George Washington

1732-1799

George Washington was a Founding Father and the first president of the United States. The Virginia plantation owner served as a general and commander-in-chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, leading his men to victory. After the war, Washington played a crucial role in the creation of the U.S. Constitution, and later became America's first president, serving from 1789 to 1797.

FULL NAME: George Washington
BORN: February 22, 1732
DIED: December 14, 1799
BIRTHPLACE: Westmoreland County, Virginia
SPOUSE: Martha Washington
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Pisces

George Washington was born on February 22, 1732, in Westmoreland County, Virginia. He was the eldest of Augustine and Mary Ball Washington's six children, five of whom survived into adulthood. He also had four half-siblings from his father's first marriage. Washington's family lived on Pope's Creek in Westmoreland County, Virginia and were considered moderately wealthy members of the community. His father, Augustine, owned several plantations, where he enslaved over 60 people, to grow tobacco, corn, and wheat. In 1735, Augustine moved the family up the Potomac River to another family home, Little Hunting Creek Plantation — later renamed Mount Vernon. They moved again in 1738 to Ferry Farm on the Rappahannock River, opposite Fredericksburg, Virginia, where Washington spent much of his youth.

Little is known about Washington's childhood, which fostered many of the fables later biographers manufactured to fill in the gap. Among these are the stories that he threw a silver dollar across the Potomac and confessed to chopping down his father's prize cherry tree. From ages 7 to 15, Washington was homeschooled, studying with the local church sexton and later a schoolmaster in practical math, geography, Latin and the English classics. Much of his knowledge, however, was gained through his acquaintance with woodsmen and the plantation foreman, and by his early teens, he had mastered growing tobacco, stock raising and surveying.

Washington's father died when he was 11 years old, and he became the ward of his half-brother, Lawrence, who gave him a good upbringing. Lawrence had inherited the family's Little Hunting Creek Plantation and married Anne Fairfax, the daughter of Colonel William Fairfax, patriarch of the well-to-do Fairfax family. Under her tutelage, Washington was schooled in the finer aspects of colonial culture.

In 1748, when he was 16, Washington traveled with a surveying party plotting land in Virginia’s western territory. The following year, aided by Lord Fairfax, Washington received an appointment as the official surveyor of Culpeper County. For two years he was very busy surveying the land in Culpeper, Frederick, and Augusta counties. The experience made him resourceful and toughened his body and mind. It also piqued his interest in western land holdings, an interest that endured throughout his life with speculative land purchases and a belief that the future of the nation lay in colonizing the West.

In July 1752, Washington's brother, Lawrence, died of tuberculosis, making him the heir apparent of the Washington lands. At 20 years old, he became the head of one of Virginia's most prominent estates, Mount Vernon.

A natural born leader, Washington pursued a career in the military amid the French and Indian War. In February 1753, Washington was commissioned as a major and adjutant in the Virginia militia by Lieutenant Governor Robert Dinwiddie. That October, Dinwiddie sent Washington as a special envoy to Fort LeBoeuf, at what is now Waterford, Pennsylvania, to warn the French to remove themselves from land claimed by Britain. The French politely refused and Washington made a hasty ride back to Williamsburg, Virginia.

After being promoted to lieutenant colonel of the Virginia Regiment in February 1754, Washington returned to confront the French again, establishing a defensive post with his troops at Great Meadows. In May, Washington's small regiment attacked a French post at Fort Duquesne, killing the commander, Joseph Coulon de Jumonville, and several other French troops, marking the start of the armed conflict in the French and Indian War

The French counterattacked and drove Washington and his men back to his post at Great Meadows, which he renamed Fort Necessity. After a full day siege, Washington and his troops were forced to surrender on July 3, 1754. Washington signed a surrender document, written in French, that included a confession to the “assassination” of Jumonville. He was allowed to leave and prohibited from returning to the Ohio Valley with his troops for one year. In October, Washington resigned his military commission in protest of British treatment and underpayment of colonial officers.

However, Washington soon returned to the military in 1755 to join British General Edward Braddock's army in Virginia on an expedition against the French. The volunteer position was given the honorary rank of colonel. Braddock devised a plan for a three-prong assault on French forces, attacking Fort Duquesne, Fort Niagara, and Crown Point but was killed in ambush by the French and their Indian allies. Washington escaped injury with four bullet holes in his cloak and two horses shot out from under him. Though he fought bravely, he could do little to turn back the rout and led the defeated army back to safety.

Commander of Virginia Troops

In August 1755, Washington was appointed commander of all Virginia forces at just 23 years old. Tasked with the defending the colony against raids, he was sent to Virginia's frontier to patrol nearly 400 miles of border in April 1756. There, Washington faced several obstacles, including ill-disciplined troops and an unsupportive legislature. In late 1757, he suffered from a severe case of dysentery and was sent home to Mount Vernon.

Washington returned to duty in 1758 for another expedition to capture Fort Duquesne. During the mission, a friendly-fire incident took place, in which his troops were fired upon by fellow Virginians, killing 14 and wounding 26 of Washington's men. However, the British were able to score a major victory, capturing Fort Duquesne and control of the Ohio Valley.

In December 1758, Washington retired from the Virginia regiment after a frustrating experience in the war. He applied for a commission with the British army but was denied despite his previous service. The same year, Washington was elected to Virginia's House of Burgesses after a failed bid in 1755.

While Washington was more reserved at the start of his political career, he grew more outspoken in the 1760s, voicing his opposition to British rule over the American colonies. Becoming irritated with the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which prohibited colonial settlement beyond the Alleghenies, he petitioned the government to release land promised to war veterans.

Washington also actively opposed the Stamp Act in 1765, which directly imposed taxes on the colonies, voting in favor of Patrick Henry's resolutions to the policy. Still, he did not take a leading role in the growing colonial resistance against the British until the widespread protest of the Townshend Acts in 1767.

Washington's letters from this period indicate he was opposed to the colonies declaring independence, but he approved resisting what he believed were fundamental violations by the Crown of the rights of Englishmen. In 1769, Washington introduced a resolution to the House of Burgesses calling for Virginia to boycott British goods until the Acts were repealed.

Following the passage of the Coercive Acts in 1774, a series of laws aimed at punishing Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party, Washington wrote the Fairfax County Resolves with George Mason that July. The resolves, which were adopted the next day during a meeting he chaired, called for the convening of the Continental Congress and the use of armed resistance as a last resort. The following year, in March 1775, Washington was selected as a delegate to the First Continental Congress.

Commander-in-Chief of Continental Army

After the battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775, the political dispute between Great Britain and American colonies escalated into an armed conflict. Washington traveled to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia dressed in a military uniform, indicating that he was prepared for war. In June, he was appointed Major General and Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army. He did not seek out the office of commander, but was recommended by John Adams for his prestige, military experience, and relationship with Congress.

Washington officially took command of the small and poorly trained army in Boston that July. Under his leadership, American forces achieved an early victory in March 1776 when they forced the British to evacuate Boston after placing artillery on Dorchester Heights. Washington then moved his troops into New York City. Two months later, however, a new British commander, Sir William Howe, arrived in the Colonies with the largest expeditionary force Britain had ever deployed to date.

Crossing the Delaware

In August 1776, the British army launched an attack and quickly took New York City in the largest battle of the war. Washington's army was defeated and he was forced to surrender of 2,800 men. He ordered the remains of his army to retreat into Pennsylvania across the Delaware River. Confident the war would be over in a few months, General Howe wintered his troops at Trenton and Princeton, New Jersey, leaving Washington free to attack at the time and place of his choosing.

On Christmas night, Washington and his men returned across the Delaware River and attacked unsuspecting Hessian mercenaries at Trenton, forcing their surrender. A few days later, evading a force that had been sent to destroy his army, Washington attacked the British again, this time at Princeton, dealing them a humiliating loss.

Major Battles

In an effort to capture colonial cities, General Howe mounted an offensive against Philadelphia in the summer of 1777. Washington moved his army to defend the city but was defeated at the Battle of Brandywine and Philadelphia fell two weeks later.

Later that summer, the British army sent a major force, under the command of John Burgoyne, south from Quebec to Saratoga, New York, to split the rebellion between New England and the southern colonies. But the strategy backfired, as Burgoyne became trapped by the American armies led by Horatio Gates and Benedict Arnold at the Battle of Saratoga.

Without support from Howe, who couldn't reach him in time, Burgoyne was forced to surrender his entire 6,200-man army. The victory was a major turning point in the war as it encouraged France to openly ally itself with the American cause for independence. Through all of this, Washington discovered an important lesson: The political nature of war was just as important as the military one.

The darkest time for Washington and the Continental Army was during the winter of 1777 at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. The 11,000-man force went into winter quarters and over the next six months suffered thousands of deaths, mostly from disease. But the army emerged from the winter still intact and in relatively good order.

Realizing their strategy of capturing colonial cities had failed, the British command replaced Howe with Sir Henry Clinton and evacuated Philadelphia to return to New York City. Washington and his men delivered several quick blows to the moving army, attacking the British flank near Monmouth Courthouse. Though a tactical standoff, the encounter proved Washington's army capable of open field battle.

For the remainder of the war, Washington was content to keep the British confined to New York, although he never totally abandoned the idea of retaking the city. The alliance with France had brought a large French army and a navy fleet.

Washington and his French counterparts decided to leave Clinton alone and instead attacked British General Charles Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia. Facing the combined power of the French and Colonial armies, as well as the fleet of 29 French warships, Cornwallis held out as long as he could, but eventually surrendered his forces in October 1781.

Revolutionary War Victory

While the Battle of Yorktown was the last major land batted of the Revolutionary War, Washington had no way of knowing the victory would bring the war to a close. The British still had 26,000 troops occupying New York City, Charleston and Savannah, plus a large fleet of warships in the Colonies. By 1782, the French army and navy had departed, the Continental treasury was depleted, and most of his soldiers hadn’t been paid for several years.

A near-mutiny was avoided when Washington convinced Congress to grant a five-year bonus for soldiers in March 1783. The war officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris on September 3, 1783, which recognized the United States as an independent nation. Washington formally bade his troops farewell that December and resigned his commission as commander-in-chief of the army.

Washington returned to Mount Vernon and attempted to resume life as a gentleman farmer and tend to his neglected plantation. The war had taken a toll of his family's finances, but he was able to repair his fortune with a generous land grant from Congress for his military service.

Four years later, Washington was again called to the duty of his country. Since winning independence, the young republic had been struggling under the Articles of Confederation, a structure of government that centered power with the states. But the states were not unified. They fought amongst themselves over boundaries and navigation rights, with some imposing taxes on American citizens to pay off the nation's war debt.

Washington was intensely dismayed at the state of affairs, but it wasn't until Shays' Rebellion, an armed uprising, erupted in Massachusetts in 1786 that he realized something needed to be done to improve the nation’s government. That November, Congress approved a convention to be held in Philadelphia to amend the Articles of Confederation.

In May 1787, Washington was unanimously chosen as president of the Constitutional Convention. He and other Founding Fathers, like James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, came to the conclusion that the country needed a new constitution that would give the federal government more authority.

In the end, the Convention produced a plan for government that not only would address the country's current problems, but would endure through time. After the convention adjourned, Washington's reputation and support for the new government were indispensable to the ratification of the new Constitution.

The opposition was strident, if not organized, with many of America's leading political figures, including Patrick Henry and Sam Adams, condemning the proposed government as a grab for power. Even in Washington's native Virginia, the Constitution was ratified by only one vote.

Despite his reluctance and desire for retirement, Washington was once again called upon to serve this country. During the presidential election of 1789, he received a vote from every elector to the Electoral College, the only president in American history to be elected by unanimous approval. The 57-year-old took the oath of office at Federal Hall in New York City, the capital of the United States at the time.

As the first president, Washington was astutely aware that his presidency would set a precedent for all that would follow. He carefully attended to the responsibilities and duties of his office, remaining vigilant to not emulate the British monarchy. To that end, he preferred the title “Mr. President,” instead of more imposing names that were suggested.

He initially declined the $25,000 salary offered the office of the presidency to protect his image as a selfless public servant, but Congress soon persuaded him to accept the compensation to avoid giving the impression that only wealthy men could serve as president.

Washington proved to be an able administrator. He surrounded himself with some of the most capable people in the country, appointing Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury and Thomas Jefferson as Secretary of State, and delegated authority wisely. He regularly consulted with his cabinet and listened to their advice before making a decision.

First-Term Accomplishments

During his first term, Washington adopted a series of measures proposed by Hamilton to reduce the nation's debt and approved a bill establishing the nation's capital in a permanent district along the Potomac River. His administration also established several peace treaties with Native American tribes, though these were accompanied policies aimed at assimilating them into Anglo-American society.

In March 1791, Washington signed a bill authorizing Congress to place a tax on distilled spirits, which stirred protests in rural areas of Pennsylvania. Quickly, the protests turned into a full-scale defiance of federal law known as the Whiskey Rebellion. Washington invoked the Militia Act of 1792, summoning local militias from several states to diffuse the rebellion.

Washington personally took command in 1794, marching the troops into the areas of rebellion and demonstrating that the federal government would use force, when necessary, to enforce the law. This was also the only time a sitting U.S. president has led troops into battle.

Second-Term Accomplishments

In foreign affairs, Washington took a more cautious approach. When France and Great Britain were once again at war in 1793, Washington disregarded the U.S. alliance with France, at Hamilton's urging, and pursued a course of neutrality. He appointed Chief Justice John Jay as a special envoy to Britain in 1794 to address issues that remained unresolved after the Treaty of Paris.

This resulted in the Jay Treaty, which required Britain to remove troops from the western frontier, allowed people to travel freely across the U.S.-Canada border, and delayed war with Britain. It also facilitated limited trade between the two nations. However, the agreement fell short of addressing America's neutral rights, making it largely unpopular and controversial. Even Jefferson was opposed to the treaty's concessions and actively campaigned against it. Despite this, Washington was able to rally support for the treaty and it narrowly pass the U.S. Senate in June 1795.

All through his presidency, Washington was dismayed at the growing partisanship within the government and the nation. The power bestowed on the federal government by the Constitution made for important decisions, and people joined together to influence those decisions by forming political parties. Hamilton pushed for a strong national government and an economy built in industry, while Jefferson desired to keep government small and center power more at the local level, envisioning an economy based on farming.

Those who followed Hamilton's vision took the name Federalists and people who tended to lean toward Jefferson’s view began calling themselves Democratic-Republicans. Washington despised political partisanship, believing that ideological differences should never become institutionalized. He did not belong to a political party and strongly felt that political leaders should be free to debate important issues without being bound by party loyalty. However, Washington could do little to slow the development of political parties. The ideals promoted by Hamilton and Jefferson produced a two-party system that proved remarkably durable.

Still, Washington's administration was not without its critics. The press and the public questioned the implications of his wealth on the presidency. During his terms, Washington rented the best houses available and was driven in a coach drawn by four horses, with outriders and lackeys in uniforms.

After being overwhelmed by callers, he announced that except for the scheduled weekly reception open to all, he would only see people by appointment. Washington entertained lavishly, but in private dinners and receptions at invitation only. He was, by some, accused of conducting himself like a king.

However, he was careful to avoid the trappings of a monarchy. At public ceremonies, he did not appear in a military uniform but dressed in a black velvet suit with gold buckles and powdered hair, as was the custom.

Desiring to return to Mount Vernon and his farming, and feeling the decline of his physical health with age, Washington refused to yield to the pressures to serve a third term. Mindful of the precedent of being the “first president,” he chose to establish a peaceful transition of government.

In the last months of his presidency, Washington felt he needed to address the nation one last time and composed his Farewell Address to the American people. Published in newspapers across the country in September 1976, the address urged his fellow citizens to cherish the Union and avoid partisanship and permanent foreign alliances.

“Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct,” Washington wrote. “And can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and at no distant period a great nation to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence.”

In March 1797, Washington left office, turning over the office of the presidency to John Adams. He soon returned to Mount Vernon determined to live his last years as a simple gentleman farmer.

During his retirement from the Virginia militia until the start of the Revolution, Washington devoted himself to the care and development of his land holdings, which were tended to by enslaved people. By the 1790s, Washington had over 300 enslaved people at Mount Vernon. While he was said to dislike the institution of slavery, he continued to own enslaved people throughout his life.

In his will, Washington ordered that all his enslaved people be granted their freedom upon the death of his wife, Martha. However, this applied to fewer than half of Mount Vernon's enslaved people, since the majority were owned by Martha's family. In addition to Mount Vernon, Washington had at least 10 enslaved people at his homes in Philadelphia and New York.

Much has been made of the fact that Washington used false teeth or dentures for most of his adult life. In fact, Washington's correspondence to friends and family makes frequent references to aching teeth, inflamed gums, and various dental woes.

Washington had one tooth pulled when he was just 24 years old, and by the time of his inauguration in 1789, he had just one natural tooth left. But his false teeth weren't made of wood, as some myths suggest. Instead, they were fashioned from human teeth, including teeth from enslaved people and his own pulled teeth, as well as ivory, animal teeth, and assorted metals.

According to some historians, Washington's dental problems likely impacted the shape of his face and may have contributed to his quiet demeanor. During the Constitutional Convention, Washington addressed the gathered dignitaries only once.

George Washington and Martha Washington with their two grandchildren, Nelly and Wash.

A month after leaving the army, Washington married Martha Dandridge Custis, a widow. Martha brought to the marriage a considerable fortune, including an 18,000-acre estate, from which Washington personally acquired 6,000 acres.

With this land, and the holdings he was granted for his military service, Washington became one of the more wealthy landowners in Virginia. The marriage also brought Martha's two young children, John “Jacky” Parke Custis and Martha “Patsy” Parke Custis.

Washington lavished great affection on both of them, and was heartbroken when Patsy died of an epileptic seizure at the age of 17. Jacky died during the Revolutionary War at age 26. After his death, Washington and his wife raised Jacky's two children, Eleanor “Nelly” and George Washington “Wash” Parke Custis.

Following a brief throat infection, Washington died in his home on December 14, 1799. He was 67 years old. News of Washington's death spread throughout the country, plunging the nation into a deep mourning. Many towns and cities held mock funerals and presented hundreds of eulogies to honor the fallen president. Even the British fleet paid tribute to his memory, and the First Consul of France Napoleon Bonaparte ordered ten days of mourning.

As the first U.S. president, Washington left behind a multifaceted legacy, setting many precedents for the presidency and federal government and left a lasting impact on American ideals and institutions. In addition, his role in the American Revolution and the founding of the country has forever solidified his place in history.

• Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all.
• When we assumed the soldier, we did not lay aside the citizen.
• Be courteous to all, but intimate with few.
• [T]he preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the republican model of government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.
• We should never despair, our situation before has been unpromising and has changed for the better, so I trust, it will again. If new difficulties arise, we must only put forth new exertions and proportion our efforts to the exigency of the times.
• There can be no greater error than to expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to nation.
• [M]y movements to the chair of government will be accompanied by feelings not unlike those of a culprit who is going to the place of his execution.
• True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.
• Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.
• I heard the bullets whistle, and, believe me, there is something charming in the sound.
• Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all.
• The basis of our political Systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their Constitutions of Government. But the Constitution which at any time exists, 'till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole People, is sacredly obligatory upon all.
• I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is the best policy.
• The bosom of America is open to receive not only the opulent and respectable stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all nations and religions.

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