GEORGE WASHINGTON
Biography, continued…
Constitutional Convention
Clearly, if the new nation were to survive, it would have to have a stronger national government. The first talks that eventually led to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 were held at Mount Vernon, and when Congress finally voted to call a convention at Philadelphia to draft a plan for a new government, Washington headed the list of delegates from Virginia.
Early on the morning of May 9, 1787, Washington mounted his horse and started off on the long ride from Mount Vernon to Philadelphia. As soon as the convention met, it chose Washington as its president. It was a significant choice. It at once made the convention respectable and assured that whatever came from it would receive a hearing from the people.
It was the Virginians who took the lead in replacing the old Articles of Confederation under which the United States had been loosely governed. Although Washington could not do much while presiding over the convention, he lent his prestige to these efforts and did what he could outside the convention hall. Everyone knew where he stood on the question, for ever since the war Washington had worked for a stronger national government.
The document that was eventually drawn up provided for the present federal form of government of the United States, with its separation of powers and three branches. On September 17, 1787, delegates from twelve states (Rhode Island did not attend the convention) signed the new Constitution.
With the Constitution written and signed, the next step was to get the people of the 13 states to accept it. It was a hard fight, for many Americans were suspicious of a government that was new and afraid of a government that was strong. What influenced them as much as anything else was the fact that Washington had presided over the convention, that Washington had signed the Constitution, and that Washington was expected to head the new government. One by one the states ratified the Constitution. Within a year eleven states had accepted it; the two laggard states, North Carolina and Rhode Island, came in later.
The Presidency
The first election for president took place on February 4, 1789. Washington was elected unanimously, receiving all the electoral votes cast. John Adams became vice president.
Actually the presidency was the last thing that Washington himself wanted. He had, so he wrote, "no wish but that of living and dying an honest man on my own farm." But as always he responded to the call of duty. Once more he rode off from Mount Vernon to take up the burdens of office.
Washington’s trip to New York City, the first national capital, to take the oath of office was a triumphant procession. Every town was decorated; songs were sung and poems recited; there were pageants and triumphal arches with children strewing roses in front of him. At New York Harbor, hundreds of ships sailed out to greet him, their flags fluttering in the strong breeze. Along the shores crowded thousands of cheering spectators. Bands played, cannons boomed, and church bells rang.
The problems that faced the first president were enormous. Washington had to hold the new nation together, get the government working, and attract first-rate people to run it. He had to set its finances in order, get its commerce going again, protect the frontiers against the Indians, and defend the nation against threats from Britain and Spain.
As for the office of president itself, it was up to Washington to decide what was really meant by the term “executive power” in the Constitution and to fix the place of the presidency in the government. Was the president to be a real force in government or merely a figurehead? Washington interpreted “executive power” to mean real power. It was his idea that the president was to represent all the people. He was to be above political parties and battles. He was to be the leader at home and in foreign affairs as well. He was to be a symbol of the people and of the nation. He was never to abuse his power, but he was never to fail to use the power that the people and the Constitution had entrusted to him.
As a first step, Washington brought the ablest people into government service. Congress, in 1789, had established the first executive departments. These eventually became the president’s Cabinet. Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and later to serve as president himself, was appointed secretary of state (then called secretary of foreign affairs). The brilliant Alexander Hamilton was named secretary of the treasury. Henry Knox became secretary of war, and Edmund Randolph became attorney general.
With the aid of his cabinet and the Congress, Washington got the machinery of government going. A financial system was established that got the United States out of debt and enabled it to pay its way. The supremacy of federal (or national) law over state law was established when the so-called Whiskey Rebellion (1794), a revolt of Pennsylvania farmers against the tax on whiskey was put down; this proved that the federal government was strong enough to enforce federal law. Peace was made with the Indians, and new lands in what was then the West were acquired, including the future sites of Detroit and Chicago. Three new states, Vermont, Kentucky, and Tennessee, were admitted to the Union.
Foreign Affairs
Problems of foreign relations were equally serious, and Washington managed them with equal skill. When all of Europe went to war in 1793, he decided that the United States should stay out and issued a proclamation of neutrality. He sent John Jay to Britain to conclude a treaty (Jay’s Treaty, 1794) whereby the British agreed to give up the posts they had kept in the Northwest. He sent Thomas Pinckney to Spain, where he arranged a treaty (Pinckney’s Treaty, 1795) that opened the Mississippi River to U.S. commerce and set what was then the southern boundary of the United States. These important achievements kept the United States at peace and established its independence from other nations.
Retirement
Washington had been re-elected in 1792 and could have been elected to the presidency again in 1796, but he decided that two terms were enough and refused to run again. Before he retired, he prepared his Farewell Address to the American people. The Farewell Address was a plea for Union, for a union of hearts and minds, for understanding. It was a warning against the dangers of political parties and rivalry between the different sections of the country. It urged friendship and commerce with all nations but warned against permanent alliances with any.
In 1797, succeeded by John Adams, who became the second U.S. president, Washington returned once again to his beloved Mount Vernon, hoping to enjoy at last the peace that had been so long denied him. But this was not to be so. On December 13, 1799, he became ill with a severe throat infection. As his illness grew worse he said, “I am not afraid to go.” He died on December 14, 1799, two months before his 68th birthday. The Washington Monument, erected in Washington, D.C., in his honor, was completed in l884.
Washington’s death marked the end of an era in American history. He had led the American colonies in their struggle for independence and helped create a new nation. For eight years he had guided its growth, setting it on the road to independence and freedom. Few men in history were ever given such opportunities for shaping the destiny of a nation; none ever responded more greatly to the opportunity.
Henry Steele Commager, Coauthor, The Growth of the American Republic