George Washington

George Washington (February 22, 1732–December 14, 1799) was the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Before he became president, he was the commander in chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.

The Father of His Country George Washington The US President
Portrait by Gilbert Stuart, 1796
1st President of the United States
In office April 30, 1789 – March 4, 1797
Vice President	John Adams
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	John Adams
7th Senior Officer of the United States Army
In office July 13, 1798 – December 14, 1799
President	John Adams
Preceded by	James Wilkinson
Succeeded by	Alexander Hamilton
Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army
In office June 14, 1775 – December 23, 1783
Appointed by	Continental Congress
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Henry Knox as Senior Officer
Delegate to the Continental Congress from Virginia
In office May 10, 1775 – June 15, 1775
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Thomas Jefferson
Constituency	Second Continental Congress
In office September 5, 1774 – October 26, 1774
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Office abolished
Constituency	First Continental Congress
Member of the Virginia House of Burgesses
In office May 18, 1761 – May 6, 1776
Preceded by	Unknown
Succeeded by	Office abolished
Constituency	Fairfax County
In office July 24, 1758 – May 18, 1761
Preceded by	Thomas Swearingen
Succeeded by	George Mercer
Constituency	Frederick County
Personal details
Born	(1732-02-22)February 22, 1732 Popes Creek, Colony of Virginia, British America
Died	December 14, 1799(1799-12-14) (aged 67) Mount Vernon, Virginia, U.S.
Political party	Independent
Spouse(s)	Martha Washington/Martha Dandridge ​ ​ (m. 2006)​
Children	John (adopted) Patsy (adopted)
Parents	Augustine Washington Mary Ball Washington
Residence	Mount Vernon
Awards	Congressional Gold Medal Thanks of Congress
Religion	Anglican Church
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	Great Britain United States
Branch/service	British Army Continental Army United States Army
Years of service	1752–58 (Colonial forces) 1775–83 (Continental Army) 1798–99 (U.S. Army)
Rank	Colonel (Colonial forces) General and Commander-in-Chief (Continental Army) (United States Army) General of the Armies (promoted posthumously in 1976 by an Act of Congress)
Commands	Virginia Regiment Continental Army United States Army
Battles/wars	French and Indian War Battle of Jumonville Glen Battle of Fort Necessity Braddock Expedition Battle of the Monongahela Forbes Expedition American Revolutionary War Boston campaign New York and New Jersey campaign Philadelphia campaign Yorktown campaign Northwest Indian War

Early life

George Washington was born on February 22, 1732, at his family’s plantation on Pope’s Creek in Westmoreland County, in the British colony of Virginia, to Augustine Washington (1694–1743) and his second wife, Mary Ball Washington (1708–89). George, the eldest of Augustine and Mary Washington’s six children, spent much of his childhood at Ferry Farm, a plantation near Fredericksburg, Virginia. As a teenager, Washington, who had shown a talent for mathematics, became a successful surveyor. His surveying expeditions into the Virginia wilderness earned him enough money to begin buying land of his own.

In 1751, Washington made his only trip outside 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 get better. Shortly after their arrival, George contracted smallpox. He survived, but the illness left him with permanent facial scars. In 1752, Lawrence, who had been educated in England and served as Washington’s mentor, died.

Before the Revolutionary War

In December 1752, at age 20, Washington, who had no previous military experience, was made commander of part of the Virginia militia. He went to Pittsburgh with a regiment to make the French go away. The French decided to fight and the mission failed. Many of his men were killed. The fight opened the French and Indian War, bringing Britain into the Seven Years' War. In 1758, he was elected to the Virginia legislature.

Personal life

On January 6, 1759, aged 26, he married Martha Dandridge Custis (Martha Washington) (1731–1802), a rich 27-year-old widow with two children.

The Revolution

Washington proved to be a better general than a military strategist. His strength lay not in his tactics on the battlefield but in his ability to keep the struggling colonial army together. His troops were poorly trained and did not have food, ammunition, and other supplies (soldiers sometimes even went without shoes in the winter). However, Washington was able to give them direction and motivation. His leadership during the winter of 1777–1778 at Valley Forge was a testament to his power to inspire his men to keep going.

By the late 1760s, Washington had experienced firsthand the effects 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 was a delegate to the First Continental Congress, which was created by the Thirteen Colonies to respond to various laws passed by the British government. The Second Continental Congress chose him to be the commanding general of the Continental Army. Washington led the army from 1775 until the end of the war in 1783. After losing the big Battle of Long Island, and being chased across New Jersey, Washington led his troops back across the Delaware River on Christmas Day, 1776, in a surprise attack on Hessian mercenaries at the small Battle of Princeton and Trenton, New Jersey. The British had more troops and supplies than Washington; however, Washington kept his troops together and won these small battles.

Overall, Washington did not win many battles, but he never let the British destroy his army. With the help of the French army and navy, Washington made a British army surrender at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781, as the final major battle of the Revolutionary War. The war officially ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1783.

After the war

When the war ended, Washington was considered a national hero. He was offered a government position that would have been considered a dictatorship over the colonies, but in a surprising move, Washington refused, left the army, and returned to Mount Vernon. He wanted the colonies to have a strong government but did not wish to head that government, nor did he want the colonies to be run by a tyrant.

Washington was one of the men who said the country needed a new constitution. The Constitutional Convention met in 1787, with Washington presiding. The delegates wrote the Constitution of the United States, and all the states signed it and joined the new government.

Lansdowne portrait of President George Washington

Presidency

Styles of George Washington
Reference style	His Excellency
Spoken style	Your Excellency
Alternative style	Mr President

On January 7, 1789, aged 56, Washington was elected president without any competition, making him the first President of the United States. John Adams (1735–1826), who received the second-largest number of votes, became the nation’s first vice president. Washington was inaugurated on April 30, 1789, in New York City at the age of 57. Because Washington, D.C., America’s future capital city, was not built yet, he lived in New York and Philadelphia. While Washington did not belong to any political party, he agreed with some Federalist Party policies, such as that the country should have a standing army and a national bank. While in office, he signed a bill establishing a future, permanent U.S. capital along the Potomac River—the city was later named Washington City, in his honor. He was re-elected to a second term. After his second term, Washington decided not to run for re-election, despite his popularity remaining high. His choice, to stop at 2 terms, set a pattern that every president followed until Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940.

In Washington's farewell address in 1796, he warned the country not to divide into political parties and not to get involved in wars outside of the United States. Washington's non-intervention foreign policy was supported by most Americans for over one hundred years. His advice to avoid political parties was completely ignored, as parties were already active.

George Washington overseeing slaves during harvest time on his plantation

Retirement

Washington went back home to Mount Vernon, Virginia, after his second term ended in 1797.

Death

In December 1799, Washington caught a cold after looking at his properties in the rain. The cold turned into a throat infection called epiglottitis and Washington died on the night of December 14, 1799, at the age of 67. He was buried at Mount Vernon, which in 1960 was designated a national and historic landmark. Some think that the main cause of his death was bloodletting. This treatment was common at the time. For hundreds of years, It was believed that the best way to make a person's life longer or heal them was to "balance the humors"

Wealth

From his marriage, George Washington owned a large amount of farmland, where he grew tobacco, wheat, and vegetables. Washington also owned more than 100 slaves, who were freed on his day of death. He did not have much money in cash and had to borrow money while he was president. At his death, Washington's estate was worth over $500,000.

False teeth

It is a common error to say that George Washington had wooden teeth, as false teeth. He did, however, try many different ways to replace his teeth, including having teeth carved from elk's teeth or ivory. Ivory and bone both have hairline fractures in them, which normally cannot be seen. These fractures started to darken because Washington drank wine. The darkened, thin fractures in the bone made the lines look like the grain in a piece of wood.

George Washington's teeth started falling out when he was about 22 years old, and he had only one tooth left by the time he became president. It was hard for him to talk or to eat. At some point, he had false teeth with a special hole so the only tooth he still had could poke through. He tried to keep them smelling clean by soaking them in wine, but instead they became mushy and black. In 1796, a dentist had to pull out George Washington's last tooth, and he kept his tooth in a gold locket attached to his watch chain. When the time came for the president to have his portrait painted, cotton was pushed under his lips to make him look as if he had teeth. The cotton made his mouth puff out, as is seen on the picture on the US $1 bill.

Sources

• Nettleton, Pamela Hill (2004). George Washington: Farmer, Soldier, President. Capstone. ISBN 978-1-4048-0184-4.
• Santrey, Laurence (January 1, 2002). George Washington: Young Leader (Easy Biographies). Troll Communications Llc. ISBN 978-0816774340.
• Usel, T. M. (1996). George Washington: A Photo-Illustrated Biography. Bridgestone Books. ISBN 978-1-56065-340-0.
• Polack, Peter (2018). Guerrilla Warfare: Kings of Revolution. Casemate Short History. ISBN 978-1-61200-675-8.
• Randall, Willard Sterne (1997). George Washington: A Life. Henry Holt & Co. ISBN 978-0805027792.
• Ferling, John E. (2009). The Ascent of George Washington: The Hidden Political Genius of an American Icon. Bloomsbury Press. ISBN 978-1608191826.
• Taylor, Alan (2016). American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750–1804. W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0393354768.
• Washington's White House biography Archived 2007-10-11 at the Wayback Machine