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George Washington, the First
President of the United States. |
Biography of George Washington
On April 30, 1789, George Washington, standing on the balcony of Federal
Hall on Wall Street in New York, took his oath of office as the first
President of the United States. "As the first of every thing,
in our situation will serve to establish a Precedent," he wrote
James Madison, "it is devoutly wished on my part, that these
precedents may be fixed on true principles."
Born in 1732 into a Virginia planter family, he learned the morals,
manners, and body of knowledge requisite for an 18th century Virginia
gentleman.
He pursued two intertwined interests: military arts and western expansion.
At 16 he helped survey Shenandoah lands for Thomas, Lord Fairfax.
Commissioned a lieutenant colonel in 1754, he fought the first skirmishes
of what grew into the French and Indian War. The next year, as an
aide to Gen. Edward Braddock, he escaped injury although four bullets
ripped his coat and two horses were shot from under him.
From 1759 to the outbreak of the American Revolution, Washington managed
his lands around Mount Vernon and served in the Virginia House of
Burgesses. Married to a widow, Martha Dandridge Custis, he devoted
himself to a busy and happy life. But like his fellow planters, Washington
felt himself exploited by British merchants and hampered by British
regulations. As the quarrel with the mother country grew acute, he
moderately but firmly voiced his resistance to the restrictions.
When the Second Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia in
May 1775, Washington, one of the Virginia delegates, was elected Commander
in Chief of the Continental Army. On July 3, 1775, at Cambridge, Massachusetts,
he took command of his ill-trained troops and embarked upon a war
that was to last six grueling years.
He realized early that the best strategy was to harass the British.
He reported to Congress, "we should on all Occasions avoid a
general Action, or put anything to the Risque, unless compelled by
a necessity, into which we ought never to be drawn." Ensuing
battles saw him fall back slowly, then strike unexpectedly. Finally
in 1781 with the aid of French allies--he forced the surrender of
Cornwallis at Yorktown.
Washington longed to retire to his fields at Mount Vernon. But he
soon realized that the Nation under its Articles of Confederation
was not functioning well, so he became a prime mover in the steps
leading to the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia in 1787.
When the new Constitution was ratified, the Electoral College unanimously
elected Washington President.
He did not infringe upon the policy making powers that he felt the
Constitution gave Congress. But the determination of foreign policy
became preponderantly a Presidential concern. When the French Revolution
led to a major war between France and England, Washington refused
to accept entirely the recommendations of either his Secretary of
State Thomas Jefferson, who was pro-French, or his Secretary of the
Treasury Alexander Hamilton, who was pro-British. Rather, he insisted
upon a neutral course until the United States could grow stronger.
To his disappointment, two parties were developing by the end of his
first term. Wearied of politics, feeling old, he retired at the end
of his second. In his Farewell Address, he urged his countrymen to
forswear excessive party spirit and geographical distinctions. In
foreign affairs, he warned against long-term alliances.
Washington enjoyed less than three years of retirement at Mount Vernon,
for he died of a throat infection December 14, 1799. For months the
Nation mourned him.
Source: The White House
Founding Fathers and Presidents
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