| Patriotic Quotes
Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. What pity is it That we can die, but once to serve our country. Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it. Patriotism is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime. |
George Washington Posters
George Washington: First President of
United States (1789-1797)
Born: February 22, 1732 in Westmoreland County, Virginia
Died: December 14, 1799 in Mount Vernon, Virginia
Married to Martha Dandridge Washington
 George Washington 18.00x22.00in. Print |
 George Washington 20.75x25.13in. Print |
 George Washington, 1779 18.50x34.00in. Print |
 George Washington on a White Charger 19.50x27.00in. Print |
 Dear George Washington 18.00x15.00in. Print |
 Washington Crossing the Delaware, 1851 34.00x22.50in. Print |
 Washington DC, Capitol & Monuments in Snow 36.00x24.00in. Print |
 Washington D.C. 24.00x36.00in. Print |
 George Washington Bridge 19.50x27.00in. Print |
 George Washington Bridge, New York City, 1932 23.25x31.50in. Print |
George Washington Bridge, New York City, 1932 35.75x45.25in. Print |
 George Washington Bridge, 1931 18.00x24.00in. Print |
On April 30, 1789, George Washington, standing on the balcony of Federal Hall
on Wall Street in New York, took his oath of office as the first President of
the United States. "As the first of every thing, in our situation will serve to
establish a Precedent," he wrote James Madison, "it is devoutly wished on my
part, that these precedents may be fixed on true principles."
Born in 1732 into a Virginia planter family, he learned the morals, manners, and
body of knowledge requisite for an 18th century Virginia gentleman.
He pursued two intertwined interests: military arts and western expansion. At 16
he helped survey Shenandoah lands for Thomas, Lord Fairfax. Commissioned a
lieutenant colonel in 1754, he fought the first skirmishes of what grew into the
French and Indian War. The next year, as an aide to Gen. Edward Braddock, he
escaped injury although four bullets ripped his coat and two horses were shot
from under him.
From 1759 to the outbreak of the American Revolution, Washington managed his
lands around Mount Vernon and served in the Virginia House of Burgesses. Married
to a widow, Martha Dandridge Custis, he devoted himself to a busy and happy
life. But like his fellow planters, Washington felt himself exploited by British
merchants and hampered by British regulations. As the quarrel with the mother
country grew acute, he moderately but firmly voiced his resistance to the
restrictions.
When the Second Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia in May 1775,
Washington, one of the Virginia delegates, was elected Commander in Chief of the
Continental Army. On July 3, 1775, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, he took command
of his ill-trained troops and embarked upon a war that was to last six grueling
years.
He realized early that the best strategy was to harass the British. He reported
to Congress, "we should on all Occasions avoid a general Action, or put anything
to the Risque, unless compelled by a necessity, into which we ought never to be
drawn." Ensuing battles saw him fall back slowly, then strike unexpectedly.
Finally in 1781 with the aid of French allies--he forced the surrender of
Cornwallis at Yorktown.
Washington longed to retire to his fields at Mount Vernon. But he soon realized
that the Nation under its Articles of Confederation was not functioning well, so
he became a prime mover in the steps leading to the Constitutional Convention at
Philadelphia in 1787. When the new Constitution was ratified, the Electoral
College unanimously elected Washington President
He did not infringe upon the policy making powers that he felt the Constitution
gave Congress. But the determination of foreign policy became preponderantly a
Presidential concern. When the French Revolution led to a major war between
France and England, Washington refused to accept entirely the recommendations of
either his Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, who was pro-French, or his
Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, who was pro-British. Rather, he
insisted upon a neutral course until the United States could grow stronger.
To his disappointment, two parties were developing by the end of his first term.
Wearied of politics, feeling old, he retired at the end of his second. In his
Farewell Address, he urged his countrymen to forswear excessive party spirit and
geographical distinctions. In foreign affairs, he warned against long-term
alliances.
Washington enjoyed less than three years of retirement at Mount Vernon, for he
died of a throat infection December 14, 1799. For months the Nation mourned him.