VOA Learning English presents
America's Presidents.
Today we are talking about George
Washington.
He was the first president of the
United States. He served from 1789 to 1797.
But he had many other accomplishments,
too.
He owned thousands of hectares of land
in his home state of Virginia.
He was a famous general, who led the
American colonists to freedom from British rule.
And he presided over the convention
that created the U.S. Constitution.
For Washington, that was enough. He
said he wanted to retire from public service and return home.
But the country’s new electors had
other ideas. They wanted him to move to New York and invent the American
presidency.
Washington accepted the job as his
duty.
Washington as president
Washington was sworn in as president
in 1789. At the time, a truly united states was still just an idea. Americans
were unconnected groups. They came from different countries, had different
religions, and spoke different languages. For example, a quarter of the people
in the state of Pennsylvania spoke only German.
Doug Bradburn is the founding
director of the Washington Library at Mount Vernon. He says when Washington
took office, the country was “fragile.”
“The chances that it would even
survive were probably very, very slim.”
Bradburn explains that Washington
had to establish social and political unity. But the Constitution did not say
how the president could do that.
So, Bradburn says, George Washington
invented the job for all future presidents.
He established a group of advisors —
called the cabinet—as well as the nation’s official money. He appointed a
six-member Supreme Court. And he created the Department of Foreign Affairs, now
called the State Department.
However, Washington said it was the
president’s responsibility to set foreign policy.
Historian Doug Bradburn explains
that Washington established the president not just as a figurehead, but
as a decision maker.
But he always used the Constitution
as his guide.
“He wasn’t just trying to establish
an office and then figure out a way to justify it, he was trying to work with
his Constitution.”
Washington as a young man
(Courtesy of George Washington's
Mount Vernon)
George Washington was born in 1732
in the colony of Virginia. His father died when George was 11 years old. As a
boy, he learned reading, writing and math. Then he worked as a land surveyor
in western Virginia.
Historian Joseph Ellis points out
that Washington did not have a formal education. Instead of going to college,
Ellis says, Washington went to war. He fought against the French and Indians as
a British Army officer.
That experience informed
Washington’s world view. Ellis describes the first president as “a realist.” At
the same time, Washington was a “very passionate man” with “extremely strong
emotions.” He was known to get angry, but he showed his temper to only a
few people.
Washington not only acted like a
great leader – he looked like one. George Washington stood about 1.9 meters
tall. That was a head taller than the average man of his time.
He was very strong, and very graceful.
He was known as one of the best horseback riders and best dancers in
Virginia.
But he had a problem: bad teeth.
Unlike his wife, Martha, who was
known for her lovely smile, George Washington began losing his teeth in his
twenties. When he was sworn in as president, he had only one tooth left.
(Courtesy of George Washington's
Mount Vernon)
Washington as a myth
Washington remains an important
figure in the American imagination. Even today people tell stories about him.
One popular story, that he had
wooden teeth, is not true. But he did wear dentures. They were made, in
part, from hippopotamus ivory.
And he did not chop down a cherry
tree as a child and then admit it by saying, “I cannot tell a lie.” In fact,
historian Joseph Ellis says George Washington “lied many times.”
But it is true that as Washington
became more famous, his reputation grew. People thought of him as a man who
always did the right thing.
Joseph Ellis says even Washington
understood people would look at his writings and judge him.
“Washington went from being a man to
a monument. He was aware of the fact that he had a role to play and that all
emerging nations need mythical heroes.”
George Washington portrait by
Gilbert Stuart
Washington became very protective of
his personal thoughts. His wife burned most of their letters.
Yet we know a little bit about
George Washington’s thoughts from other writing. One of his regrets, he said,
was that he had not done something to end slavery.
Like many plantation owners,
Washington was a slave holder. More than 300 enslaved people lived on his
property.
By the end of his life, Washington
opposed slavery. He left a will ordering his survivors to free his
slaves after his wife’s death.
Washington’s will became relevant
sooner than he might have liked.
Three years after he finished his
second term as president, Washington fell ill. He had been outside riding his
horse on a cold, wet day. When he came home, he complained of a sore throat.
Over the next two days, his
condition became worse. On December 14, 1799, he died in his bed, surrounded by
his wife, enslaved maids, and friends. He was 67.
Benjamin Latrobe's "A View of
Mount Vernon with the Washington Family"
(Courtesy of George Washington's
Mount Vernon)
Washington’s legacy
Historian Joseph Ellis says one of
the best things about George Washington was his ability to give up power. At
the end of the Revolutionary War, General Washington returned his sword. And at
the end of his administration, President Washington simply returned home.
“You could trust Washington with
power because he was so conspicuously willing to give it up.”
Doug Bradburn says Washington was
the right man at the right time. Bradburn, like many historians, calls George
Washington the “indispensable man.”
In other words, Washington was
essential to the American experiment in self-government. He made ideas about
American freedom real, and he showed that even the president would operate
under the rule of law.
I'm Kelly Jean Kelly.
________________________________________________________________
Words in This Story
accomplishment – n. something done or achieved successfully
figurehead – n. a person who is called the head of something but who has no real power
surveyor – n. a person whose job is to measure and examine an area of land
temper – n. the tendency of someone to become angry
graceful – adj. moving in a smooth and attractive way
denture(s) – n. a set of artificial teeth
will – n. a legal document in which a person states who should receive his or her possessions after he or she dies
conspicuously – adv. very easy to see or notice
indispensable – adj. extremely important and necessary
