Posted on 12/13/2009 8:52:39 PM PST by Ravnagora
On December 14th 1799, America lost her first president. She needs to revisit what made George Washington the great man and the great President that he was. Remembering George...
First U.S. President: 1789-1797
On April 30, 1789, George Washington, standing on the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York, took his oath of office as the first President of the United States. "As the first of every thing, in our situation will serve to establish a Precedent," he wrote James Madison, "it is devoutly wished on my part, that these precedents may be fixed on true principles."
Born in 1732 into a Virginia planter family, he learned the morals, manners, and body of knowledge requisite for an 18th century Virginia gentleman.
He pursued two intertwined interests: military arts and western expansion. At 16 he helped survey Shenandoah lands for Thomas, Lord Fairfax. Commissioned a lieutenant colonel in 1754, he fought the first skirmishes of what grew into the French and Indian War. The next year, as an aide to Gen. Edward Braddock, he escaped injury although four bullets ripped his coat and two horses were shot from under him.
From 1759 to the outbreak of the American Revolution, Washington managed his lands around Mount Vernon and served in the Virginia House of Burgesses. Married to a widow, Martha Dandridge Custis, he devoted himself to a busy and happy life. But like his fellow planters, Washington felt himself exploited by British merchants and hampered by British regulations. As the quarrel with the mother country grew acute, he moderately but firmly voiced his resistance to the restrictions.
When the Second Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia in May 1775, Washington, one of the Virginia delegates, was elected Commander in Chief of the Continental Army. On July 3, 1775, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, he took command of his ill-trained troops and embarked upon a war that was to last six grueling years.
He realized early that the best strategy was to harass the British. He reported to Congress, "we should on all Occasions avoid a general Action, or put anything to the Risque, unless compelled by a necessity, into which we ought never to be drawn." Ensuing battles saw him fall back slowly, then strike unexpectedly. Finally in 1781 with the aid of French allies--he forced the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.
Washington longed to retire to his fields at Mount Vernon. But he soon realized that the Nation under its Articles of Confederation was not functioning well, so he became a prime mover in the steps leading to the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia in 1787. When the new Constitution was ratified, the Electoral College unanimously elected Washington President.
He did not infringe upon the policy making powers that he felt the Constitution gave Congress. But the determination of foreign policy became preponderantly a Presidential concern. When the French Revolution led to a major war between France and England, Washington refused to accept entirely the recommendations of either his Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, who was pro-French, or his Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, who was pro-British. Rather, he insisted upon a neutral course until the United States could grow stronger.
To his disappointment, two parties were developing by the end of his first term. Wearied of politics, feeling old, he retired at the end of his second. In his Farewell Address, he urged his countrymen to forswear excessive party spirit and geographical distinctions. In foreign affairs, he warned against long-term alliances.
Washington enjoyed less than three years of retirement at Mount Vernon, for he died of a throat infection December 14, 1799. For months the Nation mourned him.
*****
I have one portrait of him in my den - along with a framed copy of the Declaration of Independence.
My favorite president.
No doubt.
|
|
|||
Gods |
Thanks pharmboy. |
||
|
· Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google · · The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists · |
|||
Peyton R. would have a claim, but the US wasn’t independent then, was it?
If we became independent with the D of I, at the end of the meeting it was Hancock. Hanson has a claim too, for he was the first President of a “perpetual Union”. GW was the first President under the current Constitution. Not a bad thing, not a bad thing at all, esp. having served as President of the Constitutional Convention that worked to write said Constitution.
The separation into Judicial, Executive and Legislative was a significant innovation of the current constitution. UK Parliment still has the Prime Minister elected as just another legislator, and he selects his cabinet from other elected legislators.
You wrote “2 to 16”. Randolph was the 1st of those 16, not Hancock.
I intended that Hancock was first...
and giving you that, as an exercise you could find the next, which would be 2.
Again, Randolph was an excellent gentleman, but the US had not declared its independence when he was President of the meeting of the congress of the various colonies.
1 Peyton Randolph September 5, 1774 October 22, 1774
2 Henry Middleton October 22, 1774 October 26, 1774
3 Peyton Randolph May 10, 1775 May 24, 1775
4 John Hancock May 24, 1775 October 29, 1777
5 Henry Laurens November 1, 1777 December 9, 1778
6 John Jay December 10, 1778 September 28, 1779
7 Samuel Huntington September 28, 1779 July 10, 1781
8 Thomas McKean July 10, 1781 November 5, 1781
9 John Hanson November 5, 1781 November 4, 1782
10 Elias Boudinot November 4, 1782 November 3, 1783
11 Thomas Mifflin November 3, 1783 June 3, 1784
12 Richard Henry Lee November 30, 1784 November 4, 1785
13 John Hancock November 23, 1785 June 5, 1786
14 Nathaniel Gorham June 6, 1786 November 3, 1786
15 Arthur St. Clair February 2, 1787 November 4, 1787
16 Cyrus Griffin January 22, 1788 November 15, 1788
Late to the party bump.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.