 |
Meet the People
: George Washington
: George Washington in Williamsburg
 |
| Charles Wilson Peale’s Portrait of George Washington at Princeton |
 Visit our podcast page to listen to a Behind the Scenes Interview:
"Yorktown" Electronic Field Trip |
- Born 1732 in Westmoreland County, Virginia
- Father died when he was a boy
- Strongly influenced by older brother
- Military career began in Virginia militia
- Married a widow with two children
- Man of character all his life
- First president of the United States of America
- Died 1799 at Mount Vernon
The early years
Born February 22, 1732, in Westmoreland County, Va., George Washington was
the first son of his father Augustine's second marriage; his mother was the
former Mary Ball of Epping Forest. When George was about three, his family moved
to Little Hunting Creek on the Potomac, then to Ferry Farm opposite Fredericksburg
on the Rappahannock River in King George County.
Washington’s father died in 1743, and young George grew restive under
his mother's management. He proposed at one point to follow the sea, but instead
divided his adolescence among the households of relatives, finding a home and
a model in his half-brother Lawrence at Mount Vernon.
Older brother's influence
From Lawrence, Washington learned trigonometry and surveying and cultivated
a taste for ethics, novels, music, and the theater. A ranking officer in the
Virginia militia, Lawrence had served with Admiral Edward Vernon – for
whom the plantation was named – and thus imbued George with aspirations
for military service.
Fairfax family influence
Another early influence on George Washington was the powerful Fairfax family
of neighboring Belvoir, who introduced him to the accomplishments and proprieties
of mannered wealth and provided him his first adventure. In 1748, Lord Fairfax
sent George with a party that spent a month surveying Fairfax lands in the still-wild
Shenandoah Valley. It was on this expedition that George began to appreciate
the uses and value of land, an appreciation that grew the following year with
his appointment as Culpeper County surveyor, certified by the College of William
& Mary.
Lawrence Washington dies
Lawrence, suffering from a lung complaint, undertook a Barbados voyage in search
of health in a warmer climate, and George accompanied him. The younger brother
contracted smallpox and returned to Virginia alone, but with an immunity to
a disease that later ravaged colonial-era armies. Lawrence died in 1752, and
the Mount Vernon estate passed by stages into George's hands until he inherited
it outright in 1761.
Washington’s military career begins
Washington also succeeded to Lawrence's militia office. Governor Robert Dinwiddie
first appointed him adjutant for the southern district of the colony's militia,
but soon conferred on him Lawrence's adjutantcy for the Northern Neck and Eastern
Shore. And so it happened that in 1753 the governor sent 21-year-old George
Washington to warn French troops stationed north of the forks of the Ohio River
(modern Pittsburgh) that they were encroaching in territory claimed by Virginia.
The French ignored the admonition, and the mission failed. Nonetheless, when
Washington returned, Governor Dinwiddie instructed Williamsburg printer William
Hunter to publish his official report as The Journal of Major George Washington,
thus making the young officer well known at home and abroad.
First taste of battle
In April, Washington returned to the Ohio country with 150 men to remove the
intruders and received his first taste of war in a skirmish with a French scouting
party. He wrote to his brother Jack, "I heard the bullets whistle, and,
believe me, there is something charming in the sound."
A second engagement quickly followed, and Washington, retreating to Fort Necessity,
was beaten by a larger French force. He surrendered and, in his ignorance of
the French language, signed an embarrassing capitulation agreement. But he later
had opportunities to redress his defeat. The whistling bullets heralded the
start of the Seven Years' War, as it was called in Europe. In America, it was
called the French and Indian War or, sometimes, Virginia's War. English author
Horace Walpole wrote, "The volley fired by a young Virginian in the backwoods
of America set the world on fire."
Washington returned to the field as an aide to General Braddock in 1755 and
performed with distinction, despite debilitating illness, in the disastrous
campaign against Fort Duquesne. Later that year, Dinwiddie gave him command
of all Virginia forces and promoted him to colonel.
Seeds of British resentment
During these years Washington had two disputes with English officers who viewed
their regular-army commissions as superior to that of the Virginia militia commander.
These disputes may mark the beginning of Washington's resentment of British
attitudes toward the colonies.
Operating from a fort at Winchester, Washington protected the Virginia frontier
until late 1758 when he and his soldiers joined General Forbes army and helped
to chase the French from Fort Duquesne for good.
Life at Mount Vernon
Washington resigned his military commission at the end of December 1758 and
retired to Mount Vernon. He was defeated in election for the House of Burgesses
in 1755, but won in 1758 and was seated that year from Frederick County. For
15 years he devoted himself to his legislative work and his farm. During this
period, he also became a family man, marrying the widow Martha Dandridge Custis,
the mother of two children, on January 6, 1759, in New Kent County.
County Justice of the Peace
In 1760, Washington took on the duties of a Fairfax County justice of the peace.
He also found time for the amusements of a Virginia gentleman – fox hunting,
snuff taking, plays, billiards, cards, dancing, and fishing. He delighted in
bottles of Madeira, plates of watermelon, and dishes of oysters.
In these years, his resentment of the subordination of American interests to
those of England grew. In 1765, Washington told an acquaintance that Parliament
"hath no more right to put their hands into my pocket, without my consent,
than I have to put my hands into yours for money."
Defense of liberty
By 1774 Washington was in the forefront of the defense of Virginia liberties
and was among the rebellious burgesses who gathered at the Raleigh Tavern in
Williamsburg on May 27 after Governor Dunmore dissolved the house. Washington
signed the resolves proposing a Continental congress and a ban on the importing
of British goods. On July 18, he chaired the Alexandria meeting that adopted
George Mason's "Fairfax Resolutions."
Sent to the First Continental Congress, Washington returned home afterward
to organize independent militia companies in Northern Virginia and to win election
to the Second Continental Congress. In Philadelphia on June 15, 1775, he was
offered command of America's forces, accepted, vowed to accept no pay, and left
to take over the army at Boston.
Frustration in battle
The years that passed before the victory at Yorktown in 1781 were marked as
often by frustration as by success. Hampered by shortages of supplies and the
unreliability of enlistments, Washington commanded with caution. He once reported
to Congress, "We should on all Occasions avoid a general Action, or put
anything to the Risque, unless compelled by a necessity, into which we ought
never to be drawn."
Washington as military leader
Thomas Jefferson wrote of Washington: "His mind was great and powerful,
without being of the very first order; his penetration strong . . . and as far
as he saw, no judgment was ever sounder. It was slow in operation, being little
aided by invention of imagination, but sure in conclusion. Hence the common
remark of his officers, of the advantage he derived from councils of war, where
hearing all suggestions, he selected whatever was best; and certainly no general
ever planned his battles more judiciously. But if he deranged during the course
of the action, if any member of his plan was dislocated by sudden circumstances,
he was slow in re-adjustment. The consequence was, that he often failed in the
field, and rarely against an enemy in station, as at Boston and York. He was
incapable of fear, meeting personal dangers with the calmest unconcern. Perhaps
the strongest feature in his character was prudence, never acting until every
circumstance, every consideration, was maturely weighed; refraining if he saw
a doubt, but, when once decided, going through with his purpose, whatever obstacles
opposed."
Washington regarded Yorktown – a battle he planned in part at the George
Wythe House – as "an interesting event that may be productive of
much good if properly improved, but if it should be the means of relaxation
and sink us into supineness and security, it had better not have happened."
The war wound down and as danger diminished, congressional neglect of the Army
grew. Washington’s troops urged him to seize power from the politicians,
but he repudiated every such suggestion. On March 15, 1783, Washington met his
unhappy and rebellious officers at Newburgh, New York, to discourage them from
marching on Congress over back pay, but the speech he had prepared proved unpersuasive.
Washington decided to read a letter that he had received from a congressman.
As he reached into his coat for his glasses, he said to his troops, "Gentlemen,
you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray,
but almost blind, in the service of my country." The officers were so touched
that some cried, and the day was carried. Biographer James Thomas Flexner wrote,
"This was probably the most important single gathering ever held in the
United States."
Return to Mount Vernon
On April 19, 1783 – the anniversary of the Battle of Lexington –
Washington said farewell to his staff at the Fraunces Tavern in New York and,
on the way to Mount Vernon, stopped in Annapolis to resign his commission to
Congress. He resumed the life of a plantation squire, and set out to repair
his finances.
Washington had long hoped to connect the Virginia seaboard to the Ohio River
and the interior by means of canals. In autumn 1784 he set out on a 650-mile
journey for observations. Improvement of his long-neglected farms, however,
was his primary preoccupation. He wrote to the Marquis de Lafayette, "I
have not only retired from all public employments, but I am retiring within
myself . . . Envious of none, I am determined to be pleased with all; and this,
my dear friend, being the order for my march, I will move gently down the stream
of life, until I sleep with my fathers."
President of a new nation
Nevertheless, the weakness of the government created by the Articles of Confederation
concerned Washington and, in 1786, Shays' Rebellion alarmed him. He reluctantly
accepted a seat in the federal convention and election to its presidency. His
unanimous election as the first president of the United States was certain before
the Constitution was even adopted and, again, he accepted with reluctance. "My
movements to the chair of government will be accompanied by feeling not unlike
those of a culprit, who is going to the place of his execution," he wrote
after the ballot.
George Washington took the oath of office April 30, 1789 in New York. He was
57 years of age.
Washington not only had to organize a government but also to create a role
for the highest officer of the new nation. Both tasks earned him enemies. Always
opposed to factions, his two administrations nevertheless fostered the bitter
rivalry of the Federalist and Anti-federalist parties.
Though unopposed for reelection, his second administration was the subject
of uncommon, and sometimes indecent, abuse and vilification. He likened one
such attack to an alarm raised against a rabid dog: "Such exaggerated terms
as could scarcely be applied to a Nero, a notorious defaulter, or even to a
common pickpocket."
The Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania against a federal excise tax
on spirits was his critical domestic challenge. He rode partway to the field
at the head of the column of militia raised to put it down.
Jefferson splits with Washington
After serving as Washington's secretary of state, Thomas Jefferson split with
the president. The breach became permanent. Jefferson wrote: "I do believe
that General Washington had not a firm confidence in the durability of our government.
He was naturally distrustful of men, and inclined to gloomy apprehensions; and
I was ever persuaded by a belief that we must at length end in something like
a British constitution, had some weight in his adoption of the ceremonies of
levees, birthdays, pompous meetings with Congress, and other forms of the same
character, calculated to prepare us gradually for a change which he believed
possible, and to let it come on with as little shock as might be to the public
mind."
Nevertheless, historians credit Washington's conduct of the office with the
preservation of the fledgling national union under the American Constitution.
Washington issued his farewell address on September 7, 1796, and was succeeded
by John Adams the following March 4. His last official act was to pardon the
participants in the Whiskey Rebellion.
When relations with France soured in 1798, his Country once more turned to
Washington for his service. Adams appointed him lieutenant general of a provisional
army. The danger subsided before the troops assembled.
Washington dies
In December 1799, after a day spent riding on his farms in foul weather, Washington's
throat became inflamed. At 2 a.m. December 14, he awakened his wife to say that
he was having trouble breathing. At sunrise she sent for Dr. James Craig, who
arrived at 9 a.m. and diagnosed the illness as "inflammatory quinsy."
During the morning Washington was bled three times and two more doctors, Elisha
Dick of Alexandria and Gustavus Brown, were summoned. One counseled against
bleeding, but more blood was taken and purges administered. At midnight Washington
said to his secretary, Tobias Lear: "I am just going. Have me decently
buried, and do not let my body be put into the vault in less than three days
after I am dead. Do you understand me?"
Lear said, "Yes."
Washington's last words were, "'Tis well."
Looking back
George Washington seems today a figure larger than life – almost as he
was when he was a familiar sight in the halls, homes, shops, and taverns of
18th-century Williamsburg.
On Duke of Gloucester Street, at the Capitol, in the Raleigh Tavern's Apollo
Room, or the Governor's Palace gardens, his powerful frame and his polished
demeanor – his presence – drew to him the notice that underwrote
his place in the history of the city, the state, and the nation.
"His bones and joints are large, as are his hands and feet," aide
George Mercer observed in 1760. Washington, he said, kept "all the muscles
of his face under perfect control, though flexible and expressive of deep feeling
when moved by emotion. In conversation he looks you full in the face, is deliberate,
deferential and engaging. His voice is agreeable . . . he is a splendid horseman."
Thomas Jefferson, who served with Washington in the House of Burgesses, wrote:
"On the whole, his character was, in its mass, perfect, in nothing bad,
in a few points indifferent; and it may truly be said, that never did nature
and fortune combine more perfectly to make a man great, and to place him in
the same constellation with whatever worthies have merited from man an everlasting
remembrance."
For further reading:
| |
Historic Triangle