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General Washington imposed strict, but not punitive, surrender terms:
All weapons and military supplies must be given up; all booty must be returned, but the enemy soldiers could keep their personal effects and the officers could retain their sidearms. British doctors were allowed to tend to their own sick and wounded. Cornwallis accepted, but instead of personally leading his troops to the mutually agreed-upon point of surrender on October 19, 1781, he sent his deputy Brigadier Charles O'Hara.
As he made his way along the road flanked by American and French forces,
O'Hara came face to face with Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau, the latter decked out in lavish military regalia. O'Hara mistook Rochambeau for the senior commander, but the French officer quickly pointed to Washington, and O'Hara, probably somewhat embarrassed, turned to the American.
Unwilling to deal with a man of lesser rank, Washington directed O'Hara to submit the sword of capitulation to his aide General Benjamin Lincoln. In his victory dispatch to Congress, Washington wrote with obvious pride,
“Sir, I have the Honor to inform Congress, that a Reduction of the British
Army under the Command of Lord Cornwallis, is most happily effected. The unremitting Ardor which actuated every Officer and Soldier in the combined
Army in this Occasion, has principally led to this Important Event, at an earlier period than my most sanguine Hope had induced me to expect”. In
November 1783, two months after the formal peace treaty was signed,
Washington resigned his commission and returned home to the neglected fields of Mount Vernon.

President of Constitutional Convention, 1787. Washington, a Virginia delegate, was unanimously elected president of the convention. He was among those favoring a strong federal government. After the convention he promoted ratification of the Constitution in Virginia. According to the notes of Abraham Baldwin, a Georgia delegate, which were discovered only recently and made public in 1987, Washington said privately that he did not expect the Constitution to last more than 20 years.

ELECTION AS PRESIDENT, FIRST TERM, 1789: Washington, a Federalist, was the obvious choice for the first president of the United States. A proven leader whose popularity transcended the conflict between Federalists and those opposed to a strong central government, the man most responsible for winning independence, a modest country squire with a winsome aversion to the limelight, he so dominated the political landscape that not 1 of the 69 electors voted against him. Thus, he carried all 10 states—Connecticut,
Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia. (Neither North Carolina nor Rhode
Island had ratified the Constitution yet. New York was unable to decide in time which electors to send.) Washington was the only president elected by a unanimous electoral vote. John Adams of Massachusetts, having received the second-largest number of votes, 34, was elected vice president. election as president, second term, 1792: Despite the growing strength of Democratic-Republicans, Washington continued to enjoy virtually universal support. Again he won the vote of every elector, 132, and thus carried all 15 states—Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland,
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina,
Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, and Virginia. John
Adams of Massachusetts received the second-highest number of votes, 77, and thus again became vice president.

INAUGURAL ADDRESS (FIRST): New York City, April 30, 1789. ". . . When I was first honored with a call into the service of my country, then on the eve of an arduous struggle for its liberties, the light in which I contemplated my duty required that I should renounce every pecuniary compensation. From this resolution I have in no instance departed; and being still under the impressions which produced it, I must decline as inapplicable to myself any share in the personal emoluments which may be indispensably included in a permanent provision for the executive department, and must accordingly pray that the pecuniary estimates for the station in which I am placed may during my continuance in it be limited to such actual expenditures as the public good may be thought to require. ..."

INAUGURAL ADDRESS (SECOND): Philadelphia, March 4, 1793. (This was the shortest inaugural address, just 135 words.) "Fellow Citizens: I am again called upon by the voice of my country to execute the functions of its
Chief Magistrate. When the occasion proper for it shall arrive, I shall endeavor to express the high sense I entertain of this distinguished honor, and of the confidence which has been reposed in me by the people of united
America.

"Previous to the execution of any official act of the President the
Constitution requires an oath of office. This oath I am now about to take, and in your presence: That if it shall be found during my administration of the Government I have in any instance violated willingly or knowingly the injunctions thereof, I may (besides incurring constitutional punishment) be subject to the upbraidings of all who are now witnesses of the present solemn ceremony."

VICE PRESIDENT: John Adams (1735-1826), of Massachusetts, served 1789-
1797. See "John Adams, 2d President."

CABINET:

Secretary of State. (1) Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), of Virginia, served 1790-1793. See "Thomas Jefferson, 3d President," "Career before the
Presidency." (2) Edmund Jennings Randolph (1753-1813), of Virginia, served
1794-1795. Author of the Randolph (or Virginia) plan, favoring the large states, at the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Transferred from attorney general, he remained aloof of the struggle between Jefferson and Alexander
Hamilton. Denounced by supporters of both, he was largely ineffective and was forced to resign amid unfounded charges that he had misused his office for private gain. (3) Timothy Pickering (1745-1829), of Massachusetts, served 1795-1800. Transferred from war secretary, he was a staunch
Hamiltonian and stayed on in the Adams administration.

Secretary of the Treasury. (1) Alexander Hamilton (c. 1755-1804), of
New York, served 1789-1795. President Washington's closest advisor, he was a great admirer of British institutions and a master of power politics. He saw his role in the government as that of prime minister. His influence went beyond economics to include foreign affairs, legal matters, and long- range social planning. He advocated and helped create a strong central government at the expense of states' rights. He put the infant nation on sound financial footing by levying taxes to retire the national debt and promoted the creation of a national bank. He also advocated tariffs to insulate fledgling American manufacturing from foreign competition.
Hamilton's vision of America's future encompassed the evolution from a largely agrarian society to an industrial giant, a national transportation program to facilitate commerce and blur regional differences, a strong permanent national defense, and a sound, conservative monetary system. Even after resigning his post, he kept his hands on the controls of power.
Washington continued to consult him. Hamilton's successor, Oliver Wolcott, and others in the cabinet took his advice. He even helped draft
Washington's Farewell address. The foremost conservative leader of his day, he was anathema to Thomas Jefferson and his supporters. (2) Oliver Wolcott
(1760-1833), of Connecticut, served 1795-1800. A lawyer and Hamilton supporter, he stayed on in the Adams administration.

Secretary of War. (1) Henry Knox (1750-1806), of Massachusetts, served
1789-1794. Chief of artillery and close adviser to General Washington during the Revolution and war secretary under the Articles of
Confederation, he was a natural choice for this post. He pressed for a strong navy. Fort Knox was named after him. (2) Timothy Pickering (1745-
1829), of Massachusetts, served January-December, 1795. A lawyer and veteran of the Revolution, he strengthened the navy. He resigned to serve as secretary of state. (3) James McHenry (1753-1816), of Maryland, served
1796-1800. He had served as a surgeon during the Revolution and was a prisoner of war. He stayed on in the Adams administration. Fort McHenry at
Baltimore was named after him.

Attorney General. (1) Edmund Jennings Randolph (1753-1813), of
Virginia, served 1789-1794. He helped draft President Washington's proclamation of neutrality. Washington disregarded his opinion that a national bank was unconstitutional. He resigned to become secretary of state. (2) William Bradford (1755-1795), of Pennsylvania, served 1794-1795.
He was a state supreme court justice at the time of his appointment. (3)
Charles Lee (1758-1815), of Virginia, served 1795-1801. He was a brother of
Henry "Light-Horse Harry" Lee. He urged, unsuccessfully, that the United
States abandon its policy of neutrality and declare war on France. He stayed on in the Adams administration.

ADMINISTRATION: April 30, 1789-March 3, 1797.

Precedents. "Many things which appear of little importance in themselves and at the beginning," President Washington observed, "may have great and durable consequences from their having been established at the commencement of a new general government."10 With this in mind, then, he proceeded cautiously, pragmatically, acting only when it seemed necessary to flesh out the bare-bones framework of government described so sparingly in the Constitution: (1) In relying on department heads for advice, much as he had used his war council during the Revolution, he set the pattern for future presidents to consult regularly with their cabinet. (2) Because
Congress did not challenge his appointments, largely out of respect for him personally rather than out of principle, the custom evolved that the chief executive generally has the right to choose his own cabinet. Congress, even when controlled by the opposition party, usually routinely confirms such presidential appointments. (3) How long should a president serve? The
Constitution did not then say. Washington nearly set the precedent of a single term, for he had originally decided to retire in 1793, but remained for a second term when it became clear that the nonpartisan government he had so carefully fostered was about to fragment. Thus he set the two-term standard that lasted until 1940. (4) When John Jay resigned as chief justice, Washington went outside the bench for a successor rather than to elevate one of the sitting justices to the top position, as many had expected him to do. In disregarding seniority as a necessary qualification to lead the Supreme Court, Washington established the precedent that has enabled his successors to draw from a much more diverse and younger talent pool than that of a handful of aging incumbent jurists.

Indian Affairs. In 1791 President Washington dispatched forces under
General Arthur St. Clair to subdue the Indians who had been resisting white settlement of the Northwest Territory. St. Clair failed, having been routed by Miami Chief Little Turtle on the Wabash River. Washington then turned to
Revolutionary War veteran "Mad" Anthony Wayne, who before launching the expedition spent many months training regular troops in Indian warfare. He marched boldly into the region, constructed a chain of forts, and on August
20, 1794, crushed the Indians under Little Turtle in the Battle of Fallen
Timbers near present-day Toledo, Ohio. Under the terms of the Treaty of
Greenville (1795), the defeated tribes ceded disputed portions of the
Northwest Territory to the United States and moved west. Through diplomacy,
President Washington tried with limited success to make peace with the
Creeks and other tribes in the South. In 1792 the president entertained the tribal leaders of the Six Nations confederation, including Seneca Chief Red
Jacket, whom Washington presented with a silver medal, a token that the
Indian treasured the rest of his life. Red Jacket, who had led his warriors against Washington's army during the Revolution, rallied to the American cause during the War of 1812.

Proclamation of Neutrality, 1793. In the war between France, on one side, and Britain, Austria, Prussia, Sardinia, and the Netherlands, on the other, President Washington in 1793 declared the United States to be
"friendly and impartial toward the belligerent powers." Although he avoided using the word neutrality, his intention was clear. Critics denounced the proclamation as reneging on the U.S. commitment to its first ally, France.
However, it kept the nation out of a war it was ill-prepared to fight. The
French minister to the United States, Edmond Genet, pointedly ignoring
Washington's policy, fomented pro-French sentiment among Americans and arranged for American privateers to harass British ships—activities that prompted President Washington to demand his recall.

Whiskey Rebellion, 1794. To help pay off the national debt and put the nation on a sound economic basis, President Washington approved an excise tax on liquor. Pennsylvania farmers, who regularly converted their corn crop to alcohol to avoid the prohibitive cost of transporting grain long distances to market, refused to pay it. On Hamilton's advice, Washington ordered 15,000 militia to the area and personally inspected troops in the field. This show of strength crushed this first real challenge to federal authority.

Jay'5 Treaty, 1795. Washington was roundly criticized by Jeffersonians for this treaty with Great Britain. To forestall further conflict with the former mother country and impel Britain to withdraw its forces from outposts in the Northwest Territory, as it had promised under the terms of the Treaty of Paris concluding the American Revolution, Washington relinquished the U.S. right to neutrality on the seas. Any American ship suspected of carrying contraband to the shores of Britain's enemies was subject to search and seizure by the British navy. And Britain regarded as contraband virtually any useful product, including foodstuffs. Moreover,
Jay's Treaty failed to resolve one of the key disputes standing in the way of rapprochement with Britain—impressment. Britain's policy of "once an
Englishman, always an Englishman" meant that even after renouncing allegiance to the crown and becoming a duly naturalized U.S. citizen, a
British immigrant was not safe from the king's reach. If while searching an
American ship for contraband, the British spotted one of their own among the crew, they routinely dragged him off and pressed him into the Royal
Navy. But for all this, and despite the added strain on relations with
France in the wake of Jay's Treaty, the pact did postpone the inevitable conflict with Britain until 1812, when America was better prepared militarily. After the Senate ratified the treaty, the House asked the president to release all pertinent papers relating to its negotiation.
Washington refused on the constitutional ground that only the upper chamber had approval rights over treaties. He thereby set the precedent for future presidents to resist such congressional petitions.

Pinckney's Treaty, 1795. Under its terms, Washington normalized relations with Spain by establishing the boundary between the United States and Spanish Florida at the thirty-first parallel. Even more importantly for the future of American commerce, the pact granted U.S. vessels free access to the entire length of the Mississippi River and to the port of New
Orleans for the purpose of export.

In other acts of lasting importance, President Washington signed into law bills creating or providing for:

1789 Oaths of allegiance to be sworn by federal and state officials

First tariffs to protect domestic manufacturers

Department of State and War and the Treasury

Office of postmaster general

Supreme Court, circuit and federal district courts, and position of attorney general (Judiciary Act). Washington, of course, appointed all the first judges to these courts.

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