Once the colonies achieved independence, Martha helped prepare her family to move to the nation’s First Capitol. She became popular for arranging a social event at the presidential home and office which at the time was set in New York. It was this social calendar which became commonplace for future first ladies. At the time of her position, she was simply referred to as Lady Washington. She was responsible for household affairs and for holding public receptions. When the new capital was constructed in Philadelphia she helped move the family. He was viewed as incredibly gracious and an inspiration for setting the standard by which official affairs would be held.
When the president second term ended, and he officially retired Mount Vernon, she closed up the shared bedchamber upon George Washington's death and took up residence primarily on the third floor of the mansion. Before passing, she wrote her will and set fire to the correspondence between herself and her husband as she greatly appreciated privacy. She passed away in 1802 and was buried on the estate at Mount Vernon alongside her husband.
Chapter Five: George Washington and the Revolutionary War
It was in June 1775 the Congress commissioned George Washington with the command of the Continental Army in order to overthrow the British currently in Boston. A letter was written to Martha that he expected to be back in the fall he was away for Mount Vernon for a total of eight years.
In spite of his extensive military background there is nothing which could've prepared him for this. He lacked the practical experience necessary to move large formations of men as his background usually consist of small numbers of soldiers. He was inexperienced with regard to handling artillery or maintaining supply lines to reach all of the men in his field. This meant he was forced to learn on the job. His army faced one misfortune after another and that many times a lesser man would have given up but George Washington had courage and determination. He was able to through his mental agility and happenstance keep the American cause just one step ahead of completely falling apart, something he did without really knowing how unprecedented this revolutionary struggle really was.
In Boston the situation became untenable. The British soldiers were ruling with what can best be described as an iron fist. The number of soldiers was expanding rapidly and the freedom of the colonists was disappearing. The British position was withdrawn in March 1776 George Washington new this is only a temporary respite. In June, this temporary respite was replaced with new British soldiers who were given orders to take over New York City. At the time the new soldiers constituted the largest expeditionary force that the kingdom had ever sent overseas.
New York was an island city and it was surrounded by a difficult maze of waterways the same as it is today. This meant that the British with their naval superiority had a substantial advantage end they were in addition to this better trained and better equipped compared to George Washington's army. In August of that year they were able to defeat Washington's army at Long Island and forced the Americans to give up the city of New York upon defeat at Kips Bay.
Washington and his troops were defeated and were forced to move northward where they faced yet another defeat at White Plains. By November 1776 the defense of New York City was humiliating at best and for Washington had to be surrendered. It was at this time George Washington ordered his army to retreat over to New Jersey where his troops remained exhausted and mud soaked. Interestingly enough it was during these difficult times but George Washington cultivated what today is considered to be modern medicines backbone. Certain procedures which we have modified today were made in the mud soaked tents of the retreating forces under George Washington's command.
The British believed that the American rebellion would be over within a few months end that the current Congress would seek out peace instead of the subjugation the colonies were facing. The majority of men under Washington's command had short-term enlistments which were due to expire at the end of 1776. This meant that they no longer had to serve, and the British assumed that they would flee and conform to British demands. But rather than crushing the army, the British soldiers simply went into winter quarters and advanced the garrisons at Princeton and Trenton, which left Washington the option to execute what today is considered one of the most daring military operations to have ever taken place in American history. It was on Christmas night the George Washington and his troops crossed the Delaware River and attacked the garrison at Trenton. The garrison was forced to surrender. Not but a few days after this George Washington crossed the Delaware and outmaneuvered the British forces which were sent to crush him where they soon inflicted a humiliating loss upon the British at Princeton.
For the remainder of the war, George Washington had one strategic task which was to keep the British bottled up at the island city of New York. He never gave up his hope of taking back to New York, but he was of course not willing to risk his entire army unless there was a good chance of success. In 1780 and alliance to place with France and a French army arrived which renewed George Washington's hopes of taking back New York. Together they still lacked the number of trips necessary to successfully launch an attack on New York. Instead, a strike was decided upon at another location.
This other location was that of Yorktown and George Washington relied upon the same bold measures to use that Princeton and Trenton to plan the battle of Yorktown. After this battle George Washington and his troops laid siege on Cornwallis and accepted his surrender in 1781. It had taken two years before peace treaty was completed but it was this victory at Yorktown which brought an end to the Revolutionary War and paved the way for a new country.
His ability to prevail over the better supplied, better trained, and more numerous British army was a result of his flexibility which stretched beyond that of his opponents. He presented himself before Congress in December 1783 where he resigned his commission. He went back to Mount Vernon with the intention to never serve in public life again which of course, was not to be.
Chapter Six: Washington and the Constitution
The Constitutional Convention
With the British gone the affairs of a new nation were in tatters and needed to be sewn into a beautiful tapestry that is the United States. In spite of the fact that George Washington longs for nothing more than a peaceful life living in Mount Vernon, he saw that state legislators were frustrated, the military was impotent, and the articles of Confederation started to disintegrate. It was with this knowledge that he wrote a letter to James Madison stating that an energetic Constitution was necessary. He was selected unanimously to preside over the Constitutional Convention wherein an energetic Constitution was set to take place.
George Washington played a big role in shaping the new United States, specifically concerning the Constitution.
The 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention who gathered in Philadelphia in 1787 were mainly wealthy property owners. Even so, they came from a diverse array of backgrounds and held a surprising mix of ideas and beliefs. There was a general consensus among the delegates that the Articles of Confederation were inadequate; however, there was little agreement regarding precisely what should be done to correct the problem. The delegates differed in regards to their ideas about government as well as human nature. It was through this context and a broad array of ideas that the Constitution was formed.
It is important to understand the state of the new country at the time as well. In 1787, America was mainly an agricultural nation. Most people at the time lived on small farms where they grew only a sufficient amount of food to feed their families. Although the differences between the rich and the poor were not as marked in America as in Europe, there were still some economic class divisions. The years following the Revolutionary War had been a disaster economically for small farmers. The debt had been at the root of Shays’ Rebellion. There was tremendous concern regarding taxes and debt, and it was this concern that motivated the interest of small farmers in politics, driving their desire for a large supply of paper money and low taxes.
/> To a large extent, geography also drove the interests of citizens and delegates alike in regards to the shape the new government would take. Southern delegates were concerned with the issue of slavery. Delegates who lived closer to the western frontier were hopeful for a government that would be able to provide protection from Indian Attacks. Those who lived nearer the coast were mainly concerned with foreign trade policy. There was no doubt that the economic outcome of the entire nation would be affected by the political and governmental structural changes that were contemplated at the convention.
The convention had been originally scheduled to start in early May; however, it was not until the end of May that a quorum of seven of the states was able to be represented. Eventually, delegates from twelve states arrived in Philadelphia. Rhode Island was the single hold out and refused to send any delegates at all. For the most part, the delegation was widely varied in terms of instructions, distinction and size. The two most populous states, Virginia and Pennsylvania, sent the most delegates to the convention. The most experienced and oldest delegate of the convention, Benjamin Franklin, hailed from Pennsylvania.
Delegates from Virginia included George Washington and James Madison. While Madison was only 36 years old at the time, it would be his destiny to dominate the convention. Having served in both houses of the Virginia Legislature as well as the Confederation Congress, Madison was well versed in politics. He prepared for the convention ahead of time by review more than two hundred books on government and history in a systematic manner. It was from this review that he prepared an accounting of prior attempts to design a democratic government.
Madison would come to be known as the Father of the Constitution as he was essential to both the writing as well as the ratification of this document. An avid supporter of the idea of a strong central government, Madison would also write the first twelve amendments to the Constitution, ten of which would be ratified as the Bill of rights.
Thomas Jefferson was not able to attend the convention due to the fact that he was serving as an ambassador to France. Patrick Henry, who was a vehement antinationalist, absolutely refused to attend the convention at all.
The next largest states were New York and Massachusetts. These two states differed dramatically from one another. The majority of the most well-known men of Massachusetts were unable to attend the convention. John Adams was in England as an ambassador. Adams had served in both the first and the second Continental Congresses and had led the debate that would eventually ratify the Declaration of Independence. Later he would go on to serve as Vice President for eight years under George Washington would be elected as the second President of the United States in 1796. Interestingly, he would not be actually elected as Vice President, but instead received the second most votes in the presidential election that took place in 1788.
Samuel Adams, who had helped to gather support for the American colonies when they first rebelled against England and who had even urged the colonies to withdraw from Great Britain and establish a new form of government while encouraging the colonists to defend their liberties and rights, was old and ill by the time the Convention was held.
John Hancock who had served as President of the Second Continental Congress as well as the Congress of the Confederation and who had been the first person to sign the Declaration of Independence, had been elected as the first governor of Massachusetts and was therefore, ineligible to attend as a delegate to the convention in Philadelphia.
Political power in New York primarily rested in the hands of the governor, George Clinton. His supporters were primarily anti-nationalist, and most of the New York delegates reflected this same view. Consequently, they chose to return home after just six weeks; leaving New York with no vote at all. The one pro-nationalist delegate from New York, Alexander Hamilton, remained to advocate for a strong central executive power. Hamilton, who was considered by most to be decisive and intelligent, had also been a delegate to the Continental Congresses. He was a leading figure among the Federalists and tended to favor the idea of a strong central government. Later, he would support a loose interpretation of the Constitution that the delegates who met during that summer in Philadelphia would draft.
The delegates to the convention were representatives of states with both economic and political interests, but they were also men who were well educated and who had their ideas regarding government and humanity. The views of these men had been shaped by the writings of English and French philosophers, particularly John Locke. Their experience in the Colonial and Confederation Governments further helped to shape their viewpoints.
Locke had argued that everyone is entitled to liberty as a natural right, that people are born with the right to have liberty. Thomas Jefferson would assert that Locke’s unalienable rights of life and freedom were self-evident in the drafting of the Declaration of Independence. It was Locke’s philosophy that people desired to protect those rights and the purpose of government was to protect life, liberty and property. At the core of such a government is a legislature that represents those individuals who have a state within society or those who own property. Furthermore, many political thinkers of the day also shared the idea that a government should have an additional two branches; an executive branch and a judiciary branch. This is an idea that was derived from the writings of French philosopher Baron de Montesquieu.
The Constitution would be drafted from the ideas and opinions of both men who were in attendance as well as those who were not. Perhaps one of the most notable men of his day, Thomas Jefferson had authored the Declaration of Independence and been one of the foremost leaders of the American Revolution as well as a delegate to the Continental Congress. While Jefferson was not in attendance at the Constitutional Convention, he nevertheless had his own ideas regarding government. As an Anti-Federalist, Jefferson was in a favor of a strong Bill of Rights. It was his opposition to a strong central government that would lead to the creation of the first political parties.
John Jay had served in the Continental Congress and had even been elected President of that body. Both during as well as after the Revolution, Jay had served as an ambassador to France and Spain and had assisted in developing American foreign policy while securing favorable peace terms with the French and British. While Jay did not attend the Constitutional Convention, he was joined Madison and Hamilton in aggressively supporting the creation of a balanced system of government that was more powerful and centralized.
George Mason, from Virginia, was also an anti-federalist and was considered to be a leader among those who pressed for the inclusion of explicit States rights as well as individual rights to form a balance of increased federal powers. Mason would be notable for not signing the Constitution because it did not include such a statement. It was through his efforts that the Federalists would be eventually convinced to add the first ten amendments, or the Bill of Rights, to the Constitution.
Roger Sherman, of Connecticut, had served in the Committee of Five and had also helped to draft the Declaration of Independence. Perhaps his most notable contribution to the new government would be the fact that the signed all four of the most important documents of the United States; the Continental Association, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. James Wilson had been a signer of the Declaration of Independence and had been elected twice to the Continental Congress.
As a member of the Constitutional Convention, he would become a major force in the drafting of this important document. Considered to be one of the most prominent lawyers of his day, Wilson was also one of the most learned of the framers in attendance in Philadelphia. Perhaps his most lasting contribution to the new nation would come as a member of the Committee of Detail, which produced the first actual draft of the Constitution in 1787. Wilson supported the idea of popular elections for senators and the president. He also proposed the Three-Fifths Compromise, which made slaves count as 3/5 of a person for the purposes of representation in the House as well as t
he Electoral College.
In spite of the rather optimistic thoughts of Montesquieu and Locke, the majority of the framers share a somewhat negative view regarding human nature. They primarily believe that most people are driven by a desire for wealth and power. Without some level of restraint, people will attempt to utilize government to gain advantage even if it is at the expense of their fellow citizens. There was a tremendous concern among the men who wrote the Constitution that factions, or groups of people who shared a common interest, would arise and there would be a struggle. Therefore, the delegates believed that a central task of government should be to keep such factions in check.
It was the hope of the framers to design political institutions that would be strong enough to halt such factions, but not so strong that citizens would be deprived of their liberty. Having just had such experience with what was largely regarded as a tyrannical king, the men who met in Philadelphia in 1787 were wary of creating a tyrant, even if it was a democratic tyrant. As a result, there often arose disagreements regarding the degree and emphasis that the design of government should take.
Conservative thinkers tended to prefer a government that was divided and balanced while liberals preferred a supreme legislature with a single house. Conservatives desired two houses with one that would be removed from popular control. Liberals opposed the property-ownership requirements for holding office that the conservatives favored.
George Washington: 1st President of U.S. and his Great Offering (Founding Fathers) Page 2
