The Presidents of the     On April 30, 1789, from the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street, New York City, George Washington, took the oath of office as the first President of the United States. George Washington was born in Westmoreland County, VA, in 1732. For 16 years he lived there and at other plantations along the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers, including the one that later became known as Mount Vernon, which he inherited from his half brother Lawrence some years later, and where he died of a throat infection at the age of 67, on December 14, 1799. Since his youth he acquired an interest in pursuing a naval career, inspired by Lawrence who had served in the Royal Navy. In 1753 Washington began his military career as a major. In 1754, he won the rank of lieutenant colonel and then colonel in the militia, but late in this same year, annoyed by the dilution of his rank because of the pending arrival of British regulars, he resigned his commission. Washington reentered military service in 1755, with the courtesy title of colonel, as an aide-de-camp to General Edward Braddock. When French soldiers defeated the general's forces in the Battle of the Monongahela, PA, with the aide of Indian allies, General Braddock was deadly wounded and although four bullets ripped Washington's coat, he escaped injury. He was then rewarded for his bravery and rewon his colonelcy and command of the Virginia militia forces. By the end of 1758 or the beginning of 1759, he decided to resign for being disillusioned over governmental neglect of the militia and irritated at not rising in rank. From 1759 to 1774, Washington managed his plantations on his lands at Mount Vernon, where he lived with his wife Martha Dandridge Custis, a wealthy widow and mother of two children, whom he married in January 1759. In the same year he entered politics serving in the Virginia House of Burgesses from 1759 to 1774. Like the other planters, Washington felt himself hampered by British regulations, and resentful of British restrictions and commercial exploitation, he supported the initial protests against British policies showing his resistance to the restrictions becoming a leader in Virginia's opposition to Britain. When delegates were sent to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia in May 1775, Washington, one of the delegates representing Virginia, was Congress's unanimous choice as Commander in Chief of Continental Army. On July 3, 1775, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, he took command of the not well trained troops surrounding Boston, which had been occupied by the British. For many years he fought in the War of Independence until the British finally surrendered in 1781. As a delegate representing Virginia to the First and Second Continental Congress in 1774 and in 1775, Washington did not have an active participation in the deliberations, however, his presence was very important. Washington realized that the Nation under its Articles of Confederation was not progressing, and he became an important figure in the discussions which brought about the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia, in 1787, which, encouraged by many of his friends, he presided. Washington's attendance at the Convention and his support for ratification of the Constitution were extremely important for its success in the state conventions. After the ratification of the new Constitution in 1788, the Electoral College unanimously elected Washington as the first President of the United States of America. The next year, Washington took the oath of office at Federal Hall on Wall Street, New York City. As President, he provided the nation with the so needed stability and authority, and gave substance to the Constitution. Washington was reelected president in 1792. With the outbreak of the war between France and England, Washington tried to maintain harmony between his Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, who was pro-French, and his Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, who was pro-British, and refused to accept the ideas of either Jefferson or Hamilton and decided to remain neutral. Political conflicts within the cabinet occurred over the issue of Washington's policy of neutrality, which did not please the pro-French Jeffersonians, and to his disappointment, there were two evolving party divisions by the end of his first term. Although many people encouraged him to run for a third term he retired at the end of his second, after a Farewell Address and went back to Mount Vernon, where he died on December 14, 1799. His vice-president, Federalist John Adams, succeeded him.   George Washington (1732-1799) 1st President of the US - 1789-1797 John Adams (1735-1826) 2nd President of the US - 1797-1801 Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) 3rd President of the US - 1801-1809 James Madison (1751-1836) 4th President of the US - 1809-1817 James Monroe (1758-1831) 5th President of the US - 1817-1825 John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) 6th President of the US - 1825-1829 Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) 7th President of the US - 1829-1837 Martin Van Buren (1782-1862) 8th President of the US - 1837-1841 William Henry Harrison (1773-1841) 9th President of the US - 1841 John Tyler (1790-1862) 10th President of the US - 1841-1845 James Knox Polk (1795-1849) 11th President of the US - 1845-1849 Zachary Taylor (1784-1850) 12th President of the US - 1849-1850 Millard Fillmore (1800-1874) 13th President of the US - 1850-1853 Franklin Pierce (1804-1869) 14th President of the US - 1853-1857 James Buchanan (1791-1868) 15th President of the US - 1857-1861 Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) 16th President of the US - 1861-1865 Andrew Johnson (1808-1875) 17th President of the US - 1865-1869 Ulysses S(impson) Grant (1822-1885) 18th President of the US - 1869-1877 Rutherford B(irchard) Hayes (1822-1893) 19th President of the US - 1877-1881 James Abram Garfield (1831-1881) 20th President of the US - 1881 Chester Alan Arthur (1830-1886) 21st President of the US - 1881-1885 (Stephen)Grover Cleveland (1837-1908) 22nd President of the US - 1885-1889 Benjamin Harrison (1833-1901) 23rd President of the US - 1889-1893 (Stephen)Grover Cleveland (1837-1908) 24th President of the US - 1893-1897 William McKinley (1843-1901) 25th President of the US - 1897-1901 Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) 26th President of the US - 1901-1909 William Howard Taft (1857-1930) 27th President of the US - 1900-1913 (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) 28th President of the US - 1913-1921 Warren Gamaliel Harding (1865-1923) 29th President of the US - 1921-1923 (John) Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933) 30th President of the US - 1923-1929 Herbert Clark Hoover (1874-1964) 31st President of the US - 1923-1933 Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) 32nd President of the US - 1933-1945 Harry S. Truman (1884-1972) 33rd President of the US - 1945-1953 Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) 34th President of the US - 1953-1961 John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) 35th President of the US - 1961-1963 Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-1973) 36th President of the US - 1963-1969 Richard Milhous Nixon (1913-) 37th President of the US - 1969-1974 Gerald Rudolph Ford (original name:Leslie Lynch King Jr.) (1913-) 38th President of the US - 1974-1977 Jimmy Carter (original name: James Earl Carter) (1924-) 39th President of the US - 1977-1981 Ronald Regan (19..-) 40th President of the US - 1981-19.. George Bush (19..-) 41st President of the US - 19..-19.. Bill Clinton (19..-) 42nd President of the US - 19..-2001 George W. Bush (19..-) 43rd President of the US - 2001-     President George W. Bush, elected the 43rd President of the United States, was born on July 6, 1946 and grew up in Midland and Houston, Texas. He received a bachelor's degree from Yale University and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School. He served as an F-102 pilot for the Texas Air National Guard and later worked in the oil and gas business in Midland from 1975 to 1986. He was elected Governor of Texas on November 8, 1994 and was re-elected on November 3, 1998. President Bush is married to Laura Welch Bush, a former teacher and librarian, and they have twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna, who are 19 years old.   Click below if you have clicked on the Fourth of July tour on the main page. | Continue the Fourth of July Tour |   ~ Graphics by Grace ~ Graphics by Irene ~ "The Star Spangled Banner", from Laura's Midi Heaven. [ Site Index ] [ Home ] | Back to the Fourth of July Menu | This page was created on: June 26th 2001. Last updated on: July 4th 2003.

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