President Washington's inauguration was celebrated with illuminations and fireworks. Citizens of the new nation showed up in droves. One exhilarated eyewitness recalled that " Inauguration in New York. Although John Ramage circa is well-known among art historians and collectors of portrait miniatures, his name is not immediately associated with Washington portraiture.
Yet, Ramage painted George Washington from the life and was the first artist to whom he sat as President of the United States. Ramage was in Boston, Massachusetts when the Revolutionary War broke out. Considered the best artist in the city, he was the obvious choice for Washington's first presidential portrait. The sitting took place on October 3, , probably in the president's official residence on Cherry Street in New York.
Ramage's miniature portraits. James Madison later called the rambling first draft a "strange production". The first draft of over seventy pages had been prepared by Washington's aide David Humphreys and included extensive recommendations to Congress on such topics as internal improvements, military affairs, international treaties, and the expansion of national borders.
After a private meeting at Mount Vernon, Madison prepared a drastically more concise address which left more open to Congress's discretion. Read the first inaugural address. George Washington's copy of the Acts passed at a Congress of the United States of America New-York, contains key founding documents establishing the Union: the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and a record of acts passed by the first Congress.
All of his notes in this volume appear alongside the text of the Constitution, where he drew neat brackets to highlight passages of particular interest. Washington brought the book home to Mount Vernon after retiring from the presidency in March Since leaving the hands of the Washington family in , it has been treasured and preserved by several noted private collectors.
The book now resides within The Fred W. Learn about the vital role that Washington played during our founding. Learn more about George Washington's annotated copy of The Acts of Congress - one of the prized holdings in our Library collection. Did you know that President Washington never lived in Washington D.
But the borderlands of this area were unclear and prone to dispute between the two countries. Washington showed early signs of natural leadership and shortly after Lawrence's death, Virginia's Lieutenant Governor, Robert Dinwiddie, appointed Washington adjutant with a rank of major in the Virginia militia. The French politely refused and Washington made a hasty ride back to Williamsburg, Virginia's colonial capital. Dinwiddie sent Washington back with troops and they set up a post at Great Meadows.
Washington's small force attacked a French post at Fort Duquesne, killing the commander, Coulon de Jumonville, and nine others and taking the rest prisoners. The French and Indian War had begun. The French counterattacked and drove Washington and his men back to his post at Great Meadows later named "Fort Necessity.
Though a little embarrassed at being captured, he was grateful to receive the thanks from the House of Burgesses and see his name mentioned in the London gazettes. Washington was given the honorary rank of colonel and joined British General Edward Braddock's army in Virginia in During the encounter, the French and their Indian allies ambushed Braddock, who was mortally wounded.
Washington escaped injury with four bullet holes in his cloak and two horses shot out from under him. Though he fought bravely, he could do little to turn back the rout and led the defeated army back to safety.
In August , Washington was made commander of all Virginia troops at age He was sent to the frontier to patrol and protect nearly miles of border with some ill-disciplined colonial troops and a Virginia colonial legislature unwilling to support him. It was a frustrating assignment. His health failed in the closing months of and he was sent home with dysentery.
In , Washington returned to duty on another expedition to capture Fort Duquesne. A friendly-fire incident took place, killing 14 and wounding 26 of Washington's men. However, the British were able to score a major victory, capturing Fort Duquesne and control of the Ohio Valley. Washington retired from his Virginia regiment in December His experience during the war was generally frustrating, with key decisions made slowly, poor support from the colonial legislature and poorly trained recruits.
Washington applied for a commission with the British army but was turned down. In , he resigned his commission and returned to Mount Vernon disillusioned. The same year, he entered politics and was elected to Virginia's House of Burgesses. A month after leaving the army, Washington married Martha Dandridge Custis, a widow, who was only a few months older than he.
Martha brought to the marriage a considerable fortune: an 18,acre estate, from which Washington personally acquired 6, acres. With this and land he was granted for his military service, Washington became one of the more wealthy landowners in Virginia. The marriage also brought Martha's two young children, John Jacky and Martha Patsy , ages six and four, respectively. Washington lavished great affection on both of them, and was heartbroken when Patsy died just before the Revolution.
Jacky died during the Revolution, and Washington adopted two of his children. During his retirement from the Virginia militia until the start of the Revolution, Washington devoted himself to the care and development of his land holdings, attending the rotation of crops, managing livestock and keeping up with the latest scientific advances. By the s, Washington kept over enslaved people at Mount Vernon. He was said to dislike the institution of slavery , but accepted the fact that it was legal.
Washington, in his will, made his displeasure with slavery known, as he ordered that all his enslaved people be granted their freedom upon the death of his wife Martha. Washington loved the landed gentry's life of horseback riding, fox hunts, fishing and cotillions. He worked six days a week, often taking off his coat and performing manual labor with his workers.
He was an innovative and responsible landowner, breeding cattle and horses and tending to his fruit orchards. Much has been made of the fact that Washington used false teeth or dentures for most of his adult life. Indeed, Washington's correspondence to friends and family makes frequent references to aching teeth, inflamed gums and various dental woes. Washington had one tooth pulled when he was just 24 years old, and by the time of his inauguration in he had just one natural tooth left.
But his false teeth weren't made of wood, as some legends suggest. Instead, Washington's false teeth were fashioned from human teeth — including teeth from enslaved people and his own pulled teeth — ivory, animal teeth and assorted metals. Washington's dental problems, according to some historians, probably impacted the shape of his face and may have contributed to his quiet, somber demeanor: During the Constitutional Convention, Washington addressed the gathered dignitaries only once.
Though the British Proclamation Act of — prohibiting settlement beyond the Alleghenies — irritated Washington and he opposed the Stamp Act of , he did not take a leading role in the growing colonial resistance against the British until the widespread protest of the Townshend Acts in His letters of this period indicate he was totally opposed to the colonies declaring independence.
However, by , he wasn't opposed to resisting what he believed were fundamental violations by the Crown of the rights of Englishmen. In , Washington introduced a resolution to the House of Burgesses calling for Virginia to boycott British goods until the Acts were repealed.
After the passage of the Coercive Acts in , Washington chaired a meeting in which the Fairfax Resolves were adopted, calling for the convening of the Continental Congress and the use of armed resistance as a last resort. He was selected as a delegate to the First Continental Congress in March After the battles of Lexington and Concord in April , the political dispute between Great Britain and her North American colonies escalated into an armed conflict.
In May, Washington traveled to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia dressed in a military uniform, indicating that he was prepared for war. As was his custom, he did not seek out the office of commander, but he faced no serious competition. Washington was the best choice for a number of reasons: he had the prestige, military experience and charisma for the job and he had been advising Congress for months.
Another factor was political: The Revolution had started in New England and at the time, they were the only colonies that had directly felt the brunt of British tyranny. Virginia was the largest British colony and New England needed Southern colonial support. Political considerations and force of personality aside, Washington was not necessarily qualified to wage war on the world's most powerful nation.
Washington's training and experience were primarily in frontier warfare involving small numbers of soldiers. He wasn't trained in the open-field style of battle practiced by the commanding British generals. He also had no practical experience maneuvering large formations of infantry, commanding cavalry or artillery, or maintaining the flow of supplies for thousands of men in the field.
But he was courageous and determined and smart enough to keep one step ahead of the enemy. Washington and his small army did taste victory early in March by placing artillery above Boston, on Dorchester Heights, forcing the British to withdraw.
Washington then moved his troops into New York City. But in June, a new British commander, Sir William Howe , arrived in the Colonies with the largest expeditionary force Britain had ever deployed to date. In August , the British army launched an attack and quickly took New York City in the largest battle of the war. Washington's army was routed and suffered the surrender of 2, men.
He ordered the remains of his army to retreat into Pennsylvania across the Delaware River. Confident the war would be over in a few months, General Howe wintered his troops at Trenton and Princeton, leaving Washington free to attack at the time and place of his choosing.
On Christmas night, , Washington and his men returned across the Delaware River and attacked unsuspecting Hessian mercenaries at Trenton, forcing their surrender. A few days later, evading a force that had been sent to destroy his army, Washington attacked the British again, this time at Princeton, dealing them a humiliating loss. General Howe's strategy was to capture colonial cities and stop the rebellion at key economic and political centers.
He never abandoned the belief that once the Americans were deprived of their major cities, the rebellion would wither. In the summer of , he mounted an offensive against Philadelphia. Washington moved in his army to defend the city but was defeated at the Battle of Brandywine.
Philadelphia fell two weeks later. In the late summer of , the British army sent a major force, under the command of John Burgoyne, south from Quebec to Saratoga, New York, to split the rebellion between New England and the southern colonies. Breadcrumb U.
George Washington Essays Life in Brief. Life Before the Presidency. Campaigns and Elections. Domestic Affairs. Foreign Affairs. Life After the Presidency Current Essay. Family Life. The American Franchise. Impact and Legacy. In-Depth Exhibits Scroll left to right to view a selection of exhibits. America's forgotten founding father. The Dunbar lawsuit. The general's 'right hand man'.
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