George Washington (1732-1799)

George Washington (1732-1799) was the
first President of the United States of America. He served as President
from April 30, 1789, until March 4, 1797 (two terms).


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.


From 1759 to the outbreak of the American Revolution, Washington managed his lands around Mount Vernon and served in the Virginia House of Burgesses. 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.

He realized early that the best strategy was to harass the British. He reported to Congress, "we should on all Occasions avoid a general Action, or put anything to the Risque, unless compelled by a necessity, into which we ought never to be drawn." Ensuing battles saw him fall back slowly, then strike unexpectedly. 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. But he soon realized that the Nation under its Articles of Confederation was not functioning well, so he became a prime mover in the steps leading to the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia in 1787. When the new Constitution was ratified, the Electoral College unanimously elected Washington President

Revolutionary War:

In order to pay for the expensive French and Indian War, the British
taxed the Colonists (the Stamp Tax), angering them. In Boston, the
Colonists revolted, dumping precious tea into Boston Harbor (this event
is called the Boston Tea Party).

In 1775, Washington was chosen as the
Commander in Chief of the Colonial Army. In 1776, the Colonists
declared their independence from the British. General Washington led
ragtag Patriot troops who were poorly trained, barely paid, badly
equipped, and outnumbered by the British. Patriot women, like Molly
"Pitcher," often helped on the battlefields, carrying pitchers of water
to cool down the cannons so they could be re-fired, and also nursing
the wounded.

Due to the brilliant planning of George
Washington and some help from the French late in the War, the British
were defeated in 1781 after many bloody battles. The Americans were now
independent of the British.

Washington enjoyed less than three years of retirement at Mount Vernon, for he died of a throat infection December 14, 1799. For months the Nation mourned him.