Best George Washington Full Cuyamaca College Sett

2 pages for the assignment below:

Washington Discussion Assignment

You are to read the text chapters, lecture, and watch the George Washington videos. You are also to read the information at the follow websites:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidency_of_George_Washington and http://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/the-first-president/ten-facts-about-washingtons-presidency (Links to an external site.)/ (You can use a lot of information from this website about these facts concerning his presidency) and http://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/george-washington (Links to an external site.)(this website also has videos on Washington).

You are to make the transformation to become George Washington who has just been elected. You are going to show you he created the present system of government by making a series of administrative decisions that became traditions of government. You are also going to describe what he thought about the formation of political parties. You are going to show how he worked with Hamilton on setting up economic policies. Finally you are going to describe in his second term his foreign policy.

Finally you will comment on whether Washington could be elected president today.

The lecture

Presidents: Washington to Adams

The origins of the office of the presidency appeared in our first government after the American Revolution. The American Revolution ended in 1783 and the first national government was known as the Articles of Confederation. This was our first government, not our present government and this is a government system that no longer exists. We need to investigate the structure of this government and see why this government only lasted six years.

The Articles of Confederation was a government system based on the lessons of the American Revolution. This is the only way that this government makes sense. First it was decided to have no leader of this government. There would be no president, no king; the Americans had major problems with the king of England and they wanted to avoid a strong leader. When the states were colonies, they also had major problems with the strong central government in England, so power in this new government was placed with the states. This is why it was a confederation. There would be a central government but it would be relatively weak and with limited powers. During the revolution the central government consisted of a committee of wealthy men in New York City; this central government committee would continue but it would not have certain powers. It could not tax because taxes led to a revolution and it would not regulate trade because trade regulations from England also caused problems. It was also agreed that there should only be state courts no national court system. This is our first government that began in 1783 and lasted only until 1789.

There were many reasons why this government failed. First, there was no leader in this government and it is difficult to function in any government without any kind of leader or spokesman or chairman. Second, state courts gave rival decisions that caused problems from court to court and from state to state. Third, the central government was so limited, it could not function well. In addition, it was agreed that in order to change this government there must be an agreed of all thirteen states, which was virtually impossible. Next states government began to rival for power in this government. Finally, while the majority of Americans at this time were farmers, the farmers had little or no voice in this government and they felt that the government favored the wealthy, while the farmers were often in debt.

It was obvious that there were problems in this government when Daniel Shays in Massachusetts got a few of his unhappy farmer friends together and they staged a brief revolt against the wealthy in government in Boston. Shays Rebellion caused many wealthy Americans to begin to seriously question the effectiveness of the Articles of Confederation. The wealthy began to hold a series of meetings to discuss what action could take place to change or modify this government. Finally by the summer of 1787 the wealthy met in Philadelphia and decided to create new government: our present government under the United States Constitution.

The changes in our second government were important. First it was decided to have a leader of the new government; he was to be called president. The idea was to have a presiding officer of government: a person who would be the chief administrator and would be the chairman of the new government. This is the real beginning of the office of the president. Next it was decided to shift power to the central government. But the concept of federalism was continued; the concept of federalism resides in a two level system of government. When we were part of the English empire, we had colonies in America connected to England; we would now have a central government as well as state governments. But the power was shifted from the states to the central government. Plus the central government was given expanded powers. A national court system was also established. The structure of the central government was a two part one. There would be a congress and in the congress would be a Senate. This senate was considered to be the real source of power and authority in the government. The men in the senate would to be appointed and each state would have two senators. There was also to be a House of Representatives based on population; this would give the farmers some imput in government. Members of the House were elected for two years, while senators were appointed for a six year term.

After two years of debate on state levels, known as the ratification fight, the new government or second government was approved. One of the first priorities of this new government was the election of a first president. This would be done by that committee of wealthy men in New York City. And they had requirements for the first presiding office of government. That man must have wealthy. That man must be relatively conservative. That man must have good administrative skills. And that man should be popular or at least well known among the majority of Americans who were farmers. The only person who really met all those requirements was this man in his sixties from Virginia known as George Washington. Washington was a man of considerable wealth; Washington was middle of the road: relatively conservative. Washington was the chairman of the constitutional congress meeting in Philadelphia; he was known for his administrative skills. And Washington had been the general of the American army in the Revolution and was well known and among some farmers even popular. Washington was now elected first president. But because he was from Virginia, the South, the vice president was to be from the north. So John Adams, a wealthy attorney, was chosen to be first vice president.

In April, 1789, George Washington came to New York City and became the first president of the United States. Who was this man? Who is the real George Washington? Where did the myths of George Washington come from? George Washington was born in Virginia of a wealthy family; he received a good education because he was the male member of a wealthy southern family. He even attended college, but he did not like college and he was a college dropout. He really enjoyed detail work: actually he was a born administrator. He loved to keep detail records and he loved to do things like surveying. His parents did have him participate in politics, but he hated politics. Even when he had all the teeth in his mouth he was a poor speaker and he did not like dealing with the general public. Bottom line- George Washington was not a politician. Our first president was NOT a politician. Washington was very popular with the woman; actually he was a womanizer and he became very much interested in a woman whose husband had died. She had a great deal of money and land and her name was Martha Curtis. He eventually married Martha Curtis and many writers wonder his motivation; they feel that he married her to accumulate her wealth. Between his wealth and her wealth, he purchased Mount Vernon and his job was to handle his money and land and slaves. By the 1750s there were problems between the English and the French in the Ohio Valley. The French were staking a claim and were building forts in that region. Those English in Virginia were interested in expanding into that same area. So a volunteer military under George Washington was sent to drive out the French. Washington was never a very good military leader, but he was a good military administrator. He failed to drive out the French, but he did get valuable military experience. With his military experience, this wealthy Virginian was chosen to be the general of the American army in the revolution. There is no doubt that Washington did an excellent job in recruiting an army and keep it together; again he is an outstanding military administrator. But as a military leader in the field, he was quite weak. He became the master of retreat early in the revolution and achieved little success in the field. Books tell us that he did not take a salary; that is correct, but he did take an expense account and often spent a great deal of money on that expense account. By this time in his life he was having physical problems especially with his mouth and his bleeding gums. At the end of the revolution, he returned to Mt. Vernon and Martha. He was very interested in the new government and how it would protect the wealthy. He was involved as chairman of the constitutional meeting in the creation of the constitution and for the reasons already mentioned he became the first president in the first capital: New York City. He left office in 1796 and would die in 1799. What he died of would never be known for sure, but it may have been a combination of pneumonia and some sexual disease. Once he died, the myths of George Washington would appear.

Parson Weems lived at this time in our history and was a con man. He had been a minister, a writer and held a variety of jobs. He now felt that America needed a hero and he would make money by creating a hero. So he wrote a book about the life of George Washington. It made sense that our first president should be our first hero. But in this book which included a series of stories about Washington, Weems pictured Washington as a perfect person- a role model for the ages. Sections of this book began to appear in history texts and the myths of Washington would begin. Educators decided that Washington would make an excellent role model for children, so they used the various stories on the life of Washington to teach moral values. Few of these educators questioned whether these stories were true or not. There are many levels of the Washington myths and many examples of the stories could be given. Washington was pictured as an honest person; the most famous and longest lasting story is that of the cherry tree story. When George Washington was a child, he decided to cut down his father’s favorite cherry tree. When he was caught by his father, he told his father, “I cannot tell a lie” and he admitted that he cut down the tree. His father was so moved by his truthfulness. Washington’s strength was evident when he walked through the woods and picked up heavy fallen trees and when he threw a dollar across one of the widest parts of the Potomac River. His tendency toward the brotherhood of man was seen when he broke up fights in school and lectured his fellow classmates on accepting each other. His courage is evident in the various war stories including his suffering with his men at Valley Forge. In fact Weems even pictured Washington as a man for all ages: a near immoral. One story tells of an Indian who put a gun in his side and pulled the trigger and Washington dodged the bullet. Over the years Washington has been given credit for inventing everything from ice cream to a sandwich. Even at our national museum the Smithsonian Museum there is a marble statue of Washington ascending to heaven. In spite of the lack of historic truth connected with Weems’ stories, the myths go on.

Now back to the reality of the presidency of George Washington. He came to New York City and he had a difficult goal. He had to begin a new government. In order to do that he had to make administrative decisions. Over the years we still follow his decisions and those decisions have become traditions. There is a lengthy list of the decisions/traditions of Washington. He initially told people that the office of the presidency would not be like the position of king and would not serve for life; he said that the president would be on the same level as the people. Then he decided to take the oath of office to begin his presidency and to place his hand on a bible. Presidents today take the oath of office with their hand on the same bible Washington used. He then decided that he had to give a speech to begin his presidency; this speech would set the tone of his presidency and give a preview of what he would do. This speech has become the inaugural address. Although the content of his speech was adequate, the delivery was not. We have already mentioned that Washington was not a politician. Washington was nervous during his speech; he was afraid that his false teeth would fly out of his mouth(As a bit of trivia, when he became president he had only one tooth left in his mouth). He nearly fell off the speaker’s platform and due to his nervousness, he put his hand in his pants pocket and had a hard time removing the hand. He would not make during his presidency many public speeches.

Washington now created the executive office of government and at the same time he created the spoils system. The spoils system is the system that every president has used since Washington. It is the system of bringing friends and supporters into government and giving them jobs within the executive department. Of course, the most important jobs created within the executive department were those which involved the cabinet. Washington also created the cabinet system; he decided that the post important advisors in the executive department should comprise his cabinet. He also decided that he needed an important advisor for every important area of government. The first cabinet consisted of the following men and areas: Thomas Jefferson was his advisor in foreign affairs. Jefferson now became Secretary of State. Alexander Hamilton was his advisor in economic policy. Hamilton was Secretary of the Treasury. Henry Knox was his advisor in military matters and became the Secretary of War. These were well qualified men for their positions and these were excellent appointments. Washington now decided that the cabinet would meet with the president and would report directly to the president. This is a tradition that is not always accepted well by Congress.

Washington had to deal with a whole series of practical administrative decisions. He decided that the vice president would have few official duties; Washington created the insignificant office of vice president. The constitution said that treaties would be made “with the advice and consent of the senate.” Washington did not know exactly what this meant. He thought it meant that senators must be involved in all aspects of treaty making. But he decided that this was not practical, so he made the senate the body that only approved final treaties. He had to decide where the United States boundary stopped and started. So he created the idea of territorial waters: that the United States boundary would extend five miles into the ocean. He decided that if a cannon on the shore shot at a ship beyond five miles that ship could not be hit by the cannon. He also had to decide how a president would deal with congress; he created the tradition that a president had programs and ideas and that congress would deal with the mechanics of government. For example, he knew that the government needed money. So he believed that there would be a tax on foreign imports; in response Congress passed the Tariff Act. He had an idea that there should be a court system with one court being above all the other courts; Congress passed the Judiciary Act which established the Supreme Court and then Washington appointed John Jay to be the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Washington felt that farmers still did not have adequate protection of their rights; Congress responded with the Bill of Rights that added ten amendments to the constitution. Other traditions involved his farewell address, his two term tradition which today is law, and the tradition that the president is the object of criticism.

Many of the administrative decisions of Washington were made during his first term as president. From 1789-92, his priorities were to start a government system. As he was starting the government, he found problems were rising within his cabinet. Thomas Jefferson believed that the government should favor the majority: the farmer; Andrew Hamilton believed that the government should favor the wealthy. These two men had different philosophies of government and continually differed in the cabinet.

Eventually these two men began to get followers: men who supported their ideas and the American political system began. We have a two party system; it was never planned that way. It happened in the cabinet of Washington; while Washington did not like the idea of political parties, he did favor the ideas of Hamilton more than Jefferson. Andrew Hamilton is the founder of the Republican Party tradition; his political party was known as the Federalist Party. Thomas Jefferson was the founder of the Democratic Party, even though it was now called the Democratic Republicans. Our political party system had slowly begun.

In 1792 the small group of wealthy reelected Washington for a second term. He had little opposition in his first term but the opposition would increase in his second term and cause him to leave office quite unpopular. In Washington’s second term, he was forced to deal with issues in foreign policy. The French Revolution had begun in his first term and Americans supported that revolution because the French had helped us in our revolution. In fact France signed a treaty of mutual assistance with us during the Revolution; France helped us in the revolution and with promised that if France needed military help in the future we would help them. By his second term France was at war with England. The American people felt that we should help the French, but Washington thought otherwise. He took neutrality as his foreign policy; he decided that we were in no position militarily to help anyone. This was an extremely unpopular policy and it caused Thomas Jefferson to leave his cabinet. Next Washington sent John Jay to England to resolve a series of issues with England; Jay returned with the Jay Treaty which solved few issues and was quite embarrassing to America. Again the opposition increased against Washington. He was quite sensitive to criticism and yet he now mishandled an incident at home.

To increase government funding, congress passed a minor tax on whiskey. There was a great deal of opposition to this tax among some farmers in Western Pennsylvania and when Washington sent tax collectors from Philadelphia- the new capital of the United States- these tax collectors were met with resistance. They were tarred and feathered and sent back to Philadelphia. Washington remembered the days before the revolution when Americans protested against English taxes. This led to a revolution. To avoid any crisis like this, Washington recruited an army to put down this “Whiskey Rebellion.” He even led the army for a while through the woods toward Western Pennsylvania. Some estimate that as many as 30,000 joined the army to put down a handful of farmers. No farmers resisted the army and eventually two men were arrested and eventually let go. One was deaf and the other had mental illness. Washington was further criticized for his handling of this Whiskey Rebellion. Washington could no longer task the criticism; he gave a farewell address which was printed in the newspapers. He not only said farewell, but he gave two famous warnings: beware of political parties and beware of alliances in foreign policy. Then he left office and created the two term tradition that no president can break today and that only one president broke in our entire history. Washington left on a low, but he is rated one of the best early American presidents.

Washington had a difficult goal: to start the government. This may be the most difficult goal of any American president. Due his outstanding administrative ability, he did a very capable job of making decisions to get the government going. Over the years these decisions have become traditions. Sure Washington was not a politician; but there were no political parties when he began president, plus the nation needed an administrative leader, not a politician. It is also true that he relied too much for many of his decisions on Alexander Hamilton. But he is still rated one of the best presidents ever.

1796 featured the arrival of political parties. But politics was quite limited by our standards. John Adams, the vice president was the nominee of the Federalist Party: the first Republican party. Thomas Jefferson was the nominee of the Democratic Party. In this election only the wealthy voted and they voted for a list of individuals. When the votes were counted, Adams became the second president of the United States and Jefferson became the second vice president- even though these men were of opposite parties. John Adams is rated one of the worst president in our early history; it is possible that he is the worst of all.

Adams was only a one term president and is the only Federalist president in our entire history. His personality was unfit for the presidency; he was jealous and very insecure. He took advice from few people and was very much a loner. He was very jealous when the government began to celebrate the birthday of Washington. His attitude toward being president was that it was an honor, not a job. He saw himself more as a king than a working president. Plus his wife did not like Philadelphia and wanted him to spend much of his presidency on their farm in Quincy, Massachusetts. Actually he was away from the capital of government for one year out of four years. And in those days communications were really slow. Even when he was there in Philadelphia, he slept more than any early president. Adams in known as the puppet president because he was controlled and manipulated by Alexander Hamilton, the leader and founder of the Federalist Party. Plus Adams became very much of a partisan president. Hamilton wanted to destroy the Democratic Party; he saw the party as a challenge to the control of government by the wealthy. Adams went along with the Hamilton program. Hamilton influenced Congress to pass the Alien Act and Sedition Act. The Alien Act gave the president the power to deport undesirable aliens. Hamilton discovered that many foreigners joined the Democratic Party, so if many foreigners were kicked out of the United States, this would hurt the Democratic Party.

The most partisan act of all was the Sedition Act. The Sedition Act gave the president the power to punish those who criticized the government which was now dominated by the Federalists. This was known as the “gag law’ and was directed at the destruction of the Democratic Party. The law even went so far as to jail those who criticized the government. Matthew Lyons was a Democrat who criticized the government; not only did he criticize the government but he spit on people he did not like and earned the nickname “spitting” Lyons. Due to this ability to spit, he has usually been left out of our history. Lyons eventually went to jail and became the Democratic Party martyr. But his spitting did not stop in jail when he spit out the window and spit on fellow prisoners as well as prison guards.

Adams was becoming more and more unpopular even within his own party. Even though he may be responsible for the creation of our first navy in a mini crisis with France, he accomplished little as president. The Washington traditions continued. Of course, it did not help Adams that his vice president was the Democratic Party leader Jefferson. In 1800 in spite of his unpopularity, the Federalist created a tradition of renominating the present president: the incumbent president. The Democrats again nominated for president Thomas Jefferson. This would be the last election of voting for individuals from a list. When the ballots were counted, there was a tie. But it was a tie between Thomas Jefferson and the man the Democrats nominated for vice president Aaron Burr. According to the constitution, when no one gets a majority, the election goes to the House of Representatives. Our founding fathers never realized that we would have a two party system and that only two elections in our history ever went to the House of Representatives. The Federalists had a major influence over the House of Representatives and many in the House refused to vote. They believed that if Democrat Jefferson was elected there would be a “revolution” in government and that the farmers would take control. The final decision in this election was up to Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton disagreed with Jefferson’s philosophy, but many writers discovered that Burr had coveted Hamilton’s wife. So Hamilton picked the lesser of two evils and in 1800 Thomas Jefferson became the first Democratic President in American History.

Was there a “revolution”? The answer is no. Jefferson saw that the system was working, even though it favored the wealthy. So he did not change the system, but he did change the emphasis and direction of government. He did try to move toward majority politics. This is known as the Jefferson tradition. That when a new president with a new political party comes into office, the system of government remains the same, but a new direction and new emphasis in government takes place. Thomas Jefferson was a two term president. Thomas Jefferson was the first president of the Virginia dynasty: twenty four years of Virginia Democrats. And Thomas Jefferson would be rated above average as president. His policies were a mixed bag. Jefferson to John Quincy Adams will be the subject of our next topic

The videos

Video The best George Washington full documentary

Video George Washington as Leader: Lessons in leadership

Video George Washington Founding Father: American Revolution-Biography _George Washington-Founding Father.