Washington, George 1732 -- 1799
First U.S. president. Born February 22, 1732, in Westmoreland County, Virginia. His father, a prosperous planter and iron foundry owner, died when he was 11, and Washington moved in with his elder half-brother Lawrence, who owned the plantation Mount Vernon. In 1748 Washington did some surveying for Lord Fairfax, a relative of Lawrence by marriage, meanwhile reading widely in Mt Vernon's library. In 1751, he accompanied the ailing Lawrence to Barbados; on his death the next year, Washington 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 Washington began several years' service with the Virginia militia in the French and Indian Wars, taking command of all Virginia forces in 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).
In 1759, Washington married the wealthy widow Martha Custis, thus securing his fortune and social position. They had no children together but raised her two children, and later 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, although his original motives probably had less to do with high principles and more to do with his personal annoyance with British commercial policies.
In 1774, Washington participated in the First Continental Congress and took command of the Virginia militia; by the next year the Second Congress, impressed with his military experience and commanding personality, made him commander in chief of the Continental army (June 1775). With remarkable skill, patience, and courage, Washington led the American forces through the Revolution, struggling not only with the British but with the stingy 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 in 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.
Washington returned to Mount Vernon in 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; he was reelected in 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, Washington 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.
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