What issues did George Washington have when making his first address to Congress

George Washington (1732-99) was commander in master of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War (1775-83) and served two terms as the showtime U.S. president, from 1789 to 1797. The son of a prosperous planter, Washington was raised in colonial Virginia. As a young human being, he worked as a surveyor then fought in the French and Indian War (1754-63).

During the American Revolution, he led the colonial forces to victory over the British and became a national hero. In 1787, he was elected president of the convention that wrote the U.S. Constitution. Two years later, Washington became America's first president. Realizing that the way he handled the job would touch on how future presidents approached the position, he handed downwardly a legacy of strength, integrity and national purpose. Less than 3 years after leaving part, he died at his Virginia plantation, Mount Vernon, at age 67.

Explore George Washington's life in our interactive timeline

George Washington'due south Early on Years

George Washington was born on Feb 22, 1732, at his family's plantation on Pope'south Creek in Westmoreland County, in the British colony of Virginia, to Augustine Washington (1694-1743) and his 2d wife, Mary Ball Washington (1708-89). George, the eldest of Augustine and Mary Washington's vi children, spent much of his babyhood at Ferry Farm, a plantation near Fredericksburg, Virginia. After Washington'south father died when he was 11, it'due south likely he helped his mother manage the plantation.

Few details almost Washington's early instruction are known, although children of prosperous families like his typically were taught at domicile by individual tutors or attended private schools. Information technology's believed he finished his formal schooling at around age fifteen.

As a teenager, Washington, who had shown an aptitude for mathematics, became a successful surveyor. His surveying expeditions into the Virginia wilderness earned him enough money to begin acquiring land of his own.

In 1751, Washington fabricated his merely trip exterior of America, when he traveled to Barbados with his older half-brother Lawrence Washington (1718-52), who was suffering from tuberculosis and hoped the warm climate would help him recuperate. Shortly afterwards their arrival, George contracted smallpox. He survived, although the illness left him with permanent facial scars. In 1752, Lawrence, who had been educated in England and served equally Washington'south mentor, died. Washington eventually inherited Lawrence's estate, Mount Vernon, on the Potomac River near Alexandria, Virginia.

An Officer and Admirer Farmer

In Dec 1752, Washington, who had no previous military machine feel, was made a commander of the Virginia militia. He saw activeness in the French and Indian War and was somewhen put in charge of all of Virginia'due south militia forces. By 1759, Washington had resigned his committee, returned to Mountain Vernon and was elected to the Virginia Business firm of Burgesses, where he served until 1774. In January 1759, he married Martha Dandridge Custis (1731-1802), a wealthy widow with two children. Washington became a devoted stepfather to her children; he and Martha Washington never had whatever offspring of their own.

In the ensuing years, Washington expanded Mountain Vernon from 2,000 acres into an 8,000-acre belongings with five farms. He grew a variety of crops, including wheat and corn, bred mules and maintained fruit orchards and a successful fishery. He was securely interested in farming and continually experimented with new crops and methods of land conservation.

George Washington During the American Revolution

By the late 1760s, Washington had experienced immediate the furnishings of rising taxes imposed on American colonists by the British and came to believe that it was in the best interests of the colonists to declare independence from England. Washington served as a delegate to the Kickoff Continental Congress in 1774 in Philadelphia. By the fourth dimension the 2d Continental Congress convened a year later, the American Revolution had begun in earnest, and Washington was named commander in chief of the Continental Ground forces.

Washington proved to exist a ameliorate general than military machine strategist. His strength lay not in his genius on the battleground just in his ability to continue the struggling colonial regular army together. His troops were poorly trained and lacked nutrient, ammunition and other supplies (soldiers sometimes even went without shoes in winter). However, Washington was able to give them direction and motivation. His leadership during the winter of 1777-1778 at Valley Forge was a attestation to his power to inspire his men to keep going.

Over the course of the grueling eight-year war, the colonial forces won few battles but consistently held their own against the British. In October 1781, with the help of the French (who allied themselves with the colonists over their rivals the British), the Continental forces were able to capture British troops under Full general Charles Cornwallis (1738-1805) in the Battle of Yorktown. This activeness effectively ended the Revolutionary War and Washington was declared a national hero.

America's First President

In 1783, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris between United kingdom and the U.S., Washington, believing he had done his duty, gave up his command of the ground forces and returned to Mount Vernon, intent on resuming his life every bit a gentleman farmer and family man. However, in 1787, he was asked to attend the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and head the committee to draft the new constitution. His impressive leadership there convinced the delegates that he was by far the most qualified human being to become the nation'due south first president.

Gyre to Go on

At first, Washington balked. He wanted to, at last, return to a tranquility life at home and leave governing the new nation to others. But public opinion was so strong that eventually he gave in. The first presidential election was held on January 7, 1789, and Washington won handily. John Adams (1735-1826), who received the second-largest number of votes, became the nation's first vice president. The 57-year-former Washington was inaugurated on Apr thirty, 1789, in New York City. Considering Washington, D.C., America'southward future capital letter metropolis wasn't notwithstanding congenital, he lived in New York and Philadelphia. While in function, he signed a neb establishing a futurity, permanent U.S. upper-case letter along the Potomac River—the city later named Washington, D.C., in his honour.

George Washington's Accomplishments

The United States was a small-scale nation when Washington took office, consisting of xi states and approximately 4 million people, and at that place was no precedent for how the new president should conduct domestic or strange business. Mindful that his actions would likely determine how future presidents were expected to govern, Washington worked hard to set an case of fairness, prudence and integrity. In foreign matters, he supported cordial relations with other countries but as well favored a position of neutrality in strange conflicts. Domestically, he nominated the first chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, John Jay (1745-1829), signed a nib establishing the starting time national bank, the Banking concern of the The states, and gear up his own presidential chiffonier.

His ii most prominent cabinet appointees were Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) and Secretarial assistant of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804), ii men who disagreed strongly on the office of the federal government. Hamilton favored a strong fundamental government and was part of the Federalist Party, while Jefferson favored stronger states' rights as part of the Democratic-Republican Party, the forerunner to the Democratic Political party. Washington believed that divergent views were critical for the health of the new government, just he was distressed at what he saw equally an emerging partisanship.

George Washington'south presidency was marked by a series of firsts. He signed the start United states of america copyright law, protecting the copyrights of authors. He also signed the first Thanksgiving announcement, making November 26 a national day of Thanksgiving for the end of the war for American independence and the successful ratification of the Constitution.

During Washington's presidency, Congress passed the first federal revenue police force, a taxation on distilled spirits. In July 1794, farmers in Western Pennsylvania rebelled over the then-called "whiskey tax." Washington called in over 12,000 militiamen to Pennsylvania to dissolve the Whiskey Rebellion in one of the first major tests of the say-so of the national government.

Under Washington's leadership, u.s.a. ratified the Bill of Rights, and five new states entered the matrimony: Northward Carolina (1789), Rhode Island (1790), Vermont (1791), Kentucky (1792) and Tennessee (1796).

In his second term, Washington issued the proclamation of neutrality to avoid entering the 1793 war between Swell Britain and France. Just when French minister to the United States Edmond Charles Genet—known to history as "Citizen Genet"—toured the United States, he boldly flaunted the proclamation, attempting to ready American ports every bit French military bases and proceeds support for his crusade in the Western United states of america. His meddling caused a stir between Federalists and Democratic-Republicans, widening the rift between parties and making consensus-edifice more hard.

In 1795, Washington signed the "Treaty of Amity Commerce and Navigation, between His Britannic Majesty; and The U.s. of America," or Jay's Treaty, and then-named for John Jay, who had negotiated it with the government of King George III. It helped the U.S. avoid state of war with Corking United kingdom, but also rankled sure members of Congress back dwelling house and was fiercely opposed by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Internationally, it caused a stir amongst the French, who believed it violated previous treaties between the United States and France.

Washington's administration signed ii other influential international treaties. Pinckney's Treaty of 1795, also known equally the Treaty of San Lorenzo, established friendly relations between the The states and Spain, firming upwards borders between the U.Southward. and Spanish territories in Northward America and opening upward the Mississippi to American traders. The Treaty of Tripoli, signed the following year, gave American ships access to Mediterranean shipping lanes in exchange for a yearly tribute to the Pasha of Tripoli.

George Washington's Retirement to Mount Vernon and Decease

In 1796, afterwards two terms as president and declining to serve a third term, Washington finally retired. In Washington's bye address, he urged the new nation to maintain the highest standards domestically and to keep involvement with foreign powers to a minimum. The address is all the same read each February in the U.Southward. Senate to commemorate Washington's birthday.

Washington returned to Mount Vernon and devoted his attentions to making the plantation as productive as it had been earlier he became president. More than iv decades of public service had aged him, simply he was however a commanding figure. In December 1799, he caught a cold after inspecting his backdrop in the pelting. The cold developed into a throat infection and Washington died on the night of December fourteen, 1799, at the historic period of 67. He was entombed at Mountain Vernon, which in 1960 was designated a national historic landmark.

Washington left one of the nearly indelible legacies of any American in history. Known every bit the "Male parent of His Country," his confront appears on the U.S. dollar beak and quarter, and dozens of U.S. schools, towns and counties, besides every bit the state of Washington and the nation's uppercase city, are named for him.

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Source: https://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/george-washington

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