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People (July
2005)
(Source:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/gw1.html and
http://www.pbs.org/georgewashington) On April 30, 1789,
George
Washington, standing on the balcony of Federal Hall
on Wall Street in New York, took his oath of office as the
first President of the United States. "As the first
of every thing, in our situation will serve to establish
a Precedent," he wrote James Madison, "it is devoutly
wished on my part, that these precedents may be fixed on
true principles."
Born
in 1732 into a Virginia planter family, he learned the morals,
manners, and body of knowledge requisite for an 18th century
Virginia gentleman. He pursued two intertwined interests:
military arts and western expansion. At 16 he helped survey
Shenandoah lands for Thomas, Lord Fairfax. Commissioned
a lieutenant colonel in 1754, he fought the first skirmishes
of what grew into the French and Indian War. The next year,
as an aide to Gen. Edward Braddock, he escaped injury although
four bullets ripped his coat and two horses were shot from
under him.
Married to a widow, Martha Dandridge Custis, he devoted
himself to a busy and happy life. But like his fellow planters,
Washington felt himself exploited by British merchants and
hampered by British regulations. As the quarrel with the
mother country grew acute, he moderately but firmly voiced
his resistance to the restrictions.
When
the Second Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia
in May 1775, Washington, one of the Virginia delegates,
was elected Commander in Chief of the Continental Army.
On July 3, 1775, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, he took command
of his ill-trained troops and embarked upon a war that was
to last six grueling years. Finally in 1781 with the aid
of French allies--he forced the surrender of Cornwallis
at Yorktown. Washington longed to retire to his fields at
Mount Vernon. When the new Constitution was ratified, the
Electoral College unanimously elected Washington President.
When the French Revolution led to a major war between France
and England, Washington refused to accept entirely the recommendations
of either his Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, who was
pro-French, or his Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton,
who was pro-British. Rather, he insisted upon a neutral
course until the United States could grow stronger.
George
Washington, Father of His Country, won an eight-and-a-half
year war against the mightiest military power on earth;
he presided over the Constitutional Convention; and he served
as first President for eight years. At the end of every
assignment, he returned his power to the system which had
honored him. He embodied America's principles, both by taking
charge effectively in war and peace, and by stepping down
when the time came. He was, as James Thomas Flexner called
him, "the indispensable man." December 14, 1799,
Washington Died at Mount Vernon, of a throat infection,
after making a tour of his estate on horseback in severe
winter whether. He arranged his slaves to be freed in his
last
will and testament.
Washington's
pledge in 1789 to protect the new nation's "liberties
and freedoms" under "a government instituted by
themselves" has become the first of the most celebrated
presidential speeches.
"I
behold the surest pledges that as on one side no local prejudices
or attachments, no separate views nor party animosity, will
misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to
watch over this great assemblage of communities and interests,
so, on another, that the foundation of our national policy
will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private
morality, and the preeminence of free government be exemplified
by all the attributes which can win the affections of its
citizens and command the respect of the world."
- President
George Washington First Inaugural Address
(April 30, 1789)
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