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 all of U.S. history. Unlike many other revolutionary leaders, he voluntarily relinquished power even though some others wanted him to retain that power for life (as monarchs and dictators do). This established an important precedent of republican democracy, that served as an example around the world.
Early life
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).
French and Indian War and afterwards
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.
American Revolution
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.
Postwar activities
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 power—like Julius Caesar before him or Napoleon after him—he 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.
Presidency
America's first presidential election took place on February 4, 1789. It was left up to each state to determine how to choose its electors. Of the 13 states, only 10 cast electoral votes, and of those 10, only 5 held a general popular election for president.
Each of the 69 electors who carried out their duties cast two votes, one of which had to be for a candidate from outside the voter's state. Therefore Washington, who garnered 69 electoral votes was a unanimous choice, and remains the only person ever to be elected president unanimously (which feat he duplicated in 1792). As runner up with 34 votes, John Adams became vice-president elect. Congress certified the results of the election on April 6, and, though it was originally planned for March 4, Washington took the oath of the office of President of the United States on April 30 on the portico outside the Senate chamber of the Federal Building in New York City.
His election as president was a disappointment to Martha, the first First Lady, 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.
Also 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 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.
Is he really the first President?
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.
Death
After retiring from the presidency in March of 1797, George Washington eagerly returned to Mount Vernon. in 1798 he was again appointed Commander-in-Chief if the United States Army because of the threat of war with [{France]]. However, within the year he fell ill with acute laryngitis and died on December 14, 1799 at his home.
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."
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