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President George Washington Biography: by-name Father of His Country (February 22, 1732 - December 14, 1799) was an American general and Commander-in-Chief of the colonial armies in the American Revolution (1775–83) and subsequently first president of the United States (1789–97). He also served as president of the 1787 Constitutional Convention.
For the role he played in winning and securing American independence, George Washington is generally recognized as one of the greatest figures of world history. Unlike many other revolutionary leaders, he voluntarily relinquished power and thus established an important principle of democratic government.
President George Washington Biography:
Death
After retiring from the presidency in March of 1797, George Washington eagerly returned to Mount Vernon. However, he fell ill two years later and died on December 14, 1799.
Modern day doctors now believe that Washington died from either a streptococcal infection of the throat or, since he was bled as part of the treatment, a combination of shock from the loss of blood, asphyxia, and dehydration. He was buried in a family graveyard at Mount Vernon.
Congressman Henry Light Horse Harry Lee, a Revolutionary War comrade, famously eulogized Washington as "a citizen, first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."
President George Washington Biography:
Personal information
Admirers of Washington circulated an apocryphal story about his honesty as a child. In the story, he wanted to try out a new axe and chopped down his father's cherry tree; when questioned by his father, he gave the famous non-quotation: "I cannot tell a lie. It was I who chopped down the cherry tree." The story first appeared after Washington's death in a naive "inspirational" children's book by Parson Mason Weems, who had been rector of the Mount Vernon parish. See also George Washington's axe for an elaboration of this story. Parson Weems also fabricated a famous story about George Washington praying for help in a lonely spot in the woods near Valley Forge.
Nevertheless, Washington was a man of great personal integrity, with a deeply-held sense of duty, honor and patriotism. He was courageous and far-sighted, holding the Continental Army together through eight hard years of war and numerous privations, sometimes by sheer force of will.
Because of Washington's involvement in Freemasonry, some publicly visible collections of Washington memorabilia are maintained by Masonic lodges. The museum at Fraunces Tavern Museum in New York City includes specimens of Washington's false teeth.
George Washington was plagued throughout his adult life with bad teeth, losing about one tooth a year from the age of 24. In his later years he consulted a number of dentists and had a number of sets of false teeth (but none of wood). For a lighthearted, more or less definitive chronicle of his struggles see George Washington's Teeth, Madeleine Comora and Deborah Chandra, illustrated by: Brock Cole, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003, hardcover, ISBN 0374325340.
Washington was notable for his modesty and lack of ambition. He never accepted pay during his military service, and was genuinely reluctant to assume any of the offices thrust upon him. When John Adams recommended him for the position of general and commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, Washington left the room. In later accepting the post, Washington told the Continental Congress that he was unworthy of the honor. It is often said that one of Washington's greatest achievements as president was refraining from taking more power than was due. Thomas Jefferson wrote, "The moderation and virtue of a single character probably prevented this Revolution from being closed, as most others have been, by a subversion of that liberty it was intended to establish."
President George Washington Biography:
Washington and slavery
Washington owned slaves throughout his adult life, as did most of his peers in the Virginia plantation aristocracy as a matter of economic imperative. He was noteworthy, however, for the humane treatment of his slaves and for his growing unease with the "peculiar institution." Historian Roger Bruns has written, "As he grew older, he became increasingly aware that it was immoral and unjust. Long before the Revolution, Washington had taken the unusual position of refusing to sell any of his slaves or to allow slave families to be separated." After the Revolution, Washington told an English friend, "I clearly foresee that nothing but the rooting out of slavery can perpetuate the existence of our [Federal] union by consolidating it on a common bond of principle." He wrote to his friend John Francis Mercer in 1786, "I never mean... to possess another slave by purchase; it being among my first wishes to see some plan adopted, by which slavery in this country may be abolished by slow, sure, & imperceptible degrees." Ten years later, he wrote to Robert Morris, "There is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do to see some plan adopted for the gradual abolition" of slavery.
As President, Washington was mindful of the risk of splitting apart the young republic over the question of slavery (as in fact happened in 1861). He did not advocate the abolition of slavery while in office, but did sign legislation enforcing the prohibition of slavery in the Northwest Territory, writing to his good friend the Marquis de la Fayette that he considered it a wise measure.
Alone among the slaveholding Framers, Washington included provisions in his will which freed his slaves at his death. His widow Martha freed those she owned shortly before she died.
President George Washington Biography:
Religious beliefs
George Washington was one of the few early American Presidents who was not a total follower of any one specific Christian denomination. He professed a strong belief in God, but did not necessarily believe that God intervened in the world through supernatural miracles. His informal religious beliefs were sometimes described as Deism; although he attended, and served as a vestryman (lay officer) of, the Episcopal Church – of which his wife was a devout member.
Washington was an early supporter of religious pluralism. In 1790 he wrote that he envisioned a country "which gives bigotry no sanction...persecution no assistance.... May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid." This letter was seen by the Jewish community as a significant event; they felt that for the first time in millennia Jews would enjoy full human and political rights.
President George Washington Biography
Legacy
The capital city of the United States, Washington, D.C., is named for him. The District of Columbia was created by an Act of Congress in 1790, and Washington was deeply involved in its creation, including the siting of the White House. At this time, the future site of the capital was a swamp, and Washington remained largely marshland well into the 19th century. The capital was placed in the South, rather than in the major towns of the North, as a compromise during the writing of the United States Constitution in order to get Southern votes for important compromises.
Washington also selected West Point, New York, as the site for the United States Military Academy.
Washington State in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. is also named for him, the only state named for a president.
Numerous ships of United States Navy have been named USS George Washington in honor of the man, or USS Washington in honor of the state named in honor of the man.
His image is on the one dollar bill and the quarter-dollar coin.
The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., was named after him, and it was in part founded with shares Washington bequeathed to an endowment to create a university in Washington.
"George Washington"
President George Washington Biography