George Washington, Framer Of The Constitution And First President Of The United States

George Washington, Framer of the Constitution and

First President of the United States

George Washington was born at his father’s plantation on Pope’s Creek, in Westmoreland County, Virginia on February 22, 1732. Washington was the eldest of his parents Augustine and Mary Ball Washington’s six children. Little is known about Washington’s childhood and eduction. His father died when he was eleven. But most of the stories that make up his legend, such as his honesty, piety, throwing a silver dollar across the Potomac River, are not documented facts. After the death of his father, Washington helped his mother run the plantation. As a young man he focused on his informal, self-education, his early military contributions, and his career as a

According to George Washington and the Making of the Constitution, “Washington was a firm advocate for the establishment of a strong national government.” He saw how the Articles of Confederation, the first Constitution of the United States, adopted by the original 13 states in 1777, were not working. The union couldn’t collect revenue or pay debts. “My wish,” he wrote to James Madison (another Virginia delegate), “is that the convention may adopt no temporizing expedients but probe the defects of the Constitution to the bottom and provide a radical

He maintained order during the passionate debates over whether the chief executive should be one person or a board of three, the structure and powers of Congress and the creation of the judiciary, and the problem of slavery. Delegates from the southern states would not agree to any Constitution that outlawed the institution of slavery. Washington himself owned ten slaves that he inherited from his father. Martha Washington was also a slave owner. She had inherited slaves from her first husband. Washington made provisions in his will to free all the slaves he had inherited from his father; and their descendants. (This was complicated by marriage between the slaves he inherited and the slaves who had belonged to his wife’s first husband, whom Washington did not have the legal right to free.) He was the only Founding Father to free his slaves. According to George Washington and the Making of the Constitution, the Constitution established America’s national government, with three branches, the executive, legislative, and judicial, and a system of checks and balances to guarantee no single branch could have too much power. This was one of the first document of its kind and developed the idea of modern democracy. (In 1791, the first ten amendments to the Constitution were ratified, they are known as the Bill of Rights. They provide individual protections, including freedom of speech, religion,