biography
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1732–99)
|
| biography:
| US statesman and first president (1789–97), born in Westmoreland Co, Virginia, USA. His father, a prosperous planter and iron foundry owner, died when he was 11, and George moved in with his elder half-brother Lawrence, who owned the plantation Mount Vernon. In 1748 George did surveying for Lord Fairfax, a relative of Lawrence by marriage, meanwhile reading widely in Mt Vernon's library. In 1751 Washington accompanied the ailing half-brother to Barbados, and on his death the next year was left guardian of Lawrence's daughter at Mt Vernon, which Washington would inherit in 1761 after her death. Having studied military science on his own, in 1753 he began several years' service with the Virginia militia in the French and Indian Wars, taking command of all Virginia forces (1755) and participating in several dangerous actions. Commissioned as aide-de-camp by General Edward Braddock in 1755, he barely escaped with his life in the battle that took Braddock's life. He resigned his commission in 1758, following his election to the Virginia House of Burgesses (1759–74). When he married wealthy widow Martha Custis (1759), Washington's fortune and social position was secured. (They had no children together, but raised her two children and then her two grandchildren.) After a period of living the sociable life of a gentleman farmer, however, Washington risked it all by casting his lot with those rebelling against British rule, though his original motives probably had less to do with high principles and more to do with his personal annoyance with British commercial policies. He participated in the First Continental Congress (1774) and took command of the Virginia militia, and the next year the Second Congress, impressed with his military experience and commanding personality, made him commander-in-chief of the Continental army. With remarkable skill, patience, and courage, he led the American forces through the Revolution, struggling not only with the British but with the awkward Continental Congress - and also on occasion with resentful fellow officers. Notable among his achievements were his bold crossing of the Delaware to rout enemy forces at Trenton on Christmas night of 1776, and his holding the army together during the terrible winter encampment at Valley Forge (1777–8). His victory over the British at Yorktown (1781) effectively ended the war, but for almost two more years he had to strive to keep the colonists from splintering into selfish enterprises. He returned to Mount Vernon (1783), but maintained his presence in the debate over the country's future; he solidified that role when he chaired the Philadelphia Constitutional Convention of 1787. In 1789 the first electors unanimously voted Washington as president (re-elected 1793). A natural leader rather than a thinker or orator, he had great difficulty coping with an unruly new government, futilely resisting the growing factionalism that resolved into the forming of Hamilton's Federalist Party - to which Washington finally gravitated - and Jefferson's liberal Democratic-Republican Party. In 1796 Washington announced he would not run again (thus setting a precedent for only two terms) and retired from office the next year. In 1798 he accepted command of a provisional American army when it appeared there would be war with France, but the threat passed. The following year he died at Mount Vernon and was mourned around the world. He immediately began to attain almost legendary status, so that succeeding generations throughout the world could bestow no higher accolade than to call their own national hero, ‘the George Washington’ of their country. |
|
|
