George Washington

By 1775, were serious disagreements between the thirteen British colonies and the British government. No colonist could be elected to the British Parliament in London. Yet, the parliament passed many taxes that the colonist had to pay. Colonist called this taxation without representation.

 

       The British believed they had every right to tax the colonist. After all, they had to pay to defend the colonies in the French and Indian War. The American colonist did not like the British government to interfere in their lives. The government did not understand the colonial life our the hardships brought about by heavy taxation. But, instead of giving the colonist more independent, the British government passed more laws. War broke out. The thirteen colonies successfully revolted against the British, and the United States of America was born. George Washington became the commander of the American army.     

 

            Constitutional   Convention   

 

        In May 1787, fifty delegates from every state except Rhode Island met in Philadelphia. George Washington served as president of the convention. James Madison took detailed notes of the meetings. The delegates at the convention decided to write a new constitution. Four months later, the document was completed. The constitution they created is now the highest law of the United States. It provided for citizens to elect the officials who govern them. It establishes that power is shared between the national governments. In the national, federal, government, there is a legislative branch which makes the laws, an executive branch headed by the supreme court, which decides if the laws are constitutional, or applied correctly. The power of each branch can be controlled by the other two. This is called the system of checks and balances.    

 

       The constitution of the United States was signed on September 17,1787. In order for it to become the law of the land, it had to be ratified by at the least nine of the thirteen states. By the summer of 1788, all the states except North Carolina and Rhode Island had voted for ratification. These two states ratified the constitution after the government was already operating Powers of the constitution.  

           

       George Washington Cabinet  

 

    Secretary                       (Henry Knox Massachusetts)

    Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton( New York)

     Secretary of state  Thomas Jefferson (Virginia)

      Attorney General   Edmund Randolph

       

 

      By March 1797, when Washington left office, the country's financial system was well established; the Indian threat east of the Mississippi had been largely eliminated; and Jay's Treaty and Pinckney's Treaty (1795) with Spain had enlarged U.S. territory and removed serious diplomatic difficulties. In spite of the animosities and conflicting opinions between Democratic-Republicans and members of the Hamiltonian Federalist party, the two groups were at least united in acceptance of the new federal government. Washington refused to run for a third term and, after a masterly Farewell Address in which he warned the United States against permanent alliances abroad, he went home to Mount Vernon. He was succeeded by his vice-president, Federalist John Adams.

Although Washington reluctantly accepted command of the army in 1798 when war with France seemed imminent, he did not assume an active role. He preferred to spend his last years in happy retirement at Mount Vernon. In mid-December, Washington contracted what was probably quinsy or acute laryngitis; he declined rapidly and died at his estate on Dec. 14, 1799.

Even during his lifetime, Washington loomed large in the national imagination. His role as a symbol of American virtue was enhanced after his death by Mason L. Weems, in an edition of whose Life and Memorable Actions of George Washington (c.1800) first appeared such legends as the story about the cherry tree. Later biographers of note included Washington Irving (5 vols., 1855-59) and Woodrow Wilson (1896). Washington's own works have been published in various editions, including The Diaries of George Washington, edited by Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig (6 vols., 1976-79), and The Writings of George Washington, 1745-1799, edited by John C. Fitzpatrick (39 vols., 1931-44).

      Bibliography

        Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. George Washington, Retrieved novemember  1

         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

America Revolution

George Washington

Mount Vernon