George Washington was inaugurated april 30th, 1789. He accomplished the most within the first 100 days (153 days) than any other president has done. He was unanimously elected for both terms. He spent his first term in office creating a path for the executive branch. His first term also consisted of him creating the first form of the United states government. He was one of the greatest presidents in the history of the United States. This paper will explain why he was a great President and show key events in how he proved to the world that the United states could govern itself. (mount vernon,n/d)
Before George Washington was elected president he was a general of the colonial army. He showed in the war to be a great candidate for president. With his show of feats in the colonial revolution lots of the united states citizens pushed for him to take control of the country. He did not want to be a king, so he chose to be a ruler that accepted the peoples opinions rather than just have full control like an absolute monarchy like Great Britain's system of government.
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“Among the vicissitudes incident to life, no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was transmitted by your order, and received on the fourteenth day of the present month. On the one hand, I was summoned by my Country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love, from a retreat which I had chosen with the fondest predilection, and, in my flattering hopes, with an immutable decision, as the asylum of my declining years: a retreat which was rendered every day more necessary as well as more dear to me, by the addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent interruptions in my health to the gradual waste committed on it by time.” (LOC,1789)
When Washington chose to become the ruler of the united states he chose the term president because it represented a median between a citizen and a king. He enacted lots of good policies for the starting country to grow on. His cabinet only had 4 members in it, They stayed with him during his first term and helped immensely in his presidency. His members were Thomas Jefferson ,Henry Knox, Alexander Hamilton, and Edmund Randolph. The term cabinet came from James Madison who referred to the meetings Washington had as the president's cabinet. When congress passed the judiciary act of 1789 Washinton had the opportunity to fill the body of federal judges, Which included the supreme court judges of the time. Washington only appointed 28 judges due to the smaller size of the judiciary system. George Washington was unanimously elected because his leadership of a poor untrained army allowed them to win against the most well equipped army of that time. (mount vernon, n/d)
Washington issued the first census in 1790, it was the first federally sponsored count of the american people. It was one of his most significant undertakings of his first term. Since there wasn't an accurate number of how many citizens were in the country he issued the census. The first ten amendments to the constitution comprised James madison's bill of rights, it was ratified on december 15, 1791.
In 1790 Washington and congress passed the residence act which called for a permanent capital to be established in the states. It was to be located on the Potomac river. When George Washington signed the bill he took personal control of the construction of the building. He had first referred to the building as “the seat of empire”. He had specified that it needed to be a ten square mile federal district. It was to be the president's mansion and the capital of the United states. Washington chose three commissioners to oversee the creation of the capitol. Their deadline was 1800. The federal government would be moving to the city “washington”, which was named by the commissioners. There were a couple problems in this move, the city designers' pride was one of them. It stopped him from taking orders from the commissioners. The forces in Philadelphia wanted to keep the capital there. The selfish attitudes of the landowners also temporarily stopped the creation of the capitol building.
Washington took a tour of the southern United states between the dates of march 21st-june 4th, 1791. During the tour Washington wanted to show that we are all unified. He got familiar with the south of the United states. He learned about the land and the economics. When he had just become president he thought about touring every region of the country. The duties of being a president delayed his touring to 1791. He looked at town on the east side of the south. His arrival caused big groups of people to show up in the towns he visited. He planned to cover around 1700 miles of land in the range of 3 months. Some of his welcoming ceremonies had mounted escorts, public gatherings, and other special celebrations. Washington's tour ended june 4th 1791 when he entered virginia. He thought that the people of the south were orderly and civil as a first impression.
In 1793 George Washington foresaw that without leadership the country would fall apart and split which is the main reason Washington came back to the presidential role. He wanted to retire after his first term but the political divisions showed that he needed to come back. Washington took control of his cabinet near the same way he commanded in the revolutionary war. His cabinet was starting to get divided in terms of Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. They each thought that they were the most important one in the cabinet. They saw each other as enemies, which led to division in the cabinet. Overall this was not good for Washinton and made his second term of presidency harder.
Washington despite partisanship, he did not like disunity and openly talked about it. An example of his dislike of partisanship was his public denunciation of political societies. He tried to combine republican and democratic people to make them resolve their differences. The democrats wanted to support the french government when they were being rebelled against, and the republicans did not want to intervene.
The whiskey rebellion happened during Washington's presidency for the reason of a tax put on whiskey. The farmers did not like what was happening and they wanted to stop it. The farmers and distillers when originally asked about the tax thought that it would be fine. But as soon as it enacted the protests started for the reasons of it being unfair to small distillers who could not sell their product for a lot and still had to pay the same taxes. The farmers and distillers were issued to go home but none of them did so Washington issued soldiers to go out and enforce the rule to make them go home.
On september 19th, 1796 Washington gave his farewell address. His address was published all across the united states and everyone knew. After eight years in presidency he decided not to run for a third term, mainly for the reason that political parties started to get heated in the United states and Washington didn't want to be between that. He had lots of criticism on his policies and didn't like how the people were not agreeing with him which made the fact clear that nothing will make everyone happy. His farewell address was not seen by anyone before his assembly where he announced he wouldn't be back for a third term. Both of the presidential parties were not agreeing with some of his points so he thought that resigning would bring the country to a solid middle point of trust. Washington also explained how intervening in foreign affairs could jeopardize the stability of the United States which is the reason they did not help France when the people revolted. Even though that went against the treaty the french made with the americans. In some of his early drafts of his farewell address he stated that he had a bitter feeling towards the political climate of 1796.
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