Реферат: Джордж Вашингтон
Реферат: 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”. |
