George Washington was born in Virginia on 22 February 1732.
His father died in 1743, and George inherited a farm and ten slaves.
His mother taught him morals and religion.
He had little schooling and educated himself by reading, and he studied Seneca’s Morals.
He began learning how to survey land in 1748 and started keeping a diary.
He was influenced by his older half-brother Lawrence who taught him
about the military
and politics, and George read about Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great.
George began earning a living by surveying land.
He got smallpox on a trip to Barbados in 1751 with Lawrence that made him immune.
Lawrence died of tuberculosis in 1752, and by then
George owned 2,315 acres in the Shenandoah Valley.
He joined a new Masonic lodge to promote human happiness.
In 1752 Virginia’s new Governor Robert Dinwiddie
established militia districts and made Washington an adjutant.
The French began building forts by the Ohio River,
and the British directed Dinwiddie to do the same.
On 30 October 1753 he sent Major George Washington to warn
the French commander at Fort Le Boeuf to leave the Ohio Valley.
On this mission Washington was assisted by Jacob van Braam who knew French
and by Christopher Gist who knew the territory,
and they had the native Chief Half King as an ally.
They survived freezing weather, and Washington published an account of their expedition.
He met with native chiefs and delivered his message to a French officer
and found a good place for a fort.
The chiefs warned the French three times there could be a war.
Dinwiddie was ordered in October to build forts.
He sent Major Washington, and he and Half King
spoke to an Indian council on November 26.
Washington took notes on France’s Fort Le Boeuf on December 13.
The French gave Washington a letter that he took
to Gov. Dinwiddie who ordered a fort built.
Washington published a journal of his expeditions.
In April 1754 Dinwiddie sent Lt. Col. Washington with 160 recruits.
The French completed Fort Le Boeuf and sent 800 soldiers to the Ohio forks.
Washington asked Half King and his men to fight against the French,
and they set up a camp at Great Meadows on May 24.
Gist said 50 French raided his house.
Four days later Washington and Half King’s Mingoes attacked those French
by Redstone Creek, killing 9 men including the officer Jumonville,
and they had only one man killed.
About 400 men reinforced Washington as they built Fort Necessity at Great Meadows.
Half King and his Indians left.
About 600 French and Canadians with 100 Indians attacked Fort Necessity.
Washington saw that they were almost out of ammunition,
and he sent Van Braam to negotiate.
The surrender allowed the English to leave, and they promised
not to return across the mountains for one year.
Van Braam and Captain Robert Stobo were taken to Fort Duquesne as hostages.
These violent incidents would trigger the Seven Years War
between the British and French empires from 1756 to 1763.
In 1754 Benjamin Franklin proposed the Albany Plan for a central government in America,
and the colonial governments rejected it on July 10.
The British Superintendent of Indian Affairs William Johnson
criticized Washington for being ambitious and careless.
The Virginia government levied a poll tax in October.
Washington’s regiment was broken into companies,
and he resigned and again published an account of his adventures.
In March 1755 General Edward Braddock led
the largest British army that had come to America.
Washington attended a British conference of governors in April at Alexandria.
He volunteered to serve on Braddock’s staff without pay.
Benjamin Franklin helped get the needed wagons and horses.
They made Wills Creek into Fort Cumberland.
Washington was ill and stayed behind the advance.
Many more Indians fought for the French,
and Braddock did not know how to fight them.
Washington joined the battle on July 9 and fought heroically as the English were defeated,
and some Indians believed he was divinely protected.
Braddock died of his wounds, and Washington directed his burial.
On a second offer Washington accepted command of Virginia’s forces in August.
Virginia’s Assembly reduced its army to 1,200 troops.
Washington’s job was to defend the frontier.
He had a deserter hanged and instilled discipline.
Virginia recruited 27,000 for the militia.
Washington had Fort Loudon built near Winchester.
He complained to Dinwiddie that they needed more support.
Britain declared war against France on 17 May 1756, and they recruited Indians.
In January 1757 Washington wrote a long and critical letter
to the Commander-in-Chief Loudoun.
Washington increased punishment by lashes.
In April 1757 British Prime Minister William Pitt replaced Loudon with
General John Forbes and ordered him to attack France’s Fort Duquesne at the three rivers.
He provided funds, and Virginia offered a £10 bounty to enlist,
though it was repealed in 1758; instead troops were offered land in the Ohio Valley.
Provincial officers were made equal to British officers which Washington had long favored.
Forbes led an army of 6,000 men.
Cherokees attacked Fort Duquesne from April to August,
and Washington got Forbes to agree to let the men dress like Indians.
George Washington used £40 for liquor to
get elected to the House of Burgesses on July 24.
He was promoted to colonel and led the final attack on Fort Duquesne
which was abandoned and burned the day before
he arrived there with 1,000 men on November 25.
He claimed 200,000 acres for the veterans.
The English built Fort Pitt where the three rivers meet.
Washington retired, and on 6 January 1759 he married the wealthy widow Martha Custis.
In his farewell speech he said he had nothing but honesty.
In February he began serving as a burgess and got on the Propositions
and Grievances Committee as well as on military committees.
In 1761 he inherited Mount Vernon, and in April
he with Martha and her two children moved in there.
In 1762 he became a vestryman in the Anglican Church.
He ordered his overseers to treat the slaves with humanity,
and he prohibited using the whip on blacks.
Each year he gave every slave a set of new clothes and shoes.
He rarely sold a slave and did not break up families.
Over the years his slaves multiplied, and he provided for the children and the elderly.
Britain and France made a peace treaty in February 1763,
and the French and Indian War in America was part of the expenses
that nearly doubled Britain’s debt to £132.6 million.
Fort Pitt was ten times larger than Fort Duquesne and had British garrisons.
The British stopped supporting Indians and had to deal with Pontiac’s War.
Washington joined the Mississippi Land Company in June, and in October
the British banned settlers from crossing the Allegheny Mountains.
Virginia’s veterans’ bounties ranged from 50 acres for privates to 5,000 for some officers.
The British were planning to tax the colonists to help pay for the Seven Years War.
The Indian superintendent William Johnson called a council at Niagara,
and George Mason complained that the western land was given to the Indians.
To pay for their costs in the French and Indian War
the British imposed a Stamp Tax on the 13 American colonies.
Washington supported the resolutions proposed by Patrick Henry
in the House of Burgesses that opposed paying British taxes
that the Americans had not approved.
Washington had invested in the Mississippi Land Company,
and he replaced his tobacco fields with productive crops
that were not exported and increased his crops on his five farms.
Virginia was not represented at the first Congress
that passed resolutions opposing the Stamp Act.
Washington did not use the stamps and was glad
when the Stamp Tax was repealed in June 1766.
The British imposed new taxes of the Townsend Acts in 1767.
In 1768 Washington asked Gov. Dinwiddie for the acres promised to the veterans
of the war, and in September he was appointed a judge of the Fairfax County Court.
In February 1769 Washington joined merchants in an embargo of British goods.
In May in the House of Burgesses he favored a nonimportation association
to boycott British goods, and George Mason’s Nonimportation Resolutions were passed.
They also promised not to import any slaves or wines or buy any that were imported.
Governor Bortetourt reacted by dissolving the House of Burgesses.
Members met in a tavern and chose Peyton Randolph
as moderator and George Washington as chairman.
Nonimportation Resolutions followed in Maryland, South Carolina, Georgia,
and North Carolina, and the ban became effective on September 1.
The Virginia Association formed on August 1 became the model
for the Continental Association that the Congress adopted in October.
Washington was buying land, and in 1770 Britain rejected his Mississippi Land Company.
He began leasing land to settlers and banks,
and he operated a large fishing business in the Potomac River.
In 1772 Washington asked for a patent on 20,147 acres, and in November 1773
the Virginia government granted 200,000 acres in western lands to the veterans.
Washington supported Thomas Jefferson’s idea for a standing committee
on constitutional rights that ten other colonies also adopted in 1774.
After the Boston Tea Party in December 1773 the British imposed military rule
over that city, and Washington called that “the most despotic system of tyranny.”
Samuel Adams wrote to Washington asking them to stop all imports,
and they planned to do so on August 1.
Washington was re-elected a Burgess in July 1774.
Washington and George Mason organized the Fairfax Resolves
that a committee accepted the next day.
On August 1 Washington presided over a Virginia Convention of 81 radical Burgesses.
They approved resolutions and gave them to delegates to the Continental Congress.
The Virginians Washington, Peyton Randolph, Richard Henry Lee, Patrick Henry,
and three others were elected delegates to the Continental Congress
that met at Philadelphia on September 5.
That day they elected Peyton Randolph as their President.
They proposed an Association with a detailed plan that was signed by Peyton Randolph.
They resolved to stop imports starting on 10 September 1775.
The Congress adjourned on 26 October 1774.
Washington led six companies that were organized in Virginia
by December with a committee in every county.
In January 1775 the former British Prime Minister William Pitt
made a brilliant speech calling for the recall of British troops from Boston.
Fairfax electors chose Washington again in February, and he was re-elected
in March to be a delegate in the Second Continental Congress.
Virginia approved the resolutions of the First Continental Congress.
On March 23 Patrick Henry made a speech saying that they must fight,
and he declared, “Give me liberty or give me death!”
On April 19 the fighting began as British soldiers arrived at Lexington and then at Concord.
The British were attacked on their way back to Boston where they were besieged.
Washington in Williamsburg held back his five independent companies,
and House Speaker Peyton Randolph persuaded people to disperse.
On May 9 about 500 horsemen met Washington near Philadelphia.
The Second Continental Congress met the next day, and they re-elected Peyton Randolph.
A Congress in Massachusetts resolved to raise 13,600 men to fight tyranny.
Washington worked on nine committees,
and his committee on the army completed their report on May 19.
On June 14 the Congress took responsibility for the American troops in Boston,
and they approved raising six companies with rifles.
John Adams of Massachusetts proposed that George Washington
be Commander-in-Chief of the Continental army, and he was elected unanimously.
He said he would accept no money except for expenses,
and he would keep an exact account.
At this time he had 58,000 acres of land and over a hundred slaves.
On June 17 about 3,000 British soldiers drove some
2,400 Americans off Breed’s Hill and Bunker Hill in Boston.
The Americans fought back and inflicted about twice as many casualties as they suffered.
Hearing the news, Washington believed that American liberties would survive.
He appointed generals from various colonies.
He took command of 16,000 militia in Boston on July 3
and began using court martial trials to instill discipline.
On July 10 the Continental Congress appointed Benjamin Franklin,
Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Richard Henry Lee to a
committee that became the Board of War in January 1776.
Also in July three commissioners made a peace treaty with the
Six Nations of the Iroquois, Delawares, and Shawnee.
Ben Franklin and Jefferson drafted “Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union”
which were presented to Congress on July 21.
On August 1 Washington discovered that they had only 90 barrels of gunpowder,
and the next day the Congress adjourned until September 5.
On August 23 King George III ordered the rebellion suppressed.
During the summer Americans obtained 20,000 pounds of gunpowder.
Washington had several men put in the guardhouse for breeching discipline,
and a mutiny by Pennsylvania riflemen was defeated.
The Continental Congress reconvened with a quorum on September 12.
Georgia with five delegates became the thirteenth colony represented.
On September 21 Washington wrote to Congress that money
must be raised to pay soldiers, or the army would break up.
Congress printed money and sent $500,000 on September 29.
In October at a war council Washington and his generals
agreed to reject slaves, Negroes, boys, and old men.
Virginia’s Gov. Dunsmore in November appealed to slaves and
indentured servants to escape and join the Royal Ethiopian Regiment,
and in a few months about a thousand slaves enlisted.
The Continental Congress in December authorized the building of 13 warships.
Washington called for 3,000 militia from Massachusetts and 2,000 from New Hampshire.
As many enlistments were ending, on December 31 he wrote to Congress President
Hancock that he would accept the enlistment of free Negroes unless Congress disapproved.
On 9 January 1776 the American army had 8,212 men
that included free negroes, though only 5,600 men were fit for duty.
On January 10 Thomas Paine published Common Sense with a call for independence.
In three months the book sold 150,000 copies.
Washington on February 9 reported that 2,000 of his men did not have firearms.
On March 2 he ordered Henry Knox with his cannons to bombard the British in Boston,
and at night the Americans built forts on Dorchester Heights.
A Committee of Secret Correspondence sent Silas Deane to Paris,
and he negotiated a loan of one million livres from France in early May.
General William Howe evacuated Boston, and by March 17
about 8,000 British soldiers and 1,100 refugees had left Boston on about 170 ships.
People returned to Boston and thanked Washington for his peaceful victory.
During the first nine months of his command he had lost fewer than twenty men.
Washington moved the army out of Boston, and on April 14 they arrived in New York.
He complied with the request of Congress that he send half his army to Canada.
The British hired 12,700 Hessian mercenaries at high rates.
On May 9 the Continental Congress decided to print $5,000,000.
In June the Congress informed Washington that he
could enlist Indians and pay bounties for prisoners.
Virginia’s Constitutional Convention agreed on a “Declaration of Rights”
written by George Mason on June 12, and they approved a constitution in late June.
New Jersey accepted a charter on July 2.
Washington suggested the Congress provide 6,000 militia for Canada
and 13,800 for the battle in New York, and they did so.
They put John Adams in charge of the Board of War for recruiting soldiers
and providing supplies, and he often met with Washington.
The British with 430 ships brought an army of 30,000 men to New York,
and Washington had only 10,524 fit for duty.
On July 2 Washington in his General Orders suggested that
the men had to resolve whether they were going to conquer or die.
He reminded them of the virtue of their cause
and that the supreme Being would aid victory.
On July 4 in Philadelphia the Continental Congress unanimously approved
the Declaration of Independence, and the 13 colonies became independent states.
On July 9 General Washington had his generals read the historic Declaration to their men.
The next day Washington criticized soldiers that
took down a statue of King George III in a riot.
The gilded statue was melted down, and the lead was used to make 42,088 bullets.
Washington hoped that every officer and man would act
like a Christian soldier in defending rights and liberties.
General Washington refused to accept messages from the
British Admiral Richard Howe that did not recognize his position.
On July 12 the British with an army of 20,000 men defeated
the 10,000 in Washington’s army on Long Island.
The Americans lost 2,179 including 300 killed, 670 wounded or missing,
and 1,079 captured while a few retreated to New Jersey.
Washington did not know how to respond to Britain’s larger navy.
He avoided battles because they had limited ammunition.
In his general orders on August 1 Washington advised his men
not to quarrel with each other but rather work in harmony.
He warned that those disobeying would be punished.
Washington directed a retreat at night of 9,000 men from Long Island.
Washington rejected peace offers when he learned that the
British commanders only had the authority to grant pardons.
He would not discuss that.
Washington knew he could not hold New York City.
He did not want New York burned, and he retreated and let the British winter there.
He advised Congress that a defensive war was their best strategy.
Washington moved his army to White Plains and
fought two battles there which neither side won.
As the British advanced, he abandoned Fort Washington
and moved his army toward New Jersey.
In a battle the British captured 2,837 Americans.
As enlistments ending, Washington’s army was reduced to 3,500 troops.
Washington replaced General Charles Lee with John Sullivan.
Tom Paine published a series of pamphlets on The American Crisis in December,
and on the 23rd Washington had officers read it to troops.
Paine said he considered offensive war “murder.”
The Americans were defending themselves from invading criminals.
Washington warned Congress that at the end of the year
his army would be down to under 1,500 effective men.
In December he still had 5,000, and on the 25th he and Generals Sullivan and Greene led
2,400 across the Delaware River in a surprise attack on Hessian mercenaries, capturing 918.
On December 29 Congress granted Washington complete power in conducting the war.
At the end of the year Washington and some of his officers pledged their fortunes
to offer bounties to those who re-enlisted, and 1,200 men accepted them.
On 1 January 1777 the United States named Benjamin Franklin commissioner to Spain,
and they intended to borrow money from France.
They ordered $5,000,000 and designated the army
to punish those who did not accept Continental money.
General Washington had 6,500 soldiers at Trenton, New Jersey,
and he prohibited his men from pillaging.
He was eager to set the sword aside once liberty was established.
Washington’s army of 4,500 defeated 1,200 British at Princeton, New Jersey.
French ships arrived with 25,000 muskets, flints, and gunpowder.
The American soldiers were inoculated to prevent smallpox.
Washington announced that Americans protected by the British
should stay behind enemy lines or take an oath to the United States.
About 3,500 Loyalists called “Tories” had joined the British army by May.
The British treated American prisoners so badly that Washington refused
to exchange British prisoners for them, though he accepted them on parole.
In this war 8,500 American prisoners would die in British custody.
On March 14 Washington informed Congress that he had about 3,000 sick or starving men.
On April 6 he declared a pardon for deserters who came back to the army by May 15.
Washington avoided a major battle.
Washington’s army of 12,000 marched into Philadelphia on August 24.
They fought the British at Brandywine Creek on September 11,
and American casualties were higher.
A British army took over Philadelphia on September 26,
and they occupied Fort Mifflin on November 16.
Washington’s army with 11,000 had attacked Germantown on October 4,
and he objected to the promotion of General Conway by Congress.
On November 15 the Continental Congress approved the
“Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union” for the United States of America.
This would become effective after it was ratified on 1 March 1781.
On December 20 Washington moved his army into Valley Forge for a difficult winter.
The men built their own huts.
Eventually 2,898 men were unfit for duty because of hunger and lack of shoes and clothes.
About 8,200 men were ready.
About 2,500 soldiers died that winter at Valley Forge.
In 1777 most states turned to conscription to recruit soldiers for their quotas.
Most were enlisted for one year.
In all states a man could hire two substitutes to get out of serving.
Washington wrote a heartwrenching letter to Congress President Henry Laurens
that he was concerned that his soldiers were going to “starve, dissolve, or disperse.”
A mutiny had to be put down.
Baron von Steuben provided systematic training to discipline Washington’s Army.
Alexander Hamilton knew French and helped translate.
In 1777-79 the British recruited many Indians
who took scalps and prisoners during an Iroquois civil war.
Oneidas supported the army of the United States led by General Horatio Gates in the north.
In January 1778 Washington proclaimed freedom for Negroes and Indians
who fought in support of the Continental army until the war ended.
Former owners were to receive compensation.
In February the Continental Congress ordered General Washington
to punish hostile tribes, and in June they provided about $1 million.
About 700 blacks fought for the Americans.
Jefferson claimed that over 30,000 slaves escaped from Virginia that year.
Washington refused to invade Canada.
In the first third of 1778 the Congress released paper money valued at $12.5 million.
Generals Thomas Conway and Horatio Gates led a cabal that opposed Washington.
Conway had been made Inspector General in December 1777.
Washington on 31 January 1778 in Valley Forge wrote again to President Laurens,
and by March he had lost half his soldiers; 424 died in March.
Congress canceled the invasion of Canada on March 12,
and they accepted Conway’s resignation.
On March 21 Tom Paine in The Crisis reported that British General William Howe
was distributing counterfeit Continental money,
and Ben Franklin confirmed that they did that in New York.
Congress demanded that independence be accepted before negotiation could begin,
and the British commissioners returned to England in November.
France was shipping arms to the Americans.
On 5 May 1778 Washington informed his men that
the French alliance would help them win the war.
On May 25 General Howe left for England with 3,000 Tories.
France proclaimed war against Britain on June 17.
Washington continued his policy of defense while looking for an opportunity.
He hired 47 Oneidas as scouts under Lafayette.
The British exchanged the prisoner General Charles Lee,
and Washington assigned him a division.
Lee told Americans not to fight the British.
Washington with about 12,000 men crossed the Delaware again and fought the British.
In the battle at Monmouth courthouse on June 28 Washington
led his men including 700 Africans and sent Lee to the rear.
The British had more casualties, and 440 Hessians fled to New Jersey.
Ten states signed the Articles of Confederation in July 1778,
and a French fleet arrived in Delaware Bay.
New England increased General Sullivan’s army to 10,000 men.
The New York Journal published Hamilton’s letter exposing war profiteering on October 19.
In the last two months of 1778 the Congress issued
over $20 million
in paper money increasing the Continental bills to about $106 million.
Inflation reduced their value from $1.25 for a $1 coin to $29.34 by January 1780.
After General Benedict Arnold had his leg broken at Saratoga on October 17,
Washington made him the military governor of Philadelphia.
The lawyer Joseph Reed accused Arnold of corruption.
Congress elected John Jay of New York to succeed
Laurens as President on 9 December 1778.
Washington released four Quaker women who had been imprisoned,
and he invited them for dinner.
His wife Martha persuaded him to let them go.
On 14 January 1779 the Continental Congress released $50,000,400 in paper money
on the day they agreed with France that neither would
make peace with Britain without the other’s consent.
They offered bounties in cash, clothes, and land to attract recruits to the end of the war.
After consulting with Washington the Congress on March 29 urged
South Carolina and Georgia to raise 3,000 negroes to serve in the war.
Slaves who served to the end of the war were to be emancipated and paid $50.
Slaveowners in South Carolina rejected this.
On May 11 the British besieged Charleston.
The British were using 3,000 slaves in Georgia, and another thousand died of fever.
On May 12 Washington told Delaware chiefs that they had an alliance with the great
nation of France and others, and he urged them to go to the Congress in Philadelphia.
In the summer Washington sent Major General Sullivan with 4,600 men
to fight the Iroquois four times, and they plundered their crops.
After suffering the winter, the Iroquois fought back in the spring.
A French fleet supported the siege of Savannah on September 23.
Washington went into winter quarters in December in New Jersey.
He sent letters to the governors of five states, and then on the 16th
he wrote a circular for all the states asking for more support for the army.
Washington found that fighting the Indians was counterproductive, and on 28 May 1780
he wrote a long letter to Joseph Reed discussing strategy related to Britain and France.
On 6 May Lafayette came back from France with news
that 6,000 French troops would be coming with six warships.
This helped Washington understand why the British were offering better terms.
He asked Congress for 20,000 troops.
On May 31 he learned that the British had taken Charleston, South Carolina
with 2,500 Continentals and 2,000 militia.
Washington in a letter expressed his concern that the Congress did not have enough power.
On July 10 the French Admiral de Ternay arrived with ten warships,
and Comte de Rochambeau led 6,000 troops.
On August 26 Washington permitted General Greene to hang a deserter and a plunderer.
Washington in September consulted with Rochambeau at Hartford, Connecticut.
Washington learned that Benedict Arnold had conspired with the British Major John André
to betray West Point, and he explained what happened in his General Orders on October 1.
They were to be executed, but Arnold escaped.
Washington at the end of 1780 had an army of only 10,000 men.
On 2 January 1781 Washington sent 1,200 led by Lafayette to capture Benedict Arnold
who was fighting for the British, and the ten French warships were sent to Chesapeake Bay.
On January 5 Washington sent a circular to governments in New England
describing a mutiny of new recruits in Pennsylvania and why it had occurred.
On January 15 Washington wrote a long letter to John Laurens
on the current state of American affairs.
He suggested that major reforms were needed in government
financing in order to maintain the union.
On January 20 about 200 soldiers from New Jersey
demanded that Congress give them pay and rum.
They were persuaded to leave, and Washington had
a firing squad execute two leaders of the mutiny.
When Pennsylvania troops protested broken promises,
General Anthony Wayne had troops fire on 12 leaders, killing six.
He had a maimed soldier killed and hanged the other five.
On February 3 Congress asked for the power to
regulate commerce and to tax imported goods.
Only Rhode Island refused to ratify the duty.
Also in February the Congress established a Secretary of War,
and they elected Robert Morris the Superintendent of the Department of Finance.
He presented his plan for a national bank that was approved in May,
and it opened for business in January 1782.
Col. Alexander Hamilton had worked closely with Washington
as his aide until they quarreled on February 16.
Hamilton left his staff and was given command of a light infantry company in New York.
On March 1 Maryland was the 13th state to ratify
the Articles of Confederation, and they became effective.
Ben Franklin and John Laurens persuaded the French to loan
6 million livres to the United States for military supplies.
The army of British General Charles Cornwallis on March 15 fought Americans
led by General Nathanael Greene at Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina,
and Cornwallis led his army back to South Carolina.
In April he moved his army into Virginia where Greene’s army attacked them near Camden.
On May 28 Virginia’s Governor Jefferson asked Washington to defend his state.
The army of Cornwallis was destroying much property in Virginia.
Lafayette in July wrote to Washington urging him to bring an army
to Virginia so that the French fleet could make them surrender.
Washington discovered that a French fleet led by the
Comte de Grasse was going to Virginia on August 14,
and on the 19th Rochambeau’s troops left New York to go to Chesapeake Bay.
On August 30 Admiral de Grasse blocked the York River.
A British fleet was defeated and went back to New York.
General Green’s army defeated the British in South Carolina on September 8,
and on the 28th Washington’s army besieged the army of Cornwallis
at Yorktown with 8,845 Continental troops, 7,800 French soldiers,
3,100 Virginia militia, and 37 French ships.
On October 17 Cornwallis proposed capitulation, and two days later he surrendered
7,247 soldiers, 840 sailors plus cannons, muskets, horses, and over £2,000.
British troops began leaving America, and peace negotiations would take a while.
When King George III learned the news of the surrender by Cornwallis
on 25 November 1781, he still did not give up his colonial claims.
In February 1782 his Colonial Secretary George Germain resigned.
France brought more than $200,000 in specie, and on 7 January 1782 that
enabled
Finance Minister Robert Morris to open a bank for the United States with $400,000.
On 20 January 1783 France in a peace treaty
recognized the independence of the United States.
Lafayette eagerly took the news to Washington,
and he encouraged his fatherly friend to free his slaves.
In the Independence War about 8,000 American soldiers died in battle;
8,500 died of disease, and about that many of the prisoners of war died.
The British sent 85,000 soldiers to America, and about 21,000 died mostly from disease.
The German mercenaries had 1,243 killed in battle and 6,354 of other causes.
The British Royal Navy lost had 18,541 die of disease,
mostly by scurvy, and 1,243 were killed in battle.
An estimated 42,000 British sailors deserted of the 175,900 in the Navy.
About 50,000 Loyalists emigrated to Canada, Europe, or the West Indies.
The British Commander of in North America, General Guy Carleton,
arranged for 3,000 free Africans to leave New York to go to Canada or British colonies.
In March 1782 Prime Minister North resigned,
and the Parliament accepted American independence.
Benjamin Franklin in a letter on July 27 wrote,
“There never was a good War, or a bad Peace.”
He wondered how well people could live if they did not spend money on wars.
On November 30 a preliminary peace treaty was signed by the Americans
John Adams, John Jay, and Benjamin Franklin and by the British Richard Oswald.
The British and the French ended their hostilities by 4 February 1783.
On March 15 Washington spoke to the army officers at their Newburgh headquarters
encouraging them to accept the sovereign power of the United States government.
He also wrote to Alexander Hamilton on March 31
and considered the challenges of politics to make reforms.
On April 18 Washington in General Orders wrote that the Commander in Chief
was ordering the end of hostilities between the United States of America
and the King of Great Britain in a public proclamation that will be read.
He congratulated the officers and men on what they had achieved
in bringing about a “glorious revolution.”
He suggested they wait with patience until peace was declared.
On May 2 Washington proposed a standing army of 2,631 men.
On May 26 he received a letter from John Laurens in Paris stating that
the Versailles Court
had donated six million livres to the United States for the supplies of the troops.
On 8 June George Washington sent out his long “Circular to State Governments”
which came to be called his “testament” or “legacy.”
He began by resigning his command into the “hands of Congress” so that he could retire.
As his last duty he offered his suggestions on
“important subjects” related to the United States.
He expresses his gratitude and rejoices for what Providence has brought about.
Now they have freedom and independence.
The republic of the United States can take its place among the nations.
The treasures of knowledge are open to them, and commerce can be extended.
The future is up to the citizens.
The United States of America can choose to be “respectable and prosperous.”
The whole world is watching as they develop their national character.
Their federal government needs to be aware of the dangers of “European politics.”
He will speak with freedom and sincerity.
He is interested in the “benefits of a wise and liberal government.”
He recommends these four things: union of the states under “one federal head,”
respect for “public justice,” adopting a “peace establishment,”
and friendship among the people and concern for the community.
These things are based on a foundation of liberty.
He suggests there must be a “supreme power” to
“regulate and govern” the republic so that the union may endure,
and that is the national Congress, and states must comply.
He advised that tendencies to dissolve the union must be avoided.
The spirit of union is needed to establish credit and fulfill treaties.
He asserted that the national debts must be discharged, and honesty is the best policy.
Everyone deserves the fruit of their labors.
Washington made an appeal for justice to those who had served their country in the war.
On June 17 Continental soldiers in Philadelphia demanded they be paid,
and on the 20th some 400 soldiers protested at the State House.
Alexander Hamilton urged them to let Congress consider their demands,
and he asked the financial superintendent Robert Morris not to resign.
The Pennsylvania Council asked for protection from mutiny.
The Congress wanted to move the provisional capital to Princeton, New Jersey.
Washington heard about the mutiny on June 24, and he sent 1,500 troops.
The Pennsylvania Council called out the militia
who persuaded mutineers to put down weapons.
Some were arrested, and Congress voted for an investigation
and moved to Annapolis, Maryland until November.
Henry Knox proposed the Society of the Cincinnati.
Washington had been elected their president on June 19.
On September 7 Washington in a letter to the chairman of the Committee
on Indian Affairs advised freeing Indian prisoners, and he encouraged friendship.
He recommended peaceful measures.
The United States Congress adopted his general plans on October 15.
The final peace treaty of the War for Independence was signed
by the British and American representatives in Paris on September 3.
On October 4 about 500 Quakers petitioned the Congress
asking them not to re-open the slave trade.
Washington on November 4 distributed copies of his farewell address
to the armies
that became a “patriotic band of brothers” to effect a “wonderful revolution.”
British troops and thousands of Tories left New York City
on November 25, and the last troop ship sailed for England.
Washington said goodbye to his officers on December 4.
Virginia ceded all its claims of land in the Ohio territory to the Congress on December 20.
Only a few British troops remained in the northwest.
During the war Washington lost $5,000 a year and $50,000 to currency depreciation.
His expenses were $414,000, and the bill he submitted
was only $88,000 for household expenses.
He also spent about $100,000 on secret intelligence.
The economy of the 13 states was reduced by 46% from 1774 to 1790.
On December 23 he addressed the Congress at Annapolis to announce his retirement.
The United States Congress ratified the Treaty of Paris
on 14 January 1784 establishing its independence as a nation.
Washington still owned 20,000 productive acres and 300 working slaves.
On February 1 he wrote a letter to a French philosopher
and a longer one to his friend Lafayette.
In March he advertised for leases on his 30,000 acres by the Ohio
and Great Kanawha Rivers which were not making money.
On April 16 Washington received a letter from Thomas Jefferson
in France that advised him of the dangers of the Cincinnati Society.
Washington toured his land in the West in September.
In March 1785 the Potomac Company was organized during a conference
at Mount Vernon for the purpose of making the river useful for navigation,
and by the end of the year the company had $40,000.
In a letter to James Warren on October 7 Washington suggested various improvements.
In the six years from 1783 to 1789 he wrote over a thousand letters.
In February 1786 George Washington had 216 slaves
including 92 children working on five farms.
On April 12 he wrote to his friend Robert Morris about a lawsuit in
which a Society of Quakers were trying to free a slave in Alexandria.
On May 10 he wrote to his dearest friend Lafayette about
improving the democratic governments, and then he commended
him for supporting a colony for emancipating slaves.
Washington in his letter to John Jay on May 18 discussed
how they could revise the Articles of Confederation.
In a short letter on September 9 he said he would
never accept a slave as payment for a debt.
He admitted he may have to sell slaves to pay his debts.
Because he did not break up the families of slaves, they were multiplying.
That was not profitable because he had to provide for children, women, and the elderly.
His plantations were running deficits since 1776.
In September 1786 Alexander Hamilton at a convention at Annapolis
proposed a convention of delegates from states at Philadelphia in May 1787.
Washington learned about it, and James Madison and James Monroe
visited him at Mount Vernon for three days in late October.
On the 31st Washington wrote to Virginia’s delegate Henry Lee in the Confederation
Congress expressing his frustration and concerns about changing their constitution.
In a letter to James Madison on November 5 Washington wrote more optimistically
about improving the government to correct the currently confused anarchy.
After learning from his friend Henry Knox about the Shays’ Rebellion seizing armaments
at Springfield, Washington wrote on December 26 a fairly long letter about his concerns
about insurrection and his hopes for changes they could make in a convention.
On that day he also wrote a private letter to David Humphreys hoping
they could avoid “the effusion of blood” and support a federal system.
On 4 January 1787 Massachusetts Gov. James Bowdoin summoned 4,400 troops,
and General Benjamin Lincoln led militia to control Shays’ Rebellion.
On February 16 the state legislature barred rebels from voting or holding an office.
Washington suggested developing a stronger constitution
to replace the Articles of Confederation.
On February 21 the Congress voted for a convention
to revise the Articles of Confederation.
John Jay suggested a government with legislative, executive, and judicial branches,
and on March 10 Washington wrote back to Jay in favor of the convention.
On the 23rd he wrote to General Benjamin Lincoln
about
the “disorders” in his state and his skill in putting it down.
On the 28th Washington wrote to Gov. Edmund Randolph stating his intention to go
to the convention even though he might be criticized for being inconsistent after retiring.
On April 10 Washington in a letter to John Lawson wrote seven rules
to guide himself in taking and handling a political office wisely.
That month James Madison outlined nine vices of the current Confederation’s problems.
On May 14 Washington was cheered as he
entered Philadelphia on the day it was to begin.
Yet only Virginia and Pennsylvanians had delegations there.
The Virginians worked on a plan for an entirely new government.
Washington first met with Benjamin Franklin, and then he dined with Cincinnati members.
They re-elected him president, and he accepted on
the condition that the vice president would be in charge.
The Virginia delegation included Madison and James Mason.
On May 25 the convention began with a quorum of seven states.
Washington was elected president unanimously,
and he did not engage in debates while presiding.
He did not miss a session.
They agreed on secrecy, and he reprimanded a delegate who dropped some papers.
Washington did not write in his diary about the convention.
Gov. Edmund Randolph presented the Virginia plan, and a
New Jersey plan was debated for three days before it was rejected.
Madison, Hamilton, and Jay wanted a strong federal government,
and Washington predicted that they would be praised by posterity.
Small states supported two senators for each state, and large states
liked the proportional representation by population in the House.
Washington supported a plan that provided more representatives.
James Mason was concerned that there was no bill of rights.
The completed Constitution was printed on September 12,
and the remaining 42 delegates got a copy.
Washington sent a copy to Patrick Henry on September 24,
and
he wrote that he thought it was the best they could get at the time.
On July 13 seven states in the Congress of the United States Confederation
enacted the Northwest Ordinance that included Jefferson’s ban of slavery there.
Madison, Hamilton, and Jay defended the new Constitution in the Federalist Papers,
and Hamilton urged Washington to be President of the United States.
On November 9 Washington sent his nephew Bushrod Washington
a very long letter about the new Constitution.
Five states ratified the Constitution in January 1788, and three more did so by May.
On June 21 New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify,
and that made the Constitution effective.
Virginia ratified it on June 28 pleasing Washington.
The complete Constitution of the United States
as it existed in 1788 is contained in chapter 8.
Washington wrote to Benjamin Lincoln on June 29 rejoicing in the accomplishment.
The old Congress set 4 March 1789 as the day the new government would be effective.
Hamilton wrote to Washington that the new government depend on his being President,
and Washington wrote back on October 3 saying he would seek information and the truth.
After he was elected President, he composed a form letter to give to office seekers.
George Washington was elected President of the United States with 90%
of the votes in January 1789 and all the electoral college votes cast on February 4.
John Adams was elected Vice President.
Federalists supported Washington, and they dominated both houses of Congress.
On March 30th Henry Knox estimated that the delay for the
quorum in Congress cost the new government about £300,000.
The next day Washington wrote to Knox that he was not eager to
take on the responsibility, and he promised “integrity and firmness.”
Washington wanted to be called “Mr. President,”
and that was accepted over other ideas.
He was notified of his election on April 14, and he responded with a short statement
he had prepared that expressed gratitude and the seriousness of the task.
He could only promise “honest zeal.”
He left Mount Vernon on April 16 and was greeted by 20,000 people in Philadelphia.
When he was inaugurated in New York City on April 30, he did not wear a military uniform.
With his hand on a Bible he took the oath of office to “preserve, protect,
and defend” the Constitution, and he added the words, “So help me God.”
In the Senate he gave his inaugural address that emphasized his
trust in God and ethical principles as best for good government.
He referred to the “great constitutional charter” that defines their powers.
He renounced “pecuniary compensation” as he had during the war.
He was required to accept his $25,000 salary, and he used it for his annual expenses.
President Washington was assisted by three secretaries.
He asked for written advice from Vice President Adams, James Madison in Congress,
Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, John Jay whom he made Chief Justice,
and Thomas Jefferson when he became Secretary of State.
On May 26 Washington opened the presidential mansion
to the public and called it the “People’s House.”
His friend Henry Knox had been Secretary of War since March 1785,
and he continued in that office until September 1789.
Treasury was the largest Department with the most employees
that included 2,000 customs agents and 1,000 postal employees.
Madison in June passed a bill in the House of Representatives to authorize
the President to remove appointees without the advice and consent of the Senate,
and Vice President Adams broke a tie in the Senate to make it law.
Secretary of War Knox on July 7 completed a comprehensive
report on the current conditions of relations with various Indian nations,
and he advised treating them like foreign nations.
A council of 24 Cherokee chiefs in May had sent their ideas to Washington,
and they asked him to send them an honest man who would not spill blood.
On August 7 Washington wrote a letter to Congress asking them to
approve three commissioners to work out an amicable treaty with Indian tribes.
Congress passed three tariff bills for revenue by July 31.
On August 4 the Funding Act passed to begin reducing the national debt.
Two Revenue Acts were approved by August 10 to help collect customs duties.
On August 5 Senators rejected Washington’s nominee by a secret ballot.
That made Washington angry, and he said he preferred open voting.
Knox obtained a treaty with the Creeks in early August,
and he said they had a right to their land.
Georgia was selling that land to speculators.
Washington asked Congress to ratify the treaty.
They did that and provided $20,000 for diplomacy.
On August 22 Washington went to the Senate with the treaty that John Adam read aloud.
Senators asked questions and demanded more documents,
and they assigned this to a committee.
That upset Washington, and he left.
Two days later he came back, and the Senate approved his three commissioners.
Washington after that decided to consult with Congress in writing.
In a letter to the Senate on September 8 he discussed powerful
Indian tribes and suggestions made by Secretary of War Knox
such as negotiation of a friendly treaty and military preparation.
Washington’s friend Alexander Hamilton on September 11
began supervising 39 employees in the Treasury Department.
John Jay wanted to be Chief Justice and agreed to run the
State Department until Thomas Jefferson came back from France.
On September 17 Washington wrote a letter to the Senate about the Indian treaties.
Six days later he wrote a kind letter to the elderly Benjamin Franklin
commending
his philosophic mind, benevolence, talents, patriotism, and philanthropy.
The Judiciary Act became law on September 24 and created
the Supreme Court with a Chief Justice and five Associate Justices
with 13 judicial districts in the 11 states that had ratified the Constitution.
Added states would have districts.
Before Congress adjourned, Madison persuaded
them to approve budgets for 1789, 1790, and 1791.
Washington nominated Justices to the Supreme Court from five different states.
On September 25 the Congress submitted to the states
12 amendments to the Constitution to provide a Bill of Rights.
Washington on October 3 proclaimed the last Thursday
in November a day for prayers of thanksgiving.
On October 6 he wrote to the former general Arthur St. Clair who was governing
the Northwest Territory advising him to use all means to avoid a war.
On October 13 Washington wrote to Gouverneur Morris and
made him a special agent to negotiate a commercial treaty with Britain.
Then the President went on a tour of New England
to visit politicians, schools, farms, and factories.
Thomas Jefferson after four years in France, returned on November 23.
He agreed to be Secretary of State, and Washington let him
have a 3-month delay before taking up the position.
On December 17 Washington wrote to the chiefs and warriors
of the Choctaw nation addressing them as “Brothers.”
He asked them to keep their friendship bright
with the Chickasaws and to reject bad advice.
President George Washington delivered his First Annual Message
as a speech to the Congress on 8 January 1790.
The state of North Carolina had ratified the Constitution and joined the Union.
He said preparing for war was the most effective way to preserve peace.
Promoting manufacturing would increase independence.
Peaceful relations with Indian tribes would benefit
those on the southern and western frontiers.
Useful inventions can advance agriculture, commerce, and manufacturing.
Knowledge helps create public happiness.
People should know and value their own rights.
He proposed a national university.
Supporting public credit will produce prosperity.
He relied on cooperation with the legislature, and he
presented papers for their consideration for good government.
Diplomacy can improve relations with other nations.
Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton noted banks were becoming popular.
He studied the economy and wanted to expand currency and credit.
On January 14 he presented his “Report on the Public Credit,”
and he argued against repudiating the national debt.
He proposed assuming the state debts also.
The total debts were about $77 million including foreign debt.
He suggested funding this with paper money and loans instead of competition
between states, and he planned to pay off the national debt at 5% per year.
Opponents criticized him for helping the wealthy.
Madison criticized the plan because it benefited speculators.
In February the House of Representatives rejected Madison’s proposal.
Madison, Hamilton, and John Jay published
the
Federalist Papers to support the Constitution.
In March the United States began minting coins with an image of Washington on one side.
The capital was to be moved from New York to Philadelphia in 1790 for ten years.
Thomas Jefferson became Secretary of State on March 22,
and
he had a plan to free American seamen captured by barbary pirates.
He proposed the metric system, and Congress rejected that.
The State Department’s budget was only $40,000 a year.
Ben Franklin died on April 17.
Washington did not want to set a precedent of special honors,
and he became very ill with pneumonia.
He recovered and resumed his diary on June 24.
The 1790 census counted 3,699,525 people with
697,624 African slaves and 59,557 free Africans.
Tens of thousands of Indians were not counted.
The largest cities were New York, Philadelphia,
Boston, Charleston, and Baltimore in that order.
Southerners in Congress in March defeated a motion to end slavery.
Congress approved two revenue cutters to stop smuggling.
North Carolina’s delegation increased the Anti-Federalists
who opposed assuming debts in April.
Rhode Island ratified the Constitution on June 4, and Washington wrote them a letter.
Washington worked on bringing harmony between the two parties
that were led by Hamilton and Jefferson, though he usually favored Hamilton.
Madison left the Federalists and supported Jefferson’s Republican Party.
In June a compromise was worked out that assumed the debts
and planned a permanent capital by the Potomac River.
The Continental debt was adjusted by retiring its currency at 100-1 instead of 40-1.
The Residence Act passed in both houses, and Washington signed the bill on July 16.
Many speculators became richer, and at first the national debt increased.
In August the Congress approved borrowing $14 million in Europe.
Washington met a Jewish merchant who was also a Mason,
and Washington wrote to him on August 18.
He visited the northeast again in October.
The government moved to Philadelphia, and on November 27
Washington moved into the mansion owned by Robert Morris.
Hamilton issued another report on the national bank on December 1,
and he proposed an excise tax on whiskey and other alcohol.
Washington gave his Second Annual Message on December 8.
Kentucky was to become a state.
He noted that Indian bandits northwest of the Ohio required him to call out the militia.
A loan from Holland helped the economy recover.
He planned to increase revenue by selling land in the West.
In relation to the Indians the Congress accepted
the principles of Washington and Knox.
Washington sent a peace emissary to the South, and the Creek leader
Alexander McGillivray became an agent of the United States with benefits.
Washington warned against encroaching on Creek territory, and he sent
his message and a treaty with the Creeks to the Senate on August 7.
He issued a proclamation on the peace treaty on August 14.
Eight days later Washington sent to the Senate a long letter and a treaty
with the Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, and Creeks involving
14,000 warriors, and he reviewed their recent history.
On December 29 Washington spoke of many things
to the chiefs of the Seneca nation in Philadelphia.
Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton in January 1791
proposed a United States Bank similar to the Bank of England.
The United States Senate approved the bank bill on January 21.
The state of Maryland ceded ten square miles by the
Potomac River to the United States for the new capital.
Hamilton published his “Report on the Mint.”
On January 24 President Washington sent a message to Congress
on the permanent
seat of government, and on February 8 Congress approved the bank bill.
On the 16th Washington in a letter to Hamilton questioned the bank’s constitutionality,
and he also asked Madison about the objections.
Washington signed the bill on February 25 establishing the Bank of the United States.
Jefferson’s suggestion to use the decimal system for the currency would be accepted,
giving the United States a simpler system for money than the British had.
Jefferson got a translating position in the State Department for the journalist Philip Freneau,
and on March 15 Jefferson provided the Congress with a report on international trade.
Anti-Federalists joined the Republican Party that was led by
Jefferson, Madison, James Monroe, and Aaron Burr in the Senate.
On March 3 the excise tax on alcohol was extended to snuff and sugar loaf.
The next day Vermont was admitted as the 14th state.
While Congress was on a recess, President Washington
on April 7 went on a three-month tour of the South.
On July 28 he wrote a letter to Lafayette concerned
about the tumult his friend was facing in France.
He noted that establishing public credit increased people’s confidence.
On that day Washington also wrote to Gouveneur Morris in England
about the political situation in America compared to Europe.
On July 4 subscriptions for bank stock were sold for $25 in the nation’s five largest cities.
The United States Bank had $10 million with $8 million from private investors.
By August 11 the scrip had increased to $280 in New York and $320 in Philadelphia.
The next day speculators sold it reducing the price to $150.
Washington appointed commissioners for the new capital.
Jefferson and Madison met with them in September, and they decided
to name the federal district “Columbia” and the city “Washington.”
The nation had about a hundred newspapers with only eight dailies.
Ben Franklin’s grandson Benjamin Bache began the General Advertiser
to oppose the Federalist government, and this later became Aurora.
Jefferson and Madison started the National Gazette, and their first issue
on October 31 accused Hamilton of leading a monarchist conspiracy.
Hamilton had supported John Fenno’s Gazette of the United States since 1789.
After Tom Paine published The Rights of Man in March at London,
Jefferson got it published in May at Philadelphia.
When the publisher included a preface by Jefferson without his permission
that criticized Washington, this caused a rift that Jefferson explained in a letter.
On October 25 President Washington presented his Third Annual Message to Congress.
He reviewed the successes of his administration,
and he discussed how to solve continuing problems.
The next day he made a report to the Senate on Indian relations.
On December 5 Treasury Secretary Hamilton submitted his Report on Manufactures,
and he explained how he was working for the general welfare.
Congress ratified a bill of rights as ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States
on December 15, and those can be found at the end of chapter 11.
In March 1791 the Congress authorized raising 2,000 militia for six months.
They fought hostile Miami Indians in the northwestern Confederacy
that were led by Chief Little Turtle in early November.
After this defeat a standing army of 5,000 men was established
while the government worked on negotiating a treaty.
Washington gave the Seneca chief Cornplanter a medal for remaining neutral,
and the Pennsylvania legislature gave him 1,500 acres of land.
Washington in July invited 40 Cherokee chiefs and 1,200 Cherokees
to meet and discuss a treaty, and he promised them farming tools.
In March 1792 the Congress passed a bill to increase the members in the
House
of Representatives by having one representative per 30,000 people instead of 40,000.
Jefferson, Madison, and Randolph of Virginia persuaded Washington
it was not constitutional, and he used his first veto on April 5.
On April 2 he had signed the Coinage Act that established the United States Mint.
Washington asked Madison for advice on whether he should retire
or run for re-election, and Madison encouraged him to serve in a second term.
Washington wrote a long letter to Madison discussing the issue and asking him
to help with a speech to explain why he should be re-elected.
Madison replied in a very long letter answering four questions that the President
had asked him and encouraging him to make an additional sacrifice for his country.
On June 10 Washington wrote a fairly long letter to Lafayette discussing
revolutions as they each had experienced and what is the current situation.
On June 21 Washington wrote to Gouverneur Morris and discussed the policy
of the British Home Secretary Henry Dundas and Prime Minister William Pitt as
compared to Washington’s policy toward Indian tribes which he explained was
seeking peace and being prepared for the use of military force if necessary.
In 1792 eight state banks were established in the United States,
and by 1801 there would be 32.
In the spring of 1792 the mint began producing gold and silver coins.
Gold and silver that was not minted tended to escape to India and China.
Hamilton and Jefferson debated financial policies by using their Gazettes.
Federalists served the financiers and merchants in the north
while Republicans favored farmers and artisans in the south and middle states.
Jefferson argued that debt leads to corruption.
Hamilton believed that debt stimulates the economy.
Jefferson wanted limited government, and Hamilton was for a stronger federal government.
Because tobacco was depleting the soil,
planters like Washington were growing wheat instead.
Republicans accused Federalists of using wealth and power to exploit others.
On July 25 Hamilton criticized Jefferson for the first time
with an
anonymous essay in Fenno’s Gazette of the United States.
On July 29 Washington at Mount Vernon wrote to Hamilton and
asked about 21 grievances he had heard about their administration.
Hamilton’s response encouraged Washington to run for a second term.
Both Washington and Jefferson wanted to retire,
and the latter agreed to stay on as Secretary of State until the end of 1793.
On 18 August 1792 Hamilton wrote a long letter to Washington and defended his policies.
In response Washington asked Hamilton to stop quarreling with Jefferson.
On September 15 Washington issued a proclamation about violence and wrong actions,
and he promised that violators of laws would be brought to justice.
On November 17 Washington’s friend Eliza Powell wrote him a
long letter that strongly urged him to run for re-election by describing
how well he has governed and how much he is needed.
In the election of 1792 Washington again got all of the 132 electoral college votes,
and he had received 99% of the popular votes.
John Adams was also re-elected as Vice President, and he had 76 electoral college votes
to 50 for the Republican Governor George Clinton of New York.
The Federalists gained 21 seats in the House of Representatives
while their opponents gained 25 seats.
Yet the Federalists still had a 39-30 majority.
In the Senate each party gained one seat, and the Federalists still had control by 18-11.
On November 6 Washington delivered his Fourth Annual Message to Congress.
He reported that Indian hostilities in the northwest had ceased.
Some Chickamaugas living near the Tennessee River have joined bandits.
Employing trusted agents to live with tribes has been beneficial.
Sometimes US citizens are aggressive and must be restrained and punished.
He also reported on how American credit has improved at Antwerp and Amsterdam.
The public debt is being discharged, and the Bank of the United States is saving money.
In the spring of 1792 War Secretary Knox sent six messengers
to the Miamis and Shawnees to negotiate.
They were suspected as spies and were killed.
In the summer the Iroquois Chief Red Jacket led a thousand Indians,
and he negotiated with the Americans.
On August 23 Washington wrote a long letter to Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson
and explained the Indian policy and the situation with the Creeks in the South.
On 20 January 1792 Iroquois chiefs from the Six Nations gathered in Philadelphia,
and Knox explained that ceded land could not be returned.
Washington instructed his officers not to talk about buying land.
Peace commissioners were sent out in April to northern Ohio,
and delegates from 16 tribes met with them.
In late August 1793 Chickamaugas led by Doublehead
attacked settlers in the Cumberland Valley.
After 13 men were killed defending a station near Knoxville, Col. John Sevier
led 700 militia who retaliated by destroying Creek and Lower Cherokee towns.
This unauthorized expedition cost the federal government over $29,000,
and Washington’s administration refused to pay Sevier’s militia for several years.
In three years Indians killed 200 settlers and destroyed property worth over $100,000,
and in February 1794 elected representatives at
Knoxville petitioned for more federal protection.
In his Annual Message to Congress on 3 December 1793
Washington had spoken about Indian issues.
In February 1794 Governor Carleton told Indians that
the British would fight on their side against the Americans.
In the spring Washington and Knox asked a Cherokee delegation
to visit Philadelphia, and about 20 chiefs arrived in early June.
Washington offered to increase their $1,500 annuity to $5,000;
13 chiefs promised to uphold the Holston Treaty,
and they signed the Treaty of Philadelphia on June 26.
Washington appointed the agent Silas Dinsmoor to the Cherokees,
and he worked with them for four years.
Dinsmoor urged the government to mark more clearly the
boundary line
between the land of the Cherokees and the United States.
Washington wrote a letter about this to the Secretary of War on 18 July 1796.
That month Washington welcomed Chickasaws who traveled a thousand miles
to Philadelphia, and he offered them the blessings of civilization.
On August 20 General Wayne with 3,000 men in a major battle
at Fallen Timbers defeated 1,400 warriors.
Then he had towns and crops pillaged, and they burned 5,000 acres.
In Georgia the Creeks had trouble with settlers and land companies
who were granted millions of acres by Georgia’s corrupt legislature.
On 23 January 1793 the House Majority Leader James Madison published his
essay on political parties that listed five ways politicians can combat social evils.
Also on the 23rd the House of Representatives voted to begin an investigation
of the Treasury Department and Secretary Alexander Hamilton,
and they cleared him of the charges on March 1.
Congress on February 4 had enacted the first fugitive slave law
that required judges to order the return of runaway slaves to their owners.
On the 12th President Washington signed the bill making it a law.
Sometimes he gave his slaves money for entertainment
when they went to town, and he kept families together.
Thomas Jefferson in February agreed to continue
as Secretary of State until the end of the year.
Washington was criticized for his birthday party on February 22,
and on March 4 he gave the shortest inaugural address.
The next Congress began a recess that lasted until December 2.
The diplomat Gouverneur Morris had moved from England to France in early 1792.
On 21 September 1793 Morris advised Washington not to try to help
imprisoned Lafayette because of his dangerous enemies.
Washington and Morris contributed money for Lafayette’s wife.
Washington wrote to Morris on March 25 and informed him that
Jefferson would be sending him public papers, and he also sent him Gazettes.
Washington went to Mount Vernon on March 27, and Hamilton in early April
advised him that France had gone to war against Britain, Spain, and Holland.
Washington on that day wrote to Jefferson and asked him to prepare a response.
Washington returned to the capital on April 17, and he sent 13 questions
to four department heads that they would discuss the next day.
Jefferson wanted to support the French, and Hamilton advised a neutral policy.
They all agreed on neutrality, and Attorney General
Edmund Randolph wrote a short proclamation.
They decided to receive a minister from France.
On April 22 Washington wrote to his British friend, the Earl of Buchan,
and on April 28 Jefferson published his “Opinion on the French Treaties”
that discussed the history of international law.
Also in April they learned that King Louis XVI had been executed for treason
and that war had been declared on February 1.
The Girondists took power and sent Edmond Charles Genêt
as minister to the United States.
He had arrived at Charleston on April 8, and based on the treaty of 1778
he had begun equipping four privateers with American crews to attack British ships.
He also urged others to recruit forces to attack Spanish Florida and Louisiana.
Spanish agents warned Washington about this.
On May 15 Washington and his Cabinet agreed to restore the
British ship Grange which had been captured, and they freed the crew.
“Citizen Genêt,” as he was called, traveled to Philadelphia and was greeted by crowds
who supported Republicans and the French Revolution.
He wanted a new treaty with the United States, and
he asked that its $5.6 million debt to France be paid.
The Democratic Society of Pennsylvania was founded to support France,
and people started over 40 organizations.
Genêt met with Washington on May 18, and four days later
Genêt gave Jefferson a letter with France’s requests.
He claimed that France had opened the West Indies to American commerce,
and he intended to maintain the Little Sarah that was outfitted at Philadelphia as a privateer.
On June 5 Jefferson advised Genêt that any nation could prohibit arming privateers.
Officers in Philadelphia stopped the selling of prizes taken
by a French privateer, and New York detained another privateer.
On June 17 Jefferson explained neutrality and international law to Genêt.
The United States would not interfere.
Washington on July 4 wrote to Jefferson and people in Alexandria who had written to him.
Jefferson realized that Republicans should be neutral,
and he told Genêt that the Little Sarah would be detained.
On July 12 Washington and his Cabinet agreed to ask France to recall Genêt,
and they would recall minister Morris from France.
James Madison opposed the President’s neutrality policy
and argued that it violated the Constitution.
Hamilton challenged that with seven essays in newspapers.
The position of the United States was that France had begun an offensive war.
Federalists met in five states, condemned Genêt, and defended Washington.
The British on June 8 had ordered the taking of neutral ships going to France.
That summer Hamilton and Madison used pseudonyms
to argue against each other in newspapers.
Jefferson advised Washington not to attack the Republican Party
because that would make him the head of a party instead of the nation.
On August 6 Washington said he would not make the Genêt affair a public issue.
Chief Justice John Jay informed Washington that the Supreme Court would not
respond to the 29 questions the President sent them about treaties on July 18.
They would only comment on a current legal case.
On August 3 Jefferson, Hamilton, Knox, and Randolph
submitted “Rules on Neutrality” to Washington.
On August 19 Dr. Benjamin Rush informed
Philadelphia that a yellow fever epidemic had begun.
Hamilton nearly died, and Washington left to go to Mount Vernon in early September.
About 4,000 died in Philadelphia, and it spread in other large cities.
Cold weather in October ended the epidemic.
Washington presented his Fifth Annual Message to Congress on December 3.
He commented on the war in Europe and how he established a neutral policy.
He also discussed the situation with Indian nations and his peace policy.
He noted that the United States Bank had begun payments to lower the national debt.
On December 16 Jefferson gave Congress his “Report on the Privileges
and Restrictions on the Commerce of the United States in Foreign Countries.”
On that day Washington wrote a letter to Congress about the European war.
Jefferson retired at the end of the month, and Washington prevented Hamilton
and Knox from resigning by persuading them to serve for another year.
In the first five years of Washington’s presidency the real income
of the United States had increased by 9% per year.
On 2 January 1994 Washington appointed Edmund Randolph the
Secretary of State and William Bradford, Chief Justice in Pennsylvania, as Attorney General.
Washington was concerned that Georgia’s sale of Indian land
to speculators would damage American welfare and peace.
He granted Genêt asylum to prevent his being put to death in France.
In 1794 the British still had 1,000 soldiers in the Northwest Territory of the United States.
Their navy seized 130 American ships at the St. Eustacia island, and
the British at Martinique captured and imprisoned 250 American sailors.
On February 10 Quebec’s Governor Guy Carleton
urged Indians to help the British alter the border.
On March 27 Washington signed the Naval Act so that the United States
could begin a Navy by spending $688,889 to build six frigates.
Congress approved a 30-day embargo on foreign trade,
and Washington signed it on March 29.
In 1993 the United States Supreme Court had upheld the right of citizens
to sue another state in a federal court.
On 4 March 1994 the Congress proposed an amendment opposing that,
and the 11th amendment to the Constitution was ratified
and went into effect on 7 February 1795.
On 16 April 1794 Washington sent Congress a letter explaining
that he had appointed Chief Justice John Jay as an envoy to Britain.
The Senate confirmed him, and Washington spent 17 days
working on his instructions for Jay.
Republicans reacted and burned Jay in effigy in some towns.
An agreement ended the trade embargo on May 12.
That month hundreds of people protested excise taxes
on tobacco, refined sugar, and carriages.
Riots in Philadelphia stimulated Washington to revise
his instructions to Jay on a treaty with the British.
On May 27 the President nominated James Monroe
to replace Gouverneur Morris in France.
William Short was moved from The Hague to Spain, and
John Quincy Adams, son of the Vice President, was confirmed
as the Minister to the United Netherlands on May 29.
After the Senate confirmed six captains for the Navy, the Congress adjourned on June 9.
Jefferson in August provoked Washington’s tempe
by suggesting they publish Genet’s writing.
The minister Monroe favored the French and opposed the British.
On August 30 Washington wrote more instructions to John Jay in London.
In the 1794 elections the Federalists gained a few seats
in the Senate and in the House of Representatives.
Washington presented a very long 6th Annual Message to Congress on November 19,
and he discussed and described how various issues were affecting people.
He believed that coercion must be only a last resort,
and he explained how he used the militia.
He reviewed relations with Indians.
James Madison in the House of Representatives criticized
Washington’s speech for censuring political clubs.
John Jay negotiated with the British the “Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation”
which was signed in London on November 13 and resolved issues neglected
by the Peace Treaty of 1783 and many issues on trade and naval relations.
The treaty is quite long with detailed articles on how these things were to be handled.
The treaty can be read in chapter 14.
The United States excise taxes had become effective in August 1791,
and farmers in western Pennsylvania were already organizing resistance that grew.
President Washington could not find anyone in Kentucky to enforce the law.
In May 1792 the Congress revised the tax so that
those in cities and the country were treated equally.
By 1793 protestors were acting like it was a revolution with liberty poles.
On 24 February 1794 Washington offered a $200 reward for
detaining persons who had violated offices and revenue collectors.
A more lenient law became effective on June 5.
Rebels and vigilantes shut down tax offices and punished officials and collaborators.
John Holcroft led 37 men with muskets, and they had six men wounded.
On July 15 Marshal Lenox began arresting tax evaders,
and two days later 600 men attacked the US Army on Bower Hill.
They negotiated, and Lenox stopped serving writs.
On August 14 a congress with 226 delegates from five counties in Pennsylvania
and Ohio County in Virginia, and 250 armed men demanded
repeal of the tax and the redistribution of wealth.
A Supreme Court Justice had authorized the President to call out the militia,
and Pennsylvania’s Gov. Thomas Mifflin doubted they would obey.
Hamilton told Washington that military action was justified,
and War Secretary Knox agreed on 12,000 or more men.
Attorney General Bradford and Secretary of State Randolph advised negotiation first.
Washington sent Bradford and a commission to negotiate with the rebels,
and on August 7 the President issued a comprehensive proclamation on the militia call.
As they left that day, Knox ordered governors in Pennsylvania, New Jersey,
Maryland, and Virginia to summon 13,000 militia men on September 1.
Then Knox went home to Maine, and Hamilton became acting Secretary of War.
He held a war council on August 24 and began sending 15,000 men.
Washington wrote about it in a letter to Henry Lee on August 26.
The Commission warned in the negotiation that
they might prosecute them for treason in July 1795.
On 23 August 1794 some moderates agreed to the President’s terms,
and 60 on a committee voted to submit.
Washington ordered the militia to report on September 9,
and a referendum was held two days later.
Males over 18 could submit and take an oath to get amnesty.
Maryland’s Governor Thomas Sim Lee sent 700 men against 90 rebels.
On September 25 Washington proclaimed his final warning
that force would be used to enforce the laws.
About 15,000 men gathered at Carlisle by October 9.
On the 18th he had 3,000 soldiers parade in Bedford, Pennsylvania.
Some 150 people had been arrested by November 17.
Only 12 cases were tried in 1795; two were convicted of treason,
and Washington pardoned them.
Governor Lee issued a general pardon.
By 9 January 1795 the United States ratified treaties with
the Six Nations of the Iroquois, Oneidas, and Cherokees.
Postmaster General Timothy Pickering became the Secretary of War on January 2.
President Washington on the 22nd wrote a letter to Virginia’s Chief Justice
Edmund Pendleton in which he discussed presents for Indians and treaties with them.
Washington promoted canals for the James and Potomac rivers.
His land became more valuable, and he donated $20,000 for the
Liberty Hall Academy that was changed to the Washington Academy
in 1796 and later to Washington and Lee University.
On March 3 he summoned the Senate to meet
on June 8 to begin debate on Jay’s Treaty with Britain.
War Secretary Pickering in April supervised treaties with Indians in the West.
John Jay had begun negotiating with the British in June 1794.
He and the British Foreign Minister Grenville agreed on a detailed treaty on November 19.
Two copies were captured at sea by the French,
and a third reached Washington on 7 March 1795.
Two joint commissions would decide on the financial claims for
United States war debts and British compensation for ships.
Slaveowners would not be compensated for lost slaves.
Canadian traders would be permitted to bring furs
back from south of the border without a tax.
On March 25 the House of Representatives demanded treaty papers,
and Washington declined to provide them.
On June 8 he gave the documents to the Senate.
On June 24 they approved most of the treaty.
Jay and the government were keeping the treaty secret from newspapers and the public.
Republicans objected.
Eventually Senator Pierce Butler leaked a copy that
Aurora editor Bache printed as a pamphlet on July 1.
John Jay was elected governor of New York, and he resigned as Chief Justice on June 28.
Washington nominated John Rutledge to be Chief Justice.
The most controversial part of Jay’s treaty was Article 12 on trade with the West Indies.
Hamilton and Federalists revised it to allow
American ships to trade with the British West Indies.
The treaty did not reimburse Americans for stolen property during the Revolution
nor did it prohibit the British from impressing American citizens into service at sea.
Both nations agreed to treat Native Americans well.
On June 24 the United States Senate ratified the treaty without Article 12 by a 20-10 vote.
On July 3 Washington wrote to Hamilton about the treaty.
On July 4 protests against the Jay Treaty erupted in Philadelphia,
and Yankees burned a British privateer in Boston.
The British Council revived the order allowing the
Royal Navy to capture American merchant ships.
Secretary of State Edmund Randolph told British Minister Hammond that
Washington would not ratify the treaty with that order in place.
Rutledge made a speech in Charleston criticizing Jay
and the treaty that 13 newspapers published.
The Senate convened in December, and they rejected the
nomination of Rutledge for Chief Justice on December 28.
France considered the treaty a violation of their alliance with the United States.
Hamilton tried to speak for the treaty outside city hall in New York,
and he was pelted with rocks.
He and Rufus King published articles for the treaty in the
New York Argus using the pseudonym Camillus.
Washington was concerned that James Monroe was too
much in favor of the French, and he recalled him in July.
On the 28th the President wrote to the selectmen of Boston
that he would have to listen to his conscience.
He sent Charles Cotesworth Pinckney to France, and he arrived in September 1796.
Monroe wrote a book criticizing Washington.
On 3 August 1795 Wayne’s treaty at Greenville made with 1,100
chiefs and warriors from eleven nations ceded 25,000 square miles in
southern Ohio to the United States for $20,000 and $10,000 a year.
On August 11 Pickering accused Edmund Randolph
of being a traitor
by selling secrets to the French.
Randolph said he would explain.
On the 18th he and Washington signed the Jay Treaty.
Washington found more evidence against Randolph who seemed to be guilty.
Attorney General Bradford died on August 23,
and Washington appointed the lawyer Charles Lee to replace him.
On September 20 General Wayne reported that
three British forts were turned over to the Americans.
On October 9 Washington wrote to Patrick Henry
and asked him to be Secretary of State.
Henry refused that and other positions that Washington offered.
When Kentucky settlers, who were tired of Spanish restrictions on shipping,
considered seceding, Washington sent Thomas Pinckney to Madrid as a special envoy.
He negotiated a treaty with Spain on October 27 that gave the United States
the large territory west of Georgia to the Mississippi River.
Treasury Secretary Wolcott advised the British that the United States
did not want an alliance with Spain after their experience with France.
Washington met with Indians from eleven tribes on November 29.
Congress returned on December 7, and the next day
Washington gave his Seventh Annual Message.
He discussed the Creeks and Cherokees and the crimes of Georgia citizens.
The Emperor of Morocco had suggested a treaty,
and Washington reported the good news about Spain.
He noted that agriculture, commerce, and manufactures were prospering.
Despite recent disorders he was hoping for peace for the benefit of the general welfare.
He reviewed the military establishment.
He was working to help Indians observe justice.
He and the Congress were endeavoring to extinguish the debt.
On December 10 Washington appointed Timothy Pickering the Secretary of State,
and on the 18th Edmund Randolph published A Vindication.
Pickering worked with the Quakers and their committee on the tribes.
On 1 January 1796 President Washington met the new French minister Pierre Adet,
though he declined to display the gift of the French flag.
The Swiss-American Albert Gallatin was elected the Republicans’ leade
in the House of Representatives, and he worked on reforming deficit spending.
Washington named James McHenry the Secretary of War,
and he was confirmed on January 27.
Senator Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut was confirmed as Chief Justice.
Hamilton resigned on the 31st, and Comptroller
Oliver Wolcott Jr. replaced him as Treasury Secretary.
On March 1 Washington notified Congress that the Treaty of Amity,
Commerce and
Navigation had been duly ratified by the United States and Britain by 28 October 1795.
The Treaty of San Lorenzo was ratified by the
United States on March 7 and by Spain on April 25.
The recent treaties had added 600,000 square miles to the territory of the United States.
On March 7 Washington proclaimed that a treaty
with Algiers had been made on 5 September 1795.
The United States paid a ransom of $642,000 and
gunpowder and other supplies worth $21,600 annually.
In the Hylton v. United States case on 8 March 1796 the court approved
the federal government’s authority to impose an indirect tax on carriages.
Opposition to the Jay Treaty led the House to ask for documents.
On March 30 Washington wrote to them, and he explained that
foreign negotiations rely on secrecy that continues after a treaty is made.
He followed the Constitution that states that the Senate ratifies treaties.
After a debate and a fight in the House,
they funded the Jay Treaty by a 51-48 vote on April 30.
In the treaty the British agreed to evacuate their posts on the frontier by 1 June 1796.
That year the Congress provided $150,000 for factories and trading posts for Indians.
On August 29 Washington addressed the Cherokee nation.
He urged them to consider farming and ranching, and women could spin and weave.
In the fall 12 Indian nations traveled from Detroit to Philadelphia
to meet with their “great father” Washington.
Washington after consulting with Hamilton, Madison, and Jay,
published his
Farewell Address to the people of the United States in the American Daily Advertiser.
In this eminent document he began by making it clear
he would not run for a third term as President.
He would return to the retirement he had had left to become President,
and his age has made this necessary.
He expressed his gratitude to his country.
He hoped that the Union will be perpetual and the Constitution maintained
and that the administration will have wisdom and virtue with liberty for the people.
Americans have a common cause.
Both the North and the South are protected by equal laws.
There is progressive improvement in the East and the West, and they support each other.
He warned against “foreign alliances” and “overgrown military establishments.”
The two treaties with Great Britain and Spain
have secured much and confirmed prosperity.
Wisdom can preserve the Union.
People have the right to alter constitutions,
and the power of the people can be maintained.
They can manage their common interests.
He warned against political parties especially
those based on geographical discrimination.
Such conflicts can lead to despotism.
He warned against change by usurpation.
Religion and morality can provide “indispensable supports.”
He emphasized education for “diffusion of knowledge.”
Wars cause debts and must be avoided, and
he advised cultivating “peace and harmony with all.”
He noted that Providence is connected to virtue.
Free people must be awake and not let foreign
influence endanger republican government.
Connecting destiny to a part of Europe can “entangle” peace and prosperity.
A nation has a right to be neutral for the sake of justice and humanity.
Maintaining neutrality can preserve peace and friendship.
In the 1796 elections the Federalists who followed Washington
elected Vice President John Adams the next President by a small margin of 71-68
over the Republican Thomas Jefferson, and the Federalist Thomas Pinckney
had 59 electoral votes to 30 for the Republican Senator Aaron Burr.
Yet the current rule made Jefferson the Vice President.
Republicans had briefly held a 58-57 majority in the House,
and after the election the Federalists controlled 64-53.
In the Senate the Federalists increased their lead to 20-10.
On December 7 Washington presented his 8th and last Message to Congress
in which he reported that peace was made with Indian nations and
successful treaties with Britain, Spain, and Morocco.
The economy was growing, and trade had tripled during the years under Washington.
Washington on 3 March 1797, the last day of his presidency,
pardoned ten men convicted of treason during the Whiskey Rebellion,
and he wrote his last letter to the House Speaker Jonathan Trumbull, Jr.
John Adams was inaugurated as the second President on March 4.
During Washington’s retirement President Adams wrote to him on 22 June 1798
asking for his advice on organizing the army,
and on July 2 Adams appointed Washington commander of the armed forces.
He was made Commander-in-Chief, and Washington
let Hamilton be in charge as a Major General.
On July 3 Washington wrote to Adams commending him for avoiding war
and asking that he be in reserve unless it was necessary to call him out.
In July 1799 a dream guided Washington to change his will so that
his wife
Martha would inherit all the slaves if she agreed to free them at her death.
About half their slaves were too old or young to work.
Washington died of pneumonia on December 14, and his last words were “’T is well.”
In the eulogy at the memorial service Washington was called,
“First in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen”
and “pious, just, humane, temperate, and sincere.”
George Washington was born in Virginia into a family that had slaves,
and he attended a church school.
His father had been in the militia, a justice of the peace,
and a sheriff before dying when George was eleven years old.
George understood discipline and inherited a farm with ten slaves.
His mother encouraged him to read, and her lessons emphasized morality and religion.
He liked to read and was self-educated never attending a college.
His older brother Lawrence influenced him to study the military and politics.
George learned how to be a surveyor and began earning money surveying the wilderness.
Washington developed his leadership as an officer
following the governor’s orders and cooperating with Indians.
His surprise attack on a small group of French in the West
started the French and Indian War in July 1754.
He served under the British General Braddock and fought
heroically against the French and Indians in 1755.
Washington was put in charge of protecting the frontier, and he wrote
a highly critical letter to the British Commander-in-Chief Loudun
offering various ways of improving the difficult situation.
Washington cooperated with General Forbes and led the troops
that took over Fort Duquesne in 1758.
He was elected to the House of Burgesses and became involved in the protests
against the Stamp Tax in 1765 and other peaceful ways of resisting British imperialism.
Washington through inheritance, marriage to a wealthy widow, his five farms,
a fishing business, and land purchases was a very wealthy man.
He was elected a delegate to the Continental Congress
in 1774 and 1775, and he worked on nine committees.
After the battles at Lexington and Concord began the War for Independence
in April 1775, the Congress elected Washington the commander of the Continental Army.
Facing the imperial power of the British Army and Navy with new recruits,
he managed a defensive war against the offensive British occupation of Boston
and other places that included New York and Philadelphia.
Washington was a military man and he imposed strict discipline.
Yet his intelligence and concern for his men made him a popular leader.
He accepted no money except for expenses
and did the same when he became President.
He inspired his men to fight for their sacred cause.
On 9 July 1776 he had the generals read the Declaration of Independence to the men.
He persuaded the Congress to accept the defensive war strategy.
Tom Paine’s The American Crisis was also read to the men.
In December the Congress gave Washington complete power in the war.
He and his officers pledged their fortunes.
He did not allow his men to pillage.
He offered pardons to deserters who came back.
The miserable winter at Valley Forge tested the sacrifice of the soldiers.
In January 1778 he proclaimed freedom for Negroes and Indians
who fought for the Continental Army to the end of the war.
In May he predicted that the French would help them win the war.
In 1779 Washington did send General Sullivan with 4,600 men
against the Iroquois, and they plundered their crops.
Washington learned that fighting Indians was not a good idea.
With help from the French he managed to trap the British Army at Yorktown, Virginia,
and on October 17 General Cornwallis and 7,247 soldiers and 840 sailors surrendered.
In January 1782 France made a peace treaty that
recognized the independence of the United States.
On 18 April 1783 Washington in General Orders proclaimed an end to the war
between the United States and Britain that had achieved a “glorious revolution.”
From 1783 to 1789 George Washington wrote more than a thousand letters.
In June 1783 he sent a circular to state governments.
He advocated a union of the states under a federal government,
public justice, establishing peace and friendship.
He believed that national debts should be paid,
and his primary belief was that “honesty is the best policy.”
Washington proposed peaceful ways and friendship with Indians,
and the Congress accepted his plans.
Washington lost much money during the war, and he retired from the Army.
He commended his friend Lafayette for starting an organization for freeing slaves.
He wrote about democratic governments,
and he discussed with John Jay how to revise the Articles of Confederation.
Washington attended the convention in Philadelphia in May 1787
that worked on writing a new constitution.
The delegates elected Washington president, and by September they had a
new
Constitution with three branches of government that provided checks and balances.
Washington did not participate in the debates.
Yet he wanted a strong central government.
Delegates gave the President effective powers because
they trusted Washington and knew he would be elected.
Alexander Hamilton urged Washington to be president,
and he received all the electoral votes and 99% of all the people’s votes.
John Adams knew a lot about constitutions and republics,
and he was elected Vice President.
When Washington was inaugurated at New York on 30 April 1789,
he was not wearing a military uniform.
His address emphasized trusting the providence of God and ethical principles.
As President he was aided by three private secretaries, and Washington often asked
for written advice from Adams, James Madison in Congress,
Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay
whom he appointed Chief Justice and sent to Britain as an envoy.
When Thomas Jefferson returned from France, he agreed to be Secretary of State.
Washington, Adams, and Hamilton were considered Federalists
while Jefferson and Madison became Republicans and challenged their policies.
Yet Washington worked at harmonizing their views.
He kept his friend Henry Knox on as Secretary of War.
He called the presidential mansion the “People’s House” and opened it to the public.
Washington and Hamilton agreed on paying off the large national debt from the war,
and they even accepted taking on the debts of the states.
Hamilton did this by founding the United States Bank based on the Bank of England.
Congress passed three tariff bills to get revenue,
and on August 4 the Funding Act began reducing the national debt.
The Treasury Department also collected customs duties.
Knox made a treaty with the Creeks that recognized their land.
Washington found by experience that he preferred to relate to Congress by writing.
Each year he fulfilled the constitutional duty on reporting about the state of the union,
and he did that in eight Annual Messages to Congress.
The Judiciary Act in September established the Supreme Court
with a Chief Justice and five Associate Justices and 13 judicial districts.
Washington appointed justices from different states for balance.
Madison in Congress helped pass a bill of rights that
were added to the Constitution as the first ten amendments.
Perhaps the biggest stain on his presidency was the conflict that the United States
had in the northwest with Indians and the English who had not given up their forts there.
The British held on to the forts in the northwest because Americans had not paid their debts.
An Indian war broke out in the Ohio territory in 1789, and the Miami and Shawnee
led by Chief Little Turtle inflicted major defeats on the American forces in 1790 and 1791.
The biggest defeat of the US Army in a battle against Indians in American history was
in the battle at Wabash on 4 November 1791 when the Northwestern Confederacy
led by Chief Little Turtle killed or captured 632 soldiers and most of 200 camp followers.
General Anthony Wayne trained soldiers for two years, and on 20 August 179
they defeated more than 2,000 Indians led by Blue Jacket at Fallen Timbers.
On 3 August 1795 Wayne made a treaty at Greenville with eleven tribes,
and the British finally left their forts in 1796.
In the southwest President Washington made treaties and land purchases
with the Cherokees, but he had trouble controlling Americans there.
Chickamaugas fought and made peace in November 1794.
Vermont had become the 14th state in March 1791,
and Kentucky joined the Union in June 1792.
After elections and a constitutional convention
Tennessee became the 16th state in June 1796.
Washington tried to get along with Indians, and he urged
them to develop agriculture and the arts of civilization.
Speculators bought and sold land in the west.
Yet many Americans settled on land they got for free because they did not believe
anyone had a right to own land they did not farm.
In 1796 Spain gave up territory north of the 31st parallel and
east of the Mississippi River which was opened to American ships.
Another challenge was curtailing the rebellion against the excise tax on liquor
in western Pennsylvania that President Washington
managed to put down with little violence.
His farewell address warned against a large military and entangling alliances
that can lead to devastating wars.
These principles are extremely important, and presidents
who have violated them have caused much misery.
His policies of honesty and virtue made him admired as the father of his country.
By declining to run for a third term Washington set a precedent and
showed how a republic can replace strong and popular leaders by peaceful elections.
Washington had major flaws as a slave-holder and
as a military leader in several wars using strict discipline.
He started the French and Indian War in July 1754 that
became the Seven Years War between the British and French empires.
During his eight years as President the national debt increased by about $11 million.
Although Washington was an effective leader in war and peace,
despite of being a Christian, he did not follow the teachings
of Jesus the Christ in regard to violence against people.
He did not follow the peaceful ways of the Quakers,
not realizing what would later be demonstrated by men like Henry David Thoreau,
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Mahatma Gandhi, and Dr. Martin Luther King
who showed how the teachings of Jesus could work.
He did not free his many slaves until after his death in his will.
He also was greedy in his purchase of land.
He could have paid his slaves a decent salary,
and he could have educated their children.
These tragic flaws set a bad example because
he was admired so much for his good qualities.
He did wisely warn against military alliances that could drag the nation into large wars.
His retiring after two terms was a good example.
He was a
great leader with good values who
established democratic traditions worthy of emulation.
I rank George Washington #4.