George Washington 1732-1799. George Washington was elected Commander in Chief of the Continental Army by the Second Continental Congress

George Washington

1732-1799

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• George Washington was elected Commander in Chief of the Continental Army by the Second Continental Congress in May 1775. For the next six years, he led his ill-trained troops in a grueling war with Britain. Washington took the oath of office as the first President of the United States on April 30, 1789. He is often referred to as the father of the nation because of his leadership and influence in the founding of the United States.

• The ancestors of George Washington were among the first settlers of the oldest British colony in America. He was the third in descent from John Washington, an English gentleman, who about the middle of the 17th century emigrated from the north of England, and settled in Westmoreland county, Virginia.

• Of the first nineteen years of George Washington's life, little is known. His talents being more solid than showy, were not sufficiently developed for public notice, by the comparatively unimportant events of that early period.

• In Colonial Virginia Washington was born into the provincial gentry in a wealthy, well connected family that owned tobacco plantations using slave labor. Washington was home schooled by his father and older brother

• Strong, brave, eager for combat and a natural leader, young Washington quickly became a senior officer of the colonial forces, 1754–58, during the first stages of the French and Indian War.

• Washington's experience, his military bearing, his leadership of the Patriot cause in Virginia, and his political base in the largest colony made him the obvious choice of the Second Continental Congress in 1775 as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army to fight the British in the American Revolution

• He forced the British out of Boston in 1776, but was defeated and nearly captured later that year when he lost New York City.

• After crossing the Delaware River in the dead of winter he defeated the British in two battles and retaking New Jersey.



• He lost many of his battles—save the last one—but always survived to fight another day. He plotted the overall strategy of the war, in cooperation with Congress.

• From the low point during the winter of 1777 at Valley Forge PA , Washington kept his army together, and in 1781 American and French forces trapped a British army in Virginia.

• The surrender at Yorktown on October 17, 1781, marked the end of major fighting in continental North America.

End of the War• At Frances Tavern

on December 4, Washington formally bade his officers farewell and on December 23, 1783, he resigned his commission as commander-in-chief.



• Historian Gordon Wood concludes that the greatest act in his life was his resignation as commander of the armies—an act that stunned aristocratic Europe.

• Mount Vernon, Washington’s plantation



• Washington's retirement to Mount Vernon was short-lived. He was persuaded to attend the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787, and was unanimously elected president of the Convention.



• The Electoral College elected Washington unanimously as the first president[Note 2] in 1789, and again in the 1792 election; he remains the only president to have received 100 percent of the electoral votes.

The Whiskey Rebellion: A challenge to Federal authority

• Angered by a tax imposed on the sale of whiskey in 1791 by the federal government, farmers in the western counties of Pennsylvania engaged in a series of attacks on excise agents. The tax effectively eliminated any profit by the farmers from the sale or barter of whiskey (distilled from corn), and became the lightning rod for grievances by the settlers of the region against the new federal government.

• The rebel farmers continued their attacks, rioting in river towns and roughing up tax collectors.

• In July of 1794 a federal marshal was attacked in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Almost at the same time several hundred men attacked the residence of the regional inspector, burning his home & barn.

• On August 7, 1794, President Washington issued a proclamation, calling out the militia. Washington's order mobilized an army of approximately 13,000 — as large as the one that had defeated the British.

• Washington himself, in a show of presidential authority, set out at the head of the troops to suppress the uprising.

• This was the first test of power of the new federal government, establishing its central authority in disputes with individual states.

• In the end, a dozen or so men were arrested, sent to Philadelphia to trial and released after pardons by Washington.

• In 1794, Washington reluctantly began a second term as president. He refused to run for a third, establishing the customary policy of a maximum of two terms for a president.

• After his presidency ended, he returned to Mt. Vernon to resume running his plantation.

• On Thursday December 12, 1799, Washington spent several hours inspecting his farms on horseback, in snow, hail and freezing rain - later that evening eating his supper without changing from his wet clothes.

• Washington fell ill with a throat infection and died the following Saturday.

• His last words were: “Tis well.”

• Washington's tomb Mount VernonQuickTime™ and a

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• “First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen…” -Henry "Light-Horse Harry" Lee, on Washington’s death

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George Washington 1732-1799. George Washington was elected Commander in Chief of the Continental Army by the Second Continental Congress