Washington, George

WASHINGTON, GEORGE. - First president of the United States, b. at Bridges Creek (Virginia) on 22 Feb. 1732, d. at Mount Vernon (Virginia) on 14 Dec. 1799.

The son of a wealthy planter, he received an irregular education, and, left an orphan at an early age, he had to take charge of the administration of the considerable family estates, which he increased through shrewd purchases of land, especially in the Western territories, a region in whose colonization he took an active part and whose importance for the future development of the country he was among the first to grasp. Having entered the Virginia army (1753), he took part in several actions against the French and distinguished himself so much that at the age of only 23 he was appointed commander of the colony's troops. The many difficulties he encountered because of the scant coopera-

ration of the civil authorities and an illness contracted in service, however, induced him to resign in 1758. In the following years, and until the eve of the War of Independence, he resumed the management of his estates, greatly increased thanks to an advantageous marriage, at the same time taking part in public life as a member of the Virginia assembly (House of Burgesses). When the colonies' agitation against the mother country began, W. supported the various economic reprisals they adopted and took part as a Virginia delegate in the first "Continental Congress" convened in Philadelphia (1774). Appointed at the first hostilities commander in chief of all the colonial troops (1775), W. played a capital part not only in organizing the new confederal army, but in leading and sustaining his hastily gathered and poorly equipped troops in a very hard and long war against far superior forces. Endowed with admirable fortitude and an inspiring prestige rather than exceptional military skill, he knew how to endure even serious defeats inflicted on him by the English armies, which went so far as to occupy the seat of the "Congress," without ever giving himself up for beaten and taking advantage of every favorable circumstance to counterattack. At the same time he had to contend with continual conflicts with a "Congress" too weak to satisfy his requests for new troops; with his own men, who in the most difficult periods let themselves be overcome by discouragement and mutinied; and with some of his generals, who intrigued to take the command from him. Once the situation improved through France's intervention on the side of the insurgents, W. was able to abandon his delaying tactics and obtain the surrender of the English troops at Yorktown (1781), which virtually marked the conclusion of the war. With the peace signed (1783), his popularity was such that some thought of him as a possible sovereign of the new state: to these urgings he opposed a brusque refusal and preferred to resume his peaceful activities on his lands. Preoccupied, however, by the weakness of the state structure, he worked in favor of a radical constitutional reform; and when an assembly was convened to draft it (1787), he was elected its president. Averse to oratorical battles, he contributed with the authority of his name to reconciling the various tendencies and interests at stake and to obtaining the country's ratification of the new constitution. Elected unanimously to the presidency of the Republic (1789), he directed his administration toward a methodical work of consolidating the state, considering himself above the parties that were coming into being and the arbiter of their clashes. Re-elected in 1792, he supported a policy of neutrality between France and England and negotiated a treaty with the latter, incurring the enmity of the Francophile republican party. Made the target of every sort of accusation, at the expiration of his second presidency (1797) he refused to stand again as a candidate and spent his last years on his lands. Of an apparently cold and forbidding temperament, he was judged an aristocrat by his contemporaries. Nevertheless, both they and posterity were agreed in conferring on him the title of father of the country of democracy, and to underscore the significance of his work they gave his name to the nation's capital.

Gabriele Musatti