many of Hamilton's controversial fiscal policies--the assumption of state debts, the Bank of the United States, and the excise tax--Washington became the target of attacks by Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans. Not surprisingly, he chose Henry Knox as Secretary of War. By the end of 1791, President Washington had begun to convene meetings with heads of the executive departments, with the President starting the meeting with an agenda in mind, and discussing issues of his choosing.

When Washington was first sworn in to office he was faced with the on going Northwest Indian War, a battle between the United States and Indians for control of the Northwest Territory in the U.S. He ended the war in 1795 by ceding Indian lands in the Ohio River Valley to the United States. Washington was reelected president in the 1792 Presidential Election and the following year the most divisive crisis arising out of the personal and political conflicts within his cabinet occurred--over the issue of American neutrality during the war between England and France. Washington, whose policy of neutrality angered the pro-French Jeffersonians, was horrified by the excesses of the French Revolution and enraged by the tactics of Edmond Genet, the French minister in the United States, which amounted to foreign interference in American politics. Further, with an eye toward developing closer commercial ties with the British, the president agreed with the Hamiltonians on the need for peace with Great Britain. His acceptance of the 1794 Jay's Treaty, which settled outstanding differences between the United States and Britain but which Democratic-Republicans viewed as an abject surrender to British demands, revived vituperation against the president, as did his vigorous upholding of the excise law during the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania.

By March 1797, when Washington left office, the country's financial system was well established; the Indian threat east of the Mississippi had been largely eliminated; and Jay's Treaty and Pinckney's Treaty (1795) with Spain had enlarged U.S. territory and removed serious diplomatic difficulties. In spite of the animosities and conflicting opinions between Democratic-Republicans and members of the Hamiltonian Federalist party, the two groups were at least united in acceptance of the new federal government. Washington refused to run for a third term and, after a masterly Farewell Address in which he warned the United States against permanent alliances abroad, he went home to Mount Vernon. He was succeeded by his vice-president, Federalist John Adams.

Although Washington reluctantly accepted command of the army in 1798 when war with France seemed imminent, he did not assume an active role. He preferred to spend his last years in happy retirement at Mount Vernon. In mid-December, Washington contracted what was probably quinsy or acute laryngitis; he declined rapidly and died at his estate on Dec. 14, 1799.

Even during his lifetime, Washington loomed large in the national imagination. His role as a symbol of American virtue was enhanced after his death by Mason L. Weems, in an edition of whose Life and Memorable Actions of George Washington (c.1800) first appeared such legends as the story about the cherry tree. Later biographers of note included Washington Irving (5 vols., 1855-59) and Woodrow Wilson (1896). Washington's own works have been published in various editions, including The Diaries of George Washington, edited by Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig (6 vols., 1976-79), and The Writings of George Washington, 1745-1799, edited by John C. Fitzpatrick (39 vols., 1931-44).

Washington frequently invoked Christianity in his work and believed in the deep friendship between religion and government. As General, he commanded that chaplains be included in every regiment:

"The General hopes and trusts, that every officer and man, will endeavor so to live, and act, as becomes a Christian Soldier, defending the dearest Rights and Liberties of his country."^[6]

Washington declared in his Inaugural Address:

"It would be peculiarly improper to omit, in this first official act, my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the Universe. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of Providential agency."^[7]

Comments such as this one have led some modern historians to conclude that Washington was a deist rather than a Christian. Of course Washington has also been quoted as saying:

"You do well to wish to learn our arts and way of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ... Congress will do everything they can to assist you in this wise intention.^[8]

Washington declared in his Farewell Address:

"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports." ^[9]

In 1799, George Washington created his own last will and testament. Washington begins with "In the name of God, Amen".

Washington cherished his Bible so much that he includes the following sentence in his will "To the Reverend, now Bryan, Lord Fairfax, I give a Bible in three large folio volumes, with notes, presented to me by the Right Reverend Thomas Wilson" ^[10]

On November 4, 1752, Washington was initiated into Freemasonry at Fredricksburg Lodge, Fredricksburg, Virginia. He was passed and raised at the same lodge, becoming a Master Mason on August 4, 1753. He later served as Worshipful Master of Alexandria Lodge No. 22 in Alexandria, Virginia. Upon his death in 1799, he was given a Masonic funeral at his wife's request.^[11]

In 1809, Mason Locke Weems (1756-1825), usually referred to as "Parson Weems," published a book entitled History of the Life and Death, Virtues and Exploits of General George Washington. This book contained many fanciful stories and half-truths, intended to present Washington as a larger-than-life figure. Perhaps the most famous passage in it is Weems' recounting of a story which he attributed to an unnamed "aged lady, who was a distant relative [of Washington], and, when a girl, spent much of her time in the [Washington] family:"

"When George," said she, "was about six years old, he was made the wealthy master of a hatchet of which, like most little boys, he was immoderately fond, and was constantly going about chopping everything that came in his way. One day, in the garden, where he often amused himself hacking his mother's pea-sticks, he unluckily tried the edge of his hatchet on the body of a beautiful young English cherry-tree, which he barked so terribly, that I don't believe the tree ever got the better of it. The next morning the old gentleman, finding out what had befallen his tree, which, by the by, was a great favorite, came into the house; and with much warmth asked for the mischievous author, declaring at the same time, that he would not have taken five guineas for his tree. Nobody could tell him anything about it. Presently George and his hatchet made their appearance. "George," said his father," do you know who killed that beautiful little cherry tree yonder in the garden?" This was a tough question; and George staggered under it for a moment; but quickly recovered himself: and looking at his father, with the sweet face of youth brightened with the inexpressible charm of all-conquering truth, he bravely cried out, "I can't tell a lie, Pa; you know I can't tell a lie. I did cut it with my hatchet."—"Run to my arms, you dearest boy," cried his father in transports, "run to my arms; glad am I, George, that you killed my tree; for you have paid me for it a thousand fold. Such an act of heroism in my son is more worth than a thousand trees, though blossomed with silver, and their fruits of purest gold."^[12][13][14]

(Notice that Weems did not represent Washington as calling it "my little hatchet;" that appears to be a "familiar misquotation.")

In a October 2000 survey of 132 prominent professors of history, law, and political science, President Washington was grouped in the "Great" group, ranked 1st, with a mean score of 4.92 out of 5.00. ^[15]

Washington was magnanimous enough to lead the Revolutionary Forces against Great Britain for free, saying:

Sir, I beg leave to assure the Congress that as no pecuniary consideration could have tempted me to have accepted this arduous employment, I do not wish to make any profit from it. I will keep an exact account of my expenses. Those I doubt not they will discharge, and that is all I desire.

It should be noted that some people will try to create a controversy where none exists. For instance certain recent writers will note that Washington's expenses in his eight years of generalship came to nearly $500,000 – well over $4 million in today's money.^[16] while leaving out that the Continental dollar in use at that time was next to worthless, requiring large quantities to buy even basic supplies, and it got worse during the war. We only have accounts of Washington's expense statements because Washington himself was meticulous in creating and keeping his expenses and turning them over to Congress. It should also be noted that Congress paid them all, to the penny, and never showed any reservation.

Once he had been elected President, Washington once again offered to forego a salary and only have his expenses paid. Congress felt the position required a salary, and instead gave Washington $25,000 a year for his services, a meaningful amount as the currency situation of the United States had stabilized.

• George Washington's First Inaugural Speech
• George Washington's First Annual Message to Congress
• George Washington's Second Inaugural Address
• George Washington's Farewell Address

• The freedom of Speech may be taken away, and, dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep, to the Slaughter. (To THE OFFICERS OF THE ARMY, Head Quarters, Newburgh, March 15, 1783, from The writings of George Washington from the original manuscript sources, ed. John C. Fitzpatrick, (Washington: U.S. GPO, 1931-1944)26: 224

• Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that National morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. ("FAREWELL ADDRESS" in Writings, 35:229.)

• There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily. (To THE SECRETARY OF STATE in Writings,34:266.)

---

• Papers of George Washington at the University of Virginia
• Last will and testament
• Text of the 1807 biography by David Ramsey
• White House biography
• PBS biography
• Smithsonian Institute biography
• George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate
• Internet Public Library, list of links
• USS George Washington CVN-73

1. ↑ Encyclopedia of Presidents, George Washington, Zachary Kent, Children's Press, 1986.
2. ↑ http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/gw1.html
3. ↑ http://www.christiananswers.net/q-wall/wal-g011.html
4. ↑ For Lord Byron's poem on the subject, hailing Washington as "the first, the last, the best, the Cincinnatus of the West," see http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/2001/byron0101.html.
5. ↑ For photographic images, see http://www.nyc-architecture.com/GV/GV046WashingtonSquareArch.htm
6. ↑ http://www.amerisearch.net/index.php?date=2004-02-22&view=View
7. ↑ Id.
8. ↑ Original Intent, David Barton, 2004, Pg. 168
9. ↑ Reading of Washington's Farewell Address -- (Senate - February 22, 2000)
10. ↑ Last Will and Testament Ashbrook Center
11. ↑ http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/washington_g/washington_g.html
12. ↑ British spellings are as they appear in the original text.
13. ↑ Weems, George Mason (1918), History of the Life and Death, Virtues and Exploits of General George Washington. Chapter 2: Birth and Education, online at University of Virginia]
14. ↑ The Life of George Washington with Curious Anecdotes Equally Honorable to Himself, and Exemplary to his Young Countrymen. 1837, facsimile page images at Google Books
15. ↑ Presidential Leadership: Rating the Best and the Worst in the White House (New York, Wall Street Journal Book, 2004)
16. ↑ http://www.historyhouse.com/in_history/washington/

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