Джордж Вашингтон
GEORGE
WASHINGTON
By: Katya Zemtsova
9D, school № 17
supervisor: Beletskaya S. A.
2001
Министерство образования Российской Федерации
РЕФЕРАТ
по английскому языку
Тема: « Джордж Вашингтон »
Работу выполнила
Земцова Екатерина
ученица 9 “Д” класса
школы № 17
Работу проверила
преподаватель
Белецкая С.А
2001
GEORGE WASHINGTON
(1ST PRESIDENT)
Plan
1. Name
2. Physical Description
3. Personality
4. Ancestors
5. Father
6. Mother
7. Siblings
8. Collateral relatives
9. Children
10. Birth
11. Childhood
12. Education
13. Religion
14. Recreation
15. Early romance
A) Betsy Fauntleroy
B) Mary Philipse
C) Sally Fairfax
16. Marriage
17. Military Service
18. Career before the presidency
A) French and Indian War, 1754 – 1763
B) Member of House of Burgesses (1759 – 1774)
C) Delegate to Continental Congress (1774 – 1775)
D) Commander of Chief of Continental Army during Revolution (1775 –
1783)
E) President of Constitutional Convention, 1787
19. Election as President, First Term, 1789
20. Election as President, Second Term, 1792
21. INAUGURAL ADDRESS (First)
22. INAUGURAL ADDRESS (Second)
23. VICE PRESIDENT
CABINET:
A) Secretary state:
B) Secretary of the treasury
C) Secretary of war
D) Attorney General
24. ADMINISTRATION
A) Presidents
B) Indian Affairs
C) Proclamation of Neutrality, 1793
D) Whiskey Rebellion, 1794
E) Jay’s. Treaty, 1795
F) Pinckney’s Treaty, 1795
G) Farewell Address, 1796
H) Sates Admitted to the Union
I) Constitutional Amendments Ratified
25. SUPERME COURT APPOINTMENTS
26. Ranking in 1962 historians poll
27. Retirement
28. Death
29. Washington’s praise (speech)
30. Washington’s criticized (speech)
31. Washington’s quote(s) (speech)
NAME: George Washington. He was probably named after George Eskridge, a
lawyer in whose charge Washington's mother had been left when she was
orphaned.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Washington was a large, powerful man—about 6 feet
2 inches tall, 175 pounds in his prime, up to more than 200 pounds in later
years. Erect in bearing, muscular, broad shouldered, he had large hands and
feet (size 13 shoes), a long face with high cheekbones, a large straight
nose, determined chin, blue-gray eyes beneath heavy brows and dark brown
hair, which on formal occasions he powdered and tied in a queue. His fair
complexion bore the marks of smallpox he contracted as a young man. He lost
his teeth, probably to gum disease, and wore dentures. According to Dr.
Reidar Sognnaes, former dean of the University of California at Los Angeles
School of Dentistry, who has made a detailed study of Washington's
bridgework, he was fitted with numerous sets of dentures, fashioned
variously from lead, ivory, and the teeth of humans, cows, and other
animals, but not from wood, as was popularly believed. Moreover, he was not
completely toothless. Upon his inauguration as president, Washington had
one of his own teeth left to work alongside the dentures. He began wearing
reading glasses during the Revolution. He dressed fashionably.
PERSONALITY: A man of quiet strength, he took few friends into complete
confidence. His critics mistook his dignified reserve for pomposity. Life
for Washington was a serious mission, a job to be tackled soberly,
unremittingly. He had little time for humor. Although basically good-
natured, he wrestled with his temper and sometimes lost. He was a poor
speaker and could become utterly inarticulate without a prepared text. He
preferred to express himself on paper. Still, when he did speak, he was
candid, direct, and looked people squarely in the eye. Biographer Douglas
Southall Freeman conceded that Washington's "ambition for wealth made him
acquisitive and sometimes contentious." Even after Washington had
established himself, Freeman pointed out, "he would insist upon the exact
payment of every farthing due him" and was determined "to get everything
that he honestly could." Yet neither his ambition to succeed nor his
acquisitive nature ever threatened his basic integrity.
ANCESTORS: Through his paternal grandmother, Mildred Warner Washington,
he descended from King Edward III (1312-1377) of England. His great-great-
grandfather the Reverend Lawrence Washington (c. 1602-1653) served as
rector of All Saints, Purleigh Parish, Essex, England, but was fired when
certain Puritan members accused him of being a "common frequenter of
Alehouses, not only himself sitting daily tippling there, but also
encouraging others in that beastly vice." His great-grandfather John
Washington sailed to America about 1656, intending to remain just long
enough to take on a load of tobacco. But shortly after pushing off on the
return trip, his ketch sank. Thus John remained in Virginia, where he met
and married Anne Pope, the president's great-grandmother.
FATHER: Augustine Washington (16947-1743), planter. Known to friends as
Gus, he spent much of his time acquiring and overseeing some 10,000 acres
of land in the Potomac region, running an iron foundry, and tending to
business affairs in England. It was upon returning from one of these
business trips in 1730 that he discovered that his wife, Jane Butler
Washington, had died in his absence. On March 6, 1731, he married Mary
Ball, who gave birth to George Washington 11 months later. Augustine
Washington died when George was 11 years old. > Because business had kept
Mr. Washington away from home so much, George remembered him only vaguely
as a tall, fair, kind man.
MOTHER: Mary Ball Washington (c. 1709-1789). Fatherless at 3 and
orphaned at 12, she was placed, in accordance with the terms of her
mother's will, under the guardianship of George Eskridge, a lawyer.
Washington's relationship with his mother was forever strained. Although
she was by no means poor, she regularly asked for and received money and
goods from George. Still she complained, often to outsiders, that she was
destitute and neglected by her children, much to George's embarrassment. In
1755, while her son was away serving his king in the French and Indian War,
stoically suffering the hardships of camp life, she wrote to him asking for
more butter and a new house servant. Animosity between mother and son
persisted until her death from cancer in the first year of his presidency.
SIBLINGS: By his father's first marriage, George Washington had two
half brothers to live to maturity—Lawrence Washington, surrogate father to
George after the death of their father, and Augustine "Austin" Washington.
He also had three brothers and one sister to live to maturity—Mrs. Betty
Lewis; Samuel Washington; John Augustine "Jack" Washington, father of
Supreme Court Justice Bushrod Washington; and Charles Washington, founder
of Charles Town, West "Virginia.
COLLATERAL RELATIVES: Washington was a half first cousin twice removed
of President James Madison, a second cousin seven times removed of Queen
Elizabeth II (1926-) of the United Kingdom, a third cousin twice removed of
Confederate General Robert E. Lee, and an eighth cousin six times removed
of Winston Churchill.
CHILDREN: Washington had no natural children; thus, no direct
descendant of Washington survives. He adopted his wife's two children from
a previous marriage, John Parke Custis and Martha Parke Custis. John's
granddaughter Mary Custis married Robert E. Lee.
BIRTH: Washington was born at the family estate on the south bank of
the Potomac River near the mouth of Pope's Creek, Westmoreland County,
Virginia, at 10 A.M. on February 22, 1732 (Old Style February 11, the date
Washington always celebrated as his birthday; in 1752 England and the
colonies adopted the New Style, or Gregorian, calendar to replace the Old
Style, or Julian, calendar). He was christened on April 5, 1732.
CHILDHOOD: Little is known of Washington's childhood. The legendary
cherry tree incident and his inability to tell lies, of course, sprang
wholly from the imagination of Parson Weems. Clearly the single greatest
influence on young George was his half brother Lawrence, 14 years his
senior. Having lost his father when he was 11, George looked upon Lawrence
as a surrogate father and undoubtedly sought to emulate him. Lawrence
thought a career at sea might suit his little brother and arranged for his
appointment as midshipman in the British navy. George loved the idea.
Together they tried to convince George's mother of the virtues of such
service, but Mary Washington was adamantly opposed. George, then 14, could
have run away to sea, as did many boys of his day, but he reluctantly
respected his mother's wishes and turned down the appointment. At 16 George
moved in with Lawrence at his estate, which he called Mount Vernon, after
Admiral Edward Vernon, commander of British forces in the West Indies while
Captain Lawrence Washington served with the American Regiment there. At
Mount Vernon George honed his surveying skills and looked forward to his
twenty-first birthday, when he was to receive his inheritance from his
father's estate—the Ferry Farm, near Fredericksburg, where the family had
lived from 1738 and where his mother remained until her death; half of a
4,000-acre tract; three lots in Fredericksburg; 10 slaves; and a portion of
his father's personal property.
EDUCATION: Perhaps because she did not want to part with her eldest son
for an extended period, perhaps because she did not want to spend the
money, the widow Washington refused to send George to school in England, as
her late husband had done for his older boys, but instead exposed him to
the irregular education common in colonial Virginia. Just who instructed
George is unknown, but by age 11 he had picked up basic reading, writing,
and mathematical skills. Math was his best subject. Unlike many of the
Founding Fathers, Washington never found time to learn French, then the
language of diplomacy, and did not attend university. He applied his
mathematical mind to surveying, an occupation much in demand in colonial
Virginia, where men's fortunes were reckoned in acres of tobacco rather
than pounds of gold.
RELIGION: Episcopalian. However, religion played only a minor role in
his life. He fashioned a moral code based on his own sense of right and
wrong and adhered to it rigidly. He referred rarely to God or Jesus in his
writings but rather to Providence, a rather amorphous supernatural
substance that controlled men's lives. He strongly believed in fate, a
force so powerful, he maintained, as "not to be resisted by the strongest
efforts of human nature."
RECREATION: Washington learned billiards when young, played cards, and
especially enjoyed the ritual of the fox hunt. In later years, he often
spent evenings reading newspapers aloud to his wife. He walked daily for
exercise.
EARLY ROMANCE: Washington was somewhat stiff and awkward with girls,
probably often tongue-tied. In his mid-teens he vented his frustration in
such moonish doggerel as, "Ah! woe's me, that I should love and conceal,/
Long have
I wish'd, but never dare reveal,/ Even though severely Loves Pains I
feel." Before he married Martha, Washington's love life was full of
disappointment.
Betsy Fauntleroy. The daughter of a justice and burgess from Richmond
County, Virginia, she was but 16 when she attracted Washington, then 20. He
pressed his suit repeatedly, but, repulsed at every turn, he finally gave
up.
Mary Philipse. During a trip to Boston to straighten out a military
matter in 1756, Washington stopped off in New York and there met Mary
Philipse, 26, daughter of Frederick Philipse, a wealthy landowner. Whether
he was taken with her charms or her 51,000 acres is unknown, but he
remained in the city a week and is said to have proposed. She later married
Roger Morris, and together they were staunch Tories during the American
Revolution.
Sally Fairfax. From the time he met Sarah Gary "Sally" Fairfax as the
18-year-old bride of his friend and neighbor George William Fairfax,
Washington was infatuated with her easy charm, graceful bearing, good
humor, rare beauty, and intelligence. Although the relationship almost
certainly never got beyond flirtation, the two had strong feelings for each
other and corresponded often. In one letter written to her in 1758, at a
time when he was engaged to Martha, he blurted his love, albeit cryptically
lest the note fall into the wrong hands. He confessed he was in love with a
woman well known to her and then continued, "You have drawn me, dear Madam,
or rather I have drawn myself, into an honest confession of a simple Fact.
Misconstrue not my meaning; doubt it not, nor expose it. The world has no
business to know the object of my Love, declared in this manner to you,
when I want to conceal it." As heartbroken as Washington appears to have
been over the hopelessness of the relationship, the anguish might have been
greater had he pressed the affair, for the Fairfaxes would not come to
share Washington's passion for an independent America. In 1773, the year
American resentment over British taxes erupted in the Boston Tea Party,
Sally and George Fairfax left Virginia for England, where they settled
permanently, loyal subjects to the end.
MARRIAGE: Washington, 26, married Martha Dandridge Custis, 27, a widow
with two children, on January 6, 1759, at her estate, known as the White
House, on the Pamunkey River northwest of Williamsburg. Born in New Kent
County, Virginia, on June 21, 1731, the daughter of John Dandridge, a
planter, and Frances Jones Dandridge, Martha was a rather small, pleasant-
looking woman, practical, with good common sense if not a great intellect.
At 18 she married Daniel Parke Custis, a prominent planter of more than
17,000 acres. By him she had four children, two of whom survived childhood.
Her husband died intestate in 1757, leaving Martha reputedly the wealthiest
marriageable woman in Virginia. It seems likely that Washington had known
Martha and her husband for some time. In March 1758 he visited her at White
House twice; the second time he came away with either an engagement of
marriage or at least her promise to think about his proposal. Their wedding
was a grand affair. The groom appeared in a suit of blue and silver with
red trimming and gold knee buckles. After the Reverend Peter Mossum
pronounced them man and wife, the couple honeymooned at White House for
several weeks before setting up housekeeping at Washington's Mount Vernon.
Their marriage appears to have been a solid one, untroubled by infidelity
or clash of temperament. During the American Revolution she endured
considerable hardship to visit her husband at field headquarters. As the
First Lady, Mrs. Washington hosted many affairs of state at New York and
Philadelphia (the capital was moved to Washington in 1800 under the Adams
administration). After Washington's death in 1799, she grew morose and died
on May 22, 1802.
MILITARY SERVICE: Washington served in the Virginia militia (1752-1754,
1755-1758), rising from major to colonel, and as commander in chief of the
Continental army (1775-1783), with the rank of general. See "Career before
the Presidency."
CAREER BEFORE THE PRESIDENCY: In 1749 Washington accepted his first
appointment, that of surveyor of Culpepper County, Virginia, having gained
much experience in that trade the previous year during an expedition across
the Blue Ridge Mountains on behalf of Lord Fairfax. Two years later he
accompanied his half brother Lawrence to Barbados. Lawrence, dying of
tuberculosis, had hoped to find a cure in the mild climate. Instead, George
came down with a near-fatal dose of smallpox. With the deaths of Lawrence
and Lawrence's daughter in 1752, George inherited Mount Vernon, an estate
that prospered under his management and one that throughout his life served
as welcome refuge from the pressures of public life.
French and Indian War, 1754-1763. In 1752 Washington received his first
military appointment as a major in the Virginia militia. On a mission for
Governor Robert Dinwiddie during October 1753-January 1754, he delivered an
ultimatum to the French at Fort Le Boeuf, demanding their withdrawal from
territory claimed by Britain. The French refused. The French and the Ohio
Company, a group of Virginians anxious to acquire western lands, were
competing for control of the site of present-day Pittsburgh. The French
drove the Ohio Company from the area and at the confluence of the Allegheny
and Monongahela rivers constructed Fort Duquesne. Promoted to lieutenant
colonel in March 1754, Washington oversaw construction of Fort Necessity in
what is now Fayette County, Pennsylvania. However, he was forced to
surrender that outpost to superior French and Indian forces in July 1754, a
humiliating defeat that temporarily gave France control of the entire
region. Later that year, Washington, disgusted with officers beneath his
rank who claimed superiority because they were British regulars, resigned
his commission. He returned to service, however, in 1755 as an aide-de-camp
to General Edward Braddock. In the disastrous engagement at which Braddock
was mortally wounded in July 1755, Washington managed to herd what was left
of the force to orderly retreat, as twice his horse was shot out from under
him. The next month he was promoted to colonel and regimental commander. He
resigned from the militia in December 1758 following his election to the
Virginia House of Burgesses.
Member of House of Burgesses, 1759-1774. In July 1758 Colonel
Washington was elected one of Frederick County's two representatives in the
House of Burgesses. He joined those protesting Britain's colonial policy
and in 1769 emerged a leader of the Association, created at an informal
session of the House of Burgesses, after it had been dissolved by the royal
governor, to consider the most effective means of boycotting British
imports. Washington favored cutting trade sharply but opposed a suspension
of all commerce with Britain. He also did not approve of the Boston Tea
Party of December 1773. But soon thereafter he came to realize that
reconciliation with the mother country was no longer possible. Meanwhile,
in 1770, Washington undertook a nine-week expedition to the Ohio country
where, as compensation for his service in the French and Indian War, he was
to inspect and claim more than 20,000 acres of land for himself and tens of
thousands more for the men who had served under him. He had taken the lead
in pressing the Virginia veterans' claim. “I might add, without much
arrogance,” he later wrote, “that if it had not been for my unremitted
attention to every favorable circumstance, not a single acre of land would
ever have been obtained”.
Delegate to Continental Congress, 1774-1775. A member of the Virginia
delegation to the First and Second Continental Congresses, Washington
served on various military preparedness committees and was chairman of the
committee to consider ways to raise arms and ammunition for the impending
Revolution. He voted for measures designed to reconcile differences with
Britain peacefully but realized that such efforts now were futile. John
Adams of Massachusetts, in a speech so effusive in its praise that
Washington rushed in embarrassment from the chamber, urged that Washington
be named commander in chief of the newly authorized Continental army. In
June 1775, delegates unanimously approved the choice of Washington, both
for his military experience and, more pragmatically, to enlist a prominent
Virginian to lead a struggle that heretofore had been spearheaded largely
by northern revolutionaries.
Commander in chief of Continental Army during Revolution, 1775-1783.
With a poorly trained, undisciplined force comprised of short-term militia,
General Washington took to the field against crack British regulars and
Hessian mercenaries. In March 1776 he thrilled New Englanders by flushing
the redcoats from Boston, but his loss of New York City and other setbacks
later that year dispelled any hope of a quick American victory. Sagging
American morale got a boost when Washington slipped across the Delaware
River to New Jersey and defeated superior enemy forces at Trenton (December
1776) and Princeton (January 1777). But humiliating defeats at Brandywine
(September 1777) and Germantown (October 1777) and the subsequent loss of
Philadelphia undermined Washington's prestige in Congress. Richard Henry
Lee, Benjamin Rush, and others conspired to remove Washington and replace
him with General Horatio Gates, who had defeated General John Burgoyne at
the Battle of Saratoga (October 1777). Washington's congressional
supporters rallied to quash the so-called Conway Cabal. Prospects for
victory seemed bleak as Washington settled his men into winter quarters at
Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, in December 1777.
"To see men without clothes to cover their nakedness," Washington wrote
in tribute to the men who suffered with him at Valley Forge, "without
blankets to lay on, without shoes, by which their marches might be traced
by the blood from their feet, and almost as often without provisions as
with; marching through frost and snow, and at Christmas taking up their
winter quarters within a day's march of the enemy, without a house or hut
to cover them till they could be built, and submitting to it without a
murmur, is a mark of patience and obedience which in my opinion can scarce
be paralleled." Of course, some did grumble— and loudly. "No pay! no
clothes! no provisions! no rum!" some chanted. But remarkably there was no
mass desertion, no mutiny. Patriotism, to be sure, sustained many, but no
more so than did confidence in Washington's ability to see them through
safely. With the snow-clogged roads impassable to supply wagons, the men
stayed alive on such fare as pepper pot soup, a thin tripe broth flavored
with a handful of peppercorns. Many died there that winter. Those that
survived drew fresh hope with the greening of spring and the news,
announced to them by General Washington in May 1778, that France had
recognized the independence of America. Also encouraging was the arrival of
Baron Friedrich von Steuben, who, at Washington's direction, drilled the
debilitated Valley Forge survivors into crack troops. Washington's men
broke camp in June 1778, a revitalized army that, with aid from France,
took the war to the British and in October 1781 boxed in General Charles
Cornwallis at Yorktown, thus forcing the surrender of British forces.
General Washington imposed strict, but not punitive, surrender terms:
All weapons and military supplies must be given up; all booty must be
returned, but the enemy soldiers could keep their personal effects and the
officers could retain their sidearms. British doctors were allowed to tend
to their own sick and wounded. Cornwallis accepted, but instead of
personally leading his troops to the mutually agreed-upon point of
surrender on October 19, 1781, he sent his deputy Brigadier Charles O'Hara.
As he made his way along the road flanked by American and French forces,
O'Hara came face to face with Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau, the
latter decked out in lavish military regalia. O'Hara mistook Rochambeau for
the senior commander, but the French officer quickly pointed to Washington,
and O'Hara, probably somewhat embarrassed, turned to the American.
Unwilling to deal with a man of lesser rank, Washington directed O'Hara to
submit the sword of capitulation to his aide General Benjamin Lincoln. In
his victory dispatch to Congress, Washington wrote with obvious pride,
“Sir, I have the Honor to inform Congress, that a Reduction of the British
Army under the Command of Lord Cornwallis, is most happily effected. The
unremitting Ardor which actuated every Officer and Soldier in the combined
Army in this Occasion, has principally led to this Important Event, at an
earlier period than my most sanguine Hope had induced me to expect”. In
November 1783, two months after the formal peace treaty was signed,
Washington resigned his commission and returned home to the neglected
fields of Mount Vernon.
President of Constitutional Convention, 1787. Washington, a Virginia
delegate, was unanimously elected president of the convention. He was among
those favoring a strong federal government. After the convention he
promoted ratification of the Constitution in Virginia. According to the
notes of Abraham Baldwin, a Georgia delegate, which were discovered only
recently and made public in 1987, Washington said privately that he did not
expect the Constitution to last more than 20 years.
ELECTION AS PRESIDENT, FIRST TERM, 1789: Washington, a Federalist, was
the obvious choice for the first president of the United States. A proven
leader whose popularity transcended the conflict between Federalists and
those opposed to a strong central government, the man most responsible for
winning independence, a modest country squire with a winsome aversion to
the limelight, he so dominated the political landscape that not 1 of the 69
electors voted against him. Thus, he carried all 10 states—Connecticut,
Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia. (Neither North Carolina nor Rhode
Island had ratified the Constitution yet. New York was unable to decide in
time which electors to send.) Washington was the only president elected by
a unanimous electoral vote. John Adams of Massachusetts, having received
the second-largest number of votes, 34, was elected vice president.
election as president, second term, 1792: Despite the growing strength
of Democratic-Republicans, Washington continued to enjoy virtually
universal support. Again he won the vote of every elector, 132, and thus
carried all 15 states—Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland,
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina,
Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, and Virginia. John
Adams of Massachusetts received the second-highest number of votes, 77, and
thus again became vice president.
INAUGURAL ADDRESS (FIRST): New York City, April 30, 1789. ". . . When I
was first honored with a call into the service of my country, then on the
eve of an arduous struggle for its liberties, the light in which I
contemplated my duty required that I should renounce every pecuniary
compensation. From this resolution I have in no instance departed; and
being still under the impressions which produced it, I must decline as
inapplicable to myself any share in the personal emoluments which may be
indispensably included in a permanent provision for the executive
department, and must accordingly pray that the pecuniary estimates for the
station in which I am placed may during my continuance in it be limited to
such actual expenditures as the public good may be thought to require. ..."
INAUGURAL ADDRESS (SECOND): Philadelphia, March 4, 1793. (This was the
shortest inaugural address, just 135 words.) "Fellow Citizens: I am again
called upon by the voice of my country to execute the functions of its
Chief Magistrate. When the occasion proper for it shall arrive, I shall
endeavor to express the high sense I entertain of this distinguished honor,
and of the confidence which has been reposed in me by the people of united
America.
"Previous to the execution of any official act of the President the
Constitution requires an oath of office. This oath I am now about to take,
and in your presence: That if it shall be found during my administration of
the Government I have in any instance violated willingly or knowingly the
injunctions thereof, I may (besides incurring constitutional punishment) be
subject to the upbraidings of all who are now witnesses of the present
solemn ceremony."
VICE PRESIDENT: John Adams (1735-1826), of Massachusetts, served 1789-
1797. See "John Adams, 2d President."
CABINET:
Secretary of State. (1) Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), of Virginia,
served 1790-1793. See "Thomas Jefferson, 3d President," "Career before the
Presidency." (2) Edmund Jennings Randolph (1753-1813), of Virginia, served
1794-1795. Author of the Randolph (or Virginia) plan, favoring the large
states, at the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Transferred from attorney
general, he remained aloof of the struggle between Jefferson and Alexander
Hamilton. Denounced by supporters of both, he was largely ineffective and
was forced to resign amid unfounded charges that he had misused his office
for private gain. (3) Timothy Pickering (1745-1829), of Massachusetts,
served 1795-1800. Transferred from war secretary, he was a staunch
Hamiltonian and stayed on in the Adams administration.
Secretary of the Treasury. (1) Alexander Hamilton (c. 1755-1804), of
New York, served 1789-1795. President Washington's closest advisor, he was
a great admirer of British institutions and a master of power politics. He
saw his role in the government as that of prime minister. His influence
went beyond economics to include foreign affairs, legal matters, and long-
range social planning. He advocated and helped create a strong central
government at the expense of states' rights. He put the infant nation on
sound financial footing by levying taxes to retire the national debt and
promoted the creation of a national bank. He also advocated tariffs to
insulate fledgling American manufacturing from foreign competition.
Hamilton's vision of America's future encompassed the evolution from a
largely agrarian society to an industrial giant, a national transportation
program to facilitate commerce and blur regional differences, a strong
permanent national defense, and a sound, conservative monetary system. Even
after resigning his post, he kept his hands on the controls of power.
Washington continued to consult him. Hamilton's successor, Oliver Wolcott,
and others in the cabinet took his advice. He even helped draft
Washington's Farewell address. The foremost conservative leader of his day,
he was anathema to Thomas Jefferson and his supporters. (2) Oliver Wolcott
(1760-1833), of Connecticut, served 1795-1800. A lawyer and Hamilton
supporter, he stayed on in the Adams administration.
Secretary of War. (1) Henry Knox (1750-1806), of Massachusetts, served
1789-1794. Chief of artillery and close adviser to General Washington
during the Revolution and war secretary under the Articles of
Confederation, he was a natural choice for this post. He pressed for a
strong navy. Fort Knox was named after him. (2) Timothy Pickering (1745-
1829), of Massachusetts, served January-December, 1795. A lawyer and
veteran of the Revolution, he strengthened the navy. He resigned to serve
as secretary of state. (3) James McHenry (1753-1816), of Maryland, served
1796-1800. He had served as a surgeon during the Revolution and was a
prisoner of war. He stayed on in the Adams administration. Fort McHenry at
Baltimore was named after him.
Attorney General. (1) Edmund Jennings Randolph (1753-1813), of
Virginia, served 1789-1794. He helped draft President Washington's
proclamation of neutrality. Washington disregarded his opinion that a
national bank was unconstitutional. He resigned to become secretary of
state. (2) William Bradford (1755-1795), of Pennsylvania, served 1794-1795.
He was a state supreme court justice at the time of his appointment. (3)
Charles Lee (1758-1815), of Virginia, served 1795-1801. He was a brother of
Henry "Light-Horse Harry" Lee. He urged, unsuccessfully, that the United
States abandon its policy of neutrality and declare war on France. He
stayed on in the Adams administration.
ADMINISTRATION: April 30, 1789-March 3, 1797.
Precedents. "Many things which appear of little importance in
themselves and at the beginning," President Washington observed, "may have
great and durable consequences from their having been established at the
commencement of a new general government."10 With this in mind, then, he
proceeded cautiously, pragmatically, acting only when it seemed necessary
to flesh out the bare-bones framework of government described so sparingly
in the Constitution: (1) In relying on department heads for advice, much as
he had used his war council during the Revolution, he set the pattern for
future presidents to consult regularly with their cabinet. (2) Because
Congress did not challenge his appointments, largely out of respect for him
personally rather than out of principle, the custom evolved that the chief
executive generally has the right to choose his own cabinet. Congress, even
when controlled by the opposition party, usually routinely confirms such
presidential appointments. (3) How long should a president serve? The
Constitution did not then say. Washington nearly set the precedent of a
single term, for he had originally decided to retire in 1793, but remained
for a second term when it became clear that the nonpartisan government he
had so carefully fostered was about to fragment. Thus he set the two-term
standard that lasted until 1940. (4) When John Jay resigned as chief
justice, Washington went outside the bench for a successor rather than to
elevate one of the sitting justices to the top position, as many had
expected him to do. In disregarding seniority as a necessary qualification
to lead the Supreme Court, Washington established the precedent that has
enabled his successors to draw from a much more diverse and younger talent
pool than that of a handful of aging incumbent jurists.
Indian Affairs. In 1791 President Washington dispatched forces under
General Arthur St. Clair to subdue the Indians who had been resisting white
settlement of the Northwest Territory. St. Clair failed, having been routed
by Miami Chief Little Turtle on the Wabash River. Washington then turned to
Revolutionary War veteran "Mad" Anthony Wayne, who before launching the
expedition spent many months training regular troops in Indian warfare. He
marched boldly into the region, constructed a chain of forts, and on August
20, 1794, crushed the Indians under Little Turtle in the Battle of Fallen
Timbers near present-day Toledo, Ohio. Under the terms of the Treaty of
Greenville (1795), the defeated tribes ceded disputed portions of the
Northwest Territory to the United States and moved west. Through diplomacy,
President Washington tried with limited success to make peace with the
Creeks and other tribes in the South. In 1792 the president entertained the
tribal leaders of the Six Nations confederation, including Seneca Chief Red
Jacket, whom Washington presented with a silver medal, a token that the
Indian treasured the rest of his life. Red Jacket, who had led his warriors
against Washington's army during the Revolution, rallied to the American
cause during the War of 1812.
Proclamation of Neutrality, 1793. In the war between France, on one
side, and Britain, Austria, Prussia, Sardinia, and the Netherlands, on the
other, President Washington in 1793 declared the United States to be
"friendly and impartial toward the belligerent powers." Although he avoided
using the word neutrality, his intention was clear. Critics denounced the
proclamation as reneging on the U.S. commitment to its first ally, France.
However, it kept the nation out of a war it was ill-prepared to fight. The
French minister to the United States, Edmond Genet, pointedly ignoring
Washington's policy, fomented pro-French sentiment among Americans and
arranged for American privateers to harass British ships—activities that
prompted President Washington to demand his recall.
Whiskey Rebellion, 1794. To help pay off the national debt and put the
nation on a sound economic basis, President Washington approved an excise
tax on liquor. Pennsylvania farmers, who regularly converted their corn
crop to alcohol to avoid the prohibitive cost of transporting grain long
distances to market, refused to pay it. On Hamilton's advice, Washington
ordered 15,000 militia to the area and personally inspected troops in the
field. This show of strength crushed this first real challenge to federal
authority.
Jay'5 Treaty, 1795. Washington was roundly criticized by Jeffersonians
for this treaty with Great Britain. To forestall further conflict with the
former mother country and impel Britain to withdraw its forces from
outposts in the Northwest Territory, as it had promised under the terms of
the Treaty of Paris concluding the American Revolution, Washington
relinquished the U.S. right to neutrality on the seas. Any American ship
suspected of carrying contraband to the shores of Britain's enemies was
subject to search and seizure by the British navy. And Britain regarded as
contraband virtually any useful product, including foodstuffs. Moreover,
Jay's Treaty failed to resolve one of the key disputes standing in the way
of rapprochement with Britain—impressment. Britain's policy of "once an
Englishman, always an Englishman" meant that even after renouncing
allegiance to the crown and becoming a duly naturalized U.S. citizen, a
British immigrant was not safe from the king's reach. If while searching an
American ship for contraband, the British spotted one of their own among
the crew, they routinely dragged him off and pressed him into the Royal
Navy. But for all this, and despite the added strain on relations with
France in the wake of Jay's Treaty, the pact did postpone the inevitable
conflict with Britain until 1812, when America was better prepared
militarily. After the Senate ratified the treaty, the House asked the
president to release all pertinent papers relating to its negotiation.
Washington refused on the constitutional ground that only the upper chamber
had approval rights over treaties. He thereby set the precedent for future
presidents to resist such congressional petitions.
Pinckney's Treaty, 1795. Under its terms, Washington normalized
relations with Spain by establishing the boundary between the United States
and Spanish Florida at the thirty-first parallel. Even more importantly for
the future of American commerce, the pact granted U.S. vessels free access
to the entire length of the Mississippi River and to the port of New
Orleans for the purpose of export.
In other acts of lasting importance, President Washington signed into
law bills creating or providing for:
1789 Oaths of allegiance to be sworn by federal and state officials
First tariffs to protect domestic manufacturers
Department of State and War and the Treasury
Office of postmaster general
Supreme Court, circuit and federal district courts, and position of
attorney general (Judiciary Act). Washington, of course,
appointed
all the first judges to these courts.
1790 First federal census
Patent and copyright protection
Removal of the capital to Philadelphia in December 1790 and to
Washington
10 years later
1791 Bank of the United States
1792 Presidential succession, which placed the president pro tempore of
the
Senate and the Speaker of the House next behind the vice
president in
line of succession to the presidency
U.S. Mint of Philadelphia
1795 Naturalization law, which lengthened residency requirement from
two to
five years
Farewell Address, 1796 President Washington announced his retirement in
his celebrated Farewell Address, a pronouncement that was printed in the
Philadelphia American Daily Advertiser on September 17, 1796, but never was
delivered orally. In it he warned against the evils of political parties
and entangling alliances abroad. Throughout his term he had tried to
prevent the rise of partisanship, but he had succeeded only in postponing
such division by serving a second term. The Federalists under Hamilton and
Adams and the Democratic-Republicans under Jefferson joined battle soon
after he announced his retirement. Washington's warning to remain aloof
from European struggles Was better heeded. "The great rule of conduct for
us in regard to foreign nations," he advised, "is, in extending our
commercial relations to have with them as little political connection as
possible. So far as we have already formed engagements let them be
fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop." Isolationism remained
the dominant feature in American foreign policy for the next 100 years.
States Admitted to the Union. Vermont (1791), Kentucky (1792),
Tennessee (1796).
Constitutional Amendments Ratified. Bill of Rights (first 10
amendments, 1791): (1) Freedom of religion, of speech, of the press, to
assemble and petition for redress of grievances. (2) Right to bear arms.
(3) Restrictions on quartering soldiers in private homes. (4) Freedom from
unreasonable search and seizure. (5)Ban on double jeopardy and self-
incrimination; guarantees due process of law. (6) Right to speedy and
public trial. (7) Right to trial by jury. (8) Ban on excessive bail or
fines or cruel and unusual punishment. (9) Natural rights unspecified in
the Constitution to remain unabridged. (10) Individual states or the people
retain all powers not specifically delegated to the federal government or
denied to states by the Constitution. Eleventh Amendment (1795): A citizen
from one state cannot sue another state.
SUPREME COURT APPOINTMENTS: (1) John Jay (1745-1829), of New York,
served as chief justice 1789-1795. As the first chief justice, he
established court procedure. While on the bench he negotiated Jay's Treaty
(see "Administration"). He resigned to serve as governor of New York. (2)
John Rutledge (1739-1800), of South Carolina, served as associate justice
1789-1791. His appointment as chief justice in 1795 was rejected by the
Senate. (3) William Gushing (1732-1810), of Massachusetts, served as
associate justice 1789-1810. He was the only Supreme Court justice to
persist in wearing the formal wig popular among British jurists. (4) James
Wilson (1742-1798), of Pennsylvania, served as associate justice 1789-1798.
A Scottish immigrant, he was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Speaking for the Court in Chisholm v. Georgia (1793), he ruled that a
citizen of one state was entitled to sue another state, a decision so
unpopular that it prompted passage of the Eleventh Amendment (1795),
specifically nullifying it. (5) John Blah- (1732-1800), of Virginia, served
as associate justice 1789-1796. A friend of Washington—they had served
together as Virginia delegates to the Constitutional Convention—he brought
to the bench many years of experience on Virginia state courts. (6) James
Iredell (1751-1799), of North Carolina, served as associate justice 1790-
1799. An English immigrant, he was at 38 the youngest member of the
original Supreme Court. His lone dissent in Chisholm v. Georgia (1793)
formed the basis of the Eleventh Amendment (1795). (7) Thomas Johnson (1732-
1819), of Maryland, served as associate justice 1791-1793. A friend of
Washington since the Revolution, he served as the first governor of
Maryland and chief judge of the state's General Court. He resigned from the
Supreme Court for health reasons. (8) William Paterson (1745-1806), of New
Jersey, served as associate justice 1793-1806. He helped draft the
Judiciary Act of 1789 creating the federal court system. In Van Home's
Lessee v. Dorrance (1795) he established the Court's authority to strike
down as unconstitutional a duly enacted state law, a precedent that
anticipated judicial review of federal laws. (9) Samuel Chase (1741-1811),
of Maryland, served as associate justice 1796-1811. Irascible and acid
tongued, his gratuitous attacks on President Jefferson in 1803 led the
House to impeach him, but the Senate fell four votes short of the two-
thirds necessary for conviction. He was the only Supreme Court justice to
be impeached. Speaking for a unanimous Court in Ware v. Hilton (1796), he
established the supremacy of national treaties over state laws. (10) Oliver
Ellsworth (1745-1807), of Connecticut, served as chief justice 1796-1800.
He was the principal architect of the Judiciary Act of 1789, creating the
federal court system. In United States v. La Vengeance (1796), he spoke for
the majority in extending federal authority to all inland rivers and lakes.
RANKING IN 1962 HISTORIANS POLL: Washington ranked second of 31
presidents and second of 5 "great" presidents. He ranked above Franklin
Roosevelt and below Lincoln.
RETIREMENT: March 4, 1797-December 14, 1799. Washington, 65, returned
to Mount Vernon to oversee much-needed repairs. He played host, often
reluctantly, to an endless parade of visitors, many longtime friends,
others perfect strangers there just to ogle the former president and his
family. Briefed on affairs of state by War Secretary McHenry and others, he
maintained a keen interest in the course of the country. With tensions
between the United States and France threatening to erupt into war in the
wake of the XYZ Affair (see "John Adams, 2d President," "Administration"),
Washington was commissioned lieutenant general and commander in chief of
American forces on July 4, 1798, the only former president to hold such a
post. He accepted the commission on the condition that he would take to the
field only in case of invasion and that he had approval rights over the
composition of the general staff. He promised the cause "all the blood that
remains in my veins." Fortunately the undeclared "Quasi-War" that followed
was limited to naval encounters and Washington's services were not
required. In his last year Washington faced a liquidity crisis: Money owed
him from the sale or rental of real estate was past due at a time when his
taxes and entertainment bills were climbing. As a result, at age 67 he was
compelled for the first time in his life to borrow money from a bank.
DEATH: December 14, 1799, after 10 P.M., Mount Vernon, Virginia. On the
morning of December 12, Washington set out on horseback around the
plantation. With temperatures hovering around freezing, it began to snow;
this turned to sleet, then rain, and back to snow by the time Washington
returned indoors five hours later. Still in his cold, wet clothes, he
tended to some correspondence and ate dinner. Next morning he awoke with a
sore throat, and later in the day his voice grew hoarse. About 2 A.M. on
December 14 he awoke suddenly with severe chills and was having trouble
breathing and speaking. Three doctors attended him—his personal physician
and longtime friend Dr. James Craik and consultants Drs. Gustavus Richard
Brown and Elisha Cullen Dick. They diagnosed his condition as inflammatory
quinsy. The patient was bled on four separate occasions, a standard
practice of the period. Washington tried to swallow a concoction of
molasses, vinegar, and butter to soothe his raw throat but could not get it
down. He was able to take a little calomel and tartar emetic and to inhale
vinegar vapor, but his pulse remained weak throughout the day. The
physicians raised blisters on his throat and lower limbs as a counter-
irritant and applied a poultice, but neither was effective. Finally,
Washington told his doctors to give up and about 10 P.M. spoke weakly to
Tobias Lear, his fide, "I am just going. Have me decently buried and do not
let my body be put into a vault in less than two days after I am dead. Do
you understand me?" "Yes, sir," replied Lear. "'Tis well,"12 said
Washington. These were his last words. Soon thereafter he died while taking
his own pulse. After a lock of his hair was removed, his body was placed
in a mahogany coffin bearing the Latin inscriptions Surge Ad Judicium and
Gloria Deo. The funeral services, con ducted by the Reverend Thomas Davis
on December 18, were far from the simple ceremony Washington had requested.
A procession of mourners filed between two long rows of soldiers, a band
played appropriate music, guns boomed in tribute from a ship anchored in
the Potomac, and the Masonic order to which Washington belonged sent a
large contingent. His remains were deposited in the family tomb at Mount
Vernon. In his last will and testament, a 42-page document executed in his
own hand in July 1799, Washington provided his widow with the use and
benefit of the estate, valued at more than $500,000, during her lifetime.
He freed his personal servant William with a $30 annuity and ordered the
rest of the slaves freed upon Martha's death. He left his stock in the Bank
of Alexandria to a school for poor and orphaned children and ordered his
stock in the Potomac Company to be applied toward the construction of a
national university. He forgave the debts of his brother Samuel's family
and that of his brother-in-law Bartholomew Dandridge. He also ensured that
his aide Tobias Lear would live rent free for the rest of his life. To
nephew Bushrod Washington he left Mount Vernon, his personal papers, and
his library. His grandchildren Mrs. Nellie Lewis and George Washington
Parke Custis received large, choice tracts. In sundry other bequests, the
gold-headed cane Benjamin Franklin had given him went to his brother
Charles, his writing desk and chair to Doctor Craik, steel pistols taken
from the British during the Revolution to Lafayette, and a sword to each of
five nephews on the assurance that they will never "unsheath them for the
purpose of shedding blood except it be for self-defence, or in defence of
their country and its rights, and in the latter case to keep them
unsheathed, and prefer falling with them in their hands, to the
relinquishment thereof."
WASHINGTON PRAISED: "A gentleman whose skill and experience as an
officer, whose independent fortune, great talents and excellent universal
character would command the approbation of all America and unite the
cordial exertions of all the Colonies better than any other person in the
union."—John Adams, in proposing Washington as commander in chief of the
Continental army, 1775.
"You would, at this side of the sea [in Europe], enjoy the great
reputation you have acquired, pure and free from those little shades that
the jealousy and envy of a man's countrymen and contemporaries are ever
endeavouring to cast over living merit. Here you would know, and enjoy,
what posterity will say of Washington. For a thousand leagues have nearly
the same effect with a thousand years. The feeble voice of those grovelling
passions cannot extend so far either in time or distance. At present I
enjoy that pleasure for you, as I frequently hear the old generals of this
martial country [France] (who study the maps of America and mark upon them
all your operations) speak with sincere approbation and great applause of
your conduct; and join in giving you the character of one of the greatest
captains of the age." – Benjamin Franklin, 1780.
"More than any other individual, and as much as to one individual was
possible, has he contributed to found this, our wide spreading empire, and
to give to the Western World independence and freedom."—John Marshall.
"To the memory of the Man, first in war, first in peace, and first in
the hearts of his countrymen."—Henry "Light-Horse Harry" Lee, 1799.
WASHINGTON CRITICIZED: "If ever a nation was debauched by a man, the
American nation has been debauched by Washington. If ever a nation was
deceived by a man, the American nation has been deceived by Washington.
Let his conduct, then, be an example to future ages; let it serve to be a
warning that no man may be an idol."17—Philadelphia Atirora, 1796.
"An Anglican monarchical, and aristocratical party has sprung up, whose
avowed object is to draw over us the substance, as they have already done
the forms, of the British government. ... It would give you a fever were I
to name to you the apostates who have gone over to these heresies, men who
were Samsons in the field and Solomons in the council, but who have had
their heads shorn by the harlot England."—Thomas Jefferson, in the wake of
Washington's support of Jay's Treaty, 1796.
"You commenced your Presidential career by encouraging and swallowing
the grossest adulation, and you travelled America from one end to the
other, to put yourself in the way of receiving it. You have as many
addresses in your chest as James the II. ... The character which Mr.
Washington has attempted to act in this world, is a sort of non-
describable, camelion-colored thing, called prudence. It is, in many cases,
a substitute for principle, and is so nearly allied to hypocrisy, that it
easily slides into it. ... And as to you, sir, treacherous to private
friendship (for so you have been to me, and that in the day of danger) and
a hypocrite in public life, the world will be puzzled to decide whether you
are an apostate or an imposter, whether you have abandoned good principles,
or whether you ever had any?"—Thomas Paine, in an open letter to
Washington, 1796.
WASHINGTON QUOTES: "It is easy to make acquaintances but very difficult
to shake them off, however irksome and unprofitable they are found after we
have once committed ourselves to them. ... Be courteous to all but intimate
with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your
confidence; true friendship is a plant of slow growth."
"As the sword was the last resort for the preservation of our
liberties, so it ought to be the first to be laid aside when those
liberties are firmly established."—1776
"Precedents are dangerous things; let the reins of government then be
braced and held with a steady hand, and every violation of the Constitution
be reprehended: if defective let it be amended, but not suffered to be
trampled upon whilst it has an existence."—1786
"[Political parties] serve to organize faction, to give it an
artificial and extraordinary force to put, in the place of the delegated
will of the Nation, the will of a party; often a small but artful and
enterprizing minority of the community; and according to the alternate
triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror
of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the
organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels, and
modified by mutual interests. However combinations or associations of the
above description may now and then answer Popular ends, they are likely in
the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning,
ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the Power of the
People and to usurp for themselves the reins of Government; destroying
afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust
dominion."—1796 (Farewell Address).'
BOOKS ABOUT WASHINGTON.
1. Childrens Britanica “Presidents of the USA”
2. “The complete book of U.S. Presidents”
3. American’s First President. “Focus on the U.S.A.”
4. George Washington: Man and Monument”. (Cunliffe, Marcus)
5. James T. Flexner. “George Washington: A Biography”. |
