George Washington

George Washington A-Z

A • On April 30, 1789, George Washington, stood on the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York and took his oath of office as the first President of the United States.

B • From1759 to the beginning of the American revolution George Washington served in the Virginia House of Burgesses.

c • In 1775 George Washington was one of the Virginia delegates that was elected Commander in Chief of the Continental Army.

D • Washington had less than three years of retirement at Mount Vernon because he died of a throat infection December 14, 1799. For months the Nation was sad.

E • Because the Nation under its Articles of Confederation was not functioning well, George Washington became a prime mover in the steps leading toward the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia in 1787. When the new Constitution was ratified, the Electoral College unanimously elected George Washington President.

F • George Washington pursued two intertwined interests: military arts and western expansion. At 16 he helped survey Shenandoah lands for Thomas, Lord Fairfax. Commissioned a lieutenant colonel in 1754, he fought the first skirmishes of what grew into the French and Indian War. The next year, as an aide to Gen. Edward Braddock, he escaped injury although four bullets ripped his coat and two horses were shot from under him.

G • He realized early that the best strategy was to harass the British. He reported to Congress, "we should on all Occasions avoid a general Action, or put anything to the Risqué, unless compelled by a necessity, into which we ought never to be drawn." Ensuing battles saw him fall back slowly, then strike unexpectedly. Finally in 1781 with the aid of French allies--he forced the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.

H • The French and Indian War had begun. The French counter attacked and drove Washington and his men back to his post at Great Meadows After a full day, Washington surrendered and was soon released and returned to Williamsburg, promising not to build another fort on the Ohio River. Though a little embarrassed at being captured, he was grateful to receive the thanks from the House of Burgesses and see his name in the London gazettes.

I • George Washington was given the honorary rank of colonel and joined British General Edward Braddock’s army in Virginia in 1755.

I • The marriage also brought Martha’s two young children, John (Jacky) and Martha (Patsy) ages six and four respectively. Washington lavished great affection on both of them and was heartbroken when Patsy died just before the Revolution. Jacky died during the Revolution.

K • In New York George Washington committed a military blunder by occupying an untenable position in Brooklyn, although 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, George Washington almost despaired. He had lost New York City to the British.

l • In May 1787, George Washington headed the Virginia delegation to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and was unanimously elected presiding officer. His presence lent prestige to the proceedings, and 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, he was unanimously elected president.

M • 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. Preferring to concentrate on restoring Mount Vernon, he added a greenhouse, a mill, an icehouse, and new land to the estate. He experimented with crop rotation, bred hunting dogs and horses, investigated the development of Potomac River navigation, undertook various commercial ventures, and traveled 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.

N • George Washington also was among the first prominent Americans to openly support resistance to England's new policies of taxation and strict regulation of the colonial economy (the Navigation Acts) beginning in the early 1770s.

O • InOctober 1781, Washington's troops, assisted by the French Navy, defeated Cornwallis at Yorktown. By the next spring the British government was ready to end hostilities.

P • After the war George Washington quelled a potentially disastrous bid by some of his officers to declare him king. He then returned to Mount Vernon and the genteel life of a tobacco planter only to be called out of retirement to preside at the Constitutional Convention in 1787.

Q • George Washington was quit a snazzy dancer He was the first president to dance. But that’s not the only first thing he did he was also the first interior designer.

R • Washington died on December 14, 1799, at his home, Mt. Vernon in Fairfax County, Virginia. After his death the nation's capital was moved from Philadelphia to a location on the border of Virginia and Maryland near Washington's home, and was named Washington district of Columbia in his honor.

S • George Washington did not infringe upon the policy making powers that he felt the Constitution gave Congress. But the determination of foreign policy became preponderantly a Presidential concern. When the French Revolution led to a huge war between France and England, George Washington refused to accept entirely the recommendations of either his Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, who was a pro-French, or his Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, who was a pro-British.

T • He pursued two intertwined interests: military arts and western expansion. At 16 he helped survey Shenandoah lands for Thomas, Lord Fairfax.

U • George Washington has the distinction of being the only president to be elected unanimously by the electoral college.

V • The nation's capital was located in Philadelphia during Washington's presidency making him the only president who didn't live in Washington, D.C. during his presidency.

W • Washington had one remaining tooth at the time of his inauguration. During his lifetime he wore dentures made of human (some his own), cow, or hippopotamus teeth, ivory, or lead, but he never wore wooden teeth.

X • George Washington stood for “No taxation without Representation”. When he became president he listened to the people.

Y • After the war George Washington desperately wanted to go home and live a quiet life, but Americans wanted no one else to lead them. No other person was seriously considered. America's first presidential campaign was really its citizens efforts to convince George Washington to accept the office.

Z • When George Washington became ill right before he died he was very quite and he kept apologizing to his servants.

George Washington