president first in usa/George Washington/President ​America/Washington

George Washington was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America and served as the nation's first president. In the American Revolutionary War, General Washington led Patriot forces to victory over the British and their allies.

Born: February 22, 1732, Westmoreland County, Virginia, United States Died: December 14, 1799, George Washington's Mount Vernon, Mount Vernon, Virginia, United States Presidential term: April 30, 1789 – March 4, 1797 Spouse: Martha Washington (m. 1759–1799) Education: William & Mary (1749)

George Washington (February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799) was an American political leader, military general, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States (1789–1797). He commanded Patriot forces in the new nation's vital American Revolutionary War and led them to victory over the British. Washington also presided at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, which established the new federal government. For his manifold leadership during the American Revolution, he has been called the "Father of His Country".

 

Washington was born to a prosperous family of slaveholding planters in colonial Virginia. He had educational opportunities and launched an early successful career as a land surveyor. He then became a leader of the Virginia militia in the French and Indian War. During the Revolutionary War he was a delegate to the Continental Congress, was unanimously appointed commander-in-chief of the Army, and led an allied campaign to victory at the Siege of Yorktown ending the conflict. Once victory was in hand in 1783, he resigned as commander-in-chief.

Washington was unanimously elected President by the Electoral College in the first two national elections. He promoted and oversaw implementation of a strong, well-financed national government, but remained impartial in the fierce rivalry between subordinates Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. In the French Revolution, Washington proclaimed a policy of neutrality while sanctioning the Jay Treaty. He set enduring precedents for the office of president, including the title "President of the United States". Washington's Farewell Address was widely regarded as one of the most influential statements on republicanism.

Washington followed the customary use of slave labor at the time; he owned and traded numerous slaves but became troubled with the institution and freed his slaves in his will. He was a member of the Anglican Church and the Freemasons, and urged tolerance for all religions in his roles as general and President. Upon his death, he was eulogized as "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." Washington has been memorialized by monuments, art, places, stamps, and currency, and he has been ranked by scholars among the four greatest American presidents.

George Washington was born an American on February 22, 1732 in Wakefield in the Crown Colony of Virginia, part of British America. Washington was the first child of Augustine and second wife Mary Ball Washington. The family was descended primarily from the gentry of Sulgrave, England. His great-grandfather John Washington emigrated to Virginia in 1656, where he became a tobacco planter and accumulated land and slaves, as did his son Lawrence and his grandson Augustine. His father, a moderately wealthy planter, justice of the peace, and county sheriff, had 10 children, 4 by his first marriage to Jane Butler, and 6 by Mary, including Washington.

Washington grew up in Virginia's Tidewater region. When he was three, the family moved from his birthplace at the Popes Creek Estate to the plantation Epsewasson on the Potomac River. Three years later, they relocated to Ferry Farm near Fredericksburg. This is said to be the setting of an anecdote of Parson Weems, who averred that Augustine once asked George whether he had damaged a cherry tree, and the boy replied, "I cannot tell a lie; I cut it with my little hatchet."

  On April 12, 1743 Augustine died, leaving Washington under the care of his mother Mary. Washington inherited Ferry Farm and ten slaves, while his older half-brother Lawrence inherited Epsewasson and changed its name to Mount Vernon. Washington's planned study at England's Appleby Grammar School was scrapped. For two to three years Washington received his formal education at the Fredericksburg school of Anglican clergyman James Mayre.

Washington was strongly influenced by his visits to his brother Lawrence at Mount Vernon, and Belvoir, William Fairfax's slave plantation. Washington desired to live the life of wealthy planter aristocracy. Fairfax observed promise in the young Washington and became his patron and surrogate father. In 1748, Fairfax sent Washington with a surveying party to survey Fairfax's Shenandoah property. Washington, however, abandoned the party, after a month of hardship, and returned home.

In 1749, Washington received a surveyor's license from the College of William & Mary, and was appointed surveyor of Culpeper, Virginia, with Fairfax's influence. He made numerous surveys of the Shenandoah Valley, primarily for Fairfax, and became accustomed to the wilderness. In October 1750, Washington had bought almost 1,500 acres (600 ha) in the Shenandoah Valley, when he resigned his Culpeper commission. By 1752 he accumulated 2,315 acres (937 ha) in the Valley.

In 1751, Washington made his only trip abroad with Lawrence to Barbados, hoping the climate would be beneficial to his brother's tuberculosis. During the trip, Washington contracted smallpox which immunized him but left his face slightly scarred. Lawrence's health continued to decline and he died on July 26, 1752. Washington inherited his Mount Vernon estate in 1754 after the deaths of Lawrence's wife and daughter.

The British government had ordered Dinwiddie to guard British territorial claims in the Ohio River basin, to secure trade activity with the Indians and settlers. 1753 Dindwiddie dispatched Washington to make peace with the Six Nations, gain any intelligence they could offer, and to deliver a letter which requested French commander Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre at Fort Le Boeuf, to vacate the Ohio Valley, and offered him safe escort to Lake Erie. Washington and six frontiersmen reached the Ohio River that November, but the French had withdrawn. He met with Half-King Tanacharison and other Iroquois chiefs at Logstown, secured their promise of support against the French, then continued to Venango to meet the French who refused the letter. Washington then reached Fort Le Boeuf, delivered the letter to the commander, and accepted his reply requesting that Dinwiddie send his demand to the Major General of New France in Quebec. By Dinwiddie's order, Washington's diary of the expedition was printed by William Hunter, giving Washington name recognition in Virginia and England; it also helped him obtain a commission to raise a company of men.