Born: February 22, 1732, in Westmoreland County, Virginia

Died: December 14, 1799, at Mount Vernon, Virginia

Nickname: "Father of His Country"

Married: Martha Dandridge Custis (1732-1802), on January 6, 1759

Religion: Episcopalian

Education: No formal education

Political Party: Federalist

Career: Surveyor, Planter; Soldier; Member of Virginia House of Burgesses, 1759-74; Member of Continental Congress, 1774-75; Commander in Chief of Continental Army, 1775-83; Presiding Officer of the Constitutional Convention, 1787-88; President of the United States, 1789-97

Domestic Policy Highlights: Establishing American system of government, Whiskey Rebellion of 1794, Battle of Fallen Timbers, Bill of Rights

Biography of George Washington

Tragedy struck the young man with the death of his half brother Lawrence, who had guided and mentored George after his father's death. George inherited Mount Vernon from his brother, living there for the rest of his life. At the time, England and France were enemies in America, vying for control of the Ohio River Valley. Holding a commission in the British army, Washington led a poorly trained and equipped force of 150 men to build a fort on the banks of the Ohio River. On the way he encountered and attacked a small French force, killing a French minister in the process. The incident touched off open fighting between the British and the French, and in one fateful engagement, the British were routed by the superior tactics of the French. Although hailed as a hero in the colonies when word spread of his heroic valor and leadership displayed against the French, the Royal government in England blamed the colonials for the defeat. Angry at the lack of respect and appreciation shown to him, Washington resigned from the army and returned to farming in Virginia.

 In 1759, he married Martha Custis, a wealthy widow, and thereafter devoted his time to running the family plantation. By 1770, Washington had emerged as an experienced leader—a justice of the peace in Fairfax County, a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, and a respected vestryman (a lay leader in his church). He also was among the first prominent Americans to openly support resistance to England's new policies of taxation and strict regulation of the colonial economy (the Navigation Acts) beginning in the early 1770s.

George Washington was elected by the Virginia legislature to both the first and second Continental Congresses held in 1774 and 1775. In 1775, after local militia units from Massachusetts had engaged British troops near Lexington and Concord, the second Continental Congress appointed Washington commander of all the colonial forces. Showing the modesty that was central to his character, and would later serve the young republic so well, Washington proclaimed, "I do not think myself equal to the command I am honored with."

After routing the British from Boston in the spring of 1776, Washington fought a series of humiliating battles in a losing effort to defend New York. But on Christmas day that same year, he ventured his army through a ferocious blizzard, crossed the Delaware into New Jersey, and surprised the British at Trenton, capturing much of it. In May 1778, the French agreed to an alliance with the Americans, marking the turning point of the Revolution. Washington knew that one great victory by his army would collapse the British Parliament's support for its war against the colonies. In October 1781, Washington's troops, assisted by the French Navy, defeated Cornwallis at Yorktown. By the following spring the British government was ready to end hostilities.

Following the war, Washington quelled a potentially disastrous bid by his own senior officers, organized by his aide Alexander Hamilton, to declare him king and erect a military dictatorship. He then returned to Mount Vernon and the genteel life of a tobacco planter, only to be called out of retirement to preside at the Constitutional Convention in 1787. His great stature gave credibility to the call for a new government and insured his election as the first president of the United States. Keenly aware that his conduct as president would set precedents for the future of the office, he put into practice the separation of powers called for in the Constitution. He appointed Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton to his cabinet.

Although he badly wanted to retire after the first term, Washington was unanimously supported by the electoral college for a second term in 1792. Throughout both his terms, Washington struggled to prevent the emergence of political parties, never understanding their need or reason to exist. In his first term, the ideological division between Jefferson and Hamilton deepened, forming the outlines of the nation's first party system.

Throughout his two terms, Washington insisted on his power to act independent of Congress in foreign conflicts, especially when war broke out between France and England in 1793 and he issued a Declaration of Neutrality on his authority. He also acted decisively in putting down a rebellion by farmers in western Pennsylvania who protested a federal whiskey tax (Whiskey Rebellion of 1794). After he left office, exhausted and discouraged over the rise of political factions, Washington returned to Mount Vernon where he died almost three years later.

Historians agree that no one other than George Washington could have held the revolting colonies and later the struggling young Republic together. To the Revolution's last day Washington's troops were ragged, starving, and their pay was months in arrears. In guiding this force during year after year of humiliating defeat to final victory, more than once paying his men out of his own pocket to keep them from going home, Washington earned the unlimited confidence of those early citizens of the United States. Perhaps most importantly, Washington's balanced and mindful service as president persuaded the American people that their prosperity and best hope for the future lay in a union under a strong but cautious central authority. His refusal to accept a proffered crown, and his willingness to relinquish the presidency after his terms were up, established the precedents for limits on the power of national leaders. Washington's profound achievements built the foundations of a powerful and balanced national government that has continued for more than two centuries.