George Washington was commander in chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolution and the first president of the United States (1789–97).
Early Life and Career
George Washington was born in Westmoreland County, Va., on Feb. 22 (N.S.; Feb. 11, O.S.), 1732. He was the eldest son of Augustine Washington and his second wife, Mary Ball Washington, who were prosperous Virginia gentry of English descent. George spent his early years on the family estate on Pope's Creek along the Potomac River. His early education included the study of such subjects as mathematics, surveying, the classics, and "rules of civility." His father died in 1743. Soon thereafter George went to live with his half brother Lawrence at Mount Vernon, Lawrence's plantation on the Potomac. Lawrence, who became something of a substitute father for his brother, had married into the Fairfax family. These prominent and influential Virginians helped launch George's career. An early ambition to go to sea had been effectively discouraged by George's mother; instead, he turned to surveying, securing (1748) an appointment to survey Lord Fairfax's lands in the Shenandoah Valley. He helped lay out the Virginia town of Belhaven (now Alexandria) in 1749 and was appointed surveyor for Culpeper County. George accompanied his brother to Barbados in an effort to cure Lawrence of tuberculosis, but Lawrence died in 1752, soon after the brothers returned. George ultimately inherited the Mount Vernon estate.
In 1753 the growing rivalry between the British and French over control of the Ohio Valley created new opportunities for the ambitious young Washington. As adjutant of one of Virginia's four military districts, he was dispatched (October 1753) by Gov. Robert Dinwiddie on a fruitless mission to warn the French commander at Fort Le Boeuf against further encroachment on territory claimed by Britain. Washington's diary account of the dangers and difficulties of his journey was published at Williamsburg on his return; it may have helped win him his ensuing promotion to lieutenant colonel. Although only 22 years of age and lacking experience, he learned quickly. He met the problems of recruitment, supply, and desertions with a combination of brashness and native ability that earned him the respect of his superiors.
French and Indian War
In April 1754, on his way to establish a post at the Forks of the Ohio (the current site of Pittsburgh), Washington learned that the French had already erected a fort there (Fort Duquesne). Warned that the French were advancing, he quickly threw up fortifications at Great Meadows, Pa., aptly naming the entrenchment Fort Necessity. He then marched to intercept advancing French troops. In the resulting skirmish the French commander Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville was killed and most of his men were captured. Washington pulled his small force back into Fort Necessity, where he was overwhelmed (July 3) by the French in an all-day battle fought in a drenching rain. Surrounded by enemy troops, with his food supply almost exhausted and his dampened ammunition useless, Washington capitulated. Under the terms of the surrender signed that day, he was permitted to march his troops back to Williamsburg. These proved to be the opening engagements of the French and Indian War (1754–63).
Discouraged by his defeat and angered by discrimination between British and colonial officers in rank and pay, Washington resigned his commission near the end of 1754. The next year, however, he volunteered to join British general Edward Braddock's expedition against the French. When Braddock was ambushed by the French and their Indian allies on the Monongahela River, Washington, although seriously ill, tried to rally the Virginia troops. Whatever public criticism attended the debacle, Washington's own military reputation was enhanced. In 1755, at the age of 23, he was promoted to colonel and appointed commander in chief of the Virginia militia, with responsibility for defending the frontier. In 1758 he took an active part in Gen. John Forbes's successful campaign against Fort Duquesne. From his correspondence during these years, Washington can be seen evolving and maturing. He started as a brash, vain, and opinionated young officer, impatient with restraints and given to writing admonitory letters to his superiors. Within a few years he had become a seasoned soldier with a grasp of administration and a firm understanding of how to deal effectively with civil authority.
Virginia Politician
Assured that the Virginia frontier was safe from French attack, Washington left the army in 1758. He returned to Mount Vernon and directed his attention toward restoring his neglected estate. He erected new buildings, refurnished the house, and experimented with new crops. With the support of an ever growing circle of influential friends, he entered politics. He was to serve in Virginia's House of Burgesses from 1759 to 1774. In January 1759 he married Martha Dandridge Custis (see Washington, Martha), a wealthy and attractive young widow with two small children. It was to be a happy and satisfying marriage.
After 1769, Washington became a leader in Virginia's opposition to Great Britain's colonial policies. At first he hoped for reconciliation with Britain, although some British policies had touched him personally. Discrimination against colonial military officers had rankled deeply. Moreover, British land policies and restrictions on western expansion after 1763 had seriously hindered his plans for western land speculation. In addition, he shared the usual planter's dilemma in being continually in debt to his London agents. As a delegate (1774–75) to both the First and the Second Continental Congress, Washington did not participate actively in the deliberations. His presence, though, was undoubtedly a stabilizing influence. On June 15, 1775, he was Congress's unanimous choice as commander in chief of the Continental forces.
American Revolution
Washington took command of the troops surrounding British-occupied Boston on July 3. He devoted the next few months to training the undisciplined 14,000-man army and trying to secure urgently needed powder and other supplies. Early in March 1776, using cannon brought down from Ticonderoga by Henry Knox, Washington occupied Dorchester Heights. From this high point, he effectively commanded the city, forcing the British to evacuate on March 17. He then moved to defend New York City against the combined land and sea forces of Sir William Howe. In New York he committed a military blunder by occupying an untenable position in Brooklyn (see Long Island, Battle of). However, he saved his army by skillfully retreating from Manhattan into Westchester County and through New Jersey into Pennsylvania. In the last months of 1776, desperately short of men and supplies, Washington almost despaired. He had lost New York City to the British; enlistment was almost up for a number of the troops, and others were deserting in droves; civilian morale was falling rapidly; and Congress, faced with the possibility of a British attack on Philadelphia, had withdrawn from the city.
Colonial morale was briefly revived by the capture of Trenton, N.J. This was the result of a brilliantly conceived attack in which Washington crossed the Delaware River on Christmas night 1776 and surprised the predominantly Hessian garrison. Advancing to Princeton, he routed the British there on Jan. 3, 1777. In September and October 1777, however, he suffered serious reverses in Pennsylvania—at Brandywine and Germantown. The major success of that year—the defeat (October 1777) of the British at Saratoga, N.Y.—had belonged not to Washington but to Benedict Arnold and Horatio Gates. The contrast between Washington's record and Gates's brilliant victory was one factor that led to the so-called Conway Cabal. This was an intrigue by some members of Congress and army officers to replace Washington with a more successful commander, probably Gates. Washington responded quickly, and the plan eventually collapsed due to lack of public support as well as to Washington's overall superiority to his rivals.
After holding his bedraggled and dispirited army together during the difficult winter at Valley Forge, Washington learned that France had recognized American independence. With the aid of the Prussian general Baron von Steuben and the French marquis de Lafayette, he concentrated on turning the army into a viable fighting force. By spring he was ready to take the field again. In June 1778, Washington attacked Sir Henry Clinton's army near Monmouth Courthouse, N.J., as it withdrew from Philadelphia toward New York. His plan to strike a major blow against the British was ruined by Maj. Gen. Charles Lee's lack of enterprise. Nevertheless, Washington's quick action on the field prevented an American defeat (see Monmouth, Battle of).
In 1780 the main theater of the war shifted to the South. The campaigns in Virginia and the Carolinas were conducted by other generals, including Nathanael Greene and Daniel Morgan. Washington, however, was still responsible for the overall direction of the war. After the arrival of the French army in 1780 he concentrated on coordinating allied efforts. In 1781 he launched, in cooperation with the comte de Rochambeau and the comte d'Estaing, the brilliantly planned and executed Yorktown Campaign. The defeat there of the British general Charles Cornwallis secured (Oct. 19, 1781) the American victory.
Washington had grown enormously in stature during the war. A man of unquestioned integrity, he began by accepting the advice of more experienced officers such as Gates and Charles Lee. He quickly learned, though, to trust his own judgment. He sometimes railed at Congress for its failure to supply troops and for the bungling fiscal measures that frustrated his efforts to secure adequate matériel. Gradually, however, he developed what was perhaps his greatest strength in a society suspicious of the military: an ability to deal effectively with civil authority. Whatever his private opinions, his relations with Congress and with the state governments were exemplary. He never abused the almost dictatorial authority that his wartime powers bestowed on him. On the battlefield Washington relied on a policy of trial and error, eventually becoming a master of improvisation. Often accused of being overly cautious, he could be bold when success seemed possible. He learned to use the short-term militia skillfully and to combine green troops with veterans to produce an efficient fighting force.
After the war Washington returned to Mount Vernon, which had declined in his absence. Although he became president of the Society of the Cincinnati, an organization of former Revolutionary War officers, he avoided involvement in Virginia politics. He preferred to concentrate on restoring Mount Vernon. Besides adding a greenhouse, a mill, and an icehouse, he incorporated new land into the estate. He experimented with crop rotation and bred hunting dogs and horses. Washington also investigated the development of Potomac River navigation, undertook various commercial ventures, and traveled (1784) west to examine his land holdings near the Ohio River. His diary notes a steady stream of visitors, native and foreign; Mount Vernon, like its owner, had already become a national institution.
In May 1787, Washington headed the Virginia delegation to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and was unanimously elected presiding officer. His presence lent prestige to the proceedings. Although he made few direct contributions, he generally supported the advocates of a strong central government. After the new Constitution was submitted to the states for ratification and became legally operative, Washington was unanimously elected president (1789).
The Presidency
Taking office (Apr. 30, 1789) in New York City, Washington acted carefully and deliberately. He was well aware of the need to build an executive structure that could accommodate future presidents. Hoping to prevent sectionalism from dividing the new nation, he toured the New England states (1789) and the South (1791). An able administrator, he nevertheless failed to heal the widening breach between factions led by Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton. He supported many of Hamilton's controversial fiscal policies—the assumption of state debts, the Bank of the United States, and the excise tax. This made him the target of attacks by Jefferson's Democratic Republican party.
Washington was reelected president in 1792. The following year the most divisive crisis arising out of the personal and political conflicts within his cabinet occurred. The issue was Washington's policy of neutrality during the war between England and France, which angered the pro-French Jeffersonians. Washington was horrified by the excesses of the French Revolution. He was also enraged by the tactics of Edmond Genêt, the French minister in the United States, which amounted to foreign interference in American politics. Further, with an eye toward developing closer commercial ties with the British, the president agreed with the Hamiltonians on the need for peace with Britain. Accordingly, he accepted the 1794 Jay's Treaty, which settled outstanding differences between the United States and Britain but which Democratic Republicans viewed as an abject surrender to British demands. This revived vituperation against the president, as did his vigorous upholding of the excise law during the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania.
Retirement and Assessment
By March 1797, when Washington left office, the country's financial system was well established; the Indian threat east of the Mississippi had been largely eliminated; and Jay's Treaty and Pinckney's Treaty (1795; see Pinckney [family]) with Spain had enlarged U.S. territory and removed serious diplomatic difficulties. Despite the animosities and conflicting opinions between Democratic Republicans and members of the Hamiltonian Federalist party, the two groups were at least united in acceptance of the new federal government. Washington refused to run for a third term. After a masterly Farewell Address in which he warned the United States against permanent alliances abroad, he went home to Mount Vernon. He was succeeded by his vice-president, Federalist John Adams.
Although Washington reluctantly accepted command of the army in 1798 when war with France seemed imminent, he did not assume an active role. He preferred to spend his last years in happy retirement at Mount Vernon. In mid-December, Washington contracted what was probably quinsy or acute laryngitis; he declined rapidly and died at his estate on Dec. 14, 1799.
Even during his lifetime, Washington loomed large in the national imagination. His role as a symbol of American virtue was enhanced soon after his death by the publication (c.1800) of the Life and Memorable Actions of George Washington by Mason L. Weems. In this book first appeared such legends as the story about the cherry tree. Later biographers of note included Washington Irving (5 vols., 1855–59) and Woodrow Wilson (1896). Washington's own works have been published in various editions. These include The Writings of George Washington …, 1745–1799, edited by John C. Fitzpatrick (39 vols., 1931–44). Since 1969 the University of Virginia has been engaged in a project to publish a comprehensive edition of Washington's correspondence and all documents written by him. When complete it will consist of about 90 volumes. First published was The Diaries of George Washington, edited by Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig (6 vols., 1976–79). The Papers of George Washington, which include not only his own letters and papers but letters written to him, are divided into five series: The Colonial Series (1744–1775), edited by W. W. Abbott and Dorothy Twohig (10 vols., 1983–95); The Revolutionary War Series (1775–1783), edited by Philander D. Chase and others (16 vols. so far, 1986–2006); The Confederation Series (1783–1788), edited by W. W. Abbott (6 vols., 1992–97); The Presidential Series (1788–1797), edited by Dorothy Twohig and others (13 vols. so far, 1987–2007); and The Retirement Series (1797–1799), edited by W. W. Abbott (4 vols., 1998–99). A selection of Washington's writings, edited by John H. Rhodehamel, was published by the Library of America in 1997. (Twohig, Dorothy. "Washington, George." Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. Grolier Online, 2012. Web. 1 Feb. 2012.)