American golfer Tiger Woods, one of the sport’s most popular stars, is seen here after his final putt in the 1997 Masters—a tournament he won decisively. Before turning professional in 1996, Woods won a record three consecutive United States Amateur Championships from 1994 through 1996.

Eldrick Woods was born in Cypress, California, to an African American father and Thai mother. His father, Earl Woods, nicknamed him Tiger after a soldier Earl had served with during the Vietnam War (1959-1975). Young Woods began playing golf as soon as he could walk, and he was soon touted as a golf prodigy and featured on several television shows. His father coached him on form, stance, and swing. The elder Woods also focused on developing his son’s concentration, and soon young Tiger had learned to block out distractions during his shots. By age 6 he had recorded two holes in one. At age 15 he became the youngest player ever to win the United States Golf Association (USGA) Junior National Championship.

In 1993 Woods won his third consecutive junior national title and had become one of the top players on the amateur circuit. In 1994 he played for the American team at the World Amateur Championships in Versailles, France, and enrolled at Stanford University in California. At Stanford Woods was named Pacific-10 Conference player of the year in 1995 and won the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) individual championship in 1996. Woods also captured three consecutive U.S. Amateur Championships (1994-1996). After the third of these he turned professional, winning two tournaments as a rookie on the 1996 Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Tour.

When Tiger Woods was 15 years old, he became the youngest player ever to win the United States junior national championship. Woods began playing golf while he was still a toddler.

In the late 1990s Woods became one of the top professional players in the world. His first major victory came at the 1997 Masters, when he set tournament records for youngest champion (21 years of age), lowest score for 72 holes (18 under par at 270), and widest margin of victory (12 strokes). Both scoring records had been set by Jack Nicklaus (271 and 9 strokes) in 1965. Woods also became the first African American and first Asian American golfer to win the prestigious event.

In 1999 Woods won his second major tournament, the PGA Championship. The following year he won nine tournaments, including three straight major titles: the United States Open, the British Open, and the PGA Championship. He followed this with a victory in the 2001 Masters, becoming the first golfer to hold all four major professional titles at the same time.

In 2002 Woods repeated as Masters champion, making him just the third player to win the tournament in back-to-back years. He captured his eighth major championship at the 2002 U.S. Open, and many observers predicted that Woods would easily break Nicklaus’s record of 18 major pro titles before his career ended. By the end of 2002 Woods had won 34 tournaments on the PGA Tour.

This run of dominance slowed during the following two years, however, as Woods failed to win a major title—although he did win the 2003 PGA player of the year award (based on scoring average) for a record fifth consecutive season. He won only one PGA tournament in 2004, the lowest annual total of his professional career, and for the first time in five years he lost the top spot in the world golf rankings (to Vijay Singh of Fiji). At times Woods appeared to be struggling with his swing, and his driving rank (a score that combines accuracy and distance off the tee) fell from 11th on the tour in 2002 to 87th in 2004.

Tiger Woods hits out of the rough during the second round of the 2000 British Open at St. Andrews, Scotland. Woods won the tournament by eight strokes, and the victory was the second of what would become an unprecedented streak of four consecutive major titles: the 2000 United States Open, the 2000 British Open, the 2000 Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Championship, and the 2001 Masters.

Woods roared back in 2005, however. At the year’s first major tournament, the Masters, he rallied from a third-round deficit to defeat Chris DiMarco in a one-hole playoff for his ninth major championship. It was the fourth Masters title for Woods, tying him with Arnold Palmer for the second most over a career (trailing only Nicklaus, who won the event six times). Woods—back at the top of the world rankings—finished second at the 2005 U.S. Open and then won the British Open by five strokes for his tenth major title.

Woods competed in the 2006 U.S. Open shortly after the death of his father and missed the cut, before returning to form and retaining his British Open title in July at Hoylake and winning the PGA Championship at Medinah the following month. Woods retained the PGA Championship title in 2007, the same year he placed second at the Masters and at the U.S. Open. His PGA Championship win at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma, gave him 13 major titles for his career.

Woods finished individual play in 2007 by winning the first-ever FedEx Cup and its $10-million retirement annuity. The cup featured a point system based on a player’s performance throughout the year in PGA Tour events and then in a four-tournament playoff round at the end of the Tour season. The playoff system, the first ever for men’s professional golf, reduced the number of players to a field of 30 in the last tournament. Woods ended the year as the leading money winner on the Tour, though he fell just shy of the record one-year earnings set by Vijay Singh in 2004. Woods’s career record of 61 tournament wins left him just one behind Arnold Palmer for fourth place on the career list at the end of 2007. In his first PGA tournament in 2008, the Buick Invitational, Woods tied Palmer for fourth on the career list, winning handily by eight strokes. In March 2008 Woods tied Ben Hogan for third on the all-time career list with his 64th PGA Tour victory, behind only Sam Snead and Jack Nicklaus.

Woods has played in five Ryder Cups (1997, 1999, 2002, 2004, and 2006), finishing on the winning side only once (in 1999).

Brunelleschi was born in Florence in 1377 and received his early training as an artisan in silver and gold. In 1401 he entered, and lost, the famous design competition for the bronze doors of the Florence Baptistery. He then turned to architecture and in 1418 received the commission to execute the dome of the unfinished Gothic Cathedral of Florence, also called the Duomo. The dome, a great innovation both artistically and technically, consists of two octagonal vaults, one inside the other. Its shape was dictated by its structural needs—one of the first examples of architectural functionalism. Brunelleschi made a design feature of the necessary eight ribs of the vault, carrying them over to the exterior of the dome, where they provide the framework for the dome’s decorative elements, which also include architectural reliefs, circular windows, and a beautifully proportioned cupola. This was the first time that a dome created the same strong effect on the exterior as it did on the interior.

 
For the Pazzi Chapel, built next to the Church of Santa Croce in Florence, Italian Renaissance architect Filippo Brunelleschi chose a square plan and elongated it into a rectangle by the addition of two vaulted bays at the sides. A dome tops the central square. Moldings and pilasters (ornamental columns attached to the wall) in dark grey contrast with the white background of the walls.

In other buildings, such as the Medici Church of San Lorenzo (1418-28) and the foundling hospital called the Ospedale degli Innocenti (1421-55), Brunelleschi devised an austere, geometric style inspired by the art of ancient Rome. Completely different from the emotional, elaborate Gothic mode that still prevailed in his time, Brunelleschi’s style emphasized mathematical rigor in its use of straight lines, flat planes, and cubic spaces. This “wall architecture,” with its flat facades, set the tone for many of the later buildings of the Florentine Renaissance.

The Sacrifice of Isaac (1401-1402) is a gilt bronze relief by the Italian Renaissance sculptor Filippo Brunelleschi. A competition to design door panels for the baptistery of Florence was the impetus for this piece. The relief is attached to a wood panel shaped like a Gothic quatrefoil, which was a requirement of the competition.

Later in his career, notably in the unfinished Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli (begun 1434), the Basilica of Santo Spirito (begun 1436), and the Pazzi Chapel (begun c. 1441), he moved away from this linear, geometric style to a somewhat more sculptural, rhythmic style. In the first of these buildings, for instance, the interior was formed not by flat walls, but by massive niches opening from a central octagon. This style, with its expressive interplay of solids and voids, was the first step toward an architecture that led eventually to the baroque.

The Gothic Cathedral of Florence was begun in the late 13th century, but its magnificent dome was added later. Designed by the Italian sculptor and architect Filippo Brunelleschi, the dome was built between 1420 and 1436. It is octagonal, a shape that echoes the interior eight-sided vault.

Brunelleschi was also an important innovator in other areas. Along with the painter Masaccio, he was one of the first Renaissance masters to rediscover the laws of scientific perspective. He executed two perspective paintings (now lost), probably between 1415 and 1420, and he is also credited with having painted the architectural background in one of Masaccio’s early works.

His influence on his contemporaries and immediate followers was very strong and has been felt even in the 20th century, when modern architects came to revere him as the first great exponent of rational architecture. Brunelleschi died in Florence in 1446.

Ray Charles Robinson was born in Albany, Georgia. He lost his sight by age seven as a result of what was believed to be glaucoma. Charles received his first musical training at the Saint Augustine (Florida) School for the Deaf and Blind. At age 15, with both his parents dead, Charles left school, formed his own trio, and began touring the South (shortening his name to avoid confusion with boxer Sugar Ray Robinson). A few years later he moved to Seattle, Washington, where he continued to learn and experiment with various musical styles. Two of Charles’s biggest influences during this time were the smooth R&B sounds of Nat “King” Cole and the piano blues of Charles Brown.

American pianist and singer Ray Charles helped develop the genre of soul music by combining aspects of gospel, jazz, and rhythm and blues. Charles began his career in the late 1940s emulating the jazz sounds of American pianist and singer Nat “King” Cole before moving into his own blues-inspired style.

In the early 1950s Charles moved to Los Angeles, California, and began recording. His first national success came with the 1951 song “Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand.” His style further developed after he signed with Atlantic Records and recorded the hit song “I Got a Woman” (1954). Over the next few years Charles continued to grow in popularity and recognition with singles such as “Drown in My Own Tears” (1955), “Leave My Woman Alone” (1956), “Lonely Avenue” (1956), and “The Right Time” (1958). His first recording that became widely popular with both white and black audiences was “What’d I Say” (1959), which prominently featured his backup singers, the Raeletts.

Charles’s popularity peaked in the early and mid-1960s. In 1960 he recorded the classic “Georgia on My Mind,” which became that state’s official song in 1979. In 1961 he had a hit with a version of Percy Mayfield’s song “Hit the Road, Jack.” Throughout this time Charles continued to perform and record various different kinds of music. An example was the single “I Can’t Stop Loving You” from the album Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music (1962). The recording sold more than 2.5 million copies and established Charles as the first black musician to become a star in country music.

Beginning in the late 1960s, Charles mostly recorded versions of traditionally popular songs (as opposed to original material). He developed his own record label and performed with other artists. A recognized celebrity, Charles appeared in television commercials and films as well as continuing to record and tour widely into the early 2000s.

The artist published his autobiography, Brother Charles, in 1978. In the book he described his nearly two-decade addiction to heroin, which he overcame after being arrested in the mid-1960s.

During his life Charles received 12 Grammy Awards, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1987), a Kennedy Center Honor (1986), and a National Medal of Arts (1993). Genius Loves Company, an album of duets released several months after his death, won eight Grammys in 2005. The awards included album of the year, pop album of the year, and record of the year for a duet with Norah Jones, “Here We Go Again.”

He was born Allen Stewart Konigsberg in Brooklyn, New York. At the age of 15, using the name Woody Allen, he began to write quips for newspaper columnists. He then wrote for radio and television performers, joining the staff of television comedian Sid Caesar in 1957. From 1961 to 1964 Allen worked as a comedian in nightclubs, where he drew the attention of a film producer and was hired to write and act in the motion picture What’s New, Pussycat? (1965).

American screenwriter, director, and actor Woody Allen developed a reputation for comedic genius by exploring issues of love and death through neurotic, guilt-ridden characters. Allen began his career as a joke writer for established comics. Starting in 1961 he performed his own routines in New York City clubs, college campuses, and on records. He moved from stand-up comedy to screenwriting and acting in 1965, subsequently creating and appearing in numerous films and developing an intellectual cult following. In addition to comedy, Allen has released serious films, and experiments with innovative cinematic techniques.

Allen’s own first film, What’s Up, Tiger Lily? (1966), was actually made from a forgettable Japanese spy thriller that Allen transformed by dubbing it with absurd dialogue in English. He made his true directorial debut with Take the Money and Run (1969), followed by Bananas (1971), Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (1972), and Sleeper (1975). All featured Allen in his characteristic role of the befuddled underachiever.

Allen’s first major critical success came with Annie Hall (1977), in which he plays a comedian who falls in love with a singer played by Diane Keaton. Annie Hall won Academy Awards for best picture and best screenplay; Allen won the Academy Award for best director, and Keaton won for best actress. Allen famously snubbed the Oscar ceremony that year because it coincided with his weekly appearance playing jazz clarinet at Michael’s Pub in New York.

Allen’s film Interiors (1978) was a somber psychological drama, while Stardust Memories (1980) was an obviously autobiographical work. Around this time Allen also made what is regarded by many critics as his greatest film, Manhattan (1979), a deft comedy about the romantic anxieties of a New York television comedy writer, noted for its inspired title sequence set to Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin and for its luminous black-and-white photography. Allen’s 1982 film, A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy, the first of a new association with Orion Pictures, was also the first of many to feature his future partner, Mia Farrow.

Allen’s subsequent films include the spoof newsreel documentary Zelig (1983); Broadway Danny Rose (1984), a comedy about a failed talent agent; the 1930s takeoff Purple Rose of Cairo (1985); the family sagas Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and Radio Days (1987); Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), about adultery; Husbands and Wives (1992), a dissection of marriage; the comic suspense story Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993); the mob comedy Bullets over Broadway (1994); the marital comedy Mighty Aphrodite (1995); and the musical Everyone Says I Love You (1997).

American actor and director Woody Allen, right, starred with Diane Keaton in the acclaimed comedy Annie Hall (1977). The film, which captured the Academy Award for best picture, successfully combined Allen’s skills as a comedian with a poignant story of romantic love in 1970s New York City.

An acrimonious separation from Farrow occurred in 1992 over his affair with her adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn, whom Allen married in 1997. After his marriage Allen made Deconstructing Harry (1997) and Celebrity (1998), two films that were notably more cynical in tone than his previous work. In 1999 Allen wrote and directed Sweet and Lowdown, a comedic biopic about the life of a fictional 1930s jazz guitarist, Emmett Ray, starring Sean Penn. He starred in, as well as wrote and directed, the crime capers Small Time Crooks (2000) and The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001). In Hollywood Ending (2002) an aging filmmaker tries to cover up the fact that he has been struck blind during the making of a movie. Allen returned to romantic comedy in 2003 with Anything Else, and in 2004 wrote and directed Melinda and Melinda, a comedy exploring the same events from contrasting standpoints, comedic and tragic. Match Point (2005) was Allen’s first film made in Britain. This morality tale of ambition and social climbing set amid London’s high society was his biggest commercial success in two decades. He stayed in the British capital to shoot the murder mysteries Scoop (2006) and Cassandra’s Dream (2007). Allen has received Academy Award nominations in various categories for many of his films.

Allen wrote and starred in the plays Don’t Drink the Water (1966; motion picture, 1969) and Play It Again, Sam (1969; motion picture, 1972). A 1994 film version of Don’t Drink the Water was Allen’s first made-for-television movie. He has also published collections of short humorous writings, including Getting Even (1971), Without Feathers (1976), and Side Effects (1980).

George Washington (1732-1799), first president of the United States (1789-1797) and one of the most important leaders in United States history. His role in gaining independence for the American colonies and later in unifying them under the new U.S. federal government cannot be overestimated. Laboring against great difficulties, he created the Continental Army, which fought and won the American Revolution (1775-1783), out of what was little more than an armed mob. After an eight-year struggle, his design for victory brought final defeat to the British at Yorktown, Virginia, and forced Great Britain to grant independence to its overseas possession.

With victory won, Washington was the most revered man in the United States. A lesser person might have used this power to establish a military dictatorship or to become king. Washington sternly suppressed all such attempts on his behalf by his officers and continued to obey the weak and divided Continental Congress. However, he never ceased to work for the union of the states under a strong central government. He was a leading influence in persuading the states to participate in the Constitutional Convention, over which he presided, and he used his immense prestige to help gain ratification of its product, the Constitution of the United States.

On April 30, 1789, 57-year-old George Washington took the oath of office as the first president of the United States. After Washington took the oath on the portico at Federal Hall in New York City, thousands of citizens cheered and 13 cannons fired a salute. Inside, Washington delivered his inaugural address in the Senate Chambers.

Although worn out by years of service to his country, Washington reluctantly accepted the presidency of the United States. Probably no other man could have succeeded in welding the states into a lasting union. Washington fully understood the significance of his presidency. “I walk on untrodden ground,” he said. “There is scarcely any part of my conduct which may not hereafter be drawn in precedent.” During eight years in office, Washington laid down the guidelines for future presidents.

Washington lived only two years after turning over the presidency to his successor, John Adams. The famous tribute by General Henry Lee, “first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen,” accurately reflected the emotions that Washington’s death aroused. Later generations have crowned this tribute with the simple title “Father of His Country.”

EARLY LIFE

George Washington was born on his father’s estate in Westmoreland County, Virginia, on February 22, 1732. He was the eldest son of a well-to-do Virginia farmer, Augustine Washington, by his second wife, Mary Ball. The Washington family was descended from two brothers, John and Lawrence Washington, who emigrated from England to Virginia in 1657. The family’s rise to modest wealth in three generations was the result of steady application to farming, land buying, and development of local industries.

Young George seems to have received most of his schooling from his father and, after the father’s death in 1743, from his elder half-brother Lawrence. The boy had a liking for mathematics, and he applied it to acquiring a knowledge of surveying, which was a skill greatly in demand in a country where people were seeking new lands in the West. For the Virginians of that time the West meant chiefly the upper Ohio River valley. Throughout his life, George Washington maintained a keen interest in the development of these western lands, and from time to time he acquired properties there.

George grew up a tall, strong young man, who excelled in outdoor pursuits, liked music and theatrical performances, and was a trifle awkward with girls but fond of dancing. His driving force was the ambition to gain wealth and eminence and to do well whatever he set his hand to.

His first real adventure as a boy was accompanying a surveying party to the Shenandoah Valley of northern Virginia and descending the Shenandoah River by canoe. An earlier suggestion that he should be sent to sea seems to have been discouraged by his uncle Joseph Ball, who described the prospects of an unknown colonial youth in the British Navy of that day as such that “he had better be put apprentice to a tinker.”When he was 17 he was appointed surveyor of Culpeper County, Virginia, the first public office he held.

In 1751 George had his first and only experience of foreign lands when he accompanied his half-brother Lawrence to the island of Barbados in the West Indies. Lawrence was desperately ill with tuberculosis and thought the climate might help, but the trip did him little good. Moreover, George was stricken with smallpox. He bore the scars from the disease for the rest of his life. Fortunately this experience gave him immunity to the disease, which was later to decimate colonial troops during the American Revolution.

EARLY CAREER

A  Militia Officer

Lawrence died in 1752. Under the terms of his will, George soon acquired the beautiful estate of Mount Vernon, in Fairfax County, one of six farms then held by the Washington family interests. Also, the death of his beloved half-brother opened another door to the future. Lawrence had held the post of adjutant in the colonial militia. This was a full-time salaried appointment, carrying the rank of major, and involved the inspection, mustering, and regulation of various militia companies. Washington seems to have been confident he could make an efficient adjutant at the age of 20, though he was then without military experience. In November 1752 he was appointed adjutant of the southern district of Virginia by Governor Robert Dinwiddie.

A1  First Mission

During the following summer, Virginia was alarmed by reports that a French expedition from Canada was establishing posts on the headwaters of the Ohio River and seeking to make treaties with the Native American peoples. Governor Dinwiddie received orders from Britain to demand an immediate French withdrawal, and Major Washington promptly volunteered to carry the governor’s message to the French commander. His ambition at this time was to secure royal preference for a commission in the regular British army, and this expedition promised to bring him to the king’s attention.

Washington took with him a skillful and experienced frontiersman, Christopher Gist, together with an interpreter and four other men. Reaching the forks of the Ohio, he found that the French had withdrawn northward for the winter. After inconclusive negotiations with the Native Americans living there, who were members of the Iroquois Confederacy, he pressed on and finally delivered Dinwiddie’s message to the French commander at Fort Le Boeuf, not far from Lake Erie. The answer was polite but firm: The French were there to stay. Returning, Washington reached Williamsburg, the capital of Virginia, to deliver this word to the governor in mid-January 1754, having made a hard wilderness journey of more than 1600 km (1000 mi) in less than three months. With his report he submitted a map of his route and a strong recommendation that an English fort be erected at the forks of the Ohio as quickly as possible, before the French returned to that strategic position in the spring.

Dinwiddie, who was himself a large stockholder in companies exploiting western lands, acted promptly on this suggestion. He sent William Trent with a small force to start building the fort. Major Washington was to raise a column of 200 men to follow and reinforce the advance party.

A2  Promotion

This was Washington’s first experience with the difficulties of raising troops while lacking equipment, clothing, and funds. Apparently he thought his efforts worthy of some recognition and successfully applied to Dinwiddie for a lieutenant colonel’s commission. He left Alexandria, Virginia, early in April with about 150 poorly equipped and half-trained troops.

A3  First Battles

Before he had advanced very far, Washington received news that the French had driven Trent’s men back from the Ohio forks. He did not turn back, but pushed on to establish an advanced position from which, when reinforced, he hoped to turn the tables. He set part of his men to work building a log stockade, which he named Fort Necessity. On May 27, 1754, he surprised a French force in the woods and routed it after a short battle. The French commander, Ensign Joseph Coulon, Sieur de Jumonville, was killed in the clash, and Washington took prisoners back to Fort Necessity. He had won his first victory.

The French, on hearing of Jumonville’s death, sent out a larger force. Unfortunately for Washington, these troops reached Fort Necessity before he had received either the men or the supplies he expected from Virginia. On July 3 the fort was attacked by the French and some Iroquois who had allied with them, beginning what would be called the French and Indian War (1754-1763). The fort did not have the soldiers or arms to hold out. However, the French offered surrender terms that were not humiliating: The Virginians were to abandon the fort and withdraw to their own settlements, leaving two hostages for good faith. Washington’s papers and journal were taken, and he was to sign a surrender document. Washington accepted the terms on July 4 after the surrender document was translated for him and did not appear to contain any offensive statements.

Back in Williamsburg, Washington had become famous. The victory over Jumonville was applauded, and he was not blamed for surrendering his fort to superior forces. The expedition was written up in a British magazine and thereby came to the attention of the king, George II. The magazine quoted Washington as saying that he found “something charming” in the sound of the bullets whizzing past his head at the Jumonville skirmish. At this the king remarked, “He would not say so if he had been used to hear many.”

There were two repercussions that caused Washington some regrets. First, he found that his translator had been mistaken. An accurate translation of the surrender document showed it to contain the phrase “assassination of Sieur de Jumonville,” implying that Washington had killed the French commander dishonorably. Secondly, the French published a translation of Washington’s journal. But it was heavily edited and the emphasis changed to make it appear that the French soldiers were merely on a diplomatic mission. Representatives of King George inquired into the matter but were satisfied that Washington had acted correctly. He was not held to account for the mistake of his translator.

B  Aide-de-Camp

Washington had succeeded in getting the king’s attention, but he did not get the royal commission he hoped for. The king’s military advisers, while admitting his “courage and resolution,” believed that officers in the British regular army were better qualified to lead troops against the French. Later in 1754, the Virginia military was reorganized in accordance with that opinion, now made policy: Regular army officers coming from Britain would now have command over officers who held colonial commissions. This meant that Washington might find himself reporting to officers he outranked and who had less experience than he had. Finding that possibility intolerable, he resigned his commission. However, a strong British force under Major General Edward Braddock arrived early in 1755 with orders to drive the French from Fort Duquesne, which they had built at the forks of the Ohio. Washington’s local military reputation was such that Braddock invited him to join the staff as a volunteer aide-de-camp.

The advance was slow, and the British soldiers were not at their best in forest warfare. On July 9, 1755, the column was surprised and routed by the French and their Native American allies, only 11 km (7 mi) from Fort Duquesne. The British troops, in Washington’s words, were “immediately struck with such a deadly Panick that nothing but confusion prevail’d amongst them.” Braddock was mortally wounded. Washington did his best to try to rally the regulars and to use a few Virginia troops to cover the retreat. His coolness and bravery under fire enhanced his reputation.

B1  Militia Commander

The western frontier of Virginia was now dangerously exposed, and in August 1755, Governor Dinwiddie appointed Washington commander in chief of all the colony’s troops, with the rank of colonel. For the next three years, Washington struggled with the bitter and endless problems of frontier defense. He never had enough resources to establish more than a patchwork of security, but he acquired valuable experience in the conduct of war with the logistical and political problems peculiar to American conditions. In the fall of 1758 he had the satisfaction of commanding a Virginia regiment under British General John Forbes, who recovered Fort Duquesne from the French and renamed it Fort Pitt.

With Virginia’s strategic objective attained, Colonel Washington resigned his commission and turned his attention to the quieter life of a Virginia planter. In January 1759 he married Martha Dandridge Custis, a charming and wealthy young widow.

C  Virginia Planter

As a planter, Washington showed eager interest in improving the productivity of his fields and the quality of his livestock. He read all available works on progressive agriculture and constantly experimented in crop rotation. He invested in new implements and used new methods and fertilizers. He found that planting only tobacco, the chief cash crop of Virginia, did not pay. It was too dependent on the weather, the state of the British market, and the honesty of the British agents who managed the overseas end of the transactions. He developed fisheries, increased his production of wheat, set up a mill and an ironworks, and taught his slaves cloth-weaving and other handicrafts.

C1  The Mature Washington

During his years as a gentleman farmer, Washington matured from an ambitious youth into the patriarch of the Washington clan and a solid member of Virginia society. He remained somewhat shy and reserved throughout his life. He was sensitive and emotional, with a violent temper that he usually held firmly in check. But most of all he was a man of great personal dignity. His connection with the wealthy and powerful Fairfax family, through his half-brother Lawrence’s marriage, perhaps as much as his own energies, made him a wealthy landowner and, from 1759 to 1774, a member of the House of Burgesses, the lower chamber of the Virginia legislature. In all, as Washington prospered and his responsibilities grew, his character was enriched and grew to keep pace.

Washington’s perspective broadened, and he became involved in the protests of Virginians against the restrictions of British rule. He became yearly more convinced that the king’s ministers and British merchants and financiers regarded Americans as inferior and sought to control “our whole substance.” His wartime experience had given him ample evidence of the contempt felt by British military men for colonial officers. Now he began to see the deepening division between the true interests of the American people and the view held of those interests in Britain. As a member of the House of Burgesses he opposed such measures as the 1765 Stamp Act, which imposed a tax on the colonies without consulting them, and he foresaw that British policy was moving toward doing away with self-government in America altogether.

Washington’s anti-British feelings were strengthened by the introduction of the Townshend Acts in 1767. These acts imposed more unpopular taxes. His voice joined in Virginia’s decision in 1770 to retaliate by banning taxable British goods from the colony. His belief in the colonies’ right of free action resounds in his words written to Virginia statesman George Mason: “… as a last resource …Americans should be prepared to take up arms to defend their ancestral liberties from the inroads of our lordly Masters in Great Britain.”

C2  Political Leader

By 1774, when the spirit of American resistance was well developed, Washington had become one of the key Virginians supporting the colonial cause. He was elected to the First Continental Congress, an assembly of delegates from the colonies to decide on actions to take against Britain. Although he did not enter much into debate, his viewpoint was uniformly sound and acceptable. However, he knew that more than paper resolutions would be needed to safeguard American liberties, and he spent the winter of 1774 and 1775 organizing militia companies in Virginia.

When Washington attended the Second Continental Congress in May 1775, he appeared in the blue and buff uniform of the Fairfax County militia. These colors were later adopted for the army of the colonies, called the Continental Army. As he entered the hall, the country was already ringing with the news from Massachusetts, where the battles at Lexington and Concord had been fought, and the only British army in the colonies was besieged in Boston by the militia of the surrounding towns (see American Revolution).

GENERAL OF THE CONTINENTAL ARMY

On June 15, 1775, the Continental Congress unanimously elected George Washington as general and commander in chief of its army. He was chosen for two basic reasons. First, he was respected for his military abilities, his selflessness, and his strong commitment to colonial freedom. Secondly, Washington was a Virginian, and it was hoped that his appointment would bind the Southern colonies more closely to the rebellion in New England. Congressman John Adams of Massachusetts was the moving spirit in securing the command for Washington. He realized that, although the war had begun in Massachusetts, success could come only if all 13 colonies were united in their protest and in their willingness to fight.

On June 25, 1775, Washington set out for Massachusetts, and on July 3, he halted his horse under an elm on the common in Cambridge, drew his sword, and formally took command of the Continental Army. In his general order of the following day, Washington’s emphasis was on unity: “… it is to be hoped that all distinction of colonies will be laid aside, so that one and the same spirit may animate the whole, and the only contest be, who shall render, on this great and trying occasion, the most essential service to the common cause in which we are all engaged.” To this high ideal of unity in a common cause, Washington remained unswervingly loyal through many trials and disappointments. Indeed, he was to become the living symbol of a national unity that at times seemed to have little actual substance.

A  Building an Army

Washington found his army in high spirits due to the heavy losses inflicted on the British troops at the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17. He was pleased at what had been done toward entrenching the semicircular American front, but he was appalled at the disorganization and lack of discipline among his soldiers and the officers’ ignorance of their duties. Also, he soon realized that the term of service of most of his men was soon to expire, producing for him the double task of trying to train one army while raising another to take its place.

Washington began at once to impress these difficulties on Congress, pointing to the need for longer terms of enlistment. He asked for better pay, which alone could induce men to enlist for the necessary term. Almost immediately he came up against Congress’s fear that a standing army would bring with it the peril of a military dictatorship. The legislators only gradually understood that the immediate peril of political dictatorship by the king’s ministers was much more real than a possible future threat of a military dictator.

However, Washington did the best he could with the available means. He took stern measures to restore discipline. Insubordination and desertion were punished by flogging with the cat-o’-nine-tails. A few deserters, especially those who repeated the offense, were hanged. The worst problem of supply was the shortage of gunpowder. It hampered all of Washington’s plans for months, and appeals to neighboring colonies brought little help.

A1  Siege of Boston

Meanwhile, the only British army in North America remained cooped up in Boston throughout the winter. There was no real fighting, but Washington was preparing a surprise for Sir William Howe, the British commander. During the winter 50 heavy cannon from the captured British Fort Ticonderoga in northern New York were dragged by sled to Boston. In a brilliant move, Washington mounted the cannon on Dorchester Heights, which commanded the city. Howe, recognizing that his position was untenable, evacuated the city by sea on March 17, 1776. From there the British went to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where Howe awaited reinforcements from across the Atlantic. The rebellious American colonies were, for the time being, entirely free of British troops.

A2  Appeal to Congress

Amid much public praise and rejoicing, Washington arrived in New York City, which was the obvious objective of the British forces now gathering in Nova Scotia. Having seen to the immediate measures necessary for the defense of that city, he proceeded to Philadelphia with the aim of persuading Congress to rectify the enlistment situation. This time he came in the bright glow of victory, which gave authority to his arguments.

Congress not only authorized three-year enlistments for the future, but also voted bounties for the enlistees. In addition, a permanent Board of War and Ordnance was created to deal with military matters in place of the makeshift committees that had previously held this responsibility. However, these measures, although wise, proved of no immediate help to Washington in meeting what was then his chief military problem: the forthcoming British attack on New York City.

B  War in the North
B1  Battle of Long Island

British ships carrying the first units of Howe’s army of 20,000 arrived in New York Bay on June 29, 1776, and the troops began landing on Staten Island. By mid-August the British force, which included German mercenaries (soldiers serving merely for the pay), had increased to more than 30,000, backed by a powerful naval squadron. Howe moved slowly, and this gave Washington time to gather a considerable force of militia from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Even so, his total strength was not more than 18,000, and at least half of these had little or no training.

Washington feared that Howe’s opening move might be to send ships straight up the Hudson River to land a strong force behind the city. However, the British general chose to begin his operations by landing on Long Island. The only American fortifications there were at Brooklyn Heights, covering the approaches to the East River and Manhattan Island. Some 9000 American troops, about half of Washington’s total force, were on Long Island when 20,000 British and German troops began landing at Gravesend Bay on August 22. About 4000 of the Americans were deployed well in front of the Brooklyn Heights fortifications to observe and delay the enemy’s progress.

These troop placements have been more severely criticized than any other military act of Washington’s career, since they exposed his army to the danger of being destroyed piece by piece. Howe, moving deliberately, made a surprise attack on the 4000 men in forward positions and hurled them back in headlong flight to Brooklyn Heights, with the loss of more than one-third of their number. Had Howe instantly followed through by throwing his whole force against the American lines on the heights, he would certainly have overwhelmed them, and Washington would have lost half his army. However, by not doing so, he gave Washington a chance to retrieve his original error, a chance Washington seized and exploited (see Long Island, Battle of).

During the next 24 hours, working desperately against time—for at any moment the British warships might block his line of retreat—Washington gathered all the barges, boats, and small craft he could and assigned men from Colonel Glover’s Massachusetts regiment to operate them. During the night of August 29, under Washington’s personal command and direction, the entire American force on Long Island, with all its stores, artillery, and equipment, was ferried across the East River to Manhattan without a single casualty.

B2  Retreat North

Thus Washington brilliantly redeemed his original error, and his later conduct of the war showed that he was fully capable of learning from experience. Never again did he offer battle to a British army under conditions that denied him full freedom of action to preserve his own army should the battle turn against him. Howe finally decided to occupy New York City on September 15. To avoid being outflanked, Washington fell back and fought delaying actions at Harlem Heights and then, in October, at White Plains (see White Plains, Battle of).

During the last two months of 1776, Washington was in constant retreat. He stationed a force under Major General Heath near West Point, New York, to guard the vital entrance to the highlands of New York state. He then withdrew across the Hudson into New Jersey and moved slowly southwestward to the Delaware River at Trenton. There he collected all available boats and crossed the river into Pennsylvania on December 8, just as the advance guard of the pursuing British column entered the town.

This was the darkest hour of the new American republic. Howe proclaimed complete victory. Congress shared his view and fled south from Philadelphia to Baltimore. Washington, with only a remnant of his army, some 3000 men, seemed already defeated and of no further account.

B3  Battle of Trenton

On December 13, 1776, Major General Charles Lee was captured in New Jersey by a British patrol. The command of his troops passed to Brigadier General John Sullivan, who immediately marched south to join Washington. This raised the commander’s total force to about 6000. Thus reinforced, Washington planned a victory that would electrify the entire country. The British had pulled back most of their troops to winter in New York City, leaving scattered garrisons of German mercenaries in New Jersey. These German troops were called Hessians because most of them were hired from the German state of Hessen-Kassel. The nearest of these Hessian garrisons to Washington’s camp was at Trenton and consisted of about 1200 men. Washington decided to capture this force and set the morning of December 26 for the attack. He was reasonably sure that lonely troops in a foreign land would have had much alcohol to drink to celebrate Christmas Day, and would still be groggy from the effects. This was a good time to surprise them.

On December 25, despite a raging storm, Washington led his small army of 2500 across the ice-clogged Delaware. The surprise was complete. The Hessians’ scattered attempts at resistance collapsed in minutes, and the garrison at the next post fled in haste on receiving the news. Washington was able to recross the Delaware with his prisoners and booty without interference. But he considered Trenton only a beginning because he now received fresh troops that doubled the size of his forces. These were Pennsylvania militiamen who had been induced to extend their enlistments after Washington pledged his own money to cover their pay. On December 29, with 5000 men, he again crossed the Delaware.

B4  Battle of Princeton

Washington’s objective now was to force the British to withdraw from New Jersey altogether and to station his army in a secure position in the hills near Morristown, New Jersey, on the flank of the British route to Philadelphia. Attacked at Trenton by a British force under General Charles Cornwallis, he withdrew during the night of January 2, 1777. He then circled around the British flank and, near Princeton, severely defeated three British regiments marching to reinforce Cornwallis. Washington then again eluded the main body of British troops and moved north to Morristown. By attacking Cornwallis’s supply lines, he forced the British to retreat to New York City. Thus the British were compelled to abandon all but a small corner of New Jersey to American control. See also Princeton, Battle of.

B5  Winter in Morristown

At Morristown, during the remainder of the winter, Washington’s chief concern was recruitment. Although recruits came in slowly, Washington had the satisfaction of knowing that they could now be fitted into the framework of a permanent army organization. The Continental Army was entirely Washington’s creation. He had overcome every obstacle, using the lessons of painful experience as skillfully against his opponents in Congress as against those on the battlefield.

B6  Capture of Philadelphia

Howe wasted the first six months of 1777 on feeble skirmishing in northern New Jersey. Washington met this with bold action. Then, in July, when British General John Burgoyne was deep in the wilderness of northern New York state and fully committed, Howe loaded 14,000 troops aboard ship and sailed for Philadelphia, leaving Burgoyne to face inevitable disaster.

B7  Brandywine

Washington could not expect to keep Howe out of Philadelphia, but for the sake of morale he would not give up the city without a fight. In a defensive battle at Brandywine Creek on September 11 a turning movement by Cornwallis rolled up Washington’s right flank, but American Major General Nathanael Greene’s division fought a stout rear-guard action to cover the withdrawal of the defeated units (see Brandywine, Battle of the). This spoke well for the improved quality of Washington’s Continental Army. Howe moved on to Philadelphia without any serious attempt to follow up his success.

B8  Germantown

On October 5, Washington made a surprise attack on the British at Germantown, west of Philadelphia, and gained initial successes that could not be maintained because of fog, confusing orders, and stout British resistance (see Germantown, Battle of). But Washington’s boldness in launching this attack so soon after his defeat at Brandywine Creek produced a favorable effect both at home and in France. The news of Brandywine and Germantown reached Paris in December and gave the French government ministers enough confidence in Washington to recommend to King Louis XVI that he sign a treaty of alliance with the United States. Soon afterward came news that Burgoyne had surrendered at the Battle of Saratoga, and the French king’s lingering doubts were overcome.

B9  Valley Forge

Howe’s army passed the winter in fairly comfortable quarters in Philadelphia. Washington’s army wintered under conditions of extreme privation at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, where they could observe any move Howe made. It was during this winter that a coalition of Congress members and discontented officers tried to replace Washington with General Horatio Gates, in a scheme known as the Conway Cabal. However, the cabal’s end result was to establish Washington’s influence in the Continental Congress on a stronger foundation than before.

B10  Alliance With France

On May 1, 1778, Washington heard the news that transformed the nature of the war: A treaty of alliance had been signed between the United States and the king of France. Washington’s reaction was immediate: “If there is war between France and Britain, Philadelphia is an ineligible situation for the Army under Sir William Howe.” This remark is the first definite evidence of the idea taking form in Washington’s mind: to catch a British army in a situation where it could be hemmed in by a superior land force, with its escape or reinforcement by sea cut off. Washington did not know it, but blockading the British army in Philadelphia was exactly the enterprise that the French admiral the Comte d’Estaing, already at sea, had in mind. General Sir Henry Clinton, who took control of the British forces when Howe resigned that spring, was forewarned of the aim of the French fleet and withdrew his men and equipment to New York City. Washington ordered an attack on the retreating British at Monmouth, New Jersey, on June 28, 1778, but the attack failed because of the perfidy of General Charles Lee, who had been released and had resumed his command. Lee ordered his troops to retreat, an action that was revealed many years later as part of a plan of betrayal that he had agreed to with the British while they held him prisoner (see Monmouth, Battle of).

B11  Effects of the Campaign

A letter written by Washington contains a striking description of the military situation in the summer of 1778: “It is not a little pleasing … to contemplate that after two years’ manoeuvring and undergoing the strangest vicissitudes … both armies are brought back to the very place they set out from, and that the offending [British] army at the beginning is now reduced to the use of the spade and pickaxe for defense.”

Washington was aware of the negative effect produced in Britain by the utter collapse of British military efforts in America. His strategy became one of infinite patience, avoiding at all costs any serious disaster to his army, keeping the French firmly convinced of American reliability, and watching and planning to present the British with one more defeat comparable to Saratoga. Then the will of the British people to sustain the American war might well suffer a complete collapse.

C  The War Moves South

During 1779, Washington strengthened the positions that held the main British army in New York City. He also sent a strong expedition to lay waste the land of the Iroquois, whose British-incited raids on the frontier had become intolerable. But there was little he could do to stem British successes in the south. Savannah, Georgia, was lost in 1778 and Charles Town (now Charleston), South Carolina, in 1779, and Cornwallis had 5000 troops in the South to “reduce the Carolinas to the King’s obedience.”

C1  Naval Superiority

In July 1779 a French force of 6000 under the Comte de Rochambeau arrived, escorted by a naval squadron under Admiral de Ternay. Washington’s note discussing future operations began with a most significant sentence: “In any operations and under all circumstances, a decisive naval superiority is to be considered as a fundamental principle ….” This superiority was finally attained for the siege of Yorktown more than a year later.

C2  Yorktown

The victory at Yorktown was one of Washington’s greatest triumphs. He had been forced to check his strong urge for a “vigorous offensive” until the second French fleet arrived. This happened in the late summer of 1781, and Washington with great energy coordinated a sea and land operation against Cornwallis’s force that trapped it in the city. With the British surrender on October 19, Washington obtained the victory he hoped would end the war. The following March the House of Commons, a chamber of Britain’s Parliament, declared its unwillingness to support the war in America.

C3  End of Hostilities

Washington’s judgment, patience, and soldierly fortitude had established the military foundation on which U.S. independence was to be erected. However, his duties as commander in chief were not yet ended. Although hostilities had virtually ceased by April 1782, Washington knew that the British king, George III, had yielded to the wishes of the House of Commons reluctantly. He was most anxious that there should be no visible relaxation of American vigilance while the peace negotiations dragged along their weary course. “There is nothing,” he wrote, “which will so soon produce a speedy and honorable peace, as a state of preparedness for war.”

Washington rejected, with anger and abhorrence, a suggestion, which had some support in the army, of establishing a monarchy with himself as king. In March 1783, with Congress still dawdling, anonymous letters appeared calling a meeting of officers. Washington promptly broke this up by calling a meeting on his own authority. He begged the officers to do nothing “that would tarnish the reputation of an army which is celebrated throughout Europe for its fortitude and patriotism.” His appeal averted what might have been serious trouble.

RETURN HOME

Peace was officially proclaimed on April 19, 1783, but not until November 25, as the last British boats put off to the ships, did Washington’s troops enter New York City. On December 4, Washington took leave of his principal officers at Fraunces Tavern and departed at last for home and the peace and quiet of a planter’s life. He stopped at Annapolis, Maryland, where Congress was temporarily meeting, to take his leave of the civilian power he had always so meticulously obeyed and to surrender his commission as commander in chief. He reached Mount Vernon on Christmas Eve of 1783. There he hoped ardently, as he wrote in a letter at the time, to remain “a private citizen, under the shadow of my own vine and my own figtree [and] move gently down the stream of life, until I sleep with my fathers.”

At Mount Vernon, Washington found himself confronted by financial problems. After eight years of relative neglect, Mount Vernon needed much rebuilding and there was little capital to do it with. During the dark war years of 1778 to 1780, Washington had refused pay for his services and had unhesitatingly poured almost all of his private fortune into the purchase of loan certificates issued by Congress to finance the war. This paper was of dubious value, either then or later. But he made no complaint and firmly refused offers of a grant or other stipend from Congress.

A  Ohio Valley Lands

Washington spent a busy summer in 1784 devoting himself to his farms, making improvements on his mansion, and entertaining countless visitors, some uninvited and unwelcome. Then in the fall he visited his lands in the Ohio River valley, where he held more than 12,000 hectares (30,000 acres). He found some of his property settled by squatters, who refused to move, and he could not reach his holdings near the mouth of the Kanawha River because of Native American unrest. On his return journey he looked over the terrain of the region where the Potomac River’s headwaters are nearest those of the Monongahela. This investigation reflected his interest in creating a system of canals and portages that would give access, through the mountains, to the broad Western lands.

B  Potomac Company

At Mount Vernon again in October 1784, Washington became absorbed in this new project. A combination of waterways and roads connecting the Potomac with the Ohio valley would benefit the nation by hastening settlement of the western lands, increasing trade, and binding the settlers closer to the United States.

Washington asked the Virginia legislature to pass measures providing for a company managed jointly with Maryland to make the Potomac navigable. The legislature complied with Washington’s request and appointed him as Virginia’s representative in negotiations with Maryland. After conferences at Annapolis he had the satisfaction of seeing his proposal embodied in identical bills passed by the two state legislatures to create the Potomac Company, complete with an appropriation of money to get the plan under way.

Washington’s own careful preparation, and rough but effective surveys of the region of the headwaters, had played an important part in achieving this agreement in little more than three months.

C  Fears for the Confederation

The two-state agreement had been necessary because, under the Articles of Confederation by which the United States was then governed, Congress could do nothing of much importance without the consent of the states affected. Washington was deeply troubled about the national government’s weakness and disunity. In 1785 he wrote: “The Confederation appears to me to be little more than a shadow without the substance.” Problems had arisen that the central government should have settled but could not: Rhode Island and Connecticut were not paying their taxes on imported goods. The British placed commercial sanctions against the United States and refused to remove their troops from forts along the northern frontier. This indicated to Washington that Britain hoped to force eventual resubmission of the 13 states to British authority.

The forts enabled the British to control the Great Lakes and thus threatened the hundreds of U.S. settlers north of the Ohio. Washington, who knew the western country better than most Americans of his day, realized that an increasing flood of settlers would be crossing the Appalachian Mountains to seek new opportunities. Unless the U.S. government gave the settlers protection and provided a ready access to markets on the Atlantic seaboard, they might eventually seek protection and markets from the British. Without a strong central government and assured revenues, the United States could do none of these things.

C1  Mount Vernon Conference

The Potomac Company laws were immediately followed by an agreement between Virginia and Maryland assuring freedom of navigation on the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay on a basis of complete equality. The commissioners who met at Alexandria, Virginia, to draft the details of this pact were greeted by Washington and invited to adjourn to the quiet comfort of Mount Vernon. There, in March 1785, they signed the agreement. It included, apparently at Washington’s suggestion, a provision for annual consultations between representatives of the two legislatures to deal with commercial questions.

This provision was the seed from which the Constitutional Convention grew. In the Maryland legislature, ratification of the Mount Vernon Conference agreements resulted in a suggestion that Pennsylvania and Delaware be invited to the next annual conference to widen the program of development. When this idea reached Richmond, Virginia, state legislator James Madison suggested a meeting of all the states. An invitation was accordingly sent by the Virginia legislature to all the other states suggesting an early meeting to consider the trade of the United States, and “how far a uniform system in their commercial regulation may be necessary for their common interest and their permanent harmony; and to report to the several States such an act relative to this great object as … will enable the United States in Congress effectually to provide for the same.”

C2  Annapolis Convention

The meeting convened in Annapolis in September 1786. Although all the states had accepted the invitation, only five sent delegates. However, among the 14 delegates who came to Annapolis were 2 to whom Washington had fully opened his mind. These were Madison and Alexander Hamilton, Washington’s trusted wartime aide. The delegates at Annapolis sent out a summons for a convention to meet in Philadelphia in May 1787 to consider measures “to render the constitution of the federal government adequate to the exigencies of the Union.”

C3  Shays’ Rebellion

Washington was shocked over news of Shays’ Rebellion, an insurrection led by debt-ridden farmers against the government of Massachusetts in 1786. A letter from his old comrade Henry Knox, now secretary of war, indicated that the federal government was almost helpless to deal with the insurrection. Washington wrote to Madison at Richmond urging that Virginia make haste to set a good example in seeking a stronger central government. “Without some alteration in our political creed, the superstructure we have been seven years raising at the expense of so much blood and treasure, must fall. We are fast verging to anarchy and confusion.”

D  Constitutional Convention

The Virginia legislature answered this appeal swiftly. Virginia would set an example. Its delegates would go to Philadelphia instructed to seek “a general revision of the federal system,” and the legislature unanimously chose Washington to lead the delegation. Washington was bitterly reluctant to be dragged from his long-sought retirement, but now many who had his friendship and respect appealed to their old commander in chief to lead them again.

At Philadelphia, Washington was elected president of the convention. In the weary days of labor and successive crises that followed, he made little public contribution to the debates. He kept scrupulously to the impartiality he believed was the duty of the presiding officer. Off the floor, however, it was otherwise. His deep concern for the future of the nation was somehow conveyed not only to his fellow delegates, but to the country at large. “To please all is impossible,” Washington wrote, “and to attempt it would be vain”; and to New York delegate Gouverneur Morris he said, “If, to please the people, we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterwards defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and the honest can repair. The event is in the hands of God.” On September 17, 1787, the convention’s work was done. The completed Constitution of the United States received the formal signatures of the delegates, and the convention adjourned.

E  Fight for Ratification

The next day Washington started for home, bent once more on quiet withdrawal from the turmoil of public life, but already disturbed by suggestions that he and only he could fill the new office that the Constitution, when ratified, would create; that of president of the United States.

Ratification by nine states was required before the new government could be organized, and Washington, whatever his qualms about the presidency, threw himself with vigor into the struggle. He was convinced that the Constitution was the best that could be hoped for at the time, and his anger was roused by those, especially in his own Virginia, who wanted to call a new convention and start all over again. He was startled to find, from many sources, that the most appealing argument in favor of the Constitution was simply that George Washington had signed and approved it. To Washington himself the issue was simple. The choice lay between ratification of the proposals of the convention, or “a continued drift toward ruin.” He hammered home this point at every opportunity. Through the spring and early summer of 1788 the struggle dragged on in 13 state capitals. In June the great decision became final when New Hampshire produced the ninth and decisive ratification of the Constitution.

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

A  Election of 1789

Under the terms of the Constitution, the formal election for president was done by electors, who were collectively called the Electoral College. Each elector was to vote for the two persons he considered most qualified; the winner would be the president, and the runner-up would be the vice president. The electors themselves were chosen January 7, 1789, by the direct vote of the people in some states, and by the legislature in other states. The electors met in each state on February 4 and unanimously voted for George Washington, who thereby became president. Their second choice, far from unanimous, was John Adams of Massachusetts. This pleased Washington because he had feared that the vice presidency might go to Governor George Clinton of New York, who favored drastic amendment of the Constitution. Washington, considering these amendments dangerous, had allowed word to go out that votes for Adams would be agreeable to him because he considered Adams to be a “safe man” and a strong supporter of the Constitution. Also, Washington still had a lingering hope that, after getting the new government well started, he might resign from office and hasten home to Mount Vernon. He could not reconcile this hope with his conscience unless a man he considered safe was next in line of succession.

“My movements to the chair of government,” he wrote to Henry Knox, “will be accompanied by feelings not unlike those of a culprit who is going to the place of execution …. I am sensible that I am embarking the voice of the people and a good name of my own on this voyage; but what returns will be made for them, Heaven alone can foretell.” Washington’s state of mind was probably not improved by the embarrassing fact that he had to borrow $600 from a wealthy neighbor to pay a few pressing debts and meet the expenses of his removal to New York City, where the seat of government was still provisionally maintained.

In mid-April Congress sent Washington official notice of his election as president. His journey northward was one continuous triumphant progress. On April 30, 1789, Washington took the oath of office on the portico of Federal Hall, on Wall Street, New York City, in the presence of Vice President Adams, both houses of the newly organized Congress of the United States, and an enormous throng of cheering townsfolk. Immediately thereafter he delivered his inaugural address to Congress, a short and modest effort that contained only one specific political suggestion. He suggested that, while Congress must decide how far it would go in proposing amendments to the Constitution, its members “would carefully avoid every alteration which might endanger the benefits of an united and effective government, or which ought to await the future lessons of experience.”

B  Constitutional Amendments

Washington knew that there was a widespread wish to add a Bill of Rights to the original Constitution, specifying in plain words the inalienable rights of individual citizens, and this he approved. But he also knew that an attempt might be made to bring forward amendments eliminating the clauses that gave Congress power to levy taxes, including customs duties on imports, and to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the states. These provisions had been hotly debated in the convention, and although adopted, were bitterly disliked by such powerful political figures as Clinton and Virginia statesman Patrick Henry. To Washington, however, they provided the means of regaining fiscal stability and restoring the national credit, and were therefore indispensable.

Feeling as strongly as he did on these points, it is significant that Washington should have used such restraint in letting Congress know of his sentiments. He held himself in check because he was resolved above all else not to overstep the limits of his branch of government, the executive, as established by the Constitution. He scrupulously respected the independence of the legislative and judicial branches of government. He was especially anxious to set no precedents that would start a dangerous trend toward monarchy or any form of dictatorship, but at the same time he was determined to be a strong president, not merely a figurehead.

If Washington entered on his first days as president with anything like a basic political philosophy, it perhaps was developed from his dealings with Congress during the war. He learned to keep a balance between the views and interests of the propertied class, naturally conservative in its tendencies, and the more liberal outlook of the farmers and artisans who made up the bulk of the population. His own background, both political and economic, inclined him to the conservative viewpoint. He was aware of this tendency and tried to give recognition to more liberal points of view as he set about organizing the executive branch.

C  First Session of Congress

Under the Constitution, Congress moved slowly at first, with long debates on most subjects and a tendency to be jealous of its prerogatives. But a satisfactory tariff (tax on imports) bill, promising to provide the government with an adequate source of revenue, came to Washington for signature in June. Congress also called on the executive branch to submit to the next session a plan for disposing of the national debt. The controversial decision on the location of the permanent seat of government was also postponed to the next session, and ten constitutional amendments, to be known as the Bill of Rights, were approved for consideration by the states. None of these was objectionable to the president. By September, as the session was drawing to a close, bills had been passed establishing the three executive departments represented in the president’s Cabinet: State, Treasury, and War. Provision was also made for a federal judiciary comprising a Supreme Court of one chief justice and five associate justices, and 13 district courts. An attorney general was to be the government’s principal law officer. Here were Washington’s first really important appointments, and he chose with care. Typically, although he had some preliminary discussions and had his mind pretty well made up, he made no specific offer until the offices legally existed.

D  Cabinet

For his immediate circle of advisers, Washington sought to maintain a balance between liberals and conservatives. The Cabinet members, who were the heads of their departments, were called secretaries. As secretary of the treasury he chose Alexander Hamilton, whose views on government finance Washington fully approved. As secretary of war his unhesitating choice was his faithful friend Henry Knox, who had held that appointment under the Confederation. Both these men had conservative views: For liberal balance, Washington offered the post of attorney general to Edmund Randolph of Virginia. Randolph, a lawyer of high repute, had performed brilliantly as one of the leaders in the Constitutional Convention, but refused to sign the finished document because he thought it “insufficiently republican” in tenor. Later, however, he supported ratification. The remaining choice, that of secretary of state, troubled Washington. He knew that another well-tried friend, John Jay of New York, who had handled foreign affairs under the old government, wanted, and expected to be asked, to continue in that task. However, the wealthy Jay would have overbalanced Washington’s advisers to the conservative side, with resultant criticism and difficulties. To resolve the dilemma, Washington nominated Jay as chief justice of the Supreme Court and left the State Department post vacant for the time being. He was awaiting the return home of his fellow Virginian Thomas Jefferson, who was at that time U.S. diplomatic representative to France.

Although Washington did not know Jefferson intimately, Jefferson’s fame as the drafter of the Declaration of Independence had given him national prestige. More importantly, Washington foresaw U.S. foreign policy as based on continued French support against the British, and Jefferson’s five years in Paris provided the right background for guiding such a policy. Also, it was well known that Jefferson had pronounced liberal leanings in domestic affairs. Thus, the political equilibrium of the executive branch would be maintained.

E  Foreign Policy Precedents

The first session of the 1789 Congress saw two important foreign policy precedents established by President Washington. He had thought of his constitutional power to negotiate treaties “with the advice and consent of the Senate [the upper house of Congress]” as perhaps requiring him to appear personally before the Senate to seek such advice before starting to negotiate a treaty. He tried this procedure once, in connection with a proposed treaty with the Creek nation. But the senators argued over every little detail, and Washington went away muttering that he would never try this again. He concluded instead that it was better for the chief executive to carry through the delicate process of treaty negotiation first, and then submit the finished product for the Senate’s advice and consent. This procedure has been followed ever since.

Also, Washington initiated the convenient practice of using nonpermanent executive agents, who did not require confirmation by the Senate, in the conduct of informal or preliminary negotiations with foreign powers. In the first use of this method, Washington requested Gouverneur Morris, then traveling in Europe, to sound out the view of the British ministry regarding a commercial treaty with the United States.

F  Social Routine

While Congress was in recess in the fall of 1789, Washington made arrangements to move to a larger house, which was made ready by the following February. The details of his social routine were by this time fairly well established. He received visitors only by appointment except at two receptions each week for those who desired merely to pay their respects. He made no visits himself. Mrs. Washington held a weekly reception of her own, at which the president usually appeared for a time.

There was some objection to the ceremony the president thought appropriate to his office. His use of six cream-colored horses to draw his carriage on occasions of ceremony, the servants in his hall with powdered hair, and his elaborate dinners were all criticized as exhibiting monarchical tendencies. For the support of his establishment the president had a salary fixed by Congress at $25,000 a year. Determined to make no profit from public service, Washington saw to it that expenses slightly exceeded this sum.

G  National Finances

When Congress reconvened in January 1790, by far the most important business was the financial plan submitted by Secretary of the Treasury Hamilton. It called for the paying of arrears in interest on the national debt and the funding of the principal. It also proposed the assumption by the national government of the war debts of the individual states. Payment of the foreign debt was to be supported by negotiating new loans abroad at lower interest rates. Revenue from higher tariffs on some items and an excise tax on spirits distilled in the United States would meet the interest on the domestic debt.

H  Illness

In the spring of 1790, Washington was felled by a severe cold and then by influenza. For several days it was thought that he could not live. The illness and the anxiety it caused throughout the country underlined Washington’s importance to the new nation. Abigail Adams, wife of the vice president, wrote: “It appears to me that the union of the states and consequently the permanency of the government depend under Providence upon his life. At this early day when neither our finances are arranged nor our government sufficiently cemented to promise duration, his death would … have … the most disastrous consequences.”

I  Logrolling

At the time of Washington’s illness the question of the location of the permanent seat of government arose again and became entangled with the debate over Hamilton’s proposed financial legislation. The result was perhaps the first example in congressional history of the practice of logrolling. This expression came from the frontier and originally referred to the help that settlers gave each other in building their log cabins. Jefferson helped Hamilton by lending support to Hamilton’s financial proposals, and Hamilton in turn supported Jefferson’s efforts to locate the seat of government on the Potomac River.

The seat-of-government proposal was passed in July 1790. Philadelphia was to serve as the capital until 1800, when a federal district on the Potomac would be established. The finance bill, a simplified form of Hamilton’s original draft, but embodying its essential features except for the excise tax on whiskey, came to Washington for signature on August 2. Washington was pleased with both accomplishments and with the teamwork developed by his Cabinet members on these issues.

J  Rigid or Flexible Constitution

This harmony, however, was to prove short-lived. Hamilton, requested by Congress to report to the next session any further action necessary to establish the public credit, had his next step well in mind. In December 1790 he submitted a proposal for the chartering of a national bank with a capital stock of $10 million. A dispute immediately arose over whether Congress had the power to charter a bank. The text of the Constitution did not say so explicitly, and argument was heated. Along with the bank proposal, Hamilton asked again for an excise tax on distilled spirits, the production of which was rising rapidly. The bank bill won final passage in February 1791, amid protests by opponents that it was unconstitutional. With the bill presented to him for signature, Washington now had to decide the question. He consulted his advisers, and this time Jefferson and Hamilton locked horns.

Jefferson asserted that the bank bill was unconstitutional because the Constitution nowhere vested Congress in plain words with power to charter a bank. Hamilton’s opposing view was vigorously expressed: The Constitution did give Congress wide powers in such matters as taxation, payment of the public debt, coining of money, and regulation of commerce. To Hamilton a national bank was essential for the effective exercise of these powers.

Here for the first time was at issue the great question of rigid versus flexible interpretation of the Constitution that has been the subject of heated partisan dispute through much of the life of the United States. Washington set down nothing in writing on this point, but he had frequently made clear his unshakable belief that a strong central government was essential to the survival of the United States. A strong government required reasonable freedom of action because unexpected situations were certain to arise. Washington signed the bill in February 1791, creating the first Bank of the United States. The excise bill was passed on March 1 and also approved.

K  Foreign Relations

The French Revolution, which had begun in 1789, soon brought on the general European conflict known as the French Revolutionary Wars. American sentiments were deeply divided. The Hamiltonians generally supported Britain while the Jeffersonians sided with America’s ally, France. In North America not only were the British constantly at work stirring up trouble and distributing arms to Native Americans on the northwestern frontier, but their allies, the Spanish governors at New Orleans, kept close contact with the southwestern Native American peoples and intrigued with various American adventurers who dreamed of wilderness empires.

Washington realized that the United States was still too weak to risk war if it could honorably be avoided. “The public welfare and safety,” he declared, “enjoin a conduct of circumspection, moderation and forebearance.” Most Americans resented British hostility. Washington hoped for eventual conciliation with Spain, expansion of trade with the Spanish West Indies, and free navigation of the Mississippi River.

France was a special case. By the wartime treaty of 1778, France and the United States were allies. But France was now in the throes of revolution, and its future was uncertain. Moreover, by 1792, the excesses of the revolutionary party in France seemed likely to result in war between France and Britain. For Washington this situation was complicated by strong partisan enthusiasm among many Americans for the cause of the French Revolution.

L  Growth of Faction

On Washington’s 60th birthday, which was marked by nationwide celebrations, he seems to have hoped that he was about to enter on his last year in public office. He sought to persuade himself that the deepening differences between his two principal advisers, Jefferson and Hamilton, did not imply personal animosity, though he had to admit that these differences were fundamental, representing basically differing philosophies of government. This realization troubled Washington all the more because in his own concept of federal government public servants should work in amity for the public good, whether in the executive branch or in Congress. He regarded partisan contests, which he called faction, with horror. However, during 1792, Washington became convinced that faction was becoming an established element of American political life and that his two chief advisers had to be regarded as rival leaders whose political differences could not be reconciled. The Hamiltonians evolved into the Federalist Party, and the Jeffersonians organized what was to become the Democratic-Republican Party.

M  Reelection

As the 1792 election drew near, the President’s advisers were unanimous in their opinion that the times were too perilous for the nation to risk a transfer of the executive power to a new president. Washington must be president for a second term. About this time an event occurred that caused him to agree. He vetoed a plan to reapportion seats in the House of Representatives because, he believed, it was unconstitutional. It favored the Northern states over the Southern and, although Washington carefully avoided any mention of this in listing his objections, a congressional uproar resulted that was divided along sectional lines. Washington told Jefferson that he was anxious over this growing tendency of the North and South to part ways on political matters. He expressed fear that this might eventually bring about the dissolution of the Union. Jefferson’s answer was firm: “North and South will hang together if they have you to hang on.” Washington saw himself as an impartial administrator whose enormous personal popularity could be used to channel sectional feeling into a trust in the federal government. Therefore he could not allow himself to do what he most wanted to do: publish a farewell address and retire from public life. Instead he said nothing on the subject, with the inevitable result that he was again the unanimous choice of the electors in the 1792 presidential election. Adams was again elected vice president.

SECOND TERM AS PRESIDENT

A  French Revolutionary Wars

On March 4, 1793, in a brief ceremony, Washington was inaugurated for his second term of office. Just two weeks after the inauguration, news reached Philadelphia of the execution in France of King Louis XVI. Two weeks later came the word that Washington had feared: Revolutionary France had declared war on Britain, Spain, and the Netherlands.

Already the president had indicated the course he desired to take by asking both Jefferson and Hamilton for suggestions on how to maintain a strict neutrality and to prevent “the citizens from embroiling us with either France or England.” He propounded specific questions: Should he issue a proclamation of neutrality? Should the treaties of 1778, concluded with Louis XVI, be renounced or suspended? Should he receive Citizen Genêt, the newly appointed diplomat from the French republic? See Genêt, Edmond Charles Édouard.

As Washington must have foreseen, his advisers did not agree. The result was uneasy compromise. American neutrality was proclaimed in a document that did not actually use the word. The new diplomat would be received. The treaties stood, but they should be cautiously interpreted. A storm of criticism beset these decisions from every quarter.

A1  Citizen Genêt

Genêt did not add to Washington’s peace of mind. After landing at Charleston, South Carolina, he commissioned some privateers and set up a French court of admiralty to dispose of British prizes. These proceedings enraged Washington and brought furious protests from the British diplomatic representative. Genêt arrived in Philadelphia as a celebrity. He was soon busy organizing groups called democratic societies, which he cheerfully described as a means of appealing to the people of the United States against the “unfriendly” attitude of their president.

Probably nothing in his public life aroused Washington’s opposition more than these societies, the aim of which, he said flatly, was “nothing less than subversion of the Government of these States.”He treated Genêt with icy courtesy during three months of Genêt’s mounting insolence and effrontery. When Genêt, against specific prohibition, sent an armed French privateer to sea from the port of Philadelphia, Washington demanded that the French government recall the diplomat to France. This was done; but Washington, fearing that Genêt would be executed by his own government on returning home, let him stay in the United States as a private citizen.

A2  Violation of Neutral Rights

In late August 1793 a dispatch arrived from the American diplomat in London, Thomas Pinckney. It informed Washington of a British order in council of June 8, 1793, that directed British warships to seize cargoes of grain or flour bound for France in neutral ships. This was, from the British viewpoint, a perfectly logical act. To Americans, however, the British order was an outrageous invasion of neutral rights. When the news spread, angry mobs demonstrated near Washington’s house in Philadelphia. However, these riots ended with the sudden outbreak of yellow fever in the city. Washington took a house in Germantown for his temporary use and carefully considered whether he had the constitutional right to ask Congress to meet in any place other than that appointed by law.

A3  Jefferson Retires

The last days of 1793 brought the end of Jefferson’s service as secretary of state. His desire to retire from public life could no longer be denied. He was succeeded by Edmund Randolph, who had developed into Washington’s closest adviser after the breach between Jefferson and Hamilton became complete. William Bradford, a Pennsylvanian, took over Randolph’s post as attorney general.

A4  Threat of War

In the spring of 1794 the danger of war with Britain increased. British warships were seizing all neutral vessels trading with the French West Indies, and Washington approved a 30-day embargo on all sailings from U.S. ports to avoid further encounters. However, a report soon came that the British government had rescinded the order affecting trade with the French West Indies. This dangerous situation had produced one desirable result: Congress agreed to authorize the construction of six frigates. These were the first additions to the navy since the revolution.

Tensions still ran high, and a constructive effort to preserve the peace seemed urgent. Washington resolved to send a special envoy to London to try to find some basis of agreement with the British ministers. His choice fell on Chief Justice John Jay. There were immediate protests from Jeffersonians, and Secretary of State Randolph insisted that Jay should not be empowered to negotiate a commercial treaty. Washington stood firm and left Jay free to use his own judgment, though he himself seems to have laid strong emphasis on securing British agreement to evacuate the northern frontier posts.

Jay sailed from New York on May 12, 1794. A week later came news that the British commander at Detroit, one of the posts in question, had sent troops to erect a fort on the Maumee River in northwestern Ohio. Farther south, the frontier difficulties followed familiar patterns: Kentuckians were clashing with the Spaniards in the Mississippi River Valley, and Georgian squatters were pushing ever deeper into territory that by treaty belonged to the Creek.

B  Whiskey Rebellion

Bad news also came from western Pennsylvania, where three of Genêt’s democratic societies had become focal points of rebellion over the excise tax on whiskey. Officers collecting the tax met with increasing resistance. The house of the district inspector of excise was burned, and gatherings of armed people took place. Washington could not “suffer the laws to be trampled upon with impunity, for there is an end to representative government.” He saw the threat of western uprising as “the first formidable fruit of the democratic societies.” Governor Thomas Mifflin of Pennsylvania reported that the state could not muster enough militia to suppress the rebellion. Washington therefore summoned the militias of New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia, providing a total force of some 15,000. When these troops moved into the affected area, resistance immediately collapsed. The Whiskey Rebellion was over by the end of November.

C  Fallen Timbers

Meanwhile, Washington was cheered by the news that Major General Anthony Wayne won a decisive victory over a coalition of northwestern Native American peoples at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, near the present site of Toledo, Ohio, on August 20, 1794. This battle and the systematic devastation of their fields and villages that followed broke the power of these nations for a generation.

D  Jay’s Treaty

As Congress adjourned in March 1795, Washington was still anxiously awaiting word from Jay. Unofficial word from ship captains and travelers indicated that a treaty with Britain had been negotiated. Speculation in Jeffersonian newspapers about the terms of the treaty proclaimed it a sellout of U.S. interests. When Washington received the text of Jay’s Treaty, together with Jay’s bleak statement that “to do more was not possible,” he realized that the treaty would be exceedingly unpopular. Viewed in terms of meeting U.S. hopes, its only real accomplishment was a firm promise to evacuate the northwestern forts by June 1, 1796. But, in Washington’s view, the treaty accomplished his basic purpose in sending Jay to Britain. It provided solid insurance against a disastrous war with Britain if only the Senate could be induced to ratify it. Its concessions to British maritime policy were heavy, but, with Wayne’s victory, the treaty consolidated the U.S. hold on the great Northwest Territory. Improved relations with the world’s greatest sea power in turn provided assurance of American commercial prosperity and preservation of Hamilton’s structure of national credit.

On June 8, 1795, Washington called the Senate into special session to consider the treaty. After 16 days of fierce debate behind closed doors, the treaty was approved by a vote of 20 to 10, exactly the two-thirds majority needed. Meanwhile the country was swept by a violent outburst against the treaty as its provisions became known.

E  Randolph’s Apparent Betrayal

But all of this was unimportant compared to the terrible blow that now befell Washington. It came without warning, on his return to Philadelphia from a brief visit to Mount Vernon. He was confronted by Secretary of War Timothy Pickering and Secretary of the Treasury Oliver Wolcott, Jr., with what seemed irrefutable proof that Secretary of State Randolph, his lifelong friend, had been secretly seeking money from the French diplomat Joseph Fauchet in return for using his influence against Jay’s Treaty.

Washington decided that he must sign the treaty at once, before bringing Randolph’s guilt or innocence under examination. He signed it on August 18, 1795, against Randolph’s strong objections. The next day he presented Randolph with the evidence against him in the presence of Pickering and Wolcott. Randolph resigned, angrily proclaiming his innocence.

Later that year Fauchet found out why Randolph had left. He protested that Randolph had done nothing dishonest and that his report to his government, from which the suspicion of betrayal had come, had been misunderstood. But this was not enough to remove the cloud of suspicion, and Randolph never again held federal office. He returned to his successful law practice and continued to be a leading figure in Virginia. His name was not completely cleared until after his death in 1813.

F  Treaty With Spain

On February 22, 1796, Washington received the Treaty of San Lorenzo, concluded with Spain by Thomas Pinckney the previous October. By the terms of this document the Spanish government granted U.S. citizens unrestricted use of the Mississippi River “in its whole breadth, from the source to the ocean,” with a privilege of tax-free export of goods through the port of New Orleans. Spain also made a satisfactory agreement on the boundaries of West Florida and promised to discourage Native American raids on the frontier. This complete reversal for Spanish policy was a diplomatic triumph. Delivered to the Senate on February 26, it was approved by unanimous vote on March 3.

G  Treaty With Algiers

Washington was less happy over the conclusion of a treaty with the dey of Algiers. Algiers was one of the Barbary states, which had practiced piracy against ships on the Mediterranean Sea for nearly 300 years. The dey had held ten captured American sailors for ransom since 1785. The treaty accomplished the release of American captives and bound the dey to cease attacks on American shipping in the Mediterranean. However, it subjected the United States to the humiliation of paying a ransom of $800,000 for the prisoners and an annual tribute of $24,000 as the price of continued security against piracy. When some in Congress saw in this an excuse for suspending work on four of the six new frigates, Washington declared grimly that he regarded the paying of bribes to pirates as a national degradation that could only be removed by sufficient naval armament.

H  Northwestern Treaty

Still another treaty that was ready for submission to the Senate was the one concluded by General Wayne with the Shawnee, Miami, and other Native American peoples of the northwest. In it the tribes gave up their long-maintained claim to the Ohio River as their eastern boundary and opened vast areas of Ohio and southern Indiana to white settlers.

I  Congressional Intervention

As Jay’s Treaty approached its last congressional hurdle, the appropriation of the necessary funds for its implementation, the Jeffersonian majority demanded that Washington submit to the House of Representatives (Congress’s lower chamber) copies of Jay’s instructions and all related correspondence. To avoid setting a precedent, Washington replied, “It is perfectly clear to my understanding that the assent of the House of Representatives is not necessary to the validity of a treaty …. A just regard to the Constitution and to the duty of my Office … forbids a compliance with your request.”

Debate on the appropriations dragged on until April 29. On that day the question was voted on by the House sitting as the committee of the whole, with the result a tie, 49 to 49. The deciding vote of the chairman, Frederick Muhlenberg, himself a Jeffersonian, carried the measure.

J  Farewell Address

Although Washington did not announce it publicly until September 1796, he was determined that under no conditions would he allow his name to be put forward for a third term. He had guided his country for eight years, averted the danger of a ruinous war, opened the economic gateways of the West, and established precedents that would prove true bulwarks of the Constitution. It was time for the transfer of power, by constitutional means, to other hands.

Washington embodied the reasons for his decision not to run again, together with much thoughtful advice to his fellow citizens, in his famous Farewell Address. Parts of the address were written by Hamilton and Madison, and there is no doubt that both were of great help to the president in preparing it. But in its final form it represents the thoughts and character of George Washington.

… it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness …. The name of American, which belongs to you in our national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations …. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government …. Let me … warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally …. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume ….
Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports …. Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened. As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit …. Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all ….
The nation which indulges toward another an habitual hatred or an habitual fondness is in some degree a slave …. The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations, is, in extending our commercial relations to have with them as little political connection as possible ….

LAST YEARS

Washington attended the inauguration of President John Adams on March 4, 1797, and left Philadelphia two days later for Mount Vernon. There he wrote to an old friend that he did not intend to allow the political turmoil of the country to disturb his ease. “I shall view things,” he said, “in the light of mild philosophy.”

But he did not always adhere to this resolve. He strongly opposed the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798, which were an attempt to limit federal powers in line with Jefferson’s beliefs. These resolutions seemed to Washington a formula for the dissolution of the Union. In that year also, he accepted the nominal command of the army should the undeclared hostility with France develop into open war. The last journeys of his life, in 1799, were to the army camp at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia), and to Philadelphia to consult on army matters.

Early on the morning of December 14, 1799, Washington awoke with an inflamed throat. His condition rapidly worsened. He was further weakened by medical treatment that included frequent blood-letting. He faced death calmly, as “the debt which we all must pay,” and died at 11:30 that night.

In the national mourning that followed, many tributes were paid to Washington. President Adams called him “the most illustrious and beloved person which this country ever produced.” Adams later added: “His example is now complete, and it will teach wisdom and virtue to magistrates, citizens, and men, not only in the present age but in future generations as long as our history shall be read.”

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), German composer, considered one of the greatest musicians of all time. Having begun his career as an outstanding improviser at the piano and composer of piano music, Beethoven went on to compose string quartets and other kinds of chamber music, songs, two masses, an opera, and nine symphonies. His Symphony No. 9 in D minor op. 125 (Choral, completed 1824), perhaps the most famous work of classical music in existence, culminates in a choral finale based on the poem “Ode to Joy” by German writer Friedrich von Schiller. Like his opera Fidelio, op. 72 (1805; revised 1806, 1814) and many other works, the Ninth Symphony depicts an initial struggle with adversity and concludes with an uplifting vision of freedom and social harmony.

Ludwig van Beethoven is considered possibly the greatest Western composer of all time. He wrote symphonies, concertos, chamber music, sonatas, and vocal music. His best-known composition is the Ninth Symphony with its passionate chorus, the Ode to Joy. Beethoven began to lose his hearing in the 1790s and was completely deaf by 1818.

II  LIFE

Beethoven was born in Bonn. His father’s harsh discipline and alcoholism made his childhood and adolescence difficult. At the age of 18, after his mother’s death, Beethoven placed himself at the head of the family, taking responsibility for his two younger brothers, both of whom followed him when he later moved to Vienna, Austria.

In Bonn, Beethoven’s most important composition teacher was German composer Christian Gottlob Neefe, with whom he studied during the 1780s. Neefe used the music of German composer Johann Sebastian Bach as a cornerstone of instruction, and he later encouraged his student to study with Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whom Beethoven met briefly in Vienna in 1787. In 1792 Beethoven made another journey to Vienna to study with Austrian composer Joseph Haydn, and he stayed there the rest of his life.

The combination of forceful, dramatic power with dreamy introspection in Beethoven’s music made a strong impression in Viennese aristocratic circles and helped win him generous patrons. Yet just as his success seemed assured, he was confronted with the loss of that sense on which he so depended, his hearing. Beethoven expressed his despair over his increasing hearing loss in his moving “Heiligenstadt Testament,” a document written to his brothers in 1802. This impairment gradually put an end to his performing career. However, Beethoven’s compositional achievements did not suffer from his hearing loss but instead gained in richness and power over the years. His artistic growth was reflected in a series of masterpieces, including the Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major op. 55 (the Eroica, completed 1804), Fidelio, and the Symphony No. 5 in C minor op. 67 (1808). These works embody his second period, which is called his heroic style.

Around 1810 Beethoven was especially drawn to the poetry and drama of German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, whom he met in 1812 through the initiative of Goethe’s young literary friend Bettina Brentano. Bettina’s sister-in-law Antonia Brentano was probably the intended recipient of Beethoven’s famous letter to the “Immortal Beloved.” The letter dates from July 1812 and apparently marks the collapse of Beethoven’s hopes to seek happiness through marriage. Following this disappointment, Beethoven’s output declined significantly, and during 1813 he was generally depressed and unproductive.

Beethoven’s fame during his lifetime reached its peak in 1814. The enthusiastic response of the public to his music at this time was focused on showy works, such as Wellington’s Victory op. 91 (1813; also known as the Battle Symphony), and a series of patriotic crowd-pleasers, including the cantata The Glorious Moment op. 136 (1814), but his enhanced popularity also made possible the successful revival of Fidelio.

During the last decade of his life Beethoven had almost completely lost his hearing, and he was increasingly socially isolated. He had assumed the guardianship of his nephew Karl after a lengthy legal struggle, and despite Beethoven’s affection for Karl, there was enormous friction between the two. Notwithstanding these difficulties, between 1818 and 1826 Beethoven embarked upon a series of ambitious large-scale compositions, including the Sonata in B-flat major op. 106 (Hammerklavier, 1818), the Missa Solemnis in D major op. 123 (1823), the Thirty-Three Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli in C major op. 120 (1823), the Symphony No. 9 in D minor op. 125 (1824), and his last string quartets. Plagued at times by serious illness, Beethoven nevertheless maintained his sense of humor and often amused himself with jokes and puns. He continued to work at a high level of creativity until he contracted pneumonia in December 1826. He died in Vienna in March 1827.

III  MUSIC

Beethoven’s music is generally divided into three main creative periods. The first, or early, period extends to about 1802, when the composer made reference to a “new manner” or “new way” in connection with his art. The second, or middle, period extends to about 1812, after the completion of his Seventh and Eighth symphonies. The third, or late, period emerged gradually; Beethoven composed its pivotal work, the Hammerklavier Sonata, in 1818. Beethoven’s late style is especially innovative, and his last five quartets, written between 1824 and 1826, can be regarded as marking the onset of a fourth creative period.

Although Beethoven’s music of the early period is sometimes described as imitative of Mozart and Haydn, much of it is startlingly original, especially the works for piano. His early piano sonatas often have a forceful, bold quality, which is set into relief by the searching inwardness of the slow movements. The Sonata in C minor op. 13 (Pathétique, 1798), the most famous of these sonatas, transfers Haydn’s practice of employing slow introductions to his symphonies to the genre of the sonata. The title refers to a quality of pathos or suffering, which is felt especially in the brooding slow introduction and is twice recalled in later stages of the first movement. The main body of this swift, brilliant movement seems to convey willful resistance to the sense of suffering that dominates the slow introduction.

At the threshold of his middle period Beethoven sought a variety of new approaches to musical form. In the Sonata in C-sharp minor (Moonlight, 1801), he begins with a slow movement, while typical sonatas of that time began with a fast movement. The movement’s placid motif (repeated phrase) of broken chords is reinterpreted in the final movement as forceful figuration reaching across the entire keyboard. The sonatas of op. 31, from 1802, each open in an original fashion. The G major, op. 31 no. 1, begins with striking shifts in key, in contrast to the usual practice of remaining in the same key to “ground” the listener. The D minor, op. 31 no. 2 (Tempest), on the other hand, breaks up the opening theme into contrasting segments in different tempi, whereas customary practice called for stating the theme in its entirety at the beginning of a movement.

In the first movement of the Eroica Symphony, one of the major works from Beethoven’s middle period, he again sought ways to expand upon the prevailing musical forms. At that time, composers usually organized movements in three major parts. First, the exposition introduces the musical themes of the piece. Next, the development takes these themes into other keys, often modifying or fragmenting them. Finally, the recapitulation restates the themes, grounded in the original key. Prefaced by two massive, emphatic chords, the opening theme of the Eroica lingers on a mysterious dark moment of harmony—a gesture that is not reinterpreted until much later, at the outset of the recapitulation. After the rhythmic climax of the enormous development section—it is twice as long as the development section in any other symphony of the time—Beethoven reshapes classical norms by introducing extensive new material, which is resolved in a sort of recapitulation in the coda (concluding passage), which follows the movement’s recapitulation.

The four movements of the Eroica bear the following expressive associations: struggle, death (a funeral march), rebirth (a scherzo, or rapid dancelike movement, that begins quietly), and glorification. In its narrative design, the Eroica is connected to the ballet music of Beethoven’s Prometheus, op. 43 (1801), from which he borrowed the theme for the symphony’s finale. This movement of the symphony expresses the exaltation of the Greek mythological figure Prometheus in a series of variations on the ballet’s theme. Beethoven had originally intended to dedicate the work to French general Napoleon Bonaparte, whom he idolized, but he angrily withdrew the dedication after learning that Napoleon had taken the title of emperor.

Beethoven’s other instrumental works from the period of the Eroica also tend to expand the formal framework that he inherited from Haydn and Mozart. The Piano Sonata in C major op. 53 (Waldstein) and the Piano Sonata in F minor op. 57 (Appassionata), completed in 1804 and 1805 respectively, each employ bold contrasts in harmony, and they use a broadened formal plan, in which the meditative slow movements flow directly into the final movements. The symbolism of the keys used for these sonatas shares in the expressive world of Beethoven’s opera, entitled Leonore in its original version from 1805. The grim F-minor character of the Appassionata recalls the dungeon scenes in this key from the opera, whereas the jubilant close of the Waldstein in C major recalls the stirring C-major conclusion of the opera to the words “Hail to the day! Hail to the hour!”

The celebrated Symphony No. 5 in C minor op. 67 from 1808 is the most thematically concentrated of Beethoven’s works. Variants of the four-note motif that begins this symphony drive all four movements. The dramatic turning point in the symphony—where a sense of foreboding, struggle, or mystery yields to a triumphant breakthrough—comes at the transition to the final movement, where the music is reinforced by the entrance of the trombones. Beethoven uses here a large-scale polarity between the darker sound of C minor and the brighter, more radiant effect of C major, which is held largely in reserve until the finale.

The series of gigantic masterpieces of Beethoven’s third period include the technically demanding Hammerklavier Sonata, completed in 1818, about which he correctly predicted on account of its challenges that “it will be played fifty years hence,” and the Diabelli Variations. The latter work for piano transforms a trivial waltz by Viennese publisher Anton Diabelli into an astonishing, seemingly endless series of pieces, each with a unique character; some are humorous or even parodies. These and other late works incorporate fugues—melodies played in succession and interwoven—that reflect Beethoven’s lifelong interest in the music of J. S. Bach (known for his keyboard work Art of the Fugue). Beethoven’s second mass, the Missa Solemnis in D major op. 123 (1823), also poses formidable technical challenges, as do his fascinating and sometimes enigmatic last quartets and the Ninth Symphony, whose most readily accessible movement is the choral finale.

IV  EVALUATION

Beethoven combined the dramatic classical style of lively contrasts and symmetrical forms, which was brought to its highest development by Mozart, with the older tradition of unified musical character that he found in the music of J. S. Bach. In some early works and especially in his middle or heroic period, Beethoven gave voice through his music to the new current of subjectivity and individualism that emerged in the wake of the French Revolution (1789-1799) and the rise of middle classes. Beethoven disdained injustice and tyranny, and used his art to sing the praises of the Enlightenment, an 18th-century movement that promoted the ideals of freedom and equality, even as hopes faded for progress through political change. (His angry cancellation of the dedication of the Eroica Symphony to Napoleon Bonaparte reveals Beethoven’s refusal to compromise his principles.)

The fact that Beethoven realized his artistic ambitions in spite of his hearing impairment added to the fascination and inspiration of his life for posterity, and the extraordinary richness and complexity of his later works insured that no later generation would fail to find challenge in his music. Beethoven’s artistic achievement cast a long shadow over the 19th century and beyond, having set a standard against which later composers would measure their work. Subsequent composers have had to respond to the challenge of Beethoven’s Ninth, which appeared to have taken the symphony to its ultimate development.

Sir Edmund Hillary (1919-2008), mountain climber and Antarctic explorer. He was the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest (8,850 m/29,035 ft), the world’s highest peak, with Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay.

New Zealand mountain climber Sir Edmund Hillary was one of the first two men to reach the summit of Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world, and return. Hillary and Sherpa tribesman Tenzing Norgay reached the 8,850 m (29,035 ft) summit on May 29, 1953. Queen Elizabeth II knighted Hillary, a Royal Air Force veteran, for the feat.

Born in Auckland, New Zealand, Edmund Percival Hillary served in the Royal New Zealand Air Force during World War II (1939-1945). He obtained his early mountaineering experience in the Southern Alps of New Zealand.

II  EVEREST

In 1951 Hillary joined the British Mount Everest Expedition. Over the next two years he participated in several expeditions to the Himalayas for reconnaissance and practice climbs.

By the time the British Mount Everest Expedition was ready to attack Everest in the spring of 1953, Hillary had become one of its strongest climbers. In April and May the climbing party ascended the mountain by way of the South Col, the pass between Everest and neighboring peak Lhotse. After the first team of climbers was forced to turn back just about 100 vertical m (about 300 vertical ft) from the summit, Hillary and veteran Sherpa climber Tenzing Norgay were called on to make an attempt. Just 30 vertical m (100 vertical ft) from the summit they faced an exhausting and technically challenging climb up a 12-m- (40-ft-) tall exposed rock cliff. This rock climb, Everest’s final test, would later become known as the Hillary Step. Hillary and Tenzing Norgay conquered the step and reached the summit of Mount Everest on May 29, 1953. Newly crowned British monarch Elizabeth II knighted Hillary for the achievement later that year.

III  LATER EXPEDITIONS AND WORKS

In 1955 Hillary was appointed leader of the New Zealand party of the British Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, which was headed by British geologist Vivian E. Fuchs. Hillary led his party across Antarctica by snow tractor, pioneering a new route to the South Pole. The expedition was the first to reach the South Pole by overland journey since Robert F. Scott did it in 1912. Hillary subsequently led several expeditions to the Himalayas.

In the early 1960s, Hillary began raising money to build a school for the children of Khumjung, the home village for many of the Sherpas who had accompanied him on the Everest ascent. He later established the Himalayan Trust, which, since its inception, has funded more than 30 schools in Nepal, as well as hospitals, medical clinics, and airstrips. Hillary was granted honorary citizenship of Nepal during celebrations held in 2003 to mark the 50th anniversary of the ascent. Hillary died in January 2008. Among his writings are the autobiographies Nothing Venture, Nothing Win (1975) and View from the Summit (1999).

Édouard Manet (1832-1883), French painter, whose work inspired the impressionist style, but who never identified his own work with impressionism. Manet had far-reaching influence on French painting and the general development of modern art, which stemmed from his choice of subject matter from the world around him; his application of color in broad, flat patches; and a technique that left the artist’s vigorous, sketchy brush strokes visible on the canvas.

II  EARLY YEARS

Manet was born in Paris, the son of a senior official in the French ministry of justice. To avoid studying law, as his father wished him to do, Manet went to sea as a naval trainee. After his return from a voyage to Brazil, he overcame his father’s opposition to his becoming an artist. From 1850 to 1856 Manet studied in Paris under Thomas Couture, a well-respected French painter. But he gained his real artistic education by studying the paintings of the old masters at the Louvre in Paris and on visits he made to some of the great museums of Germany, Italy, and The Netherlands. The paintings of Dutch artist Frans Hals and Spanish artists Diego Velázquez and Francisco de Goya were the principal influences on his art.

French impressionist painter Édouard Manet shocked art audiences in Paris with Le déjeuner sur l’herbe (The Luncheon on the Grass; 1863, Musée d’Orsay, Paris), which depicts a nude woman at a woodland picnic. To emphasize the woman’s nakedness, Manet not only shows that she has recently disrobed (by painting her clothes in a heap nearby) but also depicts her male companions fully clothed. In addition, the woman stares directly and unabashedly at the viewer, making us feel almost like voyeurs as we gaze back. Manet’s painting style–the flat figures, which look almost like cutouts, and loose brushwork–also bewildered and antagonized art critics of his time. Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe (Luncheon on the Grass) by Édouard Manet was painted in 1863. When it was first displayed, the rough brushwork and undefined areas of color were as distressing to the public as the nude woman who was neither a classical goddess nor a symbol in an allegory. Manet claimed that the real subject of the painting was light, and it was that philosophy that gave birth to impressionism.

Manet was constantly at odds with his teacher, whose studio he described as a tomb. What Manet hoped to accomplish was to paint “the life of the times as it really is.” He believed he had achieved this goal with his somber Absinthe Drinker (1859, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, Denmark). Couture, however, disliked the lowly subject matter—a down-and-out alcoholic—and commented that the only absinthe drinker was “the painter who produced this insanity.” The gloom that pervades the Absinthe Drinker is missing from a painting done the next year, Musique aux Tuileries (1860, National Gallery, London, England). Practically all Manet’s family circle are portrayed in the picture, along with friends and acquaintances, including composer Jacques Offenbach, poet Charles Baudelaire, and critic Théophile Gautier.

This undated portrait of French painter Édouard Manet was made by Nadar, the most famous portrait photographer of his time. Nadar loaned his studio in 1874 for the first impressionist exhibition.

III  NOTORIETY

After his father died in 1862, Manet came into a substantial inheritance, which enabled him to pursue his artistic inclinations without needing to sell his work to earn a living. By this time he had experienced some minor professional successes and setbacks, but the following year he was at the center of one of the most dramatic events in 19th-century art. This was the launch in 1863 of the Salon des Refusés, a new exhibition place opened by French emperor Napoleon III following the protests of artists who had been rejected by the official government Salon. Many visitors came to mock the paintings on display, and Manet’s Le déjeuner sur l’herbe (1863, Luncheon on the Grass, Musée d’Orsay, Paris) attracted wide attention and was bitterly attacked by the critics. Manet’s canvas portrayed a woodland picnic that included a seated nude woman accompanied by two fully dressed young men. The depiction of nudity in a contemporary setting was considered immoral; at that time nudity in art was acceptable only if it was suitably distanced from real life, by being placed in a mythological context, for example. Despite this setback he exhibited two paintings at the official Salon in 1864.

French painter Édouard Manet borrowed the compositional format of his painting The Execution of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico (1867, Stadtische Kunsthalle, Mannheim, Germany) from a painting by Spanish artist Francisco de Goya, Third of May, 1808. However, the novel approach used by Manet, with Maximilian himself almost obscured and the casual gesture of the soldier reloading, marked a new departure in the representation of historical events. Maximilian, who had been installed as emperor of Mexico in 1864 by French emperor Napoleon III, was captured, tried, and swiftly executed by firing squad after the withdrawal of the French from Mexico in 1867.

Greater notoriety came two years later when the official Salon accepted Manet’s Olympia (1863, Musée d’Orsay) for its 1865 exhibition. This painting also showed a naked woman. The pose was based on the well-known Venus of Urbino by the Italian Renaissance painter Titian, a painting that Manet had seen and copied in Florence, Italy. But the woman whom Manet depicted was clearly a modern Parisian, not a Renaissance interpretation of a Greek goddess. Her overt sexuality and her direct and knowing gaze (at the observer of the painting) were out of step with the taste of the time, and many people considered the painting an affront to morality. Manet also was condemned for the unconventional nature of his technique. His use of flat areas of color and bold contrasts of tone rather than painstaking detail struck traditionalists as merely sloppy and lazy. Manet wrote to his friend Baudelaire, “Insults are pouring down on me as thick as hail,” and he went to Spain for a while to escape the abuse. There he drew inspiration from the works of Velázquez and Goya.

French artist Édouard Manet often illustrated scenes from contemporary life in his paintings. With his modern subject matter and spontaneous, brushy technique, he influenced the development of modern art. Argenteuil, which depicts a couple on a boating excursion, was painted in 1874. It is in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Tournai, Belgium.

IV  IMPRESSIONIST HERO

Manet by then was hailed as a hero by rebellious artists who were trying to break away from outmoded conventions. His work was particularly admired by the painters who later became known as impressionists. In 1866 the French novelist Émile Zola, who championed the art of Manet in the newspaper L’Événement, became a close friend of the painter; Portrait of Émile Zola (1867-1868, Musée d’Orsay) reflects this friendship. Zola was soon joined by the young group of French impressionist painters that included Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissarro, and Paul Cézanne.

French painter Édouard Manet became the leader of a rebellious faction of young artists when he challenged the established artistic community in France. With its bold brush strokes and realistic portrayal of everyday events, Manet’s work served as a forerunner of the impressionist movement.

The impressionist painters were influenced by Manet’s art and in turn influenced him, particularly in the use of lighter colors and an emphasis on the effects of light. Although Manet never exhibited at their group shows, he socialized with the impressionists, and during the 1870s his brushwork became looser and more spontaneous, his composition freer, and his subject matter more contemporary, in line with their style. An example of this departure is Argenteuil (1874, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Tournai, Belgium), a painting depicting the pleasures of summer life in the French town of Argenteuil along the Seine River. Manet sometimes adopted the impressionists’ habit of painting out of doors, encouraged particularly by Berthe Morisot, the outstanding woman painter of this group, who married Manet’s brother in 1874. About this time Manet met the poet Stéphane Mallarmé, a strong proponent of impressionism. They became close friends, and Manet painted Mallarmé’s portrait in 1876.

V  LAST YEARS

In the late 1870s Manet began to suffer bouts of pain and fatigue, probably caused by syphilis affecting his central nervous system. Often he was too weak to use oil paints, and so he increasingly worked in pastel or crayon. However, he produced one final major work, A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1881-1882, Courtauld Institute Galleries, London). Here, against a background brilliant with light and reflections from a mirror, a young barmaid confronts the viewer, eyes slightly averted. Perhaps the real subject of the painting is the anonymity of modern urban life. Manet’s last pictures included some small and simple, yet masterful flower pieces.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City owns a number of paintings by French artist Édouard Manet, including Boating (1874), seen in the foreground. The Manet painting Mademoiselle V . . . in the Costume of a Bullfighter (1862) hangs on the rear wall.

Manet was one of the most influential artists of the 19th century. Yet he did not gain recognition until late in life. Coming from a highly respectable social background, his intention was not to be an artistic rebel, and he insisted he was not trying to overthrow traditional ideas. He thought of himself instead as a realist painter. Throughout his career he sought conventional success and honors in the art world. Two years before his death, an old friend who was then minister of fine arts obtained the Legion of Honor for the artist. It was the kind of award Manet had long craved.

American comedian and writer Steve Martin became known for his stand-up comedy and his appearances on the television series Saturday Night Live in the 1970s. Martin has starred in many motion-picture comedies, including Roxanne (1987, cowritten by Martin), Parenthood (1989), Bowfinger (1999, also written by Martin), and Cheaper by the Dozen (2003).

Martin played his first major film role in The Jerk (1979, co-written by Martin), which received mixed reviews. His next film, Pennies from Heaven (1981), was a dark musical tragicomedy of the Depression era. All of Me (1984) was a tour-de-force of physical invention, with Martin portraying a man who must share his body with the soul of a woman, played by American comedian Lily Tomlin. He added verbal wit and romantic tenderness to Roxanne (1987, written by Martin), an update of the classic play by French author Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac. Other films include Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (co-wrote, 1982), The Man with Two Brains (co-wrote, 1983), The Lonely Guy (1984), Parenthood (1989), L.A. Story (wrote, 1991), Father of the Bride (1991), HouseSitter (1992), Leap of Faith (1992), Father of the Bride II (1995), The Out-of-Towners (1999), and The Pink Panther (2006). Martin has also written several plays, including Picasso at the Lapin Agile (1993) and WASP (1996); the short novels Shopgirl (2000) and The Pleasure of My Company (2003); and the memoir Born Standing Up (2007).

Born in Concord, Thoreau was educated at Harvard University. In the late 1830s and early 1840s he taught school and tutored in Concord and on Staten Island, New York. From 1841 to 1843 Thoreau lived in the home of American essayist and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson was one of the leaders of the school of transcendentalism. Transcendentalists believed that God is inherent in nature and in human beings and that each individual has to rely on his or her own conscience and intuition for spiritual truths. Consequently, the transcendentalists encouraged a free attitude toward authority and tradition, and they helped release American thought and writing from European conventions. While living at Emerson’s house, Thoreau met other American transcendentalists, such as educator and philosopher Bronson Alcott, social reformer Margaret Fuller, and literary critic George Ripley.

The 19th-century American writer Henry David Thoreau wrote philosophical essays in which he criticized social institutions and celebrated nature and individualism. Thoreau surrounded himself with only basic essentials when he went to live for a time at Walden Pond, and he wrote about simple living in his most famous book, Walden; or, Life in the Woods (1854). In his influential 1849 essay, “Civil Disobedience,” Thoreau advocates the concept of passive resistance.

In 1845 Thoreau moved to a crude hut on the shores of Walden Pond, a small body of water on the outskirts of Concord. He lived there until 1847, keeping detailed records of his daily activities, observations of nature, and spiritual meditations. From his experiences he produced his famous work Walden. In Walden, Thoreau writes of the pleasures of withdrawing for a time from mainstream society. While at the cabin, he occupied himself with basic needs and sought to be free of the hurry and anxiety of those who were, in his words, “employed, as it says in an old book, laying up treasures which moth and rust will corrupt and thieves break through and steal.” In the woods he read, hoed beans, fished, watched animals, entertained occasional visitors, and enjoyed the weather. The descriptive nature of Walden lets the reader see, hear, and feel Thoreau’s experience, and thus understand the value he placed on it.

Thoreau left Walden Pond and resided again with Emerson from 1847 to 1848. He then spent the years from 1849 with his parents and sister in Concord. He supported himself by doing odd jobs, such as gardening, carpentry, and land surveying. The major portion of his time was devoted to the study of nature, to meditating on philosophical problems, to reading Greek, Latin, French, and English literature, and to long conversations with his neighbors.

American author Henry David Thoreau lived in solitude at Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts, from 1845 to 1847. His book Walden; or, Life in the Woods, published in 1854, recounts his experiences while living near the pond.

Of the numerous volumes that make up the collected works of Thoreau, only two were published during his lifetime: Walden and A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849). A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers is the narrative of a boating trip that Thoreau took with his brother in August 1839; it is a combination of nature study and metaphysical speculation and bears the distinctive impress of the author’s engaging personality. The material for most of Thoreau’s volumes was edited posthumously by the author’s friends from his journals, manuscripts, and letters.

In 1846 Thoreau chose to go to jail rather than to support the Mexican War (1846-1848) by paying his poll tax. He clarified his position in perhaps his most famous essay, “Civil Disobedience” (1849), now widely referred to by its original title, “Resistance to Civil Government.” In this essay Thoreau discussed passive resistance, a method of protest that later was adopted by Indian leader Mohandas Gandhi as a tactic against the British, and by civil rights activists fighting racial segregation in the United States.

The edited collections of Thoreau’s writings include Excursions (1863), which contains the well-known essay “Walking”; The Maine Woods (1864); Cape Cod (1865); and A Yankee in Canada (1866). In 1993 Faith in a Seed appeared; this previously unpublished collection of Thoreau’s natural-history writings features the essay “The Dispersion of Seeds.” Wild Fruits, another previously unpublished work by Thoreau, appeared in 1999.