Who was
the First U.S. President? There were actually four first
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George Washington (February 22, 1732 [O.S. February 11, 1731] – December
14, 1799) was the commander of the Continental Army in the American
Revolutionary War (1775–1783) and served as the first President of the United
States of America (1789–1797). For h
George Washington
First Commander in Chief of the United States of America
For Information on the Ten Presidents
before Washington -- Click Here
George
Washington was the first Commander-in-Chief of the
United States of America during the American Revolution and later became the first president of the
United States serving from1789 until 1797.He
symbolized qualities of discipline, aristocratic duty, military orthodoxy and
persistence in adversity that his contemporaries valued as marked of mature
political leadership.
Photos of the George
Washington's Teeth from "George Washington:The Man Behind the Myths Exhibit" at the Heinz Pittsburgh Regional
History Center - October 7, 2000 - photo1,
photo2, and
photo3
by: Katie, Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania.
Born
the eldest son of Augustine Washington and his second wife Mary Ball Washington,
in Westmoreland County, Va., on Feb. 22, 1732, George spent his early years on
the family estate on Pope's Creek along the Potomac River. Although Washington
had little or no formal schooling, his early notebooks indicate that he read in
geography, military history, agriculture, deportment and composition.He
showed an aptitude for surveying and simple mathematics.An
early ambition to go to sea had been discouraged by George's mother.His
father died in 1743, and soon thereafter George went to live with his half
brother Lawrence at Mount Vernon, Lawrence's plantation on the Potomac. Lawrence
became something of a substitute father for his brother. Upon the death of
Lawrence in 1752, George inherited the Mount Vernon estate.
Photo of the George
Washington's Survey from "George Washington:The Man Behind the Myths Exhibit" at the Heinz Pittsburgh Regional
History Center - October 7, 2000 - by: Zachary,
Baker Elementary School, Upper St.
Clair, Pennsylvania.
Washington
played an important role in the struggles preceding the outbreak of the French
and Indian War.He was chosen by
Lieutenant Governor Robert Dinwiddie of Virginia to deliver an ultimatum calling
on French forces to cease their encroachment in the Ohio River valley.Washington's
diary account of the dangers and difficulties of his journey published on his
return helped win him his ensuing promotion to lieutenant colonel. Although only
22 years of age and lacking experience, he was ordered to lead a militia force
for the protection of workers who were building a fort at the Forks of the Ohio
River.
Photos of Fort Necessity outside
plaques and the re-constructed Fort by: Christopher,Fort Couch Middle School,
Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania.
Picture of
uncovered Fort Necessity's log foundation.
Picture of
re-constructed Fort Necessity on original foundation Circa 1954
Picture of
George Washington surrendering Fort Necessity to the French.
Picture of
George Washington's signature on surrender document.
"On the stormy night of May 27th, 1754, Washington and about 40 men
began an all night march to confront the French and learn their intentions. They
traveled through woods so dark the men sometimes spent nearly half and hour just
trying to find the trail.
About dawn, Washington met with a friendly Seneca chief, Half King, and
made plans to contact the French Camp. As the French commander had not posted
sentries, Washington and his men easily surrounded the unsuspecting French.
A shot was fired, no one really knows by whom, and soon the peaceful glen was
filled with the crash of musketry and the sulphurous smell of powder. The
skirmish lasted about 15 minutes. When it was over, 10 Frenchmen were dead and
21 captured. One escaped and made his way back to Fort Duquesne at the forks of
the Ohio. Washington's casualties were one man killed and two or three wounded.
Washington now knew he was discovered. He sent his prisoners to Williamsburg
while he returned to the Great Meadows. There he started construction of a small
fortification to protect from probable attack. About five weeks later the attack
came. A larger force of French and Indians attacked Washington's force of 400 at
his 'Fort of Necessity.'
" - - National Park Service.
A
successful French assault obliged him to accept articles of surrender and he
departed with the remnants of his company.
Discouraged
by defeat, Washington resigned his commission in 1754. In May, 1755, he began
service as a volunteer and aide-de-camp to British
General Edward Braddock.Braddock
was mortally wounded and Washington narrowly escaped death. He
escaped injury although four bullets ripped his coat and two horses were shot
from under him Braddock's troops were
ambushed by a band of French soldiers and their Indian allies on the Monongahela
River. At age of 23, he was promoted to colonel and appointed commander in
chief of the Virginia militia.His
responsibility was to defend the frontier.
Washington
left the army in 1758, assured that the Virginia frontier was safe from French
attack.He returned to Mount Vernon,
to restore his neglected estate.With
the support of an ever-growing circle of influential friends, he entered
politics, serving (1759-74) in Virginia's House of Burgesses. In January 1759 he
married Martha Dandridge Custis, a wealthy
and attractive young widow with two small children.
Alarmed
by the repressive measures of the British crown and Parliament, Washington
became a leader in Virginia's opposition to Great Britain's colonial policies.
At first he hoped for reconciliation with Britain. In July, 1774 he presided
over a meeting in Alexandria that adopted the Fairfax Resolves, calling for the
establishment and enforcement of a stringent boycott on British imports prior to
similar action by the First Continental Congress.As
a delegate to the First and Second
Continental Congress 1774 and 1775 Washington did not participate actively
in the deliberations, however, his presence was undoubtedly a stabilizing
influence. In June 1775 he was Congress's unanimous choice as commander in chief
of the newly created Continental Army when fighting broke out between
Massachusetts and the British.
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,
he took command of the makeshift force and moved his army to New York.Defeated
there by the combined land and sea forces of General William Howe, he withdrew
from Manhattan to establish a new defensive line north of New York City.In
November he retreated across the Hudson River into New Jersey.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, New Jersey, a brilliantly conceived attack in which Washington
crossed the Delaware River on Christmas night 1776 and surprised the
predominantly Hessian garrison.Advancing
to Princeton, New Jersey, he routed the British thereon January 3, 1777.These
two engagements restored patriot morale and by spring Washington had 8,000 new
recruits.In September and October
1777 he suffered serious reverses in Pennsylvania at Brandywine
and Germantown. The major success of that
year, the defeat of the British at Saratoga,
New York in October, 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 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.By
spring he was ready to take the field again.
In
1780 the main theater of the war shifted to the south. Although other generals
conducted the campaigns in Virginia and the Carolinas, 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 the brilliantly planned and executed Yorktown Campaign against Charles
Cornwallis, securing the American victory.
After
the war Washington returned to Mount Vernon, which had once again 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. His
diary notes a steady stream of visitors, native and foreign; Mount Vernon, like
its owner, had already become a national institution.
Click on an image to view full-sized
Shays' Rebellion, an armed
revolt in Massachusetts, 1786 through 1787, convinced many Americans of the need
for a stronger government.Washington
and other Virginia nationalists were instrumental in bringing about the Constitutional
Convention of 1787 to promote that end.In
May 1787, Washington headed the Virginia delegation to the Constitutional
Convention 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.Washington's attendance
at the Constitutional Convention and his support for ratification of the
Constitution were critically important for its success in the state conventions.After
the new Constitution became legally operative, he was unanimously elected
president in 1789.
Standing
on the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York City, Washington took
his oath of office as the first President of the United States on
April 30, 1789.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 the New England states in 1789 and the South
in 1791.By appointing Alexander
Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury and Thomas
Jefferson Secretary of State, he brought the two ablest and most principled
figures of the revolutionary generation into central positions of
responsibility.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.
Washington letter as President Click image to enlarge
Courtesy of the Skibo Center
On August 30th
George Washington writes to Samuel Huntington, Governor of Connecticut,
transmitting two acts of Congress including the approval of the Treaty of
Hamar and an order to begin a survey of Ohio. Washington writes in full:
I have the honor to transmit to your
Excellency a Resolution of Congress for carrying into effect a Survey
directed to be made by an Act of the late Congress -- and requesting the
President of the United Sates to appoint a proper person to compleat[sic]
the same. -- Also the duplicate of an Act relative to negotiations and
Treaties with the Indian Tribes. –
I have the honor to be
With due consideration
Your Excellency's Most Obt.
and Most Humble Sevt.
Washington
was reelected president in 1792, 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 condemnation 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. His vice-president, Federalist John
Adams, succeeded him.
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 early December, Washington
contracted what was probably quinsy or acute laryngitis; he declined rapidly and
died at his estate on Dec. 14, 1799.
George Washington From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
George Washington (February 22, 1732
[O.S. February 11, 1731] – December 14, 1799) was the commander of the
Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) and served as the
first President of the United States of America (1789–1797). For his central
role in the formation of the United States, he is often referred to as the
father of his country.
The Continental Congress appointed Washington commander-in-chief of the American
revolutionary forces in 1775. The following year, he forced the British out of
Boston, lost New York City, and crossed the Delaware River in New Jersey,
defeating the surprised enemy units later that year. As a result of his
strategy, Revolutionary forces captured the two main British combat armies at
Saratoga and Yorktown. Negotiating with Congress, the colonial states, and
French allies, he held together a tenuous army and a fragile nation amid the
threats of disintegration and failure. Following the end of the war in 1783,
King George III asked what Washington would do next and was told of rumors that
he'd return to his farm; this prompted the king to state, "If he does that, he
will be the greatest man in the world." Washington did, in fact, return to
private life and retired to his plantation at Mount Vernon.
He presided over the Philadelphia Convention that drafted the United States
Constitution in 1787 because of general dissatisfaction with the Articles of
Confederation. Washington became President of the United States in 1789 and
established many of the customs and usages of the new government's executive
department. He sought to create a nation capable of surviving in a world torn
asunder by war between Britain and France. His unilateral Proclamation of
Neutrality of 1793 provided a basis for avoiding any involvement in foreign
conflicts. He supported plans to build a strong central government by funding
the national debt, implementing an effective tax system, and creating a national
bank. Washington avoided the temptation of war and began a decade of peace with
Britain via the Jay Treaty in 1795; he used his prestige to get it ratified over
intense opposition from the Jeffersonians. Although never officially joining the
Federalist Party, he supported its programs and was its inspirational leader.
Washington's farewell address was a primer on republican virtue and a stern
warning against partisanship, sectionalism, and involvement in foreign wars.
Washington was awarded the very first Congressional Gold Medal with the Thanks
of Congress.
Washington died in 1799, and the funeral oration delivered by Henry Lee stated
that of all Americans, he was "first in war, first in peace, and first in the
hearts of his countrymen". Washington has been consistently ranked by scholars
as one of the greatest U.S. Presidents.
Autograph
letter signed "Go: Washington" to
his nephew Robert Lewis, dated from Mount Vernon, February 12, 1798. Faced with
monetary woes after personally financing the office of President, Washington was
forced to sell and/or lease many of his land investments.This
was his only hope for maintaining and keeping Mount Vernon.The
letter refers to a particular parcel of land in Virginia that contained a
valuable walnut grove.Washington
encouraged his nephew, who handled his financial affairs, to use the walnut
grove as an added incentive to sell or lease the property.Washington
suggested thathis potential:
"…tenant
is permitted to kill the Walnuts by girdling the trees, I do not believe that
the Crops would sustain much injury by their standing.They
would season in this manner, and a few years hence, when the navigation of the
River is in a more improved state might be brought down with more ease &
safety.Perhaps, upon the whole,
this may be found the mosteligible
plan." - Virtualology Collection.
This letter is notable for two reasons, First, the
story about Washington cutting down a cherry is a myth created by Parson Mason
Locke Weems. Second, Virtualology
has a 2 page George Washington letter on how to girdle and cut down a grove of
Walnut trees.
Letter
signed page 1 - page
2: ("G. Washington") as Commander-in-Chief
of the Continental Army to Captain [Samuel] Carr, Head-Quarters [Verplancks
Point, New York], 16 September 1782.2
pages, folio, 308 x 195 mm., text in hand of Tench Tilghman (an aide-de-camp),
light browning of paper.
Emphatic
orders from Washington regarding a curious dilemma of considerable importance,
since it involved the crucial alliance with France.Similar
letters were addressed by Washington to Lt. Col. John Popkin and to Capt. Seth
Bannister.The Marquis de Vaudreuil
had arrived at Boston Harbor in August with a fleet of thirteen warships to aid
the American cause, but some French soldiers and sailors had jumped ship and
attempted to join the American forces.Washington
writes:
"Complaint
having been made to me by the Marquis de Vaudreuil commanding the Fleet of His
Most Christian Majesty in the Harbor of Boston, that numbers of his Seamen and
Soldiers have deserted, and that he has reason to believe many of them are
engaged in the Continental Service…[M]ake immediate Enquiry among the Recruits
which may be assembled at your Place of Rendezvous, and if you discover any,
either Soldiers or Sailors, belonging to the Service of France, you are to send
them immediately under proper guard to Monsieur de la Tombe Counsul of France at
Boston.And you are in future, on no
Account whatever, to pass any Foreigner, except he can produce full and
satisfactory Proof that he does not belong to the Army or Navy of France."
- Virtualology
Collection
Gorget,
Worn by George Washington to differentiate officers from their troops -
Unidentified Philadelphia silversmith, 1774, Gilded copper or brass,
Massachusetts Historical Society -- Photo taken at "George Washington:The Man Behind the Myths Exhibit" at the Heinz Pittsburgh Regional
History Center - October 7, 2000 - by: Louis,
Upper St. Clair High School,
Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania.
George
Washington Life Mask Photo taken at "George Washington:The Man Behind the Myths Exhibit" at the Heinz Pittsburgh Regional
History Center - October 7, 2000 - by: Louis,
Upper St. Clair High School,
Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania.
The
Surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown by John Trumbull, 1787, Oil on
canvas, sketch - Detroit Institute of Arts -- Photo taken at "George
Washington:The Man Behind the
Myths Exhibit" at the Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center - October 7,
2000 - by: Louis,
Upper St. Clair High School,
Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania.
George
Washingtonby
Joseph Wright, 1784, oil on canvas -- Historical Society of Pennsylvania --
Photo taken at "George Washington:The Man Behind the Myths Exhibit" at the Heinz Pittsburgh Regional
History Center - October 7, 2000 - by: Louis,
Upper St. Clair High School,
Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania.
George
Washington, Vaughan Type by Gilbert Stuart, 1795, oil on canvas,
University of Virginia -- Photo taken at "George Washington:The Man Behind the Myths Exhibit" at the Heinz Pittsburgh Regional
History Center - October 7, 2000 - by: Louis,
Upper St. Clair High School,
Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania.
The
Washington Familyby Edward Savage, 1789-98, oil on canvas, National trust Collection Woodlawn
Plantation -- Photo taken at "George Washington:The Man Behind the Myths Exhibit" at the Heinz Pittsburgh Regional
History Center - October 7, 2000 - by: Louis,
Upper St. Clair High School,
Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania.
Martha
Washington Charles Wilson Peale, 1795, oil on canvas, Virginia
Historical Society -- Photo taken at "George Washington:The Man Behind the Myths Exhibit" at the Heinz Pittsburgh Regional
History Center - October 7, 2000 - by: Louis,
Upper St. Clair High School,
Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania.
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