US Presidents · 18th century

George Washington

1732–1799 · American

No party (Federalist-leaning)

In office: 1789–1797

George Washington, the 1st president, commanded the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War and presided over the Constitutional Convention of 1787. As president he set lasting precedents, including the cabinet system and the two-term tradition, and his Farewell Address warned against political factions and permanent foreign alliances.

How to spot them

▸Commander-in-chief of the Continental Army; crossed the Delaware (Christmas 1776); victory at Yorktown (1781)
▸Estate at Mount Vernon, Virginia; face on the one-dollar bill and the quarter
▸'Father of His Country'; the only president elected unanimously by the Electoral College (twice)
▸Inaugurated at Federal Hall, New York City, on 30 April 1789

In office

First inauguration at Federal Hall, New York (1789)

Took the oath on the balcony of Federal Hall, New York being the temporary capital

Proclamation of Neutrality in the war between Britain and revolutionary France (1793)

Kept the new republic out of the French Revolutionary Wars

Suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion (1794)

Led federal militia into western Pennsylvania against a revolt over the excise tax on whiskey

The Jay Treaty with Great Britain (1794)

Settled outstanding disputes with Britain; deeply unpopular with the Jeffersonians

The Farewell Address warning against faction and permanent foreign alliances (1796)

Published in newspapers rather than delivered as a speech; drafted with help from Hamilton

Setting the two-term precedent (1796)

Declined a third term; the tradition held until Franklin D. Roosevelt

Key ideas

Set the model of a restrained republican presidency, with a cabinet including Jefferson at State and Hamilton at the Treasury
Neutrality and avoidance of permanent alliances shaped US foreign policy for more than a century

Quick-fire facts

•Born 22 February 1732 in Westmoreland County, Virginia; died at Mount Vernon on 14 December 1799
•Presided over the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787
•Henry Lee III eulogised him as 'first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen'
•The cherry-tree story was invented by his biographer Mason Locke 'Parson' Weems
•His false teeth were not wooden; they used materials including ivory and human teeth
•Washington State is the only US state named after a president
•Emanuel Leutze painted 'Washington Crossing the Delaware' (1851); Gilbert Stuart's unfinished 'Athenaeum' portrait is the basis of the dollar-bill image
•He chose the Potomac site for the federal capital but never lived in Washington, D.C.

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Sources

Miller Center, University of Virginia — George Washington
Joseph J. Ellis — His Excellency: George Washington