The Founding Fathers
| George Washington,
Virginia |
The
eldest of six children from his father's second marriage, George
Washington was born into the landed gentry in 1732 at Wakefield
Plantation, VA. Until reaching 16 years of age, he lived there and at
other plantations along the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers, including
the one that later became known as Mount
Vernon. His education was rudimentary, probably being obtained
from tutors but possibly also from private schools, and he learned
surveying. After he lost his father when he was 11 years old, his
half-brother Lawrence, who had served in the Royal Navy, acted as his
mentor. As a result, the youth acquired an interest in pursuing a
naval career, but his mother discouraged him from doing so.
At the age of 16, in 1748, Washington joined
a surveying party sent out to the Shenandoah Valley by Lord Fairfax, a
land baron. For the next few years, Washington conducted surveys in
Virginia and present West Virginia and gained a lifetime interest in
the West. In 1751-52 he also accompanied Lawrence on a visit he made
to Barbados, West Indies, for health reasons just before his death.
The next year, Washington began his military
career when the royal governor appointed him to an adjutantship in the
militia, as a major. That same year, as a gubernatorial emissary,
accompanied by a guide, he traveled to Fort Le Boeuf, PA, in the Ohio
River Valley, and delivered to French authorities an ultimatum to
cease fortification and settlement in English territory. During the
trip, he tried to better British relations with various Indian tribes.
In 1754, winning the rank of lieutenant
colonel and then colonel in the militia, Washington led a force that
sought to challenge French control of the Ohio River Valley, but met
defeat at Fort Necessity, PA - an event that helped trigger the French
and Indian War (1754-63). Late in 1754, irked by the dilution of his
rank because of the pending arrival of British regulars, he resigned
his commission. That same year, he leased Mount Vernon, which he was
to inherit in 1761.
In 1755 Washington reentered military service
with the courtesy title of colonel, as an aide to Gen. Edward
Braddock, and barely escaped death when the French defeated the
general's forces in the Battle of the Monongahela, PA. As a reward for
his bravery, Washington rewon his colonelcy and command of the
Virginia militia forces, charged with defending the colony's frontier.
Because of the shortage of men and equipment, he found the assignment
challenging. Late in 1758 or early in 1759, disillusioned over
governmental neglect of the militia and irritated at not rising in
rank, he resigned and headed back to Mount Vernon.
Washington then wed Martha Dandridge Custis,
a wealthy widow and mother of two children. The marriage produced no
offspring, but Washington reared those of his wife as his own. During
the period 1759-74, he managed his plantations and sat in the Virginia
House of Burgesses. He supported the initial protests against British
policies; took an active part in the nonimportation movement in
Virginia; and, in time, particularly because of his military
experience, became a Whig leader.
By the 1770s, relations of the colony with
the mother country had become strained. Measured in his behavior but
strongly sympathetic to the Whig position and resentful of British
restrictions and commercial exploitation, Washington represented
Virginia at the First and Second
Continental Congresses. In 1775, after the bloodshed at Lexington
and Concord, Congress appointed him as commander in chief of the
Continental Army. Overcoming severe obstacles, especially in supply,
he eventually fashioned a well-trained and disciplined fighting force.
The strategy Washington evolved consisted of
continual harassment of British forces while avoiding general actions.
Although his troops yielded much ground and lost a number of battles,
they persevered even during the dark winters at Valley
Forge, PA, and Morristown, NJ. Finally, with the aid of the French
fleet and army, he won a climactic victory at the Battle
of Yorktown, VA, in 1781.
During the next 2 years, while still
commanding the agitated Continental Army,
which was underpaid and poorly supplied, Washington denounced
proposals that the military take over the government, including one
that planned to appoint him as king, but supported army petitions to
the Continental Congress for proper compensation. Once the Treaty
of Paris (1783) was signed, he resigned his commission and
returned once again to Mount Vernon. His wartime financial sacrifices
and long absence, as well as generous loans to friends, had severely
impaired his extensive fortune, which consisted mainly of his
plantations, slaves, and landholdings in the West. At this point,
however, he was to have little time to repair his finances, for his
retirement was brief.
Dissatisfied with national progress under the
Articles of Confederation,
Washington advocated a stronger central government. He hosted the
Mount Vernon Conference (1785) at his estate after its initial
meetings in Alexandria, though he apparently did not directly
participate in the discussions. Despite his sympathy with the goals of
the Annapolis Convention (1786),
he did not attend. But, the following year, encouraged by many of his
friends, he presided over the Constitutional
Convention, whose success was immeasurably influenced by his
presence and dignity. Following ratification of the new instrument of
government in 1788, the electoral college unanimously chose him as the
first President.
The next year, after a triumphal journey from
Mount Vernon to New York City, Washington took the oath of office at
Federal Hall. During his two precedent-setting terms, he governed with
dignity as well as restraint. He also provided the stability and
authority the emergent nation so sorely needed, gave substance to the Constitution,
and reconciled competing factions and divergent policies within the
government and his administration. Although not averse to exercising
presidential power, he respected the role of Congress and did not
infringe upon its prerogatives. He also tried to maintain harmony
between his Secretary of State Thomas
Jefferson and Secretary of the Treasury Alexander
Hamilton, whose differences typified evolving party divisions from
which Washington kept aloof.
Yet, usually leaning upon Hamilton for
advice, Washington supported his plan for the assumption of state
debts, concurred in the constitutionality of the bill establishing the
Bank of the United States, and favored enactment of tariffs by
Congress to provide federal revenue and protect domestic
manufacturers.
Washington took various other steps to
strengthen governmental authority, including suppression of the Whisky
Rebellion (1794). To unify the country, he toured the Northeast in
1789 and the South in 1791. During his tenure, the government moved
from New York to Philadelphia in 1790, he superintended planning for
relocation to the District of Columbia, and he laid the cornerstone of
the Capitol (1793).
In foreign affairs, despite opposition from
the Senate, Washington exerted dominance. He fostered United States
interests on the North American continent by treaties with Britain and
Spain. Yet, until the nation was stronger, he insisted on the
maintenance of neutrality. For example, when the French Revolution
created war between France and Britain, he ignored the remonstrances
of pro-French Jefferson and pro-English Hamilton.
Although many people encouraged Washington to
seek a third term, he was weary of politics and refused to do so. In
his "Farewell
Address" (1796), he urged his countrymen to forswear party
spirit and sectional differences and to avoid entanglement in the wars
and domestic policies of other nations.
Washington enjoyed only a few years of
retirement at Mount Vernon. Even then, demonstrating his continued
willingness to make sacrifices for his country in 1798 when the nation
was on the verge of war with France he agreed to command the army,
though his services were not ultimately required. He died at the age
of 67 in 1799. In his will, he emancipated his slaves.
Image: Courtesy
of National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
