What Did Washington Want to Do After He Resigned His Military Commission?
What Was George Washington'due south Legacy to American Constitutionalism and Citizenship?
Washington at Princeton
A Annotation to Teachers
The 200th anniversary of George Washington'south expiry in 1799 provided an appropriate opportunity to examine George Washington's contributions to American constitutionalism and citizenship. To this terminate, the Center for Borough Didactics collaborated with the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association to produce this supplement to Nosotros the People: The Denizen & the Constitution. The competitive hearings for 1998–1999 included questions on Washington's place in the nation'south ramble legacy. Yous tin can help u.s.a. continue to provide free lessons like this one! Donate to support the Center or purchase a pocket Constitution or an ebook. Your donation or purchase will support civic education throughout the Us.
Purpose of Lesson
This lesson looks at the legacy of George Washington, perhaps the most influential leader in the creation of the American nation. Through his achievements equally commander-in-main during the Revolution, in support of the drafting and ratification of the Constitution, and as beginning president, Washington was instrumental in transforming the ideals of the Revolution into reality. His career as soldier, revolutionary, constitution-maker, and chief executive of a new nation demanded a range of skills and talents with few precedents in history.
When you take completed this lesson, you will be able to evaluate, take, and defend a position on the contributions of the "Male parent of His Country" to the nation'southward traditions of constitutional government and citizenship. Who was George Washington?
George Washington (1732–1799) was born and grew upwardly in rural Virginia, at a fourth dimension when information technology was a regal colony with British traditions of government by aristocracy and an economy based on growing and exporting tobacco. His father's early on expiry interrupted George'due south formal education. He became a professional surveyor in his tardily teens but soon thereafter turned to military service as a style to realize his ambitions. As a soldier he demonstrated enough courage and decisiveness to go the commander of the Virginia troops that defended the country's western borderland during the French and Indian War. He also established himself every bit a successful tobacco planter at the family plantation, Mount Vernon, married Martha Dandridge Custis, and won election to the Virginia House of Burgesses.
Washington had zip to gain from the American Revolution, at to the lowest degree in a cloth sense. He had achieved both wealth and fame every bit a British subject field in colonial Virginia. Still he was among the kickoff to heighten the possibility of armed resistance and accepted command of the Continental Army. He served for the eight and a one-half years of the Revolution without pay. Though his army was inexperienced, oft outnumbered, and poorly supplied, Washington was able to avoid defeat, wear down the British forces, and somewhen achieve victory. With independence secured in 1783 by a peace treaty with Britain, Washington appeared before Congress and publicly resigned his war machine position, returning to Mount Vernon a private citizen of the new nation. His plantation had suffered profoundly during his absence and the war.
In 1787 Washington's concerns nigh the disintegration of the nation prompted him to serve every bit a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. He presided over the convention, and his support was key to ratification of the newly proposed Constitution. In 1789, Washington was inaugurated first president of the U.s.. He served two terms, guiding the new regime through the organisation of the executive branch, founding the nation'southward capital, Washington, D.C., opening the west for settlement, and establishing precedents that have influenced the conduct of succeeding presidents always since. He left the presidency in 1797, following the election of John Adams, and again returned to Mount Vernon. Washington briefly returned to public life when President Adams asked him to have command of the army in anticipation of possible war with French republic. He died at Mount Vernon in Dec 1799. How did Washington establish the principle that the armed forces is subordinate to civilian government?
In assessing Washington's career, Thomas Jefferson emphasized the importance of the rule of law when he wrote that Washington had earned "everlasting remembrance" by "obeying the laws through the whole of his career, civil and military machine, of which the history of the world furnishes no other example." As commander-in-chief of the continental Ground forces, Washington never lost sight of the fact that his potency came from Congress, and that the purpose of the ground forces was to carry out the volition of the civil regime. Even when Congress voted Washington broad-reaching emergency powers late in 1776, he was careful not to exceed the bounds of his legal authority.
When his officers were angry late in the state of war because Congress had non paid them as promised, he refused to support their plan to march on Congress. Instead he confronted the officers planning this activeness, known as the Newburgh Conspiracy. Washington won their allegiance when he made an instance of his ain cocky-sacrifice. Eyewitness accounts relate that Washington used his declining eyesight as the example, saying "Gentlemen, you lot will permit me to don my spectacles, for I accept grown not only gray but nearly blind in the service of my land" when he was unable to read a document.
The most important public example occurred at the finish of the Revolution, when Washington returned his commission—the symbol of his authorisation—to Congress. At the time he took this step, his popularity and ability over the army might have permitted him to seize command of the government, as victorious generals had done before and have often done since. Julius Caesar in aboriginal Rome, Oliver Cromwell in England, and Napoleon Bonaparte in France were all successful military leaders who constitute the temptation of political power irresistible. Washington so strongly established the precept that the armed services serves the people of the nation and their noncombatant authorities that at that place has never been a threat to the American government from its own military.
What important principle was Washington acknowledging when he resigned his commission at the end of the Revolution?
What role did Washington play in the drafting and ratification of the Constitution?
Many of the Founders gave their first loyalty to their home states. From the very beginning of the Revolution, even so, Washington was a nationalist. His land was America, not Virginia, and what America could become through a potent union of us. After, every bit president, he would declare that Americans equally "citizens by birth or choice...must e'er exalt the simply pride of patriotism more than whatever appellation derived from local discriminations."
Convinced of the need for a stiff national government, Washington agreed to attend the Constitutional Convention. He spoke rarely during debates, in part considering he was the presiding officer. The Convention delegates causeless that Washington would also get the outset president chosen under the new Constitution, and this encouraged them to propose strong, wide-ranging powers for the executive. The shortcomings of the Articles of Confederation had convinced the delegates that a weak executive was a fault. They knew that many Americans were distrustful of a potent executive, but, as ane delegate observed, "the powers to exist given to a president [were shaped] by opinions of Washington's virtues."
Washington did not participate in the public debates over ratification, although his support was widely known and had a strong influence. Privately he argued for ratification, urgently explaining to Anti-Federalist Patrick Henry that "information technology is the best constitution that can exist obtained...and...this, or a dissolution of the union awaits our choice." Anticipating the outcome of the struggle over ratification, he wrote to Lafayette: "A few short weeks will make up one's mind the political fate of America for the nowadays generation and probably produce no modest influence on the happiness of social club through a long succession of ages to come up."
Persuaded that his election would help cement support for the new government, Washington reluctantly agreed to serve as the nation's outset president. He likened his feelings on one time again taking upwards the burdens of public service to "those of a culprit who is going to the place of his execution."
How did Washington's administration shape the institution of the executive branch?
Constitutions do non get existent without the institutions necessary to implement them. It fell primarily to Washington to give flesh and blood to the executive co-operative and the national government generally during their kickoff, critical years. As president, Washington demonstrated the value of a strong executive in the hands of a trustworthy person. He stayed inside the bounds of presidential potency outlined by the Constitution and the acts of the First Congress organizing the executive branch. For example, Washington conscientiously sought the "advice and consent" of the Senate in making appointments to office and in executing treaties with foreign governments, as the Constitution required. At the same time, the Senate's refusal to respond immediately to Washington's consultations helped to establish that body'southward right to both give and withhold its communication and consent.
In filling the many offices created by the new government, Washington avoided making appointments on the basis of social standing, heritage, or friendship. His appointments advanced the thought that the best-qualified people should be tapped for office. He proved a good judge of talent, selfless in advancing such promising younger men equally Hamilton and Jefferson. He understood his own limitations and was not reluctant to rely upon the counsel of others. Washington also began the custom of consulting with his principal department heads as a group, which practice led eventually to the cosmos of the cabinet, an important feature of American government to this twenty-four hour period.
By the time Washington retired from the presidency in 1797, he had established that the power of the president was vested in the office, non in the individual who held the office. He attended the inauguration of his successor, John Adams, and insisted on walking behind him at the shut of the inaugural ceremonies, thus demonstrating the peaceful transfer of power under the new Constitution.
Why was Washington sometimes referred to as "Our Cincinnatus?" In what means does his career embody the classical republican ideal of civic virtue?
How did Washington's deportment institute the authority of the presidency?
Within the premises of the Constitution, Washington'southward vigorous policies established the president as an energetic leader, not a ceremonial figurehead. He required subordinates to seek his approval for their actions, and accustomed personal responsibleness for their conduct. While he consulted with the Senate on appointments, he insisted that the president lonely had the authority to fire an appointee, guaranteeing the president'south command of every member of the executive branch. Although Washington employed the president's constitutional ability of the veto simply twice, he asserted the president's right to decline legislation with which he disagreed.
It was during Washington's presidency that the idea of unsaid powers in the "necessary and proper" clause of the Constitution was first invoked to justify his signing the law creating the showtime national bank. As commander-in-chief, Washington chosen out the militia to put down the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794. He took a strong hand in strange policy, prudently resisting British and French threats to American interests and at the same time keeping the young nation out of the European state of war.
How did Washington influence the development of political parties?
In his Farewell Address Washington warned against the danger of party and faction. He believed in the virtues of nonpartisan government, in which patriotic citizens of different views would exist willing to serve together. Washington'due south corking stature equally a national hero and his willingness to serve for 2 terms bridged strong regional differences, and gave the new government fourth dimension to accept root before party factions could go divisive.
At the same time, however, Washington's belief in a strong executive and his nationalist sentiments inclined him to favor Hamilton'south policies over Jefferson'southward. His warnings against party and faction to the contrary, he was in many respects the country'south first Federalist president.
Disquisitional Thinking Exercise
How Americans Judge Their Political Leaders
Work individually or with other students to develop a list of criteria by which Americans today judge their political leaders. Yous may want to consult the work of presidential historians and political scientists such as Stephen Ambrose, Michael Beschloss, Robert Caro, Doris Kearns Goodwin, David McCullough, Forrest McDonald, James Pfiffner, and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
When yous finish your list of criteria, interview parents, neighbors, and students at your schoolhouse to gather data virtually how some Americans today view the influence and legacy of George Washington as our first president.
Based on your findings, to what extent exercise you believe the examples of Washington and other Founders are relevant to the criteria past which we judge presidents today?
How did Washington reconcile being a slaveholder with his leadership of a nation defended to freedom for all?
George Washington was a leader of a revolution that was one of history's greatest advances for private liberty. Yet throughout his life, he denied freedom to others every bit a slaveholder and gained wealth from their labor. Washington accepted the legality of slavery and the holding rights of slaveholders. He took steps to prevent some of his own slaves from running abroad to freedom when traveling to northern states. Realizing that the issue of abolition could well separate the young commonwealth, he never fabricated a public statement in opposition to slavery.
Nevertheless, Washington'south private correspondence shows that he had come to reject slavery, both for the man suffering it caused and on principle. His doubts about slavery seem to appointment from the time of the Revolution when he stopped selling or purchasing Africans. He later on wrote, "I am principled against this kind of traffic in the human species." He came to see slavery itself as an immoral, if not illegal, institution. "There is not a living beingness who wishes [its abolition] more sincerely than I practice." In the will he drafted in 1799, he provided for his slaves to exist freed after his and Martha'due south death, and set upwardly a fund to care for those who were elderly or infirm.
Reviewing and Using the Lesson
- Every bit an individual or group essay assignment: if you were elected the beginning president of the United States, how would you shape the office of president under Article II of the Constitution? How might your presidency be dissimilar from that of Washington's?
- As a class, organize a debate of the resolution: "Presidents act as they do today because Washington ready such a strong case."
- Is Washington a realistic model past which to estimate American presidents in today's earth?
- Is it possible for a revolutionary to besides exist a framer of a nation's constitution and its first executive? What advantages might at that place exist for the same person filling these different roles. What difficulties might there be?
- How might the institution of the presidency been shaped differently had Washington'due south views been closer to those of Thomas Jefferson than to those of Alexander Hamilton?
- Washington believed that the "general diffusion of cognition," especially through didactics, would work against the passion of party differences. Do y'all agree? Explicate your position.
- How might Washington have reconciled beingness a slaveholder and a leader of a nation defended to liberty for all?
- What role practice you think moral judgments should play in the written report of history? To what extent are nosotros justified in making judgments about previous generations?
- To what extent do y'all believe the actions of item individuals can shape the course of history?
- Biography continues to be the nigh popular form of history. What value do you meet in seeking to sympathise the past through the studies of individual lives?
For boosted reading:
- Aikman, Lonnelle. Rider with Destiny: George Washington (McLean, VA: Link Press, 1983).
- Alden, John R. George Washington: A Biography (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1984).
- Allen, W. B., ed. George Washington: A Drove (Indianapolis: Liberty Classics, 1988).
- Brookhiser, Richard. Founding Begetter: Rediscovering George Washington (New York: Costless Press, 1996).
- Cunliffe, Marcus. George Washington and the Making of a Nation American Heritage Inferior Library (Mahway, NJ: Troll Associates, 1956).
- Cunliffe, Marcus. George Washington: Man and Monument (Boston: Piddling, Brown & Co., 1958).
- Flexner, James T. Washington: The Indispensable Man (Boston: Trivial, Brown & Co., 1974).
- "George Washington," Encyclopedia Britannica.
- Hirschfeld, Fritz. George Washington and Slavery (Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1997).
- Mullin, Gerald W. Flying and Rebellion: Slave Resistance and Rebellion in Eighteenth Century Virginia (New York: Oxford Academy Printing, 1983).
Websites:
- www.mountvernon.org
The home folio of Mount Vernon, with information about George and Martha Washington and their lives at Mount Vernon. - www.virginia.edu/gwpapers/dwelling.html
The home folio of the Papers of George Washington projection, with essays on all aspects of Washington'due south life. - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gwhtml/gwhome.html
The Library of Congress site, with 8,000 pages of original George Washington documents accessible on the net.
This supplement commemorating the bicentennial of George Washington'due south death is cosponsored past the Mountain Vernon Ladies' Association and the Center for Civic Education.
The Clan is a private, nonprofit arrangement that operates without federal or state funding.
For more information, contact:
The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association
Mount Vernon, VA 22121
(703)780-2000
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website: www.mountvernon.org
Source: https://www.civiced.org/lesson-plans/washington