George Washington

George Washington
Born	22 2, 1732
Birthplace	Colony of Virginia, British America
Died	Template:Death date and age Mount Vernon, Virginia, United States
Nationality	American
Occupation	Planter, military officer, statesman
Title	President of the United States
Known for	First President of the United States; Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War
Spouse(s)	Martha Dandridge Custis (m. 1759)
Awards	Congressional Gold Medal; Thanks of Congress

George Washington (February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first President of the United States from 1789 to 1797. As commander-in-chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, he led Patriot forces to victory over the British Empire, securing the independence of the United States. Born into the planter class of colonial Virginia, Washington rose from a young surveyor and militia officer to become the central figure in the founding of the American republic. He presided over the Constitutional Convention of 1787, was unanimously elected president by the Electoral College twice, and established many of the customs and precedents that continue to define the American presidency. His decision to step down after two terms set a standard for the peaceful transfer of power that endured for more than a century before being codified in the Twenty-second Amendment to the Constitution. Often referred to as the "Father of His Country," Washington's legacy permeates American culture, with his name attached to the national capital, the State of Washington, and numerous institutions across the country. His 1796 farewell address remains a foundational document in American political thought, and it continues to be read aloud in the United States Senate as a tradition honoring his counsel on national unity.

Early Life

George Washington was born on February 22, 1732, in the Colony of Virginia, part of British America. Under the Old Style (Julian) calendar then in use in the British colonies, his birth date was recorded as February 11, 1731; the discrepancy arises from the adoption of the Gregorian calendar by the British Empire in 1752. He was born into a prosperous Virginia planter family. His father, Augustine Washington, was a planter who owned several estates and held interests in iron mining. His mother, Mary Ball Washington, was Augustine's second wife.

Washington's early years were spent on the family's plantations in Virginia. His father died when George was eleven years old, and much of his upbringing thereafter fell to his mother and his older half-brother Lawrence Washington, who became a significant influence on the young George. Lawrence had served as an officer in the British military and introduced George to the world of Virginia's colonial elite. Through Lawrence's marriage into the Fairfax family, one of the most prominent families in Virginia, George gained access to influential social and political networks that would shape his early career.

As a youth, Washington developed skills in surveying, which became his first professional occupation. At the age of seventeen, he was appointed the official surveyor of Culpeper County, Virginia, a position that took him into the frontier regions of the colony and gave him firsthand knowledge of the western lands that would figure prominently in colonial and early American politics. Washington's early experiences on the Virginia frontier fostered in him an interest in western land acquisition and development that persisted throughout his life.

Washington also displayed an early interest in military affairs, influenced in part by Lawrence's service. When Lawrence died in 1752, George inherited the family estate at Mount Vernon, which would remain his home for the rest of his life and become one of the most famous plantations in American history.

Career

French and Indian War

Washington's military career began during the French and Indian War (1754–1763), the North American theater of the broader Seven Years' War between Britain and France. In 1753, the young Virginian was dispatched by Lieutenant Governor Robert Dinwiddie to deliver a message to French forces in the Ohio Valley, demanding their withdrawal from territory claimed by Britain. The mission brought Washington into direct contact with French military officers and Native American leaders, and his published account of the journey brought him public attention in Virginia and beyond.

In 1754, Washington was given command of a Virginia militia force and sent to confront French expansion in the Ohio Country. His engagement with a French reconnaissance party at the Battle of Jumonville Glen in May 1754 is considered one of the opening skirmishes of the French and Indian War. Shortly afterward, Washington's forces were besieged at Fort Necessity and compelled to surrender—the only time in his military career that he surrendered to an enemy. Despite this setback, Washington gained valuable military experience and a reputation for personal bravery.

Washington subsequently served as commander of the Virginia Regiment, the first full-time American military unit in the colonies. In this capacity, he was responsible for defending Virginia's western frontier against French and Native American raids. He participated in the ill-fated Braddock Expedition of 1755, during which British General Edward Braddock was killed and the British force was routed. Washington distinguished himself in the engagement by rallying the retreating troops and had two horses shot from under him. His service during the French and Indian War gave him significant military experience, an understanding of British military tactics and their limitations, and a growing frustration with the way colonial officers were treated by the British military establishment.

Political Career in Colonial Virginia

After the French and Indian War, Washington returned to Mount Vernon and devoted himself to the life of a Virginia planter. He was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1758, representing Frederick County and later Fairfax County. He served in the House of Burgesses from 1758 until the body was effectively dissolved in 1775.

During his years in the House of Burgesses, Washington initially focused on local and agricultural matters. However, as tensions grew between the American colonies and the British Crown over issues of taxation and colonial governance, Washington became increasingly vocal in his opposition to British policies. He opposed the Stamp Act of 1765 and the Townshend Acts of 1767, and by the early 1770s had emerged as one of Virginia's leading critics of British imperial policy. Washington was selected as a delegate from Virginia to the First Continental Congress in 1774 and the Second Continental Congress in 1775, where he played a role in coordinating colonial resistance to British authority.

Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army

When the American Revolutionary War began in April 1775 with the Battles of Lexington and Concord, Washington was appointed commander-in-chief of the Continental Army by the Continental Congress on June 19, 1775. His selection was influenced by several factors: his military experience from the French and Indian War, his status as a prominent Virginian (which helped ensure Southern support for what had begun as a largely New England conflict), and his imposing physical presence and reputation for personal integrity.

Washington assumed command of a poorly organized, inadequately equipped, and largely untrained force of colonial militia and volunteers. He faced the formidable challenge of forging this disparate collection of men into a fighting force capable of challenging the professional soldiers of the British Army. His first major success came at the Siege of Boston, where he directed the fortification of Dorchester Heights in March 1776, forcing the British to evacuate the city.

The campaign that followed brought severe setbacks. After the British shifted their operations to New York, Washington's forces were defeated in a series of engagements and forced to retreat from New York City in November 1776. The Continental Army's situation grew desperate as enlistments expired and morale plummeted. Washington's response was bold and decisive: on the night of December 25–26, 1776, he led his forces across the ice-choked Delaware River and launched a surprise attack on the Hessian garrison at Trenton, New Jersey, winning a victory that revived the Patriot cause. He followed this with another victory at the Battle of Princeton in early January 1777.

The middle years of the war tested Washington's leadership to its limits. He lost the battles of Brandywine and Germantown in the fall of 1777, and his army endured the brutal winter encampment at Valley Forge in 1777–1778, where shortages of food, clothing, and supplies caused immense suffering. Washington also faced internal criticism of his command, including what became known as the Conway Cabal, an effort by some officers and members of Congress to replace him as commander. Despite these challenges, Washington maintained the cohesion of his army and continued to keep it in the field against the British.

The entry of France into the war as an American ally in 1778 fundamentally altered the strategic situation. Washington worked to coordinate operations with French forces, and in 1781 he executed the campaign that proved decisive. Moving his army south from New York, Washington joined with French forces under the Comte de Rochambeau and besieged the British army under General Charles Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia. The resulting Battle of Yorktown in October 1781 ended in the surrender of Cornwallis and his entire army, effectively ending major combat operations in the war. The Treaty of Paris, signed in 1783, formally recognized the independence of the United States.

On December 23, 1783, Washington resigned his commission as commander-in-chief and returned to Mount Vernon, an act that astonished contemporaries in Europe and America alike. His voluntary relinquishment of military power reinforced his reputation for republican virtue and set a precedent for civilian control of the military in the United States.

Constitutional Convention

After the war, Washington returned to private life at Mount Vernon but remained concerned about the weaknesses of the national government under the Articles of Confederation. In 1787, he was persuaded to attend the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, where he was unanimously elected as the convention's president. His presence lent the proceedings an aura of legitimacy and public trust. The convention produced the Constitution of the United States, which replaced the Articles of Confederation and established the framework of government that remains in effect. Washington's support for the new Constitution was instrumental in securing its ratification by the states.

Presidency (1789–1797)

Washington was unanimously elected the first President of the United States by the Electoral College in 1788 and took office on April 30, 1789. He was unanimously re-elected in 1792, the only president to have received the entirety of the electoral vote in two elections. John Adams served as his vice president during both terms.

As president, Washington faced the task of transforming the Constitution's provisions into a functioning government. He established the first presidential cabinet, appointing Thomas Jefferson as Secretary of State, Alexander Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Knox as Secretary of War, and Edmund Randolph as Attorney General. Washington sought to remain above the emerging factional disputes within his administration, particularly the increasingly bitter rivalry between Jefferson and Hamilton over the direction of federal economic policy and the scope of federal power.

Hamilton's financial program—including the assumption of state debts, the establishment of a national bank, and the promotion of manufacturing—generated fierce opposition from Jefferson and James Madison, who feared the concentration of power in the federal government. Washington generally supported Hamilton's program while attempting to maintain a balance within his cabinet.

In foreign policy, Washington navigated the complex situation created by the French Revolution. When war broke out between France and Britain in 1793, Washington proclaimed a policy of neutrality, seeking to keep the young republic out of European conflicts. He supported the negotiation of the Jay Treaty with Great Britain in 1794, which resolved outstanding issues from the Revolutionary War and established commercial relations, though the treaty was deeply unpopular with Jefferson's supporters and became a source of significant political controversy.

Washington also faced domestic challenges, including the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794, in which western Pennsylvania farmers violently protested a federal excise tax on distilled spirits. Washington personally led a militia force of approximately 13,000 men to suppress the rebellion, demonstrating the new federal government's willingness and ability to enforce its laws.

Washington set numerous precedents for the presidency that endured long after his departure from office. He established the use of the title "Mr. President" rather than more grandiose forms of address that had been proposed. He organized the executive branch, established the practice of meeting regularly with his cabinet, and issued the first presidential veto. Perhaps most significantly, he declined to seek a third term in office, establishing a two-term tradition that was honored by every president until Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940 and was later codified in the Twenty-second Amendment to the Constitution.

Washington's farewell address, published in September 1796, articulated his views on the importance of national unity and warned against the dangers of regionalism, partisan factionalism, and entangling foreign alliances. The address has remained a foundational text in American political discourse and continues to be read aloud in the United States Senate each year around Washington's birthday.

Personal Life

On January 6, 1759, Washington married Martha Dandridge Custis, a wealthy widow with two children from her previous marriage. The marriage brought Washington considerable additional wealth and social standing. He raised Martha's children, John Parke Custis and Martha Parke Custis, as his own, though he and Martha had no biological children together.

Washington was a devoted manager of his Mount Vernon estate, which grew to encompass approximately 8,000 acres divided into five farms. He was an innovative agriculturalist who experimented with crop rotation and diversified his operations beyond tobacco to include wheat, flax, and other crops. He also operated a distillery and a gristmill on the estate.

As a Virginia planter, Washington owned enslaved people throughout most of his life. At the time of his death, more than 300 enslaved individuals lived and worked at Mount Vernon. Washington's views on slavery evolved over the course of his life; by the end of the Revolutionary War, he had expressed private reservations about the institution. In his will, he provided for the manumission of the enslaved people he personally owned, to take effect upon the death of Martha Washington. Martha freed them in 1801, approximately one year after George's death.

Washington died on December 14, 1799, at Mount Vernon, at the age of 67. His death was caused by an acute throat infection, likely epiglottitis or acute bacterial laryngitis, which was treated by the standard medical practices of the time, including repeated bloodletting. He was buried at Mount Vernon, where his tomb remains a site of pilgrimage.

Recognition

Washington received the Thanks of Congress on multiple occasions during and after the Revolutionary War for his military service. In 1976, as part of the United States Bicentennial celebrations, Congress posthumously promoted Washington to the rank of General of the Armies of the United States, ensuring that no officer in the United States military would ever outrank him.

The Washington Monument, a 555-foot obelisk on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was completed in 1884 and stands as one of the most recognizable memorials in the world. Washington's likeness is carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, alongside those of Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt.

Numerous educational institutions bear his name. George Washington University, founded in 1821 in Washington, D.C., was established in fulfillment of Washington's wish for a national university in the capital city. Washington University in St. Louis, founded in 1853, is also named in his honor. The College of William & Mary appointed Washington as its first American chancellor, a ceremonial role he held from 1788 until his death.

Washington's image appears on the United States one-dollar bill and the quarter-dollar coin, and his birthday is commemorated annually as a federal holiday (Presidents' Day). In 2026, as the United States approached the 250th anniversary of its founding, Washington's legacy continued to feature prominently in national commemorations. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson displayed Washington's original 1793 gavel—the same one used to lay the cornerstone of the United States Capitol—during the State of the Union address as part of the country's semiquincentennial celebrations.

Legacy

Washington's place in American history is defined by several interconnected roles: as the military leader who secured American independence, as the presiding officer of the convention that created the Constitution, and as the first president who translated that document into a functioning government. His voluntary relinquishment of power—first when he resigned his military commission in 1783, and again when he declined to seek a third presidential term in 1796—established a republican model of leadership that distinguished the American experiment from the monarchical and authoritarian systems that prevailed in Europe.

His farewell address, with its warnings against the dangers of partisan division, regional factionalism, and excessive foreign entanglements, has been invoked by political leaders of all persuasions throughout American history. The tradition of reading the address in the United States Senate, maintained into the 21st century, reflects the document's enduring relevance to American political debate.

Washington's relationship with slavery remains a complex and scrutinized aspect of his legacy. As a man who fought for liberty while holding other human beings in bondage, Washington embodies the central contradiction of the American founding. His decision to free his enslaved workers in his will, while significant, came only at the end of his life and applied only to those he personally owned, not to the larger number of enslaved people at Mount Vernon who were held as part of Martha Washington's dower estate. Scholars continue to examine and debate this aspect of his life and its implications for understanding the founding era.

Washington's influence on the development of the American presidency cannot be overstated in factual terms. Nearly every aspect of the office as it functioned for its first two centuries bore the imprint of the precedents he established during his two terms. The cabinet system, the practice of presidential neutrality in legislative debates, the use of executive orders, and the principle of a two-term limit all originated in Washington's conduct of the office.

In scholarly and popular assessments of American presidents, Washington consistently ranks among the top tier. His image, memorialized in stone, paint, and currency, remains among the most recognized in the world. The national capital that bears his name stands as a daily reminder of his centrality to the American founding, and institutions from universities to military installations continue to invoke his name and example.